1 Chronicles 22:8 (NKJV) 8 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.
God called David a man after His own heart.
Not only was David a man after God’s heart, though. He was also a man who took his walk with God very seriously. He put God above all else.
As David grew older in years, he felt a desire to build a temple; a place for God to dwell.
So, he set about gathering materials and other resources for that task.
But God stopped him in his tracks, telling him that he could not be the one to build the temple due to the fact that he had blood on his hands. He was a warrior who had killed many people.
He told David that Solomon, his son, would be the one to do this.
David accepted God’s choice. And instead of being upset and acting angrily about it, he spoke with Solomon and told him of this occurrence, and what God had told him.
In other words, he handled it like a mature man of God; a mature believer.
Despite being told that he would not be the one to build the temple, David continued to help and guide Solomon, making him aware of the enormity of the task, and the importance of it.
He also continued to gather materials and make all of the necessary arrangements for skilled laborers, and people to oversee the project to its completion.
It’s good for us to understand this, and to apply it to our own lives as children of God. We can learn from David and gain understanding as to how to handle situations in our own lives that may be similar in some ways.
God desires us to be mature children; people whose faith in Him is so great that we don’t let things like this throw us off and cause us to behave badly or in immature ways.
He wants us to be mature believers. So, let’s allow Him to mold us and shape us into just that.
If you’d like to learn more about this, we recently recorded a video on the topic. You can watch it by clicking here.