2 Samuel 7:12-29

The facts are:

1 . The prophet declares to David

2 . David, in response to the message, acknowledges ,the condescension and bounty of God in what he had done and promised.

3 . He confesses that all is of the free unmerited loving kindness of God, and regards this wonderful superhuman goodness as being an illustration of the existence of a love transcending all that is known to man.

4 . He recognizes the blessedness of Israel in being under the care and guidance of One so supremely good, and in being honoured to be distinctively his people.

5 . He prays that the good and glorious things said of his house and of Israel may come to pass, and so bring out into public view and forever the glory of God.

6 . He concludes with a prayer, based on the faithfulness and goodness of God, that grace may be bestowed on the house of David, so that it may fulfil the purpose so graciously formed and now more explicitly revealed.

The testing period, and its rewards.

We have here brought out a contrast between Saul and David. Both were accepted of God ( 1 Samuel 9:15-17 ; 1 Samuel 16:7-12 , 1 Samuel 16:13 ). A period of testing was assigned to each of them, and Saul failed in his ( 1 Samuel 13:13 , 1 Samuel 13:14 ), while David succeeded ( 2 Samuel 7:8-12 , 2 Samuel 7:15 ). The whole facts show that for each of them, in his official capacity, there was a probation or testing time, which was not coextensive with the duration of life, but sufficient to prove fitness for being the instrument for the furtherance of the Divine purpose of redemption through the Messiah. David was found fit for Divine use, and hence, in the prime of his days, he was assured of the completion of his life's work and of issues most glorious.

I. THE EARLY STAGES OF A CAREER DETERMINE ITS ISSUE . From his call and anointing up to his desire to build a house for the Lord, David had been taking the first steps of his public life; on the whole, he had been wise, devout, loyal to God, zealous for the Divine kingdom among men. The great work of his entire life was thereby virtually ensured. All future successes were now germinal. Saul's future was blasted because the early testing years were unimproved; David's future was made sure because his trial had proved his sterling qualities. The years of early manhood carry in them the future of the man. A Christian "found faithful" enters on a wider ministry ( 1 Timothy 1:12 ). The Church that has kept true in trial is safe in view of future perils ( Revelation 3:10-12 ). The proper use of five talents carries with it the promise of use of ten talents. According to the development of Christian character in the early stages of religious life will be its power and victories unto the very end. The beginnings of things are the ends of things in miniature. Character is a prophecy. Ultimate successes lie hidden in first adjustments.

II. THE BLESSED ISSUES OF A PROBATION ARE IN THE ORDER OF NATURE . The bestowment of the honour of being founder of a great line of kings on David was an act of Divine favour, marking approval of his fidelity during the testing time of life; but it was not a mere artificial, arbitrary arrangement. It was the announcement of the fact that God had so ordered things that he, by faithfulness, thus far had acquired the qualities which a holy God could and would use up in bringing to pass his great purposes. Saul was proved naturally unfit to inaugurate a permanent line; David was proved naturally suited for that end. This runs through all things. A sapling that has, in spite of storms, passed well through the ordeals of early life contains within itself the vital qualities which will develop into a perfect tree. It is by force of the virtues and acquirements of the testing time Of early manhood that subsequent achievements are won. The spiritual characteristics of the man "counted worthy" of a ministry explain the triumph of his life's work; for, though the blessing of God is essential, yet it is the order of nature in the religious sphere that the blessing comes where those characteristics find exercise. The future blessedness of the saints is the outgrowth of the individual character acquired during the earthly period of trial. Continuity, order, and, in proper sense of the term, nature, characterize the succession of events in individual and Church experience from first to last.

III. THE ASSURANCE OF FINAL SUCCESS HELPS A TRUE MAN TO ITS REALIZATION . The promise of a "house" and a permanent "kingdom" would not excite vanity and presumption' in David, because he was a true man of God. There is an adaptation in the assurance given to the tested character of the man. It was to David as the warm sun and gentle dew to the good seed hidden in good ground. A true heart responds to God's love and bounteous gifts by increased devotion. Thus the assurance has a natural tendency in a true heart to fulfil itself. Wherever other tendencies appear, it is evidence that the heart is not right, anti that the assurance is not intended for the individual. The free grace of God and abounding assurances that he will keep his people from falling are never abused except by those who are not children of God ( Romans 6:14 , Romans 6:15 ; 2 Corinthians 5:14 , 2 Corinthians 5:15 ).

The blending of the temporal and the eternal.

The prophecy in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 is not as be regarded as a sudden and isolated revelation of the purpose of God, which burst upon the mind of one who had no previous conceptions of a great purpose being wrought out in the line of human history. All along David was aware of his being used for more than ordinary issues in relation to the great promise made to Abraham. The Aurora Borealis seems, to ignorant men, a disconnected unaccountable phenomenon, but others know it to be a natural occurrence in a beautiful order of things correlated to all else in the material world. In like manner, we now know that this prophecy is part of an order of revelation, coming in at just the right time, and interpretable on principles well ascertained. The temporal and eternal are blended—

I. IN THE MATERIAL ORDER . The results of research into the constitution and order of material things show that the visible, changeable forms of matter coexist with a permanent something which works in and through them. They vary; it abides. They prepare the way for others of kindred nature and form; it uses up the old and the new and marks out its eternal course by means of them. Men call it force. Possibly, probably, there is a persistent something answering to that name—the correlative of our exertion of will power—but it, at all events, is only the mode in which the Divine purpose works itself out into visible forms and changes. The temporal and eternal are ever blended.

II. IN THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN . The changeful form, the visible appearance, is ever associated with the permanent invisible spirit; the one exists for the other, and is used by the other for expressing its thoughts and purposes. "Mortal and immortal" may be written of man. He comes forth and passes away: he abideth forever. Paradox is true, because the perishable and imperishable coexist and work one through the other.

III. IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST . Our Saviour was frail, subject to death; and yet the strong, unchangeable, deathless Son of God. The temporal and eternal were most mysteriously united in him, and the visible and perishable were the vehicle through which the unseen and eternal worked out our redemption. There is language by which men, if they will, can prove his simple humanity, and other language by which they can prove his true Divinity. It is the ignoring of this blending of the temporal and eternal which accounts for certain heresies and perversities of thought.

IV. IN THE PROGRESS OF REVELATION . The revelation which God is pleased to give of his will concerning our redemption is intended for the entire race, and adapted in matter and form to the progressive character of the race. It was not given once for all in concise abstract form; nor was its matter and form given to suit the later ages of the world only; it ran along the line of history from the very first, and was suited as time went on to men of diverse ideas and conditions. But from first to last the Divine imperishable truth was blended with the temporal history of men. The natural development of families and nations was the vehicle through or along which, as occasion required, the one unchangeable purpose gradually marked itself out into the clear light that shone in the face of Christ.

V. IN THE PROPHETIC REFERENCES TO THE MESSIAH . The duality of temporal and eternal thus seen to run through all things, becomes, therefore, a priori natural in any predictions concerning him whose throne is from everlasting to everlasting. That in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 we have reference to a mortal Solomon, who should build a perishable temple, sit on a visible throne, and hand down to a terminable though long succession of kings an earthly kingdom, is the interpretation required by subsequent facts. That the "seed" refers also to Christ the "Son of David," the house to a spiritual temple, the "throne" and "kingdom" to the absolutely everlasting dominion of Christ over the redeemed people of God, is the sense put on this and kindred passages by the New Testament ( Psalms 72:17 ; Psalms 89:35-37 ; cf. Luke 1:31-33 , Luke 1:68-79 ; Hebrews 1:5-13 ). That the two references should be couched in one form of expression is natural when we consider

GENERAL LESSONS .

1 . God secures to all his truly faithful ones the realization of their highest and holiest ambitions, as surely as he secured to David the realization of his desire for a seed, and the completion of his life's work in the establishment of his throne; for he makes life here to issue in the glory, of the kingdom of Christ.

2 . It behoves us to remember that there is an eternal element interwoven with common life, and to subordinate everything temporal to its action.

3 . The fact that chosen instruments are used in working out eternal purposes does not exempt them from the frailties of their nature and the corrections necessary to their preservation for the service of God ( 2 Samuel 7:14 ).

4 . The chastisement due to the literal son of David for sins of his own foreshadows dimly the spiritual fact that the great Son of David took upon himself the iniquities of us all, and experienced the "chastisement of our peace"

5 . The strong and repeated assurances of the universality and permanence of Christ's reign should inspire us with calm confidence and untiring zeal.

6 . Human fidelity in God's service is a condition of the progressive bringing into clearer view and nearer realization the glorious end for which all things consist.

The educational influence of God's great love.

In 2 Samuel 7:18-29 we have described, in broken sentences, the effect on the spirit of David of the marvellous loving kindness of God in having guaranteed unto him such a glorious completion of life's work, and the unspeakable honour of being associated in name and work with the Redeemer of the world. The real nature of a man is tested in seasons of great prosperity as well as in adversity. David bears the strain. Never in the past history of the world had God spoken so distinctly and emphatically to any of his people of the personal honour he would confer. In the effect of this on David we may see an illustration of the general educational influence of God's love on his people.

I. IT INDUCES INEXPRESSIBLE WONDER . When David had heard the strange words he at once went and "sat" before the Lord! The first impulse was to get near to the visible symbol of the Divine presence, and simply sit still in amazement. That silence held his tongue for a while seems indicated in the embarrassment ( 2 Samuel 7:20 ). What could a devout man do but muse and wonder at the largeness of the grace? There was a marvel in what God had done in the past ( 2 Samuel 7:18 ), in what was to be in the future, and in the ordination or law, תּוֹרָה , in respect of the man, or otherwise in the superhuman bearing towards one so unworthy (cf. Isaiah 4:1-6 :8). This is the general effect of a recognition of God's love to us, whether seen in the unspeakable gift of Christ, in the greatness of his long suffering, in the tenderness of his pity, in the provision for our temporal and eternal good, in the use he makes of us in his service, or in the blessed inheritance promised in the future. There is a devotion of feeling which consists in a permanent silent wonder that God should have dealt so with us. This tones our spirit into quiet gentleness, and we can in some measure understand why seraphim and cherubim should be absorbed in wonder at his ways.

II. IT INDUCES DEEP HUMILITY . It was not because of any good in himself that all these things were done to David, but because God was pleased out of his own heart so to deal with him ( 2 Samuel 7:21 ). Nothing tends more to develop humility than a survey of the wonderful love of God. The contrast of our deserts with his grace bows the spirit down, not to abjectness and loss of heart, but to the tender feeling of self-depreciation and self-abnegation which ever becomes a sinful creature in the presence of the Eternal. Great grace bestowed is an educator in what most befits one who was lost but is now found ( Psalms 115:1 ; Romans 3:27 ; 1 Corinthians 15:10 ; 1 John 3:1 ).

III. IT FEEDS THE SPIRIT OF ADORATION . The word "wherefore" ( 2 Samuel 7:22 ) seems to complete the silent reasoning which must have gone on in the mind of David for many a year. The general care of man ( Psalms 8:1-9 .), the heavens ( Psalms 19:1-14 .), and the terrible works of God among the nations ( Psalms 48:4-7 , Psalms 48:10 , Psalms 48:11 ), had ever furnished occasion for adoration; but all this is surpassed by the great love wherewith he has now loved his servant, and in this lies the moral greatness which most of all wins the adoring love of the soul. It is a well-known psychological truth that the feelings are not under the direct control of the will, and especially not obedient to a bare command.]Nor are they developed in noblest form by mere externals. It is when the actual love of God, as seen in deeds done for us and blessings freely showered on us, is manifest to the eye of the soul, that true worship arises. The greatness of love draws forth the homage of the redeemed ( Revelation 1:5 , Revelation 1:6 ; Revelation 5:9 , Revelation 5:10 ).

IV. IT STRENGTHENS INTEREST IN OTHERS . Some who do not know what personal piety is imagine that it consists in selfish delight in one's own favoured condition—a continuous self-congratulation that we are snatched as brands from the burning. David's deep interest in others, as seen in 2 Samuel 7:23 , 2 Samuel 7:24 , establishes the reverse. The love we share in is a love embracing others, and it awakens and nourishes a joy in them and their happy lot. It is an unspeakable delight to a true Christian that a multitude that no man can number are the people of God, "redeemed" by the wondrous grace which amazes while it blesses himself.

V. IT LEADS TO EVER - INCREASING CONSECRATION . Such is the meaning of David in 2 Samuel 7:24-27 . He surrenders his heart and life afresh to the one great purpose which has been graciously revealed. It is not mere acquiescence that so it should be, but intense desire, self-identification afresh with the work and ways of God. He wants to be used in the accomplishment of the great design. This was the secret of the Apostle Paul's ever-deepening consecration. The love of God to him and others was a constant subject of thought, and hence he was daily "constrained" to live for him who had died to make him what he was ( 2 Corinthians 5:14-16 ). The love of God contemplated and felt renders every yoke welcome and easy.

VI. IT DRAWS OUT A SPIRIT OF TRUSTFUL DEPENDENCE . To be the instrument of this working in the line of the great purpose required distinguished qualities, and a revelation of it ( 2 Samuel 7:27 ) very naturally made David sensible of the insufficiency of himself and successors, and called forth the prayer for a blessing on his house ( 2 Samuel 7:28 , 2 Samuel 7:29 ). The blessing of God is necessary to man's successful working out of the Divine will; and the heart that appreciates the honour of being so employed will earnestly plead the promises in seeking the grace required.

ADDITIONAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS .

1 . It is one of the sweetest joys of life granted by God when, in his providence, he gives intimation to parents that their immediate posterity are likely to take up the religious work they love, and carry it on towards the completion of God's will on earth ( 2 Samuel 7:12 ).

2 . What parents need is that God would "set up," in positions of righteousness and true honour, their offspring, and "establish" whatever work or interest they may have in hand ( 2 Samuel 7:12 ).

3 . To "build a house" for God is an unspeakable privilege ( 2 Samuel 7:13 ). It may be done variously:

5 . There are fundamental errors and failures in the lives of some men which disqualify them utterly from sharing in the highest and noblest work. Saul's obstinacy, self-will, and inability to rise to the conception of the purpose and scope of the theocracy, rendered it unfit that he should found the line by which the Christ should come ( 2 Samuel 7:15 ). Solomon's imperfections were those of another character, springing more from unwatchfulness against certain snares of his position. These imperfect workers suffer loss and shame, but the substantial part of their work abides ( 1 Corinthians 3:12-15 ).

6 . It is a great consolation to a Christian that God knows him ( 2 Samuel 7:20 ). He knows our unexpressed thoughts and feelings, our depth of love and gratitude, our sorrow over sin, our most secret motives, and the path we take. Our ease of mind in remembrance of this is one of the marks of true sonship and service.

7 . A review of the gradual revelation of God's purposes will surely induce a profound conviction of his greatness and glory ( 2 Samuel 7:22 ). Men who study only the physical aspects of nature lose much. The moral universe is the grandest arena on which the power and blessedness of the Eternal shines forth.

8 . It was ancient Israel's being chosen and used as the people of God ( 2 Samuel 7:23 ) which conferred on them the most enduring distinction. As a fact, Israel has done more than either Egypt, Greece, or Rome for the true elevation of mankind; for Israel was the means of bringing into universal operation the mighty renovating principles of the kingdom of God, which alone can secure the permanence of civilization, and also educate the higher nature of man for time and eternity. "Blessed is that people whose God is the Lord!"

9 . The whole question of the final triumph of Christ rests on the word of God, "Thou, O Lord God, hast spoken it" ( 2 Samuel 7:29 ). Modern speculations are beside the mark. The first question covers all Have we historically the declaration of God? Then, if he has said a thing, it must be so. Difficulties are relative to man's ignorance and weakness, and have no place with the Eternal. Faith in God is a rational exercise of the human mind; it is not blind superstition.

HOMILIES BY B. DALE