“Building a
2
David’s
time has come. He has ascended to the
throne as king over all of
But David
learned the hard way about being presumptuous of God’s power and presence. Almighty God, who is indeed present in the
ark, must not be presumed upon, taken for granted, or treated with
familiarity. The holiness of God, also
indeed present in the ark, is not readily available, and cannot be manipulated
for one’s own purpose and pleasure, no matter how innocent the motive. To come too close and touch the ark and try
to coral it, is to presume too much and impinge on God’s awesome otherness. Almighty God is not an object David can use
for his our own personal or professional enhancement or to legitimize his
kingdom. To turn the ark of God, and
therefore the power and presence of God’s very self, into a religious or
political prop, is to turn God into an idol and make a mockery of God’s holy name and majestic, sovereign rule.
David is king because it was God
who called him to be king. David is king
because it is God who anointed him and gave him the authority to rule over
God’s people. If David is to be truly a
righteous king, he must first become a faithful and obedient servant of God and
shepherd of God’s people. But the
question remains, has David learned his lesson about the power and presence of
Almighty God in his midst?
But you can
imagine how David must have felt about himself and his kingship. He has gone from being a chieftain to a king,
and through him,
So you can imagine how David felt
that day sitting on his throne in the midst of the king’s house when suddenly
it dawns on him that things are not quite right with the housing
arrangements. How does it look to have
the king living in a house of cedar, and God living in a tent out back? Well, it does not look to good, and it makes
David uncomfortable. Is this anyway to
treat Almighty God after God has done so much for David? David doesn’t think so. Surely God deserves better
accommodations. So David comes up with a
plan, a grand plan. He will build God a
house, a temple for God to live in.
After all, the God of this new ruler, this new, victorious king deserves
so much more than the humble confines of a tent.
At first
glance, what David wants to do for God seems well intentioned. This is what kings do. They build temples for their god. A temple was a sign that their god was present, that their god had sanctioned and blessed their
kingdom, their dynasty, and their political and social structure. But a temple was more than just a sign, it was the actual dwelling place of their god. A temple not only laid claim to a god’s
sanction and blessing, but it also laid claim to a god’s presence, and it made
a statement to all other kings and kingdoms that the one, true god is here, in
this place, not there in your place.
David wants to build Yahweh a
temple, and who can blame him. The ark
of God was God’s dwelling place, and it does not look good to have God’s
dwelling place out in a tent in the backyard.
What does it say to other kings and kingdoms, let alone your own people, about how powerful your god is, if your god lives in
a tent? What does it say about a king
and his kingdom? Maybe David has not
quite learned the lesson he should have learned after Uzzah
dropped dead from touching the ark of God on the way to
Eugene Peterson is a pastor, scholar, and writer, who
has a wonderful storyteller's way with words, paraphrases God’s words in a way
that makes you want to both stand up and cheer and at the same time sink down
in your seats in embarrassment for having missed the bigger picture yet
again. He writes,
“God's word to David through Nathan was essentially this:
"You want to build me a house? Forget it—I'm building you a house. The
kingdom that I am shaping here is not what you do for me but what I do through
you. I'm doing the building here, not you. I'm not going to let you confuse
things by launching a building operation on your own.
If I let you fill Jerusalem with the sights and sounds of your building
project—carpenters' hammers, masons' chisels, teamsters' shouts—before long everyone
will be caught up in what you are doing, and not attentive to what I
am doing. This is a kingdom that we are dealing with, and I am the king.
I've gotten along without a so-called 'house' for a long time now; where
did you ever come up with idea that I need or want a house?
If
there is any building to be done, I'm doing it. I've been working with you
since your shepherd days, building a kingdom—a place where salvation and
justice and peace can be realized. That is why you are here, to give visibility
and representation to what I am doing, not to call attention to what you are
doing.
We have just had one such failure in Saul, and we are not going to have
another. There will come a time when it is appropriate to build something like
what you have in mind—your son, in fact, will do it—but this is not the time.
First we have to get the concept of my sovereignty established in the
people's imagination and practice—your kingship a witness to my kingship, not
an obscuring of it. That is the house I am building—your kingship as
witness and representation of my sovereignty. First things first." (Peterson,
Eugene H. First and Second Saumel. pp. 167-168)
God’s message to David is simple
but direct – “Focus on me, for I am the one who is building the temple.” God is not going to let David strike out on
his own and start being like all the other kings of his day. God is the one in charge, and God is the one
who is doing something different with David and this new nation. It is not David who will build a temple, it
is God.
God is
building a temple not made with wood or bricks or morter, but with flesh and
bones, hearts and minds, bodies and souls.
God is building a house for God’s self, but this house will not be like
any other house on the block, it will be a house made of people, in fact a
whole nation of people, God’s own people.
God is building a temple, a dwelling place that will last forever,
because God is designing it, building it, and putting God’s own grace and love
into it.
Like
David, we too want to put our energy and imagination into building a temple for
God, a place for God to call home that we might come and worship God. We spend millions of dollars on building the
biggest and brightest churches, with cathedral ceilings and towering steeples,
all in the effort to attract attention to our particular place of worship. But are we truly building the kingdom of
God?
This
text is a great reminder not to see with near sighted eyes, but to look beyond
our place of worship, our particular church, and see the bigger picture of
God’s temple in and for the world, a temple that does not have walls or paint,
copper roofs or wood rafters, soft carpet or wooden pulpits, but a temple made
of people from every walk of life, from every race and nation on every
continent of the world, in the largest of cities to the smallest of
communities, and everywhere in between all across the globe.
In
here and out there is where you will find God building God’s household, where
you will find God at work building God’s kingdom. Just as God cannot be presumed upon,
manipulated, or coralled, neither can God be confined or boxed in to one
particulare place. God’s house is as
eternal as God’s self, a house made of people whom God has called and formed, a
house made of people sustained and nurtured by the promise of God alone, the
promise that says, “Even when you stray and are disobedient, I will not abandon
you, and I will not take my steadfast love from you. I will raise you up, and your kingdom…my
kingdom in and through you…shall be made sure forever.”
This
promise to David and to all of God’s people then is the promise that has been
fulfilled for us and for all the generations that will come after us. From this promise to David came the hope that
there would be one coming after David who would bring and reveal God’s kingdom,
right what is wrong, and establish justice and peace in the world. Through this person, the Messiah of God, the
dividing walls would be broken and the house of God would become a household, a
household of people, built together spiritually into the dwelling place for
God, a temple of the Lord not made with hands, but rather made through the work
and saving death of our risen Lord, Jesus Christ.
God
must be the one to do the building, or our best laid plans are not worth the
paper they are printed on. God must be
the one to do the building, or our best intentions are nothing more than
delusions of granduer. God must be the
one to do the building, or we do nothing more than call attention to ourselves.
But if
our mission and ministry sees God as the true builder, and we focus our work of
faith and discipleship in joining with God in God’s building project, then we
will most assuradley become a witness to God’s sovereign power and
presence, a true representation of God’s kingdom, and a visibile
expression of God’s work of grace and love in the world, and that is after
all, just what Jesus Christ called his disciples and apostles to be in the
first place.
David would hold off building a
temple, in fact it would be David’s son, Solomon, who would be a temple for
God, just as God promised. In the mean
time, David will have to wrestle with what it means to be both king and
servant, leader and shepherd, who’s life and kingship is upheld by the promise
of God’s eternal presence. But his
greatest challenge will come not from external enemies, or from his own grand
building schemes, but from his own internal crises of identity, for soon God’s
promise will be put to the test as God’s anointed and faithful king David will
find himself embroiled in the greatest scandal to befall his kingship, a
scandal involving a beautiful, married woman named Bathsheba. Amen.