1 Chronicles 17:11-15 And it shall come to pass, when your days be expired that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will raise up your seed after you… In the Divine communication made to David through the Prophet Nathan, there is a tone of very tender consideration, and an evident desire to solace and comfort the aged servant of God, whose request it was found necessary to refuse. In one way the desire of his heart could be met. He should have an immortality in his descendants and in his dynasty. He should live on in his son, and accomplish even his purpose concerning the temple. And he may have, before he dies, the comforting assurance that God's purposes were set upon his son, and the Divine favour would overshadow his reign. Those gracious Divine purposes are indicated in these verses. Man's brief life on the earth, which so seldom permits him to accomplish any great thing, would be very painful to him were it not for the hope he cherishes that he will live on in his children, and by them his great life-work may win completion. We cannot bear to think that death cuts off our influence and spoils our work. Man can scarcely say a thing that hurts him more in the saying than this, "My purposes are broken off." What is called fame may be won by but the few among even good men; but every true-hearted and earnest servant of God may be sure that his personal impress is an abiding one; it will get its continuance in those who have known him and live after him; his spirit, his principles, his witness, even in measure his experience will be still working. Philips Brooks well says, "No man or woman of the humblest sort can really be strong, gentle, pure, and good, without the world being the better for it, without somebody being helped and comforted by the very existence of that goodness." Illustrate how a man lives on in a book he has written, or a building he has raised. So a man lives on, oftentimes, in the son who takes up his work. David really lived on in Solomon, and did, in fact, build the temple, seeing that Solomon used the materials he had gathered, and carried out the plans which he had arranged. It is interesting to notice what in the temple which was actually reared was due to the genius and consecration of David, and what in it bore the personal stamp of Solomon. "The design fixed upon indicates fully the spirit of the times and of the king. A general relation to the older tabernacle must be carefully preserved - the outline of the form, the proportions, and the principal division of the building into holy place and most holy must be continued; but where Moses permitted ornamentation and decoration it was developed, and almost carried to an extravagant extent." In view of God's unfolding to David his purposes concerning Solomon, we may learn that it is full of comfort to the man who is passing away from earth to be assured that his son will virtually have - I. HIS WORK TO DO; at least, in its more prominent and important aspects. Certainly his work in the large sense of living for God, and doing his will. II. That he will have, if he seeks it, the same GRACE FOR THE DOING. God's years are throughout all generations, and will give our children the joy and help of the same fatherly relations that he has given us (ver. 13). It may be shown that, still, saints pass away from earth, made willing to leave their life-work incomplete, and their most cherished desires unfulfilled, and restfully saying in their hearts, "God's grace remains, though I pass away. That grace is working on, and working out, the great purpose, and will surely raise up other agencies." David may die, but he may know this - the temple will be built; the kingdom he had founded shall be secured, and even for him the veil shall be uplifted, and he shall see the glory of this Divine purpose. In a high and spiritual sense David's kingdom shall, in his greater Son, be established for ever and ever. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom. |
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