2 Samuel 7

CHAPTER 7THEME: God’s covenant to build the house of DavidGod’s covenant with David makes this one of the great chapters of the Bible. The message of the Bible from this point on rests upon this promise that God makes to David. David desired deeply to build a temple to house the ark of God, and Nathan the prophet concurred with him in the plan. God appeared to Nathan to correct him, for God would not let David build the temple because he was “a bloody man.” However, God gave him credit for his desire, and in turn He promised to build David a house. God promised a king and a kingdom to come in the line of David. He was referring not only to Solomon but to Christ, great David’s greater Son, and His eternal Kingdom.

God confirmed this promise with an oath (Psa_89:34-37). David understood that a King was coming in his line who would be more than a man. Frankly, it is very difficult to understand the prophets from this point on without knowing about this covenant. One of the reasons many people find themselves so hopelessly confused in the study of prophecy is because they do not pay attention to a chapter like this. Second Samuel 7 is by far the most significant chapter thus far in the Old Testament. The New Testament opens with: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David….” That is important because the promises God made to David are to be fulfilled in prophecy. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he said, “…Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David” (Luk_1:30-32). You see, God is fulfilling His promise to David. Peter began in 2 Samuel 7 when he preached on the day of Pentecost: “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne” (Act_2:29-30; see also Act_2:25-31, Act_2:34-36). Peter is making reference to that which God promised to David. Paul, in the Book of Romans, says, “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Rom_1:1-3). The New Testament closes with the Lord Jesus Christ saying, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star” (Rev_22:16). These are only a few of the fifty-nine references to David in the New Testament. The Old Testament prophets based their message of the kingdom on the promise God gave to David in 2 Samuel 7. You will find that each of the Old Testament prophets goes back to David and God’s promises to him concerning the kingdom. After all, what is the Kingdom of Heaven but the kingdom that God vouchsafed to David? For example, listen to Jer_23:5, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” The Kingdom became the theme song of the prophets.

2 Samuel 7:1

DAVID’S DESIRE TO BUILD THE TEMPLELet us look at the background of these verses. We have seen that David took Jerusalem and made it his capital. Then Hiram, the king of Tyre, built David a palace on Mount Zion. Finally David brought the ark up to the city of Jerusalem. One night when David was in his palace, he began to think about the ark. I think it must have been a rainy night in Jerusalem. The first night I ever spent in that city, it rained, and I thought, It must have been a rainy night when David awakened and heard the pitter-patter of rain on that lovely palace that his friend Hiram had built for him. Then he thought of God’s ark in a tent. Perhaps he could even hear the flapping of the tent, and he thought, I want to build God a house. David called in Nathan, his prophet, and divulged to him the desires of his heart. He said, “I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.” Nathan told David to go ahead with his plans. And here is a case where a prophet was wrong, and I mean wrong. Nathan said, “Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee.” I would have said the same thing. The fact of the matter is, if someone came to me and said, “Dr. McGee, we want to underwrite your radio ministry on a certain station,” I’ll be frank with you, I would not say, “Well, let me go and pray about this and see whether this is what ought to be done.” I would say, “Yes, this is what we want.” But my decision might not be the will of God.

I understand how Nathan felt. David’s plans sounded good. Nathan could not think of anything better than building a house for God. But he was wrong. David, as we have indicated before, was a bloody man. Long before he committed his great sin, he was a bloody man.

God said, “You cannot build me a temple.” It was in the heart of David, however, and God gives him credit for it. I think we make a mistake by calling it Solomon’s temple, because it was David who gathered all of the materials and made all of the arrangements with the contractor. Solomon just carried out the plans. The only temple Solomon ever had was on the side of his head. It should be called David’s temple.

2 Samuel 7:4

God had to correct Nathan. God said to him, “You are going to have to correct the word you gave to David. You go tell David that I appreciate the fact that he wants to build Me a house. I never asked him to do it. I never asked any of My people to build Me a house.” God had met with His people in a tent. In other words, God identified Himself with His people.

That is why 1900 years ago Jesus Christ came to earth and took upon Himself our humanity. John says, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (Joh_1:14). That word dwelt means “pitched His tent” here among us. Instead of meeting man in a flimsy tent made of linen, God met man in a flimsy tent made of flesh. He came to earth and identified Himself with us. God has always identified Himself with His people.

2 Samuel 7:7

In other words, building the temple was David’s ideanot God’s commandment. God gives him credit for building the temple.

2 Samuel 7:8

God says, “You were a little shepherd boy when I chose you. And I’ve made you ruler over My people.”

2 Samuel 7:9

In God’s book David ranks as one of the greatest men who has lived on this earth. Compare David with any man who has ever ruled, and he is outstanding. If I understand the prophets correctly, it is God’s intention, when David is raised from the dead in the resurrection, to let him rule on this earth as regent to the Lord Jesus Christ during the Millennium.

2 Samuel 7:10

This is what God is going to do. Notice the “I will’s” of God. (1) “I will appoint a place for my people Israel; (2) I will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more.” Friend, that was a long time agoactually, God said this over three thousand years ago, and it has not yet come to pass. But God is going to make good His promise.

2 Samuel 7:11

God says to Nathan, “You go tell David that I will make him a house.” David said, “I want to build God a house.” God says, “David, you can’t do it. Your hands are bloody. You can’t build Me a house, but I know the desire is in your heart. I will give you credit for building Me a house, and I will build you a house.” Isn’t that just like the Lord? You can’t out do the Lord, friend. One of the reasons so many of us are so poor today is because we do so little for the Lord. We never get in a position where He can do much for us. We can learn a lesson from David. David wanted to do something great for God and God did something far greater for him.

2 Samuel 7:12

This is tremendous! We have read from the New Testament that the Lord Jesus Christ was made of the seed of David (Rom_1:3). God said to David, “I am going to set up thy seed after thee, and He will establish the Kingdom.” God was not talking about Solomon. God was referring to the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Samuel 7:13

Solomon is the subject here; he is the next in line. The Kingdom, however, goes beyond Solomon and looks on to the future. “I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” This speaks of the throne of David. The Lord Jesus Christ will one day sit on the throne of David. That was the angel Gabriel’s message to Mary. He said, “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David” (Luk_1:32).

2 Samuel 7:14

Listen again to God’s “I will.” In a unique way God says, “I will be his father.” At His resurrection the Lord Jesus Christ said to Mary Magdalene, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (Joh_20:17). God is the Father of Jesus Christ because of His position in the Trinity. God is my Father by regeneration"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name" (Joh_1:12). When I received Christ as my Savior, He gave me the right (the exousia) to become His son. That right is given to those who do neither more nor less than simply believe in His name. God says, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son.” The last part of verse 2Sa_7:14 is a very strange statement. “If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.” Bishop Horsley gives an interesting translation of this: “When guilt is laid upon him, I will chasten him with the rod of men.” That is exactly what God is saying now. God says, “When guilt is laid upon Him, I am going to be His Father, and He will be My Son.” That is the unique relationship between God the Father and God the Son. But “if he commit iniquity,” that is, when iniquity is laid upon Himwhen your sin and my sin were put upon Himit is with His stripes that we are healed. He died on the Cross for you and me. He was delivered for our offenses. That is the reason He died on the Cross. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1Pe_2:24)healed from sin.

Isaiah the prophet says concerning Christ, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief …” (Isa_53:10). The One coming in David’s line would bear the sins of the world. Isaiah continues to speak of the Lord Jesus when he says, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa_53:4-6). “With his stripes we are healed.” Healed of what? We are healed of sin.

Sin is the awful disease that afflicts mankind, my beloved. That is why God says, “I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.”

2 Samuel 7:15

In other words, though the line of David sinned grievously, God would carry through to the end of His purpose with David and his line. And God did just that. He brought the Lord Jesus Christ into the world.

2 Samuel 7:16

God considered this important because Psa_89:34-37 says, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.” “Established for ever as the moon.” Scientists are saying, after studying the rocks brought back from the moon, that the universe is probably from three to five billion years oldthat’s a long time. God said He would establish David’s throne just as He established the moon. God made a covenant with David, and He will not break it.

2 Samuel 7:18

DAVID’S PRAYEROnce again consider Bishop Horsley’s translation of this verse: “O Lord God, thou hast spoken of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and hast regarded me in the arrangement about the man that is to be from above, O God Jehovah.” That is a remarkable statement. They were looking for One to come. He was to be of the seed of the woman. He was to be from Abraham; He was to come from the tribe of Judah; now we are told that He will be in the family of David. David is overwhelmed by the fact that Jesus Christ will be in his line.

2 Samuel 7:20

Have you ever poured out your heart to God until you didn’t have anything left to say? That was David’s state. He had poured out his heart and was empty; he was just sitting there before Him. I like to pray while I am driving alone in my car. I tell Him everything in my heart until I can’t even think of anything else to say. How wonderful He is. How wonderful is our God.

2 Samuel 7:21

Did God do all of this for David because he was a nice boy? He wasn’t a nice boy, friend, as we are going to see. Neither did God save you or me because we were nice girls or boys. He saved us because of His marvelous, infinite grace. He does so many special things for us, not because of our goodness, but because of His goodness. He is wonderful. We are not. We ought to praise His name. David is overwhelmed by what God has told him. It is no wonder that he could sing those beautiful psalms.

2 Samuel 7:22

Doesn’t this verse do you good just to read it? My, what a privilege to have a God like this!

2 Samuel 7:25

Did you know that this became David’s salvation? Listen to what he says in 2Sa_23:5, “Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.” David rested upon what God had promised. God has also made a promise to you. It is recorded in Joh_3:16. It says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Will you believe God? David believed God. Also we have seen that Abraham believed God. Moses believed God. Joshua believed God. And He wants you to believe God. Whatever your name is, He is saying to you today, “Believe Me. I’ll save you if you will trust Christ as your Savior.” That is His covenant with you and with me.