2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
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.” And 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 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. 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?”’ 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 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.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, 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.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, December 24, comes from Second Samuel chapter seven, verses one through 11 and verse 16. Now when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him restroom, all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, see now, I dwell in the house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. And 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 dwelling? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel, Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. 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? 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 had been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies, but from before you, and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them. So they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more has 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 and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever. Here ends the reading. So the beginning of this reading marks the end of time of warfare for David, David had built himself a home in Jerusalem, the enemies that he had been fighting constantly, his whole life, the Philistines, and all the others, were finally done. And the king looks around and he says, Now is the time to build God a temple. So David says to Nathan, see, now I dwell on a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. So David is seemingly with with good intention, and with good heart, he wants to build God a temple. Now, some of this could have been to honor God and offer him, you know, the beauty and worthy building that he deserves. But another part might simply be that David is trying to establish in his city, the presence of God, Jerusalem was almost a neutral city for David because no Israelites had it. So he conquers it, he makes it his capital, and then he wants to plant God there firmly and squarely so that he will not move. So this could be a way for David to say, I am establishing my kingdom in my capital city, and God is here to he's not going to move away. So I think there's probably a mix of those two things. So Nathan thinks it's a great idea. Go for it, you can do it. But while he's sleeping, God comes to him and gives him a different word. He says, would you build me a house to dwelling? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day. But I had been moving about in a tent from my dwelling. So God is pointing back to what happened with Moses, they came out of Egypt, God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle. This tabernacle had been the place where the Ark of the Covenant dwelt, for all of those years, they wandered through the wilderness, they carried the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle, through the conquest through the judges through all of this time, all the way up through Samuel, Saul, and now, David. And nowhere did God say, Hey, why have you not built me a house? Why have you not built me a permanent temple? God kind of liked the idea of having a tabernacle. It moved with the people. Now this was especially important when the people were moving themselves wandering through the wilderness, but it all Also it was kind of cool that God would move around in Israel that he could be in any place that there or he could go to the north or to the south, even though it doesn't sound like he was often moving around. It's kind of God is in the midst of his people. So he cites some of the things that he did not tell the judges to build him a house, and he did not tell anyone to do it. And so God turns around, and says this to David, instead, he says, I took you from the pasture from following the sheep, that you should be Prince over my people. And I have been with you that you should be Prince over my people of Israel, and I have been with you, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make your you a great name like the great ones of the earth. So he says, this is sort of a, a piece of the political puzzle here, like David might have wanted to establish this temple in his capital city, to establish his name and his house and his people. And God says, no, no, no, no, you don't have to do that. You don't have to build me a house to establish your name. I have already done it, look at this, I took you from the sheep, I made you a great warrior, I made you king. And now you are the shepherd over all of my people, and I will take care of you. And even better that through you, I will take care of all of Israel. He says, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formally. And then he goes, for an the last, moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house and your house in your kingdom shall be sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever. So some of this is David saying, I'm going to do something for you, God, some of this is I want to establish my position in Israel by setting up the temple in my capital city, and God goes, and he knocks down both of them. First is God is the one who establishes David. And he does it not by building a temple, but by protecting him and being with him. And the second is, he goes, Wait a second, you think that you're going to do something for me? Oh, no, no, you won't build a house for me, I will build a house for you. And that's really the heart of who God is, is that God doesn't really need anything from us. He doesn't need David to build them a house of theater, he doesn't care about having a temple or a palace or a giant church, or whatever. He isn't into those things like we are. Our buildings are for us. Like we build nice churches to remind us about God, not because God cares whether we He has nice churches or not. What God cares about is what he gives to us. And so he turns to David and says, I will establish a house for you. And your throne in your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever. This promise goes to David, that one of his children will be on the throne of the kingdom of Israel forever. Now, this seems like exaggeration. How could it be possible that someone would be on there forever, it just might means a really long time or in perpetuity. And that was true. All the way up until we get to Jesus, who is of the house of David, and is actually now on the throne of God's kingdom forever. He rules over all of us. And so David thought he was gonna build this neat little house made out of cedar, it's gonna be really pretty, and do something for God. But instead what God does is He does something for David, and through David. He protects the whole world by sending His Son Jesus to give us eternal life and a king that is on the throne forever. That's it for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai