In some particulars the promises God gave David related to himself personally. However other promises pertained to his descendants and, in particular, to one descendant who would do for Israel much more than David could do. In chapters 17-21 the emphasis is on the promises that related to David personally. The writer evidently wanted to establish God's faithfulness in fulfilling these to encourage his readers to trust God to fulfill the yet unfulfilled promises concerning David's great Son.
In 17:8, God promised David victory over his enemies. The writer recorded that victory in chapters 18-20. In 17:9-12, God promised David that He would establish a place for Israel and a place for Himself within Israel (v. 12; cf. Deut. 12:1-11). The Chronicler documented the selection of that place in chapter 21. These verses contain promises central to the Chronicler's emphasis and purpose.
The main reason God did not allow David to proceed with his plans to build Him a house (temple) was that God, not David, was sovereign. A secondary reason was that David was a man of war (22:8; 28:3). God reserved the right to choose who should build such a place as well as when and where he should build it. It was inappropriate for David to decide these things, though his desire to honor God in this way was certainly commendable. David's plans were premature and presumptuous (cf. Israel's desire to have a king like all the other nations) though pardonable because he sought to glorify Yahweh.
"In Near Eastern thought there was a widely recognized relationship between the earthly kingship and the temple of the protecting deity of the city-state. The state was seen as a reflection of the cosmic reality of the divine government, which stood behind the state. The state, with its various hierarchies, culminated in the earthly kingship at its apex. This was thought to be parallel to a cosmic state of affairs with its own gradations in which the major deity headed a pantheon of lesser deities. The ultimate kingship of the protecting deity was thought to be expressed through, and paralleled by, the empirical kingship exercised by the ruler of the city-state on earth. This concept was given concrete expression in the relationship that existed between the temple of the city-state and the palace of the king of the city-state. The temple was the earthly residence of the deity, and the palace was the residence of the earthly representative of the deity, that is, the king."57
"Often we may have to accept that the work which we would dearly like to perform in terms of Christian service is not that for which we are best equipped, and not that to which God has in fact called us. It may be, like David's, a preparatory work, leading to something more obviously grand. Recognition and acceptance of our true measure is the first and necessary step towards seeing the significance of what, in God's purposes, we really can achieve and have achieved."58
God's plan was that David's son would build Him a house, and He revealed this to David (vv. 11-15). However these words look beyond Solomon to One who would not fail to fulfill all God's purposes as David's descendant.
"This verse [13] along with Psalms 2:7, 12, is one of the major OT revelations on the deity of the Messiah. It foretells Jesus' being uniquely God's son (Heb. 1:5; cf. Acts 13:33; Heb. 5:5), for it is not really applicable to Solomon (cf. comment on 22:10) or to any other of David's more immediate successors . . ."59
In 2 Samuel 7 the warnings of discipline if David's descendants failed God focused attention on Solomon and the kings that followed him through Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. In 1 Chronicles 17 those warnings are absent. This fact probably indicates that the Chronicler was looking beyond the kings of Judah who had failed and died to the King who was yet to come. This king would carry out God's will perfectly (cf. Isa. 9:6; John 4:34). This would have given the restoration community renewed hope.60
"Though there can be little argument that the covenant with David was unconditional both in its granting and in its perpetuity, the benefits of that covenant to David and to the nation depended on their obedience to the terms of the Mosaic Covenant within which the monarchy functioned. In this respect and only in this respect was the Davidic Covenant conditional."61
David manifested attitudes of humility (v. 16) and trust (v. 27) in his prayer. Most of what he prayed was thanksgiving for what God had promised (vv. 20-27).
"The erection of the temple was an assertion of the divine control over the political and religious life of the state (v. 22)."62
David's response was a model for the returned exiles, and it is for us.
These chapters record the fulfillment of God's promised victory over David's enemies as part of the Davidic Covenant (17:8). David was successful because God helped him (18:6, 13; cf. 19:19).63Human kings only defeat themselves when they oppose the Lord and His anointed (cf. Ps. 2:1-2). The evidence that God gave David victory bolsters confidence that He will do the same to David's great Son, Messiah.
The Chronicler recorded David's victories over the Philistines (18:1), the Moabites (18:2), the Arameans (18:3-11), the Edomites (18:12-13), and the Ammonites (19:1-20:3). He also noted his defeat of the giants who came from the home of David's first great adversary, Goliath (20:4-8). David's wars were both aggressive and defensive (cf. ch. 19).64
The writer portrayed David as having acted decisively to rid his kingdom of internal and external threats. He set up garrisons in Israel's neighbor states by which he extended his influence beyond his own borders (18:6, 13). God's blessing of Israel paralleled His blessing of David. Both nation and king had begun in humility with lowly origins but had expanded because of God's grace and David's appropriate trust and obedience to that grace (cf. 17:7).
These chapters also help explain why David did not build the temple himself. He was a man of war who had shed much blood, and his reign was not a period of "rest,"which was necessary for the establishment of a central sanctuary. Also these chapters show the economic prosperity that would have been needed for temple building.65
Chapter 21 records the fulfillment of God's second personal promise to David, namely, that He would appoint a place where Israel could dwell securely (17:9). This was a promise of peace for Israel, but as the verses following 17:9 make clear God had more than this in mind. He intended to dwell among His people in the house Solomon would build (17:11-12). God's presence was the real source of Israel's security. By giving Israel a place, God would provide for Himself a place where He would dwell, specifically the temple. Chapter 21 records God's choice of the place where He would dwell, the site of the temple. There David's successor would build a temple for Yahweh (17:12).
"It may also be said that having empowered Israel to defeat their human foes, God provided a place of atonement and divine manifestation whereby they could defeat (or hold at bay) their nonhuman enemy, Satan."66
The writer gave much attention to detail and background events because of the importance of the temple site. All these events point to God's ultimate purpose for the temple, that it would draw the Israelites and the Gentiles to Himself.
"Here, by divine command, is to be the site of the temple. It is a gift not from Ornan but from God. The grace of God, in giving this to His people as the place where ark and altar are to be brought together, is a thing to be wondered at."67
Apparently David's lack of faith in God's ability to save His people led him to number the people (vv. 1-7). God did not approve of this attitude, and even though David confessed his sin and God removed his guilt, the consequences of his sin followed (vv. 8-12). David's words to Gad again model a proper response to God (v. 13). David volunteered to bear God's judgment in place of the innocent Israelites (vv. 16-17). However, God instructed him to build an altar at the place of God's judgment and to offer the sacrifice that the Mosaic Law required. That was the site God chose for His house (21:18-22:1). That place forever after, as long as Israel occupied the land, would be where the priests would atone for the Israelites' sins by sacrifice. The primary reason for including this incident involving David's sin was that it explains the site chosen for the temple.68
The Hebrew word transliterated "Satan"(satan; 21:1) means adversary. Adversary would be a better translation here. This is the first time in Scripture the word appears without the definite article as a proper noun. It seems that the adversary God permitted to worry David into numbering the people was a foreign enemy (v. 12; cf. 1 Sam. 29:4; 2 Sam. 19:23; 24:1-25; 1 Kings 5:18; 11:14, 23, 25).69Of course Satan played a role in this temptation, but it was evidently fear of one of his neighbors that disturbed David's mind.70
"The major reason for taking a census in Israel was to lay the basis for levying taxes (Exod 30:12; Num 3:40-51) or registering men for military service (Num 26:1-4)."71
David's response indicated his true repentance. He left the decision about punishment entirely in God's hands and did not seek to control it.
"Perhaps the one thing that impresses more than David's sins in his life are his repentances (cf. 2 Sam. 12:13ff., and, associated in its heading with the same incident, Ps. 51). We do well to let his willingness to come fully to terms with his deficiencies inform our own responses to our moral failures before God."72
Chapters 17-21 give the first account of what God promised David in the Davidic Covenant that the writer recorded in Chronicles. The things God promised He provided in David's lifetime and shortly after that. They included victory in battle, expanded influence, and a glorious reputation. The record of this promise is in 17:8, and the fulfillment is in chapters 18-20. The second promise was a secure, peaceful place for Israel that made necessary a place for Yahweh to dwell among His people in fellowship. The record of this promise is in 17:9-12, and chapter 21 guarantees its fulfillment. These promises and their fulfillments would have given the original readers of Chronicles great confidence. They would have encouraged them that Yahweh would yet fulfill those promises in the Davidic Covenant that had not yet materialized but were still future for them. The record should have the same effect on us today.
