Daniel P. Barron

You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.

Monday, February 4, 2019 

Svarthol: Heh, I love it, Daniel.
Craig: I personally liked footnote IV.
Svarthol: Indeed.

Daniel: Some stuff I correct if it's obvious what they meant, but I couldn't say on that one.

Beme: David did right in the eyes of God but that he shed blood and was disqualified thereby from building the temple. Is it just Uriah's blood that was not right to shed or others that he shed over the course of his warrior life?

Daniel: That wasn't a punishment.

Svarthol: It might be to some.

Daniel: And it was that he was a man of war.

Svarthol: Indeed.

Daniel: 1 Chronicles 28:

3 But God said to me, ‘You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.’

1 Kings 5:

3 You know how my father David could not build a house for the name of the Lord his God because of the wars which were fought against him on every side, until the Lord put his foes under the soles of his feet.

Beme: You could argue at least that God didn't want David's reputation as a man of war and a shedder of blood to be associated with the temple though no? Or something to that effect if not that precisely. Also, 2 Samuel 16:

5 Now when King David came to Bahurim, there was a man from the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei the son of Gera, coming from there. He came out, cursing continuously as he came. 6 And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David. And all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. 7 Also Shimei said thus when he cursed: “Come out! Come out! You bloodthirsty man, you rogue! 8 The Lord has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and the Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son. So now you are caught in your own evil, because you are a bloodthirsty man!”

9 Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please, let me go over and take off his head!”

10 But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse, because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David.’ Who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’ ”

11 And David said to Abishai and all his servants, “See how my son who came from my own body seeks my life. How much more now may this Benjamite? Let him alone, and let him curse; for so the Lord has ordered him. 12 It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day.”

Does this set of verses mean David did more wrong than just Uriah and Bathsheba?

Daniel: No. Not in what God commanded.

Craig: I find your view of God very odd at times Daniel. He seems random and unrelatable. He makes people do things that he hates and even punished them for it, commands David to go to war but then refuses him to build a temple to him because of it. I guess we can only hope and pray God didn't decide to arbitrarily choose us to do something he hates.
Beme: Even if you take you shall not kill to be you shall not murder isn't Shimei saying that David broke that commandment? (Some other translations rendering bloodthirsty man straight up as murderer)
Craig: Sorry to change topics a bit, but I'm curious Daniel how you see the relationship between the Old Testament and New Testament.

Daniel: The Old Testament and New Testament are both the Word of God. And David was commanded to kill; of course it wasn't wrong.

Craig: I thought you said he makes people sin though? i Maybe I'm mixing your view up with someone else's though. Why did David's warfare prevent him from building the temple? I mean, do you know why that barred him from building it?

Daniel: David's warfare wasn't sin. It wasn't sin that prevented him from building the temple. God wanted the temple built under a peaceful king, during times of peace. (apparently)

Craig: I wasn't referring to the warfare as sin. I thought I remembered something from a different conversation. If I remember I'll tell you. Yeah that's in the passage, I just want to know what that means to you. Was it to set the tone for the next peaceful era or what?

Daniel: I don't know.

  1. On God causing people to sin:

    Yes. He causes even the evil things. (Isaiah 45:7) He causes most people to not believe. (Romans 9:22)  ^

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