And David said to Solomon: “My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house to the name of the Lord my god; but the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘You have shed much blood and have made great wars; you shall not build a house for My name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in My sight. (I Chronicles 22:7)
Why did the Lord disqualify David from building the temple on the basis that he’d shed much blood?I mean, isn’t this the same God who told Saul, through the prophet Samuel, to attack Amalek, and utterly destroy them.
…The same God who slew the firstborn of Egypt when he delivered the nation from slavery.
At the start of Psalm 144 David even says:
Blessed be the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for WAR, and my fingers for battle…
How can we make sense of God telling David that he was not to build the temple because of war, when God’s hand was clearly behind David’s wars?
It seems kind of paradoxical.
I’m going to suggest that we need to start by understanding that, with Israel, God separated out to himself a nation, …AS OPPOSED TO INDIVIDUALS from ALL nations (as is the case with the church).
So God had to build them as a NATION, protecting and establishing them in the midst of a fallen and violent world. And this involved warfare!But, while God has been behind war (either offensively or defensively) many times in the Old Testament, I believe that his words to David convey something very important.
They convey that war is not his perfect way. That the heart of God is for peace. In a fallen world he may have to be the righteous judge and make war, but his heart is for peace.
This is clearly shown forth in what God will ultimately bring about on the earth. He will judge the nations in the tribulation and pour out his wrath upon them for all their evil, yet in the final state of things there will be no war. There will not even be death nor crying any more, for this former state of things will have passed away.
Prophecy tells us that one day God will make his home amongst men, and his perfect way of peace will prevail.So, we understand that with Israel God was building a nation, and by doing so in amongst a fallen world conflict and war was an inevitable part of his dealings.
But what about Christians?
What are God’s purposes concerning us?
And where should Christians stand when it comes to war?
To provide some degree of answer to this I’m going to look at:
• The nature of the new covenant, and what it means to be a citizen of God’s kingdom
• The pattern of the early church
• The change that occurred from the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine
• Some aspects of the situation today