II Samuel 7:2 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.
Recently I was driving a 434-mile trip home from another state. We stopped for lunch at a fast food drive-thru. Crazy as it may be, the line wrapped all the way around the building, but this particular chain has just blown the doors off with service. I got my food quicker with that long line than I could have gotten it at most other restaurants with half the line. It was just incredible.
Now, I don’t know if every person making and serving the food has some grand vision, but somebody does, and they are training their staff very well. Whoever has the grand vision really gives significance to what everyone is doing.
Contrast that with most establishments you go to. People may be serving you, but they are only working by the hour. I’m talking about their mindset. Sometimes people work for a large salary but they are still working by the hour. They think, “My time is up. I need to go home.” Or, they get to work thirty minutes early and that is their vision. So, most people’s work is either an hourly affair or some grand vision where they have ambitions for life.
How do you view your work? More specifically, how do you view your service to God? If you are working hourly in your mind, I’m not sure I have anything for you today, but if you have the big picture and some ambition, I think there is a word for you in II Samuel 7 where David wishes to build God a temple.
God had been with Israel in a very special way and manifestly at the tabernacle, basically a special ornate tent. II Samuel 7:2 says, “The king David said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.” David had this beautiful palace, while God had nothing but a tent.
Nathan the prophet just assumed that David’s desire to build a temple was a spiritual and noble thing. Sometimes we make assumptions not knowing what God’s mind actually is. So, Nathan essentially says, “Hey, that’s a great idea. God bless you!” Well, God appeared to Nathan and said, “Have I ever asked for a house?…I do not want David to build Me a house. That will be done by his son.”
There are a couple of things to think about. One, how do you view your work? Let me remind you that you don’t build for God. A lot of people have these great ambitions and God is kind of their foil. They want to be great, to have a name, and to leave some monument to their work, and God can just be a foil. They say, “I am involved in ministry,” but they are really building a name for themselves as they build some work for God.
There is a sense in which we don’t build for God. God said that David’s noble ambition was not God’s idea. Just because something sounds noble or spiritual does not mean that God is animating or inspiring it. God needs to be the One Who animates our work. So, if you have some grand view, then strictly speaking, you don’t build for God. I’m glad we can serve God, but there is a sense in which God does not need us. God loves us.
On the other hand, God does not build for us. God told Nathan, “You tell David that I am going to build him a house.” God is talking about a dynasty, those who would come after David to be kings. But later in response David says, “Who am I, O Lord GOD? And what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto?” Later, he says, “What one nation… is like thy people…Israel?” There was no one.
Was God using David because he was a great guy or Israel because Israel was such a great people? No, this wasn’t about David or even strictly about Israel. It was about God Himself. So, God was not simply building for David because he was a great guy. We don’t build for God and God doesn’t build for us. God builds with us. Maybe I’m splitting hairs here, but there is a subtle difference which affects the way we think and the way we work. Since that’s true, there are two takeaways.
First, accept what you are given. It may not be what you wish, but if God has given it, accept it. David could have said, “Why can’t I build the temple? It is a noble ambition. I want to build it.” Yet, in chapter 8 it says that David smote the Philistines, Moab, and other kingdoms, and God “preserved David withersoever he went.” Then it says that David took all the silver and gold of the nations he had defeated and dedicated it to the Lord.
David was a man of war. He may have wished to build the temple, but God had other ideas. No matter how noble David’s idea was, it wasn’t the one that God had for him. So, accept what you are given. This rebuke may have been humbling for David, but he accepted what God had given and he did what God had given him to do to establish the kingdom.
Second, use what you have. The Bible says that David used all this silver and gold that he had collected for what would later become Solomon’s temple. We talk about Solomon’s temple, but it wasn’t Solomon’s idea or even his temple. He built it, but with the materials of David. But it wasn’t David’s temple either; ultimately it was God’s temple, God’s idea, God’s ambition. So, God gave David one task and Solomon another, and God was glorified in both.
So, accept what you’re given and use what you have because we don’t build for God nor does God build for us. God builds with us.