For Whose Glory: 2 Samuel 7:1-17 - 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

I’m no fan of horror movies. I despise blood and gore. The other reason is because they all follow the same basic plot:

A family receives a letter from the Law Offices of Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe. A great aunt they barely knew has died and left them her Victorian mansion out in the woods. The family quickly packs up all their belongings and moves in, eager to enjoy the opulence and spaciousness of their new home. But one by one, they discover that the house is haunted. And they’re stuck with it.

I don’t believe in ghosts or haunted houses, but sometimes, dreams turn into nightmares.

King David dreamed of building the temple in Jerusalem. David would have been the ideal person to do this. Israel reached the peak of its power under his reign. He united all twelve tribes, and no enemies dared to attack his kingdom. And David was a righteous man. His precipitous fall from grace had not yet occurred, when he committed adultery and murder.

So why wouldn’t God let him build the temple?

The first reason, not mentioned in the text, is that David’s hands were stained in blood from the many wars David fought.

Click here to read the Scripture text.

The second, and I say greater reason, was that God did not need the structure David had in mind to build. It’s not that God did not want to be worshiped; rather, God is not in the construction business. God is not building a house but a household, a chosen people who will be a light all the nations of the earth, and God will be faithful to them forever. 

Michelangelo's David by Scott Ableman on flickr.  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

 Nevertheless, David’s son Solomon will build the temple in Jerusalem, which will become a marvel of the ancient world. To this day, people still come to Jerusalem to worship God at the Western Wall, which is said to be built upon the foundation stones Solomon laid 3,000 years ago. And there’s nothing wrong with that. We all need sacred spaces where we can feel at home with God.

Unfortunately, Solomon didn’t build the temple to glorify God. That was his initial intent. Ultimately, though, he built it to glorify himself. To make matters worse, he built it by levying high taxes and by enslaving 30,000 of his fellow Israelites, both of which set the stage for the fracturing of Israel which occurred after his death.

After the Babylonians destroyed it, and the priest Zerubbabel rebuilt it, King Herod expanded it to exceed in size and splendor what Solomon had built. Not for God’s glory, but for Herod’s. He, too, built his temple through even higher taxes and even more slave labor.

I doubt anyone worshiping among us today has the political or economic power to build monuments to themselves as Solomon, Herod, and many others have done. But the same temptation exists for anyone who seeks to do good things: is it for God’s glory or for yours?

It’s not that David’s intentions weren’t good. They were. But do you know what else encourages you to do good things? Your ego.

Pride will push you to do good things like working hard, helping others, and giving gifts so that you can feel good about yourself. So that people like you, admire you, and believe they cannot live without you. But a person like this can go from kind to vicious the second you get in their way or steal their spotlight. The instant that the drive to look good outweighs the desire to do good, good people get hurt.

And this temptation isn’t exclusive to those who are bold and ambitious. You face it if you are insecure and struggle with fears of inadequacy. You become a chronic workaholic perfectionist people-pleaser who never says “no.” You carry the weight of everyone else’s lives on your shoulders, believing that if you don’t meet their needs, the world will collapse, and it will be all your fault. Constantly, you compare yourself to other people, and when they look to be doing better than you, you despise yourself. If anyone accuses you of not working hard enough or not caring about them, you either explode with anger or you fall apart.

Whether you are trying to satisfy your ambitions or quell your insecurities, you’re not living for God. You’re living for you. Doing heroic things does not necessarily make you a hero.

No matter how hard you work, how much you accomplish, or how many people you please, you will never be perfect. You will never be good enough. But you are forgiven.

If you worry that you’re not good enough, let the cross put your fears to rest. The real question is: do you believe God is good enough?

How do you know God is good? God made you. Christ sacrificed his life for you. The Holy Spirit brought you to faith so that you experience God’s goodness every day. And you will see God’s goodness even more as the Holy Spirit empowers you to do God-sized works.

There’s no reason that God cannot accomplish even more through you as God did through David, because even though David was a king, he was a man whose pride and arrogance destroyed people’s lives.

Living a good and godly life has nothing to do with being great in comparison with other people.

The Kingdom of God has no memory for how accomplished you are or how many buildings have your name on them. What counts is that God’s glory shined in you. That’s not something you can make happen on your own. But If Jesus is the treasure you seek, and your heart’s desire is to glorify God with your life, God will never say “no.” God’s glory is what you will see, and God’s glory is what you do. And God will use you to bring God’s Kingdom nearer than it was before you were born. That’s worth more to God than monuments and temples.