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2 Samuel 7:1-25
7:1 Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 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.” 3 And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.”
4 But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? 6 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. 7 In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges1 of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ 8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince2 over my people Israel. 9 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. 10 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, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 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. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 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, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.3 Your throne shall be established forever.’” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
18 Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord GOD! 20 And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord GOD! 21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O LORD God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them4 great and awesome things by driving out before your people,17:21); Hebrew <i>awesome things for your land, before your people</i></note>">5 whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24 And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O LORD, became their God. 25 And now, O LORD God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken.
[1] 7:7
[2] 7:8
[3] 7:16
[4] 7:23
[5] 7:23
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
I invite you to go ahead and open your Bibles to 2nd Samuel 7. 2nd Samuel 7. I've been to Ireland over 14 times in my life. If you put together the time that I've spent there, it's it'll add up to a little over a year. I think it's one of the most beautiful places in all of the world.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, as you see the the rolling green hills and the sheep and the stone walls and the cliffs. But one thing I've noticed there is that many of the locals, not all of them, but many of them don't even notice it anymore. And I can remember one of the times I was there in a small town called Portrush in the, one of the northernmost parts of Northern Ireland. We're sitting at the edge of a cliff there, and we're looking at the sunset. And we're over the ocean and hearing the waves crash in on this big cliff.
Jeffrey Heine:And I'm saying what any normal person would say in a setting like that is, you know, this is beautiful. And the teenagers that I was with, they're all wearing black. They're all very drab, and they're probably also half drunk or stoned. And they kind of raised their head up a little bit, looked out, and they just said, no, it's crap. It's crap.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's because they live there, and they've seen it their whole lives, and it's lost its beauty. And I think we're in danger of that in looking at this text. It it is one of the most glorious texts in all of the Bible. One of the most beautiful texts, yet it is it's one you've heard about, one you know so well that it's kinda lost its luster. And so my prayer for us is as we are reading through this, that God would enable us to once again find what we have treated common as something beautiful.
Jeffrey Heine:Begin reading chapter 7 verse 1. 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. But that same night, the word of the lord came to Nathan.
Jeffrey Heine:Go and tell my servant David, thus says the lord, would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelled 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 the 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? Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, 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.
Jeffrey Heine:And I have been with you wherever you went, and I've cut off all your enemies 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 I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 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.
Jeffrey Heine: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 son of men. But with my steadfast love 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.
Jeffrey Heine:Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. Pray with me. God, I ask that in this moment, you would press into us the importance of this. That the truths we would hear, they wouldn't just echo around in our head, but they would find a deep root in our heart.
Jeffrey Heine:God, these are life changing words. I pray in this moment that my words would fall to the ground, blow away, not be remembered anymore. But, lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Jeffrey Heine:When we come to this text, this is the most that God has taught since Mount Sinai. And just that alone should give us some inkling as to the importance of this. It's not an exaggeration to say that this is the most crucial chapter in all of the Old Testament. Kind of the analogy that I have in my head is is what the declaration of independence is to Americans and in finding our identity. 2nd Samuel 7, this text is the document, is the passage in which we form our identity as citizens of heaven.
Jeffrey Heine:It shapes us. It shapes everything that we see and everything that we know about Jesus. You can't know the life of Jesus unless you understand what's going on in this text. For instance, his birth, when Gabriel comes to Mary to tell her that she would have a child, this is what Gabriel says to her. Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with god.
Jeffrey Heine:And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great. He will be called the son of the most high, and the lord god will give to him a throne, the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end. You can't understand Palm Sunday apart from this text.
Jeffrey Heine:When when Jesus came into Jerusalem the week before he was crucified, people were saying, Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. You cannot understand the resurrection of Jesus apart from this passage in 2nd Samuel. In Peter's first sermon he ever preached, after Pentecost, he says this. He goes, brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.
Jeffrey Heine:But being therefore a prophet and knowing that god has sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Jesus. In Paul's first sermon he ever preached, in acts 13, he says this, and as for the fact that god raised Jesus from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken it in this way. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. If you were to go to the very last words Jesus speaks to us in the bible, it's steeped in the understanding of this text. Jesus says in Revelation 22, these words, I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.
Jeffrey Heine:Surely, I am coming soon. And so Jesus' birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his coming together, all shaped by this text. You can't understand any of those events apart from what's going on here, what has been promised to David. So let's take a closer look. We saw last week that David has just been established as king over Israel.
Jeffrey Heine:He has successfully brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem that he has just made his new capital city. He went in the years after this to build him a grand palace. He's brought to Israel a time of relative peace. There's still some Philistines on the outer boundaries, and there's still going to be a few more battles to fight, but David has brought stability. And during this time, David approaches this prophet Nathan, who we're just now being introduced to.
Jeffrey Heine:He approaches him and says, hey. It's I'd like to do something for God now. Now that I'm established, now that I have my own house, my own palace, I would like to make a a a huge donation, and I would like to make God a house. And Nathan did what I can only imagine any pastor who would have somebody come up to them and, you know, open their wallet and say, I just would like to write, like, you an enormous check, if I can, for you maybe to make some facility improvements. Heck, buy an entire new place to to help support the ministry?
Jeffrey Heine:Can can I do that? And you say, do. The lord is with you. Do as as he has put in your heart. Absolutely.
Jeffrey Heine:That's what Nathan says here. But it but that same night, God spoke to Nathan and said, no. You gotta tell David no. By that that it says that same night God did this. God didn't wait any longer, and that's not how God normally acts in situations like this.
Jeffrey Heine:Usually, god lets people make mistakes. God would do things like let, king Saul, go ahead and make a sacrifice before Samuel the prophet arrived, or he would let king Saul go ahead and go into battle before he should have. Or he would let Uzzah reach out and touch the ark. Usually, he lets people go ahead and make their mistakes, but he doesn't do that here. God has to correct now, because something is going on here that is way too important for it to go on even one more day.
Jeffrey Heine:And it's this, God wanted to remind David who he was in their relationship, And that God is a God of grace. Now listen, David is going, He he has made a lot of mistakes in his life, and he's going to make a lot more mistakes in his life. He has already sinned a bunch, and he's gonna sin a whole lot more. He's He's gonna commit adultery. He's gonna commit cold blooded murder, and yet none of those sins would damage his relationship with god like this one.
Jeffrey Heine:None of them would. David doesn't see the danger here, but god sees it. Says, David, you're on a precipice. You're on a precipice, and if you cross over this line right here, you will lose all of your ability to have any kind of relationship with me. Don't cross this line.
Jeffrey Heine:And this is the precipice. The precipice is is David is now beginning to think that he can do something for god. He can now do something for him. He's beginning to believe that that now he's great enough. Now now he's good enough to finally give God something of worth.
Jeffrey Heine:David thinks he can no longer he he can now become the the giver in their relationship, and god for once can become the receiver in their relationship. And let me tell you, if you ever believe this, you lose all ability to worship god. You lose all ability to even relate to him. You can't understand him. Because we one of the first things you have to understand about God is, God is always the giver, and we are always the receiver.
Jeffrey Heine:And when David begins to reverse these roles, god has to, you know, have his DTR with him. He has to once again define the relationship. This this is how it works, David. And so he tells David, hey. Do you remember what you were doing before I got a hold of you?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you remember what you were doing before you became king? And, you know, read verse 8. In verse 8, he says, thus say to my servant David, 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. David, nobody followed you. You followed sheep.
Jeffrey Heine:You you you were a nobody, and so I got a hold of you. Now look at verse verse 9. And I've been with you wherever you went, and I've cut off all your enemies from before you. David, are are you beginning to think that maybe you killed Goliath? Are are you beginning to think that all those military victories were were from you?
Jeffrey Heine:Do you remember Goliath? He was huge. Okay. You just had a little rock. I killed Goliath.
Jeffrey Heine:I saved you from one straight arrow. I saved you from one slipped foot. It was me who gave you those victories. And then god tells David, this is how things will always be. He reminds David of everything that he has done for him, and then he looks into the future and he says, this is what I will do.
Jeffrey Heine:I will make your name great. I will give the people of Israel a place of rest. I will give you rest from your enemies. He goes, I will. I will.
Jeffrey Heine:I will. David, you do nothing. I'm gonna do everything. I love you because I'm a god of grace. I don't love you because of anything you have done or will ever do for me.
Jeffrey Heine:You see that the precipice that David was on, that the danger that he was facing was he was beginning to act like all the other kings acted when they came to power. One of the first things every king would do is that they would build their god a temple, and it would establish them firmly rooted as king over the land. And and it was kind of this tit for tat. It was, okay, god, I'm gonna build you a house, and in return, you shower blessings on me. And and if I can, you know, give you a give you a life of luxury, maybe give you lots of gifts of gold, maybe give you lots of sacrifices and stuff like that, then maybe, you know, you you could pay back the favor and you could give me some more victories in battle.
Jeffrey Heine:Maybe you can make it rain. I scratch your back, god. You scratch mine. That's what all the kings did. And that is religion.
Jeffrey Heine:That that that's how all the religion religious systems of the world operate in that you're going to scratch God's back and he's supposed to scratch yours. You do your best, You live a good life. You tithe, and then you expect God to bless you. And that is the basis of every religion, and god says, don't you dare treat me like that. Don't you dare treat me like one of those so called gods.
Jeffrey Heine:I am always the giver in our relationship. Now listen to me. You never outgrow this relationship. I know you want your kids to kind of outgrow that at times, and once you give them everything, you give them everything, and you're hoping that one day, they might clean the kitchen themselves. You you long for that day, but but but we're not we're not like that.
Jeffrey Heine:Alright? You you never outgrow this relationship. And I know it's so hard to communicate because I know as Christians, saved by grace, yada, yada, yada. I heard that a 1000 times before, and you understand it. But you also need to understand that like David, you are so tempted to want to give God a favor.
Jeffrey Heine:You're so tempted to try and reverse this because it's the default of your human heart. I know a number of missionaries who, pretty much left everything, you know, behind here, went overseas. And they did it because they thought, if I do this one great work, you know, if if I really if I sell everything and I and I go over there, then God will surely love me more. Certainly, god will love me more. Certainly, my my prayer life will deepen.
Jeffrey Heine:Certainly, I'm gonna I'm gonna feel more joy and worship if I do this this one great act. And they go there, and to their horror, as the the months go by, they realize they're the exact same person there as they were were here. If anything, their worship has gotten colder. Their prayer life has become even less heartfelt. And the reason is they thought, like David, if I if I could just do this one thing for you, god, then then you'll reciprocate.
Jeffrey Heine:Right? You'll you'll do something a little extra for me. Now listen. If missionaries can make this mistake, you can make this mistake. Okay?
Jeffrey Heine:Your relationship with god is based on grace. It's not based on any work. God loves you because of the work of Jesus, period. Not because of any work that you might do, no matter how great or no matter how small. And and this is why God has to correct David immediately.
Jeffrey Heine:He can't wait on it because he can't relate to god any other way. David can commit adultery, and he can still have a relationship with god. David can commit murder, and he can still have a relationship with god. But if David ever approaches God as being the giver, he cannot have any relationship with him. He always has to come needy.
Jeffrey Heine:Now I I realize that I am, pushing this truth on you. I I I realize that. And the the reason I'm taking time to do that is because our culture pushes every day the other direction. Your heart pushes the other direction. Shoot.
Jeffrey Heine:Many churches, many pulpits push the other direction. I think Paul was warning Timothy of this in 2nd Timothy 4 when he said for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, you gotta love that term, having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. Now, there's a lot of ways to scratch itchy ears. Most people assume that itchy ears wants nothing more than maybe this feel good easy religion that you can do whatever you want. It's really soft on sin.
Jeffrey Heine:It's really soft on works. Yet, that's not the case. That's certainly not what I've experienced, and it's not what Paul had experienced. Paul spent most of his life actually fighting people who would do any work, any single work to add to the gospel. That's what he spent his life fighting.
Jeffrey Heine:He fought the party of the circumcision. He fought legalism. Anybody who would add any notion to the gospel of grace. The itchy ears that Paul is talking about is those who want law. They crave for law.
Jeffrey Heine:They want to be told what works they could do. How can they how can they perform more to make God love them more? What great work can they do to have more intimacy with God? Those were what the itchy ears wanted. And that's why both Paul and both Jesus had their harshest rebukes for those who did the most work, for the Pharisees, the people who were so righteous they would tithe even of their herbs, and Jesus would rebuke them.
Jeffrey Heine:When Paul preached the gospel, so often people responded this way. They would say, so what you're saying then, if I understand this right, is I can do whatever I want. I can just keep on sinning that grace may abound. Is that what you're saying? And then Paul, he would have to correct that.
Jeffrey Heine:That's not what I'm saying, but he preached grace so much, so much, that's what people often took away from it. Now, I hear more and more sermons, especially from the Bible Belt, which are so works oriented that it leaves people with the opposite question. Question totally foreign to Paul. Questions like, what radical thing must I now do in order to prove that I love god? Tell me what it is I have to do, and I'll do it.
Jeffrey Heine:I have heard from the pulpit pastor saying that we need to establish God's kingdom, that we need to get out there, we need to do works because we are kingdom builders. Matter of fact, I think there was even a VBS one time called Kingdom Builders. But hear me, Jesus never never says that we build the kingdom. He never talks about us establishing the kingdom, furthering it, building it, extending it. Jesus never uses that language.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the language that he uses when he talks about the kingdom. He says we are to wait for it. We are to see it. We are to enter it. We are to seek it.
Jeffrey Heine:We are to receive it. Once again, when it comes to the kingdom, god does it all. He's the giver. We are the receiver. I hope you are asking the question right now.
Jeffrey Heine:So are you saying we don't have to do any works? Are you saying we could just live however we wanna live? Sin so that grace might abound. No. If that's what what you think, then you you don't understand grace because grace changes you.
Jeffrey Heine:It it changes you and it brings you to a place where you're gonna joyfully serve the Lord. This is the middle picture I have. You know, picture a picture a father telling a child, I want you to sing for me. And if you sing good enough for me, you're gonna earn my love. So sing.
Jeffrey Heine:Child's gonna try pretty hard. Picture another child in which the father says, I love you unconditionally. No matter how you perform, no matter what you do, you will never ever lose my love, and I can never love you anymore, would you sing for me? That's the song that you want to hear. Not a song that's sung in order to win love, but a song that is sung because it has been loved.
Jeffrey Heine:Because you have received. And when you have received grace like this, you understand that god is the one who god is the one who gives. It frees you to serve in a way that the law never could. You'll actually be doing more. You'll be singing more.
Jeffrey Heine:You'll be giving more. You'll be serving more than you ever thought possible. Grace will set you free. Well, that's pretty big. The next thing that god says is staggering.
Jeffrey Heine:There's simply no way I can do justice to it. It's actually kind of liberating. No. At this point, I'm going to fail as a pastor because I cannot do justice to this. God tells David, you wanna build me a house?
Jeffrey Heine:You want to build me a house? This is how it's gonna work. I build you a house. You don't build me a house, And I'm gonna establish a dynasty through you. I'm gonna build you a house.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm gonna build you a kingdom that will never ever end. And notice when you read through that covenant that god gives with David, there is no if. It's not if you do this, if you do this, then I will establish it. There is no if. There is no condition.
Jeffrey Heine:It's I am going to do this for you. You do nothing, I do everything. And this is so unexpected. It's so staggering because, I mean, David, he's he's he's approaching god with this desire. Okay.
Jeffrey Heine:I really I wanna build you a temple. I really wanna do this good thing for you. And god says, uh-uh. I'm gonna build you a house that sin can't destroy, that that your your your life, death can't destroy, that time can't destroy. This kingdom will never end.
Jeffrey Heine:God says that death cannot destroy this kingdom because god's gonna raise up a descendant of David to sit on the throne. He says sin cannot destroy this kingdom because if any one of your sons sin, I'm gonna treat him like my son, and I'm gonna discipline him. I'm gonna correct him. I'm gonna bring him back. Okay?
Jeffrey Heine:And time's not gonna destroy this because there's going to be no end to this kingdom. It is going to last forever. And, of course, we understand in this, we see Jesus so clearly so clearly Because all these things are ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, David's descendant, who who forever defeats both sin and death and rules forevermore, Jesus. And that's why every Christmas, you know, we bring out Isaiah 9, and we love to sing it or to say it. For to us, a child is born.
Jeffrey Heine:To us, a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. And of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. David's just a little tiny player on the world stage.
Jeffrey Heine:Okay? He's just a little king and a new little kingdom here. He's a he's a nobody, and then god gives him this. I'm trying to think of examples, and once again, I said I would fail. This is the example that, you know, came to my mind.
Jeffrey Heine:It's like one of my children coming up to me and saying, God, I or God. That's all they have taught them to talk to me. Coming up to me and saying, dad, I know you've been working really hard, and so, I made you this coupon. It's good for 1 free back rub for 5 minutes, and I'd say, thanks, but how about instead I take you to Disney World for a month? It's kind of unexpected.
Jeffrey Heine:Kind of blows their mind. There's not really a category that they can even process. That's what's happening to David here. He goes to god, I'm gonna build you this little son's son. Uh-uh.
Jeffrey Heine:Dynasty forever. Once again, this sets Christianity apart from every other religion because no other religion has a hope like this. This isn't some pie in the sky, you know, kind of hope. This isn't a, you know, someday our souls are going to go off into the clouds and somehow live forever. This is the hope of a real kingdom with a real king who will reign forever and ever.
Jeffrey Heine:This is a real hope that you you you can put your whole life on. You can hang your whole life on this hope. You know, every year or every 4 years when we have all these elections, the people get so worked up over who's gonna be the next ruler of the free world. Like all our hopes and dreams are anchored on that. It's not.
Jeffrey Heine:This is where we anchor our hopes and dreams. Those those presidents, those kings come, go. Kingdoms come, go. But this lasts forever. This is hope.
Jeffrey Heine:And living in light of this hope allows us to endure any hardship that comes our way. It allows us to do things like forgive our enemies or bless those who persecute us because we know that someday, we will have no enemies. Someday, we will have no one who persecutes us. It allows us to be free with our possessions because we know that someday, we're gonna live in a kingdom in which we will never know what. It allows us to be free with our time because we know that someday we're going to live in a kingdom that never ever ends.
Jeffrey Heine:This is a hope that changes everything. Let me end this way. In light of this this covenant, this passage we read, a lot of being reminded that we worship a God who is always the giver. And being reminded that one day, we will have a king come and establish his joyful rule over all the earth forever. I want you to hear again the the passage that we started the service with, Isaiah 55, which talks about how we approach God.
Jeffrey Heine:We come with empty hands. Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. He who has no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Jeffrey Heine:Listen diligently to me. Eat what is good. Delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear. Come to me.
Jeffrey Heine:Hear that your soul may live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Pray with me. Our father, you are always the giver. Every good and perfect gift comes from you. We always are the receivers.
Jeffrey Heine:And the reason you set it up that way is because the giver is always the one glorified. So, god, we say give. Thank you for your never ending luxurious grace that has been lavished on us. May that free us to serve and free us to sing. May this be a rock.
Jeffrey Heine:May your covenant with David be the rock on which we build our lives. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus, our present and our future king. Amen.