God ended the royal line to create an Interlude.  Got it.  But, wait, didn’t God initiate the royal line?  It was promised to Judah going way back before there ever was a king over Israel.  And God sanctioned it, right?

1 Samuel 8: 5 [The elders of Israel] said to [the priest Samuel], “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD.

7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”

10 Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king.

11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.   12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.  13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.  14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.  15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.  16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.  17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.

18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD.  22 The LORD answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”

Questions for further study:

Summarizing today’s thoughts might be “Give us a king!  Give us a king!”  and God’s reply “Are you sure?  You’re not going to like it.”  Sometimes the worst punishment is to give us what we think we want.  In what ways did the Israelites reject God as their king?  (Read Malachi 1:6-7 and 2:17, for further thought)

Look again at Malachi 2:17, have we ever appeased a “woke culture” by normalizing sin? Do we ever question “Where is the God of justice?”

Why did God give them a king then, if He knew the future (which He surely does) and that every human king would cruelly disappoint?

How do we reject God as King? (Think about lies and truth, sin and righteousness. Read John 8:34-59 for insight into the rejection of Christ and its root.)

What will it take for us to embrace God as King? Might that be a point of having an Interlude?

As we go back in time from Mary and Joseph not being direct royal office holders, back 500 years over the full interlude they knew about as their history, and we can see what led to the end of the direct royal Messianic line we looked at yesterday. 

As existed in Israel before Judah, there were enough bad kings to exhaust even God’s patience.  There comes a time when enough is enough.  The Ten Northern Tribes of Israel were carried off into Assyrian Captivity.  From Jeroboam 1 to Hoshea—nineteen bad kings, one after the other, not a good one in the bunch, Israel was done.  Finished.  Kaput.

But the royal line God established was never through Israel but Judah. 

And even that would involve an Interlude.

The tribes of Judah (and Benjamin) had a series of kings, twenty of them to be exact, and sad to say, there were more bad ones than good ones.  God had enough of Judah’s royal line which had become corrupted even through Israel’s United Kingdom years of Saul, David, and Solomon. Captivity in Babylon was God’s choice, plan, and intended outcome of ending Judah’s royal line on earth.

Now hold on, you say.  What about Judah?
After all, there was a promise in Abraham’s blessing about a scepter and a ruler.

Genesis 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.

What about that?  That’s saying that the Messianic King was to come from the line of Judah. “No king” for 500 years was not a “departure” from Judah to someone else.  But it was an Interlude, a parenthesis of time, a placeholder brought about by bad, bad kings.

Questions for further study:

Why do you think a placeholder of time, an interlude, was necessary?

Before the bad king series, think about Saul and his following after evil and consulting a witch.  Think about David committing just about every sin under the sun and shedding blood, even though he repented and was a man after God’s own heart, he was still a sinner.  Think about Solomon and his many foreign wives.  Why might God not want to go the direct descendent route?  What would that say about sin? 

Even the good kings had sin.  1 Corinthians 6: 9 “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?”  What did the Interlude do to help us see that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and the Messianic Deliverer came to set even good kings free from bondage to sin?

Some of the bad kings had good kids.  Some good kings had bad kids who became bad kings.  Some bad kings had bad kids who were a chip off the old block of bad old dad.  Are children of godly parents automatically going to be godly?  What about children of sinful parents?  For every parent out there, what can you do to ensure your children learn how to live so they will model it when they reach adulthood?  (See Proverbs 10: 6 “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” And Deuteronomy 11:18-21)

Now think about parents like Mary and Joseph.  How could imperfect sinners (though righteous by human standards) raise a child who is the perfect Son of God?  How might an Interlude have helped frame their expectations of themselves and given them increased faith that God was bringing it all to fruition and it was not up to them? 

James 2: 5 Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love Him?

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Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

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• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

So what happened to the royal line if Mary and Joseph weren’t royalty for Jesus to inherit?  Why the 500-year-plus silence?  As the author of RevelationLogic.com called it in conversation to me, there was “a curse upon the royal line.” 

“Surely not!,” you say.  “After all, David was promised a throne that would last forever.” (2 Samuel 7:10-29).   Yeah, I get that.  But the Lord also promised in Jeremiah 22:30

“This is what the LORD says: “Record this man [Zedekiah] as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.”  

Ouch.  Pretty harsh words.  Not.  None.  Anymore. 

Like a divine period at the end of the royal decree from the Eternal King

that the earthly royal line was ending. 

That promise was a shocking down payment on God’s bringing it to pass (and thereby accomplishing that 500-year interlude of royal vacancy). 

2 Kings 25:1 “So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it… 5 the Babylonian army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, 6 and he was captured. He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where sentence was pronounced on him.  7 They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.”

In gruesome Ancient Near East wartime tradition, the last memory Zedekiah would have prior to his eyes being gouged out was his sons being executed.  That was the end of the royal line and a lasting memory.

Questions for further study:

How does an interlude overarch time or act as a bridge over sheer human logic?  How did this promise of a never-ending kingdom but the end of the royal line destroy any “point A to point B” of man’s expectations? 

How would the end of the earthly royal line keep people from trying to predict which king would be the Messianic one? Or try to turn him into one?

How might it allow God’s eternal view to proceed and be correctly interpreted?

Why an interlude?  What was so bad about the royal line?

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Advent 2021 began Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Joy to the world!  The Lord is come.  Let Earth receive her King!

But wait.  Mary was no princess turned queen mother and Joseph was no king.  Unlike nearly every king before Him, Jesus did not have birth parents who were office-holding royalty and who died leaving behind their office to their offspring in direct succession. 

Mary and Joseph?  They’d been humble working class, poor even. 
What right did they have to be the parents of a king?

Interludes such as this one had persisted for well over 500 years.  Silence with no king.  Mary and Joseph were living in that era of silence, of interlude, of waiting…just like everyone else.

Questions for further study:

What might the community of Jews within a great civilization like Rome been thinking and feeling about the length of time between the promise of a ruler in the line of David and the One to finally sit on his throne forever (2 Samuel 7:10-29)?

How do we feel waiting for His return?

How might Mary and Joseph have felt, not being direct line as royalty but with the right overall lineage way back?

How might this help us to understand the following verses, God’s grace, and our not being direct line royalty?

John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God– 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

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Advent 2021 begins Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

===

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series Divine Intervention began on November 29, 2020 and explored God’s activity on behalf of a hurting world and nations in tumult– Intervention for you and for me when our status as sinners required nothing short of a miracle.
• God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Time is of little consequence to God.  He stands outside of it.  A day is like a thousand years and a thousand years no different than a day.  But it is noteworthy that He uses the flow of time in our lives to allow for both action and interlude. 

Why would He do that for us?  Because it enables our growth in faith and maturity.  It creates anticipation.  It helps us to reframe past events for context and process what has happened in the past when it has become complex and overwhelming.  Interludes also prepare us for what will happen next.  From the standpoint of the Bible, an interlude advances the narrative with time for prophecy to be spoken, time to pass, and fulfillment to arrive right on time, a refreshing thought during times of tumult.   

It’s Prophetic Interlude during which God reignites a passion on the part of His people to remember our God, to acknowledge our need for a Savior, to know our Deliverer is coming, and ultimately to receive our King.

The annual celebration of Advent begins on November 28, 2021.  Join me for “Interlude” as preparation to receive our Messiah and King.

Advent 2021 begins Sunday, November 28th and continues to Friday, December 24th as we explore the multi-faceted Interlude between the promise of a Deliverer and the birth of our Messiah and King. By signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page you can receive these daily “Interlude” devotionals. Or they will be reposted on SeminaryGal’s Facebook page as well.

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Acknowledging inquiries about an entire season’s devotionals for your study group’s planning purposes, Seminary Gal’s prior seasons’ Advent devotionals can be accessed via the archives to the right and are as follows: 

• Last year’s Advent 2020 “Divine Intervention” series began Sunday, November 29,2020 and we celebrated the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and looked forward to His Second Coming. 
• Advent Devotional Series God’s Christmas list explored what might be on God’s Christmas list, learning what He wants from us. It began December 1, 2019.
• Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.

Lord  God, we come before You ashamed of our conduct.  We have set aside Your truth and followed after lies.  We have rejected You as our source of truth, indeed the Way, the Truth, and the Life and instead made culture our compass.  We have failed to heed Your voice declaring “This is the way; walk in it.”  We have dug our own pits, walked the wide path of destruction, and have encouraged others to do the same.  We have failed to point others to Your Truth as we ought and to learn it and to live it ourselves.  Forgive us, Lord, for You have offered blessing to those who trust in You.  But we are reaping the curse of those who trust in man, who draw strength from mere flesh.  Lord, we repent of turning our hearts away from You.  Forgive us for forsaking You, the Author of life.  Hear our cry, O Lord.  Be merciful to us for You are a God of mercy.  Amen.

We will return to Good News Worth Sharing
after this interlude of national confession and repentance.
God laid this upon my heart for a world in desperate need of repentance.
Like the Israelites of Nehemiah’s day, we must return to God,
confess our sins both individual and community,
and be willing to fall upon His mercy because He is a merciful God.

Lord God, we repent of disregarding the elderly and violating Your command to honor our father and mother. 

We repent because of what it means on the human scale to devalue the wisdom and sacrifice of prior generations, and also as a reflection of disregard for You as our Father, and Jesus’ sacrifice which was necessary to redeem us from sin. 

Forgive us for considering as primary the utility of the elderly to society and not considering the Image in which they were made. Help us to love and serve them while You give them the breath of life and to see end of life issues as You do. May we witness Your goodness to them, Your grace which saves them and heals them, and to cherish them while there is yet life. 

We repent, Lord, of failing to do these things.

Hear our cry, O Lord.  Be merciful to us for You are a God of mercy.  Amen.

We will return to Good News Worth Sharing
after this interlude of national confession and repentance.
God laid this upon my heart for a world in desperate need of repentance.
Like the Israelites of Nehemiah’s day, we must return to God,
confess our sins both individual and community,
and be willing to fall upon His mercy because He is a merciful God.

Lord, we repent of devaluing life.  We have selfishly looked to our own interests and have ignored the humanity and Image-bearing of others—a treasure to be guarded for our fellow man.  We’ve turned our backs on children…those in the womb, as if their lives were throwaways because we didn’t want them.  We failed to love them and protect them. In the home, we’ve considered worldly goods of greater value than our own flesh and blood, investing ourselves more in jobs for earthly possessions than in the forming of the next generation.  Sadly, the image it bears is our cold materialism.  In the world, we’ve failed to stop the trafficking of children and pretend that it doesn’t happen in our circles.  We repent of this evil, Lord.  Be merciful to us for You are a God of mercy.  Amen.

We will return to Good News Worth Sharing
after this interlude of national confession and repentance.
God laid this upon my heart for a world in desperate need of repentance.
Like the Israelites of Nehemiah’s day, we must return to God,
confess our sins both individual and community,
and be willing to fall upon His mercy because He is a merciful God.

Lord, we remember Your actions in the creation of the United States of America.  How You gave us founding fathers who inscribed their uncommon wisdom into our Constitution, wisdom You gave to keep people in our nation free from tyranny.  You preserved us through the Revolutionary War at the cost of countless lives because those dedicated to the cause of freedom thought more about the future, trusting in eternal life with You, than about their very lives here on earth.  We thank You for their sacrifice and ask that You would receive our repentance as a living sacrifice in our day.

We repent that we have considered freedom too cheaply. 

We have forgotten the cost because many of us never had to bear any of it. 

As we stand upon the precipice of losing our freedoms as have so many other nations before us, we repent that we have not fought harder to keep what You gave us in creating us to be free people.

We repent of being willing slaves to the world instead of free men and women who love You and serve You only.

Hear our cry, O Lord.  Be merciful to us for You are a God of mercy.  Amen.

We will return to Good News Worth Sharing
after this interlude of national confession and repentance.
God laid this upon my heart for a world in desperate need of repentance.
Like the Israelites of Nehemiah’s day, we must return to God,
confess our sins both individual and community,
and be willing to fall upon His mercy because He is a merciful God.

Some people claim to want justice.  From God and man. 
Justice from man I can understand
because we’re all supposed to be equal under the law. 
It doesn’t feel that way and I’ll get to that in a moment.

There comes a time in the life of a nation when we have been complacent, sat yawning while our culture wastes away before our eyes, we’ve entertained ourselves with what we know to be wrong, we’ve shaken the hand of corruption without shame or disgust, and we have grieved the God who made us. 

Like the Israelites in Nehemiah 9, we need a national confession. 

5 “Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. ” “Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.  6 You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.

Verses 7-15 extoll the praises of God for His faithfulness and mercy.

Did you know the sins of the nation are made worse
because of the righteous nature of God
Who has been kind, gracious, compassionate, and merciful? 
Do we see our sin for what it is? An affront to a holy God.

Like the Israelites of Nehemiah 9,

16 “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands.   17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery.

But our God is merciful.  He did not desert them, nor has He abandoned us. 
He still guides us by His mercy and His Holy Spirit. 
In His compassion (v 28) He delivers us time after time.

31 But in your great mercy you did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

32 “Now therefore, our God, the great God, mighty and awesome, who keeps his covenant of love, do not let all this hardship seem trifling in your eyes… 33 In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly.

We can confess our national sin knowing that our God is merciful.  That is Good News.

Lord, in Your mercy, praying Ephesians 2, please forgive us for cooperating and participating in our cultural decline, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  But because of Your great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions– it is by grace we have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Lord, thank You that Your justice was displayed on the Cross so that we might receive the gift of Your grace.  And by faith we might know the gift of God.  Thank You that we cannot earn our salvation but the wrath we have earned…it fell upon Jesus.  Thank You for Your mercy that salvation is by His precious blood and “not by works, so that no one can boast.”  Thank You that we “are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which You prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:3-10)

May we confess our sins knowing You are merciful.  Thank You, Lord Jesus.  Amen.