Scripture Daily

Context No. 1689 of 4322 · 1 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

1 Chronicles 22:1-19: in context

1Then David said, “This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.” 2David gave orders to gather together the foreigners who were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to cut dressed stones to build God’s house. 3David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates and for the couplings, and bronze in abundance without weight, 4and cedar trees without number, for the Sidonians and the people of Tyre brought cedar trees in abundance to David. 5David said, “Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries. I will therefore make preparation for it.” So David prepared abundantly before his death. 6Then he called for Solomon his son, and commanded him to build a house for the LORD, the God of Israel. 7David said to Solomon his son, “As for me, it was in my heart to build a house to the name of the LORD my God. 8But the LORD’s word came to me, saying, ‘You have shed blood abundantly and have made great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. 9Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of peace. I will give him rest from all his enemies all around; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days. 10He shall build a house for my name; and he will be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.’ 11Now, my son, may the LORD be with you and prosper you, and build the house of the LORD your God, as he has spoken concerning you. 12May the LORD give you discretion and understanding, and put you in charge of Israel, so that you may keep the law of the LORD your God. 13Then you will prosper, if you observe to do the statutes and the ordinances which the LORD gave Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid and don’t be dismayed. 14Now, behold, in my affliction I have prepared for the LORD’s house one hundred thousand talents of gold, one million talents of silver, and bronze and iron without weight; for it is in abundance. I have also prepared timber and stone; and you may add to them. 15There are also workmen with you in abundance—cutters and workers of stone and timber, and all kinds of men who are skillful in every kind of work; 16of the gold, the silver, the bronze, and the iron, there is no number. Arise and be doing, and may the LORD be with you.” 17David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying, 18“Isn’t the LORD your God with you? Hasn’t he given you rest on every side? For he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before the LORD and before his people. 19Now set your heart and your soul to follow the LORD your God. Arise therefore, and build the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant and the holy vessels of God into the house that is to be built for the LORD’s name.”

David longed to build the temple, but God told him he would not; because he had shed much blood in war, the house would be built by his son. So David turns his energy to preparation. He gathers stone and iron and bronze and cedar in abundance, sets workmen to the task, and amasses vast stores of gold and silver, all so that his son Solomon, young and inexperienced, might build the house David himself would never see completed. Then he charges Solomon: be strong and courageous, arise and build.

There is something moving in what David does here. He wanted to build the temple himself; it was in his heart. But God said no, that work belonged to another, to the son who would come after him. David could have sulked, or done nothing, since he would not get the credit or see the finished house. Instead he threw himself into preparing for a work he would not himself complete, gathering everything Solomon would need, so that the son could build what the father had only dreamed. He labored wholeheartedly for a work whose completion he would not live to see, content to lay the groundwork for the next generation. This is a grace worth learning. Much of the good we are given to do is like David's preparation: laying foundations, gathering materials, doing the groundwork for a work that others will finish, and that we may not live to see completed. The temptation is to care only for what we ourselves can complete and be credited with, and to lose heart for the labor whose fruit falls to another. But David shows a better way: to give ourselves fully to preparing what the next generation will build, content that the work be done and God be glorified, whether or not our own name is on the finished thing. The one who plants a tree whose shade he will not sit in, who builds a foundation another will raise walls upon, who prepares for a work his children will complete, is doing something like what David did, and it is a good and generous thing. Not everyone is called to finish; some are called to prepare, and to do it wholeheartedly.

Am I willing, like David, to labor wholeheartedly for a work I will not myself complete or see finished, preparing the ground for those who come after me, content that the work be done and God be glorified even if my name is not on it, or do I care only for what I can finish and be credited with?

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