1 Chronicles 15–17

1 Chronicles the 15th chapter. We're still in the life of David, which I absolutely love, and you'll remember that a couple of chapters ago, David attempted to bring the Ark of the Covenant into the city. It hasn't been, really, in a place where the Jews collectively could be near it, and of course they didn't, I say, be near it. Essentially they were never, very few of the Jews ever got near it anyway, only the priests. But the Ark was meant to reflect the presence and the holiness of God in Israel, but it had been captured by the Philistines many, many, many years before. The Philistines, however, wanted to get rid of it because they started getting sick. They started having all these maladies crop up. So, they sent it back to Israel and it had basically been staying at the home of this individual who was of the priestly line, and David, after establishing, seeing the Lord establish his throne after gaining the city of Jerusalem, he felt it was time to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem so that it would be the center once again of Israel's worship but you'll remember he didn't consult the Lord, and he went with his people and they we're going to have this great celebratory sort of an event, bringing the Ark back, but they didn't talk to God. They didn't consult the Word of God as to how they were to transport it and you'll remember that one of David's men actually died when he reached out to touch it. It was not to be touched. It was not even to be seen by the general populace, and so David had to just wait for a while. Well, now it's been a while and David has decided now to look into the Word of God to determine what needs to happen to bring the Ark correctly back into the city. And that's where this chapter comes in. Let's get into it here. It says that,

(ESV) Now notice that he prepared a place. The Ark's not there yet, but the place has been prepared, and he pitched a tent and that tent would be very much like the tabernacle which Moses had been commanded to build when Israel was in the wilderness. Now the tabernacle still existed, believe it or not, and why David didn't necessarily feel compelled to bring the original tabernacle to Jerusalem, we're not really sure. It was in Gibeon at this time, and in fact, David still had priests that stayed in Gibeon there at the site of the original tabernacle or tent of meeting, and they would do sacrifices and they would blow trumpets and there were things that went on, but the Ark wasn't there. So, why he didn't bring that tabernacle to Jerusalem we're not really sure but we're told here that he pitched a tent in preparation for bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. And it says,

So, that tells you right there, David had gotten into the Word of God. He looked into the prescribed way of transporting the Ark and he knew now it wasn't to be put on a new cart, and it was to be carried on the shoulders of the Levites because poles would be inserted through the rings, placed on their shoulders, and they would carry it in the prescribed way. And it says in verse 3,

Isn't that wonderful? “According to the Word of the Lord.” Had they just consulted the Word of God, things would have gone so much better, and you have to wonder, how many times does that apply to our lives? How many times does it apply to the things that we do? The things that we do in a regular sort of a, how to our marriages, to the way we parent our children, to the way we do business. Consulting the Word of God, knowing what the Word of God has to say on particular things, and yet some, just like David, we rush headlong with the greatest of intentions. But we often get ourselves into great trouble just because we've not taken time to understand what the Word of God has to say. Verse 16,

We'll come back to her in just a moment, but I want you to just picture in your mind the grandeur, and the celebration that is really going on here. By comparison I would have to say that our praise and worship is probably pretty toned down, wouldn't you think, in comparison to this? I mean, David put on and the Levites and priests put on these special garments, David also was wearing an ephod and, which was a priestly garment, frankly even though he wasn't of the line of the priests. And it says that he was dancing, in fact we're told that he was dancing with all of his might before this procession of loud music. This isn't like quiet organ music playing along or something like that. These people are celebrating. I mean, they are just, think of a stadium where your favorite football team is playing, and they just got a touchdown, and the crowd is going nuts, and it can be deafening, and this is kind of what Israel is doing. There's a great deal of celebration and there's nothing wrong with that. To rejoice in the Lord it's a wonderful thing, but there's always going to be people who are going to look at that sort of a celebratory attitude and they're going to look at it with disdain, and we’ve got to be careful not to be those kinds of people because it says here that David's first wife looked out the window and saw David celebrating with all the other people. She's obviously not participating, and it says that she despised him in her heart. It actually gives us a little more information about this in 2 Samuel. Let me put this on the screen for you. It says,

In other words, she was barren, and of course barrenness is a picture, it's always a picture throughout the Scripture of the lack of fruitfulness, because bearing children is seen in that sort of an eye, in that sort of a vein. And we're told here that because of her attitude toward this celebration of the Lord, which was one of disdain, that she was barren. There's no fruitfulness in her life, and the same can be true for us and we have to be careful and we only look at Michal and we're kind of like, it's just easy to criticize. But the question is, how are our hearts? Now, I'll grant you, like even worship around here at Calvary Chapel is probably nothing even approaching the level of celebration that David experienced here, but that doesn't mean it's bad, that doesn't mean what, in fact, that doesn't mean what David did, and that doesn't mean that, have you ever been in a church that danced? You know, that really got hopping? I actually have on several occasions and it's interesting, but it can get weird. I'll just tell you that too, because David's heart was to express his love for God. Anything that we do as believers, including what we do here at Calvary Chapel can get weird when our hearts are not right before God. You know what I mean? I mean, it doesn't matter whether you're just maybe raising a hand or whatever during worship. Anything can become something that is done for others to see, or it could become perfunctory, which means meaningless because it's just something I do. You see what I'm saying? We have to all be careful, but we have to be very careful also of not looking at someone else's expression of worship and saying that's wrong for some reason. We get so cloistered in our own little cultural sort of mindset. Take yourself to another country where there are believers. My wife has been to India and you go to other places where born again believers are just saying thank you to the Lord and praising God, and it's very different from what you and I do. I remember Corrie Ten Boom in one of her books. I think it was, Tramp for the Lord. She was telling about how she was speaking somewhere, I think it was in Africa, and so she's up on the, and their worship consisted of something very different, sort of an expression than you and I wouldn’t be used to, but she said there was a guy up on the platform that was just beating this drum, just to boom, boom, boom. And she had this splitting headache at the time, and she's thinking to herself, I wish this guy would stop beating this drum. And the Lord really had to call her on the carpet over even her attitude related to that. This was their heart, it was their expression, it was their love for God that was just being poured out, and you and I just need to be very careful that we are not critical of those sorts of things. Take a lesson from the life of Michal. 1 Chronicles chapter 16 so, the Ark of God is being brought in. It says, verse 1 that, “...they brought in the ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. 2 And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord 3 and distributed to all Israel, both men and women, to each a loaf of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins.” That is a lot of food to all the people who gathered there in Jerusalem. We're not told how many it was. “4 Then he appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of the Lord, to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. 5 Asaph was the chief, and second to him were…” And then their names are there. By the way, Asaph is a name that you're probably well familiar with because there's a great many of the Psalms that are actually written by Asaph when you read through the Book of Psalms. He was a man that was not only the chief worship leader but he wrote down many of the songs, or what we call them Psalms, and they are preserved for us today. It lists the men there “who were to play harps and lyres; Asaph was to sound the cymbals, 6 “and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests were to blow trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God. (Verse 7) 7 Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brothers.” And what you're going to read now, in verses 8 and following, is this David's song of thanksgiving that they were to sing before the Lord. You're going to, this is going to sound very much just like reading the Psalms because it's stuff that you will find actually in the Book of Psalms, not in this exact order. It's like there are portions taken from different Psalms and put together here in this, but just listen to the heart of David as he shares this with Asaph. Verse 8, “Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! 10 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! 11 Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! 12 Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered, 13 O offspring of Israel his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones! 4 He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth.” Did you notice, and we're not done with this by any means, but did you notice in just verses 8 through 14, the number of times that this is a reminder to make known his deeds, tell of all His wondrous works, remember His wondrous works, His miracles and so forth? Did you notice that there's repetition in that simple idea of remembering. We've talked about this a lot. We've talked about how prone we are to forgetting, and how necessary it is for us to remember. God established several things under the Old Covenant that were made specifically to get Israel to remember. They would build things, whether it was dressed stones where they would write the Words of the Law or whatever, and then under the New Covenant we have communion, “do this in remembrance of me,” how important that is, and yet here we see that what David is encouraging us to remember is the things of the Lord, what God has done. So here's a question. What effort do we take to remember what He has done? And I'm talking specifically in your own life. What effort do you take? Do you have a place in your Bible, maybe where you write down answers to prayer? Write down specific things the Lord has done in your life or maybe in the lives of others for whom you have prayed or sought the Lord? Do we make any effort to remember at all? I dare say that the majority of us probably don't, and were I not up here constantly telling you about things that God's done in my life, I would probably forget. I think it's an important reminder here for us to make some kind of an effort to recall what the Lord has done and to go back and read those things. To go back and look, make known His deeds, tell of all His wondrous works. Verse 15, “Remember his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations, 16 the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, 17 which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, 18 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan, as your portion for an inheritance.” What is this part of David's song doing? It's remembering the promises of the past and connecting them with the present events, and that is important too, for you and I to remember the promises He has made in the Word of God and connect them to our lives. Verse 19 says, “When you were few in number, of little account, and sojourners in it, 20 wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, 21 he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account, 22 saying, “Touch not my anointed ones, do my prophets no harm!” Now David's talking about the providential care of God over the nation of Israel and so verse 23, “Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. 24 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! 5 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and he is to be feared above all gods. 26 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. 27 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength! 29 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; 30 tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. 31 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” 32 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! 33 Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. 34 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! 35 Say also: “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and deliver us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise. 36 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!” Then all the people said, “Amen!” and praised the LORD.” Man, don't you just, when you read stuff like that, don't you just want to live there? It so draws my heart. I love that. I just love the lifting up of our hearts and praise to the Lord, and I just, Lord, I just want to live there. Verse 37 says,

And met his cranky wife. I just threw that last part in there, that's not, but we read it in 1 Samuel, and you know that actually happened. Alright, 1 Chronicles chapter 17. Now, this is an important chapter, because this is where we come to what we refer to as the Davidic Covenant. Now, there are three major covenants in Judaism. And that’s not to say that there are not others, but we have the three major covenants, which are the Abrahamic Covenant, right? The promise and the covenant made between God and Abraham, the Mosaic Covenant, given under Moses when the nation of Israel was in the wilderness, and the Davidic Covenant, and I particularly love the Davidic Covenant because David, as you know, is of the family from which Messiah comes. And you're going to see in the Davidic Covenant specifically, prophecies related to the coming of Messiah. Let's get into it. Verse 1, “Now when David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD is under a tent.”” Now, obviously Nathan knows what he means by that, or he knows what he's suggesting. Here I am living in a palace, and the Ark of the Covenant is in a tent. He doesn't even have to say what he's thinking. Nathan knows. And so what's Nathan's response? Verse 2, “And Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.” And you can relate to Nathan. There's been so much good and David, after bringing the Ark back into the city and all that wonderful worship. And then David establishing Asaph and all of his men to worship, and there's this beautiful sound in Jerusalem now. There's the sound of trumpets and lyres and cymbals and people singing these beautiful songs and you can't go anywhere in Jerusalem without hearing it, and Nathan is probably caught up in all of this and it's just a wonderful time to be living in Jerusalem. And so David, just in a moment of conversation, says man, here I am, I'm looking at this beautiful palace, I'm living it, and the Ark of the Covenant is in a tent. And Nathan says, just without even thinking about it. “Do whatever is in your heart,” because it seems like David, whatever you have in your heart is a good thing. But sometimes what we think is wrong. Look what it goes on to say in verse 3. It says, “But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, 4 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD: It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in. 5 For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up Israel to this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from dwelling to dwelling. 6 In all places where I have moved with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ 7 “Now, therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel, 8 and I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 9 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall waste them no more, as formerly, 10 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I declare to you that the LORD will build you a house. 11 When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. 13 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, 14 but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’” 15 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.” All right, stop there. A lot of good stuff. By the way, the Davidic Covenant is referred to as an unconditional covenant, as was the Abrahamic Covenant, but not the Mosaic Covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant, you'll remember, was God simply promising to Abraham, I will give you this land. And you'll remember that when Abraham, I should back up and say, when God sought to give Abraham a confirming sign that this covenant was in fact in place, He used a very common form of what they referred to back then as, cutting a covenant. And you can read about it in the Book of Genesis, and it was kind of gross. It was something that you and I probably wouldn't like to do today because what they would do is, they would take a bunch of animals and they would cut them in half, and they would lay the pieces opposite one another, and the two parties who were making the covenant, would pass between the severed animals declaring their side of the covenant. And so when God told Abraham to get ready so they would cut the covenant, Abraham went out, got the animals, slew them, divided them, put the pieces opposite one another and then sat down and waited for God. But you'll remember in the Book of Genesis it says that Abraham waited, and he waited, and he waited, and finally he fell into a deep sleep that the Lord actually put him in. And then while that was going on, the Lord appeared in this incredible fire, and passed between the pieces of the animals declaring His promise that He would give Abraham and his descendants the land of Canaan. But Abraham never did rise to pass through the pieces of the animals because it was a one sided covenant, or again, an unconditional covenant, meaning that this was God's promise, there's nothing you can do to break the covenant. In other words, the covenant is established okay? Then we come to the Mosaic Covenant. Well, that's very conditional. The whole covenant was, God was saying, I will bless you in the land that I am giving you unconditionally, but I will bless you conditionally, if you keep my Law, if you keep my statutes and so on and so forth. This they needed to do in order to be blessed in the land and that means a full blessing, and we went through all of that in Leviticus and so on and so forth. Now we come to the Davidic Covenant, which is again, an unconditional covenant in that God does not lay anything out here for David to say, if you do. It's just simply, I am going to bless your family and the Davidic Covenant centers on several key promises that are made here in those verses to David. You'll notice that God reaffirms, in this statement through Nathan, that he of the land, that was involved in the first two covenants, Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenant. But then He goes on and then He promises that David's son, who will succeed him as king, will be actually the one who's going to build the temple, and of course specifically, that is referring to Solomon. And he'll talk about that. In fact in Samuel we're told that David was actually told by the Lord that he was not to build the temple because he was a man of blood. He had been in much warfare, he had killed many people, and so God said, you are not to build my house. Your son, however, will be a man of peace. He is the one who will build my house. Now Solomon is a forerunner of the Messiah, of Jesus Christ. You'll remember that Jesus is referred to as the Prince of Peace. Solomon's kingdom was largely at peace, so, God said, he's the one who is to build my house. But as he's talking about this Son that is to come, God begins to expand that, and if you look in verse 12 again with me he says, “I will establish His throne forever,” and then in verse 14, he says, “I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.” Now, you see that repeatedly. Well, that's not referring to Solomon, because Solomon's throne did not last forever. He was a man who lived and died. So, we see here that what began as a promise to David's son, Solomon, who would be blessed in the building of the temple, and ta da, turns into something in a farther reaching sort of a way, which is the promise of an everlasting kingdom. And, of course, that is fulfilled by another son of David, who would rule forever over the house of God, and that obviously again, is a reference to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. It is important, and I have said this many times as we've studied the Old Testament, it is important for us to understand that this is a common element of Old Testament prophecy. You say, what are you talking about? I'm talking about this parallel, sort of an idea, where we have, in a single prophecy, a dual fulfillment. We have a short term fulfillment and a long term fulfillment. We've brought this out in studies of the Old Testament many, many times. If you don't key into this, many Old Testament prophecies will make no sense, or you'll misinterpret them if you're not understanding here what God is doing. Yes, he's talking about Solomon in the short term. He's talking about Jesus Christ in the long term as He speaks of His Son. Now, you can imagine David's response to all of this. He has just been told that from his house will come a ruler who will rule on the throne of God forever from his house, and I mean from his house I mean from his lineage. And we know that Jesus was born of the house of David. In fact, during his public ministry, people would refer to him as son of David. Jesus son of David, they would say, and Jesus never once corrected them on that score. They were correct. David is overwhelmed with this whole idea of what God is going to do with his name and with his lineage, and it begins in verse 16 with David's response. “Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, “Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 17 And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God. You have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come, and have shown me future generations, O LORD God! 18 And what more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant. 19 For your servant's sake, O LORD, and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness, in making known all these great things. 20 There is none like you, O LORD, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 21 And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making for yourself a name for great and awesome things, in driving out nations before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt?” And by the way, David is absolutely right on that score. There is no other nation on earth that God went out to redeem as a nation and work uniquely through that nation, other than Israel. And what's amazing to me, and we've brought this up many times, is how Israel remains the center of so much political and religious activity to this day. To this day! And it's just this little sliver of a country. It ought to be on no one's radar if the Bible weren't true. If the Bible wasn't true, who'd care about Israel? And I even have to wonder sometimes why politicians who don't believe in God care about Israel. Why don't they just say, why are we talking about Israel? Why are we even, why are we even, why does the President even go there occasionally? I mean, why? Why does he talk to and why have the Prime Minister of Israel come to the United States and speak to the House? Why? They're nothing. It's just this little tiny country. It's just, there's no sense unless what the Bible says is true. And the fact that so much biblical history in the past, and so much biblical prophecy toward the future is centered in Israel. When the Lord returns, He's not coming to New York, or Berlin, or any other place upon the earth. He's coming to Israel. Jesus is coming back to Israel when He returns to set foot on this earth. Now, He's going to rule over the whole earth, but do you know where His throne is going to be? It's going to be on Mount Zion. And the Bible tells us over, and over, and over again in the prophetic books that the nations of the world are going to stream to Israel to hear wisdom from Him. And He's going to settle issues for them, and they are going to come to approach Him there in Israel. It's not crazy what God has done. Am I in verse 23? Somebody know? I wasn't paying attention. You guys don't know either. 22, “And you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O LORD, became their God. 23 And now, O LORD, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as you have spoken, 24 and your name will be established and magnified forever, saying, ‘The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel's God,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 25 For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray before you. 26 And now, O LORD, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 27 Now you have been pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you, for it is you, O LORD, who have blessed, and it is blessed forever.” Isn't that a beautiful prayer? You know what's cool about these chapters that we've looked at here? We get to see David, the singer slash worshipper, writing this beautiful Psalm that is to be performed by Asaph and those who are there with him before the Ark and the presence of God, and then in this chapter we get to see David, the humble prayer, the humble man who pours out his heart to God in prayer and is just awestruck by the wonders of His love. I want to end with just reminding you of something, that I think was probably off David's radar, and it's something that applies to you. I say it was off David's radar because I don't think the revelation had been fully revealed at his time as to the role or the position that you and I would have under Christ. David was blown away that God was going to bless his house and establish his lineage to bring forth the Messiah. Wonderful. It's wonderful. I mean, there's no two ways about it, and we can see how he's just filled with praise about that, and yet, if David could get a glimpse of the position that you have in Christ, I wonder what he'd say. In the New Testament we learn we are children of God, literally that we've been adopted. That's actually what the Word uses, and it tells us, “to those who received Him, to those who believed in His Name, he gave the right to become children of God.” So, we're children of God. And with that title come all of the benefits that go along with being children, and what the Bible actually says is that, “we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” Now I say that, and you hear those words come out of my mouth, but there's not one person here who understands the fullness of what they mean, myself included. If we did, I dare say we would come up with something about like this, the way David just poured out his heart. There is coming a day Christians, when you and I will be shown the incredible outpouring of God's blessing in our lives in a way that David was simply told. You and I will be shown. We'll begin to see all the things that God provided for us. At this time, the Bible says, “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.” And so, it's beyond us at this time. We simply know that it's wonderful. The specifics out of our hands, and probably good that they are. But I just want you guys to know that as incredible as this outpouring of praise and appreciation is from David, I dare say that it will one day pale in comparison to when you and I stand before the throne of God and it is revealed just how much He has done for us and how much He has given to you and I out of the abundance of His love. I want to just look at verse 27 one more time before we close, because now I want you to think about it as it relates to you. “Now you have been pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you,(look at this now) for it is you, O LORD, who have blessed, and it is blessed forever.