Tag: king david

2 SAMUEL #28: THE LORD SAVES

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized2 Comments

The very end of the book of Samuel encourages us to put our hope in the only appropriate place: God’s mercy. We don’t need to waste time wishing for a great leader. We don’t need to waste our hopes and dreams on things that will always, eventually, let us down. Instead, the Lord is continually calling us to look to him for our greatest and most enduring hope. Sometimes that call from the Lord comes through judgment, but even then, the ultimate purpose is to bring us back to the Lord.

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2 SAMUEL #28. 2 SAMUEL 24:1-25

This is our very last sermon on the book of Samuel (which includes both 1st and 2nd Samuel). Remember it began with the prayer of a godly woman, who desperately wanted a baby, but, at the same time, she wanted it only on God’s terms. So the Lord gave her Samuel, who became a great prophet and leader for Israel. As Samuel grew older, the people began to fear. His sons were nothing like him, and the people were worried about what would happen when Samuel left. So, they asked for a king. In Saul they got the kind of king they wanted: Big, and impressive looking. But Saul had deep fears and insecurities, and time and time again, he refused to trust the Lord. Instead, when he was worried, he took control of things, rather than trusting the Lord, or doing things the way the Lord commanded. Then came David, and we followed his life from the time he was an unknown shepherd, through his slaying of Goliath, his many victories as a battle-leader for Saul, and then his trials and sufferings when Saul tried for years to have him killed. Then David became king, and in general, he was a good one, deeply concerned, above all, with what the Lord wanted. David failed horribly during his middle-aged years, but he returned to whole-heartedly following the Lord.

When we read 2 Samuel chapter 24, it seems like the whole book of Samuel ends rather abruptly. But when we understand that it is the final part of a six-part epilogue, it begins to make more sense.

Up through the end of the chronological narrative, in chapter twenty, David appears to be an inspiring hero, a wise and just leader. Yes, we learned of his failings during the years with Bathsheba, but following that, he returned to being the man whose one goal was to please the Lord. By the end of 2 Samuel chapter 20 (the end of the chronological narrative) readers are bound to be very impressed by David, because he really was an extraordinary and admirable person.

David’s amazingness is one reason for the epilogue at the end of the book. The author of Samuel wants to make sure we aren’t confused. This book isn’t about David, it’s about the Lord. So the author is using this epilogue to show us that not even an earthly leader like David is the answer for our hopes and fears. He keeps pointing us back to the Lord himself. Remember that this epilogue is written in ancient chiastic structure, which involves sections that mirror one another. The very first part of the epilogue told of a famine that came upon the land because of a terrible sin committed by Saul. This last part, which mirrors the first, is about a plague that came upon the land because of a sin committed by David. In the first part, we learned that the only way they could atone for Saul’s sin was to execute seven men from his family. Now we learn that at some point, David also committed a similar sin that affected the entire country. I feel pretty confident that this was not at the end of David’s life, but rather some point when he was younger. Remember, this epilogue is not set out chronologically.

This same incident is also recorded in 1 Chronicles 21. I’ll be using some things from that passage to help us understand the situation. It says in this text that the Lord was angry at Israel, and stirred up David to take a census. In 1 Chronicles 21, it says that Satan, plotting against Israel, incited David to sin by taking a census. Either way, we can see that the consequence of David’s sin was that all Israel suffered. I think one of the first questions should be, “Was it God or was it Satan?” As I have mentioned in previous messages, there are several other places in the Old Testament where the Lord used evil spirits to accomplish his purposes: Judges 9:23-24, 1 Kings 22:18-23, 1 Samuel 16:14, and Job 1:6-12. In each case the picture we get is the Lord allowing an evil spirit to affect a particular person or group. In each case, the evil spirit wants to do the evil, but must get permission from God first. God’s permission to the evil spirit seems to be limited to what will accomplish his (God’s) purpose. In most of these cases, the purpose is to bring judgment, and if possible, repentance. [For a longer discussion of this issue please go to one of my previous sermons: Does God Send Evil Spirits?]

So it is entirely consistent to see God allowing a limited evil influence upon David in order to accomplish his purposes. It was Satan who tempted David, but it was ultimately God who allowed that temptation to happen. The answer to our first question then is: both. It was both God and the devil.

The next natural question is, “Why did God let this happen?” My most honest answer is, “I don’t know for sure.” I do have some ideas, however.

Clearly, the Lord felt that, at this point in time, there was something not right in David’s heart – and also not right in the hearts of the people. Again, we don’t know exactly when this happened. In fact, I suspect that this may have happened before David sinned with Bathsheba, during the time when he had begun to drift away from the Lord for a season.

Let’s start with a clear biblical understanding of sin and punishment and judgment. There is only one satisfactory and just punishment for sin. According to the Bible that one appropriate punishment is eternal separation from God. Since God is the source of all Life and all Good, that separation means death and unimaginable suffering. So if David and the people of Israel were not killed and sent away from God’s presence forever (that is, hell) then they were not being punished for doing wrong. They were being judged. There is a difference. It was God’s punishment for our sins that Jesus took upon himself.

In the Bible, God’s judgment establishes that his actions are right and good, and that ours are wrong and sinful. God uses judgment to try and get people to repent and turn to Him and receive life, hope and forgiveness through Jesus. Judgment always has this purpose: to turn people back to the Lord. It isn’t vindictiveness or anger or even righteous punishment. It is an extreme measure of love. It is like amputating a limb to keep the deadly cancer from spreading, or taking the car keys away from someone who drinks too much. It seems harsh, but it is intended for good, for love.

So God allowed the sin in the hearts of David and his people to be revealed through temptation, and then he brought judgment to turn them back to Himself.

When I was fifteen I tore open the back of my heel in an accident, and had to have stitches. It was in Papua New Guinea, and the healthcare I received was, unfortunately, typical for third world countries at the time. The wound became infected. It sealed up on the outside, but underneath, it was filled with pus and infection. Left alone, it would have looked all right, but eventually it would have developed gangrene and rotted my foot and leg, finally killing me. My dad realized what was happening. He made me lie down, while he clamped my leg to hold it still. He squeezed around the wound and it was incredibly painful. The wound burst open and what came out was truly disgusting. For almost a week afterward I had a gaping, weeping hole in my heel. I still have a scar there. But it was absolutely necessary that the infection be exposed and cleaned out.

So, the Lord exposed what was hidden in the hearts of David and of the people, and then cleaned the infection, though it was a painful, awful-seeming process. My dad inflicted pain upon me in order to bring about my healing. He didn’t cause the infection, but he did cause me pain in order to first expose it, and then eliminate it. So God did not cause the problem in the hearts of his people, but he loved them enough to engage in the painful process of exposing it and judging it, to bring them back to himself.

Now, another question that I have is: what was so bad about taking a census? Moses did it twice – because God told him to. So why shouldn’t David do it? How did the census expose the sin of David and of Israel? I think this is also an important question to ask.

I have to admit, this part is speculative. Here are some possible reasons. Perhaps it was pride. Maybe David wanted to know how great his kingdom was. Or maybe he was contemplating a new conquest that was not sanctioned by the Lord, and he wanted to know if his army was big enough to do it. Another possibility is that he was afraid of rebellion, and was using the census to ferret out any potential enemies. The men of Judah and those of the other tribes were recorded separately. So maybe David was afraid, and was trying to see if the men of Judah had enough soldiers to defeat the other tribes if it came to civil war again.

In any case, it did not arise from faith. Romans 14:23 says: “For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” We want a book of rules, so we can just take care of things on our own, and not make the effort of staying close to the Lord. Rule 447, paragraph 8, section c: “Do not ever take a census.” But living that way actually separates us from God, because it allows us to function “righteously” without really interacting with him. Even if we do the right thing, it needs to be because we are living in right relationship. Taking a census is not always wrong. But David was not walking in faith.

Here is one other possible problem with this census, and it is the one I am inclined to think most likely. It could be that David ordered it to be conducted in a way that violated something the Lord said in Exodus 30:11-16.

The LORD spoke to Moses: “When you take a census of the Israelites to register them, each of the men must pay a ransom for himself to the LORD as they are registered. Then no plague will come on them as they are registered. Everyone who is registered must pay half a shekel according to the sanctuary shekel. This half shekel is a contribution to the LORD. Each man who is registered, 20 years old or more, must give this contribution to the LORD. The wealthy may not give more and the poor may not give less than half a shekel when giving the contribution to the LORD to atone for your lives. Take the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the tent of meeting. It will serve as a reminder for the Israelites before the LORD to atone for your lives.”  (Exod 30:11-16, HCSB)

The point of this was to recognize that the Lord owns all of the people. They don’t own themselves – they owe their lives to the Lord. In the same way, no leader (for example, like David) owns the people – they all belong to God. It may be that the people did not want to pay the census fee, nor did David want to require it of them. This exposed that in their hearts they were not serious about belonging to God as a people. This may be the sin in the hearts of the people that God was exposing.

With the sin exposed, God acted in judgment, to bring the people back to himself. Because David repented so quickly, the Lord gave David a choice about the form of judgment: three months of rebellion and battle, or three years of famine, or three days of a plague. David chose the last one, as I would have. He trusted God’s mercy (in the form of the plague) more than the “mercy” of a human enemy.

As the plague was coming to Jerusalem, David apparently had a vision of God’s angel striking the people. He cried out for mercy for them, pleading with God to limit the judgment to himself, to strike him and save the people. God did not do that—not yet—but he did end the plague at that point. The angel in the vision stopped. David’s plea to be punished instead of the people echoes the heart of the ultimate chosen one, Jesus, whom God did punish in place of all sinful people.

What follows is very interesting. The Lord sent the prophet Gad, who told David to make sacrifices and offerings on the spot where he saw the angel stop. If you remember, Jerusalem in David’s time was fairly small, maybe ten or fifteen acres. It was on the tip of a ridge, with deep ravines to the east and west and south. Behind David’s city to the north, the ridge rose to the top of the mountain. It was there, at the top of that ridge or mountain, where David went to offer his sacrifices. This was about 1/3 of a mile from the north wall. The picture below gives you a rough sense of the geography, though it is not 100% accurate.

David found the land was owned by a Jebusite, not an Israelite. Refusing to take it as a gift, David purchased the land, and made offerings and sacrifices there. This ridge-top was the very place where Abraham had taken his son Isaac, when he obeyed God’s call to sacrifice him. On that mountaintop, Isaac, not knowing what was to come, asked what they were going to use for a sacrifice. Abraham answered prophetically, saying, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” (Gen 22:8, HCSB). God stopped Abraham when he saw that he was willing to give up even his son. Instead, God planned to give his own son. And so on this same spot, almost eight hundred years later, the plague was stopped. On this same spot, David offered his life in exchange for his people, but again, the Lord refused that sacrifice, looking ahead to the time he would offer his own son. On this same spot, purchased by David, Solomon later built the temple of the Lord. This temple became a meeting place between the Lord and his people, a place where sacrifices were offered to reconcile the people with the Lord and each other. So, the author of Samuel, who lived in the next generation after the temple was built, is saying: “Don’t waste your energy wanting another king like David. Instead, pay attention to the presence of God among his people.”

The New Testament teaches us that those sacrifices were all a shadow, pointing toward the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus to save people from their sins. The writer of Hebrews writes about the temple, and its purpose:

9 This is an illustration pointing to the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them. 10 For that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies—physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established.
11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. 12 With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. (Hebrews 9:9-12, NLT)

In other words, even though the writer of Samuel did not know it, this epilogue points beyond David, even beyond the temple, and to the eternal atonement that Jesus secured for us. The message is that we need atonement, and only God himself can truly provide it. And not only that, but God has provided it, through Jesus Christ, the descendant of David.

We human beings tend to make the same mistakes in each generation. Many people in our country are very focused on politics and on the “culture wars.” But our main focus should be on Jesus Christ, and reconciliation with the Lord through him.

What are the things you tend to put your hope in? A job? Your skill or experience? Your family? Your investments, your house? All these are good things when they are held in the right place of importance in our lives. But as good as it is to enjoy the blessings God gives us, our only hope should be found in Jesus Christ alone.

How has the Lord spoken to you through the book of Samuel?

2 SAMUEL #27: THE GLORIOUS COMPANY

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

God shines his glory not just through David, but also through the many people who were part of what the Lord was doing at the time of David. As each part of this epilogue shows, once again we see that salvation does not come from David, but from the Lord. He used some amazing people to build the kingdom of Israel. Just as those people shared in David’s hardship, and then, finally, David’s glory, so we too will one day share in the glory of Jesus, even when we suffer with him in this present life.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen. You can also find us on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/show/6KKzSHPFT466aXfNT2r9OD

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 2 Samuel Part 27

2 Samuel #27.  2 Samuel 23:8-39

As I have mentioned before, 2 Samuel chapters 21-24 are a carefully crafted epilogue to the book of Samuel. The content is arranged in a common ancient middle-eastern pattern called chiastic structure. We are now in part B1.

A. The need for atonement

B. The Giant-killing warriors who took over that role from David

X.  David’s psalm declaring that the Lord alone saves his people

X1. David’s last words depending on God’s promise alone to bring an eternal messiah

B1. The warriors who helped David throughout the years

A1. The need for atonement and the provision for it.

One of the purposes of this epilogue is to encourage people to hope not in an earthly leader, not even a really good one, like David, but rather, to put all of their hope in the Lord alone. We can see looking at part B, above, that when David could no longer fight there were other warriors who stepped up. The point was, the Lord is the one who saves his people, and he is not dependent on any one person. That point is being reiterated now. Now, the author of Samuel is saying, “Look, even when David was young, it wasn’t only David whom the Lord used. He was surrounded by these amazing warriors, even in his prime.” Again, the message is that we shouldn’t look to any single person like David. The Lord is the one who saves.” There’s something else too. The beginning and end of this epilogue are focused on our need for salvation. Ultimately, there is something deeply ugly and rebellious at the core of every human being. But the Lord also made humans in his own image, and people are not only sinful: they are, at the same time, beautiful and amazing too. So here we see some of the amazing things done by David’s closest associates.

We are introduced first to “the three;” that is, the three most famous and honored warriors led by David. First was Josheb Basshebeth, also known, in 1 Chronicles 11, as “Jashobeam.” He killed 800 enemies with his spear in a single battle. Next of “the three” was Eleazar. He and David stood alone together against the Philistines at a place called Pas Dammin. They fought so long and furiously that Eleazar’s hand cramped around his sword, and he couldn’t let go of it for some time afterwards. Although David was a part of that battle, the point in this passage is not about David, but his men. Third was Shammah, son of Agee from Harar. He defended a field from the Philistines, apparently all by himself, and won a great victory. Apparently, one of the “thirty mighty men,” a man named Jonathan, was the son of this Shammah.

In verses 13-17 we have another exploit that “the three” undertook together. Some translations, in verse 13 say something like: “And three of the thirty chief men went down (ESV).” This casts doubt on whether it was “the three” or just three unidentified men out of “the thirty.” However, the text has not yet introduced us to “the thirty” and verses 16 and 17 seem to be talking specifically about “the three.” So I prefer the NLT. “The Three (who were among the Thirty—an elite group among David’s fighting men) went down to meet him there.” There is a bit of interpretation, or clarification, added to the Hebrew here by the NLT, but I think it’s the right interpretation, and it is supported by the context.

In any case, the incident took place when David was in the cave of Adullam, and the Philistines were in the valley of Rephaim, and had spread out all the way to Bethlehem. Although this could have been before David was king, when he was hiding from both Saul and the Philistines, I think the context best fits 2 Samuel 5:17-25. In fact, we looked briefly at this story in 2 Samuel #5.

David had only recently become king, and the Philistines invaded up the valley of Rephaim, getting as far as Bethlehem, which was David’s hometown. David, being a great strategist, had already taken his army and concealed it in the caves that were found in the south side of that valley. They were in a good strategic position, but it broke David’s heart that he had to let the Philistines occupy Bethlehem. It was probably a hot day, and he exclaimed how much he wished he could have a drink from the well at Bethlehem, the clear, cold water he grew up drinking. He was certainly wishing for that drink because he was hot and thirsty. But he was also wishing that the battle was over and the Philistines were defeated, and his hometown was safe. But “the three” took David at his word, and broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well, and brought it back to David without getting hurt themselves. David’s response is interesting

But he refused to drink it. Instead, he poured it out as an offering to the LORD. 17 “The LORD forbid that I should drink this!” he exclaimed. “This water is as precious as the blood of these men who risked their lives to bring it to me.” (2 Samuel 23:16-17, NLT)

The reason the author of the book of Samuel tells that story here, and not in chapter five, is because it illustrates his main point in this epilogue. David is not the hero. Salvation does not come from David. Instead, David is just a servant of the Lord. It is through the Lord that salvation comes, and even David himself consistently testified to this.

When I first read this, I thought, “I’d be angry if I were one of those three warriors.” But actually, I think what David was saying was this: “I am not worthy of such a costly drink. I can’t claim it. Only the Lord is worthy of that kind of effort and self-sacrifice.” He was actually honoring the men more by pouring it out than by drinking it. He “poured it out to the Lord.” He was saying that the lives of these men were precious to the Lord. There was a type of offering called a drink offering, where a drink (usually wine) was poured into the ground. The idea was to say, “this is God’s, not mine, and I pour it out to show that everything I drink ultimately comes from God.” So, David did not consider himself worthy of that kind of sacrifice from his men, and he directed their attention to the Lord. Life wasn’t about him, it was about God. The Lord was the one who gave them the strength and flat-out guts to do this amazing deed. He was the one who was to be honored, not David.

The hero of this entire story is the Lord. David consciously realized this, and made statements to draw attention to the Lord, rather than himself.

The author of Samuel goes on to tell about a few more people whom the Lord used to establish the kingdom of his people, Israel. The next one is Abishai. There are some differences of opinion about the original wording of verses 18-19, about Abishai. Here’s one way it could be:

18 Abishai, Joab’s brother and son of Zeruiah, was leader of the Three. He raised his spear against 300 men and killed them, gaining a reputation among the Three. 19 Was he not more honored than the Three? He became their commander even though he did not become one of the Three. (2 Samuel 23:18-19, HCSB)

Or:

18 Now Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty. And he wielded his spear against three hundred men and killed them and won a name beside the three. 19 He was the most renowned of the thirty and became their commander, but he did not attain to the three. (2 Samuel 23:18-19, ESV)

This difference is known as a “major variant” in textual criticism. Basically, the main Hebrew textual traditions have it the way the HCSB says it. But there are some early Hebrew texts, as well as a translation of this passage into Syriac (an ancient middle eastern language) that have it as the ESV translates it. The ESV contains a note explaining this.

 We don’t know which one of these is closest to the original. You can see that it doesn’t matter theologically at all. What we can know for sure either way is that Abishai is one of the four most honored warriors of David. He’s either number one, and the chief of the three, or he is number four, the chief of the other thirty most elite soldiers.

As we’ve gone through the book of Samuel I’ve found myself admiring Abishai more and more. He shared David’s troubles while David was still an outlaw. He and David performed the amazing feat of sneaking into the camp of Saul and stealing his spear and water jug. He was clearly a fearsome warrior. He often didn’t understand, or agree with, the decisions David made, but he went along with David anyway, and submitted to David’s leadership. For instance, when they were standing next to a sleeping Saul, Abishai wanted to kill Saul, for David’s sake. David said, “no,” and Abishai acquiesced. Much later, Abishai accompanied David when he left Jerusalem in shame, fleeing from Absalom. The man named Shimei insulted David in a cowardly way, and Abishai wanted to kill him, but when David said no, Abishai did as he was told. When they returned in victory, Abishai wanted to kill Shimei again, then, but David still said no, and Abishai, again, obeyed. In other words, he followed David, and obeyed him, even when he didn’t understand, or agree. It boils down to this: he trusted David and David’s leadership even when he didn’t understand it. In that respect, he shows us how we ought to follow Jesus Christ.

In all of this, Abishai was very different from his older brother, Joab. We know that Abishai killed at least 300 enemies in a single battle. He certainly fought in many other battles, presumably killing other enemies. But the scripture never mentions Joab killing enemies in battle, except as a general, in which case he, personally, was not likely involved in the fighting. The only time we know for sure that Joab killed anyone was on the three occasions when he committed murder. And Joab committed those murders explicitly in defiance of David. Joab himself is not honored in this text as one of David’s elite warriors. Even though he was the overall commander of the army as a whole, here, he is only mentioned as Abishai’s brother. He also gets a mention because one of the thirty, Naharai, was his armor-bearer. Abishai had the strength of character to be a better man than his older brother, following God’s chosen leader faithfully, even when he didn’t understand, or fully agree.

The final person singled out for special praise is Benaiah, son of Jehoiada. If you want to think about what kind of a warrior he was, simply remember these things: on a snowy day he chased a lion into a pit and killed it; and on another occasion he faced an imposing Egyptian warrior with a spear, while he only held a wooden staff. He took the spear away from the other warrior, and killed him with his own weapon. Benaiah was younger than many of those named here, and only served David later on in his reign. However, he went on to serve as the chief bodyguard of king Solomon as well. In that capacity, he executed both Shimei and Joab.

Next, we come to the list of “the thirty,” who are, along with the others mentioned, the most fearsome, elite warriors of David. You may notice that the list of “the thirty” includes more than thirty people. It’s not clear whether Abishai is to be counted among them, or Benaiah son of Jehoiada. We know that some of those listed died when David was still relatively young. Asahel was killed before David became king over all Israel. We know, of course, that Uriah was killed when David was middle aged. So “the thirty” is obviously a round number, and there was some change in the composition of the group, but it was a special and exclusive company.

As we read about these people, their names are very foreign to English speakers. Even worse, most of them are also identified by their family or clan name, or possibly the town they are from, and those names are difficult as well. These things make this text hard to follow. Because of this I recommend reading a translation like the New Living Translation, since it simplifies and clarifies the names. The God’s Word version helpfully puts each name on a new line so we can keep track of them more easily, and that also helps us separate the first names from the family names and place names. Of course, what remains are still names that are strange to us.

But maybe these names are there for a reason. After thirty centuries, these names have never been forgotten. God knows his own people, by name. He knows you, too, and your name, if you trust Jesus, is also written in God’s book.

Even though we humans have been broken by sin, there is still part of the amazing image of God that shines through our brokenness. David’s gang of thirty were people who willingly gave themselves to serve David; ultimately, to serve God. Because of that, we see God’s glory through them. We too, are called, broken as we are, to let the glory of God shine through us, as we serve God’s chosen one, Jesus Christ.

Another thing I think we are meant to understand is that David did not become king all by himself. Though he was a remarkable man in many different ways, he needed the help of many others. No one really does anything significant without help from others.

We all need each other. We each need to find our own “gang of thirty” and guard each other’s backs, deal with life side by side together, and cheer one another on. Start with a “gang of three or four,” and build from there. In other words, we need close fellowship with a few other believers who will stand with us when we need it. We need to be prepared to stand with them in times of need, as well. If you don’t have a gang of three or four, or a larger support network, start by asking the Lord to provide that for you, and then keep your eyes and ears open to hear from the Lord who you should spend time with to develop that support network. Remember that these people will not only be there for you, but you should be there for them, as well.

Most of “the thirty” joined David when he was still an outlaw. Some of the others were children, who grew up in David’s nomadic camp, and then joined the thirty when they were older. They traveled with him, fought alongside him, planned, did chores and simply lived life together. They willingly shared David’s hardships and suffering, and, at the end of it all, they also shared in the success and honor of David. They were an important part of the kingdom that David was building.

David was not the messiah, but the Lord used him to show us some things about the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. Jesus invites us into close fellowship with himself. He invites us into everyday life with him. He also sometimes invites us into hardship and suffering; but that suffering is to be alongside him—we are not alone in it. In fact, if our lives truly belong to him (as they do, if, in fact, we trust him) then it is really his suffering that we are sharing in. David’s followers encountered that hardship and suffering as, and because, they went through life with David. Though they all suffered, it was, in a sense, David’s suffering; they shared in it because they were connected with him. In the same way, even our own sufferings are not really our own. We encounter them as we are part of the people of Jesus. So, we are not alone as we suffer. We have God’s own promise that one day the suffering will end, and we will share in the glory.

16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. (Romans 8:16-19, NLT)

When we see the earthly glory that David’s followers shared, we should be encouraged to look beyond. Jesus is better than David. His promises are powerful and real. We can learn to have peace and joy now, no matter what is going on, because we know that one day glory will far outshine the worst sufferings we experience.

16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, NLT)

Finally, we should be reminded that hope does not come from earthly leaders, even really good ones. True hope that lasts is found only in God’s promised messiah, Jesus Christ. In Christ we will be led to our support network. In Christ, we will share in suffering, and in Christ we will share in eternal glory and joy so amazing that we will consider the sufferings of this life not worth mentioning.

2 SAMUEL #21: OUTRAGEOUS GRACE

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

After Absalom was dead, and his rebellion put down, David encountered various individuals and groups who had conspired against him, or used the situation in some way to their own advantage. These people ranged from cowards to treasonous quislings. David, once again with the power of kingship, chose not to punish them, but rather, to forgive them. His kindness and grace to such despicable people comes across as offensive; outrageous, even. In this way, David reminds us once more of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, whose forgiveness to undeserving people is also outrageous. God’s grace is for those who don’t deserve it. We must never forget that.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

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2 Samuel #21 .  2 Samuel Chapter 19:9-43

The second half of chapter 19 appears to be mostly a detailed record of the political history of that time. This was valuable and significant to the ancient Israelites who lived not long after David’s time. It is still interesting today to historians, and bible-geeks like me. But what is the point of it really?

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I think it is important to revisit it periodically. We all tend to forget. The Holy Spirit made sure first that this history was written; second, that it was preserved through the years; and third, that it was included in the bible. So there must be some reason for this. There must be some way the Lord wants to speak through it to Christians living today.

Sometimes, in order to hear what the Lord wants to say today, we first need to understand it better. So please bear with me. I think we’ll find some fruitful bible application here if we pay attention to details that might otherwise seem tedious.

Here’s the situation. David’s army has defeated and killed Absalom, who had rebelled against him and set himself up as king in David’s place. There were no computers or telephones or newspapers in those days, so it took a while for the news of David’s victory to spread. Meanwhile, David seems to have waited. This might seem a little bit strange. But remember who David is. He has many faults, to be sure, but he has never grasped at power. Instead, he always waited for the Lord, even refusing to take opportunities to gain the kingdom when he was younger. It is my opinion that once Nathan confronted him about the Bathsheba incident, David once again became like the person he was when he was younger. All of his confidence was once more in the Lord. So here, he once more waits until he is sure that the Lord still wants him as king. He doesn’t want the civil war to continue, so he waits until he is sure he can return in peace. This is David once more at his best, trusting the Lord.

The writer of Samuel often makes a distinction between the tribe of Judah and the other eleven tribes of Israel. Often when he writes “Israel” he appears to mean the tribes as distinct from the tribe of Judah. This shows us that there was some tension between those two factions even in the time of David. In the time of David’s grandsons, the nation was split. Judah absorbed most of the tribe of Benjamin and became a separate nation named “Judah” (from which we get the word, “Jew”). The other ten tribes formed a kingdom to the north of Judah, which was called “Israel.” I’m of the opinion that it was shortly after this split that someone took the writings of the prophets Samuel, Nathan and Gad, along with some official court history, and made it all into the books of First and Second Samuel.

After Absalom’s rebellion, people from the other tribes began talking about inviting David back officially, and officially receiving him once more as king.

Now Israel had fled every man to his own home.  9 And all the people were arguing throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and saved us from the hand of the Philistines, and now he has fled out of the land from Absalom.  10 But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why do you say nothing about bringing the king back?” 

Apparently, the people really had committed to Absalom. They said he was the one they had anointed to be king over them. This wasn’t as strange as it might seem. After all, he was the king’s son and heir. I’m sure many people assumed that sooner or later, Absalom would be king anyway, and why not have him in the full vigor of his youth? But now, he was gone. I would have thought that at this point it was a clear choice to go back to David, but the people still seemed at a loss. Even so, from most of the tribes, sentiment turned back toward David.

But the tribe of Judah did not seem to know what to do. At first, this seems strange, since David was from the tribe of Judah. But then, so was Absalom, David’s son. Absalom’s rebellion was conceived and carried out in Hebron, the chief city of Judah. Absalom’s military commander, Amasa, was a relative of his (and David’s) from the tribe. In fact, most of his inner circle were probably from Judah. In other words, although they were David’s people, they were also Absalom’s people, and they were probably chiefly responsible for the rebellion.

David reached out to them. He sent a message to the leaders of the tribe of Judah, saying,

 ‘Why should you be the last to restore the king to his palace? The talk of all Israel has reached the king at his house. 12 You are my brothers, my flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to restore the king? ’ 13 And tell Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me and do so severely if you don’t become commander of the army from now on instead of Joab! ’ ” 14 So he won over all the men of Judah, and they sent word to the king: “Come back, you and all your servants.” (2Sam 19:11-14, HCSB)

As David made his way back, he was met at the Jordan river by a host of people who wanted the honor of escorting him to Jerusalem. What follows was a slightly sickening display of sycophancy. People ended up arguing amongst themselves about who got to show David honor, and who was honoring him more (19:40-43).

Along with the leaders of the tribe of Judah, one of the first people to come meet him was Shimei. You may remember him from 2 Samuel 16:5-13, which we covered in Part 18 of this sermon series. This was the man who cursed David and pelted him with rocks and dust as he fled from Absalom. When David was down, he piled on with insults and taunting, rubbing David’s face in the humiliation, exulting in David’s misfortune and shame. Shimei did not just mess up and make a mistake – what he did was clear and deliberate. Now that David was king again, Shimei came fawning to him like a disobedient dog, begging forgiveness. Clearly, he wouldn’t have had this attitude of Absalom had won. I don’t know about you, but I think that Shimei was pond-scum. His behavior and attitude are despicable, detestable, the lowest and ugliest forms of hypocrisy and cowardice. He is a jerk, plain a simple, the kind of person I want nothing to do with.

And David forgave him.

Stop for a second, and think on that. Let it sink in.

Let’s be honest. David’s forgiveness and compassion are offensive. Abishai, brother of Joab suggests, as he did before, that Shimei would be a more attractive person if his head was removed. I tend to agree with Abishai. But David did not.

Does this remind you of anything? The love and compassion of Jesus were also offensive. The Pharisees were offended that he would eat with tax collectors and known sinners. He allowed a prostitute to kiss his feet in public, and wash them. It offended them.

I think once more, this text is a far-off picture of Jesus, the ultimate anointed savior of God’s people. It isn’t really about David, it is about Jesus, his wisdom and love, and how people respond to him. So let’s consider the rest of this text in that light.

We’ve been talking about Shimei. His sin was obvious and deliberate. There was no excuse for it. It wasn’t a momentary slip. It revealed an ugly character. Even so, David offered him forgiveness and redemption. Jesus does the same. That’s right, Jesus came to redeem and forgive class-A jerks, cowards and crawling hypocrites. It is offensive sometimes, to think Jesus would forgive someone that I want to hate so much. But he does.

Abishai was like me. Shimei’s character was clear to him. He was offended by David’s compassion and mercy. But David rebuked him. Sometimes we really are offended by the idea that Jesus would forgive certain people. Would he forgive a child-molester? Based on what I know of the bible, the answer is “yes.” Jesus is king, and he can forgive who he pleases. He does not answer to us.

But as an illustration, I do want to finish the story of Shimei, though it does not end for many years. When David was dying, he told Solomon to watch out for Shimei. So, even though David forgave him, he certainly saw the truth about what kind of person he was. Solomon made a just and fair ruling for Shimei, allowing him to live in peace if he would show his obedience and faithfulness by never leaving Jerusalem. Shimei, revealing his true character, agreed, but then ignored the agreement when it became inconvenient. As a result, Solomon had him executed. So in the end, forgiveness did Shimei no good, because he did not allow it to touch his heart and change the kind of person he was.

In the same way, the forgiveness of Jesus does not help those who don’t truly repent, who don’t allow him to work in their lives. Jesus sees all, so we can let ultimate judgment rest with him. He knows what’s really in each person’s heart, and responds accordingly. You can’t be truly repentant without letting God’s love change you.

Back to David, the next person to arrive was Ziba. At this point, Ziba was revealed as a trickster and manipulator, because right behind him was Mephibosheth, whom Ziba was supposed to serve. Mephibosheth revealed how Ziba took advantage of his disability, and took the donkey that was supposed to be for him, and lied, telling David that Mephibosheth rejoiced over David’s trouble. Mephibosheth had not washed his clothes, or cared for his hair or feet since David left. In those days, anyway, it was not possible to fake long fingernails and toenails. Mephibosheth’s physical condition proved that he was telling the truth.

So, David reversed his previous declaration, that Ziba should have all of Mephibosheth’s property, which was, no doubt, why Ziba lied in the first place.

Even so, even though he tried to trick his master Mephibosheth, David told Mephibosheth to divide the land between him and Ziba. This amounts to forgiveness, and even a reward, for the trickster and manipulator, Ziba. There it is again, that offensive forgiveness.

Mephibosheth’s response shows that his loyalty was always true. He didn’t care about the land, as long as David was safe, and king again. I mentioned before that Mephibosheth is a great picture of God’s grace. Unlike Shimei, the grace he received through David changed him permanently. He didn’t just want what David could give him. He wanted the best for the king that saved him, and he wanted fellowship with him, whether he had blessings from him or not. Mephibosheth rejoiced that David was back and safe, far more than he rejoiced about being vindicated in the dispute with Ziba.

This is an encouragement to me to have a similar attitude. It isn’t about what Jesus can do for me in this life. It isn’t about me getting what I think I deserve, or being proved right. It is about loving Jesus and being in relationship with him. You can’t manufacture that. It only comes when you love Jesus for who he is. If you feel like you lack that kind of love (as I often do), ask the Holy Spirit to give it to you.

One of the people who helped David in his exile was an old man named Barzillai. David blessed him and rewarded him, though again, Barzillai wanted no other reward than the safety of the king, and in fact, was too old to enjoy any of the blessings David wants to bestow. So too, I find it helpful to remember that even though Jesus sometimes offends me by his radical forgiveness of people whom I think are undeserving, he does also love his faithful servants. He does not forget them, or offer them less than anyone else. Maybe, like Barzillai, we don’t enjoy the blessings in this life. Even so, Jesus offers us blessing and joy that can never spoil or fade.

Another group to consider is the leaders of the tribe of Judah. They made a deliberate choice to follow Absalom instead of David. But before they even repented, David was reaching out to them, forgiving them, restoring them to a relationship with him. So Paul writes about Jesus in Romans 5:

For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! (Rom 5:6-8, HCSB)

Jesus’ love and forgiveness is given time and again to those who don’t deserve it – because no one deserves it. So, if you think you are unworthy, you are correct. But that doesn’t stop Jesus from giving you grace and forgiveness anyway. You may think someone else is unworthy. You are also correct about that. But if you don’t want the Lord to forgive them, you cannot have forgiveness yourself. We are all unworthy. Instead of being resentful about how God forgives others, be grateful about how he forgives you.

Abishai was not the only one who took offense at the mercy of God that David showed to all who would see. The ten other tribes of Israel were also offended that even though they were the ones who first talked of bringing David back, it was the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who got the honor of doing so.

In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees were also offended at Jesus’ graciousness. In those days, the Roman government and the provincial government were corrupt and horribly oppressive.  Roman soldiers often raped local women and got away with no repercussions. Government officials took whatever they wanted, including, at times, the daughters of Jewish families. Tax collectors were Jewish people who worked for these awful Romans and got them the money they needed to maintain their power. Not only that, but they could collect whatever tax they wanted. So if the Roman and local taxes equaled six months labor, the tax collector could add whatever he wanted on top of that to make himself rich. Some people ended up as slaves because they couldn’t pay their taxes. Therefore, tax collectors were deeply hated, and with good reason. They were like Nazi collaborators in German occupied Holland or France during WWII. And yet Jesus forgave tax collectors. He fellowshipped with them. It was offensive.

God offers not only amazing grace. He offers outrageous grace. This is good news, and a tremendous comfort for those who know they need it, but it can be dangerous when we think only certain people should be allowed to receive God’s grace. The very essence of grace is that it is given to those who don’t deserve it.

I think that may be a key. If the forgiveness and mercy of God to others offends you, is it possible that perhaps you do not realize how much you yourself need that same grace? Jesus said:

“Blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” (Matthew 11:5-6, ESV)

Let the Spirit speak to you today.

2 SAMUEL #19: BETRAYAL, FAITH AND RESILIENCE

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

David and his followers worked hard and were faithful and finally stepped into what the Lord had promised: David’s godly Kingship. But now, in a few short years, Absalom had stolen it all away, destroying what his father, David, had worked for decades to achieve. Even in the midst of this awful betrayal, in fear for his life, David wrote: “Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” When we trust Jesus Christ, we too, cannot be shaken, no matter what disaster overtakes us.

2 SAMUEL 2024 To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

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It is no secret that American politics have become very angry and divisive. No matter which party wins, almost half of the country apparently feels that it is a terrible disaster. We are no longer content to say that we disagree with politicians from the other party. Instead, we now declare our political opponents to be wicked and evil. With every election, to believe the rhetoric, the very existence of our country is at stake. Both sides claim this to be true.

The scripture that we are looking at today is especially relevant in these times. David was a good king; in fact, he was God’s choice for king. But Absalom sounded good, looked good and deceived enough good people, and recruited enough schemers, to take power and send his dad, David, running for his life. Politically, things looked bad for Israel. How could the country be so ignorant as to let this smooth-talking, charming megalomaniac come to power? Obviously, there were still many who supported David, and who felt that Absalom was a very bad choice for king. But they were defeated and silenced. God’s choice no longer mattered. Righteousness and right didn’t matter. Instead, power went to the one who was most ruthless and clever. Those who were wise and aware in Israel, who trusted the Lord, must have been deeply dismayed.

At the end of 2 Samuel chapter 15, we learned that when David fled from his son Absalom, he left behind a kind of spy network. Two priests who were loyal to David stayed in the city—Zadok and Abiathar. Their two sons—Ahimaaz and Jonathan—stayed outside the city, ready to relay messages to David. David also had a friend and advisor named Hushai. Hushai stayed behind and pretended to betray David, and so became a false advisor to Absalom, a kind of double agent.

David had another close friend who was an advisor. This man was named Ahithophel. 2 Samuel 16:23 says this:

23 Now the advice Ahithophel gave in those days was like someone asking about a word from God — such was the regard that both David and Absalom had for Ahithophel’s advice. (2Sam 16:23, HCSB)

This man truly did betray David. He supported Absalom and threw his lot in entirely with him. It is quite likely that when David wrote psalm 55, it was primarily Ahithophel whom he had in mind. He said these things:

12 Now it is not an enemy who insults me — otherwise I could bear it; it is not a foe who rises up against me — otherwise I could hide from him. 13 But it is you, a man who is my peer, my companion and good friend! 14 We used to have close fellowship; we walked with the crowd into the house of God. (Ps 55:12-14, HCSB)

…20 My friend acts violently against those at peace with him; he violates his covenant. 21 His buttery words are smooth, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, but they are drawn swords.

When David first heard that Ahithophel had betrayed him, he prayed for the Lord to confound his advice and to defeat him. He said similar things in Psalm 55. There is something here that intrigues me. If you read the Psalms especially, David is never shy about praying for destruction to come upon evil and evil-doers. Whenever I read such things, I cringe a little bit. I think most modern Christians do. It sounds so simplistic to our sophisticated ears. These types of prayers seem to assume that we ourselves are good, not bad, and those who oppose us are the bad guys. I don’t think I’ve ever heard modern Christians pray that way. Now, Jesus did say to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. So I think we ought to do that. But have we ever considered that part of our prayers could be asking God to frustrate and confound the schemes of unrighteous and wicked people? Here’s another sample from David:

14 Let those who seek to take my life be disgraced and confounded. Let those who wish me harm be driven back and humiliated. 15 Let those who say to me, “Aha, aha! ” be horrified because of their shame. (Ps 40:14-15, HCSB)

If we pray in faith, trusting that God knows who truly needs to be confounded and frustrated, and who doesn’t, I think it is appropriate at times to pray against the success of those who appear to be against God. I’m not saying that we get to judge who those people are – I’m just saying that we can appeal to God to restrain and defeat wickedness, trusting him to judge who is wicked and who is not.

Ahithophel certainly appeared to become a wicked person. His first advice to Absalom was that he publicly violate the women of David’s harem, who had been left behind when David fled. This was a symbolic cultural gesture, expressing contempt for David, and showing the people that he had completely cowed and defeated him. The possession of the King’s concubines was a way of solidifying his own claim to be the new king.

It’s worth clarifying who these women were. In the ancient middle east, powerful men often took multiple wives. We’ve already talked about that. In addition to many wives, such men also took on concubines. A concubine was officially recognized as a kind of lower-status wife. The main difference between a concubine and a wife was that the children of concubines were never recognized as legitimate heirs to their fathers. Thus concubines also had lower social status than wives. All of this is, of course, awful, and oppressive to women. The Bible never, anywhere, endorses polygamy, let alone the practice of having concubines. But this was one of the ways in which David failed, and we talked about that at greater length in 2 Samuel part # 3.

Absalom took Ahithophel’s advice, fulfilling Nathan’s prophecy that David’s wives would be treated publicly as David treated Uriah’s wife privately (2 Samuel 12:11-12). The Hebrew here leaves a little bit of room for interpretation. Absalom’s men pitched tents in public view – on the roof of the palace. The text says that Absalom “went in” to the women. It could mean that he raped them. But in the customs of those days, when a married woman was alone with a man who was not her husband, it was a disgrace. Whether or not anything happened, it was assumed that something had. So, whatever happened, from that time forth, those women were treated as if they had been raped. In those days, the custom (not biblical, just cultural) was that no other man would ever again be with them. They would have no place with their previous husband, nor any chance of a new one. Normally, such a thing would condemn them to lives of begging and/or prostitution. This is horribly unfair, but it’s simply the way the culture was (not how God wanted it to be). However, after the rebellion was all over, David made sure that these women were well cared-for, for the rest of their lives.

Ahithophel’s next advice was cunning and might have been effective. He told Absalom to pursue David quickly, to strike  and kill him while he was still on the run, and end any doubt about who was king. But Absalom chose to also ask Hushai, David’s secret agent in the palace. Hushai gave advice that sounded excellent. He reminded Absalom that David was a cunning, fearsome old warrior, and that some of the Thirty were also with him. It would be no small thing to take such heroes on without enough preparation or force.  David and Abishai (who was with him) had once killed six hundred men in a single battle, just between the two of them. Hushai suggested that Absalom could not risk bad news like a battle gone wrong, so early in his bid for power. Hushai’s advice was meant to give David more time to escape and organize a resistance, but it wasn’t necessarily wrong. We’ll see that it turned out that when Absalom’s men finally engaged David’s men, Absalom’s people became quickly terrified when they were face to face with David’s legendarily fearsome warriors.

 In any case, the Lord heard David’s prayer, and Ahithophel’s scheme was frustrated.

Ahithophel’s reaction seems completely out of proportion. He went out and hanged himself. The text doesn’t really tell us why. I have a few theories, but they are only guesses. One thought is that Ahithophel reacted a little bit like Judas did one thousand years later, when he betrayed Jesus. Ahithophel may have realized that what he had done was wrong, and failed to believe that he could be forgiven and restored. So rather than repent and trust the mercy of God, he listened to lies of the devil that there was no forgiveness or hope, and destroyed himself.

The text does give us one clue. It says that Ahithophel killed himself after he realized that his advice had not been followed. So, it could be that in his wisdom, he realized even at that early stage that if they didn’t kill David quickly, then they would inevitably lose. He may have seen right then that Absalom’s rebellion was doomed to failure. Rather than wait through all the turmoil and then be executed by David, he decided to put his affairs in order and deprive David the satisfaction of doing justice upon his body.

Finally, Ahithophel’s suicide was an answer to David’s prayer in Psalm 55. His prayer against evil was answered quite clearly.

Chapter 17 verses 17-29 read like an adventure novel. Hushai didn’t know at this point if Absalom would follow his advice or Ahithophel’s, and so he activated the spy network, warning David to flee across the Jordan river that very night. A servant girl went out from the palace bearing a message to the sons of the two priests. But the activity was noticed, and the two young men were pursued as they carried the message to the fleeing king. They took refuge in the courtyard of a friend, hiding in the well. The woman of the house spread canvas out over the well, and covered it with grain, so that no one even knew it was there. The soldiers of Absalom searched, but failed to discover the hidden well. Afterward, the young men continued on and successfully delivered their message, with the result that David and his household fled further on to safety.

So what do we do with all this? I know that many informed faithful Christians have been deeply concerned about every political election for the past twenty-five years. Some appear to feel real angst about the results of elections. This was also probably true for followers of the Lord in the time of our text. When David was kicked out and Absalom was the new king, many people became very concerned.

Even so, I want to point out that people have been following the Lord for thousands of years, and really only in the last two hundred and fifty years have human beings had consistent opportunities to choose their own government. Christian faith thrives in freedom. Christian faith thrives in oppression. God is not hindered by unrighteous rulers – if he were, Christianity would never have survived. Just remember your hope should be in the Lord, not in a ruler. This is true whether you approve or disapprove of any particular government.

Leaders and governments come and go. So do countries and nations. Israel’s true hope was not in David’s leadership, but in God’s faithfulness and sovereignty. Our hope is the same. If we are shaken by an election, for good or for bad, then to that extent, our faith is not truly grounded in an eternal God who promises us an eternal hope. David, as he fled from his murderous son and treacherous friend, wrote this:

Cast your burden on the LORD, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. (Psalm 55:22)

This isn’t just about elections. This is about anything in life that threatens to shake us. What does it mean, “he will never allow the righteous to be shaken?” When David wrote that, he had lost all that he had worked so hard for decades to attain. He was in danger of losing his life. His own son was trying to kill him. But he says, “the Lord will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” Obviously, he did not mean that things would never be hard. Obviously, he did not mean that the future on earth would never look bleak. What he meant is that our faith in the Lord looks beyond the here and now.

You may wonder, “am I one of ‘the righteous’?” You are, if you trust Jesus. The promise of scripture is that Jesus imparts his own righteousness to us. This is not based upon what we have done, but rather on our faith in what he has done for us.

I think it is helpful to see David’s heart of faith in his extremely difficult and discouraging circumstance. Paul writes to the Philippians. He mentions people who are focused mainly on what is happening here and now:

They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Philippians 3:20)

We are citizens of heaven. We have the same eternal king today that we had before the last election, or before the last crisis that threatened to shake us. We have the same leader that our predecessors in faith had two thousand years ago. Our best future is ahead of us, and nothing can take it away. It is difficult when life is unpleasant, or hard, or full of sorrow. But circumstances did not fundamentally shake David. They don’t have to shake you either. Set your hope fully in your eternal future with Jesus.

2 SAMUEL #14: REPENTANCE

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Through David’s journey, we learn about the perniciousness of sin, the depth of God’s grace and the importance of genuine repentance. This compelling narrative not only highlights the transformative power of God’s love but also encourages us to reflect on our own lives and seek a renewed heart and spirit. Our only hope is a new, clean heart and a new, right spirit. God gives us those things because of his own amazing grace.

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If you are reading this, please pause, and read 2 Samuel chapter 12:1-14 first. The message in the text is pretty plain, and I am not going to go over the whole story in detail. So read the chapter, then come back and read the rest of this. Today we are going to focus mostly on Psalm 51, which David wrote soon after this incident in his life.

Remember the situation: David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and she got pregnant. He covered it up by arranging to have her husband killed in battle. David did not appear to repent.

Not long after this, the prophet Nathan came to the king. He told David about a rich man in Israel who had a great flock of sheep, goats and other animals, and a poor man who had nothing except one little lamb who was his beloved pet. The rich man had a visitor, and he was obliged to feed the visitor. But rather than take one of his own vast herd, he extorted the one beloved pet from the poor man, killed it, and fed it to his visitor, while the poor man was helpless to prevent it.

David was enraged by the injustice of what the rich man had done, and furious that such a thing would happen in Israel while he was king. He demanded to know the name of the rich man, so he could punish him for such blatant extortion and injustice.

Nathan said: “You are the man. This story is about you.”

Besides being a very powerful part of this chapter, I think Nathan’s approach tells us something about the bible. I have said before, and I stand by it, that the whole bible, including the Old Testament, is about Jesus. The first and most important purpose of the bible is to introduce us to Jesus, and to help us get to know him better. So whenever we read any part of the bible, we should ask the Holy Spirit: “Where is Jesus here? Show me Jesus.” But part of getting to know Jesus is also about getting to know the things in our own lives that either help or hurt our relationship with him. So the famous Danish theologian and philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, told people that when they read the bible, they should say, “this is about me.” And I agree with that, at least in the way that he meant. It is about Jesus first, but in a secondary way, related to that, the bible exposes our own attitudes, thoughts and ways of approaching life. In a way, the bible is to us what Nathan’s story is to David. We are supposed to read and engage. We should ask: “Where is Jesus?” But we should also ask, “Where am I in this text? What does this bible passage tell me about myself, in relationship to Jesus?”

Nathan goes on and catalogues the outrageous sins of David. But I don’t think he needed to. Almost all people have a deeply seated sense of justice. Nathan appealed to that in David through the story, and I think David was convicted as soon as Nathan said, “you are the man.”

13 David responded to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

Then Nathan replied to David, “The LORD has taken away your sin; you will not die. 14 However, because you treated the LORD with such contempt in this matter, the son born to you will die.”

Now, the statement “I have sinned against the Lord,” seems a little inadequate, considering what David had done. I would have wanted more. But God knew what was in David’s heart. And we too, know what was in his heart at this point in time, because immediately after this, David wrote it down. You can find it in the bible in Psalm 51. This psalm was written right after Nathan confronted him about Bathsheba. The whole psalm is still today one of the most powerful expressions of repentance ever written.

I think Psalm 51 is amazing at so many levels. It is a powerful part of scripture, and contains much important truth. And yet, this amazing and helpful part of the Bible came about because of terrible sins. Therefore, one of the things this psalm shows us is that God can bring good out of any situation, even good out of our own horrible, deliberate sins. But we should also recognize that it wasn’t as if the sin is what generated this amazing part of the bible. It was David’s repentance from sin. I have said before, and I’ll say it again: this is what made David a man after God’s heart. Not that he never sinned, but that he always repented, and returned humbly to God, and gave up both sinning, and trying to justify his sins.

The important truths begin with the very first verse, in the way that David asks for forgiveness. He could have said, “Forgive me, Lord. After all, I am your chosen king.” He might have written: “Lord, if you don’t forgive me, all the amazing things you’ve done in my life up until now would be wasted.” Another possibility: “Forgive me, or the enemies of Israel will be encouraged. If you let something bad happen to me because of this sin, your people will be without a leader.”

He could also have made the claim—correctly—that compared to others, he had lived a mostly righteous life. Before this, he had followed the Lord even in spite of great suffering. He had refused to kill king Saul – twice – when he had him in his power. There was a lot of credit he could have claimed.

If David had lived in our time, he might have said, “Hey, love is love. I can’t help that Bathsheba and I fell in love. I can’t believe there is anything wrong with our love. And if only our society was more open, I wouldn’t have had to get Uriah killed.”

But instead of any of this, David asks for forgiveness on the basis of one thing alone: God’s hesed; that is, the faithful, covenant love that God has for his people. By doing so, David is saying: “I have no claim on you for forgiveness. I don’t deserve it. I dare to ask for forgiveness only because I know that you are a loving God. Please forgive me because of your own good and loving character.”

One of the things that is so amazing here is that it is a thousand years before Jesus. We might have expected David to offer sin-sacrifices at the tabernacle, and then consider that he had fulfilled his duty. In other words, he might have expected God to forgive him based on offering the right sacrifices. But he recognized (and he says it explicitly in verses 16-17) that sacrifices mean nothing unless his heart is in it. He knows that there is nothing he can do to earn God’s forgiveness, and no good he has done in the past is enough to “make up” for his sin. His only hope is that God will have mercy on him. No one can be righteous enough to please God. Instead, we depend entirely on God’s willingness to have mercy on us.

In verses 3-6 David expounds on this. He fully confesses his sin and brokenness, and he goes out of this way to show that he is not making excuses. There is no hope in excuses. There is no excuse. When speaking of his sin, David uses three words, translated by the ESV as: “transgression,” “iniquity,” and “sin.”  Transgression describes a moral revolt against God. This is the part inside of us that rises up and says, “I know what’s right and wrong, but I want what I want, and I’m going to get it for myself even if it’s wrong.”

Iniquity describes an internal character of sinfulness. David says: “I was born in iniquity,” (verse 5). He means he was born with a flawed and sinful nature. The New Testament describes this as our flesh. We are all deeply flawed, and I don’t mean the wonderful and beautiful quirks of personality we each have. Something deep inside all of us is perversely wired to go against God, broken and twisted from birth, always oriented away from God.

Finally, David uses the word “sin.” Sin (or sins) describes the wrong, bad action. His affair was a sin. The arranged murder was a sin. But it is important to see that sins are just the tip of the iceberg. It starts with a broken and twisted internal character, and then desire that rises up in rebellion against God, and bears fruit with the actual wrong action. This reminds me of what James wrote:

13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else. 14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. (James 1:13-15, NLT)

David says something interesting in verse 4: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” When we first read this, it can sound surprising. Surely David sinned against Uriah as well, by committing adultery with his wife, and then by having him killed! How is it that David says his sin is against only God? Although this sounds wrong at first, it turns out to be quite accurate, and important – perhaps even more important today than it was when David wrote it.

In the first place, think of it like this: If there was no God, there would be no such thing as sin. Atheists believe this, and if they were right about the non-existence of God, they would also be correct about the non-existence of sin. If there is no God, even the idea that it is wrong to hurt someone else is just an arbitrary, made-up human rule. If there was no God, what David did to Uriah would be a tragedy for Uriah personally, but without God, who has the authority or power to declare it was a sin? David got away with it, after all, and he was the most powerful person in the region. Without God, that’s just the way the world works, and we need to live with it. So, you see, there can be no true moral evil unless there is some true, absolute standard.

The Bible tells us that the absolute standard is God’s holy character. Therefore, all sins are ultimately and finally sins against God. They are a violation of God’s holy character, and against his design for the human beings he made. There is no way to sin against another person without sinning against God as well.

Next, ask which is worse: violating the trust of another human being, or violating God’s? As a very imperfect analogy, suppose you kill your neighbor’s dog. Obviously, this is terrible for the dog, and it was wrong for you to hurt the dog. But the heart of your sin is really against your neighbor who loves the dog and is responsible for it. Obviously any human is more important than a dog, and in the same way, God is infinitely more important than any human being.

David is not saying that he did not wrong Uriah. Instead his point is that all sin is ultimately against God, and since God is infinitely greater, his sin against God is the heart of the issue. If he had not sinned against God, he certainly would not have sinned against Uriah.

This is especially important because in our world today, many people claim that nothing is really sinful if it doesn’t “hurt someone else.” So, for example, it is claimed, pornography doesn’t hurt anyone, so it’s not wrong to view it. Of course, they are wrong about pornography not hurting anyone. Hundreds, if not thousands, of former porn stars have testified that performing porn devastated them emotionally, spiritually, and sometimes physically. Some of those same women, while they were still performers, claimed that they really enjoyed it. But later, when they owned the truth of the matter, they confessed that in fact, porn was intensely destructive to them. In addition, some of the performers are undoubtedly women who are forced or coerced into it one way or another; no better off than sex slaves. But even if everyone was truly willing to do it, and happy about it later in life, porn is still a sin against God. We can’t say “it doesn’t hurt anyone,” because even if we lived in a fantasy world where all porn performers truly wanted to do it, it would still be a sin against God.

The same arguments are made about virtually any activity engaged in by consenting adults. We claim that the only sin is when someone doesn’t consent. But David puts us straight: all sin is sin against God. Even though it appears that Bathsheba went along with it willingly (thus, there was consent), they were both sinning, because God’s holy character intends sex for marriage alone. We can’t get ourselves off the hook by saying “I didn’t hurt anyone,” or even “I didn’t coerce anyone.” No, because all sin is against God, we have no defense. David, for his part, did not pretend to have a defense. He says: “therefore you are right when you speak, and justified when you judge me.”

In verse seven, David again affirms that it must be God who cleanses him; God alone can forgive and purify, and no one can earn it. David can’t make up for what he’s done. Verses 10-12 are the heart of this hard-hitting psalm:

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalms 51:10-12, ESV)

The problem is not just our actions. Our actions come from what is inside of us. David wants an enduring solution, one that will actually stop him from sinning again. I know many well-meaning Christians who get this confused. Many people, after sinning like David, might say something like this. “OK, from now on, I’m not going to go up on my rooftop alone. I’ll always have a guy with me up there, to make sure I’m not watching women bathe. In fact, I’ll give my wife the key to my rooftop, and she can go up there anytime, to make sure I don’t have any views of women bathing on their own rooftops, and we’ll build a wall if I do. Next, I’m going to have Nathan as my accountability partner. Finally, I won’t stay home from the wars anymore, because I might get bored and so get into trouble.”

All that is reasonably good, but it misses the point. David didn’t sin because he happened to see Bathsheba naked. He sinned because from birth, his heart was filled with iniquity. He sinned because he didn’t take that inborn iniquity seriously. Now, after these terrible actions, David knows that the problem is inside. It’s a problem he, personally, cannot fix. So he asks the Lord to give him a new heart, a righteous spirit. That is the only real hope he has to stop sinning. That is the only real hope any of us have.

I have never committed adultery, nor conspired to have someone murdered. But my heart is no better than David’s. The same iniquity inside David that led him to rebel against God is inside me, also. I’m not just saying that merely as a theological truth – I know myself well enough to know, experientially, that it is true about my heart. It is good to protect ourselves against temptation. But it is not enough. We need, along with David, to ask for a brand new heart from the Lord.

God answered David’s prayer for a new and clean heart. He answered that prayer for all mankind through Jesus. When Jesus came, he made it clear that the human heart is the real problem; and that is exactly why he came to redeem us. And the power of God for redemption is so great that it was both David and Bathsheba who became physical ancestors of Jesus who brought us that salvation. If he can turn their sin around and provide, through it, salvation for all humankind, he can also renew our hearts and spirits. Like David, let’s ask him.

Let us also see how grievously David sinned, and recognize the all-sufficiency of God’s forgiveness. I suspect that prior to committing adultery, David had been drifting away from the Lord. Probably nothing dramatic, but I would guess that as life got easier and more full for him, he focused less and less on God. In time, he drifted far enough to commit the dramatic sins he did: adultery, lying, conspiracy to murder, deceiving others into conspiracy to murder. Then nine more months passed, without him returning to the Lord or repenting on his own. We know this because Nathan didn’t confront David until after the child conceived in adultery was born. All told, I would guess that it was at least a year – perhaps several – that David was really not at all on track with God.

I think this is important, because the depth and depravity of David’s sin show us the vastness of God’s forgiveness and grace. This wasn’t just a little slip. This was an attitude of lust, murder, lying and self-reliance that continued for some time. God did not forgive David because it was just a little slip-up. It wasn’t. It was at least a year or two of wandering further and further away from God. But God forgave David because of his own loving nature. He laid the sins of David upon Jesus (Romans 3: 26).

If God can forgive David – who spent at least a year (but almost certainly more) turning his back on God and did such horrible things – he will certainly also forgive us when we repent. Don’t believe the lie that you have fallen too far or been away from God for too long. His grace is bigger than that. He will also give us a clean heart and right spirit, through Jesus Christ, physical descendant of David and Bathsheba.

2 SAMUEL #10: FULFILLING PROMISES AND DEFEATING ENEMIES

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Old Testament, Podcast, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

In this text we see that God uses his chosen instrument to fulfil promises and conquer the enemies of his people. This is true of Jesus, also, except in an even more universal way. In Jesus, all the promises of God are given and fulfilled. Jesus will work in and through our lives to defeat the work of our spiritual enemies, and bring our entire beings under his loving leadership.

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Second Samuel Chapter eight chronicles many of the conquests of David after he became king. These did not all take place at one point in his life; rather, this is a record of what David did over a his lifetime of military leadership. In other words, up until this point, the book of Samuel has mostly been chronological. But here, in chapter eight, the writer provides a summary of David’s many military victories encompassing his entire life.

In verse one, the writer tells us that “Metheg-ammah” is taken from the Philistines. This is an Hebrew expression that gives translators trouble. Some think it refers to the city of Gath. Literally it says that David took “the bridle out of the mother” of the Philistines. It is probably a kind of slang meaning he took control (the bridle) of the chief Philistine city (which would be Gath). The main point is clear – the Philistines have lost any kind of control or initiative that they once had against the Israelites, and they are, for all intents and purposes, subdued. The Philistines had been a problem for Israel for several hundred years, now, through David, the Lord ends the problem.

The second verse describes how David defeated the Moabites. This is another one of those troubling parts of scripture, because David was quite severe with them, apparently executing two thirds of the men who fought against him. This is made even more perplexing when we remember that David’s great-grandmother was a Moabite, and David had left his elderly parents in the care of the king of Moab when he was running from Saul. We need to remember, however, that narrative parts of scripture record what actually happened. That might be different from what should have happened. The text here does not tell us that David was righteous to do what he did to the Moabites. It cannot be used by Christians as justification for executing people.

However, some context might help. First Samuel, 22:1-5 describes David taking his parents to live under the protection of the king of Moab. This was when David was still hiding from both Saul and the Philistines. Some Jewish scholars believe that at some point later on, the Moabites killed David’s parents. There is no Biblical record of them still living after David left them in Moab. In addition, the Lord told David not to remain with the Moabite king (1 Samuel 22:5). So it is possible that the Moabites planned all along to betray David, and that the Lord told David to leave there to protect him from their betrayal. His parents, however, were still there when the Moabites turned on him. This seems plausible to me.

There is more as well. In Numbers chapters 22-25, the Israelites had left Egypt and were wandering in the wilderness. This was more than four hundred years before the time of David. The Israelites camped near the country of Moab, and the Moabites were afraid of them, even though Israel was not interested in taking their land. The Moabites didn’t want to fight the Israelites, so the king of Moab at that time hired a prophet of God to curse the Israelites. However, the prophet was a true prophet, and he couldn’t curse Israel in God’s name. Instead, he blessed them. The Moabites then tried to trick the Israelites into becoming one people with them, and worshipping their false gods. But the prophet prophesied about the future of the two nations. He said:

I see him, but not now; I perceive him, but not near. A star will come from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will smash the forehead of Moab and strike down all the Shethites. (Num 24:17, HCSB)

David fulfilled this prophecy in 2 Samuel chapter 8. Now, I don’t think was consciously trying to fulfill the prophecy. I think he was punishing them for killing his parents. But as it happened that also fulfilled the prophecy given more than four hundred years before.

In fact, at one level, this whole passage is about the fulfillment of ancient promises and prophecies. Eight hundred years before David, God promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan. In Genesis 15:18-21, that land was described as extending from the Red Sea in the South to the Euphrates river in the north where it runs southeast through modern-day Syria. Other promises in Deuteronomy 1:7, 11:24 and Joshua 1:4 describe those same borders, and lay out an eastern border that included almost all of modern day Jordan and Syria. The phrase “the river to the sea” is actually a biblical phrase describing the land God gave to the people of Israel. Today, the enemies of the modern state of Israel chant this phrase in mockery, intending to drive out all the Jews in this region.

Returning to our text, in all the time that the descendants of Abraham lived in the promised land, they had not possessed nearly that much territory. For four hundred years, they had lived on far less than God had promised. The map at left shows the region. The area outlined in yellow is the area that the Israelites controlled during the time of the Judges and during Saul’s reign. Keep in mind that my maps are accurate enough to give you the general situation, but they are not totally accurate.)

The people of God were living in far less than God had promised.

However, as a result of the conquests made by David, as described in 2 Samuel chapter 8, the area under the control of Israel was extended to almost the exact boundaries described in God’s promises to Abraham and to the people through Moses. This next picture shows the approximate area of David’s kingdom, outlined in purple. As you can see, Israel now had influence from the Euphrates river to the Red Sea. This is not to say that all of this area was considered “the nation of Israel,” however, David’s court in Jerusalem controlled and influenced all of it. If you are still having trouble picturing it, look at a world map. This area includes modern Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and most of Syria.

So what does all this mean for us today? I think it always helps to ask, “where is Jesus in this passage?” I see him here in two places: he is fulfilling promises, and defeating enemies. First let’s talk about the promises. On one hand, this seems to show us that God’s promises don’t always get fulfilled in what we consider a timely fashion. It was more than eight hundred years between God’s promise to Abraham about the size of the land, and the complete fulfillment of that promise. That’s a long time, and many generations didn’t live in the full reality of what God had promised. On the other hand, God doesn’t forget his promises, and he does truly bring them to pass. If you wanted to take the time, you could go through the bible, and find dozens of examples of promises that He made and then kept. Many times in the past I have explained where the bible came from, and how it has been verified time and again as a historically valid document. Here, I want to emphasize that it is also a spiritually valid document. We have a historical record of a promise from God and a historical record from a different period showing its fulfillment.

A natural question is “Why did it take so long for God to fulfill this?” The only completely honest answer is “I don’t know.”

Yet again, I think we have a Bible passage that is pretty unlikely if the Bible was made up. Can you imagine saying, “Let’s make up a story about God promising us all this land.”

“Yes, but let’s say that it took almost a thousand years for the promise to come to pass.”

“And then let’s say that the promise only lasted for two generations.”

“Yeah, we’ll have them flocking to our made up religion by the thousands!”

I do have some thoughts, about why it might have been so long, however. God told Abraham when he made the promise that it wouldn’t happen for at least four-hundred years, because he was giving the residents of the land a chance to repent. So, for the first four-hundred years, God waited, in order to be merciful to people who were rejecting him. But when the Israelites finally came out of Egypt four hundred years later, the Lord told them through Moses to go into the land, drive out the other nations and possess it. They simply didn’t do it. The reason they didn’t do it is because they lacked faith in God’s promise to be with them. In Numbers 13, Moses sent twelve spies into the land prior to invading it. Ten of the spies came back and said it would be impossible to drive out the nations who lived there. But two said it could be done. Their names were Joshua and Caleb. They said:

“The land we passed through and explored is an extremely good land. 8 If the LORD is pleased with us, He will bring us into this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and give it to us. 9 Only don’t rebel against the LORD, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them. Their protection has been removed from them, and the LORD is with us. Don’t be afraid of them! ” (Num 14:7-9, HCSB)

But the people didn’t listen to them. Instead they gave into fear and blaming. The result was forty years more of wandering for that generation, and then another four-hundred years of living in only part of what God promised.

I don’t think the lesson here is “do more.” I think it is “trust more.” As I have said many times, believing comes before doing. If the people were living in trust, they would have done what they were supposed to do. If they had attempted to do it without trust (as indeed they often did in the next four hundred years) their results would also have fallen short (as indeed, they did). The key is believing what God has promised, and trusting Him. We have seen that the one thing that makes David a hero is that he trusts God. David isn’t perfect. But he lives out of the understanding that his life belongs to God; that through him, God can and should do whatever he wants. So when David came along, the Lord finally had someone he could use, someone who trusted Him enough so that God could fully give everything that was promised.

We can’t always understand why God doesn’t completely fulfill his promises in our own lives. It isn’t always about our faith – sometimes it is about God’s bigger purposes in the world. For the first four hundred years after Abraham, God did not bring his people into the promised land, because he was trying to be merciful to the people who already lived there. So, it wasn’t the fault of God’s people that they hadn’t received his full promise. For many years, even David did not live in the fullness of God’s promises to him. That wasn’t his fault – God was arranging other things, because it wasn’t just about David – it was about God’s purposes. So don’t feel badly if you truly trust God, and yet you don’t see the complete reality of his promises in your life. It isn’t just about you.

But at least, we can try to eliminate lack of faith as a reason that we don’t experience the fullness of God’s promises to us. David trusted him fully, and eventually, the Lord used that trust in a huge and positive way for both David and the entire people of God.

I want to say one more thing about God’s promises. God’s best promises are the ones that will last for eternity. The people of Israel lived in the land stretching “from the river to the sea” for roughly two generations. None of the other Israelites before or since lived in a country that large or influential. But the bible contains promises that can never spoil or fade. The apostle Peter explains like this:

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 1 Peter 1:3-7

The best promises of God are the ones that last forever. While we wait for those, we may experience trials in the meantime. But we can rejoice in the knowledge that in the end, everything really will be OK. Our hearts will be filled with overwhelming joy, peace and love. Nothing that happens to us in this life can take that away from us.

Now let’s talk about Jesus defeating enemies. Is there “unconquered territory” in your life? What I mean is: are there certain areas of your life that are outside the control of Jesus? Hebrews 2:8 says this:

“You put all things under his control.” For when he put all things under his control, he left nothing outside of his control. At present we do not yet see all things under his control, (Heb 2:8, NET)

Like with God’s promises, we often see a partial fulfillment of the Lord ruling in our lives. I’ll be honest and say, usually this is for the same reason – our own lack of trust. But it has the same solution. If we trust Jesus, and let him have us more fully, he will supply the power to defeat the failures, temptations and self-will that we struggle with. Paul writes about the struggle this way:

For though we live as human beings, we do not wage war according to human standards, for the weapons of our warfare are not human weapons, but are made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds. We tear down arguments and every arrogant obstacle that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obey Christ. (2Cor 10:3-5, NET)

Like David, we are called to wage war while trusting in God’s promises. But our war isn’t physical – it is the war of a mind, to let the Lord conquer all that he has promised for us. I think we should understand this from our text: the key is to trust our Lord, and to be willing to do whatever that trust leads us to do. Sometimes that means opposing whatever opposes the truth of the Word of God in our thoughts. David illustrates physically in the land of Israel what Jesus wants to do spiritually in our hearts and minds.

Sometimes, as we wage this spiritual battle, our path to victory involves surrendering to God. We need to say to him, “You win. All that I am is yours. My full being: body, heart, soul and mind belongs to you. Do with me whatever you want.” The main battle then becomes allowing God permission to do whatever he wants to in and through our lives.

Think about this during the coming week. What is one eternal promise that you can cling to, that will bring you comfort no matter what you face? We have more than one, of course, but maybe pick one to focus on this week, and then pick another next week.

Another thought: What is one area of your life that is not fully surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? In other words, what is a part of your life that Jesus needs to conquer? Will you give him permission? I know there may be many areas, but perhaps focus on just one for this week, and then pick another for next week, and so on.

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you right now?

1 SAMUEL #22: FOLLOWING AN EXILED KING

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible, Bible Teaching, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized2 Comments
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David and his men teach us some things about Jesus and his followers. Like the followers of David, we come to Jesus desperate and poor. Like David’s men, following Jesus means we are “all in,” with no backup plan. We are called to wholehearted commitment to Jesus. When we answer that call, even our ordinary lives are significant in the spiritual realm.

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1 SAMUEL #22. 1 SAMUEL 22:1-12

1 David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. And when his brothers and all his father's house heard it, they went down there to him. 2 And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul, gathered to him. And he became commander over them. And there were with him about four hundred men. 1 Samuel 22:1-2

In the previous message we saw how David took the time to stop at the tabernacle to worship the Lord. This almost certainly cost him the chance to go home to Bethlehem for a final time before his exile. He did this because he wanted to be in the presence of the Lord once more. He wanted to hear what God had to say to him in this difficult circumstance. Those things were more important to him than home, family or even the certain help he would have received in Bethlehem. After stopping at the tabernacle, he went to Philistine territory, but found life among his enemies to be very insecure. Realizing he’d made a mistake, he fled from there, and ended up hiding and living in a cave near a place called Adullam. In fact we now know that there is a whole network of caves in that area.

Pause for a moment and consider how low David has fallen. He was anointed to be God’s chosen instrument, ultimately, to be the king. He served as a feared and honored warrior – he was, in fact, a national hero. He was the son in law of the king. He had lived in comfort and honor. Now he is hiding for fear of his life, in a cave. Caves are not known for their comfort. There is nothing soft to sleep on. There is no natural light. There are no bathrooms, so after a while of living there, it would smell pretty ripe. And yet, David’s heart didn’t falter. He did not appear to think he was somehow too good to live that way. Arthur W. Pink commented on this:

“The high favorites of Heaven are sometimes to be located in queer and unexpected places. Joseph in prison, the descendants of Abraham laboring in the brick-kilns of Egypt, Daniel in the lions’ den, Jonah in the great fish’s belly, Paul clinging to a spar in the sea, forcibly illustrate this principle. Then let us not murmur because we do not now live in as fine a house as do some of the ungodly; our “mansions” are in Heaven!”

Sometimes I think we Christians in the Western world are a little soft. God loves to bless his people, but his main purpose for us in this world is not that we merely feel comfortable. David was God’s chosen instrument, just as we Christians are today. And the Lord was with him in the cave, perhaps even more potently than when David finally lived in a palace. We need to take the long view, the view of eternity. What happens here and now is not the end. I like where I live right now, but it is a dump compared to my permanent home in heaven. David knew that was true for him as well.

There are two Psalms that show in the superscription that they were written by David “in the cave.” Unfortunately for David, he spent time hiding in several different caves, and at different periods in his life. So we can’t know for sure that these were written in the caves near Adullam at this particular time. But there’s a good chance that  either one or both of Psalm 57 and 142 were written at this point in his life. Remember, the Psalms are not collected in chronological order, so 142 could easily have been written before 57.

Both Psalms start with David expressing fear and anguish at his dangerous and uncertain situation. But both end with him declaring his trust in the Lord, and his praise to him. Psalm 142 seems particularly appropriate for David’s situation in 1 Samuel 22.  The last line of Psalm 142 says, “The righteous will gather around me; because you deal generously with me.”

 This is a declaration of trust. It is also an optimistic take on what actually happened shortly afterwards. David’s brothers and his father’s whole family came to live with him in the cave. He was no longer all alone – his family shared in his hardship and persecutions. In addition, more men joined him until there were about 400 altogether. The text says that these men were all either “desperate, in debt or discontented.” It doesn’t sound exactly like “the righteous.” It sounds more like a ragtag band of malcontents and ne’er-do-wells. David’s family aside, these sound not like the cream of the crop, but rather the sludge of society.

However, they all agreed upon one thing – David was now their leader. This was actually a pretty big deal. As we will learn next time, Saul the King felt that anyone who helped David was committing treason, and he sentenced them to death. So when these men gave their allegiance to David, they forfeited their lives. There was no going back. If David was not vindicated, if he didn’t end up as the true king, they were dead men.

In the Old Testament, sometimes we encounter people or events that theologians call “a type of Christ.” What they mean is, sometimes God used historical events or individuals to show the world what Jesus was like, even though Jesus had not come yet. It is a foreshadowing – a partial picture of what the real messiah will look like. These “types of Christ” serve two purposes. First they were for the people in Old Testament times, to help them understand what God is really like, and how he really saves people. Remember, Romans 3:25-26 tells us that even people in Old Testament times were saved through Jesus, as God looked ahead to what he was going to do at the cross. And so there are these shadows and parts of pictures that gave people a sense of what was to come. Second, these “types” are there to strengthen our faith. Even the Old Testament is all about Jesus, and so when we read it, we should be looking for Jesus and how it shows Him to us.

By the time Jesus walked the earth, even the Jewish Pharisees believed that many of the people and incidents in the Old Testament were pictures of the coming Messiah. In particular, the Jews felt that David’s life and character would help them to identify what the Messiah was like. David was anointed with oil and with the Holy Spirit to be God’s uniquely chosen instrument. Both the Hebrew word “Messiah” and the Greek “Christ” mean simply “anointed one.” Jesus Christ means “Jesus, Anointed One.” So some of the life of David, the anointed one, looks ahead to the ultimate Anointed One.

In this particular case, there are several significant comparisons. David was God’s chosen anointed one, and yet he was rejected by the leader of the nation. He lived with integrity and didn’t do anything wrong, yet he was forced to live as an outcast. Jesus was God in flesh, the Ultimate Anointed One, and yet he was rejected by the status quo of Israel. He too was an outcast. David accomplished miraculous things in battle against the Philistines. Jesus also performed many miraculous signs – healings, driving out demons, calming storms and more. He destroyed demonic enemy strongholds.

There is one “type of Christ” in this passage that I want to dwell on a little bit longer, and that is the followers of God’s anointed. The men that followed David were of no account. They were shiftless and in trouble, the dregs of society. And yet mostly from these ragtag 400, came some of the mightiest names in the history of Israel. There was an exclusive trio of warriors, known as “the three.” One of the three was the warrior Eleazar. Once he and David were surrounded by Philistines in an open field. They stood back to back, just the two of them, and fought against dozens, or possibly hundreds, of enemies. They prevailed and all their enemies were killed (1 Chronicles 11:12-14; 2 Samuel 23:9-10). There was a larger elite force of “thirty mighty men.” From what we can tell, they all started out among this group of no-name, no-account people who came to David long before he actually became king.

In the same way, the important members of society did not join the ragtag band of Jesus’ disciples. Instead he got tax-collectors, prostitutes and smelly, calloused fishermen. He had his “three” – Peter, James and John. He had his twelve then beyond that, a few more.

The followers of David had to be kind of desperate to go to him. They were literally giving up everything to join him. If he didn’t come through, they were lost. There was no halfway commitment. This wasn’t, “I’ll go hang with David for a while, and if it doesn’t work out, I can always go back.” No it was an irrevocable alignment with David, breaking off the loyalties of the past.

Jesus calls for that kind of allegiance from us also. He doesn’t want us to come to him, keeping our options open in case something we like better comes along.

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:37-39, ESV)
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Matthew 16:24-25

Peter and the twelve, like the first followers of David, went all in. Peter expressed the kind of commitment they made to him:

After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:66-69, ESV)

Peter was saying “We have nowhere else to go. We’re with you all the way – we have no backup plan.”

Just as David’s followers were desperate and poor, Jesus calls to the broken and poor in spirit. Let’s face it, it is hard to really give ourselves over to Jesus unless we realize that without him, we are lost. Paul describes it like this:

26 Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. 27 Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world — what is viewed as nothing — to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, 29 so that no one can boast in His presence. 30 But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became God-given wisdom for us — our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord. (1Cor 1:26-31, HCSB)

Now, let’s be honest. Sometimes it seems like it might be more exciting to be one of David’s men than to follow Jesus. I mean, as I read this, I think about David and Eleazar fighting back to back against the Philistines. It’s like a scene out of Lord of the Rings or some other action movie involving heroic hand-to-hand combat. It’s amazing. I often wonder if this real history might have been the inspiration for the legend of Robin Hood. Even if Robin Hood was real, he might have been inspired to his deeds by this very story. There are battles, betrayals, secret hiding places, defections. It is all very well to say David is a type of Christ, but most of us will go through our entire lives without these types of exciting events. Following Jesus can seem almost boring. I mean we go to work or school and come home and do stuff, go to bed and then get up and do it all again. Sometimes we’re so bored, we make excitement for ourselves, even when it’s self-destructive.

I think that is all because we fail to recognize the spiritual reality that exists with and alongside our world, hidden, but no less real. What David and his followers were involved with physically, Jesus and his followers are engaged in spiritually. David was the king who was chosen by God, but rejected by many of the people. He lived almost as an agent in enemy territory, gathering those few worthless people who had nowhere else to turn to help him. In the same way, C.S. Lewis describes our life of following Jesus like this:

Enemy occupied territory – that’s what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.

–C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

You see, though the battle is more spiritual than physical, it is no less real for all that. We have a faithful, loving intrepid leader. We are undercover – living as part of society, but not living for the same purposes as the rest of the world. Sometimes perhaps we need to wake up, and open up our lives to be more engaged in this secret mission. We need to be more aware of how the Lord wants to work, to be more aware of the people he is bringing across our paths and into our lives. I think when we are in the new creation we will be amazed at how significant our ordinary lives were. We’ll see how amazing it was that we said that encouraging word, or spoke the truth into a hostile situation, or forgave others, or showed them compassion. I think in the spiritual realm, these sorts of things are actually great battles, moments that will amaze us as much as we are amazed by the exploits of David’s mighty men – or maybe even more.

Joining the Rebel King paints a target on our backs, a target his enemies would love to use. But if we trust him and submit to his leadership, he will mold us into mighty men and women of faith, significant in God’s kingdom forever.

If you have never done it, would you consider going “all in” on Jesus, right now? I mean burn your bridges, like the followers of David did. Have no backup plan if Jesus disappoints you in the short term. Give yourself fully to Jesus, and break forever from every other means of feeling good about your life. You won’t fit in very well with the world when you do this. But you gain far more than this broken world could ever offer.

1 SAMUEL #20: THE GREAT STORY

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment
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Our text today tells a story; an exciting, true story of danger, adventure, love and friendship. But it is not David’s story, not really. It is a part of God’s ongoing story that reveals what he is like, and blesses those who trust him. We are part of the same story. Sometimes we don’t believe that. Sometimes we think the story is all about us, and at other times we don’t believe we belong in the story at all. But when we trust Him, God weaves our lives into his wonderful, grand story, and promises that we will be a part of the happiest ending of all time.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

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1 SAMUEL #20. 1 SAMUEL CHAPTERS 19 & 20.

Last time we saw that Saul, having closed the door to God’s Holy Spirit,  was overwhelmed by an evil spirit and he threw a spear at David, God’s chosen instrument. Now you would think this would be the signal for David to quit, and find other employment. But apparently David assumed that this was just a temporary fit of insanity. The manifestation of the demon that afflicted Saul seems to have looked a lot like paranoid-schizophrenia. So David apparently took it somewhat in stride, and put it down to “one of those fits the king has.” But even when the evil spirit had somewhat abated, Saul, unknown to David, made a decision that he wanted him dead.

Saul told his advisors, including his son Jonathan, to kill David. Before anyone could take action, Jonathan spirited David away, and then talked some sense into his father, and Saul relented. David came back to the king’s court, apparently welcome there. Even so, Saul’s heart had not fundamentally changed. There was another battle with the Philistines, and David, relying on God and the talents God gave him, won another great victory. This aroused Saul’s jealousy again, and again, overwhelmed by an evil spirit, he tried to kill David himself.

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, as the saying goes. That time David got the message. So did his wife, Saul’s daughter, Michal. She urged him to run away that very night. You can imagine the tearful passionate goodbyes, and the cool night air as David climbed out the window, and she pulled in the rope that he used. She made up an image of David, complete with a hairy head, to fool his pursuers, and put it in their bed.

In the morning Saul’s men came for David, and Michal reported that he was sick, buying more precious time for David to get away. The men went back to Saul, then returned with orders to bring David on his sick bed for Saul to kill him. When they did this, the deception was discovered, but Michal blamed David, saying that he had threatened her. Most likely, David had told her to take this approach, so that she would not be punished.

David fled to Samuel, where the Lord protected him from Saul’s men, and even Saul himself. Every time Saul’s men came to capture David at Samuel’s place, they were overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit, and instead of completing their mission, they were overcome with religious ecstasy and began to praise the Lord and speak his word. Saul himself came, and the same thing happened to him. You might remember that when Saul was first anointed, he had an experience of God’s Spirit coming upon him, and he prophesied (chapter 10:1-9). At that time it was an empowering confirmation of God’s call on his life. It was a positive experience, and he stayed in control of himself. This time, because his intentions were evil, he lost control of himself, and ended up lying naked for a day. The Hebrew there could mean “stark naked,” or it could mean, basically, “in his underwear.” Either way, in contrast to the beginning of his reign, we see that Saul is now out of step with God’s spirit, and instead of being empowered by the Spirit, he was thwarted from his evil purpose.

The Lord was giving Saul yet another chance to repent. He was not harming Saul, but reminding Saul that he was God, and giving him the opportunity to reconsider the course of his life.

Apparently, David wondered if Saul’s encounter with the Holy Spirit in this way caused him to change his mind. So, David secretly returned and sought out Jonathan, who agreed to help him. They set up a test to find out if Saul was still serious about killing David, and a secret rendezvous point, and even a code.

Their test proved that Saul was indeed intent on killing David. Though the Lord had given him yet another chance to repent, Saul had refused it. Jonathan gave the secret signal telling David he was in deadly danger. After sending his young helper back to the town with his weapons, Jonathan and David met for the last time. They re-affirmed their friendship, and then David departed, never to see his best friend alive again.

As I considered this section of scripture for this message, I was looking for some hidden gem of a verse, or some principles to apply to our lives. But what really captured me was the story. It is a true story of adventure, romance, danger, intrigue, spiritual power, battle and conspiracy. There are many novels that do not have plots this exciting. And what I want to suggest to you today, is that the story IS the message.

The events of David’s life call to us. There is a mission for the hero to be part of something greater than himself – to be God’s chosen instrument. There is love and romance in the midst of the adventure. There are friends like brothers. There is a deadly enemy who seeks the life of the hero. There are setbacks, plot twists, codes and conspiracies. And yet, through exciting twists and turns, with the help of his lover and his friends, the hero escapes and lives to fight another day. I don’t know about you, but in my unguarded moments, I realize that I want some of this in my own life. I want adventure, romance, joy. I want a mission in something that matters, something that is greater than myself.

Now, David was a good-hearted man of faith. Even so, you have to imagine that not all this was easy for him. He had experienced God’s call on his life. He had felt the beauty of God’s creation, the heart-swelling form of music, the joy of friendship, the ecstasy of love, the fierce rush of battle. All these things spoke to his heart and told him that God was good, and that God had given him a part in a great adventure.

But that wasn’t the only message that David got. Before he killed Goliath, his brothers told him he was arrogant, callow and irresponsible. Saul’s actions told him he was in grave danger, and his life was worthless. He was driven from his wife and friends; he lost his career, and it was too dangerous to return to his family. I have no doubt that the devil used these things to tell David that it was a cold cruel world, that God wasn’t really there for him, that in fact, his life had no meaning. The devil probably also used these events to make David question whether he really was chosen by God to be the instrument of the Holy Spirit. What David said to Jonathan shows how he was feeling:

I swear to you by the living LORD that I am only a step away from death!” (1 Samuel 20:3, GNT)

When we look at the life of David from start to finish it is obvious to us that God was calling to him and working in his life. We can see that David was involved in a purpose greater than himself. We might even envy the adventures he had, especially since we know that things turned out OK for him. But I am not sure that these things were always so obvious to David. He wrote many songs and poems (which we now call Psalms) when he was in trouble. He was often worried and distressed. He was harried and hard-pressed. He expressed his fear and doubt at times. This was certainly one of those times. Psalm 3 gives us a picture of how David was probably feeling:

1 I have so many enemies, LORD,
so many who turn against me!
2 They talk about me and say,
“God will not help him.” (Psalms 3:1-2, GNT)

Or, for another example, the first part of Psalm Six:

1 LORD, don’t be angry and rebuke me!
Don’t punish me in your anger!
2 I am worn out, O LORD; have pity on me!
Give me strength; I am completely exhausted
3 and my whole being is deeply troubled.
How long, O LORD, will you wait to help me? Psalms 6:1-3

You see the Story is not always obvious when you are inside it. So David had those two competing ideas: First that God cared about him, and that he was part of an amazing story being told by God; and second, that his life was pointless and worthless, and God did not care about him.

I want to suggest that we are in the middle of a story ourselves, and we are faced with the same dilemma as David; we hear the same two messages. We hear something that tugs at our heart in beautiful music; we sense something eternal when we are very close to the ones we love; we feel God when we look on the glory of his creation. Scattered throughout our lives are the echoes of God’s voice, calling to our hearts, telling us that there is something greater, good and wonderful. It tells us that we are truly loved and accepted, and are called to be part of a greater purpose. Our hearts were made for a great intimacy. Even the fact that we want these things to be true is a sign for us.

But there is a deadly enemy after us, no less than he was after David. And so things happen to us that make it seem like life is meaningless. We get hurt in ways that suggest we should shut up our hearts, and not listen to the echoes of God’s voice. We get the message that we can’t ever really get the real life we yearn for, so we should settle for drugs, or alcohol, or work or money or shallow relationships, or mindless entertainment.

This perspective is hard to see, because we are inside the story of our lives. In Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien records a moment when Sam and Frodo muse about the bigger picture, the story of their lives.

“Take any [story] that you’re fond of. You may know, or guess what kind of a tale it is, happy-ending or sad-ending, but the people in it don’t know. And you don’t want them to.”

“…Why to think of it, we’re in the same tale [as the ancient stories] still! Don’t the great tales never end?”

“No, they never end as tales,” said Frodo. “But the people in them come and go when their part’s ended. Our part will end later – or sooner.”

The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien

Looking at David’s life story, if we could, we might say to him, “Hang in there! Don’t give up hope. God will make your life into a beautiful, exciting, inspiring story.” But David did not know that. He was faced with a choice. He could believe the echoes of God in his life, or he could believe the message that the devil tried to give him through the bad things that happened to him. David made the choice of faith, and the world is better for it.

You may not see it, but you are inside the very old, ongoing story. You are in the same story as David was. If you trust in Jesus, you are one of the chosen instruments of the Holy Spirit in your lifetime. You will have plenty of opportunities to turn back. You have an enemy that can only win if you do turn back, and he is doing all in his power to make you believe that there is no story, and you are not part of anything greater. Don’t believe him. Trust instead in the goodness, greatness, love and joy of God. As the writer of Hebrews says:

35 So don’t throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will, you may receive what was promised. 37 For yet in a very little while, the Coming One will come and not delay. 38 But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he draws back, I have no pleasure in him. 39 But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and obtain life. (Heb 10:35-39, HCSB)

Just like David, we don’t know how the story will turn out. We don’t know how God will weave us into his story. Because we often don’t see it, we often make four types of errors:

First, sometimes, we don’t believe the story exists at all. We see no plan, no purpose, no evidence of anything but random chance. But honestly, the entire universe, from the properties of light and matter, to the details of DNA shout deafeningly of Design. The objective truth is that it is far more likely that tomorrow a stranger will put a winning 10 million dollar lottery ticket into your mailbox than that the physical universe is the product of random chance. And if the universe is not an accident, neither is your life.

Second, perhaps we do  believe there is a Divine story, but we think that we cannot really be part of it. We are too insignificant. Our lives are too ordinary to be part of the story God is telling. We might believe that if God actually was using our lives to tell a story, then our part might easily be skipped because it is too boring. But to believe that is to disbelieve God’s promises in scripture.

Third, we often think the story is our story, that it should be all about us. If we think that way, it becomes difficult at times to see the story at all, or to see how it can be good. However, even David’s story was not about David, it was about what God was doing for his people. In the Story God is telling, the main character is God. It is not all about us. However, God includes us in His story in ways that bless us and bring us lasting joy, even when at times we experience suffering. He has planned a beautiful ending for all who will trust him, for all who join His story.

Fourth, sometimes we reject the idea that God is working purposefully in our lives because we cannot see how it all fits together. We think that if we cannot understand how a certain event could fit into God’s story, then that means it doesn’t fit. I was caught in this for awhile because of my chronic pain. I didn’t see how my intense ongoing pain could fit into any story that God is telling. But I finally realized that I was being overwhelmingly arrogant. I was assuming that I should be able to understand everything that an infinite Being was doing. If God is indeed infinite, than it is certain that we will not be able to understand a great deal of what he is doing, or how it all works together for His glory and my good. To insist that I won’t believe because I cannot understand is not only arrogant, but also foolish.

In 2022 I watched a football game between my alma mater, Oregon State University (OSU), and the University of Oregon (called  “Oregon” for short). Oregon was ranked #9 in the nation at that point, and OSU wasn’t even in the top 20. OSU started out okay, leading 10-7 at the end of the first quarter. Then the University of Oregon exploded, scoring three touchdowns and a field goal, while Oregon State made mistake after mistake on both offense and defense. With three minutes to go in the third quarter the score was Oregon 31, and OSU, 10, and OSU looked like they were just waiting for the game to be over and the humiliation to end. That’s how things stood, with the game three-quarters finished. It was all but over. All that remained was to see how badly they would lose.

Imagine you spoke to the players of OSU at this point. Imagine saying: “You are in the middle of a historic game of football, one of the most amazing wins ever for OSU. Your names will be spoken by sportscasters nationwide, and people will talk about what you did today for years to come. Someone will even use this moment as a sermon illustration in years to come.”

I suspect that most of the OSU players would not believe you. Many of their fans had already left the stadium, and they probably wanted to go as well. But, as you have probably guessed, OSU did indeed go on to win the game, scoring  28 points in the final quarter of the game. It was one of the most amazing comebacks in the school’s history.

Now, I want to make sure you understand something here. I am not asking you to trust the story, or even to trust your part in the story. No. I am saying: Trust the Teller of the story. Trust the Author, the one who is weaving all of our lives into his amazing good story. We can be sure that he is good and that he is at work in our lives, even when we cannot see it. We can be sure of his good intentions, and good character because He actually entered the story Himself, and died for you and me, to make sure that we can participate in the happiest ending of all time.

We are in the middle of the story. We don’t know what is to come. And we often think the story ends with our death, but it doesn’t. It ends with our resurrection. Let’s wake up, and see that we are part of an amazing story with a beautiful ending.

Hear the wisdom of Larry Crabb.

“This world is fallen. Things happen that make no visible sense. But somehow through it all, God is telling a good story. Without the ending, the story is not good. But nothing happens, nothing can happen, nothing ever will happen that God cannot redeem to move the story along to its glorious climax.”

Let the Holy Spirit open your eyes to His good story, and let him speak to you now.

1 SAMUEL #16: THE BOY WITH A GOOD HEART.

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Saul was willing to grudgingly obey to a certain extent, but he never gave the Lord his heart. What God wants from us, above all, are hearts that seek him, and have found their belonging in him. What we look like, our personal history, our talents – all these things are secondary to our hearts. The Lord found that kind of heart in young David. When our hearts belong fully to God, he can use us. No one in this life perfectly surrenders their heart to the Lord, of course, but when we trust him, he begins a work that will be complete and beautiful in the new creation. All of the good that David did, his lasting, permanent legacy, is that his heart belonged to the Lord.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 16

1 SAMUEL #16. 1 SAMUEL 16:1-13

I mentioned previously that we need to understand the Old Testament in the light of the New Testament. It contains the first two acts of a three-act play. It won’t make sense until you also see the end. It is all about Jesus. If we just read the Old Testament alone, we get a message that seems to contain a lot about following rules and a mean, incomprehensible God. But every once in a while we get a hint that this is a set up for something more to come – the more that was fully explained and fulfilled in Jesus. In 1 Samuel 16, we get another of these hints.

Saul struggled with insecurity. In his fears he did not turn to God for mercy and grace – instead, he tried to control and manipulate God through religion. He did not want a relationship of trust in the Almighty – he just wanted an Almighty who would do what he (Saul) wanted him to. When it came right down to it, Saul wanted God to serve him, not the reverse. Ultimately, he rejected God, and so God made plans to bring in a different king. That is how things stood at the end of 1 Samuel chapter 15.

The prophet Samuel grieved over this turn of events, and even mourned for Saul personally. This shows us something of the man Samuel was. He knew it was wrong for the people to want a king. He knew that Saul was insecure and not a true follower of the Lord. But Samuel hated to see him fail, hated that he had turned away from God. He knew that because of Saul’s own choices, God could not do anything more with him, but even so, he grieved for Saul.

Here in chapter sixteen, the Lord told Samuel to go anoint the one who would be the next king of Israel. It is interesting to note that Samuel, for all his care for Saul, had no illusions about what kind of man he was. He thought Saul would have him killed if he found out he was anointing another person to be king. Even so, he obeyed and went to the home of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, who lived in Bethlehem.

He had Jesse bring his sons with him to a sacrifice that they offered to the Lord. When Samuel saw Jesse’s oldest son, he was impressed.

6 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the LORD’s anointed!”
7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:6-7

This is one of those times when the curtain is drawn back, and the Old Testament shows plainly what God is after. It may be one of the most important verses in the Old Testament. God looks at the heart. The word for “heart” is a form of the Hebrew word “leb.” This is a word with a rich meaning, just as “heart” is in English. In Hebrew this word means innermost being, intellect, the center of a person or thing.

Writer Brent Curtis points out how important the heart is:

We describe a person without compassion as “heartless,” and we urge him or her to “have a heart.” Our deepest hurts we call “heartaches.” Jilted lovers are “brokenhearted.” Courageous soldiers are “bravehearted.” The truly evil are ‘black-hearted” and saints have “hearts of gold.” If we need to speak at the most intimate level we ask for a “heart-to-heart” talk. “Lighthearted” is how we feel on vacation. And when we love someone as truly as we may, we love “with all our heart.” But when we lose our passion for life, when a deadness sets in which we cannot seem to shake, we confess, “My heart’s just not in it.”

[Curtis adds], “it is in our heart that we first hear the voice of God and it is in the heart that we come to know him and live in his love…For above all else, the Christian life is a love affair of the heart.”

Brent Curtis & John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance

No wonder Solomon calls the heart “the wellspring of life”(Proverbs 4:23). Both Saul and Jesse’s son Eliab were impressive on the outside. Though probably not as tall as Saul, Jesse’s first born, Eliab, was apparently tall and impressive looking.

There is a reason the creator of 1 Samuel put this narrative right after the one about Saul’s failure. Saul’s problem was that his heart was not turned toward God. Outwardly, he was impressive. Outwardly, he pretended to follow God by being superficially religious. But God is after our hearts. Saul’s heart was closed to him. Eliab’s also, apparently. What the Lord wanted was not an impressive looking person. He wasn’t after a great warrior or commander of men. He wanted first and foremost a heart that would belong to him.

Samuel went down the line of Jesse’s sons – seven of them. The Lord did not choose any of them. Finally, they called in the youngest, a boy named David. The fact that David was not at the sacrifice with the others opens up the possibility that at this time he was younger than thirteen years old, and so not a normal adult guest at an audience with the Prophet. We can’t know this for sure, however. At any event, he was quite young, and unimportant enough in his family to be left tending the sheep while the older men held council with Samuel. If I had to guess, I would say that this event was pretty close to David’s thirteenth birthday, either just before or after, because in those days,  a male was considered a man at his thirteenth birthday. This brings to mind the history of Samuel himself, who was very young when God began to speak to him. God told Samuel that this youngest brother was the one he had chosen to be the next king of Israel.

I want to give us a bit more background on how surprising God’s choice was. David was born into the tribe of Judah. Although the founder of the tribe, the patriarch Judah, was eventually considered the leader among his brothers, he had a inconsistent spiritual history, to say the least. Judah was the one who saved his brother Joseph when the others wanted to kill him. But he “saved” Joseph by suggesting they sell him into slavery. Later, Judah participated in deceiving his father Jacob about what had happened to Joseph. A few years on, Judah slept with a woman pretending to be a prostitute, and his ultimate line of descendants – including Jesse and David – came from that union. Centuries later as the Israelites were entering the promised land, a Canaanite prostitute named Rahab converted to the worship of the Lord. A man from the tribe of Judah married her, and she became one of the ancestors of David’s family as well. Three generations before David, his great-grandfather married a widow woman who wasn’t even an Israelite. So in David’s family history are two prostitutes, and two women who didn’t even come from the tribes of Israel. If you were imagining the family that God would use, you might not think it would be one like this.

Next let’s look at David’s own position in the family. In those days, firstborn sons were considered more important than all other children. The firstborn usually got twice as much inheritance as anyone else. The family line was usually counted through the firstborn. The remaining birth order was also generally considered important. So, the second born was next in importance, and so on. There was also some significance to the number seven, which was associated with God’s perfection. David however, was not the firstborn, and not even the seventh! He was eighth, and last, and barely thirteen years old. There was nothing about his position in his own family that would make him important.

All of this may not be such a big deal to us, but to Samuel, and David, and the others alive at that time, the idea that David would become the Lord’s new anointed king was utterly surprising, maybe even flabbergasting.

However, we have seen that Samuel was a true and faithful follower of the Lord. So, he obeyed the Lord, and anointed David with oil. Up until Saul was anointed by Samuel, anointing usually  meant pouring oil on vessels that were dedicated to be used in worshipping God, or pouring oil on a priest to show that he was set apart to serve God. No one except Samuel and Saul had been present when Saul was anointed to serve God as king. Therefore, though the his family probably understood that David was being set apart to serve God in some way, most of them would have been fuzzy on exactly how he was meant to serve. In other words, though his father and brothers were present when Samuel did this, it is not clear that any of them understood that David was being chosen as the next king of Israel.

The physical pouring on of oil was  a symbol of what the Lord did spiritually. For at that time, the Spirit of the Lord came into David, and left Saul. Remember, before Jesus, the Spirit of God usually worked only in one or two individuals or one small group in any given generation of people.

 Now I want to stop with the text here, and seek some application. I cannot over emphasize the importance of the heart when it comes to our interactions with God. If the Lord has your religious service, but he doesn’t have your heart, he doesn’t have you. If God has your intellectual agreement, but he doesn’t have your heart, he doesn’t have you. I think this was partly what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote this:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1Cor 13:1-3 (ESV)

We are going to learn more about David. He became a fierce warrior. He turned into the greatest king of Israel in a thousand year period. He was wise. He was a tremendous musician, with the soul of a poet, who wrote worship songs that are still being used today, three thousand years later. But ultimately, the legacy of David was this: his heart belonged fully to God (1 Kings 14:8; 1 Kings 15:3; Acts 13:22). Everything that David achieved was merely a result of that.

Listen to David’s heart, expressed in the words he wrote:

1 ​​​​​​​​As a deer pants for flowing streams, ​​​​​​​so pants my soul for you, O God. ​​​ 2 ​​​​​​​​My soul thirsts for God, ​​​​​​​for the living God. ​​​​​​​When shall I come and appear before God? ​​​ Ps 42:1-2 (ESV)
1 God, You are my God; I eagerly seek You. I thirst for You; my body faints for You in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water. 2 So I gaze on You in the sanctuary to see Your strength and Your glory. 3 My lips will glorify You because Your faithful love is better than life. Ps 63:1-3 (HCSB)

Now sometimes, I think we don’t give our hearts to God because we don’t recognize it when he calls to our hearts. Like Saul, we tend to think God mainly wants religious service. And in some ways, he does, but he wants that to flow out of hearts that belong fully to him. David heard God calling his heart as he was alone in the wilderness with sheep. Somewhere inside that sharp pang of loneliness he heard the voice of the Lord, and he answered in faith, and wrote songs and poems. He recognized God was romancing his heart through the beauty of the wild lands. He recognized God reaching to his heart through the excitement and fierce rushing joy of protecting his sheep from bears and lions. When he saw beauty and was drawn to it, he recognized that it was ultimately God’s beauty and God seeking his heart.

We can do the same. Maybe there is music that stirs your soul, that wakes you up and makes you yearn for something – you might not even know what. Recognize that that yearning is actually for  God. He is reaching out to you through that music (I don’t think it matters if the music is overtly Christian or not). Listen to it more. Let God into your heart through it.

Maybe being in nature causes a stirring in you, a desire. Recognize that the God who made nature is reaching out to you. Don’t mistake nature for God himself. But let him use the beauty of the mountains and fall colors and rushing streams to draw you to Him.

Maybe you long to have a soul mate, another person who really knows you completely and accepts you for who you are. Sometimes the Lord fulfills that desire partially through the person we marry. Often, however, we get disappointed. I don’t know about you, but the soul mate of my wife Kari turned out to be a sinful, flawed human man, who often fails to meet her needs. I bet if you are married, the same thing has happened to you. We can rejoice at the gift our spouses are. But what our spouses lack is supposed to help us desire God even more. He is calling to your heart with that yearning.

Perhaps you long for adventure, for the rush and thrill of danger or accomplishment. We can get some of that in this world, and there is nothing wrong with it. But recognize that we can only get part of it without God. The true fulfillment of that yearning is found when our hearts belong to the God of adventure.

I think one common mistake we make is to believe that our yearning can be fully satisfied in this mortal life. That is why we chase desperately after achievement, money, sex, adventure, and relationships. It is also why, when we are disappointed in those things, we often turn to drugs, alcohol, or overeating. But we were not meant to be fulfilled in this life. Our desires here and now are supposed to point us toward God, and eternal fulfillment. C.S. Lewis wrote:

“The settled happiness and security which we all desire, God withholds from us by the very nature of the world: but joy, pleasure, and merriment, He has scattered broadcast. We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world and pose an obstacle to our return to God: a few moments of happy love, a landscape, a symphony, a merry meeting with our friends, a bathe or a football match, have no such tendency. Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”

(C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain)

God is calling your heart. In this life, while we still inhabit these mortal bodies, the call is bittersweet, and never fully satisfied. The presence of sin prevents full satisfaction. But when we give him our hearts, he begins in us the work that will be complete in the new creation. There, and only there, we will be fully satisfied in our hearts.

David was the eighth son of a family with a pretty sketchy history, and barely thirteen years old. None of that mattered. What mattered then and through all history was that he turned his heart toward God as fully as a sinful person can. What you look like, what you do for a living, how successful you are – none of those things really matter. What God looks at is your heart. Does it belong to him? Will you trust that He is both the source and fulfilment of all your heart’s longing?

The truth is, we can’t even recognize his call, or trust that he is the source of our desires, without help from the Holy Spirit. Take a moment now to ask him to give you a heart that seeks him above all else. If you will, you might be pleasantly surprised at the results.

LOYALTY IS TESTED ONLY IN TIMES OF DISAGREEMENT OR TROUBLE

On By Pastor TomIn 2 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Old Testament, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I understand the hurt feelings we can have sometimes when God doesn’t come through the way we think he ought to. I’ve had them myself, frequently. But he is the king. He can do what he wants to. He is wiser than us, and he sees things we don’t. It’s better to trust him and stay engaged.

sheba-rebellion

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2 Samuel #20 . 2 Samuel Chapter 20

Last week we spoke of the political situation at this point in time in Ancient Israel. There are more politics here, but be patient, I think we’ll find some good stuff. After David returned, having reached out the leaders of the tribe of Judah, who were in shame, the leaders of the other tribes were offended. They had not provided the key support of Absalom’s rebellion, like Judah had; they had talked of bringing David back before Judah had. So they were offended that David reached out to Judah and gave them the honor of escorting him back to Jerusalem.

Apparently while David was returning to Jerusalem and all this was being discussed, a man named Sheba, from the tribe of Benjamin (Saul’s tribe), stepped up and said, essentially, “Fine then. If that’s how David wants it, let’s leave.”

He left, and most of the people of the other ten tribes followed him. Now, at this point, as I read this text, they were simply choosing not to escort David to Jerusalem. Most of the leaders of the tribes were willing to express their displeasure with Judah and with David’s forgiveness in this way. So they all went home and left the leaders of Judah to escort David.

But Sheba, the man who instigated the walk-out, wanted to take it one step further. He wanted to immediately start another rebellion. For David, this was one thing after another. However, Sheba was not like Absalom. This was not a carefully laid plot with long preparation. He was only able to get the Berites to join him. The “Berites” were probably citizens of the town of Beeroth in Benjamin; it was almost certainly Sheba’s hometown. So his influence was quite limited.

Even so, David thought it best to stamp out the small rebellion quickly. He didn’t want to give it a chance to spread. So he ordered his new military commander, Amasa, to gather the troops.

When Absalom rebelled, he had chosen Amasa to be his general. After the rebellion failed, one of the ways that David reached out to the tribe of Judah was by promising Amasa that he was forgiven, and that he would command the army in place of Joab. Joab had murdered Abner years before this, and at that point he had David’s tolerance, but never again did David approve of him. More recently, Joab murdered David’s own son, Absalom. Now, I know it was when they were at war with Absalom, but when Joab came upon him, the battle had already been won, and Absalom was alone, unarmed and helpless. Moreover, David had commanded Joab to capture and spare Absalom if he could. Instead, Joab killed him while he hung helpless and trapped in a tree. So Joab was in disgrace, and David wanted no more part of him.

Another reason David made Amasa the new general, was to try and mend the relationships he had with the leaders of the tribe of Judah. It was a peace offering to them, showing them he had forgiven them, restoring them to normal relations. In addition, Amasa, like Joab, was one of David’s nephews. In fact, he was Joab’s cousin.

Amasa took too long to gather the army, so in the meantime, David sent Abishai, Joab’s brother, after the rebel, with David’s personal force of elite warriors. Joab went along. Eventually, Amasa and the army he had raised, met up with David’s forces under Abishai. Joab went up to Amasa. He deliberately allowed his sword to fall out of its sheath as he approached his cousin. He bent down and picked it up, and then, still holding the sword, reached out as if to greet Amasa. Instead, he stabbed him, killing him. This was very similar to what he had done to Abner. Immediately, he took control of the whole army again. He had one his loyal followers cry out

“Whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David, follow Joab! ” (2Sam 20:11, HCSB)

The implication is that if you didn’t follow Joab you were against David and for the rebel that they were pursuing. Eventually, Joab’s flunky hid the body of Amasa, so it wouldn’t distract the soldiers as they marched by.

They pursued Sheba and his followers to the northern borders of Israel, where he took refuge in a walled city. There Joab negotiated with a woman with a reputation for wisdom. She begged Joab not to destroy the city. Joab made it clear that their war was against the rebel, not the city. So the citizens executed Sheba, and thus ended the rebellion, and saved their city from destruction.

Now, what do we make of this? It’s a petty, bloody and gruesome chapter in the history of Israel. What would the Lord say to us through it? Well, let’s remember that the whole bible is about Jesus. This chapter is here to show us something about Jesus, or something about ourselves and how we relate to him.

Let’s start with the people from the ten tribes. They began by insisting how much they wanted to honor David, but ended up snubbing him deliberately because they were offended and hurt by the way he forgave his enemies.

Sometimes we might be tempted to behave this way with Jesus. It’s easy to get disappointed with him when he behaves in ways we don’t expect. Sometimes it’s hard to accept that he loves our enemies as much as he loves us. Sometimes what he does or doesn’t do, or the things he allows to happen in our lives, are difficult to understand. Often we respond by withdrawing from him. Maybe we aren’t overtly rejecting him or rebelling, but we just “go home.” We back off. I understand the hurt feelings we can have sometimes when God doesn’t come through the way we think he ought to. I’ve had them myself, frequently. But he is the king. He can do what he wants to. He is wiser than us, and he sees things we don’t. It’s better to trust him and stay engaged.

Maybe it’s not even Jesus himself, but something he’s doing that he wanted us to be involved in. For example, suppose you feel called to help out with a ministry to the poor. You do, and you truly make a significant difference, but no one recognizes your efforts. In the meantime, they honor people who seem to deserve it less than you. So you back off. I understand backing off a situation like that. But the question is: did the Lord call you to back off, or are you just withdrawing because your feelings were hurt? That can be tough, but the way of maturity in Jesus is to listen to him more than your emotions.

What about Joab? Joab comes across as someone who was always loyal to David, even though David did things he didn’t like. But was it really loyalty? He was loyal when he agreed with David. But we see now, for at least the third time, that when Joab had different ideas, he chose his own way. He did what he wanted, no matter what the king commanded. Loyalty and submission to leadership are only really revealed in hardship and especially in disagreement. But whenever there was disagreement, Joab chose himself over David.

By and large, Joab looked like a loyal and faithful servant. And, throughout his life, he did a lot for David. But ultimately, he did not buy into who David was and what he was all about. He was offended by David’s compassion and forgiveness. He liked the part where they got to kill their enemies together. He didn’t like the forgiveness part, so he didn’t do that, and he did not let David’s will thwart his own designs. Joab was aligned with the right side. But his heart was all about Joab and what he felt and what he wanted. He did not actually accept David’s wisdom and judgment if it was different from his own.

Sometimes Christians can be that way with Jesus. Usually, these days, it is the reverse of Joab. We like the love and forgiveness stuff. But when it comes to giving up our favorite sins, we choose our own way. Or maybe we’re fine to go to church and sing songs. But when it comes to forgiving someone who has hurt us badly, we hold on to the right to nurse our grudges. We like to be perceived by others as believers, but we won’t listen to the Spirit’s call to be intimately involved in the lives of other believers, or to study the bible. Jesus said something very scary in Matthew chapter seven:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord! ’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name? ’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’” (Matt 7:21-23, HCSB)

You can look like a Christian, act like a Christian and talk like one, but not really allow Jesus to change your life. You can even do things for Jesus, but those things won’t count if you don’t really receive him as your savior and king. Joab looked like a friend, but his actions revealed him here as someone completely separated from David and his values. We see how terrible and ugly that was in Joab. We see that the fruit of it was pure evil. The same is true for us: the fruit of our own self-will when it is asserted as better than the will of Jesus, is never good.

Finally, consider the wise woman in the town of Abel. At first, they probably received Sheba into their town willingly. But when the realized the destruction he would bring and that there was no righteousness to his cause, they were willing to get rid of him in a very final way.

This also reminds me of something Jesus said:

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell! (Matt 5:29-30, HCSB)

The people of Abel realized that they had something in their midst that would lead to their downfall. They got rid of it with awful finality. Sometimes maybe we need to something similar. Maybe you have a habit of going out after work and having a few drinks before you head home. Maybe you fudge the numbers a little bit at work. Perhaps you have some activity or habit that seems OK at first, and you like it, but Jesus has made you aware that this is a problem in your life. The time to get rid of it is right now, with finality. The people of Abel were considered wise for choosing to get rid of the rebel rather than having their town destroyed. We too, sometimes need to make a wise choice that is hard, even drastic.

Let the Spirit speak to you through the text today.