Thursday
Evening Bible Study
July
5, 2012
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church
loved?
The first king
of Israel, Saul, was killed in a battle with the Philistines. First it was just the tribe of Judah that
asked David to be their king, and then after 7 ½ years, the rest of the nation rose up and made
David their king.
David has moved
his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem, and he’s moved the famous Ark of the Covenant from
Kiriath Jearim into
Jerusalem as well.
7:1-17 God’s
Covenant with David
:1 Now it came to pass when the king was dwelling
in his house, and the Lord had
given him rest from all his enemies all around,
:2 that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See
now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent
curtains.”
:3 Then Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is
in your heart, for the Lord is
with you.”
:2 a house of cedar
As we looked at last week, David had a custom palace built as a gift by
Hiram, the king of Tyre (2Sam 5:11).
But David begins to think its
not fair that he lives in a house, while the Ark is still in a tent.
The Ark was currently in a tent that David had set up for it in
Jerusalem (2Sam. 6:17).
:2 Nathan
He is one of the prophets that ministered during David’s reign as king.
He’s someone that God uses in order to speak to David.
:3 do all that is in your heart
Lesson
God first
Though Nathan initially tells David that it seems okay to build a Temple,
he will soon be corrected and told that David shouldn’t be the one to build.
That doesn’t make David’s idea bad. Just bad for David in this particular situation.
What David is exhibiting is appropriate.
He wants to put God first in his life.
He’s realized that he’s been so blessed, King Hiram from Tyre has built him his own palace, and yet the Ark of the
Covenant is still housed inside a tent.
Jesus said,
(Mt 6:33
NKJV) But seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you.
The prophet Haggai lived during the time when Israel had come back from
their Babylonian captivity and were beginning the process of rebuilding the
Temple. But they got a little
sidetracked in their building…
(Hag 1:3–8 NKJV) —3 Then the
word of the Lord came by Haggai
the prophet, saying, 4 “Is it time for you
yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in
ruins?” 5 Now therefore, thus says the Lord
of hosts: “Consider your ways! 6 “You have sown much, and bring in little;
You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink;
You clothe yourselves, but
no one is warm; And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a
bag with holes.” 7 Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! 8 Go up to the
mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it
and be glorified,” says the Lord.
The people were putting their own comfort ahead of God’s
purposes. It’s not wrong to be
comfortable, but our first priority is to learn to ask God, “What do You want
me to do”?
Lesson
Follow your heart
There is a principle here in living our lives that we can follow as a
general rule, but it comes with a “prerequisite”.
This general principle only works if “God is with you”, if He is the one
you are following.
If your heart is not right with God, then following your heart is a
dangerous proposition.
(Je 17:9 NKJV) “The heart is deceitful above all things, And
desperately wicked; Who can know it?
Nathan is giving David advice based on what is normally a good principle.
David wrote,
(Ps 37:4
NKJV) Delight
yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
If God is your greatest delight, your greatest joy, then
you will find that the desires you have in your heart have come from Him,
because He has placed them there.
Solomon wrote,
(Pr 3:5–6 NKJV) —5 Trust in the Lord
with all your heart, And lean not on your own
understanding; 6 In all
your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
If your heart is
trusts the Lord and acknowledging Him, then you will see Him direct your life.
Jesus said,
(Jn
15:7 NKJV) If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire,
and it shall be done for you.
If you have a
living, trusting relationship with Jesus, and His
words are living in your heart, then you can ask for whatever you want because
you’ll be asking for the kinds of things that Jesus wants as well.
But it is only a general rule, and there will be times that God will direct
you otherwise.
:4 But it happened that
night that the word of the Lord
came to Nathan, saying,
:5 “Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Would you build a house for Me
to dwell in?
:5 Would you build a house for Me
The writer of Chronicles records God’s word to Nathan in a slightly
different, more direct fashion:
(1 Ch 17:4
NKJV) “Go and
tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “You shall not
build Me a house to dwell in.
Initially, it seems that David isn’t told exactly why he isn’t allowed to
build the temple. He would find out at
some later time one of the reasons why.
David told his son Solomon about it:
(1 Ch 22:8
NKJV) but the
word of the Lord came to me,
saying, ‘You have shed
much blood and have made great wars; you shall not build a house for My name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in My
sight.
David was not to be the temple’s builder because he was a
man who was responsible for much bloodshed. God didn’t want His temple to be
tied to David’s reputation as a bloody man.
David’s life of warfare wasn’t a sin. It was his job to protect the people of
Israel.
Lesson
Not my job
David had been obedient to the Lord in fighting the battles of the
Lord. You could say that he had a
“ministry” of “killing Philistines”.
Because of God’s calling on David’s life, it simply wasn’t David’s place,
David’s job, to build the temple. This
was something that God would reserve for another, for Solomon.
It’s like this in the church. Paul describes the church
as a “body” with many parts. (1Cor.
12)
Your eyeball doesn’t pump the blood through your body. Your liver doesn’t pick up a fork and feed
your mouth.
Sometimes we
aren’t called to do certain things (like David building a temple) because
that’s simply not our function.
David’s function was to subdue the enemies of Israel, not
build the temple.
Lesson
Vision and Work
Even though God didn’t want David to actually build the temple, David’s
idea (vision) wasn’t a bad one.
God will one day want a Temple to be built, but by Solomon.
David would play a huge role in the temple. In a sense he would provide his
son Solomon with a “do-it-yourself”, ready-to-assemble temple kit.
He was the one
who figured out where the Temple was to be built.
When David had blown it by commanding for a census to be
taken, there was a plague on the land and David stopped the plague by having an
altar made and sacrifice be presented at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. When David saw that God had accepted the
sacrifice, it dawned on David what had just taken place:
(1 Ch 22:1 NKJV) Then David said, “This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for
Israel.”
David had discovered the location of the place where the
Temple would be built.
He was the one
who drew the plans for the temple.
(1 Ch 28:11 NKJV) Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the vestibule, its houses, its
treasuries, its upper chambers…
(1 Ch 28:19 NKJV) “All this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand in writing,
by His hand upon me, all the works of these plans.”
God gave David the design for the temple. He didn’t just
make them up.
David also donated
most of the materials that would be used for the temple.
(1 Ch 28:14 NKJV) He gave gold by weight for things of gold, for all articles
used in every kind of service; also silver for all articles of silver by
weight, for all articles used in every kind of service;
David might not have actually put the pieces of the Temple
together, but he did just about everything to make it easier for Solomon to
succeed at it.
You may have a great idea that you think is from the Lord.
It might be that you are just the one to initiate the idea, but it’s for
someone else to complete.
:6 For I have
not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up
from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a
tabernacle.
:7 Wherever I have moved about with all the
children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of
Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you
not built Me a house of cedar?’ ” ’
:6 I have not dwelt in a house
Lesson
Bigger than a house
Even though the language sounds as
if God has been “living” in a tent, everyone, including David knows that God is
much bigger than a tent.
When Solomon would one day build a
Temple under the direction and okay of God, he declared:
(2 Ch 6:18 NKJV) “But will God indeed
dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the
heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have
built!
God is really, really big.
(Is 40:12 NKJV) Who has measured the
waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed
the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance?
This is very important when we run
into difficult times:
(Is 40:27–31 NKJV) —27 Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is
hidden from the Lord, And my just claim is passed over by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God,
the Lord, The Creator of the ends
of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His
understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives
power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall, 31 But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
He may be big, but
He also knows you and cares about you.
:8 Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant
David, ‘Thus says the Lord of
hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler
over My people, over Israel.
:9 And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all
your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of
the great men who are on the earth.
:10 Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel,
and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no
more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously,
:11 since the time that I commanded judges to
be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your
enemies. Also the Lord tells you
that He will make you a house.
:10 I will appoint a place
for My people Israel
God’s view is that the land belongs to Israel.
There would be several times when the nation would be scattered because
of their sin. But God always views the
land of Israel as belonging to the Jews.
Yassir Arafat once claimed that his
people lived in the land before even Abraham.
His point was to try and show how the Jews didn’t belong in the
land. What I do not understand is just
who he was claiming to represent? He claimed
to be a “Palestinian” born in Jerusalem. Yet apparently his father was a
merchant, and he was actually born in Cairo.
Before the Jews were given the land of Palestine by the British in
1948, the Jews who lived in the land were called “Palestinians”. But when Israel was born, they became
“Israelis”, and then the Arabs adopted the name “Palestinian”.
The word “Palestinian” comes from the Roman name for the
land, “Palestine”, which was a perversion of the word “Philistine”.
:11 He will make you a house
Lesson
God’s work in us
In reality, it’s not so much what we do for God that is important as it is what
God does for us, God’s work in us.
Play John F. Kennedy clip, “Ask
not what your country can do…”
We might say, “Don’t ask what you can do for God, but what
can God do for you?”
Paul wrote,
(Tt
3:5 NKJV) not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He
saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
It was His work that counted towards our salvation, not
our work.
Edward
McKendree Bounds (1835-1913) wrote several books on
prayer. In his book, Power through Prayer (ch.
1), he wrote about pastors,
The man, the whole
man, lies behind the sermon. Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is
the outflow of a life. It
takes twenty years to make a sermon, because it takes twenty years to
make the man. The true sermon is a thing of life. The sermon grows because the
man grows. The sermon
is forceful because the man is forceful. The sermon is holy because the man is
holy. The sermon is full of the divine unction because the man is full of the
divine unction. (pg. 12)
Sometimes we get so caught up in doing the work of God that we neglect the
fact that God’s greatest work isn’t what we do for Him, but what He does for
us.
We can get
saddened by what we call “failure” in serving God, but it’s only a failure if
we aren’t allowing God to continue to teach us and shape us.
Sometimes the best thing that can happen to us is to experience a time when
we go through pain and disappointment, when God says, “no”.
(Ps
119:67 NKJV) Before I was afflicted I went astray, But
now I keep Your word.
If I will learn the lessons of the “no” times in my life
(like when I’m afflicted), God will help me grow deeper as a Christian.
:12 “When your days are fulfilled
and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will
come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
:13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will
establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
:14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son.
If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the
blows of the sons of men.
:15 But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I
took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
:16 And your house and your kingdom shall be
established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”
:17 According to all these words and according to
all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.
:12 I will set up your seed
Lesson
David’s Legacy
David’s legacy to the world wouldn’t end when David died. These prophecies speak of three different
kinds of fulfillments:
Solomon
Solomon would build the Temple. He
was the immediate fulfillment of these promises. When it speaks of committing iniquity, it’s
speaking of Solomon and his descendants.
The Dynasty
Unlike Saul, David’s family would continue to rule … forever. Even after the kingdom split in two, it was
David’s family that continued to rule the southern kingdom. Though the dynasty is in a “pause” mode,
eventually there will again be a descendant of David on the throne of Israel,
at least during the Millennium. (Eze. 37:24)
(Eze 37:24 NKJV) “David My servant shall be king
over them, and they shall all have one shepherd; they shall also walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do them.
Jesus Christ
The Messiah would be of the line of David.
The “forever” parts of this promise fall directly on Jesus Christ.
7:18-29 David’s
Thanksgiving
:18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: “Who am I, O
Lord God? And what is my house,
that You have brought me this far?
:18 Who am I
Lesson
Maintaining Humility
We can make a serious mistake when we get news of good things. We can fall into the trap of thinking that
it’s all because of how awesome we are.
There may be truth to the fact that you are a hard worker you are an
intelligent person, but to
take all the credit can lead to a bad place – pride.
David knows exactly what he’s come from.
He knows that he’s only been a shepherd.
He knows that he isn’t “qualified” to be a king.
(1 Co 1:26–27 NKJV) —26 For
you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to
shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame
the things which are mighty;
Real “success” is all about God’s work.
We work at being faithful, but we are nothing without the work of God.
Pastor Chuck said, “It is interesting when God first began to bless Calvary
Chapel. We were outgrowing our little church and having to move. Another man
who was pastoring a church in Costa Mesa that started
out about the same size as our church was encouraging his people as they were
watching the growth of Calvary Chapel, and as exciting things were happening,
and he was telling his people, “If God can do it for Chuck Smith, He can do it
for anybody.” The man was right. That’s why God did it for Chuck Smith to
encourage anybody. God can do it for you.”
“Humility is
not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less” - CSLewis
When our focus is on God, our focus is on the right place.
:19 And yet this was a small
thing in Your sight, O Lord God;
and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. Is
this the manner of man, O Lord God?
David understands that this prophecy would affect things far into the
future.
:20 Now what more can David say to You? For You,
Lord God, know Your
servant.
:21 For Your word’s sake, and according to Your
own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them.
:22 Therefore You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to
all that we have heard with our ears.
:23 And who is like Your people, like Israel, the one nation on the
earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make for Himself a
name—and to do for Yourself great and awesome deeds for Your land—before Your
people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, the nations, and their gods?
:24 For You have made Your people Israel Your very
own people forever; and You, Lord,
have become their God.
:25 “Now, O Lord God, the
word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house,
establish it forever and do as You have said.
:26 So let Your name be magnified forever, saying,
‘The Lord of hosts is the
God over Israel.’ And let the house of Your servant
David be established before You.
:27 For You, O Lord
of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed this to Your servant, saying, ‘I
will build you a house.’ Therefore Your servant has
found it in his heart to pray this prayer to You.
:28 “And now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are true, and You have
promised this goodness to Your servant.
:29 Now therefore, let it please You to bless the house of Your servant,
that it may continue before You forever; for You, O Lord God, have spoken it, and with
Your blessing let the house of Your servant be blessed forever.”
:29 bless the house of Your servant
If God wants to bless you (and He does), then learn to just receive it.
God’s blessings aren’t based on whether we deserve it,
it’s based on God wanting to bless us.
Lesson
Receive it
We need to just learn to say “yes”.
(Lk 11:9–13
NKJV) —9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek,
and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it
will be opened. 11 If a son asks for
bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks
for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer
him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
:29 the house of Your servant
Did you notice a word that is repeated over and over and over in David’s
response to God?
Nine times David refers
to himself as a “servant”. He doesn’t
call himself “THE KING”, but he calls himself a “servant”.
Lesson
Servant
Here is this king that God is promising wonderful things to. God is promising to make David’s lineage the
lineage of the Kings of Israel. God is
promising an everlasting kingdom to the Son of David. God is promising to David that he would be
the ancestor to the Messiah. Jesus would
have David’s genes in Him.
I would think that David should be referring to himself as “God’s King”, or
“God’s Man of the Hour”. But instead, he
calls himself a servant.
When James and John went to Jesus asking if they could receive high exalted
positions in Jesus’ kingdom, Jesus replied with:
(Mk 10:42–45 NKJV) 42 But Jesus
called them to Himself and said to them, “You know that those who are
considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones
exercise authority over them. 43 Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever
desires to become great among you shall be your servant. 44 And whoever of you
desires to be first shall be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be
served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
James and John weren’t even asking to sit on a throne,
they just wanted to be on Jesus’ right and left hand. They didn’t see themselves as kings, just as
a king’s right-hand-guys.
Jesus pointed them back to being servants.
Even He was a servant.
It’s always about being a servant.
8:1-14 More
Conquests
:1 After this it came to pass that David attacked
the Philistines and subdued them. And David took Metheg
Ammah from the hand of the Philistines.
:1 Metheg
Ammah – “mother city”
This is Gath
(Play Gath map clip). The writer of
Chronicles records,
(1 Ch 18:1 NKJV) After this it came to pass that David attacked the Philistines,
subdued them, and took Gath
and its towns from the hand of the Philistines.
Apparently, Gath was considered the “mother of all cities” to the
Philistines. It had been the home of
David’s first conquest, Goliath. It had
been the place where David had run to when he was hiding from Saul. It was where David had befriended and served
the king of Gath, Achish.
By taking this
city, it seems that David is in control of the Philistines.
:2 Then he defeated Moab.
Forcing them down to the ground, he measured them off with a line. With two
lines he measured off those to be put to death, and with one full line those to
be kept alive. So the Moabites became David’s servants, and brought
tribute.
:2 Moab
These were the descendants of Lot's incestuous relationship with his
eldest daughter (Gen.19:37).
(Map) The nation was
located on the east of the Dead Sea.
Notice how David is conquering the nations that sandwich him in.
At one time, David had been on good terms with the Moabites.
(1 Sa 22:3–4
NKJV) —3 Then David
went from there to Mizpah of Moab; and he said to the
king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother come here with you, till I know
what God will do for me.” 4 So he brought them before the king of Moab, and they dwelt with him
all the time that David was in the stronghold.
David's
great grandmother, Ruth, was a Moabite.
That means David has Moabite blood in him.
Yet here David goes to
war against Moab, and end up putting to death two-thirds of their army. Cruel?
Jewish writers assert
that after David had asked the king of Moab to take care of his parents, the
king of Moab turned around and massacred David’s parents and family.
Maybe that’s why David
acted this way.
:3 David also defeated Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king
of Zobah, as he went to recover his territory at the
River Euphrates.
:3 Zobah
… Euphrates
(map) During the times of Saul, David, and
Solomon, this was an area that formed a separate kingdom north of Damascus.
The Euphrates is the largest and longest river of western Asia, it starts
in Armenia, flows through Turkey, Syria, Iraq and flows into the Persian Gulf
Notice how far the river
Euphrates is from Israel. The closest
the Euphrates gets to the Sea of Galilee is 250 miles.
Why is David doing all this conquering?
Isn’t he getting a little carried away?
To Abraham, God promised:
(Ge 15:18 NKJV) On the same day the Lord
made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this
land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates—
God promised the land
from the Nile to the Euphrates.
To Moses, God promised the same thing:
(Dt 11:24
NKJV) Every place on which the sole of your
foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river,
the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory.
David is simply coloring within the lines.
He’s staying inside the territory God had promised to His people.
:4 David took from him one
thousand chariots, seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand foot
soldiers. Also David hamstrung all the chariot horses, except that he spared enough
of them for one hundred chariots.
:4 hamstrung all the chariot horses
The practice was to cut the Achilles tendon the horses. It didn’t kill the horse, but made it
unusable in pulling chariots.
This is what the Lord had commanded
Joshua to do to his enemies’ horses:
(Jos 11:6 NKJV) But the Lord
said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow about this time
I will deliver all of them slain before Israel. You shall hamstring their
horses and burn their chariots with fire.”
This might not seem to be very
smart. Why not just keep all the horses
for yourself?
(Ps 20:7 NKJV) Some trust in
chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the
name of the Lord our God.
Perhaps David
wanted to be sure to keep his trust in the Lord, not the new chariots.
:5 When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David
killed twenty-two thousand of the Syrians.
:6 Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus;
and the Syrians became David’s servants, and brought tribute. So the Lord preserved David wherever he went.
:6 Syrians of Damascus
This is the same Damascus that’s the capital of Syria today.
The Syrians (like today) were the nation directly north of Israel. When they tried to help Zobah,
they were defeated.
David ends up putting troops in
Damascus.
:7 And David took the shields of gold that had
belonged to the servants of Hadadezer, and brought
them to Jerusalem.
:7 shields of gold
I think these gold shields would
become emblematic of God’s blessing and protection.
Here we see David capturing and taking gold shields. Later, Solomon would make 300 shields of
gold, the pinnacle of the kingdom.
(2 Ch 9:16 NKJV) He also made
three hundred shields of hammered gold; three hundred shekels of gold
went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
Under Solomon's son Rehoboam, the nation began
its decline, as pictured with the gold shields being taken away.
(2 Ch 12:9–10 NKJV) —9 So Shishak king of Egypt came up
against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s
house; he took everything. He also carried away the gold shields which Solomon
had made. 10 Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them
to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the
king’s house.
Brass is cheaper than gold, but it can be made to shine just as
brightly. But you have to put a lot of
elbow grease into it to keep it shiny.
Gold just stays shiny on its own.
:8 Also from Betah and
from Berothai, cities of Hadadezer,
King David took a large amount of bronze.
:8 Betah and … Berothai
Don’t have a location for Betah. Berothai is 30 miles northwest of Damascus.
:9 When Toi king of Hamath heard that David had defeated all the army of Hadadezer,
:10 then Toi sent Joram
his son to King David, to greet him and bless him, because he had fought
against Hadadezer and defeated him (for Hadadezer had been at war with Toi);
and Joram brought with him articles of silver,
articles of gold, and articles of bronze.
:9 Toi
David has a new admirer. Toi had been at war with Hadadezer.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
David gets a present from his new friend for defeating Hadadezer.
:9 Hamath
Play map video. Located
115 miles north of Damascus.
:11 King David also
dedicated these to the Lord,
along with the silver and gold that he had dedicated from all the nations which
he had subdued—
:12 from Syria, from Moab, from the people of Ammon, from the Philistines, from Amalek,
and from the spoil of Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Zobah.
:13 And David made himself a name when he
returned from killing eighteen thousand Syrians in the Valley of Salt.
:14 He also put garrisons in Edom; throughout all
Edom he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became
David’s servants. And the Lord
preserved David wherever he went.
:13 the Valley of Salt
(play map clip) Located on the
southwest coast of the Dead Sea.
If you noticed, David has conquered to the west, the east, the north,
and now the south.
:13 Syrians
The Hebrew word here is “Aram”
The Septuagint and some of the other translations of the Old Testament
say “Edom” here, and this is in the area of Edom. This may be a copyist error since there is
only one letter difference in the Hebrew between “Aram” and “Edom”.
It could be that the Syrians were helping the Edomites
in the Valley of Salt.
:13 the Valley of Salt
(map)
The writer of Chronicles says that Abishai
was in charge at the time –
(1 Ch 18:12 NKJV) Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah killed
eighteen thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
To make things even more confusing, it seems that David wrote a song
about this event, and he credits part of the victory to Joab
and has a different number that were killed.
Perhaps Joab was responsible for a portion, and Abishai for another
portion.
Lesson
Difficult battles
Listen to the song and see what kind of trouble David felt they were in
during these battles:
(Ps 60 NKJV) — To the Chief
Musician. Set to “Lily of the Testimony.” a Michtam
of David. For Teaching. When He Fought Against
Mesopotamia and Syria of Zobah, and Joab Returned and Killed Twelve Thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt. 1 O God, You have cast us off; You have broken us down; You have been displeased; Oh,
restore us again! 2 You have made the
earth tremble; You have broken it; Heal its breaches,
for it is shaking. 3 You have shown Your people hard things; You have made us drink the wine of
confusion. 4 You have given a
banner to those who fear You, That it may be displayed
because of the truth. Selah 5 That Your
beloved may be delivered, Save with Your right hand, and hear me. 6 God has spoken in His holiness: “I will
rejoice; I will divide Shechem And
measure out the Valley of Succoth. 7 Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is
the helmet for My head; Judah is My lawgiver. 8 Moab is My
washpot; Over Edom I will cast My shoe; Philistia, shout
in triumph because of Me.” 9 Who will bring me to
the strong city? Who will lead me to Edom? 10 Is it not You, O God, who cast us off? And You, O God, who
did not go out with our armies? 11 Give us help from
trouble, For the help of man is useless. 12 Through God we will do valiantly, For it is He who shall tread down our enemies.
If we only read the short description from 2Samuel, we might not have
thought that the battle was anything too spectacular. We would be wrong.
Sometimes we can look at others and see the victory they’ve had in the
Lord and think it must have been easy for them.
Yet sometimes victory comes through much tears and crying out to God.
8:15-18 David’s
government
:15 So David reigned over all Israel; and David
administered judgment and justice to all his people.
:16 Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder;
:17 Zadok the son of Ahitub and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar were the priests; Seraiah
was the scribe;
:18 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over both the Cherethites
and the Pelethites; and David’s sons were chief
ministers.
David is displaying some organizational skills here, showing that he didn’t
run everything, but delegated responsibilities.
:18 the Cherethites
and the Pelethites
These were Philistines who had joined David. They served as a sort of bodyguard, a “secret
service” for David.
:18 chief ministers – kohen – priest, principal officer or chief
ruler
Some translations have “priests” here, but David is not of the tribe of
Levi, nor a descendant of Aaron, and we have no indication that David somehow
crossed this forbidden line by having his sons serve as priests.
“Chief ministers” works better in the
translation.
:11 gold … dedicated these to the Lord
Lesson
Building your life right
These things were brought into the Temple treasury.
They would be used in the building of the Temple
Paul talked about how we build our lives:
(1 Co
3:12–13 NKJV) —12
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver,
precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the
Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will
test each one’s work, of what sort it is.
We want to build our lives with things that will pass the
“fire”, pass the test with God.
I found it interesting this week to be reminded in our reading about the
kinds of stuff that Solomon used to build the Temple:
(2 Ch 4:22
ESV) the
snuffers, basins, dishes for incense, and fire pans, of pure gold, and the sockets of the temple, for the inner
doors to the Most Holy Place and for the doors of the nave of the temple
were of gold.
Even the door sockets in the Holy Place were made of gold.
Where did Solomon get the gold to build the sockets?
From the spoils of war.
The prize at the end of a hard fought battle.
There are some battles worth fighting for.
In particular I think about battles in our lives over sin,
and over what we allow into our mind.
(2 Co 10:4–5 NKJV) 4 For the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down
strongholds, 5 casting down
arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,
bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ
Build your house right.
Fight the good fight.