1 Chronicles 22 Devotional

Preparing What Another Will Build

“And David said, “My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the LORD must be exceedingly magnificent—famous and glorious throughout all lands. Therefore I must make preparations for it.” So David made lavish preparations before his death.”1 Chronicles 22:5 (BSB)

Standing where the LORD answered him with fire, David declares that the house of the LORD God will be built there (22:1). Then he throws himself into preparing a building he will never see. He gathers stonecutters, iron, bronze and cedar beyond counting, because Solomon is young and the house must be magnificent (22:2-5). He tells Solomon that the LORD said David would not build it, because he had shed so much blood, but that a son, a man of rest, would build a house for God's Name (22:7-10).

David does not argue with the limit. He does the part given to him and hands the rest to his son with a blessing (22:11-16). The work belonged to God before it belonged to either of them. Paul says that one plants and another waters, but only God makes things grow (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). You may never see the finished result of what you are given to do, but the LORD who assigns the work will see it through.

To think about: What part of God's work have you been given that you may never see finished, and how can you do it faithfully anyway?