Sometimes people have ideas that just don’t work out. In the Army we decided that those folks had been inspired by “the Good Idea Fairy.” The Good Idea Fairy often had “great ideas” that caused a lot of work for people and a lot of drama but then turned out not to be great ideas after all. Those inspired by the Good Idea Fairy have the best of intentions, but their ideas just don’t work out as planned, like the story about the Boy Scout.
This young Scout was walking down the street one day when he saw an elderly lady standing at the corner of an intersection. Seeing an opportunity to do his good deed for the day, he waited with her there until the traffic light changed, grabbed her elbow, and then helped her across the street. When they got there, she started hitting him with her umbrella. Fending off her blows he asked her, “Why are you hitting me?” She replied, “I was just waiting for the bus!
In our main text for today, we will see David being inspired by the Good Idea Fairy, and we will also see God setting him straight. God did not hit David with an umbrella, but He did give him clear guidance, guidance which applies to us also. Let’s read 2 Samuel 7:1-6.
When the king had settled into his palace and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “Look, I am living in a cedar house while the ark of God sits inside tent curtains.” So Nathan told the king, “Go and do all that is on your heart, for the Lord is with you.” But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: “Go to My servant David and say, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you to build a house for Me to live in? From the time I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today I have not lived in a house; instead, I have been moving around with a tent as My dwelling.
God Does Not Need a House:
We have to give David some credit here, because his intentions were good. On the other hand, we can see two clear mistakes being made here.
First, David fell prey to mirror-image thinking. Mirror image thinking in national intelligence and spying involves the tendency to perceive the intentions and actions of others based on one's own cultural or experiential biases. This can lead to misinterpretations and false biases, which were on full display when American leaders misjudged the capabilities of the Japanese fleet before its attack on Pearl Harbor. In counseling, this tendency is called projection, in which people ascribe to others what they, themselves, are feeling or thinking.
David was thinking like a person. People need shelter from the elements and to be safe from robbery, theft, and physical assault. People also want attractive, comfortable shelter. People also view their shelters as status symbols, which has given rise to the Mc Mansion phenomena in some fast-growing cities in the USA. Because he failed to think like God, he decided that what was right for David, was right for God. Well, not really.
David wanted to bless God, but he forgot that God Is above the physical. He created our world; He could build His own temple if He wanted one. He did just fine for 40 years in the desert, and many years after. He really doesn't need our help to make Him comfortable.
The second mistake that was made here was on the part of Nathan. In his role as prophet, Nathan was to stand between God and man. He was a channel of communication, taking the concerns of the people to God and bringing God’s Word back to the people. The mistake he made was that he didn’t do either, He got ahead of God and assumed that he knew things that he didn’t know. If anyone should have been hit with an umbrella during this event, it should have been Nathan.
God is gracious, however. He interrupted Nathan’s rest with a clear message, and to his credit, Nathan, beginning in verse 17, told David exactly what God had told him.
So, what can we take away from these verses? First, it is a good thing to want to bless God, however, we must not project our human reasoning and human needs and desires onto Him. Next, we must not get ahead of God and ask Him to bless our human ideas. Last, we need to ground ourselves in God's word and let that guide us!
Next, let’s review verses 7-9:
In all My journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever asked anyone among the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel: ‘Why haven’t you built Me a house of cedar?’ Now this is what you are to say to My servant David: ‘This is what the Lord of Hosts says: I took you from the pasture and from following the sheep to be ruler over My people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you. I will make a name for you like that of the greatest in the land.
God Does Not Want a House:
Our God is an intentional God. When we use the phrase plan of salvation when we speak of the Gospel, we imply the truth that our God is intentional and that He does plan. We see that throughout the Bible, including in the parable about the man who built his house on the sand, as well as in the parable about the man who didn’t count the cost and could not complete his house. That trait of God is also reflected in Paul’s admonition to the church in Corinth that they should do things “decently and in order.”
Because God is an intentional God, He does not hold onto things that are not a part of His plan. Many of us are pack rats. We save everything, regardless of how useful those things are. Others of us never save anything. It is almost impossible for people to find that balance.
One example of this occurred when I led an association of Baptist churches in south Alabama. The leadership of one of our churches decided that they would no longer have a choir, and they also decided to dispose of a van load of sheet music. They called our office manager who told them that they could bring the music to us, and we’d find churches that wanted to use it. And so they brought us dozens of boxes of materials.
Soon we had a pile of boxes full of sheet music in our meeting room. It turned out that not only did the original church not want the sheet music, but no one else did either! After several months with no interest from churches, we finally had to take that van load of boxes to the dump ourselves. We never should have taken possession of that sheet music, but it seemed a good idea at the time, at least to our office manager. I think that the Good Idea Fairy may have paid him a visit!
Since God does not need a building, He saw no need to encumber Himself with one, because He knew things about buildings that humans often overlook. Things like:
- Once you own them you discover that they own you.
- They tend to become a focus of activity and emphasis.
- It is easier to change walls than to change people.
- A y’all come attitude can prevail.
Ancient peoples believed in territorial gods. The god of the land was not the same as the god of the ocean. The god of one country is not the god of another. The god of the highlands is not the god of the coastlands. That is not the way it is with the Lord God Yahweh. Not only does He not need a house, He also can’t be contained in a house.
I have worshipped God in many different places, from using the tailgate of a truck as an altar, to holding a prayer meeting in a stair well, to worshipping in Haiti in an open-air church, to preaching in two different Church of England churches in the UK. In all those places, and in infinitely more places than that, God was there.
This is why my wife and I are not afraid to go where God has called us. He has led us many places, and what we have always found when we arrived at that new place is that God was already there.
So, what can we take away from these verses? We know that buildings are useful, and God does not prohibit them in this passage. He simply wants us to have the right attitude about them!
Next, let’s see the rest of God’s message to David, which is in verses 10-17.
“I will establish a place for My people Israel and plant them, so that they may live there and not be disturbed again. Evildoers will not afflict them as they have done ever since the day I ordered judges to be over My people Israel. I will give you rest from all your enemies. ‘The Lord declares to you: The Lord Himself will make a house for you. When your time comes and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to Me. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a human rod and with blows from others. But My faithful love will never leave him as I removed it from Saul; I removed him from your way. Your house and kingdom will endure before Me forever, and your throne will be established forever.” Nathan spoke all these words and this entire vision to David.
God Wanted to Make David a House:
We have seen that God didn’t need a house. We have also seen that God didn’t want a house. In fact, God wanted to make David a house!
Have you ever heard the saying, “If a deal is too good to be true, it isn’t”? A corollary to that in the 21st Century is the saying about free on-line services, “If something on the internet is free, then you are the product.” This is because these free on-line services sell your customer data. If all of that sounds cynical, it is also true, with one exception: the covenants made by God with His people.
God’s focus is on the relationship between His people and Himself. To cement this relationship, God has created covenants with us beginning with His promise never to flood the world again, continuing with His covenant with Abraham, and extending through this covenant with David.
These covenants were designed to be a mutually blessing relationship, although, to be honest, God is the one who does most of the blessing, because what thrills God is to bless His people. Sadly, we have never fulfilled our part of those covenants.
Psalm 78:10 says,
They did not keep God’s covenant and refused to live by His law.
God’s response to this failure by His people was to double down on His commitment to us. Jeremiah 33:31-34 tells us,
“Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”
God has blessed us physically, simply by creating the world and letting us live here and enjoy it. His best blessings, however, are spiritual. David already had a physical house. It was spacious and beautiful. He didn’t need another. What Daivid needed was a spiritual house, and God was going to give him one!
So, what can we learn from these verses?
- Buildings are tools, not ends.
- Buildings don't bless, but what goes on inside them should bless.
- God wants us to focus on spiritually blessing His people.
- It is harder to change people than walls, but that is our mandate!
- We should thank God for His physical blessings, and we should commit ourselves to bless Him by how we use them.
Next. Let’s turn to Psalm 89:3-4 and 19-29,
The Lord said, “I have made a covenant with My chosen one; I have sworn an oath to David My servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever and build up your throne for all generations.’” Selah . . . You once spoke in a vision to Your loyal ones and said: “I have granted help to a warrior; I have exalted one chosen from the people. I have found David My servant; I have anointed him with My sacred oil. My hand will always be with him, and My arm will strengthen him. The enemy will not afflict him; no wicked man will oppress him. I will crush his foes before him and strike those who hate him. My faithfulness and love will be with him, and through My name his horn will be exalted. I will extend his power to the sea and his right hand to the rivers. He will call to Me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the rock of my salvation.’ I will also make him My firstborn, greatest of the kings of the earth. I will always preserve My faithful love for him, and My covenant with him will endure. I will establish his line forever, his throne as long as heaven lasts.
God Made David a House:
When we talk about a royal household, the most important issue is to have an heir. That’s why King Henry VIII had six wives. Without a prince or princess to follow in the king’s footsteps, chaos would occur. And, because child mortality has been high among royal households, the goal for a king is to have “an heir and a spare.”
We know David had physical children, and that Solomon became king after him. But God was speaking of a spiritual household, so who might that person be? Jesus of course. He was the Son of the Covenant that came to sit on the throne of the House of David forever.
Remember what Isaiah said about David's line in Isaiah 9:6-7,
For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.
God, in His zeal to bless His people, committed Himself to fulfilling His promises to them. He did this with clear-eyed determination.
God knew what it would cost Him to establish His Son on David’s throne. It cost Him everything, yet He did it anyway, because we were so important to Him. Psalm 15 says that the blameless person is the one who keeps an oath, even when it hurts, and it grievously hurt God for His Son to take upon Him the sins of the world.
Jesus told the parable of a man who found a priceless pearl in a field. He went and sold all that he had to purchase that field so that he could have that pearl. This is what God did when He sent Jesus to us. We are priceless to Him and He paid everything to keep His promise to us.
Conclusion:
So, what have we learned today from these verses?
First, no one can out-give God.
Second, God has everything that He needs or wants, except the hearts of people.
Third, God will do anything it takes to save us from our sins and restore us to full fellowship with Him.
Also, we learned that God always keeps His promises, even when we don’t!
Finally, God deserves all the love, obedience, and praise that we give to Him, and more!
Every blessing,
Dr. Otis Corbtt
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