You are the House of God

2 Samuel 7:1-11

  Now it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around, ² that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains.”

³ Then Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”
⁴ But it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, ⁵ “Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Would you build a house for Me to dwell in? ⁶ For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. ⁷ Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’”’ ⁸ Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel. ⁹ And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on 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; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, ¹¹ since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the Lord tells you that He will make you a house.
  

The Father speaks to David in this passage and rebukes him for even suggesting He be constrained to "A House". Instead he tells David He will make him a house!! 

House #1004 - bayit (hebrew) - means household, clan, temple, a dwelling, a family. 

The Father never wanted a temple that has geological restraints. He wants a temple that He can make His place of dwelling where he isn't  contained because He is a spirit and a spirit is free of all physical and geological constraints. The Father was telling David don't make me  house I'm going to make you a house, My place of dwelling. This Holy God wants a house that He can make His habitation.

I want to be a house fit for my God to indwell. A place for His holy habitation.

Holy - #40 - haios (hebrew) -  sacred, pure, blameless, consecrated, separated, properly revered, God-likeness, nothing polluted, purity.

Did David see this as a geological or physical thing? It seems so. God's response to David is to help him understand that this an inheritance thing made available to those who let His kingdom rule and reign within. 

I want to be house fit for my God. A holy God calls for a Holy people. That can never be achieved in our own strength or eyes - only in Jesus. The more we know Jesus and His Spirit the more He can indwell us and we can be known by Him. 

Let's let Him make us a house fit for His holy habitation, His place of dwelling. He does not want to be contained He wants to be free to move in and through us, no restraints, no limitations. How exciting that we can be made into His house. I want to be a place fit for His holy habitation.

Slightly or completely refined? We get to choose!!

Jeremiah 6:14

¹⁴ They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’
When there is no peace.

Jeremiah is told to prophecy to the people concerning the spiritual leaders of the day. They were telling the people all was okay when in fact from God's perspective it was not! The truth was compromised and it was disturbing the Father's heart and in His time he responds to bring correction. Through Jeremiah He states that the hurts of His people had been healed "slightly". 

Slightly (qalal, hebrew #7043) is used 82 times in the scriptures and means to curse or to make light of someone.  Websters define it as; in a superficial or light manner, easy, trifling having very little weight.

Jeremiah was referring to the way the spiritual leaders superficially tended to the deep wounds of the people. Sadly this same thing is happening today. People are being told what they want to hear rather than the truth. Mathew Henry says in his commentary on this passage, "The more we focus on the "fun", "pleasures" of life the more we make ourselves unfit to face the troubles of life. A day is coming when those careless and secure in sinful ways will be visited."

The strength of this word "slightly" is such that we curse someone when we make light of them or their life by relating superficially and overlooking the truth. Seeing the reality of the depth of an issue and ignoring it in ourselves or others brings a curse. By repentance and reformation we can prevent things coming to an extremity as it did in Jeremiah's time for those who had not been honest with themselves,  the people or with God. If the people had repented the Lord would not have needed to go to the extremes he did to bring restoration.

For fear of offense, rejection and losing relationship we hold back from going to the depths where the real hurt and pain reside and settle for a superficial healing which in the long run brings a curse. Jesus death was not for a superficial healing it was complete. Nothing more needs to be done so we can walk in the freedom he has purchased for us on the cross. It was complete and I want to be part of a process that sees it completed in my own life and every life I touch. What Jesus has done for me isn't lacking, it's my willingness to embrace the fullness of it.  

Jeremiah 6:30

"May we not be called rejected silver because the Lord has rejected me." 

Silver is rejected when it hasn't gone through the necessary process to make it pure. May we say with Isaiah 48:10, "See I have refined you as silver in the furnace of affliction." A completed work! There's a price to pay for this deep work and for wounds to healed more than "slightly". There's a price to pay to be a healer that is willing to go to the deep wounds. May our lives be straight arrows of truth. Uncompromised and willing to pay the price as Jesus has for us.

Confidence in the temple is in vain

Jeremiah 7:12
But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

Shiloh was the place the tabernacle was first set up. It was the center of Israel's worship. Shiloh was destroyed after Eli and his son's corrupted the worship of God. They used what was to be sacrificed to God as food for themselves, demanding it be given to them. Though for a time the established traditional place of worship had brought comfort and connection with God, He allowed it to be destroyed because it had become a place of defilement. 

The implications of Jeremiah 7 is huge to us as believers.  Where we have made idols or corrupted the things of God such as, worship, sacrifice and living our own interpretation of the Word, we are setting ourselves up to live in the consequences of disobedience. Eli feared his son's more than God and paid a high price for their disobedience. He did not constrain them with his love he allowed then to be unrestrained and wilful.

The love of Christ constrains us. (2 Cor 5:14)  

Constrain means to restrict, limit, to use pressure, to force.  

When we are in love with Christ, truly in love because He is our first love, the constraints that His word and obedience to it place on us we will be seen for what they truly represent. His love and goodness to us.  Love without constraints lets us do what we want. True love always comes with constraints which brings freedom, rather than freedom for the sake of feeling loved.

Deutronomy 30:11-20.
¹¹ “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. ¹² It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹⁴ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
¹⁵ “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; ²⁰ that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
These consequences are often not outworked immediately but over time as the blessing and favour dries up and we keep doing what we have been because it worked or had the blessing and favour initially on our efforts, we sometimes don't notice the dryness and the struggle , the lack of fruit and blessing over our work.


I saw a vision of the church (the establishment) being whitewashed by a dark hand. An arm with black clothing on and a black glove up to the elbow was painting the white wash over the establishment. The Father said, "The church has been white washed."  

White washed- to gloss over; cover up vices;  embracing other cultures as well as your own; concealing flaws or failures.

Taking a rain-check on where we are at and what fruit is growing in our lives might help us to see if there is some truth we need to face where our obedience has become routine and ritualistic and not a fresh daily intimate walk with The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

The Father has chosen to reveal himself through us and put His name in us. If sin through disobedience resides in us then we have polluted the temple of God, his habitation. If we think our living in the dispensation of grace gives room for The Father to accommodate disobedience then we lessen the sacrifice Jesus made by believing that obedience is not obligatory but optional because of grace. 

Jeremiah 7:21-28. 
²¹ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. ²² For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. ²³ But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ ²⁴ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. ²⁵ Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. ²⁶ Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.
²⁷ “Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.

Judgment on Obscene Religion

²⁸ “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

To think that God can be anything but displeased with disobedience and that we can interpret the word to suit ourselves is only hurting ourselves because the consequences of sin will outwork themselves in our lives. Jeremiah 7:28-34.

 Our confidence must be in Him, His word. The temple, people, things, ideas we construct around how we feel are never going to bring the blessing and fruit we are promised in the Word of God as we walk in obedience to Him. He has set before us life and death, blessings and curses, therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live and that you love the Lord your God, obey His voice and cling to Him. He is your life and the length of your days.