And Liz is going to come and read God's word for us.
So Liz, over to you. Thank you.
To Samuel chapter 10.
In the course of time, the king of the Ammonites died
and his son Hanum succeeded him as king.
David thought, I will show kindness to Hanum, son of Nahash,
just as his father showed kindness to me.
So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanum concerning his father.
When David's men came to the land of the Ammonites,
the Ammonite commanders said to Hanum, their lord,
do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy?
Hasn't David sent them to you only to explore the city and to spy it out and overthrow it?
So Hanum seized David's envoys, shaved off half of each man's beard,
cut off their garments of the buttocks and sent them away.
When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men,
but they were greatly humiliated.
The king said, stay at Jericho till your beards have grown and then come back.
When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David,
they hired 20,000 Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah,
as well as the king of Marka with 1,000 men and also 12,000 men from Tob.
On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men.
The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance of the city gate,
while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Meaka were by themselves in the open country.
Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him.
So he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans.
He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai, his brother,
and deployed them against the Ammonites.
Joab said, if the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to come to my rescue.
But the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and rescue you.
Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God.
The Lord will do what is good in his sight.
Then Joab and the troops went with him.
Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans and they fled before him.
When the Ammonites realized that the Arameans were fleeing,
they fled before Abishai and went inside the city.
So Joab returned from fighting the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.
After the Arameans saw that they had been routed by Israel, they regrouped.
Hadadiza had Arameans brought from beyond the river Euphrates.
They went to Helam with Shobak, the commander of Hadadiza's army leading them.
When David was told of this, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan and went to Helam.
The Arameans formed their battle lines to meet David and fought against him.
But they fled before Israel and David killed 700 of their charities, 40,000 of their foot soldiers.
He also struck down Shobak, the commander of their army, and he died there.
When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadiza saw that they had been routed by Israel,
they made peace with the Israelites and became subject to them.
So the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.
Now, as we start this morning, I want you to imagine with me that you're at the top of a roller coaster.
Looking at some of you, it's probably been a few years since you've been on a roller coaster.
So let me try and describe it for you and what it's like.
You know, roller coasters make that sort of slow ascent, don't they?
And it goes click, click, click, click, click, click as you get to the top of the roller coaster.
And then you hang there just for a few moments.
And you know that it's about to thunder down the loops and go round and round.
But just for a few seconds, you're hanging there at the top of the roller coaster.
Click, click, click, click, stop.
What are you thinking to yourself in that moment as you're at the top of the roller coaster?
Right at the top, you know it's about to hurtle down the tracks.
What are you checking?
Well, I think if you're anything like me, you're going to be just giving it a little push on that safety bar, aren't you?
Is that properly engaged?
Is that actually going to hold me?
You'll probably glance across to the five-year-old who's sat next to you perfectly calmly and thinking,
I'll pull yourself together, Steve.
If they think they're going to be all right, you're going to be all right.
But it's that last minute thought, isn't it?
Am I going to be safe?
Is this going to be okay?
Let me check.
Now, in a way, 2 Samuel chapter 10 is that kind of pause at the top of a roller coaster.
We've climbed the heights, if you've been with us, we've climbed the heights of David's success.
We have seen him being anointed as king.
We've seen him uniting the kingdom.
We've seen him getting everybody together underneath his rule in Jerusalem.
And we are about to descend into the chaos of the rest of his life.
And if you know anything about the story of David, you know that there are some twists and turns to come.
It's going to be a terrifying run.
And here in chapter 10, you've got this pause.
You're hanging at the top.
It's about to fall.
And there is, in chapter 10, a safety check for us.
Right at the heart of the passage, the safety bar for the roller coaster of life, if you want to put it that way.
And it's what we looked at with the children.
And so I want us to come and spend most of our time thinking about that and how that works.
But before we do that, let me just run through the story so that we know what's going on here.
The story starts, doesn't it, with David showing kindness again.
We saw last week him showing kindness to a guy called Mephibosheth.
But this time he is showing kindness to a guy called Hanan, who is the new king of the Ammonites.
We haven't got time for all of that background, but Hanan's father, Nahash, appears previously in the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 11,
when he threatens the residents of a place called Jabesh Gilead, telling them that he's coming and he's going to gouge out their right eyes.
Anyway, Saul, who's the king of Israel, comes to rescue them and defeats the Ammonite army.
And ever since then, he's put Nahash in his place.
But now Nahash is dead in 2 Samuel, chapter 10, and his son, Hanan, is king in his place.
And David thinks, OK, so what I'm going to do, I defeated his father, or my predecessors all defeated his father, and we had a treaty with him.
Let me now show kindness to his son so that we might carry on in this relationship with one another.
The word kindness there is the Hebrew word hesed that we saw last week.
It's this sense of a promised kindness, a covenant, that there's been this sort of arrangement between David and the Ammonites
that we will be kind to you.
But Hanan has other ideas, doesn't he?
On the advice of his young princes, he's persuaded that David had bad motives in sending servants to his land.
So what do they do? Well, they humiliate them.
They shave off half of their beards, and they cut their clothes off at the waist.
Now, as insults go, that's pretty bad, isn't it?
Cutting off half their beards would have been seen as an insult to their manliness.
And chopping off their clothes at the hips meant that they had to walk home with their buns exposed,
which would have been embarrassing.
But it's not a kind of practical joke, is it?
Actually, they know, don't they?
Hanan knows.
David understands.
This is effectively the weirdest, but most successful, the weirdest declaration of war you've ever heard in your life.
How can I declare war against David?
Well, I tell you what, he'll send envoys to me.
I'll shave off half their beards and cut off their clothes so they walk home semi-naked.
He will know I'm in business.
And so that's what happens.
The Ammonites get themselves ready.
Now, without getting too technical or boring you with the details here,
the way the rest of the story is broken up is with a series of five they saw or they heard statements
which come at the beginning of each scene.
That there's one in verse 6, one in verse 7, one in verse 9, one in verse 15, and one in verse 19.
Starting off in verse 6, the NLV translates it,
they realized.
Literally, the Ammonites see war coming.
They have hired a load of help then from the Syrians.
And then David, when he hears that in verse 7, sends out Joab with the mighty men to sort it out.
It seems from the context, and we'll see this in weeks to come,
that most of this happens in the city of Rabba.
And the situation is perilous for Joab because the Ammonites come and meet him outside the city
while the hired Syrians come behind him,
trapping the soldiers in between two armies,
one just outside the city and one coming up from behind him.
In response, Joab sets his brother up to fight the Ammonites in front of the city
while he takes the best of the men to fight the professional soldiers who've come from Syria,
telling his brother Abishai that they will fight for one another,
helping each other out if it all gets a bit much.
What's amazing and should stun you as you read the passage
is that both Joab and Abishai win,
and the Assyrians flee back into their city of Rabba,
and the Assyrians run back and regroup.
Now the follow-up battle with the Assyrians at Rabba will happen in chapters 11 and 12,
and you might know a guy called Uriah the Hittite who dies close to the wall,
and we'll find out more about that story in weeks to come.
So chapter 10 kind of works as this link passage, if you like.
It links back with David's hesed kindness in chapter 9,
and it links forward with this battle for a place called Rabba,
which we'll find in weeks to come.
But before that, the Syrians have regrouped and they're ready for a second try.
Hadadezer, their king, has gathered more of his military power,
but still he is defeated by David and the Israelites,
killing 40,000 of their horsemen and 700 of their chariot riders,
including their army captain.
Now, if all that seems familiar to you,
it's because this victory was also mentioned in chapter 8,
which we saw previously.
It's a famous victory as David wins peace with the surrounding nations,
and they all think twice now about threatening David.
Now, that's the story.
I grant you that the killing of 40,000 soldiers
doesn't exactly sound like calm before a storm,
but believe me, if you know the rest of this story,
this is the calm before the storm.
This is the very top of the roller coaster.
Click, click, click, and we're here.
It's all downhill from here.
And then look at the safety check right in the middle here.
This is the final test of the bar of the roller coaster.
Look at verse 12.
Let me read it to you again.
Be strong.
Let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God.
The Lord will do what is good in his sight.
Now, it's worth noting that this is Joab,
the crazy commander of David's army, who's saying this.
Joab, who to this point, and really from this point,
shows himself essentially to be a thug,
who's capable of killing lots of different people.
But here the writer puts these amazing words in his mouth,
which are meant to help us navigate the rest of the book of 2 Samuel.
So let's just consider those words together
and work backwards through them with me.
Notice the statement at the end.
Notice that he says that the Lord will do what is good in his sight.
That might sound to you just relatively straightforward.
Of course, God will do what is good in his sight.
That's kind of obvious, isn't it?
Every religion, everybody who believes in God says,
oh yeah, God does what's good to him.
God does what's good in his sight.
But there's more to it than that,
because it's interesting that while Joab is confident
that God will do what seems good to him,
he knows that there is no promise to him
that he and his brother Abishai will survive the next few hours.
He has no promise of victory for his army.
So look at the beginning of the sentence,
as we read with the children from verse 11.
He says, if the Arameans are too strong for me,
then you are to come to my rescue.
But if the Ammonites are too strong for you,
then I will come to rescue you.
Be strong and let us fight bravely.
There's a lot of ifs there.
Joab is genuinely not sure what is going to happen next,
even while he is sure that God will do what is good in his eyes.
He's pinned by the Ammonites and the Syrians.
And his confidence is not,
God is going to give me a famous victory here.
It's not that, is it?
It's God will do what seems good to him.
Now, that's not because Joab doesn't have faith.
This isn't being written as a sign of Joab's weakness.
Well, the point is that Joab knows enough
to know that God will do what seems good to him,
but that doesn't carry a particular specific promise
that this situation that's in front of him.
To put it really bluntly,
Joab knows that it could seem good to God
for him to be defeated.
Think about it like this.
Joab is essentially articulating two truths for us.
On the one hand, he knows that there is a God
who rules and reigns,
who has plans that can never be thwarted.
God knows who he is and knows what he's doing
and will do what he plans to do.
He knows that David can defeat Goliath.
He knows that trumpets and shouting
can bring down city walls.
He knows that striking rods against rocks
can produce water when God wants it to,
that rivers can stand still
and people can wear a cross.
None of that is in doubt.
He knows who God is
and knows that God does what God says.
Yet on the other hand,
he knows that there's a whole host of things
in his life and in his world
that he has absolutely no certainty for.
There are things that God only knows,
information which he has withheld from his people.
So Joab knows that he has not been promised victory
in that moment,
in that battle.
You can imagine, can't you,
that Joab, at this point in his life,
one of his brothers has died in tragic circumstances,
even though they were winning a battle.
He knows, doesn't he,
that God is capable of fulfilling his plans
whilst also humbling him.
I might die, says Joab.
Now keep working backwards in verse 12
with those two sets of information,
God's solid plans and my uncertain future.
What does Joab do
with those two sets of information?
What does he say to Abishai, his brother?
You know, okay, God has his good plans.
We're not sure what's going to happen to us.
Run in fear.
No, he doesn't say that, does he?
What does he say?
Verse 12, he says,
be strong, fight bravely for God's people
and for the cities of God,
fighting boldly for what they understand
to be God's purposes,
trusting that whatever the outcome for them personally,
this is the best way to live our lives,
trusting God, even though we're uncertain.
It's fascinating, isn't it?
The safety bar at the top of this roller coaster
in Joab's life and the life of Israel
is not a promise that God will not bring hard things
into their lives.
Notice that.
The safety bar is not a promise
that he will win every battle.
It's a promise that God doing what is good in his sight
is enough for him to live courageously, bravely,
whatever the future holds.
Think about this for ourselves for a moment.
Perhaps it is this morning
that you are facing uncertain times.
Maybe your job is a bit rocky.
Maybe your family relationships are a bit difficult.
Maybe your housing situation needs resolving.
Perhaps you need to get a good set of results
in your next exams.
But listen, if you're a Christian this morning,
what you need to understand
is that those things are in this hand,
not this one.
There is no guarantee
that you'll get the grades that you want
or the university place that you want
or the job that you want
or that the family relationships
will work out as you want.
There is nothing like that promised to you.
And being a Christian
doesn't guarantee those things for you.
Listen, if you find a preacher who says to you,
listen, come to God and all of your plans will work out.
If someone says that to you,
don't listen to them.
They're a liar.
God does what seems good to him,
what is good in his sight.
The God of the universe,
the one who rules and reigns,
who knows all things and governs all things,
who never makes mistakes
and never thwarted by circumstances,
he will do what he knows is good,
what is best in the fullest sense of the world.
He will do that.
And that promise,
the promise for God to do what is good in his sight
is better for you
than the promise for him
to do whatever it is that you want him to do.
And that means that you can live bravely for God,
living not for yourself,
but for God and his people
and trusting his purposes.
Think about another example with me for a moment.
Maybe you're a parent.
Let me tell you that there is no promise.
This is in this hand.
There is no promise
that your children's lives will work out
in the way that you want them to.
Some of you know that, don't you, painfully.
There is no promise
that they will trust in the Lord.
There's no promise
that they will live their lives for him,
even though that's what we desperately long for.
There is no promise from God
that if you do A, B, C, D,
it will all work out well for your children.
There is no promise like that.
John Calvin,
who's the great reformer of the 16th century,
wrote in his sermon on this passage,
he says this,
we remain in suspense about much of our lives.
We remain in suspense.
We just don't know.
We don't know.
Just like Joab,
I think we would love a promise,
wouldn't we,
that we wouldn't lose our own lives.
But don't forget
that this suspense that we live in
is intended to drive us to the Lord
who does what is good in his sight.
Not away from him in despair,
but towards him in dependence.
It's a good thing
that the God of infinite goodness and wisdom
does what he thinks is best,
not what I would like him to do necessarily.
God's freedom to accomplish his plans
rather than his bondage to do your plans
is a good thing for all of us.
So we should courageously live for him,
commanding the gospel at every turn,
making use of the things that he's given us
in the life of the church
to live patiently waiting
for God to do what pleases him.
You can think about it too, can't you,
with other examples.
You can think about it with your health
or with your job
or with your marriage,
that there's no promise
that you will live as long as you want to.
There's no promise
that you'll have the job of your dreams.
There's no promise
that your marriage will be easy and blissful.
It might be that God has set for you
suffering and difficulty
in all of those areas,
but that doesn't mean
that God has forgotten you
or in any sense that he's lost control
or in any sense that you can't have confidence
in him at all
because God is doing what seems good to him
so that you can live courageously for the Lord
in the place that he's put you in,
knowing that in all those uncertainties,
they are still in God's good hands.
And he has more power than you
and is achieving something more beautiful
and glorious than our health
or our wealth or our prosperity.
Now that's the simple truth
in 2 Samuel chapter 10.
But let me tell you,
it's even more brilliant than that.
Okay?
There is something else going on in these verses
which is so incredible
it's going to blow our minds this morning
when we see it.
What's fascinating here
is when Joab says this, okay?
What is it that Joab has seen
that makes him say,
God will do what seems good to him
even though I'm not sure
what's going to happen to me?
What is it that Joab has seen
that makes him say that?
Do you know?
Well, he has seen the kindness of King David
be rejected, hasn't he?
David, in covenant kindness,
has moved towards these Ammonites
and tried to show them
this kind of promise-keeping love and care
and it's been rejected.
And yet, still,
he says,
God will do what's good in his sight
even though I don't know
what's going to happen to me.
You know, he knows, doesn't he?
If the kindness of the king
can be rejected,
there's no guarantee
that me, a brutal warrior,
is going to win this battle.
David was kind
and that was overturned.
How do I know
what's going to happen to me?
Now, if you zoom forward
at one and a half thousand years
from King David,
you meet the real king,
don't you?
King Jesus,
God the Son in human flesh.
And what does he do?
He doesn't send envoys
to the Ammonites
in covenant kindness, does he?
No, he comes to us
in covenant kindness.
He says,
I have come not to be served,
but to serve
and give my life
as a ransom for many.
I have come
in covenant kindness
to you
to love you
and give my life for you.
And what happens
to King Jesus
in his hesed love?
What happens?
He's humiliated.
Not by having his beard
half shaved off,
not by having his clothes
cut down at the waist,
but by being nailed to a cross
in total nakedness.
All of his clothes removed,
hanging in shame
and guilt on the cross.
And rather like the Ammonites,
we declare war,
don't we,
on the kindness of God's king.
They declare war
by doing that
to David's envoys.
We declare war
on the God
who made us
by what we do to Jesus.
And yet we find
that even through
the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ,
even because
of the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ,
God rescues
and saves people
for himself,
forgiving their sin,
cancelling their moral debt,
paying in his own blood
what their sin deserves.
Now, because that's true,
because the rejection
of the kindness
of the king
can lead
to salvation
for me,
I have even more reason
than Joab
to say,
God,
do what seems good
to you,
even if I don't know
what will happen
to me.
God will do
what is good
in his sight
and it will be good
for me.
That is the safety bar
in my life,
just like it's the safety bar
in Joab's life.
And if you like,
when Joab pushes it,
there's a few bits
of wobbles.
When we put it,
there's no wobble
at all
because we know
that the kindness
of King Jesus
that was rejected
through his death
on the cross
has led
to our salvation.
Those were the good plans
of God.
So ifs don't matter
because God will do
what seems good to him
and so I cling to him.
I can be of good courage,
I can be strong,
I can fight bravely
to live a life
that pleases him
courageously
for the people of God
and his purposes
as he works all things out
for the accomplishment
of his plan.
Listen,
I started this morning
and we're at the top
of this roller coaster
and the next five chapters
of 2 Samuel
are terrifying.
terrifying.
But let me say
the next five chapters
of your life
might be terrifying.
Who knows
if we're even going to have
another five chapters.
Yet I know
that there are
some of you this morning
who are still imagining
that you can ride
the roller coaster
of whatever life
is bringing next
without a safety bar
at all,
without any confidence
in the Lord Jesus.
You know,
I don't know
what it is
that you're thinking
as you stare down
the track
of the rest of your life
not knowing
where it's going
or what's going to happen.
I don't know
what you're thinking
that you assume
that you do not need
to know a God
who has good plans
even in the ifs
of our own lives.
How do you imagine
that you can ride
that roller coaster
without him?
Listen,
we're paused today
at the top,
aren't we?
Click, click, click
and we're waiting
and today is the day
to grab the safety bar
and say,
listen Lord,
you have good plans.
There are lots of ifs
in my life
but you have good plans
in the kindness
of the Son
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm grabbing hold
of those
and trusting you
for that
even in the ifs
of my own life.
Saying to the Lord,
Lord, thank you
for opening my eyes
to the terror
that life is without you
that I might trust in you.
Now help me Lord
to trust you,
to live courageously
for you,
knowing that
if the kindness
of King Jesus
can forgive my sin
then there's no
loop-de-loop
in my life
which can throw me off.
There's no sudden drop
or bank curve
that will come equal
to your sovereign goodness.
For others of you
this morning,
I know
because I talk to you,
I know that
even as Christians
there are twists
and turns
and loop-de-loops
in your own life
which are scary
and terrifying.
But we are paused
together,
aren't we,
this morning
to remind ourselves
I belong to the Lord
of closed-hand good plans
even in the ifs
of my own life.
And that means
I can live bravely
for the Lord.
I can live courageously.
Not trusting erroneous promises
that say,
hey, come to the Lord
and everything will be alright.
No.
But trusting that God
does what seems good to him.
You know,
we're not promised,
are we?
It's the kind of theology
of the street
if you like,
isn't it?
You know,
if you do good things
God will give you
what you want.
Yeah,
that's how we talk,
isn't it?
You know,
if I go to church,
if I say my prayers,
if I read my Bible,
then God will give me
the things that I want
for my life.
That's what we say,
isn't it?
Listen,
that theology of the bus
is nonsense
just like everything else
you hear on the bus,
right?
It's rubbish.
What is true
is that God
has good plans
in the Lord Jesus Christ
centered on him,
granted for us
through no good thing
that we have done,
only through his kindness
to us
and we can trust
those plans
even if
ours don't work out.
So we say,
don't we,
God,
do what you want.
I trust you
that what seems good
to you
is what I want
for my life.
Trust in me,
says the Lord Jesus,
and I will do something
that is even better
than your own dreams.
I will fulfill
my plans
and dreams,
says the Lord.
Let me pray
as we close.
Heavenly Father,
we come before you
this morning
and we say
that we're sorry
that we've had
the arrogance
even to suggest
to you
that you should
accomplish our plans
and not your own.
And yet,
Lord,
we also come
with the tears
and pain
of knowing loss
and difficulty
and challenge
and pain.
And yet,
Lord,
we want to,
by faith,
say,
Lord,
do what is good
in your sight
and the Lord's
love.
And I will
say that we trust you
first.
We would rather live
in a world
where you're in charge
than one where
we're in charge
because we know
that if you're the God
who can save
through the death
of your son,
you are the God
who can bring us
into your eternal kingdom
even through
a thousand pains
and sufferings.
So please,
Lord,
keep our eyes
fixed on Jesus.
Keep our hearts
tender to him,
we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.