I Will Build You a House
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
24 December 2017 – Redeemer
King David is in the true Christmas spirit. He wants to give the Lord Himself a gift. He calls his pastor Nathan (always good to get the pastor on board when you’re doing something for the Lord) and lays out his plan, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” David had it better than the Lord. Can you imagine? David lived in a cedar palace, but the Lord had lived in the same tent for 450 years. What were the Israelites thinking? Making sure they all had houses and shelter while the ark of the Lord, the very place of His presence, looked like He was on a camping trip? Can you imagine if Redeemer was the worst looking building on the block, some run down shack, or giant canvas tent? What would the neighbors think of our faith if the Lord’s house was in worse shape than our own? Not much. That is why historically churches were the fanciest, most expensive, and ornate buildings in town. Your church (for better or worse) is a confession of your faith. Check out some of the Roman Catholic churches in the small towns around Saint Cloud. So David wants to build the Lord a real house – a temple.
Nathan thinks David’s idea is great, plus as a prophet he’ll get a new building to work out of. “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you.” Not so fast, says the Lord. Just because something is in your heart doesn’t mean it’s the Lord’s will. David and Nathan made one mistake – before they thought, before they spoke, before they planned, they should have listened. The Lord’s plans do not begin with you or in your heart. The Lord’s plans begin with the Lord and if you want to know His plans He’ll tell you – in His Word.
That night the Lord spoke to Nathan, “You go and tell David, ‘Did I ask you to build Me a house? Have I ever asked for a house? Did I ask Moses for a house? Or Joshua? Or Samson? Or any of the judges?’” Were David’s motives wrong? Was he trying to pay God back? What’s wrong with the Lord having a nice house? We don’t have an answer to those questions, we simply have God’s Word saying, “No” to David. When I need a house, I’ll let you know – and the Lord let David’s son Solomon know and Solomon built the Lord a great house.
But we know that even Solomon’s temple wasn’t finally and ultimately the Lord’s house. The Lord’s house was finally in the flesh of David. That was the Lord’s plan all along. The Lord took little Davey the shepherd boy out of the field to kill Goliath and route the Philistines. He anointed David King and saved him from Saul. He graciously forgave David’s adultery and murder and preserved him from his enemies. Not so David could build a temple, but so David could receive the promise for God’s people – David, I will make your name great … and I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more … I will make you a house.”
Where did the Lord finally build David a house? In the womb of the Virgin Mary. In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. In our day a pregnant unwed teenager is no surprise. It’s the new normal for over 50% of the children born in the US to be born to an unwed mother. In Nazareth of Galilee an unwed pregnant teenager was dead – put to death for adultery. In our day if your unwed son or daughter says, “We didn’t expect to get pregnant.” You need to have the talk with them – God made men and women to be fruitful and multiply – that’s what happens when two become one flesh. That’s why God put love inside the boundary of marriage. Mary, on the other hand, truly should not have expected to be pregnant. She was a Virgin, but she was of the house and lineage of David, and now God was about to build a new temple where He would dwell – in the flesh of Jesus, the Son of Mary. Mary would be God’s tent for a while – this frail, poor, teenage girl would carry in her body the body of God.
God’s way with David would continue in David’s Son, Jesus of Nazareth. All that we will hear in the next two days is more unlikely than a shepherd boy taking out a giant with a slingshot. A virgin conceives. The King of the world is laid in a manger. Shepherds (like David) are the first to see the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world. This Shepherd King will knock dead the fiercest enemy of His flock with a weapon weaker than a slingshot. Jesus will fight Satan with God’s Word and destroy Him with His own death. This King will be rejected by His subjects, crowed with thorns, and enthroned on the cross. Three days later, like a virgin giving birth, the unlikely happens again, a dead man rises to life, walks out of the cemetery and His reign, as the Son of David goes on forever. It’s going on right here and now, for what are all of you called? Christians – of and belonging to Christ, God’s King, under the reign of His forgiveness, His life, and His salvation.
When Dr. Martin Luther preached on the Annunciation he said the greatest miracle was not an angel appearing to Mary, or God favoring her. The greatest miracle was not even a Virgin conceiving a child. The greatest miracle was that Mary believed God was doing this for her. The greatest miracle is when Mary is brought to faith in God’s Word by the working of the Spirit, “Let it be to me according to your word.”
The greatest miracle is not that Mary became pregnant through her ears. Or that she is rightly called the Mother of God or that Jesus is God in the flesh. The greatest miracle is not that He died on the cross or rose three days later. The greatest miracle is not even that He did all of this out of love for you – now that is a mystery beyond mysteries – that God would leave heaven to bear your sins in His flesh and suffer hell so that you could be forgiven and live. The greatest miracle is this – that you believe He did this for you, that you believe as Mary did – that you hear God’s Word and by the working of God’s own Spirit faith is conceived in your heart as surely as Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb — that you say, “Let it be to me according to your Word.” The Lord has built you a house, in which you are safe from your enemies – safe from sin because you are forgiven, safe from death because you are alive and will rise on the last day, safe from Satan because he can no longer lay the charge of sin against you. You believe that because not only has God said so He has done so. He has built you a house for your eternal dwelling in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
23 December 2017 anno Domini