"The Sound in the Treetops" | 1 Chronicles 14 | Sunday Evening Worship Service

Shakespeare's Macbeth is arguably his most famous play, and it builds its climax around the prophecy of Burnham Wood.

Macbeth is told by the witches, if you're familiar with the play, if you're not familiar with the play, there's a spoiler alert coming.

Actually, right now, spoiler alert.

Macbeth is told that his reign will never be ended, that he will essentially be immortal and undefeated, that is, until the Burnham Wood comes to Dunsanane, which is a distance of about a dozen miles.

Those are places that are, you know, we don't have a grid for them.

They're in Scotland.

But that would be like saying that our church building will stand unless the forest around George Washington's Mount Vernon marches up the GW Parkway, takes the beltway, gets off on a little Tri River Turnpike, comes down back lick, and attacks our building.

You would hear that prophecy and think, you know what?

I think we're pretty safe.

Our Capitol building will be secure as long as Roosevelt Island doesn't cross the Potomac, mount the Lincoln Memorial, go down the lawn there, past the Smithsonians, and lay siege to the Capitol building.

You would think we're pretty safe.

That was the kind of prophecy that Macbeth received.

He would be safe until Burnham Wood came and attacked his kingdom, which was, you know, 12, 15 miles away.

Macbeth, if you're not familiar with the play, had murdered his way onto the throne of Scotland.

And so the prophecy gave him an impossible condition for defeat.

And he took great confidence in it.

But near the end of the play, if you recall, and here's the spoiler part the end of the play, one of his aides comes running to him and says, It appears the forest is moving.

He looks off the edge of his castle and he, lo and behold, sees Burnham Wood moving through the forest at him.

Now, of course, the forest wasn't literally walking.

Malcolm's army had reached Burnham Wood, and he ordered his soldiers to cut down, every soldier to cut down a tree to hide himself.

And so it looked like the whole forest was walking, and so Macbeth couldn't see the size of the army that was attacking him.

At this point, Macbeth is crazy and doesn't know what he's looking at.

Suddenly, nature itself seemed to rise up against an illegitimate king.

The trees were moving, an army was hidden behind them, and a ruler was about to fall.

Notice what destroyed Macbeth, though.

He had believed a prophecy from witches that were making the stew.

Remember, throwing like frog legs and everything into the stew?

He believed a prophecy.

Here's the rule of life: don't believe a prophecy from a witch.

The crazy thing about the story of Macbeth, which is one of the main points of it, is that the prophecies were literally true, but a lie in their purpose.

That's one of the themes of the play.

Can something be literally true when it is actually a lie?

Macbeth believed the lie, even though it was literally true.

He was safe until he was attacked by a forest 15 miles away.

Now Shakespeare wrote Macbeth.

The background of it is what connects it tonight.

He wrote Macbeth under the reign of King James I, who was not a fan of the theater, but who was a fan of the Bible.

He was a fan of all things religious.

And Shakespeare had a little bit of free reign in his writing as long as his plays were rooted in biblical motifs.

And James I was intensely interested in kingship, providence, rebellion, and especially the dangers of witchcraft.

He knew his Bible well enough that it would be difficult to imagine he would miss the echoes of 1 Chronicles 14.

He knew his Bible better than we do, that's for sure.

2,400 years before King James I, another king stood near a forest ready for battle.

King David was on the edge of his forest.

That's a story in 1 Chronicles 14, and there was a battle before him.

And like Macbeth, this was the motivation behind Shakespeare's prophecy here.

Like Macbeth, David was told to wait until he saw the forest moving around him.

The prophecy from the witch to Saul was described earlier in 1 Chronicles, and of course goes back to 1 Samuel, where Saul wouldn't seek the Lord, but instead sought a witch.

Saul hunted down a witch to ask him if he should go to battle and to ask him how he would win the battle.

Saul wanted to know if God was going to be on his side in the battle, and God would not answer Saul.

So you remember he goes and finds a witch who will summon Samuel from the dead.

Samuel comes back from the dead to tell Saul the mind is on business.

It was not a good exchange at all.

Quite a funny scene.

You remember the witch when it actually works, when her necromancy calling Samuel back from the dead actually works, the witch gets scared out of her hat, if you remember.

It's like the fortune teller who accidentally tells the truth.

I've never seen this work before.

That was in the background of this.

Saul believed the prophecy from the witch, thought it would be true, staked his kingdom on it, and it cost him his life.

What will it be like when David is told to wait at the edge of the forest until he sees the forest move?

As I said, in Macbeth, the army looked like trees, but the prophecy was a trap.

In 1 Chronicles, God said there really is an army in the trees, and his word is true.

David's responsibility then was not to trust the witches, but to trust God and to listen for the sound in the treetops.

Before we get into this chapter, it is worth asking why it's here.

I mentioned this morning that this chapter is an insertion where Samuel tells the same story, but without this chapter.

This information is scattered around 1 Samuel, but it is Nars, 1st and 2 Samuel both, but it is not placed here in the narrative in Samuel.

Here it seems almost disruptive.

Do you remember in 2 Samuel the story moves from David wanting to move the ark to Jerusalem, the oxen stumbling, Uzzah touching the ark, God bursts through to Uzzah, strikes Uzzah dead.

David says, Who can move the ark?

And then David repents, follows the scripture, moves the ark into Jerusalem with song and dance.

This is where David dances naked before the Lord.

That's that scene in 2 Samuel.

But here, the chronicler doesn't go straight to that.

Here, the chronicler inserts this story: the story of the treetops moving to indicate if David should go to battle.

So why would the chronicler put this story here?

Because it does seem like an interruption.

And the answer is because in the flow of 1 Chronicles, the author is finishing the account of Saul.

David in 1 Chronicles becomes a contrast with Saul.

It's hard for us to remember this because we took a break through all summer in 1 Chronicles, but had we not, you would remember it was only a few weeks ago where we talked about King Saul.

Saul died on Mount Gilboa, defeated by the Philistines.

His son Jonathan died right beside him, and Israel fled.

The Philistines stripped Saul's body, put his armor in the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.

Dagon, remember, who had been duct taped together from the earlier incident with the ark.

Now David is king.

The same people who killed Saul are looking for him.

Commentators debate about whether or not this is described chronologically in 1 Chronicles.

I tend to think it is, if for no other reason the book is called 1 Chronicles.

So at the very least, we'll go ahead and grant the chronology of the thing.

And it's fascinating for me to think about the idea that months went by from the time Uzzah was struck dead and the time David successfully moves the Ark into Jerusalem.

We'll look at that next week.

Months went by.

And those months that went by were not spent in idleness.

David was not watching the news.

He wasn't merely lamenting Uzzah's death either.

David was still king, and the nations were still rising up against him.

There was still war to be had.

Life was going on.

Everything didn't pause in Israel's history because David was shell-shocked from Uzzah's death.

And now the contrast with Saul will be complete.

At Geboah, the Philistines defeated Saul.

In this chapter, a battle again in a very similar place, David's going to have victory.

Saul's kingship ended in humiliation.

His body was stripped and hung.

Whereas David's kingship is being established.

The contrast between the two kings couldn't be sharper.

Saul, if you remember, had stopped seeking the Lord.

He had stopped praying.

He had stopped wondering what would God have me do?

He stopped caring about God.

And that was far away from where he started.

When Saul started, he started his kingship with a word from the Lord.

God chose Saul to be king.

Saul was king because God drafted him.

Saul sought the Lord.

Saul had David come and play him music to soothe him.

Saul cared for the Lord at the beginning.

But as Saul grew older and colder and more callous, he stopped seeking the Lord.

Eventually he seeks out a witch.

And Saul never received an answer.

What a contrast with David.

The longer David lives, the more he seeks God, not the less.

Saul received no answer.

You're going to see tonight, David receives answers from God immediately.

The Philistines hung Saul's head in the house of Dagon, hung his body on a hill.

Whereas David is going to destroy the Philistine idols.

Saul, if you remember in battle, carried his spoil away with him.

He was supposed to kill Agag.

He paraded Agag around as a trophy of war.

Not David.

David will destroy, he will live out what God commanded him to do.

He doesn't take trophies from war, he destroys the plunder as an offering to God.

But the other key reason this verse is here, if you remember last week we looked at the word Uzzah, which means a breakthrough.

That was the word that comes back from Exodus, when God says, Don't let anyone come to the mountain.

God's going to speak to the people through the mountain.

And not even an animal can touch the mountain without it being killed.

If anyone approaches the God when he's on the Mount of Sinai, God will break through in wrath on them.

That was the word used back in Exodus.

Now Uzzah grabs the ark and God perez Uz's him, breaks through on him and kills him.

Next chapter, we're going to see David break through to God.

But in this chapter, the same word is there again.

It's God breaking through in victory over his enemies.

Another word that you'll see as we go through the chapter, we'll go through it verse at a time, but I want to draw your attention to a few things before we get into it.

Not just the word breakthrough, which ties 13, 14, and 15 together, but also the word seek.

It's throughout this entire section.

Saul did not seek Yahweh back in 1 Chronicles 10.

Israel did not seek the Ark in the days of Saul.

That's in chapter 13, verse 3.

We looked at that last week.

Israel did not seek the ark back then.

But twice in this chapter, David seeks God.

This chapter is painting you the lesson that David is a different kind of king.

We'll do our outline this way four lessons from the treetops.

I tried to make the lessons parallel Macbeth's prophecy, but then I thought I was working too hard.

Four lessons from the treetops.

First lesson.

These are key contrasts from Saul to David, by the way.

First, remember who put you there.

Remember who put you there.

Saul was put in the throne by God.

Saul forgot that.

David was put on the throne by God.

He's not going to forget it.

Chapter 14, verse 1.

Haram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees, also masons and carpenters, to build a house for him.

This king of Tyre had created an allegiance with Saul as well, and he will have one with Solomon also.

Perhaps his son was Solomon.

But the idea is that the kings of Tyre want a relationship with Israel.

They're not trying to view Israel as an enemy.

They don't like the Philistines.

They fought with the Philistines.

They're happy with the Israelites when the Israelites fight the Philistines.

They wanted a good allegiance with them.

They weren't trying to be a rival.

Eventually, God will raise them up to destroy Israel.

That's going to happen later.

They will go to battle against Israel, and eventually they'll be destroyed by God for their own idolatry.

That's described in the book of Ezekiel.

But for now, they are loyal to David, if not to Yahweh, at least to David.

And they send David trees and masons and carpenters to build a house for him.

This is foreshadowing in a few chapters.

David is going to try to build a house for God.

So this king builds a house for David.

David's going to build a house for God, and God tells David, No, you killed too many people to be my architect, is what David is told.

But for now he receives the gift.

Notice that the gift is of trees.

The trees are bracketing this chapter.

He sends trees to David, cedar trees, which don't, you know, they grow in the northern part of Israel.

If you've been in Jerusalem, you recognize they do not, big cedar trees don't grow in Jerusalem.

They grow in Tyre, they grow in Lebanon.

But not here.

So they're sent as gifts to David.

And David receives them.

David knew that Yahweh had established him as king.

That's the key phrase.

That is what Saul never said.

Saul never said, I remember that God made me king.

David remembers.

God made him king over Israel, and his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of his people Israel.

Another contrast with Saul.

Saul remembered that he was king in order to pass it on to Jonathan.

Saul thought that God gave him what he had so that he could give it to his son.

And by the way, that very closely encroaches on the kind of American idea of blessing.

It is very fundamental to an American identity that God gives us things so we can pass them along.

That's kind of the American dream.

Build wealth for yourself and pass it on to your kids, so to speak.

That's not God's approach to leadership.

God exalted David for the sake of his people Israel.

Saul thought it was for the sake of his family line.

Remember, Jonathan even rejected it.

Jonathan said, Dad, I don't want to be king.

It's supposed to be David.

And remember, Saul was so furious with Jonathan.

Saul thought that David would kill Jonathan.

Meanwhile, David and Jonathan are making a covenant together to honor the Lord with each other.

That was just gibberish to Saul.

He couldn't imagine somebody putting God before family.

But David did.

David was on the throne for the sake of his people Israel, who are God's people.

David understood that.

David did, verse 3, he was not sinless.

He took more wives in Jerusalem, and he fathered more sons and daughters.

This was what Saul was warned about.

This is what Israel was warned about by Samuel.

When Israel wanted a king, Samuel said, You shouldn't take a king, because he'll multiply wives and he'll tax you and take your horses and everything.

And I don't think they really believed him.

It's odd though, when you look at the phrase here, David multiplied his wives in Jerusalem.

David fathered more sons and daughters.

This is recorded here almost as a sign of David's blessing and fruitfulness.

It's not as negative as we make it sound.

The design of marriage was, of course, one husband and one wife.

Adam and Eve were monogamous.

They had families that spread out.

Polygamy enters in through Lemmoch.

It is not a good thing when it enters the scripture.

Nevertheless, you remember the prophet Nathan told David, If you wanted more wives, you should have asked God, and he would have given them to you.

That's recorded in 2 Samuel 12.

It's not recorded here.

But it is the background for this, where David is taking more wives for himself, and it is in the context of his fruitfulness.

Saul died, and his whole family died with him.

Do you remember when Saul dies, David goes looking for anyone related to Saul to show favor to, and everybody's dead.

Saul could barely keep his own wives in order.

His children all died out.

Not so with David.

He had several more sons and daughters.

We get the names of some of them in Jerusalem: Shemuah, Shoab, Nathan, Solomon.

Solomon, we know the royal line will go through Solomon.

Nathan, we know from the New Testament, the line of the Messiah goes through Nathan.

So two of these lines bring the Savior into the world, one through his royal lineage and one through his human nature.

Along with Ebihar, Elisha Elpalet.

I've never met an Elpilet.

Nagoah, Nepheg, Japhiah, El Shema, Barelida, and El Aphelalet.

I don't know why I've never met one of those either.

Two of these names are not listed in Samuel.

Samuel lists the names of these kids as well, except for two of them.

They likely died in infancy, but the chronicler remembers them.

I'm sure David did as well.

The point is that David remembered that his kingship is received, not achieved.

It is given to him as a gift by God.

David remembered that authority was a stewardship, and leadership is the good for the good of the people that he led.

This is appropriate for us to remember as well.

Please remember that everything God gives you, he gives for his own purposes, and his own purposes are always for our good and his glory.

Trials are for our good and his glory.

Blessings are for our good and his glory.

Children that die in infancy are for our good and his glory.

They may not seem that way at the time, but it was David's experience.

Blessings and trials come from the Lord.

Your wealth comes from the Lord.

Your opportunities come from the Lord.

For those of you who work, your jobs come from the Lord.

And that's opportunities for you to live for God's glory.

If you remember that God is the one who opened the door, you didn't achieve your job on your own.

God gave you the gifting.

Even if your gifting led to your job, God gave you the gifting.

For your families, God gave you your family.

You have your family for the Lord's end, not for yours.

Your kids belong to God first before they belong to you.

David understood that principle very well.

Secondly, pray before you act.

First lesson from the tree top is remember who put you there.

The second lesson from the tree top is pray before you act.

When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all of Israel, they did not send presents like the king of Tyre.

They sent their army.

Do you remember the whole Goliath thing?

I mean, this has been going on for a long time.

Goliath was a Philistine.

David cut his head off.

They remember.

So they went up to search for David.

But David heard of it and went out to fight them.

You have to love David.

The army is coming to look for you.

Most people's instinct would be to run.

David's like, let's roll.

Arm up.

Him and his mighty men.

They're not called the mighty men for nothing.

The Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephim.

This is not far away from where Saul died.

They're raiding, looking for David.

They assume David's going to be hiding.

Because he had been hiding for the previous basic, you know, 25 years.

He had been hiding ever since he was 16 years old.

He had been hiding from them.

That's their attitude.

They were hunting for him as well.

There was a point in David's life where the Amalekites were after him, the Philistines were after him, and the Israelites were after him.

So they go back writing the same spot.

David, though, inquired of God.

Do you remember Saul became increasingly less dependent on God?

He became increasingly more independent of God.

But David here, at his height, he's militarily strong.

The twelve types are solidified under him.

And if he ever had an excuse to not seek the Lord, it would be now because the Lord, his last interaction with God in the last chapter was striking Uzzah dead.

But he still seeks the Lord, even when he's disappointed.

And it's easy to say David was disappointed with God.

He was definitely disappointed with the way God acted.

You could say it that way in chapter 13.

David was angry at God.

It says that in verse 11 of chapter 13.

David was angry because of what Yahweh did.

David was angry at God.

Nevertheless, he still is seeking God's direction.

We so easily can default, if we're upset with God or angry with God or disappointed with the way things are going, to withdraw from a relationship with him.

Lord, last time I prayed, this bad thing happened.

See if I'll make that mistake again, kind of attitude.

That is not David's attitude.

David was angry with God and yet still in.

Required of him.

He still understood.

You could say it this way David was at least angry with the right person.

He recognized that he's a creature, God's the creator.

That doesn't mean he has to, in his heart, initially love all that God does.

Of course, he's commanded to love all the Lord does.

You're not supposed to be angry with God, of course not.

But even in his frustrations and in his anger with God, David still sought the face of the Lord.

He asks in verse 10, Shall I go up against the Philistines?

Will you give them into my hand?

And Yahweh said to him, Go up and I will give them into your hand.

So David attacks.

This is David's wheelhouse.

This is what David's good at.

He's a better warrior than a politician.

Remember, when it comes to politics in Jerusalem, this hasn't happened yet in Chronicles, but we know from 2 Samuel, when it comes to politics in Jerusalem, David's a loser.

You know, he gets overthrown by his son because his son politically outmaneuvers him and David doesn't know what to do.

He's good at killing people.

He's not good at the meet and greets on the streets.

He's not good at shaking hands and kissing babies.

That is not his strength.

He's better at chopping off the heads than shaking the hands.

Even though it's in an area where he knows what to do, he still prays.

He doesn't fall back on his own routine, his own lessons.

He still prays.

He still prays.

And God, of course, answers him.

Verse 11, here's our word.

He went up to Baal Perazim.

That's that word Perez.

God breaks through.

He went up there, and notice the word Baal Perazim, that God breaks Baal.

That's a cool name.

And David struck them down there.

He killed them and their idols.

David said, God has broken through.

There's the word again.

Remember in chapter 13, he was angry at God for breaking through against Uzzah, but now he is thankful to God for breaking through against his enemies by my hand, David says, like a bursting flood.

So David remembers the word.

This isn't one of those things you like, you need the secret Hebrew decoder for.

In chapter 13, he's angry because God burst through.

And here he says, I'm so thankful God burst through, like a bursting flood.

Says the word twice.

Therefore, the name of that place, a third time, is called Baal Perazim.

Praise God for breaking my enemies open.

Verse 12, they left their gods there.

They got out of there so fast they left their gods on the ground.

That's kind of funny.

They forgot to bring their gods with them in their retreat.

You could say it more positively.

They fired their gods.

Do you remember these are the people that propped up the ark next to Dagon in the temple?

I mean, they had this understanding.

Their worldview is that if you lose to us in battle, your gods have to serve our gods.

Well, here they lost to them in battle, and so they leave their gods behind.

I guess their gods get to serve the ark of the covenant.

Well, David does not take them back to the temple and which to the to the tabernacle and put their gods in front of the Ark of the Covenant.

He doesn't go back to Obed Edom's house where the ark is in storage and put the gods there.

That would have been the way a pagan was thought.

He can't move the temple, I mean, he can't move the ark back to Jerusalem.

So let me just bring our defeated idols there.

Maybe God would receive that kind of sacrifice.

God does not receive idols as a sacrifice.

David knows that.

So verse 12, he burned them.

That's really cool.

He burned them.

I remember getting a missionary letter from uh Tony uh Hogue or Huag, I forget, I forget how to say his last name, one of our missionaries in Japan who told a story of this people that got converted, and they brought their idols and their non-Christian CDs to the cliff and dumped their family idols and non-Christian music into the rocks below.

Love it.

I remember when I was kind of a new believer, there was a more mature friend of mine in church.

He was a more mature, a couple years older than me, Christian in church, and he gave me all of his non-Christian CDs.

He said he felt convicted about listening to non-Christian music, so he gave them to me.

And that made me pause and think, wait a minute.

David didn't do that.

David burned them, threw them off the cliff with the idols.

David understood to seek the face of the Lord, then meant to act in accordance with what God tells you to do.

His good intentions were not enough.

He knew that he had to fight to do God's work in God's way.

This is a contrast with chapter 13, too, isn't it?

In chapter 13, everybody agreed moving the ark to Jerusalem was the right thing to do.

They had a committee and everything.

But you know what they forgot to do in last week's chapter?

Pray.

They forgot to ask the Lord if it was a good idea.

David is not making that mistake a second time.

Should we fight against the Philistines?

Obviously, he's commanded you to do it like 12 times.

Okay, but let's pray just to be sure.

This time David prays before he acts, and God gives him the victory.

Third lesson from the treetops.

Pray before you act.

Again.

Round two.

Ding ding ding.

Verse 13.

The Philistines yet again made a raid in the valley.

They probably went looking for their gods.

Notice verse 14, David inquired again of God.

How tempting would it be to say, I prayed about this yesterday?

You answered it yesterday.

Why would I pray about it again?

You know, I prayed about preaching last week's sermon.

Why would I need to pray about preaching this week's sermon?

I prayed before I ate lunch.

Why would I need to pray before I ate dinner?

The answer is because food tastes better when you're thankful for it.

David again prays to the Lord.

I sometimes think that you're most in danger of acting without faith when you are doing something that you're accustomed to doing.

Something you think you already know how to do.

You've done this before, you know how it works.

So why would you need to pray before you do it?

That's just experience.

I think we're very quick to pray when we're confronted with something new, with some new trial.

You know, we send a kid off to college, and Deter and I pray a lot about that.

It's a new thing.

We haven't done it before.

A kid off to college.

It's a reminder to keep our prayer life fresh for the kids that still remain behind.

You know, we know how to educate them.

Do we really need to seek the face of the Lord for them?

We've been doing that forever.

David is back to doing what he was doing yesterday, but he's praying again.

And notice his answer is different.

This time he inquires of God, and God tells him, You shall not go up after them.

So wait, yesterday God said go, and I know it wasn't yesterday, it was probably a few weeks or a month or so.

But the last battle, God said go, and now God says don't go.

Same tactic by the Philistines, the same approach, but this time God says no.

So that's odd.

Why would God say yes yesterday and no today?

Because God's going to do something different.

He's going to highlight to David that David is dependent upon the Lord for guidance, even when David was strong.

When David is strong, he still has to be dependent on the Lord to do God's thing, God's way.

And so here's where God gives him the message.

God tells him, You shall not go up after them.

Instead, go around, instead of up after, go around and come against them opposite the balsam trees.

So instead of a head-on attack like you did last time, this time sneak around them from the flank and come from behind the trees.

Those trees are uh, I mean, they're more sturdy than bamboo, but only just.

They shake in the wind, they have the thin leaves, and so when they're in foliage is all there, it is hard to see through.

And they do make sounds.

And so you can disguise the approach.

Remember in Beth they had the trees to disguise the size of their army.

Here, the trees are going to disguise the sound of David's army.

They'll hear the footsteps, perhaps, but the footsteps will they'll attribute to the trees.

After all, they just walk through that forest.

There's no way there's a whole army there.

So that's the strategy.

That's the strategy.

Now, first of all, I don't know how God communicated to David.

That was a question I had this week.

I didn't get any good answers.

Commentators say that it was probably through the Urim and the Thumen, which is the breastplate the priest had, that David could ask questions of the priest.

And we know that because in 1 Samuel, and several chapters in 1 Samuel, I won't drag you through all of them, but that is how David back in 1 Samuel inquired of Yahweh.

That's even how Saul tried to.

But when Saul wanted to seek out Yahweh, which is few and far between, that's what he did.

And remember, the in 1 Samuel it says the high priest couldn't get a word from the Urim and the Thumen.

And so there were these stones in the priest's breastplate that the kings could seek direction from God.

That way, yes or no kind of questions.

Last month David said, Shall I fight?

And the breastplate said, Yes, it seems.

This month, shall I fight?

And from the front, and it says no.

Somehow it communicates, go around.

I don't know if it was an audible word from the Lord, perhaps through a prophet.

Previously, when David wanted to inquire of God, he has to go through Nathan.

In the future, when he wants to ask, should he build a house for Yahweh?

He goes through Nathan.

So it doesn't seem like God is communicating audibly with David here.

At least that's not the pattern to the rest of the scriptures.

When God is communicating, David is through the priests and through the prophets.

Nevertheless, it is articulated in a pretty particular way, isn't it?

Go around the trees.

There'll be a sound in them, it says in verse 15, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then go out to battle because the trees are disguising as the idea.

God has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.

And so I don't know if this was an audible voice or through some other way, but I do know that we don't have the priest's breastplate.

You know, I don't have, as a pastor, I don't have the, you know, like dice I can roll to get you a yes or no or maybe kind of answer.

Try again.

No.

But we have the word of God, which again David didn't have.

What do you think David would have given for an inspired divine account of his life?

I mean, anything.

He didn't know.

So he's dependent upon this leading from the Lord.

We have something so much better than that.

This is what's meant by Hebrews chapter 1, verse 2.

Hebrews 1:2

God, after he spoke long ago to our fathers and the prophets, and in many portions and in many ways.

I mean, that was the point.

God spoke to the patriarchs and to David through prophets and in lots of other ways, Hebrews 1:1 says.

Hebrews 1:1

But in these last days, he's spoken to us through his son.

So when I say pray before you act again, I don't mean don't act until you get like a good feeling in your heart.

That's bad decision making.

You know, and I've seen people make decisions like that.

They're trying to decide between this or that.

Should I take this job?

Should I take this appointment over in, you know, this military command over in this city or this military command over that city?

I'm gonna pray until I get a good feeling about one.

Well, you could get a good feeling about one, but I necessarily wouldn't trust your feelings.

I know feelings.

Feelings are so deceptive, aren't they?

Feelings are so deceptive.

And so you use biblical wisdom to make decisions that come from the word of God, but you still pray with a dependence upon God's word.

And yes, God does lead us through our desires.

God opens doors and closes doors.

He does lead us through our desires, he gives us the desires of our heart.

If you seek first the Lord, then he gives you the desires in your heart.

And so if you have two good things to choose from, of course you can choose the good thing that you are drawn to because the Lord is leading you through your very desires.

That's very different than refusing to make a choice until you have a feeling.

I hope you understand the difference.

Two good choices, and you feel good about one.

That could be the Lord leading you that way.

Two good choices, and you're not gonna choose either until you get a feeling, that's a problem.

So David isn't polarized, waiting for a good feeling, nor are we supposed to be.

The ask him again means coming back to God, coming back to Scripture with fresh eyes, not running yesterday's playbook, praying honestly and searching the word, searching your own motives, refusing to assume that yesterday's blessing is today's permission.

That was David's attitude.

So he prays to God, and God honors David.

One more thing about this.

When we seek the word of the Lord, we can't just do it like this because providence is something that is only read backwards, only in hindsight.

Providence is not a map you can read in advance.

The Puritans often said that.

Providence can only be read, they didn't have a rearview mirror, but they would have said providence can only be read in the rearview mirror.

What the Puritans said is providence can only be read backwards.

It's a very poor map forwards.

Our job is to obey God's word.

That sets out the map before us, and providence helps us understand how God led us to where we are.

So David does that and goes to battle.

Verse 16.

David did as God commanded him.

They struck down the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer.

They put them to flight.

They routed him, and the Philistines are defeated.

What Saul could never do.

David accomplishes finally.

Give God the glory.

And the fame of David went to all the lands.

And David brought the fear of him upon all nations.

David did not let people make much of him.

We're going to see this next week in chapter 15.

David remained humble.

This was so infuriated Saul's daughter, whom David married, so infuriated her that David didn't act like the king, like Saul did.

He didn't parade himself around in his royal robe and his crown.

He danced in a linen ephod.

He danced in an undershirt in front of everybody.

This was so frustrating to her.

Why can't David act more kingly?

Because David acted more humbly.

He wanted God to have the glory.

Yahweh brought the fear of David upon the nations.

The nations feared David because they feared God.

It's God who is at work.

It's Yahweh who's at work.

God blesses David's faithfulness.

David succeeds.

And David in his success displays the power of his God.

That principle still matters for us, of course.

We shouldn't hoard the confidence or the success or the glory that God gives us.

If God gives us success or influence or credibility or fruitfulness or a good reputation or any blessing like that, don't let it terminate on you.

Use whatever opportunities God gives you to shine his glory and to make his name known.

Saul wanted honor for Saul.

David wanted honor for God.

For Macbeth, the movement of the trees was the sound of his doom.

For David, the movement of the trees was the sound that God had gone before him.

And of course, this point, the story points beyond David.

Of course, it doesn't end here with the trees.

Remember the phrase Perez Uzzah.

In chapter 13, God's holiness broke out against a man who stabled the ark.

And that's the wrath that every one of us deserves.

We try to take glory for ourselves all the time.

We put ourselves forward all the time.

We deserve God's wrath.

God's wrath does not come on us, because in this chapter, God's wrath comes upon his enemies through David.

David, through his sons named in this chapter, Nathan and Solomon, will bring about Christ.

Christ bears God's wrath that should be destined for us in himself.

So God's wrath does break through to this world, but it terminates for us on Christ.

So yes, God's wrath breaks through, but it breaks through on Christ.

We deserve it.

The Son of David gets it.

In that sense, Baal Perazim, that should be all of our motto.

God's wrath crushes our sin, but it crushes our sin in Christ, not in us.

Christ is the shepherd that goes before his sheep, the one who leads us as we walk in this world.

We don't know where he's going to lead us tomorrow or next month or next year.

We can't see all of his providence in advance, but we do know this.

If we belong to him, providence is never random.

It's always personal.

His wrath is never finally against us, but it is always poured out as far as justice demands on Christ.

So take these together.

Remember that God is the one who placed you where you are in life.

Seek him before you move.

Seek him again before you move again.

And where he gives you victory and success and blessing, make sure people see him more than you.

God, we're grateful for your word.

You move even in the trees.

A breeze in the trees, you are providentially at work.

I pray our church should be marked by humility, people who serve you, love you, and trust you.

Who are slow to act without prayer, but quick to act in confidence that you are at work in our lives.

We're grateful for the promises of this chapter.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, or you want more information about what it means to follow Christ, please go to our church website, ibc.church.

If you live in the Washington, D.C.

area, we'd love to see you at one of our own worship services at Emmanuel Bible.

Now may the Lord bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.