2 Samuel 7:1-17

We do study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.

This morning is no different.

And if you would like a copy to follow along with, raise your hand high and someone will get you a copy.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I see that hand.

Sorry, little kind of a pastoral joke.

Shh.

So before we get into our text, let's kind of do a quick fly-up to cruising altitude and kind of get an overview, remind us of where we've been in this study of 2 Samuel, what we call the story of unlikely redemption.

Remind us it's a historical narrative.

It's describing what is happening at this hinge point in the history of God's people.

And we'll probably use that phrase, hinge point defining moment, several times today.

Remember that the kingdom of Israel, it's no longer divided.

The southern kingdom of Judah, the northern kingdom of Israel, they've all come together, they've united.

David has been anointed and crowned king of this united kingdom.

So the shepherd boy is now king.

And as Jim taught us last week, the Ark of the Covenant now resides, rests in Jerusalem in fulfillment of some of these promises made by God to Abraham in Genesis 12 and 17 and to Moses in Exodus 19 and 29.

Promises of a land for his people to dwell in.

And as we'll talk a bunch today, promises of a God who would dwell among them.

We're going to hear that word dwell a bunch of times today.

And we'll also read about in this passage pivotal hinge point, God is making a covenant with David, and it's going to point forward towards its fulfillment in Christ Jesus.

God's covenant is his promise, his word to his people, which includes you and me, and it's a way for us to live in light of those promises, God's initiative and our response.

Our God is a God who keeps his promises, who is faithful and trustworthy down through history.

Our hope lies in Him and only Him.

When He calls, we can respond with assurance that He is really there, that He is faithful and true.

Amen.

So last Friday, this past Friday, we had our staff retreat, and I've got to tell you, it's not to sound Pollyanish, but gosh, it doesn't feel like work working with these people.

We truly love and enjoy each other so much.

Everybody has such uh diversity of gifts that they joyfully bring to the table to serve together.

Um just love, love this staff, and that of course kind of you know works its way down from management from headquarters, so to speak, and Jim and Kim are kind of the you know the reason for that.

Uh the Lord working through them.

So we had our staff retreat, and Jim started the day with this great devotional talking about um defining moments in our lives and down through history, moments that alter our lives in one way or another, hinge points.

Typically, you know, we see these most clearly in retrospect.

Uh if any of you are parents, and I know a number of you are, you see this with your kids too.

Like your kid is in this certain season, and just about the time you got it figured out, you realize, oh, they're on to a new season.

That season was six months ago.

So we see our hinge points a lot of time in retrospect.

But think about these defining moments in your life.

You know, it could be when you came to faith.

Um, it could be sometime during during your years you've had uh death of a family member or a traumatic accident or illness, things that have affected your life moving forward in one way or another, and sometimes that effect is actually giving you a renewed sense of life and the graciousness and goodness of the Lord.

Um I remember being on a band tour in the fall of 1989, and uh there was this cute girl from the record company that was out for a weekend, several of the people from the office were out, and she rode the bus with us from LA down to San Diego, and before the show in San Diego, we were all throwing the football around, and man, this girl could throw a football.

She had she had a couple of brothers who were football players, and uh that cute girl and I are gonna be married uh 29 years this November.

Um and and then Jim alluded to this other, I was gonna put this pivotal point down too.

I remember in the spring of 1990 playing with the band at this club called the Cockeyed Camel, and there was this duo that opened up for us, this sweet little couple that came up to me.

I was like, hi, I'm Jim.

I'm Kim.

We wondered if you'd like to be in our band.

And it's a pivotal moment, dude.

We've been known each other for 30 years now.

And think of the Lord of the Rings.

You know, that that first Lord of the Rings movie, the the band, that band of people has gathered together at Rivendale and they're trying to figure out, arguing loudly, who's gonna take the ring to Mordor and get rid of the evil once and for all.

And there's little Frodo that kind of walks up and very quietly amidst all of this strife and says, Oh, I'll go, I'll go.

And that changed everything in the movie.

So we all have these hinge points.

And in our text today, we're gonna see some of those.

We're gonna see this pivot point for all of humanity in the history of God's work to bring about the new renewal of all things.

We know that all things aren't the way they are supposed to be, not yet.

But in our text, we're gonna see a future promised by God through David in his line, a kingdom that God says he's establishing forever.

Forever kingdom, and a forever king named Jesus, who will care for and shepherd his people forever.

That's you, and that's me.

Grateful for it.

And we're gonna see uh some repeated phrases and key words.

I don't have a slide for this, but just in this relatively short passage, let's kind of put that in the back of your head on the back burner.

We should pay attention to these.

God uses these words so often, they're important.

Uh we see the word rest a couple of times.

We're gonna see these phrases, and you will see a slide about this later.

These phrases that God uses constantly.

I will, I have done this, I will do this, you shall be this.

18 or 20 times, you're gonna see the word house eight times.

That means something.

You're gonna see the word build several times, the word eternal and forever several times, the word dwell or dwelling five, six, seven times.

That really means something in our text.

And then uh, Audrey I've got this slide if you could bring it up.

We're not gonna read through these verses, but just take a look.

These are some of the many scripture references to God's covenant with David and its ultimate fulfillment in Christ.

Uh, especially, I'll try and read read this one later.

Let me see if I can get it up.

Luke 1, 31 through 33, when Gabriel comes to visit Mary and tell her about carrying God's child.

It's such a great verse, and these promises God is carrying down through history.

So let's pray together and then let's dive into our text.

Heavenly Father, we are grateful for your word, grateful for your promises, grateful that you have had this plan before the foundation of the world, for our salvation, for a plan to make it possible for us to dwell with you, for you to dwell with us, and that your grace enables us to do that.

Pray that in Jesus' name, amen.

So, why don't you follow along with me as we get into our text?

I'm gonna read from the ESV version.

So, starting verse 1, 2 Samuel chapter 7.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

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.

So it's a time of rest.

For the time being, David, through the grace of God, he had been crowned king, united the country, and over united Israel, he had secured their borders, and there was peace and rest from their enemies.

And we're introduced for the first time in this chapter today to the prophet Nathan, that we haven't heard anything about yet, but he's he's gonna play a pivotal role in David's life, as we'll see in the upcoming chapters.

And we learn that David is living in his palace of cedar, luxurious, to be sure.

And Jim taught about this, I think it was chapter five.

Hiram the king of Tyre brought all of these laborers and materials and built this palace for David.

And so you can kind of picture David and Nathan sitting out on the portico of David's palace one evening, looking out over all the terraces, and uh kind of enjoying maybe some kind of beverage of some kind, I don't know.

And David brings up this idea he's been mulling over.

He's been thinking about this for a while, and he tells Nathan, look, here I am living in this luxurious palace, and the Ark of the Living God is out there living in a tent.

Dude, that is messed up.

And Nathan, kind of, since he knows David well, knowing what David wants to do, says, Do it, the Lord is with you.

And I think David's motives were probably in the right place here.

He's aware of all that the grace of God has done for him and for the country of Israel for his people, and he wants to respond and do the right thing.

He wants to do the honorable thing.

It sounds like a great idea, doesn't it?

He's responding out of gratitude.

But there's something really important missing here that we hear of at other times in David's life.

Neither David nor Nathan, neither one of them inquires of the Lord about if this is something that God wants David to do.

Nathan gave a general blessing to his friend who was the king and who generally is a man after God's own heart.

The Lord was with him, but in all this talk, they left God out of the conversation.

It's a typical guy response.

Ready, fire, aim.

You know, I do that all of the time.

It's all decided on very quickly.

You know, hey, what do you think about this?

Great, get going, let's do it, let's get started.

All very quick, all very decisive, and not right.

Not the right time, not the right person to do the job.

Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline says, in contemporary society, our adversary majors in three things noise, hurry, and crowds.

And I gotta tell you, when I read that, I was like, hmm, I sure fall prey to those three little three things.

And it's this is not really the biggest point of the text, but we do well to stop and inquire of the Lord.

Jim says this a lot.

Whenever we're stewarding God's resources, whether it's it's people, money, time, you know, when something has an effect on our lives, on our family, on our friends, we would do well to inquire of the Lord.

Is the God we serve faithful and trustworthy?

Absolutely, he is.

And it's good for us to inquire, to check in as we seek to walk a walk of faith in relationship with God.

It's healthy to check in.

So David and Nathan don't do that.

They intend to move forward, but that very night God intervenes just as quickly.

So let's pick back up with verse four.

But that same 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 all 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?

Well, what we have here is an immediate course correction from the Lord, right?

That same night, that same night, you know, David and Nathan are talking.

Nathan goes home to his house and he's getting ready for bed, and before he can even fall asleep, bam, there's this vision, this word from the Lord, oh, okay, this is not the right thing.

So he's gonna go back and tell David about this.

There could be a little bit of playfulness maybe in God's response to David.

Okay, man of flesh and blood, are you gonna build me, the creator of the universe, a house?

Okay, cool.

We've got to see this.

But in a sense, you know, every question God asks us is rhetorical, is hypothetical, because he already knows the answer.

But God is reminding David that he does not need human hands to accomplish his purposes.

It's a grace and a gift when God allows us to do things for us and invites us to do things for us, but he doesn't need human hands to accomplish his purposes.

This is the God that created the universe out of nothing.

Continuing on, though, but look how how God frames that first question that he asked David.

And all joking aside, he says, I haven't lived in a house to this day.

From when I rescued Israel out of bondage in Egypt, to this day I haven't lived in a house.

I've lived in a tent.

Everywhere I've gone, it's always been on the move.

And I've never asked anyone before you to build me a house of cedar.

So what is God getting at?

He's reminding David that the whole reason for the ark being designed to be carried on poles and to be kept in a tent is to be portable.

And why is that?

Because the main point is to dwell with his people wherever they wander.

And that's why the ark was carried on poles.

Loved ones, God's desire is, he's desire is for us to dwell with us, to have relationship with us.

Look at the pattern of dwelling, of God dwelling with his people.

In the garden, we read in Genesis chapter 3, God walked in the garden in the cool of the day, and he was looking for Adam and Eve because he dwelled with them there.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And in the ark wherever Israel went, God went.

And in the incarnation, Emmanuel, God with us, in the crucifixion, in the resurrection, God's glorious master plan is to create a way to dwell with us.

Further out in the future, the forever dwelling of the new heavens and the new earth.

The Almighty creator of the universe wants to be in relationship with us, with you and with me.

And that's an amazing thing, and that's something to think about tomorrow morning when you're getting your socks and shoes on.

So back to our verse text, verse eight.

Now therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, God talking to Nathan, 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.

There's that word again, I will give you rest from all your enemies.

Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.

There's so much grace in this passage, especially from verse 8 out to the end of verse 17.

God is gently reminding David, look where I brought you from, from following sheep around in a pasture to becoming king, living in a palace, and leading my people Israel.

He's reminding David that he's always been with him.

And verse 9, let's read that again.

Does that remind you of anything?

Where he says, And I will make for you a great name like the name of the great ones of the earth.

That's almost verbatim what God told Abraham in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

He says, I will make of you a great nation, and I will make your name great.

Why?

So that you will be a blessing.

God says in the very next verse that He's planting Israel in their own place, so they may settle in, they may dwell.

There's that word again, they may dwell in safety, they may be free from violent men.

God is blessing David in order that David can be a blessing by leading Israel and leading God's people.

God finishes this part again, this set of verses again by saying again, He'll give David rest, rest from his enemies, and that he will build David a house, not the other way around.

You guys, this is grace upon grace upon grace.

After God asks David that first question in verse 5, then he speaks so tenderly to David, not out of shame, like, why didn't you ask me?

Shame on you, why didn't you ask me before you started this house, this temple project?

And he doesn't speak out of belittling like that's the stupidest idea I've ever heard.

You'll never build a good enough house for me.

No, he speaks out of nothing but grace.

I will, I will, I will.

I have done this, I will do this for you, I will do this for your descendants.

Grace doesn't demand performance, satisfaction or proving oneself.

Grace says, I will do for you.

Grace says, you want to build me a temporary structure of sticks and stones, but instead I invite you to rest.

And I will build you a permanent house, a permanent relationship, a permanent kingdom.

Loved ones, God's goodness to us is not dependent on anything we can do for Him.

He's truly the God of all grace.

Amen.

Paul Miller says this about our need for dependency, which goes against how we want to live.

We don't want to live dependent on the Lord.

But this is what Paul Miller says.

We have an allergic reaction to dependency, but this is the state of the heart most necessary for a praying life.

A needy heart is a praying heart.

Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer.

That's what God is calling us to.

He's calling us to live lives dependent on Him, yielded to Him.

So let's get back to our text.

Verse 12.

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.

When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men.

But my steadfast love, my chesed, 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 all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

Nathan was faithful to speak to David out of what God told him.

So God's grace continues, doesn't it?

Not only has he watched over David in the past, he's watching over him in the present, and he's going to watch over the past.

David and his line in the future.

He's promising David this house, which now doesn't just mean a house, a dwelling place, a palace, but it means a dynasty, a kingdom that will last forever.

He's graciously giving the job of building a house for his name to David's son, letting David know that the idea wasn't terrible.

It just was being saved for someone else to do.

And he's promising a covenantal relationship with David's son, a father-son relationship that's not based on performance.

God knows that an earthly king will not be perfect.

God will treat him as a son and discipline him when necessary.

But God's faithful, loving kindness will not depart from David's son.

And look at God's final promises, the last couple of verses of our passage today.

Your throne will be made sure forever before me, not made sure forever, you know, in terms of a country or a people group, but the validity and the life of this kingdom is under the permanent watchfulness of God.

Think about this.

All of these promises that God has made to David that find their permanent future fulfillment in Christ.

All of these promises He made to David, knowing full well the poor choices that David is going to make in the future.

And the same goes for all of us.

It goes for you and for me.

God's grace and goodness to us, it's not based on anything we can do for him.

It's not based on our performance.

There are two kingdoms, two thrones in play here, especially at the end of the passage.

Obviously, we know from our vantage point that the near fulfillment of these promises is through David's son Solomon.

And speaking of God's grace, this is Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba.

Bathsheba, who was the wife of another man, a heroic soldier in David's army that David purposely had killed so he could have his wife.

Their son Solomon is the son of David that God graciously allows to build him a house for his name.

There's a greater king in a greater kingdom here, Jesus Christ, the true hope we all hope for, who is the forever king promised by God.

Amen.

What a great passage this is.

And Tommy and I have had so much fun working on this together.

And we've got a few points that kind of stuck out to us.

Points that I hope we can carry around this week in our back pockets next to our iPhones.

And we we uh have borrowed some from Dale Ralph Davis, who has written a commentary on 2 Samuel called Out of Every Adversity, that's amazing.

Um, Dale Ralph, thank you for ideas.

So what can we glean from this passage?

There's four things that I hope we can walk out of here, remember.

Trust the wisdom of God, which is easy to say and it's hard to do.

Sometimes God answers, no, not yet, or not you.

How do we respond?

Are we living a life yielded to God?

Can we adjust to his course correction?

Because it will come for sure.

When he says no, or when he says, not yet, be patient, or when he says, great idea, but not you're not the guy to do it, are we able to adjust?

Proverbs 16, 9 says, the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

And as the message says, I love the way Eugene Peterson says it, we plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it.

And Francis Chan has this, says it this way in the form of a prayer, which I love.

He says, God, interrupt whatever we are doing so that we can join you in what you're doing.

I love that.

Hold loosely on our plans.

Because God might have something different and better that he's really wanting to accomplish.

So, how else can we trust the wisdom of the Lord?

By making a habit out of inquiring of the Lord, and this means spending time with him apart from God help, which is a great time to spend time with God, but it's also great to spend time with him apart from panic and apart from having a to-do list that you're hoping he'll get done for you by five o'clock.

What was David's response to God's course correction?

Well, look how he said it in Psalms 25, verses 4 and 5.

Psalms 25:4

Show me your ways, O Lord.

Teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me.

For you are God my Savior, my hope is in you all day long.

That's where we should live.

Have all our ideas, all our energy, all our dreams, all the things we want to do, but live a life of saying, Show me your ways, O Lord.

And how can we discern God's will and direction using what we call the four-legged table of discernment, which involves a lot of listening.

You can catch the theme?

Listen and obey the written word, Scripture.

Listen and heed wise counsel of godly men and women who are in your life.

Listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Pray, pray, pray.

Pay attention to the flow of circumstances and common sense.

Wayne Gruden says this about God's wisdom.

God's wisdom means that God always chooses the best goals and the best means to those goals.

Human reason must remain humble before divine revelation.

So we trust in the wisdom of God.

What else can we do?

Marvel at the humility of God.

Man, I hope you guys think and ponder about this this week.

Eric Raymond says this about the humility of Christ.

The depth of his humility is infinite because he stepped down from his heaven's throne.

He is God.

But also he stepped down to serve one like me, one who rang up an eternal debt with an infinite price tag, and Christ with his infinite value earned for sinners this everlasting righteousness.

God shows us his humility in this passage because he condescends to dwell with his people, to be with them wherever they go.

He chooses to dwell with us always in the garden, in the ark, in the incarnation.

Psalm 139 says, Where shall I go from your spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence?

Wherever you go, God is there.

The ark is meant to move for a reason.

So God's character, it's on full display in this passage, points forward to Christ's condescension, the putting on of the cloak of human flesh and blood, and being obedient unto death, even death on a cross, which we read about in Philippians chapter 2 a few months ago.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

So we marvel at the humility of God, and then we receive the grace of God.

God is always the initiator.

Think of the Father, and this could actually go with the second point too, marvel in the humility of God.

Think of the Father in the parable of the prodigal son.

He's out watching for his wayward son to come home, and he sees him far off.

And the dad wraps his cloak around his knees and binds it up so he can run fast, which would be a socially humiliating thing back then.

And he runs as fast as he can to greet his son.

That's God's grace.

That's what he does for us.

Ephesians chapter 2 tells us that same thing a little bit different way.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Grace comes to meet us in our deepest need and receives us just as we are.

So we're not going to go through this, but look at this slide.

It's the list of all of God's graciousness in this passage.

All of these I have and I will statements.

This first section, look at all of God's past grace that He did for David, all the I have statements.

And then look at all God's I will statements about the present and the near future for David in Israel.

I will, I will, I will.

And then there's yet even more for future generations in the far future.

Like I said, there's something like 20, 22 I will statements in this passage.

God's grace is endless.

Brian Chappell in his book Holiness by Grace says this.

Grace overwhelms us with God's love, and as a result, our heart resonates with the desires of God.

His purposes become our own.

Our soul delights in his service as love for him and thanksgiving for his mercy make us long to honor him.

True grace produces joy and promotes godliness.

Amen.

So we trusted in the wisdom of God.

We marvel at his humiliation.

We receive his grace.

And what is there left for us to do?

Rest.

Rest in his promises of God.

You know, Matthew, in, or Jesus in Matthew, what is it, 1128, I think?

What does he say about rest?

He says, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

He doesn't say, Come to me and I'm going to give you more work to do.

He doesn't say, come to me, and if you've done enough work, then I'll receive you.

No, he says, Come to me and I will give you rest.

We can fully rest in the promises of God because even better than the promise is the one who makes the promise and the one who keeps the promise.

Death does not annul the promises of God.

Jesus' resurrection defeated the final enemy, which is death.

Death has no power over Jesus.

Sin has no power over Jesus.

Sin cannot destroy the promises of God.

You've got to remember that.

Sin, you are not defined by your sin.

You are defined by God's love for you, by being God's beloved.

Micah 7.19 tells us, He will again have compassion on us.

He will tread our iniquities underfoot.

You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Jesus has the last word on sin.

And time will not exhaust the promises of God, because the one who makes the promise is also the one who made time and space, and he has power over it.

Hebrews 10, 12, and 14 says, When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

It's you and that's me.

I'm grateful for it.

Our last quote, Spurgeon says, A promise of God is the essence of truth, the soul of certainty, the voice of faithfulness, and the substance of blessing.

Let's pray, church.

Oh, Heavenly Father, your graciousness knows no end.

We are so grateful that your desire is to dwell with us.

You have made it plain that you are willing to do anything it takes to create a way for you to dwell with us and for us to dwell with you.

We are grateful for your son Jesus who has made that way possible.

Grateful for your word, and we ask that we could receive it and that it will do some good work in us in the coming week.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.