Ok, so before you label me a heretic, hear me out. So I’ve been read 2 Samuel, where David wants to build the temple for God. But God says; throw the prophet Nathan in Chapter seven:
“‘The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: 12 when your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me]; your throne will be established forever.' "
In other words, David wants to build God a house, but God said “no, I will build you a house,” Which I thought was pretty awesome. We can to God with the things we want, trying to “do good” yet God turns it around and makes it something even better!!
And today, I was read Ephesians and 1 Peter, and here are few verses for them:
19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2: 19-22)
4As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For in Scripture it says:
"See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame."[A] 7Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
"The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone, 8and,
"A stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall."[d] They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for. (1 Peter 2: 4-8)
Now, traditional the promise to David has been thought to have bean fulfilled partly by Solomon, but also more fully by Jesus. Yet these passages from the New Testament are using the analogy of the temple for the church. So in that scene it could be said that the church is in fact a building, albeit a spiritual one.
Now, I might be reading too much into it, but I’m wondering if, in light of these New Testament verses we can also say that The Church is also partly fulfilment of the promise, as is part of “David’s House.” Paul said that we are children of Abraham though Christ, so maybe we are the house of David though Christ? The New Testament never makes the link, so maybe it’s pushing it a bit to say that, but maybe Paul and peter had the promise in the back of their minds when they wrote their letters.
But in any case, we are Loving Stones of the temple of God. How often do we say to God “I want to build your kingdom” when God is saying to us “I want to build you into my kingdom”? Another versus from Ephesians 3: 8-9:
Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
Paul calls his “work” his “grace”!!!! How awesome is that. We are saved by grace, and we should see our “work” for the God as grace, not work. The gospel is all about the riches of God’s grace. I love it. It’s amazing. And I love learning about it.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19)
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