CHAPTER 17

(1042 B.C.)

DAVIDS DESIRE TO BUILD THE TEMPLE

¹Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the Prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD remains under curtains (David is here a Type of the Lord Jesus Christ residing in Jerusalem in the glories of the Kingdom Age; all enemies are defeated; David desires to build a house for the Lord; this pictures the beginning of the Kingdom Age, when the Lord Jesus, as a greater than Solomon will begin to build His House).

²Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in your heart; for God is with you (while the Lord definitely was with David, it was not the Will of God that David build the House; this tells us that irrespective as to who the person might be, even a Prophet such as Nathan, we must not assume that we know what God wants; we must seek His Face about everything, which Nathan did not then do).

GODS COVENANT WITH DAVID

³And it came to pass the same night, that the Word of God came to Nathan, saying (as to how the Lord spoke to Nathan, we arent told; however, the main thing is, Nathan was in such a spiritual condition that God could speak to him; regrettably, that isnt the case with most),

⁴Go and tell David My servant, Thus says the LORD, you shall not build Me an house to dwell in (the Hebrew marks the personal pronoun, you, as emphatic; you shall not build):

⁵For I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I brought up Israel (out of Egypt) unto this day; but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another (the Lord means to remind David how surely and faithfully He had shared the pilgrim lot and unsettledness of His people).

⁶Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spoke I a word to any of the Judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed My people, saying, Why have you not built Me an house of cedars? (The Lord had shared their lot, and had shared it unmurmuringly.)

⁷Now therefore thus shall you say unto My Servant David, Thus says the LORD of Hosts, I took you from the sheepcote, even from following the sheep, that you should be ruler over My People Israel (this Verse records the price of admission into this house; it is trust in the slain Lamb, by the route of humility; as well, David was a shepherd, and the Lord Jesus Christ also would be a Shepherd [Heb. 13:20]):

⁸And I have been with you whithersoever you have walked, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a name like the name of the great men who are in the Earth (God will be with those who desire to be with Him).

⁹Also I will ordain a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them anymore, as at the beginning (this is Gods unconditional Covenant with Israel; however, it must be stated that this unconditional Covenant is unconditional only in the sense that God will bring the Promises to pass irrespective; the only thing that is unconditional is the Covenant itself; to come into the blessing of the Covenant, one must meet its conditions, which is Faith in Christ and what Christ has done at the Cross; those Jews who do this will definitely dwell in the place ordained for them, which is the land of Israel; this includes all Jews who have accepted Christ before death, and all those who will accept Him at the Second Coming),

¹⁰And since the time that I commanded Judges to be over My people Israel. Moreover I will subdue all your enemies. Furthermore I tell you that the LORD will build you an house (the more complete fulfillment of this Promise awaits the coming of the Messiah [Isa. 9:6-7; Rom. 11:25-27]).

GOD PROMISES DAVID AN ETERNAL KINGDOM; HIS SON WILL BUILD THE TEMPLE

¹¹And it shall come to pass, when your days be expired that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will raise up your seed after you, which shall be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom (this has a double application, with Solomon being spoken of in the immediate present, but far more so in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of David).

¹²He shall build Me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever (the total fulfillment will be in Christ, Who will occupy this Throne in the coming Kingdom Age, and then forever).

¹³I will be his father, and he shall be My son: and I will not take My Mercy away from him, as I took it from him (Saul) who was before you:

¹⁴But I will settle him in My House and in My Kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore (the Arabs should read these words, and consider them carefully; in fact, the entirety of the world needs to read them, and to consider them carefully).

¹⁵According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.

DAVIDS PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING

¹⁶And David the king came and sat before the LORD, and said, Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my house, that You have brought me hitherto? (David now knows fully and beyond the shadow of a doubt that the Messiah will come through his lineage.)

¹⁷And yet this was a small thing in Your eyes, O God; for You have also spoken of Your servants house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree, O LORD God (even though it is not recorded in this Chapter, still, in II Sam. 7:19, David says, And is this the manner of man, O LORD God? This refers to the Promise that the Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head [Gen. 3:15]; that is, from Davids line the Messiah will come, bringing eternal Salvation and reigning as the eternal King of the Earth; this would be the highest honor that God could show any man, i.e., high degree).

¹⁸What can David speak more to You for the honour of Your servant? for You know Your servant (meaning that David in no way could merit this great and high honor, even as no Child of God can merit the high honor of Salvation freely given by the Lord Jesus Christ).

¹⁹O LORD, for Your servants sake, and according to Your own heart, have You done all this greatness, in making known all these great things (once again, David exclaims the Glory of God, which is so much greater than what he at first thought; he wanted to build a house for the Lord; instead, the Lord tells David that He will build him a house, and it will be eternal).

²⁰O LORD, there is none like You, neither is there any God beside You, according to all that we have heard with our ears (no heathen god, which, in fact, was no god at all, but rather figments of mens imaginations, could compare with this!).

²¹And what one nation in the Earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to be His own People, to make You a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations from before Your People, whom You have redeemed out of Egypt? (Israel constituted the only people on Earth who knew Jehovah, the Creator of the ages.)

²²For Your people Israel did You make Your own people for ever; and You, LORD, became their God (this meant that Israel was light-years, so to speak, above every other nation in the world).

²³Therefore now, LORD, let the thing that You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house be established for ever, and do as You have said (this has only partially been fulfilled, but definitely will be fulfilled in the coming Kingdom Age).

²⁴Let it even be established, that Your Name may be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of Hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel: and let the House of David Your servant be established before You (hence Jesus said to the woman at Jacobs well, For Salvation is of the Jews [Jn. 4:22]; it was through Israel that Jesus, the Saviour of the world, came!).

²⁵For You, O my God, have told Your servant that You will build him an house: therefore Your servant has found in his heart to pray before You (when prayers are found in the heart, they are the result of gratitude or the overflow of some desperate need).

²⁶And now, LORD, You are God, and have promised this goodness unto Your servant (God keeps His Promises!):

²⁷Now therefore let it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may be before You for ever: for You bless, O LORD, and it shall be blessed for ever (what God has blessed, nothing can curse [Num. 23:8, 20]).