The Peaceful Nature Of Christ's Kingdom
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesA querist asks, “David once thought of the idea to build a house in order to properly honor the Lord but was not permitted to do so because he was a man of war (1 Chronicles 22:7-8). My question is, If God was with David during his battle campaigns giving him victory over his enemies (cf. 1 Chronicles 14:10; 2 Samuel 8:6 ASV), why was he not allowed to honor God by building him a house?”
A reasonable explanation is that the temple was designed by God to be a “type” of the church (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:16; Ephesians 2:22; 1 Peter 2:5). The Lord thus chose Solomon to build the temple instead of David — a man whose reign would depict his kingdom as one having the characteristics of “rest”;”peace”; and “quietness” (cf. 1 Chronicles 22:9; 1 Kings 5:3-5) rather than one of war and bloodshed.
Thus, it is very plausible that God did not want a man of war typifing Christ as the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6) and the peaceable kingdom which He would establish (cf. Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 11:6-9) — that kingdom representative of the peaceful nature of the Lord’s church (Romans 14:17; cf. Gal. 5:22; Ephesians 2:13-14; Ephesians 5:9; Colossians 3:15).