Go and say to my servant, to David, Thus saith Jehovah Wilt thou build me a house for me to dwell in?
David is at rest in his palace, and he wants to build a permanent house for God — and Nathan tells him to go ahead. That same night God sends the prophet back with a question that overturns the plan: who decides what God wants, and who is fit to build for Him?
Nathan answered before God had spoken. Even a prophet has no light of his own:
But Nathan was wrong here; he answered too quickly. A prophet depends on God for light as much as anyone else... Experience is no guide in the things of God. Neither is any power a person may have worked in before, unless there is also dependence on the Lord.
God's question is not a rebuke of David's love. It exposes where the plan came from — David's own mind, with no word from God behind it.
We see once more how a man's heart may be right with God and his thoughts 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. The proof is conclusive: David had not formed them on any previous indication of His will. Can a man think for God? Can we anticipate His mind? It is impossible. All that the most fervent spirit can rightly do is reverently follow it.
Kelly turns it on us: God never asked for much of what we build for Him.
Many a building of our own proposing and making God never asked of us. We ought not to run ahead of Him. Faith waits on God. It does not go ahead of Him in self-confidence, or in the desires of our own heart, however simple they may be.
God's answer points back to the tent, and to why He stayed in one:
When they were plunged into the furnace of Egyptian slavery, He was in the burning bush. When they were walking their long and weary journey across the burning desert, His chariot travelled with them all the way... While they worked, He worked, and until they could rest, He would not rest. But David wanted to build a house and find a resting place for God while there were still "enemies and evil at hand."
The same writer asks what God came down to Israel for:
The Lord was not looking for a house of cedar. It was not for that He had come down to visit His people in the hour of their affliction in Egypt. He had come down to give, not to take; to dispense and minister to His people, not to demand from them.
The building of the temple waits for someone else. Darby sees David standing for Christ in suffering and conquest, not in peaceful reign:
He wishes to build Him a house — a good desire, yet one God could not grant. The work of building the temple belonged to the Prince of Peace. David represented Christ as suffering and conquering. So he did not represent Him as enjoying the earthly kingdom by undisputed right...
The "no" of this verse opens into something larger than what David had planned.
David would build a house for God. But he was not the man, nor was it the time for it... If a house of cedar was a great thing, how much greater an everlasting house and kingdom. The Lord tells you that He will make you a house. This reversed the matter altogether. The doings of the past were full of grace; the doings of the future would be full of glory.
Another writer gives the reason God said no, and then what David did next:
Why did God refuse? Because David was a man of war and had shed much blood. For this reason he could not build God's house, the temple. Without arguing or complaining he accepted God's refusal of his sincere desire to build Him a house. Later in life he gathered huge amounts of gold, silver and other materials. They were for his son Solomon, who would build the temple in Jerusalem. His energetic preparations showed that he took no offence when God turned down his offer. What a lesson for believers in Christ! If we resent God's refusal of our own way, that shows a bad spirit and a poor spiritual condition underneath.
- Desire. David's wish to build God a house was genuine and pious — the problem was never his love for God.
- Word. A good thought is not a command; God had never asked for a house of cedar.
- Tent. God stayed under curtains on purpose. While His people had no rest, He would take none. He came down to give, not to take.
- Builder. The man of war could not build; God kept the temple for the son, the man of peace — a picture of Christ, who first conquers and then reigns.
- Reversal. God refuses David a house, then promises to build him one. The true servant prepares for work someone else will finish.
For I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but I went about in a tent and in a tabernacle.
David wanted to build God a house, and God answered with a memory: ever since Egypt He had lived in a tent, moving with His people. Why would the God who fills heaven choose a tent, and what does that say about how He treats those He loves?
This verse sums up Israel's whole history. One writer traces it stage by stage:
God had always moved in complete sympathy with His people. When they were plunged into the furnace of Egyptian slavery, He was in the burning bush. When they made 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. He held a drawn sword in His hand, 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.
The same writer calls this grace, and shows what it looked like:
What lovely, what soul-stirring grace breathes through 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 caused His glory to dwell under a covering of badgers' skins, because His redeemed ones were in the thick of the fight. The LORD was not looking for a house of cedar. That was not why He came down to visit His people in their time of suffering in Egypt. He had come down to give, not to take.
God was putting off His own rest on purpose:
Why so? Because God still did not feel He had found His final rest. He kept working. He sacrificed His own rest in favour of His people's rest and His king's rest. He was still at work for them, to establish them in the mountain of His inheritance, to plant them.
Another writer ties the timing directly to Israel's warfare, and links it to the prophet's words that in all their affliction He was afflicted:
As long as the LORD's people crossed the desert and had enemies to fight, the LORD had no resting-place on the earth, and journeyed 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.
One writer finds the reason further back, in creation itself:
Creation denies the Lord God a rest or a dwelling, because of the sin that defiled it. He must rise and depart. It could not be His rest, for it was polluted. So we see Him at once as a stranger in the world His own hands have made.
God had never told anyone to build Him a house. One writer weighs David's plan against that silence:
God had been, in effect, a Sojourner on earth. 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? If God had expressed Himself that way, then certainly David would have been right to do it. But he had no word from God to act on.
One writer notes who this principle is for:
How fruitful a principle, if we would only consider it! It 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.
The tent is not only history. One writer turns it on those who follow God now:
God dwelling in curtains showed clearly that neither God nor the ark of His strength had found a resting-place. Both were journeying on towards "a rest that remains." … Here, too, we have sadly failed. The church grew weary of the curtain and wanted to build a house before the time. She grew weary of walking in a tent and longed to live in a house.
The tent was a stage, not the end of the story:
"But Solomon built him a house." Once God had settled His people in the land, the "habitation of God" was built — a worldly temple, but still the "habitation of God." Then the Lord Jesus came into the world, and this truth applied in its full sense to His Person. He says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." He is regarded as the temple of God.
- Company. God travelled with His travelling people. He set His foot on the desert sand because Israel was there.
- Cost. He postponed His own rest for theirs; while they toiled, He toiled, and He would not rest until they could.
- Cause. A defiled creation could offer Him no home, so He took the place of a stranger in the world His hands had made.
- Correction. David's plan was warm-hearted, but God had never asked any leader of Israel to build Him a house.
- Continuation. The tent pointed forward: first to Solomon's temple, then to Christ Himself as the temple of God. Until then, the curtain and not the cedar marks those still on the road.
In all my going about with all the children of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye me not a house of cedars?
God had walked with Israel for generations. In all that time He never told one leader to build Him a house of cedar. His silence is the whole argument here. So what do we do with a sincere plan God never asked for?
David's plan honoured God. Yet God never asked for it, and one writer draws a warning from that.
"Go and tell my servant David, Thus says Jehovah, Shall you build Me a house for Me to dwell in?" … Many a building of our own proposing and making God never asked of us. We ought not to run ahead of Him. Faith waits on God, instead of anticipating Him in self-confidence, or in the desires of our own heart, however simple those desires may be.
Another writer puts the test as a condition.
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 expressed Himself in this way, then certainly David would have been right to do it. But he had no word from God on which to act.
The verse looks back over a long history — everywhere God moved with Israel. What that movement cost Him is the tender part of the reply.
The Lord would not allow another sun to rise without correcting the mistake of His servant. He sets before him His own past dealings with Israel and with David himself. He reminds David that He had never sought a house or a rest for Himself. Instead He wandered up and down with His people in all their wanderings, and He was afflicted in all their afflictions.
The verse calls these leaders shepherds. One writer sets God's patience against the people's failure.
He had "gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another" since the time He brought up Israel. He had never asked any of the judges, "Why have you not built Me a house of cedars?" Despite all the waywardness of Israel, God had been with them. He was content to share their wanderings and to dwell in moving tabernacles.
God asked for no house of His own because His work was not done.
Why? Because God still did not feel He had found His final rest. He continued to work. He sacrificed His own rest in favour of His people's rest and His king's rest. He was still working on their behalf, to establish them in the mountain of His inheritance, to plant them… He took the place of a worker for this poor people. He set aside His own interests entirely, so to speak, so that He might establish His people in a final rest that nothing will ever disturb.
A correction like this is not for careless people. It lands on the person whose heart is warmest.
We see once more how a man's heart may be right with God, and his thoughts wrong… Here too the Lord shows David that his thoughts are wrong, despite all the piety in them. The proof is conclusive: David had not formed those thoughts on any earlier sign of His will. Can a man think for God? Can we anticipate His mind? It is impossible; all that the most fervent spirit can rightly do is reverently to follow it.
The refusal is not the end of the story. God turns the offer around, and He also reserves the temple for a builder who comes later.
Since redemption to this day He had walked in a tent and in a tabernacle, and had never spoken a word to anyone, saying, Why do you not build Me a house of cedars? God keeps this for His Son, the Man of peace. It will happen when the sharp sword coming out of His mouth has struck the nations in revolt, and when the Man whose name is the Branch grows up out of His place and builds the temple of Jehovah.
David's offer was small next to God's reply: "If a house of cedar was a great thing, how much greater was an everlasting house and kingdom" (C. H. Mackintosh).
- Silence. God never spoke a word about this plan to any leader He appointed. A good idea with no command behind it is still our idea.
- Tent. He asked for no house. He was walking with a wandering people, sharing their journeys and their affliction.
- Rest. He set aside His own rest to secure theirs. No house stood yet because His work was not finished.
- Heart. A heart can be right with God while its thoughts are wrong. Piety in a plan does not make the plan God's will.
- House. David offers God a house, and God gives him one instead; the temple itself waits for the Son, the Man of peace, to build it.