2 Samuel 5

As you know, we study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel and we have extra copies.

If you didn't bring one, you'd like one to follow along, just raise your hand up real high, uh, and we'll be glad to drop one off at your row, your aisle.

You can also follow, jump on the network here if you prefer.

If you have a device that has an online Bible, feel free to do that.

Our uh our our password code continues to be Bael Parazim.

Perhaps that will become clear to you why uh on this particular week when we study 1 Samuel chapter 5.

1 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

Our theme for the overall book, of course, has been the story of unlikely redemption.

How unlikely whom God chooses, whom God calls, whom God uses.

Continues to be that way.

Was that way 3,000 years ago when we look at the events that we are studying, represented here in the narrative, the historical narrative of 2 Samuel.

2 Samuel 5 · chapter mention

Chapter 5 is a bit like a narrative patchwork, uh, perhaps a collage of short stories, not necessarily uh sequential or consecutive in the way that it happened in space-time history.

You'll see that in a little bit as we take a look at these, and I'll try to point them out.

But it's the story surrounding the reunification of the two kingdoms that had been divided and in conflict.

What timeless and transferable lessons can we learn about the role of faith in matters of reconciliation?

Uh I won't be a king, as far as I know, of any nation.

I'm pretty sure about that.

Neither will most of you.

Um I have lived on the planet or let's say 60, I'll be 65 next month, so divide that by four, that's how many people will be president.

Now, the number of people that were told they could be president is vastly greater than that.

Because we tend to do that.

You know, we tend to sort of romanticize the world and and say, you know, you can do anything you want to do, and I I can't.

I would I would how many of you have thought if you could get a superpower it would be to fly?

Raise your hand.

Flying is the most commonly desired superpower.

Um I think I would like that very much, but I'm not good at that.

Unaided by a multi-ton metal, sharply precisely engineered airplane, I am without hope when it comes sailing through the air.

And yet it seems like a bit of a miracle every time we take off, and more of a miracle when we land.

Okay, so it's really awesome.

Um But there is a uh there are these two kingdoms in 2 Samuel, and they're divided and they're in conflict.

One is the northern eleven tribes, typically called or referred to as Israel, and uh the one southern tribe of Judah, we just sang about the Lion of Judah.

Is he worthy?

Yes, he is.

But it's God's plan and God's desire that Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah.

So the tribe of Judah cannot disappear because Messiah hadn't come yet.

So we see God's hand through history and through this historical narrative leading, guiding all of that to its final fulfillment in the person and work of Christ when we look at the overall narrative of Scripture.

At this point in time where we re-enter the storyline, God's people were caught in the vice grip of disruption and chaos.

Societal turmoil, murderous rivalries had arisen, desperate power grabs and attempted military coups, most of that springing from tension between Israel and Judah, the two kingdoms on the ground at the time.

But now we're going to read about some external pressure and tension as well from the perennial enemies of Israel, the Philistines as well.

They'll come back on the attack because as Israel reunites, they see that as a threat.

And so they come to make war.

Would David be able to lead Israel to victory over its attackers?

Could David, could the Lord use David in some way to reunite very sort of fractional, you know, this overall nation that's just cutting to pieces like this.

Um I think chapter 5 is action-packed.

Um, as the narrator of 2 Samuel uh has assembled this collage of stories, I think we'll be able to see some amazing truths about what does it look like to reconcile?

And whether you're you'll ever be a king or not, reconciliation is still something every single one of us needs.

Now here's our map, just to reorient you to what it looked like at the time and the way things were broken out.

Philistia, um, that area that is green on the left side of the map, this is generally the area, especially of the five cities of the Philistines.

They seem to be in control of these five cities.

Uh, most of you will remember, as we've studied 2 Samuel, that David had been living in Ziglag, one of those Philistine cities when he was on the run from Saul.

But Saul had died.

Now that Saul had died, David inquired of the Lord.

The Lord told him to go back into Judah, to Hebron, which is the king, which was the capital of Judah at the time.

Jerusalem was not the capital at the time.

We will see Jerusalem rise to some level of prominence here in chapter 5.

So there's so much to do, so much to look at.

Let's take a peek at this text and see along the way what we can learn.

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and they said, Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.

So here come to gather in Hebron, traveling out of Israel, the northern kingdom, these folks who've been at odds with David and Judah, and now they're coming on somewhat of a summit to make peace, and they begin by saying, You know what, we're really family, bone and flesh.

We share this in common.

We have this history, we come from the same roots.

Previously, verse 2, when Saul was king over us, that would be the, especially in the north, you were the one who led Israel out and in.

So they have this memory that they bring into the case, and they're recognizing the leadership of David, that he actually played a significant role even when Saul was king.

The Lord said, and this is interesting that they uh can reference what God had said in the past to David.

The Lord had said to you, these leaders of Israel, the northern tribe, say to David, You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will be a ruler over Israel.

Wow.

The shepherd would serve, would lead, would heed, would feed, would guide, would protect, would provide.

What a beautiful image it is that leaders would be that way, that they would be so inclined to care for the flock, if you will.

And they recognize that it's God who had said that that would happen for David.

So all the elders of Israel, verse 3, came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them before the Lord at Hebron.

And then they anointed David king over Israel.

He's been anointed king before.

He was anointed just earlier, just a few years earlier here in Hebron, he was anointed to be king of Judah.

Now he's being anointed to be king of all of Israel.

But he had been anointed yet a third time, the first, which was really the first time, and that was by Samuel the prophet under God's direction.

And even as a teenage boy, God had set, symbolically set his imprimatur on David and said, Someday you will be king over all of Israel.

And these folks coming from the northern tribes remembered that and recognized it, even though they've been at war and fighting and all that sort of thing, against David, against Judah.

Now they're coming and they're wanting to make peace and reconciliation, and they want all of that to happen.

David was 30 years old when he became king, and he reigned 40 years.

The narration, the historical narration often includes these kind of summary statements, and in particular when it comes to royalty, it would be the case even in some other ancient Near Eastern literature, that they would do that kind of thing.

They would mark it by when he became king, how long he reigned as king, and how long he lived.

At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months.

In Jerusalem, he reigned 33 years over all Israel and Judah.

Okay?

Now, you can put a little line because this is where our patchwork quilt of stories or our collage of stories, you know, jumps to another scene.

The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites and the inhabitants of the land, and they said to David, these Jebusites, this is the first time, but we've heard of Jebus before.

But they were a group of people that lived in this city that becomes Jerusalem later, but they lived there, and they had not been driven out by Joshua and by the leaders of Israel when they came into the promised land, and God told them to drive out the inhabitants of the land, and they did not obey the Lord, we're told over and over again in the book of Joshua, the book of Judges, which we've studied here at this church.

And so this has been a remaining, sort of a nagging problem for Israel as a nation.

And David, this new king, is moving from Hebron in the south.

And if you look up on the map, you'll see how much further south and west that is of Jerusalem.

Now he's moving up, and I think this is geographically important.

Why?

Because he's moving toward Israel, toward the northern tribes.

He's not saying to the northern tribes, you've got to come my way, you've got to come all the way to Hebron.

But like a good leader, I think he's saying, look, I'm gonna come, I'm gonna move up here to this area right here, and this is where we're gonna establish a new center for the nation of Israel for its religious practices as well.

And so they've got to first clear that area, though.

And the Jebusites are living there and they're at odds with, and they're even taunting David.

And look at the middle of verse 6.

They say to David, You shall not come in here, but the blind and the lame will turn you away, thinking David cannot enter here.

Now, I want to remind you that we are stepping back 3,000 years in history.

So we must not expect David and the Jebusites even to come forward into our time with our sensibilities and with our norms, with the way that we might think about people, or the way that we might speak or not speak, or refrain from speaking about people and their challenges.

But here, this is 3,000-year-old essentially smack talk.

It's trash talk.

Even the weakest among us will keep you out.

And Jerusalem, indeed, would be it's set up on a hill.

Those of you who have been there, you understand this.

It's set up on a hill.

And and for someone to come in a typical uh military mode and to assault the walls of Jerusalem to try to break in would take quite a bit, actually.

It would be pretty hard.

It's very defendable uh in its position.

Uh, because even those who who couldn't see, even those who had those physical disabilities, could actually throw rocks over the top and down onto the people who were trying to uh uh uh assail the fortress uh that was uh where the Jebisites lived.

And so they're saying that, but it's a bit of trash talk, and and they're saying, no, even the weakest among us can take.

Nevertheless, David captured, verse 7 says, the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.

This is the first use of the name Zion in the Bible.

Um it'll be it'll be used uh about 150 times in the Old Testament, uh, and another dozen or so, dozen and a half times in the New Testament referred to uh the Mount of Zion or House of Zion.

It's used in a broad sense to refer to all of Jerusalem, but also in a more specific sense here, there's a certain stronghold there at Zion.

Some of the Bible commentators will say that it was the the temple, what becomes the Temple Mount, as well as the mount, the small rise right above it, right above it, that sits above it, that can actually see it because it's actually a little higher than Jerusalem.

Um but he captured it, is the point.

And David said on that day, whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him reach the lame and the blind.

In other words, reach all of them.

They're all weak.

It doesn't matter who they are, and he's kind of trash talking back at them.

They're hated by David's soul through the water tunnel.

Isn't that interesting?

So we're not gonna we're not gonna do an assault on the gates, we're not gonna do an assault on the walls, you're gonna go through the water tunnel.

Therefore, they say the blind or the lame shall not come into the house.

So there becomes this phrase about those who are infirm, those who are weak.

And it's used in a sense as to say, you know, e no matter who you are, you can't come up against us because even our lame and our blind can repel you.

And yet it becomes a phrase, why?

Because what just happened is David's men assault in a different way, completely different from the normal method, and they come through these tunnels and up these uh channels.

I I have been uh uh I've been in the tunnel that goes under the Western Wall uh five different times when we've gone to Israel.

Some of you have been with us there.

Um we've also walked in uh uh what by what becomes or what's been called Hezekiah's Tunnel before.

And uh and there's a you get down in there, and for anybody's claustrophobic, anybody claustrophobic?

Who's claustrophobic here?

And me too.

I I get a little, I don't like heights and I don't like closed-in spaces.

But you get down in there and we had about a hundred people, we were with uh Don Moen and his group, and um, and so we had about a hundred people going through this tunnel, and we're all going squeaking down like this, and you literally have to duck and and shimmy your way through somehow how tight this spot is.

And it comes to a point where it divides in two.

You either go left and that's sort of the dry tunnel, or you go right and that's the water tunnel.

It was awesome one year.

The first year we went with Don anyway, it uh uh there there was one older lady named Gladys who was with us, and and Don and Laura, his wife were walking, leading her along, but 97 of the, let's say it was 100 people, 97 of us turned left.

And Don and Laura and Gladys went straight.

They did, because they had lost sight of us.

And so then we all come out of the tunnel, and and it's the dry tunnel.

We all come out of the tunnel, and we're waiting and we're expecting Don and Laura and Gladys to come out, and they never emerge.

And time goes by and we start to think, oh no, something's happened to them.

Oh no, they've been kidnapped.

Oh, your imagination starts to go wild.

So we found the guards, we found those the military soldiers there, the Israeli defense people, and we say, our our our the leader of our trip is down.

We think he's been kidnapped, and the bus is waiting, everything.

It's like 30 minutes later, no Don, no Laura, no Gladys.

Finally, they emerge like a hundred yards away.

You can kind of see them coming out, and they're wet from floor all the way up to here.

And they had navigated the water tunnel with Gladys.

Don said he held his iPhone up and he had a little flashlight going, but the battery was fading and he kept going, oh no, what's gonna happen to me, you know.

Um but they had just and they so Jerusalem and the city, the mountain, it's got filled with these tunnels.

And David says, We're not gonna sail the gates, we're gonna come up.

Every city needs water.

Every city needs some source of water.

And there's one tunnel that's about a 37-foot drop straight down to where the water is inside the old city, and he, this is the one I would think they probably went up, not 100% certain, but can you imagine those soldiers with their ancient gear pushing with their legs, trying to shimmy up 37 feet to get into the city, to be able to take the city?

And it becomes the kind of thing that be you know, becomes this uh this phrase uh neither the blind nor the lame shall come into the house, and yet they did.

Yet they made it in and they were able to take this city.

David lived in the stronghold, he called it the city of David.

David built all around from Milo and inward.

Okay, so the the Milo is uh as best we can tell, is a reference to some of the way the land is terraced on the hillside, the way it's supported in some of the walls and some of the in-between supporting systems.

So I love all this.

This stuff is all very fascinating to a geek like me.

David became greater and greater, and this is why.

Verse 10 says it, for the Lord God of hosts was with him.

And every time I read that the Lord was with Joseph, or the Lord was with David, I always ask myself, All right, Lord, I know you're with me.

Jesus said you'd never leave me nor forsake me, but now am I with you?

Am I with you?

Is am I seeing what you see?

Am I wanting what you want?

Am I valuing what you value?

Am I seeking the Lord like David did?

He inquired us, he inquires of the Lord over and over.

And uh so here we have this David becoming greater and greater, and the Lord of God of hosts was with you.

You can draw another line.

Here's the next section of the patchwork.

It's an international statement of recognition of what's happening with this now reconciled nation that was two kingdoms in conflict.

Verse 11 Hiram, king of Tyre, this would be up the road, along the coast, north of Israel, sent messengers to David with cedar trees and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a house for David.

And remember, all of this happens over time, and most of this, we're pretty sure, happens in the latter part of David's reign, not early on in the beginning.

And that's why I'm saying these patchwork is made up of stories, but it's not necessarily consecutive in the way we would do it, you know, beginning in point A, going to point B, point C.

But this is just to show us that the Lord is knitting together his people.

And that under David's leadership and through the the, by the power of God, God's people are able to reconcile and come together and grow strong.

And so the king of Tyre is now recognizing that.

And he sends all these folks and they had built a house for David.

And David realized three things that one, the Lord had established him as king over Israel.

Two, that God had exalted his kingdom.

And three, that it was for the sake of his people, Israel.

There's about ten different sermons in this chapter, and I'll not give you all ten of them.

Some of you are relieved.

That's great.

But there's one that's so beautiful.

It's God's doing.

That it's God who actually exalts a kingdom, but it's for the sake of his people, not for David's image, not for David's pocketbook.

But it's ultimately for God's glory and for the good of God's people that he puts somebody like David in the position that David is in.

David has not been one who's been grasping at the throne.

He has been waiting on God's timing.

He seems quite patient to me as I read through the story.

Meanwhile, David took, and this is another segment, another patchwork here, verse 13.

Meanwhile, David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David.

And this is just to show us that his family is expanding and his progeny is increasing.

And it's also to show us that he's probably disregarding Deuteronomy 17, 17.

So, in other words, David is not a perfect man.

David has mixed motives.

All along, we're not to see David as the hero here, but we're to see the covenant God as the hero.

The covenant God, who is the one who empowers a weak and frail person like David, who sees the way other kings do it, the way other palaces are run, the way other families of royalty expand.

And he just copies them in disregard to what Deuteronomy 17, 17, what we call Deuteronomy 17.17, what he would have known, where it says that a king should not have many wives.

And yet he does that anyway.

Now, these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shemuah, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon.

These four will be from his relationship with Bathsheba.

Ibhar, Elishua, Nephag, Jeffiah, Elishemah, Eliadah, and Eliphalet.

I don't, those are exact the way you pronounce those names.

I'm certain of it, yes.

When the Philistines, now you can draw another line, here's another patchwork, when the Philistines heard that they anointed David king over Israel, how are they going to react?

I mean, here you got the tribes of Israel coming down and saying, Yeah, this is supposed to happen.

Yeah, I we even remember that God said this would happen.

And then the elders of the tribes of Israel step forward and they enter into a contract, a covenant.

And they say, Yeah, this is supposed to happen.

Then you see Hiram, king, uh international king from another nation, saying, Yeah, this is supposed to happen.

You see this all happening.

But what about the enemies of the people of God?

Well, whether they think it's supposed to happen or not, here's what they don't like.

They don't like that it's happening.

And so the Philistines, the perennial enemies of God and of God's people, when they heard that David had been anointed king over all of Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek out David.

And they're not bringing him a housewarming present.

This is war.

This is battle.

This is difficult.

When David heard of it, he went down to the stronghold.

Not sure exactly where that is.

I don't think it's a reference to Zion.

I think it might be a reference to the cave at Edilum where he used to hang out with his mighty.

Amen, and where he often would have to fight and do battle with the Philistines.

And the Philistines came and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephame.

And David inquired of the Lord.

Please underline that again, because it says it over and over again in 1st and 2 Samuel, that David is in the habit of inquiring of the Lord.

When do you do that?

When do I do that?

Most often we do that when we're in some kind of crisis situation.

We're driven to do that.

A nation is driven to do that, of people.

When it has a crisis, all of a sudden the churches get full for two weeks, maybe three.

And then our memory is very short, and we stop inquiring of the Lord.

Why?

Because we think we got this one.

You know, and we don't, we never have this one.

He inquires of the Lord, Shall I go up against the Philistines?

Will you give them into my hand?

And here's the Lord's response: go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.

So David came to Baal Perazim, and that's remember, I promised you that that was coming, that you were going to learn what that was all about.

So David comes to Baal Perazim and defeated them there.

And he said, The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like the breakthrough of waters, and he named the place Baal Perazim.

Now Baal is the name, yes it is, of a pagan deity.

There were actually several different Baals.

They typically were nature deities, somehow related to the harvest or the some part of nature.

So there are several that we read about as we read through the Old Testament.

Baal, though, is actually a title, and what it means is the Lord, and in this particular case, the Lord of breakthrough.

Okay?

Which is great.

And they name it that because they want to remind themselves that it's God who broke through, not that they were the ones that broke through on something.

It wasn't just as we would see in some of our, you know, some modern-day leadership materials that use that same kind of terminology about this is my breakthrough moment, you know.

Um this is more God breaking through for God's purposes and plans.

And that's wonderful.

I think we misuse the text if we attempt to have God on the, like a puppet on strings that we use for our agenda, our breakthroughs that we prefer, and it's mischievous of us to do so.

We do the same thing with Philistines all the time.

You know, you I don't know what you think your Philistines might be, but somebody might have you thinking that way at some point in time.

Some of you might think, yeah, that's my husband all the way.

Or that's my kids, or yeah, that's my parents, or whatever it might be, might be my neighbors or the people I work with, whatever.

So we get into mischief when we start uh teaching uh by just simple analogy like that, and we can direct it in any direction we want.

And that's just that's that's actually not a good use of scripture.

But here what is happening is this place is being named so that they will remember that God broke through for them.

They abandoned their idols.

There's a spiritual connection with this here.

It's not just a career advancement for them or some fattening of their bank account.

No, the Lord uh had them abandon their idols.

That's good.

And David and his men carried them away.

By the way, if you can uh carry away your deities, you probably got the wrong deity, okay?

Uh it's just like we've talked about before with Dagon, the Philistine's God, uh, when they set the Ark of the Covenant in the same room with Dagon, the statue, for their representing their God.

The next morning, Dagon fell down and broke.

And if your God can fall down and break, you got the wrong God.

Okay?

Um, so these guys, the Israelites, defeat these Philistines, who typically were more advanced technologically with their warfare, very much more into the Iron Age era than the Israelites or the men of Judah would have been.

So their chariots were made of iron, not just bronze, not just wood.

And they're constantly talking about that.

But the Philistines came up once again.

Here they come again, verse 22.

And they spread themselves out in the valley of Repham, just like they did last time.

And when David inquired of the Lord, do you see that there?

It's there again.

We should underline that.

Are we inquiring of the Lord?

He said, The Lord said to him, You shall not go directly up.

Circle around behind them, come at them in front of the balsam trees.

Um, some of your translations may uh call them a different kind of tree, uh, but the idea is that you're supposed to come up around them under the cover of these trees.

And it'll be that when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, you shall act promptly.

That's your signal to go when there's the rustling of the top of the trees.

For then the Lord will have gone out before you.

So this is God's signal to them, to strike the army of the Philistine, and it's the Lord who's gonna go before them, just like the Lord went before David when he had to face the giant Goliath.

And he knew that, even as a boy, he knew that it was the battle belonged to the Lord, and he even gave a shout as he ran forward with his slingshot against this giant with all the latest technology in military uh warfare and weaponry.

And so the Lord tells uh David that that's what they're supposed to do, that they're to wait for the rustling of the trees in the top of the trees, and that's interesting.

Listen up.

Look up.

Uh if you look down, you're only going to be looking at the Philistines.

You're only going to be looking at how powerful they are spread out in the field of Rephim.

And here God says, Listen for my signal.

I'll go out before you, I'll defeat and strike the armies of the Philistines.

And David did so just as the Lord had commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Giba until you come to Gizer.

And I love the name of the town.

Geezer, some of us feel like geezers once in a while.

Is that you?

Yes, amen.

Okay, so good.

Um, and that's like saying from Maine all the way to Washington.

It's like saying, like Tommy and Matt said a couple weeks ago, that's like saying from one end of the country to the other.

The Lord was just giving them victory as he was the one going before them all.

All right, so a couple of things.

I'm gonna give you three slides that are like an entire message in a slide, but they won't last as long as an entire message.

First of all, reuniting a broken kingdom.

We see in the first three verses, I think, some of the secrets to doing that.

And you know, even in our own day and time, you may have personal relationships.

You're not gonna, you and I aren't gonna be kings, probably most likely.

Uh, but we still understand what it means to have broken relationships.

We still need to know about how that can happen.

Gathering, they gathered.

The people came from the northern tribes, they came together.

That has to, that's gotta be where it starts.

They they recognized relationship.

And why is that important?

Well, because there's something about honor among those who are related to one another.

And so they bring that up.

You are bone and flesh of ours, David.

And they're building a bridge in their communication, and David is actually seeing that as well.

And they do belong, they come from the same heritage, see?

Um, and they have a history.

And they remember that in their history, these folks from the northern tribes, that David was the one that led them out and brought them back home safely.

He was their leader, even though King Saul was their king.

And they were longing for leadership together.

It says it right there in verse 2, as you look at that, you see, previously when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led us out and in.

And the Lord said, and I love this, they shared respect for Providence.

The Lord said, You will shepherd my people Israel, talking about David, and you will be a ruler over all Israel.

So now the northern tribes, rather than thinking it's still about what Abner, the military man, had said that Ishbesh should be our king, now they have a shared respect for Providence.

They remembered what God had said.

How often do we forget what God has said?

That's one of the reasons we need to study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.

Why?

Because I keep forgetting stuff.

I keep forgetting, because I'm influenced by all that's out there, and so are you.

And trust me, if this is if this is all you're getting of a reminder of God's providence, it's not enough.

Why?

Because all day long, all of the messages out there are telling you that it's all going against you, or you need this product, and this is uh the same product they sold you six months ago is now failing you, so you better get this new one.

And uh, and every time my computer breaks down, I believe them.

And uh happened yesterday.

I'm literally in the 11th hour putting the sermon together, and I get that circle with the hash mark through it, like that.

I'm going, well, praise the Lord.

Let's inquire of the Lord.

I'm being steeped in what David did.

I'm going, okay, I gotta inquire, what do I do?

You know?

So I drag up my antique iPad 2.

And yes, the Lord enabled me to work through it in that way.

But you're you're constantly wanting to be inquiring of the Lord, like David.

And then they came together and made sacred covenant promises before the Lord, we were told.

David responds.

These guys come, they remember there's a relationship, they talk about their history, they talk about the recognizing that he was a leader.

David responds with a covenant, which is this beautiful offer of, okay, well, moving forward, this is our way forward, let's do this.

And they formalize it with a covenant.

I love this.

And then there's this beautiful symbolism and celebration.

They anoint him king of all of Israel.

And let me tell you, I mean, that's one of the things I love about the Jewish people, even today.

They love to celebrate.

They are not the frozen chosen.

Trust beveils to them.

That's him.

You know, I mean, they really do celebrate.

And so they do this with as they reannoint him king.

And I gotta tell you, there was a big party that night.

That was a celebration for all that God had done among them, for the way God had healed their uh fractured uh nation and all.

You also see their Baal Parazim, and I talked about that a little bit, but I think it's at least worth pointing out.

He means the Lord of the breakthrough.

It's God's unfolding plan and purposes in your life and in my life.

It's not my unfolding plan and purposes, it's God's.

Why?

Well, Baal means the Lord.

The Lord is the one who breakthrough.

And how does he do that?

Well, he does it when I'm weak and blind and lame, basically.

I'm out of my own strategies.

And see what's such an interesting foreshadowing in this text to me is that that whole thing where the Jebusites, even are weak and lame to be able to feed you, and then they do this trash talk back and forth and they're using the folk who are challenged in some way.

Here comes, this all points for me to Jesus.

Here's what Jesus does with the blind and the lame.

He welcomes them all in.

More than that, he even shows himself to be the one that can heal them, that can work even through their weakness.

See?

So David, awesome guy, great guy in history, but his greater son is the greater king.

And when I'm weak, when I can't see with much clarity, when I don't have the courage to move or to face an enemy or face some difficulty that happens to be in front of me, whether it's some form of suffering or something, I need God to be the one breaking through.

It's not me breaking through, it's God.

That's what I'm leaning into when I read this text.

The Old Testament says Fleming Rutledge, one of the, she's a brilliant uh author and theologian, one of my favorite ones on the planet right now.

The Old Testament's arranged to point to the future inbreaking of a hope that is beyond human hope, beyond human potential, beyond human striving.

And that's the movement of God into territory that is occupied by the forces of darkness.

Over these forces, unaided human efforts are in vain.

It's God alone who saves us.

It's not a movement of earth to heaven, but of heaven to earth, utterly gracious, because utterly undeserved.

Oh yeah, that's beautiful and so well said.

How do we then recognize when God is the one who's moving in our lives?

What kinds of transforming changes might David did David and God's people see in their time that we can learn from?

What evidence was there for the for the watching world to see what God was doing in their lives?

And at the same time, what's you know, for us, how does what does that look like?

Well, there's this restored unity in that kingdom that was needed, so desperately needed.

And when you or I get stuck in a broken sort of thing, and we need reconciliation that clearly goes beyond us, and that's often, not all about you, but that's often for me.

Why?

Because I'm proud and my pride gets in the way.

You know?

Is there a good kind of pride?

Maybe.

One could argue that.

But I think more often than not, my pride is me going like this.

I will not.

I won't.

No, you don't deserve it.

You've offended me, you hurt me.

Who are you?

You know, who to think that I should respect you anymore or whatever.

And so pride has to go at some point.

It's only God that can actually do that.

We need outside help.

Why?

Because inside it's pride.

Inside, I'm governed by that part of me that wants to be my own king, instead of the part that wants to yield to Jesus, the king who comes and leaves the comforts of heaven to come to earth, to sacrifice his life for those who were literally his enemies.

Me and you.

And he's that kind of king.

I need him to restore unity.

I need him to show me there's a new city, a new way of being, a new way to be corporately together.

And I believe there's a coming day when indeed he's going to set all things right, that great day of the Lord in the future.

But until then, I want to join him in what he's doing and renewing his city, his people.

I want to be a part of that, and I hope that you do as well.

We see that they moved to a new city and it's a good thing.

We see increasing respect in this chapter for God and for God's people, Hiram of Tyre, a pagan as far as we know, showing proper respect by sending to David, the new king of this united kingdom, sending logs, you know, and they used to float them down along the Mediterranean Sea on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, and they'd float them down, their skilled workmen would come down and literally build a house for David.

David responds in kind.

They have a great relationship, uh, and that goes on even to the time period of Solomon building the temple.

But this increasing respect for God and for God's people is happening because of the growth in God's people that God is causing to happen.

And then there is this flourishing family, as weird as it is with David, you know, his increased wives and concubines and his increased sons and all of that sort of thing.

It's still a statement, even though it's an awkward one, it's still a statement that God's somehow another.

And if you're Hiram, and if you're a pagan nation and you're looking at that and you're going, wow, look at that.

It might draw you in to go, who is their God?

Who is it that is giving them such favor?

Who is it that can unite them?

Who is it that can establish a new city among them where they're unified and they're actually able to live together in some beautiful kind of way like this?

So that's a pretty important lesson as well.

What do we learn about spiritual leadership here?

I think in looking at David, we see somebody who proactively sought the Lord or inquired of the Lord.

We see that over and over again.

Somebody who habitually and humbly listened to the Lord, didn't just seek the Lord and try to get the Lord to do what David wanted him to do, actually sought the Lord and then listened.

In your prayer life, do you just talk at God?

Or like me, I mean, this is I mean, you know, I've confessed this before, but I think it bears repeating.

I often get into prescription mode in my prayers.

Do you?

Hey Lord, this is a real problem, and the way to fix it is this, this, this, do it on this timing, do it this way, and inasmuch as sort of instructing the God of the entire universe on the best, wisest way.

He needs my help, doesn't he?

Um, and this, we see this in this story, don't we?

There's the first battle with the Philistines.

And David inquires of the Lord, and the Lord says, Yes, I'll be with you and I'll give you the victory.

And then the second battle, and I learned from David here, is that it's still time to inquire of the Lord, even though it's the same valley the enemy comes to and they array themselves the same way.

You might have thought to yourself, I've done this before.

I got this one, God.

Go take care of the rest of the universe.

Instead, he inquires of the Lord again.

We need to be inquiring of the Lord over and over and over again, proactively seeking him, habitually listening to him, humbly listening to him, and then courageously obeying the Lord.

What do you mean go around to the back of the woods there?

What do you mean wait for a signal, the rustling of the trees?

Let's just storm them.

We took them last time, we'll strike some fear in their heart, you know?

And we think our ways are the right ways, and it's God's ways that are the right ways.

And God ends up being the one who gets the glory.

Was that a miraculous movement of the trees and a blowing of the wind and all this sort of thing, like tongues of fire in Acts chapter 2?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

I honestly don't know.

It might have been.

I just know it was the signal that God used to tell David, bestir yourself when you hear the rustling of leaf.

Bestir yourself to action.

When are you to bestir yourself?

Well, let's at least bestir ourselves to inquire of the Lord.

Let's at least bestir ourselves to obey what we know already he would have us do.

And I found more often than not in my own life when I'm seeking God's will and I want his clarity and his ways and all that sort of thing.

If I'll just get busy doing what he's clearly revealed to me already, then it's in the context of that flow of listening to God, seeking the Lord, living the way he wants me to live.

It's in the context of that that my ear is tuned to his still small voice.

And I hear it with greater clarity at those times.

David courageously obeyed the Lord and believed that all of Yahweh's plans and purposes would be fulfilled no matter what kind of resistance they meet with.

If that's resistance from without or resistance even from within, I trust a sovereign God, which is what gives me rest and peace and shalom in my heart and in my mind, because I'm trusting that God knows exactly what he's doing.

So what we see, and I've shared this quote once before, uh, but I'll probably bring it up again because Dale Ralph has got a great summary of 2 Samuel.

Again and again as we read 2 Samuel, we have to shake ourselves and say, this is not about David.

It's not even about covenant kings.

It's about a covenant God who makes his covenant promises to a covenant king, through whom he will preserve his covenant people, because it's the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the son of David that we sang about earlier.

It's Jesus, in whom all of God's promises are fulfilled.

And it's Jesus to whom we should look as we seek to follow him, just like David.

We can't do this on our own.

We need God's wisdom, God's power, God's intervening breakthrough in our lives.

Not just for God to fit into our agenda, but for us to live in the safety of his purposes and his plans, and even in the suffering that might be included in his purposes and plans.

But it's for his glory and for our ultimate good if we're glorifying God.

And if others, like the Hirams of the world, are watching and they can see the glory of God at work in his people.

We've got to make a habit of inquiring of the Lord, listening for his wisdom, seeing things the way God sees things value and wanting what God wants, and then joining God in the work that he wants us to do in this broken and darkened world.

It isn't always easy.

Sometimes it will sound like it doesn't make sense, like going around the back of the woods and listening for the rustling of the trees.

But it will always look like the way Jesus, whom many of us have decided to follow, it will always look like his way, wherever he may lead us.

Jesus, the greater son of great King David, Jesus broke through to become the Savior of the world by dying on a cross and winning victory that way.

And then rising again from the dead and winning yet another victory that way, affirming that he's the one we really can trust.

We need look no further.

Jesus really is the one.

And that can be a real defining moment for any and all of us.

Because you know what?

Your breakthrough might not be about some advancement of your career.

Your breakthrough might actually be about repentance.

Your breakthrough moment might actually be about turning away from something that has been dominating you and turning toward the one who wants to save you and set you free.

Jesus Himself.

I'll close with the word from the wise sage Dallas Willard.

When through spiritual disciplines, I've become able to heartily bless those who curse me, pray without ceasing, to be at peace when not given credit for good deeds I've done, or to master the evil that comes my way.

And sometimes that is a great struggle, isn't it?

Yeah.

It is because my disciplinary activities have inwardly poised me for more and more interaction with the powers of the living God and his kingdom.

Such is the potential we tap into when we use the disciplines, the spiritual disciplines, which is why, folks, we study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.

It's why, folks, we pray together corporately, as well as you as individuals.

It's why, folks, we come together to sing of our glorious, wonderful, beautiful Redeemer, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who has come to set us free.

Let's pray.

Thank you, Lord, for who you are, your character, your nature, your trustworthiness, your faithfulness.

I pray that you would open our eyes to see you, even in this ancient text, to ultimately look to you as the fulfillment of the redemption, unlikely as it may seem, that redemption that is on offer to each and every one of us.

Help us then, Lord.

Give us the faith to repent from our sin, to turn away from our selfishness and our self-worship, and for some of us, our self-loathing that has a grip on us.

Help us to turn away from all of those idols, to set them aside, and to turn and face you, to bow before you intellectually, to bow before you morally, spiritually, and in every way to honor you as the great king that you are, the beautiful, majestic Lord of Lords, and the Prince of Peace, whom we need to reign in our hearts.

We pray in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.