Deeper Commentary
2Sa 7:1 It happened, when the king lived in his house, and Yahweh had
given him rest from all his enemies all around-
All his adult life, David had hardly slept more than a few nights in
the same place. And he had always been surrounded by enemies who gave him no
rest. Now finally he was living a stable life in his own house, with rest
from his enemies. Instead of slumping into the mire of mediocrity in his
spirituality, as many would have done, he reflects that he apparently has
more than God, as it were. He has a nice house, whilst God's house was a
tent. This desire to use a stable existence in God's service is a stellar
example to God's children of all ages.
The account here may not be chronological, because we read of more wars in 2 Sam. 8. I suggest this is included after the account of bringing the ark to Zion in order to continue the theme of David's work for the ark. Or 2 Sam. 8 may be a summary of how David had been given rest. But to be 'given rest' is the language of inheritance of the Kingdom (Heb. 4:1-11); the idea may be that a Messianic Kingdom could have been established at this point, had David accepted it. But instead, he laboured to build a physical temple rather than allowing God to effect this.
David had lived a wandering life, but now was settled down- permanently, as he imagined. And he wants the same for God. This is a fascinating psychological insight- that man tends to assume that God is like him, creating God in man's image, rather than accepting that God created man in His image. And God's response here is effectively trying to tell David that the wandering life is actually, in essence, how He intends it for His people. And that is how He is, not tied down to one place nor tradition, but ever on the move. And man's tendency is to strive towards stability and static being- but this isn't the way of God's Spirit. God rebukes David for his desire to settle God down to one time and place, to one form and tradition; just as Uriah does indirectly, when he reminds David that God's ark dwells in tents, and so do His true people, in comparison to David's settled down life in Jerusalem with all the moral declension that went with it (2 Sam. 11:11).
It seems on one hand David wanted to make God into His own
image, by reasoning that because he was settled and secure in one place,
so now should God be. David appears to allude to but misinterpret Dt.
12:9-11: "For you have not yet come to the rest and to the inheritance
that Yahweh your God is giving you. But you will cross the Jordan and live
in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you to inherit, He will give
you rest from all your enemies around, and you will live in safety. Then
to the place that Yahweh your God will choose to make His name dwell
there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings
and your sacrifices". But David misinterprets this as meaning that there
will be one place which Yahweh would choose geographically to make His
permanent home base. God replies that He has always kept on the move,
never choosing any geographical spot before, and thus He would prefer to
continue. Yet David and Solomon simply forge ahead with the idea of a
temple in Zion and David even retrojects his own choosing of Zion onto
God, as witnessed in several of his Psalms which put this idea in God's
mouth. In any case, 2 Sam. 8 goes on to describe more war, as does 2 Sam.
10. David and Israel are not in fact at rest at all. David is jumping
ahead in his assumptions, because building a temple has become an
obsession with him- he was likely on the autism spectrum. And yet we note
that later in his life, during Absalom's rebellion, he was again separated
from the ark and the sanctuary; and again he writes Psalms, or edits
previous wilderness Psalms, which glorify his experience of Yahweh's
presence without the ark or sanctuary.
2Sa 7:2 that the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a
house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains-
Yahweh was seen as enthroned upon the ark, dwelling between the
cherubim, and so David wanted to bring the ark to his back yard, "Zion",
his citadel, and now build a house for it as he had built for himself. But
Yahweh corrects this, or tries to. He doesn't dwell in a fixed physical
location. He accepts David's desire to have his throne as the throne of
Yahweh, even though David is acting politically on one hand, wanting to
concentrate both religious and political power in himself as a person and
in his physical location. God looks to David's better side of motivations,
and says that indeed David's throne shall be His throne, but that shall
work out through His purpose in His Son. David accepts that with grace,
but goes on trying to 'establish / prepare' his own throne in a temple /
physical house and location. And God graciously goes along with this by
'dwelling' in Solomon's temple.
Any disparity between our own life situation and that of the things of God... ought to concern us. David didn't stop living in a house and instead live in a tent. Instead he did what he could to ensure that his abundance was not kept to himself. His motives were admirable throughout, and God saw that, but God was to use David's desires to teach that He doesn't need works, but just wants to share the abundance of His grace with others.
The reference to "curtains" doesn't mean that David was concerned that God's ark was under a tent, whilst he lived in a house. Rather is the reference to the ten curtains which comprised the tabernacle (Ex. 26:1). Although the tabernacle was at Gibeon and the ark in Zion, David had apparently made another tabernacle for the ark in Zion. David was assuming that he could change the Mosaic commandments about the tabernacle, and move God's purpose forward to something more permanent. We see here how he didn't consider the laws of Moses [of which the commands about the tabernacle were part] to be static. He saw them as open to interpretation and development. This was not a position he came to lightly, seeing he had been terribly punished for thinking he could flout the legislation about how the ark was to be transported.
Many of the commands within the "law of Moses" were clearly only intended for the wilderness generation, indeed they could only have been obeyed by them then; and David wondered whether the entire commands about the tabernacle were in that category. He was open to the idea of God moving on in His purpose and desires for men. Those today who claim that Mosaic legislation is eternally binding need to give this due weight. It's not just that the Mosaic law was abrogated by the Lord's death; but the whole nature of that law was that it was never intended to all be literally applied to every subsequent generation. And that meant that it was the spirit of it which was to be discerned and followed.
2Sa 7:3 Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart; for
Yahweh is with you-
Nathan wrongly assumed that Yahweh would naturally agree to David's
proposition to move on from the Mosaic idea of a tabernacle.
David didn't
actually state what he intended to do (:2), but Nathan assumes he knows
David's intentions, and assumes he knows God will agree. Such assumptions
are typical of human beings, and further adds psychological verisimilitude
to the record. Nathan of course should have had the humility to first ask
of God rather than assuming he knows God's will. The assumption we know
God's will is a common problem amongst God's people; effectively we are
elevating our gut feeling to the level of God's word.
2Sa 7:4 It happened the same night, that the word of Yahweh came to Nathan
saying-
David’s plan to build a great house was met with the word of the Lord
coming unto him “the same night”, telling him not to do this. There seems to
be some allusion to this by the Lord Jesus when He spoke of the rich fool
who wanted to build a greater barn being told the Lord’s word “that same
night”. It could be that the Lord Jesus saw something material and very
human in David’s desire to build a house for the Lord.
2Sa 7:5 Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says Yahweh, Shall you build Me
a house for Me to dwell in?-
Perhaps there was a pause after this statement. The emphasis was upon
the words "you" and "Me". David had not given due thought to the magnitude
and inappropriacy of what was in his mind; that he as a mere man could
build a house for Yahweh to live in. He had failed to perceive the
greatness of his God. Any idea of confining God within four walls was
bizarre. The Chronicles record is clearer: "You shall not build Me a
house". The way David insisted upon doing so reflects a refusal to accept,
in the long term, the huge grace offered to him here. We see the typical
human tendency to want to do works for God, and to be justified thereby-
rather than to accept His work for us.
2Sa 7:6 For I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up the
children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have moved around in
a tent and in a tabernacle-
Although this may primarily refer to the Angel, the point is that the
God of the cosmos had intensely manifested Himself in the ark and the
tabernacle / tent which enclosed it. This of itself revealed His humility.
The idea is "I have walked continually"; like David up until this point
(see on :1), He had been a wanderer. David had now ceased his years of
wandering (:1), and was assuming that God was like himself, preferring a
stable and sedentary life. But this assumption that God is like us at this
moment and point of our lives is incorrect, and David later criticizes it
(Ps. 50:21). He is who He is, and not a god made in our image, as we are
at this moment; rather are we made in His image, and not the other way
around. It is for us to hear His voice in His word and accept Him as He
is, rather than assuming He will think how we do at this point in our
development. David earlier had appreciated the idea of God being a
wanderer when he was a wanderer, as his wilderness Psalms indicate. But
now he was settled, he assumed that this was how God would like to be.
2Sa 7:7 In all places in which I have walked with all the children of
Israel, did I say a word to any of 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?’’-
The mention of "tribes" may be a rebuke of David for wanting to concentrate religious power in his tribe by building a temple and locating the ark in his territory. God had been careful not to do this in the past but had kept the tabernacle moving around.
David desired to build God a physical house. 2 Sam. 7:7-11 records God's
response in clear enough language: God did not want a physical house
because
1. It was not really possible for man to build God a house ("Shalt
thou build me an house for me to dwell in?" is surely
rhetorical)
2. God had never asked Israel to build Him such a house before; indeed,
it had been His expressed will that He should dwell among Israel in the
temporary form of the tabernacle. God wanted a temporary abode to point
forward to the fact that the reality was in Christ; thus the Law of Moses
had features built into it which were intrinsically temporal, to point men
forward to the stability and finality of Messiah. By building a permanent
temple, Solomon reflects his lack of focus on the Messiah to come.
3. He would only have a permanent physical house when His people were
permanently settled, never to be moved again (2 Sam. 7:10), i.e. in the
Kingdom. Yet Solomon perceived that his kingdom was in fact the final
Kingdom of God. David made this mistake, in assuming in Ps. 72 that
Solomon’s Kingdom would undoubtedly be the Messianic one…and Solomon
repeated the error, yet to a more tragic extent.
4. God plays on the confusion between 'house' in the sense of
household, and 'house' in the sense of a physical building. He says:
'You
want to build
me a physical house. But
I
am going to build
you a
household
which
will be my Kingdom'. The implication is that David's desire for a physical
house was altogether too human, and that there is an opposition between
what man thinks he can physically do for God, and the fact that God wishes
to do things for men. Yet Solomon went ahead with his works rather than
grappling with the reality of sheer grace. He so wanted to do
something. He betrays this when he writes in Ecc. 9:7: “God now accepteth
thy works”. The Hebrew translated “accepteth” means literally to satisfy a
debt, and is elsewhere translated ‘to reconcile self’. He saw works as
reconciling man’s debt to God, rather than perceiving that grace is
paramount. He keeps on about David his father; and yet there was a crucial
difference. David perceived the need for grace as the basis of man’s
reconciliation with God; whereas Solomon thought it was works. David wrote
that God wants a broken heart and not thousands of sacrifices; yet Solomon
offered the thousands of sacrifices, but didn’t have the contrite heart of
his father.
5. To desire a physical house for God is to overlook the promised
Messiah- that was surely the implication of the promise of the Lord Jesus
following right on from the statement that a physical house was not
required. Is. 57:15 and Is. 66:2 explain why this is- because God does not
live in what man builds, but will fully dwell in one man to whom He will
look, one who would have a humble spirit towards Him. And this man was of
course the Lord Jesus. Solomon’s obsession with the temple therefore
reflected his deeper problem- of not being focused upon the Christ to
come.
So it ought to be clear from all this that God's response to the
request to build a temple was negative; He did not want a physical temple.
None of the four reasons for this listed above were just temporary
considerations; they were reasons which were valid for all time. There can
be no doubt that God's response here is at the basis of Is. 66:1,2: "The
heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house
that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all these
things hath mine hand made... but to this man will I look, even to him
that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word" . God is
saying that it simply isn't possible to build Him a house; instead, He
seeks to dwell in the hearts of men. Yet Solomon wasn’t interested in the
personal spiritual mindedness which enables this to happen. This is the
same spirit as God's response to David: 'You can't build me a physical
house, I will build my own household of believers'.
These words of Is. 66 are twice quoted in the New Testament. "God that
made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is
Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands... as
though He needed any thing" (Acts 17:24,25). The reason for God not
dwelling in temples is that He is Lord of heaven and earth. This reason
does not change with time; He was Lord of heaven and earth at David's time
just as much as He is now.
2Sa 7:8 Now therefore you shall tell My servant David this, ‘Thus says
Yahweh of Armies, I took you from the sheep pen, from following the sheep,
that you should be prince over My people, over Israel-
"Sheep pen" translates the word usually rendered "habitation". The idea is that Yahweh had taken David from his home and made him a wanderer in the desert, just as He had done to Israel in Egypt. This was to bring David and Israel to identify with Yahweh as their God seeing He too was ever mobile and had no geographical home. And David in his new stability was forgetting this and seeking to make God into his own current image.
David was asked to reflect that his wandering around as a shepherd as a child and teenager had been to prepare him for leading Israel. But leading a people likewise involves an element of mobility, and God as the ultimate leader of Israel was likewise moving on and never static. Hebrew shepherds usually lead their sheep, but here David is described as being moved from following sheep, to going ahead as a leader. Here we have an example of where language and imagery is used in a way we might consider opportunistic; but this is the nature of Semitic writing and reasoning. A failure to appreciate the Hebrew nature of the Bible has led to so many misinterpretations of it.
2Sa 7:9 I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your
enemies from before you-
David's continual wandering up until the point of :1 had always been
with God's presence "with you wherever". This connects with God's own
statement that He Himself had "walked continually" (:6). Those years had
been in order to get David to appreciate God's own constant journeying.
This is to be a feature of every believer's life. Even if we live and die
in the house we were born in and never move 20 km. from our home village,
life with God is a constant journey. And all within us will seek to turn
it into the stability of mere religion, as David was seeking to do.
The next chapter details yet more victories over enemies, as if
this showed David that the covenant was really in operation for him.
God encourages David to see himself as representative of Israel by
saying this; they are words replete with reference to Israel in the
wilderness and their establishment in the land. As David so loved his
people and was their representative, for all they did to him, so with the
Lord Jesus and His people. When God asked David “choose thee one of” three
possible judgments, each of them involved the whole nation- e.g. “Shall
seven years of famine come unto thee” (singular). David was their
representative even in their time of failure.
This is now developed by God into saying that He will make David a
house / family. That family was to bear David's great name, but the "great
name", the greatest in the earth [reading "great ones" as an intensive
plural for a singular great name] was that of Yahweh. And this Name was to
be carried by David's house and particularly by the Messianic seed who was
now to be promised. AV "I have made thee a great name" would refer to how
God was to do this through David's military victories (2 Sam. 8:13),
indicating that 2 Sam. 7 is actually referring to events after 2 Sam. 8
and is not in chronological sequence.
2Sa 7:10 I 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; neither
shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as at the first-
This can be translated "I will establish a place for My
people Israel, and I will plant him, then he will dwell beneath it and
will not tremble any more". The same Hebrew is found in Ez. 17:23 "every
bird will dwell
beneath it". The allusion is to David's previous perception [as reflected
in his wilderness Psalms] that the faithful dwell under the shadow of the
cherubic wings, as it were on the mercy seat, covered by the blood of
atonement (Ps 17:8; 36:8; 57:2; 73:8). David had been so eager to
bring the physical ark to Zion and now to build a house / temple for it.
But Yahweh's response is that He will bring all Israel to live permanently
in His presence over the ark. And for ever. This is a picture of man's
final salvation, through the promised Son of David, the Lord Jesus; and
herein lies the significance of the promise of "presence" in the Comforter
passages. The gift of the Spirit in the heart obviates all arks and
temples. The presence of the physical ark or temple were irrelevant to
this promise, and quite unnecessary. And that is perhaps why the ark
vanishes out of the Biblical history without a trace or even a goodbye.
These things were foreseen in Ex. 15:17 "You shall bring them in, and
plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place, Yahweh, which
You have made for yourself to dwell in; the sanctuary, Lord, which Your
hands have established". "The place" where Israel were to dwell was where
Yahweh dwells. And in essence, that place is the human heart. It is not
over an ark, in a temple, nor even in a geographical area. But David has
slipped back to the religious rather than the spiritual. For in Ps. 132:5
we read of his desire to bring the literal ark to physical Zion, and thus
to find "a place for Yahweh, a dwelling-place for the God of Jacob". The
promises to David are correcting him, pointing out that Yahweh will find a
"place" for Himself and His people, and that "place" ultimately is within
the human heart, enabled and mediated by the Spirit of His Son. David
bought "the place" from Ornan: "Give me the [sacred] place of the
threshing floor so that I may build an altar to Yahweh on it... David gave
Ornan 600 shekels of silver for the place" (1 Chron. 21:22,25). Whilst God
was willing to place His Name and presence in Zion, the accent of the
promises to David is that essentially God will seek out and find a place
to dwell with His people. And later scripture explains that this will be
through His Spirit in His Son.
As the promise stands in the standard translations, it never came true. Israel never dwelt securely for long, and were always soon afflicted by the children of wickedness.
This connects with how David had planted the ark in its "place" in Zion (2 Sam. 6:17). God is saying that His grace is such that He will do exceeding far above what we ever ask or think to do for Him. He would plant and place Israel in an eternal Kingdom, just as David had planted and placed the ark in Zion. As David personally had been given rest from his enemies (:1), so would Israel be granted rest.
These words would have been comforting to the exiles; ultimately they would not be afflicted as they had been by the Babylonians, and would return to their land permanently (2 Sam. 7:10 s.w. for "afflict" in Zech. 10:2; Zeph. 3:19; Lam. 3:33; 5:11). The word used in 1 Chron. 17:9, 'to waste', is also used of the Babylonian wasting of Judah (Lam. 3:4).
2Sa 7:11 and as from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people
Israel. I will cause you to rest from all your enemies-
The constant affliction Israel experienced at the time of the judges
was because of their sins; they had no rest from their enemies because of
their continual unfaithfulness to Yahweh. These promises are therefore
tantamount to saying that God would somehow permanently establish His
people, in a way not conditional upon their faithfulness because He would
somehow make them faithful. This is the language of the new covenant
offered to the exiles, and is achieved today through the work of the Holy
Spirit keeping us from falling from the covenant. The "blessing" promised
to Abraham is therefore interpreted in Acts 3:25,26 as the power of God
turning away His people's hearts from sin. And the same is implied in
these promises to David. I will note on :15 that God likewise promised to
remain faithful to David's seed even if he sinned. This is grace upon
grace.
The promises to David included the prospect of being given rest from his enemies (2 Sam. 7:11). We note however that in 2 Sam. 10-12 we will read of David's war with Ammon. He didn't have rest from his enemies. As with the promise that immediately follows, that he would have an eternal house / family, this was to be realized after David's death, in the time of his Messianic Son. The war with Ammon would have been intended by God to nudge David to realize that the promises were not about here and now. But he tries hard to make them about him; and the curse on him for the sin with Bathsheba was that enemies would arise from his own house, and the rest of his life was lived in anything but "rest" from enemies. In the bigger picture, this was to remind him that the promises to him were most definitely not being fulfilled in this life. He was intended to focus instead upon the future rest of God's Kingdom, at a point when his Messianic Son was set up / resurrected along with himself.
Moreover Yahweh
tells you that Yahweh will make you a house-
To what was God referring to when He told David that David's son would
build him a house? Firstly, we must bear in mind that in hundreds of
places, the Hebrew word for "house" means 'household'. The eternal house
promised to David is paralleled with the Kingdom; and a Kingdom is
comprised of people. This is what is in view, not the building of any
literal temple at the Lord's return. The Kingdom is the house of Jacob (Lk. 1:33). That
the house of David is the Kingdom is evident from 2 Sam. 7:13,16; 1 Chron.
17:14 (cp. Lk. 11:17). The Kingdom was taken from the house of Saul and
given to the house of David (2 Sam. 3:10), but later the Kingdom was taken
from the house of David because of Solomon's apostacy (1 Kings 14:8). This
is proof enough that at best the promises to David had only a tiny
fulfilment in Solomon's Kingdom.
The New Testament is very insistent that the true temple of God is the body of Christian believers (1 Cor. 9:13; 2 Cor. 6:16; Heb. 10:21; 1 Pet. 4:17; Rev. 3:12; 11:1,2; 1 Tim.3:15). This string of passages is quite some emphasis. Yet Christ was the temple; he spoke of the temple of his body (Jn. 2:19-21; Rev. 21:22). For this reason, the Gospels seem to stress the connection between Christ and the temple (Mk.11:11,15,16,27; 12:35; 13:1,3; 14:49; Lk. 2:46; 21:38). Christ's body was the temple of God. By being in Christ, we too are the temple (1 Cor. 3:16,17; Eph. 2:21), our body is the temple of God (1 Cor. 6:19). Yet Solomon was not Christ centered; he didn’t want to see this connection. And we too can have an over-physical view of the Kingdom, centered around a literal temple in Jerusalem etc., rather than perceiving that the Kingdom / reign of God is, in its essence, over the hearts of men and women like us. The future political Kingdom will be the concrete articulation of the essence of the Kingdom principles which are now being lived out in the hearts of the people who are under the Lord’s present kingship.
In the person of Jesus, the essence of the Kingdom came nigh to men (Mt. 10:7; 11:4; 12:28)- and this was why one of His titles is “the Kingdom”. The Kingdom of God is about joy, peace and righteousness more than the physicalities of eating and drinking. In this sense the Kingdom was “among” first century Israel. The Kingdom of God is not merely a carrot held out to us for good behaviour. It is a reality right now, in so far as God truly becomes our king. Even in the Old Testament, the word "temple" does not normally refer to the physical temple outside the records of Solomon's building of the temple. It is often stated that the house David's seed was to build would be for the Name of Yahweh. His Name refers to His mental attributes. A physical house is inappropriate to express these.
If the house refers to a
household of righteous believers, all becomes plain. This explains why 2
Sam. 7:13,26 parallels God's eternal name with the eternal house and
Kingdom which was promised to David. Building a house was a common Hebrew
idiom for developing a household (Ruth 4:11; Dt. 25:9). God's promise to
David about building him an eternal household was anticipated in His words
to Eli: "I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to
that which is in mine heart and in my mind (i.e. David, 1 Sam. 13:14): and
I will build him a sure house", in contrast to God's destruction
of Eli's household (1 Sam. 2:35). 1 Kings 11:38 clinches the idea that
this refers to David: "I will be with thee, and build thee a sure
house as I built for David". In passing, note that these words to
Solomon remind him that God will build him a house, in
opposition to the way in which Solomon so frequently speaks about building
God a house.
2Sa 7:12 When your days are fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your
fathers-
There is a strong sense that God has determined a number of "days"
for our mortal life (Ps. 23:6; 2 Sam. 7:12), and David like all of us
wished to know how many those days were for him, in order that he might
live an appropriately humble life in response to realizing his frailty
(Ps. 39:4). But that predetermined number of days can be cut short (Ps.
102:4,23,24) or extended (1 Kings 3:14; Prov. 9:11). Hezekiah would be the
parade example of this; his days were cut short (Is. 38:10), and then
lengthened in response to prayer (2 Kings 20:6). God is open to dialogue,
His timetable in our personal lives is flexible according to our prayers;
and He is also responsive to human behaviour. Like Job we should perceive
our life as "my days" (he uses this term multiple times), so that we might
use each of them for Him.
I will set up your seed after you, who shall proceed out of your body- "Set up" has a similar meaning to "establish". It is tempting to note that the Hebrew word is often translated "arise", and to wonder if there is here a hint that this seed will experience a bodily resurrection. The possible fulfilment in David's family was precluded by his sin with Bathsheba and the resultant effects upon his "house"; the same word for "set up" is in 2 Sam. 12:11 of how God would "raise / set up evil out of your own house". His house "was not so with God", as he concluded at the end of his life; and so he with us look for a fulfilment in his Messianic seed, the Lord Jesus, and the house of people being built up / established in Him.
The promise to David concerning Christ precludes his physical existence at the time the promise was made: “I will set up your descendant [singular] after you, which shall proceed out of your body... I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (2 Sam. 7:12,14). Notice the future tense used here. Seeing that God would be Christ’s Father, it is impossible that the Son of God could have already existed at that point in time when the promise was made. That this seed “shall proceed out of your body” shows that he was to be a literal, physical descendant of David. “The Lord has sworn in truth unto David... Of the fruit of your body will I set upon your throne” (Ps. 132:11). Solomon was the primary fulfilment of the promise, but as he was already physically in existence at the time of this promise (2 Sam. 5:14), the main fulfilment of this promise about David having a physical descendant who would be God’s son, must refer to Christ (Lk. 1:31-33).
The Hebrew for "body" here is usually translated womb / belly [AV "bowels"]. David is likened to the female and Yahweh to the male. This is incredibly intimate language to use. This was how close Yahweh felt to David, despite David being such a mix of flesh and Spirit. The promise came true in that Yahweh Himself made Mary [a descendant of David] literally pregnant, and the offspring was therefore His only begotten Son.
And I will establish his kingdom-
"Prepared" or "established" is a major theme in the promises of the
eternal establishment of David's throne (2 Sam. 7:12,13,16 etc.), and
Solomon wrongly assumed that the conditional nature of the promises
concerning the seed were just irrelevant to him as he had wisdom.
Therefore he uses the word of how his kingdom has been "established" (1
Kings 2:24 s.w.). Solomon's contenders for the throne were all stopped by
God, they tried to prepare or establish themselves but it never worked out
(2 Sam. 15:1; 1 Kings 1:5); and so surely Solomon has the idea in mind
that he has been established as the promised Messianic seed of David with
an eternally "established" throne and kingdom. This leads him to the
conclusion that the outcome of wisdom and folly is in this life, and he
has no perspective of a final day of judgment and eternal establishment of
God's Kingdom on earth. This is why the simplistic dichotomies he presents
in Proverbs between the blessed and wise, and the cursed and foolish, are
not always true to observed experiences in this life. For it is the future
Kingdom which puts them in ultimate perspective.
2Sa 7:13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the
throne of his kingdom forever-
Ultimately, as shown above, this refers to the building up of the
house of believers to be the throne of the seed's eternal kingdom. The
Lord Jesus will reign upon us, "whose house are we" (Heb. 3:6); we are His
throne, the basis of His Kingdom. And that house and throne are being
built up now, although it will only be more materially and physically
articulated at His second coming and the establishment of His literal
Kingdom upon earth. This process of building up is achieved by the
colossal work of the Lord Jesus through His Spirit, calling, converting
and transforming His people to be His house. This is how the
New Testament
alludes to these ideas of building and establishing (Acts 20:32; Rom
16:25; 1 Thess. 3:13; 2 Thess. 2:17; 3:3; 1 Pet. 5:10).
Ps. 89:4 says that
this building up of the throne goes on in "all generations". The idea is
that the house and throne of the seed is built up from people of all
generations. The light never went out for God's Truth and true people. In
every generation there were some. This has big implications for those who
consider that a very specific theology, especially one based upon 19th
century revelations of truth, is required for salvation and membership of
God's people.
The fact is that God
did dwell, temporarily, in
Solomon's temple. His glory entered it, and later left it in Ezekiel's
time. This is the classic example of the way in which God will go along
with men in their mistaken enthusiasm, working with them, even though this
is contrary to His preferred way of doing things. A similar example is
found in the way God forbad Israel to have a human king, because to do so
would be a denial of His superiority and of their covenant relationship
with Him. And yet Israel had a king. God did not turn a blind eye to this.
Instead He worked through this system of human kingship. Or take marriage
out of the faith. This is clearly contrary to God's ideal wishes. And yet
in some cases He is prepared to work through this, in order to being about
His purpose. There is even the possible suggestion in Acts 15:10 that God
was ‘tempted’ to re-instate the law of Moses, or parts of it, in the first
century, seeing that this was what so many of the early Christians desired
to keep. That God is so eager to work with us should in itself be a great
encouragement. Yet we must not come to presume upon God's patience,
assuming that He will go along with us.
In any case, 2 Chron. 7:12 says that God accepted the temple only as a
place of sacrifice, i.e. a glorified altar (cp. 2 Sam. 24:17,18). And yet-
God didn't really want sacrifice (Ps. 40:6; Heb. 10:5). "Now have I
chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever" (2
Chron. 7:16) is a conditional promise, followed by five verses of
conditions concerning Solomon's spirituality which he overlooked. Like
Solomon, we too can fix upon promises without considering their
conditionality. There is good reason to think that communally and
individually we are increasingly shutting our eyes to the possibility of
our spiritual failure and disaster. God constantly warned Solomon about
the conditionality of the promises, before the building started (2 Sam.
7:14), during it (1 Kings 6:11-13) and immediately after completing it (1
Kings 9:2-9). Note, too, that Solomon had the idea that if sinful Israel
prayed towards the temple, they would somehow be forgiven because of this.
God’s response was that if they sought Him wherever they were and
repented, then He would hear them- the temple was not to be seen as the
instrument or mediatrix of forgiveness which Solomon envisaged. Likewise,
Solomon’s implication that prayer offered in the temple would be
especially acceptable was not upheld by God’s reply to him about this (2
Chron. 6:24-26 cp. God’s response in 2 Chron. 7:12,13).
His name by which He will be called, 'The LORD our righteousness'”. The
various complaints that Yahweh had failed to keep the covenant to David
(e.g. Ps. 89) are all therefore a misunderstanding of the covenant as
meaning there would be an unbroken line of kings from David. Even if that
was a possibility in God's mind, His intention was that the eternity of
David's "throne" would be through the eternal rulership of the Messianic
son of David. Indeed David and his seed would be so closely identified
that Ez. 37:24,25 could prophesy "David my servant will be their prince
for ever". But like David and Solomon, people wanted to see the fulfilment
in their times and in visible literal physical terms.
Verse 13 promises that the throne and kingdom of the seed would be
established forever. Verse 16 promises that thereby David's throne and
kingdom would be established forever. The eternity of the promise was
therefore to be realised in the seed, not in an eternal line of royal
descendants. David appears to misunderstand these things when he says that
these promises meant that God had established Israel as His eternal people
(:24). But God was to later disown them and tell them "You are not My
people". Those in the seed would alone be the eternal people. Solomon
likewise too quickly assumed that he was that eternal promised seed (1
Kings 2:24) as did David (1 Kings 2:45). And David reverts from the
promises by seeking to establish / prepare (s.w.) for a physical temple (1
Chron. 22:3,5,14; 28:2; 29:2,3,16,19) and 'preparing' a place for the
temple at Araunah's threshing floor (2 Chron. 3:1). All this reflects a
refusal to accept the promise that Yahweh was preparing his Kingdom.
David three times used the word for "established" in bringing the ark to
the place had prepared / established for it (1 Chron. 15:1,3,12). God's
response is that He will establish David's kingdom and "house".
2Sa 7:14 I will be his father, and he shall 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-
This clearly applies to the Lord Jesus, born of a woman in
the direct line of David and yet with God as His Father. But the words are
quoted also about all believers in 2 Cor. 6:18: "And I will be to you as a
father, and you will be to me as sons and daughters, says the Lord
Almighty". Every man and woman in the seed becomes as the
Lord Jesus. The unconditional promises are in that sense made to us. The
context of the 2 Cor. 6 quotation is of being holy and acting
appropriately as the temple / house of God: "What agreement is there
between the temple of God
and idols? For we are the temple of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:16). To be
"in Christ" means we are to consciously try to act as Him, so that we may
be that eternal house promised to David by God.
It seems that if the Lord had sinned God's love would not have been withdrawn from Him and after punishment He would still have reigned eternally in some form. He would have been punished as a man is punished by a father ["rod of men... stripes of the children of men"], although Son of God (Prov. 23:13). In this case, our salvation would have been disabled. But a loving Father God would not have rejected His beloved Son on the basis of a 'One strike and you're out' attitude. Knowing this would've made it so easy for the Lord to have given in, knowing His own eternity was ultimately assured. His endurance against sin to the end was therefore motivated by His love for us and desire for our salvation through His perfect sacrifice. This argument is powerful, and disproves the theology that the Lord's sacrifice was for His own eternal salvation as well as for ours.
Often the promises about the seed in the singular (the Lord Jesus) are applied to us in the plural (e.g. 2 Sam. 7:14 cp. Ps. 89:30-35). Those seminal promises to Abraham hinged around what would be realized in, not "by", his seed. All that is true of the Lord Jesus is now true of us, in that we are in Him. Baptism is not an initiation into a church. It isn't something which just seems the right thing to do. And even if because of our environment and conscience, it was easier to get baptized than not- now this mustn't be the case. We really are in Christ, we are born again; now we exist, spiritually! And moreover, we have risen with Him, His resurrection life, His life and living that will eternally be, is now manifest in us, and will be articulated physically at the resurrection.
There are connections between the promises to David about Jesus, and the later commentary upon them in Psalm 89 and Isaiah 53, with reference to the crucifixion.
2 Sam. 7 If he [Jesus] commit iniquity
=
Psalm 89 If his children [us] forsake my law
=
Isaiah 53 The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us
all
2 Sam. 7 I will chasten him with the rod of men
The point of all this is to show how our sins were somehow carried by
the Lord Jesus, to the extent that He suffered for them. But how was this
actually achieved? It is one thing to say it, but we must put meaning into
the words. I suggest it was in that the Lord so identified with us,
His heart so bled for us, that He felt a sinner even though He of
course never sinned. The final cry “My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
clearly refers back to all the many passages which speak of God forsaking
the wicked, but never forsaking the righteous. The Lord, it seems to me,
felt a sinner, although He was not one, and thus entered into
this sense of crisis and fear He had sinned. He so identified
with us. In the bearing of His cross, we likewise must identify with
others, with their needs and with the desperation of their human
condition… and this is what will convert them, as the Lord’s identification
with us saved us.
It is unthinkable that God has any possibility of sinning. The seed of David promised in 2 Sam. 7:12-16 was definitely Christ. Verse 14 speaks of Christ’s possibility of sinning: “If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him”. Christ was chastened with the rod of men "and with the stripes of the children of men", i.e. Israel (Is. 53:5; 1 Pet. 2:24; Mic. 5:1), in His death on the cross. But punishment with rod and stripes was to be given if Messiah sinned (2 Sam. 7:14). Yet Christ received this punishment; because God counted Him as if He were a sinner. His sharing in our condemnation was no harmless piece of theology. He really did feel, deep inside Him, that He was a sinner, forsaken by God. Instead of lifting up His face to Heaven, with the freedom of sinlessness, He fell on His face before the Father in Gethsemane (Mt. 26:39), bearing the guilt of human sin.
2 Sam. 7:14 had warned the son of David that if he sinned, he would be
punished "with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of
men". I take this as meaning that he would be punished like ordinary men
are punished- and the implication could be that Solomon would have a
tendency to think that he was more than human, somehow above the
possibility of failing and being punished as an ordinary man, because he
might think that he was somehow 'God', or at least, that what happens to
all humanity would somehow not happen to him. This tendency to assume that
we are somehow different to the rest of humanity, that we can sin in a
certain way but they can't, that somehow for us it will all be OK... is as
alive in us as it was in Solomon.
before Me faithfully, with all their heart and soul, your line on the
throne of Israel shall never end!" (1 Kings 2:4). David here makes the
unconditional conditional. Be balked at the grace of the covenant and
returned to salvation by works, just as so many do. God explained to
Solomon that if indeed he was obedient, then he could be the Messianic
king and this become the fulfilment of these words about eternal kingship.
He failed, but the Lord Jesus didn't: "As for you, if you walk before Me
as your father David walked before Me, wholeheartedly and with
uprightness, doing all that I have commanded you [and] keeping My laws and
My rules, then I will establish your throne of kingship over Israel
forever, as I promised your father David, saying, ‘Your line on the throne
of Israel shall never end'" (1 Kings 9:4,5). Whenever the Davidic covenant
is quote or interpreted as conditional, it is in the context of a king
having the conditional, potential possibility to become the eternal king
through perfect obedience. But they all failed- until the Lord Jesus. This
is why some of the kings felt upset that the covenant had as it were been
broken with them: "Yet You have rejected,
spurned, and become enraged at Your anointed. You have repudiated the
covenant with Your servant; You have dragged his dignity in the dust. You
have breached all his defenses, shattered his strongholds" (Ps. 89:39–41).
The covenant itself was not broken because it was intended to be fulfilled
in the Lord Jesus. But for those who felt it was to be fulfilled in them,
it appeared broken. Even after David's ruling dynasty had come to an end
with the Babylonian exile, God was insistent that despite that, the
covenant to David would not be broken. He had in view how it would be
fulfilled through the Lord Jesus and those in Him: "If you could break My
covenant with the day
and My covenant with the night, so that day and night should not come at
their proper time, only then could My covenant with My servant David be
broken – so that he would not have a descendant reigning upon his
throne... Like the host of heaven which cannot be counted, and the sand of
the sea which cannot be measured, so will I multiply the offspring of My
servant David, and of the Levites who minister to Me" (Jer. 33:20-22). In
this way, Jacob's words also come true: "The scepter shall not depart from
Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet; so that tribute
shall come to him and the homage of peoples be his" (Gen. 49:10). This
doesn't refer to an unbroken line of kings from Judah; it means that one
from Judah, i.e. the Lord Jesus, would reign eternally.
2Sa 7:15 but My loving kindness shall not depart from him, as I took it
from Saul, whom I put away before you-
It was God's Spirit which departed from Saul and came upon David. Yet
that Spirit is here called God's grace or loving kindness, and the New
Testament makes the same connection between the grace / gift of God and
the Holy Spirit. The formation of the seed, both collectively and
individually in the Lord Jesus, was through the work of the Spirit. And
that Spirit would abide fully and eternally upon the Lord Jesus (Jn.
3:34).
The clear message here is that God would as it were almost force through His promised program with David's seed. Even if the special seed sinned, he would be chastened, but God's gracious mercy would not depart from him (:14). This connects with the observation on :11 that God would as it were make Israel obedient, He would give them the blessings of obedience [not wandering any longer but being established], simply because that is what He was promising. These are the "sure mercies of David" available to all who will 'come to Him' (Is. 55:3). These things lead us to respect the Lord's achievement all the more, as the seed of David; if in fact He would personally have been accepted by God even if He had failed in some point. His perfection and endurance therefore achieved what Paul calls "so great salvation" (Heb. 2:3). The Greek implies there were qualities of salvation attainable; and the Lord obtained for us the highest possible level. And how can we neglect that...
2Sa 7:16 Your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before
you-
The translations tend to add "in your presence", implying David's
resurrection to behold it. But the grammar is indeterminate. It could as
well mean in God's presence, and this is how David interprets it in
Ps. 61:7. The parallel in 1 Chron. 17:14 says "I will confirm him
in My house". We assume God said both these things, and thus paralleled
"Your house... My house". David's house / kingdom was to be eternal
because it was to become God's house / Kingdom; the promised Son of David
was also to be Son of God.
I suggested on :13 that this establishment of the throne was a process of
building up and establishing G
2Sa 7:17 According to all these words, and according to all this vision,
so Nathan spoke to David-
Nathan faithfully relayed the vision he received in these words to
David. This is in contrast to how he had over hastily assumed to know
God's word and will in the matter the day before.
2Sa 7:18 Then David the king went in and sat before Yahweh; and he said,
Who am I, Lord Yahweh-
The promises to David are described as the mercy of God (Is. 55:3;
Ps. 89:33,34). God having a son is the sign of His love for us, and this
must elicit a response in us. David himself marvelled that such mercy had
been shown to him: "Who am I... and what is my house… You know Your servant" (2 Sam. 7:18-20). And yet in the very next chapters,
we read of how David made a renewed attempt to show mercy to the house of
Saul. Mephibosheth says that he is "thy servant… what is thy servant, that
thou shouldest look upon such… as I am?" (2 Sam. 9:8 AV). Mephibosheth is
using the very words which David used to God; David is showing mercy to
Mephibosheth in the very way in which the promises of God to him were the
"mercies" shown to David. Appreciating that the promises concern us
personally, and that they reveal such loving grace from the Father, can
only lead to a similar response in showing love and grace through entering
into the lives and destinies of others.
And what is my house, that You have brought me thus
far?-
"I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the
truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant" (Gen. 32:10) was spoken by
Jacob on that night of destiny, in recognition of how he was morally
unworthy to receive the promises which God had given him (see context).
David picked this up in 2 Sam. 7:18, where he comments on his unworthiness
to receive the promises to him, which were an extension of those Jacob
received.
2Sa 7:19 This was yet a small thing in Your eyes, Lord Yahweh; but You
have spoken also of Your servant’s house for a great while to come; this
is not the way of men, Lord Yahweh!-
Such is the wonder of God’s promise to us that we
really have no excuse to sin. Every sin is in a sense a denial of His
promises. God told David that he had no excuse for what he did with Uriah
and Bathsheba, because he had given him so much, “and if that had been too
little, I would have added unto you…” (2 Sam. 12:8). “Too little” sends
the mind back to 2 Sam. 7:19, where the promises to David are described as
a “little thing”; the promises were so wonderful that David should not
have allowed himself to fall into such sin. And us likewise.
2Sa 7:20 What more can David say to You?-
In view of all God had said to David, he had nothing to say to God,
and the implication is that he would now not say to God his plans of
building a house for God. His later desire and insistence upon doing so
would suggest he lost this intensity of understanding and awareness.
For You know Your servant, Lord Yahweh-
See on :18. David is expressing what we often do to God; that we
cannot express our gratitude enough in words or praise, we can only ask
God to know us, and know how we feel.
2Sa 7:21 For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have
worked all this greatness, to make Your servant know it-
David spoke of how God’s
word and “own heart” are parallel (2 Sam. 7:21); God’s mind / spirit is
expressed in His word, although David may here more understand the "word"
as referring to God's purpose (as in Jn. 1:1) rather than the scriptures.
David was sure the promises would come true; he speaks in the past tense
of how God had worked already these great things.
2Sa 7:22 Therefore You are great-
LXX continues from :21: "that he may magnify You". The purpose of
God's expression of grace through the promises is so that we who receive
them might magnify Him. The Psalms which praise Yahweh's greatness were
therefore manifestations of this sense of gratitude for the promises (Ps.
35:27; 40:16; 48:1).
Yahweh God. For there is none like You, neither is there any God
besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears-
What characterizes Yahweh as the one and only God is His grace, which
David has just experienced poured out. Divine grace is the defining
feature of the one true faith; no other god, idol or religious system
comes close to it.
2Sa 7:23 What one nation in the earth is like Your people, even like
Israel, whom God went to redeem to Himself for a people, and to make
Himself a name, and to do great things for You, and awesome things for
Your land, before Your people, whom You redeemed to yourself out of Egypt,
from the nations and their gods?-
Israel had been redeemed from the gods of Egypt. Yet they took those
gods with them through the Red Sea, and carried the tabernacle of Moloch
and Remphan through the wilderness along with that of Yahweh (Acts 7:43).
The LXX here brings out this point: "so that thou shouldest cast out
nations and their tabernacles from the presence of thy people, whom thou
didst redeem for thyself out of Egypt". That Israel carried these
tabernacles and gods with them suggests that this was a redemption
refused. And David, having experienced the grace which can only come from
Yahweh, is resolved to only serve Him and root out all such idolatry.
2Sa 7:24 You established for Yourself Your people Israel to be a people to
You for ever; and You, Yahweh, became their God-
God had promised to establish David's seed, God's true people, as
His throne and people for ever. David recognizes that what had been
promised to him had already been offered to Israel; although as noted on
:23, they had refused this through their idolatry and failure to be God's
exclusive kingdom / people, rejecting Him as their God. It was similar to
God's thought of rejecting His people and working instead through Moses
and his seed. God had been persuaded against that, but now David perceives
that God is going to work not through Israel as a whole but through him
and his seed. The allusion is to Dt. 32:6 where Israel act as the most
foolish nation in rejecting the God who established them as a nation.
2Sa 7:25 Now, Yahweh God, the word that You have spoken concerning Your
servant, and concerning his house, confirm it for ever, and do as You have
spoken-
David seems to feel the need to show his agreement with God's plan
(also in :29). This may be because he perceived the similarity with Moses,
who was also offered to have God working not with Israel but with him and
his seed. And Moses hadn't agreed. But David agrees.
2Sa 7:26 Let Your name be magnified for ever, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies is
God over Israel; and the house of Your servant David shall be established
before You’-
David invites the faithful to join him in praising God for His plan
of salvation revealed in these promises; and the Psalms which magnify
Yahweh's Name are therefore motivated by these promises.
2Sa 7:27 For You, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, have revealed to
Your servant saying, ‘I will build you a house’. Therefore Your servant
has found in his heart to pray this prayer to You-
The idea of the Hebrew is that David speaks of being bold in his prayer of praise for the promises
made to him ("Therefore hath thy servant been bold to pray this prayer", RVmg.). Yet Heb. 4:16 encourages us to be bold in prayer. He was our pattern in prayer.
Literally, "found his heart". To find the heart maybe means that he found his true self, he was in touch with his very heart, and he knew that truly he believed these things and was thankful for the grace expressed, beyond words.
2Sa 7:28 Now, O Lord Yahweh, You are God, and Your words are truth, and
You have promised this good thing to Your servant-
The idea is "You are the one and only God". The context is Israel's
idolatry, and how God is now working through David and his seed as His
Kingdom, rather than through an Israel who rejected Him as the only true
God.
2Sa 7:29 Now therefore let it please You to bless the house of Your
servant, that it may continue for ever before You; for You, Lord Yahweh,
have spoken it. Let the house of Your servant be blessed for ever with
Your blessing-
David describes the promises as "blessing" (2 Sam. 7:28,29), a word
normally used in the context of forgiveness. So David was aware of the
grossness of sin, of the need for self-examination, to ensure that his
technical breaches of the Law of Moses were truly a reflection of his
friendship with God rather than an indication of spiritual weakness. For
David's house to become God's eternal Kingdom would require their
blessing with forgiveness in order to be immortalized.
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