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Good morning brothers and sisters and young people Good to hear you're alive out there. Well, it's lovely to be in Boston again You can imagine when I said to the people at work. I was off to Boston what their response was They said have a good tea party And I have to thank you for your sensitivity because nobody but nobody has said to me Do you want a cup of tea? Indeed the the opportunity has been the coffee is down at the table at the back and I see on the program The coffee break that features which is very sensitive of you and I much appreciate that We're going to be looking God willing during the course of the the four sessions That's the life of a man who was after God's own heart and that's such you would think that that was mission impossible We know that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it We know what comes out of the heart of man and yet God had declared to Saul when he rejected him that he was to find the man who was after his own heart and Just for a moment to linger on that prospect It is isn't it a new covenant calling that our hearts are to be transformed it was what Jeremiah and Ezekiel had spoken about that the stony heart of Israel's flesh would be removed and In its place there would be a heart that was inclined Godward now that in Hebrews chapter 10 remember is spoken of as being the very key principle of the new covenant and I suspect that what it means, although we're always trying to understand more about what those great things Signify, I suspect that what it means is that the men and women who were called by God under the new covenant Relationship would be people who wanted to worship God didn't do it out of fear or out of force But who did it out of? Inclination and we encounter such a man Well, let's pick him up if we may in Antioch in Presidium Antioch in Acts chapter 13 because in 20 words there the Apostle Paul Portrays for us the man whom we are to consider a man who was inclined God ward He's reviewing there You remember the position in Acts chapter 13 and and there at verse 21 Paul is reviewing Israel's history and we're cutting into the middle of his review before he says and afterward they desired a king verse 21 of Acts 13 and God gave unto them Saul the son of kish a man of the tribe of Benjamin by the space of 40 years and when he Had removed him He raised up unto them David to be their king to whom also he gave testimony and said Now here come the 20 words and they're very tightly packed these words You'll find three Old Testament citations brought together in the way the spirit does when the Compression of what the Apostle was actually speaking about in the synagogue is here displayed I have found David that's Psalm 89 and verse 20 I have found David so it turned out not to be mission impossible after all God sought God chose God found a man who was The man he was after and then the son of Jesse You know, I think that little phrase comes out at 2 Samuel 23 in verse 1 Which is when you think about it a fascinating place for it to come from but maybe we'll touch on that later on I have found David the son of Jesse a man after mine own heart Which shall fulfill all my will and that as it were is a little explanation of what was inclined Then what was caught or captured in that phrase a man after mine own heart In the end then this man with all his failings with all his blemishes Was going to accomplish what God wanted and of course the encouragement for us is that it was through those failures and Despite those blemishes that God brought him to be a man who was Inclined to do his will who wanted to do his will Of course Saul must have wondered about it at the time when he was first told and that's the 1 Samuel 13 reference Let's go back and have a look at that one Samuel chapter 13 because Saul's time as king is coming to an end and It's an interesting feature of David's life the time and again David is seen for what he is by contrast With those who work and walk alongside him that is, you know I suspect often our own experience to you know The scripture says that we must exhort one another daily and so much the more as we see the day approaching And yet sometimes the very hardest things that happen to us are things that happen in our very midst Things that happen from our brethren sometimes the exhortations that are given are the most powerful and strong exhortations because Wrong things are done if you ever had the experiences I have of sometimes listening to an exhortation and Bible study and thinking that can't be right and going home with much more Determination to look the thing up and work it out for myself Then if something had been given that I thought you know that seems alright and never give it another thought you see sometimes It is the failures that people make that can be very powerful in Stirring us in a certain direction of course we don't want to make the failures Because that indicates as in Saul's instance that he was being discarded He was just scaffolding if you like in the building of something better But the failures themselves ought not to say well If it's good enough for him or her perhaps it's good enough for me, too We ought to say no that can't be the right thing to do and here was the instance then with Saul Saul the black heart Saul the estranged Once I'm your 13 and verse 14, but now thy kingdom shall not continue the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart and The Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people Because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee the Lord hath sought him So you see God was seeking God is a spirit they that worship him must Worship him in spirit and in truth for the father Seeketh such to worship him There's the sense of God then seeking through all the available people looking and sifting and sorting as it were Although of course with his wisdom he knows at once But God's seeking for people who are going to be inclined towards him the father Seeketh such to worship him and David at the same time seeking for God and ourselves Seeking to find out the things that are right Inclining our heart Yielding our wills and there be there being then that that meeting of minds that marriage that that covenant affinity So David was being called and summoned and he was going to be a different man from Saul and And what was the essence of of Saul's hang-ups and Saul's difficulties? Well when you think about it Saul was a man who was called by God who was essentially an unspiritual man Do you remember when? Saul had gone out looking for his father's asses and and when and it became clear during that little encounter that he wasn't a man Who was in touch with religious things his servant said oh there's a seer in this place We might go and ask him and Saul said what do you do about a seer? he didn't know anything about how to approach a seer how to go about it and Samuel when they encountered Samuel declared what was to happen to Saul he gave him that little snippet of a prophetic profile and And it worked out exactly as Samuel had said and when Saul encountered a band of prophets He prophesied with them and the record one time will turn it is pauses to say that it became proverbial then is so also among the prophets That's that's like saying is rust below a president It has that sort of force of it can't be right, but we were dealing of course there with prophetic things Is fall also among the prophets? Now that was Saul's difficulty that he was never on God's wavelength He didn't even know that there was a wavelength button that you could turn in order to bring the thing in line with God He always remained estranged So the man whom God was seeking was a man who was going to be at one with him a man who was going to be brought online with God and Again, you see how these things impact upon us by nature. We're souls. We're naturally estranged is this Looking Godward. Well, of course not by nature. We're naturally estranged but by our Inclination by the the bending of our will by our own seeking and God's seeking to there comes to be that marriage of minds And the intriguing thing that we need to think about in this first session is how God Prepared the man how he brought him what the background was What brought them together and what fashioned this man who was naturally like us? Into a man who became like God who acquired divine instincts and divine attitudes a man for example if you come for a moment to Psalm 18, let's just let's just Penetrate into the middle of David's experiences. Well indeed towards the end of David's experiences, although it's Psalm 18 You can see there from the the heading Psalm of David the servant of the Lord who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord had Delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul and he said and and that's one Samuel 2 Samuel 22 So you could you can tell the that setting for this particular sound you ever come across Fossett's book studies in the hundred and fifty Psalms. It's sort of blunts undesigned coincidences Related to the Psalms out of print now, although you sometimes see it reprinted and and he's Fascinating in terms of the historical linkages, but this is done for you You can tell that this is after the time of Absalom's rebellion. This is after the time of Shimei's cursing this is after the time of the of the revolts that had happened Sheba's revolts and and the problem with Saul's sons who had been hanged and and the Philistines and and their Conquest you can tell that from the preceding passage in one Samuel in 2 Samuel 21 So 2 Samuel 22 is that sort of setting when David's been through the mill and when he's come out And and look what it starts by saying the revised version. I love thee. Oh Lord my strength The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust My buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised So shall I be saved from mine enemies and you see David they're looking back now He doesn't say oh, it's been a hard struggle. Oh, dear me I don't know what God's been thinking about in messing me around like this I really don't think I deserve it You see here is the man now who has been brought through affliction into a one nest with God Who is able to say I love thee Oh Lord my strength The Lord is my rock and my fortress And that's the very same word that later on features as the cave of a dullum The place the strong place the fortress that David in all his wanderings Had found God as the refuge and the stronghold and now rested his entire weight in him Or come to Psalm 89 and notice now God reviewing his Search for David His search and he looked through all the potential and possibility and there at verse 19 a vision maybe to Nathan perhaps to David Psalm 89 and verse 19 then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one and said I Have laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one Chosen out of the people so first there was a search and there was a calling then the Choosing I have found David my servant with my holy oil Have I anointed him that's a word in the Septuagint, which is almost the same as the word for Christ He was Christ did well We know why don't we because it was the pattern of the greatest son who also had to be sought for and it would also Incline his heart and his mind whose nature would be Crucified that the life of God might be manifest in him With whom my hand shall be established mine arm also shall strengthen him The enemy shall not exact upon him nor the son of wickedness afflict him and I will beat down his foes before his face and Plague them that hate him, but my faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him so God was finding a man then who was purpose made but not purpose born purpose made God was going to fashion and shape and develop this man in precisely the same way That he is about with each one of us. He has called us from a variety of different circumstances from lowly We were nothing the off scouring of the world and God has drawn us to and invites us To incline to yield to give to fall He chose David Look at what psalm 78 says and remember the setting here He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds From tending to use that had young he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob his people of Israel his inheritance With upright heart he tended them and guided them with skillful hand And there's a detail there that tells us an enormous amount About the way in which God looks at us in the small things of life You see when you think about the psalmist now reviewing the great quest and challenge There's a curiosity. Can you see it there in the in the words of psalm 78? He chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds. Okay. This was a lad He was a shepherd then but then the detail from tending the use that had young He brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob his people now Why ever does it say that from tending the use that had young if you've ever wandered around and looked at sheep I'm not quite sure whether you're farming stock here or whether you're an urban group but perhaps I ought to tell you that I was brought up in a in a village surrounded by sheep and my sister now is a Sheep farm which she and her daughter are looking after at the moment and and when you look at use that are great With child with with with lamb then of course a you is an absolutely helpless thing And and when it's got lambs then of course it it widens out and it waddles and you've got to be very careful with a you because if it falls over it Can be quite a bit of difficulty getting it back up again and they're very prone to predators and to difficulty and David then is Characterized as being someone that God thought to be suitable as a shepherd for his people Because he was careful for the helpless and the needy See we tend to look at big things don't we we say to ourselves what big things shall I do for God so that? I can impress him and show him that I'm the person he wants and God was looking for the little things He was looking in this instance for the people who were careful for the little ones Who were careful for those who were in need in the same way that he looks at our? Ecclesiastes to and he says who is it who has a care for the children for the youngsters for the aged? for the Infirm for those who are in need That was how David was being trained to be a king Because God had him sitting out in the sheepfold with all the dangers and deprivations that were associated with that He was looking after these poor helpless old sheep so that he could therefore become qualified to Feed God's people to tend the nation and you can see that aspect Through and through in David's life. He never lost the sense of it the sense of care or concern For example when he was summoned to the battlefield Well, Jesse had sent him there and told him to go and take some food to his son's the record carefully records in one Samuel 17 that he left the sheep with someone else or if you stretch right to the very end of David's experience when the angel has his sword out drawn over Jerusalem and when it is about to fall in judgment David says but these sheep what have they done? Of course, there wasn't a sheep to be seen but they were the people and David saw them still as though He were the shepherd of God's flock because he had learned the lesson And that's what ecclesial and that's what family and that's what work life is all about. Isn't it? It is about the process of learning spiritual lessons that will see us through on our way And God started with David in a way that he meant to go on He Appeared to overlook him and as such David who perhaps knew nothing about the incident at all must have wondered Just what it was that God was doing with him You remember the episode now that the moment when the the quest has come towards its climax and God has sent Samuel to Jesse now, that's a remarkable thing in itself When we were reading it won't be in one Samuel chapter 16 When the the mission was begun of all the places where God should be sending Samuel well, it was to Bethlehem Finland horned with oil one Samuel 16 verse 1 and go I will send thee to Jesse The Bethlehemite for I have provided me a king among his sons And there's a real curiosity when you think about it Bethlehem was a nowhere town, wasn't it? Remember Micah says in chapter 5 Bethlehem though that be the least of the cities of Judah Bethlehem was a nowhere place and Jesse was clearly a nowhere man. He was a working-class farmer You remember when he sends David off to Saul with well with what he could muster He sends him with a bit of bread and cheese and a bit of wine He doesn't really have very much Jesse indeed when Samuel comes to Bethlehem and says I'm going to meet and have a sacrifice with Jesse was clear that Jesse was not among the elders of the city He was a nobody person himself and you can understand why those of us who've got children Know full well why it was that he was steeped in poverty because he had such a lot of children That's why and when it came to it and Samuel was summoning Jesse and his sons You will remember there that that Jesse a little bit of difficulty remembering quite all his sons were well He could remember Eliab. Of course, everybody remembered Eliab He was a fine lad and and then he could recall yes after that there was a bin adab and there was Shamar And so he catalogued all the ones that he could and they all came to the sacrifice and there they passed before Samuel And you perceive something here of Samuel's situation in relation to our own condition If we were choosing people to be kings and priests for God well, we'd pick the big people wouldn't we we pick the obvious candidates and When Eliab came by he was clearly a strapping lad He was a sort of lad you'd be pleased having your army, although in truth he wasn't what he looked but but when he came by Samuel said surely this is him surely verse 6 of 1 Samuel 16 The Lord's anointed is before him But the Lord said unto Samuel look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because I have refused him For the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance But the Lord looketh on the heart and time and again in David's experience you have that sort of situation You have people take for example Eliab himself When Eliab later on sees David come to the battlefield look what he says With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know that you were I Know your presumption and the evil of your heart for you have come down to see the battle And Saul's in exactly the same situation You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him for you are but a youth and he has been a man Of war from his youth you see they're all doing the same thing what Samuel had done Eliab does now Saul does and It's a fatal mistake for Goliath when the Philistine looked and saw David He disdained him for he was but a youth ruddy and comely in appearance and the Philistine said to David Am I a dog that you come to me with sticks and the Philistine cursed David by his gods So we must be very careful not to slip into Philistine ways It's easy for us when we're reviewing the possibilities for example in the Ecclesia What a multi-talented group we are by the grace of God What abilities we have if we are prepared to yield them in God's service It's easy for us isn't it to say ah well he or she is the obvious candidate But the Lord looks at the heart Come to that it's easy for us to look at ourselves and to say well everything seems to be outwardly Okay, I go to the meetings regularly I do all the things that you would expect of a good Christadelphian But in truth if we would only penetrate by self-examination We may well know that we're not right with God the Lord looks upon the heart remember and God's ability to search and to penetrate and to pierce Looks to the very core of our being and he knows in a way that we should strive to know too Whether or not we have really yielded ourselves and given our full wills Well Samuel was having difficulty as we do getting that into focus and perceiving what God really wanted And as they went by one after another None of them were acceptable and he said to Jesse and you got any more and and Jesse was clearly Working his way through and of course of course he'd left David out in the fields hadn't he now isn't it a curious thing that in a nowhere town with a nobody family there was a Son who was so at the foot of the the list that his father couldn't remember him I came across a little while back now when we were visiting Sierra Leone a little toss of a kid who was walking along carrying a bucket of water and I must say I I thought it was a fairly significant thing for a youngster to be doing But when I inquired of the the brother was walking up the road with us Why such a little child would be carrying such a big bucket of water? He said oh I was the youngest in our family too I kept wishing my parents had had some more children because the task kept getting passed down The younger was the servant of all and that seems to have been David's situation, too There is another possibility because I want you to notice that when in verse 12 Jesse sent and brought David in the record says now he was ready and with all of a beautiful countenance and Goodly to look to and the Lord said arise anoint him for this is he It's an unusual thing that isn't it for David to be described as of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look upon Sometimes it's suggested that he had fair or auburn hair that he was rather different from the usual swore the dark Appearance that you'd associate with a Jew and therefore the the possibility exists that David in fact was Step son of Jesse I must say I think it is more a possibility than a reality But I assure you the passage from which you could build a hypothesis if you want. It's to Samuel chapter 17 and a detail there associated with a Massa and a Massa's pedigree to Samuel 17 and verse 25 and Absalom made a Massa captain of the host instead of Joab Which a Massa was a man's son whose name was Ithra and Israelite That went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash Sister to Zeruiah Joab's mother now notice there that Abigail who was David's sister is here described as Abigail the daughter of Nahash Now it is suggested and and this is only a suggestion and and you'll you'll want to think about it a little bit It is suggested therefore that that Jesse had two wives that he had married Nahash and that later on he had married another Woman whose name is not given us and that in this instance what is being suggested is that a Massa was One step removed from Jesse's real family as it were now that doesn't actually impact at all on David's situation David could well have been one of the family unit, and I'm inclined to think that to be the case But you can if you're so minded Extrapolated and move him across into the situation where really was step son still the son of Jesse but born this time of an Unknown mother whose name was Nahash. Well that may be the case Nahash it is sometimes suggested was a woman frankly the name could be male or female the Jews actually said that Nahash and Jesse were one and the same person or it may be that the very same mother had first of all given birth from another father and Later had married Jesse in other words are all sorts of possibilities in the pedigree But it's the one possibility that gives rise to the the prospect that David might have been born of a different Situation and setting and that therefore he might not be quite as swarthy and as typically Jewish And and perhaps therefore Jesse had regarded him as well a little bit apart I'm not inclined to that view myself But I mentioned it just in passing in case you you wanted to think or pursue that forward I think rather that back in one chapter Samuel chapter 16 It was just that David was right at the foot of the pecking order and as such well It was understandable that you would forget him because they were such obvious prospects There were such good big strapping labs that surely if Samuel was looking for someone there to anoint Well, he wouldn't look for a stripling for a wimp like David And anyway, he was doing a good job out in the field. So leave him there, but when the Lord Said to Samuel this is him a Curious detail is there in the record then Samuel verse 13 of 1 Samuel 16 then Samuel took the horn of oil and Anointed him in the midst of his brethren You see for all the world it looks as though then Samuel Quietly anointed David and the brethren thought nothing about it at all Already considered how Eliab said well, who are you? Why aren't you looking after those few sheep in the wilderness? I know what's in your heart. Have you forgotten that David was anointed? You know, I suspect what it is is that they had merely written this off as something religious They said well funny old man this Samuel nasty bit of work if you crossed him I would say what's he doing pouring oil on our brother's head He they had not given the import or significance to that act that in truth they ought to have done You see there is a sense isn't there in which our heads have been touched with oil There is a sense in which God who has sought for us who has called us who has chosen us Who has bitten us became become kings and priests. There is a sense in which we have been touched by the anointing ourselves There is a sense in which God who has sought for us who has called us who has chosen us Who has bitten us became become kings and priests there is a sense in which we have been touched by the anointing ourselves and and as such We are being called to be God's people Consecrated and set apart to be his servants and David's life takes a marked change From this moment of his consecration the anointing oil had touched him. He'd become as it were a prophet He had in fact begun the path that would make him a priest and he was also Proceeding towards the time when he would be a king remember that incident when later on he would act as a priest He would dispense bread and wine he would offer sacrifices He would enter into the very presence of the ark all those things were here tightly packed in Prospect in that act he was anointed with the oil of gladness in the midst of his brethren and again You can see the Messiah can't you the pattern of the Messiah coming through the prospect of what was to be one day And the record says that the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward So Samuel rose up and went to Rama and now David's life would never be the same But where was he to be found? But the intriguing thing was that David was then to be found Back in the sheepfold looking after the sheep and And it was as though God was was playing a game of yo -yo with David You know he was sending him down bringing him up sending him down bringing him up And so David's experience was going to be like that for some time to come David now back in the sheepfold Well, he was still looking after the Sunday school in our terms You would have thought he'd have got onto the platform, but no The arranging brethren had thought he should still carry on in the Sunday school Oh, he was up to the youth circle back to the Sunday school up down and and so David's experience was going on like that Because he was a man who was to be prepared mightily for a kingdom that was to come and so he was he was being prepared And it may be that at that time David went to Samuel perhaps to Rama Maybe he was instructed there because some way or other he had to get his education Because clearly became a man of letters and an educated man, but the record is silent as far as that is concerned Except that he had learned the harp and become cunning with it, and he had learned prowess as a warrior or a mighty man because as David increased so Saul decreased and Depression his servants were desperate for a man who would be able to soothe and calm him Let our Lord now command thy servants They said in verse 16 of 1 Samuel 16 the man who is cunning player on the harp Shall come to pass when the evil spirit from God is upon thee that he shall play with his hand and thou shall be well And and Saul said unto his servants provide me now a man that can play well and bring him to me They answered one of the servants and said behold I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehem might that is cunning in playing and a mighty valiant man and a man of war and prudent in matters and a comely person and The Lord is with him Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse and said send me David thy son which is with the sheep And that's when you see what Jesse was made of Jesse took an ass laden with bread and a bottle of wine and a kid that wasn't bread and cheese it was bread and kid and sent them by David his son and to unto Saul and David came to Saul and stood before him and he loved him greatly and he became his armor bearer Now I don't think that means that he was made a member of the royal household But that he was given an honorary job so that whilst he was there in the court He was given a sort of place in the pecking order and as such he became the king's armor-bearer and was entitled therefore to come and go as he wanted whenever it came that it was necessary for him to come and play with a harp and So the the situation proceeds and the events come towards their grand climax and you remember the circumstances Associated with that climax here is a man prepared God has been working now with David and He's pulled him out of a nowhere town out of Bethlehem he's brought him from a working-class background just a little shepherd doing the work that God had called him to he's the eighth son so he belongs to a large household He has anointed him David has become a psalmist Maybe this was the time when he was to write psalm 23 or psalm 19 When he was to look up and gaze and see the heavens in all its wonder and marvel then at not only God's Display of power in the firmament, but also the marvel of the wonder of his word that David was learning he had learned to be a protector he had become a court musician and And he was also a shepherd in Bethlehem Yeah, I think as part of the divine yo-yo that was proceeding that David in fact was going back and for Back and for of course It was a wonderful thing to be in the court at a time when you had a man like Saul a depressive Who was on the downhill slope? This man who had such an insight into sheep who knew how careful you had to be with sheep in their various Stages who knew what it was to take on predators and to fight them single-handedly Now so a man Who was himself? Slipping down into danger and recovering himself and and slipping down again And there was the study of man at its worst there was the black heart that he was able to study And then he would go back to the sheep and take stock and then he would come to the court and God was preparing then David to have a an insight into the human condition that would be vital to him as it is vital to us We get such a display these days don't we have the things that go wrong with human nature We see it on our television screens We hear it on our radios all the time what we are really learning is what human nature is like What the downhill path is like how low can you go that low no lower still and so all the time we have that? aspect of it, but we need to remember the Unseen things as well Those are the things that are seen but we Survive according to the things that are not seen for those things are temporal but the things that are not seen are eternal and David was clearly learning to see the Unseen as well as the scene and suddenly the battle was drawn and you remember that where the battle was taking place It wasn't a million miles away from Bethlehem at all It was in the valley of Elah the Philistines were penetrating from the plain where they had settled and they were There in the Elah Valley They were due west of Bethlehem and David no doubt had wondered across these mountain ranges with his sheep and now all of a sudden the Enemy was to be found in the Elah Valley and a very formidable foe When Samuel when one Samuel 17 gives us the record and the account of the Philistines who had would brought Themselves into battle array in the valley of Elah. We oughtn't to think for one minute that well These were just Philistines we write them off today as people who have no appreciation of art and music Don't we but that was far from the situation. They were a mighty Military foe they were the sea people you might recall and When David at last was to encounter the formidable foe Well again, I suspect we see it in sort of the children book terms We think of the situation where a stripling of a lot very difficult indeed to find a picture that really does justice To the actual interplay of forces that was taking place there David was doubtless quite a youngster. You can tell that can't you from from Saul's response He says what you a slip of a kid and and when he he puts his armor on David It indicates that David was obviously not that high but but was a Reasonable lad, but he didn't say well, I can't even see over the top of this breastplate That wasn't the problem. It was I haven't proved this armor. Let me go as I am So David in all probability was a reasonably sized lad But he had not proved himself in battle as men can't prove That's to say he had never been skilled or trained in the art of weaponry But Goliath well the record is very careful in one Samuel 17 to to paint the nature of this man It was nine foot six high and such like who was clearly a big man and who was the very Epitome of human flesh. He was a man who was brass or bronze all through He was a man who was a cootered with everything that you might expect of him Probably with a javelin or maybe a scimitar slung across his brow Across his back and he was a man who was remember protected in all but the very vulnerable spot where which God would seek out and These people the the philistines who in fact had had now come to encamp on the the seacoast The the Gaza Strip and the Mediterranean seaboard as we now know it. They were people who would come from the Aegean Situation in all probability They were the very people with whom the Trojan Wars had been fought and who had been displaced and and who coming by Egypt where in fact there were Indications on the the sculptures there of the sort of people they were had in fact been ousted by the Egyptians and were therefore Forced to settle in somewhere where well They couldn't be easily routed and they were to be a sore in Israel's side They were to be the sort of Palestinian people I suppose of their day for quite some long time indeed Palestine Of course was named after the philistines. So so David was really encountering a very Significant a very substantial foe and Yet when he appeared on the scene And I want you to notice what the record actually says about David's situation when he appeared on the scene and when he listened and saw What David saw was utterly different from what we might have seen What would we have seen if we'd have looked feathered headdress? We would have said wouldn't we look at that remarkable feathered headdress look at the size of the man Look at the breadth of his shoulders. Look at the weaponry He's got there. Look at the man who goes before him who's bearing a shield Look at all the problems all the formidable difficulties that are there and and David Endured as seeing the invisible. He waxed valiant in faith He put the armies to flight that that's how he summed up remember in Hebrews chapter 11 He looked beyond and saw the forces of God arrayed and as such he saw that This was no problem that these people would be delivered into his hands. Here was the faith of Joshua and Caleb Manifest in a later day and David therefore proceeded with such certainty and assurance He didn't need the things that he hadn't tried and tested but instead collecting the stones as he went Scooping up five smooth stones from the brook and running towards the Philistine He went and he prevailed and of course, it's a pattern and a picture It's the very pattern of human civilization in all its might in all its bronze mass being Overthrown by the stone that comes guided by the Lord It's it's Daniel to isn't it as clear as day. We know that clearly enough and down goes the enemy and David prevails and You know the detail that now follows that in fact the very end of the Philistine Finds David in an interesting situation There's been that skirmish with words and then suddenly the well verse 47 of 1 Samuel 17 All this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear For the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands And so it was that unerringly the stone had gone and the man had fallen But verse 50 says there was no sword in the hand of David so David ran and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of the sheath thereof and Slew him and cut off his head therewith and when the Philistine saw their champion was dead They fled see the very the very situation then the very picture hope those donuts are well settled by now because this is a This is a fairly formidable photograph to be facing at 10 o'clock But the very picture and pattern at the very end of this dramatic encounter is of David Standing there with Goliath's head which he has picked up and and you know that that as 1 Samuel comes to its close He is to be seen there standing before the king and and what has he got in his hand? Well, have you noticed the detail of what he's got in his hand? There it is in 1 Samuel chapter 17 and There at verse 57 as David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine Abner took him and brought him before Saul With the head of the Philistine in his hand So I hope you can capture in your mind's eye that here now is the king Whom God has discarded and the king whom God has prepared In all his experience He never forgot or so it would seem that a man's head is easily Severed from his trunk and as such that we ought to remember that God puts man in his place And in the end man's place is destruction And it's true for all our civilization with all its allurement and fascination That in the end it is destined to fall flat and in its place one will come who is triumphant the son of man before whom the enemy will fall and when David comes to write about these very experiences in Psalm 8 and you can tell that Psalm 8 is a Hymn that was written about the conqueror that fell between the camps. Well, that's the very significance of Muth Labin, which is how the Psalm is described David says what is man and the son of man that thou visitest him Why the very record has got almost the the very echo of some of one Samuel 17 in it By the mouth of babes and infants thou hast founded a bulwark because of thy foes to steal thee enemy and The Avenger in the end then Psalm 8 was looking to the time when a greater than David would encounter an enemy that had to be fought and he too would triumph Why he would be the very stone that would fell the enemy sin and as such he would sever it head from trunk and would at last be able to put all his enemies heads under his feet and So we see the pattern then of a man being prepared of God carefully schooling and Shaping a man who like us would come to incline himself to divine things and who in the process would triumph and Conquer and those things should give us great courage then and certainty that our God will surely prevail and for each one of us He too will give to us the victory

Transcript

And you can see, brothers and sisters and young people, how we're preparing ourselves, can't we? We're going to really gruel ourselves through these sessions, and thus become hardened soldiers ourselves in the way that David was about, and his life was rolling on, of course. I want to deal, however, with a query or a question that might be there in your mind. When David was stood there before the king, and you remember the mess that was being left on the mat as a result, I shan't mention that again. But on that particular occasion, Saul says something which on the face of it seems strange. On Samuel 17, and we've just read verse 57, and Saul said to him, verse 58, whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite. I suggest there are two strange things there. The first is, why does Saul say, whose son are you? See, it's sometimes suggested that this was the first time he'd ever set eyes upon David, and that the record therefore is displaced, that it was later on that he was brought in as the cunning player upon the harp, who was now renowned throughout Israel as a mighty man of valor, and therefore that bits of 1 Samuel 16 have just come inadvertently early in the record. How is it that he says to this young man, who was, as I've suggested to you, his armor bearer, who many times had been before him, who was introduced to Saul at the outset as being the son of Jesse, how is it that he now says to him, whose son art thou, young man? And David's answer is the second interesting and curious thing. Well, I suspect that what is happening here is that David has been prepared by God and presented to us as a man who's got an excellent complexion, fine eyes, good bearing, good looks, a cunning harpist, a valiant, prudent man, a good speaker, a comely person, the Lord is with him, all those 1 Samuel 16 attributes, the king's armor bearer, and one who quite clearly goes backwards and forwards, I don't know if you've noticed the detail, but it's in 1 Samuel 17, and there at verse 15, but David went and returned from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem, the revised version says, now David went to and fro from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem, so it's back and forth, back and forth. One minute you're in the palace, the next minute you're with the sheep, after a while you wouldn't be sure who was bleating, whether it was a courtier, whether it was you, that would be the nature of your yo-yoing relationship, and what was it destined to do? Just imagine now if we were to take one of our youngsters and suddenly move them into the White House, and there they are sitting in the Oval Room and they're chatting to the President, and the next minute you've got them back doing the chores in the kitchen, could you get them to do the chores in the kitchen? Could you? Well, of course you couldn't. They'd say, I'm off to the Oval Room next, I've got to read up, I've got to prepare, I've got to get on the internet, I've got to do all sorts of things which prepare myself for sharpening my mind for when the President next calls for me. And yet, you see, here was a lad who was going to and fro, back and forth. It was doing something to David, and now he had suddenly declared, been declared or been shown to be a giant slayer, a man of war. Goliath was dead, and you remember where the head was, and where the head was to go, where the sword was later to go. David was clearly going to consecrate that sword that he had taken to the Lord. He was going to take it to Nob. He was going to leave it there in the tabernacle as something that was laid up before the Lord. And the head, well, that head was destined to go to Jerusalem, and it looks very much as though when it was eventually buried there in Jerusalem, and by this time it was only a skull. It was buried in a place which was later described as the place of the skull, well known to us of course as Golgotha. So that head was itself to become symbolic of a greater battle that was to be fought and won, of a great victory that was to be accomplished, when the enemy's head would be beneath the feet of the one who would be there upon the tree. So all those things were full of symbol and significance, but we're after the man and his characteristics, and why is it that Saul says, whose son art thou, at this particular point in the sequence? Well, the answer is there to be found in verse 25 of 1 Samuel 17. See, when David edged forward to the fringe of the people who were listening to Goliath trembling as they listened, the men of Israel said, have ye seen this man that is come up? Surely to defy Israel has he come up, and it shall be that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel. So what Saul is now saying, as he looks at this lad, doubtless covered with all the marks of war, and he says to him, whose family am I marrying into, who's about to become a free house in Israel? Actually, he hadn't got a lot to lose, a bit of bread, a flag, a flagon of wine, and the odd kid that Jesse might otherwise have sent, but now he was going to give them tax exemption, it would seem. So it followed, therefore, that he needed to know from which family David came. So that's, I think, the focus of the question now, whose son are you? Who is your father? And now look at the response. I mean, put yourself in David's position. You are there now with all the praises of Israel around you. What would you have said when the king said to you, whose son are you? You'd have said, I'm David the giant slayer. I'm the one who killed Goliath. Look, here's the evidence. Wouldn't you? Well, I would have done anyway, which tells you a lot about the sort of person I am by nature. But you see what David says. I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite. That was the remarkable way that God had prepared this man. He had kept him humble. That's why he did the chores when he went back home, because he was the same whether he was in the oval room or whether he was at the kitchen sink. He was the same in his attitude and his demeanor. And isn't that the real essence in these difficult times when the world is about saying to us, you're a really important person. Self-esteem is all what it's about. And all the time it's trying to make us self-aware, self-conscious, able to sell ourselves to a world that's, well, not all that interested in buying. There's such a lot of supply about. But all the time the world is trying to make us something and God is trying to make us nothing so that we esteem one another better than ourselves. And that quite clearly is the characteristic that is now portrayed in David's immediate experience and which turns out to be the very essence of why he was so well-loved. Because the detail now flows through 1 Samuel 18 that says everybody loved David. I'm sure you've noticed the detail. You've only got to track through who it was. Well, Jonathan, for example, there in the early verses of 1 Samuel chapter 18, Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as his own soul. You see, there was that affinity. Now not very easy, of course, for Jonathan to love somebody who just clearly made himself such a popular hero, and yet that was the situation then, that Jonathan loved him with a love that was above the love of women, and it was a lifelong love. Saul couldn't understand it, and yet Saul himself, for all that he was a difficult and an awkward character, when he had looked upon David, he too had loved him. And there was that residual love. Even in such a black-hearted man, David was able to find some light among the dark shadows. Or when it came to the courtiers, verse 5 of 1 Samuel 18, he behaved himself wisely. Saul set him over the men of war. He was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. This lad then, this country yokel, this warrior, this unkempt man, well, he became a polished courtier, and he became a soldier too. And these men of war accepted this lad who was untrained in weaponry, according to his own descriptions, would not use armor and sword, but who now was clearly learning those skills at the same time that he was commanding a group of people. And notice how the divine process of education is proceeding apace. And Michael, Saul's daughter, she loves David too. Now, David was in for a disappointment, of course, notwithstanding that he was loved because he had been promised that it was the elder daughter, Merab, that would be given to him. And there at verse 17 of 1 Samuel 18, Saul said to David, Behold, my elder daughter, Merab, who will I give thee to wife? Only be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul said, Let not mine hand be upon him, but let the hand of the Philistines be upon him. And David said unto Saul, Who am I? And what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king? But it came to pass at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she would have been given unto Adriel, the Mahalathite, to wife. And Michael, Saul's daughter, loved David. And again Saul thinks, oh, well, one's as good as another, and here's another opportunity to snare him and to get him to fall. And there at verse 22, Commune with David secretly and say, Behold, a king hath delight in thee, and all his servants love thee. Now therefore be the king's son-in-law, disappointed once in love now. So how is David to respond to this? David said, Seemeth it to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man and lightly esteemed. Now when you watch for it, you will see that characteristic right through David's life. It's like a thread, a golden thread that runs through, and it is of course the golden thread of humility. Here is a man who time and time again is able to say, Who am I, and what is my father's house? You remember I said it was an unusual thing for Acts chapter 13 to have caught the words the son of Jesse, nowhere town, nowhere man, and yet for David to be so describing himself at the very end of his life there in 2 Samuel 23. So there's the pattern of a man who never loses the sense of where he has come from and knows that God has lifted him up from the dust. He has raised up David, the son of Jesse, and as such by God's grace he calls us and lifts us up too. Nothing and nobodies as we are, but all is of God and of the exaltation that he is pleased to show towards us because of the love that he has for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. So David has been schooled and prepared and now of course he is safe. Well, now he is in greater danger than he has ever been. That's the reality of the situation isn't it, because as he increases so Saul declines. He's on the upward path, the yo-yo is short stringed now, but now look at the situation with King Saul. He's going down fast. David came to Saul, entered his service, Saul loved him greatly and he became his armor bearer. Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father's house. So you see before that situation in chapter 18 verse 2 he had been going to and fro, back and forth, but now he's settled, he's a courtier, this is his life. He can forget the past and the sheep. And Saul was very angry with Jonathan and this saying displeased him, what more can he have but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day on, you can see the green eyes now flashing out from behind the heavy lids. But Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him but had departed from Saul. And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in awe of him. Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines and when that failed, Saul was still more afraid of David. So Saul was David's enemy continually. And we've only moved there from, as you can see, chapter 16 verse 21 through 18 verse 29 and compressed in those couple of chapters you have the pattern then of a man who is on the downhill path. It goes to show doesn't it, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. He was a man who had all the potential to be a king, who had been lifted up by God, upon whom the Spirit of God had rested, albeit uncharacteristically. And he had Samuel as his tutor and he could have been schooled in the things of God and now this man has slumped down. And you know it has a lot to do with what was to be found in the hand. It's the case with us isn't it, isn't it, the devil who finds hands for, idle hands, who finds work for idle hands to do, well we understand that, that we find work for idle hands to do and so we fill our hands with things that are for God. Indeed that's the very meaning of consecration. It means literally to fill the hand. And so the priests when they were offering, wave and heave offerings, they bore in their hands the offerings for the Lord, they waved them or they heaved them before God. And as such their hands were filled with service and David, it is said of David by Abigail that he put his life in his hands. So that's David's situation now. He offers consecrated service in precisely the same way that we should too. When we think to ourselves, oh I've got an odd moment or two, well there are always things that we can be doing with our hands in the service of the Lord. And what was in Saul's hand? Well come and have a look in 1 Samuel chapter 19 and there at verse 10. There was war again, 1 Samuel 19 verse 8 rather. There was war again and David went out and fought with the Philistines and slew them with a great slaughter and they fled from before him and the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand. And David played with his hand and Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin but he slipped away out of Saul's presence and he smote the javelin into the wall and David fled and escaped that night. There's David you see in a situation where he was in peril, he was in great difficulty and there was Saul with his javelin in his hand and David had, well he had in his hand that which would have pleased and encouraged and it wasn't for the first time. Come back a chapter to 1 Samuel 18 and notice there, came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul and he prophesied in the midst of the house and David played with his hand as at other times and there was a javelin in Saul's hand and Saul cast the javelin for he said I will smite David even to the wall with it and David avoided out of his presence twice. There's a powerful point isn't it right at the very end of that verse David avoided out of his presence twice says verse 11. So three times altogether he had avoided the spear that was flung at him in enmity and jealousy and doubtless the Lord had been there to ensure that he would not be pinned to the wall by the spear that was thrown and there's Saul for you then a man who had in his hand the very, why the very expression of his kingly power. There was a man who trusted in his own prowess, a man who displayed the badge of office. You remember the Philistines had control of the Smithies at this time so it was a fairly rare thing to have weaponry. When Jonathan whose heart cleaved to David gave him his own sword the Hebrew is emphatic that he gave it even to David and the reason why it was emphatic was that he was giving something that was a rare commodity. After all the Israelites weren't beating the Philistines they were being beaten by them so there was no sense in which they were gathering an armament they hadn't got them and therefore to have a spear was a badge of office and when you watch for it you see then Saul wandering through his life with his spear in his hand. It's a curious sort of thing isn't it? It's almost cartoon like in its depiction. Imagine the situation there, there is David playing up on the harp and there's the music sweetly flowing through the king's palace and there's the king and what's he doing? He's carrying his javelin. You think good gracious me hasn't he got anything better to carry and when you come to think about it you think it is a perilous and a dangerous thing but you can capture him much later on. Come to chapter 26, 1 Samuel 26 and this time we're far away in the wilderness of Zeph and Saul is out and David and Abishai are tiptoeing through the camp and Saul is asleep and look at the record there verse 7 of 1 Samuel 26 so David and Abishai came to the people by night and behold Saul lay sleeping within the trench and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster but Abner and the people lay round about him and David if you remember sneaks away with the water pot and the spear so there he is still you know his life he was he was walking around as though it was a walking stick it was the pattern of a man who was relying upon the works of the flesh and as such well he lives by the spear dies by the sword because in the end all the might of his own armament could affect was his own destruction he fell upon his own sword remember when his armor bearer was not prepared to dispatch him himself and and so it became clear after three occasions when David had avoided the spear and once when Jonathan who allied himself with David had also had to to dodge the very same missile it became perfectly clear to David that he must flee and you remember only too well the circumstances that attended David's flight Saul had sought to pin him to the wall he'd escaped he'd gone to the house with Michael Michael loved him Michael was prepared to do anything to save his life she let him down through the window he fled away and escaped and and he made several attempts then he wasn't a man who raced away from his responsibilities and his commitments he was a man now who tried hard to effect reconciliation tied up in these narratives are divine lessons about the way in which we ought to deal with hazard and difficulty you might have said mightn't you well speaking personally when once that spear had come hurtling my way and i ducked and missed it and it had been left vibrating in the wall behind i'd have been off frankly and uh somewhere far away would have been my next episode david came back when it comes zipping across again he comes back a third time when it comes racing along a third time he decides maybe it's time for a change of scene so he goes home and then when david's encircled by souls henchmen who've come barking like dogs and braying like animals even then he knows that he's in danger but he escapes through the window and still he comes back and you have the pattern of man who is not easily put off by danger and how do we cope now when when spears and missiles come hurtling our way in our ecclesial adventures because that's what tends to happen with us doesn't it there we are playing with our hands whatever we might be playing and other people have got well different ideas of their own and we we encounter these various problems as they come to us do we say well i'm off then we've got about 25 different ecclesias in birmingham you know it's so easy if if you are offended in one way i don't like the language that you use in your prayers whoosh you can go to another one oh they do it here too you can find another one and and so you can move around from place to place i i see incidentally that i'm down as as being from solly hell ecclesia please don't tell my own ecclesia in sheldon that i've joined solly hell because they they draw the wrong conclusions but it's easy isn't it in a situation your your position is different i know because your distances are greater but it is easy when we are encountering opposition to run without arguing the situation through and coming to a proper resolution and it's the same in our family lives too of course we can get upsets and disagreements we don't always see things eye to eye and the children are a major cause of how we fall out with one another and such and we fall out with them as well and disruptions can easily come and we can easily fragment here's the picture of a man then who encountering major difficulty finds himself hanging on in there and at last is only ready to go when he is sure that it is the lord's will and he was due to become an outlaw and an estranged person from the household of israel for many years to come but he didn't go rapidly he was moving into isolation per force he had no option but to go and you would have thought then that from the very outset david had only a little to learn come have a look at psalm 11 and just pick up a flavor there of david's reaction to all of this psalm 11 and you can almost you can almost catch the bow string of jonathan's bow when he fired those arrows in the lord put i might trust how say ye to my soul flee as a bird to your mountain for though the wicked bend their bow they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may shoot privately at the upright in heart if the foundations be destroyed what can the righteous do the lord is in his holy temple the lord's throne is in heaven his eyes behold his eyelids try the children of men you see david was aware there that when he was being told clear off get out of the city get away from the village clear away from the court that in fact this was all part of the divine providence the divine purpose and we get an insight of course into david's mind in the psalms that were written they serve exactly the same function that paul's epistles do to the narrative account in the acts the epistles give us that insight into how saul was thinking and the psalms give us the insight into how david was thinking i said saw but that was a crossover there you you know i meant paul but take psalm 59 for example which is again quite clearly patterned upon the very episode that we've been thinking about the headnote says that this is a psalm of david a michtam of david when saul sent and they watched the house to kill him and there it is there's the pattern of david feeling then all the animosity and all the enmity from his enemies that were round about and and going round about the city belching with their mouth swords are in their lips and there too at verse 8 is his clear conviction that god will laugh at them he will have them in derision so you would have thought wouldn't you for certain sure when he said in verse 9 for example because of his strength will i wait upon thee for god is my defense that really he had very little to learn about the divine purpose you've only got to see it there in the songs david was all together familiar it would seem with the god it was his strength and his fortress the god it was his shield the god it was his fortress and his refuge the god who would deliver him according to his steadfast love and yet you see when it came to it david had an enormous amount to learn and now his real preparation was beginning these were his outlaw years he was leaving the court he was leaving comfort he was off to austerity and difficulty and danger but he never fled to the cave of the dullum straight off of course he knew that terrain because it wasn't that far from becklehem but when now he decided to flee you recall from whence he went first he went from sol just north just a few miles north to rama he went to samuel and straight away when he went to rama david encountered the encompassing power of god do we have a look at one samuel chapter 19 makes you wonder here whether david might not have stayed there and been kept carefully by god for it was remarkable protection one samuel 19 and verse 18 so david fled and escaped and came to samuel to rama and told him all that saul had done to him and he and samuel went and dwelt in naoth which appears to be a suburb of rama and he was told saul saying behold david is at naoth in rama and saul sent messengers to take david when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and samuel standing as appointed over them the spirit of god was upon the messengers of saul and they also prophesied when he was told saul he sent other messengers and they prophesied likewise and so at last saul came himself and and you might remember now that that that saul was so overtaken himself verse 27 that he stripped off his clothes also and prophesied before samuel in like manner and lay down naked all that day and all that night wherefore they say is saul also among the prophets you see how proverbial it was that this man was was so otherworldly from divine things that they couldn't believe that saul was also prophesying ecstatically in this particular way but you'll notice that god had now provided david with a refuge he had gone to the school of prophets that samuel was instrumental in developing and building up a great blessing that was to be there for israel in due course and perhaps he could have stayed there maybe in all the years that were to follow david could have stayed in rama naoth and he could have been there surrounded by and sheltered by the overseeing power of god and he chose to move away well perhaps he he chose to move away because he was anxious for the prophets and and and what might have befallen them if if circumstances had changed as though they could be taken unawares perhaps it was then that that he thought it would be better all around if he moved away if so he was making a deliberate decision to go outside the of god's power in the way that it had here been manifest hard to say of course because the prophets might have prophesied which indicated that he should go but look where he went next again it was a logical move again it was a logical move you see when difficulties befall us to whom do we go well we go to god and when we have gone to god we go to our brothers and sisters we find comfort and consolation strength and sucker with them and so we ought to do and so we do and and david's next step was to the ecclesia well he went to the tabernacle didn't he he went just a few miles south of rama down to knob and he went to knob clearly in a position of distress perhaps it tells you something about what life was like in rama that in fact he came away now with neither sword nor defense and and nor did he come with food but instead he was hot footing it going he knew not where so he went to the house of god when calamity befalls us we come then to the house of god and yet of course there was difficulty in the coming here in one samuel chapter 20 there appears to be a difficulty that even our lord touches upon which on the face of it doesn't yield its meaning look at the position there at verse 42 of one samuel chapter 20 jonathan has sent david on his way go in peace he says for as much as we have sworn both of us in the name of the lord saying the lord be between me and thee and between my seed and thy seed forever he arose and departed and jonathan went into the city then came david to knob to a himelech the priest and a himelech was afraid at the meeting of david and said unto him why art thou alone and no man with thee and david lies the king hath commanded me a business and had said unto me let no man know anything of the business whereabout i send thee and what i have commanded thee and i have appointed my servants to such and such a place now therefore what is under thy hand give me five loaves of bread in mine hand or or what there is present and the priest says there's only the showbread david now it looks as though it was the sabbath and the showbread was being changed on the sabbath but it was illegal for anybody to eat of the bread except for the priests and david was clearly not a priest well it might have been a priest in anticipation but he was not of the priestly line and it was forbidden that david should eat of the bread quite clearly so and yet verse six says that the priest gave him hallowed bread but there was no bread there but the showbread that was taken from before the lord to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away and doeg the edomite saw it all now what are we to make of this occasion because here is an incident back in the law where an illegal act appears to occur and yet it is an act that our lord draws upon come and have a look at the the record in mark chapter two for instance and when our lord refers to this incident he sees in it a provision of divine grace you say to yourself well how can that be mark chapter two look at verse 25 there's just been that incident about the the grain being rubbed clean of the chaff and and the disciples eating as they went along through the cornfield and and jesus' response to the criticism that came from the pharisees verse 25 of mark 2 he said unto them have ye never read what david did when he had need and was unhungered he and they that were with him how he went into the house of god in the days of abiotha the high priest that's very interesting in itself because the record we read said that it was it was a himelech who was the high priest but jesus says in the days of abiotha the high priest and did eat the show bread which is not lawful to eat but for the priests and gave also to them which were with him and he said unto them the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath therefore the son of man is lord also of the sabbath and i suspect that from time to time we scratch our heads a little and we say to i don't just follow the logic of our lord's argument though i'm quite sure that the logic is impeccable but i don't just see how he draws from the narrative quite to the point that he's making is he saying that an illegal act was justified by the occasion because you see if our lord is saying that then our rules are never really binding rules because whenever we have a rule if there's a good reason for breaking them we break them because that's what happened in the of abiotha the high priest well it's the detail back in the one samuel record that makes it abundantly clear and it doesn't come out at once see the scriptures wait a little for us to ponder the full significance david goes on his way with with two things first he's given the show bread and then he is given the sword well of all things but there it was he had laid it up before the lord there was none like it he said it was the sword of goliath the philistine so a big sword for a big man and david goes away now with this sword which was identified and doubtless distinctive and off he goes on his way into trouble bread and a sword and back in gibia the story is told we don't know why doeg the edomite had been there before the lord and god could have arranged it course so that doeg wasn't there at the critical moment we can never work out can we how things sometimes work out what seems to us to be logical if only the circumstances had been different if only god had organized it in a different way none of this trouble need have come but you see god knew that doeg was there and god sanctioned what happened yeah god sanctioned what happened because now speeding down came saul full of animosity and he encountered the priest well look at verse nine of one samuel 22 then answered doeg the edomite which was set over the servants of saul and said i saw the son of jesse coming to knob to a himelech the son of a and gave him vitals and gave him the sword of goliath the philistine then the king sent to call a himelech the priest the son of a heighted and all his father's house the priests that were in knob and they came all of them to the king and saul said here now thou son of a heighted and he answered here i am my lord and saul said unto him why have ye conspired against me thou and the son of jesse in that thou hast given him bread and a sword and hast inquired of god for him that he should rise against me to lie in wait as that that day now do you notice there there's voice and echo that first of all doeg says not only did he give him bread and a sword but he asked of god for him and when saul says is it true that you gave him bread and sword and asked of god for him so we've voice and echo with relation to that question of a himelech asking god what he should do in these particular circumstances what does a himelech say verse 14 then a himelech answered the king and said and who is so faithful among all thy servants as david which is the king's son-in-law and goeth at thy bidding and is honorable in thine house did i then begin to inquire of god for him be it far from me let not the king impute anything unto his servant nor to all the house of my father for thy servant knew nothing of all this less or more and the king said thou shalt surely die a himelech thou and all thy father's house and so it was that edom that doeg the edomite nearly had him as edom the doegite but doeg the edomite is the very one is responsible for felling the the priests and almost all of them save for two so now let's take stock the lord was addressing the situation of human need in desperate circumstances and he said that have you not read what was done in the days of abiotha the priest abiotha was the surviving priest jesus knew that he deliberately ignores the fact that a himelech was the priest before the occasion and looks to the time after the occasion in other words jesus says don't you know what happened in the days when abiotha became the lord's priest it cost the life of the man who gave the provision but notice what happened that when david had need god provided for that despite the cost of the life of his priest you see something now of the echoes of the lordship of the king himself and the sense in which when we had need and when we came seeking for bread that would satisfy our deepest need there was a life given and that the life of the priest that we ourselves might eat and live you see that there's the very pattern there of the great redeeming work of the lord jesus christ but more there is the fact that god addresses human need god didn't say well it's a safer option david if i provide you bread elsewhere clear out of the camp and you'll find a dozen loaves of bread he could easily have done that but god says give him the bread to eat so god deliberately the record tells us three times answers the prayer of the priest which ensures that david is given bread to eat so it's no question of human accommodation here in which a man changes the rules because he thinks it's right but it is an occasion of divine grace god judges the circumstances sees the individual need and decides in this instance to set the provisions of the law aside and as such of course he was showing that at a later time god would set the provisions of the law aside so that there might then be succor and satisfaction for all those who were in need and now david is proceeding and busying himself about his outlaw life and is about of course to to flee from knob with bread and a sword of all places to gath and there in gath now he will find himself in desperate danger he's no less stepped into the enemy camp than they say isn't this the one of whom it was said david has killed his thousands sol has killed his thousands and david is tens of thousands and you can hear the philistine brain working can't you tens of thousands of what were they now tens of thousands of philistines wait a minute we're philistines david's come to gath the very place from whence lieth came he's not the very sword that once goliath used to wave around the camp here and david knew he was in trouble and so a man who had stepped with a divine provision into danger now throws himself entirely upon the lord's provision and is redeemed and time and again now david was to learn and relearn the lessons and divine providence was to be seen in so much of its progress there was of course something providential even in what had happened at knob back in one samuel chapter two when eli was hearing about the end of the priesthood that was to come he was clearly told that the priesthood from his house must come to an end that god would raise up for himself a faithful priest who should do according to what was in his heart and in his mind i will build him a sure house he shall go in and out before my anointed forever perhaps an indication there of the the change from a himelech to a biather but but maybe also an indication of the fact that the one who was being prepared was himself being prepared as a priest who was to prevail before god and and yet what what hard lessons david had to learn of course there were immediate benefits that came from a himelech's death david at once now had the priesthood the prophets he had god his own seer benefit from those particular circumstances as now he was to move on as a fugitive from place to place a man of no fixed abode and sometimes he would go to the cave of the dullum and there to the cave of the dullum a great multitude of people came to him a tag-tag and bobtail of people people who were malcontent and discontented people who hadn't paid their taxes people who had fallen out with a variety of different circumstances and and and he became therefore a commander-in-chief of a typical ecclesia well a group of people who were themselves independently minded who knew what they wanted to do but had to be wielded together into a group that became a fighting force and david of course was able to attract people together and because he was the very center of their corporate life why he became their head and they became his body isn't that the pattern and the picture that confronts us in in this our wilderness experience when here we are hiding out in some stronghold or another with a world heedless of what's going on aren't we in truth shaping ourselves to to follow the pattern of the man and isn't it so that we will yield ourselves to him remember that occasion when when david was there and the philistines had garrisoned bethlehem and and there he was and he said oh for a drink of water from the well in bethlehem three of his mighty men broke through the philistine ranks you can imagine the philistines amazement here come three of david's mighty men straight through the defenses race to the well down goes the bucket up comes the water off they go well they must have been absolutely convinced that david and his men were totally and utterly crazy but david when he received the water from the well well he he poured it out as a drink offering to the lord you see what man it was who had welded them together into such a unity of spirit such a oneness of purpose and how they loved him that they were prepared to put their life on the line and isn't that our situation and our calling isn't that the very challenge which has brought us together we outlaws who have come to find our king in a place of refuge and is it not then that we would lay our own lives on the line for him well that's precisely how it ought to be and that's the very pattern here and just two episodes give us a further penetrating insight into the nature of the life of this man he was to encounter sol his enemy well that's to say sol saw david as his enemy in two places once down in the wilderness of engedi when sol was down there and was resting he drifted into a cave come and pick the record up where sol now encounters david and you see a little insight in one simul 24 into david's attitude of mind and life verse 2 of one simul 24 and sol took 3000 chosen men out of all israel went to seek david and his men from the rocks of the wild goats here they are now down on the west side of the dead sea in engedi came to the sheep coats by the way where was a cave and sol went in to cover his feet he went in to relieve himself as the new international version puts it and david and his men remained in the sides of the cave these are pretty big these limestone caves plenty of shadows and crevices david and all his men were there and now listen to the conversation and the men of david said unto him behold the day of which the lord said unto thee behold i will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee now remember they had a seer god was there they had a priest abiotha was there they had an ephod which abiotha had brought they had plenty of means of receiving a message from the lord and david himself had the spirit of god upon him and this message had come through that there would be a day when god would deliver his enemy into his hand that david could do to him as it shall seem good unto thee and you can hear the rule there as clear as day can't you as you would that men should do unto you do ye so unto them for this is the law and the prophets and and david now was was to do what seemed good to him and the record says that he arose and cut off the skirt of sol's robe privilege and then his heart smote him because well somebody was going to have to work on that and sew it all back again and so as the king is leaving the cave unharmed but with a tattered robe david shouts after him what a remarkable thing it is at verse eight that he shouts out my lord the king when sol looked behind him david stooped with his face to the earth and bowed himself and david says sorry he's done something that he he shouldn't have done i i have he said lifted up my hand against my lord for he is the lord's anointed moreover my father verse 11 cac the skirt of thy robe in my hand for in that i cut off the skirt of thy robe and kill thee not know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand and i have not sinned against thee yet thou huntest my soul to take it and look what he says in verse 14 after whom is king of israel come out after whom dost thou pursue after a dead dog after a flea you see in all these years of estrangement and deprivation and difficulty and they were years david was still able to look at himself dispassionately and say that he was nobody i'm only a dead dog i'm only a flea i'm the son of your servant jesse the bethlehemite i'm a nobody but sol was the lord's anointed and why the last of these occasions that we shall consider when in fact now there in the wilderness of zeph sol was again to be delivered into david's hand and the record is absolutely clear about this one simul 26 and there why we've come to that moment before when we saw the spear stuck in the bolster look what a bishop i said at verse eight of one simul 26 then said a bishop to david god hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day now therefore let me smite him i pray thee with a spear even to the earth at once and i will not smite him the second time and david said to a bishop destroy him not for who can stretch forth his hand against the lord's anointed and be guiltless david said furthermore as the lord liveth the lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend into battle and perish the lord forbid that i should stretch forth mine hand against the lord's anointed but i pray thee take thou now the spear that it is at his bolster and the cruise of water and let us go and so notwithstanding that god had sent asleep as the record makes it clear and that god had delivered david's enemy into his hands something that david acknowledges within the course of this very chapter david will not now lift his hand against the lord's anointed and you'll notice why that he would not yield himself to blood guiltiness he did not want to be terrorized for the rest of his life by a sense of guilt and therefore he stayed his hand and he would not sin because he knew that guilt would be the consequence and he would not be delivered to that and so they climb up the other side of the ravine and presumably there was quite a steep slope that because he cries across to the sleeping camp and the camp which had been delivered into his hand and look what he says there at verse 18 wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant for what i have done or what evil is in my hand and there at verse 20 now therefore let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the lord for the king of israel has come out to seek a flee as when wonder hunter partridge in the mountains you can tell that can't you quite a lot about david's actual sleeping conditions because if you've noticed on both those occasions fleas feature in his district description no doubt dead dogs were occasionally very welcome additions to the the pot a partridge would be a real privilege if they were able to catch it in a pear tree or otherwise but fleas you see he could at once associate with and he thought to himself that he was nothing but a parasite that he was nothing but someone who lived on the very edge of society that he was a mere outlaw god in all these circumstances and through all this time and a lot of time was passing was preparing a man and the remarkable thing was that whilst that preparation was going on time and time and time again david was penning his feelings he was painting another part of the portrait in the psalms and he was declaring there how he felt and how he thought and what god was doing and the inner life of the man was what it was all about and we then we outlaws we we wilderness sojourners who are here preparing for the time when god will call us to be kings and priests when he will invite us to come as it subjecting ourselves in the same way keeping self under constantly saying to ourselves week by week who am i and what is my father's house a dead dog a partridge in the mountains a flea the son of jesse your servant the bethlehemite subjecting the self so that at last when the time was right in the fullness of time god could call him to be king as by his grace he will call us to each one of us

Transcript

Let's say I can fully understand now why the the British didn't have a chance when it came to a Scrap in Boston because you've got such a staying power I mean here you still are when you could have slipped away quietly into the night Here's me talking about David finding refuge elsewhere You could have found a dunking donut shop somewhere around or a friendly ice cream parlor And I'd never have been able to track you down But you see David's experience now was was coming to an end in the sense that the wilderness Was almost over if he had only known if he was on the brink of the land But well, he lost concentration for a moment and went off in a different way You thought how long David had been in the situation It's difficult to be sure of course about the chronology We do know that by the time he came to become king at Hebron. He was 30 years old But we don't know quite how old he was When he was anointed by Samuel or when he entered Saul's court or when he fought with Goliath Just imagine for a moment that he was 18 when he fought with Goliath It follows therefore doesn't it that for all that time in the intervening years from 18 through to 30 He had been in the wilderness Well, he would have had a brief Occurrence whilst he was a courtier perhaps a couple of years there But but maybe he'd been 20 when he had been outlawed. So 10 years 10 years had passed and he was still to be found by now, of course a grown-up man a man who was Surely ready on any of these various Occasions when he had stopped and taken stock a man who was doubtless as prepared as he would ever need to be But on the very brink of the kingdom he decides to slip off into security Well think how that parallels with our own position Here we on the very edge aren't we of the time when God will call us to be kings and priests by his grace We could so easily say oh I fancy a bit of comfort. I fancy a bit of rest. I fancy a bit of security It's once on your chapter 27 that presents us with that position He's only just said to Saul as he did that he's nothing but a dead dog a partridge of flea and He's a nobody the king's servant when in one Samuel 27 David said in his heart I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul for there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines and Saul should despair of me to seek me anymore in any coast So shall I escape out of his hand and so he arose and passed over with the six hundred men that were with him Just pause and think about that for a moment. Think of the logistics of feeding six hundred men I understand your minds will be automatically turning anyway towards feeding and towards sucker But six hundred men it'd be a big job wouldn't it to feed six hundred men here today with all the provisions around us Six hundred men in the wilderness when you're fugitives all of you with all the Difficulties and all the family links that there would have been with the villages and the towns round about Well, David had regularly been feeding those six hundred or had been responsible for them And now he decides to slip away to Akish the son of Mayok king of Gath Akish is a title the same way as Pharaoh would be so in that sense it may not be the same man That had earlier encountered David with all the dribble going down his beard Remember and had said mad men. I got mad men enough clear him out Maybe it was a later successor to the same title, but this time Akish king of Gath Welcomes David and notice what the detail is in verse 3 David dwelt with Akish at Gath he and his men Every man with his household even David with his two wives a Hinnom the Jezreelites and Abigail the Carmelites Nabal's wife and he was told Saul that David was fled to Gath and he sought no more again for him on the face of it it poses us with a bit of a problem a Sort of a curious little quirk Why is it now that Akish king of Gath should not only receive and accept David? But should give him a city Ziklag, which was his as a possession What had changed since David the slayer of? 10,000 Philistines had come to him before in Gath Well a lot of change of course ten years of outlaw wandering had taken place and Those ten years had confirmed beyond any shadow of doubt that David was Saul's enemy And again, you can hear the Philistine logic, can't you? David Saul's enemy Philistines Saul's enemy equals David Philistines friend. Ah, yes So they'd accepted him on board and they'd settled him in Ziklag Because now David was on the same side as them He was opposed to Saul and David was prepared to play along with that little parable well that little Deceit for some long time some 16 months now during which he stayed in Akish In Ziklag rather but notice the detail again that we passed over at verse 3 that he comes there with his two wives Hinoam the Jezreel itess and Abigail the Carmelite s Nabal's wife Abigail's experience and is not without some difficulty here But Abigail's experience is typical of what had been happening as far as Israel was concerned During David's sojourn of ten years or so in the wilderness What do you think the people of Israel made of David? Did they regard him as a refugee a troubler of Israel? What did they regard him as a sort of Robin Hood who was? Feeding off those who were rich and giving to those who were poor Well, you get an insight into that from Abigail's experience. You remember the position back in one Samuel chapter 25 There was this man in Carmel So again, it wasn't far from where David had been Carmel remember between En Gedi and Ziklag going across on the line from East to West and there at Carmel Well, there was a man in Mayon whose possessions were in Carmel says one Samuel 25 and verse 2 the man was very great 3,000 sheep and a thousand goats and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel and suddenly you get the sense of what David was about Because now it's shearing time and slaying time and they're all having a bit of a banquet And David sends a polite request to say don't forget us we could do with a little bit of sucker Don't forget that we have been shepherding your flocks and the men say yeah, that's absolutely right You know all this time that David and his men have been there. Just imagine a stray sheep from From From the Carmel flock from Nabal's flock coming across David's line of fire Just imagine the thought of the succulent lamb that there would be in all that time. They hadn't lost a sheep indeed David and his men had been shepherding themselves. They had been safeguarding Nabal's possession So when he sends and Nabal says no way You remember what he says there at verse 10 and he asks the question that David was asking himself Nabal answered David's servants and said who is David and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh that I've killed for my shearers and give it unto men Whom I know not whence they be that was a very dangerous thing to ask Because it was one thing for David to say who am I? I'm a nobody. It's a very different thing for a man to say who is David. He's merely a runaway slave Why should I feed him and his men and instantly David does something which is completely out of character? The one thing that he had done and done and done again We've seen two instances of it firstly when they were at the cave in Engedi and then later on when David and Saul Encountered one another in the open in the wilderness of Zeth we have seen David withhold his hand From taking action on his own behalf now that was a characteristic that he had developed It was part of his humility It's very hard for us isn't it and yet we are Commanded to do the same thing if somebody slaps us across the face the natural reaction is that your own hand goes back But Jesus says turn again the other cheek also and David had learned that Passivity that self control he was able to put the self to death But in this instance something snaps in his mind Doubtless it was the the thought of the mutton that was being roasted down in the camp and all the prospects that had been there You could get to dream of food couldn't you I once remember? Visiting Nigeria and dreaming of cheese night after night and the minute I got back to to England Asking could I have a plate of cheese, please? I didn't care whether it was roasted or grated or however it was I just needed cheese Well David was doubtless a man like us with similar passions and so this time He girds his own sword on 400 of his men out of the 600 go hurtling down towards Naples camp and 200 of them stay with the spoil just watch for that little detail 400 and 200 David has that aspect of the people who stay at home and the people who go out to war It's the same pattern with us isn't it in our in Ecclesial endeavors in our work in the Brotherhood there are those who go and there are those who stay And each of those functions are regarded as absolutely vital and important There are those who care for the children there are those who sit in the meeting there are those who go out preaching There are those who stay at home praying all those functions are part of the total purpose of God and in this instance The 400 go down hot foot intent upon taking vengeance and we started down this trail because Abigail now gives us an Insight into what people thought of David during those intervening years. There she is at verse 26 Stopping David in his tracks now Therefore my lord as the Lord liveth and as my soul liveth seeing the Lord hath withholden thee From coming to shed blood and from avenging thyself with thine own hand Now let thine enemies and they that seek evil to my lord be as navel and now this blessing which thine hand Maideth brought unto my lord let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord I pray thee forgive the trespass of thine handmade for the Lord will certainly make thy my lord a sure house because my lord fighteth the battles of the Lord and Evil hath not been found in thee all thy days yet a man is risen to pursue thee and to seek thy soul But the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God and the souls of thine enemies Then shall he sling out as out of the middle of a sling and court in verse 29 or a couple of vivid pictures Just imagine David with his few possessions around him and suddenly said it's so all on his men And you scoop them together into the bundle and before you know it you've got the bundle over your shoulder and you're off Well, she said God will scoop you up into his bundle when it comes time for you to move God will carry you along with Him too. That's the one picture and the other well It's the picture of the valley of Elah isn't it she says your enemies They will be hurled out as out of the middle of a sling and so you can almost see the sense in which the folklore associated with David and his exploits have been now Steeped in the minds of the men and women of Israel They look at this man this outlaw and this refugee and they see they're a good man who has done nothing wrong They see the enmity they see the way of his self control And it's not a bit of wonder that they want to come to be with him And we've talked haven't we as though in the session so far Women weren't associated with David and weren't giving any assistance Sister came and quietly mentioned to me. Don't forget David's wife whom he had left behind Michael who had to look after the kids and who had to man and manage the house when he was out on the outlaw trail and Now don't forget Abigail Because when God strikes Nabal dead Abigail in fact leaves her possessions and her affluence and we've seen what they were and verse 42 of 1 Samuel 25 She hasted and arose and rode upon an ass with five damsels of hers that went after her she went after the messengers of David and became his wife and I said it was a little curious because of verse 43 David also took a Hinoam of Jezreel and they were also both of them his wives But Saul had given Michael his daughter David's wife to Fouty the son of Laish which was of Galim it's a It leaves a bit of a sore Taste sour taste in the mouth doesn't it verse 43 that David took another woman with him, too But I rather suspect that this was the actual outcome That what was happening was that when Abigail wise woman as she was came with a clutch of her damsels That David realizing the awkwardness of living in a cave You know with men around and and she and he as man and wife actually said to her bring one of your servants with you, too, so that well I may be wrong in this I rather suspect that a Hinoam of Jezreel was one of Abigail's servant girls So that he took a wife and her servant who also in that sense became a secondary wife and clearly he was to Enlarge his family in that way and to get himself into a very complicated position God for the hardness of men's hearts allowed provisions that were less than the ideal in these early times But it's worth noticing that the more the ideal is breached the more complicated life becomes Well those of us who've got one husband or one wife We we know that there are complications enough in that relationship and to take another of either sex would be equally complicated And who'd want a whole harem of wives or a whole group of husbands if the choice came So that God does allow some accommodation in this instance for human need and David was a man who loved Passionately and as a consequence his passion sometimes drew him into some difficulty So he had moved from less than the ideal as far as his family life was concerned and yet God had accepted and accommodated it And now he moves from less than ideal with regard to Ziklag He goes and he settles in Ziklag and there in Ziklag. He lives a life of duplicity and deceit You remember the message he always said I've been striking against the people of Israel and he came back and he shared booty and and spoil with his sovereign Lord Akish king of Gath But the reality was that he was striking down south that all the time he was going down against the geisha rights the girls And the Amalekites he was fighting against the enemies of Israel and as such, of course, he was securing Israel's border down here on the Southwest so David was doing in fact a great deal of good as far as Israel was concerned But there were greater events afoot God now was intent upon bringing Saul to a final confrontation up in the Valley of Jezreel and So we get the the situation occurring and how easily it occurs in our lives, too Where it is true as it is always true. Oh what a complex life We create for ourselves. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive And David who had deceived Akish would settled at Ziklag now finds that he is being drawn into the battle Against Saul and he is being forced to go He and his 600 men all 600 of them this time being taken up to the battle that was to be drawn Against Saul and the Philistines and who can say what David would have done if he had ultimately Had to have fought you see you could say couldn't you that all right David had been Asking for it that he should never have gone down this particular route He shouldn't have tried to deceive day after day instead He should have done something different and you could say well, of course He was estranged from God now and God would let him have his comeuppance No, it was God wouldn't intervene. God wouldn't help him out of this. He just let the mess get messier He'd wait until the very time when David had to issue a command to his 600 was he or wasn't he going to fight against Israel? Well Was he forced into this situation or what but you remember how God who bends the minds of kings and Philistines alike He's able now to so control and so relieve the situation So that Akish says I've got a goodly band of people here and the rest of the Philistine Lord said wait a minute Now the Israelites aren't we fighting against the Israelites? And the Israelites in front of us and Israelites behind us send them home and Akish says they've been really good You know, they've been really really good for a long period of time Send them home and David goes back home then with his mighty men to Ziklag And suddenly you realize that if you live the Philistine life, you must accept the Philistine problems, too God is remarkably gracious to us, isn't he in our circumstances in our complex lives When our tangled loyalties, you know crossover into areas and associations that we should really have nothing to do with God unravels and cuts the Gordian knot God allows us to be rescued and redeemed from our own complexities But the consequences we have to bear and the same was true now for David Because as he began to head back You remember now that he was he was heading back There's an interesting little detail in his return journey. He's going back now to to Ziklag The interesting detail is that as he returns to Ziklag So other people join him from the camp of Israel. It's worth just picking up the detail Come have a look in 1 Chronicles chapter 12 You get in 1 Chronicles 12 a record of the people who had come to join David and the beginning of 1 Chronicles 12 says Now these are they that came to David to Ziklag While he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish They were among the mighty men helpers in the war and so they're catalogued and listed There verse 8 and of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David into the hold to the wilderness Men of might and men of war and there at verse 16 They came of the children of Benjamin and Judah to the hold unto David Now verse 19 and there fell some of Manasseh to David when he came with the Philistines Against Saul to battle notice what happens that the the troop of David is enlarging and growing at different stages During David's experience some to the hold Some whilst he was going to fight against Saul They were actually joining his ranks and there at verse 23 These are the numbers of the bands that were ready armed to the war and came to David to Hebron So there were more then that came and joined him later on in other words like ourselves Not everybody came and joined David at once There were some who were first and there were others who were last and some of those who were last Well, they were only joining David as he came back to Ziklag or as he went there in the last year or so of the life before David would become king at Hebron and more of Them still that were ready armed to war and and they were defecting from Benjamin Saul's own tribe and from Judah as they could see the situation Deteriorating and there's a another little detail here now because of course when they get back to Ziklag What should they discover back in the the record in one Samuel, but Ziklag has been burned with fire I said that God is remarkably gracious to us, but the consequences we have to live through You know God accommodates us sometimes in our emotional needs We may for example engage in marriage, which is outside the faith and we may be Reconciled with the Ecclesia in that situation, but we should never delude ourselves that the Consequences of that act will go away We bind ourselves to ongoing Consequences and David was precisely the same in this instance He had lived the Philistine life now He would suffer the Philistine problems and returning to Ziklag and finding it Desolate he finds himself on the point of death because his own faithful men were in fact now ready to put him to death such was their anguish and their agony and David of course man of God as he is turns to God in prayer the ephod of course was always there God was able to give him direction and he is told to pursue the Amalekites who had come up from the east and and off They go in Hunt of the Amalekites and and interestingly enough, let's let's pick up the record in one Samuel chapter 29 They just made this journey back from the Valley of Jezreel so things had been enormously difficult there Sorry one Samuel chapter 30 Finding that situation, there's the inquiry of the ephod in verse 7 of one Samuel chapter 30 I pray thee bring me hither the ephod. Abioth had brought thither the ephod to David Shall I pursue after this troop shall I overtake them pursue for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all So David went he and the six hundred men that were with him and came to the brook besaw where those that were left behind stayed But David pursued he and four hundred men for two hundred abode behind Which was so faint that they could not go over the brook besaw They find an Egyptian they discover that the Amalekites are encamped They realize that there is a way into the Amalekite camp. They are successful in Recovering and obtaining all the gain verse 18 David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away And David rescued his two wives There was nothing lacking to them neither small nor great neither sons nor daughters Neither spoil nor anything that they had taken to them David recovered all And David took all the flocks and the herds which they drove before them other cattle and said this is David's spoil Then he comes back to the two hundred men who rested by the brook besaw Well, we can understand that it was the weakness of their flesh the journey down all this distance And anyway, there were people who'd only just joined the group So when it comes to the share out of the reward, how are they to cope with it? And David comes back to them says verse 22 and verse 22 then answered the wicked men and men of Belial Of those that went with David and said because they went not with us We will not give them all to the spoil that we have recovered Say to every man his wife and his children that they may lead them away and depart Then said David ye shall not do so my brethren with that which the Lord hath given us Who hath preserved us and delivered the company that came against us into our hand for who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is That goeth down to the battle So shall his part be that tarryeth by the stuff They shall part or share alike It was so from that day forward that he made it a statute and in ordinance for Israel and to this day You see the pattern now of the way in which the king when he comes to share out the spoils When he comes to share the reward with those who are his faithful followers Behold when he comes and his arm is strong and his reward is before him He shares out not simply to those who have been there Actively engaged on the battlefield in other words It's not going to be a list of speaking brethren or presiding brethren or arranging brethren as it were and the king sits there saying Oh, yes a recorder. Well, that'll be a very good position for the kingdom instead there is to be an Understanding and a sharing out a conferring of reward with all those who have performed whatever function It was that was necessary for the Lord's work It was just as vital to have stayed with the stuff and to have preserved what they had to have rested at the Brook besaw or to have gone and to have actually accomplished the battle to held the drawn sword in the hand So there's a pattern and a picture here of how the king will respond when at last he comes into the glories of his kingdom because David now, of course was going to Hebron and In Hebron there he was to be anointed king And you would have thought that the the whole long drawn-out saga had at last come to its end but when a man came To declare in Ziklag that Saul was dead to Samuel chapter 1 Again, all of a sudden the curtains come apart and you get one of those insights into the life of the man Just think what we were recapping Just think of the length of time that David had spent and and all the waiting and the agony in which David then had been Waiting for Saul's departure and seemingly it had never come to an end Now at last the man comes and the record is that he comes and falls to the earth and does obeisance to David David says verse 3 of 2 Samuel 1 from whence cometh thou out of the camp of Israel am I escaped? How went the matter tell me? The people have fled from the battle many of the people also have fallen and dead Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also now How would we have felt at the end of this great long period? When the man who had made us his enemy had at last Fallen if you were suddenly to tear the curtains of our own life apart and look into the the very recesses of our heart Wouldn't there have been relief wouldn't we have thought? Well, thank goodness the waiting is over at last all that we've hoped for all that we've longed for all that we've been Preparing for has come to its fullness and suddenly you see you see godliness displayed in this man From the blood of the slain From the fat of the mighty the bow of Jonathan turned not back and the sword of Saul returned not empty Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death. They were not divided They were swifter than eagles they were stronger than lions ye daughters of Israel Weep over Saul who clothed you in scarlet with other delights who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel How other mighty fallen in the midst of the battle you see that was the nature of the man now who had so Controlled and schooled and developed his innermost character that even when at last it seemed that the kingdom was come and that he could go Hebron and there that he could be accepted that his first thought was of grief and of Compassion for those who had fallen now we could understand it of course if he said Jonathan was lovely in his life. He was a fine lad and I'm sorry to see him die but well it is it is so like the love of Christ isn't it that he can look with compassion and Say that Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death. They were not divided So this man is surely ready then for this particular moment when he is at last delivered to the kingdom and surely now Everything for which he has waited is about to be given to him surely God will say here is the kingdom the dynasty that failed is past and at last Hebron Is to be the place from whence you will reign over Israel, but but look He was to wait now for some seven years before in fact he would enter into being corporate king over the whole of Israel For there were still some remnants of David's family ish Bo Sheth was still to be established Abner was to secure him they were to set up the kingdom in maha name across the Jordan to the east and there there was to be a Separation and a division so far as the country was concerned Just notice the detail in 2 Samuel chapter 2 and there at verse 8. It tells us that Abner the son of Ner captain of Saul's host That be shipping that's coming close Or is that a signal that indicates that the dinner is getting ready Abner the son of Ner captain of Saul's host took ish Bo Sheth the son of Saul and brought him over to maha name And made him king over Gilead and over the Asherites and over Jezreel and over Ephraim and over Benjamin and over all Israel Ish Bo Sheth Saul's son was 40 years old when he began to reign over Israel and Two years but the house of Judah followed David and The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months Now you look at the passage like that don't you you think well, perhaps there's something curious in the text How can you have two kingdoms which are coexisting one of which is for two years in length? The other of which is for seven and a half years Let me suggest to you that what was happening was that there was an interregnum So far as the kingdom was concerned across to the east that the tribes over which Abner had control In fact only actually established a kingdom for two years for the rest of the time Well, it was never very clear who was in command. Perhaps it was Abner who was de facto king But it was only for two years that you could clearly identify a kingdom there and in the meantime in Hebron Consolidating and strengthening his position David was established as a king for seven years and six months Now if indeed that's the case and there is no textual evidence to suggest that two years should in fact Read seven years then it would seem to suggest that that David did now what he had long learned to do He did nothing I'm not suggesting that this was altogether a wise thing But you watch for this characteristic in David's continuing experience What the kingdom had told him was what the wilderness had told him rather was that it pays to be passive He had learned to sit upon his hands You remember just let me strike him once and I shall not strike him again. No We'll not do anything Even when he does something and does that little bit of crude Work with the the scissors as it were and cuts off the hem of Saul's garment once he thinks he's done something too much he is a man now whose main accent is passivity and Yet he was in a rather difficult position because events were about to move with some Considerable pace you remember the sequence of events that was due to take place As now ishbosheth was to grow weaker so David in fact was to to grow stronger and stronger Abner was to be found against Joab. There was that sort of parallel that was to take place and gradually there was to be upset and difficulty as circumstances eventually led to the death of ishbosheth and Here's a curious thing Somebody creeps into the record now Who suddenly takes the place of Saul Saul of course is dead He is dead upon the battlefield But now we get another foil appearing to David so that we can the better Appreciate David and his qualities and his characteristics. We now find Joab emerging Black-hearted Joab Joab who is the man who does things and who does them violently and passionately You see that of course most Characteristically in what was to happen with regard to the battle at the pool of Gibeon remember the circumstances where Joab and Abner met together and they say to themselves, let's put all this Conflict and difficulty to an end. Let's let's pose some champions who will fight representatives on our behalf and so young men are chosen on both sides and they go to to fight a duel as it were and As a result both groups fall dead And so the battle is not decided because they are all dead on the ground and so it is decided that that Abner will return to Mahaneim and proceeds now to to flee back to Mahaneim with the remnants of the Army that had come to meet at the pool of Gibeon and you can still find the pool of Gibeon incidentally Archaeologists have dug it out and discovered it there with those steps that go down to the actual water level but now it was that Abner was fleeing back to Mahaneim and One young man locks himself onto Abner's heels and he was fleet of foot Asahel And you remember what happens now Abner is running along and what has he got? He's got of course the accoutrement of the king He has got his spear and he will not let his spear go Well, I must have been quite tricky for him to have been running with his spear But running with his spear he is and Asahel who is fleet of foot and a younger man is forever drawing closer And and a conversation ensues as they run back in which Abner says to him Don't go and choose somebody a bit younger. Will you you know pick on somebody your own size? Why should I get into trouble by killing you and Asahel just will not let him go until at last why? What? Before you can see it the haft of the spear has been driven back and the record says that it strikes Asahel under the fifth rib and there he lies dying with The spear the sharp end outward and the blunt end inward with the spear which has Penetrated him and of course along comes Joab and finds his young brother dead or dying And yet David was pursuing a policy in Hebron Which was itself a city of refuge in which he was hoping that he might come to an accommodation with Abner And Whilst job has been away on one occasion David and Abner meet and Abner is willing to bring together the two factions and to unite the kingdom in one and When Joab returns they say to him David's been meeting Abner, you know and job says call him back and When Abner returns unknown to David Job and Abner meets together and the record says that as job went to embrace him Abner failed to see the knife that was in Joab's hand. And where do you think it went? The record says Under the fifth rib. There was eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth blow for a blow What Asahel had received so now Joab delivers and Abner receives and The important part that comes out of that particular episode is not the episode in itself Black-hearted though it was for there was an offer of Reconciliation there was a prospect of the peace process Uniting the two groups together without bloodshed, but it is now what David does as a response Remarkably he laments but does nothing David in fact laments in a in a fairly Significant way in the sense that well pick up the record in 2 Samuel chapter 3 Look at verse 31 David said to Joab and to all the people that were with him Rend your clothes and gird you with sacroth and mourn before Abner and King David himself followed the beer They buried Abner in Hebron and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner and all the people wept The king lamented over Abner and said died Abner as a fool dieth Thy hands were not bound nor thy feet put in fetters as a man falleth before wicked men So fellest thou and all the people wept. Oh wept again over him and and yet you see verse 39 I Am this day weak though anointed King These men the sons of Zeruiah be too hard for me The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness Do you notice the sequence of what's happening here? This man who has learned passivity is passive at a time when he should have been active Well, he does do one active thing Look what he says there at verse 28 When David heard it He said I and my kingdom are guiltless before the Lord forever from the blood of Abner the son of Ner Let it rest on the head of Joab and on all his father's house and let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue or that is a leper or that leaneth on a staff or That falleth on the sword or that lacketh bread. He curses job in very forthright terms, but he does nothing You see that aspect of David's life goes to show that our preparation is never complete He had learned one aspect of the warriors armor He had learned the fact that you have to wait on God and have to be utterly Dependent on the way that God will work things out and the course of Providence as it unfolds before us But David's life from here on also now demonstrate That you need to do things yourself Which are the right things that need to be done because if you don't intervene and take action When action is clearly needed and and here was job, of course clearly in breach of the law Job had killed a man in a Levitical city of refuge Which he was not entitled to do if David had taken action now think what he would have spared himself From the sorrows that were to come Sorrows that were to come which Joab would play an important part in So when you say to yourself, why didn't David take action? Well, of course, there are two answers He didn't take action because first of all Job was family you remember Joab was Related to David through Zerui or his sister. He was his nephew And so David didn't take action because he was in the family and Furthermore job had stayed with him through the wilderness deprivation. They had suffered together They had shared together. There was that bond that unity But didn't stop David breaking the bond or the unity in other cases with people who had been equally affiliated with him So it was a combination of things. It was a combination of personal feeling and family loyalty Those are the hardest issues we to confront aren't they it's ever so difficult We see things so clearly in a an abstract situation and then something happens within the family We can't see it at all because well There are so many other complex layers that exist between our thinking and our doing and so David's Inadequacy in this respect when he might have saved himself so much harm is in fact our own inadequacy, too And two things now happen when they come at last At the end of the collapsed ish Bosheth kingdom and Abner's death when they come at last to make him king in Jerusalem two aspects occur and it's intriguing that in the Chronicles record you get those two things united together First of all, there's an account of David's anointing in Jerusalem when all tribes come together when they go from Hebron to Jerusalem You remember the circumstances then when the Jebusites who had held that little Refuge there in the midst of Israel say to them ha ha even the lame or the blind could keep this place secure This is Jerusalem three thousand years ago. Remember when David comes at last to the little citadel and when he says Whoever it is who can penetrate up the water course Doubtless you see they had realized a long time back because water would have been of the very essence of their survival in the wilderness They doubtless recognized that there was a spring the spring of Gaihon And perhaps they'd been able to penetrate the way that it had been blocked from the outside No doubt they kept it concealed with bushes or cover of some sort But but no doubt they've been able to get access to that watering place in the past and and they must have realized that there was a way up Whoever he says can get up the water course. He'll be my commander-in-chief That was Joab's job So that was competition for Joab's job that was declared on the basis. He'd done nothing He'd taken no action, but suddenly he puts Joab's job on the line And who do you think it is who climbs up the water course? Of course, it's Joab He's not going to let anybody else take over from him So Joab who mighty man as he was of course and very able Commander and warrior is able to penetrate up the water course and so the Jebusites are ousted And the city is taken an ideal placement as you know full well on the very border between Judah and Benjamin the very place where the the ancient alliance with Saul of Benjamin and the Judaites The very place where it can be brought together and healed and where there can be security and solace That's the very place that David now takes and makes his capital so the king who comes Establishes a political center in the very midst of his people But the other account in the Chronicles record in fact says that no sooner had they Anointed David King in Hebron that he summoned all the people together And they now proceeded to go in pursuit of the ark The ark that was at Kerjath-Girin the city of the forest the city of the woods David had long Anticipated and hoped for a time when the ark would be brought back into the center of Israel and it's a fascinating record So the Harry Whittaker's book Samuel Saul and David well it's there that brother Harry brings together the Catalog of the people who in fact now are Associated in the procession there are the high priests a biathlon Zadok. There are the six groups of Levites 862 of them in all three leaders of the service He man Asaph and Ethan the the choir leaders the men of the Mishnah the scribes The Maidens choir the Alamo the men's choir the Shemini Kaniah who is the choir master of the ark keeper two doorkeepers of the ark seven priests with trumpet the ark itself two doorkeepers and Who should come then? clad in a linen ephod and Who was the priest And so you have the very pattern of a religious procession of the ark of the Lord of hosts Progresses into Jerusalem to be in the midst of God's people you have the very pattern of the king priest Melchizedek who goes himself now with the procession Sacrificing as he went and the record emphatic and clear that David was himself offering the sacrifices Who when he gets to Jerusalem Blesses the people in the name of the Lord Douglas issuing the high priestly blessing who feeds them bread and wine or bread and raisin cakes depending on your version and your translation who therefore ministers to them and who Satisfies their need the very pattern of the man who then goes and sits in the very presence of the king and Receives the Davidic Covenant you remember that detail in to Samuel chapter 7 where David Sits down in the presence of the ark of the Lord and that's Psalm 110 The Lord said to my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool So you see the build-up then and the way in which all these things draw us forward Towards that time when our king comes to Jerusalem I suppose there is a sense now in which we are at the Hebron stage in which we are being prepared as a people who are Purposing to go towards Jerusalem who are setting our faces towards Jerusalem we're looking for that political entity that is to be established and who are looking for the coming of the ark of the Lord and One other detail that's that makes it so clear that this was the culmination of David's purpose and As it were the very end of his pilgrimage is that not only was he sacrificing not only was he? exercising a Melchizedek priest like role, but he was also purposefully praying and Later was to write his prayers as Psalms You see there's a whole catalogue of Psalms that David was writing as he proceeded towards Jerusalem We'll just look at one of them as our very last study for the morning, and it's Psalm 24 And it makes us remember then that all these things draw and attract us towards the place of the presence of the king And what does David say there in Psalm 24 who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord verse 3 and who shall stand? in his holy place He that hath clean hands and a pure heart Who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully? he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and Righteousness from the God of his salvation see God is preparing us in the same way Bringing us through the wilderness the wilderness pilgrimage Making us people who are waiting upon him Encouraging us to be active in the things that need action Saying to us that they the reward will be for those who are in the front line and the ones who stay with the baggage all the time urging us on to follow the model of the man who has gone before and Then he is saying to us lift up your heads Oh ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in Who is this king of glory the Lord? Strong and mighty the Lord mighty in battle lift up your heads Oh ye gates and lift them up ye everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in Who is this king of glory? The record says the Lord of hosts The Lord the deliverer the Redeemer who is manifest in a multitude of his people the Lord of hosts He is the king of glory May it be that by God's grace and in his mercy each one of us might be Associated in that host of the redeemed when at last the king comes to Jerusalem

Transcript

And I can think of a couple straight away. We were in New Zealand during the turn of the year for the New Zealand Bible School. And we were traveling down late one night with the brother and sister who were organizing the school. And all but almost all the restaurants were closed except for a Kentucky's fried chicken place. And they were running one of these offers where you could have a family meal. If I'll do the same thing here, I expect the New Zealanders are copying your own marketing style. And you could have a block of ice cream as well. All in the price and very reasonable it was. And so we got this block of ice cream. And then we said, do you have a knife that we could cut the block of ice cream with? Because it was quite a substantial block and it was rock solid. And they said, no, we don't have any knives in a Kentucky fried chicken shop for security reasons. And so we had to try slicing through a block of ice cream with the end of a spoon. I tell you, it takes a bit of doing. Then there was another occasion when we were in this pizza hut. You know how it is with a pizza hut? You know much more about pizza huts than me, I'm sure. They come from you after all. And you have to place your order for a pizza, don't you? And they come around and say, do you want anything to drink while you're waiting? Do you have your coffee now and this sort of thing? And then there's quite a long wait. And you sit there. And of course, you don't know anybody in the restaurant. And you're sitting at your table and they're at theirs. So what do you do? You listen into their conversation. And they try to listen into yours. And there were these three chaps sitting alongside us. And they were talking about an incident that occurred. I don't know whether they knew one another or not. It transpired. Perhaps they didn't. But one was chatting to the other friend of his about an occasion where they had fancied doing a bit of off-roading. Or a friend of his had fancied doing some. And yet, he didn't want to take his own four-wheeled vehicle on the particular track. I suppose it was a bit dirty, or it was a bit dangerous or something. So they had borrowed somebody else's car. Well, taken it, really, from a chap who lived down the road who They knew he was away looking at his wife in hospital or something after that fashion. We picked up details of it. And they said that after they'd been around this particular track, so that there wouldn't be any question of them being found liable, they tipped it over the cliff and let it roll down so that any forensic marks would be removed. And this chap suddenly pushed his chair back. And of course, a hush fell over the restaurant. And he said, that was my car. Now, do you know what I've just done to you? Do you realize what I've just sought to do, at least? That was my car. Four words, thou art the man. See, if I'd have told you a story about a trip where a man had come and had taken a lamb, you'd have said, ah, I see where he's going. But did I really get behind your defenses? Forgive me. I know you won't believe a word I say now for the rest of the session. But you see, it was something like that impact when Nathan the prophet came to see David. He told him a story. David, who had doubtless been there all shutted up, all barricaded. You would never have got a thought past David. Suddenly lowered his defenses. He thought, oh, it's an after dinner story. And I've just eaten, so I'm ready. And there was the story told about a man who had plenty. He had sheep enough. And when a guest called, he didn't fancy taking one of his sheep, but there was a Ulam, a poor man's only Ulam. And so they took that and slaughtered it. And you can see David's hackles rising, can't you? Even after all these generations. And he says, the man that has done this thing and has shown no pity, he was quick to pass sentence upon himself. You see, when we come to the breaking of bread and there we examine ourselves, if only we could stand back and look at the events of the preceding week. If only in our prayers, when we come before God day by day, night by night, review our life. If we could only see things from God's point of view. If we could only pass sentence upon ourselves. Remember the statement there in the breaking of bread context, that he that judges himself shall not be judged. That's what we're being asked to do, isn't it? To pass sentence upon ourselves. If you come to the 2 Samuel chapter 12 record, you will see there that Nathan has got David to do just that very thing. Verse four of 2 Samuel chapter 12. And there came a traveler unto the rich man and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him, but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was to come to him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die. And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David, thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. I anointed thee king over Israel and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul. And I gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and has taken his wife to be thy wife and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. And so the sentence was being passed and it looked to be a hopeless situation. What a tragedy it all was. David had been doing so well, hadn't he? He had been proceeding so carefully. The preparation had been so thorough. He'd come through his experience as an outlaw. He had come to become king at Hebron and here at 37 years of age, a man who was full grown. He had come to be king at Jerusalem. From there he had fought the battles of the Lord and he had triumphed. The kingdom had extended. The ark had been settled. The promises had been made. The covenant was secure. And there is the eternal test. Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. And now in all David's down periods in his life, he'd had a share of ups and downs. Well, David was probably more down now than he had ever been before. Of course, he was a high with Goliath. And he was a high, although you would have had a job to have seen it at the time when in the wilderness he had been so close to God. The Psalms had been so full and flowing. Hebron had been another step on the upward ladder. Jerusalem, well, that was the place that God had prepared for his own habitation. Long God had waited for it and then at last a king had come to Jerusalem and set his face to come there. And at last the ark had entered Jerusalem and there was the political and the spiritual center brought in one. There was the prefiguring of the time when the Messiah, the meeting place between God and man, would come into the city of God's choosing. And now it had all gone wrong. And David, of course, was a man of mature years when all this happened. And you would have thought that he had lost it all. Indeed, it's worth noting what his sentence is upon himself. Look again at verse 6 at 2 Samuel 12. You see David's self-loathing. Well, it wasn't self-loathing. It was a sentence that he thought was just and right. As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die, the revised version says, is worthy to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. And you can understand, I suspect, why that sentence was in David's assessment the right sentence. And now when you unfold the parable, when you look at what had actually happened, at the act of adultery that had been committed, at the murder that had taken place, and Nathan clearly, on God's behalf, judged this as David having killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and had taken his wife to be his wife. So there was the clear sentence of death. According to the law, David was now a man appointed to death. That was what the law prescribed. There was no doubt about it. Come back and have a look at Deuteronomy chapter 22. We're about, of course, to see divine grace in action, but first let's see what the law required. Deuteronomy 22, and there, verse 22. If a man be found lying with a woman, married to a husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with a woman and the woman, so shalt thou put away evil from Israel. If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto a husband, and the man find her in the city and lie with her, then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die, the damsel because she cried not being in the city, and the man because he hath humbled his neighbor's wife, so shalt thou put away evil from among you. But if the man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her and lie with her, then the man only that lay with her shall die, because in that instance, although she could have cried out, there was nobody to hear her. So the law was perfectly carefully devised. The legislation left you in no doubt. This had all happened in the midst of Jerusalem. David from his palace had perceived the woman. He had called for her. He had taken her into the palace. Surely there were courtiers and servants around. She could have cried out. She had not cried out, or maybe if she had, then her cries had not been heard, and now he at least, some doubt, some uncertainty about her, and Bathsheba of course is never pointed out as being one who was in the wrong. The fault is always pointed towards David, but undoubtedly David was now to be stoned with stones that he should die. You can tell that that was understood to have been the proper prescription from the fact that Shimei of Benjamite made the point often enough. You remember when David was leaving and Shimei was throwing stones, and I think it was Joab, wasn't it, who said, just a blow, I can separate his head from the shoulders. Just the word, O King. And David's answer was, maybe it is from the Lord. You see, he was stoning him with stones. True, not with such stones, which would be dropped upon a man so as to effect his immediate death. But nonetheless, Shimei was making the point all right. He was making the point that the man who was leaving Jerusalem was a man upon whom the Deuteronomy 22, sentence should have fallen. But in fact, the sentence that God passed was of a different ilk. Come back to the 2 Samuel 12 record. Now notice what it is that Nathan actually says. We've moved from law to grace now. We've moved from what the letter of the law said to what Nathan now passes sentence to effect. 2 Samuel 12 and verse 10. Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from thine house, because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor. He shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this son. For thou didst it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. So David's sentence upon himself and Nathan's sentence were in fact of a different order. Again, you begin, of course, to see the hand of God's mercy and his grace reaching out to save and once again to lift David up, David the son of Jesse, whom God was to raise up. Now it would be to raise him up through repentance and to forgiveness. But nonetheless, what David had passed upon himself, the fourfold restitution, was interestingly enough the two come to pass. They were the consequences of the act that had been committed. And the judgment that God would raise up that would come through the family, well, those things too would be only too apparent. And David's response there is, I have sinned against the Lord and you might say to yourself, well, it must have been quite a long time before the second part of verse 13 came to pass. And Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. You would have thought, wouldn't you, that God would have now left David to stew in his own mess. He would not have intervened. He would have accepted the expression of repentance, but he would not have really acted upon it. So no doubt sometimes there is that gap, isn't there? There's a gap, for example, in Isaiah 61 where all of a sudden you get the day of vengeance of the Lord, which is still awaited after a long period of time. Well, maybe there's a gap here too. Maybe David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord and days, weeks, months later, Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. But in fact, if you read on a little bit, you can see that it was instantaneous. Quite remarkable, this. The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die, and Nathan departed unto his house. What might seem on the face of it to be an irrelevant little detail there about Nathan's movements turns out to be quite vital. There and then God accepted David's repentance and God forgave him. Now, I suspect that that tells us a great deal about the nature of our own repentance because David now had done it and had received forgiveness. So on the face of it, you would say repentance is of all things the easiest. All you've got to do is say sorry, God, and God will say, okay, son, and things will be restored again as though it had never happened. But the reality is that David's repentance that God accepted was now something that he continued to brood upon. His repentance grew and enlarged and found expression. When you think of our own situation, for we too fall, we too go to those low depths more often than we would wish to. And when we come contritely to God and confess our sins, and God in his mercy accepts our confession and restores us, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, says the Apostle John, remember, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And he assures us therefore that we have only to repent before God's fatherly arm is waiting to stretch and reach and embrace and bring us back to. Nonetheless, you see, our expression of repentance is something that will enlarge and develop the more we think about that situation. Just imagine how David must have reflected on the events that had led up to that unhappy time. No doubt he would have drawn many a lesson about that entanglement that had then occurred. You remember it was a time when kings went out to battle and he had stayed at home. And that was the very beginnings of it, of course, that he had retired from active service. And as such, well, he had thought to retire from the truth and there was no such retiring. He had relaxed in the cool of that particular evening when he looked out over the rooftops. I remember a brother saying once that whenever he looked over the rooftops, all he ever saw were television aerials. I suppose nowadays he would say satellite dishes. But you see, David saw and was in a situation where he could take what he saw. And so he let his eyes, which are never satisfied, he let his eyes wander. And the man who had so much thought there was something else too. He was drawn away of his own lust. And lust, when it is full grown, brings forth death. And indeed, in that very instance, James chapter 1 and verse 13 might have been thinking of the very process, the very act which had occurred at that moment of such fertility, which had led to that which was growing. When it was full grown, well, it had led to death. In this instance, the death of the child that had been born. And David, of course, just look at his position. Review and consider where he was. He was a man of something like 50 years old, my age. I was 50 last July. So he was a man of mature years who should have known better. He was a father of many sons. He was God's appointed king over Israel. He was the moral leader of the nations. This was the man who had proceeded as the king-priest. He was the one after the order of Melchizedek in prospect, who had blessed, who had fed, who had sat, who had received. Now he had seen and he had taken. And, of course, Uriah was a mighty man himself and a convert. I wonder if you noticed back in the 1 Samuel chapter 11 incident how there was a very faithful friend there. Sorry, 2 Samuel 11. And there at verse 2, It came to pass in an evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman. Do you see the verbs there? Tarried, arose, walked, saw, sent, inquired. And one said, now whoever that one was, whether it was a courtier, whether it was perhaps Gad, whoever it might have been, one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David appears to brush that aside and sent messengers, took her, she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness. By which, of course, we understand that she was very fertile at that particular point. And yet there's an element of irony and sarcasm in there, isn't there? As though she were pure to do an impure act. But what about the person who had tried to stop the occasion? See, take our own situation. We often find ourselves as ecclesias and individuals in the business of trying to make something of the mess, don't we? Of trying to put right things that have gone wrong. And a very agonizing and miserable business it is, too, trying to get things back as they ought to be. But you see, the individual in question was acting proactively because the one, whoever the unnamed one was, in fact, tries to head off the difficulty. How many times have we seen difficulties like this? And often they are marital or strong-feeling difficulties that arise. How many times have we seen those occasions beginning and actually have said, well, I hope they sort themselves out, otherwise it'll be awkward for us, and not actually intervened? Whereas here the very indication is of that one who speaks, that he or she is trying to head off the problem. And actually what's being pointed out is very poignant. Just consider what is being told, David, about Bathsheba and the three men in her life. First of all, the messenger is saying that this Bathsheba is the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. And who was Eliam's father? Well, come have a look in 2 Samuel chapter 23. Just check out Bathsheba's antecedents. And in 2 Samuel chapter 23, and there at verse 34, we know now her father was Eliam. This is a list of David's mighty men, the people who were with him in the wilderness, the people who were his bodyguard, not his very closest bodyguard, but his next, his armored division, so to speak. And there at verse 34, Eliphileth the son of Ahashbiah, the son of the Mearchathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Galenite. So you see the person who signaled the message is saying, I hope you realize who Bathsheba's grandfather is. Her grandfather is Ahithophel, your chancellor of the Exchequer, your secretary of state. That's the nature of the advice that's being given. Because Ahithophel the Galenite was David's wisest counselor. And of course that explains, therefore, why it was that at a later stage Ahithophel might not feel quite as loyal towards David as he had done before. And what about Eliam? Well, look what we've just read with regard to Eliam's situation. Eliam, here in 2 Samuel chapter 23, is listed as one of David's mighty men. Verse 23 there, he was more honorable than the thirty, but he attained not to the first three. David set him over his guard. And then there's the list of the people who do comprise David's thirty, who were among his mighty men. So in fact, Bathsheba's father was one of David's mighty men, and at that very time they were fighting against the Ammonites in Rabah. So David was now being told that be very careful with this woman. Her grandfather is your wisest counselor, her father is one of your mighty men, and her husband, well, look at verse 39, still in 2 Samuel 23, Uriah the Hittite, thirty and seven in all, of all these thirty-seven who are listed. In fact, Uriah was one of those mighty men himself, and he was a Hittite. He was a man, in fact, who had left his own nation, who had thrown in his fealty and his loyalty with David and the God of Israel. And of course, he was the husband of Bathsheba. So on the entire basis of what David was being told, he was being warned off in really very powerful and poignant terms. He was told to have nothing to do with this woman. And sad to say, his passion got the better of him, and the act was committed, and then the cover-up began. And first of all, of course, it was a cover-up of a reasonably innocent nature. Well, call me, Uriah the Hittite. Uriah, how are things going on the battlefield? Fine, glad to hear it. Go home and have a rest with your wife. Oh, well, let's try it a second time then. Uriah, yes, have another glass, Uriah. Have another bottle, have another flagon, Uriah. Now go home to your wife. And staggering out of the palace, this faithful man went no farther than the guardhouse and stayed there. And so at last it was told David, but sad to say he wouldn't see sense, because the Ark of God and the army of Israel were still under canvas, and why should he go and enjoy his wife? And so necessarily as far as David was concerned, he took back his own death warrant, and David in so doing delivered himself to the power of Joab. Well, we know all those things well, don't we? He was to be blackmailed now for the rest of his life. So David had committed an act of sin and had compounded that act, had sought to disguise it and cover his traces, and had now, well, in Nathan's terms, slain Uriah, that faithful man, with the sword of the children of Ammon. He was personally regarded as responsible. And you might say to yourself, well, how could God simply say then? Well, I forgive you these things. The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die, without as it were contravening the very basis of his own law. And of course inevitably this brings in a 20th century context our own situation when the law of God says perfectly clearly, you shall not do a particular course of action. And often of course there are marital difficulties with which we have to wrestle. And of course we try to put up clear guidelines and establish lines of demarcation and say beyond that you shall not go. And the law had precisely those blocks in place. It said as clear as day, there was no going beyond them, else the punishment was death. And now seemingly those blocks are being put aside and the way is being made more broad. Well, come and have a look at David's contrite repentance, first in Psalm 51. Look what David says there when he's mulling and meditating upon these very things. A Psalm of David says the headnote, when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone to Bathsheba. And this is now the very essence of David's repentance. So I suspect that this is the real issue in our own ecclesial controversies and difficulties. The real issue is the question of repentance and God's response to our inadequacies and failures. So David comes to God and these are his words of contrition. Have mercy, Chesed, have covenant love upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. You can see there are three different words that he uses to describe his conduct. He describes them variously as transgressions and iniquity and sin. They were acts, they were attitudes, and they were deeds that he had committed. It was a state of being that he recognizes as having impelled him towards that particular course of action. And there at verse four he says, Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. And I think it a remarkable thing, and doubtless you do too, that the second part of verse four is a verse that the apostle Paul quotes in Romans chapter three and verse four, when he is dealing with our own repentance and God's response to our repentance in forgiveness. Paul uses it in Romans three to say that God is not able to forgive us our sin unless we confess. Paul uses it in Romans three to say that God is not able to forgive us our sin unless we confess. But when we do confess our sin, then it is possible for God to be justified and to be clear when he judges. So that David was making a contrite confession of sins, this was an earnest repentance, and because of the confession that was made, God was able to deal with him in a rather different way. God accepted the confession, but of course the consequences were still there waiting to work their way through. Now, we're reading of course a psalm, and as such a psalm that would have been a hymn in early Israel. So we are not thinking about something that was muttered somewhere secretly behind David's hand in which he said in an innermost or secret closet, sorry God, I should never have done it. I'm a real drop out, I'm a lay about, I'm hopeless spiritual. It isn't that sort of confession that we're dealing with. We are dealing with a public confession that was not only made by David, but then was sung and resung within the congregation of Israel. Just imagine that this man, the very spiritual pinnacle of the people, was going to be sitting or standing by the tabernacle, or indeed outside the tent of meeting with the ark in Jerusalem, and was going to hear the choir singing these very words, that his very expression of repentance became their expression too. You see the sense in which this was a public shame that he was declaring and recording. And the same is true of course of that parallel psalm, Psalm 32, and again there's an intriguing detail here. Look how Psalm 32 begins with the words that the Apostle Paul quotes in Romans chapter 4. And Paul of course is talking not about David's repentance and forgiveness, but about our own situation, our own spiritual needs, when we having broken the law of God and accepting and recognizing that breach, come then to God in earnest repentance. And when God accepts our confession too, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. And what is it that the Apostle says? The blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness, apart from works. Now I know Paul's argument there in Romans 4 is that it is not works, but faith that saves us. But notice the works to which he is referring. The works that David had committed were works that condemned him to eternal death. And now God is able to accept and to deal with this man on the basis of the confession that had been made and the forgiveness that was issued and gives a blessing to a man whose transgression was forgiven and whose sin was not to be counted because in his spirit there was no guile. Of course, that's partly our problem, isn't it, in the process of our confession. We are such complex and complicated beings. Do we really mean it when we confess our sins? If we did, would we do it again? Those are the very things that rack us and worry us. But you see, here was David, a man who was refined and purified through adversity, who saw as clear as day now the collapse of his own life and of his own lifestyle, and who coming with earnest confession pours himself out before God. And the wonder of the grace of God, and I think we should never forget the marvel of God's gracious kindliness here, is not only that God accepts him, not only that God says he would put away his sin, not only that God allows the union to continue, although you would have thought David had a harem large enough anyway and that Bathsheba should be put away, but also that God accepts of this union the child who was to succeed, to sit upon the throne of the Lord over Israel. In other words, Solomon was to be the very son who came out of this union with all its disharmony and all its wrongdoing. So there were remarkable things happening then when God said he had forgiven David and he had put away his sin but the consequences. That's the rub, isn't it? But perfectly properly, we accepted and recognized at an earlier stage that the consequences that we commit for ourselves by the course of conduct, the Ziklag experience in our life, is liable to lead to a Philistine outcome too. Now the problems of David's own entanglements left him in a muddled and confused situation. The child was destined to die, the marriage was accepted, the son that was born was regarded as Jedidiah, the beloved of the Lord, and as such the union was to proceed but the family. And just think how David had now compromised his own situation in the light of what was to come. Take Amnon, for example, when he loved Tamar and could think of nothing else but her and was obsessed by her, whatever he was told and the council was not always good. He at last took her, forced her, lay with her and hated her, all in one continuum of feeling. And David did nothing. Well, it's understandable why David did nothing, because Amnon had done what David had done too. And then, of course, with Absalom, when he decided that something needed to be done, Absalom, of course, Tamar's brother, and waiting the time when opportunity would come and at last seizing the opportunity, calling a feast, inviting the king, making it look as though everybody would be welcome to the sheep shearing, and then quietly and carefully and calculatedly seeing Amnon's death and David did nothing. Because, you see, the sins of the fathers were being visited upon the children and the consequences were working their way through. And then when, after a long period of time, David mourned for Absalom as though he were dead and then ignored him when he'd come back to the city, eventually restored him but had no reconciliation until at last Absalom duped David and ousted him by springing that coup attack. And David did nothing. You can see, can't you, that the real problem was that he had delivered himself to blood guiltiness. That was the real difficulty. It was, in the end, the guilt of his sin that weighed him down. God had forgiven him and had taken away the sin, but the reality was that he was morally impotent from this time onward. He didn't feel able to pass sentence upon Tamar because, well, he had done the same. He was the bad example. He couldn't really take action as far as Amnon's death was concerned because he'd killed Uriah. And he just didn't know how to deal with Absalom. But there's a quite remarkable happening when at last it comes the time for Absalom to spring his trap. All this, of course, was taking time. Just think for a moment of the actual time periods that were elapsing whilst all this was taking place. The record is very careful with the time pointers, just as we'd seen before. It came to pass after two full years that Absalom had sheep shears in Baal Hazor, which is beside Ephraim, and Absalom invited all the king's sons. David was apprehensive. You can come too. Fair enough. Well, we'll let the sons go. Two full years. So Absalom fled and went to Geisha. He was, remember, the daughter of Geisha's son, through David, of course, and was there three years. So altogether five years have elapsed, and still the confusion and the muddle and the waiting continues. Restored to Jerusalem, Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem and saw not the king's face. And it came to pass after four years, the record says 40, but the textual variant appears to be four. It came to pass after four years that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the Lord in Hebron. And there, of course, in Hebron, the place where David had established himself, the ancient city of refuge, the coup was to be planned. And altogether, you see, 11 years had passed. David would be about 61 by now. He was a man who was getting on in years. And suddenly when the trap was sprung, and you remember what was to happen, Absalom was to move from Hebron to Jerusalem, and David was to retreat now with his mighty men. And they were to go to Mahanein, back to the place where Abner and Ish-Boshath had fortified themselves, and in a place where it turned out to be a pretty good place of refuge. Indeed, it would seem Absalom swept by and picked up probably some recruits that had come from the king of Geisha who would join in the army, and the army would be fought in the forest. It's that little picture there for a moment that we need to concentrate our minds upon. The time when David was about to leave Jerusalem, when he was being ousted from the capital, and when there was that alignment of people. Do you remember the details there which were given in the record about who it was who came on whose side? Because there on Absalom's side, and right at the top of the list of Absalom's supporters, was Ahithophel, the father of Eliab, the grandfather of Bathsheba. You see how the mills of God grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small. And now it was that Ahithophel moved across, abandoned David, and went instead with the younger man, and doubtless with the prospects that he anticipated. And there was Shimei, I remember, waiting for this opportunity, waited 11 years for it, but the stones were there, and across the ravine they came. And David was reminded as he went that indeed he was the man upon whom the sentence should have come. And as he leaves, he leaves his wives behind. The record's quite careful about that. He leaves his wives behind. Come back and have a look at the record in 2 Samuel 15. 2 Samuel chapter 15, and David leaving Jerusalem, and off into exile, and crisis and calamity, looming ever larger in his life. Verse 13. There came a messenger to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom. And David said unto all his servants that were with him at Jerusalem, Arise! Let us flee, for we shall not else escape from Absalom. Make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly, and bring evil upon us, and smite the city with the edge of the sword. And the king's servant said unto the king, Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint. And the king went forth, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, which were concubines, to keep the house. And the king went forth, and all the people after him, and tarried in a place that was far off, and all his servants passed on beside him. And all the kerethites, and all the pelethites, and all the gitites, six hundred men, which came after him from Gath, passed on before the king. And the king said to Iti, I the gitite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? Return to thy place, and abide with the king. For thou art a stranger, and also an exile, whereas thou camest but yesterday. Should I this day make thee go up and down with us, seeing I go whither I may return thou, and take back thy brethren, mercy and truth be with thee. And you see, these are the people then, who show themselves now to be those who come on David's side. And there were the six hundred, like the old battalion that had been with David in the wilderness. And David is off now into the wilderness, a king going into exile, and the people going with him too, who will return from exile across the east of the Jordan, remember, and will come once more to reclaim the city. And how wonderfully, how providentially now, the purpose of God works out, so that ultimately the battle is joined in the wood, and Absalom is slain, and Job it is, of course, who secures his death, and David mourns but pulls himself together, and returns at last into the city, and there the faithful are once more established. All that then, all those, the consequences of David's act of passion. And it makes you pause to think, doesn't it, about the folly of our own situation, the passions that flow so easily through our members, and the long-term consequences that are here so vividly portrayed, and the blemish that would rest upon the man. Indeed, it is the one thing that Scripture later focuses upon as being that which was an offense and a blemish in David's life. Everything else was seemingly overlooked by God. But if you observe the record, and it's quite careful in this respect, it quite clearly tells us in 1 Kings chapter 15 and verse 5 that that was something that God never forgot, that he always looked upon and regretted, because 1 Kings 15 and verse 5 says, David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. It's a pity that he couldn't live up to the standard of the man. They're given so that we can look at our own lives and, examining our own preparation, can contemplate the way in which we must keep our passions in check, that we should guard our eyes, that we should keep our lips, that we should watch our ears, that all the aspects in which we can so easily absorb the wrong influences and go the wrong way, that they all might be kept in check, so that we might not be displaced from the city, but that we might receive the blessings of the Lord. We need, I think, our very last thought to come then to the prevailing passion. That was a moment of passion and a very unfortunate one too, one that dragged David down. But there was a burning desire that followed him all his days. I bring you to Samuel chapter 7 and to the promise that God made to him concerning his house, his dynasty, his son, the eternal purpose, when at last he was promised that one would sit upon his throne forever, that a king would come who would build a temple and a dynasty and a house. And the detail comes in 2 Samuel chapter 7 and there at verse 18, when the record says that, You heard those words before? Well, they take you way back, don't they? To the time when this young man stood with the philistine's head dripping on the mat. To the time when he said, Who are you, young man? And I am, he said, the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite. They take you through the wilderness sojourn where he said, Who am I that you, O King, should come chasing after me? I'm the flea, remember? I'm the dead dog. I'm the partridge in the wilderness. And now he, the king, exalted. Well, the king who knew himself was to say, Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto? And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord God, but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God? Now, what does that mean there at the end of verse 19? And is this the manner of man? You know, it's capable of being translated, and the revised version offers this translation. And is this the law for mankind? In other words, that God who knew David and his potentiality and his possibility for pitfalls, that God is saying through David quite clearly that this covenant promise that would see a better than David, that would see great David's greatest son established in Jerusalem, this covenant promise, that and that alone, is the law for mankind. That it was through the eternal mercies, through the sure and steadfast love that David had for David and through David for us. It was through those things that God's purpose would surely prevail. That is the law of mankind. And so let's touch base with David right at his very dying days, 2 Samuel chapter 23, and there at the very last words that he was ever to have recorded. And now I want to bring you at last to the phrase that we saw, it must for you seem hours ago, when we began in Acts chapter 13 in Pasidian, Antioch, and heard that compressed statement of the man whom God had raised up. 2 Samuel 23, now, these be the last words of David. David, the champion. David, the Goliath slayer. David, the man prepared in the wilderness. David, the ruler over kings. David, the king supreme. No, not a bit of it. David, the son of Jesse said. And the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, The spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, The rock of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds. And you can see, David, can't you, looking down the centuries of time and seeing the brilliance of the light shining from the king of glory and seeing that there would be no blot, no blemish, no cloud to darken the day of that sun rising, even a morning without clouds as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. Although my house be not so with God, there he was, he recognized his own failings, his own falling. Although my house be not so with God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure. For this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. There, brothers and sisters and young people, is the prevailing passion. There's the ruling motive that ought to drive our lives. Of course, we will be occasionally allured. That's in our nature. And yes, we will often fall. And it's in the goodness of God that he will raise us and respond to us in our contrite confession. But you see, that must be the commanding passion. This is all my salvation. The coming of the King and the morning without clouds and all my desire, and may it be in God's mercy and in his love, that we who are being fashioned after the measure of the man whom we have considered, might also be becoming men and women after God's own heart, so that with that passion and that desire, we too might be privileged to meet the King, Great David's greater Son, in all his glory.

Transcript

Good morning everyone, good to hear you in good voice, haven't been exhausted by yesterday. If we were plotting the life of David, as for example a salesman might plot how the company was doing on the up and the down, I suppose we would be bound to say at this stage well he was on the downhill track, he had passed the best years of his life and those had been hard years but at last he had come to Hebron and from Hebron to Jerusalem and the kingdom had expanded and enlarged and he had become more secure in his situation but trouble had started in the family and from the family it had spread out into the kingdom. Now that's often the case in our own lives too isn't it, that's where we've got to fight the battles of the Lord in the family circle and when things are right there then the chances are that prosperity and blessing spread and enlarge. Yet in all this David in fact wasn't going downhill he was going uphill. You remember we we fleetingly looked those of us who were here yesterday at his very last words in 2 Samuel 23 and what was it he was looking for this is all my salvation and all my desire though he make it not to grow. He was kingdom focused and so inevitably what you see as you are watching David in this second part of his life is a man who was being made perfect through suffering. He was being made perfect through suffering that was the very essence of his experience. So the downhill road was in fact an uphill climb in spiritual terms. He was as it were treading out the path that a greater than he would later walk. Just take for example that little instance when he crosses the brook Kidron and as he crosses the brook Kidron weeping as he went barefoot as he goes can't you see there that the shadow of another procession that it in a later age would go down that road a little group of people leaving the city weeping as they went. And they would stop on the outermost fringes of the city and there the greater would weep as it were great drops of blood and in that process to perfection the Lord Jesus would be fulfilling all that David had anticipated. You can see then that when David was brought into affliction when his troubles have come upon him what he was inclined to do was what he had done in the past. He had had years of comfort and ease. David for example who had quietly rested and when kings went out to battle he tarried in the city and in the years of ease he hadn't been particularly prolific. You find it difficult to associate Psalms that were written with times when he was resting on his leaves. Indeed the Psalms that you find and David of course was a prolific psalm writer come for example out of the episodes in the wilderness when he was in exile when he was desiring for God's fulfillment or and here's an intriguing aspect to our considerations when he was leaving Jerusalem going towards Mahaneim because Absalom had ousted him then what was he doing but praying Psalms as he went. You can see quite clearly I'm not making that up look at Psalm 3 for example at the very headnote of the psalm that little historical data there a psalm of David says Psalm 3 when he fled from Absalom his son. So you see as he was fleeing from Absalom Lord how are they increased that trouble me many are they that rise up against me many there be which say of my soul there is no help for him in God and so on and again notice how remarkably instructive that is for us when trouble comes we we're busy aren't we scheming and plotting and working as to how we can resolve that difficulty and David was doing some of that as well you can recall as they were leaving the city so he was in fact making arrangements a Hithafel remember had defected and had gone with Absalom a Hithafel who was Bathsheba's grandfather and a Hithafel who had been a wise counselor and David had had a tremendous danger and difficulty there with a Hithafel being at the head of Absalom's council and so what did he do well he arranged for Hushai the archite to go back to Jerusalem and to join Absalom's gang well it was difficult of course risky Absalom would say hey what are you doing here and he would have to sell himself and say well I'm coming to give good counsel and so there were two advisors now and there was instantly a difficulty so David was doing something but whilst he was doing it he was praying and again coming up look at Psalm 55 another of these Psalms that clearly belongs to the time when David was leaving the city and musing on all the unhappinesses you can see there for example in verse six of Psalm 55 he says and I said oh that I had wings like a dove for then would I fly away and be at rest though then would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness oh that he could just spread his wings and fly off he was saying but he was a long trudge now and a dangerous trudge he was going down across the Jordan and he was going off to Mahaneim where he'd be greeted by Barzelei the Gileadite and he'd have to settle down there Barzelei would mattresses remember and lentils and all sorts of things so in difficulty mattresses and lentils are what you need but in addition David was also again coming to God in prayer this is a prayer this Psalm and and look how it catches the echo of a later occurrence verse 12 for it was not an enemy that reproached me then I could have borne it neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me then I would have hid myself from him but it was thou a man mine equal my guide and mine acquaintance we took sweet counsel together and walked into the house of God in company let death seize upon them and let them go down quick into the pit or into hell for wickedness is in their dwellings and among them and and who's he referring to now well almost certainly he's referring to the one whom he elsewhere calls mine own familiar friend who lifted up his heel against me he's referring to a hither fell and he's praying that God will bring bad counsel upon a hither fell and can you can you hear the echo well of course you can he's only a shadow isn't he a hither fell of that other familiar friend who had shared bread with Lord Jesus Christ and when it came to it lifted up his heel against the one who was in truth about to bruise the head of sin so there's the prophetic pattern inevitably in all that was going on and in the middle of it all is a man of like passions such as we are and and we've thought about David as a passionate man we thought about him as a man whose heart was attuned to the things that were but in the reading that we took together by way of making a connection as it were between yesterday's study and today's consideration of of David's latter end we need to remember that in this whole episode concerned with the rebellion of amsalon here was a man who who showed love but it was love without control you know the story well don't you that he had said well we've just read it through joab be careful with the young lad for my sake whatever you do don't harm him and this was a war and there were 10 tribes coming against david and his few retainers and david had some mighty men on his side but they were relatively few in number and when at last the battle was drawn joab knew at once that absalam had got to be killed there was no hesitation when he was a rival and you know what joab did as far as rivals were concerned he always eliminated them and here was another opportunity for elimination so along came joab knowing what needed to be done and david you see he had love but it was love without control it's an interesting analysis isn't it to look that there are four greek words which speak of love and one of them is love within the family brotherly love and yet it was not that sort of love which was family love that our lord exemplified and encouraged when he says to us love one another our lord is saying that that love that needs to be exercised is love that always does what is right always does what is best it is love that is controlled by reason and for a moment you see when when the in opens and you you see that situation where david is there in maha name waiting for news of course there are many layers and aspects to the love that comes do you remember for example that there was ahimeas who was there where the battle had been fought and where the corpse was to be found and when joab sent kushi a good instance there incidentally of the prowess of colored races in athletics in all ages because joab picked now a colored man and sent him straight down towards the king and he went as quickly as could go and ahimeas said let me go too and joab said no no no we'll keep you for another day when the news is better and ahimeas said please let me go and when joab reckoned that kushi had got an adequate start he said okay you can go too and ahimeas cut around the back presumably although the distance was longer the actual terrain was easier because he came to maha name first and he was bearing the tidings of absolem's death and there was david all anxiety all family love that's what he was all love that was not controlled and ahimeas came and david says what of the young man and he says well there was a bit of a tumult there was something going on and you think to yourself well why didn't he tell the full truth then there's an interesting episode there just to taken aside for a moment you always have this dilemma don't you as to whether we should always deal in absolutes should we always tell absolute truth you know when when your sister wife appears and says well i bought it do you like it what do you say oh can't bear it look at that hat take it off what do you say yes it's very nice crossing your fingers or whatever it is you do while you say it you see ahimeas spoke a half truth but it was a half truth of kindliness because what he was trying to do was to cushion the blow so there was love for you and that was the race of love that that man had taken so he could say to david well i don't know what was going on but but you know it didn't look too and so david is cushioned when cushy comes and pow he says yes he said may all david's enemies by be like this young man good and truly dead and he was discharging his duty but he was doing it in a rather different way you see how rich these episodes are in significance for us we can all do the right thing can't we but sometimes there are nicer ways of doing it than others we can always speak the truth to one another but we can do it kindly and in love or we can do it in a straightforward and somewhat unfeeling fashion but but that was a diversion really because there you see is david waiting with this sort of uncontrolled love and when at last cushy brings the the news you remember david's heart rending response oh absolem my son my son would god that i had died for thee oh absolem my son my son and you can hear the silence falling upon the whole city and the people are tiptoeing around and when joab returns he says well i thought you lot would have welcomed us as victors because it's a great victory that we've accomplished in the wood and they say well it's the old man you know he he took it badly and joab goes there doesn't he he rattles the cage and he says look here look at the battle that has been fought look at the love that has been shown you look at the loyalty of these people who have given up all for you and so you see that whilst david was a man who exercised great love and in that way is a tremendous exhortation to us for the way that we should develop our passions to do the things that are right he also shows that that love must be controlled by the things that were right and of course control was what david had lost at this stage not of course that it was irrecoverable david was in phase of god's dealings with him when he was being punished for what he had done oh i know he'd been forgiven and that forgiveness had been absolute thou shalt not die thy sin is taken away but in truth there was a punishment to come as well look at sam 99 and an interesting little verse that israel's experience from long ago there at verse seven straight back into the exodus psalm 99 verse seven he spake unto them in the cloudy pillar they kept his testimonies and the ordinance that he gave them thou answerest them oh lord our god thou was a god that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions well it's an unusual sort of rendering though you punished their misdeeds that's what the new international version says you forgave them but you punished their misdeeds and the interesting aspect of how god now deals with david is that he does it in a gilbert and sullivan fashion you know if you're familiar at all with gilbert and sullivan that that one of the objects all sublime i will achieve in time is to make the punishment fit the crime the punishment fit the crime i can see some of you could actually burst into song if i gave you just a an inch of encouragement there but i'll i'll try and subdue you but but you see that is exactly now how god deals with david david had committed an offense against a family and it is now a family that brings difficulty and problems to him he had committed an act of sexual misconduct an act of sexual misconduct is committed by his son he had killed his son killed he had destroyed a mighty man and now his own son has risen to destroy him too there was that quid pro quo about god's dealings but for all that there were problems that were coming and there were problems that david would respond to and indeed that he would use as as rungs up the spiritual ladder because he would grow by them in this process of this process through persecution to perfection in all that those things had come god was not mocked whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also and david was reaping now the fruits of his own doings but in everything that happened and they happened pretty thick and fast there was always an answer there was always a solution to what difficulty had come take for example sheba's rebellion when sheba who was a beth who was a be an answer it took a little bit of doing and in the first instance david was a conciliator he in fact made amasa who had been epsilon's own commander in chief he made him his own leader of the force that went against sheba and unfortunately he tarried giving joab the opportunity to marshal his forces and to make his move and amasa never saw it he never saw the knife that was in joab's hand when he went to greet his brother but he felt it right under the fifth rib you see there it was there was an answer although it was a hard answer that had to be learned and even in the the working out of that answer you could see david trying to unite these factions trying to bring them together and all the time you could see joab there with his intent and his desire the man of the spirit against the man of the flesh that constant conflict that was going on even in that situation or for example that hard time a very difficult time it must have been when there were three years famine in israel to samuel 21 and when at last god said well there had never been an answer to the problem that soul had caused and now there was to be the death of souls remaining family and again it seems very hard to us but god required it and however we find difficulty understanding it the answer was when the judgments had been passed and and the deaths had occurred that there was a solution or take for example and we will focus on this more particularly take that instance when there was a pestilence in the land which was sweeping through and bringing great destruction come to two samuel chapter 24 and and to the setting of that particular scene it takes a little bit of working out exactly when it occurred although there is an interesting clue in the text to samuel 24 and the record says and again the anger of the lord was kindled against israel and he moved david against them to say go number israel and juda for the king said to joab the captain of the host which is with him go now through all the tribes of israel from dan even to be a sheba and number ye the people that i may know the number of the people and joab said you can't be serious because it's a very dangerous thing to have a census in any case and let's not do it now the outcome of david's persistence in that respect was that the judgments came from the lord and in the event david chose between an option a set of options he chose to fall into the hands of the lord god said to him well you can either have seven years of famine you can flee three months or verse 13 you can have three days pestilence which you want and david said let us fall into the hands of the lord for the his mercies are great let me not fall into the hand of men the hand of man so verse 15 says the lord sent a pestilence upon israel from the morning even to the time appointed and there died of the people from dan even to be a sheba 70 000 men now when was this particular occasion happening well it's sometimes suggested because this is really part of an appendix at the end of second samuel it sometimes suggested that this was when david had just got into jerusalem he was about to the philistines came straight against him and there were two major battles that were fought and then he fought against all the nations round about he extended and consolidated his kingdom there's a picture of course of the messiah who comes to jerusalem and is at war with all the nations round about and he defeats and destroys them and enlarges and expands his his kingdom that's psalm two in its original historic fulfillment i have set my king upon my holy hill of zion there it was the king in zion the enemies suddenly attacked so it suggested that this was the time when david in fact had the census he thought boy are we going to have some military campaigns here let's find out how many people we've got well in fact that isn't the time at all you can be quite sure that that is not the time indeed it's a good deal later in david's reign i say that because if you keep your finger in two in two samuel 24 but people cross if you would to one chronicles 21 there's an interesting little setting which gives you a little bit of incidental detail here it's the same episode but it's a little footnote to the same episode and at verse 28 of one chronicles 21 at that time when david saw that the lord had answered him in the threshing floor of orn and the jebusite then he sacrificed there so this is the same occasion when the arm of the angel of the lord is extended with the sword drawn in his hand and david says what do i do what do i do when he says buy me a threshing floor buy me a place of sacrifice build me an altar make me an offering so that's the very time when the lord had answered him in the threshing floor of orn and the jebusite and he sacrificed there and then look at the added detail for the tabernacle of the lord which moses made in the wilderness and the altar of the burnt offering were at that season in the high place at gibyan but david could not go before it to inquire of god for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the lord then david said this is the house of the lord god and this is the altar of the burnt offering for israel so you see quite clearly there that there's a little indication of what was happening that in fact there was a rupture that had occurred between the place where the ark had been and the tabernacle that was established and it reminds us then of what was really going on this is after the time when the ark had come back to jerusalem because the ark was to be set up upon the temple mount and presumably there was a tent in the first place before a house was built which solomon of course would undertake and in the meantime the tabernacle itself which was a tabernacle without an ark was in gibyan as the record says and still in gibyan whilst the ark now had fulfilled its journeys and had come to zion the tabernacle was to be found in gibyan and david was afraid to go and offer sacrifices there so it would look as though this is quite late on in david's life after the events with bathsheba so that he was still afraid of going to offer sacrifices at gibyan so that whilst he was worshipping and because he had access to the ark and had received the promises and such like he was meeting and worshipping in jerusalem he was not now going to gibyan interesting situation where there was a split site but but that is what happened during this particular period and we are about to move forward now in quite an important step the ark which has come to jerusalem is minus an altar and minus sacrifices and the whole of god's worship is dislocated it's in two different sites now bear in mind that there was that need and now i want you to notice that god affected an answer to that need by moving david against israel did you notice that in two samuel chapter 24 the anger of the lord was kindled against israel and he moved david against them to say go number israel and juda in other words it wasn't david who it wasn't david's fault wasn't david's responsibility for what occurred god moved david against israel and said go number israel and when joab said well you cannot be serious because it would be a very dangerous thing to do and david insisted all of that was of the lord's commandment and out they went therefore and proceeded to go through the land initiating a census and omitting benjamin incidentally they did not go to benjamin when they went through the land well you can understand why old saws and such like sawl had come from benjamin so they left benjamin so it was an incomplete census and it may well be that they did not accumulate the half shekel for the sanctuary which they should have been doing so maybe there were offenses as far as was concerned in the way that the census was fulfilled but i want you now to observe that it was not david's fault right it makes it perfectly clear there doesn't it because god raised david against israel when he sent him to fulfill that function but as the census was proceeding what we then find is that in fact god is offended by it for whatever precise reason and god then says a judgment is to fall upon israel which will you choose and david says we'll fall into the hands of the lord not into the hands of men because his mercies are great and so three days pestilence comes sweeping through the land now what is david's response and again watch to see the substance behind the shadow because in all this of course david was anticipating someone else who would come and a greater work that would be done verse 10 of two samuel 24 gives us his initial response david's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people and david said unto the lord i have sinned greatly in that i have done and now i beseech thee oh lord take away the iniquity of thy servant for i have done very foolishly do you see the pattern do you see the man who lies behind this kingly act it was not david's fault but david takes upon himself the blame he says i have done wrong i have committed blame me and when at last the the pestilence is sweeping through the land and you remember where it's coming towards it is coming towards jerusalem and there is arona the jebusite and his sons they were all in the line of fire the sons of arona were destined to die and arona says quick quick quick and arona incidentally appeared to have been a king among the jebusites so the would appear to lead us to understand then arona says what can we do david stands there before the angel verse 16 of two samuel 24 when the angel stretched out his hand upon jerusalem to destroy it the lord repented him of the evil and said to the angel that destroyed the people it is enough stay now thine hand and not only now do you see the the pattern of the man lying before someone in jerusalem who would cause the hand of the lord to to stay but but you also see back in time another occasion on this very place in the mount mariah where the angel's hand had been stayed spare now the lad god had called out of heaven and the hand had stayed above isaac so so at this very moment you're bringing together those various aspects from the past and looking towards the future and arona is there and david verse 17 spake unto the lord when he saw the angel that smote the people and said lo i have sinned and i have done wickedly but these sheep what have they done let thine hand i pray thee be against me and against my father's house lo i have sinned and i have done wickedly but these sheep what have they done let thine hand i pray thee be against me and against my father's house you see the one whom we will shortly meet to remember is the one who fulfills all these types and shadows he is the one who says let the blame be upon me let me bear the sin in the place of these people these sheep what have they done and god says there well let's have an altar and now he is proceeding with his purpose the ark will be accompanied by an altar and sacrifices will be made and david races towards arona and arona says i've got a threshing floor here and and arona says you remember that the sword of the angel of the lord is still uh up reaching waiting to fall arana says verse 22 let my lord the king take and offer up what seemed good unto him behold here be oxen for burnt offering and the threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood all these things did arona as a king give unto the king and arona said unto the king the lord thy god accept thee you can hear the urgency in his voice my sons my sons he's thinking and the king said unto arona nay but i will surely buy it of the at a price neither will i offer burnt offerings unto the lord my god of that which doth cost me nothing you see david would not build an altar in that place nor take the sacrificial elements that were offered without paying the price that had to be paid just as in the same way our lord who delivers us from the outstretched hand of judgment that would otherwise fall is one who is our altar he is the one who has gone before to make that place for us that place of acceptance and he did not offer to the lord of that which cost him nothing but he paid the great price and in case we should have missed the measure of this particular occasion you notice what it says there verse 25 the very last verse of 2 samuel 24 and david built there an altar unto the lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings so the lord was entreated for the land and the was stayed from israel david built the altar david offered the sacrifices there he was you see the great king priest after the order of nalchizedek there he was having paid the price there he was offering the sacrifice and one last thought then that brings our study to a close which takes us back to the very last words of this great man we were looking at some of them but we stopped just in 2 samuel 23 of the the last thought that i i want to present to us because david was with all his earnest desire looking to the consummation of god's covenant and the coming of his kingdom and in 2 samuel 23 and verse 5 he says although my house be not so with god yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my salvation and all my desire although we make it not to grow but the sons of belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away well he'd had a fair motley assortment of people hadn't he whom he might describe as sons of belial he'd encountered bad as well as good during the course of his long and interesting life and he was saying now that there would come a human devour the sons of belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands but the man that shall touch them must be filled with iron and the staff of a spear and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place and do you see there although i took the more literal rending of the authorized version do you see the one whom we will now be remembering the man who will at last dispense the justice the one who will come like a refiners fire to purify the sons of levi the one who will bring judgment and destruction when he comes with everlasting fire he is the one who was filled with iron and the staff of the spear and could man ever have conceived when going past the cross and assuring all mankind that he was dead indeed and he thrust into his side not only the head but also the half of the spear that he was fulfilling this ancient prediction from long ago and was thus declaring that great david's greater son would be the one whose side was filled and pierced that out of it might flow the blood and water those symbols of our cleansing of our baptism and of the sacraments that we share together by the grace of god that through the costly sacrifice that was made the altar that built the place that was prepared a people by the grace of god might be redeemed