SCRIPTURE: 2 Samuel 7
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
O LORD Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, `I will build a house for you.’ So your servant has found courage to offer you this prayer. [2 Samuel 7:27] In today’s reading I am struck by the fact that God says ‘no’ to David’s request to honour Him with a temple. At the same time, I see that God promises instead to build a ‘house’ for David. God has other, bigger, better plans. It was probably disappointing for David that God said ‘no’, and yet what God offers him is beyond what he could have asked or imagined. His heart spills over with amazement, humility, wonder, that God should bless him so.
Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promise. He is the promised offspring (of which Solomon, who build the first temple, was a symbol), the Son of David who establishes God’s house (kingdom) for us: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. [John 14:1-3] Like David, we can be encouraged that God is actively working for our ultimate good and blessing – even when He says ‘no’ to our particular prayers. And He does say ‘no’. More often than we like.
A parent asks God to heal their dying child; a job-seeker asks God to allow them to get the great job they applied for; a couple pleads with God for a child; a quadriplegic begs God to walk again; a single person prays and prays for a christian partner; a child cries out to God to reconcile their divorcing parents. The list goes on. Sometimes God says ‘yes’, sometimes God says ‘no’. On what basis? O some people deserve ‘yes’, others ‘no’? Are some randomly being blessed, while others are being punished?
David repeats that God is Sovereign, that He does what He determines is best. Through Nathan God assures David that though He says ‘no’, He is up to something bigger, better. Do not let your hearts be troubled… Easier said than done, when what we see around us is hard, painful, troubling. In the end, we are stuck with a choice. Trust God and hope for the best, or reject God and settle for what’s left (chance, luck, misfortune, meaninglessness, no future hope). God is great (sovereign) and God is good. He is working to bring us into eternal blessing, joy, peace; He is preparing a place with many rooms. He will come back and take us to be with Him! He promises!
PRAYER:
Lord, I have in mind how I want my life to go, how I want things to turn out. Help me to trust You when things do not go as I hope or imagine.
Be an encourager. That is what Nathan did to David. Go ahead and do it for the Lord God is with you Nathan told David as a friend because later God came to Nathan and told him to go to David.
Once again we see that God’s people are slow learners. Through Nathan God once again reminds David and me of His faithfulness and that He has brought me this far. Ebenezer. God once again promises that He is our Father and we are His sons and daughters and He will never take away His love from His people.
Thank You Lord for all what You have given me. Your blessing are new each morning. Help me to live each day in Your presence and see that You are beside me, infront of me, behind me, surrounding me by Your ever presence helping me on my way.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.