Passage Read: 1 Chronicles 15-18
Meditation Verse: 17:9
Thought
The Israelites are dwelling in their own land, and the Lord has set David over them as a blessing to them. He will fight against all their enemies and bring peace to their land. Yet the Lord says that He will appoint a new place for His people, where they will be planted and never again moved from that place, a place where the wicked will not harass or waste them ever again. Is that not where they are now living? Apparently, it isn't! He has another place in mind for them. The place where they are currently settled, with David as king over them, they will in time be driven out, then return, then be driven out again and be a long time before they return. It is theirs, but it is not permanently theirs! Enemies keep wasting them, and they keep being driven from it. The land they now possess is not yet their eternal dwelling place. There is another place God has in mind. He must be pointing here to the new heavens and the new earth. Even when Jesus returns, He will reign over this earth only for a thousand years, then this place will be remade. Only then will they wicked cease to be in the land. Only then will the Israelites--and all other peoples--possess their land forever, never to be moved again.
Application
Any possession in this world is not permanent, is not eternal. This is not the land or the houses or the possessions that I should be setting my hopes on. The lands and houses and possessions I should long for and live for and strive for and seek to obtain are those eternal lands in the new heavens and new earth, which will never again be shaken or destroyed. Whatever I possess here will be lost at some point, not just lost to me by death, but lost by age, decay, natural disaster or by God's destruction of this present world. Nothing here is eternal, so nothing here is worth fighting for. It's all just temporary, and I'm free to use it as needed, but it should never be anything I wrap my life around or wrap my being up within. It is that eternal land and possession, the seeking of which should consume my life and purpose. And the only way to gain it is to give myself to building God's house, God's kingdom, and then He will be pleased to give me an eternal dwelling and possession.