The sleepiness this morning. So Holy spirit, we ask that you would quicken our souls, lead us to still waters and the righteous paths of your son through his word. In the name of the Father, Son, Holy spirit. Amen. Passage this morning is 2 Samuel 7: 1-17, the word of the Lord. Now, when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 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. Nathan said to the king, ‘Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. ‘ But that same night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan, ‘Go and tell my servant David, ‘thus says the Lord, ‘Would you build me a house to dwell in? ‘ I’ve not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I am moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all people of Israel, did I speak a word to with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded the shepherd, my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?
‘ 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. And I have been with you wherever you went. Cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make for you a great name like the name of all the great ones of the earth. 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. Violent men shall flick them no more as formerly 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. 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. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father.
‘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. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. ‘ ‘Your throne shall be established forever. ‘ In accordance with all these words, in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. The word of the Lord. ‘Expansion, God. ‘ I didn’t sit down. I think when we’re young, we have lots of dreams. We have great dreams. I think back to my time when I was a young buck, my friends and I, we would dream about all the things that we would do for God. We wanted to start a Christian community house. We started a couple of community houses. We started citywide gatherings of youth, theology clubs, started church planting, community development, neighborhood evangelism, started working on a Christian magazine. A couple of us wrote books, started Retreat Center, all these great things for God. I remember one of my best friends’ email, it used to be Seeking Goliath.
You could say that almost epitomized our group. Seeking Goliath. We were eager to do great things for God. Where’s Goliath? Let’s hunt him down. I look back and I wince a little bit. My youthful pride. Good things, good ideas, zeal for God. But there was a lot more talk about all the things that we were going to do for God and not so much about the great things that God does and he’s done for us. I think that’s mankind’s our natural impulse. We all tend to put the focus on what we’ll do for God. Good things, but things often done in our own vision, our own strength, our own will. It’s religiosity. I love this passage because God straightens out David’s youthful zeal. I can just imagine King David sitting with Prophet Nathan and maybe they’re dreaming together one evening and he asked the Prophet Nathan, he said, What’s next? I’ve been I’ve won our war. I’ve conquered our enemies. I’ve united the kingdom. I’m the king. I’ve moved the capital to Jerusalem. I’ve built the palace. What’s next? Temple for God. If you’re a great leader in the ancient world, that’s what you do.
You build a temple for your God. And the Grand Temple, it’s like a thank you for the success you’ve given me. And hint, hint, nudge, nudge, please give me continued success and establish my kingdom. That’s mankind’s default approach for God. That’s the ancient approach to the gods. We’ll do great things for you. And then your job, God, is to bless us and do great things for us. That’s the religious approach to God. You can almost put it in a formula. And I think we operate with this equation. Even those that don’t like math probably have an equation in their heads sometimes. It’s like A plus B equals C. Honor God, do great things. If you do those, that equals his blessing on our life. And you can see that equation operating sometimes when it gets disrupted. What happens when the blessing doesn’t come? When we go through something hard in your life and you think, well, I honored God. I did great things. God, you’re supposed to bring blessing now. Why are you failing me? And that’s our default way of relating to God. And if we don’t get it, then sometimes we struggle with bitterness, depression, maybe a low-grade anger and a rejection towards God.
King David has an incredible life. At a young age, he has done incredible things for God. When his brothers go off to war, he stays home and he runs the family business. He’s out the sheep. He runs the family ranch and he does heroic deeds. He’s out with the sheep alone and he protects them and he kills a bear and a lion. He kills those on his own. That’s heroic deeds. And as he’s with the sheep, his brothers are out at war against the Philistines, and they’re encamped in the battle. And his father sends him to take food for the army. And he comes to the army, and they’re all standing there, and there’s this giant Goliath that’s taunting You guys are nobodies. Your God is a nobody. And he burns with zeal. He said, How can we let this go on? Somebody has to do something for God. And so he begs Saul to be able to fight Goliath. And he takes a handful of stones and he slews a giant. Amazing. In case that’s not enough, he’s also a gifted musician. It’s not just a fighter. He’s a musician, too. Like all the women love David.
He’s a singer. Saul chooses him to be his minstral. He’s the only one when he sings and he plays that it calms Psalm’s agitated soul. In addition to singing, he becomes a military commander, repeatedly defeats the Philistines and Israel’s enemies. So much so that the women are singing, Saul has killed his thousands, but David has tens of thousands. And he is anointed to be the next king. Even though the kingdom is promised to him, he refuses to put his hand out against Saul. Even when Saul tries repeatedly to kill him, he refuses and he has opportunities to strike back and take his life. And he ends up leading an outlaw band of rebels, his mighty men and they continue to do mighty deeds in Israel in defeating all of their enemies. When Saul does finally die and David inherits the kingdom, it’s a broken kingdom, and he has to fight, and he has to unite the kingdom back together. And he moves the capital to Jerusalem. He builds it up, his might and skill and wisdom. He builds a palace. His enemies are defeated. He is ready for the next step, building a temple. It’s no wonder that the prophet Nathan says to him, verse 3, Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.
God is clearly with him. Everything that David has touched has turned to gold. But that night, the word of the Lord comes back to Nathan. He says, No. Stop. It’s not you. It’s me. And those aren’t a break-up line. It’s actually a deeper commitment of God that he’s going to take this to another level. It’s like, You are not going to build a temple and a house for me. I’m going to build a house for you. So this isn’t the way it works. You don’t do great things for me and then ask for my blessing. No, I do great things for you. So God is the one who will build David’s house. That’s the nature of our faith. It’s not about the things that we do for God. It’s the things that God does for us. God does great things for us. I love how God refrains David’s mind and his thinking. In the process, he reveals his own character. First, God shows us his character. Verse 5, it says, Thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? I’ve not lived in a house since the day I brought you up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day.
But I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling in all the places where I have moved with all the people of Israel. In fact, God says, I’ve never asked for a house. Why do you want to build me a house? It’s because he’s Yahwey. He’s their covenant God. He’s the God who lives and moves with his people. God moves about in a tent with his people. The words are revealing. It says, I have not lived in a house. The word lived, it’s literally sat. I haven’t sat in a house while my people are wandering about. But I’ve been moving about in a tent. Again, the word moving is literally walking about. God has not sat down while his people are wandering and walking. He walks and lives with them. Last week, I was listening to history podcast, and he was going over an ancient military leader, one of the greatest in history, Hannibal. And you might not be familiar with Hannibal, but he’s the one who led an army from Spain over the Alps in the snow into Italy. So it was huge. Thousands and thousands of troops over the Alps in the snow.
He took elephants. So amazing. He came that close to conquering Rome. One of history’s His greatest military leaders. And it stood out to me that his soldiers loved him. They loved him because he did not sit and live apart in a fancy tent with his commanders and live separate from the army. He lived with them. He used a fur cloak that he rolled up and slept on the ground next to his soldiers at night. He went to the front of the battle with his soldiers. When they had spoil, he shared it all with his soldiers. Hannibal’s men loved him because he lived and moved with them. And similar with Yahweh, he’s saying, I’m not going to go sit in a fancy house when my people are at war and fighting. I’m going to make sure that they’re at rest. And then you can build me a house. Incredible. What a God that moves and lives with his people and wants to see them secured and settled first. So he is the God who roughs it with his people. He’s also the God who does great things for them. And he reframes David’s life. Look at all the things that God does for David.
If you have a pen, I would encourage you in your bulletin there, maybe take it out and underline all the things that God does for David. Verse one, The Lord gave him, that’s David, rest from all of his enemies. The Lord speaks to Nathan to bring his word to David. The Lord moves with his people. In verses 8 through 10, it says, Thus the Lord says, the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture from following the sheep that you should be prince over my people, Israel, I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make for you a great name, like of the great ones of the earth. I will appoint a place for my people Israel, will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And the Lord goes on. He will give David rest, make David a house, raise up his offspring after him, establish his kingdom and eternal throne. It’s a long list. Now, I’m sure that David could look back over his own life and he could go, Man, look at all the things that I’ve done.
It’s a blessed life. All the people I’ve defeated, all the amazing stories. It’s so easy to let pride make our head big, right? Start thinking that we’re the ones doing that. But God reframes it. Who’s the one who’s really been at work here? God has been doing this in David’s life all along. It’s been God. God took this puny shepherd boy and made him king over Israel. He’s the one fighting all along. He is the one who’s going to make David’s name great. So David has been a faithful servant. But yeah, let’s not get it twisted. God is the one working. We think that we do lots of things and great things for God. Maybe it’s like I’ve dedicated my life to God from my youth. I’ve sought to memorize scripture and hide it in my heart. I’ve been careful with my eyes. I’ve evangelized my friends. I’ve gone on missions trips and sought and regularly tithed and prayed every day and read my Bible and more and more and more. And those are all great things, and we should do those things. They’re worthless. If we can think that that’s going to make us higher standing or more merit with God, if we think we’re going to earn God’s grace somehow.
God does the work. We celebrate his work and we respond in gratitude. The religious approach to God is I do good things in order to be blessed Just and accepted. Exactly backwards. God does great things for us, and we respond to his grace and gratitude, and we want to serve him. Like Pastor Lloyd preached last week, the story in Exodus, the story of redemption, it comes before the giving of the law. And that order is critical. God always acts first. He redeems first. We respond with our lives that follow him. That’s the order of the gospel. God redeems in response. Gratitude, we serve him. So God says, you’re not going to build me a house. I’m going to build your house. And there’s a play on the word house here. House, it can mean a physical building, four walls and a roof. And that’s what David means. He wants to build a physical temple for God. But house can also mean a family. And when used with a king, it can refer to his dynasty, like his royal line, his royal dynasty. And that’s what the Lord means. So instead of building a physical temple, the Lord is going to build David’s royal line, his lineage, his kingdom.
The Lord will make you a house. Verse 12, When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your father’s, I will raise up your offspring after you. She’ll come from your body and will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name. I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I ‘I will be to him a father. He shall be to me a son. ‘ So God promises that he will establish the throne of David’s offspring forever. Verse 13, it says, He shall build a house for my name. ‘ And so it’s natural to wonder to whom is this referring? Because we know that David’s son, King Solomon, he does build a house. He builds a temple for God. And so that’s a fulfillment of this passage. But there’s more to this promise. It doesn’t fulfill all of it. David’s son, Solomon, he’s a great king, but he wanders from God. He turns after other idol and other gods. And then his son, Rehoboam, is even worse. And as soon as Solomon dies, Rehoboam loses most of the kingdom. This united kingdom only lasts for a short while decades. So God is promising more than just Solomon.
He’s promising more than Rehoboam. This is an everlasting kingdom. Verse 14, it says, I will be to him a father. 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. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. So unlike Saul, even if David’s offspring, even if the kings that come after him are faithless, and they will be, this promise will stand. This covenant is secure. He says, My steadfast love will not depart from him. Steadfast love, that’s the word hesed. Maybe you’ve heard that. It could also be translated God’s covenant faithfulness. It’s his loving faithfulness to his people, his commitment, Yahweh’s commitment that I will be your forever God and you will be my forever people. This passage verse 2 Samuel 7 was referred to as the Davidic Covenant. So you ladies out there who are going through the Bible study, think you’re covering this as well. Verse 16 summarizes the Davidic Covenant. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.
Your throne shall be established forever. God knows that David’s line is going to be faithless. There’s good kings and there’s bad kings. And you read through the rest of Samuel and first and second Kings, and that’s what you see. Good king, bad king, good king, bad king, bad king, good king, bad king, bad king. It won’t break it. One commentator, Ralph Davis, he calls the covenant indefectible. It’s like indestructible, but it’s indefectible because death cannot annul it, sin cannot destroy it, and time will not exhaust it. So death Life, sin, time, they will not destroy this covenant. God is secure, and he promises, he covenants, and it stands on his promise. Even looking at David, Israel’s greatest king, maybe one of the greatest human kings of all time, he’s messed up. Just a couple of chapters later, we’ve accounted how David has done all these amazing things, but A couple of chapters later, he decides not to go out to war with his army, but he stays back in his palace sitting on his couch, and he lusts after a woman, Bathsheba, and he commits adultery. To try to cover up his adultery military, he has her husband, Uriah the Hittite, killed.
He says he orders his generals, When Uriah, when the battle is fierce, he’s put Uriah up by the walls, and then when it’s the heat of the battle, pull back. I just imagine him and whoever’s with him is left there to die. He has Uriah killed, wicked. David’s wife, Michal despises him. One of his wives. He has a harem, which is not a good thing in scripture. That’s not a faithful thing. David’s own son, Absalom, tries to take over the kingdom and kill him. You can say that David is a bad husband, a bad father. It’s a reminder that David is not the hero of these stories. He does great things. He does wicked things, too. The beauty of the story is that God is the faithful one. He eternally binds himself. He knows that we cannot uphold this covenant. And so he binds himself, and he will provide a king, a son who can. About a thousand years after this, he does provide a king. God raised up a son of David. That’s where the New Testament starts. The very first sentence in the New Testament, Matthew 1: 1, identifies Jesus in his genealogy as the son of David.
That is a king in the line of David. And in his ministry, Jesus himself would claim to fulfill these promises. There’s all kinds of fulfillments of these promises, this passage in the New Testament. But he claimed that he would be both an eternal throne, he would have an eternal throne, and an imperishable kingdom. Matthew 19, Jesus says, In the new world, the Son of Man will sit on a glorious throne, and everyone who follows him will inherit eternal life. So he promises that he is the King with an eternal throne, an imperishable kingdom. But the strange thing about Jesus’s kingdom is that it goes a strange path. It goes through the way of the cross. The glorious throne that Jesus talks about, it sits on the far side of the cross. I think Sometimes we want to short circuit that path. Would it be so great if we could just get the glory now if the cross didn’t have to be there? But that’s not God’s path. It’s the way of the cross. He calls us to take up our crosses and follow him. God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. His glory shines through the cross.
I think so often we want to cover up our sins or our flaws and our weaknesses. We want to hide them. They just grow when we do that. The Bible is very clear. It doesn’t go to David cover up all of his sins and flaws. Unlike every other book in the ancient world, it puts them out front and center. It says, yeah, David was messed up, too. He was desperately in need of grace and redemption just like all the rest of us. Sometimes I think we want to cover up our failings, our weakness, hide. Those are the very places that God is working redemption, transformation. That’s where his glory is displayed when he takes that and saves us and then transforms us. It displays his amazing glory, what he does for us, what he does in us and through us. His glory is displayed through our weakness. King David is not the hero of this story. Neither are we. We need a better king, a perfect king, a forever king, a King Jesus. And that is who God said. Let’s pray. Father, we just thank you and we praise you that you did send your son to do what we cannot do.
We have failed. Mankind has failed for century on century and millennia and millennia. But you do not. Your word is sure, your promises are sure, your covenants are sure things. And you sent your son to redeem us to do what we could die for us. And so we praise you and we cling to you alone for all of our hope and life. In Jesus name, Amen.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.