Show Notes
2 Samuel 23:1-7
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Let's pray and ask God to bless the reading and preaching of his word.
[00:00:08] Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that your word has gone out to the nations. And although we do not see all peoples and tribes and tongues yet submitted to you, we know that the Gospel is going forth and it is being successful all throughout the earth, even in places of persecution and tribulation, of much trial and struggle, you cause your saints to persevere.
[00:00:36] They do not give up and they do not lose heart.
[00:00:42] They don't despair because you are their God.
[00:00:45] And though there are cries and tears and laments, you are king, ruling and reigning and bringing us unto that perfect end when all shall be perfectly submitted to you and all will be at rest and you'll wipe away every tear from every eye.
[00:01:04] Lord, as we look forward to that day, we ask that you would help us to understand this day more deeply who Jesus is as our king, the ways in which he fulfills, the promises made to that you made to David and that David himself spoke of and looked forward to.
[00:01:24] Lord, we ask that you would teach us how to believe and trust in Jesus, our king, and how to follow him with full hearts. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:40] You may remain standing and let's turn to 2nd Samuel 23:1 through 7.
[00:02:04] In your Bibles. 2 Samuel 23, the first seven verses. You might see a heading there.
[00:02:10] The last words of David, appropriately titled given that verse one says, now these are the last words of David.
[00:02:17] Well done, editors.
[00:02:20] These are not the very last words that David ever spoke. We'll see him speak later on.
[00:02:27] But these are the last words in this kind of official capacity.
[00:02:32] Imagine the farewell address of George Washington. Or imagine a general stepping down, or a final speech at a retirement ceremony. It's that kind of language that is here as he addresses this. And that means it's not just the last thing he said right before he died. But these are considered thoughtful words that are meant to carry an import and importance regarding the king, who he should be and what his office means.
[00:03:08] So let's give our attention to it. The first seven verses of 2 Samuel 23.
[00:03:14] Now these are the last words of David, the oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel.
[00:03:28] The spirit of the Lord speaks by me.
[00:03:32] His word is on my tongue.
[00:03:35] The God of Israel has spoken. The rock of Israel has said to me.
[00:03:40] When one rules justly over men ruling in the fear of God, he Dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.
[00:03:59] For does not my house stand so with God?
[00:04:03] For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure.
[00:04:09] For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire.
[00:04:14] But worthless men are all like thorns that are thrown away, for they cannot be taken with the hand.
[00:04:21] But the man who touches them arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear, and they are utterly consumed with fire.
[00:04:32] May God bless his word to us. Please be seated.
[00:04:54] So you can tell, right, by the way he starts, that this is worth paying attention to.
[00:05:00] There's things right here at the beginning that are telling us, as we read, pay attention to this. Something special is going on here.
[00:05:10] Of course, it says the last words. But it's more than that, isn't it? What else do you see?
[00:05:15] You see, you see the word oracle.
[00:05:18] You see the spirit of the Lord speaking by David.
[00:05:23] David, in some ways is not just acting as a king saying farewell, but he is acting as a prophet.
[00:05:33] The spirit of the Lord is upon him. The word of the Lord is on his tongue.
[00:05:40] Verse 3.
[00:05:41] The God of Israel has spoken. The rock of Israel has said to me, right? These are words where we are being told. David is not just talking to a servant, making plans, thinking in his own head, but he is acting as a prophet of the Lord as he speaks.
[00:05:59] And as he does so, he's setting the stage for years to come for what is required of a king.
[00:06:08] Not just any king, but these kings, this house, this promise, this dynasty.
[00:06:16] God has made with David an everlasting covenant that his house will rule, that things are ordered and secure, and that as these sons of David rule, and ultimately the son of David, whom we've already sung about, our Lord, he will shine on the kingdom like morning light.
[00:06:43] The sun shining forth on a cloudless morning.
[00:06:46] He'll be like rain that makes grass to sprout from earth. This is a good, good king, right? The images of kings attached to sun. The sun is a common one, right?
[00:07:00] Maybe you can think a little back through your history and your images that countries have used it of. Rise of suns, right? On flags and insignia, shields, things like that. The brightness of it, the shining of it, the dawning of a new age, the reign of the king. This kind of language connected with the sun is being used here, but it's being used here of this one who rules justly over men.
[00:07:29] Now, David is In this position where he speaks the word of the Lord and he speaks truth that he himself has not lived up to.
[00:07:41] I wonder if you've ever been in that experience.
[00:07:45] This is one thing that makes me sometimes nervous about taking on interns. You know, you bring someone to the church and you say, this is how to preach. Knowing that you yourself don't do the things that you must tell them to do. Right?
[00:08:01] Frustrating, hard, humbling.
[00:08:03] Here's David speaking of the kind of kingship that at various times he himself did not exercise.
[00:08:12] And what about those who would come after him?
[00:08:15] Solomon was pretty great, but definitely not perfect.
[00:08:22] Flawed, sinned, and caused much misery and trouble for the kingdom as well as glory. And after Solomon, it got worse and worse and worse and worse.
[00:08:36] And of course, as we look out on the kings, not just in Israel, Judah, but around the world, we look at leaders just in general.
[00:08:45] We see the ways in which leaders constantly fail to do the basic things that God calls them to do.
[00:08:54] Constantly falling into sin, constantly failing to protect their people, constantly failing to lead with clarity and justice and righteousness.
[00:09:04] Everywhere you look you see leaders fallen like dominoes. Everywhere you look you see people who have promised or there was hope to be something.
[00:09:14] And they never ever turn out to be perfect. They never turn out to be the kind of king that can rule so perfectly and so wonderfully that a kingdom can be established forever under the Lord.
[00:09:30] And that can make us desperate. Sometimes we handle that in various ways. Sometimes we lower the bar. We say, well, you just can't expect perfection.
[00:09:40] We'll just have to deal with these things.
[00:09:43] It'll never be good. It'll always be hard and bad.
[00:09:49] We can manipulate the facts, make people seem better than they are, just sort of self deceive ourselves into thinking a situation is better than it is.
[00:09:59] We can lie to ourselves, propaganda, all that kind of thing.
[00:10:04] But what about the truth?
[00:10:07] What about a real hope of a king like this? One who rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God dawning on them like the morning light, being like rain on the kingdom that makes the grass to sprout from the earth?
[00:10:24] Well, God provides that king.
[00:10:28] God does not fail in his promise to David. All of the failures that happen in the kings of men ultimately highlight the perfection and the glory of the perfect king Jesus.
[00:10:42] Jesus, who was promised to David as the son, who would come and would establish the throne forever. God promised to David a king, and God provided it.
[00:10:51] This thing we see here, this prophecy, these commandments, this oracle point us and teach us about who our king is, and they remind us who God is as one who provides for this.
[00:11:08] What I want to do this morning is think through three things where we see not just that Jesus has fulfilled this, but some specific ways in how he fulfills this.
[00:11:20] How does Jesus. How is Jesus this king?
[00:11:25] Well, the first thing we see is that Jesus rules justly.
[00:11:29] Jesus rules justly. Let's look at a couple passages in the scripture to think about first, just to give some definition to what just rule actually looks like. So turn with me to Isaiah 11, first verse 3.
[00:11:45] Actually, I'll read 1 through 5.
[00:11:48] Isaiah 11, 1 5.
[00:11:58] Now, as you're turning there, you'll see right away we have a prophecy, a future prophet, future to David, who speaks in Davidic terms about this coming king.
[00:12:12] He begins by talking about a shoot coming from the stump of Jesse. Well, who's Jesse? Tim. David's father.
[00:12:21] Right. So he's talking about this stump, right? This thing that has been basically destroyed, right? This is not some grand, glorious tree. It's a stump.
[00:12:30] It seems like it's dead. It seems like it's over. And then this shoot comes from it, this branch.
[00:12:37] And we're going to hear about the branch. We're going to hear about this shoot. All right? Isaiah 11:1 5. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.
[00:12:50] And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear. But with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.
[00:13:23] And he shall strike the earth with a rod of iron of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
[00:13:29] Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.
[00:13:35] So keep a finger there and then turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 1, Deuteronomy 1:16, 17.
[00:14:00] So here Moses gives commands to leaders in Israel and charges them to rule justly. So again, we're thinking about what is the definition? What's a biblical way of understanding ruling justly. So we're looking at a couple passages. There are others. We're looking at a couple passages to gain some. Some.
[00:14:21] Some hooks to hang our hats on around what that means. So Deuteronomy 1:16 through 17.
[00:14:28] And I charged your judges at that time, hear the cases between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him.
[00:14:39] You shall not be partial in judgment.
[00:14:42] You shall hear the small and great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God's.
[00:14:51] And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.
[00:14:57] So this is what Moses says to his commanders. What do we see in these verses? And you can look at them as we go. One thing we see is that a just ruler and Jesus rules justly. He judges from full knowledge.
[00:15:11] He doesn't just, oh, here's something. Somebody comes and tells him something, he just automatically believes it, then makes a decision, right? He takes in all the facts. He knows the whole picture, right? Now, you and I know there's always limits to that. You can't know everything.
[00:15:26] Just Jesus, however, He can know everything.
[00:15:32] It's not only that he can, but he does. We even have a fancy word for this, omniscience, right?
[00:15:41] He knows everything.
[00:15:43] And so, for example, when he comes and speaks to the woman at the well, and she's going back and forth with him, and he knows how many husbands she's had, or when he sees Nathanael under the tree, or when he knows what Peter is going to do or what Judas is going to do, Jesus knows everything. He knows every thought, he knows every word, he knows every deed. He knows them before they happen, he knows them after they've happened. So when Jesus comes to judge a situation, to make a decision, to act, it's always with full and complete knowledge.
[00:16:24] An amazing thing which we can only barely approximate. He does perfectly. A second thing we see in these passages is showing no partiality. Did you catch in Deuteronomy 1 this? Don't be intimidated, right? It's so easy when you're making a decision that matters, to be pressured, right?
[00:16:46] Sometimes briberies, right, entice us to lean a decision this way or that way. Bribery does, or a threat. I will hurt you. I will hurt your family. I will think less of you. I will. All kinds of different kinds of threats are made.
[00:17:04] We want to be preferred by this person or that person.
[00:17:08] No, the true one who rules justly rules not according to what they get out of it. But they do it, as we will see, with an eye toward God and his righteousness and his standard. And however it falls out, it falls out.
[00:17:24] Jesus always did it that way. His own enemies testified to this. In Matthew 22:16, they say, Teacher, we know that you are true. And teach the way of God truthfully. And you do not care about anyone's appearance or sorry opinion, for you are not assuaged.
[00:17:41] You are not swayed by appearances.
[00:17:47] What an amazing thing to say.
[00:17:50] You teach, we know you are true. You teach the way truthfully. You don't care about anyone's appearance or sorry opinion. And you're not swayed by appearances.
[00:18:00] This person looks powerful, this person looks rich. This person might be able to help me.
[00:18:05] None of that with Jesus.
[00:18:08] His enemies know it.
[00:18:10] He's a straight shooter. He always deals with them fairly. And we see this in his various examples. In Luke 18:1 8, Jesus gives the parable of the woman who's pleading the unjust judge for help.
[00:18:27] And he makes this argument, if the unjust judge, who does show partiality, who has all these problems, if he will hear the weak, how much more are God?
[00:18:36] How much more will Jesus as who's perfect? The last thing I'll mention about ruling justly is he moves to action, right? There's a lot of people who can make decisions and then don't do anything.
[00:18:47] They decide this is the right thing. And then I thought we were going to do something about that.
[00:18:53] Again, not so with Jesus. We see him moving to action in Isaiah 11.
[00:19:00] He decides these things and then with the breath of his lips, he kills the wicked.
[00:19:06] That's action to understate it.
[00:19:09] Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. How does Jesus move justly with regard to you and me and our sins? Colossians 2:14 15 tells us, canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
[00:19:27] This he set aside nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by trying triumphing over them in him.
[00:19:36] Done.
[00:19:38] Kingly power, kingly glory, kingly action on the cross.
[00:19:47] Not all after. There's other things to come after. But this, Paul says, happens on the cross in his death. He does these things.
[00:19:56] Talk about power.
[00:20:00] Another thing that Jesus does as the great king is he rules fearing God. He doesn't just rule justly, but he rules fearing God.
[00:20:12] You can imagine a very wise king, certainly not getting anywhere close to the wisest Jesus, but a wise king who nevertheless does so out of his own interests. He wants fairness in his kingdom. He wants his kingdom to be prosperous. He wants people to think of him as well and wise.
[00:20:32] That's not really a perfect king, is it?
[00:20:36] He has a perfect king, rules under God.
[00:20:40] Jesus rules fearing God. He doesn't he? And he does this in some amazing ways.
[00:20:47] Listen to a few definitions of the fear of the Lord as we think about this. Just like we define ruling justly, we can define fearing God. This is not the fear or terror of judgment. It's the fear, fear that belongs to God's people.
[00:21:01] It's a way of aligning ourselves with him and recognizing his sovereign rule and his authority, bowing our hearts before him and saying, yes sir, yes Almighty, may your will be done.
[00:21:17] The fear of The Lord, Proverbs 8:13 says, is the hatred of evil.
[00:21:22] Proverbs 14:27 says, the fear of the Lord is the fountain of evil all life.
[00:21:28] The king is not supposed to rule by his own whims. He's not supposed to rule according to the people's desires. He is not supposed to rule by the pressure of other kings, but always with an eye toward God.
[00:21:42] That's what this perfect king will do, and that's what Jesus does.
[00:21:46] So Jesus, our king, your king, he rules not with his own authority.
[00:21:51] Where do we see that in scripture? Philippians 2:9 because he was obedient, God highly exalted him.
[00:22:00] Or John 5:19.
[00:22:02] Jesus says the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing.
[00:22:09] Jesus rules fearing the Lord.
[00:22:13] Another point we can make is that he's completely aligned with the Father's will. The Son of God, of course with of the Father share this one divine essence. But even as the Son of man, he's aligned. Right. This is a theology quiz, right? How many wills does Jesus have? The answer is two.
[00:22:35] He has two wills because he has a human will and he has a divine will.
[00:22:40] Right. The human will acting in accordance with human willingness. Right. And the divine will willing as the divine nature wills. Well, Jesus is aligned with God in both of these ways. First of all as God sharing the same will as the Father and the Spirit. And then as a, as the Son of man, as a human being doing what we also are called to do. Which is, which is to say to the Lord, not my will, but yours be done.
[00:23:16] Right? That's a way of Jesus is expressing his human, the will of his humanity.
[00:23:22] Jesus says in John 8:29, I always do the things that are pleasing to him.
[00:23:28] I always do the things that are pleasing to him. I can't wait for the day that I can say that someday, someday I will be able to say and you will be able to say, I always do the things that are pleasing to him and not have any qualifications around that.
[00:23:46] Jesus always did it always perfectly. That's our king. He never slips. He never gets a little off track. He never wanders slightly, never.
[00:24:01] Hebrews 1:9 says, you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness. God beyond your companions.
[00:24:13] Why? Because he feared the Lord. Because he loved righteousness and he hated wickedness.
[00:24:21] So Jesus rules justly, right?
[00:24:25] He rules with full knowledge, no partiality. He moves to action on top of all of that. Our second point is that he rules fearing God.
[00:24:33] He rules with an eye towards the Lord, always obedient, perfectly and please, perfect, perfectly fulfilling his will and pleasing to God.
[00:24:42] And because of these two things, Jesus the king does something that no human king, including David, ever did and that is secure. The perfect blessings in their glorified way.
[00:24:59] This promise of the king being like the rising sun or like the falling rain, this was promised to the kings before him and to the citizens of those kingdom. But they never experienced it like we experience it now and will experience it when our Lord comes in glory.
[00:25:19] How is Jesus like the morning light?
[00:25:23] Well, one, he ends the darkness. This is one of the things that the morning light does, right? And if you've ever had a hard night, you know how good it is. Finally the sun comes up. You think, will this night ever end? I keep getting up, I keep getting up, I keep getting up. I'm so tired. And the sun finally comes up and there's something of a relief there.
[00:25:45] And that's just a bad night of sleep. Imagine you're under attack.
[00:25:48] Imagine you're under attack with Satan and the world and the flesh which we are.
[00:25:54] Imagine you're in a spiritual war and you're waiting for the day of to come, the day to rise. And Jesus is that he's the morning light, and he shines in the darkness of sin.
[00:26:08] Colossians 1:13 says, he has delivered us from the domain of darkness. God has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.
[00:26:20] You belong to a kingdom of light because of how God has saved you in Christ also. He's like the morning light in regard to the darkness of ignorance.
[00:26:31] John 8:12, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of light, of life.
[00:26:42] Or listen to this from Luke 1:78, 79 in Zechariah's song, the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in shadow of death, to give our feet into the way of peace.
[00:26:59] Jesus is the light that comes into the world, the light that shines in the darkness, the darkness that does not overcome it. John says in his Gospel, and then Jesus says to us, to you, you are the light of the world, reflecting his glory, shining with his presence because of who he is. We shine with the glory of God, the glory of the Gospel, and spread light throughout all the world.
[00:27:31] And he's like the rain, the rain that makes the earth sprout new life, a creation, a new creation coming up.
[00:27:42] Isaiah 44, 3, 4 says this. I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon your offspring. They shall spring up like grass, like willows, by the flowing streams.
[00:27:58] This is the prophecy of what is going to come with the Messiah. It's the prophecy that's fulfilled in Jesus.
[00:28:04] There's other images of this, right? Ezekiel, with the valley of the dry bones and God lifting, creating this army of life out of death.
[00:28:14] Well, Jesus describes himself in John 4:14 as the living water welling up to eternal life.
[00:28:24] We know that we are all about to go through a very dusty dry season.
[00:28:30] If things play out as they typically do, June can be a hard month, right? And then right around the Fourth of July, you hear that crack, and the rain starts coming and it starts falling.
[00:28:44] During this time, I want you to remember these images. And remember that these, in some ways, are pictures of what God is doing for us in the Messiah.
[00:28:54] The dry, the dust, the unbearable heat. Everything looks dead, everything is struggling. But when the Lord comes, he is a living well of water, a living water welling up to eternal life. And he brings harvests, Harvests of grain is one metaphor that's used in Scripture. Fruit, the fruit of the spirit is another metaphor that's used. This is Jesus, because he is this kind of just judge, because he fears the Lord. He produces this kingdom that is not of this world, a kingdom that is amazing, filled with light, filled with fruit, filled with power and glory apart from wickedness. And that is what Jesus secures for us.
[00:29:49] And that's why David put his faith not in himself or in his obedience, but in the Lord who promised these things.
[00:30:00] And the Lord fulfilled those promises.
[00:30:04] Well, 2nd Samuel 23 describes this perfect king.
[00:30:09] This perfect king.
[00:30:12] Tonight, if you come back, we're going to read Proverbs 31 and think about the perfect queen.
[00:30:20] I hope you'll come for that.
[00:30:22] For now, remember that Jesus is the king.
[00:30:26] He rules justly. He rules in the fear of the Lord, and he secures a kingdom of light for you. Let's serve him. Let's trust him and follow Him.
[00:30:37] Let's pray.
[00:30:38] Our Heavenly Father, we ask that you would bless us in the knowledge of this great King that we have in Christ.
[00:30:47] We praise you and marvel at his goodness, at his justice, at the perfections of his knowledge, at his strength against partiality, against the power of his action.
[00:31:02] He is not slow in doing the things that he promises to do, both in judgment and in salvation.
[00:31:14] And we ourselves, Lord, are thankful that you did not come in judgment against us for our sins, but that you have given us the opportunity to hear you and to respond. Lord, fill our hearts, strengthen our wills so that we might follow you. And live as Jesus lives, to be people that are marked by his rule and are obviously recognizable to the world as those who belong to Him.
[00:31:46] Help us to be people who judge with full knowledge.
[00:31:51] Even though we don't and will never have omniscience, we still can be careful, thoughtful and wise. Help us to do that. Help us not to show partiality. Help us to look to you and to fear you. Above all, help us to be strong in our decisions and be able to execute the things that we know we ought to do, doing so not trying to secure our own kingdoms, but as a response of praise and gratitude to belonging to yours, this kingdom of light.
[00:32:23] Lord, help us to serve you. Help us to follow you. Help us to worship you all of our days, now and forever. We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.
