Build a Temple
Text
Now it came about when the king lived in his house, and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains.” Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your mind, for the Lord is with you.” But in the same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, “Go and say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Are you the one who should build Me a house to dwell in?
For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day; but I have been moving about in a tent, even in a tabernacle. Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’
Commentaries
Still the ark is David’s care as well as his joy. In this chapter we have His consultation with Nathan about building a house for it; he signifies his purpose to do it and Nathan approves his purpose. His communion with God about it. A gracious message God sent him about it, accepting his purpose, countermanding the performance, and promising him an entail of blessings upon his family. A very humble prayer which David offered up to God in return to that gracious message, thankfully accepting God’s promises to him and earnestly praying for the performance of them. And, in both these, there is an eye to the Messiah and his kingdom. When the king sat in his house. The order is not chronological; for the words, Jehovah had given him rest from all his enemies roundabout, imply the successful termination, not of all wars necessarily, but certainly of something more than that with the Philistine invaders in the Rephaim valley.
A general summary of all David's wars is given and it was probably after he had subdued the Philistines and Moab, and his throne was now fully established, that in some time of peace, possibly before Hanun forced him into wars which won for him an empire, David sent for Nathan, and told him his full desire. Its position here immediately after the account of the bringing of the ark to Zion has a higher unity than that of chronology. It shows that David had always a larger purpose than the mere placing of the ark in its feint; and, as soon as a period of tranquillity arrived, he confided his thoughts to the prophet.
Thus, with only one step taken towards his whole plan, David exercised a wise moderation in leaving the service at Gibeon unmolested. As regards the word rest, we have to distinguish between the first series of wars, which established David firmly on his throne, and the second series, which gave him widespread dominion. A house of cedar; Hebrew, cedars. As these trees were sent by Hiram, and as the house was built, and David now settled in it, some considerable time must have elapsed since his accession.
Moreover, the league with Hiram would be the result of David's successes; for the bond of union between the two was their mutual fear of the Philistines. As we have seen before, the alliance with Tyre had a very civilizing effect upon the Hebrews, who were far inferior to the Tyrians in the mechanical arts; and David's house of hewn cedar logs was marvelous in the eyes of a people who still dwelt chiefly in tents.
David purposed to build even a more sumptuous palace for Jehovah, and advised with Nathan as his chief counselor and the person to whom subsequently the education of Solomon was confided. Within curtains; Hebrew, the curtain; that is, the tent. The tabernacle prepared by Moses for the ark was formed of ten curtains but the significance lay, not in their number, but in the dwelling of Jehovah still being a mere temporary lodging, though his people had received from him a settled land. David’s thought of building a temple for the honor of God. He had built a palace for himself and a city for his servants; and now he thinks of building a habitation for the ark. Thus he would make a grateful return for the honors God put upon him. When God, in his providence, has remarkably done much for us, it should put us upon contriving what we may do for him and his glory. What shall I render unto the Lord?
Thus he would improve the present calm, and make a good use of the rest God had given him. Now that he was not called out to serve God and Israel in the high places of the field, he would employ his thoughts, and time, and estate, in serving him another way, and not indulge himself in ease, much less in luxury. When God, in his providence, gives us rest, and finds us little to do of worldly business, we must do so much the more for God and our souls. How different were the thoughts of David when he sat in his palace from Nebuchadnezzar’s when he walked in his.
That proud man thought of nothing but the might of his own power, and the honor of his own majesty; this humble soul is full of contrivance how to glorify God, and give honor to him. And how God resists the proud, and giveth grace and glory to the humble, the event showed. David considered the stateliness of his own habitation. I dwell in a house of cedar and compared with that the means of the habitation of the ark, the ark dwells within curtains and thought this incongruous, that he should dwell in a palace and the ark in a tent. David had been uneasy until he found out a place for the ark and now he is uneasy until he finds out a better place. Gracious grateful souls. Never think they can do enough for God, but, when they have done much, are still projecting to do more and devising liberal things. They cannot enjoy their own accommodations while they see the church of God in distress and under a cloud.
David can take little pleasure in a house of cedar for himself, unless the ark have one. Those who stretched themselves upon beds of ivory, and were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph, though they had David’s music, had not David’s spirit nor those who dwelt in their houses while God’s house lay waste. His communicating this thought to Nathan the prophet. He told him, as a friend and confidant, whom he used to advise with. Could not David have gone about it himself? Was it not a good work? Was not he himself a prophet? Yes, but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. David told him, that by him he might know the mind of God. It was certainly a good work, but it was uncertain whether it was the will of God that David should have the doing of it. When David returned home to bless his house, as he had previously blessed the people, Michael came to meet him with scornful words, saying, How has the king of Israel glorified himself to day, when he stripped himself before the eyes of the maids of his servants, as only one of the loose people strips himself.
The unusual combination is explained in this manner, that while, so far as the sense of the clause is concerned, the second verb ought to be in the infinitive absolute, they were both written with a very slight change of form in the infinitive construct; whereas, others regard as an unusual form of the infinitive absolute. The proud daughter of Saul was offended at the fact, that the king had let himself down on this occasion to the level of the people. She availed herself of the shortness of the priests' shoulder dress, to make a contemptuous remark concerning David's dancing, as an impropriety that was unbecoming in a king. Who knows whether the proud woman did not intend to sneer at the rank of the Levites, as one that was contemptible in her eyes, since their humble service may have looked very trivial to her?
In Acts, Peter is making a commentary on this particular passage of Scripture, the word of the Lord to David. Peter tells us there that being a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up Christ to sit upon His throne. David understood that God was promising that the Messiah was going to come through his loins. It was a glorious promise of God. Nathan’s approbation of it: Go, do all that is in thy heart; for the Lord is with thee. We do not find that David told him that he purposed to build a temple, only that it was a trouble to him that there was not one built, from which Nathan easily gathered what was in his heart, and bade him go on and prosper. We ought to do all we can to encourage and promote the good purposes and designs of others, and put in a good word, as we have opportunity, to forward a good work.
Nathan spoke this, not in God’s name, but as from himself; not as a prophet, but as a wise and good man; it was agreeable to the revealed will of God, which requires that all in their places should lay out themselves for the advancement of religion and the service of God, though it seems his secret will was otherwise, that David should not do this. It was Christ’s prerogative always to speak the mind of God, which he perfectly knew. Other prophets spoke it only when the spirit of prophecy was upon them. If in anything they mistook God soon rectified the mistake. The word of Jehovah came unto Nathan. Not every word of a prophet was inspired, and only a very few of the prophets and those only upon great and solemn occasions, spoke under the direct influence of the Spirit of God. In his usual relations with the king, Nathan was simply a wise, thoughtful and God fearing man. In giving his approval he probably meant no more than that a permanent dwelling for Jehovah was what all pious men were hoping for.
But from the days of Samuel to those of Ezra, there was never wanting one or even more holy men who were, on fit occasions, commissioned to bear a message from God to man; and as these generally belonged to the prophetic order, men too often now confound prophecy with prediction. So inveterate is this confusion that even in the Revised Version Amos is made to say, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; whereas, the Hebrew distinctly is, I am no prophet, nor a prophet's son but I am a herdsman. But though not a prophet by profession, yet Amos was discharging a prophet's higher duty in testifying against wickedness and impiety, and was acting under a special Divine call.
Still, he did not belong to the prophetic order, nor wear the garment of black camel's hair, which was their professional dress. On the present occasion, Nathan, in approving, had spoken as a man, but now a Divine message comes to him. The question implies an answer in the negative; but there is no disapproval of David's purpose as such; but only the deferring of its full execution unto the days of his son. There is more than this. The idea which runs through the Divine message is that the dwelling of Jehovah in a tent was a fitting symbol of Israel's unquiet possession of the land. It was David's mission to give them tranquillity and security in the region which they had conquered long ago, but wherein they had never hitherto been able to maintain their liberty unimpaired.
Then, upon the accomplishment of David's special duty, his son, Shelomo, the peaceful, was to build the solid temple, as the proof that Jehovah had now taken permanent possession of the land. We find also a further thought, namely, that the building of the temple signified the making for David of a house. In its full significance this means that the tribe of Judah and the lineage of David were now chosen by God as the ancestors of the Messiah. I’ve walked in a tent and in a tabernacle; literally, I have walked continually; that is, I have ever been a wanderer, first, in the wilderness, and subsequently at Gilgal, Shiloh, Nob, and Gibeon. Instead of a tabernacle, the Hebrew has a dwelling.
This may refer to the houses of Abinadab and Obed-Edom, the words more probably signify a tent that was my dwelling. In all the places wherein I have walked; Hebrew, in all wherein I continued walking; that is, in all my walking, in all the whole time wherein I have been a wanderer. Instead of tribes, the Chronicler reads judges the words in the Hebrew being almost identical. Judges is, of course, the more easy and natural reading, but tribes gives a fuller sense, and is supported by all the versions.
For in the troubled anarchy which lasted until Saul's reign, first one tribe and then another was called to the front, and had a temporary ascendancy; but neither did Jehovah give it any command to provide a settled place for his worship, nor did any one of the judges conceive the thought of making his tribe permanently the chief, by providing a fixed abode for the ark and for God's worship within its borders. To feed my people Israel. The shepherd, in biblical language, is the ruler, and to feed is to govern, yet in a kindly way, going in front as the shepherd before his flock, to bear the brunt of danger, to clear the road, and to guide into the safe pastures. So tribe after tribe had been called to bear the brunt of war, and, after winning deliverance, it became its duty to guide and lead the people. In Kings and still more remarkably in we find large additions made to the account here given.
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