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2 Samuel 2—24
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Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7
In the foregoing message we saw from chapter six that David took care of the habitation of the ark. In this message we will see that, according to chapter seven, David wanted to build a house for God. Concerning this matter I have a very particular burden.
David considered that he himself dwelled in a house of cedar but that the ark of God dwelled within curtains (v. 2b).
David released his consideration to Nathan the prophet, who encouraged him to go and do what was in his heart, telling David that Jehovah was with him (vv. 2a, 3).
In verses 4 through 17 we have God's response to David through Nathan. Verse 4 tells us in that night the word of Jehovah came to Nathan.
God told David that since the time He brought Israel up out of Egypt, He had never asked anyone to build Him a house that He might dwell in it. Rather, He went about in a tent and in a tabernacle (vv. 5-7).
God charged Nathan to tell David that He took him from the pasture, from following the sheep, that he might be ruler over His people Israel (v. 8). Also, God had been with David in every place and had cut off all his enemies (v. 9a). This refers to the presence of God. David was prosperous because he had the presence of God. This is a lesson for us today. Whenever we prepare ourselves to speak God's word, we must be assured that we have the presence of God. If we do not have this assurance, we need to pray until we have the deep sense of God's presence with us.
God promised David that He would make a great name for him, "like the name of the great ones who are on the earth" (v. 9b).
God said that He would appoint a place for His people Israel and plant them, that they might dwell in their own place without disturbances and without being ill-treated by the sons of wickedness (v. 10). David's heart was to get a place for God to dwell in, but God's heart is to get a place for His people to be settled and even planted. For this to take place, however, God's elect people need to cooperate with Him.
God told David that He would give him rest from all his enemies (v. 11a). Here God seemed to be saying, "David, you have a heart for Me. My heart is for you, and I want you to have rest from all the enemies that are around you."
Jehovah declared to David that He would make him a house (v. 11b). When we love the Lord, we may feel that we should do something for Him. However, when we resolve to do something for the Lord, we may have the sense deep within us that we need the Lord to do more for us. As we will see, we are short of Christ and we need more of Christ.
God said to David, "I will raise up your seed after you, which will come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom" (v. 12). Here "your seed" refers to Christ and "his kingdom" refers to Christ's kingdom. In His response to David's desire to build God a house, God in a sense came in to stop David by indicating that before David could do something for God, he needed God to do something for him.
Whenever we would think to do something for God, God within us would tell us that we are short of something. Our shortage is Christ. We all need Christ. At this point I would ask you to consider some lines from a hymn that speaks of how much we need Christ (Hymns, #1024):
We need more and more of Jesus; we can never get enough of Him. We are short of Christ, God's Son. We need God to make His Son our seed; that is, we need Christ as our heritage and our treasure.
When a sinner turns to God and believes in Christ, he may then have the heart to do something for God. However, to such a person God would say, "Do you intend to do something for Me? You have a great need for Me to do something for you. What I want to do for you is to constitute My Son into your being to be your treasure. Unless I do this for you, you will never have the capacity to do anything for Me."
The Christ whom God desires to constitute into us is not only our treasure — He is also our home. Where do we live today? We live in Christ. Before Christ the Son of God was wrought into our being, we were homeless. To be homeless is to be Christless. Without Christ, we do not have a home. Likewise, without Christ we do not have righteousness, justification, or satisfaction. We need God to build Christ into our being to be our righteousness, justification, food and drink, clothing, satisfaction, dwelling place, and home. In order for this to happen, God has put us into Christ (1 Cor. 1:30), and now Christ is becoming everything to us.
In 2 Samuel 7:12 God was actually telling David that instead of building something for God, he needed God to build His Son into him. It is a marvelous fact that eventually David's seed would be called the Son of God (Rom. 1:3). This indicates the principle of incarnation. Christ is the God-man. As God, He is the Son of God; as man, He is our seed. If the Son of God is not constituted into us, we are nothing. The Son of God must become our seed, yet He remains the Son of God.
When we were saved, many of us believed the gospel in a shallow way. The more I study the Bible, the more I realize that the gospel is not shallow. The genuine and intrinsic gospel is that God intends to work Himself in Christ into us. In 2 Samuel 7:12 we have the genuine preaching of the gospel. If we preach this intrinsic gospel, we will tell others that they should not think that they can do something for God, for their human life is empty. We will tell them that they are short of something and that what they need is Christ, the very God Himself, to be wrought into their being. This is the gospel.
In order to work Himself into us, God first became a man through incarnation. As a man He died for us, and then rose up from among the dead and became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This life-giving Spirit is our Savior, who redeemed us on the cross and who is now saving us in our spirit. He is our Redeemer, Savior, life, and seed. As such a One, He is now being built, constituted, into us, making us a part of Him, even as He has made Himself a part of us.
If we read 2 Samuel 7 under God's enlightening, we will see that the seed of David is Christ. According to verse 7 God will establish David's kingdom, which refers to Christ's kingdom. This means that the kingdom of David is Christ's kingdom. The prophets spoke of David and Christ as one. In Hosea 3:5 and Amos 9:11 the coming of King David refers to Christ's coming.
Second Samuel 7:13 reveals that it is Christ who will build a house for God's name, and God will establish the throne of Christ's kingdom forever.
Verse 14a says, "I will be his Father, and he will be My son." This actually reveals that God will be Christ's Father and that Christ will be God's Son (Heb. 1:5b). God's salvation is just to make Christ, His embodiment, ours. The Son of God, who is the embodiment of God, God Himself, is in us. Therefore, we can declare that Christ, the Son of God, has been built into us.
Second Samuel 7:14b-15 says that if David's seed (referring to the one other than Christ, that is, Solomon) committed iniquity, God would strike him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men. However, God's lovingkindness would not depart from him, as God took it away from Saul. Solomon did commit serious sin, and God chastised him because of it, but God's lovingkindness nevertheless remained with the house of David.
In verse 16 God said to David, "Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you; your throne will be established forever." Here "your kingdom" refers to Christ's kingdom, and "your throne" refers to Christ's throne. In the Bible David and Christ have one throne. Christ is the real David (Matt. 12:3-6). Eventually, Christ and we become one, for in a very real sense Christ has become us. He is the Head and we are the Body, and the Head and the Body are one.
Verses 18 through 29 are a record of David's response to God.
In verses 18 through 21 David thanked God for all the great things He had done to him for His word's sake and according to His own heart.
Next, David praised God for His greatness in all that He had done for His people Israel (vv. 22-24). In verse 24 David said, "You have established Your people Israel to be a people to You forever, and You, O Jehovah, became their God."
Finally, David asked God to build, establish, and bless his house forever according to His promise (vv. 25-29). David concluded by saying to God, "May it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may be before You forever; for You, O Lord Jehovah, have spoken it. And with Your blessing may the house of Your servant be blessed forever" (v. 29).
