Old Testament in a Year: 2 Samuel 20-24, 1 Chronicles 20-29

Second Samuel chapters 20 through 24. If you want to go to chapter 22, we're going to get there in just a moment. Here in these chapters, David is nearing the end of his life. We talked last week about a huge mistake David made. When in the spring, when Kings normally go off to wars, what scripture says, David decided he was going to sit this one out. And then it led to David's temptation and his encounter with Bathsheba. He gets her pregnant. It leads to murder, all these other things. But we talked last week about how David repented. And because of David's repentance, he went on to live a full life. And here we are now in the final moments of David's life. And I want to talk to you today about how to finish well. How do we finish well? What does that look like? And what does that take? The parallel chapters to these chapters that we're looking at today are also found in 1 Chronicles chapter 20 through 29. You can read some of the same things there. We're going to look in chapter 22 to begin with. We're going to begin in verse 26. And it's a song that David wrote after a great military victory. You can read this song. We're not going to read the whole thing,

but you can read this song in its entirety in Psalm chapter 18. I want to invite you to stand to honor the greatest book on the planet. As we begin to read in verse 26, this great song that David wrote after a great victory. He says this, to the faithful, you show yourself faithful. To those with integrity, you show integrity. To the pure, you show yourself pure, but to the crooked, you show yourself shrewd. You rescue the humble, but your eyes watch the proud and humiliate them. Oh Lord, you're my lamp. The Lord lights up my darkness. In your strength, I can crush an army. With my God, I can scale any wall. God's way is perfect. All the Lord's promises prove true. Can anybody attest to that? He is a shield for all of those who look to him for protection. For who is God except the Lord? But who is, who but our God is a solid rock. God is my strong fortress and he makes my way perfect. He makes me as sure-footed as a deer, enabling me to stand on mountain heights. He trains my hands for battle, strengthens my arms so that I can draw a bronze bow. You've given me your shield of victory.

Your help has made me great. Let's make some declarations before we're seated today. Everybody together, even those of you watching online, here we go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God. This word is life to my body and health to my bones. I will be a doer of the word. And I am confident of this, that he who has begun a good work in me will complete it in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated, church. Again, the notes are on the app. Over the last few years, three, four, five years or so, we have witnessed the fall of many great leaders in Christendom that have been exposed for lying or stealing or sexual misconduct or other things. Men and women that we've looked up to, we've read their books, we've listened to their messages, we've watched their podcasts, we've gleaned from them for years, and it seems like almost every week, lately, we've heard about another great leader that has been exposed or another great leader that has fallen. And it has broken my heart, as I'm sure it has many of you,

and it's led me to a place that more than ever, a prayer that I pray more than I ever have is, God, I want to finish well. God, just let me finish well. I don't wanna get to this place in life, and I'm not just preaching to those. who are in their golden years of life. I'm talking to all of us this morning. I'm talking to every person who's online. The desire of all of our hearts would be that we finish well. The late Zig Ziglar said it's not how you start but how you finish that matters. David prayed, leave me in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. I don't wanna bring reproach on the name of the Lord. I just wanna finish well. And here in the latter years of David's life, we find some keys that are applicable to all of us as to how David was able to finish well. Here we go, number one. David made amends. In the latter years of his life, David went back and he made some things right. And we're gonna see in chapter 21 some things that David discovered. And David decides he's gonna make amends for these things but you need to know the backstory. You go back to Joshua chapter nine

and there were a group of people from Gibeon, the Gibeonites, who had heard what Joshua and the warriors of Israel had done to Jericho and Ai. And so these Gibeonites decide we need to do something otherwise they're gonna do the same thing to us. So they come up with a plan. They put on these raggedy clothes, shoes that were worn out, they put molded bread into their bags and they went to the leaders of Israel, they went to Joshua and they said, we would like for you to sign a peace treaty with us. They said, we pose no threat to you, we came from a distant country. As a matter of fact, Joshua, when we left, our shoes were brand new. We had on nice clothes, we took bread out of the oven, it was hot bread, fresh bread, put it in our bags. Now, look at the bread. It's all molded, it's stale, it's hard, it's old. Look at our shoes, they've got holes in the bottom. Our shoes are worn out because we've been walking for such a great distance. We pose no threat to you, Joshua, we just want peace. And the reality was, Gibeon was 36 miles from Jerusalem. They were a very close neighbor, but yet they resorted to deception in order to seek peace. And the key to this whole thing that leads up to 2 Samuel 21 is found in Joshua chapter nine, verse 14.

Watch what we read there. The Israelites sampled their provisions but did not inquire of the Lord. And then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live. And the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath. They did not inquire of the Lord. Years ago, when the refuge was very young, I remember reading this verse out of Joshua chapter nine and I sat down with all of our staff and with all of our leaders and I said to them, we cannot afford to take things at face value. There may be decisions that we're making that would just seem like a no-brainer. It would seem obvious, but no matter how small, no matter how large the decision, we have to inquire of the Lord. We have to distinguish between what is good and what is God because at face value, it may seem like, oh, this is a really good thing, but not all good things are God things. But every God thing is a good thing. And so we committed from then until now that no matter what the decision, we would inquire of the Lord and I wanna challenge you to do the same. You may think it's a no-brainer. You may have a job offer right now, pending job offer, and maybe in the natural, it looks like your dream job. Maybe you're thinking this is an easy decision.

This is a no-brainer. I wanna challenge you, inquire of the Lord. Maybe in a decision about your family or your kids or your grandkids or maybe some relationship. Maybe as it relates to your finances, you're thinking this is a no-brainer. No brainer, I wanna challenge you, inquire of the Lord. Now it brings us up to 2 Samuel chapter 21. And we find something very interesting there beginning in verse one. It says this, there was a famine during David's reign that lasted for three years. So David asked the Lord about it. And the Lord said the famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites. So the king summoned the Gibeonites. They were not part of Israel, but were all that was left of the nation of the Amorites. The people of Israel had sworn not to kill them. Remember the peace treaty, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to wipe them out. Watch, verse three. David asked them, what can I do for you? How can I make amends so that you will bless the Lord's people again? Listen to me, David was not to blame for what happened. David was not responsible for the actions of Saul. Saul had disregarded the peace treaty

and murdered some of the Gibeonites. David had nothing to do with that, but yet David recognized I represent Yahweh. And even though I'm not the one to blame, I need to make amends. And verse three says David made amends with them and said, what can we do? What can we do to make this right? David recognized I need to be an agent of reconciliation on behalf of the Lord. It's interesting that the apostle Paul writing to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians chapter five talks about this. Says in verse 17, this means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone and a new life has begun. Watch, and all of this is a gift from God who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against him. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we then are Christ's ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, come back to God. Come back to God. You may not be responsible for what somebody did. You may have had nothing to do. It's not your fault that somebody has suffered

for years with church hurt. It was totally something somebody else did. But maybe God wants to use you as an agent of reconciliation. To take the message of reconciliation to somebody who's wounded and say, come back to God. Maybe you had nothing to do with the abuse. Maybe you had nothing to do with the rift in the family, but you recognize I represent the Lord. And maybe God wants to use you to be an agent of reconciling them and pleading with them and say, come back to God. Maybe there's somebody that you have offended. Maybe there's somebody you have hurt. Maybe you are responsible. And maybe God is saying to you today, you need to make amends. You need to make this thing right because there's a new creature in Christ. We're given that gift not just so we can make it to heaven. We're given that gift so that we then can be those who are agents for the sake of the Lord. David made it right. He wasn't to blame, but he made it right. Here's the second thing that we see. David resolved to never fight alone. Never fight alone. We find this in 2 Samuel chapter 21, verse 15. It says, once again, the Philistines were at war with Israel and when David and his men

were in the thick of battle, watch, David became weak and exhausted. Ishbi-Ben-Av was a descendant of the giants. His bronze spearhead weighed more than seven pounds and he was armed with a new sword. He had cornered David and was about to kill him. Watch, but Abishah son of Zurich came to David's rescue and killed the Philistine and then David's men declared, you're not going out to battle with us again. Why risk snuffing out the light? In other words, David's men in David's latter years said, David, you're a has-been. David, you don't have the skill. You don't have the energy. You can't fight like you used to fight, and we're not gonna risk losing the reputation of Israel. You're not gonna go out to war with us again. Verse 18, and after this, there was another battle against the Philistines at Gob, and as they fought, Sibachai from Husha killed Sapph, another descendant of the giants. Verse 19, during another battle at Gob, Elhanan, son of Jair, from Bethlehem, killed the brother of Goliath of Gath. The handle of his spear was as thick as a weaver's beam. Verse 20, in another battle with the Philistines at Gath, they encountered a huge man with six fingers on each hand, six toes on each foot, 24 in all. I kinda wonder sometimes why are some of these details included in Scripture?

I find it interesting. Why was that important? I mean, this guy, we know he's a giant. We know he's big. Six fingers on each hand, six toes on each foot. I don't know why it's there, but it's there. But when he defied and taunted Israel, he was killed by Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shimea. These four Philistines were descendants of the giants of Gath, watch. But David and his warriors killed them. Many people talk about 1 Samuel chapter 17, the great story of David killing Goliath. It's the thing that marked David, launched him into his career as a king and as a great warrior and a great leader. Many, many people talk about that. We teach our kids the story of David and Goliath, but so many people have not talked about 2 Samuel 21. The time that David faced giants again, but he couldn't defeat them on his own. David had decided, I'm never gonna fight alone, and good thing that he did, because we just read there was a time when Ishmael had him cornered and was about to kill him, when all of a sudden, some of David's great warriors and valiant men came and rescued him and killed the giants. Four different times that David

could not defeat the giants. Yes, he defeated Goliath, but now four other times that he couldn't do it, and what happened? Well, thank God David had surrounded himself with other warriors who could come and fight on his behalf. Verse 22 now, I think this is interesting. These four Philistines, these giants, were descendants of the giants of Gath, but David and his warriors killed them. No, not really. David didn't. It was his warriors that did it, but I want you to notice, just because David was there in the midst of them, David gets credit too for killing the giants, and what we see is it's not a matter of who did the killing. The important thing was that Israel was protected. The name of the Lord was upheld, and the threat of the enemy was neutralized. Listen, so many men are loners. So many men are deciding they're gonna go alone. They're gonna be independent. They're not gonna ask anybody else for help, but I wanna remind you today, male or female, God designed us so that we mature, we experience victory in the context of community and of relationships, and I know relationships are dangerous. Relationships have the potential to bring a lot of hurt,

but God wired us and made us so that we succeed and we experience victory when we stay in community with other believers. So vitally important. Listen, the goal of the enemy is to isolate you. The goal of the enemy is to cause you to become so wounded that you step back, that you stop coming to church, that you stop serving with other people so that the enemy can wipe you out, but if you wanna finish well, you're gonna stay in community with other people. You're gonna keep showing up at church. You're gonna keep serving. You're gonna stay in a small group so that when you become weak and exhausted, you can say to somebody else, hey, listen, I don't have the energy I used to have. The enemy is taunting me and threatening. and you have somebody close to you that you can say, I need help. I need somebody that can fight with me and fight for me. And that's how David finished well. Here's the third thing that we see. David surrounded himself with courageous people. I love this. David decided, man, even as I'm in my latter years, I'm not gonna stop dreaming. I'm not gonna stop fighting for the purposes of God. So many people do that.

When we get older, maybe our energy begins to wane, and people just stop dreaming. People stop saying, ah, let's take that mountain, let's take that hill, let's do something great for God. People say, no, I just wanna nap. And David said, no, I'm gonna surround myself with some courageous people, and I'm gonna keep dreaming. Look at 2 Samuel, chapter 23. These are the names of David's mightiest warriors. The first was Joshua Ben, the Hachmanite, who was the leader of the three, the three mightiest warriors among David's men. He once used his spear, watch, this is one dude. He once used his spear to kill 800 enemy warriors in a single battle. Next in rank among the three was Eliezer, son of Dodai, a descendant of Ahuah. Once Eliezer and David stood together against the Philistines when the entire Israelite army had fled. He killed Philistines until his hand was too tired to lift his sword, and the Lord gave him a great victory that day. The rest of the army did not return until it was time to collect the plunder. Next in rank, Shammah, son of Ege, from Harar. One time the Philistines gathered at Lehi and attacked the Israelites in a field full of lentils. The Israelite army fled, but Shammah held his ground in the middle of the field and beat back the Philistines.

So the Lord brought about a great victory. This chapter just is naming this hall of fame, these warriors that David had surrounded himself with who were doing these radical, crazy things for the name of the Lord and for the name of Israel. Crazy things, courageous men who stood their ground and said, we're gonna keep fighting for the things of God. There's a great leader, many of you know him by name, Nelson Mandela, spent 27 years in prison. 27 years fighting against the injustice of racial inequality in South Africa. 27 years in prison and after he got out, he didn't relent and say, I don't have what it takes. I can't take the mountain. I can't do anything great. No, no, he kept dreaming. He was elected as president of South Africa. He served there for seven years and because of his courage, he went on to see great reconciliation and great revolution come to what was taking place in South Africa. Nelson Mandela said this, I love this. I learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it. The brave man is not one who does not feel afraid but he who conquers that fear. Chapter 23, beginning in verse 18, it goes on to name some other man. Abish, the son of Zurich, the brother of Joab, was the leader of the 30.

He once used his spear to kill 300 enemy warriors in a single battle. It was by such feats that he became as famous as the three. Abish was the most famous of the 30 and he was their commander, although he's not one of the three. There was also Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzil. He did many heroic deeds which included killing two champions of Moab. Another time on a snowy day, he chased a lion down into a pit and killed it. Crazy, crazy. Usually you run from lions. This guy was so bad to the bone, he says, no, I'm gonna go after that lion. We'll chase it down into a pit and only one of us is gonna come out and it ain't gonna be him. And he kills the lion inside of that pit. Once armed only with a club, he killed an imposing Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and he killed him with it. These are some bad dudes. And David had surrounded himself with people of courage. You realize that there are somewhere around 2,000 known fears. There's 2,000, some of them are just ridiculous.

Like papaphobia, that's fear of the Pope. Y'all think I'm kidding, I'm serious. There's like a fear of string, like string. People are afraid of string. Over 2,000 known fears. The psychiatrists say we're only born with two fears, two innate fears, fear of falling and fear of loud noises. That means all of the others are learned fears. And if they're learned fears, guess what? They can be unlearned, which is why it's so important that you stay in the Word of God, because Scripture talks about the washing of the water of the Word, the transforming and the renewing of our minds. That's what Scripture does, is that when we stay in the Word of God, it replaces those thoughts that contradict the authority of the Word of God with the truth of God's Word so that we can walk in freedom. We can walk in a spirit of courage. That's why the Apostle Paul wrote to the young man, Timothy, in 2 Timothy chapter one, verse seven, God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love, and self-control. Y'all still with me today? Listen, courageous people don't know more than what other people know. They've just unlearned the fears that have held them captive and have held them as prisoners. And they do it by exposing themselves to the very things that they're afraid of.

Listen, as we get older, the tendency is that we just seek comfort. We seek comfort. I don't wanna deal with all of the complications of trying to do something new. I don't wanna deal with the problems that come with trying to take territory. We just seek comfort. Well, I really believe that God is calling us to be people of courage, to be inspired by the courage of others, to get around courageous people who are doing radical things. Listen, I understand. I get it. I've been at this for 42 years. I don't quite possess the energy that I once had, but I'm still a dreamer. I'm still going after the things of God. But I also understand this thing of saying, I can't do what I used to do. I get that. I understand that. And some of you, maybe you're in your 70s and 80s, and you say, I can't do the things I did when I was in my 30s. Totally understand that. But that doesn't give you an exemption card to say, my day is over. No, there's still things that you can do

for the glory of God. We're asking people right now, we get letters every single week from some of our dear friends that are incarcerated all over America, and we're asking people, would you write letters back to them? You can write a letter. You can fill up a backpack, and let's bless some kids in our community in a few weeks from now, or if you can't do that, tap the tag in front of you and just say, I'll give financially so that we can give backpacks to these kids. There are still things that you can do. One of my great heroes in the faith is a guy who's, he's in his 80s now, Pastor Tommy Barnett, who for years pastored a great church in America out in Phoenix. Now his son pastors that church. Pastor Tommy founded the L.A. Dream Center, and that man is one of the most courageous men. He's one of the most inspiring men that I've ever been around or that I've ever known, and the thing is, he's still dreaming. I just read a book by Pastor Tommy entitled What If? He's still dreaming. He's still saying we can take the mountain.

I sat under a man just a couple of months ago, heard him preach. His name is R.T. Kendall. He pastored the Westminster Abbey over in London for 25 years. He's from Kentucky, but this man is 90 years old, and he's still traveling and preaching almost every single week, and he sat in a chair on the platform at the age of 90, and he preached a message on finishing well, and he said, and by the way, I'm not done yet, and he's still going for it. He's still preaching. I want that to be us, church. I want the refuge to be known, and the legacy of this place to be that people finish well, that they don't bail out. before God's done with them. Or they don't decide, I'm just gonna sit this one out and the enemy drag them into some place of immorality or of apathy or of turning their back on their faith. And one of the ways we do that is by surrounding ourself with courageous people. Here's the last thing that we see from David's life. This is a key. It's a key to finishing well is that we remain repentant and we keep building altars. We remain repentant and we keep building altars. In chapter 24 of 2 Samuel, David decides he's gonna take a census.

He's gonna number the people. He's gonna count all of the warriors even though God had told him not to do it. I don't know if David just began to battle fear. I don't know if David, if there was a pride issue and David wanted to say, you know, kind of like a major online flex on Instagram where David was gonna show off all the warriors or what. Well, I don't know what was going on, but regardless, David decides I'm gonna number all of the men. I'm gonna find out maybe. Maybe David thought, well, it's up to us now. When it had never been up to them. It was always the hand of God that had delivered them. For whatever reason, David takes a census and the anger of the Lord burns against David. And there's punishment. It's like we talked about last week. There's always a ripple effect of disobedience. And David's given a choice. You can have three years of suffering at the hands of men. You can have three months. You can have three days of being under the wrath of God. David said, I don't want to fall under the hands of men. I want to be under the wrath of God for three days. And in those three days under the wrath of God, 70,000 people perished, 70,000. So always consequences to our sin. So David repents.

He repents. And in his latter years, he never lost the sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. Look what we read there. Second Samuel chapter 24, verse 10. But after he had taken the census, David's conscience began to bother him. And he said to the Lord, I've sinned greatly by taking the census. Please forgive my guilt, Lord, for doing this foolish thing. David decides to build an altar. He goes to a man by the name of Aaron. He says, I want to buy your threshing field. Aaron says, what are you going to use it for? He said, I want to build an altar to the Lord. And Aaron says, I'll just give it to you. David said, no, no, no. I insist, I insist on buying it because I don't want to offer something to the Lord that costs me nothing. Listen to me, the altar is the place of sacrifice. It's always going to cost us something, or at least it should. It's more than just praying some little prayer just to get ourselves out of trouble. No, repentance means that we are headed in one direction and we stop and we do a 180 and we begin moving in the other direction, which means we've got to leave some stuff behind. It's going to cost you some relationships.

It's going to cost you some comfort. It's going to cost you something when you build an altar for the Lord, when you repent. But if you want to finish well, regardless of your age, you'll maintain a tenderness to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Romans chapter 12, verse one, Paul says, so brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to Him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to Him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship. Paul is saying every single day, every day we build an altar. Every day we climb up on that altar and we say today, Lord, I present myself to you. That's the way we finish well.