2 Samuel 7:8

GOD'S PROMISE TO BUILD DAVID A HOUSE (ROYAL LINEAGE)

"Now therefore thus shall you say to my servant David, `Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.'"

"I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep" (2 Samuel 7:8). The true greatness of David did not derive from his magnificent house of cedar, nor from the glories that accrued to him as the King of Israel, but from his character, his integrity, his humility and his unwavering trust in God. This verse suggests to David that his mind was running too much in the direction of those accouterments of worldly success such as palatial buildings, etc.

"I ... have cut off all your enemies from before you ... I will give you rest from all your enemies" (2 Samuel 7:9,11). Is this a contradiction? Certainly not! 2 Samuel 7:9 refers to the enemies God had already cut off; and 2 Samuel 7:11 refers to the future enemies of David from whom God would also give him rest.

"And I will appoint a place for my people Israel ... they may dwell in their own place ... and be disturbed no more ... as formerly" (2 Samuel 7:10). This was not a promise that Israel would never be disturbed again; but that their disturbances and afflictions would not be of the intensity and frequency as formerly.

"The Lord will make you a house" (2 Samuel 7:11). The "house" which the Lord here promised to make for David has no reference whatever to a palace or to any kind of a physical residence. It is a promise that God would establish his dynasty as a ruling family in Israel, and that God would give David a great name among all the distinguished rulers over the kingdoms of men. It is an indisputable fact that God did exactly what He here promised to do for David.

Significantly, this was not a conditional promise; God's promise to accomplish this was in no sense dependent upon the merit or the righteousness of those persons who would compose that dynasty.