Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): The Lord's army. That's next on *Hope From the Word* with Pastor Bill Luebkemann.

Bill Luebkemann: Now, if you're wondering exactly how David recruited his army, did he have recruiters that were in all the towns and villages and went into the high schools and tried to convince the young people to join? Not exactly. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About 400 men were with him. This was the beginning of David's army.

He had a bunch of losers. These are the people who couldn't make it anywhere else. You have to give David a lot of credit and certainly the Lord the credit for what he allowed David to do here in turning this ragtag fleet of losers into a fighting force.

Guest (Male): Someone has said that to the unbeliever, the world is a playground, but to the believer, the world is a battleground. There is a battle raging for the souls of men and women. The Lord is our great captain and we are his army. We have a picture of this in the book of First Chronicles, and it's before us today on *Hope From the Word* with Bill Luebkemann. Bill is the pastor of Calvary Chapel of Marlton. With today's teaching from First Chronicles chapter 12, here is Pastor Bill.

Bill Luebkemann: First Chronicles chapter 12. The chronicler seems to have wanted to give us just an overview of the history of Israel from the time of creation up until the reign of King David. Real fast, just high velocity, coming to a screeching stop here during the life of Saul, just in time to make skid marks as we come up to David becoming king, which is what happened in chapter 11.

As they came back from being exiled, it was important for the Jews to know their history. It was important for them to be reminded that they were God's chosen people. It was important for them to be reminded of all the things that God had done for them. It was important for them to be reminded who their ancestors were, what tribe they were connected to. Which tribes were the priests and which ones were the kings, and whose uncle was related to whose sister who was married to whoever.

So this chronicles here, this was a book that when they came back from exile, they could rely on this book and look to it and say, "Here's where we fit into God's plan. I'm descended from so-and-so, came down this way, we're part of the chosen people. Look at the things that God has been doing. Look at what he did for our people, bringing them into the promised land. If we will just make it right with God, he'll redeem these promises for us. We can make up for lost time, if you will."

And here as David becomes king, we know he was king for about seven and a half years in a place called Hebron before he moved over to Jerusalem and became king of the whole entire nation. During that seven and a half year period, or much of it, Saul's last survivor was the king over the rest of Israel. So you have David king over a small part of it, and you have Saul's son king over the rest of it.

So David is regrouping here and gaining more support. After the death of Saul's descendant, David becomes king over the entire nation and more and more people are being attracted to him. And that's what we see going on in chapter 12 here. We see his army is growing, if you will. These were the men who came to David at Ziklag while he was banished from the presence of Saul, son of Kish. They were among the warriors who helped him in battle.

They were armed with bows and were able to shoot arrows or to sling stones right-handed or left-handed. They were kinsmen of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin. Ahiezer their chief and Joash the sons of Shemaah the Gibeathite, Jeziel and Pelet the sons of Azmaveth, Berakah, Jehu the Anathothite, and Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty who was a leader of the thirty. Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan, Jozabad the Gederathite, Eluzai, Jerimoth, Bealiah, Shemariah, and Shephatiah the Haruphite.

Elkanah, Isshiah, Azarel, Joezer, and Jashobeam the Korahites, and Joelah and Zebadiah the sons of Jeroham from Gedor. Look, as I've said many times before, if I mispronounce these names, I'm sorry. I'm not promising that these pronunciations are correct. But these are the guys that came to David and formed his army. Now, if you're wondering exactly how David recruited his army, did he have recruiters that were in all the towns and villages and went into the high schools and tried to convince the young people to join?

Not exactly. If you look back in First Samuel 22, it says in verse 2, "All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him and he became their leader. About 400 men were with him." This was the beginning of David's army. He had a bunch of losers. These are the people who couldn't make it anywhere else. They were in distress. Something was going wrong in their life, or nothing was going right in their life.

They were in debt. They owed money. They were discontented, unhappy. They didn't get along, they didn't fit in, they didn't quite know what to make of themselves. And David, he didn't hire these—these were not 400 West Point graduates in crisp and pressed uniforms ready to follow his command. They were 400 dissidents. Among the 400 of them, they probably had 800 opinions on what to do. You know they say opinions are like armpits; everybody has two and they smell real bad.

And these were probably 400 guys with 800 opinions. You have to give David a lot of credit and certainly the Lord the credit for what he allowed David to do here in turning this ragtag fleet of losers into a fighting force. But then as time goes on, even more people were coming to him. And these guys we just listed in chapter 12, they came to David while he was at Ziklag. Now, you'll remember Saul was always following him around, chasing him around, trying to kill him.

And David was always on the run from Saul. Whenever David had the chance to kill Saul, he wouldn't do it. He didn't touch the Lord's anointed, and he had the opportunity. And finally David got so tired of it, he went over to the land of the Philistines. And he went to see the king of the Philistines, one of the kings. These were mortal enemies. And he said, "Hey, you know, could I have a place to live over here?"

And the king of the Philistines figured, "Well, shoot, I'd like to get him on my side." So he gave David this town of Ziklag, said you can live there. And the Philistine king thought that now David's going to be on my side and so he'll help me to defeat Israel. David kind of went along with that, pretended, because he needed a safe place to live. So he was in the land of Ziklag. Saul stopped pursuing him.

Saul was a scaredy-cat. He was out pursuing David, but he didn't want to pick a fight with the Philistines. So he wasn't going to go to their land and demand that they give him David. So David went to live in Ziklag. He was there for, I don't know, a year or two or so. During that time, Saul stopped pursuing him. But these guys came to him. They came to him while he was at Ziklag, while he was banished from the presence of Saul, son of Kish.

And these guys that came to him were among the warriors who helped him in battle. So they came, they joined in, they helped him in his battles with his army. And this was one fantastic fighting force here. They were armed with bows, and they were able to shoot arrows, and they could sling stones, and they could do it all with the right hand or the left hand. They were ambidextrous, if you will, to the extent of using these instruments, these weapons.

You know, Judges talks about somebody that's left-handed as if that's a superior trait. My mother would be very happy to know that because she's left-handed. When I was growing up, she was always defending left-handed people. I remember as a kid, she would buy these gloves for washing the dishes, these Playtex gloves you could wear so your hands didn't get all chapped while you were washing the dishes. You'd buy a package of gloves and they gave you an extra right-handed glove.

So when the glove wore out, you had an extra one. And I remember her writing a letter to Procter & Gamble or whoever made them and telling them, "How come you don't have a package with an extra left-handed glove for those of us that are left-handed?" Look here's what Judges 20:16 says about some soldiers. It says, "Among all these soldiers, there were 700 chosen men who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss."

Now, this is not talking about the same people. This is long before the time of David here. But it's complimenting these 700 left-handed guys who could take a stone with a sling, and they could sling that stone through the air and they could hit a hair with that stone and not miss. And that's the kind of aim that David had when he hit the Goliath with that stone. But these people were both left-handed and right-handed, and they could shoot arrows and they could sling stones.

They could do it all with both hands. If they were fighting a battle and there was some advantage to one side or the other side, they could flip around. If they were right-handed and the enemy guy was left-handed, they could flip to the left hand and fight him that way, whatever it was to give them an advantage in battle. What we see here is a bunch of guys that were a superior fighting force. And they came over to David's side.

And beyond that, they were the kinsmen of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin. Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin; David from the tribe of Judah, of course. But these guys from the tribe of Benjamin were supporting Saul, then they supported Saul's son, who was the king over most of the land of Israel for a period of seven years or so, seven and a half years. And now these guys came over.

They were Saul's kinsmen, but they said, "Look, the time is right. We know that David was meant to be king. We know that God called David to be king. We can see God working in his life. We can identify the Lord's hand upon these things." And that's another miracle that Saul's brethren were actually coming over also. Verse 8: "Some Gadites defected to David at his stronghold in the desert. They were brave warriors, ready for battle and able to handle the shield and spear."

"Their faces were the faces of lions, and they were as swift as gazelles in the mountains." Ezer was the chief, Obadiah the second in command, Eliab the third, Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth, Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, Jeremiah the tenth, and Machbannai the eleventh. These Gadites were army commanders. The least was a match for a hundred and the greatest for a thousand.

It was they who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing all its banks. And they put to flight everyone living in the valleys to the east and to the west. So these Gadites also decide to defect over to David's side. Slowly, he's building this army with the defectors from Saul's kingdom. As David now, as we saw in the previous chapter, they were anointing him the king over all of Israel. Slowly but surely, the army is migrating over to him.

These Gadites even defected. And this was a particularly mighty group of guys—mighty men of valor, one of the translations says. They were courageous. They weren't afraid of anything. They were ready for battle. They were able to handle the sword and spear. In other words, they were trained. They practiced. They knew what they needed to do. You know, I just got to thinking when I was reading that, we need to be trained also at handling our sword, which is the word of God.

And if we're not trained at how to handle the word of God, then we're not going to be able to live our lives very successfully for Christ. We need to spend time reading the Bible and studying it and finding out what it is that God wants us to know and how he wants to use us. And we can come to know him more as we get into these pages here. It says in the word, "Always be ready, in season and out of season." Always be ready to give a reason for that hope that is within you.

You know, this whole chaplain training we've been going through, we were at another class a few weeks ago, and helping people that have gone through a traumatic event, they call it a ministry of presence. In other words, you're present. You're just there for people when they need you. And very seldom do you get turned away when people are needy and hurting when their loved one died or some tragedy happened. Once in a while, they shared some stories.

People who didn't like God for whatever reason would run them out of there. And they wouldn't stay if they weren't welcome. But that ministry of presence, of just being there for the people and being trained and being ready to be able to give an answer, and being ready to put your hand around them and being ready to comfort them or to share your faith or to be able to say why you have this hope and why you can be so confident in it.

You know, these people were trained for battle. They were ready. They were prepared. They were useful to David, and they were useful to the Lord, you know, in the not too far in the future here, a couple more chapters, they're going to be out fighting the Philistines. And God uses them. And yeah, look, God wins the battle, but they were prepared for it. They didn't stay home eating bonbons all day and then say, "Oh, let's go pretend we know how to fight." He used their training, and he'll use our training if we're ready.

When we have an opportunity to share the Lord, if we know the word, we'll know what to say in those situations if we've taken some time to be prepared. And what you see here is people who are prepared, and they're confident. Look, it says their faces were the faces of lions. Look, did you ever see a lion that was afraid, cowering in the corner? Did you ever see a lion that was anything less than 100% confident in its ability to go after its prey?

Have you ever seen any animal chasing a lion? It doesn't work that way. The lion chases whoever he wants to chase. And these people had the faces of lions. They were steadfast. So we're talking about really courageous people here. At the same time, they were swift as gazelles in the mountains. They could run around and outrun anybody. They could get where they needed to get. They were army commanders, it says. And the least among them could take on a hundred other men.

It says the least was a match for a hundred, the greatest for a thousand. The least among these guys, the least, the skinniest, wimpiest one of the bunch, could take on a hundred guys, one to a hundred, no problem. And the greatest one could take on a thousand. I'd be happy to be the skinniest guy in that bunch of guys. They weren't afraid of anything. They crossed the Jordan, it says, in the first month when it was overflowing all its banks.

Look, when the Jews went into the promised land finally after 40 years of wandering, they came to the Jordan River. It was at flood stage. It was overflowing its banks. You know what that means? Deep, deep, and wide. The river raised up, went wider, it was deeper. Of course, when the Israelites went into the promised land, the priests went ahead and God told them what to do, and he parted the water so they could cross through. You can read about that in Joshua 3 and 4.

But here, these guys—some deep and wide river that was at flood stage—they didn't even care about that. They just swam across, took a boat, whatever they did to ferry, rode the cable car, maybe they knew where the bridge was or something. Look, they must have swum. It was just another day in the life of a brave and mighty warrior. Everybody else would be stuck on one side or the other. "Oh, it's at flood stage. We can't visit granny for a couple more months until the water level goes down." No.

And they put to flight everyone living in the valleys to the east and to the west. They were fearless, they were courageous, they were trained, prepared, and God was able to use them here. And we should be all those things and allow God to be able to use us in our lives, whatever way he would do it. We should be courageous also when we're sharing the Lord out there, not worried about rejection, which is what we always all get so worried about.

"Well, I'm not going to share the Lord because they'll think I'm a fool," or "They'll say no," or whatever, "I'll get yelled at," or what have you. No, none of that. Courageous and fearless that God will use us because he will use us. And even if he doesn't use us the way we think he will, he's still God and we're not. And we need to trust in him. Other Benjamites and some men from Judah also came to David in his stronghold.

So now some more guys come. Some more Benjamites who are related to Saul, but at the same time now some come from Judah. And they come to David in his stronghold there. David went out to meet them and said to them, "If you have come to me in peace to help me, I am ready to have you unite with me. But if you have come to betray me to my enemies when my hands are free from violence, may the God of our fathers see it and judge you."

Look, David here, trusting in God. And he goes out to these people that are coming to him, who could have shot him with an arrow on the spot. And he says to them here, "Look, if you're coming to me in peace, I'd love to have you work with me. But if you're coming, you know, to kill me, God knows my hands are clean. And if you kill me, then the God of our fathers is going to see it and judge it."

He was also trust—here was David, he was trusting in God, whatever was going to happen. Then the spirit came upon Amasai—came upon, same word for clothed. Put your clothes on in the morning. The spirit clothed him. The spirit came upon him. The spirit came upon Amasai, the chief of the thirty, and he said, "We are yours, oh David. We are with you, oh son of Jesse. Success, success to you and success to those who help you, for your God will help you."

So David received them and made them leaders of his raiding bands. So here's this guy, the spirit of the Lord comes upon him. And he knows and he says, "Look, we know that you're being blessed by God. We know that your God will help you. And we want to be on your team because everybody wants to be on a winning team, right? So we want to be on your team. We're yours, oh David. We're yours, oh son of Jesse."

"We want to have success for you because we know that your God is with you." So David made them part of his raiding bands, made them leaders, actually. Some of the men of Manasseh defected to David when he went with the Philistines to fight against Saul. He and his men did not help the Philistines because after consultation, their rulers sent him away. They said, "It will cost us our heads if he deserts us to his master Saul."

When David went to Ziklag, these were the men of Manasseh who defected to him: Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu, and Zillethai, leaders of units of a thousand in Manasseh. They helped David against raiding bands, for all of them were brave warriors and they were commanders in his army. Day after day, men came to help David until he had a great army like the army of God. Look, some men of Manasseh come to David.

And what's happening now is the Philistines are going to war against Saul. And because David is living with the Philistines, they say, "Hey, you're coming with us." And David says, "Okay, I'm coming with you. I'm on your side now." But some of the Philistine kings got nervous. They said, "Hey, if David's on our side and we go into that battle fighting against Saul, if David decides to change sides in the middle of the battle and go back to the other side, we could get wiped out."

So they, you know, they said, "You know what, on second thought, we don't want you coming with us." Which David didn't take too kindly to, by the way, but that's another story, we were through that already. They didn't help the Philistines because their rulers sent them away. They said if he defects or deserts, it could cost us our heads. And these guys came to David during that time period. And they helped him against the raiding bands because they were all brave warriors and they were commanders in his army.

And men kept coming to David over and over and over. Remember starting with that ragtag, worn-out band of nobodies, leftovers, retreads, people that were not going to make it anywhere else. And now the Lord is just growing this army here and it's just every day people are coming over to David's side. These are the numbers of the men armed for battle who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul's kingdom over to him as the Lord had said.

Men of Judah carrying shield and spear, 6,800 armed for battle. Men of Simeon, warriors ready for battle, 7,100. Men of Levi, 4,600, including Jehoiada, leader of the family of Aaron with 3,700 men, and Zadok, a brave young warrior with 22 officers from his family. And it goes on here: the men of Benjamin, the men of Ephraim, the men of half the tribe of Manasseh, the men of Issachar. They knew the times, it says, and they knew what Israel should do. 200 chiefs with all their relatives under their command.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to *Hope From the Word*. We're currently in a study of First Chronicles. You can hear this message or more *Hope From the Word* with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. If you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find *Hope From the Word* wherever you find your podcasts.

We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10:00 AM, and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00. To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org. And if you take a moment to write Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us.

We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives. And we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study in First Chronicles next time on *Hope From the Word* with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.