Outline for 2 Samuel 7:1-17 The Time Will Come

Samuel 7:1-17 - The Time Will Come

Adam Klevenhagen

Several years ago, I worked at Home Depot as a Pro Sales Associate. I interacted will all sorts of people, your everyday shopper, small businesses, contractors, and even major companies and housing authorities. However, one of my favorite customers was a regular new home builder, and the first thing he wold always start with is the foundafion because every home needs a good foundation to stand on.

However, the foundation was never the end; He never stopped there. The foundation was only the beginning of the project. For the next several months to a year, I would see my customer over and over again. He was always working, planning out every little detail, and it wasn’t until the house was finished that he could finally rest.

Foundations are important, but its only the beginning. You don’t lay the foundation and the rest in the house. No, a house cannot be called a house until the owner has the keys in hand.

While this is not a perfect analogy, this is what is happening with David. God has laid a foundation and David is ready to settle into the home.

1-7 David’s Plans

8-11 God’s Guidance

12-17 God’s Promise

David’s Plans

David was a man who, up to this point, had been exceedingly blessed by God

● Anointed King while Saul still reigned

● Defeated Goliath at a young age and was taken under Saul’s wing

● Protected providentially when Saul sought his life

● King over Hebron and eventually all Israel

● Defeated his enemies by the hand of God on all sides

● Brought the ark back to Israel so that Israel could truly worship

● The List goes on

David was a man of war but also peace,

● God had given him rest from his enemies

○ Enjoying momentary peace

■ Likely doing what all kings were to do - Meditate on the Law

● During that time of rest

○ Sees the grandeur of his palace and the humble tent

■ “This is culturally accepted norm for any king to build a temple for their patron deity, whom he attributes success.” - ESV Expository Commentary

■ Also likely has in mind the promised rest from the Pentateuch

○ This is not a bad plan, in fact, it’s honorable

■ Even Nathan the Prophet affirms his plan by saying

● “Go, do all that is right in your heart, for the LORD is with you.”

○ His response reflects our own - God has blessed us, we should want to give back.

However, David’s motives are not quite right.

● He desires to enter rest in his own time frame. He wants the temple without God first.

● He wants the rest before the work is finished. The Foundation is there, but the work is not yet done.

○ The Kingdom had only begun.

● How often are we like this?

○ We know God’s promises.

○ Though the attitude is a little different

■ The Foundation has been laid, and the house is being built, and we want the rest now.

Here’s the dilemma

● This is not a wrong attitude for us to have

○ We should desire the kingdom now

○ We should ask how long, O Lord?

● Christ has come and laid the foundation for the Church through his prophets and apostles. The Temple of God is at hand, but this is not the end of the story. It wasn’t the end of the story for David.

God gives David a gentle redirection.

● To Nathan, God says, “Go tell my servant David, thus says the LORD, would you build me a house to dwell in?”

○ Reminded of Job

○ God is sovereign, and he decides when the Temple will be built. He decides when the work is done.

● In this gentle rebuke from our Lord he does reassure David, that he is content to live in the tent, He has dwelled there since the time he delivered Israel from Egypt and not once did he ever ask “would you build me a house of Cedar?” He did not need the Temple to do great things, as David is well aware. So the Lord’s rebuke gives him the simple message of “not now”, or if we were to look at 1 Chronicles 17:4 it was “not you”

Rather than just telling David no the Lord gives him some guidance.

God’s Guidance

God’s word was not a flat out rejection of David’s plans, rather, this was God’s way of telling David that his work is not yet done, this rest that he was experiencing was only a temporary. How do we know this? If we look at 2 Sam. 7:9-10 We read the word “will” over and over again. God has more that he is doing and he going to use David to do that. David would not be the one to build the temple but he would do more than he could ever know.

● I love what Matthew Henrey says in his commentary.

○ “David is a man of war, and he must enlarge the borders of Israel by carrying on their conquests. David is a sweet psalmist, and he must prepare psalms for the use of the temple when it is built and settle the courses of the Levites;” (Henry, p. 188).

David’s work was not done. While David was not the one to build the house of God, God would instead promise to build David a house.

God’s Promise

It was through that promised house that God would build a Temple by the hands of his son Solomon. But there was even more than David could ever bargain for.

● David’s house, his kingdom, would last forever

● God would be a father to his son

● When his son failed, he would correct him

● He would never remove his steadfast love from him as he did with Saul.

As Dr. R.C. Sproul once said, “Through David and Solomon, Israel would enter their golden age.

And through David and Solomon, we have a reflection of Moses and Joshua, and like Moses, Israel would learn to worship properly, they would learn to know and love the laws of God and even do so under his reign. Moses would write extensively on how to live the law, and so too would David through the Psalms. Like Joshua Solomon would cause Israel to become great and to prosper, they would enter rest in the promised Land to have peace and worship the Lord. They woul be a blessing to the nations around them.

But even that wasn’t the end!

Because after David and Solomon died and were long gone and the kingdom would split because of their transgressions. God would preserve this covenant that he made with his anointed King. He would preserve Judah, and a son of David would sit on the throne until the exile. But even the exile wasn’t the end, for while the returned people of God would have their temple, they would have their place in the world once more, but they were missing their king. That was, until the true Son of David stepped foot on this earth, and he is an even truer man after God’s own heart than his father David, and he is a greater temple builder than Solomon could ever be. He was and is the promised seed that who’s kingdom knows no end. Jesus came to be the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets. To take our iniquity upon his shoulder, when he had no sin himself. He came to show us perfect worship and to keep the law on our behalf and teach us to love it. He is the conquering King who is bringing his people into the promised land and has laid the foundation for the true temple of God and is even building the house now.

So, what do we do with this?

A day is coming when everything David, Solomon, Moses, and Joshua and all of those who have come before us have hoped for will be fulfilled, a day is coming when we will know true perfect rest in the eternal promised land that only the true son of David can bring, a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

But friends, until that day comes, until the heavenly tabernacle becomes the earthly tabernacle, there is work to do. Christ has made the Church the temple of God, the foundation has been laid, so go out like David, write songs about our great God, teach people to follow his ways, make disciples, and worship him. Like Solomon, share the wisdom of God with the nations, be a blessing to the people around you, as we were always meant to be. Do what they were both meant to do, point to Christ, show the world Jesus, show them what the kingdom of God is really like. Because the kingdom is coming.

Let’s Pray.