No, it’s not the Ayodhya temple I’m writing about today, though there’s a faint possibility that all the temple talk going on around could have influenced my thoughts.

The temple I’m writing about is the one in Jerusalem, built to the almighty God, but a God, who was specific about who would build it for Him. One would have thought that the man who finally united all the twelve tribes of Israel under him, the man who was ‘after God’s own heart’ would be allowed to build a temple to his God, but it was not so.

King David was disturbed that he had been blessed so immensely ‘In 1 Chronicles 17:1, David’s thoughts turn to building a temple for the Lord. The king sent for the prophet Nathan and said, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.” The discrepancy bothered David. Why should the king’s house be a palace, while the house of God was just a tent?

At first, Nathan encouraged David to follow through on his desire to build a temple for the Lord (1 Chronicles 17:2). Yet that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, changing their plans: “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: You are not the one to build me a house to dwell in’”

First Chronicles 22:8 sheds some light on God’s decision not to allow David to build the temple: “You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.” David’s background of shedding blood in times of war was God’s reason for choosing David’s son instead (see also 1 Chronicles 28:3). God wanted a man of peace to construct the temple, not a man of war.

As I read these verses it reminds me that more than anything else in the world, God is a God of peace, and whether we are fighting people of other faith’s or not, a God above does not like it. We are all children of the same God, and it must have broken God’s heart to see women and children of other nations being killed and annihilated by the Israelis.

Who finally built the temple in Jerusalem? A man who when asked what he wanted from God, asked for wisdom. A man of peace who treated his own people and even neighbouring kings and rulers with fairness, justice and trust.

I know for a fact that there is a deep truth here, that only when one’s hands are clean can one build a temple, a church or any organisation to the Living God…!