At the time when David had established Solomon as king, he shared with him all the things to do. David was at the end of his time, and this was his expression of worship: he saw his son Solomon on the throne, knowing that the house of God would be built. This joyful expression came after everybody had offered willingly to build the house of God—the temple that Solomon would build—all the princes and everyone, as well as David.
So that is that expression. For today, I want to continue with a follow-up, or part two, from last time, looking at the family of God. We were looking at the relationships in the house of God among the different age groups. This time, we want to consider the concept of multiple generations.
There is this phrase in Scripture, from generation to generation, and that is the burden for this time. It is a little different. It is more about the movement of serving the Lord: generation upon generation serving the Lord in its generation, receiving from the previous generation, and passing on to the next.
Let us read a few Scriptures together. One of them is Psalm 33. This is the main one on my heart: Psalm 33:11.
This phrase, “from generation to generation,” whether for good or for bad, comes up thirty or more times. Of course, the word generations itself has a whole word study to do on it. But I think this verse contains a phrase concerning the heart of God.
The counsel of the Lord standeth fast for ever,
The thoughts of His heart to all generations.
Especially this part: the thoughts of His heart are from generation to generation.
Another passage is Psalm 102:18. This has more to do with bringing something from one generation to the next.
This shall be written for the generation to come;
And a people which shall be created shall praise the Lord.
This shall be written for people who are yet to come. They are not yet even created, it says.
Lastly, Deuteronomy 32:7. Moses says in a poetic way:
Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of many generations:
Ask thy father, and he will show thee;
Thine elders, and they will tell thee.
Let us pray together.
Lord, we entrust this time into Your loving hands. We look to You in the Word of God to speak and breathe on Your Word, and really anoint this time, especially that we can catch Your heart and catch Your direction. Lord, we pray that You would meet with us and really fellowship with us right now. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The Lord’s heart is from generation to generation—His very thoughts. Think about multiple generations. God is the One who created us this way. He created us for one generation to finish and another generation to begin.
In time, especially after the fall of man, people pass away, and then we actually lose a generation. Even before that, though, generations would come afterward. Even if there had been no death, someone would be born and live for a time, and another person would be born later and live for a time. They would need to receive from the previous generation.
For example, before Adam and Eve had passed away, within one hundred and thirty years they had had sons. Most likely, they passed on to their sons some things they had learned from the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were the only ones of the first creation of human beings who understood firsthand what had happened in the Garden of Eden.
You have Cain and Abel, and their experience seems to have been passed on to Seth. Seth seems to have learned the lesson of Abel. As he names his son Enosh, knowing that men are feeble, men began to call on the name of the Lord. He seemed to have caught something from previous generations, even from hearing about the failures of a previous generation. He caught the mind of God, the heart of the Lord, and he had to catch it from those before him.
As this passed on, generation after generation from Adam all the way until Noah, you see something being passed down. We can barely catch it sometimes through the names. Sometimes we have a wonderful experience, like with Enoch, who caught so much and had an experience of the Lord.
One thing happening then was that not many had died. All the way until Noah’s father, Lamech, Adam was still alive. Noah’s father Lamech would have been able to talk to Adam, who lived nine hundred and thirty years. Even though Enoch was the seventh from Adam, and Enoch had Methuselah, and Methuselah had Lamech, and Lamech had Noah, many generations after Adam could still have fellowship with Adam and receive from that first generation.
This is God’s design. Even without someone passing away, there is still something preserved with an earlier generation. There is still knowledge to be shared. No cutoff is needed; continuance is needed in God’s design. His thoughts are this way—His thoughts according to time. His design is for generation to generation and on.
Noah himself could have talked to Methuselah. According to how old they were when he was born, Noah could even have talked to Seth, one of the children of Adam. I bring this up simply to say that in God’s ways, there is an older generation while we are alive. It is His design that there be a passing on and a learning from the older generation, even without sin having run its course in the world.
People lived so long before the flood, and because of that they had this good experience from generation to generation. When the first generation had actually passed, Noah was raised up. When Noah passed away, the first one we know of who was born after Noah’s death was Abraham.
Even Abraham’s father could technically have met Noah. If you look at the genealogy and chronology, Noah lived so long that those generations could have heard the stories of old and heard of the flood. All this is simply to show that God’s thoughts are from generation to generation.
Abraham almost seems to begin a whole new wave of things. God calls out a generation. Noah was certainly the beginning of a new beginning, as one had finished a course. God does raise up something new when a generation passes away, but His thoughts are still for continuance from generation to generation.
Think of Abraham. We often group him together with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Scripture, they are often packaged together. Jacob would have been alive while Abraham was alive, probably until Jacob was fourteen or fifteen. He could have met Abraham and heard from him.
Either way, all three are given the same flow of promise. Isaac receives the promise given to Abraham, though Isaac’s brother does not receive it. Jacob receives that promise, though his brother does not. There is this passing on of the promise and the covenant from generation to generation.
Abraham was quite a pioneer, quite a first generation. Though there was much for him to receive from previous generations, he still had to fight his way to gain what he gained. He received something from Melchizedek, who seems to have been before him. He learned a new name for God, learned that God was his provision, and learned that God was his protector.
He could have met Shem, since they were in the same time period. He could have met others; we do not know. But either way, Abraham had the lifestyle of a pioneer generation. In that kind of generation, there are new discoveries: a first time of digging wells, a first time of putting your foot on new ground, and a first time of learning the ways of God.
Abraham was discovering what faith really was. We see his mistakes with faith, but he is truly the father of faith because he was at the beginning of learning. There were those who knew faith before him, but Abraham almost had to rediscover it all because it was not passed down to him as it ought to have been. Terah, his father, does not seem to have caught it.
Then Isaac is completely different, and this is God’s design. Even if we ignore Isaac’s personality or temperament, simply by having Abraham as the previous generation, Isaac was called to be in the shadow of that generation for a time. He was called to receive without much effort.
Isaac received riches from Abraham: provision, cattle, Abraham’s warriors, stewards, and servants. He received the calling as well, and he caught it—though, of course, we can see that Isaac did not quite catch it as he ought to have. Still, he was provided for well. Even in finding a wife, he was helped by his father Abraham.
I believe this is God’s design. The Isaac generation is slightly different from the Abraham generation, and God’s thoughts are for both. When God speaks to Isaac, He says, in effect, “I am the God of your father Abraham, but I am your God.” He brings Isaac into a first-generation experience in fellowship with God.
None of us are called to be grandsons of God. We are all called to be sons of God. But in our experience, sometimes we are in the place of Isaac. Thank God if you do not have to fight all the way to discover new things. Isaac did not always have to fight to discover wells of water; he could redig wells.
Jacob seems to be a half-and-half experience. In some ways, there was much he could have caught from Abraham and Isaac. Even in his tricky days, he caught that there was something important concerning God’s blessing and the covenant of Abraham and Isaac.
But because of a lack of spiritual life with Isaac, Jacob had to run the course in both paths. He had to be a little bit of a pioneer and also receive from his forefathers, Abraham and Isaac. I think this is normal. There are times when we are doing a little bit of both.
It is wonderful if Abraham provides well for Isaac, and Isaac has his responsibility to do well with Jacob. But when spiritual connection with God is missed, that heart of God from generation to generation is lost. Then we get a selfish Isaac who cares more for his food than for the heart of God, and more for how well one son hunts and provides.
Esau was a man after Isaac’s heart because Isaac was not a man after God’s own heart. Isaac missed what should have been a passing on, like what his father Abraham had passed on.
From the old times, from the beginning, God has always had this heart from generation to generation and this pathway with humankind: to pass on and to learn from generation to generation. Genesis itself uses the term generations often—“These are the generations of so-and-so”—whether it is the beginning history of them or the path they walked. God’s heart is from generation to generation.
Consider an obvious example: Moses and Joshua. The Israelites with Moses, leaving Egyptian slavery, were a pioneer first generation. Though they received something and knew something of the Lord, in the movement of God they had to lead the way into a new thing, a new territory, and a new discovery.
Moses was called by God to lead, and all those Israelites were called by God to leave Egypt. They had first-generation experiences. They experienced the Red Sea parting, the plagues, and war. But they experienced these things with a second generation attached to them—with their children attached to them.
Right beside Moses from the beginning was Joshua. Joshua was a leader from the beginning. As soon as Israel stepped into the wilderness, they ran into a battle with the Amalekites. They did not have time to train for war or organize much. They had received something of the Lord, had been called out, and immediately stepped into a large battle.
Joshua, the son of Nun, was of the younger generation—not necessarily born in the wilderness, but certainly in the shadow of Moses. He fought the battle and led the warriors against the Amalekites. He must have been strong and courageous. Whether by temperament or by seeking the Lord, he had already been trained. He had become a warrior and was already known as a leader.
Moses was in the background, as an elder brother, with his hands lifted up, praying and fighting the spiritual battle while Joshua fought against the Amalekites. Joshua was connected to Moses and to what Moses was doing.
When Israel came to the inheritance of the promised land, twelve spies went into the land. From Joshua’s tribe, Joshua was chosen. He was the leader of his whole tribe at that time. Joshua and Caleb caught the right vision, but because of the fear of the giants, that pioneering generation had to go the way of the wilderness.
They died in the wilderness, but they learned of the Lord. They learned concerning manna, the Word of God, their failures, the flesh, victory, and bitterness. They learned many lessons. The Lord told them repeatedly in the books Moses wrote that they were to share with their children what they had learned.
Even in the instructions for Passover, before the first Passover took place, the Lord said that they were to keep it every year and always tell future generations what had happened. The Lord’s thoughts are from generation to generation. He built this nation with a lifestyle meant to pass on to the next generation what great things the Lord had done, how He had done them, and how to know and serve Him.
A whole generation grew up in the wilderness. They learned about the parting of the Red Sea, but they never experienced it. They learned about slavery under Pharaoh, but they never experienced it. Yet as the earlier generation passed on what it had learned, the next generation became ready.
After forty years, Moses was at the end of his time. In Deuteronomy, he gave the Scriptures again to that generation in a fresh way, with the heart of the Lord behind them. The same laws came out, but with love scattered throughout and grace in abundance. They saw that what they had learned in the wilderness was not merely law; it was only by God’s grace that they could ever keep the law.
There was an upgrade to what the first generation had learned, and they passed on what they had gained through their losses in the wilderness. At the end of Deuteronomy, Moses tells Joshua, who had been in his shadow all that time—on the mountain with him, in the tent with him—“Be strong and courageous. Lead the people. Lead them on.”
After Moses passed away, the Lord spoke to Joshua in Joshua 1 and repeated, “Be strong and courageous.” Why was this needed? Joshua had been in the shadow of Moses’ generation. I do not think Joshua was naturally timid, non-leader-like, or lacking courage. The battle with the Amalekites shows otherwise.
I would say this need for encouragement came from being the second generation. There is something that gets built into the second generation where they do not have quite the same push as the pioneering generation. Even if you are naturally bold and would be a leader, you are trained to be in the shadow. You are trained to support the Moses before you and to back them up.
Then, as Moses fades out, you need encouragement to be strong and courageous. Joshua had all that warrior life within him, but he had experienced it together with Moses. Moses had always been there with him. Without the Lord and Moses encouraging him, he may not have been strong or courageous.
Joshua was not missing out. He was together with a pioneer generation ahead of him. Moses entered the tent and saw the face of God, but Joshua was there also. This is the Lord’s design. The Lord’s heart is from generation to generation.
Because of this, selfishness became selflessness in Joshua. He was so broken and so willing to submit that he needed encouragement to lead. He needed the push. This is one example of how the principle works.
Another example is Paul and Timothy. Second Timothy contains some last words from Paul as he was fading out in his generation and finishing his time. At the beginning, Paul thanks God that he has been able to serve, knowing and learning from his forefathers.
I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure conscience.
Paul himself was a pioneer generation. However, that does not mean he did not receive from many before him. He received from the apostles, though he was a peer with many of them. He received from Gamaliel, who trained him as a young man. He received from the Scriptures.
Yet, with all of that, Paul still had to rise up as a pioneer to do a new thing, especially the work among the Gentiles. He had the character traits of a first pioneer generation.
Paul writes to Timothy:
I remember thee in my supplications night and day,
Longing to see thee, remembering thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;
Having been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is in thee;
Which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice;
And, I am persuaded, in thee also.
For which cause I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God,
Which is in thee through the laying on of my hands.
For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness;
But of power and love and discipline.
Timothy had received much from his grandmother and mother, who were strong in the Scriptures and raised him that way. At the same time, he apparently did not have a father, and when he was born again through Paul’s preaching, he had a mixed experience—a little bit of a pioneer experience.
Timothy began serving the Lord in his assembly and in a nearby church group. When Paul came through and found this young man, Timothy was already a leader and preacher, helping the saints in two church groups. Timothy was not hiding in the shadows. Whatever his personality may have been, he overcame it. He was courageous and strong, serving the Lord as a young man.
Paul took him along, rightly so, that they might serve together from generation to generation. They served together for many years. Timothy received much from previous generations and from Paul himself: the deposit entrusted to him, the pattern of sound words, the details of teaching, and an understanding of how the Scriptures fit together.
Paul’s teaching was organized. In his letters, you can see that he knew the distinctions among the things of God. He gave us much of our ability to discern and use sound words in teaching. Timothy caught that whole package: how things connect, how to interpret Scripture, and how to understand even the end times.
Then Paul writes:
Thou therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses,
The same commit thou to faithful men,
Who shall be able to teach others also.
Notice that Paul says, “Be strong.” He had already told Timothy that God had not given us a spirit of fearfulness. Throughout Second Timothy, Paul gives little hints here and there that amount to this: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be a coward. Do not be weak. Be strong.”
It will be difficult, but Timothy had received everything he needed. Paul calls him to take up the leadership role as Paul passes into the background.
A pioneer generation spends its whole time fighting for the path, fighting for sound words, and fighting for discoveries. Paul had to fight to gain the revelation that the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile had been broken down. Some of the things Paul wrote, he did not receive from the twelve apostles. The Lord showed him directly, and he sought the Scriptures.
Timothy had all of that soundly. He was quite able to instruct others, having received it in Paul’s shadow. But because of that time period, the second generation needed encouragement not to be weak, but to be strong and go on.
Timothy’s calling was also to find others and instruct them in the same way. If Timothy was going to be faithful in his generation, he needed to do what Paul had done: find others to share those same riches with, and make sure those others shared with another.
Here is a real passing of the torch of the testimony: Paul to Timothy, Timothy to another, and another to another. Timothy needed to care that the person he shared with would also share with another, just as Paul cared that Timothy would go on to share with others. That is the heart of the Lord.
When one generation does well and leads the way, and the next generation does well and goes along with them, there is support, help, and strengthening. There is a need for both generations to serve together, and there is a need for the next generation to be encouraged to be strong and courageous when it must step up.
The next generation is naturally not pioneering according to the generation it was built with. They do not look the same. They do not fight the same. They hesitate. They wait for instructions. They do not always catch things as fast. Sometimes things need to be spelled out more thoroughly.
The temptation could easily be, “Why are you not acting like me?” A pioneer generation seems stronger early on and more pursuing because it has no one in front of it. The roughness of its environment pushes it through, and the Lord does this on purpose. He uses it in their spiritual life to help them grow faster.
But there is also a clumsiness required in the first generation. They have to make mistakes to discover the right way. They have to stumble along because things are not always spelled out for them.
The second generation can grow faster too, but it is because things have been handed to them well. If they are handed things well, they can catch up. They are not fighting against the tide as much; they are in the flow of the first pioneer generation. Yet they can still catch everything, grow, mature, and have a relationship with the Lord, as Joshua did, because they are helped by the previous generation.
Lastly, I have been thinking about David as a unique example. We have a conference coming up with the theme of David serving the purpose of God in his own generation, from Acts 13:36.
For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep.
David faithfully served the purpose of God in his generation. But if we look at him through this concept of generation to generation, part of his serving God’s purpose was that he knew how to work with the previous generation and the next generation.
You could say that he touched the purpose of God in the previous generation. He helped the previous generation serve the purpose of God, or he made up for its lack. He also helped the next generation serve the purpose of God in its generation. I am thinking specifically of Saul in the earlier generation and Solomon in the next generation.
Saul is a bad example to us, but he was receiving from those before him. He came in as king at the end of the judges, while Samuel was finishing the time of the judges. The people wanted a king, probably not in the right timing.
Saul tried to be humble, hiding among the baggage, though he was a tall and handsome man. He was a head taller than everyone else and had been a natural leader his whole life. Naturally speaking, he was a mighty man, and he became king.
Saul was supposed to work with the previous generation. In the days of the judges, the judges delivered Israel. Saul was supposed to work with Samuel to free the Israelites from bondage under the Philistines.
Samuel tried to instruct Saul and have him in his shadow for a time. Samuel told him when to fight, when worship should happen, not to offer sacrifice before Samuel arrived, and how to destroy the Amalekites completely. Saul was supposed to receive from Samuel and learn from him.
If Saul had submitted and learned, he would have learned the ways of God. He would have learned that the Lord’s way of fighting does not match man’s way of fighting, and that a mighty man of God fights in a different might than a merely natural mighty man.
Instead, Saul kept failing in this. He was not enough in the shadow of the man of God before him. He lost the anointing, and he learned that another would be king.
David was then anointed in a hidden way. But when David was anointed, he was in the shadow of Saul. He did not begin a parade or sound trumpets, declaring, “I have been anointed as king,” and seeking to dethrone Saul.
Saul had lost the spiritual connection and the anointing, but he was still in the anointed position. David respected the anointed position. David had a Saul in front of him instead of a Paul or a Moses, but he still learned warfare and kingship without yet being king.
At the battle with Goliath, Goliath called for one man from Israel to fight him. Everyone knew who that one man should have been: Saul, the mighty man, the warrior, the one head taller than everyone, the one who had slain his thousands.
But Saul was a natural mighty man, while Goliath was a supernatural evil mighty man. Saul knew there was no match and that he did not have the power of God behind him. David, however, came as the true mighty man of God. He volunteered, fought in the might of the Lord, and did what the king should have done.
Was David king at that time? Yes and no. Spiritually speaking, in terms of anointing, he was king, and he performed a kingly function. But the position was not yet there. Still, with the right spirit, he had no hindrance from doing his kingly duty.
The Lord’s thoughts are from generation to generation. That means His thoughts are also for the generation ahead of you, not only the generation behind you. When you share the Lord’s heart, you care for the generation ahead of you. You pray for that generation to finish well and discover its way of serving the purpose of God.
Saul’s need was to protect Israel from the Philistines, and David helped him fulfill it. David continued to fight with Saul and led the charge in battle after battle. But Saul made another mistake: instead of welcoming the younger generation, encouraging it, and rejoicing in it, jealousy came upon him.
David had slain his ten thousands, while Saul had slain his thousands. But this is the way it should be. If you think of children in a family, do you want your children to be able to beat you in chess? Yes. But if you are a selfish parent, you may become upset when they begin to surpass you.
My older brother is a chess champion. He began to beat my dad when he was young. My dad was not a believer then and did not understand, so he would get upset. Now my dad is completely fine if his grandson beats him in chess, but at that time it was more like Saul: “How did you beat me, and you are only nine years old?”
If we are in ourselves, all of us are a little bit like this. The self is selfish. We may want to live our glory days through another generation, but when they begin to go beyond our glory, it bothers us. When they know a little more in the Scriptures or have something a little beyond us, it can bother us. That is the Saul-like selfishness of the flesh, and it is something we need to deny.
When we are in a Saul-like experience, we throw spears at the next generation. As they try to help, play the harp, bring peace, serve together, remain in the shadow, and encourage us, a spear comes flying through and strikes the wall next to them. Then they have to run away.
Spear after spear can cause the next generation to run from us and fear us. But if their hearts are right, their hearts are still from generation to generation. Even if they have an opportunity to dethrone a Saul, their conscience will convict them. If you are in the right place in your generation, you respect the previous generation.
David stepped out of the cave and showed Saul the piece of cloth. With tears in his eyes, he said, “Do you not remember me? Do you not remember me as a son to you?” Saul wept and said, “Is this thy voice, my son David?” Something true in Saul—the part that knew the ways of God—came out, and for a time he stopped persecuting the next generation.
Saul had Samuel to speak to him. He had someone to rebuke him and balance him out. In some ways Saul tried to repent, but not with enough depth of heart to let go of his position, his jealousy, and his self-interest.
Even when Saul begged Samuel to turn back and worship with him before Israel, it was partly out of selfish reasons. Saul did not want to be embarrassed or for all Israel to know that he was no longer in the anointing of God. He wanted to maintain appearances.
If Saul had gone one step further—if he had brought his face to the mud and let go of his need for glory—he would have touched the heart of God from generation to generation. In selflessness, he could have served the purpose of God in his generation.
No one is destined to be a Saul. Even Saul was not destined to be a Saul. On the day he died in battle, he still did not seek the Lord. He sought a medium to speak with the dead. When Samuel appeared, Saul was told plainly that he had not sought the Lord.
Jonathan, Saul’s son, was a good-hearted next generation. He had the right heart, did the right things, understood David’s anointing, and understood the purpose of God in his generation. He should have gone on to be David’s closest friend and helped David fulfill the purpose of God. But Jonathan died with his father in that generation.
Jonathan lost his ability to serve the purpose of God in his generation because of the failure of his father. David wept over Jonathan, and he wept over Saul as well, because the thoughts of the Lord are from generation to generation. David had caught that deeply.
David went on to finish the battles and clear the land of attacks from the Philistines. But serving the Lord in his generation was not merely finishing what the judges were called to do. It was not merely bringing peace into the land. David was finishing something that should have happened in Joshua’s generation: the conquest of the land.
The Lord had told Israel that once there was peace in the promised land, He would reveal a place for His house, where all Israel would gather three times a year and worship Him as one nation. Throughout the time of the judges and Saul, no one knew of that place because the land had no peace.
David sought the Lord and knew His heart. As he finished conquering and fighting, he discovered and established that place. He saw Melchizedek in Salem, saw Jerusalem, and recognized that this was the place where the priest-king had been and where the Lord’s name had been in the days of Abraham.
David discovered, almost directly through the Lord as a pioneer generation, “There is the name. There is the place. It is Jerusalem.” His first action as king was to take that city from the Jebusites. He made Jerusalem the capital and brought in the ark.
David knew the Lord’s heart concerning the house. He knew that God desired worship there. The tent of David became the real house of God at that time, while the tabernacle built through Moses had become only an outward form of worship and was dead. Worshippers experienced the presence of the Lord with the ark of God in the tent of David.
David had the heart for the house of God to be built, but it was not his way of serving in his generation. He had to fulfill the warfare aspect, and he did. He had blood on his hands. Yet he discovered the place and the heart behind it. He understood that the ark was more important than the tent.
But David himself, unfortunately, became Saul-like at one point. Like all of us, David failed. None of us are beyond this. David sat on his throne while his mighty men were in battle. Though he had the heart for the house of God, he fell into sin and lusted after Bathsheba.
Uriah, one of David’s mighty men, was the next generation. David acted like a bad first generation. He acted like Saul. David was in his position but not in the right anointing. He should have been with the men in battle, even if he was not to be killed in the battle. He should not have been merely eating, drinking, and living as though men were not dying.
Uriah, in a gentle way, gave David a light exhortation. He said, in effect, “How can I go to my wife? How can I act as though everything is okay? We are in battle right now. I will sleep on the steps.” Uriah was being a man of God. He was enduring with David.
David tried to get Uriah drunk, hoping that Uriah would go to Bathsheba and that no one would know the child was David’s. But Uriah gently and meekly showed David the reality of God. He gave David enough of a hint that David could either hear it or reject it.
David rejected it and sent Uriah to be killed at the forefront of the battle. He even gave foolish military orders so that Uriah would be exposed and the others would withdraw. Uriah died contrary to the wisdom of his training.
Then Nathan the prophet came to David. Nathan was like a peer to a Saul-like generation, and this is where we need to help one another. We all have peers to work with. Whether we are more mature or not, people of our own generation can speak to us in a slightly different way.
Uriah the Hittite was not supposed to rebuke David in the way Nathan did. Nathan the prophet was the one who should do that. Nathan told David the story, and David was ready to condemn the man who had taken the lamb. Then Nathan said, “Thou art the man.”
David repented. Here is the difference between David and Saul. David had a repentance that enabled him to continue on. Nathan told him that the Lord had heard his repentance and that he was forgiven, though there would still be consequences.
David, and all of us, can experience the Saul-generation problem: selfishness, attachment to position, rest that is not supposed to be rest, no thoughts for the next generation, and no heart for others. We can all reach this point. But if we listen to a Nathan the prophet and humble ourselves, we can finish well like David, who served the purpose of God in his generation.
We can all finish well. There is no need for anyone to finish as an old prophet or an old king. There is no need for anyone to finish in failure. We should help each other finish well, from generation to generation. This is our calling.
Whether you are a peer helping a peer, rebuking one another in a pure way; whether you are exhorting someone above you; or whether, like David, you are helping the next generation—this is part of serving the purpose of God.
David understood Solomon and shared with him. In 1 Chronicles 28–29, David first tells Solomon that he had wanted to build the house of God, but Solomon would have to build it. David encouraged him to be wise, to follow the Lord, and to walk in the ways of God.
Then David said to the congregation:
Solomon my son, whom God hath chosen, is yet young and tender,
And the work is great:
For the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.
Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God.
David had prepared not only money and the concept. He had prepared the site, the singers and dancers, the measurements for the courts, the places concerning food, and every detail. He had the blueprints for Solomon’s temple. He had the materials and money ready.
Solomon still had to work with the materials and bring them together, but he was able to receive freely from David: all the blueprints and all the details.
Here is something about a second generation. A pioneer generation remembers better the first time it hears something because it has earned it. We need to keep this in mind when instructing someone else. Things often need to be spelled out in detail.
You may think, “You should know that. You should know how to do that.” David may have known something naturally, or supernaturally, because it was obvious to him through what he had learned in the ways of God. But Solomon had not read all the books David had read. Solomon had not earned it; he had only caught it.
Solomon might have had a natural sense that something felt right, but David had to sit down and explain why it felt that way. He had to explain each detail: why they did one thing, why they did not do another, and why particular details of the heavenly vision mattered.
Things that a pioneer generation fought for may feel obvious because they have been taught so many times. But even if something has been said five times, it may simply not have been caught. The natural experience of a Solomon generation is that the details need to be spelled out, but they are willing to receive them.
They want to know, “What is my next step?” They are not yet strong and courageous according to their generation. That push may come later, but while the generations are together, the details need to be given.
Someone may be faithful in all that they know, but you look at them and think, “You should know more. You should be doing many more things.” But if you sit down like David with Solomon and say, “You are doing well with the things you know. Let me show you a few more things,” then you can help them.
If you are going to be a man of God and serve in the house of God, these are the upgrades to your current situation. These are the things to go on into. These are the details of the house of God. What seems obvious to a first generation has to come down to the nitty-gritty and be spelled out for Solomon.
David shared so many details with Solomon that Solomon could almost not make a mistake. Yet Solomon did make a mistake. In his genuine heart, he did not fully catch the ark of God. He did not fully catch the main thing, though he caught it in part.
Solomon went to the wrong tent—the tent that had become dead—and prayed to God there. He did not understand why it was not the right place. It was not the tent of David, but he thought, “This must be right.”
But when the Lord asked Solomon what he wanted, Solomon asked for wisdom to work with God’s people. In that moment, he caught it. His relationship with the Lord began. Everything David had shared came back to him as he began relating directly to the Lord rather than simply living in David’s shadow.
There is hope for a Solomon because the Lord will bring him through. Moses told Joshua, “Be strong and courageous.” Moses died, and Joshua was still not strong and courageous. Then the Lord met Joshua directly and said, “Be strong and courageous.” The overflow from Moses came through God directly, and that was how Joshua became strong and courageous.
In the same way, what was passed on from David had to come through God directly to Solomon, and then Solomon built the house of God. What came through Paul, Timothy caught directly and was faithful with to the end.
We are in this house of God with generation to generation to generation, and the Lord’s heart is for every generation in this room. The Lord is with us, and the Lord is working with us.
I want to encourage us that His thoughts are from generation to generation. He is doing this great work. All of us are called to help each other serve the purpose of God in our generation, from generation to generation and on.
Let us pray together.
Oh, Lord, we are so glad that You have given us the generations of old. We have received so much from those before us, even from generations in which we did not personally meet them. We are able to receive from our forefathers so many things that have been passed on.
You have raised up those who have been faithful to pass these things on to others, even to the point where we are right now. Our way of gathering, the things You have been teaching us, and our way of knowing the Word of God are all because of Your heart for us and Your heart for all generations.
Lord, we come to You with our own situation and our own desire to care for all generations in Your house, specifically here among us and specifically in our time period. You are raising up a generation that seeks Your face.
Lord, we are all in for being that generation that seeks Your face. We are all in for helping You work with everyone who is here, and with all who are in this time, to be part of that generation that seeks Your face.
We entrust ourselves into Your hands, Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.