God Builds an Eternal House • 2 Samuel 7
49:54 Teaching begins
Notes
We live in space and time, and that brings a problem.
You can experience a great time. Everything comes together and you think, “I wish this could last forever.” You want to weld it and make it permanent. But it won’t last forever because it will change. It has to because everything in time changes.
David is feeling this sense of everything is going great. My life is sorted. Except one thing bugs him, God is in this temporary situation. Can’t we do something about this to sort God out, make His situation permanent?
God says to David, “I’m way ahead of you. I’m working on making you permanent.”
If anything is to be permanent in your life, God is the one who has to build it.
I’m reading in 2 Samuel 7.
1. David wants some feedback from Nathan the prophet, vv. 1-3.
A. The time is when David has arrived, he is successful and prosperous.
1. He’s reflecting in his house, a gift from Hiram king of Tyre. Made of costly stone and cedar wood. It’s a sign that David is one of the guys, every bit as royal as the next king. He’s in that echelon of rulers. He’s at the top.
2. There’s peace, rest on every side. There are no threats, no dangers from raiders or conquerors or warlords looking to prove how tough they are.
3. It’s quiet and peaceful.
B. But David is bothered because he is living better than the Lord. He says to Nathan the prophet, “Look, I live in a cedar house and the ark of the presence of the Lord dwells in tent curtains.” How can that be right that David lives in better style than the Lord? The Lord should have the best living arrangements of anybody, reasons David.
C. Nathan seems to know what David is getting at; they’ve probably discussed it before: David wants to build an exalted temple for the Lord.
D. David is bouncing this off Nathan and he’s looking for feedback. What do you think?
E. Nathan says, “Sounds good to me. Can’t think of a reason not to. God is with you. There’s nothing sinful about it. Go for it.”
2. He leaves David, but the same evening God sends Nathan back to say, “Don’t do it.”, vv. 4-7.
A. God reverses David’s idea and Nathan’s counsel. It is a rhetorical question that has the expected answer of “no”. “Are you the one to build Me a house?” No, I do not want David to build Me a house.
B. Plus, God wasn’t even thinking about having an exalted house.
1. He says, “I’ve been living in a tent since Egypt. It’s always been a temporary structure on purpose.”
2. “I have never told anyone to built me a house, nor have I chewed anyone out because they didn’t build Me a house. Like, I need it to feel like I’ve arrived? Isaiah 66:1-2 Thus says the LORD, “Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.
3. You know, there’s a point to this: God is sojourning, passing through this life like His people, who live in temporary structures, made of skins stretched over poles.
C. Here’s David thinking, “I’m living above the level of the Lord,” and God saying, “I am intentionally living on their level. I’m okay with that.”
3. Then the Lord goes way beyond what is normal, expected, usual, and makes an unconditional covenant with David, saying, “I will make a house for you,” vv. 8-17.
A. God says what He has done for David and what He will do for David. The emphasis is on what God has done, and not what David has done.
1. I took you from following the sheep to be ruler over My people Israel. You were no-one from nowhere, and I made you king.
2. I have been with you wherever you have gone
3. I have cut off all your enemies.
4. I have made you a great name. Some translation take this as a future thing God will do. I will make you famous for all time. There’s more to come.
5. I will appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them. Peace and safety for Israel is definitely future. Not even today is Israel in a place where no one will trouble them. They are dealing with people who want to drop atomic bombs on them.
B. God says, I will build you a house. There’s a play on words here.
1. David wanted to build God a house, an exalted temple for God to dwell in.
2. What God means is house, like a dynasty, a family.
3. But then someone in David’s family will build God a house to dwell in.
4. So when God says, “I will make a house for you,” and you ask, is that family or dwelling? God means both, a family and a dwelling.
C. The means of building both David’s family and a dwelling for God will be one of David’s descendants.
1. This descendant will build a house for God to dwell in.
2. And then we are back to I will establish His throne forever.
3. I will be His father, He will be God’s son.
4. I will discipline just as a father. I will make sure he is raised right.
5. I will not remove My chesed, my steadfast strong lovingkindness from him as I removed it from Saul.
D. And God summarises his promise: Your royal family shall exist forever. Your kingdom, those you rule over, shall exist forever. Your royal authority, your throne, shall exist forever.
4. David’s mind is well and truly blown. He prays for God to do just as He said, vv. 18-29.
A. Here’s one of the great prayers of the Bible. You can study this for how David prays and what he prays for. We can only look at these things in passing.
B. He expresses his complete humility to God. Who am I and who is my family, that You have brought me thus far? What did I do to deserve this? David was a kid when God called him. He did nothing. God chose David because God is good. David is marvelling at the goodness of God.
C. What God has already done wasn’t enough for God, that was nothing, God wanted to bless beyond all that David would ever think to ask for. My family, the kingdom, the throne, to exist forever? What more could I ask You for?
D. David praises God for doing an unparalleled work.
1. You are great and there is no one like you. You have no equal. You alone are God.
2. There is no one like Your nation Israel that You redeemed for yourself. Every people said, we are the people of this god or that god. We have a history that You chose one man and from that one man created a nation for Yourself. Then You gave us your law that is exceedingly broad and comprehensive and good. No other god has ever done this.
3. Here is the unique God and His unique creation, a nation for Himself.
E. David prays for God to do what He has just promised.
1. You would think, why pray for what God has said He is going to do? Just do it!
2. God has made us to ask Him for our needs. We have a relationship. We pray for what God has promised to give. Therefore we know our prayers will be answered. We have confidence that we will receive from God what He has promised. But we still pray.
5. So what?
A. God is doing a far greater work than David wants to do for God: an eternal kingdom, an eternal royal family, an eternal throne.
B. He’s doing His work through that descendant of David that God promised.
1. That descendant is not Solomon. Solomon built the temple for God, and God wanted that because He told David and gave him the plans for it in 1 Chronicles 28:11-19. But the temple was not permanent, Solomon wasn’t permanent, the throne was not permanent.
2. That descendent is the Lord Himself. If you look at God’s promise, you see He says, “The Lord will build you a house.” God says, “I have done, I will do,” and in the middle He says, “He will build a house.”
3. “He” is the Lord, the Son of God, the Son of David.
C. Everything the Lord does through Jesus is permanent.
1. The angel Gabriel said to Mary Luke 1:31-33 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
2. He is saving His people for that kingdom right now. He redeems God’s people forever with eternal salvation. He saves them to the uttermost. They are born again into His family, and they will rule and reign forever with Jesus. He is making us into His dwelling place in the Spirit. We are His house, royal family, and we are his house, dwelling place. He doesn’t live in houses made with hands, but in houses made without hands. That’s us.
D. What can you do? What should you do?
1. You know that you are more concerned for what you do or don’t do for God. You look at what you do and you hope it’s good enough. You are scared because you know it’s not good enough.
2. God is more interested in what He does because He does all things well, and what He does is eternal. When He saves you He gives you access to Jesus. You stand in His grace in Christ.
3. Everything you need is in Christ and is eternal. You need righteousness, He gives you the very righteousness of God. You need mercy, He gives you the compassion of Christ. You need transformation, He gives you His Spirit to communicate that very nature of Jesus to you, so that you love like He loved you. Everything God gives you comes through Jesus Christ.
4. Do what David did. He did nothing. But he did take some time before God. If you can’t sit still, take a walk. Tell God about all that Jesus has done for you. Confess, who am I, that You have chosen me? Thank Him for doing exceedingly abundantly above all that you could ask or think. Then ask Him to do what He wants to do for you. And you know that God will answer that prayer. He is making you His dwelling place and His people. Trust Him that He will get you where you need to be, safely in His heavenly kingdom.
You are His unique unparalleled work.
Let’s pray.