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\u201c\u2018The Lord declares to you [David] that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever\u2019\u201d (2 Samuel 7:11-16).

King David has been granted rest and security as king in Israel. His enemies are defeated, and he has built himself a city and a palace. As he looks around his city from the roof of his new home, he realizes something is missing. There is no home for Israel\u2019s God. His presence still resides in a tent, the dwelling of a nomad, someone who has no place on earth to call his own.

So, David, desiring to be a good and grateful king, proposes to build a temple. He confers with Nathan, God\u2019s prophet, who concurs. But God declines. Since he rescued Israel from Egypt, he has been content to live in a tent with his pilgrim people while he secured their rest. Not once has he even mentioned a royal house of "rest" for himself.

Moreover, God has not finished his work. He will establish a house for David, a dynasty for the sake of his people's rest. Listen again to our text, \u201cI will raise up your offspring to succeed you\u2026and I will establish his kingdom\u2026and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him\u2026 Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever\u2019".

There are seeds here that will grow throughout the Old Testament until they blossom in Jesus Christ, the full glory of which we will not see till the new creation. It\u2019s a valuable exercise to trace the development of these crumbs through scriptures. What seeds do we find here?

First, the everlastingness of God\u2019s kingdom. The work God does through Jesus will never end. It will outlast all earthly kingdoms. It is this hope which fortified Israel though the Babylonian exile and the dark centuries there after. It is pictured dramatically throughout the book of Daniel and is elaborated on in Isaiah. This is the hope of the church, through all our self-made crises and times of persecution. Despite our efforts at sabotage, God will continue using his church to build his kingdom.

Second, it is here that we find the first hints that Israel\u2019s true shepherd will be God\u2019s Son. I will be his father, and he will be my son. This becomes literally true in the Incarnation. The man, Jesus of Nazareth, is also Son of God. We may be used to this expression, but it was so radical and considered so blasphemous, that it got Jesus crucified.

There is even more here. To paraphrase John, \u201cto us who do receive him, to us who believe in his name, Jesus gives the right to become children of God\u2014children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband\u2019s will, but born of God\u201d (1:12-13). God is not content with one Son. He desires a family. Through Christ, we become daughters and sons. The Kingdom of God is populated not by subjects or servants, but by children.

Third, rest. David and Israel have rest from their human enemies. But God does not. And even for David and Israel, this rest is temporary. God desires to give forever rest to his people. Rest from our spiritual enemy, the devil. This is the deep understanding of Sabbath that the writer of Hebrews draws out in chapter 4. The Heidelberg Catechism summarizes what Sabbath means: \u201cthat every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin already in this life the eternal Sabbath\u201d (A 103).

David\u2019s son will build God a temple, but God will not rest from his work. Jesus tells us that God continues to work (John 5:17). He will not rest till his kingdom is fully established, sin and evil have been vanquished and shalom invades the entire cosmos. Then, and only then, will God rest. You can count on this!