Did God Ask for a House? —Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 9B (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.”

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                Things were looking up for David. He had knit the nation together under his leadership. He’d moved into a new capital and the land was rather peaceful (for a change). He even built himself a nice house (palace) made of cedar (imported no doubt from Lebanon). Oh, and he had recovered the Ark of the Covenant and had placed it in a tent/tabernacle. What the nation lacked was a Temple, a more permanent structure. David decided it was time to make God a nice home, like his own. I think he felt bad that God still lived in a tent while he had a nice permanent dwelling. It just wasn’t a good look. So, he told Nathan the prophet about his concerns and received an initial go-ahead from God. Or did he? Could Nathan have jumped the gun?

                Discussions about the necessity of building great religious edifices have been going on for millennia. The question has always been whether God (or the gods) needs such edifices. Might God be just as happy hanging out in a storefront as a magnificent cathedral? Put differently, does God ask us to build such buildings or do we feel the need to create edifices in the name of God that in reality reflect our own sense of identity? I’ve been to some of the great cathedrals and abbeys in Europe, including Cologne, Strasbourg, Speyer, Salisbury, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, to name a few. They are magnificent buildings that are awe-inspiring. Personally, I’m glad they got built. But are they necessary dwelling places for God? That’s the question posed by our reading from 2 Samuel.

                David believed God needed a house, where the Ark could dwell securely. After all, David had a nice house, so shouldn’t God have a better house? Although Nathan initially agreed with the plan, God had other ideas. Nathan heard from God, who told him in no certain terms, who is David to think he should build a house for God?  God makes a good point when conversing with Nathan. God reminded Nathan that God hadn’t had a house to live in since leading the people out of Egypt. Instead, God had been traveling in a tent or tabernacle, and this had worked just fine. Through the years, God never asked any of the tribal leaders to build a temple of cedar but traveled with the people. God seemed to be saying that while David was ready to settle down, God wasn’t ready to be shut up in a temple of cedar or stone for that matter. This isn’t a stationary God or even an unmoved mover, but a God who is always on the move. Therefore, a tent, which is mobile, works just fine. That way God could go with the people. That’s the message Nathan delivers to David, reminding him, on God’s behalf, that God had been with David through thick and thin, taking him from being a shepherd of a flock of sheep to being a prince of Israel.  Yes, God had been with David, wherever David went, defeating David’s enemies and making David’s name great.

                Now, as for God’s people, God will plant them in place, giving them a home. Then the people can live without being disturbed by evil doers who might seek to do them harm. Yes, God will make David a house, so that when he dies, he will have a successor to carry on his work. God will establish the kingdom for his successor, who will come from his own body. Thus, God makes a covenant here with David, such that God will build a house for David and his descendants rather than David building a house for God. What we see here is a transition in the biblical story, where the people move from being a nomadic desert people to a settled, even urban people. But, David is not the one who will bring this final step to fruition. That will be his successor.

                Now here is where things get tricky. It seems that God has been quite happy with a tent all these years. The Ark has gone where the people have gone. But things are changing and it’s time for this somewhat nomadic people to settle down and finally inhabit the land promised to Abraham. But building a house for God isn’t David’s task. That will be a task assigned to his son, whose throne God will establish forever. Yes, and God will be a father to David’s heir, who will in turn be like a son to God. That’s where the lectionary reading ends. It’s all good news, except God isn’t finished speaking with Nathan. There’s more to be said to David.

                It’s possible that the lectionary creators ended with the first half of verse 14, with its promise that God would establish the kingdom of his successor forever because it has a messianic feel. For Christians, this could be interpreted in a way that it would include Jesus, the ultimate descendant of David. And, of course, as the Gospels remind us, God claims Jesus as God’s son at his baptism by John the Baptist (Mk. 1:11).  While that might be a reason for stopping on a positive note, there is more to the story. God sends word to David that when he and his descendants commit iniquity God will punish him. We tend to avoid such words because they make us uncomfortable. We don’t enjoy envisioning God punishing people. After all, God is love. That word is underlined here, for God promises not to take God’s steadfast love (hesed) from David or his descendants as God had done with Saul. Yes, David’s throne will be established forever. That is the word from God Nathan shared with David. 

                Now, we must acknowledge that after Solomon’s death, Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom, Israel, would disappear in the eighth century, and the southern kingdom of Judah would be conquered in the sixth century and its monarchy (along with the Temple) would be abolished. While a new Temple would be erected after the exile ended, the Davidic monarchy was never reestablished. The Maccabean (Hasmonean) monarchy that was established in the second century BCE was not Davidic in nature. Herod married into the Hasmonean dynasty but had no connections to the Davidic line. So, the message of the Gospels is that Jesus is the one who restores the Davidic line. Therefore, he is the Messiah, the one who would sit on David’s throne, fulfilling God’s covenant promise to David. Bruce Birch writes of this promise, “To read God’s enduring promise to David in this text today is to be reminded of the roots and challenge of our own messianic hope. To trust in God’s promise to David and to claim Jesus has been born into the line of that promise is to understand God’s work as being endlessly engaged with the issues of justice and power that must be faced to establish God’s kingdom in every age. In the light of this biblical promise, the church must understand its own faith as being endlessly engaged with these same realities” [Bruce Birch, “1 & 2 Samuel,” NIB, 2:1259-12-60].

                While we can read this passage with a sense of historical interest concerning a long-dead realm or in the light of the incarnation, we can also hear a reminder that God transcends buildings. It’s nice, as a church, to have a building but ultimately a building isn’t necessary to fulfill God’s promises. It is the people of God who serve as the Temple of God. As Joni Sanken notes, regarding the church, “as Christ’s body here and now, is called to be a dwelling place for God and to acknowledge all God’s people. Our congregations must work to be spaces where everyone can be ‘someone’ and all can feel at home—even those whom society renders invisible” [Preaching God’s Transforming Justice, p. 333]. In other words, the messianic movement is a continuation (not a replacement) of the promise made to David, that God would be with David forever.