RCL reading for Sunday, July 19, 2009:
Excerpt from the New Revised Standard Version via Oremus (http://bible.oremus.org)
2 Samuel 7:1-14a
1 Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him,
2 the king said to the prophet Nathan, ‘See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.’
3 Nathan said to the king, ‘Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.’
4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan:
5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?
6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle.
7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders 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 you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel;
9 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.
10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly,
11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house.
12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
14 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This part of the David story is sometimes called the Book of Two Houses. David is living in a house of cedar and suggests making a similar one for God. God, thoroughly smitten of David, replies that he doesn't want a physical house and promises to make a house for David, this time in the sense of a dynasty. The danger in trying to put God in a box is not explicit but pretty obvious. The corollary that God's house should be a group of people adumbrates the church.
ReplyDelete