Day 15: The Fulfillment of Promise… The Era of Kings (Part 2) 

1 Samuel 16 - II Samuel (David)

Burden: To establish God’s throne and to extend his rule and reign throughout all the earth.

 

David: You can tell a lot about how much a person loves another by how often they talk about them. In this case, the scriptures refer to David more than any other name apart from Christ. So, David was not only a man with a heart after God, but David was a man whose God had heart for him!

The reader’s digest version of David’s life:

  • Where did it all start? Alone in the hills where he worshiped God. It was in those early days where he entertained his sheep with the many songs he wrote as he learned to trust God!
  • God sees this and sends his prophet Samuel to call and anoint him as God’s sovereign chosen!
  • Next, David is recruited to sing for King Saul, to calm his nerves and sooth his heart.
  • Then seemingly out of nowhere, David shows up and takes down the giant Goliath, thereby winning the kings heart and was recruited into Saul’s army. It wasn’t long before we find David winning some great battles, always giving glory to God, until old Saul began to get jealous of David, and exiles him.
  • David flees into the wilderness for seven years. One would think that maybe God’s purposes would have been stymied, but not true. God uses this time to begin building an army around him.
  • 1 Sam 22:1-2 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
  • What a fascinating collection of people! They were all in some fashion needy, or displaced, or disgruntled! Many of them dissatisfied with the old order or the old way of doing things! So now David has a small army of misfits, living in unity and sharing a common heart which is to bring David to the throne.
  • During this time, as Saul pursued David, David would not raise his hand against Saul, even though by this time Saul’s hate towards him was beyond reason. Nevertheless, David loved him and Jonathan and respected God's anointing. In other words, his mindset was to let God deal with him! A good reminder to us concerning our attitude towards those who for whatever reason, have ought against us.
  • Eventually Saul and his sons died in battle with the Philistines, and David was made king. Although not over all of Israel. Like everything else, there was a process. 2 Sam 5:4-5 David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years.  In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years.  
  • Over the years, David's company went on to capture Jerusalem, defeats the Philistines and returns the ark of covenant!
  • David then goes on to make plans for the Temple. He has a vision and the plans and materials and the abilities and the heart, but because he was a man of war God would not let him build His house.
  • 1 Chron 28:2-3 Hear me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God, and I made preparations for building. 3 But God said to me, 'You may not build a house for my name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood.'
  • But even though David wasn’t allowed to build God’s house, his vision would still be fulfilled! 
  • 1 Chron 22:6-10 Then David sent for his son Solomon and instructed him to build a Temple for the Lord, the God of Israel.  "My son, I wanted to build a Temple to honor the name of the Lord my God," David told him. 8 "But the Lord said to me, 'You have killed many men in the battles you have fought. And since you have shed so much blood in my sight, you will not be the one to build a Temple to honor my name.
  • But you will have a son who will be a man of peace. I will give him peace with his enemies in all the surrounding lands. His name will be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel during his reign. He is the one who will build a Temple to honor my name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will secure the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.'
  • David suffered through many years of hardship of varies kinds with his children!
  • David then went on to be with lord at the ripe old age of 70. 1 Kings 2:10-12 Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. 11 And the time that David reigned over Israel was forty years. He reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. So Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established.

 

Key Moments in David's life!

A.    His Beginning: 1 Sam 16:2-7 The LORD said, "Take a heifer with you and say, 'I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.' 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate."  Samuel did what the LORD said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, "Do you come in peace?"  Samuel replied, "Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the LORD. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me."

  • Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.  When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, "Surely the LORD's anointed stands here before the LORD."  But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
  • Here is a lesson we all need to learn. As the old adage goes, never judge a book by it’s cover! How easy it is for all of us to fall into the trap of believing if someone looks good on the outside, they certainly must be good on the inside.
  • This is also true concerning those who consider themselves spiritual as well. This is Samuel, prophet and Judge of God. Yet left alone to his own devices he would have messed up his task of choosing the next king had not God intervened.
  • And not only is it wrong, or unwise to judge someone by how they look on the outside, but as Israel had just experienced, this kind of judging is dangerous and can lead to disastrous results!
  • King Saul being the perfect example of that! He was the ultimate hunk in the world’s eyes! He was tall, dark and handsome. But in the end, he lacked character needed to be a good king.
  • This is why God looks at our hearts, he looks at what’s inside us, what drives us, what we really are like when things get tough! God was looking for a man who had a heart after himself, that no matter what happened, in the end, this man would never give up his pursuit of have a relationship with Him. And obviously, David was such a man!
  • 1 Sam 16:8-12 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either." Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, "Nor has the LORD chosen this one." Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, "The LORD has not chosen these."
  • So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?”There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives."  So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one."
  • As we are going to see, this man is not perfect. In fact, in some ways he is very frail and weak and still has a lot of growing up ahead of him. But because his heart is a heart after God, God will bless him and use him to become the Golden King. The one who finally fulfilled God’s commandment to Joshua, to conquer and rid the land of their enemies, resulting in Israel coming into an era of unprecedented peace and prosperity!

 

B.    His first step into the national limelight: Goliath!

  • 1 Sam 17:20-24 Early in the morning David left the flock with a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and greeted his brothers. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. 24 When the Israelites saw the man, they all ran from him in great fear.
  • The deal here was rather than whole armies fighting, only the champions of its armies would fight, rewarding the victory to the nation whose champion had won.
  • What we have here also is very symbolic picture of Satan making war on God's people through imparting fear. In reality, the enemy is a squatter when it comes to our own lives, standing on land that does not belong to him!
  • 1 Sam 17:32-33 David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."  Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
  • Once again, we have another example of how a person only looks at the outward appearance of an individual and makes judgements! Obviously, there is always more to a person than what we see on the outside. In this case, David already had a faith in God that had been tested and tried! Had Saul eyes to see, he would've seen a heart of faith found only in a true warrior. Sure, he was only 16, but with God, all things are possible!
  • In fact, David understood something that Saul did not! David understood what it meant to be in a covenant relationship with God!
  • 1 Sam 17:34-37  But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 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."
  • God always provides us with training to help us deal with the things that are ahead of us.
  • 1 Sam 17:37-40 Saul said to David , "Go, and the LORD be with you." Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. "I cannot go in these," he said to Saul, "because I am not used to them." So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.
  • The lesson here is about our predisposition of getting our fingers into the things God is trying to do, thinking we are helping, when in fact we are making things worst. David got it right, he couldn't be what other people thinks he needs to be. He simply had to be himself, knowing God had prepared him for such a time as this.
  • 1 Sam 17:41-47 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David . He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David , "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
  • "Come here," he said, "and I'll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!"  David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
  • This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."
  • Notice that the enemy does not see the heart of David either and that will be his downfall.
  • David is moving in faith, by trusting in God’s covenant with his people. Do you remember what we learned when we studied about the covenant God made with Abraham? In that Covenant, God made Abraham a promise that Abrahams enemies would become his enemies, and he would fight for them.
  • So, when Goliath challenged Israel, he was in fact challenging God! And when Goliath was mocking and ridiculing Israel, he was mocking and ridiculing God! In response, God had risen David up and sent him as his representative! David understood that he would win this battle because God would defend his people through him!
  • 1 Sam 17:48-51 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.  David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran.
  • What a great picture! Here comes David, basically running down in his underwear (loin cloth) with a slingshot! No doubt, the world would say there goes another crazy Christian, but God looks down and says there goes a man with a heart after me! Zech 4:6 Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord Almighty.
  • We are also being given another great picture of Christ here! Someone who is fulfilling the prophecy out of Genesis: Gen 3:15 I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your descendants and her descendants will be enemies. One of her descendants will crush your head, and you will bite his heel."
  • You see, the armor of Goliath was in the form of the serpent, thus providing us a symbolic picture of the enemy and how Christ through the cross would defeat the enemy!
  • Col 2:15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.


C.    His Powerful Relationship with Jonathan

  • Jonathan is noted as being an outstanding warrior, full of courage and a clever and a respected leader! But his sterling character was manifested however in another type of warfare. That warfare being for prestige and popularity between his father and David.
  • And it was in this unusual set of circumstances that Jonathan exemplifies all that is Noblest in friendship! His warmth of affection, his unselfishness, his helpfulness, and loyalty are the earmarks of Godly friendship! Consider these other elements as well;
  • Jonathan literally means, "The Lord Has Given!" Jonathan's mentality was that he recognized God had given him to be David's friend. Time and time again John risked his life to help David, sometimes just to see him!
  • The lesson here, is I believe that God gives all of us in friendship to certain people, whether they reciprocate or not. Meaning, we all need to ask God, who he wants us to befriend! But the good news is that not only has God given you to someone, he has also given someone to you!
  • 1 Sam 18:1-4 After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. From that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father's house. And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, and even his sword, his bow and his belt.
  • Notice that Jonathan had not even talked to David, or even seen him before, yet God had knit their souls together! Have you ever met someone where you immediately felt an affinity for, with no explanation for why you felt so connected? I have come to the conclusion that most of the time, this is God calling you into a friendship with that person.
  • Jonathan, in response to this recognition of his heart towards David, made a covenant with David seemingly based on the same covenant process that God made with Abraham back in Genesis 15!
  • “Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David” was a symbolic act of saying, all my resources are now your resources. All that I have and all that I own is now yours!
  • Then scripture says Jonathan gave to David along with his tunic “his sword, his bow and his belt” By doing this, Jonathan was making another covenant statement, whoever wants to fight with you, must also fight with me! Your battles will be my battles!
  • Another way we can also look at this is how by Jonathan’s actions; he was clearing the way on a practical level for him to be a friend of David! You see, if you really want to enter a close friendship with someone, sometimes you need to remove all the symbols that represents that you have different cultural status.
  • In this case, the robe he was wearing set him apart as royalty. Jonathan didn’t want that to be a barrier between him and David, so he laid down his robe, as a symbolic act for ridding any cultural distinctions that might separate them. That in his eyes, they were equal!
  • In laying down his arms, he was symbolically saying that he wanted to remove all his defensive walls and was willing to take the risk and bare his heart to David!
  • And it was not just his defensive weapons he laid down, but also his offensive weapons. This could be a picture of laying down all those things’ people use to attack people. Things like a quick tongue or our tendency to blame or criticize a person.
  • We also need to lay down our belts. This is seen in other places in the Old Testament as being symbolic of that person offering another person’s their own physical strength. In other words, Good friends are always willing to serve and aid their friends with all that they have.

 

D.    David returns the ark of Covenant!

  • Part of the storyline in the book of Samuel is with the demise of faith in Israel symbolized by God allowing the ark of the covenant to be captured. This was huge because to Israel, this represented the manifest presence of God.
  • Israel thought they were indestructible if they had the physical ark of covenant. Once again, they did not realize that God was more concerned with their heart and where they were spiritually. Because Israel had begun to look to foreign Gods for their strength and direction, God removed the ark because Israel was no longer looking to him for their salvation.
  • When David becoming King, his first concern was to lead Israel back to God. And one of his first projects representing this shift of faith from Idols to God, was to return the ark covenant back to Israel! What a contrast to his predecessor Saul who was more concerned about making a name for himself! David was far more concerned about exaulting God's name rather than his own.
  • 2 Sam 6:12-16 Now King David was told, "The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God." So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing. 13 When those who were carrying the ark of the LORD had taken six steps, he sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.  As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.
  • 2 Sam 6:20-22 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!" David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel-I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor."
  • Here again we have yet another example of the huge chasm between people of faith and people without faith. The people without faith as in this case the daughter of Saul, saw only the externals and was embarrassed by David apparent lack of care of what’s other might think of him! After all he was the king, one to be held up in high esteem! Dancing around with abandonment in his underwear was not how any king with any respect for the office he held would behave!
  • Nevertheless David, a man whose heart was after God more than anything else, did not care what anyone else thought. His dancing was for God and God alone!
  • 2 Sam 6:17-19 They brought the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the LORD. After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD Almighty. Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.
  • This little portion of Scripture is prophetic and finds it’s fulfillment in the New Testament…
  • Acts 15:16-18 "'After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Its ruins I will rebuild, and I will restore it, that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things' that have been known for ages. 
  • If you remember from our lessons on the construction of the tabernacle of Moses and the creation of the priesthood, one can’t help but be struck in how this new set up was a whole new deal and stands in complete contrast to the old way of doing things where only the high priest could go in before the Ark of Covenant once year to offer sacrifice.
  • So, the question then becomes, what is going on here? Answer: I believe through David; God was showing his heart and longing to create away for all of us to come and be in His presence at any time. Interestingly, it's here that David composed many of his Psalms of worship where he talks about being under the shadow of his wings, referring to the wings of the cherubs on the Ark of covenant.
  • Spiritually speaking, the tent of David was a prophetic symbol of what Christ would achieve for us on the cross! That through his sacrifice and the shedding of his blood, we have been made righteous, enabling us to enter into the presence of God anytime we want. Because of Jesus we have unlimited access to Father and his resources.
  • Meaning that now we can come boldly before the throne of grace to get our needs met. We no longer need a priest to mediate on our behalf, nor do we need to go through some kind of ritual to find God!  We can just come as we are and worship God.

 

E.    David’s failure with Bathsheba!

  • This story more than others, is the one most people remember. Most likely because it seems so out of character in so many ways. But it just goes to show you, that everyone has their flaws! And those flaws always have consequences.
  • Unfortunately, in David life, these consequences had both immediate results, as well as long lasting repercussions!
  • 2 Sam 11:1-5 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David , saying, "I am pregnant."
  • David should have been on the front lines waging war as all kings did during that time of the year, but instead he was idle at home which led to temptation concerning Bathsheba and his fall into sin.
  • And unfortunately, his affair with Bathsheba led from one sin to another. First, he tried to cover up his sin by inviting her husband Uriah home hoping that he would sleep with his wife, thereby tricking him into thinking she was impregnated with his child.
  • But he refused to sleep with his wife because he felt that if he had, he would have been betraying his fellow soldiers who were still stuck on the frontlines, enduring the hardships of war. David seeing that his scheme to trick Uriah wasn’t working, decided to send him back with instructions to the general to put him in the front lines where he would be killed.
  • So here we have David, this amazing man of God, who not only committed adultery, but then created a scheme to try and cover up his mess! But because that failed, David resorts to a plan that essentially ended up murdering Uriah.
  • Now, while David might have fooled everyone else, God was not, so he sent his prophet Nathan to David to confront him with his sin. It is here we see one of the biggest differences between Saul and David. Saul when confronted, rationalized and justified his actions, David repents with his whole heart! (Psalm 52)
  • Leaving us with this amazing story of God’s grace! Clearly, David is far from being a perfect man, in fact he is a very weak immoral man on so many levels! Nevertheless, David’s stellar heart is revealed in his relentless pursuit of God!
  • God forgives David, but unfortunately, David still must deal with the consequences of his actions! From this point on, David struggles with one family issue after another. Everything from incest, to rape, to power struggles with his sons!
  • Yet regardless of all this, God remains faithful to his covenant to David, promising that his line will last forever, through the coming Messiah.
  • David's reign would be known as the Golden age of Israel, where Israel was the dominant power of that era. A power and glory that will increase under David’s son Solomon till his fall from faith.
  • In conclusion, King David was an amazing man! He was a warrior, singer, poet, fugitive, dancer, actor, priest, prophet, and King. As I said in the beginning, his name is mentioned more times in the Bible more than any other name apart from Jesus Christ. One can only conclude then that God so loved David, that he talked about him more than anyone else!

 

David's last prayer says it all! His heart and love and passion are clearly seen! A heart and love that we would all do well by emulating!

  • 1 Chron 29:10-13 David praised the LORD in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, "Praise be to you, O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.