Scripture Daily

Context No. 4191 of 4322 · 2 Samuel

Context · Reflection

2 Samuel 7:1-16: in context

1When the king lived in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies all around, 2the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but God’s ark dwells within curtains.” 3Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.” 4That same night, the LORD’s word came to Nathan, saying, 5“Go and tell my servant David, ‘The LORD says, “Should you build me a house for me to dwell in? 6For I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt, even to this day, but have moved around in a tent and in a tabernacle. 7In all places in which I have walked with all the children of Israel, did I say a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel whom I commanded to be shepherd of my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”’ 8Now therefore tell my servant David this: ‘The LORD of Armies says, “I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people, over Israel. 9I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. I will make you a great name, like the name of the great ones who are on the earth. 10I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be moved no more. The children of wickedness will not afflict them any more, as at the first, 11and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I will cause you to rest from all your enemies. Moreover the LORD tells you that the LORD will make you a house. 12When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men; 15but my loving kindness will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. 16Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever.”’”

Now settled in his own house of cedar, King David is troubled by a thought: he lives in a fine palace while the ark of God dwells in a tent. He resolves to build God a house, a temple worthy of him. But God sends a surprising reply through Nathan. You will not build me a house, God says in effect; instead, I will build you a house.

The reversal is striking. David wanted to do something great for God, and God, rather than accepting the offer, promises to do something far greater for David. He recounts how he took David from following sheep and made him a prince, and he promises to establish David's kingdom, to raise up his offspring, and to secure his throne forever. I will be his father, God says, and he will be my son. It is a covenant of pure grace: God gives more than David ever thought to offer him. And this promise of an everlasting throne reaches beyond Solomon to Christ, the Son of David whose kingdom has no end.

We come wanting to do something for God, and often find that his response is to do something greater for us. We cannot outgive God; whatever we offer him, his grace toward us exceeds it.

When I set out to do something for God, do I recognize that I can never outgive him, that his grace toward me always exceeds whatever I offer, as he promised to build David an everlasting house in response to David's wish to build him one?

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