~Old Testament Scenarios~
1 Chronicles
“Go and tell David My servant, 'Thus says the LORD,
You shall not build a house for Me to dwell in...'”
1 Chronicles 17:4 (NASB)
“When Dreams Die”
King David had a dream, a wonderful desire to build a house (temple) for the Most High God. But now he was being told by the prophet Nathan that God has denied that request. Three thousand years ago David’s “white picket fence” dream was shattered. Yes, his dream was not for him personally, but for the Lord. But one has to wonder, did he slump down on his throne with the news from God’s “No”? Did he bite back his argument or “do” the two-year-old tantrum dance at why he wasn’t able to do this grand thing for God?
What kind of sledge hammer has fallen on your dreams and shattered them into pieces? Have you ever raised your fist up to the Lord in disagreement of why your plans aren’t going like you dreamed they should go? I know at times it is difficult to understand the denials we receive, especially when our dream is for something wonderful/healthy/even when it seems a holy thing. What do we do when we’ve been denied? Run to Jesus and pray; pray for understanding or at least pray for acceptance?
It was true that King David sat in his own home disturbed that there was not a wonderful temple for the Lord. In the years past, the "House of Worship" had been an almost "nomad tent" traveling with the Israelites. The tabernacle had always been a humble place, a place where God would meet with His people. But now David’s heart yearned to build a palace for God to dwell in. Of course David realized that no building could EVER contain the omnipresent God who just so happened to have created the universe, but David did want to have a central place where people could come to worship Him and that meant building a place for just that.
David has been disqualified from doing the actual building of the temple because God said he was a man of war. David spent his life preparing (fighting) for the land from the many enemies that battled against the people of Israel. He fought in order to have peace in the land and rest for the people. So now his son Solomon would be the man God chose to be in charge of the building process.
When we read in scripture, we find that David was not at all disappointed. In fact, nothing but praise comes from his heart as he hears God promise to make David’s family line a dynasty forever. David, being the King of Israel, knows the ultimate authority our Yahweh Melek (God’s Hebrew name for King) has over all the creation, all situations, and over our dreams. I believe David remembered the truth - ‘For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous’ (Psalm 1:6). So David accepted God’s final decision and chose to spend the next years of his life gathering all the materials needed for the future tabernacle.
Has God appointed another person for a job or ministry that you have desired? Do you find your hand is a closed fist shaking up to the Lord? Or are they the hands used to help support the one God chose. (Maybe your fists aren’t raised but deep down you might be struggling with disappointment. You know that place, the one that nobody else sees but God). Will you trust He has a different dream-a new dream-a surprise dream-just for you! He’ll do that! In what ways will you be willing to walk out in what has already been done for you and what is still yet ahead of you?
This is your day; God has given it to you. What will you do with it? Are you ready to become unstuck from beneath the shattered ‘House of Lost Dreams’ and are you willing to choose the new door to open the new path to travel? God is ready to share new places with you and He always goes with you there.
Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time--He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
1 Timothy 6:12-16 (NASB)