It is perfectly logical that once David had the Ark of God
on location in Jerusalem, he then desired to build a temple in which to house
it. It was a wholesome intent (I Kings 8:18), but despite the prophet's
acquiescent attitude toward the idea, God vetoed it because of the nature of
David's calling (I Chronicles 17:4-6). David was a man of war (I Chronicles
22:7-8). Now, despite God's
unwillingness to allow David to construct a temple in His name, He was not
displeased with the young king (I Kings 8:18). In fact, He allowed David to
collect all the necessary materials in preparation for the building of a temple
and then permitted David's son Solomon to erect the edifice.
When David offered to build God a house, God turned things
around on David and promised to build him a house instead and to build a house
for the whole nation of Israel. Of
course, God truly did not need a temple anyway. All of heaven can’t contain
Him. God seeks after us, invites us,
pursues us, persuades us, prepares us, convicts and convinces us… and, when we
finally respond with an offer to serve Him, we always end up discovering that
He is the giver, not us. God built David a house instead of letting David build
Him one. The gospel is truly about what God has done, is doing, can do and will
do for us; not the other way around.
No comments:
Post a Comment