1 Samuel 17-18; 24-26; 2 Samuel 5-7

Who am I, Lord God? 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Hi, folks. Welcome back to another episode of Receivers Podcast. This week is a good week. This week we're actually talking about a story that maybe we all know, and that's David and Goliath. We have reached the point in reading the scriptures of the Old Testament that we're going to get into some more familiar stories. And that's great. And I hope as we read through that we can all apply the things that we're learning into our own lives. We can learn more about Jesus Christ, and that we can learn more about the stories, maybe what happened more, and also answer some questions that we might have about what is happening historically. So let's begin. The Come Follow Me for this week really emphasizes that the battle is the Lord's. And I think that that is something that is really permeated and is part of the reason, at least in the narrative of the Old Testament, why David is chosen, which is Saul. We just had him as a king and he's working with God. But he a lot of times wants to do things in his own way. Um and that leaves, you know, and God's like, okay, but we if you don't do what I ask, you know, you have no promise. And then he's not always with Saul in the war. He helps him as much as he can. But with David, David trusts so much in Jehovah that he ultimately lets all of his battles be the Lord's. Until he doesn't, but that doesn't happen until next week. So in David and Goliath, what we have is we're up in the we're up in a valley, okay? And we we're fighting these two armies. King Saul's there. And there's a little bit of an inconsistency here, because we're like, okay, isn't David already with the king? Isn't he gonna play him as Lear? Maybe he did. It's possible that this story is full, that there's been no changes, right? Or that it's still telling the story, and he just played first uh Saul a couple of times and then he went back to his house. But I what what's probably happening here is that we're getting different stories for how David and Saul met historically. We don't know exactly how they met historically. Did they meet here? And this is when Saul's meeting David, and then David helped him with the leer. Did this happen before? We don't know, right? We don't know because there is some inconsistencies, but that's not the point of the story. Somehow they knew each other. Do we know exactly how they knew each other historically? No. But they knew each other, right? And and David was close in his court, and he probably played the lyre, we know because a ton of psalms are attributed to David. But nonetheless, we get this story, and what's happening is that the Philistines, right, so the people near the sea um are fighting the Israelites, and they're in this valley, and there's basically two mountains, and they're gonna meet in in the middle of in the valley to fight. And a lot of times, um, in order to minimize the killing, because even though the numbers in the Old Testament make it sound like there's just these insane huge armies, the reality is there probably wasn't that many people, and you want to minimize the killing, as most people do, but most people don't like to kill, and if you do, you're crazy. So we're gonna just have two champions, and whoever wins out of these champions, it's like the whole army is winning. And so they're about to choose someone, but nobody really wants to go down, right? But but uh Goliath goes and he starts taunting these people, right? He's taunting. We've seen this story before. Now, quick note Goliath could have been nine feet, right? That's that's what later sources say, but in this it's actually six three. Um, I believe. Let me let me get the exact um about uh yes, so he six point six and a half. Um so what happens is is that here we have it as nine point five feet, nine and a half feet, but other sources, so like some some newer sources or more old sources, right? So the older sources that we have, the Dead Sea Scrolls, say that he was six and a half feet, and then when they translated into Greek, they also said that he was six and a half feet. So it's probable that he was actually six five, or sorry, six six, which makes sense because um that's very tall still. I mean, if you've seen a person who is six six, you're still today like, wow, they're tall, and the average height of a person was smaller back then. So Goliath is still huge, but he's maybe not like um mythologically huge, right? He could have been, but I'm more inclined to think no, he's probably around six and a half feet, and but that's still huge. I mean, he's a huge guy, right? And it's just like we can't fight him. The average male was probably about I mean, I I don't know the exact number, so now I'm just spitballing, but five foot four or less, you know. So that's huge. That is a huge guy. And everyone's scared of him. But David hears about this and he's gonna go help his eldest brothers in battle. He's bringing them something. And when he comes, his his first brother's kind of kind of rude to him, and he's like, I know why you're actually here. You are prideful and you want to see what happens here. You know, why have you come down? This is verse 28. Like, why have you left the sheep? I know that you will only come. You came just to see the battle. And David was like, No, it's just a question, which I love. And and then David sees this and he says, You know what? I'm gonna go fight the I can do it. And everyone's like, Really, David? And he says, and this is what he says in verse 37 the Lord who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will save me from the hand of the Philistine. And he tells a story about how he was able to fight a lion and a bear. But because of the Lord, he was able to be saved, and he knows that he will help him here. This is just an example of how past experiences, how experiences in the past, will give us faith for the moment that we need it. As we remember the experiences of the past, they can help us as we as we face the hard times in the in the moment of decision. But also I like this because it shows that learning and preparation is gradual. It's not something that immediately happens. For example, when I was on my mission, the first day that I spoke to somebody, I was in the I remember I was in the bus, and I turned to somebody and I said, I need to I need to say hi to somebody. Like, I can't do it. I didn't. I didn't say, I didn't say hi to anybody. And I felt so bad the whole time. And I remember praying to God and I was like, I'm so sorry I didn't say hi. And God was like, that's okay, Annie. You're still learning. I remember this distinctly. He says, It's okay, Annie. You're still learning. Just go and try to be better next time. So the next time I went on the bus, I would love to say that I went and chatted with 50 million people, but I didn't. I just said, hi, ciao. And then I sat back down in my seat. But then gradually over time, I was talking to everybody on the bus. I could do it at the drop of a hat. Literally, most of the time I would just compliment people on their hats. And I knew that I could do it because of the preparation that I had in the beginning, but I also knew that if I messed up, that the Lord was with me, that he wasn't expecting me to just be able to do crazy things right at the beginning, but he was with me in every single step of the way. Until, you know, in the end of my mission, I was at the visitor center talking to so many people a day in English and Italian, and I had no fear because I had done it so much with the help of the Lord. I knew the Lord was going to be with me because he had been there when I was didn't know the language and I was scared and I was nervous. Um and he was graceful and merciful in there, and then so I knew he was going to be graceful and merciful even as I knew more. And so I think that we can see that with David and Goliath. With David has had these past experiences that have prepared him to be ready for this moment, and he knew that the Lord was going to help him, and he bears his testimony of saying that, right? The Lord will be with me. And he focuses on the Lord even as he's fighting Goliath. He says, I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Um, so the Lord of hosts literally means the Lord of armies. When I was little, I thought it meant like the Lord of the spirits, but it means the Lord of the armies. Whether that's spiritual armies, whether that's physical armies, at the time it would have been especially physical armies, because they're fighting all the time. But then sometimes you get, and I think Saul got caught up on this, which is like, well, we're the ones that's fighting. But the answer is, as David will say, the battle is the Lord's. I come to you in his name. The very day, this very day, the Lord will deliver you into my hand. Right? So that everybody Why? Why would the Lord do this? Is he just there to like make it so that Israel is the best? No, no, no, no. He does it so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand. The Lord doesn't need the best weapons, he just needs a willing heart to do his will, and he wants everybody to know. And so I think that's what it is. It's like the Lord is not fighting the Philistines because he wants them to be dead, or because he loves the Israelites more than them, but he's doing this as a way to show, especially in the ancient way of thinking, if you want to battle, it was because your God was stronger. So he's trying to show in their way of thinking that he is God. He ultimately wants everybody to know that he is God and to believe in him. And he doesn't fight with the sword or with the stone, which is good. Again, I think sometimes we think, I did when I was on my mission, right? Like, oh my gosh, I remember I when I was praying and I didn't speak to him. Lord, don't strike me down, basically. Like, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I know I should be doing better. But he came to me with such peace and understanding and patience. And that's how the Lord and Jesus Christ work in our lives. And ultimately, David David wins, right? He wins. And as he and so, so he wins. He wins this big battle. And then in chapter 18, we get Jonathan's covenant with David. And so remember, covenants were such a big deal in ancient Israel in the ancient way of thinking. You're making covenants with everybody, not just with God. It's how you lived socially. There, again, there wasn't overarching global rules, there wasn't um social constructs as much. Well, there was, but the social construct was I'm going to make a physical covenant with you. So Jonathan does. Jonathan sees how great and he loved him as his own soul. Jonathan and David were so close, they were best friends. And so Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. And to me, in this moment, Jonathan is the perfect example of Jesus Christ. Why does Christ make covenants with us? Because he loves us. And I've had so many friends in my life that I have I have felt this intense love for that I want to, I almost want to, I do, I want to make covenants with them, right? We do these things to our friends, right? We're like, oh, we'll never go away. I want to do these specific things for you. We'll always be friends, we'll always be there for each other, right? But this is a way more formal setting of it. And this is what Christ does with us. He makes covenants with us because he loves us. So what does Jonathan do? Jonathan, the the prince, the person who is supposed to take over the kingdom, puts on his takes his robe from off of his body, takes off his clothes, and puts it on David. And a lot of biblical scholars see this as Jonathan saying, I love you so much, I see the good in you. You can be the next king. He's taking away his own right to the kingdom and giving it to David. And that's what Christ does for us. Christ, because of his perfectiveness, perfection, because he was perfect, he never made a mistake. Doesn't matter. He loves us so much that he's gonna share the kingdom with us. He gives us his clothes, he gives us his right, he gives us his birthright, and he shares it with all of us because he loves us so much. And it's just it's indescribable how much that God actually loves us, how much Jesus Christ actually loves us. But this isn't an example where we can see it doesn't make any sense why Jonathan would do that, but it's just because he loved David and he saw the good in him. And Jonathan and David are known to this day as the best of friends. Now, Jonathan in Hebrew means Jehovah will give. And it's just beautiful, or or God has given, or gift of God. Sorry, yeah, God has given, or the gift of God. And that's important too because Christ is the ultimate gift from God, right? He is the one who has given us all of these things, and he also gives us his he give us his life, he gives us his inheritance, he wants us to be with him. So everyone's singing, they're happy, you know, and but then they ascribe to David that he's gonna kill tens of thousands. He's better than Saul, and Saul gets jealous, and so he ultimately tries to kill David. Um but David forgives him. And the interesting thing, and we're gonna see these in in later chapters, basically what's happening here is that, and many times um in in chapters 24 to 26, he tries to kill David twice. He's killing trying to kill him here in chapter 18. And he was you know, he but but David forgave him. Um and he ultimately also gives so then David also marries McCall, which is the um daughter of Saul, and so this sets him up to be king. So David was not only um set up to be king by the god, which he had already been, but now physically he's been set up to be king. And I think this is interesting because first comes the spiritual setting up where he's prepared spiritually and that the prophet knows he's gonna be king, and then everything kind of comes back into his life so that he can be king. And I think this is also what happens in our life. Sometimes we get spiritual promptings where it's like this is gonna happen, or we feel prepared for this thing. And it's not until later that it actually comes to fruition and all of the pieces come to place on how that's gonna happen. But David trusted that it would. Samuel trusted that it would. And later, the prophet Nathan, who is the prophet under David's reign as king, believed and knew that that he was chosen by the Lord. And so there's a progression and there is there's a pattern in all of these things. Jonathan also um intercedes for David in verse in chapter 19, which is not in the reading this week, but but again, Jonathan is Christ. He says, He's gonna kill you. I'll step in for you, right? And I will plead on your behalf to my father. So just and Jonathan helps him escape, even though it's not in his interest to do so, right? And so I love it. Jonathan, um, and then this is 2017, again, not in the reading, but I just love it, which is Jonathan made David to s to swear again by his love for him, and he loved him as he loved his own life. So it's just Jonathan is such a loyal friend. And maybe we all be that loyal of a friend that we don't see our friends or the people around us as taking away from us, but only that they add to us that we love them, um, like Christ does and like Jonathan does. I love it. Um then uh there's so many great stories here that we're gonna skip over, which is totally fine just because there's so much. One example would be that David is actually eating of the holy bread, and you're like, why would he do that? Why is that included? Um and because he needed to. He, and again, he had been anointed by the Lord, um, and so he he it was out of um out of desperation that he did this. And again, it could just be, oh, he did this as you know a necessity. But Jesus then later uses it in his thing to be like, hey, didn't David eat the holy bread? David and his priests, because they were hungry and they needed to. Like, um, these rules aren't put in place so that you need to follow the rule before you die, unto death. But the rules are put in place to be holy, um, but sometimes they need to be broken because it's more about you living and it's more about your covenant to Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father, keeping the Sabbath day holy or all those things, than it is to actually worship the Sabbath and care more about the Sabbath than about yourself or about the people around you or about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. You care more about the rules than you care about people and life. And that's an example today. Um, and that's kind of also the um kind of philosophy of Jews nowadays, rabbinic Jews, um any type of any type of Jews, Hasidic Jews, even those that follow um strict, you know, the more orthodox strict Jews, will still not do anything that um makes them die. For example, if it's on um the Sabbath and they get hurt, they're not gonna not go to the hospital because they can only stay within um a certain quarter or they only have um they shouldn't travel on the Sabbath. No, they're gonna go. It's about living. It's not, you shouldn't die just because of the law. And I think sometimes in, and especially in my own life, I have focused more on the rules than on than on what it means as a relationship to God and to Jesus Christ, about the covenant, which is it's about me and the love that they have for me and my love that I have for them. And that will cause us to do these things. But again, if if in order to be safe, or if in order to live our life um and be alive, the Lord will not um look down upon us. He understands, again, it's not about the rules, it's about the relationship that we have. And so um then we get in chapter 24, and what happens is that David actually gets in the position, again, Saul is fighting him and pursuing him, and David goes to all these places, which is ultimately good for David. Why? Because David is able to make a lot of allies with um the people that he goes to, and this will help him when he is king. So again, there's always an underlying plan, and it it actually ends up working out in David's favor way more, and you're like, oh my gosh, he's getting chased! Like, how is that working out? But the Lord is just so smart and wonderful that he uses all of these things for David's good and for Israel's good, just like he will in our lives. So then Saul comes and he's about to kill David, but then he but uh but David spares Saul's life. In verse 6, so David has men, he he has people that he's gathered around him that are like, okay, this is crazy. Why is Saul fighting you? So David also has people backing him up, again, which will help him when he's king. But he says, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to raise my hand against him, for he is the Lord's anointed, he is Messiah La Donai, he is the Lord's Messiah. David cares so much about the calling of the Lord, and he he cares more about the Lord than he does about his own life. It would benefit David way more to kill Saul. But David still sees, you know what? No, the Lord called him, even if he's making mistakes, even if he's not perfect, the Lord called him, and I cannot do this thing to him, even though it would benefit me. I care way more about the Lord's calling than I do even about my own life. But do we do this in our own lives when we have imperfect leaders, both in the church, out of the church, but especially within the church, because we believe that they're called of God, we know that they are. Do we look at them and we say, you know what, it benefits me way more, or they're doing something completely wrong? Do we understand that they're doing something wrong and we can still speak about it and you know, save our own lives and try to change it, but we don't attack them because we also still understand their calling, or if they're doing not very good things in their own personal life or they're imperfect, do we still understand, you know what, they still are the Lord's anointed. They still are called of the Lord, and we respect the Lord enough that He knows what He's doing. Do we let go of our own personal biases of what we think should be happening? And it takes a ton of humility to be able to do that. And David is a perfect example. He forgives him. And because of this love that he shows him, it changes Saul's heart, at least for a minute. He goes, Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have killed you. And that's also a great example. As we show mercy to others, that will come and bring them to the Lord way more than if we fought back. Um they will they will it will soften their hearts if they're in the right place. And David is such an example of that. Then Samuel dies, right? Um and then in verse uh in chapter 25, we get the story of Abigail, and we've gotta have we've got to highlight Abigail. Abigail is one of the best women um in the story because she acts as a type of Jesus Christ. And the the Come Follow Me for this week really highlights that because she, like David, um she, like Jonathan, I guess, um, goes before somebody. She goes like a Christ. She she goes on behalf of somebody who's made a complete mistake, but she begs forgiveness from them, and David gives it to him. So in a weird way, Abigail acts as Christ, but David shows what our heavenly father will do in the story. So let's get into it. Abigail means my father is happiness, my father is the is is joy. Um could again begin related to our Heavenly Father. Right? And so what happens is David is going and he requests, again, we've talked about this, right? The ancient covenant of feeding the stranger. So he goes, he goes to a rich man in the city near Carmel, and he says, Hey, please can you just give me and my my um friends some food? And Nabal could be thinking, you know, we gotta give Nabal some credit. Maybe he's thinking, I don't want to go against the king. You're the king's enemy, you're running away from the king. I don't want to give you food. But he refuses. And Abigail realizes that this is not a good thing, that does not follow the covenants that everybody had agreed to make, right? So she goes and she brings a ton of stuff and goes on behalf of Nabal and acts um on behalf of them, and she acts. And again, in Samuel, we're going to get um that when women act, it brings to pass the monarchy, it brings to pass the Lord's chosen path. We got that right um a little bit in Judges with Yael or Deborah, but we're gonna get that in Samuel a lot. If they if they act righteously. Sometimes we but we get that a lot, and that's with the story of Abigail. Abigail's acting. She sees a problem, she acts on it, and she makes it right, and David sees her that she begs for forgiveness for her husband, even though her husband has done something wrong and doesn't even regret it. And David accepts it, he forgives, he sees the good in Abigail, and then Nabal dies, and ultimately Abigail becomes David's wife. And yes, David did have multiple wives, and we learn in the Doctrine and Covenants that some of these came from God, right? Again, um, why we can come up with a lot of logical reasons why, and that it was a practice of the time. Um, but the reality is that David also got more than he should have. I don't think Abigail was this case because Abigail is included here as a righteous wife, right? Um, one that helped him ultimately. And one. Yeah, so and and and a righteous wife that probably helped David in many things, but there are some wives and concubines that weren't uh asked of the Lord. It wasn't like the Lord was just like, yeah, whoever you want to marry is great. Um, but these were these were important and strategic and called of the Lord, right? But we'll get to David David's downfall next week. Right now, David is the man, right? This week David is the man. He shows compassion, forgiveness, faith, um, and humility. So that we can all be like David is, you know, the uh ultimate um lesson in these chapters. Right? He is the Lord's anointed, he is the Lord's beloved, because David, right, my is um means beloved. So literally, when he says, This is my beloved son, in Hebrew it would have been saying, This is my this is David's son, um, which is interesting because he is David's son, literally, and he is the beloved son of the Lord. Right? David says in chapter 25, Blessed be your good sense and blessed be you who kept me today from blood guilt and from avging myself by my own hand. Again, so the same thing happens here, which is interesting, which is Abigail asks for her forgiveness. She shows humility before David, and it changes David's heart, where he goes, Thank you so much from for saving me from myself. And so as we act in Christ-like ways, we can change the people around us. We may be able to soften their hearts. That doesn't mean we don't need to fight, right? We don't need to be the strongest or the smartest one. We need to be the humblest one, we need to be the most Christ-like, and that may be what changes people's hearts and brings them to the Lord. And then in chapter 26, once again, David spares Saul's life. He has many opportunities to kill him, but he does not, because he knows that no matter what he's done, no matter he's also his he's his father-in-law, and he is the Lord's anointed. Right? Then we get um one of the final uh we we we move on to a different part of the story, and you're like, oh, okay, we're moving on to 2 Samuel. It's a continuation of the narrative, but we're going to get David as king now. We're gonna get David as king now. And as David is king, we learn um a story. So after Saul died, right, it wasn't he didn't he didn't get killed, David became king over Judah first, and then all of Israel, right? So united. The Lord promised that David's kingdom kingdom would be established forever. And this is what we get in 2 Samuel chapters 5 through 7 is that now all of Israel anoints David as king, right? So we first had just a lonely shepherd boy, nobody knew that he had been anointed king, but he knew. And then we're moving on to years later, now all of Israel rejoices. It has been fulfilled. David had to wait, he had to go through hard things for the promise of the Lord to be fulfilled. But here he he is. And so he he takes Jerusalem. Now he has Jerusalem, which was um a different place. It was not always under the Jews, we would think. It's not until this time, it's not until David that Jerusalem is taken from the Jebusites, and um David actually gets this land. And this is an important land, right? According to tradition, this is where Abraham sacrificed or tried, uh, you know, was stopped from sacrificing Isaac. This is um a holy place, and so it's important. So David gets it, and this is where he establishes his um his new center. And so he's here, he takes, he he's fighting everybody, but he wins because he's the Lord's anointed, and he he then takes the ark to Jerusalem, he takes God's presence to Jerusalem, he establishes it as his capital of all of Israel. And this is important because this Jerusalem becomes the center of Judaism, um, of Israelite culture for until they split off. And so David is the one who brings it there. It is David's calling which brings it to Jerusalem. Um, and then the son of David Jesus Christ will then come to Jerusalem. So that's how we get we get set up there, right? He also, when he brings the ark there, this is just one of my favorite stories. He dances. He dances before the Lord, he's going crazy, he's wearing his temple clothes, right? He's wearing some ephod, right? Uh, a priestly garment, but he's dancing, he's dancing before the Lord, he's getting it. And McCall sees him, and he's, you know, he's just wearing a linen garment. So maybe he's, you know, not wearing as many clothes as he maybe should be in our culture. And McCall sees this and she's disgusted. She's like, Why are you, number one, why are you dancing before the Lord? Why are you doing it um provocatively? Now all the maidservants see you. She's jealous! And we gotta get it. We gotta, you know, McCall, she's kind of fair for that, right? We would all get jealous if this was happening. But David says, you know what? I will dance before the Lord. I love this, right? Like, I was just doing it before the Lord. I wasn't trying to do anything wrong. I was doing it before the Lord. I will be, right? Like, I'm gonna continue to dance before the Lord. I don't know why you're judging me. I was I was doing it in a good way, I was doing it for a good purpose, and guess what? The maids saw that I was doing it before the Lord. So I'm gonna be held higher in their eyes than in your eyes. And McCall ultimately doesn't have a child because of this. Um, maybe that's just the reason, probably a little bit because of love lost, right? Like David's like, okay, you're judging me, and so then they don't have a child together, right? But I do think it's an important message to be like, we shouldn't judge the way that other people are worshiping the Lord. We can be like, that's kind of perverse or that's weird. What are you doing? But if they're doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, we should not judge them. I'm reminded of the story of Ruth. Sorry, not of Ruth. Whoa! Of Mary. What? Mary and Martha in the New Testament, where Martha's cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, taking care, doing her part, and Mary is just sitting there listening to the Lord. And Martha goes, Mary, we need to take care of the Lord. Why aren't you helping me? And the Lord goes, Don't rebuke her. She has chosen the better part. She's worshiping me, she's listening to me, listening to my word. He never condemns Martha either. He never says, Martha, you should be listening to me. You shouldn't be, you know, worshiping me in your own way, right? By taking care of me. But he says, Martha, don't judge Mary for what she's doing. She's doing a good thing. And so I think, can we like, I just want us all to kind of take that into our own hearts, which is maybe we shouldn't look at other people in the way that they're worshiping the Lord and judge them, but can we take it into our own hearts and be like, what do what do how do I worship the Lord in the best way? And maybe we can see a little bit of holy envy and see them and be like, you know what, that is a great way to worship the Lord. How can I incorporate that into my life? Um, but the you know, we can each do it in our own way. Now we're moving on to the God's covenant with David. So what happens is that David sees all of these old uh other cultures that he's probably encountered, right? And they're building temples to their to their gods. They have places where, you know, beautiful adorning places where people can go and worship the Lord. And I like to think that David saw this and said, God, you all you've been in is a tent, right? We want to, I want, I'm in this beautiful palace that I've built in Jerusalem. I want you to have just as great of a place as I do. Let me build you a temple. And so he goes to Nathan, who's the new prophet. Again, gift, Nathan, right? And he says, I want to build the Lord a temple. And Nathan says, I'll go talk to the Lord. And God says, Did I ask this of you? Like, I've never asked you to build a temple. I've just been with you guys. Even when I was with all these people, I've always just been there. I've been in the tent. I didn't ask you to build me a temple. Don't need it. I don't need this grand, luxurious place to be with you. But I see the goodness in your heart, and a temple will eventually be built. Because now instead of moving around, and I've walked you in all the places where you've gone, now Israel will be established in Jerusalem for almost ever. So, yes, one day a temple will be built, but not by you, by your son. And then we get later in stories what the reasoning for why this may be David ultimately had too much blood on his hands, right? That might be as a um a speculation of somebody for why David didn't ultimately build the temple. They're like, well, he's been in war. Um, so maybe that's speculation, maybe that's the reason. But that is the reason that the scriptures uh meaning like the old testament gives us for why that didn't happen. But God says, You don't need to build me a temple yet, right? I will that will come basically that will come to pass in my own due time, but don't worry, I will not take away this kingdom from you. And that's interesting because in a lot of these building of the temples, what we see, I was just reading this the other day, is that the the the god, the goddess, asks the people to build them a temple, and then they will be blessed, right? And it's a way, number one, of establishing that you are uh a follower of God, of the god, it's uh getting in good graces with them, and it's that you may maintain the fact that you and your family are going to be in this royal group, right? That you will keep the kingdom. And so it's a little bit of a transactional relationship, right? But the Lord is not asking for that. The Lord doesn't say, number one, the Lord doesn't say, Build me a temple, David says, I want to because I love you and I want, you know, to show how great you are. And the Lord says, That's great. But even before you do that, I'm gonna, you've been righteous, and I see your goodness. You and your son will, and your son's sons, I will not let this kingdom pass from you forever. And this is fulfilled in Jesus Christ because we're like, What? It did. It did go away. I mean, Jerusalem, right, when the when they split, yeah, the the Judah, the kingdom of Judah, did try to have David, you know, as the king, the the sons of David, but it was hard. And then there and the exiled happened and all these things happened. So how did this how did the kingdom stay with David forever? Through Jesus Christ, because he is ultimately the king forever. He is the son of David. His lineage points to David, and so he is the king overall, right? So the Lord says, A temple will be built in due time, but I want to bless you now. I don't that you don't have to do anything for me to bless you because I see your good heart. You've been faithful to me, and I will establish this covenant. So he does. He says, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, I will establish his kingdom. Talking about um Solomon, but then also talking about Jesus Christ, right? He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. So he now establishes a father-son relationship between God and the king. The king is seen in Israel as the son of Jehovah, as the son of God. And this is important because when Christ comes, he says, I am literally the son of God. Not only figuratively as the king, but I am literally the son of God. I have both that spiritual relationship with him and the physical relationship with him. So this is a fulfillment of Jesus Christ and what God wants to be for all of us, right? I will be to you a father, and you will be my child. I will, you know, when he commits an iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortal use, which which um with blows inflicted by human buildings, but I will not take my steadfast love from him, my Hesed away from him, my my amet, my sorry, my um Ahab that Jonathan has for David, right? I will not take that away from him as I took it from Saul. Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever. Right? Like, I will not let it go away. I will love him. I might I might punish him, I might, you know, um, or or bad things, bad consequences might come against him when he goes against me. But that's because I want him to choose me and to choose the right, and I also can't protect him when he chooses wrong things. But I do that so that he can remember who I am, and that I that I love him. And then David goes into a beautiful praise of of God, right? It it's it is um almost as a psalm, right? Who am I? O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me this far? I was just a shepherd, and now I'm king over all of Israel. Who am I? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You've made me king, but now you're saying that you're gonna make everybody a king? This was just a small thing that you did. O Lord God, what more can David say to you, for you know your servant. Because of your promise and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness so that your servant may know it. Therefore you are great. There is no one like you, there is no God besides you. Who is like your people, like Israel? Right? He just establishing it. The Lord is so great. And David's like, I've done nothing to deserve this, but it's just because of your greatness. And ultimately that's what is true for our own lives. We do nothing to deserve the love of God. It's not about deserving it, because he gives it to us freely and in great numbers, and he can make us great people, and it's only a small thing for us because in in this life he can give us blessings, but ultimately the greatest blessing he gives us is that in the next life we can be with him and with our families for forever, and the forgiveness of the atonement of Jesus Christ. And that and that is my testimony is that as I have continued to make mistakes, but as I continue to think about the greatness of God, I am overwhelmed. I realize that I have done nothing to deserve the love of God, but he loves me and he gives me so many blessings. The number one being the gift of his son, Jesus Christ, his beloved, who forgives me of my sins. And that is the greatest miracle that I can think of. And I know that that is true for you, that he wants to forgive all of our sins, he wants us to live with him forever, and he wants to share in his inheritance with us, Jesus Christ does. And um, I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Talk to you next week. Bye guys.