God's Promises - Always More

Prayer

I Will Build You a House

Last week we started our way into the book of 2 Samuel and we’ll continue that this morning, but just to let you know, we’re going to take a break from our journey through the story of the Old Testament as we enter into the Advent / Christmas season next week. What’s fun is that our passage, 2 Samuel 6 & 7, this morning really sets us up well for moving into the season of Advent.

As a reminder, we saw last week, as we covered the first five chapters of 2 Samuel, that David has emerged as the King over all of Israel after the death of Ish-Bosheth, the son of Saul. David has established a new capitol, having conquered the city of Jerusalem and built a palace for himself.

Things in Israel are a far cry from where they ended in 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel ended with the death of King Saul, his son Jonathan, and the defeat of the Israelite army at the hands of the Philistines. Israel was in disarray. But now Israel is united, strong - they’ve even defeated the Philistines several times, all under the leadership of King David.

And this is where we pick up the story in 2 Samuel 6. David has already established Jerusalem as the political capitol, since that’s now where he resides. Now he’s going to make it the religious capital by bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. 2 Samuel 6:1-5 -

David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. 2 He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. 3 They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart 4 with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. 5 David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.

So David is making this a huge deal - there are thousands and thousands of people gathered (including 30,000 young men from his army). They go to Baalah where the ark is. They set the ark on a new cart, and two of the sons from the household where it has been since the Philistines had captured it, were walking along the cart, guiding it. For David and the rest of Israel, it’s a big party, a parade of praise as they move the ark toward Jerusalem.

As they take the cart along, they make their way up a hill, where a threshing floor was, and the oxen stumble. Uzzah, one of the sons guiding the cart reaches out his hand to steady the ark. Then this happens: Vs. 7, The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God. God kills Uzzah for touching the ark! David is angry - and afraid.

And that was why God did it (not to be make them angry, but to remind them that he is the Holy One.) The Israelites were not properly revering God as the Lord God Almighty. They were not transporting the ark of the covenant the way God had commanded. Only the priests were allowed to transport the ark, and they were to carry it by hand, using poles. Remember, the ark of the covenant represented God’s presence with his people, his holiness - as verse two reminded us, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim (two winged creatures on the lid of the ark). By dishonoring the ark, they were dishonoring God.

The Israelites abandon the effort for a while until David finally decides to try it again, this time properly - David has priests carry it to Jerusalem. It works this time. And as they bring it into Jerusalem, we get this, 2 Samuel 6:16, As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.

She does it because she thinks David is degrading himself in his behavior. Here he is, without his royal robes, wearing a linen ephod, dancing full out - “with all his might,” while Israel joins him with shouts and the sounds of trumpets.

After the public gathering, sacrifices before the Lord and gifts of cakes to all the people (it’s a party). The people go home, as does David where he is confronted by his wife, Michal. She rips into him with great disdain about his public display of vulgarity. But Michal doesn’t get it, she doesn’t get God the way David does - he knows that it’s only because of the Lord God that he is king over Israel. He knows that all he has and all he has accomplished is only because the Lord has been with him. Therefore he will humble himself absolutely before the Lord. He tells her, Before everyone else he will be honored, but before the Lord, he will be, as he says, “even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.”

This brings us to 2 Samuel 7, where we get an amazing promise from God. David settles into his palace, there is peace in the land - no enemy threats, everything is good. And it dawns on David that while he has had a beautiful palace built for him, the ark of the covenant is still in a tent. So he wants to build a real structure, a temple, a house for God. He tells Nathan the prophet his idea, and Nathan is all in - go for it.

But that night Nathan receives a word from the Lord for David. The Lord declares to David that he doesn’t need a home - he’s never had one. In all the time he’s been with his people, the Israelites, he never commanded any of the leaders to build him a house. But then he tells David this, he makes David a promise that is going to have huge ramifications, 2 Samuel 7:11-16 - listen to this, this is Nathan speaking:

“‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: 12 When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”

Note what the Lord is saying to David here - he’s telling David, you won’t build a house for me - instead I am going to build a house for you. He’s telling David that his house, his lineage, his kingdom, will endure forever. Now, in just a minute we’re going to talk about what this promise is all about, but for now, let me finish out the chapter.

David, as you might imagine, is overwhelmed. He can only respond in humble praise. He finds a place to be alone and pours out his heart to God in prayer, 2 Samuel 7:18-19, Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said: “Who am I, Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 19 And as if this were not enough in your sight, Sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant—and this decree, Sovereign Lord, is for a mere human! What a beautiful expression of grateful praise! Who am I, Lord, that you would do this for me?

Because David takes the Lord seriously - and what God promises seriously, he finishes his prayer with great boldness, asking God to do exactly what he’s promised to do, 2 Samuel 7:27-29 - “Lord Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, ‘I will build a house for you.’ So your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. 29 Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever in your sight; for you, Sovereign Lord, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.”

God’s Promises Are Always Greater

So, what’s going on here - what is God saying to David through Nathan? Because it is a beautiful promise, more so than even David realizes, as we’ll get to in a minute. David is sitting there in his palace in Jerusalem, everything is going well in Israel, and he realizes that as good as God has been to him, he feels as if he’s failed to honor God in the same way. He’s sitting in his beautiful new home, and yet the Lord God, through the ark of the covenant, is in a tent!

So David is going to build a house for God! But God, speaking through the prophet Nathan, says no. Instead, God tells him, I’m going to build a house for you. An everlasting house. It’s important to understand what David would hear in this promise. Not just David, but as generations of Israelites for hundreds of years will come to believe as well.

They would believe that David’s house would be established by God. That for one of David’s descendants, a son of his, God will establish his kingdom forever. That generation after generation, someone from David’s line will sit on the throne, ruling over the nation of Israel. You can see why David would be so excited about this, his name, his family, his house - will be blessed by God to continue to rule over God’s people.

You can see David’s faith in God in this passage, as far as he’s concerned, this is a done deal. Ironclad promise - because those are the only promises God makes. As David says, “Your covenant is trustworthy.” And the way he finishes his prayer: “For you, Sovereign Lord, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed forever.”

This promise becomes the basis for the hope of Israel in the Messiah, the Anointed One, the King who would re-establish the nation of Israel and reign forever. Now David’s line will continue to reign over the entire nation of Israel for only one more generation - it splits in two under his grandson, the son of Solomon(we’ll cover this all in the new year as we pick back up in the story of the Old Testament). From then on David’s descendants will reign only over the southern kingdom of Judah. And even that will end when the Kingdom of Judah is destroyed by the Babylonian empire, and the kingdom exists no more.

That’s in 587 BC - for next 600 or so years, other than a short period of time, there is no independent nation of Israel. It is constantly under the rule of another empire - Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans.

And it’s this promise that God makes to David here in 2 Samuel 7 that becomes the basis of the Israelites’ great hope, the hope for the Messiah, the Anointed One, the King. The hope that God would raise up someone from the line of David to become king once again. The Messiah would overthrow the oppressing nation and once again Israel would be a great nation, God’s people ruled by his king, a son of David. This was the hope that the Jews held in the time of Jesus.

Here’s the thing - and the point I want to make this morning: God’s promise to David is so much bigger, so much more amazing, far more grand and glorious than David - or any other Israelite - could ever have imagined. God’s promise to David - the person who will establish his house - is Jesus.

David asks God, “Who am I, Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” How could he have known that his family would now include God himself - that the Sovereign Lord would incarnate himself, become human, as part of his family? That the Son of David would be the Son of God as well?

And how could David have ever imagined the scope of the kingdom that his descendant would reign over? Surely David - as generations of Jews after him - thought that the kingdom meant simply the nation of Israel. God’s people living in the land he had promised them hundreds of years earlier. Yet God’s promise here goes far beyond this - this is the Kingdom of God itself, God’s rule over heaven and earth. Jesus will not just be the King of the Jews, he will be the king of kings, the one before whom every knee would bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And lastly, when God says forever, he literally meant forever. Eternally. My guess is that David assumed that his descendants would reign on the throne of Israel generation after generation, that it would be ongoing. After all, humans are mortal. But God’s promise was so much more - David’s Son, Jesus, has already ascended and even now sits at the right hand of God Almighty, his eternal reign already established.

What we see here is that God’s promise to David was so, so, so much more than David could have ever realized. Because God’s promises are always more. Some of the things we look forward to in life here - they’re hit or miss. Sometimes, better than we’d hoped (you go visit a place you’ve only seen in pictures - and you’re blown away, because it was better than you could have imagined). Other times, not so much. New restaurant everyone was raving about (can’t figure out what the big fuss is all about). New job promises to be so much better - until it isn’t.

But God’s promises are always more. Because God is always more. He gives far more than we deserve. He loves more fully and completely than we could ever hope for. He is going to make us into people who are so full of life and joy and peace - far beyond our imaginings. I’m struggling with words - how do you articulate what you can’t even comprehend - to live absolutely free of sin, those ugly temptations never stirring within you (jealousy, impatience, disgust, self-centeredness). Free to love fully, be for others. To live without fear, no insecurity, no pain or suffering - none of that. This is what God promises.

Spiritual Disciplines - Here’s my hope for you this week, that as we enter into Thanksgiving, that this would be a time of simply reveling in God’s goodness. Rejoicing in his promises, how amazing they are - and that they are going to be better than we could hope for (always more). That we would be able to say with David, Who am I, Lord? How could you bless me so richly? How could you be so good to me, to my family?

So this week, practice thankfulness. Count your blessings - literally. Make a list, add to it each day. Take a few moments to come up with three different blessings every day. Be specific - instead of “my friends or my family” name a particular one and what is it about that friend or family member that you give thanks for. Again not just food, but the wonderful taste of a particular food, one you enjoyed that day or that you especially love.

And then, express that gratitude to God. Who am I, Lord, that you would bless me so richly? Delight in him. Like David, express your thanks in humble praise. Declare to God that you know you will receive his blessings because he promised them - and God’s promises are always more. Let your heart rejoice in the Lord.

I want to finish with a few verses from the book of Ephesians. Ephesians 3:20-21 - Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Join Paul in praising God - the one who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine because his power is working within us. So in this generation, in this church, let’s glorify him...