God’s Eternal Realm—Lectionary Reflection for Advent 4B (2 Samuel 7)

2 Samuel 7:1-16 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

7 Now when the king was settled in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, ² 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.” ³ Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind, for the Lord is with you.”

⁴ But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, ⁵ “Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? ⁶ 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. ⁷ 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?’ ⁸ 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, ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ 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, ¹¹ from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 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. ¹³ He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. ¹⁶ Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.”

 

**************

Note: As I write this reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, this is that strange year when the Fourth Sunday and Christmas Eve fall on the same day. I realize that there will be some who choose to focus on Christmas Eve and skip the Fourth Sunday. Nevertheless, the readings for the Fourth Sunday remain important to the larger story.  

*********

                The Gospel reading from Luke 1 invites us to consider the annunciation to Mary by the Angel Gabriel that she will bear a child by way of the Holy Spirit, and this child will receive from God the throne of his ancestor David (Luke 1:26-38). The reading from 2 Samuel 7 serves as an anchor point for the Christian proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah, the heir of David. The reading from 2 Samuel 7 features a conversation between David, the king of Israel, and Nathan the prophet concerning David’s desire to build God a more permanent abode. After all, David has a nice house built of Cedar while God still lives in a tent fit for nomads. David is feeling a bit embarrassed by his good fortune while God lives in second-class quarters. The question is whether God is all that concerned. The reason this passage has been chosen for this occasion is that Christians have proposed Jesus to be David’s heir. Thus, the question is what the biblical passages about David might say about his messianic descendant.

                Our Advent readings from the Old Testament would not have been understood in their original context as prophetic messages about Jesus in particular. When we read passages like this at Advent, we are imposing a Christian lens on these texts. As we do this, we need to acknowledge our theological appropriation of these texts to help define the calling of Jesus. In seeking to honor both the original context and the Christian reinterpretation, I have included the entire passage, including the omitted verses running from verses 12 to 15. These verses focus on David and his heirs, including who will build a Temple for God instead of David, a descendant whom God might punish, but not to worry, God’s steadfast love wouldn’t be removed (just a reminder that the idea that God’s love is unconditional doesn’t begin with Jesus). Then comes the climactic word, the one the lectionary creators want us to hear: “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam. 7:16). Now by the time this account was written four hundred years after David’s death, David’s royal line had already come to an end with the Babylonian Exile. The Deuteronomic writers of this account envisioned the restoration of the monarchy, but that would never come to fruition.  

                According to our reading, David had built himself a nice palace made of Cedar. While he was living in luxury, he was concerned (embarrassed) that God still lived in a tent. The Ark of the Covenant, which Saul had lost in battle with the Philistines had been recovered, but alas it was housed in that old tent. At first, Nathan the Prophet, David’s chief spiritual advisor, encouraged him to get to work. Apparently, Nathan thought God would be pleased, but he later gets a word from God suggesting that God was quite happy living in a tent. After all, God had liberated the people from bondage in Egypt and then protected them, all the while being represented by the Ark and the Tent.  Now, as we see in the omitted verses, Nathan does relay God’s promise that David’s successor will build God a house (that successor would be Solomon).

                While the conversation gets started because David wants to build God a nice house out of Cedar, the message that fits with Advent is that final verse in the reading, the one that suggests that David’s line will endure forever (something that was currently in abeyance at the time the Book was written). Of course, the Temple that Solomon built lay in ruins, so it wasn’t eternal either. Nevertheless, the promise that God’s steadfast love will not be removed still stands. Whether the Temple or the Monarchy continues to exist is irrelevant to the promise that God is with the people. It’s that unconditional promise that gets lifted up as early Christians drew on texts like this to define Jesus’ ministry. The monarchy as an entity may not have been restored, but Jesus could embody the promise in messianic fashion.

Before we get to the messianic portion of our Advent appropriation of the passage, we might want to consider the word Nathan gave to David, that God doesn’t need a house to do what God needs to do. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have church buildings, but we best not assume God needs one. After all, God dwells in the people of God, not the building. We might also keep in mind our tendency to try to get ahead of God by making plans without consulting God. Perhaps we just assume that God will bless our plans (as a retired pastor I have been guilty of this in the past, and perhaps still do this in my current activities). We might even want to check our reasoning for wanting to do such a thing as build God a house. It does appear that David may have either been embarrassed that he had a nice house and God didn’t, or perhaps David just wanted to initiate another building project that would reflect well on him. My sense is that Herod built up the Jerusalem Temple not because God needed a fancier house, but because Herod wanted to have one of the wonders of the world that would reflect well on him. Might we want to build houses for God that reflect well on us? After all, what better sign of power and greatness than a religious edifice? Think for a moment about the great buildings of antiquity. Consider the Parthenon in Athens or Justinian’s Hagia Sophia. We might want to remember that Solomon, like Herod after him, built their temples on the backs of their subjects. We still build religious edifices—"gospels in stone”—but do they say more about us than God?

Again, when we read this in the context of Advent the focus is not on David’s building plans but God’s promise to build a different house. That house was David’s dynasty, a dynasty that died out with the exile. However, in the reading from the Gospel of Luke that is paired with 2 Samuel, Mary is told that she will have a child who will be called “the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor of David” (Luke 1:30-32). Not only that, but he will reign over the house of Jacob (Israel) forever, such that there will be no end to his kingdom (Lk 1:33). It is this word about Jesus’ eternal kingdom that connects the reading from Luke (and thus Jesus’ calling) with the promise made to David in 2 Samuel 7.

As we read this text in Advent through the lens of the incarnation, and the anointing of Mary’s child in the reading from Luke, it is important that we recognize that the Deuteronomic writers did not have Jesus in mind. Therefore, a Jewish reading of 2 Samuel will be different from a Christian one. If we can make that notation, it is possible for us to appropriate the passage to define Jesus’ messianic calling, which is revealed in the Advent/Christmas texts. The connection with David is an important one since the Messiah is understood to be the heir of David. Whatever David’s faults he is seen as the foundation of Israel as a nation and not simply a federation of tribes. As we ponder the passage it would be wise to return to the original conversation between David and Nathan, where David learns that his plans are out of sync with God’s. Nathan helps get him back on track so he can realize that God doesn’t need him to build houses, but that God will build an eternal house from him.

As we are moving toward the revelation of the birth of the Savior, it is worth noting that in Luke Jesus is homeless at the time of his birth. Then as an adult, engaged in ministry, he was an itinerant preacher without a place to call home. As we ponder the connection between the reading from 2 Samuel and the Gospel of Luke, we can consider this word from Eugene Bay:

Where in the world, where in our life as a congregation, where in one’s personal life, may God be wanting to do something that is being blocked by human aspirations and agendas, however seemingly noble? How receptive are we to the God who will not be confined or enshrined by retains and cherishes the freedom to surprise us—as om the coming of Christ down the back stairs of Bethlehem, to be born of Mary, grow up in the hick town of Nazareth, spend his time with the least, the lowly, and the lost, and, most surprising of all, become “obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross?” Could that same God be heading the church in new and unthought directions?   [Feasting on the Word, p. 78].

Before we cross the threshold to Christmas Eve, we might want to first ponder what Jesus’ calling really is.

Hail to the Lord's Anointed, great David's greater Son!
Hail, in the time appointed, his reign on earth begun!
He comes to break oppression, to set the captive free,
to take away transgressions, and rule in equity.

—“Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,” by James Montgomery (1821)

Image Attribution: Anonymous. King David, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55199 [retrieved December 15, 2023]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:K%C3%B6nig_David_vor_einem_Opferaltar_kniend.jpg.