| December 19, 1999 | A King Forever | 2 Samuel 7:1-11,16
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
It is really hard to remain in Advent. Advent is that season of preparation leading up to, but not including Christmas. It is hard to remain in Advent and not let Christmas slip out ahead of time. This is difficult because, in our world, stores start celebrating Christmas on November 1st. The decorations and music usually come out ahead.
It is helpful to fully experience Advent as a season of waiting, for this reflects how we are waiting for the return of our Savior. Yes, Christ came as a child, born on Christmas, but now, today, we are waiting for Him to come again. That return is the focus of Christianity. It marks the beginning of our eternal life to come with all the wonders that will bring. So, we need to wait. We need this time of Advent to prepare for Christ's coming. Thus prepared, we will be ready to celebrate the real meaning of Christmas. No, the real meaning of Christmas is not about the "spirit of giving" but about God coming to be a man to save us from our sins. So we wait for His coming again, reflecting on our need for the coming and the glories that will be realized at that coming.
As we consider our Old Testament lesson today, we are drawn back into the world of the people of Israel who were waiting also. They were waiting for a king, a very special one. What we have in our text is a promise given 1000 years before the Christ child was born and it is a promise fulfilled by that birth. It is a promise of a king who would rule forever-the perfect king. In our text is one of the primary connections between the Old Testament and the New - the monarchy. This promise comes through a rather interesting group of events. It includes a play on the word "house" and a pleasant surprise. Amidst all this, we are taught some good lessons about our God and how He intends to relate to us.
David, relatively new to the role of king, had found that things eventually settled down for him. He had a palace built for himself and the ark of the covenant was brought to the new home in the City of David, Jerusalem, yet it remained in a tent, as it had from the times of the Exodus. David thought he might do something nice for the Lord by building a house for the ark of the covenant. Since the ark represented the very presence of God, housing the ark was housing God.
David consults with Nathan, a prophet, to see if this would be a good plan. Nathan is someone about whom we know very little. He first appears in history in our text and continues through David's conflict over adultery with Bathsheba and on into the reign of the next king, Solomon.
Nathan gives a quick answer to David, reflective of the general relationship that David had with the Lord. In his military conquests, the Lord is said to be with David. Now Nathan tells David to go ahead, because surely the Lord will find your actions agreeable as He has in the past.
The Lord is with you. This is actually a Hebrew greeting. We have it in our liturgies, called the "salutation," where the pastor says, "The Lord be with you," and the people respond "And with your spirit." Here it is part of a prayer of the pastor for the people and the people for the pastor. We pray for each other before we offer our prayers together to the Lord. The response of the people to the pastor is, in a sense, directing the pastor to speak for all in the prayers. It reminds us of the relationship between pastor and people. The pastor is placed by the Lord to serve the people by speaking prayers on their behalf. He serves in a public fashion to lead the people in worship and offering up of prayers.
Now we can note in today's Gospel the same greeting of the angel in speaking to Mary. He said "Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you." What a comfort to know that the Lord is with us. He is spiritually present with us, watching over us, guiding us, and caring for us. We can know that Lord is with us, finding us highly favored, through the sacrifice of Christ for us.
So, Nathan had told David that the Lord was with him. However, Nathan is corrected in that understanding by the Lord. The Word of the Lord came to him and gave a message to be delivered by Nathan to David. The rest of our text is that message of correction. David was not thinking in the way of the Lord in regard to building a house for the Lord. The Lord was not with him on this certain matter. This is a reminder to each of us that the sinful flesh remains with us. Our best intentions are not entirely free of sin.
Perhaps the correction to David comes off sounding rather harsh to our ears. David is criticized for thinking that he would build a house. He is put down from his arrogant position of thinking that he could decide things for the Lord. The point is made with this question to David: "Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in?"
The Lord points out to David that He has been living in a tent since the Exodus. The ark was placed in a tent, called the tabernacle. Apparently this same tent was still in use some 500 years later, though perhaps they replaced parts as they wore out. The Lord also points out to David that He has never asked for or commanded that they build Him a house.
The Lord really puts David in his place by pointing out how it was the Lord himself who brought David to his current position. He was raised up from the lowly position of shepherd to be the ruler over the Lord's people. Did you notice that the Lord does not say they are David's people, but rather the Lord's. He is here identified as the one who is in charge. He is the ultimate ruler, decision-maker and king.
See, the way God was going to do this business of having a king over Israel was to be different from the other nations. They have a king who is absolute ruler and their gods are second-in-command if recognized at all. That just does not work with our Lord who insists that He is the final and total authority. A king must merely serve Him.
This provides lessons for us in our congregations and in relations with pastors. In regard to congregations, we as members ought to treat the congregation not as our own property, to do with as we chose. Instead, it is God's church. He is the ultimate ruler. It is not the place of the people to decide how to best run things, when God has already spoken and given us direction. The congregation is God's and we submit to Him and His Word.
The second lesson here is seeing the connection between the Lord, His pastors, and His people. Again, the lesson is that God is in charge. It would not be right of the people to ask the pastor to violate God's Word. For example, the congregation should not ask the pastor to practice open communion, since God's Word says otherwise. Further, the pastor must remember that the people are not his people, but God's people. Thus the pastor is not free to exercise his own opinions over the people, but must serve under the Lord, holding himself captive to God's Word. Both congregation and pastor speak Mary's humble words: "I am the Lord's servant...May it be to me as you have said."
God's message to David continues, as the Lord takes credit for all of David's military victories. He continues to put David in his place. Then something pleasant happens. You might expect an unpleasant outcome, with the Lord criticizing David's attitudes and correcting his idea to build a house for the Lord. That is what we might expect, but God is more than good and wise, He is also a God of pleasant surprises.
The surprise is this: God promises further blessings to David. "I will make your name great." He promises to make it the greatest on the earth. He promises his people rest. He promises David will have rest from all his enemies. This indeed is what happened. Under David, the Israelites enjoyed a very favorable rule, with King David extending the limits of the kingdom very far in land and wealth. The Lord delivered on His promise.
This pleasant surprise surely should remind us of the ultimate pleasant surprise we have from our God. Though we are conceived and born with sin, though our lives are full of deeds whereby we bring offense against God, and though we deserve the punishment forever because of this, we instead get a pleasant surprise.
Our surprise comes through Christ, the one long awaited and whom we now await again. He brought the surprise by taking the punishment for our sins upon the cross. He offered up Himself in our places. Thus the pleasant surprise: though we are sinners, our sins are forgiven. Though we deserve eternal death, we are given eternal life instead.
David had originally set out to build a house for the Lord, but the Lord says that is not what He is planning. Now the Lord reveals that He is going to do the house building. A couple of verses are taken out the reading, verses 12-15, which explain that this house will be built by a descendant of David.
Taking the meaning of house to be that ordinary use of a temple, a worship site, then we understand that this was fulfilled by David's son Solomon, when he was king. The Lord did build a temple, through Solomon, a descendant of David.
However, this prophecy is not ultimately fulfilled in Solomon and the temple that was built. This is the case because of the last verse: "Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever." The word "forever" appears twice there, giving great emphasis to the promise that the kingdom would last forever. The house would last forever. Solomon died. David's descendants did not continue as kings. There is no king now and no temple has lasted.
This is where we become connected to the New Testament. This is why the people were waiting for a king. They had a promise of a king who would last forever. They were promised He would be a descendant of David. So they waited.
Then Mary heard these words: "You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.
So, the Christ child came and Jesus was born as our king. He is our perfect king who rules forever. Through Jesus, the house of David, that is, the lineage of David, endures. Through Christ, the throne will last forever. We find our eternal king in the one we await, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.