CHAPTER 7

(1042 B.C.)

THE TEMPLE

¹And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest roundabout from all his enemies (this pictures the Lord Jesus Christ in a posture of absolute Lordship; the great Plan of Redemption has been won at Calvary, and He today is sat down at the right hand of the Father [Heb. 1:3]; every enemy has been defeated, and He did it all for us; consequently, it is the Will of God for us as Believers to have victory over every enemy of our soul; this can be done only by and through what Christ did at the Cross, and our Faith in that Finished Work);

²That the king said unto Nathan the Prophet (here Nathan the Prophet first appears; he will figure prominently in Davids life), See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the Ark of God dwells within curtains (it was in a tent).

³And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in your heart; for the LORD is with you (at the moment, Nathan did not seek the Lord; consequently, his answer was rash and, thereby, wrong!).

GODS COVENANT WITH DAVID

⁴And it came to pass that night, that the Word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying,

⁵Go and tell My servant David, Thus says the LORD, Shall you build Me an house for Me to dwell in? (There is no disapproval of Davids purpose as such; but only the deferring of its full execution unto the days of his son, Solomon. But 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 Israels unsure possession of the land. In fact, they had conquered the land a long time before, but had never been able to maintain their liberty unimpaired. David would rectify that.)

⁶Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the Children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a Tabernacle.

⁷In all the places wherein I have walked with all the Children of Israel spoke I a word with any of the Tribes (Judges) of Israel, whom I commanded to feed My people Israel, saying, Why build you not Me an house of cedar? (For a proper House for the Lord to be built, proper leadership must first be established leadership that would properly feed the people. To properly feed is to properly govern. David was the first one to fit this bill, so to speak; therefore, the plans would be given to him, but not the right to actually build. That would go to Solomon.)

⁸Now therefore so shall you say unto My servant David, Thus says the LORD of Hosts, I took you from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My People, over Israel (now the Lord tells David that admittance into this House will be by the way of humility and the shed blood, hence, the sheep):

⁹And I was with you wheresoever you went, and have cut off all your enemies out of your sight, and have made you a great name, like unto the name of the great men who are in the Earth. (The widespread conquests of David, and his great empire, were not for the sake of mere Earthly dominion. It was, first of all, a Type of Messiahs reign, to Whom God has promised the heathen for His Inheritance, and that His Gospel shall be carried to the ends of the Earth [Mk. 16:15].)

¹⁰Moreover I will appoint a place for My People Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them anymore, as beforetime (in Genesis, Chapter 15, God promised the land to Abrahams Seed. In this Chapter, He promises the Throne to Davids Seed. The Seed is Christ; and, therefore, in each instance the Covenant is unconditional, for there can be no failure on Christs part),

¹¹And as since the time that I commanded Judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the LORD tells you that He will make you an house. (In Genesis 49:10, through Jacob, the Lord promised that the Messiah would come from the Tribe of Judah. And now, He selects the family in Judah which will bring forth the Messiah, and David is clearly chosen. David had thought to build the Lord a house, but, instead, the Lord tells him that He [the Lord] will build David a house.)

¹²And when your days be fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish His Kingdom (this speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ).

¹³He shall build an house for My Name, and I will stablish the Throne of His Kingdom for ever (as stated, this is an unconditional Promise; it will most definitely come to pass).

THE THRONE ESTABLISHED FOREVER

¹⁴I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men (this pertains to Solomon and those who would follow after him in the lineage of David, through whom the Messiah would come, which pertains to the first phrase of the Verse):

¹⁵But My Mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you (this means that whatever happened, the Messiah would come through the lineage of David).

¹⁶And your house and your kingdom shall be established for ever before you: your throne shall be established for ever (and so shall it be in Christ, and will be established at the Second Coming).

¹⁷According to all these Words, and according to all this Vision, so did Nathan speak unto David (no doubt, we only have a small portion here of what Nathan actually said, but yet the full ingredients).

DAVIDS THANKSGIVING TO GOD

¹⁸Then went king David in, and sat before the LORD, and he said, Who am I, O LORD God? and what is my house, that You have brought me hitherto? (The magnitude of all this overwhelms David, as well it should! Gods Thoughts are always so much bigger than our thoughts.)

¹⁹And this was yet a small thing in Your sight, O LORD God; but You have spoken also of Your servants house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O LORD God? (While there is no direct reference here to the Messiah in Davids words, yet the Psalms indicate that he did connect the duration of his house with the Messiahs Advent [Ps. 2:8; 89:27]. In effect, he was saying, So this is the manner in which You will redeem man. You will do so by God becoming Man, fulfilling Genesis 3:15.)

²⁰And what can David say more unto You? for You, LORD God, know Your servant (LORD God, in the Hebrew, is LORD Jehovah, signifying Covenant relationship).

²¹For Your Words sake, and according to Your Own Heart, have You done all these great things, to make Your servant know them (from this statement we know that David knew that the Lord had chosen him for this great honor, not because He saw something good in David, but because of the good within Himself).

²²Wherefore You are great, O LORD God: for there is none like You, neither is there any god beside You, according to all that we have heard with our ears (until we see God as David did, in His Mercy and Grace, we really do not know Him).

²³And what one nation in the Earth is like Your people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to Himself, and to make Him a name, and to do for You great things and terrible, for Your land, before Your people, which You redeemed to Yourself from Egypt, from the nations and their gods? (Israel both was and remains to this day a Nation unique in its history, both in those early dealings of God with it, and also in its later history, and even its marvelous preservation unto this day.)

²⁴For You have confirmed to Yourself Your people Israel to be a people unto You forever: and You, LORD, are become their God. (Until Jesus came, the people of Israel, with the exception of a few proselytes, were the only people on Earth who truly knew God. Even though Israel rejected her Messiah, and has suffered terribly, the prediction by the Prophets, and especially by the Apostle Paul, is that Israel will be restored, which is yet future, and will take place at the Second Coming [Rom. 11:25-27].)

²⁵And now, O LORD God, the Word that You have spoken concerning Your servant, and concerning his house, establish it forever, and do as You have said.

²⁶And let Your Name be magnified forever, saying, The LORD of Hosts is the God over Israel: and let the house of Your servant David be established before You (the special relation of Jehovah to Israel is throughout constantly in view; for Jehovah is the Name of Deity in Covenant with His People).

²⁷For You, O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, have revealed to Your Servant, saying, I will build you an house: therefore has Your servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto You (could be translated, Therefore has Your Servant been bold to pray this prayer).

²⁸And now, O Lord GOD, You are that God, and Your Words be true, and You have promised this goodness unto Your servant (could be translated, You are the One True God; consequently, Your Words are True):

²⁹Therefore now let it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue forever before You: for You, O Lord GOD, have spoken it: and with Your Blessing let the house of Your servant be blessed for ever (David prays that the Blessing may now at once begin to take effect; it is the language of firm Faith, and should be rendered, And now begin of Your Own good Will, and bless the house of Your servant).