2 Samuel chapter 21 and verse 15. Moreover, the Philistines had
yet war again with Israel. And David went down, and his
servants with him, and fought against the Philistines, and
David waxed faint. And Ish-be-be-nob, which was
of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed
300 shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword,
thought to have slain David. But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah,
succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then
the men of David swear unto him, saying, Thou shalt no more go
out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel. And it came to pass after this,
that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibichai the Hushaith slew
Saph, which was of the sons of the giant. And there was again
a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan, the son of Jare
Orgegim the Bethlemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite,
the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. And there
was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that
had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four
and twenty in number. And he also was born to the giant. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan
the son of Shimeah, the brother of David, slew him. These four
were born to the giant in Gath and fell by the hand of David
and by the hand of his servants. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Well, we're returning to the
history of David for a little while, and we have come to that
portion where David is again bound up in fighting with the
Philistines. David is coming close to the
end of his life. The old saint had known many
wonderful blessings from the Lord, And yet, as we have learned
over the weeks, he had hurt his testimony and bruised his own
conscience exceedingly with many sins and failings. Blessings and failings go hand
in hand in a believer's experience. And I want to say, especially
to you young people, Just because things don't go right in your
life doesn't mean that God has abandoned you, doesn't mean that
you have no interest in the things of God. And I want you to remember
that there are many of the people of God in the scriptures who
can testify to having had bad experiences, sinful experiences. and yet proving the Lord faithful
in the end, so that blessings from God and failings from man
go hand in hand in a believer's experience. Let us remember that. David's life isn't yet at an
end. And indeed, I'm sorry to say
that there will still be time for another great blunder and
mistake in this man's life. We'll come to that in a week
or two's time. That's the occasion when he counts
the population of Israel or he numbers the people of Israel. But that's for another day. Today,
we're going to learn more about these troubles that David had
with the Philistines. And well have we repeated time
and time again how the Lord's promise to David as a reprimand
for his sin, that the blood and trouble would not depart from
his house, was proved right in these latter years of David. And here is trouble with the
Philistines. This people, I'm sure you'll
remember, we've encountered them before on several occasions. They were a thorn in the flesh
of the Old Testament people from the time of Joshua right through
until the time of David. But this people, we remember,
they lived along the coast of the Mediterranean. the Mediterranean
Sea, and they were often hostile towards Israel. They dwelled
in five city-states Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron and Gath. And you'll remember that there
were tall men, there were giants among them that lived in Gath. These were Anakim. There is some
thought that they may have been descended from the Nephilim who
were around at the time of Abraham many centuries before. But Goliath
had been one of these Anakim, the family of the Anakim. And he had been a giant amongst
men. And some of his relatives still
stayed in Gath, stayed in this area. And they are mentioned
in this account. Just when these battles took
place is not certain. They seem to have been perhaps,
I'm surmising here, but they appear to have been a number
of small fights rather than a large pitched battle as we had seen
in previous times. Nevertheless, they were significant
enough for David to be present. And he was there with his personal
bodyguard. So it was clearly not just a
minor skirmish or a minor encounter. There was some significance to
these fights. And David was part of the fight.
And perhaps it was because of his age. Perhaps it was the duration
of the battle. Perhaps it was because they were
having to chase the Philistines. But we find that in the battle,
he became weary. There was a frailty about him
as he was engaged in this battle. And when he was slowing up, He
was targeted by a man called Ishbinob, and Ishbinob tried
to kill him. Abishai, this is Joab's brother. We've met Joab many times in
the history of David, and often Abishai with him. Abishai was
part of David's close bodyguard. And he saw David's danger. And he came to the king's assistance
when this Ishbebenob tried to kill him. and he overcame the attacker
on David's behalf. Other individuals are mentioned
on both sides as well and the names of some of David's soldiers
who slew particular fighters amongst the Philistines are noted
and recorded. One of these men, one of these
Philistines, is described as having six fingers on each hand
and six toes on each foot, which is something unusual, but, because
I looked it up, is not altogether uncommon. So I don't know whether
you've ever met anyone with six fingers and six toes, but apparently
it isn't too rare, even these days. And these continuing battles
show that this region, the nation of Israel and the Mediterranean
and that piece of ground that was dwelt in by the Philistines,
it has continued to be unstable, both throughout the reign of
David from the time of Joshua through the Judges and into the
reign of David, the times of Saul and David. remains so as
well today. The Palestine-Israeli conflict
that we hear about in our news so regularly is occurring in
some of the very same cities that are mentioned here in this
little passage. And there are some lessons for
us to draw, I think, from these verses. And God the Holy Spirit
reminds us that David's first Action the first time really
we meet David or very early in his life David's first action
on a battlefield was with a Philistine giant and So was his last as
well David fought Goliath when he was just a boy and And here
he fights this man, Ishbebenob. I've said it wrong again, and
I had practiced this before the time. Ishbebenob. Ishbebenob. That's it. Ishbebenob. So he fought Goliath and he fought
Ishbebenob, who is called the son of a giant. And this reminds
us, I think, that our Christian lives are a constant ongoing
war from our youth until our old age. It's a war that goes
on between the believer, between a child of God and the world,
between the Lord's people and sin and the devil. Temptations, the temptations
to sin that we feel when we are young, they don't go away even
as we grow older. Now maybe they evolve, maybe
they change a bit, but the sin remains and our flesh is ever
weak to succumb if the Lord does not keep us and preserve us. Ishbibonob, almost overcame David
and Abishai came to his help. The word that's used in Samuel
is he came to his succor. He came to succor the king. Succor means to protect and to
surround and to assist. Literally it means run to the
help of. So Abishai ran to the help of
David when he saw this Ishbibonob attack David and almost overcome
him. Now we do not rely on men to
save us. But that man, Christ Jesus, knows
the weariness that often creeps up on us in our Christian life. And He, our Saviour, our Lord
and Saviour, has promised to run to our help and to succour
us even when we are attacked. This man, Ishbebenob, he had
a new sword. And sometimes new sins are brought
against us and new temptations seek to overwhelm us. And it
looks as if we might be in danger of a new sword. But how blessed we are that the
Lord fights our battles for us. Perhaps someone is bullying you
at school, or perhaps you're anxious because of exams, or
you feel that your friends are asking you to do things or go
places that you don't feel comfortable about. All these things can be
taken to the Lord in prayer. We can ask the Lord to take up
our cause and deliver us from evil. It's Ben Bob. It's Ben Bob. There we are. This man Ishe. I'm going to call
him Ishe from now on. This man Ishe. He brought a new sword to the fight.
And Isaiah speaks about that in his letter, his prophecy. He says this. No weapon that
is formed against thee shall prosper. Every tongue that shall
rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness
is of me, saith the Lord. This man Ishi had a new sword.
Perhaps it was sharper, perhaps it was longer, perhaps it was
heavier. than before. And he tried to
take advantage of David, but the Lord sent help so that whatever
your fear is, whatever new situation and danger you are confronted
with, the Lord will hear your prayer and send the help to succour
you that you need. He'll cover you with his arm
and he'll surround you with his care. Just ask him and prove
him and you will find that he is faithful. Here's another lesson
that perhaps we can take from this little passage. We saw that
the people called David no longer to go out onto the battlefield. The people said to David, don't
you go to the battlefield anymore. We nearly lost your life here
in the fight. And I'm sure that David wanted
to be there and to lead his soldiers. But the time was coming because
of David's age and his frailty when David would no longer have
the strength And he would have to accept that he could not go
to war and battle as he previously had done. And this agedness,
this weariness, this failure in our strength, it comes to
us all. I remember when I was young,
probably the same age as some of you today, I remember listening
to the old men speaking in church, the old preachers. And some of
them, some of them seemed really old. And I would, well, I'm ashamed
to say it, but I would laugh at them when I felt that they
were repeating themselves, or losing their train of thought,
or that they were just speaking quaintly, using old words and
terms as if they didn't understand what was going on in the real
world, or at least in my life. And you know, some of them couldn't
even say the names of the people in the Bible properly. Well,
now I'm that old man and some of you may be smiling. I don't imagine anyone's laughing,
but some of you may be smiling at me and some of the things
that I say. And maybe you think that I'm
too old fashioned and really don't know what's going on in
your life. Well, there's a challenge in
that. It's true that David's men said
to him, thou shalt go no more out with us to battle. You're
too old and weak to fight like this, David. And that's fine. That was true. But here's a question
for you. Who will go instead? Because
make no mistake, the world will be happy if the gospel of grace
is silenced. Satan will be pleased if no one
is preaching the Lord Jesus Christ. So where is the next generation
of fighter for the battlefield? Who is going to pick up the baton? Who will fill the gaps in the
line when the old preachers fall in battle or have to withdraw? I have the privilege of preaching
the gospel to you. But who will preach to your children
when the time comes? Sure, it is that this is the
Lord's work and it is precious in his sight and the Lord will
not leave himself without a witness. And yet at the same time, The
Lord uses men and women whom he has taught to serve his church. Men in the pulpit, women in the
service and support of his work. A believer's life is not about
pleasures and pastimes. It is about serving and sacrifice. And Paul tells Timothy, if a
man desire the office of a bishop, that is, a preacher of the gospel,
if a man desire to be a preacher of the gospel, he desires a good
work. It's a good and honorable thing
to desire to be a gospel preacher. if the task of preaching is desired
with a view to the glory of God and the good of the souls of
men and women and boys and girls. So may we draw this as a little
application from this passage as well. May the Lord raise up
amongst us a new generation of faithful preachers who will carry
the fight to the Philistines. And finally, let us always remember
in our studies to look afresh at the Lord Jesus Christ. David
proved the Lord's faithfulness time and time again, and we shall
too if we trust in him. Christ's death on the cross,
his sacrifice for sin, is the highest, finest and greatest
message in this world. You might find yourself looking
enviously at others, thinking that you would like to be like
them, or you would like to have what they have. Let me tell you
something, let me tell you this. Being brought up Perhaps I can assume in a Christian
home, but not necessarily. Being brought up under the sound
of the gospel, being early introduced to Christ is the best life, the
best upbringing that you can have, and the best provision
that those around about you can give you. May the Lord draw us
ever closer to himself. May the Lord grant and gift us
faith. And may the Lord open our hearts
to his salvation. Amen.