There’s a wonderful passage in the Bible when God promises King David that He will establish, through David, a throne forever.
This promise or ‘covenant’ might be interpreted that God wanted simply to establish a royal dynasty to rule over Israel. But it might also be interpreted that God wanted to establish, through David, a different kind of king and kingdom. And that king was and is Jesus, who was descended from David and reigns for ever.
This interpretation is picked up in the gospel of Luke, when the angel appears to Mary at the annunciation. The angel says, ‘the Lord God will give to him [Jesus] the throne of his father David…and of his kingdom there will be no end.’
All this has got me thinking about dynasties and how God wants to work not only in our individual lives but also through all the people who are attached to us, especially our families.
Who knows – but through you – God might want to anoint someone for a very special purpose?
In Western culture, we tend to think of ourselves too much as discrete individuals, when really we are all part of something bigger – a family, a community.
I was watching last night an episode of the old sitcom Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em and in it Frank Spencer is at the greengrocer’s buying some grapes. He realises he doesn’t have enough money for a whole bunch of grapes so he asks if he can have half a bunch, but he doesn’t have enough money for that either. So then he asks if he can have six grapes. The greengrocer replies, ‘We don’t sell grapes separately, you know!’
Jesus talks in the Bible about being the vine and us being the branches and bearing fruit. Which conjures a picture of bunches of grapes growing on branches. But not individual grapes growing on branches!
And all this points towards us seeing ourselves as one of a bunch not as individuals. And seeing that God doesn’t want just an individual grape, but the whole bunch.
So, make today a time to ask God what he wants for your bunch as well as for you yourself. How can you serve him in doing something beautiful and redeeming – as an individual and through your family – both now and in the generations to come?