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First Chronicles, chapter 17 is where we are. We left off last Wednesday night at verse 15. I'm going to pray first and then we'll get a running start to remember the context of what we're reading here. So let's have a word of prayer first. Father God, it is good your word says. I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. And so we're here, Lord, in your presence, in your house, studying your word. And thank you Lord, for your word that speaks to us even still today. We pray that you would do just that as we read through these chapters. That you would speak to us tonight, that you would minister to us. Lord, we are needy, thirsty, hungry people. And we thank you that you're our good shepherd who takes care of us, who feeds us, Lord, who leads us to still waters. And we just pray you would do your good work in our hearts tonight. We give you the praise and the glory in Jesus name. And everybody said amen. So in First Chronicles, chapter 17, this is when the Lord speaks through the prophet Nathan to King David about his that is God's covenant promise to David. And I will summarize again that covenant promise for those of you who weren't here. It was an unconditional covenant and made between God and David in which God promised David and Israel that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come from the lineage of David and the tribe of Judah specifically. And God promised to establish a kingdom that would endure forever. The Davidic covenant is unconditional because it is based on God's faithfulness and does not depend at all on David or Israel's obedience. And so God proclaims this through the prophet Nathan and basically tells David, look, there will always be a king on the throne of your lineage. Now obviously that doesn't mean that Israel's always had a king, that they've been dispersed for centuries. But what it does mean is that God has not forsaken the lineage of David and that ultimately the the king who will rule and reign from the throne of David is Jesus Christ because he was a descendant of King David. You look at the lineage of both Mary and Joseph, which are found in the New Testament. Mary's lineage is given to us in Luke's Gospel chapter three, and Joseph's lineage is given to us in Matthew chapter one. And even though Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, he still gave legal right to Jesus as his adopted son. And Joseph was a descendant of David's son Solomon, and Mary was a descendant of David's Son Nathan. And thus Jesus had both the biological and the legal right to assume the throne of King David. And so when Jesus comes again, it will be a fulfillment of the fact that the Messiah will rule and reign as a descendant of King David. We'll talk a little bit more about it, but where we left off is verse 15 here of 1st Chronicles 17. And David now is going to respond to this wonderful message that he has just heard from the prophet Nathan about this. And it's a very humble response that David has. He's just really moved by the fact that God would say to him, look, your lineage is going to have a king forever. And so here's his response, starting here in verse 15, it says, according to all these words and according to all this vision. So Nathan spoke to David, and then King David went in and sat before the Lord. And he said, okay, now notice, he's just. He's just going to be like pouring out his heart before the Lord. Here he says, who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that you have brought me this far, and yet this was a small thing in your sight, O God. And you have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the rank of a man of high degree, O Lord God. Now when he says, here you've spoken of your servant's house. Again, this doesn't mean his palace, it means his lineage. And he's just moved here. And so he just humbles himself in the presence of the Lord. He's like, who am I that you would choose to do this, to say such a thing for me? Verse 18, he continues, he says, what more can David say to you for the honor of your servant? For you know your servant, O Lord, for your servant's sake, and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness in making known all these great things, O Lord, there is none like you, nor is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears, and who is like your people, Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for himself as a people, to make for yourself a name by great and awesome deeds, by driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt, for you have made your people Israel your very own people forever. And you, Lord, have become their God. Okay, so notice here again, he's just pouring out his heart. It's gratitude. He's thankful. But again, you know, in light of the fact that, you know, we've Been touching on this in the last few weeks. This growing anti Semitism in our country and in our world world. And the fact that even those in the church are now talking about this replacement theology nonsense where, you know, God has taken his blessing off Israel, given it to the church, because, you know, Galatians 3, there's neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female. We're all one in Christ. As if that erases Israel's importance. Romans, chapter 9. Not all Israel is Israel, okay? All that simply means is Israel itself. As a word means governed by God. Look, not everybody is governed by God who is Jewish, because they are only Jewish by observance. They are not really Jewish by faith in Jesus Christ. That does not negate the fact that God is not done with the Jewish people and that many are coming to faith in Jesus even now and many still will. When David says here at the end of what I just read, he says in verse 22, for you have made your people Israel, your very own people forever. And you, Lord, have become their God. Does it look like in David's prayer here that he thinks God will ever be done with Israel? No, he's never going to be done because he is a covenant God with the people of Israel forever. And you, Lord, have become their God. So there's much to still happen among the Jewish people. Most Jews today don't believe that Jesus is Messiah. But what's interesting is In Romans chapter 11 it talks about how Israel has experienced a hardness in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in and so all Israel will be saved. What does that mean? What it means is that Israel, right now, the majority of Jews have a hardness in heart as it relates to Jesus not believing in him as Messiah. But God says that that is an opportunity for many Gentiles to come to faith. So we have this opportunity. Most of us here, almost all of us are Jew, are Gentile. We have this opportunity to come to faith in Jesus. And guess what that does. Paul says that spurs on the Jewish people to jealousy because they look and see what we have and it brings about in them this jealousy for what we have. The tour guide I've been using for over 25 years in Israel is a good friend of Terry's and mine, Ronnie Cohen. And Ronnie's a Jew who's a believer in Jesus. And he will tell you he came to faith in Jesus Christ because he was leading all these evangelical Christians on tours of Israel. And when he saw what we have and when he saw the love that we have one for another. And for the Jewish people, that's what turned his heart to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. And many Jews are still coming to faith in Jesus Christ today. And so when Paul talks there in Romans 11, 25 and 26, and he ends and he says, and so all Israel will be saved, it doesn't mean that they get a pass. It doesn't mean that then when Jesus comes, he's just going to take all the Jews to heaven. Everybody still has to come to faith in Jesus Christ and trust him as Lord and Savior. But what Paul is referring to is what Zechariah tells us is that prophetically, after the tribulation is over, the Jews that have survived will then have a greater awareness of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And when Jesus returns, Zechariah tells us that the Jews will look on him and ask him, where did you receive these marks? Referring to the marks of his crucifixion. Somebody once said, the only man made thing in heaven are the marks of crucifixion that Jesus still bears. And when he returns, he still has those marks, even though he has a glorified body. And Zechariah says the Jews will ask him, where did you receive these marks? And Jesus will say, I received them at the house of my friends. And then they will recognize that he is Messiah. But not before 2/3 of the Jews perish. Zechariah tells us during the Tribulation, the one third that come out will then see Jesus for who he is, recognize him, put their faith and trust in him, and so all Israel will be saved. So when David is praying here about God's covenant with the Jewish people forever, please do not believe this replacement theology nonsense that will seem to suggest that God had a place in time. But then the Jews rejected Jesus, so then all of this was placed upon the church. We've been engrafted, we have been accepted now into these wonderful promises. But God is not done with the Jewish people, and he does not forsake his covenant with them. And David knows this. This is why he's praying this. Keep reading. He goes on to say in verse 23, and now, O Lord, the word which you have spoken concerning your servant, and concerning his house, his lineage, and let it be established forever, notice he's going to say forever a few times here and do as you have said, so let it be established that your name may be magnified forever, saying, the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel is Israel's God. And let the house of Your servant David be established before you. For you, O my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build him a house. Therefore your servant has found it in his heart to pray before you. And now, Lord, you are God and have promised this goodness to your servant. Now you have been pleased to bless the house of your servant, his lineage, that it may continue before you forever. For you have blessed it, O Lord, and it shall be blessed. How long? Forever. Okay, so that's the emphasis. Now keep your place there in first Chronicles and you can either listen or turn over to Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah. So keep going to the right a few books over to Isaiah, chapter 11, because Isaiah sees the same thing. And there is this precious promise that Isaiah writes about in Isaiah chapter 11 and in the first two verses. Now, Isaiah prophesied around 757, 25 B.C. david is around 1000 B.C. so this is, you know, 275 years or so after David. But Isaiah is saying the same thing. Notice this is prophetic about Jesus. This is Isaiah 11:1 and 2. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of its out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. All right, now this is a prophetic passage about Jesus, the Messiah. I want to point out to you. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, who is Jesse, David's father. David's father. So this is a continuation of this whole concept that out of the lineage of David, the son of David, the son of Jesse is David, there will come this branch that shall grow out of its roots. Now, in context, you need to know that Isaiah, chapter 10, basically was God saying through the prophet Isaiah that he is going to cut down every proud person, like you would cut down a tree. But then he goes into chapter 11 and he says, but out of the stump of what I cut down, there will emerge one from the line of Jesse, from the descendants of David, and there will emerge this branch. You know what's interesting about the olive tree? An olive tree never really dies. That's why you can go to Israel today and see olive trees that are 2000 plus years old. Because when you cut down an olive tree, a branch comes up from the root and then a new trunk starts and you cut that down and another branch comes up from the root. So conceivably, unless blight or it's, you know, chopped down or fire or whatever conceivably olive trees don't really die. And so that's what Isaiah is referring to here, that the line of David is never going to die because out of the stump will come this branch. Now, interesting, in Hebrew, the word for branch is netseer, Netser who came from Nazareth. Jesus, he was born in Bethlehem, but he was raised in Nazareth. He was Jesus of Nazareth. The Hebrew word for Nazareth is Netzeret, from the root word of branch, Netzer. So the very one who comes from Netzer is the descendant of Jesse through the line of David. That's Jesus Christ. And he's the one who has the spirit of the Lord resting upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Now, just in case anybody thinks, well, maybe you're stretching that, maybe this isn't referring to Jesus as the rod from the stem of Jesse and a branch that shall grow out of his roots. Revelation 22:16, the second to last sentence in the Bible that's in red because it's the words of Jesus. And Revelation 22:16, Jesus says, I am the root and offspring of David. You can't get more clear than that. I am the root and offspring of David. So Jesus there in Revelation 22:16 is saying that Isaiah 11, 1 fulfillment of this, which comes back to 1st Chronicles, chapter 17. So you can go back there. I wanted to just dovetail in Isaiah 11 because Isaiah is saying the same thing. David is thanking the Lord for his covenant promise that there will be one that comes from the line of David who will reign and who will rule, and his kingdom will never end. The kingdom of Jesus. Look, he's on the throne now. He's coming again and will be on a throne for a thousand years in Jerusalem. And then forever we will be with the Lord. He's king of kings and Lord of lords right now. You know, things are playing out on earth, but he's still sovereign. He's still king. He still is a descendant of King David and he's never left the throne. So all of this is fulfilled now, will be fulfilled in person when Jesus returns again. And so David is just thanking the Lord like he's. He's just like, so undone by this. He's like, who am I that you would choose me for this wonderful and amazing covenant promise that you are making, not just through my line, but really for the sake of the whole world. And so David is very humbled by this and prays and gives thanks to the Lord. Let's go into chapter 18 back here, 1 Chronicles chapter 18. I just want to end chapter 17 with this promise though. Just remember God is a covenant keeping God. What he promises he will do. And that's, that's what David is giving thanks about. And we should be thankful too because look, if God, if God and he doesn't, you know, he's not a man, that he should change his mind, right? He does not lie and he cannot change his mind. If he were that kind of a God who could change his mind, you and I would have no assurance of the promises of God in the Bible. And so it's a good reminder to us that he is a covenant keeping God and what he promises he will do. Now into chapter 18 after this, it came to pass that David attacked the Philistines and subdued them and took Gath and its towns from the hand of the Philistines. And just pause there at verse one circled Gath, that is a town of the Philistines. But what I think is so significant, what spoke to me is the fact that, and most of you might know this, of course, is that Goliath was from Gath. And you know, David had defeated Goliath about 20 years earlier because David now is 37 plus and he was probably 15 to 17 when he killed Goliath. So this is 20 years later. But oh, how sweet this is. I mean, think about this. The guy that Goliath, this giant who tried to slay the Israelites and by slaying David, when, when he met his match with David because the Lord was on David's side. And then David slew this giant. Then 20 years later, David goes and takes the very city of the giant that tried to defeat him. And to me it just spoke this simple principle, everybody, that God will help us to recapture what the enemy stole. God will help us to recapture what the enemy stole. The enemy, you know, Goliath and I know it's dangerous sometimes to see everything with typology, but, but when you look at Goliath, that story of David and Goliath, you know, the underdog David and the giant Goliath, but every underdog who has the Lord on his side is greater than any enemy. And so it is true with us that greater is he, the Lord in us, than he that is in the world. And we have an enemy of our souls. And at times he seems like a giant. But when we know that we walk in the Lord, we have nothing to fear. The enemy prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to Devour, Peter says, but resist him, standing firm in the faith, and he will flee. Resist the devil, he will flee. And so just the fact that he takes the city of the guy that tried to kill him, this giant, this enemy of Israel, it just speaks about how God helps us to recapture what the enemy stole. Verse 2. And then he defeated Moab and the Moabites became David's servants and brought tribute. You're going to see in this whole 18th chapter, it's one victory after another. It's the expansion of the kingdom of Israel under King David to some of its largest borders. And it's just kind of a log of all the different kings and foreign kings and foreign nations that he has subdued. And when he subdues them, they become, you know, these tribute paying countries because they are appeasing the king and they are subject to his taxation now. So, so here we go, Verse three. And David defeated Hadadezer, king of Zoba as far as Hamath. Now Zoba is basically the region of northern Syria. And history tells us there was vast resources of minerals and vineyards and fields. So this is a good, a good get. This is kind of like getting Greenland right here. And so anyway, I just wanted to throw that out. I just want more emails. Anyway, here we go. And so as he went to establish his power by the river Euphrates. Now notice this. The expansion of the kingdom of Israel is going to expand as far as the river Euphrates. Euphrates is in Iraq, everybody. But that was part of the original borders that God determined for the nation of Israel. I'll just. You don't need to turn there real quickly. It's Genesis 15 and Genesis 15. This is verse 18. It says on the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying to your descendants, I have given this land from the river of Egypt, meaning the Nile, to the great river, the river Euphrates. And so God's original intent for the Jewish people was to occupy everything between the Nile river in Egypt to the Euphrates river in Iraq. That's like 300,000 square miles. The fact that they only Occupy Today about 8,100 square miles is why I always say when anybody ever says, if Israel would just give up land, they could have peace. Do you understand? They don't even occupy a tenth of what God originally wanted them to have. So that's not the answer, especially among people who want you just exterminated. I mean, that doesn't just give us land. And then maybe we won't want to Exterminate you as much. That isn't the way it works. I mean, people who want you gone want also your land, but they want all of it. That's why they're chanting. The terrorists are chanting. And then people who jump on the bandwagon from the river to the sea, they're talking about from Jordan river to Mediterranean Sea. We just want Israel gone. We want the Jews gone. Well, what was God's original intent? Now? River to Euphrates. Under King David, the borders of Israel expand to some of its largest boundaries. And he's going all the way out here now to the river Euphrates. Says in verse four, David took from him. This is from Hadadezer, 1,000 chariots, 7,000 horsemen and 20,000 foot soldiers. Also, David hamstrung all the chariot horses except that he spared enough of them for 100 chariots. Now why all of you horse lovers, you're like, oh, how cruel. Well, this is war. And what he's doing is he's rendering the cavalry powerless by hamstringing the horses. He doesn't kill the horses, he just makes them not able to run. And so that, that, that helps David to know that they're not going to mount a cavalry with chariots and come and attack them. So he hamstrings most of them, but he left, you know, 100. Like you guys can have a hundred, but you just can't have an army of calvary again like you used to. Verse 5. When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David killed 22,000 of the Syrians. And then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus. And the Syrians became David's servants and brought tribute. And so the Lord preserved David wherever he went. And David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer and, and brought them to Jerusalem. Also from Tibhath and from Chun cities of Hadadezer, David brought a large amount of bronze with which Solomon made the bronze sea, the pillars and the articles of bronze. Now just make note of that. Remember, David had a heart to build a temple permanently in Jerusalem to the Lord and God. I'm paraphrasing basically said, thanks, but no thanks. David, your hands have shed blood. You're a warrior. So your son is going to be the one to build me a temple. So even though God had designed that Solomon the son of David would build a temple, David still had it in his heart. Well, let me at least gather the resources, the precious metals, the timber, the things that can be used in the eventual building of the temple. So one of the things that he's doing here when he conquers these various countries is he's taking their gold, he's taking their silver, he's taking their bronze. And it tells us specifically here that the bronze that he captured, that he plundered, rather would be used. Solomon would later use it to fashion some of these articles that would end up going in the temple. Keep reading. Verse 9. Now, when two king of Hamath heard that David had defeated all the army of had a desert king of Zoba, and he sent Hadoram his son to King David to greet him and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him. For Hadadezer had been at war with two, and HaDoram brought with him all kinds of articles of gold, silver and bronze. Okay, now you know why you do this, right? It's like we really don't want you to kill us, so we're going to bring you a gift. And so bring him gold and silver and bronze. Verse 11. King David also dedicated these to the Lord, along with the silver and gold that he had brought from all these nations, from Edom, from Moab, from the people of Ammon, from the Philistines, and from Amalek. Moreover, Abishai, now circle his name. We'll come back to him. Abishai, the son of Zuriah, killed 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. This is down by the Dead Sea. That's why it's called the Valley of Salt. He also put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David's servants. And, and the Lord preserved David wherever he went. And so David reigned over all Israel and administered judgment and justice to all his people. Joab, you can circle his name, also the son of Zerayah. Now I ask you to circle Joab and Abishai. Abishai is also the son of Zeriah. These guys are brothers. Who is Zeraiah? Zerayah is David's sister. David's sister. We find that back in chapter two, verse 16. And she be. She is the mother of three of David's great generals. Abishai is one of them, Joab is another. And Asahel is the third son. He's not mentioned here. He's. He's mentioned back in chapter 1126. I just think it's remarkable in this sense that Zariah, David's sister. So these, these guys are obviously these three generals in David's army, these great leaders, military leaders, are David's nephews. They are sons of his sister. And I don't, I don't have like a point for this other than just deep admiration for this woman because she raised three generals. I mean, that, that is, there's something special about her. I mean, that's why she's mentioned here. There's something special about her. She, she raised warriors for sons. They didn't sit around, you know, without a job playing video games. These guys were warriors. These guys were warriors and they fought and they were men and they were the mighty men in David's army who, who led his military campaign. So I don't know. I just, I just personally have deep respect here for her raising three sons who were three generals, part of David's like, fighting force here. So verse 15. Joab the son of Zariah was over the army. Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder, Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Abimelech the son of Abiafar were the priests. Shavshaw was the scribe. Banaya the son of Jehoiada was over the Karithites and the Pelethites. And David's sons were chief ministers at the king's side. So that last section there is. This is David's cabinet, basically, and it included his military officials and his various ministers and secretaries of war and all this kind of stuff. So that's the list there. Let's go into chapter 19. And it happened after this that Nahash, the king of the people of Ammon, died and his son reigned in his place. And this is a very strange story we're about to read, but what we find out here is that Nahash is a king who is friends with David and he dies, though he is the king of Ammon. Where is Ammon? Ammon is this. It's the spelling is a little different, but it is the same as Amman, Jordan. So Ammon, the territory of Ammon, was more than just the city of Amman, Jordan, but it is that area around Amman, Jordan today. So we're talking east of the Jordan River. Amman, Jordan on a map is almost due east of Jerusalem, but it's that region. This is a foreign region. And back in David's day. So the king of Amman is a foreigner, but we're talking Jordan, the country today. On a map it'd be the country of Jordan. And it says in verse two, then David said, I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me. Like, you know, I want to send him my regards. His father died. His, his dad was kind to me, so I want to show kindness. And so David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. And David's servants came to Hanun in the land of the people of Ammon to comfort him. But, but now look, verse three. And the princes of the people of Ammon said to Hanun, do you think that David really honors your father because he has sent comforters to you? Did his servants not come to you to search and to overthrow and to spy out the land? And so these princes who are, you know, advisors to Hanun, the new king of Jordan, they're like, you know, we're suspicious about David. I mean, he is. And you know, no doubt, David, David was the most powerful guy right now. So of course you're either buttering up to David and submitting to him, or you are suspicious of him and you want to resist him and fight him. So these advisers are saying to Hanun, you don't really think David is here sending his grievances, his condolences, I should say to, to you about your father. I mean, come on, he's spying at the land and he's going to take us down. And so Hanun reacts to this. Verse 4. Therefore, Hanum took David's servants, shaved them, and cut off their garments in the middle at their buttocks and sent them away. This is strange. Now, now, why would you do this? Why would you do this? Okay, first of all, first of all, this is a very stupid thing to do, right? Like, even if you think that David is there on a recon mission, his servants are there on a recon mission to spy out the land, you don't, you don't, you know, poke the bear in the eye, right? So they shave them. Now you have to understand that back in this culture, every man had a beard. Every man, I mean, it was a sign of strength and dignity. So if you were to be clean shaven, that was a humiliation back in this day. And the ones who were clean shaven were slaves. So they are treated now as slaves. They are being humiliated. And if shaving off your beard wasn't humiliation enough, take your, you know, they're, they're, they've got these garments on, these like tunics. You're taking scissors and you're, you don't have scissors. Just go with me. You know, they're cutting at the midsection and so they're leaving a shirt on and you're completely naked from the waist down. Okay? So now you're, you're clean shaven and, and you're half naked. And this is, this is the. Thanks for sending us your condolences. You know that this is what they're doing now. This is not going to go well. I can just tell you right now, you don't even need to know the rest of the chapter, do you? To know this ain't going to end well, not for the people of Ammon. You, you treat these guys like this. This is not going to go well. And it doesn't. It doesn't go well. And so it says in verse 7. 5. Verse 5. Then some went and told David about the men, and he sent to meet them because the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, wait in Jericho until your beards have grown and then return. Now it doesn't say, but of course he also adds, and put on some clothes, you know, get some pants. But he's. They don't, they're so embarrassed. They don't even want to come back to Jerusalem. They send messengers. And David sends a messenger to them, say, just hang out in Jericho until your beards grow back and then you can come back with your dignity. This is a very shameful thing that Hanun has done. And he's listened to some bad advice. And so in verse 6, says, when the people of Ammon saw that they had made themselves repulsive to David, of course Hanun and the people of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire for themselves to chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, from Syria and Makah and from Zobah. All right, so Mesopotamia is Iraq. Syria. Syria. And Makah and Zoba, this is different regions of Syria. So what is the king of Jordan doing? He's hiring basically mercenary armies from Syria and from Iraq because he realizes I've really made David angry now. And so I'm going to pay you guys to come bring your armies. You're going to help fight me against David because I know he's going to come after me. And so verse seven. And so they hired for themselves 32,000 chariots with the king of Maacah and his people who came and encamped before Medeba. And also the people of Ammon gathered together from their cities and came to battle. So they're ready. And now verse eight, when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the army of the mighty men. And then the people of Ammon came out and put themselves in battle array before the gate of the city. And the kings who had come were by themselves in the Field. You know, I'm just curious. I wonder if the people of Ammon ever were like, hanun, why in the world did you do this? Like, look, we're now in war because you had to shave these guys and cut off their pants. Like, this is not going to bode well for us. Well, verse 10. When Joab saw that the battle line was against him before and behind, he chose some of Israel's best and put them in battle array against the Syrians and the rest of the people he put under the command of Abishai, his brother, and they set themselves in battle array against the people of Ammon. And then he said, this is Joab. If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me. But if the people of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will help you. Be of good courage, and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what is good in his sight. Now, folks, I underline that in my Bible because I just love the way that Joab encourages his brother. And he's basically like, I got your back, you got my back. If I start to fail, you got to come after and fight with me. If you start to fail, I'll come after and fight with you. This is an important reminder to us in general, folks, that we should encourage one another and all the more as we see the day approaching. That's Hebrews 10:25 and Hebrews 10:25. The word day is capitalized because it's talking about the second coming. I just love the way that Joab is encouraging his brother here. He's like. He's like, be of good courage and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. And may the Lord do what is good in his sight. May God help us to be better encouragers. Just in general, do you have room to be a better encourager? Are there people in your life that you could do a better job encouraging? Because we all need encouragement and we should all be encouragers. And I just like the way that Joab gives this little encouraging speech here. Well, the Lord helps them because in verse 14 it says so. Joab and the people who were with him drew near for the battle against the Syrians, and they fled before him. And when the people of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fleeing, they also fled before Abishai, his brother, and entered the city. And so Joab went to Jerusalem. And when the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they sent messengers and brought the Syrians who were beyond the river. And Shophach, the commander of Hadadezer's army, went before them. And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel, crossed over the Jordan, and came upon them and set up in battle array against them. And so when David had set up in battle array against the Syrians, and they fought with him, and then the Syrians fled before Israel, and David killed 7,000 charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers of the Syrians and killed Shofak, the commander of the army. And when the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with David about time, and became his servants. And so the Syrians were not willing to help the people of Ammon anymore. Yet you learned your lesson the hard way. And it's, you know, it's, I said this already, but just don't. In general, let's don't poke the bear, like be a peacemaker with people. Don't do things that could naturally tick them off or irritate them, like be a peacemaker. I just want to read the first section. We have just five more minutes of chapter 20, verse one. It happened in the spring of the year at the time Kings go out to battle, that Joab let out the armed force, led out the armed forces forces and ravaged the country of the people of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabba. But David stayed in Jerusalem, and Joab defeated Rabba and overthrew it. Okay, now Chronicles, remember, Chronicles is a summary handbook of the Jewish history, particularly for the Jews who had been exiled in Babylon, so that when they came back, they had a condensed version of their history. The writer of Chronicles condenses some things that 1st and 2nd Samuel, or 1st and 2nd Kings, tells us that the writer of Chronicles does not. What the writer of Chronicles leaves out right here is what it tells us. In the springtime when kings go out to war, David stayed home. Joab, the general of David's army, went out and fought. But in reality, David should have gone to war too. And when he stayed back while his army was fighting, this is when. And Chronicles doesn't tell us, but 2nd Samuel 11 tells us this is when he fell into adultery with Bathsheba, because he should have been at war, and instead he was back in a palace, and he was just living a life of ease while his general and his army was out fighting. And, and let me just read through the end of the section, and then I'll, I'll give us a takeaway from it. And Joab defeated Rabbi. And overthrew it. Verse 2. And then David took their king's crown from his head and found it to weigh a talent of gold. Now note this. I'll come back to it. And there were precious stones in it, and it was set on David's head also. He brought out the spoil of the city in great abundance. And he brought out the people who were in it and put them to work with saws and with iron picks and with axes. And so David did to all the cities of the people of Ammon. And then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. So he successfully defeats Ammon, that whole territory. He puts the people to work. He takes the crown of the king, and they seize it when they take Ammon. It weighs a talent of gold. Now, folks, a talent is 75 pounds. Now, how do you wear a crown that weighs 75 pounds? Some Bible commentaries say that it's not even though a talent is a measure of weight. It was referring more to the value of the crown than the actual heaviness of it. Because, I mean, how do you wear a crown that's £75? But let me translate the value, because I had to look it up. Today, gold's going for around $5,000 an ounce. 75 pounds, that's 1200 ounces. That's $6 million in today's value, the crown. And that doesn't even count the jewels. Okay, just the gold was worth in today's value, $6 million that they had seized. But I want to end on this note about how David stayed back at the palace in Jerusalem, because here's. Here's the takeaway for me. Beware of ease. It's our downtime when Satan works overtime. It's our downtime when Satan works overtime. When we are idle, that's when Satan loves to take advantage of us and our flesh. That isn't to blame everything on the devil. David's flesh was fully operational here. But don't you know that certainly the devil played on that. And David committed adultery and he fell into sin. And the fact is, he wouldn't have fallen into sin had he been where he was supposed to be, which was fighting with his men. So because he had adopted a life of ease, that's when the enemy loves to take advantage of us. So stay in the word. Stay in the word. Stay in the word. Stay busy, keep praying, and don't let the enemy take advantage of your flesh. Everybody, can you hear that much? All right, let's pray. Lord, we. We just thank you for your word. We Just pray God that you would impress these things on our heart and that as we leave here tonight you would remind us Lord of your strength, of your power, of your grace. Help us not to be caught off guard by the wiles of the enemy. May we be smart about our own flesh and about how the enemy loves to take advantage of our flesh that we would Lord stay close to you we would stay close to you not allow idle time as the opportunity for the devil to have his way with us. So Lord help us in this way. Thank you for David's example. As tragic as it was his sin is a reminder to us that any of us is vulnerable any of us Help us Lord to guard our hearts and our lives and our minds in Christ Jesus. Be with us now as we leave here tonight bring us back here on Sunday we give you praise and glory and honor in Jesus name Amen and amen. God bless everybody.