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1Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” 3Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.


4But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: 5Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” 8Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 9and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 16Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

“Everyone has two biological parents, four grandparents and eight great-grandparents (that's three generations back). Go back further, though, and the number of ancestors multiplies exponentially.

Count five generations back, and you'll have 32 direct ancestors. Ten, and you've got 4,096. By the 20th generation, you've topped a million: that's 1,048,576 ancestors, to be exact. Your family tree is looking more like a forest.

We think of a dynasty as being confined to a single line of progeny. But that's not how the Creator has made us!


--For a chart listing these expanding numbers, visit: dgmweb.net. Retrieved June 6, 2017




We just cannot resist wanting to build or commemorate. Certainly, that is what King David desired. But then God speaks. God will not be sheltered or indebted to David, or any of us. Instead, God sends us in this season a house, but in a wholly different way, from the house of David comes Jesus, the Messiah.

God is always with us and will not be contained. Yes, we come to church to give thanks and pray, but then the mission field begins. We are to go and move about, knowing that God moves before us and with us. As we come ever closer to Christmas, we remember that Jesus was born in a stable, and later in life had “nowhere to lay his head.”

However, God is Emmanuel…with us, house or no.

Peace and blessings this day.
Pastor V.