These verses of Scripture retell the story of when David desired to build a temple to house the Ark of the Covenant. At first Nathan said to build the temple (without consulting the Lord first); then the Lord spake unto Nathan and forbid that David should build the temple, but that David’s seed should build it.

Why was David (a man after God’s own heart) forbidden to build the Lord’s temple? Solomon answers that question for us in I Kings 5:3 – “Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house unto the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side….” David was a man of war and in this passage provides us with a picture of God the Father. Exodus 15:3 – “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.” David was at war with the Philistines: who does God the Father war against? Psalms 7:11 – “God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” Who are the wicked? Those that rebel against God and do not keep his Word – those who sin against God: Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the Glory of God…. We are all “by nature the children of wrath,” and at war with the Almighty.

So in this respect David could not build the temple of God. The temple was where God met with Israel in peace. A man of war cannot build a place of peace.

Why then was Solomon allowed to build the temple?

Verses 11 and 12 of I Chronicles 17: “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. He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever.” With New Testament eyes, we know this seed is Christ and the temple is His church. Zechariah 6:12 states: “Behold the man whose name is the BRANCH…and he shall build the temple of the LORD.” Another name for Christ – this Branch – is Wisdom. Wisdom “shall build the temple of the LORD.” Solomon, the wisest king to rule Israel, is here a picture of Christ. In the eternal counsel of God, Wisdom declared that by the “obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

Solomon serving as the picture of Christ was allowed peace throughout Israel during his reign and was allowed to build the temple of the LORD. Christ Jesus came and took upon him the image of man. Lived under the law and fulfilled its requirements then suffered and died – the Just for the unjust – that peace might be made between God and men. Christ, Wisdom, has by his own blood made peace between God and men. He is the Branch that has built the temple of God with His elect church: “to whom be glory for ever and ever” (Gal. 1:5).