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.

    After David built himself a palace he felt guilty for not building a temple for God. Actually, I am not sure that he did. Throughout his career David showed a clear understanding of politics. One of the motivations behind building himself a palace was to create a focus for political unity. A temple would also provide a focus for political unity. More importantly, a temple would provide a focus for religious unity. David’s interest in religious unity was not just, perhaps not even primarily, a matter of strengthening his power. Greater religious unity means that people are less likely to interpret their own desires as God’s will. However, David was wise enough to consult with others before putting his plans in motion. In particular, David was wise enough to consult his spiritual adviser(s).

    At this point, the spiritual adviser whom David consulted was Nathan the prophet. Nathan’s immediate response was that building a temple for God was a good idea. However, once he had time to think about it, God revealed to Nathan that this was not the time, and David was not the king, to build a temple for God. As part of God’s message to David telling him not to build the Temple Nathan was to tell David that one of his sons would build the Temple. While the writer of this book certainly believed that promise to apply to Solomon, there are definite Messianic overtones to it. The prophecy was that God would never take His favor from this descendant of David. Yet, God later promised to tear 10 of the tribes of Israel from Solomon’s heirs. It is Jesus who truly fulfilled this prophecy. Jesus built a temple for God which will last for all time. That Temple is the Church, the Body of Believers.

    I want to stress that David did what he did because of his faithfulness to God, not just because they were the best thing to do to secure his throne. That is the key to David’s success. He did many things which advanced and protected his power, but his first concern was doing what was God’s will. We see this as early as when Saul was chasing him and David had the opportunity to kill Saul. David chose not to take advantage of that opportunity because Saul was God’s anointed ruler over Israel. David knew that he had been anointed to take Saul’s place, yet he had both the patience and the faith to wait for God to make that happen. In today’s passage it would have benefited David to build a temple for the worship of God in Jerusalem, but when God let him know that it was not his will for David to do so, David refrained. David managed to walk that fine line of acting according to God’s will and waiting for God’s time. I struggle with that myself.