Fresh Dependence - 2 Samuel 5

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2 Samuel chapter 5. 2 Samuel chapter 5. We continue our study of the life of David. Essentially, through 1st and 2nd Samuel, we've seen David's development, his character, his place of trust and reliance. Now we we note and we understand that he's not perfect. And so a lot of this is the idea that much of the Bible is about if they can do it, we can do it. We can trust God. We can let God grow us and shape us. And this is what God wants to do in our life. A big theme that we've come up with over and over again is that God is more interested in working in us than through us. Life is for enjoyment and we get to experience that. Life is for blessing and blessing others. But it's most of all our trust in our relationship with a very real God. So that's the kind of stuff we've been looking at. As we dive in here, chapter 5, verse 1. It's a significant time as we read. Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, Indeed, we are bone of your bones, flesh and your flesh. Also, in time past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in. And the Lord said to you, You shall shepherd my people Israel, and be ruler over Israel. Therefore all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord. And they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned 33 years over all Israel and Judah. So we've noticed there's kind of an interim period of time. Saul had died there at the end of 1 Samuel. And his son Ishbosheth has been a kind of puppet king in the territory of Israel in the north, while David has been in Hebron in the southern territory of Judah, if you can picture that on the map in your mind. And through assassination, Saul's general Abner is killed. Ishbosheth has been killed in the last chapter. And David looks up and he's king. He's king over Israel and Judah, all the territory that God had promised. Now let's flash back for a second. It was 1 Samuel 16, where God promised, David, you're going to be the next king. There. Samuel annoys him. Anoints him. I don't know what that was all about, but uh anoints him and says he's going to be king. But here's the thing: it's 12 to 13 years that David is running from mad King Saul. And and in this meantime, since Saul's assassination, it's been seven and a half years that David has been uh reigning there in Hebron over partial territory. Um and finally, 20 years in the making, you could say, finally, David is king. And we understand this sometimes in our life. It's a chapter break, right? It's kind of appropriate, as we're sending Zach and Chelsea off. It's just chapter break. And you find yourself in kind of a new place, you know, a new role. Uh maybe it's graduating from high school. That's coming up for some, right? Uh, maybe it's getting married, having kids. Um, maybe it's a new role or a new location, retirement or grandkids, new ministry, all these different things. They're just kind of like a chapter break, and we know what that's like, and we feel that. Um, and so David, I'm sure he had to just stop for a second and go, Wow, 20 years it's been, and now I'm finally doing what God told me I was gonna be doing. The promise is being fulfilled. Well, verse six, it seems like a good time to go to war, I guess. Verse six, and the king, notice the new role here in verse six, and the king said to his men uh and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, You shall not come in here, but the blind of the lame will repel you, thinking David cannot come in here. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David. So, New Roll is king. First thing he does is he goes to war. It's Jerusalem, right? Popular place in our day, right? In the news, uh almost every day, probably. Um, a little history of this city, though. You'll remember God told Abraham in chapter 12 of the book of Genesis, see this land, Abraham, I'm giving it to you and your descendants forever. Um, at the time, this specific territory of Jerusalem was not called Jerusalem, it was called Salem. And we see it again in Genesis chapter 14, a man named Melchizedek. Now, if you want to do a little study, go to the book of Hebrews and the book of Genesis there in chapter 14, and look at this guy, Melchizedek. It's just uh he's an enigma, I guess you could say. He's a puzzle, right? Because uh, according to Hebrews, he has no father or mother, no beginning or end of days. Uh, he is a king and a priest. Uh and and he's there in this town called Salem, that means peace. Now, that Salem is likely this Jerusalem because it means the same thing, city of peace. Uh, now Abraham later in Genesis finds himself on a mountain range called Moriah. God has said, take your son, your only son, whom you've loved, and I want you to go to the place that I show you and offer him there as a sacrifice. And Abraham goes on this three-day journey to offer up his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Well, it's on the hillside there, the mountains of Moriah, that Abraham goes to offer his son. And you know the story, God stops him and says, Now I know that you trust me with your everything. And God makes a promise there that it's in this spot that God will provide a sacrifice. That spot seems to be this spot on the top of the mountains there. Uh, it's Jerusalem. And you can picture that as you picture Jerusalem. It's got pine trees and slope, it's a mountaintop kind of thing. And that very important thing, uh, event happens there with Abraham. Now, a little later in the book of Joshua, if you're reading through the Bible, the one-year Bible, you've read about this place in Joshua chapter 15. It says this as for the Jebuzites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem to this day. So we're told that Jerusalem was a place that God had given them in the book of Joshua, but they never took a hold of it, not completely. And the Jebusites were there. Now, here in chapter 5, verse 6, we see the Jebusites are still there. It's kind of a mingling of God's people and the people of the land. Now, side note, maybe it's not a side note, maybe it's the most important thing. Jerusalem was also a place that Jesus taught. He spoke. Um, he went into the temple that was later there. And there, right outside the city, he died on a cross for our sins. So a lot going on in this city of Jerusalem. And here, David senses it's time to take it. And he goes up with his men. Now, we're not given a whole lot about this, other than the fact that they're trash talk, right? Here, notice the Jebusites, um, they come to David and they say, Look, we can take the blind and the lame, right? And those days, especially, uh, people with not a whole lot of strength, right? And and the Jebusites say, we could fend you off with with anybody. And and and they're they trash talk. Now, this is a good point for us. God has stubborn resistance in our life. We have stubborn resistance in our life, things in our life that God wants to deal with, right? Maybe it's not the Jebuzites, but maybe it's fear or lust or a lying kind of way of dealing with things. Um, pride. God has these attitudes that he sees in our life and he says, I want you want to deal with those things. And you look at your life and you go, you know what? I've been this way for my whole life. And the devil comes around like these Jebusites and says, Look, I don't even need to try to keep you from having victory in that spot. Trash talk, right? As you look at the strategy of the devil, talk is a big thing that the devil seems to do. Uh, Ephesians chapter 6, Paul says that the devil's got some wiles, some strategies for hurting us and harming us. And one of them is this very thing, trash talk. Can you imagine something in your life? And God says, Look, I want to deal with that bitter heart of yours. I want to deal with that dirty mind of yours. And you think, wow, that would be great to be different, to not struggle with that, to have some victory in that. And the devil says, Look, you recognize the voice. He says, Look, it's never gonna change. Your parents were like this, their parents were like this. That thing in your life is never going away. I could do it with one hand tied behind my back, I could keep you from victory in that. And it's all just trash talk. The book of Nehemiah, we see that as Nehemiah's building the wall, the enemy comes and says, What are you doing? If a fox ran up on this thing and fall over, you can't do it. You can't have victory, and it's a subtle thing, but it's very effective here as the Jebusites offer a little discouragement here to David. Well, we're here, and David goes in with his men, and verse 7, David has victory, he took the stronghold of Zion. Now, there's some details following, but skip down to verse 10. So David went on and became great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him. So this kind of sums it up at that point. David became great, and the Lord God was with him. It's probably better put for the Lord God was with him, or because the Lord God was with him. So, where was the victory at? Was it because David, you know, grouped his men together, and man, they really fought hard? No, it's because the Lord God was with them, and it's very pointed. Now, verse 11, David begins to do some kingly things, and they're not all great. Then Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees and carpenters and masons, and they built David a house there in Jerusalem. So David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem. Now, David's doing some pretty typical kingly things. He's making alliances, he's finding some blessing from Hiram who wants to make a deal with him. Uh, he'll come into the story later as well. But here we see he takes more wives. And we talked about this ugly fact last week. Uh, as we realize, just because it's here doesn't mean God approved of this. You remember God's intention was that it's one man, one woman for life. That's the way he set it up. He says in Deuteronomy 17, when you have kings, don't let them multiply gold, horses, or wives, um, because it's gonna be their harm, it's gonna be their downfall. Now, check it out. That's the way the ancient kings of the day lived. They did alliances through these marriages and such. Um, but that's not what God had for him. But here we see, even though David is a man after God's own heart, he's still just a man. Uh now notice verse um 17. Now, when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. And the Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the valley of Rephaim. So David inquired the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand. So here the Philistines realize David is actually king of the whole place now, and they come to fight against him. They're in the valley of Rephaim. Now, that word Rephiam means giants. So picture this it's the valley of the giants, right? There were giants in the land in those olden days there in the land of Canaan. They went in and said, There's giants in the land. Well, here is the valley of the giants. So you can picture whatever that might look like, but it's a little daunting. And David, we see here, went. There was some battles to be fought, and David went for it. Now, notice, we need to notice uh verse 19. What does David do? Classic. So David inquired of the Lord. What does that mean again? Inquired of the Lord. It simply means to ask. Now, come back for a second. This is something we have a hard time with, right? But David simply asked God, God, what do you want me to do? You want me to go forward? Do you want me to go back? Do you want me to just stay right here? God, what do you want? And this is such a hard thing for us to ask God what to do. We strategize and plan, and sometimes we just move forward in a decision and things fall apart. It happens all the time. I hear it, and I've been there, right? And we look at where we're at and we say, God, why is all this hard stuff happened to me? Why is my life so difficult? And yet we never took time to ask God if it was really what he wanted. Now, we got to know that even when you do what God wants, life is not easy, right? There's still battles, even there in the promised land. There's there's still battles. Life can be difficult. Even when God gives you the remedy for things, life can be difficult. Remember Moses there in a place that sounds similar to this, it's Rephidim. Uh, Joshua is out there fighting this battle, and Moses is up there praying to the Lord. And as his hands start to go down, he realizes every time, I don't know how he realized it honestly, but every time his hands start to go down, the battle changes, and Joshua starts to lose. So he's like, okay, I will keep my hands up and I'll keep praying. And and God starts to give him the victory. Well, his hands get tired and he starts to put them down. They have to bring Aaron and her over to hold his hands up through the battle. Hey, the battle was, you know, God's plan and God was giving him victory, but it wasn't easy, right? Even the good stuff in life isn't easy. But sometimes we make our own stubborn decision against everything that God says, and we say, God, why is my life so hard? When what we really need to do is inquire of the Lord. So notice here, he inquires of the Lord, and God says, I will doubtless, there in verse 19, I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand. So David went up to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. And he said, The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like the breakthrough of water. Therefore, he called the name of the place, uh Bel Perazim, which means God breaks through. Um, and they left their images there, and David and his men carried them away. Now, Chronicles lets us know they didn't just carry him away, they burned them with fire. That's a good idea. Good job there. But verse 22, then the Philistines came up once again and deployed themselves in the valley of Rephaim. Therefore, David inquired of the Lord, and he said, Um, and and God said, You shall not go up, circle around behind and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. And it shall be when you hear the sound of the marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance quickly, for then the Lord will go out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines. And David did so, as the Lord commanded, and he drove back the Philistines from Gaba to Gazer. So the Philistines regrouped, and and David faces off with them once again. Same enemies, right? Same basic location. And David, it says, inquired of the Lord. And and here we see that trust is not just a uh a one-time thing, it's a second wave, it's a fresh thing. And David doesn't assume that God is still gonna be with him, he asks him. Now, this is hard for us, right? Because we have sometimes victory in our life, but we can't just stand in that victory. We can't just go by the same direction, right? Imagine Joshua. He surrounds the the city of Jericho, like God told him. He marches around it silently, the whole seven days thing, and shouts and the walls fall down. Man, it would have been real easy for Joshua to say, hey, all right, next city, let's surround that city, let's march around that city, let's shout, and let's those let's have those walls fall down. And and that's not the way it works. Um, Moses, lift your hands. Every battle, lift your hands. Well, that's a good picture, but that's not the direction from God. We can't live on old manna. You see what I'm saying? The manna was fresh every day, and here David determines I'm gonna ask God what he wants now. It's a new day, it's a new situation, and I'm gonna ask him. It's that dependence. Now, listen, it's what God wants from all of this dependence and reliance, a heart that's turned towards um. There's a lot of good things we can do. Oh, I remember this one situation where I was struggling and I prayed, and I took two days to fast, and God gave me the answer. I know what I'll do, I'll pray and fast. Now, that's a good idea, that's not a bad thing, but maybe God wants to do something different. Maybe it was, oh, I just, you know, opened up the Bible, I just let it fall. And I opened up the Bible and I pointed at the scripture and it said, you know, yes, go to the south. Amen. I'll do that. Now, if you did that every single Time you might end up in some really weird places, right? Because what God is looking for is fresh dependence, that's what he wants. He wants our heart turned towards him. It's not a process, it's a personal relationship. It's the kind of stuff we say, right? So David does in verse 23, he inquires again, and you know the story. God gives him a new sign. It involves wind in the trees, right? The sound of marching in the trees. That's how you'll know. It's fresh. Now, this is the relationship that God wants. Certainly, it takes, like David, the desire just to act, right? To do something about it. Those Jebusites, I have a heart. We're going for it. We're gonna take on the Jebusites. You know, those Philistines, I have a heart to act. I want to move forward in that. But we stop and see what God has to say about it. Daily reliance is what God has for us. And and and that's where he brings it, right? Um, in this, I think it's so important that we remember who God is in this. He's faithful. One of the characteristics of who God is is he's faithful. He does faithful things. Yes, he does, but he's absolutely faithful. God will not let you down. I promise. He can't, right? He is loving. Oh, we need to understand that God is loving. But God, if I go that way, don't you understand? It'll it'll result in hurt and pain and difficulty. Trust me, I love you. Romans 5.8. You gotta know it. That God demonstrates his own love for us. That while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God loves us not because of what we do, but because of who he is, right? It's his own desire to love us. He's gonna love you, he's gonna lead you into good things, the best things for you. But you have to trust him. Uh, I think the best example we get here is come to him, inquire of the Lord, just ask him. Maybe it's the beginning of your day. God, what do you want from me today? What do you have for me? This situation is so hard. I have a good idea, God, but what do you want me to do? God, what do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go? What is this all about? And it's that personal, everyday, loving trust of God who cares so much for you. That love will never change, his faithfulness will never change. Uh, be assured of that, assured of that this week uh and every day. God, here we are again, and it's another Bible study. And and God, I know your word is alive, and we're here for a reason and a purpose, even right here in this passage. God, but it's so hard to trust you, and it's so hard to ask you, and then do the things that you say, but yet, God, it's so good because you're so faithful and you're so kind, and even the things we don't understand in life, God, we can cast those things on you because you really do care for us. God, help us not just to hear this word, but help us to do it. It's so sweet to trust you, and it's so good to walk with you. Let these be realities in our life. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.