Day 9
Scripture: 2 Samuel 7:12-16
“When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.”
Story from the Blue Seats:
When David died, his son Solomon received the kingdom of Israel. As wise as Solomon was, he still made unwise decisions, as did his descendants, choosing to follow other gods or trust in other nations rather than remain faithful to Yahweh as Lord and King. As punishment, Israel suffered two invasions by Assyria and Babylon centuries later, leading to Israel’s exile from the Promised Land. Israel’s cultural and monarchical continuity was broken, seemingly contradicting God’s promise. I don’t know what that felt like firsthand, but my Cherokee ancestors did. In the early 1800s, some in my tribe—without consulting the people—made unwise decisions, giving away the Cherokees’ “promised land” in northern Georgia and southwestern North Carolina to the U.S. Government in return for land in the West, a land they did not know and to which they had no ties. Families were ripped from their homes, leaving everything behind for the unknown. In the decades that followed, the U.S. Government constantly threatened the reestablished Cherokee Nation and other Native American tribes with permanent extinction, just as Assyrian and Babylonian culture threatened to extinguish that which made Israel socially and religiously distinct.
Yet, even while permanently exiled, my ancestors attempted to be faithful to their Cherokee traditions. But it has not been easy for me, moving around my entire life without ever moving back to the Cherokee Nation Reservation in northeastern Oklahoma, where my grandmother was born and raised. Because my grandmother left the reservation for California during the Great Depression and never returned, my father and I lost touch with our roots…for a time. Nearly two decades ago, I reestablished those roots (albeit from afar) and brought my father and children on that journey. Today, we are actively involved in tribal life, returning to the reservation every few years—much like Christians have gathered once a week for millennia—to celebrate our heritage. We also participate in local tribal activities in the DMV and northern California with other Cherokee Nation citizens and representatives. But it was only through my dedication and faithfulness that I reestablished my legitimate identity as a Cherokee. Similarly, God did not fulfill the promise of a permanent Davidic kingdom until the coming of the Messiah, the dedicated and faithful Jesus of Nazareth. It took the pre-incarnate Logos, made incarnate as a legitimate Son of David, to bring God’s promise to pass. And the Promised Land which David once ruled is no longer tied to a particular piece of geography. It is worldwide, manifested wherever two or three are gathered together in His name, faithfully living out the New Covenant that Jesus inaugurated.
