What is it that God is obsessed with? What is it that makes the "heart" of the omnipotent throb? Perhaps discovering what obsessed the mind of a man whose heart was like God's will prove a fruitful study.
The Bible says that David was a man after God's own heart (1 Sam 13:14, Acts 13:22).
And the Davidian obsession was...the sanctuary. Here's why I think so.
1. He really really wanted to build the sanctuary, but God said no.
(2 Sam 7)
2. He saved up all his money and was the source of the funding for Solomon's temple."set my affection on the house of God"
(1 Chron 29:1-4, Mat 6:21, Luk 12:34)
3. He writes of the sanctuary over and over again in the Psalms, here are a few eg's:
Psalm 63 -in a land devoid of the water of life, the sanctuary restores his soul
Psalm 73 -didn't understand until he went into the sanctuary
Psalm 77 -God's way is in the sanctuary
4. Organized all the priests of the temple for Solomon (1 Chron 23,24).
5. He drew up the plans for the sanctuary, "which God showed him" (1 Chron 28:11-19)
How does the sanctuary show what makes God tick?
The sanctuary is the way back to heaven. Once we get to heaven the sanctuary is gone (Rev 21:22). Why? Because it has served its purpose. The obsession of God, like David, is the sanctuary. More specifically it is the end, which the means or the sanctuary provides that is the reason that the sanctuary is God's obsession. And the ends, well, that was the joy set before Christ (Heb 12:2, Isa 53:11), the jewels that make up the crowns of evangelists, bible workers, and pastors (Mal 3:17, 1 Thess 2:19), one of only two things that we can take to heaven, something that won't be able to be numbered (Rev 7:9)......SOULS, that is God's obsession, that was David's obsession, is it your obsession?
8 comments:
I really liked what you said on Sabbath for the offering call about the parallel between the rooms up in heaven and the rooms in the sanctuary. That was a really cool thought. What verses did you use again?
now you shall have two comments: I wonder how much David understood the heavenly sanctuary. Could he have had insight into that?
1 Chronicles 28:19
John 14:1-3,
The ESV, NIV, NLT, and RSV translate mansions as rooms, here is the RSV
"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?"
This is interesting when you consider that the Solomon/David temple had the side rooms for gold storage in addition to the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place.
The following links are diagrams of the temple:
http://www.painsley.org.uk/re/Atlas/solotemp.gif
http://www.irr.org/mit/images/JerusalemTemple-sm-en.gif
I think it is quite possible that David had insight into the heavenly sanctuary. Think about how much Abraham knew about Jesus' day (John 8:56). If Abraham knew that much, before Moses, before the temple, how much more did David know?
I think there was a lot that David didn't understand. For example, the experience with Uzzah (2 Samuel 6).
I am not sure exactly how this relates, but David did an illegal action in the temple. He took Mannah from the temple during Abiathar's priestly ministry (Mark 2:25-28).
It is interesting thought that Amos 9:16 associates the tabernacle with David and not Solomon. The Hebrew word used is not translated in the connection of the sanctuary in the Old Testament. However, in Acts 15:16, James quotes the Amos passage and the greek word used is skene, which is the same word used in Hebrews 9, for the sanctuary.
More mulling, thanks for the analysis makes me think =).
I agree what you have to say about souls and character. As an addendum, your children are perhaps your only possession you have a chance of taking to heaven outside of your own character.
Thomson, this was a really thoughtful blog. And it made me think. Toward the beginning of this year I was reading through the books of Samuel and I began thinking about something similar to what you've posted here, except not really...
When I started reading the stories about David and his life, I began to wonder, "what made David a man after God's own heart?" And so, I read through each of the stories about David with that in mind and looked for specific things. It was very interesting and I've always thought that it would be neat to have a Bible study or a series of Bible studies on it...
Anyway, thank you for yet another quality that made David a man after God's heart :)
An excellent post on a sadly neglected topic. I'd never connected David with the Sanctuary.
Have you ever read Roy Gane's book "Alter Call"? It explores the sanctuary in great detail.
Roy is probably the top living SDA O.T. scholar. He specializes in the sanctuary.
Anh: as we learned at Bible study yesterday from our extreme bible worker friend Thomson Paris, wealth equals the jewels in our crown which equals the souls we bring to Christ. <---....it kinda relates to your comment about children.
Psalms 127:3-5
ponder... ponder... ponder...
Lord, make me a sanctuary.
A living place of refuge.
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