Mower County transcript., 1903-10-07
TH B s. SCHOOL.
LESSON tI, FOUR FL QUARTER, INTER-
fsATiO OfgAL \ SERIES, OCT. j i

II OfAL SERIES, OCT u
Text Of the Iesson, II Sam. vii, ale.
Memory Verses, 9GoIden Text,
8 II Sam. vii, CONNIE entary Pre-
pared by Rev. ID. NJ. stearns. 81
iCopyrigh 1905, by American Press Association
In this remarkable chapter, the
whole Of which we. are asked to study,
we. have three sections verses / to. 8,
sDayid's purpose and Nathan's approx
al; to IL, the Lords message to-
David through Nathan; 1S to 90, Da-
vid's communion with God. AS David
says in verse %, Israel was unlike any
other nation on earth, inasmuch as
God had redeemed them to make them
a special people unto Himself, to do
great things for them, that through
them He might be- made Known to-
other nations. ''That the world may
believe, that the. world may know
John xvii, 21, '23)-this is the desire
of God as revealed in all Scripture.
Whether it be through an individual,
as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jo-
seph, Daniel, David or any other king,
priest or prophet, or through Israel as
a nation, or the church as the body Of
Christ, God desires to. reveal Himself
in some measure as He fully did in
Christ Jesus, md the great question
eyer is, ''Who, then, is willing to con-
secrate his -sesvice this day unto the
Lord?" Il Chron xxx, 3. -
If there is the least leaning to our
own understanding there will be fail
ure. It must be the wisdom of God,
and that alone, from first to last. In
our last lesson we saw how the wis
dom of David and all his counselors
only brought trouble, but as soon as
they obeyed God all was we'll with
them. Now, David has suggestion
which commends itself even to the
prophet Nathan, who says to David,
''Go, do all that is in thine heart, for
the Lord is with thee" (verse 81; but
neither the king nor the prophet had
the mind of God. The verses assigned
as our lesson give us the mind Of God
as revealed to Nathan, and through
him to David, which both accept as
soon as they know it. At this day
the church is full of plans which she
is laboring to work out and which
may prove only wood hay and stubble
Il Cor. iii, 11-15), because they are like
David and Nathan agreeing to build
a temple without seeking first to know
the mind of God. The building of a
temple was all right and would come
to pass in Gods time and way, and the
Lord actually gave David the plan of
1t by His spirit Il Chron. xviii, II. II,
19), but now David must learn some
thing more important and far reaching,
and the message of God through the
prophet is, ''The Lord telleth thee that
He will make thee an house.,
and thy throne shall be established
forever (verses II, 16). So David is
told, to his great surprise, of an ever
lasting kingdom, and King, his Son,
who shall reign forever. In other
words. David is told that the seed of
the woman who is to bruise the ser
pent's head, the seed of Abraham who
is to bless ali nations, is to be his seed
also and sit upon his throne. 70 49,
That David so understood it is evident
from verse 10, and from Acts ii, 80,
where we read that he knew that God
had sworn with an oath to him that
of the fruit Of his loins, according to
the flesh, He would raise up Christ to
sit on his throne See this confirmed
by the prophets and by Gabriel, the
mighty angel in lisa. tx, 6, Z; Jer. xiii,
s, 6; Eek. xxxvii, 21, %; Luke i, 80,
B3. See also in Matt. i, 1, and Rev.
xxi, 16, the Lord Jesus spoken Of in
this relation, and let us in obedience
to lisa. xii, 81, pray for the time when
the covenant with David shall be full
filled. When the Lord Jesus came in
humiliation the kingdom here de-
scribed was at hand, but when the
people to whom He came rejected Him
and determined to kill Him He then
taught them that the kingdom would
be postponed till His return duke
xix, 11-10. He found the house DESC
late and left it desolate till His re
turn because they would not accept
their deliYerer (Matt. xiii, 39, ,39).
Our. lesson is not the story Of Sol
amon, but of Christ, and of Him not in
relation to the church, but to Israel in
her future glory. .- r. i.% y +,
If any object to the words in verse Il,
IF he. commit iniquity," as not being
applicable to Christ, it may interest
such to know that Bishop Horsley
translates the passage, when guilt is
laid upon him. and Dr. Clarke reads
It, "In suffering for iniquity.'' It is
Christ, according to Isa. lii, suffering
Tor Israel's and for our sins. Bishop
Horsley translates the last clause of
verse 10, And this is the arrangement
about the Man. Luther has written
upon this verse: .'Thou speakest Of an
eternal kingdom In which no man can
be king. He must be God and Man,
for he is to be My Son, and yet he is
to be King forever" Let Berean Chris
tians consider well the three uncondi-
Honal covenants Of Scripture made by
God with Noah and Abraham and
David, and may the comfort that came