saying how Farmer Foundation
was first published in John Ripon's handbook, 1787, I believe it
said, 1787. The truth doesn't change, does
it? God doesn't change and the truth doesn't change. Men change,
we change, but God doesn't. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. If you will, let's turn in our
Bibles tonight to 2 Samuel chapter 5. 2 Samuel chapter 5, and let's read
from verse 17 through the end of the chapter. But when the
Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel,
all the Philistines came up to seek David, and David heard of
it and went down to the hold. The Philistines also came and
spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. David inquired of
the Lord, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? Wilt thou
deliver them into mine hand? And the Lord said unto David,
Go up. for I will doubtless deliver
the Philistines into thine hand. And David came to Belperism,
and David smote them there and said, the Lord hath broken forth
upon mine enemies before me as a breach of waters. Therefore
he called the name of that place Belperism. And there they left
their images, and David and his men burned them. And the Philistines
came up yet again and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And when David inquired of the
Lord, he said, Thou shalt not go up, but fetch a compass behind
them and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And
let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops
of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself. For
then shall the Lord go out before thee to smite the hosts of the
Philistines. And David did so as the Lord
had commanded him, and smote the Philistines from Geba until
thou come to Gaza. We saw last time in the first
half of this chapter how that David was anointed king over
all of Israel. Remember at first, He was a king
over Judah, only one tribe, and then eventually he was made the
king over all 12 tribes of Israel. And we ended it with verse 10
in this chapter, which tells us, and David went on and grew
great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him. In our text tonight,
the first thing we see that growing great That's what it says, doesn't
it, about David. So David, and David went on and
grew great and having the Lord of hosts with him. That doesn't
mean that he would now be exempt from problems. He would now be
exempted from troubles and trials. So many times people have the
strange idea that to become a Christian will mean No more trouble, no
more trials, no more difficulties in this world, when we know it's
just the opposite. It's just the opposite, because
this world has never been a friend of grace and it never will be,
never shall be. I want you to keep your places
here, but if you will turn back with me to the book of Judges. Judges chapter three. Judges chapter three. Now these
are the nations which the Lord left to prove Israel by them,
even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan,
only that the generations of the children of Israel might
know to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing
thereof. Namely, five lords of the Philistines. Notice three things in those
three verses that we've just read there in Judges. First of
all, the five lords of the Philistines. We know that there were five
localities over which they had not kings, but what they called
lords that ruled over them. And then the second thing, that
God left these nations to prove Israel. You see that in verse
one? Now these are the nations which
the Lord left to prove Israel by them. So first we see the
five lords of the Philistines and they were part of the nations
that the Lord left in the land of Canaan to use to prove Israel. And the third thing that we see
here is to teach them war, to teach them war. Joshua, Joshua
took over when Moses was taken home to be with the Lord. You
know, Joshua led Israel into the land of Canaan, and God fought
for them. God dispossessed these nations
of the land of Canaan. God gave them the land. God drove
them out of the land. And one of the ways we are given
in Deuteronomy 23 and verse 28 that God used to drive these
nations out of the land He said, I will send harnets before thee. Can you imagine that? God sending
harnets before the people of Israel to drive out. He said, I will send harnets
before thee which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite,
and the Hittite from before thee. It just reminds us that God has
many different weapons in his arsenal by which he may fight
for his people, defend his people, deliver his people. He has many
different ways. But these people in the days
of the judges where we read just now, you see Joshua and his generation
had passed off the scene and God had driven the nations out
for them, gave them the land of Canaan, but now they're going
to have to fight. They're going to have to fight
to possess the land of Canaan because they didn't actually
drive all the people out. There were some of them that
remained among them. And that's the reason the Lord
warned them several times, several places, not to intermarry with
them because it would turn out bad for Israel. And we know that's
exactly what took place eventually in their history. But I want
us tonight, if you go back with me to 2 Samuel 5, I want us tonight
to look at this passage as God proving Israel, God proving David
the king with these Philistines, as the scripture there said,
he left them in the land to prove them. And I have four things
I want to mention to us tonight. First, will David seek the Lord's
direction? God's going to prove them. Will
David seek the Lord's direction. It had been at least seven years
now since the Philistines had defeated Israel, remember? That
battle in which King Saul was slain. And during that time,
the nation had been divided. 11 tribes under the leadership
of Ish-bosheth, who was a very weak leader, a very weak man,
and the one tribe which was under David's rule and reign. In other
words, they were a divided nation for seven years at least. And
because they were divided, they were a weaker nation. Division
causes weakness. And that was their case. But now Israel is united under
one king, one king, David. And the Philistines, they knew
something about David. They knew he was not a weak leader. And do you notice what it says
here in verse 18? The Philistines also came, I'm
sorry, verse 17, but when the Philistines heard that they had
anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to
seek David, to seek David. Hearing that he was now the king,
they came primarily to destroy David, to kill David. They knew
he was a strong warrior and leader. And this war or battle here that
we read about, the first one at least, I point out to us,
David didn't instigate this. They come, the Philistines, they
come, they invade the land of Israel, the land of Canaan. And
notice in verse 18, it says, they spread themselves in the
valley. Now, when we read they spread
themselves, that tells us something about the number, the number
of this army. It was a large army to spread
itself out in the valley. But my thought is God will prove
Israel. God will prove David. Now, will
he seek the Lord's direction? Will he? Will he seek the Lord's
direction? Well, we know from verse 19 that
he did. He inquired of the Lord. And
as we've seen in studying here in 2 Samuel and 1 Samuel, We've
seen how it was that he inquired of the Lord. He had the high
priest there with him. The high priest had the ephod,
and in that was the Urim and the Thummim, those lights by
which God would reveal his will unto the nation of Israel. And David asked two questions.
Notice verse 19, David inquired of the Lord. And I want us to
think about this. God is proving David. God is
proving Israel. Will they inquire of the Lord? Or will they just go up and fight
with the Philistines? They've invaded their lands.
Will they inquire of the Lord? And verse 19, we read that David,
he had two questions. Two questions. First of all,
he asked this question. Shall I go up to the Philistine? That's his first question. Shall
I go up? And his second question was,
will you deliver them into my hands? He's speaking to the Lord,
of course. Seeking his direction, his leadership. You know, later in Psalm 20,
David would write, some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we will remember the name of the Lord. We're not trusting
in horses and we're not trusting in chariots. We will remember
the name of the Lord. And then his son Solomon later
wrote these words, which we're very familiar with. Trust in
the Lord with all thine heart. and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths. That's what we see here, isn't
it? God is proving David. Will he acknowledge the Lord? And will he not lean to his own
understanding? Well, he passed the test. He sought the Lord. He asked
the Lord, if he should go up and if the Lord would deliver
them into his hand. The Lord answered both questions. The Lord answered both of his
questions. God told him, go up, go up. The Lord said unto David, go
up. That was the answer to his first question. Shall I go up?
Go up. And the answer to his second
question, wilt thou deliver them into my hands? I will doubtless
deliver the Philistines into thine hand. That's the first
proof that I see here. Second, will David obey God's
law concerning images? Will he? God's proven him. First of all, will he seek the
Lord, his direction? Second, will he obey God's law
concerning images? Now, the Philistines, they worshipped
false gods, we know that. We saw in 1 Samuel they worshipped
the fish god, Dagon. But like most idolaters, one
god is never enough. One god is never enough. If one
is good, a hundred's better, you know? And this army, no doubt,
they brought their gods with them, their images with them,
thinking that they would give them the power, they would give
them the victory. And people haven't changed. It's
still the same today. Those who worship images, they
put confidence in that image. And these men of the Philistines,
no doubt, They had their gods and they brought them up, but
what did God say Israel was to do with those images? Take them
all? Some of them were made out of
silver. Some of them were decorated with gold. What were they to
do? Take them all? Set them up in
their houses? No, no. Look back to Deuteronomy
chapter seven. Deuteronomy chapter 7, the law of God to the nation of Israel
given through Moses. When the Lord thy God shall bring
thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath
cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites and the Girgashites
and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the the Rizzites and the
Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier
than thou. And when the Lord thy God shall
deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly
destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with
them, nor show mercy unto them. Neither shalt thou make marriages
with them, Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son,
nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn
away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods.
So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy
thee suddenly. But thus shall you deal with
them. Here it is. You shall destroy
their altars, break down their images, and cut down their groves,
and burn their graven images with fire. God's proving them. Would they obey God's law? What
would they do with these images? But I want to read on there in
chapter seven. For thou art an holy people unto
the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself. Now what we read here
about God's election of the nation of Israel, is the same as his
election of individuals unto salvation. This is just a good
picture and a good answer because all of us, I'm sure, all of us
here tonight, if we know the Lord, the thought has come into
our mind, into our heart at one time or the other, why would
God choose me? Why would God choose me? Have
you ever had that thought? You ever thought about that?
Well, I know you have. Why? Well, the same thing about
the nation of Israel. Why would God choose that nation?
We read these other seven nations here, the Jebusites, the Canaanites,
all those ites, didn't choose any of them. But he did choose
one nation, the nation of Israel. Why would he do that? Well, he
tells us, doesn't he? The Lord did not set his love
upon thee, upon you, nor choose you because you were more in
number than any people. It wasn't because you were a
greater populated nation, a larger nation than other nations. In
fact, he said you were the smallest. What are we saying here? Don't,
listen, don't ever look in yourself to find a reason why God would
choose you. You'll never find it looking
in yourself. The same thing was true here
about the nation of Israel. It wasn't because they were a
larger nation, no, no. It was simply because, as verse
eight says, because the Lord loved you and because he would
keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers. Have the Lord
brought you out with a mighty hand and redeems you out of the
house of bondman from the hand of Pharaoh. Know therefore that
the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth
covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments
to a thousand generations and repayeth them that hate him to
their face to destroy them. He will not be slack to him that
hateth him. He will repay him to his face. Those who worship idols are those
who hate God. That's what the word of God teaches.
Idolaters hate God. They make their own God. They
manufacture their own God. And as the scripture tells us,
usually when a person makes his own God, he makes him after his
own image. He thinks God is like he is.
or like she is. So that was the second proof
I saw. Will David obey God's law concerning the images? Well,
let's go back in our text tonight and we see that he did. In verse
21, 2 Samuel chapter 5 and verse 21, and there they left their
images and David and his men burned them. Isn't that what
God told him to do? It is, isn't it? All right, here's
the third proving of David. Will David act presumptuously? First of all, I said, will David,
will Israel seek the Lord's direction? They did. Will David, will Israel
do what God commanded them to do with these images? They did.
Number three, will David, will Israel act presumptuously? Notice in verse 22, and the Philistines
came up yet again and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. And when David inquired of the
Lord, he said, thou shalt not go up, but fetch a compass behind
them and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. The
Philistines come again. You know, there's a Jewish historian
by the name of Josephus, and he said that this army was three
times as large as that first army of the Philistines. That's
what he said. By David acting presumptuously,
this is what I'm saying. Will David, will Israel act presumptuously? By acting presumptuously, I mean,
will he just presume now? God told him to go up before,
and God gave him the victory. Now here comes the Philistines
once again. Will he just assume that it's
God's will for him to go up again in the same manner? Will he do
that, act presumptuously? He did inquire of the Lord, didn't
he, a second time. And this time, we see that he
was given different instructions. The first time, his army was
to march head on, to attack and fight, to battle with the Philistine
army head on, but not this time. No, God gives him instructions
as to how this battle is to be fought. They are to go around,
his army is to go around from behind the philistines. Against, we read, the mulberry
trees, verse 23. And when David inquired of the
Lord, he said, thou shalt not go up. You don't go up like you
did the first time, head on, no. But fetch a compass behind
them and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And let it be. Think about this. This time, he's to lead his army
around behind the Philistines, over against the mulberry trees,
and now listen and wait. You know, that's one of the hardest
things for most of us to do, to wait on the Lord. He's not to do a thing as far
as doing battle with the Philistines now. march his army around behind,
and to wait until he hears a moving in the top of the mulberry trees. In the parallel passage in 1
Chronicles, this verse reads, and it shall be when thou shalt
hear a sound in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou
shalt go out to battle. For God, now listen, for God
is gone forth before thee to smite the host of the Philistines. Now some of the Jewish writers
believed that this sound that he was to listen for and he did
hear was angels, the angels of God, the host of God, the angels
of God, the armies of heaven going on the tops of the mulberry
trees. going forth to do battle. But
the text clearly tells us that you're to wait until you hear
the sound for God is gone forth before thee. He's gone before
you, David. We know later, if it was the
angels that was making this sound moving in the tops of the mulberry
trees, we know later in the history of Judah, During the reign of
one king by the name of Hezekiah, one angel, remember, when the
Assyrian army had come in and surrounded Jerusalem and Hezekiah
went in and prayed and laid out that letter before the Lord,
one angel, one angel destroyed 185,000 Assyrians in one night
and delivered Jerusalem. The Lord has gone forth before
thee. But my point is he had to wait. This time he had to wait. And
again, I say this is one of the most difficult things for most
believers to do, to trust in the Lord and wait. You pray,
you've got a promise, you pray that promise, claim that promise
before God, and you expect it to happen yesterday. It doesn't. Wait. Don't give up. Someone
said God always answers prayer. He either says yes, no, or wait. But he always answers the prayers
of his people. David was proved again. Israel
was proved again, the third time. And the fourth time, here will
David give all the glory to God for his victories. Will he? Or will he try to steal some
of God's glory? Will Israel try to steal some
of God's glory? Well, look what he says in verse
20. And David came to Baal-parazim, and David smote them there and
said, the Lord, the Lord, he's won the battle, the Lord, the
Lord, hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me as the
breach of waters." If you can picture in your mind waters breaking
through a levee or through a dam and the force of that water coming
through and just taking everything in its path with it. That's what
David is saying here. The Lord hath broken forth upon
my enemies. He gives all the glory. He doesn't
say anything about his astuteness or his weaponry or the number
of his soldiers. No, all the glory he gives to
the Lord, doesn't he? And that's certainly important
because God, we know, has declared that he will not give his glory
to another. He will not share his glory.
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Many believe that
David wrote the second psalm at this point. That psalm, you
know, it begins, Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine
a vain thing? You know, that's what took place
here, isn't it? The heathen, the Philistines,
why do they rage and imagine a vain thing? God set his king
on his throne. David is God's king. He set him
on his throne and men are not going to overthrow him. And many
see a parallel here with David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he finished his work here upon the earth and ascended back
to the Father. He is upon the throne of God. And immediately, you read the
book of Acts, immediately what took place? Well, the enemies
of God came against the Lord. You say, no, they came against
the church. No, they came against the Lord. Remember what he told
Saul? Saul was persecuting the church,
wasn't he? But what did the Lord say? Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? There's a union between the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the head and his church. We are his body. And to persecute
one of his is to persecute him. Well, I pray that the Lord would
bless these thoughts to us here tonight. The main thing that
I wanted us to see is God left those nations, those Philistines
in the land to prove Israel. And I see how they were proven
here, these four ways. I trust the Lord will bless His
word to all of us tonight.