Building a house for God

DAILY BYTE

Yesterday I posed the question, ‘What are you wanting to build with your life?’

That’s the very question that kept King David awake at night. As the newly appointed king of Israel he had established Jerusalem as his capital. He had brought to Jerusalem the Ark of the Lord which symbolized the very presence of God. He had built for himself a royal palace, and was comfortably settled there, enjoying the peace which his reign had already brought to the land. In the brief time that he had been king, David had achieved a great deal, he had built a great deal.

But still a nagging question remained for David, ‘Should I be doing something more?’ Quite specifically, he was concerned that there was no formal sanctuary for God. He was living in a stately palace, while the Ark of the Lord continued to be housed in a tent, as had been the practice when the Israelites were still wandering in the wilderness. David thought that what he should do was to build a temple for God.

On the face of it, it seems like a noble and generous gesture. It seems like the sort of thing a God-fearing king should do – to build God a house. And initially, even the prophet Nathan endorses what David has in his heart to do. But God had a different idea. Speaking through the prophet Nathan, God says to David, ‘No! I don’t need what you propose to build.’

You can hear the absurdity of the very idea in the question God asks of David when he says, “Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in?” And then God goes on to say, in essence, “Don’t you build a house for me. I will build a house for you.” Referring, of course, not to a physical structure, but to David’s line and legacy. God reminded David that God was the one who had taken him from being a shepherd boy and established him as ruler over his people Israel. And God would be the one who, long after David had died, would continue to act in the lives of his descendants in a similar way.

And so God says, “Don’t you build a house for me. I will build a house for you.” It’s a powerful line that contains two important truths that we would do well to remember. We’ll consider the first today, and the second tomorrow.

The first is this, ‘Don’t think that God can ever be contained. Don’t think that God can ever be safely domiciled in some human structure. Don’t think that God can ever be manipulated or controlled. God is sovereign, unconstrained, and utterly free to move and to act according to God’s own good pleasure and purpose.’

The sooner we let go of our delusional notions that we can control God in any way, the better. God is who God is. Accept that – it can be powerfully liberating.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Forgive me Lord the crazy idea that I can somehow control you, contain you, or in any way manipulate you. Remind me that you are the Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, and that you move and work with utter freedom. Help me today to kneel before you in my heart with complete humility, and to be open to the surprising ways in which you will choose to reveal yourself this day. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING

2 Samuel 7:4-7, 11b

That night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying:

"Go and tell my servant David, 'This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’

"The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you.”