for I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day; but I have been from tent to tent, and from [one] tabernacle [to another].
David planned a permanent house for the ark of the covenant, which was still kept in a tent. That same night God answered. He told David where He had lived since He brought Israel out of Egypt: no house at all, only tent after tent. The reply raises two questions — why would God refuse a permanent home, and what does a wandering God tell us about how He treats His people?
David's desire was generous, and Nathan encouraged it:
David's heart is taken up with the glory of Israel's future, and he tells the prophet Nathan what had been weighing on his spirit. He felt it was a shocking thing. He was living in a house of cedars, while the ark of the covenant of Jehovah was only under curtains. Nathan tells him to do all that was in his heart, for God was with him. But Nathan here did not have the mind of God. The purpose of David's heart was right, but not the time or the way. God had another plan, and this alone is good and wise.
Good motives are not the same as guidance:
A godly man can do the wrong thing, even out of a genuine desire for the glory of God. It happens because he has not first sought God's direction. We must be reminded again and again that God's Word alone can be trusted.
The tents were not neglect. They were company on the road:
God had always moved in the fullest sympathy with His people. When they were plunged into the furnace of slavery in Egypt, He was in the burning bush. When they were making their long, weary journey across the burning desert, His chariot travelled with them the whole way. When they stood beneath the frowning walls of Jericho, He was there as a man of war, with a drawn sword in His hand. He was there to act for them and in sympathy with them. So at all times, God and His Israel were together. While they toiled, He toiled, and until they could rest, He would not rest.
Another writer ties God's tent-life to the state of the land:
Like the saints who lived before the flood, the Lord would be a stranger on the earth, living in tents while blood was staining it. That very night He rebuked the purpose of the king of Israel.
God's answer does more than refuse. It points forward to rest:
God takes the matter in hand. While His people still have no rest, He is glad to go with them from tent to tent. He does not want them to build Him a house. In the end He will Himself raise up the One who will build a house. Under His reign the people will be established in power for ever. They will enjoy the rest which God Himself will have obtained for them.
God had never asked anyone for a house:
He had gone with Israel from tent to tent after He brought them up out of Egypt, and He had walked with them. But He had never told any of the judges to build Him a house… Instead of David building the Lord a house, Jehovah was going to build David a house. Until that was done, He could not have a house built for Himself. How blessed are the ways of God! He must do all things for us before we can act for Him.
His answer to David came gently, and it left one builder:
How sweetly and graciously God turned David away from his purpose by setting His own thoughts and purpose before him. If it is a question of building God a house, God must be the builder; otherwise what ruin results from man's building!
One writer traces David's mistake back to love, and then forward to us:
David said, "I will build God a dwelling." That was a mistake, but it sprang from love, and the Spirit always notices the affections. The heart's desire was to be near His dwelling — to make Him one. But the truth is that His own hands will make Himself a dwelling. It was a defective thought, though not a wrong one. … Until the true Solomon builds, God is going from tent to tent, until He builds a house. … In the meantime we are "built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit."
- Rest withheld — God had lived in no house since He brought Israel out of Egypt. His people had not yet come into rest.
- Rest shared — the tents show sympathy, not poverty. While Israel toiled, He toiled, and He would not rest before they could.
- Rest misjudged — David's love was real. But love without God's word chose the wrong moment, because sincerity is not guidance.
- Rest given — God will not take a house from man. He builds, and He raises up the One who builds the house and brings in the rest.
- Rest awaited — until the true Solomon builds, God still moves with His people. Meanwhile they are built together as His dwelling by the Spirit.
In all my going about with all Israel, did I speak a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people, saying, Why build ye me not a house of cedars?
David wanted to build God a house of cedar, and God answered by pointing back over His own past. Since Egypt He had moved with His people and had never asked any leader for a building — so how can a sincere desire still be the wrong thing at the wrong time?
The decisive fact is not that the plan was bad, but that God had never mentioned it. Commentators press this as a working rule for anyone eager to serve. (Where the Samuel parallel is quoted below, it reads "tribes" and "feed" where Chronicles has "judges" and "shepherd".)
Many a building that we plan and build, God never asked of us. We ought not to run ahead of Him. Faith waits on God. It does not act first out of self-confidence, or out of the desires of our own heart, however simple they may be.
So where exactly did David go wrong?
We see once more how a man's heart may be right with God while his thoughts are wrong. … But the word of God is something very different from the best thoughts of the best people. … Here too the Lord shows David that his thoughts are wrong, despite all the piety in them. This fact settles it: they had not been formed on any earlier sign of His will. Can a man think for God? Can we anticipate His mind? It is impossible.
The same writer says who most needs this lesson.
This principle does not apply, as so much else does, to the cold and indifferent. They are not the people who come forward on their own to build a house for the Lord. It applies to the earnest and zealous-hearted.
God's silence about a house was grace, not neglect.
What lovely, what heart-stirring grace breathes in these words! The blessed God came down to be a traveller with His travelling people. He would set His foot on the sand of the desert, because Israel was there. He let His glory dwell under a covering of badgers' skins, because His redeemed ones were still at war. Jehovah did not seek a house of cedar. That was not why He came down to visit His people in the hour of their suffering in Egypt. He had come down to give, not to take; to supply and serve His people, not to demand from them.
There is also a question of timing.
As long as Jehovah's people crossed the desert and had enemies to fight, Jehovah had no resting-place on earth. He travelled in the tabernacle with His people: "In all their affliction he was afflicted" (Isa. 63:9). And it was only when His people could rest that God allowed them to build Him a house where He might rest.
God names the judges He had appointed to shepherd Israel. He never asked one of them for a house.
In effect, God had lived on earth as a traveller passing through. Did He not also expect His people to realise that earth is no lasting place of rest? Had He ever suggested to any one of all the leaders of Israel that they should build Him a permanent house (v.7)? If God had said so, David would have been right to do it. But he had no word from God to act on.
One writer sees the same impatience in the Church.
Here, too, we have sadly failed. The Church grew weary of the curtain and wanted to build a house before the time. She grew tired of walking in a tent, and longed to dwell in a house.
Saying no was not the end of it. God had a builder in mind.
How sweet and gracious it was of God to turn David from his purpose by setting His own thoughts and purpose before him. If it is a question of building God a house, God must be the builder (Eph. 2:20-22; Heb. 3:3-6); otherwise what ruin results from man's building!
- No word. God never asked any leader in Israel for a house of cedar. David's plan rested on no word from Him.
- No shortcut. The best thoughts of the best people are not the word of God. This warning targets the zealous, not the careless.
- He gives. God came down to travel with His people. He came to give, not to take.
- He waits. While Israel fought and had no rest, God had no resting-place either. Only when they could rest did He allow a house.
- He builds. God replaced David's plan with His own purpose. If anyone builds a house for God, God must be the builder.