Day 86: A Heart for God’s House

Today’s Big Idea: Building for the future

Key Verse: 2 Samuel 7:2

Passage of the day: 2 Samuel 7

Thoughts to consider: When we think of King David, most people think of the phrase, “A man after God’s own Heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). In today’s passage, we see that heart on full display. David was the king of Israel, but he noticed something. He was living in a palace while the ark of the covenant - the place where God’s presence physically dwelt on the earth - was still in a tent. This bothered David, so he told the prophet Nathan about it. Nathan told David to go ahead and build the temple. He even assured David, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you.” (2 Samuel 7:3). However, Nathan apparently hadn’t checked with God first because that night God told Nathan that David would not build the temple. 

David had another calling; to defeat the enemies of Israel and bring peace to the land (1 Chronicles 22:8). Instead, his son Solomon would build the temple. So David thanked God that his offspring would get to fulfill this special task and honor God with a temple. So David spent the rest of his life assembling the materials to build the temple and training those who would serve there, making Solomon’s future task a lot easier. David worked to prepare for a temple he would never get to see because it was more important that the temple got built than for him to build it himself. We need David’s heart for the Church today! We’re not building the church for us. If we do it well, it will outlast us and people will be blessed by our work long after we are gone. It’s about God’s glory, not our own.