Second Samuel 7 is a very difficult portion of the Word to understand, and not many Christians have the proper view concerning it. I have been studying this chapter for over sixty years. My first impression was that here we see the love and kindness of God in wanting to build David a house instead of having David build a house for Him. That was merely the natural, human concept of a young man. I spent a number of years with the Brethren, who devoted a great deal of attention to 2 Samuel 7 and who preached and taught on it and published books about it. However, they did not see the intrinsic significance of this chapter, especially of God's word to David in verses 12 through 14a.
Those who study the Bible realize that two matters in the Bible are not easy to understand—typology and prophecy. The book of Revelation, for example, is mainly a book of prophecy, but this book also contains quite an amount of typology. Hence, Revelation is a combination of prophecy and typology. The situation is the same with 2 Samuel 7. This chapter conveys a great prophecy, but this prophecy is unveiled through typology. We may say that it is a prophecy in typology.
In 2 Samuel 7 David, like many of us, had the mistaken concept that God needed him to build something for Him. When some hear this they may wonder how this concept can be wrong since we today are endeavoring to build up the church. Is building the church not a matter of building something for God? To answer this question we need to realize that apparently we are the ones who are building the church, but actually God is the One who is building the church with Christ as the unique element. When we are about to do some building work by speaking for God, He may check with us, saying, "Do you intend to build My house? With what material will you build My house?" If we say that we are building up the church with Christ, God may ask us how much we have of Christ. This exposes our shortage of Christ. We need Christ not merely in name and in knowledge; we need the real Christ, Christ as the Spirit in resurrection. We all need more and more of Christ.
We may have much knowledge of the Bible and be able to teach the Bible to others, but this is not the way to build up the church. The church is not built with the knowledge of the Bible. The church is built with Christ as the unique element. Many times, after trying to build up the saints with Christ, I have had to ask myself, "How much of Christ have you really ministered to the saints? Did you minister only doctrine and the high truths concerning God's economy, or did you minister the real Christ, the genuine Christ, the reality of Christ in resurrection as the Spirit?" Then I had to confess my shortage of Christ and repent, saying, "Lord, forgive me. I am still short of You. I need You to be wrought into me. I need more of You to be constituted into my being."