Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

First Kings chapter 9, verses 4 and 5.

And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David, your father walked, with integrity of heart

and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my

rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father,

saying, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. So this is God speaking to Solomon and telling him, follow me, keep your heart

close to me, just as David did. Obviously, David was not perfect, but even when he's sinned,

there was confession, there was repentance, there was a heart that desired to please God. And so this is what

God is calling Solomon to. Now, you read on in the story and you realize Solomon did not follow the

Lord. It didn't take long for him to, in all kinds of ways, indulge in immorality, idolatry,

and the effects of that on his family were evident

and ended up leading to civil war among God's people

and a splitting of the kingdom of Israel into two,

the kingdom of Judah in the south and Israel and the north.

But the whole point is God had promised to David, your throne will last forever. Now, if it was dependent on Solomon being sinless,

then that throne would have fallen apart really quickly. But thankfully, all throughout the history to come after

Solomon, we know that God's promise remained true because it wasn't dependent ultimately on Solomon

or the kings who came after him who were all sinful in different ways.

This covenant, this promise from God was dependent on a fully obedient son,

son who would come from the line of David, who would be completely and wholly obedient, sinless. And this is what we need. We need a sinless

king. We need a sinless savior. That's the only way Jesus is able to save us from our sin,

if he is the obedient son. And that's exactly what we celebrate at Christmas.

...