Can I pray for you in any way?
Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
In Christ, Mark
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk
** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn
** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, "Here I am, living in a palace of cedar while the ark of God remains in a tent."
Nathan replied to the king, "Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it for the Lord is with you."
That night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying:
"Go and tell my servant David, 'This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build Me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as My dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”
“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over My people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. And I will provide a place for My people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over My people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.’
‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord Himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for My Name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But My love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before Me; your throne will be established forever.'"
Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.
2 Samuel 7:1-17
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In chapter 6 of 2nd Samuel, we read where David brought the ark of God to Jerusalem where he had established his throne. As chapter 7 begins, we see where David starts to conscientiously think about what he should do with the ark.
The scriptures tell us that after David “was settled in his palace”, the Lord “had given him rest from all his enemies around him” and it was during this time that he voiced a concern to the prophet Nathan saying:
“Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent."
To which the prophet replied:
“Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you."
Now, all this sounded good on the surface for there was little doubt that the ark of God should be treated with reverence and respect for the infinite holiness it represented. There was also little doubt that the Lord was with David. But there was one big problem within the exchange between David and Nathan for neither of them chose to go to the Lord directly to ask whether or not it was His will for the king to build a special structure to house the ark.
And so as we see, God came to them instead, speaking to Nathan “that night” saying:
"Go and tell my servant David, 'This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build Me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as My dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”
“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over My people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. And I will provide a place for My people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over My people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.’
‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord Himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for My Name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he will be My son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But My love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before Me; your throne will be established forever.'"
We see here where the Lord had a lot to say on the matter as He clearly laid out His desires for building the temple He would one day dwell in. If David had asked in the first place, the Lord would have told him directly but since he didn’t, God set him straight by communicating through His prophet Nathan.
We see where God first poses a question to David:
“Are you the one to build Me a house to dwell in?”
In other words, the Lord is essentially saying, “Did I tell you to build Me a house to dwell in?”
We know the answer is pretty obvious because David didn’t ask in the first place. He just assumed he could do whatever he wanted because he was the king.
Next, God underscores His point by asking David if he knew of any time that the Lord had asked any of the rulers of Israel to build him a house of cedar. Of course, the answer was “no”. He had never asked them just as He had not asked David.
So what was the Lord’s point?
He was reminding David that He would dictate what happened. Period.
And with this, David needed to always consult Him before He did anything. It would be the only way that he would make sure that the Lord’s will was being done, something he didn’t do in this case and so God provided correction.
So what was God’s will in this case?
We find Him telling David in the second and third paragraphs of His guidance.
First, it was His will to make David’s “name great…like the names of the greatest men on earth.”
Second, it was His will to “provide a place for (His) people Israel”, planting them “so that they (could) have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed”.
Third, it was His will to prevent wicked people from oppressing the Israelites “as they did at the beginning” and had done ever since the Lord appointed leaders over His people Israel.
Fourth, it was His will for David to have “rest from all (his) enemies.”
Fifth, it was God’s will to establish a house for David.
Sixth, it was God’s will to raise up offspring from David’s body to succeed him David after his days were over and he was at rest with his fathers.
Seventh, it was God’s will to establish the throne of the kingdom of David’s offspring forever.
Eighth, it was God’s will for David’s offspring to “build a house” for the Lord’s name.
Ninth, it was God’s will to punish David’s offspring “with the rod of men…with floggings inflicted by men” when “he does wrong”.
Tenth, it was God’s will that His love would “never be taken away” from David’s offspring like it had been taken away from Saul.
And finally…eleventh…it was God’s will for David’s “house and…kingdom” as well as his throne to “endure forever”.
All told, we see the Lord giving David…through Nathan…eleven assurances as He declares His will…and as we know, His will always gets done exactly as He wishes.
All this got me wondering if we are too often like David in our own lives, developing grand plans without ever consulting the Lord whether those plans are even in His will for us. If we’re honest, I think we do this all the time and it has to frustrate God as much as it did more than 3,000 years ago when he dealt with Israel’s second king.
The remedy to this problem is simple for any believer needs to go before the Lord first, each and every day, and ask what about His will. Then, we need to carry out that will without compromise, even if it deviates from what we would like to do or what we may have thought was the right thing to do.
This process is validated by the following scripture passage found in 1st John:
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him. 1 John 5:14-15
Indeed, there’s a confidence when we approach God to ask about what His will is for us. For when we know His plans for our life and go about executing those plans just as He wants, then we know that those plans will succeed because His perfect will is always going to perfectly happen.
It’s very simple.
Before doing anything, just ask God about what His will is and then wait for that will to be revealed. Rest assured, He will make it known to you…and then expect you to make it happen.
And so, I close with a question:
Have you asked God about what His will is for you today?
Know and trust that He’s standing by with an answer. All you need to do is ask.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment