The Night Vision

Text: 2 Samuel 7:1-17.

David stands in the arched window in the upper chamber of his house. It is that brief span of time just before night settles upon the land. Supper has been eaten and the last of the wine quaffed. David’s eyes peer into the purple twilight, caressing every knoll of his city. In the valley below, a few remaining women gather water for their households. Their skirts stir as the night wind descends from the mountains. And David feels its chill on his own face. It is refreshing after the heat of the day.
Five miles to the south lies his native Bethlehem. David lifts his eyes in that direction. Right about now the shepherds will be leading their sheep into the safety of the fold. And he remembers. He remembers the heat of a day spent in the hills searching for green grass. He remembers the cold of a night spent in the protection of a cave. He remembers the touch of soft wool as each sheep passes beneath his hand. He remembers the smell of the fragrant oil that he has rubbed into the cut of a tiny lamb, or the bruise of his lead ram. He remembers the bleating of a ewe caught in the jaws of a lion, and he remembers the scent of warm blood after a kill.
A rush of wind startles him, and he notices that the shadows have deepened over his city. His eyes fall on a craggy hill with cavernous eyes that lies to the north. Those black eyes seem to be staring at him. A momentary chill sweeps down his back and he trembles.
Why these thoughts of his father’s sheep? Why this uneasiness, now that night is coming? It was not so during the day. The day had been filled with high emotion and much planning. He had determined that very day to build a great temple to house the ark of God.
As he sat in his fine palace of cedar, his thoughts had turned to the ark of God sitting out there in a tent. Suddenly, this seemed hardly an appropriate place for the awesome, powerful, glory of God to be. He looked about his own beautiful, spacious living quarters, and guilt flooded his soul. "Who am I to live in such a place while the ark of God lives in a tent?" he had thought.
So, he called Nathan, the prophet, and told him his idea. "I will build a grand palace for the ark of God." Nathan seemed pleased. He approved the plan, and for hours David’s mind filled with this glorious new dream. He pictured all the materials that must be gathered—gold and cedar and fine linens and acacia wood and great stones. God’s palace would be patterned after the tabernacle only on a grander scale and built with priceless materials. It would be altogether lovely. It would gleam from a choice mountaintop, and people from many nations would come to admire it.
David had felt exhilarated and had paced the floor making plans. But now, with the onset of night, his thoughts turn again and again to his father’s sheep, and he feels troubled. He will lie down and sleep it off, he thinks. He is just tired from the excitement of the day. Tomorrow he will continue with his new project.
About the same time, Nathan, too, is preparing for the night’s rest. He smiles. It has been a good day—a fruitful day. David’s plan is good. There is great excitement in the palace. Yes, God’s ark deserves a fine place to live. It should be as David has said. So, Nathan lies down, content. He looks forward to the days ahead. He is at peace, and he quickly drifts off to sleep.
And the night grows deep, and darkness fills the land. The thick darkness covers the valleys and the hills, and creeps silently in through the palace walls. Nathan suddenly wakes. He is aware of a heaviness in his room—a presence near him. He feels unsettled. Then, he hears the voice.
"Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says Yahweh, Would you build for me a house to sit in? I have not sat in a house since the days I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been walking in a tent and in an encampment. In all the places where I have walked with all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, Why have you not built for me a house of cedar to sit in?’"
Nathan is more than amused by the picture God has painted for him. First, there is the disgruntled old sovereign sitting on a lavish throne in a lavish throne room twiddling his thumbs. Here Yahweh is like a caged lion. But, in the next scene, God is walking with his people Israel. He camps in their midst, but just for a night. Then, Yahweh folds up his tent the next morning and walks on. Everywhere Israel goes, God walks with them. Here, Yahweh is not a sitting God, but a walking God—a God on the move, a God alive and active—a God ever near to guide, to comfort, to heal, to sustain, to nurture.
Nathan immediately understands that God does not desire a lavish temple to sit about in. It is not God’s intent to sit. He is determined to continue walking with his people. Nathan also knows that building temples is not what God has called David to do. There must be something else in God’s heart that he desires for David, some other purpose for David to fulfill. But what could it be?
Then God speaks again.
"Thus, you shall say to my servant, David, ‘Thus says Yahweh of Hosts, I Myself took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be shepherd over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.’"
"’And what’s more, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may tabernacle in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give them rest from all their enemies.’"
"’And moreover, Yahweh declares to you David that Yahweh will build you a house . . . and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.’"
Now, Nathan understands. Yes, there is something far more important in God’s heart than the building of a palace for Himself on the earth. Yes, God has a far higher purpose for David than that. The desire of God’s heart is for the well-being—the shalom—of his people. And God has raised up David for the sake of God’s people. The whole picture passes before Nathan.
God’s grand plan is that all the world be blessed. For this purpose God brought his people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and brought them into this good land, so that through them the whole world might be blessed.
But, in all the years since the conquest of the good land, Israel is still not settled. In all this time, Israel has had no rest from its enemies. God’s people do not dwell securely. They are oppressed and afflicted by enemies round about them. They are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. And God will not rest until God’s people have rest. God will not rest until God’s purposes for all creation are complete.
Nathan looks carefully at all that God has done for David, and he begins to see a parallel between what God has done for David and what God wants for his people. As God has brought David from the sheepfold, so God brought Israel out of Egypt. As God has walked with David wherever he went, so God walks with Israel wherever she goes.
As God has cut off all David’s enemies from before him, so God wants to cut off Israel’s enemies from before her. And, as God has given David a safe place to live, so God wants to give Israel a safe place to live. What God has done for David, God wants also to do for God’s people through David.
It is for this reason that God took David from the pasture, from following the sheep. Not to be a builder of temples, but to be shepherd over God’s people. Now, Nathan’s understanding is complete. At first light, he will go to David.
David stands in the same arched window. The red orb of the sun has not yet crested the hill to the east, but the city is already bathed in gold. As Nathan speaks, David remembers the day he was called from the sheepfold. "Samuel, the prophet, has come," the messenger said. "And he will not sit down to eat until you come. Your father says, ‘Hurry!’"
David remembers running from the pasture to his father’s house. He remembers standing before the prophet of God, and the weakness he felt in his legs. Suddenly, his knees had buckled, and before he could rise, he felt warm oil spill over his head, and his flesh quivered.
"Bethlehem is but five miles from Jerusalem," said David to Nathan, "But, it has been a long way from the sheepfold to this palace. Is that what God intended all along? Did Samuel anoint me to be prince in order to be a shepherd to his people?"
David looks at his hands. The hands that had once stroked his father’s sheep. The hands that had once rubbed oil into cuts and bruises. The hands that had once wrested baby lambs from the jaws of lions and bears. Could he do the same for God’s people? Could he nurture and heal and protect the people of God as he had once nurtured and healed and protected his father’s sheep?
Nathan sees David looking at his hands, and he knows what David is thinking. "Yes, David," he says, "You are not to be a king like the kings of the earth who lord it over their people, or a hireling who does not care for the sheep. You are to be a shepherd-king. Like a good shepherd, you will care enough for your own that you will lay down your life for them."
Thus says Yahweh, "I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged . . . they shall be secure on their soil . . . they shall no more be plunder for the nations, nor shall the animals of the land devour them, they shall live in safety, and no one will make them afraid . . . they shall know that I, Yahweh their God, is with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people . . . I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd."
David’s eyes look to the east to the rising sun as it ascends above the Mount of Olives, but he does not linger there. He turns to the south toward the fields of Bethlehem to the place where his thoughts had wandered again and again the night before. But now, instead of thinking of what once was, he peers into the far distant future. There in that tiny village where he was born, and where he tended his father’s sheep, a tiny babe will one day be born, and he will be called the Son of David. He, too, will be a Shepherd-King, and through him God will bless the world. His house and his kingdom shall be made sure forever. "For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."