(Notes of an address.)
2 Samuel 23.
I thought that we might consider together tonight something of the truth of the kingdom. No doubt we all know that there are different aspects of kingdom truth: the Lord Jesus went throughout the villages and cities of Palestine preaching the glad tidings of the kingdom of God; He foretold that the gospel of the kingdom would be preached in all the world in the coming day, and instructed His disciples in the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. When the Apostle Paul addressed the elders of Ephesus, he spoke of having testified to Jews and Greeks "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," and of his testimony regarding "the gospel of the grace of God." He had not shunned to declare "all the counsel of God," but he had also gone about "preaching the kingdom of God."
The truth of the kingdom is brought out very touchingly in the last words of David, and also in the exploits of David's mighty men. David describes the character of God's king, and the blessedness of His kingdom; the deeds of the mighty men serve to illustrate what should mark the saints of God in this present day, who have been privileged to stand for God in the conflict of good and evil, as knowing the truth of God, and as being prepared to maintain it at all costs. This chapter has therefore some very valuable lessons for us.
David was just about to pass away from this world, and his last words present the vision that was before him; what God enabled him to see of the coming kingdom of Christ. First of all David speaks of what he was naturally, "The son of Jesse" — of very humble origin, then extols the grace of God that made him "The man who was raised up on high." The Lord Jesus was of the same line, as becoming Man, but "He made Himself of no reputation;" and because of this "God also highly exalted Him." Moreover David could speak of himself as "The anointed of the God of Jacob," a vessel set apart by God to fulfil all His will regarding His earthly people, and to typify our blessed Lord Who, as exalted to the right hand of God, is anointed to fill the whole universe with His glory and divine blessing. As the "Sweet psalmist of Israel" David was the leader of the praises of Israel to Jehovah (1 Chr. 25:6), even as the Lord Jesus leads the praises to the Father now, in the midst of the church (Hebrews 2:12).
(It is very interesting to see that what marked David also marks the saints today. Of low degree by nature, as descended from Adam, in all our sins, without one pulsation of heart Godward, we can think of ourselves as vessels of sovereign mercy and divine grace: we have been quickened, and raised up together, and made to sit in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. We have been anointed of God, having received the Spirit of Christ, and we can sing the praises of God in the company, and under the leading of the Lord Jesus.)
What David said did not proceed from his own heart or mind; he was the vessel of the Spirit of the LORD; this is what is called inspiration, and what we read of in 1 Corinthians 2:13, "Which also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit." David was the speaker, but God's word was in his tongue. What he spoke under the guidance and control of the Spirit of God was what God had communicated to him; this is revelation. This also we have in 1 Corinthians 2, "We speak God's wisdom in a mystery, — Things which eye hath not seen God has revealed to us by His Spirit" (1 Cor. 2:6-10). The youngest child of God can rest with assurance on the truth of the Scriptures, for not only do they give us God's revelation, but they have come to us inspired by the Holy Spirit, in words that He has chosen. The God of Israel, Who had cared for His people from the beginning; the Rock of Israel, Who remained stedfast to all His promises, spoke to David, revealed His mind and will to him, so that by the Spirit he could communicate it to His people.
Now we have the special revelation which, given as David's last words, must be of great significance: "The ruler among men shall be just, Ruling in the fear of God." Although there never has yet been a king in this world that perfectly answered to this divine requirement, there is coming a day when the Lord Jesus shall be manifested as God's king, and these features will be found in their perfection in Him. Isaiah's prophecies, and David's last words shall be fulfilled, for, "A king shall reign in righteousness; and "the spirit — of the fear of the LORD" shall rest upon Him (Isa. 32:1; Isa. 11:2). What rich blessing will flow out to men when the Lord Jesus rules in this world! Some earthly rulers have sought to be just, and to rule with the fear of God before them and under such rulers men have been blessed; but only the Lord Jesus answers perfectly to this.
Christ's reign shall be "As the light of the morning, like the rising of the sun. A morning without clouds." What divine light shall come to this poor earth after the awful judgments that are necessary to prepare the way for Christ's kingdom. The darkness that has been introduced by Satan, and that fell upon men through his agents, the beast and the antichrist, shall pass away, and instead there shall be the light of a new day, the day of Christ. As the Sun of Righteousness, the light of Christ's glory shall shine to the limits of the world, bringing joy, refreshment and blessing to all mankind. Many a cloud has obscured the light in the kingdoms of pious men, such as David, Solomon, Jehoshaphat, Joash, and others, but never a cloud shall hinder the shining of the heavenly light that shall radiate from Christ, through the church, in the millennium.
As a result of Christ's rule, blessing and prosperity will fill the earth, even as we read, "From the sunshine, after rain, the green grass springeth from the earth." The dreadful wars that have ravaged the earth have for long prevented prosperity in the world, but all will be altered when Christ maketh wars to cease to the end of the earth, and when God's blessing brings true prosperity.
Although David was a man after God's heart, he has to confess the sad failure of his house, saying, "Although my house be not so before God." Righteousness and the fear of Jehovah had not marked his dealings with Uriah the Hittite, and because of this, in the government of God, dreadful things happened in David's house; clouds overcast the scene once filled with glory, the light was hidden behind the clouds, and prosperity declined. How many of God's saints have to say with David, "My house (is) not so with God." Yet, spite of his failure, God remains faithful to His word, and on this David relies. God's covenant with him was everlasting: it was ordered in every way, and sure. This covenant did not rest on the faithfulness of David, but on God's purpose regarding Christ. It is in Christ that everything promised shall be fulfilled; all is sure because it is in Christ risen from the dead that all spoken of here shall find its answer. David found his salvation — all his salvation — in what God had promised regarding Christ; and all his heart's desires too are satisfied in God's king, the Lord Jesus Christ. But all that was promised did not then appear before David's eyes, except in vision; God did not then make it grow. It was not to be realised in Solomon, who was about to be placed on the throne by David, although he would be a type of Christ in the splendour and glory of the coming kingdom; these things could not be until the Lord Jesus had carried out the great work of the cross, taken His place at the right hand of God, and returned from heaven to establish His kingdom.
Before the blessing and prosperity promised can fill the earth, the evil must be dealt with, the sons of Belial, as thorns, must be thrust away. The Lord Jesus could not undertake this great work of judgment at His coming in grace, even as He said, "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world" (John 12:47); but He will deal with all the evil when He returns. Judgment is God's strange work, but it is necessary, for God will not allow evil men to continue for ever to fill the earth with corruption and violence: blessing and prosperity could not be maintained so long as evil men controlled the kingdoms of the world. The beast and the false prophet, and many other sons of Belial, will be thrust away by the Lord before He introduces the blessing of His kingdom. The hands of grace, held out to sinners when the Lord was here and during the many centuries since then cannot take hold of such men; they must be seized with an iron hand of government, and with the spear of divine judgment. To do this the Lord will provide Himself with a rod of iron and weapons of judgment, consigning the beast and the false prophet to the lake of fire immediately, for they shall be thrust there alive; their followers being slain with the sword to await in hell the judgment of the great white throne. Then shall follow the glorious reign of Christ with all its divine blessing and prosperity for men. Already we know the blessedness of the kingdom into which God has brought us, the kingdom of the Son of His love.
The mighty men, of whom we have read, were with David in the days of his rejection; they passed through the sorrows and the conflicts with him, and are therefore privileged to be with him in his kingdom. The first of these mighty men was the Tachmonite, who was distinguished in an exploit of great power, for he fought against eight hundred, slain by him at one time. Does not this remind us of the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, "For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power …" (2 Tim. 1:7)? Paul, himself, was marked by the spirit of power in his many conflicts for the Gospel; see him before the great men of this world, before the High Priest, before Felix, Festus, King Agrippa, and then before Nero; strengthened by divine grace in his defence of the Gospel. He is marked by the same spirit when the truth is in jeopardy among the saints, refusing to yield to the false brethren; even withstanding Peter when he was blameworthy. We too can be marked by the spirit of power.
Eleazar the son of Dodo comes next. He was one of three mighty men who stood with David after the men of Israel were gone away. We are not told that they ran away, nor does it give the reason for their going; but these three men remained close to David in the face of overwhelming danger. We too are living in a day when many have gone away; some have been seduced by the world, some have wearied of the conflict, and some have just gone with the majority. How blessed if it can be said of us that we remained faithful to the Lord in the day of conflict and danger. But Eleazar was marked by endurance, for he smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, until his hand clave to the sword. Endurance is numbered among the features that marked Paul, recorded in 2 Timothy 3:10-11. It is not enough to enter into the conflict to which God has called us; we are to endure in it until the end, being strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might — and having done all to stand (Eph. 6:10-19).
Shammah is commended for his courage; "he stood in the midst of the plot" when the people had fled before the Philistines. He was determined at whatever cost to secure the plot of lentils; he would not have the enemy take away the food of the people of God, and the Lord used him to deliver it out of the enemy's hand. We can look back to faithful and courageous men of God, true servants of the Lord, who stood against the enemy, and would not allow the enemy to rob the saints of the precious truth that God had given to His own. Do we value the truth that has been handed down to us? Are we prepared like Shammah, like Paul, and like servants of a past century, to stand for the maintenance of the truth in an evil day? Eleazar and Shammah may be the instruments used of God, but it is the Lord who works the great deliverance.
While David was in the cave of Adullam, hiding from Saul, the three chiefs mentioned in 2 Sam. 23:13-17 were evidently near enough to David to know the desires of his heart. His words, "Oh that one would give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!" were not a commandment, but the expression of his heart's desire. Do we live near enough to the Lord to know the desires of His heart? Not only did these three chiefs know David's desire, but they were prepared at all costs to gratify his heart. What a rebuke and challenge to us this is! Sometimes we find saints of God saying, It does not say we are not to do this or that; they seek to gratify their natural desires under the plea that there is no divine prohibition to the thing they want. Ought we not to seek to carry out not only the commandments of the Lord, but also the desires of His heart? In John 14:15 we have the Lord's commandment, and love for Him seeks to obey them; indeed, verse 21 shows that obedience to His commandments is the evidence of love; but love goes further in verse 23, it seeks to carry out in obedience all His will, all His heart's longings. These three mighty men, in an act of great devotion put their lives in jeopardy to gratify the heart of David. You remember Epaphroditus; he jeopardized his life to bring to Paul from the saints at Philippi the things that would meet his needs. Are we prepared to lay down our lives for the brethren to show our devotion to Christ? We may not be asked to go so far as this, but we can give up some of our time or something of the things we possess to please the Lord Jesus.
After the first three, we have Abishai. He might have claimed a place of special distinction because of his natural relationships, for he was brother to Joab, the Captain of the host, and closely related to the king, but natural relationships do not secure for him, or for us, a place in the kingdom. Abishai secures his distinguished place because of his own prowess; although his great feat did not reach to the height of the Tachmonite's, he was nevertheless marked by the same spirit of power. We cannot attain to the fidelity and spiritual power that marked the Apostle Paul and other great servants of the Lord, but we can be marked by the same spirit in our own measure, by the same divine grace. (Another mighty exploit of Abishai's is found in 2 Sam. 21:16-17; he succoured David when one of the giants sought to kill him, and he slew the giant).
Next comes Benaiah, son of a valiant man, and noted for his exploits. (Paul's natural line was noted for pure con-science, and Timothy's for faith — 2 Tim. 1:3, 5). Among his many outstanding feats, three are selected for our instruction, and probably for their value typically. First, he slew two lion-like men of Moab. It was Moab that seduced the children of Israel into unholy alliances, which brought down upon them the chastening hand of God. At that time Phineas smote Zimri, a prince of the house of Simeon, and a woman belonging to a leading family in Midian; and for his deed, he received the commendation of Jehovah. Are we prepared to stand like Phineas and like Benaiah against all unholy alliances with the world?
Benaiah's smiting the lion in the pit surely speaks to us of one who has overcome the wicked one; that which John speaks of as characterizing the young men in the family of God (1 John 2:13-14). We have also beautiful pictures of Christ Himself in these incidents. A good many years ago, I remember a well-known brother saying, "You see Benaiah going down to where the lion was, even as the Lord Jesus went down in death to meet the power of the enemy. Who is going to be triumphant? Who is coming up out of the pit? Is it to be Benaiah or the lion? It was Benaiah! So it was with Christ: He arose triumphant from the grave, having annulled the power of the enemy." It was on a snowy day this happened; the circumstances of the conflict were all against Benaiah; yet he was victorious. When Adam fell, the circumstances of Eden were all advantageous; but when Christ met the foe, whether we think of the temptations or Gethsemane or the Cross, how very different were the circumstances to those of the first man when he fell before the enemy.
The third exploit brought to our notice here is Benaiah's victory over the Egyptian. Do we not see the glory of the world, and its bondage for the people of God in Egypt? But we read of One Who said, "I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). No doubt in John's gospel the Lord Jesus meets it in its religious leaders, but even Jerusalem, in rejecting Christ and His testimony bears the character of Sodom and Egypt (Rev. 11:8). The Egyptian is slain with his own spear, even as we read of the Lord's great triumph in Hebrews "That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death" (Heb. 2:14). If the Lord has overcome the world, He can enable us to overcome it also. Of this we have divine assurance in 1 John 5:4-5. With the eye resting on the Son of God we are assured of this victory. Paul shows us the way of victory over the world in the Epistle to the Galatians, in Gal. 2:20, and Gal. 6:14.
Finally we have the remaining heroes named, beginning with Asahel, and finishing with Uriah the Hittite; all men of renown, who had distinguished themselves in various ways in days of conflict. Asahel, we read elsewhere, was one who ran well, and Uriah refused the comforts of home while the servants of the king endured hardships. These have their own lessons for us as saints of God and servants of the Lord. In these last days when many are endeavouring to escape from the conflict the truth entails, we may have the privilege of standing loyal to Christ so as to be numbered among His mighty ones in His kingdom. We may be poor weak things in ourselves, but God has not given to us the spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion. God calls upon us to be marked by the spirit evinced by such as the Tachmonite, Abishai and Benaiah; to be here waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ, seeking to be for His pleasure and for His glory, so as to have part with Him in the glory of His kingdom.
Wm. C. Reid.
Hold Fast the Truth.
The great point, my brethren is to hold fast the truth. It is all well, and a desirable service of love, if a Christian can happily and with God-given wisdom meet the difficulties of others; but hold you the truth yourselves. Such is the power and simplicity of faith. Adversaries may no doubt try to embarrass you: if they will, let them do so. Do not be troubled if you cannot answer their questions and dispose of their cavils; you may regret it in charity for injured or misled souls. But after all, it is the positive truth of God which it is the all important business to hold, and this God has put in the heart of the simplest child who believes in Jesus.
W. Kelly.