on earth, and that you may be eternally happy in heaven. Therefore, because I wish this, I say most earnestly to you: “Honour and love your parents and obey them, or else you will know no happiness on earth and never get to heaven." Woe to those children who do not observe the fourth Commandment!
Chapter LVII.
DAVID’S LAST WORDS.— HIS DEATH.
[2 Kings 23. 3 Kings 1 — 2.]
DAVID was thirty years old when he ascended the throne of Israel, and he reigned forty years in honour and glory. When the time of his death drew near, he gathered together the princes of Israel, and told them that he had intended to build a house to the Lord, and had prepared all the materials for a new Temple; but that the Lord had not allowed him to carry out his plan, because he had shed much blood in his many battles.
The building of the Temple was reserved for Solomon[1], his son, whose kingdom should be great and powerful if he would be faithful to the Commandments of God. David therefore exhorted his son to serve God with a good will, because the Lord sounds the depths of hearts and penetrates the thoughts of men. “If thou seek Him”, said David, “thou shalt find Him; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever.”
David then gave his son gold and silver[2] for the vessels of the Sanctuary, together with the plan of the Temple and its precincts, and said to him: “All these things came to me written by the hand of the Lord[3]. Act like a man, take courage and fear not; for the Lord my God will be with thee nor forsake thee till thou hast finished the House of the Lord.”
- ↑ Solomon . Solomon was decreed by God Himself to be David’s successor. His name signifies Prince of Peace.
- ↑ Gold and silver . Which he had saved from the booty taken in war and from the income of his own possessions. There were 3000 talents of gold and 7000 talents of silver.
- ↑ By the hand of the Lord. “God has put it into my mind.” As on a former occasion God gave Moses instructions as to the making of the Tabernacle (chapter XXXVIII), so now He made known to David the plan on which He desired the Temple to be built, because the Temple was to be the type of the Church of the New Testament.
