Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 17-19.

I am torn about whether to write about what God tells David about his idea for building a temple along with David’s prayer of response, or about the timeline of David’s conquests.  I am going to start with what God told David through Nathan and see where this goes.  First, God tells David that He will provide a place for His people so that they have a home where wicked people will not oppress them.  As I read that I think both of modern Israel, which is a home for the descendants of Jacob, and the new Heaven and new Earth which God has promised to those who follow His Son.  The latter is very definitely a fulfillment of this prophecy.  Modern Israel as a home for the Jewish people of today represents a foreshadowing of that much greater home which the new Heaven and Earth will be for all of God’s people.  God shows us again and again throughout history that until all people bow to His son, wicked people will arise again and again to oppress His people.

God goes on to tell David through Nathan that He will raise up one of David’s sons who will build a house for God.  God says that He will establish this son’s kingdom and will set this son of David over God’s house and God’s kingdom forever.  Now most would interpret this as referring to Solomon, and I think we are to understand this prophecy as being fulfilled by Solomon.  But we are also to understand that it was not truly fulfilled by Solomon.  For Solomon only lived for a normal lifespan, and upon his death, the kingdom of Israel was divided.  So, clearly this prophecy also applied to another descendant of David, who would be able to forever  rule over God’s house and God’s kingdom.  That prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus Christ who built a different house for God, a house composed of those who accepted Him into their hearts, and allowed His Spirit to transform them into God’s likeness, as God had intended from the beginning.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 17-19.

When David first spoke to Nathan the prophet about building a temple for God, Nathan’s gut response was to tell David to go ahead.  Nathan did not feel a need to ask God about it because his experience was that David made choices of which God approved (Note: this was before David encountered Bathsheba).  However, when Nathan meditated on God/prayed that night*, God revealed to him that He did not want David to build Him a temple.  This teaches us something important: we should take time to consult God before committing ourselves to a course of action.

The significance of the next section I am going to comment on depends on how you view the Bible and the way it was written.  If you believe that those who wrote down this book paraphrased their sources so as to put their own beliefs in the mouths of their ancestors, this next section is not very significant.  On the other hand, if you believe, as I do, that those who wrote down the various books of the Bible (particularly this one) based what they wrote on sources that dated to the time about which they are writing, perhaps selecting which sources they relied upon based on their biases and intentions, then this is very significant.  So, many biblical scholars have suggested that before the Babylonian Exile, particularly going back to the time of David and before, the Israelites believed that God was one of many gods, but was the only one worth worshiping.  While I believe that was true for many of the Israelites, it was not what was taught by the teachers of the Law, or what was believed by those, such as David, who strove to do God’s will in their lives.  Instead, I see in David’s prayer of praise to God recorded here a belief that God was the only real god.  So, if you believe, as I do, that this prayer of David recorded here actually reflects what David prayed, then this is evidence that the belief that YHWH is the only God was not a post-Exile “innovation”, but instead goes back to the very beginning of Israel as a people.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 17-19.

Initially, when King David proposed building a Temple for God in Jerusalem, the prophet Nathan approved the idea.  However, that night God came to him and revealed that David should not be the one to build the Temple.  Instead, God tells Nathan to tell David that one of his offspring will be the one to build the Temple for God.  Now, the simple view of Nathan’s prophecy holds that King Solomon fulfilled it when he built the Temple.  However, the prophecy also says that his throne would be established forever and that God would set him over His kingdom forever.  Considering that Solomon died and was buried, remaining in his grave, I would argue that Solomon was not the fulfillment of Nathan’s prophecy, or, not the complete fulfillment of it.  Instead, Nathan was prophesying the coming of the Messiah, who I believe to be Jesus Christ.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  1 Chronicles 17-19.

When David decided that he should build a Temple for God, God sent him a message through the prophet Nathan.  In that message, God told David that He had never asked any of the leaders of Israel to build Him a house.  Then God told David that He would raise up his offspring to succeed him.  That son would build a house for God.  The easy reading of this is that God was promising that Solomon would succeed David as king and build a Temple.  Yet, God goes on to tell David that this particular offspring will be established forever.  This leads me to conclude that while God was referring to Solomon, He was also referring to Jesus.  It was Jesus whom God set over His house and kingdom forever.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 17-19.

The message which God gave to David through the prophet Nathan contains some prophecies which clearly apply to the Messiah and not to Solomon.  In fact, in many ways it more closely tracks as a Messianic prophecy than one fulfilled by Solomon.  While Solomon did indeed build a temple to God, he did not truly keep God’s favor his entire life, as God chose Jeroboam to take the Northern Tribes away from Solomon’s son while Solomon yet ruled.  On the other hand, the Church is indeed God’s Temple, built by Jesus.  Jesus suffered death at God’s command and has His favor for all of eternity.  Speaking of eternity, Jesus will reign over God’s people for all of eternity.