5 Minute Read

Prepare Your Heart

To the best of your ability, get rid of all distractions. Take a few minutes to breathe deeply and quiet yourself in the Lord’s presence. Then, ask the Lord to speak to you in this time. Let Him know that you will listen and make whatever adjustments He will reveal to you.

Read God’s Word

1 Samuel 21-23
Luke 20:41-21:19

A Verse for Today

Slowly and reflectively read the following verse(s) and listen to what God will say to you through His written Word. Consider writing down any insights He reveals to you.

Luke 20:41-44 (CSB): “Then he said to them, ‘How can they say that the Messiah is the son of David? For David himself says in the Book of Psalms: The Lord declared to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” David calls him “Lord.” How, then, can the Messiah be his son?'”

Reflecting on God’s Word

The Bible is like no other book that has ever been written. It is God’s very words. And as such, there is never a reason to allow ourselves to grow bored in reading it. There is always more to discover, more to obey, more to be blessed by.

I absolutely love to discover and then unpack those truths to the delight (I hope) of those who are listening or reading. This past Sunday night (as of when I’m writing this), I spoke from Genesis 22. I showed that when Abraham obeyed God’s orders to take Isaac up on the mountain to sacrifice him, that was intended to be the earliest Old Testament unpacking of the Gospel (to view the message, click here). When I finished and asked those in attendance if they could see the Gospel in that Old Testament story, most of them smiled knowingly and said, “Yes!”

God’s Word is SO FUN to study and dig into!!!

When we read the words of the verses I have chosen for today, we may read over it and not catch what Jesus was saying. But those words of Jesus were the sort of teachings that made the crowds LOVE listening to Him (Mark 12:37)! When He said those words and quoted the Old Testament passage, and as the people thought about what He had just said, they understood and got a huge smile and probably said something like, “Wow! I had never thought of that before, Jesus! Thank you for sharing that!”

So, let’s look at it briefly.

Luke 20:41 (CSB): “Then he said to them, ‘How can they say that the Messiah is the son of David?

Jesus started off with a question. Every Jew with any knowledge of Scripture at all believed that the Messiah would be a descendant of King David. He would be a “son of David.” After all, those words were clearly given by God in what is called the Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7:12-17; 1 Chronicles 7:11-14). As a descendant of David, they clearly believed he would be a man, a human.

Jesus asked a question about something His hearers clearly believed. But His question implied that things might not always be as they seem. He had planted the hook. They were listening. He continued.

Essentially, His question was: “How can the Messiah merely be the human descendent of David?”

Luke 20:42-43 (CSB): “For David himself says in the Book of Psalms: The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.'”

Here, Jesus quoted Psalm 110:1. The long-awaited descendant of David would be the Messiah, the Lord over all! And yet, David said: “The Lord declared to my Lord.” In other words, God spoke to the Messiah, David’s lord.

Something many of our Bible translators do is capitalize the word “lord” in a very specific way. If all four letters are capitalized (“LORD”), the original word is the name of God the Father (Jehove/Yahweh). If only the first letter is capitalized and the remaining three are lowercase (“Lord”), that is simply the title of “lord/boss, etc.” (Unfortunately, the Christian Standard Bible didn’t catch this in our text. The first “LORD” in Luke 20:42 should be all-caps. It’s God’s Name.)

So, it literally says: “God (‘LORD’) said to my boss/Messiah (‘Lord’).”

And what did God say? He told the Messiah to sit in the place of utmost prominence until God had defeated His enemies. That is a remarkable statement! It made it abundantly clear that while the Messiah would be a man descended from David, He would also sit “at God’s right hand,” something only possible if He were in Heaven.

Luke 20:44 (CSB): “David calls him ‘Lord.’ How, then, can the Messiah be his son?”

In other words, how can David call his descendant his Lord? How can someone who won’t be born until after David dies be his boss even as He is alive?

As Jesus posed this question, He got His listeners to realize that the Messiah, the “son of David,” could be no mere mortal. He must be something and someone much more! Clearly, David believed the Messiah was already alive when he wrote those words. Or, if David didn’t realize this, we can look back to his words and see the double meaning.

Spend Time in Prayer

  • Ask God to help you realize that the Bible is like no other book because God Himself is the Author.
  • Ask God to help you become even more intentional about reading and studying His Word and having fun discovering it’s deep truths.
  • Ask God to help you take your knowledge of God’s Word and let it change your thinking and behavior to make you more like Jesus.

Going Deeper

If you want to dig a little deeper into Psalm 110:1, consider reading the following GotQuestions article:

“What does it mean that ‘the Lord said to my Lord’?”

Sharing

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Matt Ellis is the pastor of First Baptist Church in Polk City, Florida (fbcpolkcity.com)