Morning Light – June 19th, 2015: Generational Prophetic Words

Morning Light – June 19th, 2015
Today: [2 Samuel Chapter Seven]: Generational Prophetic Words. David in this chapter finally has peace in all his borders. He looks around his realm and decides he must build a house of cedar for the ark of the covenant. Nathan the prophet agrees but then God speaks that David is not to do this thing. The words of Nathan go on to give David a prophetic word that reveals the history of the bloodline of David for generations to come. Occasionally God will speak such a word into your life and you can learn from David how to respond and align yourself with such a powerful prophecy over your life.
[2Sa 7:1-29 KJV] 1 And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies; 2 That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. 3 And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that [is] in thine heart; for the LORD [is] with thee. 4 And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying, 5 Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? 6 Whereas I have not dwelt in [any] house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.
At long last the children of Israel find respite from constant and prolonged war. The Lord gives David and his people rest from all their enemies. That doesn’t mean their enemies are not there. The Philistines and other nations still longed for and looked for the fall of Israel but God stood in between them and by experience even the ungodly learn that they cannot defeat the nation whose God is the Lord. Peace is a gift from God. It does not arise from strong borders or great armies. I remember on November 9th, 1989 when the Berlin wall came down. I understood in my heart that natural borders have spiritual implications. The Berlin wall was a symbol of the great divide between the Soviet Bloc countries and the west. I asked the Father what the significance of this was. He told me that the principalities and powers behind the Iron Curtain were now unleashed on the western world. I asked him what that meant and he told me that the countries of the west would become more and more socialist in their ideologies and he also told me that the United States would no longer be protected from terrorism on her shores domestically. Just a few years later we saw the Oklahoma City bombing and the first World Trade Center Bombing. When a nation dwells in safety it is not because of great armies or because they pump billions of dollars of foreign aid into the coffers of their enemies. So it was with David that God gave the nation of Israel peace.
In the midst of prosperity David desires to build a permanent place for the ark of the Covenant. Now enters the first mention of Nathan the prophet. Nathan had a special relationship with David we know because David named one of his sons after him. Nathan sees the heart of David to build a temple and tells him “go do what is in your heart…” Later that night God awakens Nathan and issues a correction. He doesn’t rebuke Nathan but Nathan is required to go and give a clarifying word to the king. We must always remember that prophets see through a glass darkly. They hear in part and know in part. It doesn’t matter how great the reputation of the prophet they still have to peer through their own weak and feeble humanity to discern what God is saying and they will from time to time err and give something that is not what the Lord is saying.
7 In all [the places] wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar? 8 Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel: 9 And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great [men] that [are] in the earth. 10 Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, 11 And as since the time that I commanded judges [to be] over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.
What was wrong with David wanting to build a temple for the Lord. In the passage above God basically tells David “you don’t build Me a house – I will build YOU a house…” Sometimes we get confused and focus more on what WE do for the Lord rather than on what HE has done for us. In refusing David the Father is also avoiding a tendency that is developing where the people of Israel no longer a wandering people are beginning to relate to Him after the manner that other nations worship their own gods and idols. It is a convenient thing to have a manageable God in an ornate temple. We tend to put our gods in ornate and conspicuous edifices so we can keep an eye on them. The Lord says that from the beginning he has not only lived in a tent but he has walked in a tent. In the New Testament we see that in reality WE are the tent that God chooses to walk in. The temple God ultimately chooses in the temple of your human body and the throne of your human spirit. We are not our own we are bought with a price and God chooses to make His home not in a building where we visit occasionally but in your own human heart. This kind of idolatry is still prevalent today. We build buildings and gather people into them and insist that this is the house of God. If you want to find the house of the idol in your community think of all the places where you are expected to whisper (banks, hospital, church buildings). God will not be contained in our quaint little church buildings. He lives and moves and has His being from within our own human heart.
12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: 15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took [it] from Saul, whom I put away before thee. 16 And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever. 17 According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.
God begins to speak to David a generational prophetic word that reaches far beyond his lifetime. Through Nathan He says that He will build a house through one of David’s descendants whose kingdom shall endure forever. We might think this is king Solomon and in a manner of speaking He is. However notice that He tells David that this kingdom will endure forever. The kingdom of Solomon did not endure forever. In this sense God is speaking of the coming Messiah who will issue forth out of David’s bloodline. It is important to realize that after Jesus the enemies of God sought out and killed every member of Jesus’ family which in effect obliterated David’s bloodline. By the time that the temple was destroyed in 70 AD not one member of the royal house of David was left alive. Naturally speaking the bloodline of David vanished in the first century. Spiritually speaking through Jesus the royal line of David continues through the New Birth and the New Creation People of God.
In referring to this king that is to come David is given to understand that none of the sons born to him at this point will be king. The prophet says “one that SHALL PROCEED out of thy bowels…” If any of David’s wives and children were listening they would have been displeased at the words of Nathan the prophet. We also see in these words that the kingdom will be established because of God’s mercy and not because of the piety of the kings that will come after David. Solomon and all the kings after him had periods of great backsliddeness and infidelity toward God but God kept His promise and these that came after were inheritors of the sure mercies of David accorded to them long before they were ever born. Likewise Jesus as our David secures for us the mercy of God. God is not good to us because we are so holy and do everything as we should. God is good to us because of Jesus and not any obedience that we can offer up.
18 Then went king David in, and sat before the LORD, and he said, Who [am] I, O Lord GOD? and what [is] my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? 19 And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord GOD; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And [is] this the manner of man, O Lord GOD? 20 And what can David say more unto thee? for thou, Lord GOD, knowest thy servant. 21 For thy word’s sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know [them]. 22 Wherefore thou art great, O LORD God: for [there is] none like thee, neither [is there any] God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And what one nation in the earth [is] like thy people, [even] like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, [from] the nations and their gods? 24 For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel [to be] a people unto thee for ever: and thou, LORD, art become their God. 25 And now, O LORD God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish [it] for ever, and do as thou hast said. 26 And let thy name be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts [is] the God over Israel: and let the house of thy servant David be established before thee. 27 For thou, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house: therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. 28 And now, O Lord GOD, thou [art] that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant: 29 Therefore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue for ever before thee: for thou, O Lord GOD, hast spoken [it]: and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.
David rehearses back to God the prophetic words of the Prophet Nathan. Many ask and in fact scoff about personal prophesy. They ask impudently “where do you see personal prophesy in the Bible…” Personal prophesy is found throughout the bible from Genesis to Revelation. The words of Nathan to David are personal prophesy and David commits them to memory repeating them back to God in a Psalm. In all of David’s lifetime these words of Nathan are doubtless the most precious and important words that God will speak to him in his lifetime. They not only addressed his immediate situation but speak of David’s line “for a long time to come …” There are different levels of the prophetic. Many times the words of God are tactical in nature addressing immediate situations and needs. Sometimes the words of God are simply encouragements to hold fast and not give up on the promises of God. There will be times however that God will speak and His words will penetrate the veil of time and happenstance to reveal His generational purposes in our lives. We must respond to these words and venerate these words as the words of God and not man for our future will depend on our response to what God has said.