1 Chronicles 17:1 Now when David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.”

Why did it bother King David that the Ark was in the tabernacle tent?

1 Samuel 4:10-11 English Standard Version

10 So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. 11 And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

Is it because the Ark was stolen? Did David feel like a tent did not offer up adequate protection for the Ark?

1 Samuel 5 English Standard Version

The Philistines and the Ark

2 Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon. 3 And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. 4 But when they rose early on the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. 

6 The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. 7 And when the men of Ashdod saw how things were, they said, “The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our god.” 8 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?” They answered, “Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath.” So they brought the ark of the God of Israel there. 9 But after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them.

11 They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people.” For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there. 12 The men who did not die were struck with tumors, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

Obviously God did not need KIng David to protect the Ark. But why didn’t the Ark protect Israel?

1 Samuel 7:3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

Exodus 30:11-16 English Standard Version

The Census Tax

11 The Lord said to Moses, 12 “When you take the census of the people of Israel, then each shall give a ransom for his life to the Lord when you number them, that there be no plague among them when you number them. 13 Each one who is numbered in the census shall give this: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (the shekel is twenty gerahs), half a shekel as an offering to the Lord. 14 Everyone who is numbered in the census, from twenty years old and upward, shall give the Lord’s offering. 15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than the half shekel, when you give the Lord’s offering to make atonement for your lives. 16 You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and shall give it for the service of the tent of meeting, that it may bring the people of Israel to remembrance before the Lord, so as to make atonement for your lives.”

Matthew 21:13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

What changed between these two verses?

1 Chronicles 17:3-4 English Standard Version

3 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, 4 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in.

1 Chronicles 17:11-12 English Standard Version

11 When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. 12 He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.

David interpreted that prophecy to mean Solomon would be the one to build the temple. He made preparations for the temple and ordered Solomon to build the temple.

It was David’s wrong interpretation that caused the first temple to be built.

It was God’s intention that it would be Jesus that would create a dwelling place for God, in His believers.

The census tax was sufficient for service of the tent of meeting. When So;omon’s Temple was erected, the census tax was not sufficient to its needs. Man then determined what was needed to service the temple on the mount. Without direct instruction from God man will do as he pleases and that means satisfying their own self-interests.

So why did David think that the wilderness tabernacle was no longer appropriate for a meeting place? The answer to that question is seen only in Natan’s words, “Do what is on your heart.”