[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-149363-en":3,"doc-seo-149363-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},149363,13056703019662,"Evangeline","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/be000253a8e92610077?_k=1778726343310543188",9,"Religion & Spirituality","House-building - Proper 11[16]","A theological exposition on 2 Samuel 7:1–14a (Proper 11[16]) explores David’s desire to build a house for YHWH and the contrasting claim that only God can truly build. It traces how proximity to the divine required liturgical safeguards, recounts episodes surrounding the ark, and reflects on institutions that both stabilize and confine. The text concludes with God’s counter-proposal to build David’s house, fulfilled in a cosmic, Christ-centered kingship rather than David’s expectations.","EXPOSITORY  \nTIMES  \nVolume 117 Number 9 Pages 378–380  \nCopyright © 2006 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks, CA, and New Delhi) DOI: 10.1177/0014524606065947  \n[http://EXT.sagepub.com](http://EXT.sagepub.com)  \nHouse-building  \n2 Samuel 7:1–14a (Proper 11[16])  \nReverend Canon Marilyn McCord Adams Christ Church, Oxford  \nUnless the Lord builds the house, they labour  \nin vain who build it!  \nKing David had only just brought the ark of the covenant up to Jerusalem, had only just set it up in a tent pitched in the royal back garden. For YHWH had chosen the ark as His cathedra, where He would sit enthroned on the wings of carved cherubim. Proximity to YHWH was, is, and ought to be a matter for caution. For the reality of Godhead is so other, so far outclasses what any creature is or could be, that we are radically mismatched. Our capacities to act and interact, todo and suffer are geared to other creatures. What we are isn’t obviously robust enough to withstand naked traffic with the Divine. That’s why earlier, in the days of Moses and Aaron, God had handed down liturgical rubrics, costumes, furniture, rules and regulations as a shield and a covering to make it safe for humans to approach the Holy with prayersand presents. When the Philistines had captured the ark, YHWH had ‘broken out’ on them and caused tumours. When the oxen had stumbled, and Uzzah – who was neither priest nor Levite – had stretched out his hand to steady the ark – with a liturgically unauthorized gesture – YHWH had ‘broken out’on him and struck him dead. It was only when YHWH’s presence prospered the farmer in whose field the ark had been left, that David felt confident about bringing the ark up to the city and installing it in his royal chapel.  \nThe books of Samuel make David out to be a YHWH-enthusiast. His ecstatic, virtually naked dancing before the Lord in the sight of all the people had thoroughly scandalized David’s first wife. David’s devotion to YHWH was not merely calculating or sychophantic, but it did not fail tobe political. It had taken David years to move from the margins – from following the sheep, from killing  \nGoliath and entering Saul’s service, from eluding assassination, from wandering as a guerilla warrior among the hills, sometimes raiding, sometimes killing for hire – to the centre of power, to kingship over Israel and Judah. At last, David was settling down, had built himself a house of cedar. For YHWH todwell in a tent, sends the message that YHWH is still a nomad, restless to roam. David wants YHWH to settle down and become part of the establishment. Little wonder if David exclaims, ‘Why don’t I, surely shouldn’t I build YHWH a house?’  \nUnless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it!  \nOf all people, we twenty-first century Europeansand North Americans should know how institutions bear the fruit of many and great goods. Not only do they foster stability; by defining roles and organizing us socially, they create new possibilities for action, new foci of endeavour that wouldn’t exist without them . Certainly this is true in education . The cultures of academic research in which investigators participate – the degrees we pursue, the journals in which we publish, the questions we ask and the methodologies by which we answer them – are all institutional artifacts, without which the native brilliance of singular scholars would express itself in very different forms. Likewise with church and government. Whatever binding ties we may feel with Peter and Paul, with Columba or Aidan, with King James (V)I or early parliamentarians, our projects and discoveries, our clerical offices and honorific titles, our human rights manifestos and ethical injunctions mean something different, because the institutions that house us are so different in such distant places and times.  \nGod knows, institutions not only order and organize; they stifle. What defines, also confines. With royalty and religion, ritual etiquette domesti-","cbCais6eFmCh7Vch","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCais6eFmCh7Vch","pdf",74750,2,1,3,"English","en",105,"# House-building\n## The ark and divine proximity\n## Institutions: fostering and stifling\n## God’s initiative and David’s house","[{\"question\":\"Why does the text emphasize caution when approaching God?\",\"answer\":\"Because the divine reality is radically beyond human capacity, making direct traffic with the Holy unsafe. The narrative explains that liturgical rubrics and regulated practices were given as a protective covering.\"},{\"question\":\"What conflict arises from David’s desire to build a house for YHWH?\",\"answer\":\"David’s urge suggests God might become a servant within David’s designs, effectively confining divine initiative. The text argues that YHWH refuses to be contained or repurposed for human plans.\"},{\"question\":\"How is the promise of an everlasting dynasty fulfilled according to the exposition?\",\"answer\":\"The exposition holds that YHWH builds David’s house, but the fulfillment unfolds through later biblical history and ultimately through God’s incarnation in David’s family, expressed in Christ’s reign.\"}]","House-building - Proper 11[16] | PDF",1787798513,8,{"code":4,"msg":32,"data":33},"ok",{"site_id":25,"language":24,"slug":34,"title":13,"keywords":35,"description":14,"schema_data":36,"social_meta":86,"head_meta":88,"extra_data":90,"updated_unix":29},"house-building-proper-1116","",{"@graph":37,"@context":85},[38,53,68],{"@type":39,"itemListElement":40},"BreadcrumbList",[41,45,48,50],{"item":42,"name":43,"@type":44,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":46,"name":47,"@type":44,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":44,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/religion-spirituality/",{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":44,"position":52},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/house-building-proper-1116/149363/",4,{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":24,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":62,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":63,"interactionStatistic":64},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":42,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-08-31","2026-08-27",true,{"@type":65,"interactionType":66,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":67},"ViewAction",{"@type":69,"mainEntity":70},"FAQPage",[71,77,81],{"name":72,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":74},"Why does the text emphasize caution when approaching God?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"Because the divine reality is radically beyond human capacity, making direct traffic with the Holy unsafe. The narrative explains that liturgical rubrics and regulated practices were given as a protective covering.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"What conflict arises from David’s desire to build a house for YHWH?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"David’s urge suggests God might become a servant within David’s designs, effectively confining divine initiative. The text argues that YHWH refuses to be contained or repurposed for human plans.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"How is the promise of an everlasting dynasty fulfilled according to the exposition?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The exposition holds that YHWH builds David’s house, but the fulfillment unfolds through later biblical history and ultimately through God’s incarnation in David’s family, expressed in Christ’s reign.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":87,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":89,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":25},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":92},[93,97,101,105,110,115,120,124,127,130,134],{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":94,"show_sort_weight":95,"slug":96},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":30,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":122,"slug":123},"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":47,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]