Map David 2 Sam.jpg
In our last study, we learned that David had been made King of all Israel, that he had captured Jebus and renamed it Jerusalem - to be his capital city.
David had also beaten off an attack by the Philistines. Then we read about his failed attempt to bring the Ark of God into his new city.
According to 1 Chronicles the verse we skipped last time fits better here:
Read 2 Samuel 5:11
11 Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David.
This probably happened around the time of David’s abortive attempt to bring the Ark to Jerusalem.
Who was Hiram?
The Phoenecians were a loose collection of maritime traders with little interest in owning land. The tribe of Asher, which had been assigned the Lebanese coastal strip, were also a loose collection of tribal chiefs, apparently happy to co-exist with the Phoenecians. (Show on map)
They were successful traders and Hiram needed to demonstrate his peaceful intentions in order to guarantee access to the north-south and east-west trade routes that passed through Israel. The normal gift to a foreign leader would have been a daughter given as a wife; but David seemed to have plenty of them. Offering to supply and build a palace for David was a stroke of brilliance.
David had been made king by Judah and then the whole of the rest of Israel. He had successfully taken an impregnable fortress and town as his own capital city, and a foreign king had built him a palace.
Three months after his first attempt, David tries again to bring the Ark, and he has had time to do his homework.
Read 1 Chronicles 15:1-2
1 After David had constructed buildings for himself in the City of David, he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. 2 Then David said, ‘No one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, because the Lord chose them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister before him for ever.’
There is a lot more about the careful preparations made this time but we’ll be selective.
Read 1 Chronicles 15:11-15
11 Then David summoned Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab the Levites. 12 He said to them, ‘You are the heads of the Levitical families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate yourselves and bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it. 13 It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up the first time that the Lord our God broke out in anger against us. We did not enquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.’ 14 So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves in order to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. 15 And the Levites carried the ark of God with the poles on their shoulders, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the Lord.
That’s better!
Now we can return to the narrative in 2 Samuel
Read 2 Samuel 6:13-15
13 When those who were carrying the ark of the Lord had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, 15 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
Read 2 Samuel 6:16
16 As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.
(We will look at this verse in a moment)
Read 2 Samuel 6:17-19
17 They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord. 18 After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty. 19 Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
Read 2 Samuel 6:20
20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, ‘How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!’
I wonder - had David specifically told her to stay at home? Or had she just refused to be part of David's celebrations as it was beneath her royal dignity? (Note that v15 suggests that everyone had been encouraged to join in – even including slave girls of the servants v20)
Also note in verse 16: she despised him in her heart.
Not ‘she was upset’ or ‘she was cross’. Was there any love between David and Michal? Possibly not – long ago she had loved David, (1 Samuel 18:20,28) but remember she had been dragged from her current loving husband Paltiel. (2 Samuel 3:15-16), probably only with political motives, and David had originally only married her to become Saul’s son-in-law. (1 Samuel 18:21-26)
Read 2 Samuel 6:21 -23
21 David said to Michal, ‘It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel – I will celebrate before the Lord. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honour.’
23 And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.
David was content to simply rebuke her - and then ignore her. As David's wife, no-one else could give her children.
would anyone like to comment?
Where was the Ark? In a tent, specifically erected by David, and probably in the Palace grounds. (2 Samuel 6:17)
Where was the Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle?
Read 1 Chronicles 21:29
29 The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the desert, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. (Show on map)
People would go there regularly to celebrate the various festivals decreed through Moses
What was the most important annual festival for the Jews? Yom Kippur, The Day Of Atonement. Can someone explain what it is?
it is the day when all Jews may atone for their sins and become cleansed and purified from them.
Leviticus devotes the whole of chapter 16 detailing God’s instructions to Moses for this festival.
Central to this chapter we now read Leviticus 16:11-15 ‘Aaron shall bring the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household, and he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. 12 He is to take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense and take them behind the curtain.
13 He is to put the incense on the fire before the Lord, and the smoke of the incense will conceal the atonement cover above the tablets of the covenant law, so that he will not die. 14 He is to take some of the bull’s blood and with his finger sprinkle it on the front of the atonement cover; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the atonement cover.
15 ‘He shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its blood behind the curtain and do with it as he did with the bull’s blood: he shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and in front of it.
But the Ark, with the atonement cover, the symbol of God’s presence, had been missing. Until recently when David had brought it to Jerusalem, it had been stored at Kiriath Jearim because of fear of what God might do.
People still went to the Tabernacle to offer their sacrifices. To an outside observer all was as it should be. But the very thing that could change their ritual into reality was missing.
Is it possible that God himself could be missing from our worship? What sort of things can make our worship shallow? Could we be following a ritual rather than enjoying the reality?
Now before we plough on into chapter 7 we ned to carefully look at the first verse
2 Samuel 7:1
1 After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him
In the introduction we saw that 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles had been assembled using texts that were available at the time. The order in which they had been assembled suited the purposes of the authors and they linked them with short passages of their own.
Here we are presented with a picture of peace and stability, but both authors then spend many chapters detailing the wars that followed! With that in mind we’ll move on. Read 2 Samuel 7:2-3
2 he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”
3 Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.”
For all his failings, David still seeks the Lord’s will and turns to his Professional Prophet, Nathan. ‘Brilliant idea’ was Nathan’s snap answer, and they both went to bed happy.
Nathan didn’t record if God gave him a sleepless night, nor what he said to him about making assumptions, but it was a more sombre Nathan who delivered God’s message the next day.
What was the message? 2 Samuel 7:5-17
5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. 7 Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” ’
8 “Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. 9 I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. 10 And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people shall not oppress them any more, as they did at the beginning 11 and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.
“ ‘The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you:
It was not for David to build a house for the Lord - rather God himself would build a 'house' for David - and it is this that David found so amazing.
12 When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall endure for ever before me; your throne shall be established for ever.’ ”
17 Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.
What a setback - how did David react? We saw in our previous study how David got angry when his plans to bring the Ark to Jerusalem were wrecked with the death of Uzzah
Read 2 Samuel 7:18-29
18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and he said:
“Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? 19 And as if this were not enough in your sight, O Sovereign Lord, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant. Is this your usual way of dealing with man, O Sovereign Lord?
20 “What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Sovereign Lord. 21 For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant.
22 “How great you are, O Sovereign Lord! There is no-one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears. 23 And who is like your people Israel—the one nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a people for himself, and to make a name for himself, and to perform great and awesome wonders by driving out nations and their gods from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? 24 You have established your people Israel as your very own for ever, and you, O Lord, have become their God.
25 “And now, Lord God, keep for ever the promise you have made concerning your servant and his house. Do as you promised, 26 so that your name will be great for ever. Then men will say, ‘The Lord Almighty is God over Israel!’ And the house of your servant David will be established before you.
27 “O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, you have revealed this to your servant, saying, ‘I will build a house for you.’ So your servant has found courage to offer you this prayer. 28 O Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant. 29 Now be pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue for ever in your sight; for you, O Sovereign Lord, have spoken, and with your blessing the house of your servant will be blessed for ever.”
What a transformation. David’s immediate response was amazement that almighty God should consider himself worthy of such a detailed revelation concerning him and his legacy. Immediately he had to get by himself (verse 18). His thoughts turned away from himself and he launched into a prayer of thanksgiving and worship.
David’s plans for the Temple had to be shelved, but not totally forgotten. We will come to see that later David ensures that his as yet unborn son Solomon will have everything necessary (1 Chronicles 28-29) – with David providing the design, the site and the builders; all the materials timber, stone, and an abundance of gold, silver and money; even instructions concerning the priests, singers gatekeepers etc.
Having been told that it is not his job to build the Temple, what is David to do next? Naturally he now concentrates on consolidating his nation.
To understand the next few chapters we will need to look at another map
