No 4

(The First Temple)

Once David had conquered the land that God had promised he would conquer, David’s thoughts turned to the fact that God had no permanent dwelling – the Bible says “And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies; That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains” (2 Samuel 7:1,2); David wanted to build a suitable house for the God of Israel. The Tabernacle, Israel’s centre of worship had moved around during the various battles since Joshua’s time and the Ark of the Covenant had even ended up in the hands of the Philistines (1 Samuel 5). Phinehas’ wife, who gave birth to a son during that time, named him Ichabod which means “The Glory is departed from Israel”. All these thoughts weighed heavily on David’s mind so he consulted with Nathan the prophet and they both agreed that building a house for God was a good idea “And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee.” (2 Samuel 7:3). During that same night, the Lord spoke to Nathan in a dream and told him to say the following words to David “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. “He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” (2 Samuel 7:12, 13). Some time went by and David spoke these words to his son, Solomon “But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.” (1 Chron 22:8). Solomon was to build the permanent house of God.