Word of Salvation – Vol. 42 No. 15 – April 1997
Our Victorious King
A Sermon by Rev. J. Haverland on 1Chronicles 14
Scripture Readings: Psalm 72; 1Chronicles 11:1-3, 9; 1Chronicles 14
Congregation,
There are some Christians who don’t know a lot about the Old Testament, and that doesn’t really bother them. They don’t really want to know a great deal about it either. For them the New Testament seems so much more relevant, so much more applicable to their situation, while the Old Testament seems so far away and so far removed from our situation today. What do these books written two to three thousand years ago really have to say to us today?
When we read some of these stories in the Old Testament we might have some sympathy for that point of view. Some of these stories in the Old Testament seem a million miles away from us and from our situation. Some of them are very difficult to understand and to comprehend; and the message seems obscure and difficult to grasp.
And yet, as you know, when you start to dig down deeper into these stories, and when you understand to whom they were written and why, and something of the historical situation, you realise that they do have something to say to us; they are easier to understand and they begin to make sense.
We also have to realise that everything in the Bible is relevant because the Scriptures deal with realities that are eternal. God the Father is still the same now as he was way back then; and our human situation and our human need is still the same now as it was three to four thousand years ago. God’s whole plan of redemption and the way people are saved continue on as they have done in the past. Christ is still king and we are still part of his kingdom.
All these are eternal realities that still speak to us today. We will see that in this story as we look at the kingship and the kingdom of David and the way that anticipated and pointed forward to the kingship and the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This chapter shows us how we have…
first, a Shepherd King;
second, an Obedient King; and
third, a Victorious King.
1. WE HAVE A SHEPHERD KING
First of all, we have a shepherd King.
Children, you might remember back to the stories about Samuel, how the people came to him and said “We want a king, just like all the other nations around us.” Samuel wasn’t very pleased with that because he knew that it wasn’t a very good motive to want a king- just because everyone else had one. But God told him that he should appoint a king because it was part of his overall plan; and it was his plan that David should be king.
It was significant that David was a Shepherd before he became a King. The Old Testament often uses the picture of a shepherd to describe the role of being king. You get that in Chapter 11:2b, where it says, “And the Lord your God said to you, you will shepherd my people Israel and you will be their ruler.” Here the concept of a shepherd is used to describe the task of being a ruler.
Now if you know anything about shepherding you will know that it involves looking after the sheep, caring for them, making sure that they have enough water to drink and grass to feed on. A shepherd must watch over his sheep and protect them from enemies and from dogs and, in the Old Testament days, from lions and from wolves.
A ruler was supposed to do all of these things for his people; he was to rule over his people for their good. That’s what God intended David to do. [Read 1Chron.14:2…] God established David as king over Israel for the sake of his people, for their benefit, and blessing, and well-being.
This is the way it worked out under the Kingship of David. He had a long reign of 40 years and, for the most part, he was a wise and a kind ruler. The people of Israel enjoyed a stable and secure kingdom for as long as he was the ruler, and they enjoyed much blessing from God through him. The kings and prophets that followed looked back to David’s reign as a golden age, as a model of what the kingship should be, an example of how a king should rule and operate.
But David as a king also looked forward, because he pointed forward to the Lord Jesus Christ in this he was a ‘type’ of Christ. The word ‘type’ refers to a person, event or institution of the Old Testament that served as a model of something that was going to come in the New Testament. This is a very important concept. The Old Testament person, event or institution looked ahead to someone or something greater or more significant in the New Testament. So there is a progression from the Old Testament to the New, a heightening in the New Testament of what was prefigured in the Old.
To give you an example: the Passover sacrifice and institution of the Old Testament looked ahead to and pointed forward to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and also to the Lord’s Supper.
In the same way the kingship of David in the Old Testament pointed forward to the kingship of Jesus in the New Testament; an earthly king pointing forward to a heavenly one; a human one pointing forward to a divine one. So David functioned as a ‘type’ of Christ.
As King David was a shepherd, so, too, the Lord Jesus Christ described himself as the Good Shepherd. And the Apostle Peter, writing to the churches, described Jesus as being the Chief Shepherd with the elders of the church serving as under- shepherds. As a shepherd Jesus came to rule over his people and care for them. He makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us beside quiet waters. He feeds us from his Word, cares for us and protects us.
As The Shepherd, Jesus is a Wise and Good King ruling for the good of his flock. He rules for the stability of his kingdom and for the blessing and benefit of his people. He wants the very best for us; he has our best interests at heart. You should count it a privilege to be part of his kingdom and to have a Shepherd King ruling over you.
2. YOU HAVE AN OBEDIENT KING
Secondly, you not only have a Shepherd King, but you also have an Obedient King. Think about the way David functioned as a King – He sought God’s will. Not always, of course. We can think of some shattering examples where David was disobedient; as when he committed adultery with Bathsheba; and the example later in Chronicles where he took a census of all the people of Israel.
But as you look at that long 40-year reign, generally speaking, whenever David had an important decision to make, he prayed to God. You see that in chapter 14:9-10 [read]. And again in verse 13-14, “Once more the Philistines came and raided the valley, so David inquired of God again.”
These examples come from the beginning of his reign. As he continued to reign he became a very powerful king. His rule became stronger and more firmly established. You might think David would get past inquiring of God about everything. But no; he constantly sought God’s will. What a contrast with many of the other kings of Israel and of Judah, who became powerful and became proud and turned away from God. Instead of seeking God’s will they decided that they could do it on their own without his help and without his guidance. It was a measure of David’s humility that he always sought the will of God.
In this also David functions as a type, a picture, a model, an example of the greater King that was going to follow him. When Jesus came into this world he came to do Gods will. And so he said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of my father in Heaven.” He did his Father’s will even at great personal cost to himself. We see him agonising in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood praying that, if it were possible, this cup might pass form him – yet, “not my will but thy will be done.” We know from Isaiah 53 that it was “the Lord’s will to crush him and to cause him to suffer.”
The New Testament tells us that no servant is greater than his master. If the Master sought to do his Father’s will, we must do the will of our Father as well. It is very easy, as we all know, to go our own way, to do our own thing, to do what pleases us, to do what we think is best, without consulting the will of God. You must take note of the example of David, but also of the greater example of our Lord Jesus, who did nothing apart from the will of his Father. That will of the Father is expressed in the Scriptures. You don’t have to wonder what God wants you to do, because all that God wants you to know is written down, here in the Bible, for our instruction and guidance.
You have a Shepherd King who rules over you for your good; and you have an Obedient King, who has given you an example so that you might walk in his steps.
3. YOU HAVE A VICTORIOUS KING
The third thing we must notice is that we have a victorious king. In this chapter and in chapters 18-20 the chronicler puts a lot of emphasis on the victories of David. Right at the beginning of his reign, the Philistines heard that he had become the King of all Israel. David represented a great threat to them. They had been attacking Saul but he wasn’t a great threat to them because he was constantly distracted by chasing David. Even David hadn’t been such a threat to the Philistines in the first seven years of his reign because there was civil war in Israel between the Southern two tribes and the Northern ten tribes.
But now there was a united Kingdom. All the twelve tribes were under David’s rule; all of Israel was in support of Israel. For the first time there was complete unity in the nation; and the Philistines could see what a menace this was going to be. So they decided to come and wipe the kingdom of Israel off the face of the earth. They gathered all their armies to attack David. But they were defeated; not once but twice.
David defeated not only the Philistines, but also the Moabites, the Armenians and the Ammonites – all recorded in chapters 18-20. In this way “the Lord made all the nations fear him” (14:17). They all came to serve him; they all had to acknowledge his rule. Some of them did that willingly – like Hiram, King of Tyre, who sent messages in support of his rule and wanted to help him build a palace. But others were forced to acknowledge David’s supremacy through their defeat.
All of this was possible because God was helping David. God won those victories. It was God’s might and God’s strength. This is a vital point, because these victories were not simply to establish Israel as a nation. They served a deeper purpose than that. They were given to establish the greatness of God. God was far more powerful than the gods of the Philistines. Israel was greater than the Moabites and Philistines because Israel had the greater God.
There is a significant little line in chapter 14 after the Philistines had been defeated: verse 12 says, “The Philistines had abandoned their gods there, and David gave orders to burn them in the fire.” You think about that. The Philistines had brought their gods into battle to help them win the victory; but they were defeated, and they left their gods lying in the field. David came round and collected them all up and burnt them in the fire – it was a demonstration that the God of Israel was supreme and that these gods were useless and powerless. As David won victory after victory, all the nations were forced to recognise that God was the supreme ruler in this world.
Here we must pause and remind ourselves that the book of Chronicles was written to the post-exilic people who had returned from exile. The chronicler is writing for people living about the fifth century BC, 700 years after David was the king. What did the Holy Spirit have to say to these people in this account about David?
The Kingdom of David stretched North and South for 300 miles, while the kingdom in the fifth century was only a tiny fraction of that. The Kingdom of David had one of the finest armies in the Middle East, while the kingdom of post-exilic Israel had no army at all. In the old days the Kingdom of Israel had a great King and a great ruler, while in these days they only had a governor who was appointed by the king in Persia.
What lessons was the Chronicler trying to teach the people of Israel? What did he want them to learn from the kingship and kingdom of David? He was showing them that, even in their dark days, God was still King, God was still the ruler, God was still powerful. To prove this he pointed them back to a time when God had been powerful, when the kingdom of Israel had been strong. He wanted them to know that their God was still the same, he was still powerful, he was still in control, now as he was then. They needed to strengthen their faith in this God.
This has much to say to us, because our situation is much like theirs. The kingdom of Christ does not appear to be very strong in New Zealand/Australia today. The church is a small minority and our nation seems to have abandoned Christian values. Yet we must remember that God is still sovereign, that “Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.” We must remind ourselves that Christ is still King and that God is still in control.
We have a great King today because Jesus Christ is the final and true fulfilment of everything that David was. But even greater still is the Great Shepherd King who is looking after us; He was an Obedient King, who sought to do the will of His Father, as we must; and He is the Victorious King, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Just as David established a Universal Kingdom and ruled over the nations around him, so, too, Jesus rules over the nations of this world. Just as David conquered the nations around him in great battles, so, too, we are engaged in great battles – not physical but spiritual:
“For not with swords loud clashing,
nor roll of stirring drums,
with deeds of love and mercy,
the heavenly kingdom comes.
And so the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is growing and increasing today; and one day all the nations of the world are going to recognise his rule. One day every knee is going to bow down before him and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Then the words of Psalm 72 will be fulfilled:
“He will endure as long as the sun,
as long as the moon, through all generations.
He will rule from sea to sea
and from the river to the ends of the earth.”
Amen.