Sometimes God Says “No”
2 Samuel 7:1-17
When God says: “No”
(Slide 1) God sometimes say no
We assume that the things we want are good for us. In our minds they are things God also wants for us. When we walk closely with Lord and at rare times even when we don’t, it is often true. God wants good for us and sometimes the things we want are in alignment with His will. When we don’t get them, we then keep on trying to get them, believing that God wants it for us as well and will eventually bless our efforts. We tell ourselves to just not give up. And yes, sometimes trying harder gets the job done.
But it should be in our repertoire of understanding that like children, unable to see all the consequences of the things they want, we too sometimes want things that we think will be good for us but aren’t. And sometimes a door closing is not evil trying to steal what God wants for you. Sometimes it is God who knows better and says no. It is hard to accept when you believe the thing you want will be really good for you and for others. It must have been hard for David…
David wants to build a temple. His motivation sounds like a good one. He lives in a beautiful palace, but the place people meet with God, who is above the king, is a mere tent. It is said that God had 4 earthly “zip codes”. (Slide 2 – Eden) The first one was the Garden of Eden. In Genesis we read that God walked and communed with mankind in the Garden of Eden. (Slide 3 – Tent of Meeting) The next dwelling was the tent of meeting as God traveled with his people to the promised land. The next address was the temple. Up to the life of Jesus the temple and its rebuilt version was the place where people came to sacrifice and pray. God did move into the temple (so to speak) and blessed it even though Solomon had already admitted that God cannot be contained by the temple. (Slide 4 – Jesus) The next address was Jesus. In Him God dwelled in all His fullness. He became the new meeting place where God meets and cleanses his people. His death and resurrection through faith makes us part of his body…(Slide 5 – the people) which brings me to a fifth address…us the church. After Jesus ascended back to heaven, the way in which He is still present and meets people is through His Holy Spirit that dwells in all that believe.
So it is clear that what David wanted was indeed part of God’s plan. He did not even want a bad thing. But a good thing can be a bad thing if it does not align with God’s timeline and plans for a person. And so, God told David, a man after his own heart, “no”.
Toddlers do not take “no” well. On a good day a toddler might be able to admit that their parents know best (teenagers lose that ability completely) but when it comes to a “no” it is extremely difficult for them to make peace with the fact that their parents know best. You will find videos on social media of toddlers throwing temper tantrums because their parents would not allow them to play with a knife or set something on fire. We laugh at them. Why? Because we think we are much more mature and wiser.
But we should guard against toddler behaviour when it comes to God saying “no”. Some people then declare God either irrelevant or not caring for them. I imagine that when a toddler grows up, maybe even one that loves knives and owns many, he would one day look at a video of himself throwing a tantrum and laugh and be thankful that he was denied playing with them at that time. He will realize that his parent’s “no” was actually a blessing. Unthinkable as it might be, when you one day get to share God’s all-knowing perspective over history and your life, you will also fall on your knees and thank God He said no. I mean, sometimes even in this life, we look back at things we really wanted and didn’t get and say: “Thank God I did not get that!”.
(Slide 6) God sometimes says: “Enough”
For a very long time in human history, having too little was the norm. So, for survival, our cavemen ancestors were programmed to gather and hunt as much as they could. You never knew when you could be injured or whether the winter would make it impossible to hunt enough. Now, through technology and intergenerational wealth in the first world we have for the first time reached an era where we often experience having too much. Health problems used to be caused by malnutrition; now they are obesity related. Environmental challenges used to revolve around how we can utilize rivers more, now they revolve around how we can spare fish populations and rivers more. We realize this and put measures in place but it is like we have to battle this caveman program in our genes that still tells us: “You need to do more, get more, be more”. It makes it very difficult to discern what is actually enough for us. We need divine help. God helps us sometimes be saying: “enough”. It is, in a way, what He told David.
When God responds to David, he does not only say “no”, He also says enough. And He does that by giving David a kind of narrative inventory of his life. He reminds him of his humble beginnings and what it took to get where he is. God then also gives David a preview of his future. This adds to the “enough” picture. Indirectly God says to David: ‘You don’t get to build the temple because you have been given enough to do and there are enough other things left for you (and others) to do”
I think one prayer we should all be praying in an age of abundance is: “Lord, show me what is enough”. And when God tells us “enough”, we should consider it a blessing rather than a curse. Yes, God sometimes also tell us: “not enough”. “You are capable of more” or: “You were destined for more”. But when he tells us “enough” we should make our peace with it. The secret of life is not in having and owning more but to enjoy what you do own to the fullest. You cannot do that if you have too much stuff.
(Slide 7) God sometimes says: Someone else
God also tells David; “Someone else”. In this case it was his own son. Now we all want good things for our children so it might have been consoling to David to hear this in this sense. But there was also another reason this was not something to cry about. See, Solomon being able to build the temple and put the time and energy in it, was the result of his father having fought difficult wars to establish dominance and peace. In this sense, the sense of clearing the way, David already built the temple, before he was even aware of it. Later on, you will read that David gathered materials and laid some groundwork which gave Solomon a flying start to this huge project.
The New Testament gives us a further impetus to rejoice even when God tells us: “Someone else”. See how Paul describes the church as the body of Christ. When one part suffers…all suffer. But when one part benefits in a healthy body…all parts benefit. We should learn to have empathy with those who suffer but equally important it is to rejoice when something good happens to one of us. Even when that something good is something we wanted for ourselves and did not get. Like David’s victories were celebrated as Israel’s victories, the victories of our bothers and sisters in Christ, should be seen as ours. Make a point to celebrate with people who win just as you should make a point to empathize with people who suffer. (And not only when they win the lotto…we all know why you then would pretend to be a person’s best friend 😊)
Close
It is always a good thing to ask oneself what a passage teach us about God. From this account, I got that God sometimes says “no”, sometimes “enough” and sometimes: ”Someone else”. He seems to give David these answers when he wants to build the temple. But I needed more proof, so I asked myself if God ever gave these answers to Jesus and if Jesus ever gave these answers to people. Yes, they did.
(Slide 8 – this Cup)When Jesus asked his Father that the cup might pass Him buy, God had to say no. (Slide 9 – Enough) When Roman cruelty and power was at its peak Jesus said: “enough” and invited people to become part of a Kingdom that is different. And if you should ask yourself: “Can I pay the price for my sins?”, the answer the gospel gives you is: “No, someone else can…and did” (Slide 10). Jesus did and paid what we were unable to do. He still does. And this “no”, this “enough” and this “someone else” is the best news ever. The greatest blessing we could have received.
We might not always like the answers God gives us, but we must trust that they are always the best for us. That is what spiritual maturity looks like.
Amen