2 Samuel 7:12–13: “When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

June 16th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This prophecy of “your seed” is one of many Scriptures emphasizing God’s promise of a coming Messiah, a King of Kings, who would establish David’s throne forever. Although there was a long time gap (this prophecy was given 1000 years before Jesus physically came), God’s promises to David were completely fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus does reign, and will continue to reign on David’s throne forever. He is right now building the Father a magnificent house in the sense that believers are God’s temples:

Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4)

This New Testament picture is one of God building a spiritual temple (a spiritual house), using living stones (believers), who have surrendered to the Living Stone (Jesus). Jesus is alive and He makes us living stones because we are connected to Him, the only source of real life. We living stones are not of real use to Him until we take up our correct place in the wall of His building.

There is an ancient story about a king of Sparta, in Greece, who boasted to a visiting monarch about the mighty walls of Sparta. But as the king’s guest looked around, there were no walls in sight. Finally the guest said, “I’d like to see these walls. Show them to me!” The Spartan ruler pointed with great satisfaction to some disciplined, well-trained troops, part of Sparta’s mighty army, and exclaimed, “There they are! Those are the walls of Sparta!” Just as each Spartan soldier was viewed by their king as a brick in his mighty wall, so we are viewed by God as “living stones . . . [building] up a spiritual house.”

“LORD, use us this day, and make us solid stones, useful in Your hands as You continue to build Your house.”

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2 Samuel 7 KJV

¹ And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies; ² That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. ³ And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee. ⁴ And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying, ⁵ Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?  ⁶ Whereas I have not dwelt in anyhouse since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. ⁷ In all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why build ye not me an house of cedar?  ⁸Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel:  ⁹ And I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.  ¹⁰ Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, ¹¹ And as since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel, and have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Also the LORDtelleth thee that he will make thee an house. ¹² And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. ¹⁴ I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: ¹⁵ But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. ¹⁶ And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever. ¹⁷ According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David. ¹⁸ Then went king David in, and sat before the LORD, and he said, Who am I, O Lord GOD? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? ¹⁹ And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord GOD; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD?  ²⁰ And what can David say more unto thee? for thou, Lord GOD, knowest thy servant. ²¹For thy word’s sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know them . ²² Wherefore thou art great, O LORD God: for there isnone like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. ²³ And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods? ²⁴ For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever: and thou, LORD, art become their God. ²⁵ And now, O LORD God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said. ²⁶And let thy name be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts is the God over Israel: and let the house of thy servant David be established before thee. ²⁷ For thou, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house: therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee.  ²⁸ And now, O Lord GOD, thou art that God, and thy words be true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servant: ²⁹ Therefore now let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue for ever before thee: for thou, O Lord GOD, hast spoken it: and with thy blessing let the house of thy servant be blessed for ever.