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2 Samuel 8

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Related topics: The Grace of God; David’s Victories; Jesus leading us to victory; Organization in the Body of Christ; Ministry teams

REVIEW

In Chapter 7 David declared that he wanted to build a house for the Ark of God, but God said, “David, you can’t build a house for Me, but I will build a house for you and through you David will come the Messiah of Israel.”

He was utterly blown out by the GRACE of God!

2 Samuel 7:18-21 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God! 20And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God! 21Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22Therefore you are great, O Lord God.

The GRACE of God!

Eph. 2:7 NLT So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

AMAZING GRACE is not cliché! It is so AMAZING that for eternity to come the angels and everyone else in heaven will look at you and me and say WOW! Isn’t the Lord gracious! Herein lies the SECRET of the Christian life. Do NOT try to bargain with the Lord on the basis of works. Instead be like David

2 Samuel 7:21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it.

Just RECEIVE and RESPOND with WORSHIP!

CHAPTER 8 — gives us the catalog of David’s victories

2 Samuel 8:1 After this David defeated the Philistines and subdued them,

SEVERAL thoughts here:

Chapter 7 began with 1Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies,

We noted that some take the position that Chapter 8 takes place BEFORE Chapter 7 chronologically. There are those who see Chapter 8 as chronologically in order, following the events of Chapter 7. That being the case, they see these victories as the OVERFLOW of the grace of God.

AFTER receiving the PROMISE, recognizing GRACE, and responding in WORSHIP, David goes on the offensive. Great PICTURE and APPLICATION for our lives today. We serve and battle FROM Grace!

There comes a time in your Christian walk when you recognize HOW GOOD the Lord has been to you and you begin to move out to ACTIVELY and AGGRESIVELY serve Him.

Those who have served the Lord most notably have done so BECAUSE they have discovered the matchless grace of God and as such the are quick to say, “Here am I, send me!”

REGARDLESS of which chronological position we take, we don’t want to miss the significance of these victories.

1. The Philistines had troubled Israel for centuries, and often dominated Israel. NOW God’s anointed king is on the throne of Israel. Under the reign of David, he both attacked and subdued the perennial nemesis of Israel.
2. The fact that the Philistines had CONSISTANTLY and PERSISTANTLY defeated the armies of Israel did NOT cause David to avoid fighting against them.QUOTE: Redpath — “The thing that fascinates me about this complete victory is the utter contempt with which David treated the great power of his adversaries.” and David took Metheg-ammah out of the hand of the Philistines.

Several views on this Metheg-ammah

1. Adam Clarke — The Vulgate (translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Latin) reads it as David removed the bondage of the tribute, which the Israelities paid to the Philistines…… no such place as Metheg-ammah is known.
2. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown — Gath and her suburban towns

One thing is for sure, when David became king the Philistines were oppressing God’s people and taking territory from God’s people. Under the leadership of God’s anointed king, God’s people began to take territory from the enemy. THAT is the Christian life under the rule of Jesus.

In Hebrews 2:10 Jesus is called the captain of our salvation and under Christ the Father is leading His people to glory!

2And he defeated Moab and he measured them with a line,
making them lie down on the ground. Two lines he measured
to be put to death, and one full line to be spared. And
the Moabites became servants to David and brought
tribute.3David also defeated Hadadezer the son of Rehob,
king of Zobah, as he went to restore his power at the
river Euphrates. 4And David took from him 1,700 horsemen,
and 20,000 foot soldiers. And David hamstrung all the
chariot horses but left enough for a hundred chariots.

NOTE:

1 Chron. 18:4 says that he “took from him 1,000 chariots” and “7,000 horsemen.”

The Septuagint version of 2 Samuel 8:4 agrees with Chronicles.

One possible explanation is that someone miscopied the text of Samuel and the Septuagint (along with Chronicles) retains the true reading.

NOTE WITH ME:

1. Syria was divided into two groups with capitals at Zobah and Damascus. They united against David, but they could not stand against God’s anointed king. In our spiritual warfare, the combined efforts of the enemy is NO MATCH for our King! He has triumphed over them on the cross!
2. By way of this victory the promise made by God to Abraham in Genesis 15:18 is fulfilled—

On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,

It is our King, Jesus, who leads us to possess the promises of God (all spiritual blessings in heavenly places — abundant life)

5And when the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck down 22,000 men of the Syrians. 6Then David put garrisons in Aram of Damascus, and the Syrians became servants to David and brought tribute. And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. 7And David took the shields of gold that were carried by the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem. 8And from Betah and from Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, King David took very much bronze.9When Toi king of Hamath heard that David had defeated the whole army of Hadadezer, 10Toi sent his son Joram to King David, to ask about his health and to bless him because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him, for Hadadezer had often been at war with Toi. And Joram brought with him articles of silver, of gold, and of bronze. 11These also King David dedicated to the Lord, together with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued, 12from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, and from the spoil of Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Zobah.

2 KEY OBSERVATIONS:

1. ALL that David wins he DEDICATES to the Lord
2. He is gathering it for the Temple that he is NOT going to build! This is such an important example for us!

MANY TIMES when the Lord tells us that we CAN’T do something we respond with the attitude of
“If I can’t do THIS — I WON’T do anything at all.” or, “If I can’t sing or play in the adult worship team I won’t sing or play anywhere.” or, “If I can’t teach a big Bible study I won’t teach anywhere

David did NOT, sit and pout , nor did he go to his room and shut the door.

INSTEAD , David said, “I can’t build the Temple, but I can lead God’s people to victory. I can gather materials for my son to build to the Temple.”

David got ALL of the supplies, plans, and contractors together, and when Solomon was old enough David said, “Solomon, everything is ready, now YOU build the house for the worship of God.”

13And David made a name for himself when he returned from striking down 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. 14Then he put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became David’s servants.

CRUCIAL OBSERVATION:

David was not content with momentary victory.

He FORTIFIED those places to SECURE what was won.

HERE’S THE PICTURE :

We can come to church, have an awesome time in the presence of the Lord and in His Word, have the Holy Spirit touch our lives in an area that has been defeated, leave so blessed, and be good for a few days.

THEN be a wreck again.

BECAUSE we fail to put garrisons there, so-to-speak.

Garrison = nets-eeb’, nets-eeb

something stationary; a military post, a statue:—garrison, officer, pillar.

To secure our victories we need to establish something stationary

Something stationary would be a fixed or set time of devotion, study, prayer, and fellowship

And the Lord gave victory to David wherever he went.

CRUCIAL OBSERVATION:

The Holy Spirit makes it clear by repetition (said the same thing in v.6)
that it was the BLESSING of God, not the skill of David, that brought about David’s victories.

15So David reigned over all Israel.

Sadly, this is what God wanted to do through Saul,
but Saul resisted the Lord and rejected His Spirit.
By contrast, David allowed God to subdue him.
The result of that was that nations were subdued before David.

And David administered justice and equity to all his people.

By the way, The Bible defines THIS as the fundamental duty of human government.

To administer judgment and justice (Romans 13:1-7).

The BEST forms of human government are flawed and have failed BECAUSE they ultimately are directed by fallen and flawed humans.

TRUE judgment and justice will not be found UNTIL
the son of David, Jesus the PRINCE OF PEACE, returns and is seated upon the throne of His father David.

Isaiah 9:6-7 6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.7Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Now back to 2 Samuel:

16Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder, 17and Zadok the son of Ahitub and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar were priests, and Seraiah was secretary, 18and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and David’s sons were priests.

SOME IMPORTANT OBSERVATIONS HERE:

David ORGANIZES his government.

We do not want to take the position that any and all organization within the local church is carnal.

Organization is carnal when it is the result of man’s wisdom and/or when God’s people are depending upon or trusting in “organization” and “structure” to accomplish the work of the the ministry.

The Church is NOT and organization like some corporation that is organized into upper management, marketing, sales, production/manufacturing, etc.

The Church is an ORGANISM. EVERY living, healthy, reproducing organism is organized. There is “organization” even in a single cell organism! From the moment of conception, human life is based upon the ORGANIZATION of cells.

Nothing is accomplished in God’s kingdom without order and organization.

The Scriptures call us THE BODY of Christ. The Body of Christ must be organized and arranged by God in order to be HEALTHY and FRUITFUL and capable of reproducing faith.

When it is man doing the ordering the result is much like cells in the human body doing their own thing, and THAT is never healthy, it’s called cancer. We ALWAYS want to see God moving with the utmost order and organization.

Here’s how one guy put it,

“There is a limit to what we can be and what we can do for the LORD without order and organization. It isn’t that order and organization are requirements for progress in the Christian life; they are progress in the Christian life, becoming more like the LORD.”

HERE is where ministers and ministries run into trouble:

They see God working and they see potential for further growth,
but they also see that the CAN’T grow further because
they do not have the people, resources, or financial resources
to grow beyond where they are and in their desperation to grow, they resort to the energy of the flesh to accomplish the work of the Spirit.

CRUCIAL:

1. We MUST learn to wait on the Lord for HIM to ADD the necessary organization that is necessary to promote and sustain growth in Metro.
2. No leader succeeds by himself. Only the smallest organizations can be governed well without a gifted and committed team.
3. The Lord GAVE David victory

Part of God’s provision for those victories was the gifted and loyal men that surrounded David!

Part of David’s success as a ruler was his ability to recognize, assemble, empower, and LEAD the men God had provided.