1 & 2 Samuel: A House for God?!
As humans we love to build stuff. We especially love to build grand and impressive things. For example…
-The Horseshoe Hotel, China
335 feet/27 stories
The lobby ceiling of this hotel is covered in 20,000 crystal lamps!
-The Turning Torso, Sweden
623 feet/54 stories
The top floor of this building is twisted a complete 90 degree turn from the ground floor.
-PPG Place, Pittsburgh
635 feet/40 stories
There are nearly 20,000 individual panes of glass in this building.
-The Shard, London
1016 feet/95 stories
Fun fact – it has 44 elevators.
-The Burj Khalifa, Dubai
2722 feet/163 stories
This building is the tallest in the whole world – nearly three times as tall as the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
This is just a small sample of the grand things that we love to build.
In our reading from Samuel today we hear about King David’s grand designs and his desire to build something for God. But it turns out that God had some grand designs for him instead.
We are currently reading through 1 & 2 Samuel together. Throughout the series we have heard of David’s rise to becoming the king of Israel. He has fought many battles and set up the heart of his kingdom in Jerusalem, and in today’s reading we hear that “the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies.”
Setting the scene (v1-3) – The place and the problem
Chapter 7 of Samuel paints a picture of David fairly late in his reign as king. The story doesn’t always follow chronologically and here we see David settled and the kingdom of Israel well established.
The story opens with David sharing his building plans with Nathan.
It seems that David feels conflicted about living in a house while the ark of the covenant dwells in a tent. David’s house is made of cedar, a wood known for its value, durability, and luxury.
To David it doesn’t seem fitting that he should dwell in a lush house while the ark which symbolizes God’s presence sits in a tent.
David’s thoughts however don’t just come out of the blue. In the Ancient Near East, it was common for kings before David’s time and in David’s time to build temples and to enhance and beautify them in order to honour their gods and seek divine blessing. Though the word temple is not mentioned in this reading, the implication is that David seeks to build a house for God.
We have to be clear eyed in our reading of this passage and our thoughts about David’s motives.
Like every other human it is likely that David is a mixed bag. For all of us, mixed motives and complexity is the normal space in which we make decisions.
It’s likely here that David’s desire to build a house for God is also mixed.
The Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann sees in this passage what he calls a mix of piety and self-serving legitimation.
David has a heart to worship God – we see this right throughout his story.
As well as this, he is the king of Israel, and to legitimize his reign and rule amongst the nations, building a house or temple for his God would be seen as a wise political move.
And so, David ponders building a house.
Here is where the prophet Nathan enters onto the stage of the story.
This is where we meet him. He becomes the most significant prophetic voice in the story since Samuel.
At first, he hears David’s idea, and he says to the King – go for it, God is with you.
This is surprising given that the role of the prophet isn’t really this at all. The prophet isn’t to be a yes man to God’s king, but rather the prophet’s function throughout Scripture as those courageous people who speak truth to power, reminding the leaders of Israel who God is and what God has done.
So, it’s no surprise that when Nathan gets some quiet time that evening, God speaks to him and gives him a message for David.
God’s word to David – You would build me a house? (4-7)
God comes back to David via Nathan with a challenging question: “Would you build me a house to dwell in?”
God really has to clear up some of David’s misconceptions and remind him of the kind of God he is.
For a start, God will not be contained.
We might wonder if David’s desire to build a temple could be seen as a move for control. Perhaps it was driven by a fear that the presence of God might depart from the people?
After all, God had done mighty things for David, who is to say he will continue to do so?
I think many of us can resonate with David on this one. When God has done something wonderful we want to capture that moment. We want to hold on to it and if we can capture it somehow. It makes me think of Peter’s impulse when Jesus stands on the mountain at the transfiguration. Jesus’ glory is revealed for a moment and he stands with Moses and Elijah in this holy and incredible moment. Peter’s first impulse is to build some dwellings to capture the moment. Perhaps it’s a natural human impulse after all.
But in the story of Samuel we see that God will not be captured or contained. We see in this story the absolute freedom of God.
As Walter Brueggemann puts it:
“This is a God who will not be held in place by any religious arrangement. “Cedar” is a commodity kings like and value (vv. 2, 7; cf. 5:11; Jer. 22:14–15). The plushness of the proposed temple contradicts Yahweh’s self-understanding. Yahweh will not be bought off, controlled, or domesticated by such luxury. Yahweh has been a free God and will continue to be.”[1]
A tent is the opposite of a temple or house. It can be moved regularly. The tent is the symbolic way God has chosen to dwell and travel with his people. The image is more like freedom camping than a luxury hotel. God is on the move with his people.
Is David’s desire to build a house for God wrong? Maybe. We can’t really know his motives. What we can see is that God wants to make it clear that he won’t be manipulated.
Later in the story, there will be a temple. And in lots of ways, given 2 Samuel 7, that is surprising.
In the same way that God works through the kings of Israel, even when He is against the idea in the first place, God will also work through the temple and the worship associated with it.
God is gracious and committed to his people and works amid the messy reality of human history and decisions.
God will build David a house – (8-11)
After reminding David of His freedom and sovereignty, God then shows David how he has been with him throughout his entire life. God has journeyed with David and blessed him and the people.
David has it the wrong way around – God is the one who will build the house for David.
There is a word play, a kind of pun in the Hebrew word for house that we find in this passage. The word is used 15 times in 2 Samuel 7. It has three different meanings.
1) It is used to describe David’s palace.
2) It is used to describe the temple that David wishes to build
3) And it is also used to refer to David’s dynasty.
The word house can mean both a house made of bricks and mortar and a house made of people.
God reverses roles with David. Even though David wants to build God a house of bricks and mortar, God flips the table and tells David that He will build him a house out of people. He will give David a legacy and the people a hopeful future.
God’s promise (8-14)
2 Samuel 7 is crucial to the whole story of Scripture. Many biblical scholars see this passage as central to Old Testament Theology. This passage speaks of the promises of God to his people.
God promises that he will give David:
-A name (v9)
-A place (10)
-Rest (11)
Each of these promises are linked to the story of God journeying with his people up to this point.
First, God promises to Make David’s name great.
In Genesis 12 God makes promises that he will make Abraham’s name great and that he will bless him.
Secondly, God promises to give David a place.
This is reminiscent of the promise made to Moses and to the Israelites as they were led out of slavery and into the promised land that God had prepare for them.
Thirdly, God has promised David rest.
Rest is promised to God’s people in the book of Deuteronomy. In chapter 12 we hear about the rest God will give his people from their enemies when they enter the land God has prepared for them.
If we look closely at the promises of God here we can see that many of them at first glance seem fulfilled.
David’s name is great – God has raised him as a leader and he is established as the finest and most successful king.
David and the people have a place to dwell in peace. They are settled and prosperous.
And verse 1 of chapter 7 tells us that God had given David rest from his enemies.
Yet, we see that God wants to show David that there is so much more.
As the Apostle Paul puts it in Ephesians “God will do far more abundantly than all we ask or think.”
The promise is partially fulfilled yet God’s words hold out a more hopeful future yet.
Verses 12 -14 says:
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
This passage refers to the house that God will build for David. It speaks of God’s ultimate promise to establish his kingdom upon the earth and set the world right.
Again, this passage has an immediate setting in that some of these promises are understood as applying to Solomon, David’s son. And yet there is more.
This passage is a crucial passage that setup the expectation within Judaism for a Messiah. The Messiah being the expected king, the one who will establish an eternal kingdom.
These words from verse 12-14 shaped the early Christian understandings of Jesus. He is referred to in the New Testament as the son of David (Matt 1:1, Acts 13:22-23), the builder of God’s house (John 2:19-22), Heb 3:3-4), the possessor of an eternal kingdom (1 Cor 15:24-25, Eph 5:5, Heb 1:8).
2 Samuel points to Jesus. The one in whom all of God’s promise will be fulfilled.
What strikes me as so beautiful and rich in this passage is the way in which we see God’s total commitment to his people. God has made promises that begin with Abraham, and then Moses, and then here to David, that will be fulfilled in Jesus, and then continue in the church as the good news of God’s love goes out to the entire world.
Right throughout the story of the Bible we see that this is true – that God is absolutely committed to the redemption of his people.
There is a Hebrew word, hesed, which refers to this – it is translated as God’s “steadfast love.” It speaks of God’s loyalty, his commitment, his promise.
Does this word shape our understanding of who God is?
Do we see that God is one who is absolutely committed to us in His love?
Do we see God’s faithfulness and goodness?
Is this our image of who God is?
The clearest picture in all of scripture of God’s never ending, never giving up love is expressed on the cross as we see Jesus Christ give his life in order to rescue us and establish his eternal kingdom. As the apostle John puts it: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.” (1 John 3:16)
God’s faithfulness is seen in the promises fulfilled in Jesus.
As we read 2 Samuel today, we see that God is a God who makes promises to his people and who keeps those promises.
We too, see the promises made to us in Jesus Christ.
Some of these promises we see glimpses of now, but many of them are held out before us.
The Bible promises that we will inherit an eternal kingdom that isn’t perishing, one that will not fade away. The Bible promises a good and hopeful future for us.
Some days that is hard to see.
Some days, like David, it might be tempting instead to offer to build our own house – to construct our own kingdoms, and yet, that is not what God calls his people to do.
Reflecting on 2 Samuel 7, the Old Testament scholar John Goldingay says:
“In the Gospels, the only things we do to God’s kingdom are wait for it, see it, enter it, seek it, receive it, inherit it, and declare that it has come. In other words, we don’t have an active relationship to it at all… We don’t like the fact that the gospel is about what God has done for us and not about what we do for God. (Yes, I know, we do have responsibility, and we are challenged to serve God and serve the world and so on, but we will not understand our role—and avoid disillusion—unless we see the point about the way Jesus talks.)”[2]
We are invited, like David into a life of faith, to trust in God’s promises and let them shape our future right now.
To have faith is to trust that God’s promises are good and true, and that God is at work in the world.
In the passage the follows our reading today, we see David respond to the Lord’ promises spoken through the prophet Nathan.
He bursts with praise and with gratitude saying:
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…
… 28 And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant.
May we too burst with gratitude at the promises of God. May we be a people of faith who trust in what God is building amongst us.
After all God continues to build a house for his people in us the church – calling us his temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells.
Let us not seek to build our own meagre dwellings, but rather be a people of faith in the God who has established his house forever in Jesus Christ.
Amen.
[1] Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: 1 & 2 Samuel (accessed on Scribd).
[2] John Goldingay, 1 & 2 Samuel For Everyone.