#12 david

The Road to Emmaus#12 David 1 Samuel 16-17, 2 Samuel 11

The Great Victory

From 1 Samuel 16 - 17

God sends the prophet Samuel to Bethlehem, to Jesse’s household, to anoint the new King of Israel, in place of Saul. Jesse’s first son comes before Samuel, and Samuel is sure he will be the chosen King - he looks the part; he’s attractive, he’s tall, he’s strong - but God rejects him. The next son, and the next, and the next son pass before Samuel, but each time, Samuel discovers the Lord has not chosen him. Seven sons pass before Samuel, none of them to be the future King. He asks Jesse, “are all your sons here?” Jesse replies, “there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” It is so unlikely that the little pathetic shepherd boy is to be the king that he’s left in the field, minding the sheep. But he’s sent for, and the Lord tells Samuel, “arise, anoint him, for this is he.”

The Philistines battle against the Israelites. They have “a champion named Goliath,” who is 9 feet, 9 inches tall. Daily, he stands and shouts, “Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is 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.” While all the people, even the army, and even King Saul are “greatly afraid.”

And little David comes along to bring his big brothers their packed lunch. They are serving in the army, and of course he’s not. David hears Goliath bellowing, ‘fight me,’ and sees all the soldiers fleeing in fear. Passionate for God’s glory, he is outraged that this Philistine mocks God. Asking around, David discovers that the King (who is just as afraid as everyone else) will reward the man who defeats Goliath, with riches and his daughter’s hand in marriage.

David is brought to Saul and volunteers to fight Goliath. ‘Is this a joke?’ Saul wonders. He refuses David, because how can this young, inexperienced boy battle against a giant? David can’t, but “the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” Desperate Saul really doesn't have any other options, so he kits David up in his armour, however little David has never worn armour before, so he goes without it. More than that, David takes 5 stones and a sling as weaponry.

It’s comical. An unarmored, inexperienced “youth” coming towards a 9 foot, seasoned solider decked head to toe in “bronze armour.” Goliath says, ‘come to me and I’ll make you breakfast for the birds.’

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. 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, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand.” (17:45-47)

‘What an idiot. I’ll crush him like an ant,’ Goliath thinks as he charges towards the boy. David runs forward, and taking a stone, he slings it and it strikes him on the forehead. It sinks in and Goliath falls to the ground, face first. David takes Goliath’s own sword and cuts off his head with it. Then the Philistines, seeing that their champion is dead, flee.

***

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David Why would God choose a little shepherd boy as a king, victorious

warrior and deliverer?

God choose the weak to demonstrate His strength. God choose the helpless so that He could be the Helper. The young, harp-playing shepherd boy is chosen to be the King, the Victorious Warrior and the Deliverer. The most unexpected person - a boy, without armour, without experience and without weapons - wins the battle, in the most unexpected way - with a pebble from a stream - so that the battle would be so clearly won by God’s might and for God’s glory.

Jesus, the Son of David

How are you like a) the Israelites? b) Goliath?

Like the Israelites, we are trembling with fear, facing the enslaving giant Satan. Sin has already prevailed against us and killed us and made us its slaves. Helpless, weak and overpowered, victory is impossible. We are desperately needy and hopelessly unable to supply our need. We are failures, we are rotten sinners, we have fallen so far short of glorifying God. Like Goliath, we have opposed the Almighty and He always destroys his enemies.

But in this story, God sends a hero, and the hero conquered. How is Jesus like David?

Like David, Jesus faced the enslaving giant and defeated him once and for all, freeing the slaves and raising the dead to life. By His death on the cross, Jesus achieved victory. He did what we could not do. By dying, He destroyed the enemy Satan, whilst at the same time, making us, His sinful enemies, His people. Our deserved destruction and wrath crushed Jesus instead.

How does awareness of your weakness make you feel?

God choose to save us, the weak, to demonstrate His strength. God choose the helpless so that He could be the Helper. A sinner is chosen to be a child of God, part the bride of Christ, a member of His Church. He makes an army out of pathetics, for the victory has already been won.

How is Jesus like David?

As God saved the weak Israelites through a weak David, God choose to save us, the weak, through apparent weakness, Jesus. A suffering, dying human is the King, the Victorious Warrior and the Deliverer. The most unexpected person wins the battle against Satan, in the most unexpected way, by dying on the cross. In beautiful irony, Jesus defeated the Enemy by seemingly being defeated.

Like David cut off the head of Goliath with his own sword, Jesus destroyed Satan with his own weapons, (Jonathan Edwards explained). Jesus conquered over sin and death by being made sin and being dead.

Like David, Jesus won the battle and gained his reward, “for the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross, despising the shame.” (Hebrews 12:2). His reward is His glory and His bride’s joy.

As David won his wife by putting his life at risk and triumphing over the Philistines, Jesus purchased His bride, the church, by laying down His life and triumphing over that which enslaved her.

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As the boy defeated the giant in order “that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear,” so Jesus defeated an even greater giant, in order that all people, from every tribe and language and people and nation, “might come to a knowledge of the truth” and “escape from the snare of the devil,” (2 Timothy 2:25-26) because the battle was fought and won by the Lord alone. “The battle is the Lord’s.”

How does His Great Victory actually affect your life?

How does knowledge that the battle has already been won affect guilt over your sin and motivation to fight your sin?

God’s people, made alive and free through the Great Victory of Jesus, respond to His Gospel with joyful obedience. Gladly, they “put off the old self” with its sinful practices, and “put on the new self” which reflects Christ’s character (Colossians 3:9-10). They become less like their sinful selves and more like Jesus.

The Great Defeat

From 2 Samuel 11-12

Fast forward 31 years, and David is now King over all Israel. In the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, David sends his army, but he himself remains at home.

Late one afternoon, as David walks on the roof of his palace, he sees a beautiful woman bathing. In his heart he lusts, and in his mind he plots. He asks who this woman is, and is told that she is “Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” He finds out what he already knows, that she is a human being, somebody’s daughter and somebody’s wife. Disregarding her as an image-bearer of God, he sends for her. But he appears good, honouring the wife of a top warrior with an invitation to the palace. David sleeps with Bathsheba and she returns home.

Bathsheba sends David word that she is pregnant. In an attempt to cover up his sin, David sends for her husband, willing Uriah to return to his home, so that he will sleep with his wife, and the identity of the child will be concealed. Again, David appears good, honouring this soldier by inviting him to dine with him, and giving him respite. However, David’s plan fails; noble Uriah will not return home ‘to eat and drink and lie with my wife,’ while the other soldiers sleep outside in the fields.

Therefore, David sends Uriah back to battle, ironically carrying his own death sentence - a letter for the commander, in which David instructs him to have Uriah killed whilst fighting. Uriah is conveniently killed in battle, and David, appearing good, takes the widow under his own loving protection as his wife.

Though God is angered and displeased, He does not look upon David with wrath, but with love. In grace He sends His prophet Nathan to David, who reveals David’s sin to his blind, ignorant eyes. Knowledge of his sin breaks David, and leads him to repentance. He realises, “I have sinned against the Lord,” and strangely, Nathan replies, “The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.” Nevertheless, David’s sin still has consequences; he is told that his child will die.

*** After reading 2 Samuel 11-12, does your

opinion of king David change?

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Although you probably haven’t committed murder and adultery, do you see the same root sins of David present in your own life?

The “hero” failed. It’s an epic loss of another battle, a battle just as crucial and dangerous and difficult. The “man after God’s own heart” committed adultery and murder. He sinned in his passivity - he remained in his palace rather than going out to battle, as kings should. He sinned in his pride - placing himself above Uriah, Bathsheba, his nation, and God Himself, and acting according to his own self-centred, evil desires. He sinned in his hypocrisy - hiding his sin whilst putting up a façade of goodness.

How does God’s displeasure over you as a sinner make you feel?

“The thing that David had done displeased the Lord.” (11:27) By his deed he had “utterly scorned the Lord.” (12:14).

And when God is displeased, He doesn't just huff in his displeasure, nor will he eventually ‘get over it.’ He’s God. He is holy and He is just, therefore, He will judge sin, for it dishonours His glory. Even David knows this, that “the man who has done this deserves to die.” (12:5).

Is it fair that God just ‘puts away’ David’s terrible sin?

But David doesn't die. It seems scandalous, that after such heinous sin, Nathan can say to David, “The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.” (12:13)

It is scandalous; yet, it is not scandalous because a God who claims to be righteous seems to just brush David’s sin under the rug. Even more scandalous is this:

David’s sins are counted as Jesus’ sins and Jesus’ righteousness is counted as David’s righteousness. David’s sins are put away because they would be put on Jesus. David doesn’t die because Jesus does. This is the Gospel.

According to Romans 3:25-26, God “passed over former sins.” God ‘passed over’ or ‘put away’ David’s sin because “in his divine forbearance,” he looked forward to Jesus’ death, where David’s sin would be punished in Christ.

Because of what Jesus has done, David is found in the “Hall of Faith,” in Hebrews 11. Despite his sin, David is remembered as one with faith, he is considered a ‘good guy.’ Not because God ignored his sin, and not because his good deeds outweighed his bad - all of a sinner’s good deeds are considered evil. (Isaiah 64:6). Rather, the truly good and sinless King Jesus, who succeeded where David failed, “put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26)

David penned Psalm 51 after Nathan had called out his sin;

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,

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so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; 19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

What does repentance look like? (Psalm 51).

Repentance is rooted in knowledge of God’s character, asking Him for forgiveness due to the fact that He is loving and merciful. (vs 1) Repentance would be futile if God was not “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6).

Repentance acknowledges sin. It confesses that the sin, although it may have damaged others, was primarily an offence against God (vs 4). It realises that sin is deep, an inherent part of your being since birth (vs 5); and sin is wide, spanning into your future, ‘ever before me.’ (vs 3).

Repentance is sorrowful. Repentance grieves and is broken over sin (vs 17). However, repentance does not end with hopeless grieving over one’s wretchedness. 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 explains that “godly grief” over sin results in “no regret” and “no loss.” Repentance results in gain. Repentance results in joy (vs 8).

Repentance is remembering and claiming the Gospel. Because Jesus has defeated the Enemy and the battle against sin has already been won, you can ask God to make you clean and wash you whiter than snow (vs 7), to hide his face from your sins and blot out your iniquities (vs 9). Repentance

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leads to restored joy in God’s salvation (vs 13) because with raw pain and horror over your sin, you grasp the wonders of the Gospel, that despite such sin, God loves you and has forgiven you.

Repentance leads to change (vs 13-15), it will “bear fruit” (Matthew 3:8). It results in praising God, rather than self, in your heart, words and actions.

***

Questions

1. Why would God choose a little shepherd boy as a king, victorious warrior and deliverer? 2. How are you like a) the Israelites? b) Goliath? 3. How does awareness of your weakness make you feel? 4. How is Jesus like David? 5. How does His Great Victory actually affect your life? 6. How does knowledge that the battle has already been won affect guilt over your sin and

motivation to fight your sin? 7. After reading 2 Samuel 11-12, does your opinion of king David change? 8. Although you probably haven’t committed murder and adultery, do you see the same root sins of

David present in your own life? 9. How does God’s displeasure over you as a sinner make you feel? 10. Is it fair that God just ‘puts away’ David’s terrible sin? 11. What does repentance look like? (Psalm 51).

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