ABC - God's Promise to David - Lesson 2

Yeah, let's get started. All the, the cool people are here, so we're gonna rock and roll. This class reminds me of Let's see. Kinda reminds me of days back at Linden Street where we'd start with like 3 people and then have 25, about 1015 minutes in the class.

But We know who all the people are that really love the Lord. So you guys are here. OK, so let's go ahead and pray and we've got some fun stuff to look at. We're gonna do a little bit of catch up from last week, and then we're gonna do half of chapter seven today in 2 Samuel, but let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for your kindness and goodness to us every day. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for your grace. is the passage that we'll be looking at this morning, just the, the wonder that here David comes to you.

Wanting to do something for you and you say, no, I'm gonna do something for you. And how often that is the case that we just see, you are the one that acts on our behalf, you are the one that saves, you're the one that's obsessed with our safety and salvation. We pray, Father, that you would just, encourage us this morning, strengthen us in your word, both now and also as Carlos, Pastor Carlos preaches later. We pray for Bill and the finance class.

We pray for all those that are, are teaching our children that you'd form with your spirit. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Let's do a little bit of I'm gonna, I want to hit a couple issues before we get into 2 Samuel 7.

Anybody see the video that I sent out this week? I emailed like around Monday. Did anybody look at it? Or did I waste a lot of time?

it had to do with the nine periods of Old Testament history. So I sent a link out through CCC. Anyway, go and look at it. I'm gonna do a little review here.

It just hit me that last week, I, I asked you guys a question about the nine periods of Old Testament history and I got a bunch of blank stares. So, in a real quick overview, I'm gonna teach you the nine periods. of Old Testament history so that we can make sure that we understand where We are, as we talk about 2 Samuel and so on. Let's see.

I don't think this has a little pointer. It doesn't. So, if you look on the left there, you've got beginnings. It does.

Yeah. Oh well. you've got patriarchal period. And then you've got the exodus, you've got the conquest, judges.

We're just after the judges. we're moving into what we call the United Kingdom. So this is the period where David unites the kingdom underneath his reign, Solomon. Then you've got the divided Kingdom period where there's a civil war between Reaboam and Jeroboam, if you guys remember that.

And then we have Israel being taken into captivity. we have 722. The northern tribes are taken in, taken away by Assyria. Down below, we have Babylon destroying Jerusalem 586.

Then you have the post-exilic period. This is their return back to the land and then the end of the Old Testament. So what I wanna do is, is just real quick, and you guys can see this on the video. I'll resend it.

There's a, just a little memory device I use with some of our, I've used with our students in the past. On memory, you can use this to memorize like the 10 Commandments or any list, really. If once the memory device, you can just attach pictures to any list that you have. So, I just think of one bun.

I put a hamburger bun in my mind, 2 shoe. I'm thinking of a big boot that we're gonna put somebody in. 3 tree, just any tree, put it in your mind, 1 bun, 2 shoe, 33, 4, door. You're gonna think of a door when you think of The number 45 hive.

This is like a beehive. Try to think of a hive. 6 sticks. So I think of drumsticks, and in this case, it's gonna be 2 drumsticks, 7 heaven, I think of a cloud that's not theologically correct, but think of a cloud to think of heaven.

8 gate, it can be any gate. 9 dime, I think of an American dime. And you could, if you're gonna do the 10 Commandments or some other list, you could do 10 hen. So we just use these.

so, so back here. If I, if I say one, what's the image that comes to your mind? Fun. Good.

If I say 2. Shoe, good. 3. Tree, 4, door, 5, hive, 667.

Heaven, 8. Gate 9. dime. It's not a, it's a half rhyme, but, it works, 9 dime.

OK. So those are the images. Now, years ago, my wife, I don't take any credit for these drawings, but my wife drew up one bun, just real quick, she's a She did this like in 10 minutes. it's better than that, it would have taken me 5 hours to come up with anything similar.

So, one bun, what you have here is, in my mind, I'm thinking of a hamburger bun. The sesame seeds are organized into sun, moon, and stars, which reminds me of beginnings, creation, everything that comes with creation, Adam and Eve, Abe and Abel and Cain, all the way up through chapter 11 with the Tower of Babel, right? Flood tower Babel. That's the first period of Israel's history is beginnings.

To shoe is the patriarchal period. If you didn't know, this is Abraham in a shoe. So you just visualize a patriarch inside of a shoe, that's the patriarchal period. 33, this is, you may not be able to see this, but that's an exit sign on the side of that tree.

Exit should remind us of the exodus period. Israel coming out of Egypt, wandering in the wilderness for 40 years before they take the land. So, 3 tree is exodus. Think of an exit sign on the side of that tree.

For a door, I'm thinking of a door with the walls all around the door broken down. So, this reminds me of like the conquest. So, so like Jericho, all the walls came down and all the conquests that happens after Jericho, that's the conquest. 5 hives, so you think of a beehive, this is a judge very unwisely hitting a hive.

And so we think of the period of the judges, right? So this was not a time of wisdom. This is a time when everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes. 5 hives equals Judges.

6 sticks. This is King David in my mind and he is holding 2 drumsticks ready to rock out and he's got 2 sticks united in one hand. So this is the United Kingdom, 2 sticks together. Is that cool?

26 together, that's the United Kingdom. Divided kingdom, this is a crown on top of a cloud, so seven heaven, a divided crown. The divided kingdom is that period after Solomon when his children, there's this civil war between the northern and southern tribes, remember? Reboam and Jeroboam, and then it all leads from that point on, you see these two sets of kings, the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.

So you have this whole period of divided kingdom. And then there's these warnings and stuff, so you get to 8 gate. Israel nor Judah listen to the warnings and you get to the period of the exile. This is a poor Hebrew that is chained to a gate.

He's being taken off into exile, Assyria in 722-586 Babylon. Does that make sense? So that's the eight gate, the exile period. After 70 years, you have this return.

We have, remember Ezra, Nehemiah, Arubabelel, you have this return. This is some dime guy. That's coming down from Persia across here, the. the sea and the, What do you call it?

The Jordan? Yeah, back into Israel. This is the post-exilic period. So post-exilic period, the dime guy, the dime Hebrew guy comes back down.

They rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, rebuild the temple, and so on and so forth. All right. So, if I were to Quiz you guys. And say, Let's, Let's start with one What's the image that, don't tell me the period yet, just tell me the image that comes to mind.

Double double. The double-double. Yeah, so we got one bun. Animal style, that sounds good.

What is the period of Israel's history? Beginnings. OK. Feel free to shout it out.

OK, it's OK to shout out. After, so, so we got one bun. let's go down. To this slide right here.

OK, so when you think of 2, what's the image that should come to mind? Shoe. OK. And so there's this patriarch.

So this is called the Patriarchal period. So Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. So there's Abraham and the shoe. OK, so, 3, what period comes to mind?

33 Exodus. So this is the period of the Exodus. 4, what is the image that comes to mind? Four door conquest.

So coming in, taking Jericho. 5, what's the image that comes to mind? Hive, what is the period? Judges.

So 5 hives, this is the period of the judges. 6, what's the image? 6. I'm sorry.

What's the period? United Kingdom. So David's got two sticks in his hand. So this is David has united the kingdom.

That's where we are as we're looking at 2 Samuel. 7. Heaven, what's the image? Divided crown, it's the period.

Divided kingdom. 8 Gate What's the period? That post The exile period. So this is a poor Hebrew that's been captured, taken up into captivity.

You could say captivity. You could say exile. And then, whoops, sorry. And then 9, what's the image, dime.

The period of Israel's history Post-exilic period. So, yeah, so, all of the books of the Old Testament, including where we're at right now, you can hang somewhere on that skeleton. And When I took. In seminary, I had studied the Bible for quite a while and then in seminary, I took an Old Testament survey class where they just gave us the big grid of the Old Testament and helped us see where each of the major and minor prophets fit.

Suddenly, it was like my eyes were open. I'm like, oh. That's what Jose is about, I used to just drop down in the middle of Amos and be just reading and having no idea where Amos fit in the scheme of anything. and so when you have that grid, then suddenly you read your little Bible intro and it says you, Amos has written to the northern tribes before the, the fall of the northern tribes in captivity under Syria in 722 BC.

Now you have an idea of where this fits, divided kingdom before the exile. All right. So let's, let's do a little bit of review from some of the particulars from last week. Anything that stands out to you about David and Goliath?

As we talked about Dave and Goliath last week. Say it again. Good. Brian remembers one of the main themes.

It was God ultimately that takes out Goliath, right? Uses David, but he's the one that's in charge. Excellente Anything else? Yeah.

Yeah, David comes running at Goliath. Yeah, he's like, I'm ready to get it on. Let's get busy. So you don't get this idea that he's juking and jiving and wondering what's gonna happen.

Yeah, justice. Yeah, how many stones did it take? Just one stone. Yeah, so one stone hits him in the forehead, grabs the sword, cuts his head off, game over.

So this isn't like some, 60 minute. Football game, 4 quarters. let's see. Who's the first person in the narrative to bring up God?

David. Yeah, there's a lot of information that happens. The first guy that really brings up the Lord is David. In fact, those are the first words that we see of David on the pages of scripture.

He's like, who is this uncircumcised Philistine to mock the armies of the living God, right? And so he's very concerned about the glory of God. from our study last week, from what we suggested, is David just like this little guy that Saul's armor doesn't quite fit him. No, it doesn't seem so.

What would be some evidence that David actually is probably a fairly substantial individual, yeah, justice. Yeah, this is a guy that killed bears and tigers. He took them on, grabbed one by the head, slam. So good.

What, what else might be an indication that David's probably a He's definitely a a young man. But what would indicate that he's probably pretty, pretty good shape? Yeah, Dan. the harp described Oh good.

Right. So, yeah, even when he's being hired, Dan says as a, as a harpist, he's already being described as a valiant warrior. So he's already got some experience. Yeah, Ron.

The idea that Yeah, Yeah, yeah, totally. So would Saul really Say, hey, try this on if David was just a little tiny guy. probably not. Saul must have sized up David and said, hey, I think you might be able to use this.

But David ends up not wearing the armor, not because it's so big for him, but because it's just, he says the word is untested, which probably means I just, I don't have the experience with this set of armor. I don't know if if you guys that play sports or whatever. you get used to a particular piece of equipment, maybe a catcher's glove and, and somebody gives you another catcher's glove, you're just kinda like, yeah, this doesn't fit. I, I don't really like the feel of this.

Might be a $500 catcher's glove, but if, if you're not used to it, then you're gonna go with something else. OK, good. let's see, what else? Did Saul know David prior to Goliath's death?

This is something that we didn't have time to get into last week. go ahead and turn. In your Bibles to 1 Samuel 17. I don't know if you guys remember the issue here.

OK, so starting at verse 55. So, David's already won the battle and then the Philistines take off and all that. In verse 55, when Saul saw David going against the Philistines, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, Abner, whose son is this youth? And Abner said, As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.

So the king said, inquire whose son this young man is. Then as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand, and Saul said to him, Whose son are you, young man? So David answered, I am the son of your servant Jesse, the Bethlemite, or the, I always mispronounce that, Bethlehemite. There we go.

so it's been raised. The question's been raised. I thought we, I thought David was already in Saul's court playing music for him. Remember the evil spirit would come upon Saul, David would play a harp and then the evil spirit would leave him.

So what's going on here with Saul saying, hey, who's, who's son is that? Or who's, who's, who's his father? And some people have tried to say, well, this is just another example of a contradiction in scripture. What do you guys think?

He's confused Yeah, actually, that's one possible answer. The critics, they always wanna jump to contradiction, right? Hey, looked like Saul knew David back in previous chapters. Now it seems like he doesn't know David.

This is a clear contradiction in the Bible. No, one possibility, we already know that Saul's having mental problems. And so one possibility is he's aware, he's been aware of David, maybe even David's name and father, but then out there in the field of battle, he's having one of his evil spirit lapses and be like, who is this guy? so that's a possibility.

We already know he's having trouble. yeah, Joe. We Here's Right. Right.

That's actually one explanation as well. Some commentators will say, the spirit of this is Saul saying, yeah, I knew this guy was a harpist, but who is this guy out here in the field? This is a completely different guy than I've seen. my, there's several different possibilities.

In fact, I sent you guys a link to an article two weeks ago. my preferred explanation. is we sometimes think that Saul is a king of some like little tiny country that has very little administration to it. In reality, this is a fairly large operation and David is probably just one of several musicians and one of several armor bearers that was actually a title of a an honorific type of title.

So at some point, that David came and actually was playing harp for David, but there's no guarantee that Saul is paying attention to any every musician that comes in to play for him or people that are bringing him his food. At some point, he would have said, yes, go inquire of this young man's father. I want him in my court. But how many other dozens or other people that were in his court, did he also have to, ask, tell, tell their parents that, hey, your son's gonna be in my court now?

and so I think it's just very likely that Saul's out on the field of battle. perhaps maybe recognizes David, but then once he goes and cuts off the head of Goliath, he's like, man, who is this guy? And by the way, he had promised that whoever did this, he was gonna give his daughter to him and he was gonna make his family free and the idea is probably free of taxation. So he's inquiring the specific inquiry is whose son is this man?

So he's not necessarily asking who is this guy, David. He probably, there's a likely, it's likely that he would remember, oh yeah, that's my harp player and we've just been talking, but whose son is he? I don't remember. And And so I think when you, when you start with the presupposition of synthesis rather than presupposition of contradiction, there's many times very logical explanations.

and it's not like this has been something that's been unnoticed. for, gosh, 2 2800 years. this text has been around for a long, long time. and, any, any thoughts that you guys have on that?

Yeah, Joe, Who's not to say this? pride there's not a curtain. the Oh yeah. Visual If that's very possible.

We know that there's examples of that in the ancient Near East of servants coming into the king's quarters and being just sequestered behind some curtain or what, whatnot. In fact, in some instances, people weren't allowed to come look upon the face of the king. only certain individuals were allowed to look upon his face, depending on the, on the country. so, yeah, so I, I just wanna encourage you guys, and I, I try to remind some of our younger students as well that There's a rich tradition of synthesis in the Bible of what we call harmonization.

And when you see things in the Bible that seem to, you're, you're wondering, man, what is What's going on here? if you just do a little bit of research, you're gonna find, people have been writing about this stuff for a long time. You're not the first one to come upon these questions. And there's lots of good material out there.

So, if you go back from a couple of weeks, there's, I sent you guys a link that the whole article is just about this one issue. Did Saul know David before he killed Goliath? what, let's go ahead. We're gonna skip forward now and just jump into 2 Samuel.

Let's turn to 2 Samuel. What we're gonna do is we're gonna cover the first half, the part that we would call the Davidic covenant proper. We're gonna look at the 1st 17 verses. We're gonna save the rest of the chapter for next week.

So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna read through the text and then we're gonna go back and start expositing and making some Deductions from this text. So, let's start in verse 12 Samuel 7. Actually, let me, I just lied to you. Let me preface what's happened up to this point.

So, the last, we left David, he had just killed Goliath and now David wants him to, he's, he's recognizing him and in a special way. But Almost immediately, Saul begins to have these jealousies towards David. God is blessing David when he goes into battle. you start hearing these songs around Israel, right?

David has killed his 1,000s. No, no, David has killed, Saul has killed his 1000s, but David is 10,000. And there seems to be, it's all, it was, I think it was like a top, top 10 hit there in Israel. People really get down to it.

And Saul is very aware of this song and it doesn't make him very happy. And so, as things begin to develop, plus Jonathan, they become best friends. Saul wants the kingdom to go to whom? Jonathan, Jonathan is recognizing the spirit of the Lord has come upon David, and Jonathan wants is just understanding that David is going to be the king at some point.

So you have all of this chase around the desert for a while, David hiding in caves, some interesting scenes where Saul goes to relieve himself and David cuts off a part of his robe, doesn't kill him. There's a couple of different times where David could have killed him. Takes his spear and his jug in the, in the middle of the army at the middle of the night, doesn't kill him, says, hey, Saul, just wanted to let, I didn't kill you. I could have, but I'm not gonna kill the Lord's anointed.

And then Saul in his craziness seems to like, oh, David, my son, thank you so much, I'm, I'm gonna depart now. And then it seems like, just a little while later, he's after him again. Then there's the whole, even before that, trying to pin David against the wall with a spear. Seems like every time you turn the page, David's sitting in his chair with his spear again and So you've got all that going on.

then there's like, what, the mad, David gets in trouble and feigns madness. Do you guys remember that chapter? It's a very interesting scene where he's, he's pretty sure that they've got his number and he's gonna be in a lot of trouble. And so he just pretends like he's mad, starts slobbering all over himself, and then the king says, who is this guy?

Let him go. That's a very interesting tactic, by the way. If you're ever getting bullied, you should share that with your students. If, if they're getting bullied at school, just feign madness.

Maybe they'll leave you alone. let me see what else. david going to the Witch of Endor. That's pretty, oh yeah, I'm sorry, Saul going to the Witch of Endor.

That's some pretty interesting stuff. I think Shakespeare picked that up from Macbeth. And so that's, that's crazy material. And eventually, so, the prophecy is that Saul and Jonathan are both gonna die.

They do die. Yeah, but does David automatically just get the kingdom over all of Israel? Does it just fall into his lap right away? No, in fact, what happens is Abner goes and he establishes A Bebosheth, Ishbosheth, there, there you go.

Ishbosheth now becomes the king of Israel in the north. David's the king of Judah. It takes a couple of years before everything settles, and there's all this little infighting, Joab and Abner and some pretty gross bloodshed and things like that. but eventually, David, is able to secure the kingdom, he has peace, enemies are at peace.

And so you get to chapter 7 finally, and David's out on the roof with his prophet. This is really the first time that we see Nathan. They're, as it were, cracking open a Coca-Cola on the top of the roof, and he's looking over at his prophet, says life is good. Life is good.

What shall I do? And so that's where we pick up. So let's start, let's start in verse one. Now, it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around, and that the king said to Nathan, the prophet, see now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains.

Then Nathan said to the king, Go do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you. But it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan saying, go and tell David, my servant. Thus says the Lord, would you build a house for me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the time I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle.

Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep to be a ruler over my people of Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you and have made you a great name like the name of the great men who are on the earth.

Moreover, 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.

Notice that move no more. Nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore as previously. Since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people in Israel and have caused you to rest from all your enemies, also, the Lord tells you that he will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seat after you, who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom, and he shall build a house for my name.

I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall, be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the blows of the sons of men. But my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.

In your house, and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever. According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David. I think in this particular text, we see a number of different attributes of God that rise to the surface.

There's a lot of theology here that we could get into, but I wanna focus on basically four attributes of God that rise out of this text, and the first one is Yahweh's wisdom in verses 1 to 5. Yahweh's wisdom. Let me read that text again. Now it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house and the Lord had given him rest.

From all his enemies all around that the that the king said to Nathan the prophet, see now, I dwelt in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains. Here I am in my nice palace. And there, the ark is out there in a camping tent, so to speak, really out there in the, the tabernacle, right? this bothers David.

David feels like something's wrong. Why, why am I living the good life and yet where the Lord chooses to manifest his special presence on earth, the one place, it's in this lowly tent area. And so the suggestion is never really stated, but Nathan knows exactly what he's suggesting, suggesting, and so he just says, do all that's in your heart. He says, David, just do it.

And what David is suggesting, it's noble, it's rational, it's right. it's as obvious as serving pancakes at a pancake breakfast, right? Just seems like there doesn't seem to be any reason to inquire of the Lord. This is logical.

This is reasonable. but they didn't inquire of the Lord. Look at verse 4, but it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan saying, go and tell Dave, my ser, my, my servant, thus says the Lord, would you build a house for me to dwell in? And so when revelation steps in, revelation rejects reason.

And we've seen this before, haven't we, when God told Samuel to go pick the new king. Samuel walks in, Iliab, this strapping man comes in and Samuel just assumes this must be the guy. But not only is he not the guy and 6 other sons come by, but nobody is the guy and so they have to go out and get the shepherd boy to come in before God says, this is the guy. And that's just the way the Lord, it seems like so often he works is we think it's just logical that we should do this, and yet many times once revelation enters into the situation, it's God turns logic on its head.

So, David and Nathan conspire, a good plan. It's a godly plan for Yahweh's honor, and yet in this case, Yahweh will have none of it. And this, I think this teaches us, at least one main lesson right here out the gate, and that is that the kingdom is never safe in human hands, no matter how godly those hands may be. and it should protect us.

We should be very careful about deifying our Christian heroes. we love Cornerstone, we love Pastor Milton his preaching, Gospel primer. We have to remember, this is a man. And we make mistakes and ultimately, we, we need to constantly cry out to the Lord for wisdom.

He's a God who will grant us wisdom as we cry out for it. I love John MacArthur, I love John Piper, I love Archie Sproll, but what, these are human beings. Look how many, really godly people were on completely different sides during this last election. There are people that I have a ton of respect for that were writing articles basically saying, if you vote for Donald Trump, I question your Christianity.

And then I had, there were other really godly people on the other side that were saying, if you don't vote for Donald Trump, I question your Christianity. it's like, who's right? And, these guys weren't getting direct divine revelation. right now, Russell Moore, who I have a ton of respect for, he's one of my heroes, but he's going around apologizing to people for calling their faith into question based upon who they voted for in this last election.

And the Southern Baptist denomination is losing money right now, and they think it's because of Russell Moore's statements. that people, people didn't take exception to the fact that Russell Moore said, I don't, I'm not voting for Donald Trump. They took exception to Russell Moore saying, I question your Christianity if you vote for Donald Trump. They said, in what previous election have people said, I don't know, I question your faith in Christ if you vote for a particular candidate.

And so now, Southern Baptists are voting with their money. And they're not sending in as much money to the denomination and so the denomination's worried. And Russell Moore, I think to his credit, he's humbling himself and he's gone around apologizing and saying, hey, I'm, I'm sorry, I should have not made people's faith co-equal with who they voted for in this last election and all that to say that we, we just need to realize that when as godly as our Christian heroes are and as As much as we do want to look to teachers to help guide us, we need to make sure that we don't deify them.

And here, both David and Nathan, probably the two highest representatives on planet Earth at this period in redemptive history, said, yes, it is a good plan, just do it.

And yet God enters in and says, nope, this isn't what we're gonna do. Let's look at the next characteristics. That's Yahweh's wisdom. It's, it's Yahweh's wisdom we need to depend upon above our own wisdom, but the second attribute is Yahweh's humility, and this is surprising.

Yahweh's humility verses 6 and 7. Let me read that part of the text again. God says, for I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but I've moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken of a word, a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people, Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar?

This is just an amazing thing. And we know that eventually Solomon is gonna be commissioned to build a temple, but God is basically saying, I'm the one that was just willing to travel around in a tent with my people. Wherever they pilgrimaged, I pilgrimaged with them. this is a God who condescends to his people.

He travels with them through their ups and downs. In fact, when we get the New Testament, we're gonna see that the word became flesh and tabernacle among us using that same term, although they're in Greek, but Christ became flesh. And tabernacle among us. just think, Jesus Christ came and humbled himself as a baby who is dependent upon his mother, and he walks around the earth, and he eventually dies.

And so this is a God that is very willing. To humble himself and to be with his people. Reminds me of a story of, the Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn. He was the longest standing Speaker of the House in, in, US history.

He was Speaker of the House under FDR and JFK. there's certain points where he had breaks in there, but whenever the Democrats were in charge, he was the Speaker of the House. And this, Sam Rayburn, he Heard about one of the no-name reporters that hardly anybody knew about, but that covered the Washington DC scene. This reporter's teenage daughter died suddenly, tragically of an illness.

And in the morning, the reporter hears this doorbell ring, goes, opens up the door, and there's Sam Rayburn. Sam Rayburn says, I just wanted to give you our condolences, see if there's anything we can do. And he's just stunned. He's just like, I, I don't know, we're just making arrangements.

And so the speaker said, well, have you made your coffee this morning? He said, well, no, we really haven't had time. And so he just barges in and says, well, I can do that. So he goes in, goes in the kitchen, he's rubbing around in the kitchen and he's making coffee.

And suddenly the reporter realizes, he says, Mr. Speaker, aren't you supposed to be with the president for breakfast? To which he said, yeah, I called him and I canceled that meeting. I said I had a friend that was in dire need.

I needed to go help this friend this morning. So he's like the 2nd most powerful man in the United States who's willing to humble himself and go just spend time with a lowly reporter to make him some coffee. And that just pales in comparison really to the glimpse of God coming and just coveting with us, traveling around in a tent, Jesus Christ coming and tabernaling in a human body. He's not ashamed to humble himself.

reminds us. Of, I, I think over there in, in Philippians, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men. Being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death. it's just an amazing thing to think of God expressing humility.

the God of the universe. Yeah, he dies on the cross and he comes and he's willing to pilgrimage with his people in the Old Testament, to tabernacle with us, that through the Holy Spirit that the Lord wants to, he wants to be with us. He wants to manifest his presence even this morning, we may be forced to revise our theology if we think that deity and humility are mutually exclusive categories. but if we pay close attention to what God's doing in the Old and New Testament, this is a God that's willing to humble Himself.

So I think that's a second attribute that we can draw. Thirdly, so, so we see God's humility in tabernacle amongst His people is wisdom. In, in revealing things that seem contradictory to David and Nathan, but God, when God steps on the scene, he reveals His will. But thirdly, we see Yahweh's grace, and this is a big deal in this text.

notice in verse 8, now, therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, and then he's gonna review his past grace and then His present grace before he leads up to this big aha moment. He says, I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep to be ruler over my people, over Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone. I've cut off all your enemies from before you and have made you a great name like the name of the great men who are on the earth.

That's past grace. Then he says, moreover, I will appoint a place for my people, Israel, and we'll plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more. Nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore as previously since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Like, what are you talking about, Lord?

I'm talking about building your house. Now you're talking about Israel. So God's leading up to something. Here's what I've done for you, but it's for the sake of this bigger plan for my people.

I want something lasting for my people. And so then here comes the big moment and the Lord tells you that he will make you a house. David says, I wanna make you a house. God comes back and says, no, no, no, I'm gonna make you a house.

There seems to be a preoccupation in the mind of God with the Davidic dynasty for the sake of Israel, for the sake of God's people way into the future, even beyond Israel. what David's proposing to do here is something that was not uncommon in the ancient Near Eastern world. It, it was very common for a king to basically come to a deity. And this would be in their writings and say, hey, deity like Amenhotep would come to Aman Ray.

So, Amenhotep the 3rd in around the 400 BC comes to Aman Ray and says, hey, look at all these buildings that I've built up for you. Now, what are you gonna give me? And Aman Ray in their writings responds with gratitude to Amenhotep and promises to subject his enemies. And there's all kinds of examples of this in ancient Near Eastern texts.

Basically, it goes like this. The king builds something, comes to the god and says, hey, look what I've done for you. what are you gonna do for me? The god comes and says, well, I'm gonna give you rest from your enemies.

I'm gonna make your kingdom last a very long time. So David comes to the Lord and says, Lord, I wanna build you a temple. I wanna build a house for you. God, in complete contradiction to what is in the ancient Near Eastern texts, says, no, it's not gonna go that way.

It's not like, hey, you do something for me, I'll do something for you. I'm gonna do completely for you. I'm giving you rest from your enemies. I'm looking out for my people, Israel, for my own name's sake, and I'm gonna build you a house, and this house is gonna go on, by the way, forever.

It's gonna go way beyond. Even your lifetime. So this is not, I will build, I built you a temple, so now you owe me peace and long reign. God gives grace.

And this is no little trifle of theology. If, if anything about world religions, if you study the various religions of the world, just about every religion has like this ancient Near Eastern idea of you do something for the deity and then the deity does something for you. You do this for God, and then God is obligated to do something for you. That's basically world religions 101.

But Christianity is completely unique in that sense, that the Bible comes along and says, no, you can't do anything for me, but I will do for you. In fact, one of the themes of the Old Testament is just how the Israel just seems to blow it over and over and over again whenever they're trying. To earn their way towards God, and God has to come along and, and rescue them time and time again. And then in this text, we just see it again that God is saying, no, I'm going to do for you.

Isn't that what we see Jesus saying in John 14? He says, I go to prepare a place for you. In my father's house, there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. And throughout the rest of scripture, we see this God who's obsessed with the safety of his people. Safety is just another word for salvation of his people.

It's like God says, I'm gonna build a house from you, and my people are gonna be brought back, and they will have rest from their enemies. No more will anybody oppress them. It's like God is just obsessed with this safety issue. Now, we know that David's gonna have a son and Solomon's gonna have some sons.

There's gonna be civil war, and then there's gonna be this captivity thing in the exile, right? And then there's gonna be the post-exilic period. There's gonna be some time of peace, but then we know that the Persians are gonna come in, and we got the Romans, the Greeks, the Romans. And so, this is looking far into the future.

We've got David's kingdom, but God seems to be looking way down the line. And we, and, and as we compare scripture with scripture, as you guys probably did this week, you see that Christ is the initial fulfillment, him coming dying on the cross, but even we're looking forward to a second Advent when he comes and finally gives peace from all of the enemies. And so we see just God's grace being put on display. Jesus says, no, I'm gonna go prepare a place for you, and then I'm gonna bring you to be where I am.

we see in with the disciples. And it seems like the ultimate fulfillment is that Christ comes back, sets up a kingdom in the 1000 year millennium, and there's peace on the earth for 1000 years. And then there's the final judgment and Jesus moves on into eternity, where all of God's people rejoice and praise God forever and ever and ever at total peace with their, there's no more enemies, no more oppressors. God has accomplished, and he has built this house.

For David and for all of his, all of his people. So that's God's wisdom, God's humility, God's grace, and then finally, what we're gonna look at is God's constancy or faithfulness. God's constancy. We look at verse 12.

We'll finish with this point. God says, when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you and you will, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom and he shall build a house for me, my name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever. So, here we see that this house or this dynasty or this kingdom that God's gonna establish cannot be annulled by David's death. This is God's faithfulness.

Even though David dies, it will not end God's promise. And so God says, your son's gonna come and yeah, he will build a temple, a physical temple on the earth. But his house will be established forever. So we see that there must be something going.

It's very typical of prophecy. A lot of times prophecy, you have this near fulfillment and then you have this far fulfillment. We know Solomon died. So there's something going on well beyond for this kingdom to go forever.

So death cannot annul God's promise, but neither can sin annul God's promise. Look at verse 14. I will be his father, that is, David's son, which we know later will be Solomon. I will be his father and he shall be my son.

If he commits iniquity, I will cha chasten him with the rod of men, with blows of the sons of men. But my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. So death can't annul the kingdom, sin can't annul the kingdom. We're gonna see that in David's line, there's lots of crazy ups and downs and so on.

And while there may be people who move away, The God's general promise to build a house for David and for his people cannot be annulled. Second, and then thirdly, time cannot exhaust God's promise. He says in verse 16, in your house, in your kingdom shall be established forever before you, your throne shall be established forever. The idea seems to be is that Yahweh's kingdom is unstoppable.

You've just got this unstoppable movement through history that while we're gonna see different things happen, God just keeps moving forward with this kingdom idea. Death, sin, time cannot stop it. Reminds me of a story about a Scottish pastor, and if anything about Scottish culture, this illustration will make sense. Anybody ever see that John Wayne movie, What's the, the quiet man?

Anybody seen the Quiet Man? So a little bit about like Scott's like in to fight and wrestle and So Oh, that's like, oh, was it in Ireland? OK. OK, I got it wrong.

But I think the Scots still like to fight and wrestle and stuff too, don't they? I don't know. Oh, really? OK, well, forget what I just said about the quiet man then.

But this is, this is what this pastor did. So, you've got this pastor named, Aeneas Sage in the 1700s. And on one particular Sunday, by the way, he was a really big strapping individual. On one particular Sunday, he had said that we're gonna have catechism at this particular house, and it was the home of a large landowner who was known for being a very evil man in the village.

So he just says, we're gonna do catechism over here at so and so's house. Everybody's like, man, how's he gonna do that? And so, he shows up and, and knocks on the door. The landowner opens.

He says, I've come to discharge, discharge my duty to guide your conscience and to my own. The landowner said, I care nothing for any of the 3 out of my house or I'll turn you out. To which the past responded, if you can. There followed a catechism preparatory meeting with the landowner, who was also a very powerful man.

Yet when the interchange was over, the pastor or the, the landowner was lying on the floor with a rope around his hands and feet. Then the landowner was bound over to keep the peace, as Mr. Sage put it, the minister called the people of the town and taught them the shorter catechism, no one, of course, refusing. And so, here's this big strapping pastor, gets in a big wrestling match, ties the guy up and does catechism in his house.

By the way, that guy got saved later on. So that's part of what makes that story. But you just get this idea that, from on the pages of scripture that God's kingdom is just unstoppable. There's just not really, the devil can rise up and he does his little thing for a while.

The flesh sins moving. You see different periods of history where it's just like, man, what's gonna happen? when we go through church history, remember the 10 periods of persecution under Rome. In each period, the church is kinda like, this is the end, and then you get after the 10th, 1 of the most worst persecutions underneath Diocletian.

You're just thinking, oh man, what's gonna happen? All of a sudden, the Lord raises up Constantine and now, not only is Christianity legal, it becomes the dominant religion within just a few, few years. You're just like, what? This happened?

It was so overwhelming that Augustine is starting to think that, oh, this is the millennium, we must be in the, in the kingdom. It was so radical in, in, in change. And so we see God's faithfulness. He's made this promise to David here in 2 Samuel 7.

He says, I'm gonna build you a house, this kingdom will go on forever. Death, sin, time cannot stop it. Jesus Christ will establish it. His name will be exalted.

I will put all of his enemies under his feet. God promises in 1 Corinthians 15, then Jesus will turn around and give the kingdom back to God the Father, that God may be all in all. And you just get, you just look at Revelation and, God is not, he's not like wringing his hands. He's not sweating, wondering how it's all gonna turn out.

You, you've watched the basketball games last night or any, any of, anybody watching the basketball, you're just kinda, oh, what's gonna happen? Is Gonzaga gonna win or North Carolina? God, it's not like that with the kingdom of God. There's not like, oh, we're in extra innings, maybe the devil's gonna win.

No, it's unstoppable. And God promises this, and so we see his faithfulness. So we see, in this text, I, I think we see some wonderful reminders of God's wisdom above the wisdom of man. We see our God is humble, that he's willing to humble Himself as a man.

we see God's grace all over this text, the grace of David in the past, the grace in the future, and then we see this God's faithfulness that this is, there's something going on here that goes way beyond me and you. if, if, if you think that somehow some failings or bad decisions on your part are somehow gonna crumble the kingdom of God, you and I are thinking too much of ourselves. he is the main player in the movie. We're bit players, right?

We get, we get to play a role and it's a wonderful role, but our little bit part is not gonna crumble his kingdom if we stumble here and there, in this life. Yeah, Dan. In this thing, I can't help. This Yeah.

Totally Yeah, so, yeah, Dan just says you just see this continuous line that starts right there in Genesis 3 with the seed of the woman. and, just the promise, God says, the day you eat the, the fruit, you'll surely die. But then God brings an animal, kills the animal, puts skins on Adam and Eve, and then he's just moving on from there. So, yeah, all the way to Jesus Christ.

So a lot to praise the Lord for. let's go ahead and go to prayer. I'll be up here for questions. It, it is 10 o'clock, so I want to try to be faithful and get done more on time.

Otherwise, you can start singing hymns at 10 o'clock. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your, your goodness and kindness to us. Just your wisdom.

That we see in this text, just the surprising humility. just the grace that we've grown to know and experience and love that we see expressed here towards David, your obsession to, to see your people saved and safe. And just the promise, the unstoppableness of your kingdom that you're the one who's begun this good work, you will complete it, and, and we're along for the ride. And so we just thank you, Lord, to just be able to watch you work.

We ask that you just, bless us this morning as we see the next step. At least in this particular local body as your word is preached, as your spirit moves amongst us, in Christ's name we pray. Amen.