There are two things that natural Israel obtained by way of concession. These were never in the Lord’s mind because both things supplanted the Lord’s purpose. One was to have a king like the rest of the nations. The other to build a “house” for the Lord.

In the person of Samuel, the Lord responded to the nagging and pestering for a “king”, and told Samuel to give them a king. But the Lord clarified to Samuel that the people were not rejecting Samuel, but the Lord Himself, who was their King. But in giving them their desire, the Lord told Samuel to make them understand the oppressive, liberty destroying thing that they were asking. It was explained and they said “give us our king anyway”. You may directly compare this episode to Abram and Sarah, who failed in faith and patience concerning an heir to be born to them. They conspired and produced Ishmael, via Hagar, which was none of the Lord’s doing. When Isaac was born, they now had a problem. It was a problem the Lord solved with as much equity as possible, but the problem was a lasting trouble that survives to this day. Israel, in getting their “king”, created lasting trouble that persisted and drove them to the final declaration. When confronted with their true King in the flesh, they utterly rejected Him, declaring, “we have no king but Caesar”. Whenever you read of the kings of Israel and Judah, whether “good or bad”, you do well to keep in mind, that this was never the Lord’s intention. “Christianity” today mirrors nearly exactly, all that was shown before in these shadows.

When David was king, he hatched up in his mind, the idea to build a house for the Lord. The Lord had amply declared that He dwells in the heavens. The Lord went so far as to say, “the heaven, and the heaven OF heavens are not sufficient to contain Me. Where is this house you propose to build me?”. Then the Lord told David, “I will build you a house”. The Lord declared that this would be accomplished in one who would be born in David’s house, and that this one would assume the everlasting throne. This was not a throne yet to come. It is the throne referenced in the declaration, “Thy throne , O God, is from everlasting”. Later Christ would point out that David saw this in the Spirit. David saw and recorded, that “The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies to be your footstool”. And so the perplexing and abandoned question, “If David calls him Lord, how is he David’s son?”.

When Solomon assumed the throne of David, another mistake was made. They blew the trumpet and declared that God had, in Solomon, fulfilled all His promise to David. And so, another mistake was made, and a temple was built in concession. But when this pile of sticks and stones was completed, the ark of the covenant was brought into it with pomp and ceremony. Notably, the only thing in the ark was the tables of the law. Conspicuous by absence; Life (manna) and resurrection (Aaron’s rod). So many generations later, when the heir of all the promises made to David (and to all flesh for that matter), was made flesh and tabernacled among them, they had another problem. This Christ, in whom all of the fullness of God dwelt, who had declared “the Father dwells in Me”, and who declared, “I am the life (bread) and the resurrection (Aaron’s rod), stood in front of the pile of stick and stone that housed nothing but the handwritten ordinances, declared, “Destroy this temple and I will build it again in three days”. Jesus completely and 100% was identifying Himself as the heir of the everlasting throne, and the house the Lord promised David. The accusation that He had blasphemed the temple was 100% a lie because Jesus was not in the remotest sense referring to the pile of sticks and stones. he was speaking of Himself. And so, when He declared that “in my Father’s house are many houses, and I go to prepare a place for you, and going, I will come again and receive you to myself”, in so declaring, Jesus was telling us that we would be added to Him, the Father’s house. A house not built with hands. Sadly, many have not this knowledge. Paul had to write to believers, “Do you not know that you are the temple? and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (which is the irreducible minimum definition of the temple). Today many erroneously call the modern day high places and groves, “the Lord’s house”, and they foolishly look for “the temple” to be built again, meaning another pile of sticks and stones.

All of the promises of God are “yes and amen” in Christ. All. There remains nothing more to be fulfilled outside of Him, or in Him. It is finished. You are complete in Him. Either you see it or you don’t. Those that don’t or won’t, are in the precarious state that John the Baptist was in for a short time, “Are you He? or do we look for another?”. The flesh is weak indeed, but we do not any longer halt between opinions. The day is fully come. True worshipers worship God in the Spirit. Not hailing Him from afar, but from His very bosom.