Why didn't God allow David to build the temple?

David said, “I had in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God”, but God said, “Thou shalt not build an house for My Name”. Why? Because David was a man of war and had shed much blood. For this reason he was disqualified from building God's house, the Temple (1 Chr. 28:2-4). David was shown to be a humble, obedient and godly servant of the Lord. Without reasoning or complaining he accepted God's refusal of his sincere desire to build Him a house. In his later life he gathered together enormous amounts of gold, silver and other materials to enable his son, Solomon, to build the Temple in Jerusalem. His energetic preparations showed that he had no pique because his offer had been refused. What a lesson for believers in Christ! Resentment and ill-feeling because one's own way is refused shows a bad spirit and an underlying impoverished spiritual condition.

David had made immense preparations for this house, but he recalls what Jehovah had told him (1 Chron. 22:8): “Thou shalt not build a house unto My name, for thou art a man of war, and hast shed blood” (1 Chron. 28:3). Through his sufferings David could prepare the “rest that remains for the people of God,” but he could not bring in that rest as long as the kingdom still bore the impress of the warrior character of its leader. So will it be with Christ. At the cross He laid the foundation for eternal rest, but He will not establish this final rest until after all His enemies will have been put under His feet.

Solomon would also build a house for God's name (v.13). God had decreed this. David was not to be permitted to build the house because he was a man of war and had shed much blood (I Chron. 22:8). In this way he had been a type of Christ in subduing all His enemies. The building of the house must not be connected with war and bloodshed, but with peace established after conquest, a character in which Solomon was a type of the Lord Jesus.

And with this better name was reserved for him the honour of building the house of God, for that work is to be regarded rather as honour than as service, an honour too great for David the servant, but reserved for Solomon the son, as God said to David, "Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father." (1 Chron. 28:6.) As before He had said to Nathan, "Go and tell David my servant, thus saith Jehovah, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in; I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons, and I will establish his kingdom; he shall build me an house, and I will establish his throne for ever, and I will be his father, and he shall be my son." (1 Chron. 17:4, 13.) Other reasons, it is true, appear in the mind of God for hindering David from being builder of the house. Thus, for instance, in David's time the children of Israel had not come to their rest, the kingdom was still unsettled, and the people were in the attitude of being girded for service, or harnessed for war, and the Lord refused to enter into His settled habitation while His people were thus. In all their afflictions He had been afflicted, and in their wanderings He had walked in a tent and in a tabernacle; and till He had planted them in their ordained place, He would Himself enter no house of cedar. (1 Chron. 17) Again, David had shed blood abundantly, wars had been about him on every side, but his son was to be "a man of rest," rest was to be given him from his enemies round about; peace and quietness were to be unto Israel in his days; and then. But not till then, would the Lord arise into His dwelling-place. (1 Kings 5:3; 1 Chron. 22:8-10, 1 Chron. 28:3.) But besides all this, I say it was because Solomon was the son,* as we have seen, that the building of the house was reserved for him. The house was the sign of constancy and abiding, as it is written, "The servant abideth not in the house for ever, but the son abideth for ever."

But it occurs to David that it is unseemly, while that he himself dwells in a house of cedars the ark of the covenant should be under curtains. He purposes to build a house for it, and Nathan the prophet encourages him. But however pleasing to the Lord such a purpose is, He sends Nathan to forbid it. "Thou shalt not build Me a house to dwell in." David was a man of war, and as such was not allowed to build the house; for only when the words are fulfilled "on earth peace" will the temple be built. The Lord is a man of war (Ex. 15), and when He comes to reign over the earth will be first known as such. When every knee bows and every tongue confesses, and every thing that offends is taken out of the kingdom then peace shall dwell upon the earth. He, the Lord, is the true Melchizedek, the King of righteousness, and puts down all evil; then He shines forth as King of peace. First is war and judgment, then peace and rest. These two periods differ in character, and two men are used respectively as types. Two kings set forth Messiah's glory and reign. Yet there is no break in their reign, as when one dies and then the accession of the other. Solomon is anointed king before David dies. The throne is not vacant for a moment. Typically David and Solomon are one. The Lord is the true David and the true Solomon.

After having described the internal order of Solomon's kingdom and all the wisdom that governed there, the Holy Spirit conducts us to that which, above all, was to characterize this reign: to the temple of the Lord. David was unable to build this house, for peace must be established (v. 3) for the Lord to be able to make His abiding dwelling in the midst of His people. As long as they had wandered in the desert the Lord had associated Himself with them in their condition of pilgrim and traveler by the tabernacle. Then followed the wars of Canaan under Joshua and the judges; these had not ceased until the reign of David. God cannot dwell in rest where there is war. The first condition of His abiding dwelling with His people in Canaan is that peace be made. It is the same, spiritually, for the Church. When the "good news of peace" is announced, the house of God, the holy temple in the Lord, is built up, and this work continues until the full rest of glory.

9 Here the condition laid upon the seed of David is not found as in 2 Samuel 7. God did not allow David to build the temple; because, when He would glorify Himself in the midst of the people, it was necessary that it should be in peace and that there be no more enemies. The warrior was the character of David, though at that moment there was rest all around. Because of that David could not build the house of Jehovah. Nevertheless as depositary of promises he learns that Jehovah will build him a house (v. 10), and that his son should build Jehovah a house, as He would establish David's house for evermore (v. 12-14). How touching is the prayer of David on this occasion! (v. 16-27).

I might say, in the language of the Levitical ordinance, that David was about to put on a garment of "divers sorts," but the Lord prevented it. The motion of his heart — as far as it was expressive of himself — was acceptable with the Lord, but still it was hindered and disappointed. Something to tell us how jealous the Lord is that His own principles be observed and the position in which He has set His servants and witnesses be maintained; nay, that even the most affectionate and jealous desire of the saint, though it be valued by the Lord and get its personal reward or acceptance, can never reconcile the mind of the Lord to an abandonment of His thoughts and purposes. All would be confusion. David's thoughts, however innocent and in some sense to be approved of God, would have confused everything, bringing about this strange result — the Lord taking His throne in an uncleansed kingdom and allowing His servant to give Him rest before He had given His servant rest! What confusion this would have been! What an evil testimony these mixed principles would have produced! Who could have read in the result, had it been allowed, either the grace or the glory of the God of Israel?

How would you feel if you had a strong exercise to serve God in a particular way and He said “no” and indicated that someone else would do the job that you wanted to do? The flesh in us would rebel and express bitter disappointment. Perhaps we would say “if I can't serve in the way I desire I won't serve at all”. David wasn't a man like that. He was honest with God and marked by integrity of thought. He happily accepted God's will. His exercise was a noble one. He wanted to build a house for God. No doubt the tabernacle was getting the worse for wear after so many years of use. David felt that a solid and substantial house was more fitting for God than the deteriorating tabernacle. We wouldn't fault his earnest exercise. Nevertheless God had other thoughts. David had been a man of war and his hands were stained with the blood of his enemies (1 Chron. 22:7-10). His son, Solomon, a man of peace ruling over a kingdom at rest, was chosen to build God's house. It is to David's credit and an evidence of his integrity that he accepted God's will without demur or protest. The large quantity of materials that he accumulated for his son to enable Solomon to build the temple was proof of his integrity. It didn't matter to David who built the temple as long as it was built. His exercise didn't stop because he wasn't the instrument God used. His integrity of purpose was seen in his acceptance of God's will. What a lesson we have here in David! Are we only interested in what we are doing? Do we stop praying for an exercise because we have not been chosen to take a leading part in it? Do we rejoice when others are being blessed by the Lord in services we would like to have been involved in? If not chosen to serve do we refuse to support by prayer, presence and purse? These are challenging questions. When God chooses His servants He knows what He is doing. A careful study of the Acts of the Apostles will show how servants are chosen and the reasons why they are chosen (Acts 1:23-26; Acts 6:3-6; Acts 9:15-16; Acts 13:1-3).

Thus, not in word only, but in deed and in truth, did David learn the deep feeling and love of God towards him. There was, also, no doubt, the circumstance that he was not a suitable person to build the house of God, because he was a man of blood. But grace ever comes in and triumphs. It was not so much to hinder David from doing good that the Lord thus dealt, as for the purpose of giving him something better. Wherever the heart is towards God, and the desire is for what is according to His mind, if He takes away any thought of ours, it is always to accomplish a higher counsel of His own. And so it was on this occasion. The Lord brings out before David the divine future of His house. David goes in and sits "before the Lord;" and a more beautiful and touching rising up of David to the thoughts of God never was seen before in all his history. "He said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?" All that the Lord had hitherto done! and was it a little thing? "And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God; but thou hast spoken of thy servant's house for a great while to come" — yea, it was for evermore. "And is this the manner of man, O Lord God?" It was the manner of God.