2 Samuel 5 (Part 3) Bible Study (David Defeats the Philistines) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna read this text, the part three of chapter five, and then I'm gonna ask you I'm gonna ask everyone here to participate in including your observations of this text. There's gonna be a lot more teaching and interactive. And so, pay attention as I read, follow along in your bibles. We are here in verse 17.

This is our third installment in this chapter, and, I'm just gonna read it straight through. And then I'm going to ask what you see in the initial reading of this text. Verse 17. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. But David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.

Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley Of Rephaim. And David inquired of the Lord, shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, go up for I will certainly give the Philistines in into your hand. And David came to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there.

And he said, the Lord has broken through my enemies before me like a breaking flood. Therefore, the name of that place is called Baal Perazim. And the Philistines left their idols there, and David and his men carried them away. And the Philistines came up yet again and spread out in the Valley Of Rephim. And David inquired of the Lord.

He said, you shall not go up. Go around to their rear and come against them opposite the balsam trees. And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then rouse yourself. For then the Lord has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines. And David did as the Lord commanded him and struck down the Philistines from Geba to Gezir.

Initial observations? Anything that stands out? Yes? He inquired of the Lord of what He should do. Good.

Yes. The confirmation that this will in fact come. Yes. John. Yes.

So all the Philistines. So this is this is an important mission. This is serious to the Philistines. Yes. Very good.

So we heard from John that he inquired of the Lord and Barrett observed, I'm sure you did as well, that he inquired the Lord again about a matter that was so similar to the first time. Interesting. Yes. Yes. He followed.

He obeyed. We're told in the last verse, David did what the Lord commanded him. Yes. Amen. Yes, and the Lord has broken through my enemies.

Absolutely. Lori. Sure. So he goes directly to the Lord. Now, some would assume that a priest was there, but we're not told clearly.

So we're just gonna have to go with what we see here and say, from an initial observation, he's going directly to God. David and his men carried away their idols. Very good. David and his men carried away the idols. That's significant.

We'll get to that. Yes. So the Philistines knew about David, obviously. So they had a close watch on David. Very very good.

What prompted the Philistines to come up against David? When they heard that he was anointed. So the timing of the attack is very very important as well. Very good. This this is great.

Any other observations? Yes, Jibron. Yeah. So David went down to the stronghold. That's an interesting observation as well.

Where do we go when we feel like we're overwhelmed? David goes down. Anything else? The Philistines were relentless. So even though they had experienced a crushing defeat the first time, they would again come and attack.

It's audacious. Okay. So in the in

the new King James, you said? Yeah. In the new King James, it

reads that that God came through like a like a breaking of water, like a flood, and we'll get to that as well. That's a great detail.

Yes.

Very good. So so the second time, the the victory goes even beyond the valley and extends. So it was even it was even more than what happened initially. Awesome. Wonderful observations.

Anything else? Yes. Yes. That was the sign. Once you hear the rustling of the leaves on the balsam trees, that's the signal for you to go ahead.

Significant. Very significant, of course. Anything else? But marching. Marching.

So who's marching? Well, it's an invisible army, surely. Yes. Any other observations? Wonderful.

The reason why I'm doing this, and we'll do this from time to time. Maybe we'll do it every week. I don't know. But the reason why I'm doing this is because I want us to be able to practice the tools that, we should be implementing when we seek to excavate from God's word. Right?

And those tools are simply reflective questions that we should be engaging with the text. And so I want to offer you questions that I have whenever I read any portion of scripture. My first question always, no matter what text I come to, Leviticus or Romans, it doesn't matter. I'm always asking this, what does this teach me about God? What does this say about God?

His nature, his character, his ways. Right? Secondly, what does this tell me and teach me about man? About me in Christ, about man outside of Christ. Man walking in obedience, man walking in disobedience.

What does it what does it teach me? What does this text teach me about about that? What does it teach me about and then you can get there's sub questions. What does this teach me about worship? What does this teach me about my engagement with the world?

So as men, the horizontal level, what does this teach me? And even my vertical relationship with God. Another question is, beyond that, what do I know from the surrounding context that will help me understand the flow of this text? So I'm always looking just prior to what I'm reading in my daily reading. I'm looking at what I read before this, and then from there, I'll say, well, the wider context.

So the book now. What is it? What's the themes of the book here? How is the flow of thought? How is this happening?

And and what are these things connected bring about in terms of a a greater revelation? Then I'm going beyond that. Then I'm saying, okay. I'm looking at this text again, and and the way I visualize reading over the same text, it's as though you're digging deeper and deeper. Right?

So you read again, and then you read again, and it seems like you're just getting and then you find one nugget here, and then you keep keep digging, you find another jewel here. That's how you should look at it. So then after that I'll ask something along, and it's not even in this particular order, but I'll ask, do I see any repetitions? Do Do I see any emphasis in this text? Do I see any names or places that might help me understand a deeper meaning?

Like, we read here of a couple places, Ba'al Perezim, Rephaim. What do those names mean? And when you go when you go the extra mile, it's always worth it because you will indeed find something of worth in that pursuit. And then I might continue to read and say what New Testament I always do this, and you the only way you can you can consistently and carefully apply the Old Testament is if you know the New, which I don't think we struggle with. But the way I go about engaging with the old is saying, what New Testament principles or truths do I see illustrated, especially in the narratives of the old?

So I look, we look, David inquired of the Lord. So there's lessons there about prayer. Do I see anything in the New Testament that I can see being exemplified in real life here in this story? Very simple tools, but if you if you just if you go beyond just, oh, I read my text. Okay.

I I paid my dues. That's where you're gonna get revelation. That's where you Bible the Bible gets exciting. And then when you come to a new text or a new book whenever I come to a new book, like, what I just finished Acts. Right?

And and then actually, Romans. And now I'm coming into first Corinthians. And now I've read first Corinthians. I've lost count how many times I've read it. But as I come to first Corinthians with those tools in mind, I go, oh, what am I gonna see now?

What am I gonna see this time? Because, yeah, over the years I've dug, I've dug, but here's the thing with the word of God. It's endless. It's endless. So you keep digging.

It doesn't you don't, like, kink it. You don't come to a place where, like, okay. I think I figured it out. It's endless. And so have that faith as you approach the word of God.

So here we are in second Samuel chapter five. And what's happening here in the context is David, as we heard, was anointed king of Israel. And we know here that a familiar foe to the Israelites have now, they arose, and now their attention is up. They are alert about what's happening in this shift in Israel's political, arena. And so they are ready now to attack, and David here is not unfamiliar with the Philistines.

His own personal history, he's dealt with them before. He's gone to war with them. He's ransacked them. He's defeated them. More than that, remember when David was backslidden for a little bit over a year?

He was with who? These guys. And so I'm sure David was a smart individual. He gathered intel, and he understood how they thought, and he probably heard conversations. And so he was even more equipped at this point in understanding how to deal with the enemy.

But what's interesting here is that David inquires of the Lord, and he does it again. And and with this general contextual frame of mind. Now we're gonna dig in and see exactly what it is that the Holy Spirit has prepared, the meaty details in these verses. I'm telling you, I was on verse one for so long. I was scared we weren't gonna finish it.

We have to do a part four. So I had to force myself a little bit, not that I want to, but, in order to cover the context. Look at verse 17. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. Okay.

The timing of the attack. The timing of the attack. Personally, reading this, I took three lessons out of it. Just at the timing, when the Philistines came. What do you see there in the timing of the Philistines that you can draw principles from in our own lives?

Yeah. Very good point. So it is often the strategy of Satan that when there is progression in the will of God, advancement in the will of God, a graduation in godliness, that he will fight. And he will gather his troops. He will gather his schemes, and he will launch them towards you and me because he is very vigilant of the spirit's activity.

He's very aware, and and he is observant, and he's calculated, and then we know something is gaining traction, then he is on alert, and he preemptively seeks to bring a halt, lest something, whether it's individually or corporately, advances further. And so that is that is something that we should understand, lest we become discouraged for no reason. If we understand that this is how the enemy works, then we will be prepared in those transitional moments. And those times where you put your mind to do something or when you're set on putting your hands to the plow in a particular ministry or a habit or a conviction, know that the enemy is right there ready to put it to a stop as early as possible. And I wonder if because of the lack of this understanding, you have so many people who don't grow or who easily just fall back into where they started from because they they don't realize that if I'm really going to do something for God in God's name, the enemy is not just gonna sit back.

And that that includes so many things, so many things. I I was reading this, and I thought of a simple visit that Paul wanted to make to the Thessalonians in first Thessalonians chapter two. And I just wanna read this to you. Notice what Paul says to the church. He says in verse 18, because we wanted to come to you.

That's the desire. We we wanted to come to you. I, Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us. So he was fully aware. We're trying to get to you physically, and Satan is putting one obstacle before us after the next.

And what was the what was the plan? Just to come to them. And that's important because that shows just how much Satan hates you coming here with the people of God. Sunday morning? Okay.

Friday night, you gotta be kidding me. And he'll do anything to make sure because there's a special grace, a special protection from Satan himself. You read that in first Corinthians five. That was in my reading today. There's a special protection from Satan.

That's why excommunication is terminalized as what? Being given over to who? Satan. So we have to understand that there's there's something special that this that the enemy hates. So even when Paul says, we wanna come to you, he goes, no.

No. No. I'm gonna put up a fight. And when you set yourself to do something for the Lord, when a ministry seeks to be gospel centered and and to go out in mission, the enemy will show up. The enemy will show up, and he'll do it as early as possible.

One of the ways I've seen this the most in my in my personal life, pre ministry, during ministry, when people decide to get baptized. When people make the decision that they're gonna make that monumental step and actually get in the water, die to self, right, as a symbol, but as a as an act of obedience to the lord Jesus Christ in that ordinance, oh, it never fails. It never fails to see spiritual warfare come like a flood. And so now it's come to the point where it's so common when when somebody comes up to me and they're serious about getting baptized, one of the first things I say to them is, hey. Watch the opposition.

It's coming your way. And the enemy is creative. So so so be extra vigilant. Be extra prayed up. Don't give yourself to the flesh.

And warfare blows up at home. Things happen in their own minds. I've had people call me the night before. True born again spirit filled people call me. Brother, I can't do this.

There's no way. I don't know why. Woah. Woah. Woah.

Woah. Woah. What's going on? I don't know. I just I I can't imagine myself.

Relax. And it happens all the time because Satan does not want you to walk in obedience. He does not want you to glorify God in any way. And so this is the first thing. Anything else from the the timing of the attack?

I was kinda reluctant to to mention this, but when I see when I see David in The Philippines, it reminds me of Ukraine and Russia.

Okay. And what?

In the sense that, you know, Ukraine is just doing their own thing. Russia is the enemy is is trying to come and defeat them. And I don't know if the president of, Ukraine consulted God, but, you know, he was given help by The United States and other forces to help defeat the enemy, which is Russia. Mhmm. Russia is the is leaving the Ukraine now, and the Ukraine people are taking all the weaponry, and they're they're re maybe their land again.

It's almost like what he did. Yeah.

So Those similarities. I see what you're saying. And I think I wanna do something else with this text now. You wanna look at the principle. So we saw the very obvious, interpretation of it, but look at the principle of it.

Even though this is the devil, you know, it's it's it's revealing his tactics towards the children of God. There's something here about a strategy that we should apply as the people of God concerning warfare on our end. And here's what I wanna say. It's our warfare concerning sin. So the same way that Satan came as early as possible to put a halt to this advancement of God's will and God's purpose and God's kingdom on the earth, you and I should look at sin as a threat as early as possible and do everything that we can to extinguish its influence in our lives.

K? And then this is why it's important because many strongholds that people are trying to pull down today could have been dealt with much earlier when they were just but seed form. Right? So much of the struggles that people have in their lives today is because they refuse to see the hazardous danger of sin when it was just a thought pattern. When when they saw their emotions begin to cloud their judgment, and they began to be reactionary, and they began to be in the flesh towards things, towards people, towards situations.

When they failed to realize that words will eventually lead to actions. And so in the same way the Philistines came to David right when he was anointed, right when when he was beginning to gain strength, you and I should have the exact same approach and attitude when we see sin, not just not just in full force, but sin in its seed form, in its in its embryo state. So I have to do something about this now, right here, right now, lest this becomes something that will be overwhelming. It's like extinguishing a spark. You don't wait for the bushel to burn up.

You don't wait for a tree to combust in flames. It requires much more energy and much more counseling and much more conversation. If you had just dealt with it when it was there in the beginning, things could change. And here's the thing. If you and I want to avoid dealing with sin in its destructive stage, then you and I, by the wisdom of God, in the pursuit of true holiness, deal with sin in its desire phase.

Don't wait till it's destructive. Deal with it even when it's a desire. And so where do I get that idea from? Well, James tells us James tells us the sequence of sin developing its strength in our lives. If you don't know the passages in James chapter one, in James chapter one, we read in verse 14.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by what? His own desire. Eyes are looking up, so I'm assuming it's behind me. Yes. By his own desire, then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, what?

Brings forth death. Here's the thing that I wanna say. That if you and I just deal with sin while it's a desire, we don't have to wait for death to come. And and what I wanna help you see is that unchecked desires will eventually and can lead to untold devastation. So so look at the wisdom here.

James is telling us, you don't have to wait for sin to conceive. You don't have to wait till decay comes in. When it is just a desire, then you can go to war with it. And so here's what I wanna say. Just give me one moment.

Just here's what I wanna say. When you look at something like this, go to God with your imaginations when you see them going in the wrong direction. Don't wait till they manifest into deeds. The moment you begin to see it become a pattern and an unholy highlight reel, do something about it then. Don't wait for that friction to turn into faction.

When you know that there's something off with a brother or sister and you don't understand what it is, communicate early on. Don't wait until divisions happen. Deal with it right there as early as you can. Bring that brother. Bring your wife.

Bring your husband. Bring your children. Bring your parents before you, and communicate. Right? If you think about it even in different ways, ways that you don't even perhaps perceive.

When your heart begins to feel the chill of worldliness cooling off your zeal for God, Don't wait until it's completely crystallized. Go to God right away and say, Lord, there's frost on my heart. I can't be like I don't wanna stay like this. I see where this is going. Would you do something with my heart now?

Would you rekindle a fire in me now? And so if there's anything to learn from the enemy, if there's anything to to relate to our own lives, just go at it as soon as you can. Go at it in its early form. Don't wait till it matures. Don't wait till it takes root.

Squeeze the life out of it while it's still a seed. I wanna give you a third one. So there's two right there. There's a third one. When the Philistines, in verse 17, heard that David had been anointed king over Israel and here's the thing.

What happened to Israel when David was anointed king? Unity. Very good. Unity. Prior to this, you had David's kingdom in Hebron, and you had the kingdom of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, and there was division for how long?

Seven years. Right? During those seven years, there wasn't a single interference by the Philistines. Not one. We don't see the Philistines gathering their troops and their armies to come against David.

Why? They're fighting themselves. There's internal strife right there. Let them just go at it as long as possible. If anything, what was happening for seven years was serving the purposes of the enemy.

What a horrific illustration for what happens when believers turn on one another. If you need any motivation, if you have any sense of the fear of God in you, if you if if and it shouldn't be the greatest motivation, but if you need any motivation, realize that in those moments, when you fail to forgive, when you fail to reconcile, when you fail to communicate if somebody's offended you, if you offended somebody else the way Jesus did, you are an ally in the eyes of Satan. An ally. Well, look, they're just killing themselves. They're biting each other.

We don't have to deal with them, and we'll go on to the next church that has a little bit more wisdom in the things of god. So imagine that. The Philistines did not interfere, but the moment that David becomes king and all the tribes are now unified, this is trouble. This is now there's something serious here. And so the Philistines now come against David, and they seek to do something before it becomes too strong for them to even handle.

How much more for the church of Jesus Christ? Unity is such a, like, it's such a it's it's, again, it's in the Christianese language, but we don't understand how important unity is. One, many people don't understand what true unity is, so they unify just because people use the name Jesus and they have a cross in front of their building. That's dangerous. We don't unify with those who have false doctrine though they claim a Christ.

That's not right unity. But true unity among believers is absolutely if you just look at the bible and study unity, the New Testament presents to us how unity is absolutely foundational to effective gospel witness. It is. What did Jesus say in John seventeen twenty one? That they may be what?

One. Just as you father and I are in me, and I in you rather, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Now let me let me just repeat this verse one more time. Pay attention. I'm gonna ask you a question.

That they may all be one just as you, father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John seventeen twenty one. Here's my question. What is the relationship between unity in the church and the world realizing Jesus was sent by the father into the world. We gotta ask questions.

What's the relationship there? Because according to the prayer of Jesus in this text, there is an effective witness, a gospel witness to a watching, cold hearted, divisive, unforgiving world that when they behold how believers treat one another, it will actually direct them to the gospel. Any ideas? It's not very complicated. Yes, Gorges.

Okay. Amen. Unity apart from Christ is impossible. Some people unify for evil things, and I a lot of those times they eat each other, eventually. They devour one another, but true unity, of of course, is not possible apart from Christ.

But what else? How does believers becoming one lead people to the conclusion Jesus was sent by the father. He must have been sent by the father. The tangible evidence of Christ's redeeming power, which also includes the indwelling Holy Spirit, is that you and I from different tribes, different tongues, different cultures, different backgrounds, different sin histories can actually come together, live together, get along in such a way that a watching world would say, how is it that you have Chinese and you have Arabs and Assyrians and you have you have Romanians and you have African Americans and you have Mexicans all coming together? How is it that you have 85 year olds and 15 year olds, 20 year olds, and six year olds all coming together consistently, loving each other, embracing one another, serving one another, upholding one another?

What's the secret? And then they would realize that's the power of the gospel. That's the power of the gospel. So so we're saying, let's be missional. Okay.

You wanna be missional? Forgive. You wanna be missional? Listen to Jesus when he says if a brother offends you, deal with it. And and Paul gets very, very specific with these instructions, and Paul understood the prayer of Jesus when he spoke to the Corinthian church because news comes to Paul that one Corinthian is taking another to court.

They're actually going before unbelievers and suing one another. And I love what Paul says because I revisited today. Listen to what he says. Just hear the language in first Corinthians six verse six. But brother goes to law against brother?

And that before unbelievers? Then he goes on to say in verse seven, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. I love Paul. Because the fact that you even the the suggestion that you're gonna take your brother to court, you already lost. Like, you already lost your your testimony.

It's gone. Look what he says. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? Here's what he's saying.

So a believer wants to take you to court. Why not, for the sake of your testimony, just give the guy what he wants? If he wants to be in the flesh, give him what he wants. Why don't you suffer wrong? For for what sake?

For the sake of the testimony of Christ. For the sake of the gospel. See, you wanna be a serious Christian. This is what what it means to die to self. Because everything in you would say, you wanna take me to court?

I'll hire a better lawyer. You wanna do this? Let's fight. You wanna go for it? Let's go for it.

And Paul

is

saying, why don't you just lose? Just lose. Why? Because you're gonna ultimately lose if you go before the world and show what Jesus said that he would want from us. There's something greater here than your house, your car, more money, your business flourishing.

There's something more and here's the thing. I read this and I came to this conclusion, that people who continually strive, who can't forgive, who don't want to have conversation, who don't wanna seek reconciliation, those people do not care about the lost. Have you ever thought of it like that? We always think that they're just in the flesh, that they're selfish, that they're proud. No.

No. No. No. According to what Paul's saying here, they don't actually care about winning those who are perishing. Because what Paul is using here as a motivation to bring matters to an end, to settle things, is there is a world that is perishing and desperately needs to see the power of the gospel at work.

So for Christ's name and for his message sake, would you not die? And people who can't, people who remain in the flesh in terms of relationship with other people, those people don't have a sense of the gospel. That's what I take out of it. If any of us claim to be serious about winning people to Christ, then you and I will be serious about dealing with our offenses and seeking to put things in in in in total clarity and and even willing to do what Paul says. I'm willing to actually suffer wrong.

So people always criticize. The gospel is not the solution to everything. Well, read the New Testament. The gospel is a motivation for a lot of things. Even in your marriage, what does Paul use as a motivation?

The gospel. Go to court. What's the motivation? The gospel. Witness.

The message of Christianity. Our faith. And so the deeper understanding that you have of the gospel, the more it will impact your practical day to day life. And so if you see anybody acting out in one specific way or another, you can know one thing. The fundamental issue there is that there is not an understanding of the depth of the love of Jesus Christ and the witness that we should have out in the world.

So notice, once unity came, then the Philistines came. We're I don't know how we're gonna finish this tonight. We're still half of verse 17. K. Now let's come down to verse 18.

Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley Of Rephaim, and David inquired of the Lord, shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into to your hand. Here here's what makes this so special and so exciting. David was an an expert at war.

David understood how to war against the Philistines especially. And for many, when it comes to prayer, it's usually engaged with when they enter into the unknown or when they feel like there's no other option, there's no other solutions, and so might as well just pray because we're desperate and there's there seems to be nothing that I can do or anybody else that can do for me. But here's the thing. True prayer, as David demonstrates, is that even though you think you know what to do, even though you may have strategy, you may have gifting, you may have knowledge, you still want to invite God's intervention into the matter. That's true that's, like, true prayer.

People say if you pray, you're humble. Yeah. But if you really wanna pray, you pray like this man who who in essence is confessing, Lord, this may seem right. I may seem to know what to do, but you see what I don't see. You know what I don't know.

You understand what I can't comprehend in totality. And so I'm asking you, Lord, that you would bring about the best possible outcome and that you would protect me from the worst because I live for your name, I represent your name, and I wanna glorify you in all that I do. I want all that you can offer in this. I'm not gonna presume. I'm not gonna assume.

Yes. I have a history defeating these people. Yes. I am fearless. Yes, I am educated.

But, Lord, I come before you and I say, would you, would you, would you be with me in this? That's true prayer. And the principle behind David's prayer here, although we may not receive verbal step by step instruction like he gets, we get to experience what he experienced. And what he experienced was ultimately confidence. He was looking for answers, yes.

But the core of it, he was looking for courage to get con confirmation from God, and he received that courage. And here's the thing. You and I, whenever we pray, we can expect the same thing. That's your inheritance and mine. Because here's the thing.

Whenever you bring any matter before God, there is absolutely no reason to fear the outcome no matter what it is. Because you've done your part, and you brought it before the Lord. And so if the outcome is favorable in the moment or not, you can rest assured, I've done my part. I've brought it before the Lord. And God understands that I want his will, so God will honor that.

So you may not get a audible voice that will tell you go here, go there, but the the scriptures are absolutely filled with promises about what you get when you do one simple thing. Can I read you one promise? Psalm 91, precious psalm, verse 15. I want you to notice, if you wanna turn that you can, about all the I wills that God declares as a result of one decision that you and I make. One simple posture will open a world of divine I wills for you and I.

Psalm 91 verse 15. When he calls to me. So as a result of of that, when he calls to me, look at all the I wills. I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble.

I will rescue him and honor him. With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my steadfast love. I will answer him. I will be with him. I will rescue him.

I will honor him. I will satisfy him. I will show him. Direction, presence, deliverance, and even in some cases, promotion, I will honor him. Here's the point.

In David's case, he had all those things happen in this situation. And here's the guarantee for you and I, when you call to him, he will. It's as simple as that. He will do something with that prayer every single time. That's what makes prayer so exciting.

That's what gets me giddy. Even when a situation comes my way and it does not seem possible by any human means to solve, oh, I'm gonna bring it before a God who can, who will, and I wanna see what he's gonna do with this. A prayerless person has no hope. They have no no guarantee. You have every reason to fear.

You have every reason to run around and waste your energy if you do not take the time to pray. Just one simple thing. It's amazing. It didn't say, you will, you will, you will, and I will do. He goes, you do, and I will, and I will, and I will, and I will, and I will.

What more do like, how much easier do you want it to be? It would make sense as mortals and creatures. You do, you do, you do. Fill out step one. When you're done with that form, go to form a b and then fill that one out, and then I will do maybe if I feel like it.

No. No. No. You do. I will.

I will. I will. I will. I will. And you can't find the motivation to pray?

Come on. So he prays. Now look what happens in verse 20. And David came to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there. And he said, the Lord has broken through my enemies before me like a breaking flood.

Therefore, the name of that place is called Baal Perazim. So something happened with this. David has seen victories in his life, but something spectacular happened at this moment in such a way where he wanted to memorialize it, and he wanted to have a testimony for generations to come to recall an aspect of God's faithfulness that is unique to this text. That it that's it's a title that you and I have not really heard often about who God is and what he's able to do. So what was it here that impressed David so much?

I mean, read verse 20. There was something that he saw God do that marked him for life. And our brother read it earlier. It's the way in which God came. How did he come?

Like a what? Breaking flood. If you want a visual, it's it's like the tsunami that crashes through a crack dam without notice. What David observed in God's dealing with his enemies is that he he overwhelmingly and without without any ability to stop, he was unstoppable, swept up the enemy within the blink of an eye. That's what he saw before him, and he goes, Baal Perazim.

I mean, if you have an advanced bible, you'll see that the definition there is in the bottom of the page. What does Baal Perazim mean? What was it? Okay. There's means what?

Anybody understand what means? Not god. Lord or master. And perazim is is generally translated as breakings forth or breakthrough even. So the way you can read this is, the Lord of breakthrough.

The lord of breaking forth, breakings forth. And that is what he saw. And the visual there again is like it's just like a flood that comes out of nowhere without without notice, without any up it just suddenly happens. And this is how David renames the region. He goes, this area for will will be known to our people as Baal Perezim.

And when you put all the pieces together with the context, what you see here is that David comes to this conclusion that he's he is able to suddenly shift a situation despite the obstacles that would make such a dramatic change impossible in the natural. Here's my question to you. Bible study Friday night? Have you ever viewed God as the god of breakthrough? Have you ever heard him referred to in such a way?

I've have I've I've heard him referred to as a god of breakthrough, but in a very shallow way. But when you when you see the context, when you understand that this is actually a biblical title, I wonder how many of us perceive the lord in such a way. Because the way David's Psalm was, God has the ability to miraculously change the course of action in a moment. So what does that look like in our context? Because we're not going to war with Philistines.

What that can look like is you have an enemy one day who threatens you, maybe even threatens you to go to court. The next day, they just disappear. Where do they go? It looks like not having groceries and not having food to eat and not knowing where you're gonna get your next meal, and all of a sudden, grocery show up at your front step enough to feed you for the next three weeks. It looks like not having a church building, and then before your next beat meeting, a church building shows up.

Yeah. That's what it looks like. Baal Perazim, the lord of breakthrough. All for a sudden, God just did it, and there's no way to explain it in human terminology or human explanation. This was God himself.

And although God doesn't always work that way, he does, and he's able to work in this way. And you and I should have that faith, and you and I should trust God to be able to do that. And do you know how you can open your life for Baal Perazim to make his way in your life? Do what David did. He prayed.

He brought it before God. He sought the Lord. The only way Baal Perazim was be able to manifest himself was be because of a man who humbled himself before this kind of God. I don't know how this is gonna happen, Lord. And God says, just watch.

Watch how I will break through. That excites me, but I would caution you to to not ask for that if you're not ready for what it will require. You want you wanna see the Lord break through? You wanna see the Lord do that and and create memorials in your life? Then expect to be placed in positions that will make you extremely uncomfortable.

And sometimes, and oftentimes, for a season, grueling, testing, pressing times that will leave you in a place where you have literally no hope unless heaven comes to your help. So people ask for this. They want this. They want the testimonies. They don't just they don't they don't want to test for the testimonies, though.

They begin to squeal. Where is God? Well, you wanted to see him do what he can only do? Yes. Then hold on.

Keep praying. Stay before the Lord. Seek him. Here's here's what's amazing. The beauty of that is that god will do something, and he's able to do something to such a degree that you will never forget it.

What was this what was this valley called? Because he renames it. Valley of what? Somebody said that. Rahim, does anybody know?

See, again, here's the tool belt. What does Rahim mean? Because that's not in my English vocabulary. So you do a little bit of research, and you realize that Rahim means what? Giants.

Valley of giants. And so put the pieces together. Now now your morning devotions are getting exciting. Now you you're you're not even concerned about your cup of coffee. Now you're in it and now you're engaged.

Hold on. The Lord of breakthroughs comes into the valley of giants. And the understanding is so simple without over spiritualizing it, is that God is able to suddenly remove the most fierce and intimidating enemies in my life. The most overwhelming as I stand in the shadow of things that would easily swallow me up if I didn't have God on my side. God can do something about it.

Not in stages, he can do it suddenly. Amen. Suddenly. And you and I should see God in such a way because then you don't fear any man no matter what kind of a giant he is physically. Political giants, giant businessmen, giant gangs, gang leaders, gang lords, You're dealing with the God who looks at giants like grasshoppers.

And in a moment, he can come and deal with you. I'm glad to be on his side. Amen. But I also see a secondary thing here. The Philistines were defeated, and our brother brought it up to us earlier.

Verse 21, and the Philistines left their idols there, and David and his men carried them away. So why do you think the Philistines brought their idols to the battle?

Because that was a

trusted Yeah. The our our gods are gonna deliver us. You're always in trouble if you can carry your god in your pocket. Right? If you can put your little god on a cart and bring him along with you and put some fruit in front of him because it's gonna whatever, you're probably in trouble.

Alright? And so the the these guys, they bring their gods, and then all of a sudden, they realize in a very dramatic way, our gods failed us. And they were so disappointed that it was such a rude awakening that they didn't even they didn't care to bring their gods on their little backpacks and their shoulders and run back. They just left them on the field useless. And I read this, and I thought to myself because I know some prosperity people who love to use the Lord of breakthroughs, and what they mean by that is sudden prosperity.

That bank account can be filled. Just give us a seed. You want the Psalm 91 blessing? Sow a seed of $91, and watch how the Lord of breakthrough will come in. Doesn't that sound nice?

Or the Lord of breakthrough suddenly will bring recovery to your body. All you have to do is buy our anointing oil, buy my handkerchief. Did Paul go around selling his handkerchief? And they stopped there. Why don't you honor the context and understand what the Lord of breakthrough did?

If there's any suddenly that God will and is able to bring, it's to tear down idols and render them powerless. I see a gospel truth here. Maybe you don't. I do. Here's the gospel truth that when God, by the power of his Holy Spirit, enters into a life, he brings idols down.

He brings sin down, and the law of grace brings about dominion over that which the flesh could not see victory in. And so if there's anything that God can do suddenly and believe it, is that when he truly enters into your life in the power of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, he can bring about your idols to be as nothing. And that's the gospel I believe in. I don't believe in the gospel that saves you but doesn't save you from the power of sin. That's not the gospel of the Bible.

And so you have to understand here that this is a wonderful picture of these idols submitting to the Lord who can come and suddenly change how idols operate, how idols worked in your life, the power that they might have had in your life. And some might object and say, well, brother, I believe in the gospel, but I, if I'm honest with you, I I I I can't seem to shake off what idols do in my life, what sin does in my life. It seems to just have total control over my will. And then I would answer in this way, as much as God can and will and purchase the ability for you to know victory over sin, you have a role to play in it. I hope that didn't sound blasphemous.

Because here again, we see and if you want another question to put in your tool belt, is there a paralleling passage to this text? And if there is, what other details does it include that is not here? We see here that the Philistines left their idols there, and David and his men carried them away to do what with them? Put them in their homes? Somebody said it.

What? How do you know? Close. Yes. What, John?

No? Deuteronomy is a passage, though. You're right. Deuteronomy chapter seven, so I'm not discrediting you because God told him to cleanse the land from idols. But in the exact same passage, in a paralleling text, we have exactly what it is that they did with these idols.

You wanna see it? First Chronicles chapter 14 verse 12. And they left their gods there, and David gave command, and they did what? And they were burned. Yes.

So these idols fell powerless before God who intervened, and now they were able to carry these idols in their hands. And let me tell you, in the gospel, God puts the weapon of grace in your hands, but you have a choice in what you're gonna do with that idol. And that's why, yeah, unfortunately, for some people, they just they're still infatuated with certain sins. They still love certain sins. They still can't let go of certain sins.

They can't let go of the pleasure or the benefit or whatever it is that a certain sin offers so they can't fully get rid of it. Well, God did what he can, now you gotta do your part. And your part is to burn it. Your part is to willingly say, I wanna see this turn to ash. I never wanna see it resurrected ever

again in my life. That's the kind of

heart posture that sees complete victory over sin. And so if you really wanna see it, it's not God's fault. He did all that he can on Calvary. It's now with the grace that he's purchased, place it in in your hand so that you can now look at those things that in the law you could not do to say, now I will put you to extinction. And I'm not talking about sinless perfectionism because look what happens next.

Verse 22. And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread out in the Valley Of Rephaim. Our brother said it. Sin is relentless. The flesh is ambitious.

Satan is a fighter. And so let us encourage the people of God who go to war with their sin, who want to grow in the will of God. Know this. You are not going to see total relief until the resurrection. K?

You're not gonna see comp it's not gonna ever, I promise you, be a vacation in this life. That's awaiting us. When we're clothed with white robes and we're renewed in our minds and our bodies in every way possible. Why do I bring that up? Don't be weary.

Don't don't be discouraged. If Satan's gonna do anything, he he might remove himself for a season, but not for very long. Unless you're not doing anything to advance the the will of God. He will come again. He will show up.

He is, again, very, very ambitious. And so the Philistines show up. And look what David does in verse 23. And when David inquired of the Lord what a wonderful example. I mean, God put this story here for us for a reason.

David inquired of the Lord, and here's what's so special. He does not implement the same strategy, although the situation is the same. The same guys in the same valley. Okay. Let's just do what we did the first time.

And he doesn't do that. He he he pauses again, and he comes before the Lord and inquires. What a reflex. What an attitude. What humility.

Can I encourage you to do something? Please, believer, talk to God about everything. Talk to the Lord about everything. Bring it all before him. Just just let your humility shine before him as you say, oh, God, I I need you again.

There's trouble in my marriage again. I need you again. Right? And I think there's a lesson here to learn is that, just don't give up seeking the Lord. Oftentimes, it is the testimony of many believers where prayer was so fervent in those beginning phases and you really saw God do things.

And then for some reason, maybe because we get jaded or we become familiar or we just feel like we could figure things out, and maybe we've tried things without prayer and it seemed to be okay, so we just remove ourselves from that place. No. Stay there. Stay there. He inquires of the Lord.

He seeks the Lord again. And here's what's so incredible. God's gonna answer differently. And here's what I take out of this. What you shouldn't take out of this is maybe we should explore unbiblical methods to deal with certain situations because maybe the Bible doesn't prescribe to every dilemma.

Wrong. Wrong. No. What you do see out of this is that we must learn how to be dependent upon the Lord even in the application of the wisdom and precepts that he has provided us. So with the truths that we have, we should be we should still be able to say, Lord, how do I go about this?

How do I implement this truth? How do I how do I deal with this with what you have given me? Let me give you an example. Let's say, for example, a a dear servant of God approaches you and or they call you and they say, brother, I I'm so sad. I'm my my my mind is so cloudy.

I'm even I'm even entertaining thoughts that I never thought I would I wanna just give up. I wanna pull away. I think I'm done with this. I'm just gonna I don't know what to do with myself anymore. I'm just overwhelmed.

I almost feel like I just wanna go to heaven now. K. Now stop don't answer out loud. I know it's tempting to, but just think about it. How would you prescribe a remedy to that person?

Can I give you the general answer? Read and pray the read the bible and pray. Right? Read the bible and pray. Now that that is wonderful, and that is that is a a core action to to everything.

But Elijah had that problem. What did God do? Did he say, read your bible and pray? Did he? No.

The man was suicidal. You know what God did? Eat, drink, take a nap. This is not very spiritual, does it? It was God, wakes up.

Okay. Here, eat again, drink, and go back to sleep. What's the great commission? Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Right?

Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them everything that I've taught you. Paul sought to preach the gospel when he when he wanted to go to Phrygia, when he wanted to go to Galatia in Acts 16, and we're told in Acts 16 that the Holy Spirit forbade him. Okay. So what does he do? He thinks, okay, maybe I'll go to Mysia.

So he goes up north and it says the spirit of Jesus did not allow him. Well, I thought the great commission was go out to all the world and preach the gospel. The Holy Spirit says, not here. Wants to go there. Not there.

So he goes south and he comes down to Troas. And there he receives a vision of a Macedonian man says, come here and help us. But it was also there where he met doctor Luke. Because if you read acts carefully, the narrative changes from an outsider writing to now the word we being introduced. And Luke wrote the gospel acts, so it must have been there at that location where Luke joined the missionary team.

So God didn't want to go there. God didn't want to go there. God wanted to go where he would meet doctor Luke. And then doctor Luke would join the team, and what a blessing doctor Luke was. So you see, even though things are clear and they're black and white in the scripture, and there are things that people say I'm praying about, it's like, you don't have to pray about forgiving your brother.

K? You don't have to fast and ask people to help you. You forgive. But there are some things that require timing and action and and and even, just just the way you do things that we must seek the Lord for. Lord, help me.

I I don't know what to do with this. I know what I'm supposed to do to a certain degree, but I need your grace and and doing it in your absolute wisdom. I hope that makes sense. But here's the thing. I believe, and we're closing here in a moment, that these two battles were put side by side to teach us something about a balanced view of the ways of God in our lives.

Because we see here that when David sought the Lord the first time, it was extraordinary. It was, like, incredible. And then when you see him coming to this same situation, look how the Lord answers him. He says, verse 23, you shall not go up. Go around to the rear and come against them opposite the balsam trees.

The first time he said go up. When David said, what do I do? Are you gonna give into my hands? He goes, go up right now. It's time.

Move forward. When he seeks him again, he says, don't move until you get this sign. So So we just heard about the Lord of breakthrough, who can suddenly do things. And then in the same passage, we have the Lord who makes you wait. The Lord who makes you wait.

And here's here's where we have to be careful, especially. Because we can harbor discouragement, and we can invite even bitterness when we look at how God is moving in somebody else's life, in the same area of your life, and it's not the same. If we're not careful, look, this is the same situation and two different approaches orchestrated by God. And if you just widen that application to our lives facing a same situation or enduring a similar season, and then you look around and you see how God's doing it for brother so and so or sister so and so, and it does it it's very sudden. It's very glorious.

It it it can go viral if they do the testimony on YouTube. You can get discouraged easily. And God was no less glorified in the second way that he answered than he was in the first. And so you have people who discourage in ministry. They don't see that their their years are ranking up and they're not accelerating, and they're not seeing the numbers that they thought they would.

I mean, I would say this to ministers especially, but you could apply it anyway. You have people in relationships who are looking for a relationship. And they look at people their age range and they say they're getting married and why didn't it happen to me so quickly and why is my story so bland? It's not as exciting and riveting. Well, hold on.

It's the same God. He has a different script for each of our sanctification. It's not gonna be the same script. So don't envy. Don't be worried.

The same God who answered David in two different ways for the same situation will very likely do the same in your life as you contrast it to the next person's. All you need to do is seek him and trust him as David did. So be encouraged. Timing is much different, no less glorified. And David saw victory.

When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then rouse yourself for then the Lord has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines. Oh, I wonder what that was like for them to wait and all for a sudden they maybe heard a wind or maybe they heard something in the distance, but there was it was obvious that these trees were moving and God went out before them and that was their confidence. And really, that's what prayer is. Is it not? It's inviting God's intervention in the matter.

God, go before me. God, do this. I don't wanna do it without you. And I just call upon your name, and let me know that you are indeed in this. Let me know your hand is I don't wanna do this if your hand is not in it.

I don't wanna pursue this any further if you're not gonna go before me. That's what it looks like. That's what it looks like. Moses had that same cry. If your presence does not go with me.

I don't want the land. I don't want the angel that you promised. I don't want victory over the enemies. I want your presence. And if you really want to know true joy in this life, it's when you know that God goes before you.

That's where you will know true, sincere satisfaction. I know we can say so much more, can we not? But I trust that as you have these tools, maybe you can say something about this passage. Maybe we could talk about over fellowship. Let's pray.

Lord, we tell you from the bottom of our hearts, what a mighty god we serve. You are indeed the lord of breakthrough. You can come crashing in, and you can come and deal with it within the blink of an eye. And Lord, by faith, we ask that if there is a need in this house, that you would break through. And you would heal.

You would provide. You would bring an answer. You would subdue the enemy who seeks to devour our faith. But Lord, you're also the God who says, wait. And so Lord, teach us to wait, and teach us that if you do not come suddenly, you are still in control.

And you know exactly what you're doing with our lives. You know exactly what kind of testimony you are preparing for your namesake through us as your vessels. Lord, we pray that if there would be any suddenlies in our lives, it would be the gospel work of sanctification that would shatter the work of sin that has eroded and destroyed us prior to coming and knowing you. Destroy it, Lord. We believe you not just for our justification, we place our faith in you sanctifying us.

That the holy spirit in us can resurrect and bring to life holiness and strength to soar above that which seeks to have dominion over us. Lord, we pray that we would be so serious about gospel work and gospel witness that we would nurture and protect the unity of this ministry. And that Lord, we would trust in the words that you said that in our unity, the world would say, surely the father has sent Jesus into this world to die for sinners. Look at that church. They are unified, and it has to be a supernatural source.

Lord, may we, with our short lives, glorify you in such a way. We bless you for the study. We bless you for the interaction. We pray that our hearts would be edified. And Lord, we just give you thanks and song tonight in Jesus' name.

Amen. Let's stand and worship the Lord.