If you would turn with me to the book of 2 Samuel, we are looking at chapter 21 tonight.
Starting in verse 15. Do you know the difference between an appendix and an epilogue in a book?
So an appendix is where an author will just jam all sorts of stuff that he didn't know where to
put in the rest of the book. Or that's where like all the charts and the graphs will go that are
sort of, you know, didn't quite fit in the other pages. That's an appendix. An epilogue,
an epilogue is a place for the author to take a step back, to assess all the ground that he or she
has covered, and then to draw the threads together and try to make a big point. Or to sort of drive
home what it is they're trying to say. And in many ways, as we kind of come to the end of our series
in the book of 1 and 2 Samuel, chapters 21 and 22 and 23 and 24, these last four chapters are really
that. They're an epilogue where the author, the compiler, the narrator is sort of drawing all his
threads together. So for the next few weeks, we're sort of marching through this epilogue,
taking stock of the book, and sort of learning from what these last few chapters have to teach us
today. So if you're looking in a pew Bible, that's page 274. And we are going to look at verses 15
through 22 of chapter 21. Let me read this for us if you're there. There was war again between the
Philistines and Israel, and David went down together with his servants, and they fought against the
Philistines. And David grew weary. And Ishbi-ben-ob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear
weighed 300 shekels of bronze, and he was armed with a new sword thought to kill David. But Abishai,
the son of Zeruiah, came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David's men swore
to him, you shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.
After this, there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibikai, the Hushethite,
struck down Saph, who was one of the descendants of the giants. And there was again war with the
Philistines at Gob. And El-Hanan, the son of Jare-Oregim, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath,
the Gittite, with a shaft of whose sphere was like a weaver's beam. And there was again war at Gath,
where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot,
24 in number. And he also was descended from the giants. And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan,
the son of Shimei, David's brother, struck him down. These four were descended from the giants in
Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. Let's pray together.
Lord, we pray for the light of your spirit to be shining in our hearts and upon your word
tonight that we might understand and apply rightly this text before us. We thank you that
you give us your word to do your work and your continuing work of presence in the world. Lord,
so thank you that we get to gather around it tonight. Lord, we ask that you would do your work
as you see fit. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay. Well, have you ever noticed that sometimes
great athletes make not so great coaches? Great players like Wayne Gretzky in hockey or Isaiah Thomas
and Magic Johnson in basketball. These guys all have sterling careers as players, right? They are all
stars, they're MVPs, they have lots of championships. But you know, each one of them has a not so bright
track record as a coach, as a leader of a team. I don't really follow hockey, but I saw this the
other day that Wayne Gretzky, when Wayne Gretzky, the so-called great one in hockey, left as the head
coach of the Phoenix Coyotes, they had failed to make the playoffs four seasons in a row. And when he
left, the team was just completely mired in bankruptcy and investors didn't want to touch it.
Uh, he kind of drove that place into the ground. Uh, even Michael Jordan, right? Arguably still the
best player in NBA history, hasn't had the greatest track record. Uh, now true, he's never actually sort
of taken on the role of a head coach per se. He's been more involved in sort of owning and managing and
sort of orchestrating things behind the scenes. But even so, his teams have also been pretty mediocre.
Um, and in, in 2012, his team went, uh, a whopping seven and 59. Seven, seven wins in the whole season.
Uh, that by the way, it was the worst record in NBA history. Uh, this year, the Charlotte Hornets are
just over 500. Uh, they might make the playoffs, so we'll see if they can turn it around. But, uh,
but great players rarely make great coaches. They can rarely reproduce in others the greatness that
they themselves embody and that comes so easily to them. Uh, now, as we come to these final chapters
of second Samuel, as I said, we've come to this sort of carefully crafted epilogue that draws
together some of the important threads of David's life and kingship. Um, and if you look, if you sort
of take a, just a span of the whole chunk, you see this sort of chiastic, this pattern that goes
basically David cleaning up, uh, Saul's mess. And then you've got this little episode about David's
mighty men. And then you have a song and then you have a song and then you've got an episode about
David's mighty men. And then you have David cleaning up a mess that actually he made. Uh,
so there's this beautiful sort of literary pattern that signals to us that this is kind of the grand
summary of the book. And here in this little section, you know, as you look back over David's
life, as we're sort of drawing these threads together, what's one of the themes that you see in
his life? Well, one of those themes is, is that David was a great warrior. He was a military hero.
Um, one of the number one hits on Jerusalem pop radio in the 11th century BC went like this.
Saul has killed his thousands, but David, his 10,000s. That's what all the kids were bumping
on their stereo in downtown Jerusalem. That was the literally, that's the song that you, not literally,
that's the song they used to sing in the streets when the army would come home. Saul has killed his
thousands and David has killed his 10,000s. Um, and of course, as we look back over David's life as a
warrior, what is the one story that we all remember? What's the sort of, uh, just quintessential
moment in David's life as David and Goliath, right? That's the one David was Israel's great giant slayer.
Uh, now of course there had been other giant slayers actually before David in Israel's history.
Uh, Moses being the primary one, actually, uh, not only did God sort of take down Egypt
under Moses's kind of leadership, uh, but Moses in the plains of Moab, east of the Jordan in the
book of numbers as a sort of ending their time in the wilderness and coming to sort of on the brink
of the promised land, we're told that Israel, uh, that Moses led Israel to defeat Og, the king of
Bashan, who apparently slept in a 13 foot bed. So here was a giant that Moses took down.
But you know, it's really David, isn't it? Who sort of stands out as the great feller of giants.
Uh, and by the way, I should mention here sort of as a side note, when the old Testament talks about
giants, uh, don't think sort of Jack and the beanstalk giants, um, you know, 40 foot high,
mythological legendary creatures that don't really ever exist. Don't think about that. Think more like
Shaquille O'Neal. I'm going to use a lot of athletic metaphors tonight. Think Shaquille O'Neal. If Shaquille
O'Neal were to walk in here, now I'm six one. That's kind of average height for a guy. How tall is
Shaquille O'Neal? He's like 7 million something, right? I mean, he would dwarf me. We would literally
think that he was a giant. And if we lived in the ancient near East and we had to sort of do hand to
hand combat to see who got to live somewhere, we would be frightened of him. This is what the, this is really
what the Bible is talking about when they're talking about giants. They're talking about real
humans who were uncharacteristically big. In fact, the word giant in this text, uh, here in the Hebrew
text actually just translates a word wrath, uh, which is probably the name of a tribe or an ancestor
from which these guys all came from. They were probably part of a tribe that was just uncharacteristically
big. Uh, just last month, actually, CNN ran a story on, uh, Polynesian high school football
players. Uh, some people have called this the Polynesian pipeline because some of these kids
are just so big that they dominate high school football and many, many, many of them go to the
pros. So even though in the United States, there's only something like 300,000 Samoans and Tongas who
sort of make up these sort of Polynesian people groups, they're just an unstoppable force in high
school athletics. And of course, again, in the ancient near East, a whole group of guys like that would be
utterly terrifying. They would be a force to be reckoned with. So this is sort of giants that we're
talking about here. And again, David, Israel's great King was known as the one who could bring them down.
And so you would expect that as the compiler of the book of Samuel brings his story to a close in
this climactic epilogue, that we'd want to get one more really good gripping story of David's military
prowess, right? Or maybe he could give us sort of a highlight reel of some of David's greatest hits
to sort of just put the cherry on the top of the Sunday. But surprisingly, that's actually not what
we get. Instead, we get a story, not about some great victory that David had, but we get a story
about David's very last time on the battlefield. And we don't know exactly when this particular battle
came in David's life. It's probably sometime after David's major victories over the Philistines in
chapter five and chapter eight. You can go back and read those. But whether it happened, say, before or
after Absalom's rebellion, for instance, we don't quite know. We don't know sort of when chronologically
this happened. But the important thing to see is this, that in this last battle, it's not David
who hits the game winner, right? It's not David who makes the amazing play so that they can all go home
happy and glad and sing their songs of victory. We don't get a romping story about David's strength.
Instead, we get a story where David grows weary. And David, the great rescuer of Israel, needs himself
to be rescued. Isn't that interesting? And it's not David, but it's Abishai, one of David's men, who brings down
the giant. And in verse 17, afterwards, all the soldiers are thinking, whoa, that was a close one. In fact, that was
too close. And they all make a pact that David, from that point forward, is never ever going to go out with them
again into battle. Because he is too important to the life of the people and the life of the nation
to make that mistake again. And so from this point forward, David stays home.
But then, in the following verses, verses 18 through 21, the narrator sort of shows us an important point.
And it's actually a point, it's a truth, that will extend all the way into the New Testament
and comes down right to the church today, to you and me.
You see, if we were to read just verses 15 through 17, we might think that Abishai got lucky, right?
That, you know, we might think that the army of Israel, and David too, for that matter, just dodged a
huge bullet on this one. Abishai got lucky, he brought down the giant in just the nick of time,
and they can all go home and sort of retrench their strategy.
But lest we think, lest we think that this was just a fluke, just a sort of lucky shot
that saved their skin, the narrator goes on to give us, not one, not two, but three more accounts
where David's men bring down giants.
The narrator, drawing together the threads of his story, is saying, yes, in David's reign,
the giants fell, and his men participated in the felling.
This is the point I think the narrator wants us to see.
That the victory of the king is advanced through the people of the king.
That the great triumph of David is extended then, out and through his very people.
Unlike the great athletes who make not-so-great coaches, who can't lead other people to greatness,
around David, cropped up, grew a whole host of men who participated in his victory and took it forward.
Sibakai takes down a giant warrior named Saf.
El Hanan defeats another Goliath.
Which, if you look at the parallel text in 1 Chronicles 20, chapter 20, verse 5,
we learn that this is actually the brother of the Goliath that David slew back in 1 Samuel 17.
And lastly, Jonathan, not David's friend Jonathan here, but David's nephew,
ends up defeating a man with 24 fingers and toes.
Which, by the way, actually, is actually kind of a well-documented condition
called polydactyly or hyperdactyly.
I didn't know that until I started learning about this passage.
But according to the Children's Hospital in Boston,
one out of every thousand births experiences some form of being born with multiple digits.
Some stats actually say one in five hundred.
So it's actually pretty common.
CBS News actually ran a story not long ago about a man from Cuba named Hernandez Garrido
who had, you should look it up on the internet because the pictures are stunning.
He has, I kid you not, unless this was a total hoax website, which I don't think it was,
twelve perfectly looking fingers and toes.
Unbelievable.
Anyway.
But, back to the story.
Like Goliath, back in 1 Samuel 17,
this giant here, whoever he may be, with his 24 fingers and toes,
also taunts Israel.
And like Goliath, those taunts are silenced.
And he comes down.
Again, not at the hand of David,
but at the hand of one of David's men.
And again, the point seems to be that the victory of the king
is advanced through the people of the king.
But note how the passage ends in verse 22.
The narrator says,
they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
Now that's interesting, you think.
David's hand had nothing to do with these giants falling.
But I think the point there is that there is a sense in which
this is still rightly understood as David's victory.
The glory for this moment in Israel's history is still creditable to David.
As the king, he's the one under whose command and presence
God does these amazing things.
And because these men are connected to David
by their bonds of allegiance and loyalty,
they participate in his triumph and they take it forward.
And as I mentioned just a moment ago,
this pattern isn't just a feature of David's reign some 3,000 years ago.
But in fact, this pattern extends right into the New Testament
and onward into the church today.
What do I mean by that?
What I mean is that when God took action
in the book of Samuel here that we've been studying,
when God, you remember how the book of Samuel starts?
It starts with the people in massive spiritual decline.
Probably one of the darkest moments in Israel's history.
That's when the sort of pages of Samuel start.
But when God took action through the historical events
recorded in this book to renew his people
and to raise up a king that would rescue them from their enemies,
we see here that those who are connected to the king
are swept up into that kingdom advancing work.
And in the New Testament,
when God took action to renew his people once and for all,
and when the king came who would truly rescue us from our enemies,
not just our political enemies,
not physical giants,
but friends, our real enemies,
the enemies of sin and death and condemnation.
When that king came,
when God did that through Jesus Christ,
what we see in the pages of the New Testament, friends,
is that those who are connected to the king
in loyalty of heart and allegiance,
in other words,
by faith,
they too are swept up into that kingdom work.
Where do we see that?
Well, we see it during the life of Jesus himself.
In Luke chapter 10,
Jesus, on the way to Jerusalem,
sends out the 72,
just like he had sent out the 12 before them,
telling them to preach in his name
and to do powerful works in his name.
There was Jesus sort of extending
his kingdom movement through his followers.
And so that's what they do.
In John's gospel, chapter 14, verse 12,
Jesus tells the disciples that
after he ascends to the Father,
after the definitive victory is won
through his death and resurrection,
that they will do even greater works
than they had experienced
during his earthly ministry.
And after his resurrection,
he tells them,
go, make disciples of all nations.
And right before his ascension,
go be witnesses to the ends of the earth.
My spirit's going to come upon you
and you'll go.
In other words,
this once for all victory of the king,
sins forgiven,
death conquered,
the new creation begun,
the victory of King Jesus
now advances
through the people of the king.
So we see it during Jesus' own lifetime
and we see it in the life
of the apostles themselves.
Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5,
the passage we start our service with,
that we are ambassadors of Christ,
he says.
We've received reconciliation.
God made him who knew no sin
to be sin for us
so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God.
And now,
knowing that,
we go to others
with the message of reconciliation.
Be reconciled to God.
Paul ends that passage.
For we are ambassadors,
friends,
participants in the king's victory,
agents of its advance.
But you know,
for my money,
one of the most profound statements
of this reality in the New Testament
is found in Acts chapter 13.
In Acts 13,
Paul and Barnabas
are in the city of Pisidian Antioch,
a little city
sort of in south central Turkey.
And they've proclaimed the gospel
in the synagogue of that city.
They've proclaimed the good news
that Jesus is God's long-awaited Messiah
who fulfills Israel's story.
Jesus is the true offspring of David
who frees us
from the condemnation of the law.
Jesus is the one
who's born,
sins,
curse in our place
and has liberated us.
And then in verse 47
of that chapter,
Paul and Barnabas say
that they're taking this good news
not just to the Jews,
but they're taking it
to the Gentiles as well.
And then,
they quote
Isaiah 49,
verse 6,
which says this,
I have made you a light
for the Gentiles
that you may bring salvation
to the ends of the earth.
Paul and Barnabas say
this is what we're doing.
God has made us a light
for the Gentiles
that we may bring salvation
to the ends of the earth.
Now,
here's the amazing thing.
If you go back
to Isaiah 49
and read that verse
in context,
who is Isaiah talking about?
Well,
Isaiah 49
is one of the servant songs
of Isaiah.
And the servant songs
in Isaiah,
which we know
in the light
of the New Testament,
are about the coming Messiah.
They're about Jesus.
Jesus is a servant
of the Lord
who's doing all,
who sort of brings
all this great thing
to completion.
Jesus is the one
through his own person
and work
will restore
the people of God
and be a light
to the nations,
which is what Isaiah 49,
verse 6,
is all about.
He's the one
who's going to bring
the Gentiles
into the family of God.
God.
But,
Paul and Barnabas
in Acts chapter 13
understand
what Jesus taught
in his earthly ministry
and what the Old Testament
kingdom pattern
showed all along
that this great victory
that the king had won
was now being advanced
through his people.
Paul knew that
because he was united
to Jesus by faith,
because he had received
the blessings
of the gospel
that now he had
a role to play
and that he would be
a means
whereby King Jesus
extended his victory
and light to the nations.
Paul understood himself
as so united
to Christ
and to his kingdom
and to his message
and to his mission
that he could say,
we're going as that light
in the name of Jesus.
And friends,
of course today,
God's kingdom
does not advance
through swords
but through words.
It's through the proclamation
of the gospel.
The New Testament
is so clear about this
that it's the word of God
that is the real
and lasting
and true sword
of the spirit,
Paul will say
in Ephesians 6.
You see,
Israel's battles
all along
were types,
they were pictures,
they were foreshadows
of an even more
greater kingdom advance,
the kingdom advance
that we live in today.
Not about defeating
political enemies
or material means
but about the spiritual
kingdom of God
advancing and changing
hearts and communities.
So when Paul tells
the church in Ephesus
to take up
the armor of God,
he's not telling them
to take up metal
and steel
and guns
and sword,
he's telling them
to gird themselves
with hope
and with love
and with justice
and with truth.
And he's telling them
to pray
and he's telling them
to proclaim
and he's telling them
to pour themselves out
in self-giving love.
And that these,
from the world's perspective,
very paradoxical,
but these are the means
whereby God's kingdom
really advances
in hearts
and in communities.
And you know,
the kingdom advance
today won't necessarily
mean material prosperity
or physical health.
Again,
Paul in Romans 14, 17
says,
the kingdom of God
isn't a matter
of eating and drinking
but of righteousness
and peace
and joy
in the Holy Spirit.
That's how you know
the kingdom is taking
roots in people's hearts,
not because they're
being materially blessed,
but because there's
an overflow
of righteousness
that leads to peace,
that leads to joy,
which you better believe
if those three things
are working in the human heart,
that person is going to care
about suffering
and injustice in the world
and they're going to work
really hard to alleviate it.
And yet,
how do we know
that the kingdom's
going forth
when those three things
are just richly dwelling
in our midst?
And like David's mighty men
here in chapter 21,
any advance
that we get
to participate in
is ultimately
the Lord's victory still.
Just like David's men
got to share
in the glory
of seeing God
grant them victory
over tremendous foes,
and yet at the end
of the day,
it was still in a sense
on account of David
that they fell
and then everybody
could say they fell
by the hand of David
and by the hand
of his servants.
Friends, even more so
for us today.
Jesus is allowing us
to share
in his glorious
kingdom advance
and at the end of the day,
all praise belongs
to him.
But,
united to him,
we too experience
the joy and glory
of being participants
in his kingdom.
So we don't get
to pat ourselves
on the back
or feel so great
about ourselves
that we're doing
such great kingdom work.
It's God's work.
Jesus is advancing
his kingdom
through his spirit
and yet we get
the joy
of being swept
up in that.
But note another
difference
between our situation
now under Christ
and the situation
then under David.
David's men
in our passage
acknowledge
and knew
that David
was,
as they say here,
the lamp
of Israel.
He was the one,
in other words,
through whom
God was beginning
to dispel
the darkness
and beginning
to renew
the people.
And this idea
of the lamp
of Israel
was actually
an image
that was kind
of borrowed
from the lampstand,
a lot of commentators
say,
in the tabernacle.
If you went
into the first section
of the tabernacle,
what would you find there?
Well,
there was a bread
where they laid,
there was a table
where they laid out
some bread
and there was
an altar of incense.
But then right here
on your left,
I think your left,
would be a lampstand
with seven lights
on it,
perpetually shining
in the tabernacle.
Here was a lampstand
symbolic of God's
perpetual light
shining forth,
his warmth,
his grace,
his truth.
And each one
of those seven lights,
what does the number
seven make you think of?
Of course,
it makes you think
of the opening
of the Bible,
doesn't it?
those seven
sort of primordial
creation days.
And here was a light
right in the middle
of the people of God,
seven lights
saying,
one day,
I'm going to renew
this creation
from the inside out
and I'm going to make
all things new.
And it's going to happen
through the shining
of my light.
And David,
in his own way,
was the way
in which that light
was beginning
to be incarnated
in the world.
And yet,
as we see here,
it was a fragile light,
wasn't it?
David's old
in our passage.
He's getting tired.
And the men,
in some sense,
are worried
that the light's
going to be snuffed out.
And of course,
by God's grace,
God allows it
to endure.
God had made
a covenant promise
with David
that his offspring
would sit on the throne
forever.
And the greater David,
Jesus Christ,
would come and say,
not just I'm the lamp
of Israel, right?
But Jesus would come
and say,
I'm the light
of the whole world.
And as the prologue
to John's gospel says,
the light shines
in the darkness
and the darkness
has not overcome it.
That the light
of the resurrected Jesus,
the light not just
of Israel,
but through Israel,
through the whole world,
will never grow dim
and never be snuffed out.
And you know
how the end of the Bible,
you know how the Bible ends?
There's the new heavens
and the new earth
recreated in beauty
and glory.
And what's in the middle
of the new heavens
and the new earth?
Not a temple,
not a lamp stand.
Jesus Christ himself
giving light
to everyone.
And friends,
that fact
that Jesus is
the perpetual
new creation
light of the world
should give us
the greatest confidence
and the greatest courage
to be participants
in the victory
that Jesus has won
through his own death
and resurrection.
And it should give us
great confidence
and great courage
to extend that work
into the world.
And at the same time,
it gives us
great humility,
doesn't it?
Because it's his work.
It's his Christ.
It's his light.
It's not ours.
It's his.
Let me close then
with three really
brief applications.
First,
as we look at ourselves,
friend,
realize that
if you are in Christ,
you have a role
to play
in his kingdom.
Cling tightly
to him
in allegiance,
and begin to pray
that he would show you
where you belong
in his kingdom advance.
Second,
as we look at the church,
as you look around,
what do you see?
Do you see
sort of a ragtag assembly,
kind of a motley crew
as you look at the church,
not just here at Trinity,
but sort of citywide,
worldwide?
Or do you see the church
as it really is
in God's sight?
As the assembly
of mighty men
and women
through whom
the victory of the king
is being made known
in the world.
The church
is not perfect.
I grant you that.
I'm in it.
Therefore,
it is not perfect.
Just like David's men
of old
weren't perfect,
here's Abishai
of Zeruiah
once again.
Do you remember him?
I think I've had to preach
on all the passages
about him.
But,
Jesus loves the church,
friends.
And as someone once said,
I think commenting
on the book of Acts,
the church is God's plan A
for the world.
And he doesn't have
a plan B.
Thankfully,
God is faithful
to his plan.
And he won't let it fail.
Third,
as we look out
at the world.
Friends,
it was not a fluke
that David's men
brought down giants.
They were united
to God's anointed king.
And friends,
the world
is no match
for God's redemptive
love in Christ.
Paul once described
the gospel
as the power
of God
for salvation
to all who believe.
Friends,
don't fear.
The gospel
was power then
and it is still
so today.
Even if things
look dark,
even if
many so-called
giants gather
on the horizon,
whatever they may be,
the victory
of the king
will ultimately
prevail.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus,
we are humbled
by the fact
that you would
take us,
sinners as we are,
bring us
into your kingdom
through the price
of your own blood.
Make us your sons
and your daughters
and give us a mission.
Lord,
help us
to live this out
in a way
that's in line
with the truth
of your gospel,
with boldness
and humility,
with truth
and gentleness,
with love
and justice.
Lord,
make us a people
whose words
and actions
are fitting
to the nature
of your kingdom,
Jesus,
and your death
and resurrection.
O Lord,
would you lead us
in our day
to take great risks
for the advance
of your kingdom
and to trust,
Lord,
that you
are king
and you are in control
and you are the light
of the world
and one day
that light
will cover
all things
and make all things
new.
Amen.