The God of Plans and Promises
2 Samuel 7:1-17

Human beings are planners. From our youth we begin to make plans. Some think about the college they want to attend and the course of study they want to undertake. Other young people make plans to enlist in the armed services and defend our nation. Still others determine to learn a trade or undertake a career in another vocation, perhaps in health services or public safety. As adults we make plans to buy or build a house. We chart our careers, hoping for advancement and better remuneration. At some point along the way, we start to make plans for retirement. Human beings are planners.

King David was a planner too. He had established himself as the uncontested sovereign of the tribes of Israel. David had built a palace to dwell in. The edifice served as a visual reminder of his power and kingship. David also enjoyed victories over his pagan neighbors, especially the Philistines. Verse one describes his settled political and military estate: “Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him."

But David was not one to rest on his laurels. He had other important plans in the making. Nathan was a prophet and one of David’s chief counselors and confidants. Verse two reports David’s statement to Nathan. “The king said to the prophet Nathan, 'See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.'" David was residing in an established palace of cedar, but the ark of the covenant was residing in an impermanent structure, in a tent.

We do not know David’s motivations. Was he motivated by gratitude for all the LORD had done for him, or was he trying to curry more favor with God? The text does not answer these questions, but David’s motivation seems to have been noble, rational, and right. The prophet Nathan, at least, saw no reason for David not to proceed with his plan. Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you” (vs. 3).

But God’s ways are not our ways. God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. David and Nathan should have sought the LORD’s wisdom before embarking on such a great plan. We should do the same with our personal plans. God will help us. As James says, “If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you” (1:5).

Just as a little aside, this Sunday is Reformation Sunday, when we celebrate the Protestant Reformation. If the medieval church had sought God’s wisdom, they might not have sparked the Reformation. Like King David, the medieval church was determined to build a house for God. They built the great cathedrals of Europe, but they financed the projects by selling indulgences, certificates sold by the church to Christians that promised the owner remission of the temporal punishment in purgatory still due for sins after receiving absolution from a priest. This was a profound corruption of the gospel. In a way, the Protestant Reformation was God’s “No” to their plans.

David and Nathan did not seek God’s wisdom, but God intervened, nipping David’s plan in the bud. Look at verses 4-7. “But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’”

The LORD was content with the way things stood. God’s interest was not in a temple but in his people. From the day they left Egypt until the present moment, the Lord “moved about among all the people of Israel” (vs. 7). Yahweh would not rest until his people found rest. As the LORD says, “And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel” (vs. 10).

And that remains true today. As Hebrews 4:9 says, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” In Jesus Christ, God tabernacled among us full of grace and truth. “The word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). And now, in the person of the Holy Spirit, God continues to dwell among us until the final rest of the kingdom comes.

I love the words of the old hymn Built on a Rock. Stanza two reads, “Surely, in temples made with hands God the Most High is not dwelling – high in the heav’ns his temple stands, all earthly temples excelling. Yet he who dwells in heav’n above deigns to abide with us in love, making our bodies his temple.” There is a marvelous humility and condescension in Almighty God. God’s abiding desire is to move about among all his chosen people until the promised rest finally arrives.

No. God was not interested in David's building him a temple at the moment. David’s son, Solomon, would build the temple in God’s time (see vs. 13a). God’s answer to David was not “No,” but “Not yet.” But God was just getting started in revealing his great plan of grace.

The LORD begins by reviewing his past mercies to David. “Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth” (vs. 8-9a). God took David from the pasture to the palace. God was constantly with him. God defeated all of David’s enemies.

Then, the LORD makes a series of promises. First, God makes a promise to David. “I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth” (vs. 9b). I could not help but think of Michelangelo’s classic statue of David. Truly, king David is numbered among the great ones of the earth.

Next, God makes a promise to his people. “And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel” (vs. 10). God would give them a safe place.

Then, God makes a second promise to David. “I will give you rest from all your enemies” (vs. 11a). Essentially, God promises David continued protection from his pagan neighbors.

And then a final and astounding promise to David is made. “Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house” (vs. 11b). David wanted to build the LORD a house, but Yahweh turns everything upside down as he is wont to do. The LORD promises to build David a house instead, not a palace but a dynasty. This is grace on top of grace.

One commentator has observed that the promise of the Davidic dynasty is indefectible. Indefectible was a new word to me. It means “not subject to failure or decay” or "lasting and flawless.” Yahweh’s promise to David was indefectible because death could not destroy it. Look at verse 12. “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom." The promise would continue after David’s death.

Yahweh’s promise to David was indefectible because sin could not destroy it. Look at verses 13-15. “He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you." The disobedience of David’s heirs would not thwart the promise.

And Yahweh’s promise to David was indefectible because time could not exhaust it. Look at vs. 13b and vs. 16. “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. […] Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” "Forever" is endless. It speaks of eternity.

These divine promises have been and are being fulfilled in Jesus Christ. I love the way one commentator put it, “Yahweh’s kingdom plan through David’s dynasty is simply unstoppable; he will overwhelm death, sin, and time if need be to bring it about. And he has. The years wore on; everything from foolish failures to blatant wickedness marked the reigns of the Davidic kings; Israel is swept into exile and remains in subjugation to foreign powers. But a child, a Davidic child, is born, a son is given. In him is no sin. He trampled all over death and has begun his endless reign at the place of supreme power and authority in the universe (called in the Bible ‘the right hand of God’).”

And we are the beneficiaries of this great plan of grace!

Our deaths cannot annul the plan. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” John 11:25-26). Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also” (Jn 14:1-3). The Apostle Paul wrote, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). Our last enemy will be conquered yet.

Our sins cannot destroy God’s plan. The Psalmist says, “Our sins are stronger than we are, but you will blot them out” (Ps. 65:3). Paul said, “Sin shall not have dominion over you (in the present or the future); for you are not under law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14).

Even unstoppable time, time like an ever-rolling stream, cannot exhaust the plan. The book of Revelation says of Jesus Christ, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (11:15). And the same book says of us and our future, “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever” (22:5). Our lives, our past, our present, our eventual death, our eternity are completely safe in God’s unfolding plan of grace.

We are living in remarkably uncertain, unsettled, and unnerving times, but none of the current chaos, not the pandemic, not the election, not the possible fallout after the election, or anything else can thwart God’s good will for us,

As God speaking through the prophet Jeremiah put it, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (29:11).

Brothers and sisters, friends, we are planners by nature. Let us make our earthly plans, but let us never lose sight of God’s great plan of grace for us in Jesus Christ and his glorious kingdom that has no end. God’s plan is an anchor for our souls; it is our hope and comfort in life and in death.

Thanks be to God, who will yet cause us to triumph through our Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia! Amen.