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Sunday July 19, 2009 "Promise Made...Promise Kept" 2 Samuel 7:1-14 |
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Location: Blogs Brad's BlogBrad's Sermons |
 | | Posted by: Brad Miller | 7/21/2009 1:11 PM | David’s story fascinates me.
Embedded in his story are all the important elements of a great novel. There are heroic acts and selfless deeds. There are power struggles and divided loyalties. There are examples of true friendship and true villainry. There is sex and violence and great public pronouncements and gentle private crises. There is abject failure and total and complete redemption. It really is an amazing story.
We remember David as a boy, the shepherd boy who was tapped as the eventual King of Israel at a very young age. He was the heroic youngster who risked life and limb to defeat the Philistine Goliath, trusting always that God would be with him. Later, he became an enemy of the king and resorted to leading a ragtag band of guerrilla warriors until such time as he emerged as King of the united Israel.
He vanquished the reigning king and restored the people of Israel to their rightful place as God’s chosen. He brought the most sacred artifact of all of Hebrew history, the Ark of the Covenant, and installed it near his home in the city of Jerusalem. This was especially important to the life and worship of the Hebrew people of the day. The Ark was the Hebrew peoples connection to Moses and their ancestors who wandered the wilderness in preparation for their entrance into the land that God promised them; the land of milk and honey; the land of Canaan.
The Ark had traveled with those wanderers and was housed in a tabernacle, a tent, wherever they went. To the Hebrew people, that tent was God’s home, the most holy of all holy places. That tent was always with them in all the days of their wandering, and days of wondering just where they were headed. Wherever they went, God was with them, guiding them, guarding them, seeing them along to the next stop of their journey.
With King David’s ascension to the throne of the newly united kingdoms of Judea and Israel, he still had battles to wage, the most important one being the conquest of the Philistine armies, which paved the way for the overthrow and capture of the city of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was a very important city. Besides being the center of commerce for much of the region, it was centered on both the kingdoms of Judea and Israel, thus allowing David to set it up as the new center of the two, now united, kingdoms without offending the people of either kingdom.
After the defeat of the Philistines, David retrieved the Ark from its hiding place and made preparations for it to be taken to Jerusalem. With the Ark of the Covenant in place in Jerusalem, the city would become the center of all civic and religious life.
Just prior to what we heard this morning, 2nd Samuel presents a scene of unparalleled joy: the entrance of the Ark of the covenant into Jerusalem, the ecstatic king David dancing in front of the Ark, rejoicing in God’s presence in his capital.
Yet something was bothering David. Jerusalem had become the capital of his kingdom. He had a beautiful home of cedars to live in. Yet, the Ark still resided in a tent. What did it say about God and God’s people if King David relegated the most holy artifact of their religious life to a tent?
So, David decided that he would build a temple. A holy shrine that would signal to one and all that Jerusalem was not only a great city, but it was a holy city, the city where God took up permanent residence. Upon hearing his plans, Nathan, his closest advisor, the only person who could call David out when it was necessary, assured him that it was a good idea and that God would be with him.
But then the story takes a dramatic turn. It turns out that God is not with David on this point, and so God visits Nathan and lets him know in no uncertain terms that David should not build the temple home for God.
There are two things of importance here: first, we see a prophet of God who is fallible. It sounded like a good idea to Nathan. Give David something to do now that the philistines had been vanquished. I think this story is partially intended to tell us that even God’s prophets are only human and sometimes don’t get it right. In our humanness, we sometimes make mistakes even when we are operating with the best of intentions. The mistakes aren’t the issue: how we react when we realize mistakes have been made is the real issue. Nathan gives us a model for how to react: correct the mistakes and keep on moving.
As valuable a lesson as that is, the oracle of Nathan is a pivotal point in the history of Jewish and Christian theology. Embedded in this dream is the basis for the Hebrew notion of Messiah and our Christian belief in the messiahship of Jesus. In my mind, it might be the most important scriptural linchpin in the entire Bible: the story that best explains the nature of God in our lives, the story that explains the importance of the Davidic lineage to all of Jewish and Christian tradition and history, the story that lets us know what is expected of us and most importantly, gives us a touchstone to help us to understand that God’s promises are real, and that when God makes a promise, God keeps a promise.
Let’s look at the oracle of Nathan a little closer. When God comes to Nathan at night, God seems a little peeved. “You’re going to build a house for me?” God asks incredulously. “Why? Have I ever said that I needed a house? In all our travels, through all the ups and downs did I ever ask, “Hey, where’s my house?”
It’s sort of strange little speech, isn’t it? David was just trying to do something nice. He was simply trying to honor the God who led him to victory and who led the Hebrew people back to prominence. And it doesn’t seem like God is just being coy. He is not the honored guest who waves his hand and says, “Oh, don’t go to any bother over me…I don’t need a thing.” No, there is a reason behind the message.
First and foremost, God wanted to make sure that David and Hebrew people continued to follow God’s word and this was a perfect opportunity to make it clear that God’s promises were to be trusted.
David had made it to the pinnacle as God’s chosen king of Israel. God talked to Nathan and said, “Tell David this: I was the one who took you from the pasture to the throne. I was the one who vanquished your enemies. I was the one who brought your people out of Egypt. I am the one who has made you famous. I will protect you David. You shall have rest. Your people are my people and they will be taken care of here in Israel.”
These promises would solidify God’s power and will among the Hebrew people. And the proof would be seen when God kept those promises.
Look at the promises: that David would become king: promise made…promise kept. That the Hebrew people would find a home under David’s reign: promise made…promise kept. That David would be given peace when all his enemies were vanquished: promise made…promise kept.
The next part of the oracle deals much more directly with things that will come. It is promised that David’s son will build a house for God and it will be a magnificent structure in honor of God’s goodness. David’s son will reign as king and be like God’s own son, protected, guided and nurtured by God.
All of these promises were to be fulfilled after David’s death, so it would be up to future generations to assess their outcome. As we sit here close to 3000 years later, we can assess those promises. After his father’s death, Solomon built a great temple in honor of God. A great temple that housed the Ark of the Covenant and became the center of all Hebrew worship. Promise made…promise kept.
Solomon would go on to a great reign of wisdom and compassion becoming the epitome of the wise king. Promise made…promise kept. The Hebrew people would find safety and would flourish in their land. Promise made…promise kept.
The oracle of Nathan clearly says to David, the Hebrew people and the world, “The people of Israel are God’s chosen people. They walk with God and God will never leave them.”
But the oracle is not over. There are instructions for other things that will come in the future. Things that will have great impact on the history of God’s people, and indeed, the world.
In the oracle, God promises to undergird the kingdom of David and the house of David that will follow. But there is one important promise that we too often forget: God says that God will be like a father to Solomon and those that follow him, but when they do wrong, they will be punished in the usual ways that humans are punished by other humans. This is extremely important because it lets us know in no uncertain terms that God’s promises are not that God’s people will be upheld, nurtured, protected and kept in power no matter what. God’s promise is that God will never leave God’s people, but if they stray from the right path, they will face the consequences that anyone would face. This is not a one sided covenant. We don’t get to just accept God’s gracious gifts and then go and do whatever we like. No, we have a role to play.
This seminal passage makes it clear: God is always going to be present for God’s faithful people. God will always love God’s faithful people. But God will not protect us from the consequences of our actions when we stray from God’s path.
Let’s look at the history of the House of David. The royal line of David ruled for about 400 years before it fell apart and was overrun by the armies of various enemies: the Babylonians and the Assyrians chief among them. Why? Because the kings of Israel deviated from God’s path; the people of Israel began to worship false idols. And so, they suffered the consequences and were taken into exile and were dominated by enemies. Just as the oracle of Nathan said. Promise made…promise kept.
But still, there is something puzzling here. The oracle promised that God would never leave the House of David and the people of Israel. Yet, the Davidic line was vanquished and the people of Israel were scattered to the four winds. It is precisely at this point that we begin to understand the rise of the messianic theology of the Hebrew people.
Without fail, the promises of God were kept. The good and the bad, the miraculous and the ordinary; when God promises, those promises are kept. And so it is with the end of this oracle: Nathan is told that God will love the family of David forever. The throne of David will always be honored.
The Hebrews of the time understood this to mean exactly what we understand it to mean today: God never leaves us, and when we are ready to turn back to God and live in God’s word, God will provide a king of the house of David to lead us. And so, with the collapse of the united Israelite kingdom, the Hebrew people looked longingly to the future, to the day when a descendant of David would come back to power and restore them to their rightful home. Because of all that had been done, because of all that had been detailed in the oracle of Nathan, they knew that a promise made by God is a promise kept.
They were right.
Jesus of Nazareth, identified as being part of the royal line of David, came and fulfilled the promise of the oracle of Nathan. Jesus came and offered the people of Israel and the people of the world the protection and love of God. Jesus came to liberate the people from their various prisons and exiles, whatever form they took or however they were imposed. Jesus came offering the presence of God in all they did, thus fulfilling the prophecies of the Hebrew Bible, and in particular, the oracle of Nathan.
This then, is the importance of the Hebrew Bible to our Christian walk. Without the context of the struggle of the people of Israel, the coming of the messiah holds little meaning. Without the understanding of the fulfilled promises of God, our trust in the future promises of God might not be as strong as they are. Without the understanding that God was present in human history before Jesus, we will fail to understand the lessons that human experience with God affords us. Without the promise that God will never leave God’s people, we would be left foundering, without hope or purpose.
But we are none of those things: we are instead the hopeful, faithful, trusting children of God; we are children of the House of David, looking to David’s example of how to live; we are disciples of Christ, looking to Jesus’ example of how to love; we are the recipients of the promise, waiting expectantly for the day when all of God’s promises are fulfilled.
Because at the heart of everything we know and everything we do is this: God loves us and will never leave us.
Promise made…promise kept.
Thanks be to God.
Let us pray: we love you God, and we seek to honor you with all we do. We are overwhelmed at the promises you have made and the promises you have kept. Give us the strength and wisdom to hold up our part of the covenant so that we might celebrate the fulfillment of all your promises, now and always. Amen. | | | Permalink | Trackback |
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