[0:00] at least one extra. Take out your Bibles with me, please, and turn to 1 Samuel chapter 16. Remember, your Bible is organized by the first five books, which are the law, the Pentateuch.
[0:18] Then comes history. History, the next 12 books in your Bible are historical books, beginning with Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. Ruth is part of that time. And then you come to Samuel.
[0:38] So now we come to a section of Scripture. Well, this particular story we're looking at today is fairly well known in Samuel, the story of David. But then it gets quite a bit confusing as you get into the Kings, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, because there's lots of different kings. And we'll get into that next week.
[1:06] So it's 1 Samuel chapter 16 is where we will start today, where we will read. I'm just planning to read.
[1:18] How far am I planning to read? Where's my notes? 1 through 13. So if you're able, please stand as I read from the Word of God in chapter 16 of 1 Samuel.
[1:39] 1 Samuel 1 through 13.
[2:09] 1 Samuel 1 through 13.
[2:39] 1 Samuel 1 through 13.
[3:09] 1 Samuel 1 through 13. 1 Samuel 1 through 13.
[3:24] 1 Samuel 1 through 13. But the Lord looks on the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before him.
[3:35] And he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one. Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, neither has the Lord chosen this one. And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.
[3:48] And Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these. And Samuel said to Jesse, are all your sons here? He said, well, you know, there remains the young one.
[4:02] But behold, he's keeping the sheep. Somebody's got to work. And Samuel said to Jesse, send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.
[4:14] And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, red. And had beautiful eyes. And was handsome.
[4:30] Nothing about the height, though. And the Lord said, arise. Anoint him, Messiah. For this is he.
[4:43] Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.
[5:02] So reads the word. Let us pray. Father, teach us how you have planned from the beginning a remedy for our ruin.
[5:22] Show us, Father, from days long gone, how even then you were working toward the fulfillment of a promise. To bless every family of the earth.
[5:37] Through one descended from Abraham. And from David. Who will be our hope.
[5:50] Who will be our savior. Who will be the righteous one. Show us today. This we pray in Christ's name.
[6:03] Amen. Please be seated. So this is Easter, right?
[6:14] Resurrection Sunday. We're supposed to be in one of the Gospels, aren't we? We're reading one of the resurrection stories, right? What are we doing in the Old Testament?
[6:25] What does the Old Testament have to do with Resurrection Sunday? Does the Old Testament in fact anticipate and point to the resurrection of the King?
[6:40] Does the Old Testament show one who was rejected? One who was rejected? Who suffered?
[6:51] Who delivered his people? And rose to be a victorious savior? Does the Old Testament in fact foresee one who would be faithful and righteous and fear God above all?
[7:11] Who even had a heart for God? This is exactly what we see in 1 and 2 Samuel. It shows us such a savior.
[7:26] One who foreshadows Jesus Christ as the suffering king who rises to save his people. David was a faithful king.
[7:41] He obeyed the Lord. He obeyed the Lord. He obeyed the Lord. He obeyed the Lord. Unlike Saul, he obeyed the Lord. He defeated enemies by faith in the Lord.
[7:55] He always kept God first. Even when he had the chance to take out his tormentor, he would not do it for fear of the Lord. And not only was he a warrior king, he was a worshiping king.
[8:19] Perhaps beyond everyone before him, he had a passion and a zeal to exalt the name of the Lord.
[8:29] He wrote psalm after psalm after psalm. He developed a choir.
[8:40] He developed musicians. He wanted the worship of God to be exuberant and honoring.
[8:53] There was no one like him. In fact, every king after him would be judged by his standard.
[9:06] Was he faithful like David or was he not? Was he faithful to a point like David, but not as righteous as David? This was the man.
[9:20] If you read from 1 Samuel 1, all the way through 2 Samuel 10, you will find him unmatchable except by Jesus Christ.
[9:38] Now you turn the page to 2 Samuel 11, something else happens. Some other person shows up.
[9:50] But we'll get to that later. 1 and 2 Samuel, we see the unfolding drama of redemption continued. We've seen this drama over the last several weeks.
[10:02] Your outline, you have a chart on the back. But don't look yet. Let me ask you, what do you remember? Genesis starts the first era, the first act of God's redemption drama.
[10:19] What is the theme of Genesis and to whom is the theme given? Genesis is written of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
[10:36] Those men are called who? Patriarchs. They're our fathers, patriarchs. Patriarchs. And to what? What was given to them? Promise.
[10:48] The same promise God gave to Abraham, He gave to Isaac, He gave to Judah. Jacob. Have trouble with Jacob, don't you? Well, God even had trouble with Jacob.
[10:59] Changed His name to Israel. Three huge promises in Genesis chapter 12. One, I will make of you, Abraham was 75 and had no children.
[11:13] And he had a barren wife. I will make of you a great nation. Not just a nation. A great nation. Two, in your descendant, I will bless all the families of the earth.
[11:31] So it's not just a nation, but all the families of the earth. Three, I will give to you this land I'm promising as an everlasting possession.
[11:46] Not a temporary place. An everlasting possession. Three huge promises. So, what happens in Exodus?
[11:59] What's the theme? Redemption. Redemption by what? By Exodus, but also by the blood of a lamb.
[12:13] Redemption by the blood of the lamb. That's what kicked it all off. That's what saved them from the death angel. They redeemed. They go out into the desert. God makes a covenant with them, does He not?
[12:23] This covenant is an if-then covenant. If you obey, if you keep my covenant, I will bless you beyond all circumstances. If you break my commandment and do not keep my commandment, what will I do?
[12:41] I'll kill you. Pretty straightforward. Do you agree? We agree. Exodus ends.
[12:53] We go to the book of Numbers. Numbers shows us a long period of time. What's the theme in the book of Numbers? Numbers. So, they've got to Sinai.
[13:06] They've got the covenant. They've got the tabernacle. Now, they're ready to go to the land. What happens next? Rebellion in the wilderness. He sends the 12 spies in to look at the land.
[13:18] Two of them come back and say, let's do it. And 10 of them say, no, we're not doing it. We can't do it. Nope, nope, nope. Not going to happen. They rebel.
[13:28] And God basically kills off that generation. Not basically. Totally. Kills off that generation in the next 40 years and starts with the next generation.
[13:41] Two men or two families survive, Joshua and Caleb. Which brings us to the fourth act. In Joshua, what happens? They go into the land, right?
[13:56] And what the book of Joshua tells us is at the end, a number of times, it tells us that God kept his promise. In fact, God kept every bit of his promise.
[14:07] In fact, not one word of what God promised failed. He fulfilled his promise of the land. And so they have it.
[14:19] So there's the first fulfillment. Out of Exodus, they come from, in Exodus, they become a multi-million people. They start to become a great nation.
[14:31] Now they get the land. Okay, that's two out of three promises, right? They got a nation now. They got a land now. And then Joshua ends and it turns into the time of the judges.
[14:45] And that's going to cover about 375 years, give or take. What happens during the judges? Huh?
[14:58] More rebellion. The way that the book of Judges puts it is, in those days there was no king. And everyone did what was right in their own eyes.
[15:13] And so you can imagine for over 300 years, everyone doing what is right in their own eyes. They'd kind of ruin things. God would raise up a judge. They'd save them for a while.
[15:23] And then they'd ruin things again. And went through judge after judge after judge after judge. And the judges went from, remember, good to bad to ugly. Right?
[15:37] You had your Deborahs. And you had your Gideon. He's not so good. And you had Samson. Just plain ugly.
[15:47] And yet, God, in Samson's death, we see a picture of Christ. Imagine that.
[16:01] So, years go by. The nation is in ruins. So, this is a major turning point. We come now to Act 5.
[16:12] We go from promises to redemption to rebellion to promise keeper for promise breakers. And now we're going to come to the United Kingdom. How do we come out of such a dark time into such a golden age?
[16:29] In fact, this time with David and Solomon is the glory days of Israel. This is the golden age. They had it all. There were no, by the time David was done, no enemies.
[16:44] Rest on every side. They are a great nation in the promised land. We're just waiting for the ultimate fulfillment in the last part of the promise.
[16:56] Every family of the earth to be blessed. And, of course, actually in time of Solomon, we start to see. They're coming. They start coming. Because this wisdom of Solomon, everybody wants to hear this wisdom of the one who knows Yahweh.
[17:14] So, how do we get from darkness to such great light? Well, there's a transition. So, what I want you to see here, what we're going to look at today is breaking this up into two Davids.
[17:30] Okay? David 1 and David 2. Because they're completely different. They're shockingly contrasted. So, in David 1, in 1 Samuel 1, all the way through 2 Samuel 10, we see a man of faith.
[17:52] I mean, he trusted the Lord. How do you stand up against a giant with a sling and a stone unless you've got some major faith? Okay? Okay.
[18:05] And so, but we see in the journey of David, one who in faith was rejected by the ruler, Saul, was then hunted and persecuted and attempted to be killed by Saul.
[18:21] So, then one who God raised up as an exalted king. So, he's rejected, suffers, and then is exalted as the king.
[18:37] Sound familiar? He was one rejected by the rulers but popular with the people. Remember David? Popular with the people but hated by the ruler? Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
[18:51] And one who rose up as a king and delivered his people from their enemies. So, here's the story of David.
[19:05] If you look at your outline, you'll see, once again, one of those chiasms. Chiasm. Right? You'll see this. And all of the Old Testament pretty much is structured in these chiasms.
[19:18] It's a form of literature where it is highly structured. The story, let's see, how are you looking at it? The story comes down, right?
[19:30] Yeah. The story comes down this way. So, it starts, so the beginning and the ending echo each other, right? So, it starts with Samuel, with a transition. Samuel succeeds elderly Eli.
[19:43] Samuel becomes the last judge of Israel. And he will become an established prophet. The story ends with another transition.
[19:55] At the end of David's life, Solomon succeeds the elderly David. So, we see another transition. In the middle of the story, we see the next point after Samuel is part B, the fall, the rise and fall of Saul.
[20:10] You look at the end of the story, part B, you see the fall of David. Go into the middle of the story, C, you'll see David's rise to popularity in Saul's kingdom.
[20:23] And later, see David's rise to power over all Israel, a united kingdom. In between that, you'll see Saul getting worse, killing the priests who won't give up David.
[20:41] And then later, Saul and his sons are killed. In the middle of that, we see David sparing Saul's life twice. And in the very transitional point of the story, interesting, totally, David gets saved by Abigail.
[21:00] Abigail, he ends up marrying her because she's so impressive. She intercedes. David's on his way to just wipe out her husband and all the people because, you know, you have to read the story.
[21:14] But Abigail comes out and pleads with him and turns him. And he says, you've saved me from my wrath.
[21:26] Just interesting turning point in the story. So there's the story, again, this chiasm. We see it in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers. We saw it in Joshua. We see it all the way through.
[21:39] And chiasms, I think, are not new in literature. They're very ancient. It's a way of structuring the language so that it's memorable. Remember, Genesis, the story of Genesis was not written for hundreds of years.
[21:53] Right? It was an oral tradition. How did they remember all those things? Well, they were organized. They were in these chiasms. The chiasm of the flood. The chiasm of Abraham's life.
[22:05] Then of Jacob's life. And then of Joseph's life. You see your notes. You'll have that. Same thing with the Exodus. Same thing with the wilderness experience. Right?
[22:15] They're all structured this way. Because back then, they were not... They didn't all have their own little Torahs. They didn't have their Tanakhs in their pocket. They had it. They had it by memory.
[22:29] And they would hear it, hear it, hear it. And so, what's amazing to me is God has ordained a way for the story to be told with accuracy and organization.
[22:48] I mean, I always thought Genesis was... They just kind of wrote down, then this happened, then this happened.
[22:59] You know, they're writing history, right? They're writing the eternal word. And it's... It has a flow and a purpose and a balance and an integrity.
[23:14] I don't know. Anyway, it's just phenomenal to me. So, story of David. So, how do we get...
[23:27] When Samuel comes, becomes the last judge, In chapter 8 of 1 Samuel, the people request a king. They want to be like every other nation. They want to have a king.
[23:38] And remember, judges ended with this theme. There was... At that time, there's no king in Israel. And everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The implication being, since they do what's right in their own eyes, they just can't control themselves.
[23:53] They need a king. To bring the hammer down on them. That's kind of how I rate it. I don't know if that's what it meant, but that... It kind of sounds like everyone did...
[24:04] Since there's no king, you know, there's just these temporary judges. As soon as they die, you know, we're back to ourselves again. So, there was...
[24:14] That sets up the need for a king. They request a king from Samuel. Samuel's very discouraged and goes to the Lord and says, The people have requested a king. And the Lord said, Don't take offense, Samuel.
[24:25] They haven't rejected you. They've rejected me. I was their king. They don't want me as their king. So, you know what?
[24:36] We're going to give them a king. We're going to give them a king that looks like a king. An impressive man. Sensitive man. His name is Saul.
[24:47] His name means desired one. So, we're going to give them what they desire. So, comes Saul. Saul's kingdom does not last very long.
[25:00] The rise and fall of Saul is in chapters 8 to 15. By chapter 13, the Lord is already telling Saul that, you know, you're blowing it, dude.
[25:15] And then by chapter 15, Samuel says, We're tearing the kingdom out of your hands and giving them to a neighbor of yours. By the way, he's going to be a man after my own heart.
[25:29] He's not going to look like you. He's not going to look popular. He's not going to look big. In fact, he's kind of the runt of the litter. He's the one left in the field when we're talking about coming to the feast.
[25:40] He's not even included. He's not the firstborn. He's at least the eighth born. So, God rejects Saul for rejecting his word.
[25:55] So, then we come to David's rise to popularity in Saul's kingdom. So, we read in chapter 16, Samuel goes out to anoint, thinking one of the big brothers, one of the impressive looking ones.
[26:08] And we go, and the story, the drama kind of draws out, doesn't it? It's kind of like, go through it. Nope, not this one, not this one. Nope, nope. Seven times. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Well, you got any sons left?
[26:21] Is this it? Lord sent one of the sons. Well, yeah, there's a, you know, Dawid's out. Dawid's out in the field.
[26:36] Sheet with sheep. That, you know, he's pretty good at that. Well, bring him in. And lo and behold, the Lord said, there he is.
[26:48] That's the one I'm looking for. And so, he's anointed. And then, did you notice, after he's anointed, the scripture says, the spirit rushed upon him from that day forward.
[27:05] He's a spirit-filled man. So he's chosen. Then we go to this dramatic scene. And I want to look at it, chapter 17. We've got to read David and Goliath, don't we? I'm not going to read the whole chapter.
[27:18] I want to set the scene. Look at chapter 17, verse 4. Remember who this Goliath, Goliath, is. Chapter 17, verse 4.
[27:31] There came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
[27:42] Anybody know how high that is? Nine foot five. Nine foot five. Our engineer says nine foot five. There we go. Yeah, a cubit.
[27:53] Six cubits. A cubit is basically from your elbow to the, right there, so it's around 18 inches, depending on whose arm you're spanning. And then a span is another half of that.
[28:06] So, yeah, nine feet. Nine. Five, six? Six? Yeah, that's David. The average height.
[28:17] Yeah. So, and I measured. So, if he were standing here, he'd bump his head on the ceiling, because that's not nine, nine. It's just over nine, right above my head.
[28:31] Now, so go on. Okay, so, okay. He had a helmet of bronze on his head. He was armed with a coat of mail.
[28:42] And the weight of the coat was 5,000 shekels of bronze. I don't know what that is. I forget. I didn't write down. Kind of heavy. And he had bronze armor on his legs, a javelin of bronze slung between his shoulders.
[28:57] The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam. And the spear's head weighed 600 shekels of iron. That's 16 pounds approximately.
[29:10] And with the men's group, we were looking at this. We're going, okay, so how big was this? If that, if the head was 16 pounds, what would the shaft have to be like?
[29:21] The weaver's beams would be, you know. So our engineers try to figure out, okay, weight, balance. So probably another 17 pounds or so. We just, we don't know. I don't know.
[29:32] It's a balancer, right? Because then he's got to check it. So you're checking 30 pounds. You've been to the gym, lifted 30 pounds? Okay, it might be easier to lift it off the floor when you're younger.
[29:43] I don't know about now. Imagine taking one of them kettlebells, right? And then can you imagine the man was a beast, okay?
[29:54] He's a beast. You know what Shaq looks like? Shaq's seven feet tall. So imagine somebody two and a half feet taller and probably that kind of proportion, okay?
[30:07] Huge, huge man. Oh, and he had a shield bearer who went before him. So here's the battlefield. Here's the guy.
[30:17] He's got all the armor. He's got everything. He's got all the weaponries, right? And remember, David's going to come out with no hat, no armor, no shield bearer in front, just a sling, a couple of rocks.
[30:38] Well, river rocks are smooth because it's aerodynamic, right? He learned how to do that. Okay. So verse 8.
[30:53] He stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, Why have you come out to draw up for battle? Am I not a Philistine? Are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves and let him come down to me.
[31:03] If he's able to win, if he's able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.
[31:14] And the Philistine said, I defy the ranks of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.
[31:32] Okay, Saul, what are you going to do? Go down to verse 31. Pick up David's entry stage left. When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul.
[31:48] And he sent for him. And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, You're not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him?
[32:02] For you're but a youth. And he's been a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep sheep for his father.
[32:16] Remember that? Oh yeah, he's a sheep guy. What did that mean? Well, when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered him out of his mouth.
[32:29] And if he rose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Wait a minute, a lion and a bear? So it wasn't like sniper, like the thing, you know, the sling and the stone far away.
[32:45] You actually got on top of the bear and the lion and grabbed their beard and you would strike them. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Part of being a shepherd.
[32:59] I went after, so yeah, so 36, Your servant has struck down both lions and bears. Not one lion and one bear, lions and bears.
[33:11] And this uncircumcised Philistine should be like one of them. For he has, why? For he has defied the armies of the living God. And David said, The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.
[33:26] And Saul said to David, Go and Lord be with you. Saul thinking here. What's Saul thinking here?
[33:39] He's already said, You're just a youth. Who are you? And now he's going to hand the kingdom to David. I mean, the outcome of this battle is somebody's going to be slaved to the other nation.
[33:55] And Saul's just going to go ahead and let this kid who claims he's fought lions and bears take a huge lion bear guy.
[34:07] Are you kidding? What's going through Saul's head? What kind of king is Saul? 38, Then Saul clothed David in his armor and he put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, just like Goliath.
[34:28] And David strapped on his sword over his armor and he tried in vain to go for he had not tested them. I think that's a nice way of just saying they're too big for him. Then David said to Saul, I can't go with these for I have not tested them.
[34:44] So he put them off. And he took his, then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch.
[34:56] His sling was in his hand and he approached the Philistine. I mean, picture the scene. Okay. Giant. Armored.
[35:09] Tank. Come this guy. You know, I doubt he was doing that. Because David had the anger of the Lord with him.
[35:23] Okay. 41. And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David with his shield bearer in front of him. And when this Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance.
[35:37] Oh, we got to get the handsome in there again. It'll be a shame to mess up that lovely face. And the Philistine said to David, am I a dog?
[35:49] Did you come to me with sticks? The Philistine cursed David by his gods. The Philistine said to David, come to me and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.
[36:01] And David said to the Philistine. You come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin. But I come to you in the name of Yahweh.
[36:14] The God of the armies of Yisrael, whom you have defied this day. Yahweh will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head.
[36:27] And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. Why? That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel and that all his assembly may know that the Yahweh saves not with a sword or spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand.
[36:51] How's that for a speech? Wish I could come up with something like, of course, he's spirit filled, so okay. When the Philistine arose and came and drew near to meet David, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.
[37:08] And David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone and slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. And the stone sank into his forehead and he fell on his face to the ground.
[37:26] And Goliath thought, that thought never entered my mind before. But I'm so David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him.
[37:42] There was no sword in the hand of David. Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword, the sword of Goliath, and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it.
[37:55] When the Philistine saw that their champion was dead, they ran. And the people chased them down and plundered them. David delivers Israel by faith.
[38:12] What motivated him? What they said about God? You defy my God? I'm doing this that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel and that all the assembly of Israel may know that the Lord saves not with a sword or a spear because the battle is the Lord's.
[38:38] It's the Lord's battle. That's what David believed. The Lord delivered me from the lion and the bear who delivered me from this Philistine. It doesn't matter how big he is.
[38:50] It doesn't matter how armored he is. There was a crack in that armor. Right? They suppose that, you know, the helmet probably covered everything, but maybe right here.
[39:00] David. David. After that time, the people began to praise David, right?
[39:13] Saul has slain his thousands, but David has slain his ten thousands. David. David's not king yet. Kind of got to Saul and Saul started throwing spears at David.
[39:28] started drinking and whenever he was drinking he'd start throwing spears at David and when that didn't work and David had to become an outlaw at that point David had to basically run for his life because he was not only rejected but now hunted he lived as an outcast in the wilderness being hunted by Saul and Saul found him twice remember Saul found him twice and though he didn't know he knew he was nearby David and remember two times David had the chance to take Saul's life and his mighty men of course you know the band of misfits that he gathered all these guys these were Gentiles by the way most of them were Hittites and other things like Uriah was a Hittite and they all when they were hiding in the cave and Saul came in to relieve himself in the cave right
[40:32] David's right there and they're telling David the Lord's put him in your hand take him this is the Lord's doing take him you're always talking about sovereignty and providence David there he is he's right there do it David said how can I touch the Lord's anointed he's still the Lord's anointed if the Lord wants to take Saul out he'll take him out not my job but you're the anointed interesting huh David's anointed long before he's the king Moses is called long before he's the deliverer Joseph is predicted to be the exalted one but 20 years after suffering he becomes why the delay why is there always a delay and when God chooses one who will be his deliverer whether it be Joseph or Moses or or or or
[41:35] Joshua or David why is it that there always seem to be rejected and then suffer a time in the wilderness and then much later raised up why why didn't David become the king in 1 Samuel 16 why because God is painting a picture and God is revealing this drama it's unfolding slowly it's not because oh plan B it's because he's painting a picture of what the ultimate deliverer will look like so David like like like like like Joseph and Moses and Joshua portrays in an outline form not in every detail of their life but in outline form portrays what the coming redeemer would go through he too will be rejected he too will suffer he too will deliver his people and be eventually raised up as the exalted one it's the picture over and over and over again it's why Jesus said in the upper room to his disciples how is it that you do not believe how did you not see me in the book of Moses in the Psalms and in the prophets and he went back to Genesis and Exodus and Numbers and and Joshua and 1 Samuel and showed him his picture in Joseph and in Moses and in Joshua etc. etc.
[43:25] how did you not see I've been there all along Jesus taught us how to read the Old Testament scriptures which when I went to seminary they still didn't know how to do that can you see him can you see him here can you see him in David David's rise to power right he he in chapters 1-4 2 Samuel he's anointed king over the house of Judah now this isn't Samuel anointing him this is the people the elders of Judah anointing David saying now you're our king Saul has died so now you're our king for seven years he rules as king in Judah southern Israel then in chapter 5 and 6 he's then accepted by all of Israel as their king and then he rules for another 33 years as the king of all Israel at which time so go with me to chapter 7 of 2 Samuel 2 Samuel 7 big so God gave promises to Abraham he gave promises to Moses he gave fulfilled promises to Joshua he's now going to give a huge promise to David remember he's the promise maker the promise keeper so here's a new promise to David but it connects to all the others 2 Samuel 7 now when the king
[45:14] David lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies the king said to Nathan the prophet see now I dwell in a house of cedar the ark of the Lord the ark of God dwells in a tent and Nathan said to the king go do all that is in your heart for the Lord is with you but that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan go and tell my servant David thus says the Lord would you build me a house to dwell in I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day but I've been moving about in a tent for my dwelling in all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel saying why have you not built me a house of cedar it was a rhetorical question I never said that now therefore thus you shall say to my servant
[46:15] David thus says the Lord of hosts I took you from the pasture from following the sheep that you should be prince over my people Israel I have been with you wherever you went I have cut off all your enemies from before you and I will make for you a great name like the name of the great like the name of the great ones of the earth and I will appoint a place for my people Israel and I will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more and violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel and I will give you rest from all your enemies moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house you want to build me a house I'm going to build you a house when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers I will raise up your offspring singular seed your one descendant after you whom shall come from your body just like he's saying to Abraham it will be your seed it's going to be you from your body from Sarah's body
[47:29] I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom he shall build a house for my name I will establish the throne of his kingdom for a little while that what it says oh for 40 years David ruled for 40 years Solomon ruled for 40 years Josiah ruled for 31 years no I will establish his throne his kingdom forever I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son hint when he commits iniquity wait a minute wait a minute this can't apply to Jesus can it when he commits iniquity I will discipline him with what the rod of men and the stripes of the sons of men now the rod and the stripes apply to Jesus whose iniquity did he have ours ours so when he takes the place of those who commit iniquity
[48:43] I will discipline him with the rod of men and the stripes of the sons of men but my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom I put away before you and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me your kingdom your throne shall be established forever!
[49:13] a physical land the land is an eternal land the kingdom of God is not an earthly kingdom it is an eternal kingdom when Jesus came he said what my kingdom is not of this world if it was Pilate you'd already be dust okay do we see he's pointing forward pointing forever forward to one who will not fail now here's where we have to talk about 2 Samuel is fulfilled in Luke 1 Jesus is the promised eternal king of David's throne Zechariah the father of John the Baptist said in Luke 1 he will be great will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end when
[50:17] Jesus asked the Pharisees who is the Christ remember that Matthew 22 Jesus asked the Pharisees who do you say is the Christ what do you think of the Christ whose son is he they said the son of David he said to them now quoting from Psalm 110 how is it then that David in the spirit calls his son Lord saying the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet if then so then now Jesus speaking to the Pharisees if then David calls him Lord how is he his son and the text tells us from that point on the Pharisees no longer asked him questions we've heard that we've heard that text in synagogue year after year after year I never saw that never crossed my mind he calls his son
[51:17] Lord and the Lord calls David's son Lord and son and eternal king so that's David one we'll do real quick here on David two how we doing we got lots of time it's Easter we see all that David did I mean he's an incredible man he's a man of faith a man of obedience he fears the Lord he's doing everything right and then we turn to 2nd Samuel chapter 11 I'm not going to read the whole thing I'm just going to describe because it gets pretty dark so David two
[52:18] David one is in faith he's rejected persecuted and rose as king David two in failure he is enticed and spurns God and repents as a rebel criminal and we wonder is this the same man is this the same man how did all this darkness come out of this faithful man David two even our best is not good enough even our best people are not good enough they're good they're faithful but they're also failures they fall so far short of what we need so chapter 11 tells us that in the spring of the year the time when kings go out to battle
[53:18] David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah see David didn't need to go they got this this is a time when kings go to battle but David stayed home problem part one scenario one idle time with no purpose guys idle time with no purpose what's what's the saying idle hands devil's workshop something like that yeah idle mind yeah okay so it happened one late afternoon when David arose from his couch was walking on the roof of his king's house just happened that he saw from the roof a bathing woman and the woman was very beautiful and David sent he didn't turn away David sent and inquired about the women and and one said is it not this is this not
[54:24] Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam the wife of Uriah the Hittite you know one of your main dudes and the list of the of the great warriors of David Uriah is number 30 of the great great warriors he's not just a grunt he's he's he's delta force kind of guy right okay he's he's a dude so he hears that it's the wife of Uriah that ought to stop it right so David sent messengers!
[55:02] and took her stole her and she came to him and he lay with her and she now she had been as an Israelite she's purifying herself from her uncleanness then she returned to her house and the woman conceived and she sent and told David those scary words I am pregnant what you can do now David so he commits coveting he steals someone else's wife he commits adultery what's he going to do next how many commands has he broken so far well now he's going to send for Uriah I got to cover this up so if I can get Uriah to sleep with his wife then they'll just think it's you know he'll just think it's his wife I mean his job but Uriah is a faithful warrior he won't go down to his house he says to David how can
[56:07] I do that the rest of the army's out there sleeping in tents right why would I go home and sleep in a nice bed and sleep with my wife why would I do that when the army's out on the field David who's also home not in the field who's more righteous right so he gets him drunk still can't get him to go to stay with his wife so what does he do okay I got to conspire now now I'm going to send Uriah with a note that says to kill him he's going to send his he's going to send the man he's going to kill with the note about how to kill him this is David the faithful one he tells the commander of the army with the note he says I want you to go down and in the battle when the battle's the fiercest I want you to put Uriah in the very front and then
[57:08] I want you to draw back from him so that he's struck down and dies so now he's got an accomplice by the way and Joab the commander is no dummy he's like okay send this note back to David and if he gets upset about how the war went tell him oh by the way Uriah's dead and when David gets upset about how the war went and the servant said by the way Uriah's dead David changes tunes like oh oh you know things happen David he covets he steals he commits adultery he lies he conspires to murder a friend he steals the wife hear what the Lord says in chapter 12 of Samuel so for
[58:10] Samuel 11 ends this way when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead she lamented over her husband and when the morning was over David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord and the Lord sent Nathan to David he came to him and said to him Nathan's a crafty one he tells a parable there were two men in a certain city the one rich and the other poor the rich men had very many flocks and herds but the poor men had nothing but one little ewe lamb which he had bought and he brought it up and it grew up with him and with his children it used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms and was like a daughter to him now there came a traveler to the rich man and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who would come to him but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him what do you think David the shepherd feels about lambs
[59:18] David's anger was greatly kindled against that man and he said to Nathan as the Lord lives that man who has done this deserves to die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity Nathan said to David king you're the man you're that man thus says the Lord the God of Israel I anointed you king over Israel I delivered you out of the hand of Saul I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah and if this were too little I would add to you as much more why have you despised the word of Yahweh to do what is evil in his sight you struck down
[60:24] Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed them with the sword of the Ammonites no you don't get out of this somebody else killed them no you killed them David now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife thus says Yahweh behold I will raise up evil against you out of your own house and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of the sun for you did it secretly but I will do!
[61:06] this thing before all Israel and before the sun David said to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said to David the Lord also has put away your sin you shall not die how did he get out of that how did he get out of that you break my covenant I will kill you how does David get out of that nevertheless you won't die but nevertheless because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord the child someone has to die the child who is born to you shall die die in your place that's why
[62:14] David mourned the whole time before the child died and after the child died he got up because it was his death that child took David repented and was forgiven but there were severe consequences we we Paul tells us this in Galatians 6 you will reap what you sow right if you sow to the flesh you will reap corruption if you sow the spirit you will reap eternal life be careful what you sow God does in fact forgive he forgave David but there were consequences in his family that were severe and tragic right you can read the rest of the story it's not good it's not a happy ending here we have a man who started so well and ended so badly what happened to
[63:29] David was it simply idle time was it I'm not going to speculate I don't know what was in his mind David did repent you can read his model of repentance in Psalm 51 now understand this Psalm 51 was not private it started as David's repentance privately before the Lord then he wrote it down and then he published it to Israel to sing at the title of Psalm 51 it says when Nathan came to David after he had gone into she who should not be named he publicized his sin for not only his people to sing but for us to sing because like him we fail miserably and so if you need to repent if you need to pray pray through
[64:48] Psalm 51 he asked for mercy he asked for God's compassion he recognizes that sacrifices the outward sacrifices that he could give is not something that will please the Lord it has to be the sacrifice of a broken heart and so we see that David's forgiveness though undeserved came because he was confronted he confessed he was broken he repented and God mercifully forgave him but life was not all rosy after that we learned some powerful lessons I want to end with Psalm 32 David wrote Psalm 51 to show everyone what sin looked like and how you repent in
[65:54] Psalm 51 that was his repentance Psalm 32 was written later it's written as a mask gill which means it's a think thinker it's a him that's a thinker you gotta think through and he writes these words what Paul will later quote he says blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit in other words the man who has been honest with God the one who has walked in the light with God and told his sin to God who there is no more deceit he's told of his transgression his sin and his iniquity by the way you know what transgression is that's rebellion sin is right what right we fall short iniquity which one is that one that's the twisted stuff
[67:04] David says I did all that for when I so he says when there's no deceit for when I kept silent when I did not confess my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long for day and night your hand was heavy on me see God didn't leave him or abandon him when he was unrepentant his hand was heavy on him have you ever felt that you ever been away from the Lord and not come and you felt that your bones dry up everything there's no one more miserable than an unrepentant Christian my strength was dried up like the heat of summer finally I acknowledged I confessed my sin to you I did not cover my iniquity I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin
[68:07] Selah which means pause and think about that let's pray father we thank you for your tremendous plan your promises it is my hope lord that we begin to grasp or grasp more fully how perfectly you have planned things out the promises and then your patience is amazing you provide perfection and paradise and promise and we ruin it and then you rescue us and we ruin it again we see this all through the history of redemption and we thank you oh lord that we stand on the side of the history where your son has come and he has been the deliverer that
[69:12] Joseph couldn't be that Moses couldn't be that Joshua could not be that Daniel couldn't be that David couldn't be he has done what they had they could not you are Jesus the faithful one in all things we thank you help us to see you with more splendor today with the background of history behind us this we pray in Christ's name amen if you able please stand as we close asNING asNING