God’s Forever Kingdom
Passage 2 Samuel 7
Speaker Alan Carter
Service Morning
Series David: Following the True King of Israel
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7 After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 he said to Nathan the prophet, ‘Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.’
3 Nathan replied to the king, ‘Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.’
4 But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:
5 ‘Go and tell my servant David, “This is what the Lord says: are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. 7 Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”
8 ‘Now then, tell my servant David, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth. 10 And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people shall not oppress them any more, as they did at the beginning 11 and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.
‘“The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: 12 when your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.”’
17 Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.
18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said:
‘Who am I, Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 19 And as if this were not enough in your sight, Sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant – and this decree, Sovereign Lord, is for a mere human!
20 ‘What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, Sovereign Lord. 21 For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant.
22 ‘How great you are, Sovereign Lord! There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel – the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? 24 You have established your people Israel as your very own for ever, and you, Lord, have become their God.
25 ‘And now, Lord God, keep for ever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, 26 so that your name will be great for ever. Then people will say, “The Lord Almighty is God over Israel!” And the house of your servant David will be established in your sight.
27 ‘Lord Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, “I will build a house for you.” So your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. 29 Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue for ever in your sight; for you, Sovereign Lord, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed for ever.’
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.
Um, our reading this morning is taken from the second book of Samuel, chapter seven, verses one to 17. Book will be found on page 311 of the church Bible.
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 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 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 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. He shall build me a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity. I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the son of men.
But my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words and in accordance with this vision, Nathan spoke to David. This is the word of the Lord.
Good morning, everybody. Before we start. Let's just bow our heads for a moment's prayer. O God, our father, as we come this morning to look at this passage, to understand more of the forever kingdom that you have provided, help us to understand and to apply it to our lives for this week and beyond. In Jesus name, amen.
I guess we've all had experiences where you thought you were going in one direction, but then the door closes in front of you and we get diverted into a different direction. And often it's God leading us to something better. I know it's happened to Jenny and myself on two occasions. Once in Dorset, where we used to live, and once here, where we thought we were going to move into a certain house. But the deal fell through and we ended up going somewhere else, and that somewhere else was better.
We all experience pivotal moments like this in our lives that change the direction. Maybe it's the birth of a new child, a new job, the loss of a loved one, a move somewhere, joining some new group, and so on. Sometimes there are key pivotal moments that affect many people. Think of the moment where Mr. Rolls met Mr.
Rice in May 1904. That was a pivotal moment. And from that first meeting, companies came, and a large corporation that today employs 40,000 people.
Now, bear that in mind. Apart from Jesus, who in the Bible occupies the most space? Well, the answer is our subject, of course, which is David. And for those of you here this morning, perhaps for the first time or visiting, we're in this series studying the life of David. And in particular, the series is called following the true king of Israel.
Last week, you remember, Kav reminded us of the holiness of God and how we should worship him, with today's topic being God's forever kingdom. Now you'll find it helpful to turn back again to our Bible reading on page 311. If you haven't got a Bible and would like one, I'm sure the stewards will be happy to give you one. Just put your hand up and one will come into your hand.
That's good.
Now, this chapter is a pivotal point in the Bible and a pivotal moment in the life of David and in the life of the nation of Israel. And we're going to look at this chapter under three headings. Firstly, a proposal that failed. Secondly, a plan for the future. And thirdly, a promise fulfilled.
And then I'm going to give a short postscript at the end.
There's several covenants or agreements between God that we can read about in the Bible. Different people in Israel, like Abraham, like Noah, and this chapter, as you can see on page three. One one is heading God's covenant with David. That was his agreement with God. So, to our first point, a proposal that failed.
After moving the royal residence to Jerusalem and transporting the Ark of the covenant in this new royal capital, David proposes to build a temple for God. Building the temple was an appropriate and response for the early years of a monarchy in the ancient Middle east. Kings built extravagant residences for deities at the highest points of their royal cities that would reflect their God's splendour and majesty. Now, David's proposal was not completely self promoting, but the suitable action for a new king looking to honour his God. David presumably reasoned that a new social reality for Israel is a unified country, that it would be logical to develop a proposal to create a national temple.
So David approaches Nathan the prophet with his proposal. Now, this is the first mention in the Old Testament of Nathan, about Nathan the prophet. But of course, he appears many times in the life of David, which will cover all sorts of different things that David was involved in. God speaks through Nathan. To David, as we know, God is a surprising God.
And rather than respond with approval to David's proposal to build a temple, God gives a rather sharp reply in verse five. Thus says the Lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? God says that he never had a temple for his entire history with Israel's ancestors from the egyptian captivity and the ensuing exodus. God reminds David that the divine presence is with them, intense. In verse six, in the pasture, verse eight, among their sheep, in verse eight, and in battle, verse nine.
God is not constrained by a building. His presence and his providence have been active for generations without a temple. So God overruled David. David, he's not going to build a temple or a permanent house for the Ark of God. The proposal from David fails.
Notably, David accepts his change of plan in humility and with grace, and does not attempt to protest God's decision. And clearly, these events were a pivotal moment in the life of David and in the life of the nation of Israel. The idea to build a temple was a proposal that failed. God had a much better plan for David and for Israel. So now we come to our second point, a plan for the future.
The hebrew word for house is bait. The same in Simur. In Arabic, think Bethlehem. In Hebrew is Bethlehem, literally meaning house of bread or house of food. In Arabic, bait.
Laham literally means house of meat. And the divine plans for a house are much more extensive than David could ever have imagined. David will not build a temple. Hebrew bait a house for God. Rather, God promises to build a lasting dynasty.
And the lasting dynasty is also that uses the hebrew word bait. So there's a bit of a play on words here with the same hebrew word bait used to mean temple or house on the one hand, and also to mean a lasting dynasty. A modern example is our royal family, of course, who are the house of Windsor. God promises to build a lasting dynasty for David and his descendants. God will give David and the children of Israel long awaited rest from their enemies.
Most significantly, God says to David in verse twelve, 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. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. The temple house, the temple that even exists in part today will be built in due time, but only through David's son Solomon.
But the dynasty house is already built and is established for the ages. And God assures David that this dynasty house will never fail. Verse 15. But my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.
Your throne shall be established forever.
God reminded David that physical houses are not his priority. More than a building, God is a divine being who is faithful to the promise. Your throne shall be established forever. And this promise to David brings hope to future generations.
Interestingly, God's covenant with David has parallels with God's covenant with Abraham, because God promises David that God has chosen him to receive a forever promise.
But how does this promise work out historically? After Solomon's death, in about nine three one bc, the kingdom will split into the northern and southern kingdoms. The northern kingdom, Israel, will come to an end in about 720 BC. When Assyria defeats Israel and deports its people. The southern kingdom, Judah, will come to an end in about 580 with the babylonian exile.
Forever will turn out to not be very long. It seems the promise is only partly delivered. So is that the end of the promise? Let's see. There was a proposal that failed.
There was a plan for the future where the promise is only partially delivered. And that brings us to the third point, a promise fulfilled. And the promise looks beyond the kings of the northern and southern kingdoms and is fulfilled in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Luke tells us, and I'm sure you remember this, that the angel Gabriel declared to Mary while she was pregnant and before the baby Jesus was born and Gabriel declared, and the Lord will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There will be no end.
But what appears on the surface to be a simple promise of a dynasty for David turns out to be something far more significant. This and other promises made by God to David are ultimately fulfilled by Jesus, the son of David the Messiah. And the early church will see this story and the promises made to David as foundational for the new church, the new people of God, the new Israel. The forever promise was fulfilled not in the relatively short time of the kings that followed David and Solomon, but in the birth of Jesus the Messiah. In summary, the promise to David will find its immediate fulfilment through David's son, Solomon, who will build a temple in Jerusalem.
But the more significant fulfilment of this promise will await Jesus, who will build an everlasting house for God. Several references in the New Testament confirm Jesus as king, who will reign over an eternal kingdom. In Luke, we read about Jesus talking to his disciples and I will assign to you, as my father assigned to me, a kingdom so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. In John we read, my kingdom is not of this world in the letter of Peter. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our lord and saviour, Jesus Christ.
So there was the promise that failed, a plan for the future where the promise is only partly realised, and then a promise fulfilled in our lord and saviour, Jesus Christ.
I mentioned a postscript and I find it difficult, and I'm sure you find it difficult too, to think about the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of our Lord and the place where our Lord walked on earth in Israel and Palestine.
And I don't find it easy to talk about these things without reflecting in some way upon the situation in Israel and Palestine that we read about and see on our televisions every day. Deeply upsetting events.
As many of you know, Jenny and I lived in the Middle east for five years. We've travelled extensively there, we've worked there. We have family who lived in part of the Middle east for what, eleven years now? So we have that almost extra dimension and connection.
Now, interestingly, in the first verse of our reading, it says, now, when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, what does that mean? Well, it means there was peace in Israel at that time and David was not engaged in fighting his enemies.
Don't we long for that peace that was in Israel then, to be the peace in Israel and Palestine now the pain and suffering we see is hard to watch. Our hearts go out to those who've lost loved ones, the hostages, the injured, the missing.
I'm sure many of you will know that the hospital that was subject to an explosion, the Ali hospital, was a christian hospital originally founded, I think, by the church Missionary Society, then came under the control of the baptist church from, I think, 1954 to 82, but since 1982 has been under the Episcopal Church, our sister church, if you like, in Jerusalem.
And I feel. I'm sure you do too. It's just an extra dimension of concern for the people who worked at that hospital, families of those who've died, the uncertainty of what caused the explosion. So many questions in a way, but what can we do? Well, in this service?
We can't do very much other than as Cav has done to thank him for the prayer earlier in the service. But before we move on, I'd like just to pray a prayer that was written by the archbishop of Jerusalem. So let's just bow our heads for a prayer. A prayer for peace, justice and equity. O God of all justice and peace, we cry out to you in the midst of the pain and the trauma of violence and fear which prevails in the holy land.
Be with those who need you in these days of suffering. We pray for people of all faiths, Jews, Muslims, Muslims and Christians, and for all people of the land. While we pray to you, O Lord, for an end to the violence and the establishment of peace, we also call for you to bring justice and equity to the peoples. Guide us into your kingdom where all people are treated with dignity and honour as your children. For to all of us, you are our heavenly Father.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.