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Cornerstone Chapel - Audio Podcast
How to Fight Our Enemies: Kneeling in Prayer
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1 Chronicles 14-15
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For tonight, we are First Chronicles, Chapter 14. So if you'll take your Bibles and go to First Chronicles, Chapter 14. This is where we left off last Wednesday night. So we're going to pick up where we left off. We concluded chapter 13. And at the conclusion of chapter 13, we saw that David had firmly taken hold of the throne of Israel. He is now king of Israel. At first, not all of Israel accepted him as king, so he was only for seven years king over Hebron, over Judah, his own tribe. But then after the death of Saul, the rest of Israel came around and they realized that he was God's anointed and appointed man. And so now he is king over all of Israel. And he wants to do two things. Number one, he wants to have a central capital city. And so he takes over the ancient city of Jebus, which was occupied by Jebusites, and they were part of the Canaanite people. And so he displaces the Jebusites, takes over that city, and renames it Yerushalayim, which means the city of peace, Jerusalem. That becomes the headquarters for the nation of Israel, that becomes the capital for the nation of Israel, now no longer divided, but united. And the other thing that David wants to do is having established Jerusalem as the official capital of the kingdom of the nation of Israel, he wants to make sure that God is central to their worship and he is central to their devotion. And so he has a heart, of course, for worship. I mean, this, this guy, David is a worshiper at heart. Out of the 150 Psalms, we know that he wrote 75. He wrote half of them by name listed in the Psalms, and others that are, that have no byline are still attributed to David. So. But we know he wrote at least 75. This guy's a worshiper at heart. So one of the first things he wants to do is he wants to make sure God is central to their nation by bringing, of all things, the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. The Ark of the Covenant was always the representation of God's presence. In fact, the Bible says that God dwelt between the Cherubim, which were positioned on the Ark of the Covenant. I'll have pictures. We'll talk about a little bit more in a moment. And he wanted the Lord to be central to everything about their nation. So he has the Ark of the Covenant brought to Jerusalem. But as we mentioned last week, he does not do it in the prescribed way that God has outlined in the law of Moses. For, for transporting the Ark of the Covenant and as a result, there's the death of a man, Uzziah, who tries to steady the cart that the Ark of the Covenant is on. When the oxen stumble, he dies. He is smitten by the Lord for touching something sacred when he shouldn't have. And they should never have placed the Ark of the Covenant on a cart drawn by oxen anyway. And so when, when Uzzah is killed, then David puts a pause on this transport of the Ark of the Covenant. They put it in the house of Obed Edom, where it stays for three months. And David is angry. He's upset. He doesn't understand because he see he. He has drifted from the God's prescribed way to transport the Ark of the Covenant. And until he figures that out and realizes what is. What does scripture say about how we're supposed to transport this? He just puts the whole thing on pause and he puts it in the house of Obed Edom. God blesses the house of Obed Edom while the Ark of the Covenant is there. And David takes three months to figure out what. What did I do wrong, by the way? I. I often think to myself, you know, the Ark of the Covenant, very sacred object it. And because Uzzah touched it when he shouldn't have, and for that he was killed. I always thought about the house of Obed Edom when they bring it into his house. You know, Obed, that's the guy's name, Obed Edom. He's probably thinking like, you know, don't, don't anybody like, sneeze near this thing, because we're all going to be struck down. And so even though God blessed them because his presence was there in the house, they probably were always like a little cautious walking around it, like, we don't want to touch this thing. We don't want anybody dying. So that's where we are. David has firmly established as king over all of Israel. Jerusalem is now the capital city, and the Ark of the Covenant is on its way to Jerusalem. We're going to see the rest of the story, how it gets there. But let's first have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you for this time in your Word tonight where we can just gather here and just open our hearts to what you would say to us through the pages of your Word. Thank you, Lord, I thank you for all those who are here and those who are watching online tonight. We just want to commit our Bible study to you. Lord, be glorified and use this time in your Word to strengthen our own hearts. We love you and we praise you together in Jesus name. Amen. First Chronicles, chapter 14 says, Now Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees with masons and carpenters to build him a house. Okay? So note with me that even now the foreign kings are beginning to realize David is a man to be reckoned with. He's a powerful man. He's king of Israel. So this guy, Hiram, he's a foreign king. He's king of Ty. Now, Ty is that ancient city on the coast of Lebanon. So this guy is north of Israel, and he wants to do a favor for David, and he volunteered. This is smart, because he's like, you know, David's a powerful man. He's conquering, you know, land, and I want to get on his good side. So here's the idea. I'm going to send messengers to David, and I'm going to send cedar trees, the cedars of Lebanon. They're. They're glorious. They're beautiful trees with masons, you know, stone masons and carpenters to build him a house. How nice is that? Like, we want to build you a house just so that we can remain friends. And so. So he's doing a good thing here. Verse 2 says, so David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, for his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of his people, Israel. And then David took more, more wives in Jerusalem. And David begot more sons and daughters. And these are the names of his children whom he had in Jerusalem. Shamua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet, Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Bialiada, and Eliphalet. That's close to the other kid's name, Elipelet. Anyway, look, everybody, this is a weakness of David. He's taking more wives here. This was never God's prescribed way. Deuteronomy 17, in fact, warned kings through the law of Moses, that when you have a king that hears the instructions for the king. There were three things that the king was to be wise about. Number one was to never go back to Egypt for horses. Don't go back into the land where you were held captive. You trust me. Some trust in chariots. Some trust in horses. But you need to trust in the name of the Lord your God. That was one thing. The second thing was, you are not to amass to yourself a lot of gold and silver. You get too wealthy as a king, you're not going to be dependent on me. And then the third thing was, do not take many wives. And David is violating this. This is a weakness of his. This is a weakness of Allah. His son will be even worse. But David is not setting a good example here. The Bible says that David had eight wives by name. But then there's this generic more wives. We don't really know how many he had in all, but if he had eight, at least by name, that's seven too many. Okay? God designed one man to have one woman. I mean, eight, eight wives. I don't know where this guy had closet space. You know what I'm saying to you? They fought over the thermostat. You know, they did a lot of. That's. There's a lot of mothers in law there too. Everybody. All right, so anyway, let's move on. Verse 8. Now, when the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it and went out against them. And then the Philistines went and made a raid on the valley of Rethaim. So remember, the Philistines are perennial enemies of the Israelites. They're not looking for David because they want to treat him kindly like, like Hyrum, the king of Tyre did. They want to fight. They are ruthless. They are brutal people. They just are constantly wanting to. To fight the, the Israelis. And. And so David here hears of it, and look what it says here in verse 10. And David inquired of God, Underline that in your Bibles. And David inquired of God, saying, shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand? Jump down to verse 14, verse 13. We'll come back and read the verses I skipped, but I just want to add this to it. Verse 13. Then the Philistines once again made a raid on the valley. Therefore, David, here it is. Inquired again of God. Underline that again. David inquired again of God. Here's the point. We always try to look at different principles from these chapters. And here in chapter 14, look, when the enemy pursues, fight on your knees. David inquired of the Lord, when the enemy pursues, fight on your knees. He. He prays. And he asked the Lord, what should I do? And all of us have an enemy. He's an unseen enemy, but it's Satan, it's the devil. And he will always pursue us and try to come after us. And you know, when I say he, look, he's not omnipresent like God is, but his minions, you know, demonic principalities are real. Spiritual warfare is real. And so a lot of times the enemy tries to rip us off, tries to attack us, discourage us, tempt us, lie to us, deceive us. And really the weapon of our warfare is on our knees. And so inquire of the Lord, Ask the Lord. Lord, help me, Lord, fight my battles. Lord, intercede for me. And so David, let's go back up to verse 10. And David inquired of God, saying, shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said to him, go up, for I will deliver them into your hand. And so they went up to BAAL Perazim, and David defeated them there. And then David said, God has broken through my enemies by my hand like a breakthrough of water. In other words, like. Like a levy breaking. That's how God has delivered into their hands this great victory. And therefore they called the name of that place Bael Perizim. And you can look down in your footnotes, I have a footnote on mine. It just simply, BAAL means master. Perizim means breakthrough. So they called that place Master of breakthrough. And when they left their gods there. Let's talk about the Philistines. When they left their gods there, David gave a commandment, and they were burned with fire. Okay, now, so remember, the Philistines are pagan people. So they've got idols, they've got carved images. That's their gods. And it says that, you know, when they. When they were scattered because of battle, when they were being defeated, they left their gods on the battlefield. Listen, everybody, if. If your God can be left on the battlefield, he's no God at all. And so David scoops up all these little false idols that the Philistines worship, and he burns them. Now why did he burn them? Because that is an instruction in Deuteronomy also. So David didn't get the part right about don't take many wives. That's Deuteronomy 17. But he got this part right. That's Deuteronomy 7. In Deuteronomy 7, you don't need to turn there. I'll just read two verses to you. In Deuteronomy 7:5, it says, but thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars. This is the instruction of Moses to the Israelites. When the Israelites defeat a pagan nation, listen to the instruction. Thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images and. And burn their carved images with fire. And then also in Deuteronomy 7, 25. It repeats it. You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the Lord your God. So they would overlay these pagan nations, and the Philistines are among them. They would overlay their, their statues, their idols with gold or silver. And God's instruction there in Deuteronomy 7, is, when you take captive these pagan nations, don't you dare strip the silver or gold off of those little idols. You burn all of it. Lock, Lock. What is it? Lockbox, sterile. What does that say? Yeah, you get it. Lockbox, sterile. That has nothing to do with anything. And so just burn the whole thing down, like, burn it all. Don't. Don't try to take the silver, the gold. And this is what David does. This is why he burns them, and so he makes ashes out of them. Keep reading with me here. First Chronicles 14, 13. And then the Philistines once again made a raid on the valley. And therefore David inquired again of God and said to him, this is God speaking now. You shall not go up after them, circle around them and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees. And. And it shall be, when you hear a sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall go out to battle, for God has gone out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines. This is very interesting how God speaks here to David and actually gives him a strategic war plan. This is how I want you to advance the troops. I want you to circle around them, hit them from the front. When you hear this sound, then. And so David, verse 16. And so David did as God commanded him. And they drove back the army of the Philistines from Gibeon as far as Gezer, and that's about 17 miles. So they're pushing them way back. And then the fame of David went out into all lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations. And then we come to chapter 15, where now David has had time to regroup and realize the proper way to transport the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. And so this is the way chapter 15 begins, verse 1. David built houses for himself in the city of David, and he prepared a place for the Ark of God and pitched a tent for it. So David, the city of David was the southern lower part of the city of Jerusalem. When we go to Israel, you know, there's the Temple Mount there's, there's the top of Mount Moriah, and then below that, to the south, is the city of David, where David had his palace, where he lived. And so there is where he's living. And he brings the Ark of God and he pitches a tent to cover it. Now, let me remind you again about the Ark of the Covenant. It was made of acacia wood. It was overlaid with gold. This is a sacred object that was normally kept in the tabernacle or the Temple of the Lord. The size of it was not that big. The three and three and three quarters feet by two and a quarter by two and a quarter feet. So, you know, a relatively small box. The lid was made of solid gold with gold cherubim. The angels on top, facing each other, wings toward each other. And inside the Ark of the Covenant were kept the articles of Israel's history, the ten Commandments, Aaron's budding staff, and a sample of manna. But the important thing is that this was the sacred article object upon which the glory and presence of God would sometimes come. And we know this because many places in Psalm 99, 1 in Psalm 81, and I quote it up here on the screen for you. Second Kings 19:15. This was the cry of King Hezekiah. He said, o Lord, God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim. You are God, you alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, and you have made heaven and earth. And so God would, would come and dwell in, in this Shekinah glory presence there over the Ark of the Covenant. So when the Ark of the Covenant was inside the tabernacle, or later inside the permanent dwelling called the temple, the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the most holy center place, the holy of holies. And it was there that the high priest would go once a year with the blood of a sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people. And it was there that he would encounter the very glory of God, who would hover, who would be present there between the cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant. So this particular article, among all the various articles, they had the table of showbread, they had the altar of incense, they had the menorah, the golden lampstand. But this was the sacred object, the most sacred, because God's presence would dwell there on this lid, the mercy seat between the cherubim. So this is the sacred object that David wanted transported to Jerusalem. It had been kept in Gibeon, where the tabernacle was located. But he wants to bring just this article to Jerusalem. And he makes a special tent for it. But as we, as we mentioned, when he first transported it, they put it on the, on a cart drawn by oxen. That was not God's prescribed way. The prescribed way is that the Ark of the Covenant had loops on the side through which poles were to be passed. And then the priests were to lift the Ark of the Covenant up on their shoulders, holding the poles. That's how it was to be transported. And apparently during the three months that it was kept in the house of Obed Edom, David figures this out, because now into chapter 15, he says, look at verse two. Then David said, no one may carry the Ark of God but the Levites, for the Lord has chosen them to carry the Ark of God and to minister before him forever. Okay, well done, David. Now you. You've returned to scripture. You've. You've understood the right way to transport the Ark of the Covenant. So he's going to go back to the house of Obed Edom, and he's going to do it the right way, but, but with great fanfare. And not for the purpose of fanfare, just for a show, but with great celebration, because now he knows this is the right way to transport the Ark of the Covenant. And we're going to do this with the right heart because we want God to be central to everything about our nation. So here we go. Verse 3. And David gathered all Israel together at Jerusalem to bring up the Ark of the Lord to its place which he had prepared for it. Now, again, this is just the Ark of the Covenant. The Tabernacle itself is still in Gibeon. Gibeon is about 6 miles north, northwest of Jerusalem. That's where the Tabernacle is. That's where the priests minister. But for the purpose of making the Lord central to the nation, he's going to bring just the Ark of the Covenant and make a special tent for it. Now, some have wondered, why didn't he transport the entire Tabernacle? It was a tent. You know, the temple won't be built until David's son, Solomon, So there's not a permanent structure. The tent has served as the temporary place of worship for hundreds of years. Why did he leave it in Gibeon and only bring the Ark of the Covenant? Why didn't he bring the whole Tabernacle, the whole tent at the same time? And we can only guess there's nothing really in Scripture that gives the reason behind this decision. Probably the best guess is that David did not want the Tabernacle to be brought to Jerusalem because it was in his heart to build a temple. In fact, he would have done that except that God said to him, you can't build a sacred temple to me because your hands have shed blood in war. He was a warrior, and he had shed blood. And so God assigned the building of the temple to David's son, Solomon. But David was given the plans, and David was given the heart for it. And David was the one who put out the call for offerings to be received for the building of the temple. But until that permanent temple was built, the tabernacle was in Gibeon, six miles away. And the reason probably he didn't bring it there was because he didn't want people to then get used to the idea that this tent, the tabernacle, is going to be the permanent structure. Because David knew that is a temporary thing. I want a permanent temple here. So I'm only going to bring the Ark. We're going to leave the tent right where it is, in Gibeon. And so he brings it up to the place he had prepared for it. Verse 4. And then David assembled the children of Aaron and the Levites, of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief and 120 of his brethren, of the sons of Merari, Asaiah the chief and 220 of his brethren, and of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief and 130 of his brethren, of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the chief and 200 of his brethren, of the sons of Hebron, Eliel, the chief and 80 of his brethren, of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the chief and 112 of his brethren. So this is a list of the priestly order of the Levites. And so David is now recruiting among the tribe of Levi, the priests, for this very sacred transport of the Ark. And it says in verse 11, keep reading with me. And David called for Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. And he said to them, you are the heads of the fathers houses of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves, Sanctify yourselves and you and your brethren, that you may bring up the Ark of the Lord of God, the Lord God of Israel, to the place I have prepared for it for. Because now it's almost like he's blaming them. But for. Because you did not do it the first time. The Lord our God broke out against us because we did not consult him about the proper order. And, you know, David is king, and so he should have known better. But the fact is, the priest should have known better too. And so, you know, he. They're culpable as well. So he's like saying, you know, look, you guys. And then he says, we. But when he mentions here to sanctify themselves. And he says it again in verse 14. So the priests of the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel. What does it mean for them to sanctify themselves? Well, there were basically four things that the Levites had to do to sanctify themselves, to purify themselves, to make themselves ready to transport this very sacred object, one of which was to take these ceremonial baths. The Jews have a thing called mikvahs, and these were ceremonial baths. There was this outward cleansing of the body to make sure that there was nothing dirty about them outwardly, physically. And then they were to put on clean linens. These were priestly linens. They were not allowed to have wool that touched their skin. This was to be done with holy garments. The third thing is, interestingly, they were to refrain from sexual relations with their wives. The priests could be married. This is not like the Catholics. This is, you know, in the Old Testament scriptures, the priests were married, but for particular purposes and ceremonies. Exodus 19 said that they were to refrain for that time period from sexual relations with their wives. And then the last thing was that they were to offer sacrifices, sin and burnt offerings for themselves as atoning, sacrifice to the Lord. So those four things, ceremonial washings, holy garments, refraining from sexual activity with their wives, and then the burnt offerings and the sin offerings for themselves. So that's how they would sanctify themselves. It was a very strict regimen to purify themselves for this very holy occasion. And verse 15 says, and the children of the Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders like they're supposed to, by its poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord. And then David spoke to the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers, accompanied by instruments of music, stringed instruments, harps and cymbals, by raising the voice with resounding joy. And so the Levites appointed I love this guy, he man, he man, the son of Joel and his brethren, Asaph the son of Berechiah, and of their brethren, the sons of Merari, Ethan the son of Kushiah, and with them, their brethren of the second rank. Let me skip a bunch of names. Jump on over to verse 22. Kenaniah, the leader of the Levites, was instructor in charge of the music because he was skillful. Berechiah and Elkanah were doorkeepers for the Ark. Shebaniah, Joshua, Nathaniel, Amasi, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eliezer. The priests were to blow the trumpets before the Ark of God. And. And Obed Edom, remember that guy? That's where this was kept for three months. And Jehih, the doorkeepers for the Ark. And so David, the elders of Israel and the captains over thousands went to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed Edom with joy. And so it was when God helped the Levites who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord that they offered seven bulls and seven rams. And I like verse 27 and I'll tell you why. Verse 27 says, and David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as were all the Levites who bore the Ark, the singers. And Kenaniah, the music master, with the singers. And David also wore a linen ephod. Here's why I like this verse. David is not wearing his royal robes. He is wearing the same linens as the priest to blend in with them. Even though he's not a priest, he's not a Levite. He's not trying to assume the role of a priest or a Levite. But here's what he's doing. He's saying, I'm a common man. I'm taking off my royal robes for such an occasion. Why? Because there's only one king, and he's the Lord God Almighty. And I think that's an important reminder for us in our worship. There's only one king worthy of our worship. It's the Lord God Almighty. You know, I love our worship team, but. But I say this every once in a while. When they lead worship up here on the stage, they're helping us to join them. Because the audience is not out here. The audience is in heaven. The audience is the Lord. We're part of the worship team. They just help us to sing to the Lord. He is the only one who is worthy of our worship. So I love the way that David just blends in. So I'm just wearing a regular linen, linen ephod. And I'm going to look like all the other priests here who are worshiping the lord. But verse 28 says, and thus all Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn, with trumpets, with Symbols, making music with stringed instruments and harps. This is why I said with great fanfare, I mean, they are worshiping the Lord and they are doing all of this because they are ascribing their worship and their praise unto the Lord, which is an important point I think has to be said. Worship should always point us to the Lord. Look, you know, there are some songs that we intentionally don't sing here because in my estimation, or in the worship team's estimation, before it even, you know, I even know about it, they've already filtered out some songs that really don't talk that much about the Lord. Now, there was a song that we sang here a couple of times until it struck me and I said to the worship team, I don't want to sing this anymore. And the song is called Made for More. Now I'm just going to read you a couple of the stanzas, okay? This is a long song. I'm only going to read you a couple, but I want you to listen. Listen very carefully. The reason why I pulled this song is because of the number of times I or my is mentioned in this song instead of the Lord. Okay? I know who I am because I know who you are. That's capital Y U. It's the Lord. The cross of salvation was only the start. Now I am chosen, free and forgiven I have a future and it's worth the living Because I wasn't made to be tending a grave I was called by name Born and raised back to life again I was made for more so why should I make a bed in my shame When a fountain of grace is running my way? I know I am yours and I was made for more. I know who I am cause I know who you are. The cross of salvation was only the start Now I am chosen, free and forgiven I have a future and it's worth the living Cause I wasn't made to be tending a grave I was called by name Born and raised back to life again I was made for more so why should I make my bed in my shame When a fountain of grace is running my way I know I am yours and I was made for more. That's only half the song. You know what I did? I started hearing the number of times I and my was mentioned. I counted them up. You want to know how many times in that single song I or my is used? 70 times. You know how many times God's name was mentioned either? God, Jesus, Savior, Redeemer, Lord, not once U capital Y cross was mentioned. Salvation is mentioned. Grace is mentioned, but not a single time the name of the Lord is mentioned. This is the kind of thing that we have to be careful about, because when you see here all this worship, it's directed always to the Lord. A lot of modern worship songs have become very me centric and not God centric. And so we try to be careful with that ourselves here. So they bring it all up with all this worship, all this music. They're singing, they're playing, they're dancing. Now look, we'll end this chapter. And it happened as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David. That Michal, Saul's daughter, that's the wife of David, looked through a window and saw King David whirling and playing music. And she despised him in her heart. Now why did she despise him in her heart? Could be because she thought this was an undignified thing for a king to do. You are king, I am queen. Kings don't act like this. He's just with abandonment. He's just whirling about. He's worshiping the Lord. He's just not even thinking about anyone else except the Lord. But his wife is looking out a window. Notice she's not even a part of the worship procession. So she's already removed herself. She's in. In the. In the palace and she's looking through a window and she's like, how undignified. How undignified. Now, Chronicles doesn't tell us this, but 2nd Samuel 6:23 tells us that therefore Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no children to the day of her death. That commentary is absent here, but it is mentioned in 2nd Samuel 6. 23. And why is it that she was barren for the rest of her life? It was either. We don't know for sure it was either, because it was God's judgment that she should have been celebrating with David instead of criticizing him for his worship. It was either that or when she despised him like this, David no longer was intimate with her, and thus she no longer. She never had any children. We don't know which it was, but it's a Sad commentary on McCall, who should have been joining in the procession and worshiping the Lord instead of criticizing her husband for worshiping with abandonment. So we'll pick it up there next week as we head into chapter 16. But for tonight, let's pause it there and pray. Lord, thank you for your word. Tonight we pray that we would be worshipers, Lord, who love you and want to always focus our attention on you through our songs through our lives that we would be living sacrifices of worship to you. Thank you Lord, for just your word tonight. We pray that you would impress it upon our hearts. And as we leave here tonight, bring us back safely on Sunday and again next Wednesday. We give you the praise, the glory and the honor in Jesus name. And everybody said amen. Amen. God bless you everybody. Have a great night.