1 Chronicles 17:13
I will be his Father, and he will be My son. And I will never remove My loving devotion from him as I removed it from your predecessor.
Sermons
Father and SonJ.R. Thomson 1 Chronicles 17:13
God's Message to DavidF. Whitfield 1 Chronicles 17:3-15
Three Spiritual NecessitiesW. Clarkson 1 Chronicles 17:7-15
The Purposes of God Concerting SolomonR. Tuck 1 Chronicles 17:11-15














These words are by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, who was, in an especially and pre-eminent sense, the Son of God. Yet the context, and still more the parallel passage in the Second Book of Samuel, makes it evident that they were originally spoken with reference to Solomon. We are warranted, by the teaching of the New Testament, in applying them to all those who are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, who have been adopted into the spiritual family, and made heirs of Divine promises. Of this glorious doctrine of the Divine Fatherhood, so clearly and powerfully revealed in the New Testament, there are intimations, such as the present, in various parts of the Old Testament Scriptures.

I. IN WHAT GOD'S FATHERHOOD CONSISTS. This is shown to some extent in the context, and in the narrative of Solomon's early life and reign. But generally speaking we may rejoice that the fatherhood of God is shown in:

1. His providential care. As a Father, our Creator supplies the wants, both temporal and spiritual, of his dependent family.

2. His tender love. There is more than goodness, more than bounty, in God's treatment of his children. They have a moral nature able to appreciate kindness, forbearance, sympathy, and love. And, in his treatment of them, he has adapted his communications and his conduct to their spiritual need.

3. His wise discipline. It is distinctive of a true father's sway, that it aims at the highest good of the children. God certainly appoints trials for his offspring, and he reveals to us the consolatory truth, "Whom he loveth he scourgeth, and chastensth every child whom he receiveth." When we suffer he is not insensible. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him."

4. His purposes for his children's future. As a father looks forward, and trains his son for the duties and responsibilities of after-life, so the great Father in heaven is maturing us for other scenes, higher employments, purer joys.

II. WHAT HUMAN SONSHIP INVOLVES. A true son is sensible of his father's watchful care, thoughtful kindness, tender affection. And he renders a filial return. In worship there is involved:

1. Gratitude. From God's spiritual family there goes up to heaven a daily song of thanksgiving and praise, for favour and forbearance never failing.

2. Reverence and submission. The awful superiority of God must impress every just mind. The prayer offered will begin with the ascription, "Hallowed be thy Name."

3. Love. For, though so high, God is yet a Father, and "we love him, because he first loved us."

4. Obedience. This is the true test of filial reverence and of filial affection. There is no unfailing proof of love's sincerity save this.

5. Likeness. For, born anew by God's Spirit, God's children are imitators of God, resembling him in the moral features of his holy and amiable character. Admire the glorious work of the Divine and gracious Spirit. - T.

Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house.
I. DAVID'S PROPOSAL.

1. A noble purpose.

2. A generous purpose.

3. A purpose commended by the prophet.

II. GOD'S DISAPPROVAL OF DAVID'S PROPOSAL.

1. God knows all our purposes.

2. God often hinders the accomplishment of our purposes.

III. REASONS FOR GOD'S DISAPPROVAL OF DAVID'S PROPOSAL..

1. It was something entirely new.

2. It was untimely in its beginning.

3. David was not the right man to build.

(J. Wolfendale.)

There are extemporaneous inspirations in life which have to be revised, amended, and in some instances discarded altogether. A judgment is not always right simply because it is sudden. There have been days upon which we have been perfectly sure that our duty lay along such and such lines; everything concurred to prove the providence of the situation; circumstances and impressions combined to show that a well-defined line of action had been actually described by the Divine finger. It is precisely where duty appears to be so plain that vigilance should be most on the alert.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

Some men are great only in intentions. If words were deeds, and dreams realities, they would be the flower and crown of their generation. But life slips by unutilised. The future of hope never becomes the present of fact. They are no more than glorious idle dreamers. Not so with David.

I. DAVID'S PIOUS EMPLOYMENT OF HIS LEISURE. He had long been like a pursued mountain-bird. And when Saul could pursue him no more, when he had come to the crown of Judah, it was an assailed crown. But at last there was rest for David. No tent of the warrior. It is "his house" he is in, his new mansion, his cedar palace. Therein he "sat." He has leisure. How does he use it? Seeking some excitement of pleasure wherein to escape the oppression of self-consecration; the unwelcome voice of clamorous duty? When he went forth to conflict he said, "The battle is the Lord's." And now he felt, "My leisure is the Lord's." So as he sits in his beautiful mansion, the palace which the Tyrian builders had built, he was comparing its elegance and splendour with the meanness of the tabernacle in which he had placed the ark. The comparison pained him. He will build a temple for the Lord. With such thoughts as these he occupied his leisure. Leisure! It is the very thing that some seem never to get, and others getting, seek to escape. With some life is a long, seldom-pausing battle with want. With others, when the respite comes, they are eager soon, having no mental or spiritual resources, to get back again into the familiar toil wherein they find the only life they care to live. Few and brief may be our opportunities of leisure. All the more reason that they should be for our highest refreshing and renewing by being dedicated to God. How a man spends his leisure will tell much of the man. David's employment of his speaks well for him.

II. GOD SHOULD BE HONOURED WITH OUR SUBSTANCE. David felt God to be worthy of the best. He desired to build Him a house. The largest liberality would be only poor acknowledgment, a slight expression of his affection. David had built a palace. He was not wrong in this. Comely symbols these of kingly power. Let the rich and great dwell in stately houses. Let the owners of wealth possess what only the wealthy can buy. As David did more for himself, he desired to do more for Him to whom he owed his all. That should be the rule of our conduct. Do our riches increase? There should be a proportionate increase of what we dedicate to God. A matter, this, little considered by many.

III. GOOD WISHES ARE NEVER LOST. David told Nathan the prophet his desire to rear a temple for the Lord. We are not surprised to find that the prophet, with prompt approbation, encouraged the king to the great undertaking. The work was good, but was David the man to undertake it? To Nathan at night came a Divine intimation that he was not. To war's rough, sad business he was Divinely bidden. But because of its connection with its inevitable horrors he was bidden back from the pious enterprise on which his sublime and earnest ambition was set. What a verdict is thus passed upon war! What then? Does David's pious intention count for nothing? It counts for much. Beside which he had his own important special work to do, to give his people rest from their foes and consolidate the kingdom of Israel. His good wish had not been in vain. He was forbidden to build the temple, but God would build him a family, and the world's needed glorious Deliverer was to be the "offspring of David." A greater honour than he sought came to him. God was pleased with his pious wish, and fulfilled it in a nobler way. Think not little, then, of good intentions that are hindered from becoming more than intentions. You may have desired to do some larger work for God; you may have intended to consecrate your whole life to some holy ministry — to the ministry of the Gospel in this land or far hence among the heathen; but you were hindered. In circumstances God said, "No, not in this way; in some other"; and, perhaps, you look back and say, "My life is so unlike what I had hoped. I drew the consecrated plan, and God's viewless, but undeniable, hand blotted it out. My wish was all in vain." No, say not that. The desire was good. It will be fulfilled; if not here, yet in higher service than otherwise had been yours — in that bright and holy city beyond death. Cherish large and holy desires. Precious seeds, you may be unable to sow them in any human heart, in any field of earth; but heaven shall receive them. There they shall come to richest harvest. You shall find them again — not baffled and scattered, as here, but in noblest service, in heaven's eternal praise. David was not to build the temple. But he knew it was to be built. The honour was reserved for his son. "He," said God, "shall build an house for My name." If hindered from an undertaking ourselves let us remember that our prayers and effort may help another to do it.

(G. T. Coster.)

People
David, Israelites, Nathan
Places
Egypt, Jerusalem
Topics
Aside, Kindness, Love, Loving, Lovingkindness, Mercy, Predecessor, Steadfast, Turn
Outline
1. Nathan first approving the purpose of David, to build God a house
3. after by the word of God forbids him
11. He promises him blessings and benefits in his seed
16. David's prayer and thanksgiving

Dictionary of Bible Themes
1 Chronicles 17:13

     1085   God, love of
     8136   knowing God, effects

1 Chronicles 17:4-14

     5467   promises, divine

1 Chronicles 17:7-14

     5366   king

1 Chronicles 17:10-14

     5089   David, significance

1 Chronicles 17:11-13

     2215   Christ, Son of David
     7115   children of God

1 Chronicles 17:11-14

     2078   Christ, sonship of
     2366   Christ, prophecies concerning

1 Chronicles 17:12-13

     1040   God, fatherhood

1 Chronicles 17:12-14

     5581   throne

1 Chronicles 17:13-14

     5734   relationships

Library
Amasiah
'Amasiah, the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself unto the Lord.'--1 CHRON. xvii, 16. This is a scrap from the catalogue of Jehoshaphat's 'mighty men of valour'; and is Amasiah's sole record. We see him for a moment and hear his eulogium and then oblivion swallows him up. We do not know what it was that he did to earn it. But what a fate, to live to all generations by that one sentence! I. Cheerful self-surrender the secret of all religion. The words of our text contain a metaphor naturally
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Promise in 2 Samuel, Chap. vii.
The Messianic prophecy, as we have seen, began at a time long anterior to that of David. Even in Genesis, we perceived [Pg 131] it, increasing more and more in distinctness. There is at first only the general promise that the seed of the woman should obtain the victory over the kingdom of the evil one;--then, that the salvation should come through the descendants of Shem;--then, from among them Abraham is marked out,--of his sons, Isaac,--from among his sons, Jacob,--and from among the twelve sons
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Cavils of the Pharisees Concerning Purification, and the Teaching of the Lord Concerning Purity - the Traditions Concerning Hand-Washing' and Vows. '
As we follow the narrative, confirmatory evidence of what had preceded springs up at almost every step. It is quite in accordance with the abrupt departure of Jesus from Capernaum, and its motives, that when, so far from finding rest and privacy at Bethsaida (east of the Jordan), a greater multitude than ever had there gathered around Him, which would fain have proclaimed Him King, He resolved on immediate return to the western shore, with the view of seeking a quieter retreat, even though it were
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Divine Jesus.
Jehovah-Jesus: John 1:1-18. the intimacy of John, John 13:23. 19:26. 20:2. 21:7, 20. "with Jesus," John 18:15.--John writes of Jesus--- when he wrote--getting the range--his literary style--the beginning--the Word--this was Jesus--the tragic tone. God's Spokesman: the Creator was Jehovah--- Jehovah is Jesus--the Spokesman--Old Testament revelations, Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the elders of Israel, Isaiah, Ezekiel,--Whom these saw--various ways of speaking--John's Gospel
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

Chronicles
The comparative indifference with which Chronicles is regarded in modern times by all but professional scholars seems to have been shared by the ancient Jewish church. Though written by the same hand as wrote Ezra-Nehemiah, and forming, together with these books, a continuous history of Judah, it is placed after them in the Hebrew Bible, of which it forms the concluding book; and this no doubt points to the fact that it attained canonical distinction later than they. Nor is this unnatural. The book
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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