But the Lord had sent a prophet to tell David that he must not himself build a house for God, because he had been a man of war, and had fought, and shed much blood; but that his son Solomon should be a man of rest, and should build the Temple for the Lord.
David did not repine. He thanked God for giving him the hope that his son should do this great work; and all the rest of his life he was busy getting together gold and silver, brass and iron, and beautiful cedar wood, all for the Temple of his God. It was to be built on Mount Moriah, on the threshing-floor he had bought of Ornan, just by the city of Jerusalem, which David had conquered from the Jebusites, and made the capital of his kingdom.
QUESTIONS.
1. What was kept in the Ark of the Covenant? 2. Where was the Ark kept at first? 3. What did David want to build? 4. Why was David not allowed to build a temple? 5. Did he fret and grieve at being forbidden? 6. Who was to build the Temple? 7. What did David get ready? 8. Where was the Temple to be? 9. When had he bought it of Ornan?
THIRD READING.
"All things come to Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee."—1 Chronicles 29:14.
DAVID had grown to be a very old man, near to his death; but, before he died, he called all the princes of his people together at Jerusalem, and asked them all to bring offerings to help to build a beautiful house, to be a Temple to the Lord their God. So all the people brought what precious things they could, to add to what the king had prepared; and a great quantity was ready—all willingly offered.