1 Chronicles 22:2-19

TEXT FOR REFLECTION

 6 Then he called for Solomon his son and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel. 7 David said to Solomon, “My son, I had it in my heart to build a house to the name of the Lord my God. 8 But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth. 9 Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies. For his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. 10 He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever.’

1 Chronicles 22:2-19

“‘The Lord also announces to you: “The Lord will himself build a house[o] for you. 12 When your life is complete and you go to join[q] your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring[r] after you, who will come forth from your body, and I will fortify his kingdom. 13 He will build a Temple dedicated to my Name, and I will make the throne of his kingdom last forever.

2 Samuel 7:11-13

REFLECT AND RELATE

After King David had settled in his palace, he felt deep sadness that while he had built himself a grand palace to live in and from which to rule, there was no 'dwelling' place for God. He then decided to build God a temple. But God spoke through the prophet Nathan, telling him how much God loved David, and not to feel bad that He had not built God a temple. He then explained that the reason God lived in a tent was because the people of Israel were in transition and in a nomadic state, and God wanted to be where His people were. 

God then told David that David was not to build the Temple because he had too much blood on his hands. Rather, his son Solomon would build him the temple.

As I reflected on this passage, two realities stood out:

1) Our God-inspired plans and dreams may not be fulfilled in our lifetimes. 

David loved God immensely. All his life, he had been the man after God's heart. In everything, he thought of God and longed to please Him. He wanted to build a temple, a glorious temple for God, simply because he loved God. Yet God stopped him from doing so but assured him that He would allow David's son Solomon to build His Temple. The reason God gave for this was not that David was too old to build the Temple, but that he had shed too much blood and hence was not fit to build the Temple. I wonder if David felt disappointed that he had not been chosen to build the Temple.

God has placed godly dreams and visions for many of us. But often, we do not live long enough nor are we able to stay in a place long enough to see our life-work come to fruition. Just right before we think we will see what we had set out to do bear fruit, we are taken away. You may have set out to change the culture in the office, but never got to see the culture really change. You may have started an outreach to a certain group of people and not had the privilege of seeing your outreach take root. A pastor friend had many dreams of building the faith of his congregation, when he discovered that he had terminal cancer. And his heart-wrenching question: Didn't God call me to start this work? Martin Luther King and his like-minded friends had set out to bring racial equality to America, but he never saw substantial change. James Elliot, a missionary who went to Ecuador to reach the natives there barely started his work before being killed by those he sought to reach. He is best known, not for converting the natives, but for being killed by them. Yet his death sparked a movement that eventually brought many of the natives to the Lord. History is replete with stories of godly people setting out to accomplish godly dreams and callings, but never got to see the result. This painful reality prompted the writer to the Hebrews to write this encouragement to his congregation: "And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised."  Hebrews 11:38.

It is important that we embrace the truth that when God has started a work through us, He will bring it to completion, even when we are unable to do so.

2) David was fit for one role but unfit for another role. God and David loved each other with all their heart. It would have seemed right that God would choose David to build His Temple. What better person was there who would give his all to building a Temple for God? Yet God pronounced that David had been too much a man of war to build Him the Temple. Was this an indictment on David? Was God penalizing David because he had shed too much blood? Was God saying that David had a flaw that made him unfit to build His temple? Yet, was it not hypocritical of God to call David to fight wars so that the people of Israel could settle in the land, and then declare David unfit to build the Temple because he had engaged in too many wars?

As far as I can see from scripture, God never loved David any less for being a man of war. God never penalized David for being a warrior king. He had called David to fight wars and David had obeyed. But it is also true that a man of war could not build a Temple of peace. The Temple signified the end of Israel's uncertain days of being stateless and at war with the occupiers of the promised land. It was a symbol of Israel having settled down and at peace. Hence it called for a different kind of king to build the Temple.

God uses people of different temperaments to do His work under very different circumstances. The danger for us is that we tend to judge those who had gone before us by standards which apply only to our present circumstances. For example, lately there has been much criticism of the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew for his draconian methods of jailing his political opponents. We forget that his circumstances demanded a different leadership from our day. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism was a passionate preacher. In fact he overworked to the detriment of his family life because he saw as his life-mission an urgent call to reach as many persons as he could. He did so not from vain glory, but out of a love for humanity and deep convictions to bring Christ to the common people. On the one hand, he was known as a great evangelist and had he been more of a family man and less of a traveling evangelist, Christianity might never have reached our shores. On the other, he has been criticised for being a poor husband and father. 

In our day, we continue to judge our leaders, whether of the nation, or the church, or our work, too critically describing them as "too heavy-handed or spineless, too harsh or too easy-going, too organised or too laissez faire, too liberal or too conservative". We forget that what was a strength essential in their time, might have become a fault or a flaw in a different time.

Even though God saw that King David was unfit for the task of building the Temple, He still honoured David as a man after His heart. God judges far more compassionately and generously than we. We too need to learn to honour those who have gone before us with insight into what was necessary in their time.

REST 

Faith of our fathers, living still,

In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword;

Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy

Whene’er we hear that glorious Word!

Faith of our fathers, holy faith!

We will be true to thee till death.

Father, help us to judge history with your eyes and your compassion. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.

Chiu Ming Li