HANDING ON THE TORCH – I CHRONICLES 28
Last words are often recorded for posterity. We sometimes lay great store by last words. Some are amusing and some are not.
Apparently Oscar Wilde said ‘Either the wallpaper goes, or I do.’ Rudolph Valentino was supposed to have said ‘Don’t pull down the blinds! I feel fine.’ James Joyce ‘Does nobody understand.’ Dylan Thomas ‘I’ve had eighteen straight whiskies. I think that is a record.’ My favourite though is the American officer in the Civil War who said ‘They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance’, right before he was shot dead. We lay great store by last words. We cherish them, we may even write them down somewhere. We certainly store them in our hearts. In 1 Chronicles chapters 28-29 we have recorded for us the last words of king David. David has been on the throne for 40 years. Many of those years have been troublesome and now he looks back over his life and is about to speak to Solomon his son and successor and the people of Israel for the last time. In verse 1 we read that David gathers around him all the officials, military officers and his sons and he addresses them.
1 CHRONICLES 28.2-7 DAVID’S DISAPPOINTMENT
Standing before David were hundreds of officials, military men and his sons. Each face would no doubt have brought back to David a memory. A memory of a battle fought, of a decision made and of a child born. Yet when he casts his mind back over his lifetime there is one thing which comes to the fore – Read v2. David desired with all his heart to build the Temple, a house of God for God. Here at the end of his life there is this unfulfilled desire, this frustrated ambition still beating in his heart. In 2 Samuel 7, some 25 years after coming to the throne, David desires to build a ‘house for the Lord God.’ Turn with me to 1 Chronicles 21.24 – David has bought a sight from Araunah to offer a sacrifice to God. After God had consumed the sacrifice by fire and David declares that the threshing floor upon which he has made his sacrifice is to be the site for the Temple – ch.22.1. In 22.14 David begins to make preparation for the building of the Temple. However we read in 22.7-8 that God has told David he will not build the Temple because he has shed so much blood but God promises in v9 that David’s son, Solomon, will build the Temple. And now at the end of his life David recounts this disappointment. He speaks of his dream of the Temple. Look at what he says in 28.2: ‘I had it in my heart…I made plans to build it.’ Then very simply he states ‘But God said to me, “You are not to build a house for my Name, because you are a warrior and have shed blood.” David wanted to do a great thing for God. He had a dream of a magnificent Temple. A place for the Ark of God to rest and for God’s glory to be seen. Nowhere do we read that this was a selfish ambition of David. We never read that it was for his own glory or posterity that he desired to build the Temple.
Now let me ask you a few questions: What are you like when your dreams are denied? What happens to your dreams when God says ‘No’ to them? What happens to your soul and your service when God says ‘No’ to your dreams/desires? You see it would have been so very easy for David to allow this disappointment to eat into his heart and soul. It would have been easy, in fact almost a natural reaction, to become sour and bitter about it. It would have been easy for David to allow the disappointment to affect his service for God. But he didn’t and the very fact that he didn’t reveals his heart – a heart after God’s heart.
Look at what David did after God said ‘No, you are not to build the Temple.’ Look at 22.5. Do you see? He made all the preparations necessary for the Temple to be built by Solomon, his son. Friends there is here a profound lesson for us all to learn this morning and I want you to listen carefully to me now.
You may not reap but you can sow.
You may not water but you can plant.
You can clear the ground for building.
You can provide the materials for building and yet you may never build. But if David had not gathered the materials, laid the plans, bought the site, gathered the skilled workmen and charged Solomon to build the Temple – it would never have been built when it was built.
Friends it is never easy to lay aside cherished dreams and ambitions. It is never easy to lay aside the plans we had to do great things for the Lord. It is never easy to do all the preparation for someone else to build the Temple – but learn a lesson from David – he did it because it was God’s will. There is a blessing which comes only from frustrated dreams. That blessing is knowing God’s will for your life. That blessing is knowing God intimately and having God reveal his plan for your life to you. You are not sure I am right on that? Turn with me for a moment to verses 11-12 of Ch.28. What do we read there? Read the text carefully. Whose plans are the plans for the Temple? God’s. How did David get them? The Spirit inspired them, placed them in his soul. What did David do with them? He wrote them down so that when the time came he could pass them on to Solomon to build the Temple. In the meantime he set about with all the work of preparation. Turn to verse 19 – listen to David here. God gave him understanding in relation to the plan for the Temple. He was not going to build it. He was not going to see the finished article but that was not the key, that was not the plan that God had for David’s life. David a man after God’s own heart – to him in the midst of disappointment and frustration at an unfulfilled dream/desire God gave understanding. In 22.14 David says that even in the midst of troubled times his desire for the building of the Temple and his preparation for that did not falter or wane. Through this experience, the experience of God saying ‘No’ to his desire/dream of building a Temple God revealed his will for David’s life and also for Solomon’s. Is that not just awesome to you this morning? God’s will for your life is here in Scripture but most of us fail to understand because we fail to allow it to go down into our souls. God writes his Word on our hearts by the pressure of his hand on our lives – then we begin to understand his Word, the Bible. Then he sears into our souls ‘This is my will for your life.’ It is the experience of unfulfilled dreams/desires that so often graphically reveal our hearts, our attitude and our faith towards God and his will in and for our lives.
Turn for just one moment with me to chapter 29.30. In the King James version of the Bible it says this ‘the times that went over him’, speaking of David’s life. Think of the times that went over David as a shepherd, soldier, fugitive, outlaw, king, sinner, saint and poet. In Psalm 42.7 David says this of God – READ. In Psalm 31.15 he says this ‘my times are in your hands.’ His experiences were the writing of God in his soul. The experiences made him into a ‘man whose heart was after God’s heart.’ So that when disappointment came his heart, his soul did not become bitter and turn from God but accepted God’s will as being right and working to fulfil God’s will – that Solomon would build the Temple. Do you remember a few years ago Man Utd played in the Champions League semi-final and Roy Keane got booked. He would miss the final because of that yellow card. Do you remember how tirelessly he worked for the remainder of the match so that his team and his team mates would make the final, even though he would not be playing. David worked tirelessly so that all the preparation would be completed for Solomon to build the Temple, even though he would see none of it.
You see through the experiences of his life David knew that the times were in God’s hands and therefore the waves would not overwhelm him, the hurricanes would not uproot his soul and the floods would not drown him- why? Because God was in control. Instead the waves, the hurricane, and the floods would form and fashion his heart so that it desired to be obedient and faithful to God in any and every circumstance. That was the reward for frustrated dreams and desires. It was not easy but it was a blessing. David understood – this is God’s time in my life. Results are not important. My name on the foundation stone of the Temple is not important. What is important is that I know God, I know his will for my life and I obey it. Friends learn the blessings of frustrated dreams and desires. They are often frustrated by God to bring us closer to himself, to reveal his plan for our lives and to shape and fashion our hearts so that they would be after his heart.
DAVID’S DIRECTIONS – LAST WORDS TO A SON.
Turn with to verse 9. These are words rich in meaning and full of emotion. The Last words which David will speak to Solomon. Final words like these are of great importance to us. I know I treasure deep in my soul the last words my grandfather spoke to me before he died. Listen to what David tells his son, Solomon:
Know the God of your father. This may seem such an obvious thing to say that we could quickly skip over it. Yet this is foundational to everything in David’s life, in Solomon’s and in the life of the people of Israel. Look closely at what David says here. He instructs Solomon to know God. Not just any God but the God of his father. Now let me stop there for a moment and ask you a simple question: What God are you showing to your children? Think about it for a moment. What understanding of God do your children receive from you? What are you modelling spiritually before them? Could you like David say to your son or daughter ‘know the God of your father?’
David wanted Solomon to know God. Why would he say this? David knew that in the midst of the pressure of being king many things would come along to turn Solomon’s heart away from God. Therefore this is a command to make and take time to know God. It would not be enough to know about God or to know his law. The admonition is to know God. To know him intimately and personally.
Serve God – the second thing which David instructs Solomon to do is to serve God. He tells him to serve God wholeheartedly and willingly. That is important – because God looks at the heart in service and not just the act of service. David tells Solomon when you are serving God hold nothing back, be passionate about it. I just wonder if Solomon as a little boy growing up witnessed the passion for God which existed in David’s life? Did he hear his father singing the praises of God late into the night as he wrote the Psalms? Did he hear the lament of his father’s soul as he confessed his sins before God? David could urge Solomon to serve God wholeheartedly because despite his failures, his sin – this is what he had done all his life. He had a heart which was after God’s heart – Solomon knew that, he witnessed it and therefore these were not hollow words spoken by his father.
Now let me ask you: Would they be hollow words if you spoke them to your children? When they look at your life do they see someone who serves God wholeheartedly and willingly? Let me put it this way: Do they hear more praise of God or groans at God from your lips? Do they see a passion for God in your life? Well I will let you answer that this morning.
Seek the Lord and he will be found by you. Forsake him and he will reject you. David warns Solomon there are only two ways to live here. One is in pursuit of God and the will of God – which will result in blessing. The other is to forsake God and his ways and the result will be that God will reject you. A choice is laid before Solomon. David does not abdicate his parental responsibility here in relation to the spiritual welfare of his son. Parents can I say to each of you this morning – do not neglect, do not abdicate and do not pass on your God given role in the spiritual welfare and development of your children. It is your primary responsibility to bring them up in the fear of the Lord. It is your primary responsibility to set before them a good example of prayer, bible reading and Christian living – most of you promised that to God at their baptism – did you lie? Have your forgotten? Do not leave it to the teacher in school, the youth leader or the minister. You are the primary teacher in your home – so exercise your God-given responsibility as David did here. David laid the choice before Solomon – we know that Solomon in later life turned away from God and was rejected by God – that was not David’s fault that was Solomon’s sin. But David set before him the choice.
Finally ‘be courageous and do the work.’ Solomon be courageous and build the temple. David has told him (in v10) that he, Solomon, has been chosen by God to build Temple. Now Solomon must do his part. God has revealed the plan and Solomon must be obedient. David knows that to be obedient requires courage. Hadn’t he learned that when facing Goliath? So he tells Solomon to be strong or courageous and obey what God has instructed him to do. Why did David say this? Because again from his experience he knows there will come ‘advisors’ around Solomon who will seek to turn his heart away from obeying God in this matter and his son will need courage and strength of character to not listen to flattering lips and deceptive tongues but to obey God.
When David has laid this foundation, this spiritual foundation before Solomon he then reveals the plans that God gave him for the Temple. It is only after the spiritual instruction has been given that the practical and physical plans for the Temple are revealed to Solomon. Why? Because if there is one thing David has learned all his life it is this: that the key before God is the heart. You can build a beautiful Temple but if the heart of the builder is disobedient it matters not one jot before God. If you lay the spiritual foundations correctly, if the heart of the man is seeking God, if the passion of the man’s heart is to know God then everything which he does will be in keeping with God’s will. Parents listen to me this morning. Some of you spend hours and hours drumming lessons into your children’s lives and you do not even realise you are doing it. Some of you have got so hung up on careers, on jobs, on status, on other things and the lessons your children are learning – these are the important things in life. They then hear you say to someone –‘I have no time to read my bible or pray.’ ‘I was too tired to go to church last week.’ They never see you with a bible in your hand but the remote control is never away, or the latest novel or magazine. They watch you spend hours pouring over magazines, books, the internet but never see you take time to understand God’s Word. They hear you talk into the night with friends and family but they have never heard your voice lifted in prayer to God. David knew if I lay the right spiritual foundation in Solomon’s life then the practical details of Temple building will naturally follow. So what about you? What about your kids this morning?
Conclusion
Two simple lessons:
Unfulfilled dreams/desires are often the means by which God reveals his plans for our lives. When our dreams are unfulfilled it does not mean God has rejected us or forgotten about us or has no plans for our lives. The very opposite is true. When dreams are unfulfilled for us it does not mean that we are to cease in preparation for someone else to bring God’s will to fruition in that way.
Give wise advice to your children and set them a good example. Lay the spiritual foundations first because these are of eternal value.
David’s final words were a great source of blessing to Solomon and a means of God encouraging us today. So guard your words and dedicate your heart to knowing God like David.
Amen.
