2 Samuel 7:1-9 – God With Us
This is actually one of the most significant chapters in the whole Bible. It’s one where God’s great plan of salvation takes a huge step forward. In the first verse of the New Testament, Jesus is introduced as ‘the son of David, the son of Abraham’. Well this chapter points us from the time of David back to the time of Abraham. But it also points us forward to the coming of Jesus.
David has captured Jerusalem and is living there in his palace. And as he says in v2, he doesn’t think it’s right for him to be living in a grand house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent. And Nathan the prophet, who’s there with him – says: I know what you mean. ‘Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you’. Nathan thinks it’s so obvious that God would want David to do it, that he doesn’t feel the need to check with God. Yet that night God speaks to Nathan and says ‘tell David not to do it’.
David’s motives here are genuine. He’s motivated by the glory and honour of God – just as he was when he brought the ark to Jerusalem. David’s priorities were bang on. Yet the human plan of David and Nathan had to be corrected by divine revelation. It’s a reminder that good motives alone don’t make something acceptable in God’s sight. We always need to be guided by God’s word.
God points out in v6 that he’s been moving about in a tent for his dwelling. The God of all the earth – the one whom heaven and the highest heavens can’t contain – has been living this nomadic existence, as it were, in a tent, which is a reference to the tabernacle, the worship tent, that stood right in the middle of the camp. But why? Why would he humble himself in that way? Because that’s what his people have been doing. They’ve been moving about in a tent. So he has too. That tells us that the God of heaven is a God who identifies with his people. When God tells David in v9: ‘I have been with you wherever you went’, that’s true of the people as well. He’s been with the people of Israel through thick and thin. Remember that in the week ahead. You serve a God who is with his people. He proved it in the wilderness. And he proved it above all in the coming of Jesus.
Question
- Why did God dwell in a tent? What does this point to in Jesus?
Prayer Points
- Give thanks that God is with us in all things.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.