Building for the Lord

Introduction:

Have you ever made a promise to someone and they called you on it?

Maybe you promised your child or your grandchildren that you would take them out for an ice cream if they did well on a test.

You make a promise and it seems like the time to fulfill that promise will come in the far distant future, but eventually the day comes and it’s time to pay up.

God made a promise to David, but unlike us, He was ready to fulfill it in His timing. For David, it might have seemed like an eternity in waiting, but God had much more in store for David than he realized.

Tonight we are going to look at David’s desire to build a temple for the Lord and what God did for David instead.

Let’s take a look at 2 Samuel 7

2 Samuel 7:1–17 ESV

1 Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” 3 And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.” 4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 7 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” ’ 8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

Pray

We need to assess the situation here in chapter 7 tonight to understand what is going on.

So far, God has rejected Israel’s first king and destroyed his household through wars and rivalries. David has been kept out of it. God chose David to be king and David had to wait.

David has down been elevated to be king of Israel and is over both houses. He has also been victorious over the enemies of Israel, particularly the giants of the Philistines.

He has a capital city that was virtually impenetrable and he has firmly established his kingdom.

The Bible is very clear that this is all because the Lord was with David.

David even has a nice cedar palace that was built for Him by the Phoenician King Hiram.

So David is sitting in His house. Look in verse 1 with me.

2 Samuel 7:1 ESV

1 Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies,

The word lived is a word that is translated several ways in the passage. It means to sit or dwell.

Here David is sitting in his house and he’s looking out over the city and thinking about all that God has done for him.

Perpaps with a little sanctified imagination, we can see David glance out across the city and his eyes trace up to the hill above his palace where the shabby tent of the tabernacle sits. David might have thought about all that that tent had been through. He thought about the ark and the mishaps in bringing the ark into the city.

As he gazes at the ark, he thinks about all that God has done for him and the blessing of having the presence of God with him, finally in the city, represented through the ark of the covenant.

David then has an idea. Why is he sitting in a nice palace that he knows God has given him while the ark is in a tent. He has to do something about that!

David decides that he will do what other kings of the peoples around him have done for their gods. He will build a temple for the Lord to be known among the people.

JD Greear points out in his commentary on this text how this worked in the ancient world.

The order is significant: (1) king builds temple for god; (2) temple makes god famous; (3) god thanks king by blessing kingdom. That’s the order of every religion in the world: work hard for me, and I’ll work hard for you. But God rejects that and reverses it. “My power establishes you, and you will always be My debtor. Your life will be lived in grateful response to Me.”

So David plans to do great things for God.

Nathan shows up next. Verse 2 says,

2 Samuel 7:2–3 ESV

2 the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” 3 And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”

We aren’t told much about Nathan or where he came from, but most likely he was trained by Samuel. He is the prophet to the king and is the voice of God to him.

The way the kingship worked in the Old Testament was that the King was God’s appointed “son” to enact justice and rule over the people. He would act for God, but he had to receive the instruction on how to rule from God. God would appoint a prophet who would speak to the King for God and be the voice of God.

Here Nathan speaks, but he is not speaking for God.

That brings us to the first thing we need to remember.

1. Plans For God Do Not Equal Plans From God (vv.4-7)

Seems kind of crazy right? What David wants to do is a great thing! He wants people to know the God he loves and worships, but the problem is that God has his own timeline He works on.

God would indeed have a temple in Israel, but God wants David to first realize that things won’t go like the way the nations plan them.

God would not have David build a house for Him to make a name for Him. God is the greater and David is the lesser.

God says in essence, “It is not what you do for me, but what I will do for you.”

Our whole life is really the story of what God has done for us isn’t it?

It seems like God is harsh here with David, but that’s not it at all. We have to remember the lesson from the last chapter. God has a particular way He desires to be worshiped. We must come to Him on His terms.

God recounts His travels with the people and asks the question, “Have I ever asked anyone to build me a house?”

The point to be made here is that we so often think of what we can do for God, when God is thinking of what He will do for us.

What God is looking for is our faithfulness. He wants us to have faith and trust Him. He will do the building.

That leads us to the second thing.

2. God Delights to Bless His People (vv. 8-17)

2 Samuel 7:8–10 ESV

8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly,

God recounts what He has done for David.

God took David from the sheep folds.

God had been with David to bless him wherever he went.

God had given David peace and rest on every side.

Next God turns to the future.

2 Samuel 7:11–17 ESV

11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

David wanted to build a house for God, but God said he would build David a dynasty.

God will bring from David a son who will rule.

Prophecies are like Mountain peaks.

Solomon is the near fulfillment. Jesus is the distant fulfillment.

Solomon would make mistakes and need to be disciplined.

Jesus would not make mistakes but would be disciplined for us.

Solomon would be the last king to rule a unified kingdom and his son would act foolishly causing a civil war and division of the kingdom.

Jesus would unite Jew and Gentile together in His body, the Church.

3. God’s Work Should Lead us to Praise Him (vv.18-29)

2 Samuel 7:18–29 ESV

18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God! 20 And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God! 21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24 And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. 25 And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27 For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 29 Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.”

Remember where we were when we began the chapter? Verse 1 began with David sitting in his house.

God then promises that David will never fail to have a descendant “sit” on the throne.

Now we have David come and sit before the Lord.

Sometimes there is nothing we need to do for God. We just need to sit in His presence.

David cannot take in all that God has said.

David says that this is for all mankind. He recognizes that God is giving another piece of the salvation puzzle.

You see God unfolded His plan of salvation in different stages or covenants.

Covenants:

Creation

Noah

Abraham

Israel (Mt. Sinai)

David

New Covenant (Jeremiah)

Different pieces of the puzzle come into view in God’s timing and here God shows us that the Messiah would be the son of David.

We have the vantage point of looking backward and seeing most of all of these promises fulfilled.

There are still pieces to come like the rule of Jesus from David’s throne over all the earth.

David summarizes God’s work this way:

1. God’s Promise (vv. 18-21)

2. God’s People (v.22-24)

3. God’s Blessing (vv. 25)

4. God’s Praise (vv. 26-29)

Conclusion

David’s response is one of gratitude. David cannot begin to fathom why God would do something so great for Him. All David wanted to do was give God a house instead of the tent that He was living in. God had different plans to bless David.

You may wonder how any of this relates to you. Here’s the thing. God isn’t in a temple in Jerusalem. In fact, there is no temple in Jerusalem anymore.

The Bible says that God now dwells in a different house.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 ESV

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

David wanted to build a temple so the nations could come to know God. They would have to come to Jerusalem to worship.

Jesus came and was God incarnate. God then took the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, and put the Spirit in all who believe in the Son of David. Now, as we scatter throughout the world, we bring God’s presence through His church to all nations, peoples, tribes, and tongues.

God has made the whole world His house.

Coming back to what Greear says about the text,

This story is all about God’s house, God’s kingdom, God’s unfolding drama. But the wonder of it all is that we are invited to share in that story. God calls us first to behold Him in wonder, but He also commissions us to go and tell. He is, as Tim Keller puts it, a spiritual cyclone, pulling people close in order to hurl them back out.

Don’t waste your life building houses for yourself, or even building houses for God. Rest in His all-sufficient work, and answer Him when He calls. Your life will never be the same.

What are you trying to build for God today? Is it what He asks or what you want to do for Him?

As God’s church, we need to make sure we are on the same mission God is on. That means we have to fulfilling the Great Commission and the Great Commandment as we seek to make Jesus famous in all the world.

But, what about you? Do you belong to the House of Jesus? Have you been adopted into His family?