Scripture Reading: 2 Sam. 7:12-14a; Eph. 3:14, 16-17; 1 Cor. 3:11-12; Eph. 4:4-6
Second Samuel 7 is a very difficult portion of the Word to understand, and not many Christians have the proper view concerning it. I have been studying this chapter for over sixty years. My first impression was that here we see the love and kindness of God in wanting to build David a house instead of having David build a house for Him. That was merely the natural, human concept of a young man. I spent a number of years with the Brethren, who devoted a great deal of attention to 2 Samuel 7 and who preached and taught on it and published books about it. However, they did not see the intrinsic significance of this chapter, especially of God's word to David in verses 12 through 14a.
Those who study the Bible realize that two matters in the Bible are not easy to understand — typology and prophecy. The book of Revelation, for example, is mainly a book of prophecy, but this book also contains quite an amount of typology. Hence, Revelation is a combination of prophecy and typology. The situation is the same with 2 Samuel 7. This chapter conveys a great prophecy, but this prophecy is unveiled through typology. We may say that it is a prophecy in typology.
In 2 Samuel 7 David, like many of us, had the mistaken concept that God needed him to build something for Him. When some hear this they may wonder how this concept can be wrong since we today are endeavoring to build up the church. Is building the church not a matter of building something for God? To answer this question we need to realize that apparently we are the ones who are building the church, but actually God is the One who is building the church with Christ as the unique element. When we are about to do some building work by speaking for God, He may check with us, saying, "Do you intend to build My house? With what material will you build My house?" If we say that we are building up the church with Christ, God may ask us how much we have of Christ. This exposes our shortage of Christ. We need Christ not merely in name and in knowledge; we need the real Christ, Christ as the Spirit in resurrection. We all need more and more of Christ.
We may have much knowledge of the Bible and be able to teach the Bible to others, but this is not the way to build up the church. The church is not built with the knowledge of the Bible. The church is built with Christ as the unique element. Many times, after trying to build up the saints with Christ, I have had to ask myself, "How much of Christ have you really ministered to the saints? Did you minister only doctrine and the high truths concerning God's economy, or did you minister the real Christ, the genuine Christ, the reality of Christ in resurrection as the Spirit?" Then I had to confess my shortage of Christ and repent, saying, "Lord, forgive me. I am still short of You. I need You to be wrought into me. I need more of You to be constituted into my being."
In 2 Samuel 7 David wanted to build God's house, but in this chapter God wanted David to realize that he needed God to build Christ into him. Thus, 2 Samuel 7 is the unveiling of a prophecy through typology showing us there is no need for us to build something for God. We simply are not able to do this. We cannot build something for God with ourselves or with our knowledge of the Bible and theology. We need God to build up Christ into our intrinsic constitution so that our entire being will be reconstituted with Christ. As a result, we are not only changed, but we are transformed from one kind of person into another.
Perhaps now we can see that 2 Samuel 7 simply indicates that God does not need us to build anything for Him. We are nothing, we have nothing, and we can do nothing. Therefore, we need Christ to be wrought into our being.
At this point we need to consider once again what God's economy is. God's economy is to work Himself into us in Christ as His embodiment. Through death and resurrection Christ has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Now we need to let God work Christ as the Spirit into every part of our being. The more God does this, the more we will be able to declare, "To me, to live is Christ," and "I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me" (Phil. 1:21; Gal. 2:20).
The New Testament verse that best indicates that Christ is building Himself into us is Ephesians 3:17. Here Paul says that Christ is making His home in our hearts. This is building. What is of crucial importance today is the question concerning how much of Christ has been built into us. How much has Christ been built not only into your spirit but into your heart in order to make His home there?
Our spirit, the central part of our being, is surrounded by our heart, which is composed mainly of our mind, emotion, and will. Christ is in our spirit, but how much has Christ made His home in our heart? Most of our hearts are still vacant, not occupied, saturated, and soaked with Christ. Every day our hearts are filled with other things. As a result, Christ is imprisoned in our spirit.
Ephesians 3 indicates strongly that the Triune God is building Himself into us in Christ's making us His home. Paul bowed his knees to the Father and prayed that He would grant us, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man (vv. 14, 16) so that Christ may make His home in our hearts. Here we have the Divine Trinity: the Father is the One to whom Paul prayed; the Spirit is the One who carries out the strengthening; and Christ the Son is the One who is making His home in our heart. By building Himself into our being, He makes our heart, our intrinsic constitution, His home.
In 1 Corinthians 3:12 Paul said that there are two categories of building material — wood, grass, and stubble, which are human and worldly, and gold, silver, and precious stones, which are precious treasures and transformed materials. If we build the church with wood, grass, and stubble — with the attainments that come from our natural background or with the natural way of living — we will mar the church (v. 17). We should build the church with gold, silver, and precious stones, signifying respectively God, Christ, and the Spirit. To build the church with these materials is to build the church with the processed and consummated Triune God. When we build the church with the processed and consummated Triune God, it is not actually we who are building. Rather, God is building through us, using us as a means to dispense and transmit Himself into people.
In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus said, "I will build My church." But how is the church to be built? The church is built with the Triune God: with the Father as the source, with the Son as the element, and with the Spirit as the essence. This is clearly indicated in Ephesians 4:4-6. According to these verses, the whole church, the Body of Christ, is a mingling of the human frame with the Triune God as the source, the element, and the essence. On the one hand, the gifted persons perfect the saints unto the work of the ministry so that the Body may build up itself in love. On the other hand, the processed and consummated Triune God as the source, the element, and the essence is building the church by building Himself into our being.
We need to have this realization as we are working for the Lord. It is not adequate simply to present to others some knowledge concerning God's economy and other divine, spiritual, and heavenly things. We need to dispense the Triune God into others. Through our prayer, fasting, repentance, and confession, the Triune God can fill us, saturate us, and mingle with us as our source, element, and essence. Then we can go with Him and work with Him. If we are filled with the Triune God, when we speak He will flow out and be ministered to others for their nourishment.
Second Samuel 7 is a prophecy predicting that the church will be built up by God Himself among His people in the New Testament. Christ is the One who actually builds God's house, God's temple. Christ is also the element in which and with which the church as God's house is built. In this chapter God seemed to be saying to David, "David, thus far you are still vacant and empty. Do not think that you should do something to build a house for Me. You need to realize that you need Me to build Myself into you as the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Then you will have a house, and that house will also be My house."
The intrinsic significance of 2 Samuel 7 is that the Triune God is working Himself in His processed and consummated Trinity into His chosen people. Therefore, 2 Samuel 7 is a chapter on the Triune God working Himself into us to make us His home (Christ with the church) and to produce a seed (the all-inclusive Christ). Here we have a house and a seed. Christ is the house, and Christ is also the seed. Christ is the element, and Christ is also the issue. Christ is everything.
This Christ is both God's house and our house. Hence, we and God have a mutual abode. Christ abides in us, and we abide in Him. He and we, we and He, are mingled together as one entity. The universe is waiting for this. Romans 8 tells us that the whole universe is eagerly awaiting the expression of the Triune God mingled with the tripartite man through His building, which is by Himself, with Himself, in Himself, and for Himself. This is what we all need, and this is what the universe needs.
