I
C H R O N I C L E S
CHAP. XVII.
This
excellent chapter is the same with 2 Sam. vii. It will be worth while to look
back upon what was there said upon it. Two things in general we have in it:--
I. God's gracious acceptance of David's purpose to build him a house, and the
promise he made thereupon, ver. 1-15. II. David's gracious acceptance of God's
good promise to build him a house, and the prayer he made thereupon, ver.
16-27.
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God's
Promise to David.
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B.
C. 1042.
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1 Now it came to pass, as David sat in his
house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in a house of
cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD
remaineth under curtains. 2 Then Nathan said unto David, Do
all that is in thine heart; for God is with thee. 3
And it came to pass the same night, that the word of God came to Nathan,
saying, 4 Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the LORD,
Thou shalt not build me a house to dwell in: 5 For I have not
dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up Israel unto this day; but
have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another.
6 Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel, spake I a word to any of the
judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, Why have ye not
built me a house of cedars? 7 Now therefore thus shalt thou say
unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from
the sheepcote, even from following the sheep, that thou shouldest be
ruler over my people Israel: 8 And I have been with thee
whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut off all thine enemies from before
thee, and have made thee a name like the name of the great men that are
in the earth. 9 Also 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 any more, as at
the beginning, 10 And since the time that I commanded judges to
be over my people Israel. Moreover I will subdue all thine enemies.
Furthermore I tell thee that the LORD
will build thee a house. 11 And it shall come to pass, when thy
days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will
raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish
his kingdom. 12 He shall build me a house, and I will stablish his
throne for ever. 13 I 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
that was before thee: 14 But I will settle him in mine house and
in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for
evermore. 15 According to all these words, and according to all
this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.
Let us observe here,
I. How desirous and solicitous good people should be to serve the interests of
God's kingdom in the world, to the utmost of their capacity. David could not
be easy in a house of cedar while the ark was lodged within curtains, v.
1. The concerns of the public should always be near our hearts. What pleasure
can we take in our own prosperity if we see not the good of Jerusalem? When
David is advanced to wealth and power see what his cares and projects are.
Not, "What shall I do for my children to get portions for them? What
shall I do to fill my coffers and enlarge my dominions?" But, "What
shall I do for God, to serve and honour him?" Those that are contriving
where to bestow their fruits and their good would do well to enquire what
condition the ark is in, and whether some may not be well bestowed upon it.
II. How ready God's prophets should be to encourage every good purpose. Nathan
was no sooner aware of David's good design than he bade him go and do all
that was within his heart (v. 2), for he had no reason to doubt but
that God was with him in it. Ministers should stir up the gifts and graces
that are in others as well as in themselves.
III. How little God affects external pomp and splendour in his service. His
ark was content with a tabernacle (v. 5) and he never so much as
mentioned the building of a house for it; no, not when he had fixed his people
in great and goodly cities which they builded not, Deut. vi. 10. He commanded
the judges to feed his people, but never bade them build him a
house, v. 6. We may well be content awhile with mean
accommodations; God's ark was so.
IV. How graciously God accepts his people's good purposes, yea, though he
himself prevents the performance of them. David must not build this house,
v. 4. He must prepare for it, but not do it; as Moses must bring Israel
within sight of Canaan, but must them leave it to Joshua to put them in
possession of it. It is the prerogative of Christ to be both the author and
finisher of his work. Yet David must not think that, because he was not
permitted to build the temple, 1. His preferment was in vain; no, "I
took thee from the sheep-cote, though not to be a builder of the temple,
yet to be ruler over my people Israel; that is honour enough for thee;
leave the other to one that shall come after thee," v. 7. Why
should one man think to engross all the business and to bring every good work
to perfection? Let something be left for those that succeed. God had given him
victories, and made him a name (v. 8), and, further, intended by him to
establish his people Israel and secure them against their enemies, v.
9. That must be his work, who is a man of war and fit for it, and he
must let the building of churches be left to one that was never cut out for a
soldier. Nor, 2. Must he think that his good purpose was in vain, and that he
should lose the reward of it; no, it being God's act to prevent the execution
of it, he shall be as fully recompensed as if he had done it; "The
Lord will build thee a house, and annex the crown of Israel to it," v.
10. If there be a willing mind, it shall not only be accepted, but thus
rewarded. Nor, 3. Must he think that because he might not do this good
work therefore it would never be done, and that it was in vain to think of it;
no, I will raise up thy seed, and he shall build me a house, v.
11, 12. God's temple shall be built in the time appointed, though we may not
have the honour of helping to build it or the satisfaction of seeing it built.
Nor, 4. Must he confine his thoughts to the temporal prosperity of his family,
but must entertain himself with the prospect of the kingdom of the Messiah,
who should descend from his loins, and whose throne should be established
for evermore, v. 14. Solomon was not himself so settled in God's
house as he should have been, nor was his family settled in the kingdom:
"But there shall one descend from thee whom I will settle in my house and
in my kingdom," which intimates that he should be both a high priest over
the house of God and should have the sole administration of the affairs of
God's kingdom among men, all power both in heaven and in earth, in the house
and in the kingdom, in the church and in the world. He shall be a priest
upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both,
and he shall build the temple of the Lord, Zech. vi. 12, 13.
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David's
Grateful Acknowledgment.
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B.
C. 1042.
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16 And David the king came and sat before the LORD, and said, Who am
I, O LORD
God, and what is mine house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?
17 And yet this was a small thing in thine eyes, O God; for thou hast also
spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me
according to the estate of a man of high degree, O LORD
God. 18 What can David speak more to thee for the honour of
thy servant? for thou knowest thy servant. 19 O LORD,
for thy servant's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all
this greatness, in making known all these great things. 20
O LORD,
there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee,
according to all that we have heard with our ears. 21 And what one
nation in the earth is like thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem to
be his own people, to make thee a name of greatness and terribleness, by
driving out nations from before thy people, whom thou hast redeemed out of
Egypt? 22 For thy people Israel didst thou make thine own people
for ever; and thou, LORD,
becamest their God. 23 Therefore now, LORD,
let the thing that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his
house be established for ever, and do as thou hast said. 24 Let it
even be established, that thy 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 thy servant be established before thee.
25 For thou, O my God, hast told thy servant that thou wilt build him a house:
therefore thy servant hath found in his heart to pray before
thee. 26 And now, LORD,
thou art God, and hast promised this goodness unto thy servant: 27
Now therefore let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it
may be before thee for ever: for thou blessest, O LORD,
and it shall be blessed for ever.
We have here David's solemn address to God, in answer to the gracious message
he had now received from him. By faith he receives the promises, embraces
them, and is persuaded of them, as the patriarchs, Heb. xi. 13. How humbly
does he here abase himself, and acknowledge his own unworthiness! How highly
does he advance the name of God and admire his condescending grace and favour!
With what devout affections does he magnify the God of Israel and what a value
has he for the Israel of God! With what assurance does he build upon the
promise, and with what a lively faith does he put it in suit! What an example
is this to us of humble, believing, fervent prayer! The Lord enable us all
thus to seek him! These things were largely observed, 2 Sam. vii. We shall
therefore here observe only those few expressions in which the prayer, as we
find it here, differs from the record of it there, and has something added to
it.
I. That which is there expressed by way of question (Is this the manner of
men, O Lord God?) is here an acknowledgment: "Thou hast regarded
me according to the estate of a man of high degree. Thou hast made me a
great man, and then treated me accordingly." God, by the
covenant-relations into which he admits believers, the titles he gives them,
the favours he bestows on them, and the preparations he has made for them,
regards them according to the estate of men of high degree, though they are
mean and vile. Having himself distinguished them, he treats them as persons of
distinction, according to the quality he has been pleased to put upon them.
Some give these words here another reading: "Thou hast looked upon me
in the form of a man who art in the highest, the Lord God; or, Thou
hast made me to see according to the form of a man the majesty of the Lord
God." And so it points at the Messiah; for, as Abraham, so David, saw
his day and was glad, saw it by faith, saw it in fashion as a man, the Word
made flesh, and yet saw his glory as that of the only-begotten
of the Father. And this was that which God spoke concerning his house for
a great while to come, the foresight of which affected him more than any
thing. And let it not be thought strange that David should speak so plainly of
the two natures of Christ who in spirit called him Lord, though he knew
he was to be his Son (Ps. cx. 1), and foresaw him lower than the
angels for a little while, but afterwards crowned with glory and
honour, Heb. ii. 6, 7.
II. After the words What can David say more unto thee, it is here
added, for the honour of they servant? v. 18. Note, The honour
God puts upon his servants, by taking them into covenant and communion with
himself, is so great that they need not, they cannot, desire to be more highly
honoured. Were they to sit down and wish, they could not speak more for their
own honour than the word of God has spoken.
III. It is very observable that what in Samuel is said to be for thy word's
sake is here said to be for thy servant's sake, v. 19. Jesus
Christ is both the Word of God (Rev. xix. 13) and the servant of God
(Isa. xlii. 1), and it is for his sake, upon the score of his meditation, that
the promises are both made and made good to all believers; it is in him that
they are yea and amen. For his sake is all kindness done, for his sake
it is made known; to him we owe all this greatness and from him we are to
expect all these great things; they are the unsearchable riches of Christ,
which, if by faith we see in themselves and see in the hand of the Lord Jesus,
we cannot but magnify as great things, the only true greatness, and speak
honourably of accordingly.
IV. In Samuel, the Lord of hosts is said to be the God over
Israel
; here he is said to be the God of
Israel
, even a God to
Israel
, v. 24. His being the God of Israel bespeaks his having
the name of their God and so calling himself; his being a God to
Israel bespeaks his answering to the name, his filling up the relation, and
doing all that to them which might be expected from him. There were those that
were called gods of such and such nations, gods of Assyria and Egypt,
gods of Hamad and Arpad; but they were no gods to them, for they stood them in
no stead at all, were mere ciphers, nothing but a name. But the God of
Israel is a God to Israel; all his attributes and perfections
redound to their real benefit and advantage. Happy therefore, thrice happy,
is the people whose God is Jehovah; for he will be a God to them, a God
all-sufficient.
V. The closing words in Samuel are, With thy blessing let the house of thy
servant be blessed forever. That is the language of a holy desire. But the
closing words here are the language of a most holy faith: For thou blessest,
O Lord! and it shall be blessed for ever, v. 27. 1. He was
encouraged to beg a blessing because God had intimated to him that he had
blessings in store for him and his family: "Thou blessest, O Lord!
and therefore unto thee shall all flesh come for a blessing; unto thee do I
come for the blessing promised to me." Promises are intended to direct
and excite prayer. Has God said, I will bless? Let our hearts answer, Lord,
bless me, 2. He was earnest for the blessing because he believed that
those whom God blesses are truly and eternally blessed: Thou blessest, and
it shall be blessed. Men can but beg the blessing; it is God that commands
it. What he designs he effects; what he promises he performs; saying and doing
are not two things with him. Nay, it shall be blessed for ever. His
blessings shall not be revoked, cannot be opposed, and the benefits conferred
by them are such as will survive time and days. David's prayer concludes as
God's promise did (v. 14) with that which is for ever. God's
word looks at things eternal, and so should our desires and hopes.
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