Ligonier Ministries Blog

1. Who Was David?

   Israel’s most famous king was from a little-known place called Bethlehem. As a shepherd boy and the youngest of eight brothers, it would have seemed almost certain that he was destined to obscurity. But God delights to use the weak things of the world to do His will (1 Cor. 1:27), and so to everyone’s surprise, the prophet Samuel arrived one day and anointed David to be king. Henceforth, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him (1 Sam. 16:13), which he quickly proved by defeating the Philistine champion Goliath with no more than a sling (1 Sam. 17). Instead of receiving acclaim, David endured the harshest persecution by his predecessor, the jealous and vengeful King Saul. Hiding in caves and living on the run, David found himself never more than a step away from death (1 Sam. 20:3). But as Saul and his kingship began to spiral down into ruin, God blessed and established David and eventually seated him on the throne of Israel. David’s experience—humility and persecution leading to triumph and exaltation—was meant as a prophetic picture of a greater King to come. “The sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories” that would follow (1 Peter 1:11) are portrayed in David’s life and reflected in David’s psalms. David’s inspired songs are quoted dozens of times by the New Testament authors as being ultimately fulfilled in the humiliation and exaltation of Christ. This makes David a type of Christ, which is to say, his life and his words were designed to foreshadow the life and the work of our Savior. The prophets knew this and often referred to the coming Savior under the image and even the name of David (Ezek. 34:23; Hos. 3:5). God made a covenant with David, promising that the Christ would come through his lineage and reign over an eternal kingdom (2 Sam. 7:12–16). This is why Matthew begins his gospel by saying, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David” (Matt. 1:1). It is also why many who acknowledged Christ as the Savior called him “Son of David” (Matt. 15:22; 20:30). The resurrection of Christ was the fulfillment of “the sure mercies of David” (Isa. 55:3; Acts 13:34). The risen Christ now eternally occupies and perfectly fulfills the three offices of prophet, priest, and king. As a prophet, He reveals God to man. As a priest, He represents His people before God. As a king, He rules over all things in righteousness. As a type of Christ, David uniquely foreshadowed the convergence of these offices in one individual. David was obviously a king, but we also catch glimpses of him in a priestly role, whether wearing an ephod (2 Sam. 6:14) or making a sacrifice (2 Sam. 24:18–25). David is also called a prophet (Acts 2:30), and in his last words he testified that “the Spirit of the Lord speaks by me” (2 Sam. 23:2). The fulfillment and perfection of these three offices by his greater Son was thus reflected in David’s life. Yet even while David reflected the life of Christ, he (like all of us) was a sinner in need of Christ. His adultery with Bathsheba and his subsequent murder of her husband Uriah (2 Sam. 11) remind us that even a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14) is not immune to falling into great sin. David’s house was troubled with conflict and rebellion from that time forward, but the “sweet psalmist of Israel” (2 Sam. 23:1) left us with a genuine example of the heart of true repentance (Ps. 51) and the assurance that God is gracious and forgiving toward all those who call upon Him in faith (Ps. 145). David’s love and longing for God are captured in some of the most beautiful images of Scripture that continue to guide and strengthen our faith today. It would be impossible to quantify how much comfort God’s people have derived over the centuries from Psalm 23 as each believer has made his journey through the valley of the shadow of death to dwell in the house of the Lord forever. But David’s greatest legacy is that he foresaw and foreshadowed the Lord Jesus Christ. David’s life and his psalms continue to point us to his greater Son.

2. How to Support the Caregivers in Your Church

   Years ago, a group of young people migrated to our church, filled with enthusiasm and energy. Since we didn’t have any official “ministries,” they seemed uncertain about how to serve. Our pastor addressed this before the service: “If anyone is looking for a ministry, you don’t need a formal group or title. We have lots of opportunities. You can visit the elderly, the shut-ins, or those who suffer from physical or mental conditions.” Within days, a young man came to visit my son, who was living with a serious mental health condition. Another young man joined later, and the three became friends. It was a balm to my soul. My son’s condition tends to stifle emotions and hinder social exchanges. Most people interpreted his reluctance to engage in conversations as a sign that he wanted to be left alone. That was far from the truth. I remember my feelings of awkwardness before that time, when I sounded like an overly protective mother looking for friends for her twenty-year-old son. My pastor’s announcement resolved this problem. Mine is just one of many stories of caregivers looking for support in their churches. Their needs are as varied as their circumstances, but they all long for lasting encouragement and true understanding. Lasting Encouragement Most churches are quick to respond to immediate needs. They are ready to provide material and emotional support to those who have received a troubling diagnosis, have lost a job or a home, or have had to bury a loved one. But caregiving is often a long-term calling, and the challenges continue long after the church’s initial burst of enthusiastic help. Pastors can do much to keep the support flowing. Besides keeping caregivers and their loved ones in their private and public prayers, they can continue to encourage the congregation to be present with visits, letters, calls, and tangible acts of assistance. My pastor often reminded us that love may call us to step out of our comfort zone. “You have to be inconvenienced,” he said. And his life supported his words. Where there was a need, he was there—never outwardly stressed—as if visiting those in need was the highlight of his day. “A family in a long-term caregiving situation needs more than just people cheering them on at the beginning of the journey,” Amy told me after months of sharing her nine-year-old son’s struggle against leukemia. “Just like an ultra-marathon runner, we need stops for water and Gatorade along the way. We need people with cowbells at random spots along the road cheering us on and reminding us they are on our side. This is a long, exhausting journey. Don’t forget us.” Forgetting is easy because everyone is busy, and caregivers often prefer to keep their struggles to themselves for fear of bothering others or of offending their loved ones by divulging details of their daily care. It’s up to each individual in our churches to remember caregivers and their loved ones, approach them at church, and seek them out when they are absent. True Understanding Even when we manage to step out of our comfort zone to assist the caregivers in our churches, our busy attitudes often prevent us from understanding their needs. Trina, who spent years caring for her husband during his struggle with dementia and cancer, has sad memories of people limiting their prayers to the healing of cancer, while both she and her husband thought God had allowed it as a merciful end to his rapid mental decline. No one prayed for her and their children with her present. “We needed endurance and had concerns about pain relief, end of life decisions, and other issues,” she said. “People need to listen to or read the prayer requests and pray for those things, particularly in the hearing of the patient and caregiver. We need to feel heard by those we look to for support. And their prayers must support reality, not the wishes of the one praying.” Many parents of people with a serious mental condition have told me they mostly need acceptance, understanding, hope, and love—including love and true appreciation for the person needing care. “Caretakers become responsible not merely for their loved ones’ physical care, but also to help them see a continuing purpose in their lives,” Trina told me. “I needed to remind my husband that he was an image bearer who could still bless his family. It’s important to thank our loved ones for how they bless us and go before us. I am realizing more and more what my husband’s example of suffering means to me and those who witnessed it intimately.” The church can assist in this work of appreciation. Love, understanding, and appreciation require a commitment of time that is rare in a pragmatic society that emphasizes quick solutions. If we visit a person in need, we often feel compelled to resolve their problems or at least provide useful suggestions. Yet, this might be the worst thing we can do for people who have been trying to navigate, through a careful exercise of wisdom and attention to professional advice, the complexity of their situation. The best thing to do is to be present as faithful friends, ready to stick around, listen, and learn. Getting involved in the lives of caregivers and their loved ones may seem like a sacrifice, but it’s well worth it for everyone involved. If we are convinced that “the body does not consist of one member but of many” (1 Cor. 12:14), and each is necessary for the building up of the church, we will treat each other as such and—in the process—grow in maturity, love, and wisdom.

3. Announcing a New Partnership with Joni and Friends

   Ligonier Ministries has entered a joyful partnership with Joni and Friends as part of our Study Bibles for the World campaign. Many of you are likely familiar with Joni Eareckson Tada. She has been a longtime friend of Dr. R.C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries, and she has given her testimony at our national conference in years past. The organization she founded, Joni and Friends, works to bring practical assistance and gospel hope to people with disabilities and their families around the world. Now, through Ligonier’s Study Bibles for the World campaign, we have the opportunity to bring the Reformation Study Bible to pastors who are ministering to people with disabilities and their families. Watch this brief video as president of Joni and Friends, Shawn Thornton, and I discuss this new avenue to equip the global church—all made possible through the support of friends like you. 1200x675 eBlast joni and friends a In many parts of the world where living conditions are challenging and false teaching is rampant, few pastors are well equipped to preach a biblical theology of suffering. For Christians struggling with disabilities, this can be devastating. Now we have the opportunity to send a one-volume theological library through Joni and Friends’ extensive distribution networks to equip pastors on the front lines of the Great Commission. 1 John 3:17–18 conveys the importance of rendering assistance as a show of our Christian unity and our love for one another in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We’re honored by this opportunity to support the pastors and leaders who are ministering to our suffering brothers and sisters around the world. Will you pray for this new partnership with Joni and Friends as we seek to serve God’s people in more places? Thank you for your support of Ligonier as we seek to strengthen the global church together.

4. What Is the Lord’s Prayer?

   The prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray, which we commonly call the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9–13; see also Luke 11:2–4), is a kingdom prayer. It assumes the coming of the kingdom through Christ and shows us how we ought to pray now considering the kingdom realities in which we live. Jesus tells His disciples: > “Pray then like this: > “Our Father in heaven, > hallowed be your name. > Your kingdom come, > your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. > Give us this day our daily bread, > and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. > And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matt. 6:9–13) When we pray “our Father,” we are reminded that we can call God Father because of what Christ has done for us; through Christ we can call God Father (see Heidelberg Catechism 120). When we pray “our Father in heaven,” we are reminded of the majesty and authority of God, the heavenly King who can give us what we need (see HC 121). The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer is “Hallowed be your name.” This is a prayer for God to be glorified, which is also important in the context of the kingdom; the kingdom of God is ultimately about the glory of God. When we pray “Hallowed be your name,” we are praying a kingdom prayer that God’s name and glory would be exalted in the earth. In his classic book, Herman Ridderbos comments on this petition: “The coming of the kingdom is first of all the display of the divine glory.” The second and third petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are also related to the kingdom: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Richard Pratt has observed, “This prayer sums up the central message of the Bible in a few words.” This is a prayer that God’s kingdom would come more and more fully and that God’s will would be done on earth. In this case “will of God” means doing what God commands. It is also a prayer that God’s kingdom would be extended throughout the world. Heidelberg Catechism 123 captures the second petition memorably: > “Your kingdom come” means: Rule us by your Word and Spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to you. Preserve and increase your church. Destroy the devil’s work; destroy every force which revolts against you and every conspiracy against your holy Word. Do all this until your kingdom fully comes, when you will be all in all. Another helpful exposition of the second petition comes from Westminster Larger Catechism 191. Among other things, the Larger Catechism says that in this petition “we pray that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel propagated throughout the world . . . : that Christ would rule in our hearts here.” This is also a prayer that the church would be strengthened in this age. Praying for God’s kingdom to come is to pray for God’s will to be done on earth in the present age as we look ahead to the second coming of Christ. We are also to pray, “Lead us not into temptation.” It is especially important to understand the timing of the kingdom’s coming to understand this petition. Put simply, this is a prayer that we be spared the wiles and traps of the devil that would lead us into sin even now. This is a practical prayer for daily living. In contemporary scholarship, however, it has become common to view this prayer as a very specific prayer about being spared from the great trial or tribulation (the Greek term peirasmos can mean either of these, as well as the more familiar temptation) at the end of time. Despite the popularity of this view, this narrower reading of being delivered from the final eschatological trial misses the present reality of kingdom conflict around us every day and that the kingdom does not come all at once. We need to be spared the snares of the devil, for right now he roams around like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). This is not just a prayer for the future; it is a prayer for faithful kingdom living each day. The interim between the first and second comings of Christ is a time when the devil’s kingdom is defeated in principle, but the devil is still active. We live in a time of continuing spiritual danger. As we will see further in chapter 7, we live in a time of conflict between kingdoms. We therefore need to be protected in this age of kingdom growth that we may come safely into the consummated kingdom in the future. We therefore must pray that we are not led into temptation but are delivered from evil and from the evil one himself The text of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew does not include the traditional ending that is part of the liturgical use of the Lord’s Prayer: “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.” This portion of the prayer is not found in the best manuscripts but most likely comes from the end of David’s prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:11. It therefore is most certainly a biblical prayer, and it is appropriate to pray in conjunction with the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus is the greater David who brings a greater kingdom. If David could pray that the kingdom belongs to the Lord forever, surely it is appropriate for us to pray this, since Christ has brought the long-awaited kingdom promised in Scripture. : Herman Ridderbos, Coming of the Kingdom, 20–21; see also Vos, Teaching of Jesus, 11, 20–21, 49, 51. : Richard L. Pratt, Designed for Dignity, 3–4. : Kevin De Young, *The Lord's Prayer: Learning from Jesus on What, Why, and How to Pray* (Crossway, 2022), 46–47. : Translation from Chad Van Dixhoorn, ed., Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms: A Reader’s Edition (Crossway, 2022). : E.g., Ernst Lohmeyer, “Our Father”: An Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer, trans. John Bowden (Harper & Row, 1965), 195, 203–6; and Raymond E. Brown, “The Pater Noster as an Eschatological Prayer,” Theological Studies 22 (1961): 205. : See Vos, Teaching of Jesus, 36; see also Ridderbos, Coming of the Kingdom, 107–8.

5. Who Was Jeremiah?

   Some things in life need to be said in person. After Israel had been in the land for hundreds of years, God had something so vital to say, He sent not just a message, but a person, the prophet Jeremiah. We know that Jeremiah the man was vital to God’s communication because his book—more than any other prophetic book—tells us a great deal about the prophet himself. As we will see, the man was the message. So, who was Jeremiah, and what was God saying through his life? We’ll explore Jeremiah’s identity by the analogies that Scripture makes between him and other biblical figures. 1. Jeremiah was a new Moses. This point emerges when the Lord called Jeremiah in the days of Josiah, the last good king of Judah (roughly in 627 BC). In Jeremiah 1:9, God put His words in Jeremiah’s mouth, which recalls Deuteronomy 18:18, where God says He will raise up a prophet like Moses. Moses was the great leader of Israel out of Egypt whom God used to mediate the old covenant at Sinai. In Jeremiah, God raised up a great prophet who would mediate the dissolution of the old covenant order. Jeremiah would “pluck up and break down” (Jer. 1:10) the people of Judah and all that incarnated their relationship with God: the temple, the king, the land, and the city of Jerusalem. At Sinai, God had “married” Israel (Jer. 2:2). But now the people had committed heinous acts of spiritual adultery by worshiping foreign gods (Jer. 2:33). As Moses facilitated God’s wedding to His people, Jeremiah would be God’s emissary for divorcing His people (Jer. 3:8; 13:26). Jeremiah was understandably afraid of this calling. Like Moses (Ex. 4:10), he resisted and claimed that he did not know how to speak (Jer. 1:6). But God said that He would be with Jeremiah to deliver him (Jer. 1:8, 19). Jeremiah would go on to proclaim the intense anger of God for Judah’s sin, along with the consequent desolation and exile that would soon befall Judah through the Babylonians. 2. Jeremiah was a new Job. But Jeremiah did more than speak these sorrows; he lived them. The second analogy is that Jeremiah was a new Job. Though Jeremiah himself was not an idolater, he needed to experience the sorrows that would come to the wicked. The Lord forbade him from taking a wife and having children (Jer. 16:2), for soon the children of Judah would die from deadly disease because of their parents’ idolatry. Jeremiah could not enter a house of mourning (Jer. 16:5), for the coming devastation would mean that no one could bury the dead or lament them properly. Neither could Jeremiah enter a house of feasting (Jer. 16:8), for there would be no more feasting when the Babylonians ravaged the land. Jeremiah lived his message. The catastrophe of Judah also convulsed Jeremiah terribly in his soul. He said, “For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded” (Jer. 8:21). Initially, he could not fathom why God would send judgment when so many other prophets proclaimed peace (Jer. 4:10). God then made clear that He did not send those prophets. Indeed, the people’s sin was so enslaving that they could not repent and judgment was inevitable (Jer. 6:10; 21:1–10). Jeremiah then struggled with the incessant persecution he faced and complained that God was being unfaithful to His promise to deliver him (Jer. 15:18). In response, God rebuked His prophet and insisted that His promise is true (Jer. 15:19–21). But the persecutions continued. Like Job, Jeremiah then cursed the day he was born (Jer. 20:14–18; see also Job 3:1). Jeremiah embodied the sorrow and despair of Judah. 3. Jeremiah points to Jesus. But Jeremiah’s life was not merely a story of suffering and despair. The prophet who once cursed the day he was born eventually became a hero of faith, continuing to boldly speak the truth even at great cost to himself (see chs. 37–44). Moreover, Jeremiah also had a message of “building and planting,” which would overcome the plucking up and breaking down (Jer. 1:10; 31:28). The third analogy is thus between Jeremiah and Jesus. Jeremiah’s life foreshadowed the victory over sin that Jesus would win through His willingness to suffer for His people. Like the suffering servant in Isaiah 53, Jeremiah was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter (Jer. 11:19). Though Jeremiah was thrown in the muddy pit like the innocent sufferer of the Psalms (Jer. 38:6; Ps. 69:2), he trusted God, and God delivered him. The last we hear of Jeremiah, he was forcibly taken to Egypt with wicked Judeans who reviled his preaching and refused to repent (Jer. 42–44). Truly, he made his grave with the wicked (Isa. 53:9). And yet, his words emerge from beyond the grave, and they speak of a hope and a future that transcends the terrible judgment that the Lord brought on His people (Jer. 29:11). At the center of Jeremiah’s book about God’s demolition of the old covenant stands a glowing promise of a new and better covenant that finally includes the power to repent and obey with all the heart and soul (Jer. 31:31–34). In this new and better covenant, God would reverse all the curses of judgment: There would be a new king ruling over a new people in a renewed land with renewed worship (see chs. 30–33). All these amazing promises come about through Jesus Christ, the true and better Jeremiah, who not only died for His people, but who was raised and ever lives to intercede for them.