God’s Word for You
1 Chronicles 17:3-6 It is not you
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, January 25, 2024
3 But that same night the word of God came to Nathan, 4 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD says: It is not you who will build me a house to live in, 5 For I have not lived in a house from the day I brought Israel up to this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from dwelling to dwelling. 6 In all places where I have moved with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”
First we will ask a question about the transmission of the text. Some translations of verse 3 have “the word of the Lord” instead of the “the word of God.” The English Standard Version or ESV is one of these, along with the Revised Standard and New Revised Standard versions. Most others have “the word of God” as I have translated here. The main ancient witness that has “Lord” is the Greek Septuagint (κυρίου). All of the Hebrew manuscripts, the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac, Coptic and others have “word of God.” The Hebrew scribes help us here, pointing out with a note in the margin that the rare “word of God” phrase only occurs three times in the Old Testament. Those are this verse, Judges 3:20 and 1 Samuel 9:27. The reason for the error is without a doubt the weight of the two hundred and twenty times that “the word of the LORD” occurs in the Old Testament. When it’s 220 to 3, it’s easy to see why a translator would make a mistake that doesn’t really have any important bearing on the text. The reason for pointing this out is to show that although there are thousands of variant readings—words that are different in some manuscript copies from the words in all the rest—is to show that in the vast majority of the cases, this has to do with the order of words, with the spelling of proper names, and the transposition of “Lord” and “God,” as we have here. None of the variations have any bearing on the theology of the Bible or on the teaching of Christ crucified for our sins.
Now, to the passage itself: As we have said, David had not yet asked God about his plan. His pastor, Nathan the prophet, received a message from God in the night, the very same night after he and David had spoken.
God did not condemn the plan, but pointed out in a gentle way and with good humor that he hadn’t lived in a house since the day he brought Israel up. He doesn’t say “from Egypt,” although that’s the time when living in a tent began for the ark of the covenant and that is our record of the same message in 1 Samuel 8:8. We could think of God’s words as meaning, “I haven’t had a house to live in since Israel was Israel (that is, since Jacob’s name got changed and the nation of Israel received its identity).
He neither asked the judges for a house, nor did he condemn them for not offering to build one. But David? David wasn’t going to be the one to do it. He doesn’t yet say why at this point, he only says that David won’t be the one to do it. In fact, God hints at what will really happen, by repeating his own “I” with a string of verbs: “I have not lived in…,” “I have brought…,” “I have gone from tent to tent,” “I have moved,” “Did I speak a word?” God does not condemn any man for doing or not doing anything about the Lord’s dwelling. He points out that he himself had done and not done many things about his dwelling among men.
If he is only talking about the tabernacle, why would he say in verse 5, “I have gone from tent to tent, from dwelling to dwelling”? He is talking about dwelling among his people wherever they worshiped him: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matthew 18:20). From Abraham’s tent to Isaac’s tent, from Isaac’s tent to Jacob’s tent, from Jacob’s tent to Joseph’s dwelling in Egypt and all his sons’ dwellings there in Egypt, to the tents of the wandering days to the dwellings of the conquest, the Lord was with his people when they worshiped him at the tabernacle or in their own homes, sitting at their own dinner tables.
And in the same way, he is with us, even when we are on a long trip, eating fast food or sack lunches, when we pray in his name and thank him for his blessings. He is with us. He blesses us. He watches over us. Sometimes, we have a desire that he might just say “No” to. It’s okay, He said No to David, and he said No to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And if God could say No to the “apple of his eye” and to his own Son, should I complain if he might say No to me, too? He has my best interests at heart. He has a plan for me that I can’t always see. So don’t stop asking. But if the answer to a prayer might be No, don’t sulk, either. Praise God! He will accomplish what he wants through us according to his plans and not ours, and that should give us joy, and confidence that he is in control even when we’re not sure about the path.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.