David at Middle-Age

      “The long, dull, monotonous years of middle aged prosperity or middle aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere. The routine of adversity ... provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition. If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our position is even stronger. Prosperity knits a man to the world. He feels that he is "finding his place in it," while really it is finding its place in him.”

       Those insights about middle age come to us courtesy of Screwtape the senior diabolical tempter in C.S. Lewis’s’ Screwtape Letters.   They point out the special danger of the middle years when we can lose the fire and simply settle in to comfortable mediocrity where we are surrounded by stuff.  I’m not talking about the Mustang convertible I got a couple of years ago.  That only counts as a mid-life crisis if I live to 117.  I’m talking about the other stuff.   

       We can lose our vision.  We can lose our capacity for justice.  In the image in a well-done commercial a couple of years ago, we can still talk about “sticking it to the man” when we have actually become the man.   We need to make the praise song our prayer: “Lord, light the fire again.”

       David needs to be lit up. David is now at rest and in power in Jerusalem.  He’s gone from one wife to a host of wives and trophy concubines.  His enemies have been defeated.  The most powerful people around him recognize him as a peer. 

       Historian G. Frederick Owen says of the reign of David:  “Everything favored national prosperity for Israel.  There was no great power in Western Asia to prevent David from becoming a powerful monarch.  The Hittites had been humbled.  Egypt has lost her prestige and all but collapsed.  The Philistines were driven to a narrow portion of their old dominion and the kings of Tyre sought friendly alliance with David.  Commercial highways were thrown open and in came merchandise, culture and wealth from Phoenicia, Damascus, Assyria, Arabia, Egypt and more distant lands. To his people, David was king, judge and general.  But to the nations round about, he was the leading power in all the Near-Eastern world – the mightiest monarch of his day.”

       David has it made. But as Screwtape points out, a lot more people can handle adversity than success. David is one of these. 

       In many ways David’s story heads downhill from this point on.  But in another, very wonderful way, it doesn’t.  It heads for the heights.  Because David gets a gift.

       It is only six miles from Bethlehem, where David had grown up as an obscure shepherd, to Jerusalem, where he was now established as Israel's finest king.  But it took about twenty years to make the trip. He has spent most of his adult life on the run. Now he has a house to live in. He is no longer looking over his shoulder at who may be the next danger to his life. He has rest from all his enemies.

       David can sleep at night. But he has a bad conscience about doing so. Why should he sleep in a house with solid rock foundations and brick superstructure and nice cedar paneling when God’s covenant chest has only a tent?  David has achieved a better standard of living than God, That’s wrong.  God has been good to David.  Now David has the strength to do something nice for God.   

        He talks it over with his pastor, Nathan. Nathan is enthusiastic – like most pastors would be if someone offered to fund a new building and do all the work.  He says, “Go, do all that is in your heart; for the Lord is with you"

       There are people who make decisions easily and speak quickly and respond to questions briskly.  But this does not mean that their decisions and answers are always good ones. I am that way at times – sometimes wrong but rarely in doubt.  Nathan assures David of God’s blessing before he bothers to check with God.

       But that night Nathan hears from God.  God says, “Nathan, let’s talk. This house. For me. As it's my house, do you think I should be consulted? I don't mean about how many bathrooms or whether to have a dishwasher. I mean about the whole idea of a house. Did I ever ask for a house? Have I been slow to communicate what I want and what I expect?  Didn’t I give fourteen full chapters in Exodus about how to build a tent?  Do you think I don’t know my own mind?  Have I complained about where I live to David or anyone else?”

       Why doesn’t God want the Temple – or at least not from David.  Well I think God sees the full agenda even if David doesn’t.  David wants to tame God. 

       The roaming, unpredictable God was fine for the roaming, unpredictable David – the David who could put everything he owned in the trunk of his car and “head out on the highway – looking for adventure and whatever comes his way.”  But middle-age David has had enough adventure.  He wants peace and security and God keeps stirring the pot.  Maybe a nice house will calm God down.  David can go over to God’s house.  God can come over to David’s house.  They’ll have coffee. 

       David wants to do something good for God out of his now-abundant resources.  But God shows Nathan that David's building plans for God will get in the way of God’s building plans for David.  If David gets his way, he will be ruined as God's king. Anytime any of us develop a self-identity in which God and God’s actions are subordinated to us and our actions, we are in trouble.  David is just about to cross over a line from being full of God to being full of himself.   

        Nathan goes back to David in the morning and withdraws the building permit.   God is very nice about it.  In his great courtesy, He puts the best face on David’s plan.  He says to David through Nathan, "You did well that it was in your heart."  I commend you for having a heart that is so sensitive to Me that you would want to construct a house of worship for My glory.  But it’s not My plan for you to do that.

        “Forget about building Me a house.  I'm going to build you a house. The kingdom that I'm shaping here isn't what you do for Me but what I do through you. I'm doing the building here, not you. I'm not going to let you confuse things by launching a building operation of your own. If there's any building to be done, I'm doing it. I've been working with you since your shepherd days.”       

       Now at this point David does something smart.  He puts the temple blueprints aside. 

       David has always been action man -- killing Goliath, honoring his enemy Saul as God's anointed, bringing the Ark to Jerusalem.  But this time, wisely, David chooses inaction.  David renounces his plans, abdicates his claims to kingly authority, gets himself out of the driver’s seat, and deliberately and reverently places himself before his Lord and God.  David simply opens his hands before God.

       And in response, God gives David a truly amazing gift that changes his life -- and changes our lives today. David gets something not offered anyone else – not Adam, not Noah, Isaac, Jacob, or even Moses.  God makes David an unconditional promise.  He receives what Bible scholar Matitahu Tsevat calls “the blank check of unlimited validity made out to the house of David.” 

       God tells Nathan to make this promise to David.  “He shall build a house for My Name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” God says of David’s successor, “I will be for him a father, and he shall be for me a son.   If he does wrong I will punish him with the rod of men and the stripes of the children of men, but my mercy will not depart from him.”  God, in other words, might punish the kings who come after David for their wrongdoings.  But He vows that He will never abandon them as He abandoned the house of Saul.  

        This promise is something brand new.  Up until now, God’s promises have all been conditional.  “I will bless you if you do these things.”   God’s covenant with Moses was conditional.  “Today I set before you the blessing and the curse.  If the people obey they’ll get the blessing.  If they don’t they’ll get the curse.  All of the promises to Saul were conditional.  Saul didn’t fulfill the requirements of the “ifs” and was cut off.

        God had initially endorsed Saul’s rule, but gave the kingdom to another when Saul disobeyed. Will David’s descendants be treated the same way?  God says, “No.”  David gets an unconditional promise – a blank check.  God promises David that he will always have a descendant to sit on the throne of Israel.  God will establish David’s house forever.  There are no acts of disobedience which can make God terminate this commitment.  Forever means forever. 

God’s word to David isn’t “I love you if” but “I love you period.” 

       With God’s covenant promise to David, a new element enters the picture. It is the element of grace. In this covenant with David, God makes a promise that is not conditioned by David’s  own obedience or the obedience of his children.   It is an unconditional promise of undeserved grace. God will bless David's house and establish his dynasty upon the throne. If David’s descendants prove to be disobedient, God will allow them to experience the natural consequences of their sin but God will never withdraw His steadfast covenant love. 

       Now, we know that the Davidic kingdom did not last forever, at least in Jerusalem. The kingdom of Judah lasted 150 years longer than the northern kingdom, but it too came to an end. In 587 BC, Jerusalem was burned to the ground, and the last descendant of David on the throne was carried in chains to Babylon.   

       But God does not break his promise.  Some five hundred and fifty years later, God actually enters our world Himself.  Jesus came as a king as the physical descendant of David to David’s home town of Bethlehem.  Jesus came as a deliberate fulfillment of the promise here in 2 Samuel 7.   Jesus is the descendant of David whose kingdom will endure forever. 

         And in Jesus Christ, God completes the work of amazing grace in our own lives.  He extends the covenant He makes with David to us.  Through the life, work, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God offers us an unconditional salvation.  He offers a salvation that is not based on our works or perfect obedience, but on His grace alone. God’s word to us through Jesus, like His word to David through Nathan, isn’t “I love you if” but “I love you period.” 

       We are the only ones, besides David, to receive an unconditional promise.  For by grace we have been made brothers and sisters of Jesus, the heir of David.  In Jesus, God has removed Himself from the role of judge in order to bring us to the role of His children.  And as sons and daughters of the king we have certain privileges – not to treat our salvation lightly for we were bought with a terrible price -- but to come before God in confidence in our worship and in our prayer and in our confession.  In Jesus, we share the promise made to the heirs of David.  Even though we are weak, even though we fail, even though we fall short of God’s ideal, God still loves us.  God still forgives us. 

       We also may sin.  Like David and his sons we can be subject to the earthly consequences of our sin.  But God still loves us and holds on to us.

        And like David, we learn that the key to joyful and productive living isn’t found in a legalism of how much we do for God -- a house of good works in an attempt to please God -- but in how much we allow God to do for us -- humbly accepting the house of grace and promise that God has already built for us in Jesus Christ.

       Paul writes about this in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  We stand in God’s grace.

      Paul says we have been justified.  That’s a financial word in Greek.  So let me close with an illustration to help us understand what God has done through the cross. 

        When you justify or balance your checkbook, like I did a couple days ago, you take your bank statements and you canceled checks.  You compare those checks with the checks you’ve recorded in your register – on the computer or on paper – it doesn’t matter.  You subtract from the bank balance any checks you’ve written which have not yet cleared.  Once you’ve done all that, you hope the balance in the checkbook is identical to the one of the bank statement. 

        For me that’s sometimes pretty wishful thinking.  If it’s just a couple of dollars I write E.S.P. which stands for “error some place” and adjust my balance to agree with the bank’s.  But if the error is serious I will spend hours looking for the discrepancy. 

       The Bible says that without Jesus, you and I don’t balance.  We fall short of the glory of God.  We claim goodness deposits we haven’t made.  We understate the debits on  our ledger.  We fall short – not just a little “error some place so let’s not sweat it” short  but real short.  So when the Bible says that we are justified, it means that God makes us right.  It doesn’t means that God comes up with a list of reasons to prove that our math was right all along.  It means that He does something else that is much more dramatic.

       To understand what God has done, let’s push the checkbook analogy a bit further.  It’s as if one day you are trying to balance your checkbook.  You’ve let it go for a long time.  In your confusion you’ve made some serious mistakes in math.  You thought you had more assets than you have.  In fact, you were cocky enough to mortgage your holdings to plunge into some highly speculative investments – your own little sub-prime crisis. They have failed. 

       The bank calls and confronts you with your huge overdrafts.  It calls due the mortgages.  There is no way you can cover your debts.  The government won’t help you.  You aren’t a big, party-hearty corporation like AIG.  You’re just you.  The bank can’t forgive you.  It can issue a consolidation loan and charge interest but it can’t forgive your debt.  In fact, since you overstated your assets on the loan application, there’s a suspicion of fraud.  There will be examiners coming by to check it out. 

       You don’t know which way to turn.  But wait!  A friend who loves you hears that you are in trouble.  He’s determined to help you. He identifies with your need and at great sacrifice writes a check to cover your entire indebtedness.  He pays off your loans and, with an infusion of cash, brings your account back on line. 

       That’s what God had done for you in Jesus Christ.  He has justified you.  He put into you account what you need to measure up to His glory.  Because of the fact that you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are justified. Like David, you have received an unconditional promise of a future and a hope. 

        David didn’t get to tie God down.  In the same way, we don’t get to put God in our box.

        And it’s a good thing that we can’t.  Because the free God is free to surprise us.  The free God isn’t the God of logical consequences – a “you made your bed, now lie in it” God -- but the God of illogical blessing – the God of grace.  David doesn’t get what he deserves.  We don’t either.  We get what we don’t deserve.  We get a future and a hope.  We get grace.