Sometimes we can believe we’re so right and yet be so wrong. An idea or vision or plan can seemingly come enveloped in God-breathed bubble wrap plastered with God-adorned neon stickers boxed inside a God-shaped container labeled with God’s return address, and yet not actually be from God.

And when the bubble bursts and the Thank-You post bounces we’re left wondering what went wrong, and how so blatantly a good idea - no a God idea! - could have failed.

This almost happened to King David. King David prior to roof-top spying, census-taking and child-denying. This was the King David fresh off the back of mighty displays of God’s glory in magnificent military victories. King David fresh off the back of uniting God’s people into an earthly kingdom that was absolutely God-centered it’s identity. A man filled with the presence and power of God. And in a moment he reveals something about himself that all of us God-seekers have found in ourselves…He believes God needs him.

2 Samuel 7 tells the story of David approaching Nathan the prophet, with a plan he has to build God a magnificent temple. He had just managed to establish Kingly rule in Jerusalem, and had brought the ark there as a sign of the God-centered identity of the Israelites, but still housed in a tent. Noticing the splendor of his kingly palace he decides that it is not fitting that God should live in a tent, and thus births the vision of a magnificent house for the ark.

The idea was so obviously right, that even the prophet Nathan immediately remarked “Go, do all that is in your heart; for the Lord is with you”. Nathan remember, was the prophet who confronted David regarding his affair with Bathsheba in the most dramatic fashion; he was not a fool! And certainly not a ‘heretic’ either! Here was a true prophet who absolutely believed in the vision of David’s heart to such an extent that he could confidently place the most blessed of all blessings on Davids intentions; the blessing that “The Lord is with you”. (How powerful is that blessing? All through scripture the mightiest people had that one blessing in common - the Lord was with them).

Yet later that night God revealed to Nathan that it was not, after all, a good idea, and certainly not a God-idea. Following God’s discourse with Nathan we’re first struck with the reality that it was simply just not something that God wanted. In effect God says “In all the years I moved around in the wilderness with you, and in all the years you went without a king, did I ever ask for a permanent dwelling?” If God didn’t ask for it then why did they assume He wanted one?

Before getting into the spiritual aspects of the story let’s just let that fact settle in. Something David and Nathan both believed in their hearts God would want, God did not want. David, a man described as a ‘man after God’s own heart’ missed a beat here. When this fact settles in, I start to think how many things I’ve done that seemed so right in my heart and in the hearts of the really good people that I trust, that in fact, may not have been in God’s heart.

So why was it wrong for them to build the temple, especially considering that Solomon, David’s Son, would eventually get express permission from God to build it? I think the answer is in the second part of God’s discourse with Nathan. After explaining how He didn’t want a temple God gives Nathan a very specific message for David. Verses 8-16 reveal a lot about the heart of the problem here.

God talks about David’s past, his present and his future, and does it in a manner that leaves the message between His words absolutely clear. It is not just a history lesson. God is telling David of everything He has done for David in his past, everything He is doing for David in the present and everything He will do for David in the future. The 8 verses contain repetitions of these words: ‘I took you…I have been with you…I will make…I will…I will…I will…(I will a further 8 times)’. The message is clear. God is in control. God has been working, is still working, and will still work in the future. David does not need to do things for God but recognise what God is already doing himself. He needs to recognise and submit, recognise and follow, recognise and join, recognise and become a part of the greater plan that is in the heart of God.

And David does. Immediately David went and “sat before the Lord” and poured out a heart of gratitude for the things that God had done and had still promised to do. And then went and defeated some more Phillistines and Moabites and some guys from Zobah and Syrians and…got on with his God appointed work.

He put his heart and his dream aside and went on doing what he knew he had to do, content in the knowledge that now he was definitely living out God’s dream.

Intermission. Pause for reflection. Re-considering. Listening. Praying. Searching God’s heart. And then doing.

David was good at this, in fact he sets the prime example of a human being in intimate relationship with God. And yet on the one occasion he assumed he knew what God wanted, and assumed he was the one to help, we have record of his fault. Negative affirmation of a positive principle: Never assume. Constantly seek after the heart of God.

I think too easily we get used to the idea that God is entirely predictable or entirely within grasp or close to fitting into the coffin we call a box. Constantly searching after God’s heart, and what He is doing and wants to do with us, our communities and the world is probably a better way to live than assumptions about the indescribable.

It is after all God’s creation and His salvation. And He is in charge. “I have…I took…I WILL“

Posted by Rich on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 15:49 and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.