2 Samuel 5:17-25
2 Samuel • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 10 viewsThe Lord often tests your faith through unexpected challenges, so you must remain vigilant to avoid spiritual complacency.
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Big Idea: Since the Lord often sends enemies to try your faith when you least expect, you must keep watch so as not to fall asleep.
Big Idea: The Lord often tests your faith through unexpected challenges, so you must remain vigilant to avoid spiritual complacency.
Intro
Intro
In Basic one of the last Drills, you begin in the morning with a 25 mile ruck march, and then once you reach “the battlefield” you have to dig in, making foxholes and building defensive positions. Then in the night, after all that work all day, the enemy (Drill Sergeants) attack when you least expect it. You are exhausted from the heat and work of the day, and your body expects rest to come at nightfall, but it turns out that is when you are most vulnerable to attack, and that is when you must be on the greatest guard.
David has had a long struggle to get to the throne, now that he has been anointed king over a united Israel, you may expect this to be a time of rest. But instead we see the enemies of the Lord are aroused to set themselves against the Lord and His anointed. So after having found refuge among them when he fled from Saul, and watching from the sidelines as Saul and all Israel were destroyed by them at Aphek, David must fight against the Philistines. While David, must not be negligent, what is clear from this episode is the battle belongs to the Lord. As we consider how the Lord breaks through His enemies, you see that the Lord often tests your faith through unexpected challenges, so you must remain vigilant to avoid spiritual complacency.
Watch and Pray for there is no other way.
Watch and Pray for there is no other way.
David is king of a united Israel, finally, and he has built his city and his house. But David is not yet out of the woods, for as long as the Philistines are left in the land, there can be no rest for the people of God. Eager to catch David unawares, the Philistines, having beaten Israel badly only seven years prior, gather together at the valley of Rephaim to try their luck under this new king. Rephaim were a tribal people who inhabited the land during Abraham’s time. They were said to be like the Anakim, i.e. they were giants. So this is the valley of giants, suggesting that some may have continued to associate with the Philistines as Goliath did when David was younger. Now the giant-killer must return to the field of battle.
There’s no sense that David is afraid. But he first makes defensive moves by going down to the stronghold (wherever that is) so that he might inquire of the Lord. And here we see the central thrust of this story. The Lord will beat back His enemies, but he will do so through the prayers of His people. Watch and pray for there is no other way.
Lord, what would you have me do? Should I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hands? First David prays. Only then does the Lord direct David how he should proceed. Of course, God could act apart from prayer, for its not as if by praying we are somehow giving God the go ahead to act. But God has chosen prayer as a means whereby he would deliver the people of God from His enemies. Prayer must be the start of all our work. For in seeking the Lord, David aligns himself with the will of God, and then when he acts, finds the Lord not only present with him, but an active force delivering Him from the enemies of God.
David prayed and God acted, and we think yeah but he was David. But Jesus envisioned the same for his disciples. J. Oswald Sanders, in his book on Spiritual Discipleship put it this way:
The fulcrum on which defeat or victory turns is our ability to pray aright and make intelligent use of our weapons. Jesus nowhere envisages His church in retreat. To the seventy eager disciples who returned from an evangelistic foray elated with their success, He made this powerful statement: “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:18–19; emphasis added). The unmistakable inference is that through the exercise of this delegated authority in their own sphere of service, the disciples, too, would see the overthrow of Satan. This promised authority was never withdrawn. But later, when the disciples lost faith in the promise, they were powerless to deliver a demon-possessed boy. They were paralyzed by their own unbelief. Jesus told them the remedy: “This kind can come out only by prayer” (Mark 9:29). Restful and trustful prayer has an important place in the Christian life, but Paul taught and practiced a different kind of praying. Only strenuous and aggressive prayer that laid hold of the power released by the cross and the resurrection would dislodge the enemy from his agelong stronghold. It is that kind of praying that releases the power and resources of God and brings them into play in the field of battle. Samuel Chadwick contended that Satan fears nothing from prayerless studies, teaching, and preaching. “He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.”
(J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership, Spiritual Discipleship, Spiritual Maturity Set of 3 Sanders Books (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2017), 124–125.)
Each time the enemies of God came against him, David prayed. He sought the Lord, and as we see on both occasions the Lord defeated them. If we are ever to make progress against our enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil, we must do so first by prayer. Jesus when he faced the greatest enemy of them all, sin and death, prayed. With great agony he poured out his heart before the Lord, desiring if it may be possible to accomplish the work without having to die, but resolved to obey the will of His father.
The LORD wins through David and with him.
The LORD wins through David and with him.
The two accounts of David’s battle against the Philistines are very closely similar, so we should look for their meaning where the text shows their difference. In both instances the Philistines are the aggressors, coming out against Israel. And in both cases David inquirers of the Lord. Also in both cases they are defeated before David. And in both cases the battle’s victory is attributed to Yahweh. So what is different about these two occasions, and what might that teach us to see?
You might say the difference lies in tactics. The first it would seem was left for David to decide how he might approach them in battle, whereas the second, the Lord gives David the tactics he is to use. The first is a full-frontal assault led by David. The second was a kind of mopping up, coming from behind after the Lord had attached their front.
The first battle David strikes them from the front, and describes the battle like a wave that crashes down on the enemies, crushing and pulverizing them in its wake. David is quick to acknowledge that the battle belongs to the LORD, for it is Yahweh that had broken through His enemies. That, of course, was what was missing eight years earlier when Israel was defeated before the Philistines, costing them the life of King Saul and his sons. But as Samuel had made clear to Saul when he had roused him from Sheol by the witch of Endor, Yahweh was not with Saul. The same army, same enemy, same righteous cause, and yet, Yahweh was strangely absent, whereas here David makes clear it is only through Yahweh David has been successful.
Interestingly, we see the Philistines doing something similar to Israel in the first chapters of 1 Samuel by leaving their idols behind them as they flee from Israel. Under the judge of Eli and his wicked sons, Israel treated Yahweh with contempt by treating his throne (the Ark of the Covenant) as a magic talisman. But Yahweh would not be manipulated like that. The ark, which had been recovered, was still not located in a central place of worship, as it will soon be when David brings it up to Jerusalem. The story has come full circle now that Yahweh is king again through David, a king after His own heart.
But the second account is different. Here we see the brazen foolishness of an enemy who hasn’t learned its lesson. However, this time when David inquirers of Yahweh, God tells not only that he would give them into His hand, but he also gives him the specific tactic he is to use to bring this about. This time the Lord would attack from the front, and David would come in from behind, only when he heard the sound of marching in the tops of the Balsam trees. Here David is doing a sort of mopping up, after the Lord himself, presumably using his Angelic army, has crushed them from the front. Here the decisive victory is not only attributed to Yahweh, but is accomplished by him. So whether through him, or with him, Yahweh defeated David’s (Israel’s) enemies. What are we to make of this?
First, success only comes when Yahweh is on your side. Part of why it is so essential to begin every endeavor with prayer, is to keep you from fighting your own private battles that Yahweh is not in. If the Lord has not called you to fight, then when you do you can have no guaranteed success. It may be the right enemy, and the cause may be right, but if Yahweh is not with you, forget about it, you will fail.
Second, when you do have success it will only be because Yahweh gave it to you. When he uses you to bring it, you must be quick to say so. Yahweh sometimes uses means to break through his enemies, and when he does, you must acknowledge Him. At other times, Yahweh Himself wins a decisive victory, and then calls you in to clean things up. Is that not what Christ has done when through His death he defeated the greatest of enemy’s death itself? Everything after the cross is merely mopping up. The decisive victory has already been won. Now we hear the Lord marching in the tops of the trees and that's the signal to go out.
Finally, we see Yahweh is faithful to His promises. He told Israel that though David he would defeat the Philistines, and here he has, not once but twice. Abner in Chapter 3 had reminded Israel of God’s promise, and as David is made king over a united Israel, we see him begin to fulfill that. There is not one thing of all that God has promised that he will fail to accomplish. Larger Catechism question 45 asks how doth Christ execute the office of king, and answers in part: by restraining and overcoming all their [His people’s] enemies. It is this confidence that gives Paul his bold assurance to exclaim, if God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom. 8:31). So when we have inquired of Yahweh, and have firm confidence that we are fighting against the enemies of God, then we have assurance that nothing can stand against us. Our battle may look a bit different then it did for David, but so long as Yahweh is with us, we will win.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak. (Eph. 6:10-20)
David, having just received the kingdom, faced the test of enemies. A test designed to ensure David would continue to rule under God’s authority, attentive to God in prayer, and faithful to God in the fight. Since the Lord often tests your faith through unexpected challenges, so you must remain vigilant to avoid spiritual complacency. Amen.
