'And it came to pass that night, that the word of the Lord came unto
Nathan, saying, 5. Go and tell My servant David, Thus saith the Lord,
Shalt thou build Me an house for Me to dwell in! 6. Whereas I have not
dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of
Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in
a tabernacle. 7. In all the places wherein I have walked with all the
children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel,
whom I commanded to feed My people Israel, saying, Why build ye not Me
an house of cedar! 8. Now therefore so shalt thou say unto My servant
David, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote,
from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel: 9.
And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all
thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like
unto the name of the great men that are in the earth. 10. Moreover I
will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that
they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall
the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, 11.
And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people
Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the
Lord telleth thee that He will make thee an house. 12. And when thy
days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up
thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will
establish His kingdom. 13. He shall build an 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. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten
Him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
16. But My mercy shall not depart away from Him, as I took it from
Saul, whom I put away before thee. 16. And thine home and thy kingdom
shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be
established for ever.'-2 SAMUEL vii.4-16.
The removal of the ark to Jerusalem was but the first step in a process
which was intended to end in the erection of a permanent Temple. The
time for the next step appeared to David to have come when he had no
longer to fight for his throne. Rest from enemies should lead to larger
work for God, else repose will be our worst enemy, and peace will
degenerate into self-indulgent sloth. A devout heart will not be
content with personal comfort and dwelling in a house of cedar, while
the ark has but a tent for its abode. There should be a proportion
between expenditure on self and on religious objects. How many
professing Christians might go to school to David! Luxury at home and
niggardliness in God's work make an ugly pair, but, alas! a common one.
Nathan approved, as was natural. But he knew the difference between his
own thoughts and 'the word of the Lord' that came to him, and, like a
true man, he went in the morning and contradicted, by God's authority,
his own precipitate sanction of the king's proposal. Clearly, divine
communications were unmistakably distinguishable from the recipient's
own thoughts.
The divine message first negatives the intention to build a house. In 1
Chronicles a positive prohibition takes the place of the question in
verse 5, but that is only a difference of form, for the question
implies a negative answer. From David's last words (1 Chron. xxviii. 3)
we learn that a reason for the prohibition was 'because thou art a man
of war, and hast shed blood.' His wars were necessary, and tended to
establish the kingdom, but their existence showed that the time for
building the Temple had not come, and there was a certain incongruity
in a warrior king rearing a house for the God whose kingdom was in its
essence peace.
The prohibition rests on a deep insight into the nature of Jehovah's
reign, and draws a broad distinction between His worship and the
surrounding paganism. But the reason given in the text is very
remarkable. God did not desire a permanent Temple. If we may so say, He
preferred the less solid Tabernacle, as corresponding better to the
simplicity and spirituality of His worship. A gorgeous stone Temple
might easily become the sepulchre, rather than the shrine, of true
devotion. The movable tent answered to the temporary character of the
'dispensation.' The more fixed and elaborate the externals of worship,
the more danger of the spirit being stifled by them. The Old Testament
worship was necessarily ceremonial, but here is a caveat against the
stiffening of ceremonial into stereotyped formalism.
The prohibition was accompanied by gracious and far-reaching promises,
designed to assure David of God's approbation of his motive, and to
open up to him the vision of the future and the wonders that should be.
We need say little about the retrospective part of the message (verses
8, 9 a). God had been the agent in all David's past, had lifted him
from the quiet following of his sheep, had given him rule, which was
but a delegated authority. Israel was 'My people,' and therefore he was
but an instrument in God's hand, and was not to govern by his own
fancies or for his own advantage.
Every devout man's life is the realisation of a plan of God's, and we
sin against ourselves as well as Him if we do not often let thankful
thoughts retrace all the way by which the Lord our God has led us.
With verse 9 _b_ the prophecy turns to the future. David personally is
promised the continuance of God's help; then a permanent, peaceful
possession of the land is promised to the nation, and finally the
perpetuity of the kingdom in the Davidic line is promised. The prophecy
as to the nation, like all such prophecies, is contingent on national
obedience. The future of the kingdom will stand in blessed contrast
with the wild times of the Judges, if--and only if--Israel behaves as
'My people' should.
But the main point of the prophecy is the promise to David's 'seed.' In
form it attaches itself very significantly to David's intention to
build a house for Jehovah. That would invert the true order, for
Jehovah was about to build a house, that is, a permanent posterity, for
David. God must first give before man can requite. All our relations to
Him begin with His free mercy to us. And our building for Him should
ever be the result of His building for us, and will, in some humble
way, resemble the divine beneficence by which it has been quickened
into action. The very foundation principles of Christian service are
expressed here, in guise fitted to the then epoch of revelation.
But the relation of the two things, God's building and Solomon's, is
not exhausted by such considerations. The consolidation of the monarchy
in David's family was an essential preliminary to the rearing of the
Temple. That work needed tranquil times, abundant resources, leisure,
and assured dominion. So the prophet goes on to promise that David
shall be succeeded by his 'seed,' who shall build the Temple.
Further, three great promises are given in reference to David's
seed,--a perpetual kingdom, a personal relation of sonship to Jehovah,
and paternal chastisement, if necessary, but no such departure of
Jehovah's mercy as had darkened the close of Saul's sad reign. Then,
finally, the assurance is reiterated of the perpetuity of David's house
and throne. The remarkable expression in verse 16, 'established before
thee' (that is, David), if it is the true reading, suggests a hint of
the life after death, and conceives of the long-dead king as in some
manner cognisant of the fortunes of his descendants. But the Septuagint
reads 'before Me,' and that reading is confirmed by verses 26 and 29,
and by Psalm lxxxix.36 _b_.
Now it is clear that these promises were in part directed to, and
fulfilled in, Solomon. But it is as clear that the great promise of an
eternal dominion, which is emphatically repeated thrice, goes far
beyond him. We are obliged to recognise a second meaning in the
prophecy, in accordance with Old Testament usage, which often means by
'seed' a line of successive generations of descendants. But no
succession of mortal men can reach to eternal duration.
Apart from the fact that the kingdom, in the form in which David's
descendants ruled over it, has long since crumbled away, the large
words of the promise must be regarded as inflated and exaggerated, if
by 'for ever' is only meant 'for long generations.' A 'seed,' or line
of perishable men, can only last for ever if it closes in a Person who
is not subject to the law of mortality. Unless we can with our hearts
rejoicingly confess, 'Thou art the King of glory, O Christ! Thy kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom,' we do not pierce to the full understanding
of Nathan's prophecy.
All the glorious prerogatives shadowed in it were but partially
fulfilled in Israel's monarchs. Their failures and their successes,
their sins and their virtues, equally declared them to be but shadowy
forerunners of Him in whom all that they at the best imperfectly aimed
at and possessed is completely and for ever fulfilled. They were
prophetic persons by their office, and pointed on to Him.
He has built the true Temple, in that His body is the seat of sacrifice
and of revelation, and the meeting-place of God and man, and inasmuch
as through Him we are built up into a spiritual house for an habitation
of God. In Him is fulfilled the great prophecy of 'My Servant the
Branch,' who 'shall build the Temple of the Lord' and 'be a Priest upon
His throne.' In Him, too, is fulfilled in highest truth the filial
relationship. The Israelitish kings were by office sons of God. He is
_the_ Son in ineffable derivation and eternal unity of life with the
Father, and their communion is in closest oneness of will and mutual
interchange of love. In that filial relation lies the assurance of
Christ's everlasting kingdom, for 'the Father loveth the Son, and hath
given all things into His hand.'
The prophecy is echoed in many places of Scripture, and is ever taken
to refer to a single person. The angel of the annunciation moulded his
salutation to the meek Virgin on it, when he declared that her Son
'shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give
unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the
house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.'