Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): David was truly a great king, but what made him so successful? See what the key to greatness is next on Hope From the Word.

Bill Luebkemann: We get here the idea of where he came from and where he went to, where he started from and where he ended up, and also we see here clearly the idea of who it was that did that. David here later on in his life is sitting on a huge kingdom. He was the greatest king that Israel ever had.

I'm not sure if he knew that, but he certainly had the greatest amount of land that any king ever had prior to that point. What he didn't know is it was never going to be equaled again in the future either. But he gives credit where credit is due.

He went from the son of Jesse to being the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed, it says, by the God of Jacob. So he recognizes that it's his Father in heaven, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Creator of the universe who anointed him, who made him into what he was, who took him from this lowly place and made him into the king of Israel.

Guest (Male): After a second Wimbledon victory, Boris Becker surprised the world by admitting his great struggle with depression and suicide. Often we hear from those who have reached the pinnacle of worldly success say that emptiness remains in their lives. That's because fulfillment is only found in God.

Today on Hope From the Word, Pastor Bill Luebkemann opens 2 Samuel 23 where we'll unveil God's insights on greatness. It's a far cry from the pattern of the world we live in. We'll begin with verse 11 today. Here is Pastor Bill now with what it takes to be great.

Bill Luebkemann: So, we are in chapter 23. These are the last words of David. It doesn't really say he's on his deathbed. That doesn't happen until 1 Kings. So this may be the last psalm that he wrote, the last song that he sang, the last bit of wisdom, might have been the last newspaper article that he had published, the last bit of words of wisdom that he passed on to those around him.

These are the last words of David, the oracle of David son of Jesse, the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, Israel's singer of songs. This verse says a lot about who David was. If you just read the Bible and ask the Lord what does it mean and take it at face value, you can learn a whole lot of stuff because it's all right here and it's all very clear.

He was the son of Jesse. Jesse was a nobody, and David was a nobody. He wasn't just any old son. He was the youngest son, the most insignificant son, probably the smallest of stature, certainly at the time he was chosen. I don't think there's anything in here to tell us he was the most handsome. He may have been the least handsome.

But it's interesting to contrast the two. He was the son of Jesse on the one hand, and on the other hand, he was the man exalted by the Most High. So we get here the idea of where he came from and where he went to, where he started from and where he ended up, and also we see here clearly the idea of who it was that did that.

David here later on in his life is sitting on a huge kingdom. He was the greatest king that Israel ever had. I'm not sure if he knew that, but he certainly had the greatest amount of land that any king ever had prior to that point. What he didn't know is it was never going to be equaled again in the future either.

But he gives credit where credit is due and he says he went from the son of Jesse to being the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed, it says, by the God of Jacob. So he recognizes that it's his Father in heaven, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Creator of the universe who anointed him, who made him into what he was, who took him from this lowly place and made him into the king of Israel and also acknowledging here that he was, in fact, a singer of songs.

We saw one of them last week in chapter 22, just a magnificent, wonderful song about David's relationship with the Lord and his trust with the Lord and the ways the Lord had worked in his life. Of course, you can read through Psalms and see more than 100 songs, many of which David wrote and which he made popular.

You can see from reading them that he had a very real relationship with God, a relationship that was sometimes up and sometimes down. In other words, he had his good days and his bad days. He had his days when he was in God's will and knew it, and he had his days when he was outside of God's will and maybe he knew it or found it out afterwards, but he had a relationship with the Lord that was alive.

The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.

So he says here also that he knows, he's aware of the fact that the Spirit of the Lord spoke through him. Certainly with regard to the writing of scriptures and the psalms that he had written, certainly the fact is they were inspired by God and he seems to have known that it was the Lord speaking through him and perhaps at other times, maybe in ways that are unrecorded, maybe in things that he did that are not written down in the Bible and decisions that he made and the ways that he handled things.

He knew for a fact that it was the Spirit of the Lord that was speaking through him and that it was His words that were on his tongue. When people came to him for a decision and he was the king and they said, "What should we do here, O king?" and when he rendered his verdict, certainly not all of them are recorded in the Bible, he knew that oftentimes, I don't think he's claiming every time, but oftentimes it was the Spirit of the Lord that spoke through him, the God of Israel, the Rock of Israel.

One of the things he knew, one of the things that the Lord had showed him or taught him was that when you rule over men in righteousness, when you rule in the fear of the God, that's a good thing. If you're doing it that way, he wasn't a despot, he wasn't a dictator, he wasn't trying to get his own power-hungry grab, clutch and claw your way to the top, climb over whoever you can climb over, kick and whatever to be on top of the pile and to say, "Here I am, I've made it to the top. Aren't I something?"

But God had spoken to him and said, "When you rule over men in righteousness and when you do so in the fear of God, then your reign, you're like the light of morning at sunrise, a glorious new day, a new beginning on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after the rain when it's been dark and the rain has been coming through and then afterwards it blows away and clears up and the sun comes out."

It's refreshing and it's a new beginning and it's something new that's in the air and the Lord had spoken through him and told him. He knew that that's what it's like when you rule in righteousness. There are many rulers throughout the history of man that have ruled in darkness and that have ruled with an iron fist and dictatorship and whatever and lots of people have been killed by lots of despots over the years, but this is a ruler who is truly someone after God's own heart.

Is not my house right with God? Has He not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part? Will He not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire? But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand. Whoever touches thorns uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear; they are burned up where they lie.

David here concluding this little bit of a song by saying that his house is right with God and that he does, in fact, have an everlasting covenant with the Lord and the Lord has promised that to him and it's been arranged and secured in every part. In other words, no detail has been left undone. We have the same kind of everlasting deal with the Lord in that Jesus died for us and He paid the price for our sins and that's for all eternity, for anyone who was born 100 years ago, for anyone who's born 100 years from now.

As far back or forward as time goes, as for as long as clocks keep ticking, His payment, it's everlasting and it'll pay the price for everybody. What Jesus did, arranged and secured in every part, I don't think you could say that any better than that. Every detail is taken care of. There's no exceptions, exclusions. There's no list of footnotes.

When you sign a contract, there's all kinds of footnotes. When you read the special offer at the bottom, it says footnote, like somebody told me there's a commercial for some airline and it shows this guy all frazzled and needs to get away. When you're frazzled and worn out and life's too much to bear, call our airline and you can fly away for a weekend to refresh for $39. Then in small print it says, "Need three week advance reservation."

The whole purpose of the advertisement is that you're going to get quick relief today by a quick little vacation. You might be dead if you have to wait three weeks for it and you're as frazzled as the guy in the commercial. There's all kinds of little details and tidbits and footnotes in legal agreements and definitions of words.

Two parties can sign an agreement and then have a disagreement later because one thought this meant one thing and the other one thought it meant something else. This says here his covenant with the Lord was arranged and secured in every part. I want to say to you that Jesus's death on the cross for us, same thing, was arranged and secured in every part, that every detail is taken care of. Nothing was left to chance. Will He not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire?

He's going to bring to fruition our salvation and our everlasting life. We're already saved now if you've accepted Jesus Christ into your life. You're already saved now and you already have fruit of that in your life and you'll have more fruit in your life in the future, but ultimately, when you stand before the presence of God face to face, that's when it really comes completely to bloom and that's when you get the grand prize and you get everything.

He gave up everything so that we could have everything. David here also at this point knowing that evil men are nothing, evil men to be cast aside like thorns. He had a good picture here of what happened with thorns. Thorns are in the way. You don't go grabbing them with your hand and pulling them out. You weed your garden. You might go in and pull out some weeds with your hands, but you've got thorns in the way.

"I think I'll get rid of these thorns." Nobody would do that. Even a kid wouldn't do that. They'd get pricked one time and that would be the end of that. He said evil men are to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand. Use tools for them and they're going to be gathered in a similar kind of way, just thrown into the lake of fire.

David has realized at this point he's had some struggles with evil men along the way. Some people would say he was an evil man in some of the things that he did. He certainly made bad mistakes. Uriah's husband, if he could judge David, might say David was an evil man. He certainly did some evil things, but he was not an evil man to the extent that many of his enemies were.

Even though he had to flee his son Absalom at one point and even though he had to fight enemies and evil men, ultimately he could stand here at this point in his life and say those evil men are like the thorns. You weed your garden; you throw them all out. You look at your beautiful garden and you say, "Doesn't this garden look beautiful?" What about the thorns? You weeded it out yesterday. They're gone. Nobody thinks about them. They're in the trash. The trash men took them. They're gone, insignificant. That's the way evil men are cast aside like that.

These are the names of David's mighty men: Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahkemonite, was chief of the Three; he raised his spear against 800 men, whom he killed in one encounter. David had this whole troop of men that followed him. His mighty men they're called here. There was three of them that seemed to be the chief three, but then there was one that was chief of the three who wasn't part of the three, but then there was 30 as we're going to see in a little while that were really up there also.

But there was really 37 when you count them. You wonder why it says there's 30 when there's really 37. I'm just thinking maybe there was always 30 at one time, but different ones rotated in and out as they came on the scene and as they perhaps passed away or died. But the thing that I want to point out here is that David had this cadre of men around him that stuck by him and were with him throughout all of his days.

When David was first anointed the king and when he was just a kid and he was running away from Saul and Saul was trying to kill him and he was living out in the woods, he had a bunch of misfits and malcontents and guys that hung out with him that had nowhere else to go, troublemakers. I guess they were good guys that just needed some direction and they latched onto King David and he probably taught them much as he was learning in the desert.

He never lifted his hand against Saul even though it would have been easy to wipe Saul off the face of the earth. David didn't do that. He allowed God to deal with things. Through all those years of trial and all those years of patience as God worked into David and made him into the man that He wanted him to be, you could see that David was teaching these things to his followers also and many of them you can see sticking with him throughout all of his life.

As I look back over my life and the friends that I've had over the years and the ones that have been your friends the longest, you say, "Wow, it's amazing that they put up with me that long," or, "It's amazing that we've been able to be friends that long." Other people have come and gone and they're still there. David had this core group of people that it's almost like they shared their hearts with one another. They were close to one another. This guy Josheb-Basshebeth at one time lifted up his spear against 800 men, killed them all at one time. So we're talking about guys that were above average here.

Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty men, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim for battle. Then the men of Israel retreated, but he stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead.

This guy Eleazar was with David and they were taunting the Philistines. I don't know exactly what that means. Maybe they were saying, "Nanny, nanny, boo-boo, you can't get me. Hey, I'm over here. Hey, I'm over here," pop up behind a rock, stick the tongue out, whatever, taunt them, make fun of them. It says here that the other men of Israel retreated. That tells me that the Philistines got ticked off. They didn't like being taunted.

So they did something, retaliated, got up, started a march, and the rest of the Israelites said, "Oh, here they come. Let's get out here. We're clearing the way, move out of here." The men of Israel retreated, but this guy stood his ground and he struck down the Philistines till his hand was frozen to the sword. I don't know if that's ever happened to you. You just can't move your hand.

It happens to me sometimes when I'm sitting in one position for a long time and I can't move some other part of me and you feel frozen or locked up. I've never handled a sword, really, so I can't say I've ever experienced this. But his hand was so tired and so worn out, it's almost like he needed to take his other hand and peel back the fingers one at a time. He had to maybe go home and run it under warm water to get it off of there. He killed so many of these guys.

He stood his ground and he struck down the Philistines till his hand was so tired that it froze there. It was a great victory and the troops came back, but only after he won. All the troops left, Eleazar won the battle, the troops came back to strip the dead. They were there when it was time to get some booty. "Oh, what can we steal off these dead people?" It was Eleazar that stood out. That's why he's one of the top three here.

Next to him was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel's troops fled from them. But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field; he defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the Lord brought about a great victory. We see this guy was like the last guy in a lot of ways. Shammah was like Eleazar in that he stood his ground.

This is similar to what David did when David went against Goliath with that sling. He said to Goliath, "You're blaspheming the name of God. Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are talking to the armies of God that way? Our God is alive unlike yours. Your God died, sorry about that. In fact, he was never alive to begin with. You're worshipping a rock, sir. Sir, I'm sorry to say you're worshipping a rock. Your God is dead.

He can't even be dead because he was never alive. I don't think something can be dead if it wasn't alive. Is a rock dead? It was never alive. How can it be dead? It's an inanimate object." This guy Shammah here, the Philistines banded together in this field, Israel's troops, really useful guys, they ran away again. "Whoa, let's get out of here. They're coming at us. Holy cow."

But this guy stood his ground, struck down a whole bunch of the Philistines, and God gave him a great victory. We see again the Lord does it. The Lord brings about the victory. The Lord, the Lord, the Lord. That's what the whole Bible's about. It's about the Lord and it's about the Lord who brings the victory. It's not about us. It's not about how we can get the victory. The Lord brings the victory and it's the victory for the Lord or whatever it is.

During harvest time, three of the thirty chief men came down to David at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. So David was here; the Philistines were not that far away in Bethlehem. These mighty men come down and David longed for water and said, "Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem."

So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the Lord. "Far be it from me, O Lord, to do this," he said. "Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?" And David would not drink it. Such were the exploits of the three mighty men.

David here in the stronghold, thirsty. There's a well, and the unfortunate problem is the enemy is between where David is and where the well is. David said, "I could really use a drink." These three mighty men here, no problem. "You want a drink? No problem." They went through the lines just to bring David back a drink. He realized they could have gotten killed. They could have shed their blood. It wouldn't be right for me to drink it.

He didn't just pour it out; he poured it out before the Lord. He offered it as a sacrifice to God. What they did, risking their lives, it might be appropriate to offer that up to the Lord, but David felt it was not appropriate to drink it for himself. The blood of men who went down there and risked their lives, I'll offer that up to God. Let what they did, let the risks that they took have been for God and not for him.

And these were the kind of things, such were the exploits of the three mighty men. More powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. So here we have these three mighty men able to kill huge numbers of the enemy at one time and not being concerned or worried about anything. David has, I think, been responsible in some part for their training and perhaps their trusting in the Lord as well.

Abishai the brother of Joab son of Zeruiah was chief of the Three. He raised his spear against 300 men, whom he killed, and so he became as famous as the Three. Was he not held in greater honor than the Three? He became their commander, even though he was not included among them. So he was over the Three but not one of the Three. He was mentioned in the same breath.

When you mention the three mighty men, you think about this guy also. He was a compatriot of them, a friend. He rallied around with them and he was as famous as they were, even more so. He was their commander, but he wasn't technically one of the Three. So it was really four. The three mighty men was really four mighty men if you count it that way.

Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab's best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. Sound familiar? That's what David did with Goliath.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in a study of 2 Samuel. 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. Or if you'd prefer to listen via podcast, go wherever you find your podcasts and sign up there.

We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton, either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10 a.m., and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7. 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'd take a moment to write to 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 2 Samuel next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.

Bill Luebkemann: To know and follow hard after you. To know and follow hard after you. To grow as your disciple in your truth. Grow as your disciple in your truth. This world is empty, pale and poor compared to knowing you, my Lord. Lead me on and I will run after you. Lead me on and I will run after you.