Presented to
614 Warehouse Mission 2:30pm service,
10 September 2017.
10 September 2017.
This has been a weird summer for us. We didn't
have any real family vacations. The older girls were both working. Rebecca was
working out of town at Jacksons and Sarah-Grace was working at day camps; so we
mostly just had Heather who we tried to keep busy through some great summer
camps and lessons. We did try to make to most of our time together. The older
girls and I went down to Buffalo to see G'n'R and Live in concert and just the
other weekend we saw Alice Cooper and Deep Purple here in Toronto. Susan, the younger two girls and I went to
see the Martyr's Shrine where Father Brebeuf and the others were martyred. That
was really interesting. Sarah-Grace and I were going to go to an Argos game and
Heather and I did go to a Blue Jays game. It was actually quite a full and busy
summer on top of Karaoke nights and the rest of things around here.
There were a
couple of big corps events as well. Yesterday was the Cabbage Town festival
here and Friday we went to see the Niagara Falls and early in the summer we
went to see Howard fall out of a kayak. It is a good thing we weren't anywhere
near the falls when Howard falls into the water. I may share about this story a
little more in a little bit but I should probably get onto today's topic.
Today we are
chatting a little bit about covenant. Covenant is a topic that I know a little
bit about with my book and a number of articles that have been
published on this topic.[1]
However, I must confess that, like the Apostle Paul, I have spent much more
time looking at God's covenant with Abraham than I have His covenant with
David.[2]
Today we are going to look God's covenant with David. Who can tell me what is a
covenant? And what does the word 'berit[h]' (covenant) literally mean? (bound).[3] In
our passage here today God binds David, Jacob, and all of humanity to Himself
in an important covenant.[4] Bruce
Birch writes that "this chapter is the most important theological text in
the books of Samuel and perhaps the entire Deuteronomistic History.'[5] Let's
take a look at how that works.
First it is very
interesting: When the chapter opens, we have the king sitting in a palace of some sort. He must be a
little board. It says he has a rest from his enemies and later we read about
some of the other stuff he does when he is board but today he starts off pretty
good. He must have been thinking about the Lord as, Verse 2, 'he said to
Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of
God remains in a tent.”
3 Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever
you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you.”
Have you ever
had a moment when you say or do something without thinking and then, oh oh...?
Have we ever just answered someone quickly without thinking about it or - worse
- has anyone ever involved someone else without checking first. Think of the
stereotypical husband in the old days before cell phones who invites his
friends over for dinner without checking with his wife first. Think about the
wife who lets the kids or someone else borrow a tool or something else of dad's
without checking with him. Have we ever been in a spot where we answer someone quickly
without checking or without thinking. This is what the Lord's prophet does here
when, verse 3, 'Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go
ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you.”
Verse 4 records
that that night the Word of the Lord comes to Nathan and says, basically, 'why
didn't you check with me first!?' and then He opens up on Nathan like a
steadfast wife; He says, you tell David
this and you tell David that and then tell David one more thing. You ask David
this and you tell David the other thing.
You ask David, Verse 7, ' 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 then talks about all the things He has done for David and all the things He
has done for Israel. He doesn’t need David to build Him a house. God makes that
abundantly clear and God doesn’t want David to build Him a house and Nathan
should just march right back there and let David know that. God has been fine
without a house until now and he will continue to be fine without a house.
Nathan before
God here must feel a little like Howard on our kayaking trip this summer. No
sooner had we gotten on the river, out of sight of the kayak rental place and all
their equipment when ‘snap’ Howard’s paddle breaks in two. That cannot be a
good omen. If this were a Shakespeare play you would know that something bad
was going to happen to poor Howard before the trip was done – and you wouldn’t
be wrong. We set up Howard as best we could but he was an inexperienced kayaker
in the current; he really was up the creek without half a paddle. More
about this later. But in the end God took care of Howard and God took care of
Nathan. (And God took care of David)
After God
finishes the exchange with Nathan about all of this, God has one more thing to
tell him. The one more thing He has to tell Nathan is that God is going to
build a dynasty for David and this is interesting – in the Hebrew there is a
play on words that actually exists in the English translations as well. The
word ‘house’ can mean a building or a dynasty: for instance, our current
monarchy is from the House of Windsor, formerly the House of Hanover, meaning
the family dynasty of Windsor. It is the same in Hebrew: David says he is going
to build a house (a temple) for God but God says no, He is going to build a
house (a dynasty) for David. This part actually reads a little bit like a love
letter between two young people.[6] I
don’t know if any of you have managed to keep any old love letters from years
gone by or if you have even just noticed young love in action. I think we have
all seen young people just in a new relationship, right? This exchange reminds
me a little bit about that: 'No you’re the cutest and I am going to build you a
big house of love'.
'No you’re the cutest and I am going to
build you a big house of love'.
'No, no, no, you are… '
David wants to build a house, a palace
for God but God will not except it from David. Instead God is going to build a
house, a dynasty from David that will last forever.[7]
God loves David.
David, after all, as 1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22 say, David is ‘a man after
God’s own heart’. Now, you may stop me at this point and say, ‘hold on there,
Captain! It’s all fine and dandy to say David is a man after God’s own heart
but we’ve skipped ahead in 2 Samuel and we’ve been reading about him over the
past few weeks and David doesn’t always sound like a great guy. He’s a horrible
father! His kids seem to hate him. He commits adultery with Bathsheba, murders
her husband and then has her come live with him and his other wives and their
kids. He seems to treat a lot of people poorly and after his own son tries to
overthrow him it seems that it is only by the grace of God through the (maybe even
deplorable) actions of his nephew Joab that he and his house even exist at all.
And I remember we read the other week that God said about David, 2 Samuel 12:9-10,
“Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? …
Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you
despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ David is a
man who got into all kinds of trouble; so how can this be the same man who
loves God and who God loves in this way? Good question. Let me try to explain
it this way…
Going back to
the kayaking trip, after Howard’s paddle breaks and things are looking a little
shakey for the trip, we set up Howard as best we can but he is an inexperienced
kayaker in the current and, in reality, he is up the creak without half a
paddle. He makes it for a while then he hits a rock in the fast moving current.
He capsizes and his boat fills up with water very rapidly and drifts downstream
as it begins sinking quickly. Howard doesn’t know what he is doing and most of
the people on our trip don’t know what they are doing either. I am the only
experienced kayaker there and we are all floating downstream very quickly as Howard
crashes on the rocks and abandons ship as his craft begins to sink. I send Rob back to keep him company
while I try to empty the kayak of water mid-stream with Sam as the two of us are
being carried downstream farther and farther from Howard. I can’t empty his
kayak in the water. It is too full. Sam and I guide the boat to the river bank
whereby I get out of my kayak, then lift Howard’s water-filled kayak over my
head and dump it out. I’m exhausted. This is a lot of work. Then Sam and I have
to paddle upstream, against the current to try to get the kayak back to Howard
so that we can try to put him back in his boat. And...until now Howard has been
sitting nicely on a rock by Rob who has been keeping him company. All we need
to do is pull Howard’s kayak up to the rock and he can climb in easily. I’m
exhausted and I am just thinking that it is great that we can just load Howard
in his boat from a rock rather than –in our exhausted state- drag Howard up out
of the water when Howard decides to jump into to water and swim to us! We do eventually get him out
and no one is the worse for wear and we have a great story and a lot we have
learned from this experience.
This is like
David. His staying home when kings go off to work was when his paddle broke. He
made subsequent choices and experienced the consequences of those choices that
must have exhausted him and those around him but God like Rob, Sam, and I did
not give up on him. God metaphorically paddled all the way upstream; even
though David must have seemed like he was exhausting God by jumping in the
current of sin. God never gave up on David. David’s actions had some serious
consequences and he broke more than just a paddle but God loved him all the
same and God fought against the current to be faithful to His covenant - in
spite of all the strange moves David made. This is very important. The
scriptures, Romans 3:3-4, ask us, “What if some were unfaithful? Will their
unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness?” The answer is of course not. Once
God commits to a covenant He will be faithful even if we are faithless. This is
the whole point of covenants and this is how God saves us through them. God
will never abandon a covenant before it has been completed. He is faithful even
when we are faithless.[8]
And this is good
news. Anything less would be a works-based salvation, salvation achieved by
our own merit, skill, and ability, and as the Apostle Paul points out that is
an impossibility. None of us can achieve salvation on our own. We need God to save
us. None of us can pull ourselves from the fast moving current by ourselves; we
all need Jesus to do it for us – and he has through the cross and the empty
tomb. God promised David that He would build an everlasting dynasty through him
and He does. Jesus is the heir to David’s dynasty and Jesus reigns forever; so
no matter how many times the devil may tempt David or you or I to sin that will
not nullify the Word of God.[9]
There is nothing that will ever cause God to break His promise of salvation for
any of us – the only question is whether we will avail ourselves of that
salvation or not, whether we will be pulled back into the kayak of salvation or
whether we will choose to drown in our sins. And no matter what sins we have
committed in our lives, make no mistake, it is not too much or too late, while
we still have breath in our body we can still let Jesus lift us into that kayak
of eternal salvation.
This is what the
passage we are looking at today is talking about. God is faithful to his
covenant (and still offers each of us the opportunity for eternal salvation) even
when David is not; God is faithful to his covenant (and still offers each of us
the opportunity for eternal salvation) even when Israel is not; God is faithful
to his covenant (and still offers each of us the opportunity for eternal
salvation) even when we are not. No matter what we have done, God
has his arms out ready to accept us into His salvation.
In our passage
today, it introduces us to everlasting life by saying that the Lord’s kingdom
will last forever, and it will be ruled by David’s successor, Jesus, for all
time and nothing can change that. The only question for us today is, do you and
I choose to drown in the quickly moving current of all the temptations and sins
of our world or do we accept the eternal joy of that salvation by riding peacefully
down the river of eternal life in the kayak of Christ? It is my hope that each
of us will choose Christ.
Questions for further exploration listed below.
---
[1] Captain
Michael Ramsay. Praise The Lord For
Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today. Vancouver, BC: Credo
Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army. For more info:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Praise-The-Lord-For-Covenants/155941614427110?v=info
[2]
Cf. Michael Ramsay, 'Covenant: When God is Bound...a look at Genesis 15:7-21'. Journal of Aggressive Christianity,
Issue 52, December 2007 – January 2008, p 5. On-line at
http://www.armybarmy.com/pdf/JAC_Issue_052.pdf
[3] G.E.
Mendenhall. "Covenant." In The
Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, edited by George Arthur Buttrick.
(Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press, 1962), 715. Cf. also M. Weinfeld.
"berith." In Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, edited by
G. Johannes Botterweck. (Stuttgart, W.Germany: William B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co., 1975), 253.
[4]
Cf. Michael Ramsay, "Berit[h]" Journal
of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 40, December 2005 – January 2006 pp
16-17.
[5] Bruce
C. Birch, 'The First and Second Books of Samuel' in New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 2, ed. Leander E. Keck, et el.
(Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1998), 1254.
[6] Cf.
Gbile Akanni and Nupanga Weanzana, Africa
Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), '2 Samuel 7:5-15:Nathan's
Prophetic Declaration', 387
[7]
Cf. Bruce C. Birch, 'The First and Second Books of Samuel' in New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 2, ed.
Leander E. Keck, et el. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1998), 1255 and Gbile
Akanni and Nupanga Weanzana, Africa Bible
Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), '2 Samuel 7:5-15:Nathan's
Prophetic Declaration', 388
[8] Captain
Michael Ramsay. Praise The Lord For
Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today. Vancouver, BC: Credo
Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army. This is the thesis statement of PTL4C:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Praise-The-Lord-For-Covenants/155941614427110?v=info
[9]
Cf. Gbile Akanni and Nupanga Weanzana, Africa
Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), '2 Samuel 7:1-17:The
Promise of a Dynasty', 387
---
Questions for further exploration
I.
Life
1.
What
is something you noticed about God this week?
II.
Text
2 Samuel 7
Leader's note:
·
This
passage is the record of the Davidic Covenant. It, along with the Abrahamic
Covenant, points to the Good News of Salvation through Jesus Christ. Jesus,
descended from David's line (house) will rule eternally.
·
There
is an interesting play on words both in HB and in English in this chapter. The
word for 'house' can mean 'building' or 'dynasty' / 'family line'. Ie: the
house of Windsor (formerly Hanover) is our current Canadian Monarchy. In this passage
then David wants to build a house (building) for God but God says instead He
will build a house (dynasty) through David.
1.
What
happened in this story?
2.
Re-read
2 Samuel 7:1-4:The king lets Nathan know what he intends to do, 7:1-2,
(presumably for either feedback or approval); Nathan replies, 7:3, 'Whatever
you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you.' That night,
7:4ff, the Word of LORD says something very different.
a. Do we ever speak without
thinking and then afterwards have to back track?
b. Nathan is a prophet of
God; David is God's annointed king. They both made an error here: what was it?
How could it be avoided?
c. David seems to have been
led astray by good intentions; what were his good intentions? Do we ever fail
to consult God because our intentions are good and are plans seem good - like
here building a temple/house for God?
d. Nathan made the assumption
that because 'the LORD is with David' that whatever he had in mind was good; do
we ever blindly accept or reject things because of where/who they come from?
e. Even when we have good
plans, they may be wrong; even when others have good plans they may be wrong;
how can we be sure that what we are doing is what God wants us to do?
f. Give an example of when
you listened to and obeyed God.
3.
God
has done a lot for David, 7:5-7; God has done a lot for Israel, 7:8-11. List
some of those things from the text. God has done a lot for us; what are some of
the things God has done for you?
4.
2
Samuel 7:11-16 (along with Genesis 12:1-3) is one of the most important pericopes
in the Old Testament.
a. what strikes you about these verses?
b. Verse 16 states that
"your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne
will be established forever" Who is the member of David's house (dynasty;
his ancestors) who will sit on the throne forever?
c. Do you serve Jesus who
is the ruler who rules forever? Are you a citizen of the Nation/Country/Kingdom
of God? Do you want to be?
If you have never prayed to
dedicate your life to God and to serve Jesus forever, you are welcome to pray:
Lord Jesus please accept my life in service to You. Please forgive my sins and
please come into my heart for now and forever more. In Jesus' Name, amen.
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