FBC Daily Devotional – January 25, 2022

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you. Hope you're doing well today. Got your week off to a good start yesterday and have gotten into God's Word and perhaps today you read in our Bible reading plan in 1 Chronicles chapters 16 through 18 and then a couple of verses in the book of Proverbs chapter 19, but I want to zero in on this this little interchange between David and his trusted spiritual advisor.

David’s Burden for the Ark and the Desire to Build a Temple

So David is, you know, the king and he's burdened about the fact that he lives in a palace, he lives in a decent home, but the Ark of the Covenant, this piece of furniture that God had Moses build in the wilderness has been, it's been dwelling in tents for years and years and years and he brings that out in verse 1 of 1 Chronicles 17.

David says, see now, I dwell in a house of cedar and you know, you can imagine the the relative luxury of that in that day and time. This would have been a stone home that would have been paneled with cedar paneling.

And if you have a cedar, if you've had or ever had a cedar closet or something like that in your home, you can appreciate the the fragrant ambience of such a home. That was quite a luxurious dwelling at that in that particular time.

So he says, I dwell in a house of cedar but the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord is under tent curtains. He says this is a, this is an awful thing. Now implied in that statement is a desire that David has to build a temple, a permanent structure in which the Ark of the Covenant can be placed and this would be the place of worship that God's people would come to and so forth.

So, I mean, this is a noble desire. It's a good and noble desire. And so he's telling, David is telling this to his spiritual advisor, a man by the name of Nathan. And Nathan, you know, as a good spiritual advisor will do, he listens to the plan.

It's reasonable. He considers the legitimacy of the need and it is, I mean, tent fabrics and all that wear out and it surely would be more beneficial if the Ark of the Covenant were in a stone structure and protected from the elements and it'd be a permanent place for that thing to set, to sit.

So he's considering the reason, the reasonability of the plan, the legitimacy of the need and and the motives of the planner. You know, what are David's motives here? What does David have to get out of this?

Well, he's got no ulterior motives here. David's not going to make himself wealthy in this thing. Not at all. In fact, David's going to give of his own wealth to make sure that this temple actually gets built.

So there's nothing like that going on. No ulterior motives. Everything seems to line up for Nathan to give the green light and he does. Nathan is a man of God. He's in tune with the Lord. He's a prophet of the Lord and a good, reliable, trustworthy spiritual advisor.

And by the way, you'll remember that it was this Nathan who confronted David when he sinned with Bathsheba. Same day, same Nathan. So Nathan, he hears all of this and in verse 2, he says, do all that is within your heart for God is with you in this.

All right, good to go. I've got the green light. My spiritual advisor has sounded, I've sounded this out by him and he says go for it. God's with you in it. Well, the problem is that this wasn't God's will for David.

It was God's will that a temple be built eventually, but it wasn't God's will for David to do the building of that temple. So later that night, Nathan, sleeping soundly, hears a message from God. He comes to God and says, God comes to Nathan and says, go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord, you shall not build me a house to dwell in.

He goes on to explain, I haven't dwelt in a house for all these years and you don't have to build me one now. But he goes on to explain that the one after you, your son, is going to build me a house. All right, so now Nathan, Nathan's reputation is on the line.

He's the spiritual advisor, the one that's been trusted to share the word of God, a word from the Lord. And to give direction to David, who has asked him advice. And he's given him the green light. He said, go ahead, do all that's within your heart.

God is with you in this thing. And now the Lord comes to Nathan and says, I'm not. This isn't my will for David. So go and tell him, don't do this. So what's Nathan to do? What's Nathan to do? He's gonna eat crow.

Because a good spiritual advisor, a good advisor, will still be sensitive to correction, to the need for recalculation, readjustment, or completely abandoning the advice that he's already given. Sometimes, somebody who's given spiritual advice will leave the counseling session and, you know, reflect on it.

And then some other information may come into his purview. And he has to go back to that person he advised and say, no, you know what? I was wrong in that. I need to change my advice to you. Don't go there.

Don't go that route. Change course. And that's exactly what Nathan did. He acknowledged his error and he corrects his advice accordingly. This comes out in the rest of our reading today. He goes back to David and says, no, you're not to do this.

And wonderfully, David doesn't question Nathan. I mean, he doesn't accuse him of being, you know, less than forthright, less than honest, or anything like that. No. David accepts that word from the Lord and submits to it.

Good spiritual advisors, they will listen carefully. They will weigh the reasonability of a plan, the legitimacy of a need, the motives behind the plan. They will offer their advice, but they will also, they will also be sensitive to what God has to say and even be open to correction and changing their advice if need be.

So I hope you have good advisors. In the multitude of counselors, there is wisdom. Be sure you get the good kind of counselors, those who will gladly share with you the Word of God, the will of God, as they perceive it.

Wisdom in the Multitude of Counselors

Well, Father, I pray that we would surround ourselves with good advisors, with people who are sensitive to your will and to your Word, and we would weigh heavily their counsel and their advice and accept it readily.

So, Lord, bless us with that, we pray. And to the extent that perhaps we have surrounded ourselves with those who would lead us astray, I pray that you would give us the wisdom to break from such counsel.

This we pray in Jesus' name. All right. Well, have a good rest of your Tuesday, and I trust that our God will bless you in it. Good day.