It’s possible that after a long journey, bureaucratic hassles, no accommodation, and sudden delivery of a baby that Joseph and Mary were at a low point. God lets them know gently that He is in their situation. That changes everything. Has God ever done that with you?

When you just show up without warning people are surprised, shocked, and not receptive. The first Christmas begins with God preparing the forerunner’s father because he isn’t ready! But because God wants to bless him, He prepares him.

Christmas is the critical point in time when the future promises of God become present reality. But if you don’t realise how significant something is, you’re likely to lose it.

This chapter is not about God killing David in justice. It’s about God restoring David in grace.

Gross sin starts small, but significantly, when a heart turns away from being satisfied by God, looks somewhere else for satisfaction and, worst of all, finds it.

David and Israel fought and won because they knew what they were fighting for. The other guys lacked conviction. So hold on to your convictions and fight the good fight of faith in order to win.

The unexpected becomes reality not because of anything in the man, but because of a covenant made before he was born.

God has a purpose for David to do in his part of the plan of the ages. That means God allows David to do some things and doesn’t allow him to do others. But if David fulfils the purpose for which God made him, that’s enough.

David is enjoying the sense of everything going great. Except one thing bugs him, God is in this temporary situation. Can’t we do something about this? God says to David, “I’m way ahead of you. I’m working on making you permanent.”

David is bringing the presence of God into the very centre of Israeli life but when God reacts to his ignorance he is shocked, angry, fearful, unwilling, just like an unbeliever.