Our Role in the Rebuilding of God’s Temple

Sunday Message for August 12, 2007

Once when I was speaking at a church here in town, I showed up that Sunday, and gave a message the story when Jesus and Peter walked on water. It was a message that I was very passionate about because it meant so much to me. Well, I gave the message, and afterward a very kind elderly man approached me and he said, “Son, that was a pretty good message, but you really ought to work on preaching longer. You get longer and your gonna be good.” If your familiar with baseball, then that means that I am more of a relief pitcher than a starting pitcher, so I guess it is good that I am bringing the message today.

Well, this message is a continuation on the series that Craig has already begun on the Days of Elijah, and the understanding of the song that we often sing. Last week Craig gave a great message on Dry Bones, and this week we will be talking about the Temple of Praise. The line from the song that we’ll be focusing on is the line:

“And these are the days of your servant David
Rebuilding a temple of praise”

David was a Man after God’s Heart. He was a man that was extremely close to God, and he was the leader of His people. Following the reign of Saul, David came to the throne and had to spend many years in constant battle establishing Israel’s reign of Canaan. He fought kingdoms from all sides, and was constantly at war. Eventually the kingdom did arrive at some level of peace, and David began to develop the nation, and he started with the capitol city, the City of David or Jerusalem.

“David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area around it, from the supporting terraces inward.” – 2 Samuel 5:9

David built for himself a great palace, which would have been the custom of the Middle East at that time. Most kings lived in huge elaborate palaces, and David’s home would be no different. David’s palace was built from massive cedar logs, and large amounts of masonry. But the kings in this area were not considered to be the highest authority. They were considered the second and command, and the commander and chief was the god of that people group. Most kings built temples for their gods to rest, and they believed that brought them good fortune in battle. When kings went through a period of victory it was customary to build a temple. If they already had one, then they would build another, and possibly to another god.

It is in this peace and development period that we arrive at our key text for today. 2 Samuel 14 says:

“After the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

David realized that he had an elaborate home, and he was only the second in command. His commander in chief did not have home like his, and he desired to build a temple for God to honor him, as was the custom of the ancient Middle East. Desiring to build this temple he asked for the consol of the prophet Nathan, who at the time probably also served as a political advisor.

“Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you.”

That night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, saying:

“Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” ” – 2 Samuel 7:1-7

God rejects David’s offer to have a temple built for Him, and there are three basic reasons:

1. He says in vs. 6, “I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day.” God makes it clear that there is no need to build a temple. When the Israelites came out of Egypt God gave them very specific instructions to build a tabernacle (or tent) for Him to dwell in and be among His people. The tabernacle was mobile and God was able to move wherever His people went.
2. He says in vs. 7, “Did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”. God makes it clear that he has never asked for a temple. He does not need a house, and he has not asked for one.
3. We learn later on in 1 Chronicles 22:8, David recalls that God said to him, “You have shed much blood and fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed to much blood on earth in my sight.” David was not the right person for the job. He had shed too much blood, and been to much of a warrior to be a temple builder. God needed David to be a national ruler, and not an administrative Project Manager. Although, David wanted to be the one to build the temple, he was just not the right person. David was meant to be a courageous leader not to build the Temple.

God did accept the offering of the temple, in fact in the paragraph after God’s reaction to David’s offer He states that David’s son, Solomon, will be the one to build the temple. It does not seem like God was trying to say that the temple was wrong or that David had a horrible idea. It seems like God was trying to communicate two important things that we can learn from this situation. God did not need a temple, and David had other tasks that God wanted him to do.

Although he was not responsible for building the Temple, he did lay the ground work and planned out how the temple would be built. He has an encounter with an angel at the threshing floor of Araunah, and there he sets up an altar to God and designates the spot for the Temple. He also draws up the plans and gathers the workers and materials for the building of the Temple. And it sounds to me from my reading of the text that he does a good portion of the preparations, but he is not the one that builds it. David basically did as much of the work that he could without receiving any of the credit. Today the temple is known as Solomon’s Temple, and not the Temple of David’s Preparation.

Today we are rebuilding that temple that was built a long time ago. We are not building it in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense. That is what the church is about, establishing a place/environment that connects people to God. The rebuilding or rather constant building of that temple is not an easy task. To build it took thousands of people, with various skills, abilities, and duties, and it is no different today. Maybe it doesn’t take thousands, but still.

We do have a tendency to over spiritualize and glamorize some positions in the church as the heroes. Sometimes we think that Christians that really love God become missionaries, pastors or write books, and it is very similar to the situation with Daniel. It is not uncommon for someone to feel inadequate spiritually if they are not a minister or something along those lines, but the truth is that God probably has another plan in mind for that person. Those that are in full-time Christian service don’t have to be any closer or more important to God than everyone else.

I used to get terribly upset with the youth conference CIY, the conference that our youth goes to, and the conference that I used to attend when I was in High School. They used to push the students so hard to commit to going into the ministry. Essentially they were sending the message that now that you are baptized the next step to being a better Christian is be a professional one, which obviously is not the right message.

God has called a lot of us to be lights in a dark world at our work place and what not, and to serve in some of the other jobs in the church that are equally as necessary. David was not able to be the temple builder, but he still did the preparation work. Maybe God is calling you to do something for which you will get almost no appreciation.

Dirty Jobs
I really like the idea behind the show Dirty Jobs. It is a show that goes around showing some of the most gross jobs that exist. For example, they have done shows on Roadkill Cleaners, Chinatown Garbage Collectors, Pig Farmers, Sewer Inspectors, Chimney Sweepers, and many others. They are jobs that no one wants to do, but someone has to do. The church is not much different. There are always jobs that people are not exactly excited to do, but still need to be done.

We all have ideas of what we want to do for God. David wanted to build the Temple, but that is not what God had in mind for him, and he saved that job for someone else. The challenge is that we have to find what our role is. Earlier in the service we talked about the mission trip to Mexico, and it sounds like it was great ministry, and one of the many parts of what we do here, as a church, is to go and serve others in other places, but not everyone was able to go, yet there were still many other people here in this congregation that participated in this ministry without actually going. Some of us gave money, prepared supplies, or supported in prayer.

I say all this to say that I am there. I’ll be real honest and say that part of the reason that I choose to go into the ministry was because I thought that it was the best way to honor God. I wanted to give him my life spiritually and vocationally, but now that I am there, and by there I mean graduating in December with a degree in ministry, I am not sure if being a minister is what God has called me to be. It might be, but he also might be calling me to do something else. I have a real passion for media and graphic arts. I love doing ministry, but I have this other passion, and I can’t figure out how it works. I’m sure that in some way it well, but for a long time there I was trying to make myself something that I don’t know God wants me to be. I know that God will make it work somehow, but right now I am a little lost. I am very much in this process.