Kingdom Building, Kingdom Killing
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of [our] heart[s]
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (Ps 19:14)
How do you go about establishing a kingdom?
Back in the day, in the Ancient Near East, about 1000BC, consolidating a kingdom was quite different. In short, the one who got to establish a Kingdom was the guy who could protect the people. If you could stand up to the nation’s enemies, there was a good chance you could take the top job.
Sure, there were other considerations, like divine appointment by the gods, but generally, the sign that you were favored by the gods was that you could deliver the goods.
So, what do you do when you’re king Saul, and there's some upstart young fella who outshines you at every turn?
They sing songs about him:
“Saul struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands.”
What do you do? Your job is on the line. If you don’t deal with this David guy well, it could go very bad for you.
Well, Saul’s earlier attempts were a good example: he brought David in, paid him well and gave him honour and a great job. He married him into the family to secure his loyalty. Saul kept David nearby where he could keep an eye on him.
But like so many Kings before and since, Saul grew more and more suspicious of his best men. What could have been a “careful awareness” turned into paranoia and treacherous plans.
As we’ve seen across the pages of 1 Samuel, Saul has relentlessly pursued an innocent man out of jealousy and spite. And even when David had proven, on multiple occasions, that he has no desire to undermine or kill the legitimate King, Saul continued to to back flip on his promises to let David alone.
Not only is it the tragedy of a Saul a king who was paranoid and shooting himself in the foot by trying to kill one of his best men,
but,
It was the tragedy of a King who was trying to establish his kingdom by force, against the power of the Most High God, the Lord of All Creation. And by going against God, refusing to listen and obey, he was tearing his own kingdom apart. He was killing his own kingship.
He was given everything he needed to succeed: Divine anointing, the Holy Spirit, God delivered him military victories, he had the support of the people and he had good leading men like Jonathan in his army. Yet in his own selfishness, he gradually undid every good thing God had given. Saul killed his kingship despite God’s earlier support from him.
As for David, Saul’s successor, the Better-man, anointed by God, he was persecuted, hunted and in exile from his own land. Even though he was on the run and without a kingdom, David showed his superiority by the way he acted. He was in the business of kingdom building even when he wasn't king. He was concerned for people’s safety, he was destroying Israel’s enemies, he was trying to be loyal to God even when he was sorely tempted to kill off Saul.
So in these three chapters we have that juxtaposition clearly demonstrated - A king who is killing his own kingdom, and a not-yet-king who is busy building up the kingdom despite the bad circumstances.
The length of our portion today, does not lend itself to getting stuck into the details, but I will happily field any follow-up questions after the service! Lets look at an overview of each of the three chapters - one at a time.
Kingdom Building in Exile (Ch27)
Kingdom Building in Exile (Ch27)
The first chapter 27, tells us about David's kingdom building instincts, even though he’s in exile.
King Saul has been so relentless in chasing David that David has reached the point where he gives up on trying to make peace with Saul. It’s just going to be better off for him, his men and their families if they move on, so they seek refuge outside the borders of Saul’s kingdom:
Then David said in his heart, “Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will despair of seeking me any longer within the borders of Israel, and I shall escape out of his hand.” So David arose and went over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath.
Now in finding refuge with the Philistine king Achish, David is “making a deal with the devil” so-to-speak
So David moves about 600 men & their families outside Israel in an effort to keep them safe. But, he couldn’t just set-up shop in the neighboring kingdom, he uses his diplomacy to secure a small town that was a bit out of the way so that he was a bit out of sight from the Philistine king but still being out of Saul’s way.
David plays on King Achish’s assumptions. You see the Philistine king assumes that because David is in exile, and seeing that he’s come asking for refuge, that David has flipped, that he’s now opposed to Saul and his kingdom. But that’s not the case. David maintains his loyalty to the current King of Israel even while he lets Achish think he’s turned.
So David sets up shop in Ziklag. But he’s not content to just hang out there and wait for Saul to drop dead, he continues to work for the good of God’s people in Israel, he starts raiding Israel’s enemies to the south.
<LOOK AT MAP>
So David would go on expeditions from here, and head down to attack the evil tribes around here.
David was doing what a good Israelite king should do. When God promised to give the Land of Canaan to the Israelites, he told them that they had to go and clear out the tribes who lived there, not because God is mean, but because these tribes were evil and wicked people who God was going to punish - David was delivering justice on God’s behalf.
Think of the Nazi’s. When we use that word “Nazi”, it carries weight. We know when we use that word to describe something or someone, we aren’t just describing a political ideology, we have in mind the wickedness and depravity committed by a large group of people. When we hear the word Nazi, we think of the need for justice because of the atrocities they committed.
Same goes for the tribes that God asked Israel to wipe out. They had done terrible things. One tribe that is particularly relevant to what David is doing, is the Amalekites. They had tried to pounce on Israel when they were escaping from Egypt, and they had it coming to them. God told Israel:
“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.
Now when Israel had come up into the land, they had cleared out a whole bunch of the enemies of God, but they were a bit half-hearted about it. They had only done the bare minimum. So there was work to do - they had to finish the job of clearing out the land and destroy Amalek. And David was actively doing that - raiding these tribes to drive them out and make the land a holy place for God’s people.
Now David and his men went up and made raids against the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt. And David would strike the land and would leave neither man nor woman alive, but would take away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the garments, and come back to Achish.
David was fulfilling God’s word in the midst of his exile.
Now, understandably David didn’t want to be particularly forthright to King Achish about this. David & co were living on Philistine territory, enjoying their protection, yet David was helping Israel from the outside. He was a bit of a double agent. So when David came to Achish with a share of the booty - he was cagey about where exactly he had been.
David brought up a share of the plunder, basically as a kind of rent paid to Achish: “you’re allowing us live in on your turf, so here’s your cut, and it’s also proof that we’re still friends, I’m trying to keep you on side” But when probed about the location of the raid? David would indicate the area with reference to areas of Israel.
It’s like me saying “I was in America” when I was in Argentina. Technically it’s true, Argentina is in South America, but the impression of “in America” is that I’m in the Unites States.
David was trying to keep the peace with Achish, not raising any suspicions, while continuing his Kingdom Building work in exile.
Now you might ask yourself, what is their to gain from this chapter? How does this help Christians? We’re certainly not supposed to run about wiping groups of people off the map!
What we see here is the continual unfolding of the picture of Messiah. David is the anointed one, messiah, who takes God’s word seriously, who serves God’s people and who protects them, even when rejected.
David is a precursor, a shadow, a prequel to a greater messiah, Jesus the Christ!
In this way Jesus is like David - he takes God’s word seriously, he serves God’s people and he protects them, even when they rejected him.
Jesus came as the son of David, who even before he was crowned king of God’s people, started building his kingdom. He embodied the kingly character. He started protecting people and overthrowing their enemies: Satan, Sin & Death.
He went around casting out Satan’s cronies, expelling demons all over the place.
He went toe to toe with Satan in the wilderness, choosing to obey God’s word at every turn.
He went around forgiving sins and healing people and raising people from death; a taste of his coming kingdom
Despite his active work to build up God’s people and rescue them, the people, Israelites and otherwise - persecuted him and rejected him. But like David before him - Jesus would not stop kingdom building.
Even when they did their worst to Jesus, in torturing him and crucifying him, Jesus was bringing in a kingdom of hope and life. Jesus actually used their rejection and his death as a means to establish the new reign of life, rising from the dead!
When they thought they were mocking Jesus with a crown of thorns, it was a coronation - heralding the Kingdom that God has built on the foundation of Jesus himself.
Jesus’ blood was spilled to rescue his subjects. He, as king, put his own life on the line in place of his people. He sacrificed himself to save them from a terrible fate. Then he plundered the enemy, bringing the captives and slaves out into the freedom of God’s kingdom.
So, if King Jesus sticks his neck out to save the people, how do I join that kingdom? How do I become a citizen and receive those benefits?
Do I need a new passport?
Do I need to bring him gifts?
Do I need to work for him an earn a spot?
Nup.
Just claim refugee status. Come to the king Jesus and say “I’m fleeing the other kingdoms of this world and I want to find rest with you.”
Jesus will accept anyone who comes to him sincerely and says “I want to ditch the ruler of this age, and become a loyal subject of Jesus”
Loyalty to Jesus comes with great benefits, given at no cost to us - but there are strings attached. You can’t be half in half out - you gotta be all in. You can’t be a subject of Jesus and still serve God’s enemies. Loyalty to Jesus means joining him in a holy war against any illegitimate power - it starts with sin in our own hearts, but it goes on from there to seek holiness in the church, and one day, when Christ returns, we will see the utter ruin of the rebellious world around us.
Don’t get used to living “here” in Philistia folks, God is going to overthrow this kingdom and expand his kingdom to every corner of the globe! Right now we Christians are living in a “foreign land” but God will expand the bounds of His kingdom to include this place.
In the meantime, what do we do? We join Jesus in his Kingdom building efforts. He’s doing the hard work, but we just follow and obey our king. He will protect us and we can follow him in to make raids on the enemy territory.
Kingdom’s death knell (Ch28)
Kingdom’s death knell (Ch28)
In our overview of chapter 28, we see the sad tale of Saul spiral out of control. It’s a startling juxtaposition: chapter 27 has David taking on the work of God, and 28 has Saul trying to undermine God’s work.
The philistines were going to war with Saul - they head up north and set up for battle. Saul is petrified.
When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
So, he turns to God to seek answers, not that he has a good track record of listening when God speaks.
But there’s nothing. No Answer.
God has stopped talking to Saul. Saul is that far off the deep end now that God is not even trying to talk some sense into him.
It’s another moment for sad irony, There is a proverb in Israel form that time: “Is Saul also among the Prophets?” - well, apparently not, God won’t speak to him. God has shut him out.
Saul was desperate! He was scared. So much so that he back flips on his stance against mediums to try and get ahead. It seems that Saul had done a good thing during his reign - he had gotten rid of any mediums and necromancers in Israel. This was in accordance with God’s holy law:
“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.”
Yet it seems Saul has had a change of heart, surprise surprise! He thinks he knows better that God, and directly contravenes God’s law for Israel:
“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
If God is not going to speak to him, Saul thinks he can go to the next best thing; the Prophet Samuel. But here’s the catch, Samuel was dead. Dead dead. Dead and buried.
So Saul is going to try an cheat the system, “I know a shortcut.”
Saul was seeking a medium, even though he had either killed them or driven them into hiding, so that he could speak to the dead prophet Samuel and get some advice on how to proceed. This is messed up!
Saul is in effect looking for the way of life in the grave. He would bend over backwards to try and get what he wanted, even though it was clearly wrong!
<LOOK AT MAP>
Saul wanted so badly to speak to a sorceress that he had to sneak around the encamped philistine army to get to the supposed location of this medium.
Then the woman herself is not particularly willing to help out, because she knows that it’s illegal stuff. She has probably gone underground with her work or just stopped practicing because it’s dangerous to be a medium in Saul’s Israel.
The woman said to him, “Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necromancers from the land. Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring about my death?”
These are pretty big signs that Saul should drop the whole plan - but instead he pushes on, not only that, he invokes God’s name in an oath to protect the woman in asking her to disobey God. This is all kinds of wrong.
But Saul swore to her by the Lord, “As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.”
That’s how you use the Lord’s name in vain, right there!
So, the medium acquiesces and agrees to bring up the Spirit of Samuel the prophet.
Now It’s important to note here, this probably sounds very weird to us. We think of dead people as either being in heaven or hell, but the bible is not as clear on that as you might think on that point. Certainly the Israelites of that time believed, and this passage seems to indicate, that there is a shadow existence in the grave for those who have died. They sleep there, as if waiting for something.
On top of that, this whole affair sounds weird to Christians, because of the questions it raises:
How can a living person have power to speak to dead people?
Can anyone do that?
Are there people who can do that kind of thing today?
Some people answer these issues by simply saying “the medium fakes it, the text never actually says Saul sees Samuel, it’s just the lady pretending to see Samuel in a vision and putting on a voice to trick them” Well good on them for having a go, but that kind of undermines the text. The way the story is recorded here leaves little room for us to doubt, the author believed that Samuel was really contacted in the grave.
So, it seems that for whatever reason, God uses and allows this necromancy to take place on this occasion for the sake of driving home Saul’s failure and his downfall.
Samuel is brought up by the medium, then Saul explains the situation Samuel. Then, even from the grave, Samuel condemns Saul. Saul gets the insight he’s chasing, about what will happen with the Philistines on his doorstep, but it comes with that crushing judgment - you’ve messed up Saul!
And Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The Lord will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”
Saul’s kingdom is coming to an end. He sought answers in the grave, and he will soon be there himself.
This whole episode with the medium is a resounding death knell, a bell ringing out the end of Saul’s kingdom. It’s all about to fall apart.
Unsurprisingly, Saul finds no peace in the grave, only more fear and terror. This is the dread that falls on all of us when we wander away from the living God.
There is no peace outside God’s kingdom.
There is no life outside God’s kingdom.
There’s only despair and death.
That’s what Saul had to look forward to, as one who had tasted the goodness of God and yet rebelled, he was destined for destruction.
Now in this case it was an earthly destruction - loss of life and honour. But we see in the history of Israel, a parable for our own life with regard to God - that the soul that sins shall die. We sinners deserve death.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.
We...
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Now you might be thinking, “Samuel, you sure bang on a fair bit about judgement and God’s wrath.” And you’d be right. You know who else bangs on a fair bit about wrath and judgment? God himself - all through the pages of Scripture!
I don’t want to hide God from you. I want you to get the whole picture! We ignore God’s wrath and judgement to our own peril.
We need to know the God whom we worship, not just skip over to the nice bits that make us feel good.
The judgment of God should make us feel uncomfortable.
It should grow tension in our chests.
It should drive us to ask, “who can escape God’s terrible wrath?” - “what must I do to be saved”?
The wrath of God drives us to seek an escape, a way out. Left to our own devices we only go the way of Saul, undoing God’s good work in our lives and shooting ourselves in the foot. We end up facing the grave in despair. The promise of Gods wrath makes u thirsty, thirsty for salvation.
Yet Jesus speaks to us a good word, a word of hope for a way out of our predicament as sinners under the judgment of God. Jesus offer us living water, that will quench our thirsts. That will revive us!
He says:
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Don’t be like Saul, hear the word of God and obey the call! Escape the awful fate of stubborn rebellion. Hear the words of Jesus and believe in him. Put your faith and trust in Him! He has purchased your soul, redeemed it with his own blood. He will bring you out of the grave and set you on your feet in a land of plenty. If you trust in him, Jesus will give you life in His kingdom!
And, if you have life in this kingdom, don’t turn away from it. Don’t turn back again to the unfulfilling rebellion to God. Listen to God, Obey his voice.
Kingdom built through Providence (Ch29)
Kingdom built through Providence (Ch29)
God’s providence freed David from a choice of two betrayals.
While the philistines prepare to face Israel, David is faced with an interesting choice, to join Achish against Saul & Israel, or to back stab Achish and fight for Israel.
David has demonstrated time and again he will not lift up his hands against Saul, the Lord’s anointed, but he does owe Achish some loyalty. It’s like if your boss asks you to work on a Sunday morning - you may feel obligated to help him out, while also feeling the obligation to join with other believers at Sunday service.
Given the choice, more than likely David would have sided with Israel, but...
Through God’s providence he was saved the choice!
<SHOW MAP>
On the way up to the place of battle, the other lesser Philistine kings are a bit ancy about having David there. Even though Achish loves him...
As the lords of the Philistines were passing on by hundreds and by thousands, and David and his men were passing on in the rear with Achish, the commanders of the Philistines said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” And Achish said to the commanders of the Philistines, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me now for days and years, and since he deserted to me I have found no fault in him to this day.”
To keep the peace, Achish sends David home.
God’s grace through the circumstances allows David to have his hands free of the blood of either group. Instead, God had another kingdom building mission for David in a couple days, but that’s a story for next week....
God works great things through providence. We should take great joy in how God brings things together for the good of his people.
At our CG we like to celebrate “Thanksgiving” each year, not because we have a penchant for importing US holidays, but because we just like an excuse to get together and thank God for what he has done over a meal.
God’s Providence supplies our daily needs, God answers our prayers through providence. God brings us to faith, more often than not, by providence.
God’s providence brought the anointed King Jesus to his Throne
He was killed by men in accordance with God’s plan
They acted with evil intent yet fulfilled God’s plan
God’s providence brought you to hear the good news today! Heed it!
Conclusion
Conclusion
A king who is killing his own kingdom, and a not-yet-king who is busy building up the kingdom despite the bad circumstances.
Kingdom Building in Exile
Kingdom’s death knell
Kingdom built through God’s providence
Jesus is building a kingdom even now, and one day that kingdom will be ready. Ready with final judgement for the rebels, but also ready with an inheritance for his own people:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
<Pray the Lord’s prayer>