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18. Solomon or Jesus?


2 Samuel 7:4-17, 1 Chronicles 17:1-15
Key Verse: "The Lord declares to you that the Lord Himself will establish a house for you: 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. He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.
2 Samuel 7:11B-13

Four hundred years have passed since the days of the exodus when the children of Israel wandered in the desert.  Now they have a history.  They have had times of obedience, such as conquering much of the land that God had promised: and times of disobedience, when God had to raise up leaders to bring them back to godliness.  They desired a king, but the first one, Saul, did many things that displeased God and God finally had to remove him from the throne.

Next, God chose a man after His own heart, David, the son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah.  David could do it all from leading a battle, to writing poetry and David wanted everything he did to be for God's glory.  Most of all, David was a descendant of Judah, and became a direct forefather of the promised Messiah still to come.

Unfortunately, David also sinned against the Lord by having an affair, murdering the woman's husband and then trying to pretend that God didn't see, but of course, as we know, He did.  God confronted David about his sins through the prophet Nathan and David, faced with his sin, repented and cried out to God for mercy and forgiveness.  David's first son from this affair died in infancy.  Yet God was gracious in accepting David's repentance.  As a result, God blessed their second son, Solomon, out of all of David's children, as the one who would continue the line of descendants to Messiah.  How like our God, to turn tragedy into blessing.

Now, King David, with a heart full of Gratitude to God, wishes to build a temple, a monument expressing how great and awesome God is.  God doesn't need a temple, but, once again, our creator, God, understands David's heart, and offers him this glimpse of the future.

In this passage of Scripture, many believe that God is talking about Solomon because it is Solomon who built the temple that David had hoped to build.  While it is true that Solomon did build David's temple, that temple was destroyed and Solomon's kingdom was also split in two after Solomon's death and did not last forever.

God is referring here instead, to another descendant, to Jesus, and the temple that Jesus would build, the church, which would last forever.  Even the gates of hell would not prevail against what Christ would build, a temple, not built by hands, but by the hearts of those who would claim Him as Lord.  It is through Christ that David's reign can go on forever.

Also, in this passage, God promises to punish the son, but God never punished Solomon for all of the ways that he strayed from obedience to God.  God did punish Jesus, however, undeserved and as unfair as it was.  God punished Jesus for David's sin and for yours and mine.  It is because of that unjust punishment that Jesus is crowned as Messiah, king forever, in the order of Melchizedek, forever and ever.

Hymn: "Once In Royal David's City"

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