Too Good to Drink

Fresh Water on a Hot Day

When the grandkids are with us, they all love to have Mimi tell them stories as they are going to sleep. She apparently has started including them in fictional stories she makes up on the fly. When I was a kid, my mother used to tell stories about her life on the farm. It included horses, cows, pigs, goats, and chickens. The villains were, as I remember, nothing more than foxes, snakes, and the cold weather of upstate New York.

I remember going to the family farm only once. Mom and Aunt Peggy insisted on finding the spring of water that fed the kitchen on the farm. The farm was in Russia, NY which bordered the Adirondacks State Park. The spring came from the mountains and was piped directly into the house. They remembered it as excellent, and they wanted to fill up some jugs and bring them home. We did find the spring and although I don’t remember much from that trip, I do remember that the water was the best that I had ever had.

A Covert Mission

In the OT there is a story about a spring in the area of Bethlehem that David desired. David had been raised near Bethlehem and as a shepherd, would have known the best places for water. This spring that he remembered must have been good.

2 Samuel 23:13–17 NIV

During harvest time, three of the thirty chief warriors 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. 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 warriors 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, 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 warriors.

Chapter 23 gives the last words of David. The retelling of this mission to get water is really about the accomplishments of the mighty men that surrounded David. I can only imagine what those 3 warriors had to go through to get the water. It falls into the same chapter with Benaiah who defeated a lion in a pit on a snowy day. Abishai killed 300 men in a single day with only a spear. I don’t think the 3 mighty warriors just meandered into Bethlehem without any resistance.

Wasted Water?

This story has always made me wonder, “Why would David pour out this water that the 3 mighty men risked their lives?” At first sight David’s reaction in tipping the water away and refusing to drink seems ungrateful and thoughtless. Of course, I figured that there was something more to it. Afterall, the Bible doesn’t suggest that the men got offended and refused to follow David. In fact, it seems that David is held in even higher esteem as a result. What does it mean?

What is a Drink Offering?

Verse 16 says that David poured it “out before the Lord”. This represents what the Bible describes as a drink offering. Another term for the drink offering is a libation. Here is an explanation…

In Israel, as in the rest of the ancient Near East, libations were a secondary type of offering, i.e., they often accompanied other types of offerings (Ex. 29:40f.; 2 Ch. 29:35). Special bowls were used as containers (Ex. 25:29; 37:16; Jer. 52:19). Wine was perhaps the most common libation (Ex. 29:40f.; Hos. 9:4); according to Robertson Smith (p. 231), it was a substitute for blood.[1]

So, this is what makes it begin to make sense. It is why the 3 warriors were not offended but, rather felt honored.

Water as Precious as Blood

David saw the water as the equivalent of the blood of the men who risked their lives. There was no way that he could have drunk their blood. “The MT reads, ‘Is it the blood of the men who went?... In other words, ‘It is the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives, so I am not willing to drink it.’”[2]

There is power in the blood!

Assemblies of God missionary J. W. Tucker knew he was at risk when anarchy broke out in the Belgian Congo in 1964, but he stayed where God had placed him. One day a mob attacked and killed him with sticks, clubs, fists, and broken bottles. They took his body, threw it in the back of a truck, then tossed his corpse to the crocodiles in the Bomokande River, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

J. W. Tucker had risked everything, yet he seemingly had nothing to show for it. But thirty years later, John Weidman, a close friend of Tucker, was in the country (by then known as Zaire) and learned how God had used that missionary’s sacrifice.

The Bomokande River flows through the middle of the Mangbeto tribe, a people virtually without the gospel. During a civil war, the Mangbeto king appealed to the central government in Kinshasa for help. The government sent the brigadier, a policeman of strong stature and reputation who came from Isiro. Tucker had led the brigadier to the Lord two months before Tucker was killed.

As a new Christian, the brigadier had done his best to witness to others but had no response. Then one day he heard of a Mangbeto tradition that said, “If the blood of any man flows in the Bomokande River, you must listen to his message.”

The brigadier called for the king and the village elders. They gathered in full assembly to hear the brigadier say, “Some time ago, a man was killed, and his body was thrown into your Bomokande River. The crocodiles in this river ate him up. His blood flowed in your river. But before he died, he left me a message. This message concerns God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to this world to save people who were sinners. He died for the sins of the world; he died for my sins. I received this message, and it changed my life.”

As the brigadier preached, the Spirit of God descended, and people began to fall on their knees and cry out to the Lord. Many were converted. Since that day, thousands of Mangbetos have come to Christ and dozens of Assemblies of God churches have opened.[3]

Tucker’s blood had been poured out and 30 years later it would inspire a revival in the Mangbeto people.

David recognized that the water was precious – worth far more than the water itself. He poured it out before the Lord (16). It had been brought to him as a present, an offering that his men had risked their lives for. It was too special simply to drink. It was worthy to be a special drink-offering presented to Yahweh… His action was honoring rather than dismissive of the men who gave. Their gift was for David, but he recognized that their service was for God.[4]

A Celebration of Victory

There are many OT sacrifices and the drink offering shows up in many of the cases. However, the instructions to the Levites included this statement, “when you enter the land which I am going to give you”. The drink offering of wine or blood was poured out on the ground as a celebration of victory or completion. Doesn’t this just make sense when we think about the work of Jesus on the Cross? Only after the Lord had defeated the enemies of His people and given His people a restful dwelling in the land, would He accept the wine of the libations.[5]

Hebrews 12:23–24 NIV

to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Lewis Jones was a graduate of Moody Bible College along with Billy Sunday. Over the span of his life he would write over 200 songs, inspired by messages he heard. One of those songs was There is Power in the Blood.

1. Would you be free from the burden of sin? There's pow'r in the blood, pow'r in the blood; Would you o'er evil a victory win? There's wonderful pow'r in the blood.

Refrain: There is pow'r, pow'r, wonder-working pow'r In the blood of the Lamb; There is pow'r, pow'r, wonder-working pow'r In the precious blood of the Lamb.

2. Would you be free from your passion and pride? There's pow'r in the blood, pow'r in the blood; Come for a cleansing to Calvary's tide– There's wonderful pow'r in the blood. [Refrain]

3. Would you be whiter, yes brighter than snow? There's pow'r in the blood, pow'r in the blood; Sin-stains are lost in its life-giving flow– There's wonderful pow'r in the blood. [Refrain]

4. Would you do service for Jesus, your King? There's pow'r in the blood, pow'r in the blood; Would you live daily His praises to sing? There's wonderful pow'r in the blood. [Refrain]

David wasn’t ignoring the water that his warriors brought back. He was clearly seeing the fact that they could have died getting it. Jesus did die! Lewis pointed out that the blood removed the burden of sin, secured victory, freed us from our passion and pride, cleansed us, purified us, and empowered us to serve Him.

Do you see His sacrifice? What will we do with His precious gift?

Evaluating the Cost

David was a wise leader, even as a young man. He had a keen understanding of the cost of selfless sacrifice and understood the importance of affirming his friends. Sacrifice is worthy of celebration. Why not, sacrifice is messy business.

Eugene Peterson grew up in the Assemblies of God and eventually became a Presbyterian minister. He ‘translated’ the Bible into The Message translation for easy reading. He was also the son of a butcher and grew up in the butcher shop. Here is an observation he makes in his book The Pastor. This section describes his impressions when as a child as he listened to the new pastor in the church.

“All the while my imagination kept working on the priest theme with the slaughter of bulls and heifers, goats and sheep. We didn’t offer turtledoves, but we made up for it with turkeys. All our sacrificed animals, cut up and wrapped and paid for, would be prayed over (I assumed that everybody prayed over meals), then consumed in our customers’ homes.

Ours was a mostly storytelling church, but one year we had a pastor who specialized in the tabernacle, the temple, and the whole Hebrew sacrificial system. He took on the book of Leviticus as his text and preached three months of sermons on it. I was immediately interested. I was an insider to exactly this sort of world: I grew up experiencing the sights and sounds of animals killed and offered up. I had spent a lot of time by now in our local slaughterhouse and often helped with the slaughter.

But after a couple Sundays of Leviticus I lost interest in what our pastor was up to. This man knew nothing about killing animals. And though we never butchered goats, the rich sensuality of Hebrew worship was reproduced daily in our workplace. It never occurred to me that the world of worship was tidy and sedate. Our pastor had it all figured out on paper, but I knew it wasn’t like that at all. I couldn’t help but wonder how much he knew about sin and forgiveness. He certainly knew nothing about animal sacrifices. Sacrifice was messy: blood sloshing on the floor, gutting the creatures and gathering up the entrails in buckets, skinning the animals, salting down the hides. And in the summertime, the flies—flies everywhere.”[6]

You and I may not know much about butchering, but I bet that you know something about sacrifice. Maybe not the same sacrifice that David’s trio made, but you know that serving God is about sacrifice. I’m not saying that our sacrifice is even in the same universe as the sacrifice of Jesus, but we (are) learn(ing) that our will needs to be on the altar over and over again.

A surrender to the will of the Spirit instead of your flesh…

Biting your tongue when you’d rather bite…

Choosing honesty instead of personal benefit by bending the rules…

Serving at church instead of a day of personal pleasure on the weekend…

Being a role model for your kids (when it isn’t the easy thing to do)…

Speaking life into someone else’s life…

Exercising love…joy…peace… patience…kindness…mercy….goodness…and self control.

The list could go on…

You’ve offered it up on the altar. You’ve finished a mission. You’ve paid the cost. This is exactly what Paul was expressing to Timothy in the last letter he would write.

2 Timothy 4:6–8 NIV

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Priceless Jesus

What would motivate David’s mighty men to infiltrate a Philistine stronghold to get a flask of water? Love!

What would motivate Paul to endure cold, heat, beatings, whippings, stoning, shipwrecks, and false allegations? Love!

What will motivate you and me to endure the sacrifices of this world? Love!

How will we respond to the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins? Are we willing to be drink offerings like the Apostle Paul?

1. Just as the mighty men were called by God to serve alongside King David, so we are called to serve King Jesus by the strength the Lord gives as we participate in His victories (1 Peter 4:10–11; Rom. 8:37).

2. We are also challenged by the example of the mighty men to be loyal to our King, even if His popularity wanes among the masses (Luke 22:28–29), and to be willing to give our lives for the One we love.

3. He is worthy of our complete devotion (Rom. 12:1–2). You will never do as much for Him as He has already done for you.[7]

[1] G. A. Lee, “Libation,” ed. Geoffrey W Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979–1988), 118. [2] J. Robert Vannoy, Cornerstone Biblical Commentarya: 1-2 Samuel, vol. 4 (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2009), 422. [3]Craig Brian Larson and Phyllis Ten Elshof, 1001 Illustrations That Connect (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2008), 110–111. [4] Mary J. Evans, The Message of Samuel: Personalities, Potential, Politics and Power, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2004), 276. [5]Leithart, Peter. “The Theology of the Drink Offering”. www.theopolisinstitute.com. Accessed March 8, 2023. [6] Excerpt From: Eugene H. Peterson. “The Pastor.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-pastor/id412370088 [7] Jim Newheiser, Opening Up 2 Samuel, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One, 2014), 125–126.