July 10, 2022
Daily Devotion:
"The Ark of the Covenant... "
1 Chronicles 17:1
New International Version
17 After David was settled in his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.”
What in the world would the sovereign Creator of the universe need with an earthly dwelling? How, possibly, could an unearthly Spirit in habit any man-made dwelling! Yet God himself seems not to be bothered by David's idea of building him a special dwelling place. Indeed, God affirms that he has been “dwelling" in a tent ever since the Israelites came out of Egypt. The fact that God is an omnipresent, ethereal Spirit does not preclude his special presence being associated with either a tabernacle or a temple. Although God declares that his “house" is not to be built by David himself, God clearly blesses David's dream of erecting a permanent structure to replace the portable tabernacle. Of course it is not the temple itself, but David's sense of spiritual priorities that God truly is blessing. Who else sits in an elegant palace and feels guilty about God's ark being housed in a tent!
It's an interesting thought, isn't it? If God is to have a “dwelling” of any kind, should the house of any man be grander than the house of God? Think about our own houses, for example. How do they compare with God's house? No, not some familiar “church house." It is not bricks and mortar that matter. What matters is how the time, attention, and money we have spent on our homes compares with the time, attention, and money we have spent on honoring God and furthering his kingdom. Are we living in the lap of luxury (even relatively speaking) while ignoring far greater spiritual priorities? If our homes, in particular, are grander than whatever it is that we do to honor God, how do we expect to be blessed?
The compelling question is: How much of my time éach day is devoted to maintaining my home and how much to honoring God's?
