You Shall Not Build Me A House

1 Chronicles 17:1‑10

Imagine ourselves for a moment in David’s shoes. He has been successfully established as King over Israel and has rebuilt Jerusalem as his capital city. A great Thanksgiving service is held, David himself offering the sacrifice to God. There is singing, music and dancing, and all Israel rejoices with him before the Lord. Finally it is time for David to go home.

Relaxing with his household, and blessing them with his account of the celebrations and the Lord’s goodness, David becomes silent and thoughtful. He looks around him. The house itself is walled with fine cedar and richly furnished and decorated. His righteous heart is suddenly appalled. "Here am I dwelling in comfort and splendour," he thinks to himself, "while the Ark of God—the very symbol of His presence and blessing, lies in a tent!" Straightway his intention is to build his Lord and Redeemer a fitting house.

However, the Lord intervenes through the prophet Nathan. "Go and tell David My servant, ‘Thus says the LORD, "You shall not build a house for Me to dwell in, 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 dwelling place to another."’" (1 Chron.17:4‑5 NASB footnote)

God is saying to David that by his Spirit He has lived among the people since the day that He led them out of Egypt. "God is a Spirit," observed our Lord Jesus and they that worship him worship in Spirit and Truth. (John 4:24) The lesson that David was being taught was that God was not to be considered in terms of bricks and stone or flesh and blood. He is to be understood in terms of Spirit and as one that inhabits a spiritual Temple. Paul expressed the same principle when he taught the Corinthian believers that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." (1 Cor.15:50 NIV) Years later, when Solomon was commissioned to build the Temple he acknowledged that, in reality, God could not abide in a stone dwelling place, for not even the Universe itself can contain him. (1 Kings 8:27)

The lesson that David learnt was a valuable one and very relevant to us today. God promises David that He would build a house—an enduring inheritance—for him. Herein lies the fundamental truth for us to appreciate. We can do nothing for God; He must do everything for us. Religious zeal and enthusiasm have stirred the hearts of God’s people down the centuries to our present day. Like David we marvel at the Grace and Providence of God and desire earnestly to do something in return for him. But it is futile to think in this way. In Psalm 127:1 we read, "Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it." The lesson had been learnt!

Do we have big meetings? Does the power of praise and worship overwhelm us? Are we experiencing some mighty act of God among us? Have we returned, like David, to our everyday lives with a resolution to earnestly commit ourselves to the building up of the Church, God’s temple? You and I know that we have.

Here then is the problem. We are saying, in effect, "Lord, let me show you what I can do for you," when in all humility, acknowledging the poverty of our human condition, we should exclaim, "Lord, show me what you want me to do!" The religious heart of man, inspired by God’s majesty and goodness, desires to put himself at his disposal and so offer his resources to "extend the Kingdom." This is folly. The Temple of God in Spirit is not the fusion of bricks and mortar; it is not even the binding together of man to man in earnest church building. The Temple of God is spiritual, it is invisible, a place in which we are joined, through faith, in the Spirit. (Eph.2:19‑22)

We cannot build for God. Instead, if we will permit it, He will build for us, in us, and with us. He will prepare us as living stones in the quarry of our earthly sojourn, and in due season, transport us to the place where we shall see that we have become the New Jerusalem that comes down out of Heaven from God. This will be the manifestation of his Kingdom. (1 Cor.15:50‑53; 1 Thess.4:15‑17)

David’s heart was right with God, but he misunderstood the response that He requires. He was motivated by love and gratitude as we so often are. Yet he had to learn that he, as a man, could offer nothing and do nothing of himself. God alone is the builder. He alone the executor of his plans. We are at most pliant instruments in his hands, clay upon the Potter’s wheel.

"For our citizenship (true home) is in HEAVEN from which we also eagerly wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform our lowly body into conformity with his glorious body, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject ALL things to Himself. (Phil.3:20‑21 NASB footnote)

May June 1984, Bible Study Monthly