Introduction:
What is TYPOLOGY?
Typology can be defined as the study of prophetic photographs of Christ taken from many angles. Typology aims to trace the development of the plan step by step among men.
As we teach children, using objects and things with which they are familiar to teach the unknown to them so God is seen at work in the old testament, using various means – people, objects, ceremonies, to present an ever-clearer picture of our Lord and his kingdom which he will bring in. God was looking forward to and making preparations for the Gospel. In training forward to and making preparations for the gospel. In training his old testament church, God gave instructions through types, illustrations, or things to come.
1. A person Adam was a type of Christ 5:14.
2. An Event As the events of the Exodus 1 Corinthians 10:11.
3. A Thing – As the veil in the temple was a type of the human body of Christ Hebrews 10:20
4. An Institution – as the Jewish priesthood, a type of the high priesthood of Christ Hebrews 9:11.
Types are found most frequently in the Pentateuch but are found more sparingly, elsewhere. The antitype of the type is usually found in the New Testament. The book of Hebrews is the great Hew Testament commentary on the types found especially in Exodus and Leviticus,
INTERPRETING OF TYPES
1. A type may never be used to teach a doctrine, but only to;
illustrate a doctrine elsewhere plainly taught. Example;
john 3:14; 1 Cor. 5:7.
2. It cannot be positively stated that anything is a type that is not somewhere in scripture treated as such. It is undoubtedly true, that many types do not fall under the rule, but their recognition is a matter of spiritual discernment and cannot be dogmatically established
For example, Joseph is, almost universally acknowledged to be a type
of- Christ, but not scripture can be found that explicitly
declare him to be such.
For a person, event, institution, to be a type it must have two requirements /criteria,
there must be a resemblance in fulfilment, under the Gospel.
meet “two requirements/criteria, there must be a resemblance in form of spirit to its antitype or fulfilment, under the Gospel.
Second, God must have designed it to foreshadow and prepare for better things under the Gospel. Both types and antitype must have been preordained by God to teach some spiritual truths. Under the old or preparatory dispensations, the truth must have been enlarged and much clear. The type will be something that is seen, a temporal object, but the antitype will be unseen and spiritual the type is something outward, giving the inward, future, and heavenly aspects. A word of caution in seeking to identify types: biblical people are usually imperfect for shadowings of Jesus. We can’t explain every detail of their lives to him. Therefore do not push comparisons too far for they will break down.
CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
Christians know that the New Testament teaches about the Lord Jesus, His life and death, work at present, His churned, and His second coming. The Old Testament also says many things about Christ and we should learn about them as well. We cannot hear too much about the one we love, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit inspired God’s .servants to write the 39 books of the old testament, 2 Peter 1:12. the Spirit does ‘not speak often about Himself, but must about Christ, as the Lord said He would do in the Hew Testament, John 16:14.
All Scripture is for our benefit, 2 Timothy 3: 16, and the Spirit teaches us “that we should look for something about Christ1in the old testament as well as the new, 1 cor. 10:11.
The spirit often used the old testament as well as the new verses in the new testament.
This helps us to understand both verses. The first in the Old Testament and the other in the Sew, We Should ask, how does the spirit explain these Old Testament verses? Read 2 Samuel 7:14, Jehovah promised David that He would fee a Father to Solomon. Yet the spirit was also thinking of Christ, as we know from Hebrews 1:5
Look at Hosea 11:1, here again, the Spirit in Matthew 2:15 shows that He was thinking about Christ in Hosea 11:1. The Lord Himself taught that the Old Testament has many things to say about Himself, Luke 24:47; John 5:39°
In this paper or write-up, we are looking at as Paul puts it, “Shadows of things to come. In all the Sid Testament books there -are certain ‘symbols and types used in teaching spiritual things which were also consummated in Christ. Christ scattered. throughout the pages of the Old Testament books, | either prophetically, symbolically, or typically. Jesus dominates the old Testament, and it cannot “be “understood apart from Him.
THE KEY TO INTERPRETING OF TYPE
It is the incarnate word whom we worship, but without the written word we could not know Him to the extent of worship.
It is not the bible that gives value to Christ, but Christ who gives value to the bible. The secret of this structural and spiritual bond and its marvellous unity in Christ. The whole bible from genesis to revelation is about Christy. This is his witness in Luke 24:27, 44 and it is sufficient.
GENESIS
There is very little teaching by the command in Genesis. The truth was taught mainly through type, promise, and action teaching was more for the eye than the ear and used things they saw and handled.
In the course of this dissertation, we are not going to treat all the types in the. Bible, but we are dealing with the basic types of Christ in the Old Testament. Note that types of Christ are most pronounced in the Pentateuch
Our Lord Himself has given us the cite to all the scriptures concerning Himself in the Old Testament. Emmaus teaching (Luke 24, 26, 27, 44) He divided the “things concerning and those which concern His glory, Peter tells us that the spirit of . Christ in the Old Testament writers “testified’ beforehand the suffering as of Christ and the glories that should follow 1 Peter 1:11.
We may expect then to find. “In all the scriptures a suffering Christ and a glorified Christ, a Christ humiliated and rejected and a Christ exalted and rewarded.
1. Christ ‘is called bun of Righteousness. In beginning, Jehovah Cod created the heavens and “the earth, Gen.1:1: 2: 4 In the New Testament we learn that this was God the Son, John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2 God created two great lights in the sky, the. Sun and the moon Gen- Is 14-18; Psalm 8:3; Mal 4:2. So the sun is a picture of the Lord Jesus. The was to rule the day there is nothing hidden from its heart, Psalm 19:6. Christ will come as a king to rule in righteousness over the whole world. He will come with great glory and the sun is a picture of his glory in matt. 17; 2. Trees cannot bear fruit without sunshine. Deut.33: 14 and the Lord help and protect us in our daily life psalm 84:11. We may of the moon as a picture of the church. God plans that it should give light to the world in this age of darkness before the sun of righteousness cones to rule.
2. Christ is seen as the last Adam mod made the earth all ready for a man to live in. then the created Adam out of the dust, and eve from part of Adam’s body, Gen. 1:27; 2:7,22. Adam is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is called the last Adam and not the second man, 1Cor. 15: 45,47. Adam is the head of the human race, of all men. The Lord Jesus is the head of true believers. We are all born as descendants of Adam. By the second birth, we have the nature of God, and the spirit is seeking to make us more like the Lord Jesus, Romans 8:29, 2peter 1:4.
Again we can see Eve as a picture of the church, the bride of Christ. God put Adam in a deep sleep when he made eve a suitable helper for him, Genesis 2: 21, 22. So the Lord Jesus went through the “sleep” of death so that God could prepare his bride for him. Christ loved the church and gave himself for her Eph. 5; 25.
3. In The first promise, Satan took the form of a snake and lied to eve. So sin entered God’s new creation and he had to punish the sinners. But God promised Adam and Eve that they would crush the snake’s head, Gen 3; 15. This is the first promise in the bible that God would send a man to defeat Satan and to save people from their sins. The saviour has come and has gained victory over Satan, Luke 4;13 10;18; Rom. 1:20; Rev.20;2:10, a response, which renewed his heart and caused him to write, even in his youthful days, such wonderful lines as the Shepherd Psalm.
God’s call to any man and the anointing of the Spirit for service is conditioned upon that man’s heart response. What kind of heart had • David? Remember that lovely opening of his greatest Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd; 1 shall not want” (Psalm 23:1). David had a believing heart; he knew his sinfulness and his need for the grace and guidance of God to watch over him even as he protected the sheep in his charge. He said, “The Lord is my shepherd,” casting himself upon God in believing faith.
“Pie maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters” (Psalm 23:2). This young man’s life was marked by quietness. He knew the joy of communion with the Lord; he was a meditative heart.
“He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3). Though by no means perfect, David’s heart was set on holiness, and he longed for that attribute of God in his life above all else.
“Though 1 walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” (Psalm 23:4). In the face of the worst enemy that could ever face him, David was confident; as he demonstrated later in his encounter with Goliath, he was brave, bold, and courageous.
“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies . . . my cup runneth over” (Psalm 23:5). David had a heart full of gratitude to the Lord for meeting his needs, for supplying him with things both spiritual and material, even with die devil looking on.
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of die Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). David was no mere wistful follower, near to God on some days and some occasions but not on others: “My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed,” he wrote in Psalm 57:7. Such was David’s heart—not fickle, but believing, meditative, set on holiness and righteousness, brave and courageous, grateful, and fixed upon God.
None of these things was David’s by natural birth; he wrote, “I was sharpened in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalm 51:5). But there had been a day when God had met this young man and had renewed his heart so that the goodness of heart which W2S his qualification for the anointing of the Holy Spirit for power in God’s service came from God Himself. The only qualification for heaven that any of us can ever have is such evidence of God’s grace in our lives.
The choice of a “man of God” is based upon what God sees in a heart of the response to His love. I would wish that some folk who are so “positive of their salvation would condescend sometime” to examine themselves by the Scriptural qualifications. Of course, we must never doubt the Word of God or His promises, but the question is, “Is my confidence that I am God’s own well-founded? Is there any evidence of it in my life? What is my response to His love and grace?”
Are you afraid to go back to the foundation with David and say, “Search me, O God . . . And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24)? If you go on through life blindly confident but never examining your own heart, that is a token of delusion you are believing something that is not true.
Always I would preach the privilege we have of faith in a mighty God in His promises and His Word, the objective look at the cross as the basis of salvation, and the great fact of our security because He will never let us go. I would urge upon all to have full assurance of faith in that because He died and rose again, you are justified and saved.
But I would beg that you be careful to distinguish between presumption and assurance. Preaching to a congregation privilege and not precept will produce dangerous lethargy in God’s people. What many of us need today is a burning examination by the Holy Spirit, which may be bitter to the taste but which may awaken us to the disaster of imagining that we are Christians when there is no evidence in our lives of His grace.
God’s choice of a man of God is conditioned upon heart response,’ not head response. I do not ask you if your heart is perfect, or if it never goes astray God knows how prone we are to wandering and sin. But I ask you pointedly, praying that the Spirit may challenge you with the question: Is your heart resting upon Jesus? Do you have a believing heart? Does it meditate upon God’s Word and find comfort in the Scriptures? Does your heart desire and seek after holiness? Is it a grateful and humble heart, ever thankful to Him? Is it eternally fixed upon God, or is it a fickle heart, flirting with the things of this world?
That the Spirit may literally pull from under your feet any false basis of assurance in your salvation is my prayer for you. May He never let you rest until you have an assurance based upon what your heart has received of the grace and character of Jesus Christ, not simply upon what your heart believes, One who believes with the head only, without evidencing grace, love, gentleness, humility, or another token of the indwelling Christ, has no right to say he is a Christian. God’s choice is contrary to all human reason and is based upon the dead response of a j man’s heart.
In the third place, God’s choice of a “man of God” is characterized by heavenly recognition. We may not know the heart of another, but there is certain evidence by which a man whom God has chosen becomes known because heaven has bestowed upon him certain qualities which mark him out.
The first of these pieces of evidence in David’s case took place when “Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him amid his brethren, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward” (I Samuel 16:13).
It is doubtful whether anyone who witnessed that anointing understood what was happening. If David’s father or brothers or the townspeople had known, someone would have run off immediately to tell Saul. I cannot imagine those seven brothers knowing the significance of what was taking place and standing there indifferently. They didn’t understand what Samuel was doing. But David knew, and although he never lifted a finger to get the throne for himself— in fact, he often spared the life of Saul even when that jealous king was attempting to kill him David knew beyond all doubt that one day he would be king.
The oil Samuel poured out was the visible sign of the Spirit of God who from that day forward was upon David in mighty power. Form our Lord Jesus there was not oil, but the appearance of a dove from heaven gently resting upon Him (Matthew 3:16). For the disciples on the day of Pentecost, there was no oil but “cloven tongues like as of fire” (Acts 2:3) descending upon them from heaven.
Unfortunately, how often do we meet professing Christian people today if who have no power in witness, no radiance in their faces, no sweetness fin their personalities, no reality, in their spiritual lives. They are indwelt by the Spirit of God, but they are not anointed. The Holy Spirit is in them, but not upon them in power and reality. . Has the Spirit of God been searching your heart and convicting you of lack of grace, of love, of gentleness, of Christ-likeness? Have you seen yourself as lacking in reality and joy, with no true evidence of His I live in you? Does your heart cry out today for His cleansing as you: confess before Him with a humble and broken spirit? Then to you, I say, claim your anointing today, for God has promised that the fire of His Spirit and the glowing reality of His love will always descend upon that yielded life which places no confidence in the flesh but hunger for a God renewed-heart of holiness and righteousness. The recognition of heaven is the mark of your election, to all the world the revelation that you belong to Jesus. Is this anointing on you today? Is there a mark of reality in your spiritual life?
But that was not the only reward for David. His election was clear to everyone because the next thing that happened was that he came into collision with Saul. It is impossible for a man chosen by God to be at peace with the. children of the devil. A man anointed of the Holy Spirit is immediately the target of Satan—the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman will always be at enmity until Jesus comes.
It is possible that for a while you, like David, may be able to soothe your enemy and make him happy if you play your spiritual harp to him. But die the moment the world discovers what you are, when the obvious evidence of heavenly reality rests upon you, they will begin to sling die javelins at you. Also, as in die case of David, you will discover that the place of rejection by others is the place of acceptance by God. f. The greatest reward of all for David was when he was finally acclaimed king! He was crowned before all the people of Israel and received their homage. There is a crowning day coming for us, also. ; Our beloved Lord Jesus prayed for us: “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am” (John 17:24). { And the Apostle Paul declared, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a j crown of righteousness [the crown of a godly life], which the Lord
shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all Diem j also that love his appearing” (II Timothy 4:8).
wonder what the effect of all this has been upon your heart. I trust that some have been greatly disturbed if your life and- character j are destitute of the evidence of God’s grace, if you have been going along without self-examination, simply believing with your head what you have read in the Bible but without its becoming part of your \character.
I trust, also, that some of you have been greatly comforted. You may j have thought you did not matter to anyone your parents, your family, your friends but now you realize that you matter immensely to God. Perhaps you have been made to cry out to Jesus with a hunger for j Him you have never known before. Are you among God’s people, or are you believing a lie? Does your “life bear examination? Is there evidence of the marks of His grace? If you are His, is the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon your testimony or is your life cowardly, afraid, uncertain of itself, net-knowing where you stand? God wants to meet with you, for He loves you and wants you to be a man after His own heart, one who is chosen, having to die seal of the Spirit of God upon your life, the anointing of the! Third Person of the Trinity.
Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men, and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why earnest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I \now thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart;-for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle. And David said, What have I now done?..
And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
And Saul said to David, Thou are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and ‘ there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: . . . Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. . . .
Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comes to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. . . . for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands. . . .
And David put his hand in his bag, and too\ thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sun\ into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with o stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him, but there was no sword in the hand of David . . .
And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was \nit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his soul.
I SAMUEL 17:28-18:1
VANQUISHING THE ENEMY
(I Samuel 17:28—18:4)
THE OLD TESTAMENT, as you know, is full of pictures of New Testament truth. It is not only a book of history, though it is that, revealing to us the great seed plots of God’s plan of redemption for the human ” race; it also illustrates many great truths later developed in the New Testament, setting them before us in pictorial language so that we may apply them in our hearts and daily lives.
There is one such truth of immense significance in this passage. I imagine this story has been familiar to most people from the earliest: days of childhood—the story of David and Goliath. But I am not sure to what extent we have grasped its spiritual significance. Let us investigate some of the different aspects in this chapter, trusting that the Word of God may grip your heart, and the Spirit of God reveals to you some basic principles for your Christian life.
Notice first the magnificent giant that we find arrayed against Israel in the early verses of I Samuel 17—I cannot call him by any other name: he was a magnificent giant! You will find a description of him in verses 4-6, and it is a most impressive picture. His head, his shoulders, his chest, and his legs were all clothed in brass he was just one scintillating mass of brass, glittering in the Palestinian sun. This Goliath, as he strutted up and down on one side of the valley, must have been very fascinating to look at, and very terrifying.
Not only so, but he seemed invulnerable; anyone might well quail before such an enemy: “And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set
your battle in array?. choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me” (I Samuel 17.7-8).
This giant in all his magnificence seemed absolutely beyond defeat. I, He was also irrepressible in his arrogance; for forty days he appeared, day by day uttering his challenge to battle and defiance to the people of God.
Notice that he was calling for a man; he was suggesting that instead of the two armies going into the fight, each one should have a representative. If the man the Israelites chose “be able to fight with me and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us” (I Samuel 17:9). In other words, he was prepared to be the representative of the Philistines, and all he asked was that dead Israelites should select their representative and let an individual match decide the issue. What happened to Goliath would happen to his followers; what happened to the representative of the people of God would happen to them. Here, then, we see this magnificent giant strutting to arid fro in all his pride and arrogance, defying the armies of Saul. But if you look at the other side of the valley you see a pathetic picture, although these people belong to God and are in a covenant relationship with Him. Incidentally, the battle was lined up in a territory that belonged to Judah (I Samuel 17:1), and it was in this place that rightfully belonged – to the people of God that Goliath was breathing out his defiance.
All that this helpless crowd of Israelites could do was to set the battle
in the array (I Samuel 17:2), which I take to mean that they were getting organized to fight. But when the enemy came in sight, how they quaked at the sight of that giant! “And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid” (I Samuel 17:24). They were a people in covenant relationship with God, but
actually in the bondage of fear before Goliath and all that he stood for.
Now it is impossible, surely, for any of us to escape the significance of that picture. On the one hand, there is Goliath in all his impressiveness there could scarcely be a more striking picture of Satan and his
power. He may not strut around in armour like Goliath, but he is impressive and far too powerful for any human being to stand against.
In any city, you will find a modern Satan who seems irresistible, arrayed in “all kinds of fascinating garbs. He clothes himself in the philosophy of modern education, especially the theory that man is essentially good and needs only to be trained and educated to become civilized and perfect a theory that denies the whole truth of the Bible that man is essentially sinful.
You will also find Satan arrayed in the attractive garb of modern literature, especially in the disgusting trash you can pick up in the bookstalls today which appeals to the flesh and the carnal mind. You will find Satan, too, in the fascinating garb of liberty between the two sexes in the slack standard of morals that exists today among young
I people: the carelessness of thought, the indulgence of the body.
You will find Satan defying the people of God in all these things which are so alluring and tremendously powerful.
He is arrayed in modern civilization in so many ways that I scarcely need to enumerate them: there he stands, a colossal giant, far too strong for any of us to attack. You may say you don’t believe in him, but that is only another proof of his power; for the Bible tells us that the god of this world (the devil) “hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (II Corinthians 4:4). There are many people today who do believe he exists and who know something of his power, not only in the sense of controlling a nation or a city but in their souls. They recognize, in their combat with evil, that Satan is far too strong for them. A very fascinating, clever, intellectual, invulnerable giant is the devil of the 1960s.
On the other side of the valley, as Satan’s only opponent today, what do we find? Here is the professing Christian church, a great company of people in covenant relationship with Almighty God by the blood of the cross, indwelt by the Third Person of the Trinity, belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet they, like the Israelites, are helpless to do anything about the powers of darkness arrayed against them. We admit this to our shame; nevertheless, it is good for us to face facts as they are. The church today is very large well equipped and well organized: the battle is set in array, everything is planned, but when it comes to facing die enemy, we are fighting a losing battle. It is interesting to note that the Israelites facing Goliath were led at that moment by a man who had forfeited through his disobedience the anointing of the Spirit of God. He had. lost contact with his source of spiritual authority, and because he had, the people were helpless too and quaking with fear.
As we face the giants of our era in all their satanic power, the church seems so helpless to deal with the basic problems and sins of our day. Is it because use we are bereft of spiritual authority? Perhaps our leadership, through disobedience and unbelief, has forfeited access to the source of spiritual power, and our only answer to the defiance of the devil is to try to set the battle in array, organize, and plan. Surely we have never been better organized, but when we launch an attack in the name of the Lord> we lack the power that gives victory. Here is our first picture: the present-day “church is set in battle array against a strutting, arrogant, proud adversary. As Paul says in Ephesians 6:12. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers . . . against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We see the enemy all around us gaining ground rapidly, and we find that we are without the power to deal with the main issues.
Let us look, however, at another aspect of the story, and see the mighty deliverance that was given to the people of God that day. I remind you again of Goliath’s suggestion that the whole issue should be settled by a representative: “Give me a man!” In other words, the issue will be settled by dead representatives of each side. Here we get 2 glimpses into the basic fact of die Bible, for the whole % issue is not the devil arrayed against a multitude of Christian people— it is the devil against God! It is Satan versus Jesus! And the whole issue is settled, not only in the life of a church but in the life of a Christian, by our Representative. What happens to the prince of the powers of darkness happens to all who follow him. What happens to our Lord, David’s greater Son happens to all who follow Him.
David here is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, who overcame Satan at Calvary, and also a picture of every child of God who is being made one with Him through faith and obedience. Christ is the Head and we are His body, and therefore if He has won the victory over Satan, so have we. How pointless would be any series of Bible studies unless we caught a fresh glimpse of the loveliness of our Lord Jesus Christ! Let us pick out some details here that direct our thoughts to Him.
David was, in the first place, sanctified by the Spirit. Before he took up this battle in the name of the living God, he had been anointed .by the Spirit of God. After Samuel anointed him, we are told, “the Spirit . of the Lord came upon David from that day forward” (I Samuel 16:13). There was also a day in the life of our Lord Jesus when, at His baptism, before He took up the battle on our behalf, He was anointed by the Spirit of God, who descended upon Him like a dove.
Then we read ii I Samuel 17:17 that David was sent by his father to the battleground. Fie was sent from keeping the sheep, from the place of isolation, sent from his home out into public conflict. It is said of the Lord that “the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (I John 4:14).
We find that when David arrived on the scene he was scorned by his brethren. Look at the language of his elder brother Eliab: “Why earnest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle” (I Samuel 17:28). See the battle? Why, there wasn’t any battle, for nobody dared take up Goliath’s challenge!
There never is a battle against the devil until the Lord Jesus takes it up on our behalf. You don’t know anything about warfare until in the name of Christ you launch out into the attack. But that is just the nerve to die flesh to imagine that you are getting on with the battle, and all the other fellow is doing is to come and watch! David was scorned by his brethren, and it was said of our Lord that “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11). “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” wrote Isaiah (53:3)”
Carrying the simile a bit further, we find that David was strengthened by his past experiences. When Saul challenged his credentials, saying that he could not go and fight against this Philistine “for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth” (I Samuel 17:33), David told him of experiences in his life when he kept his father’s sheep. There came a lion and a bear, attacking as a lion and a bear do, taking a Jamb out of the nock, and David killed them. “This will not be the first time I’ve met a powerful enemy,” said David, in effect. “It will not be the first time 1 has proved the power of God to save me.” Before our Lord Jesus Christ went into the public arena of Calvary (if I may say it reverently) and fought there openly to save us from sin and hell, He had a private conflict face-to-face with the devil in the wilderness and defeated him there.
David also was sustained by the Word of God. I like his defiance of Goliath when he said, “Thou comets to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. . . . And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands” (I Samuel 17:45, 47).
Strengthened by experience and sustained by the Word of God, David went out to battle against the foe. The Lord Jesus went to Calvary outside the city wall and triumphed over Satan out of an empty tomb because alone in the wilderness He had repelled Satan’s attacks by the strength of the Word of God. He had defeated him time and time again with the simple statement, “It is written.”
One final simile, though there are many: David was successful in his conflict by faith and faith alone. He prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, and there was no sword in David’s hand. Saul offered him one; Saul’s idea was to dress him up and make him as
much like Goliath as he could. David, however, renounced the whole principle because he knew that the victory was “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6).
Of course, the most wonderful thing of all is this: that the victory of David was the victory of Israel. Every Israelite mark this carefully, and may the Lord give you the thrill of it in your soul—became a conqueror that day because of David’s triumph (I Samuel 17:51-52). They all shared in his victory.
Similarly, what happens to Christ happens to His people. The vanquishing of the enemy not merely city-wide or nation-wide, but personally in the life and all the temptation of his glittering fascinations which constantly hit at us, is entirely dependent upon our identification with David’s greater Son, and our acceptance of the principles upon which He won the fight.
We are striking now at something fundamental. Here we expose, in the name of the Lord, the whole reason for the ineptitude of the Christian church really to tackle the social problems, the moral problems, the youth problems of our day. Despite our correctness,-despite our having set the battle in array, despite our organizations, despite our techniques, and despite our head-knowledge of truth, the whole reason for our failure to deal with modern problems is just here.
TYPOLOGY
I speak to you as a fundamental believer in the Lord and in His Word in a position of truth which, God helping me, I shall never leave or forsake—but speaking as such I tell you I feel like hanging my head in shame! With all our boast of orthodoxy and correctness of organization and technique, what are we doing really to cope with the power of the devil in our cities today? Mighty little!
We see in David also a reflection of the one whose life is yielded to David’s Lord. Here is the principle of victory: David had the anointing ‘ of God upon him because of faithfulness in the obscurity of his home life, because there he had passed the test. He was anointed by the Spirit of God alone in private before he came out into the public arena to stand in the name of the Lord.
What are you like at home? What about your conversation and behaviour around the family table, your relationships with your husband, wife, parents, or children? Is there the anointing of the Spirit of God upon your testimony in public because in private, in the humbleness of daily life, there has been a consistent and faithful testimony?
I said earlier that the whole army of the people of God stood bereft and helpless before the giant Goliath under the leadership of a man who had forfeited die anointing of God because of his disobedience. Today the Christian church is helpless. Behind the scenes and away from the public arena we are facing powers of darkness too strong for us because somewhere in our personal lives we have forfeited all rights to the Spirit’s anointing, His authority, and His power. In His absence, all we can do is substitute planning and organization, schemes and techniques and therefore we break down every time because the enemy is too powerful for us.
We are to be anointed by the Spirit and sent by the Lord. The only thing that gives a fellow or a girl courage to stand in their immediate circumstances (if they are in God’s will) with all the pressures around them, is the knowledge that God has sent them there. The sovereignty of the Lord is behind them, though they may be scorned by others just as David was scorned by his brothers. Many can bear testimony to a day when, in the name of the Lord, they said to parents and loved ones, to a wife or family, “I am going to stand for Christ: 1 want to be God’s best, and 1 am going to take up the battle in the name of the Lord.” And the answer came, “You had better give up that idea! What can you do? Just a little nobody like you, you’re just wasting your time!” You have borne the scorn and the curled lip of someone you love because you are dedicated to the Lord.
David was strengthened by experience: he could look back upon a day when he slew a lion and a bear. The confidence you may have as you go out in the name of the Lord today is that in the pages of your memory you can find days when you have faced an impossible situation, and the Lord stepped in and gave victory. It isn’t the first time you have stood against a Goliath you know what it is to be strengthened by experience and sustained by the Word of God.
So many Christians believe in the God of history and the God of prophecy; we believe in all the great doings He did in Wesley’s day and Moody’s day. We believe in the great things He is going to do when He comes again. But how few of His people believe that He is the God of today, that He is a present, living power in our hearts! In Saul’s mind, God was absent from the whole conflict; He didn’t enter into it. But in David’s mind, God was the greatest reality of all. Is God real to you like that today? Is He God not only of the yesterdays of your past, nor of the hopeful tomorrows of the future, but death to self and absolute victory today?
David was strengthened and sustained by the Word of God, and by faith, he was successful in. the battle. He knew perfectly well it was no use imitating the enemy by dressing up like him and going out in Saul’s armour he saw the futility of that. Rather he must put on the whole armour of God mat he might stand his ground in that evil day.
To me, it is a pathetic thing to find so many Christians believing that the best way to hear witness for the Lord is to imitate the devil’s methods, to try to resist Satan by the same kind of program and technique, ability and,d organization, which he has perfected. “We must not be thought too different/5 is the argument frequently used. But there is only one way to real victory, and David found it. You and I will only find it by the same principle of absolute faith in and reliance upon the power of the Lord Jesus,
In our concluding glimpse of this story, have you noticed that there was a spectator? His name was Jonathan, the son of Saul, who naturally watched the whole battle with great concern. He had been among those who had not dared launch out into their fight, but as he watched David go out and fight Goliath in the name of the Lord, his soul was knit to David’s, and he loved him as he loved his soul.
If only we could catch a glimpse again today of David’s greater Son who went out into the battle for us at Calvary, who triumphed by all these principles, who proved to be more than Conqueror when God raised Him from the tomb! He shed His blood for our redemption and dealt with the power of sin in that battle on the cross. Surely our response to Him should be, “My Jesus, I love Thee! I know Thou art mine!” Doesn’t your soul go out after Him who fought that battle, not for Himself, but on your behalf and mine?
Then Jonathan “stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and his girdle” (I Samuel 18:4). In other words, that day he saw the principle of victor}’, and he was identifying himself with that principle by which David had won. He was giving away all the carnal weapons of Saul’s armour that he might cast himself in faith upon David. This is the glorious note on which I conclude this message: what happened to David happened to his people; David’s victory was their victory. What happened to the King of kings at the cross in His death, burial,-and resurrection and ascension is something that happened to all those who come to Him. As Jonathan surrendered to David, he yielded to the same principle of life which governed David.
Although you may be in a covenant relationship with God, have you learned that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal? Have you never realized that the Lord does not fight with a sword or spear? Have you not discovered that you cannot match Satan with his weapons and with his armour? We have nothing except—and what a glorious exception the Word of God, the power of His Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Ghost upon a life which has surrendered all confidence in the Flesh of Child of God, you may have victory yet, despite the defeat, as you recognize the power of Goliath and his tremendous strength, if you, like Jonathan, love the Lord Jesus with all your soul and just put down at His feet every weapon, every confidence in technique and program, and recognize that the battle is won not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit. If you come to Him in total submission, He will give you power f.om- on high, because the Lord’s victory is your victory. What happened to Christ is for all the members of His Body, and all God asks of you is an acceptance of that principle.
SOULS IN CONFLICT
(I Samuel 16:14-23 18:5-12)
But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Said, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man. who is a cunning player on the harp. . . .
Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, 1 have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing And David came to Saul and stood before him: and he loved him greatly, and he became his armour-bearer. . . . And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp, and played, with his hand: so Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.
.- I SAMUEL 16:14-23
And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him and behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.
And it came to pass . . . that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of music. And the women answered one another as they played, and said Saul, hath slam his thousands, and David his ten thousand.
And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed -unto David ten thousand, and to me, they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day and forward. . . And Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him, and was departed from Saul. I SAMUEL 18:5-12
As we continue to study the making of a man of God from the life and character of David, it is a help to see such a person in contrast with other people who had the same opportunities and faced the same problems as he did.
Quite clearly, at this point of the story, the Holy Spirit brings to our attention David and Saul, setting them side by side for our careful, thoughtful meditation. Both of them were chosen for leadership and both of them were anointed by the Spirit. But with those two statements comparison ceases and contrast begins, for everything else in the life of Saul and David is in striking opposition: We see the sun begin to rise upon one’s life and to set upon the other. For one, there is steady growth in grace and the knowledge of God; for the other, there is tragic decline and disobedience to God: darkness, frustration sin.
Yet Saul began so well, and he might have been all that David was. The two men are placed side by side for our examination, for our warning, and our encouragement. The same loving God, the same heavenly resources are at the disposal of both, but we see one of them steadily rising and the other steadily sinking.
Let us examine the reason why one life should end in triumph and the other in tragedy. May God here speaks to your heart concerning the direction of your own life in its spiritual progress. I would remind you it is not a snap decision that decides your eternal destiny. Unless that decision for Christ is followed by a life directed by the Spirit of Christ, it is not valid, because it is direction, trend, progress that evidence of a man’s destiny.
THE MAN OF GOD: TESTED IN TRAINING
Some commentators suggest that the incident in 1Samuel 16:14-23 is out of place, and should appear after chapter 17,
following the account of the battle between David and Goliath. The: reason for such an argument is quite simple. When David returned “from victory against the Philistines (I Samuel 17:55)7 Saul inquired •of one of his captains who this young stripling was. If David had already been playing his harp to him, would not he have known?
That reasoning sounds very plausible, but it brings up one or two other problems. For instance, is it at all likely, that Saul’s servants, when they saw him under the possession of an evil spirit, would have brought him, David, as one who might be able to help him, when Saul was already eyeing David with jealousy (1 Samuel 18:9)? Furthermore, would it have been necessary for Saul’s servants to go into the detail. description of David in I Samuel 16:18 to introduce him to Saul? They would need only to say, “Here is the man who won the victory in the valley against the giant.” No, I prefer to leave the passage where it is.
However, I would suggest that between the incident in the closing verses of chapter 16, when David soothed Saul’s temper and disposition with his harp, and the moment when the young shepherd outmatched Goliath in the valley, David had been back home with his sheep. Maybe years had passed and the lad had grown to be a young man. At any rate, as he went home to his sheep, knowing that God’s hand was upon him, he was perfectly prepared to await the time when God would speak again and call him out into the public arena. Here is a great example of patience in waiting upon God, and another evidence of David’s progress in contrast to Saul’s downfall.
We will now highlight some things that, seem to clarify one man’s advance and the other man’s collapse, and may God speak to us about these things in our own lives, as they apply to us.
In the first place, there is what I would call the soul’s decline. A spiritual decline is always obvious to everyone except the person involved. Sometimes he can go on hiding it for a while, at least in so far as his conscience is concerned. But spiritual decline backsliding, withdrawal from a walk and fellowship with God, a refusal to J accept the principles of Christian living, a rejection of God’s terms for spiritual vitality—soon makes itself evident in. a man’s character. The process is outlined here very clearly in Saul’s jealousy of David.
“Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousand” (I Samuel 18:7) was the shout of a great multitude acclaiming David in the hour of his victory. But Saul found it a bitter pill to swallow. He knew perfectly well that he had been rejected by God from the king- j ship because Samuel had told him so. Ever since that moment, he had
been looking around for any possible successor. As the crowd praised David, Saul must have had a premonition in his heart that this man was the one who was going to take his kingdom. In his anger he said, “They have ascribed unto David ten thousand, and h) me. they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?” (I Samuel 18:8).
Jealousy got into Saul’s soul, jealousy ripened until it became murderous intent. Saul had threatened David’s life, as recorded in I Samuel 18: 10-12, and later he would spend years chasing him through the countryside in a fruitless attempt to slay him. Jealousy followed by attempted. murder were sure sign that somewhere in Saul’s life the darkness was setting in, as pointed up by the pathetic picture back in chapter 17. This one-time hero of Israel, facing the challenge of Goliath, slunk into his tent, afraid.
The whole army of Israel was waiting for a call to battle from’ their leader, but Saul was lurking in the darkness, afraid to face anyone. In earlier days, one trumpet blast from Saul would put the whole army on the move, but not now. He still had the formula of faith in God: “The Lord be with thee,” he said (I Samuel 17:37), as he tried to clothe the young man in his armour, wishing him well as he went out to fight the giant. He had the formula, but he had lost the reality of God, and he dared not venture against the tremendous odds. He had lost his grip upon God, and therefore he had lost his grip upon his people. In his soul reigned frustration, darkness, jealousy, and murder. By contrast, “David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with him” (I Samuel 18:14). God was a living reality in the life of the young shepherd. How had that come about? That which marked the difference between these two men was what they did when they were alone. David worshipped God; he meditated upon his Lord day and night when he was alone with his sheep. Saul was self-indul¬gent. What a man does when he is alone with his thoughts will decide what he is when he is in public with other people. It is there that either by self-indulgence a man’s character is wrecked or by self-discipline a man’s character is made.
Alone with God, David meditated and nourished his soul in the Lord. He learned how to bear quietly the sneers of his brothers as he came to do battle with Goliath'(I Samuel 17:28). He was able to bear rebuke meekly, to take misrepresentation gently, to pass unruffled through the scathing criticism of those who should have known better. That was possible only because his heart was in tune with God; David learned that to be strong is to be gentle when provoked and that the – Lord would give him strength in the battle.
Do you see the contrast? On the one hand, sin, jealousy, bitterness, hatred, murder; on the other hand, gentleness, and meekness. On the one hand, because of all the sin and hatred, there was powerlessness in the fight. On the other hand, the man with a gentle and meek spirit, who had meditated upon the laws of God, became mighty to
conquer the powers of darkness. Where do you fit into that picture so far? Are you a soul in declension, or a soul in growth? Is your life declining because it is self-indulgent, or are you growing because in a die secret place your life has found its source deep in the Lord? What do you think about when you are alone? What does the devil do with your mind when you are by yourself? May the Spirit of God probe deep!
In the second place, we see also here a soul in desolation. “The Lord . . . was departed from Saul” (1 Samuel 18:12) Allow that phrase to sink into your heart. The Lord was departed from him, and 1 cannot imagine anything more dreadful than a life from which God has been withdrawn. Picture Saul for forty days in his tent on one side of the valley while the giant Goliath struts up and down on the other. Saul’s army waits in vain for a signal from him. Surely he had no appetite for food or battle, in fact, for anything. He was desolate and. empty, because the Lord had taken His hand off him.
Whenever God’s presence is withdrawn from a soul, when His Holy Spirit is taken away in His convicting power, that man is left in hopeless revolt against everything around him. He becomes sour and bitter; he is afraid to meet people or talk to them; he is afraid to go anywhere but shuts himself up alone, and he has no appetite for his Bible, for prayer, or anything. Life has become meaningless; such a man often flings himself into the lake to end it all. God has departed!
But there is even worse: “die evil spirit from God came upon Saul” (I Samuel 18:10). An evil spirit from God how can that be? God sends the Holy Spirit, we are told, to check and rebuke, to love and provide. Would God send an evil spirit? Yes, if a man stamps his foot and turns his back on the voice of the Omnipotent One, rejects the claim of God in Jesus Christ, revolts against the principles of heaven at that moment God becomes his enemy.
There was a time, perhaps, when that man was in the stream of blessing, carried along in victory by the power of the Lord in his heart, rejoicing in his salvation and serving the Lord with gladness. But there came a moment when he turned his back upon God when Satan tripped him upland he refused to repent and acknowledge his sin so that he struggles against God, and his soul is in desperate peril The Scripture says that with the froward God shows Himself froward (Psalm 18:26). Against the rebellious life, the life that has turned its back upon Him God matches all His heavenly power; the angels are arrayed against such a person. But if he goes eventually to a lost eternity, it will be only because he has trodden underfoot the blood of Jesus Christ; he has rejected the principle of the cross and forgiveness.
God bars the road to hell at Calvary, but if a man stamps his foot and insists on the diet he can work out his passage, that-he can somehow manage his affairs with a bit of help from church and religion, then God sets unseen hosts across that man’s path’ in the heavenly array. Time and time again his conscience speaks to him, and the memory of a better life than he used to live haunts him. The fact that days have gone by that he can never recover and the conviction that, after all, he is fighting with God, deepen in his soul. All these things become his enemies. Such is the evil spirit sent from God to stop a man in his downward course to disaster.
To bring this to our level, if some of, us are not careful we will find, as Judas found, that the very pleadings of Jesus Christ only begin to seal our doom. Oh, the desolation of a soul from which God has withdrawn! “My Spirit shall not always strive with man,” He said Isn’t it strange that the one thing that helped Saul (I Samuel 16:23), which somehow brought rest into his fevered spirit and calmed his inner battle, was music? What a tremendous ministry that is that of song and music! “Chords that are broken will vibrate once more,” goes the. the old song we often sing, and how quickly do they begin to respond |j when they hear the lovely old songs of the faith. Many a man walking § up and down skid row has heard such an old hymn and gone inside the mission hall to cast his wretched, debauched life at the feet of Jesus and to be delivered. How often a message in the song has stirred our hearts to think and to pray “Why should that be? Because heaven is full of song and music; the Bible tells us so. It is an expression of the very life of heaven, and that is why the singing of a hymn can be used to speak to a heart that is possessed and desolate. Saul’s poor, lonely soul responded to music when nothing else could touch him. That is why the devil uses music, too and he distorts it into modern jazz, a powerful weapon in his hands with which to capture the senses and stifle the soul. You see people going about the streets with transistor radios in their hands. They cannot be quiet; they are afraid to be without some noise, so they listen to the hypnotic throbbing of jazz. It dulls their conscience, drugs their senses, and stops their thinking. Why? Music, which has great power to influence a soul and draw him back to the reality of God and heaven, is a thing the devil has grasped and twisted and used to keep people blinded in his grip. Oh, the subtlety of the devil! Oh, the desolation of a life that is insensible to God!
By contrast, we read that “David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him” (I Samuel 18:14). He lived and walked in fellowship with God. He knew what it was to abide under the shadow of the Almighty, to be hidden in the secret of God’s pavilion. Therefore, in his heart there was no fear as he faced the enemy; in his hand, there was no tremor as he went to do battle for the Lord. He was dead in his aim, for he walked and talked with God. The harp he used was a symbol of the life he was living, the Lord Himself being the joy and melody it expressed. Because of his harmony with heaven, David had tremendous power and influence upon others.
That is always true. Let a man be right with God, reconciled through the blood of the cross, humbled at the foot of Calvary; let him be broken, coming to God guilty and hopeless and needy; and at that moment God takes hold of him and transforms and uses all his gifts and qualities until that man becomes a mighty influence. But he has first to come down from his ladder of pride to the very foot of the cross. Do you see the contrast? The Lord departed from Saul; the Lord was with David. We find a statement repeated in I Samuel 18:12 and 15: “Saul was afraid of David.” Isn’t that significant? If you are walking today at the very centre of divine life, your heart singing with joy because it is right with God through the blood of Calvary if you are saved and you know it, I tell you, unconverted people are a bit scared ‘ of you. They are not always too happy in your company. When I was an unsaved man, I remember how afraid I was in the presence of a man of God.
Observe the contrast: we have seen a soul in glorious progress and a soul in decline and desolation, We may ask why these things should be, for God has no favourites. Now I would draw aside the inmost veil and trace to the roots of a soul’s disobedience.
I commend to you the careful reading of I Samuel 15, where the prophet came and faced Saul with this accusation: “Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king” (15:23). Do you say it is tough of God to do that? Wait a Minute it was not just one act, it was an attitude of life. Disobedience began years before when Samuel commanded Saul to wait for him before he offered the sacrifice, and Saul became impatient. Of course, he did, for he did not know what to do with his idle moments, as David did. He became impatient with God as well as with Samuel and offered the sacrifice himself. Then, later, he disobeyed God’s Word and spared some of the Amalekites, as recorded in I Samuel 15. He repeatedly rejected the Word of the Lord and therefore his course was down With, irrevocably Downward. Do I speak to someone who has disobeyed the Word of the Lord? His Word came to you saying, “Belief on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved” (Acts 16:31). But you said “No, it costs too much! I’m too proud. There are too many complications in my life.”
The Word of the Lord came telling you to submit to the Lord Jesus and receive the Holy Ghost in His fullness, for He gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. But you surveyed, on the other hand, some friendship, some iniquitous habit, and you said “No!” to die Lord. Oh, be careful! If a man rejects His Word, God will reject him. God withdraws His protection from the disobedient heart, and if that man is a child of God, though the Spirit of God will ever be in him, the protecting hand of God is taken off, His guiding power is removed, and he is delivered to the devil for the destruction of the flesh and the saving of the soul, as we are shown in I Corinthians 5:5.
As y to every evil, lurking thing. Here is the root of his jealousy; here is the source of his murderous thoughts. When he ignored God’s command that he should slay the Amalekites, he never dreamed that his disobedience to God would end in attempted murder. He thought it didn’t matter, that he could do it and get away with it.
The life which began with such promise ended with such folly. He became impatient with God’s delays and disobeyed God’s commands, 2nd the darkness began to gather. This poor, desolate, lonely soul found himself encompassed by the thunderclouds of passion and madness and jealousy, all God’s loving and protecting power withdrawn from him.
The last rays of the setting sun sink beyond the horizon and everything is dark. That is Saul! By contrast, David went into battle shouting, “I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts!” (I Samuel 17:45). “In the character of God” is what he meant. To highlight this contrast, we find here 2 men whose only weapon whose only strength for testimony, whose only power in ministry was the name of the Lord. But that name is no magic “Open sesame” if a man uses die name, it is because he is identified with the name. To come in the name of the Lord Jesus, to stand With empty hands, without any other weapon at all facing an unbeliever, facing a pagan tribe on the mission held, facing a company of godless business colleagues in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is to stand in a place of absolute authority. That is, provided as you stand in that name you are identified with Him, submitted altogether to the character and loveliness of Christ and His sovereignty. Therefore, when you speak, God speaks, and through your lips and life, the Lord begins to work.
We have seen the two lives, and observed how David won that day because his motives were pure: “that all die earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (I Samuel 17:46). He was not concerned about his glory, but he was concerned that people might know about his God. He put God in His proper place of authority, for he knew that he was only an instrument: “The battle is the Lord’s.” David could use God’s name because the Lord was in His rightful place in his life. Contrast this man with Saul, and ponder the horror and the awful loneliness of a man who has rejected the word of God. Which are you? Before God, are you in spiritual decline or living faith? Is your religion only formula, or is Christ real to you all the time? Are you desolate and bereft, or are you in fellowship with the Holy Spirit moment by moment? Are you living in disobedience to the Word of God, or are you following the Lamb of God wherever He may lead? How much depends upon your answer! For the decline in your life can stop, the downward grade can cease immediately, the desolation of your heart can end, and Jesus can come with all His blessed grace to fill your life with His beauty and fragrance now, at this minute, if your disobedience ends right now.
Force me to render up my sword, And 1 shall conqueror be.
I sink in life’s alarms When by myself I stand; Imprison me within The arms, And strong shall be my hand.
George Matheson
And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son. . ..
The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen- Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncirculated triumph.
Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil.
From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty.
Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death, they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.
Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. How are the mighty fallen amid the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.
I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy have to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. How do the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perish!
II SAMUEL 1:17-27
SOULS IN HARMONY.
(II Samuel 1:17-27)
SOME INCIDENTS IN the life of David as recounted in the latter part of I Samuel are being passed over (but will be returned to later to consider at this point the verses that comment upon the influence of Jonathan in the life of David.
We have noticed the decline of Saul in contrast to the steady rise of David, and Saul’s great enmity toward David. Now we have an opposite influence: the strengthening hand of a God-given friend. What I encourage and help such a friend can bring to a man whom God is shaping and fashioning after His likeness!
What does meditation on this passage reveal? The love of Jonathan for David is but a very pale reflection of the love of Christ for me— this must be the major chord of our study. But first, as we think about this familiar story of lovely Old Testament friendship, I want to gather from it some gems of inspiration and encouragement concerning the sanctifying power of godly friendships.
We see, in the first place, that the love of Jonathan for David was pure in its origin. It seems to have been a case of “love at first sight” (I Samuel 18:3-4). As Jonathan saw David come back from battle with the head of Goliath in his hand, he loved him as one brave soldier might love another.
Jonathan had already proved himself in battle. He and his armour-bearer had turned the tide of invasion not long before, and scattered the foe, gathering all the people of Israel around him. in loyalty and affection. Then why did not Jonathan himself tackle Goliath? Think upon the story for a moment about what a tremendous sense of despair must have been in Jonathan’s heart as he saw his father slipping back, disobeying God, losing his power of command, rejected from being”king. What could the king’s Son possibly do to turn the tide in a situation like that?
But the moment that Jonathan saw David go out to battle, his heart went out to him in great affection and devotion. He “loved him,” we read, “as he loved his soul.” Gladly would Jonathan have given his very life for David; “the soul of Jonathan was. knit unto the soul of David,” says the record. The qualities of character that Jonathan saw in David drew from his admiration and love.
I would pause to say that it is God’s plan for souls to be knit together thus. Adam and Eve came into the world like that, knit together in a oneness that God had given to them. But sin, the great divider of human hearts as well as of men from God, soon did its deadly work and separated them one from the other with the result that ever since then each of us has started the solitary journey of life all alone. The human heart has cried out that it might be knit to another as Jonathan was knit to David, as Adam was knit to Eve. Therefore every true friendship, every real Christian courtship, every genuine oneness in marriage, is a re-establishment of his sacred union; it was God’s purpose from before the foundation of the world.
Was your courtship pure in its origin? Did you fall in love at first sight perhaps because of something of Christ Himself that you saw in the qualities of the one you loved? Because you saw the loveliness of the Lord Jesus and the sweetness of His character, you loved for His sake, and you were knit together. Do your friendships start like that, or are you attracted to something lower? When a friendship, a courtship, a marriage, begins on that foundation, it will stand any test. If it starts on another foundation, it is built on sand.
In the second place, observe that Jonathan’s love for David was disinterested in its action. How unselfish Jonathan was! You notice in these verses that, though the king’s son and heir to the kingdom, he stripped himself of every symbol of his royalty in favour of the one who was his rival. It would have been the only natural to be jealous. Instead, one day when David was hiding from Saul, Jonathan sought him out: “Jonathan Saul’s son arose, and went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God. And he said unto him, Fear not: for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth” (I Samuel 23:16-17).
David’s faith was on the point of faltering. He might well have given up altogether. If he had. he would have ceased to be Jonathan’srival to the throne. But Jonathan went to him and strengthened his hand in God: he did the very thing that would put David above ” him. But Jonathan was happy to be in the background if only the one he loved could be exalted and put upon the throne. He was glad to step out of the picture if only the one whom he loved so dearly might . have the place of prominence. Seldom does a friend put himself in the background for the sake of another like that.
Then, furthermore, Jonathan’s love was steadfast in opposition. It is .an amazing record that we have of Jonathan’s intense loyalty to his father, a man rejected from the kingdom, a man who had turned his back upon God. Jonathan, all through the story, was loyal to Saul, so much so that David said in his lament over diem, “Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death, they were not divided” (II Samuel 1:33).
But Jonathan was consistently steadfast in his love for David, even in the face of opposition from his father, whose jealousy, hatred, and envy of David he knew. All the time Jonathan took David’s side, comforting him; and yet he stood by in loyalty to his father, until one day he was killed in the battle alongside him. Jonathan did not allow his love for David to divert him from the path of duty. He remained true to what he believed to be his right course. Although he loved David as his soul, he stood by his poor, desolate, helpless father, until they died together in the battle.
When I think of that story, my heart is stirred by a desire not only that I might have a Jonathan in my life that is surely very wonderful, but very selfish but also that I might find a David somewhere to whom I could be a Jonathan. Would you ask the Holy Spirit to make you a friend like that, to help you to cultivate in your life sanctifying disinterested, steadfast friendships?
Oh, that the Lord might let us play a part in shaping and fashioning another life in the image of Jesus.Christ! Ask Him to make you a friend who will be to someone what Jonathan was, “a friend who sticketh closer than a brother.” In such a friendship the great purpose of God in making us one in the body of Christ is fulfilled, for the Lord Jesus came “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also- may be one in us” (John 17:21). Let these droughts be a challenge to us all, and perhaps a rebuke to some who are just no friends at all, but who stab us in the back while they smile to the face. So many a human heart has been broken bec’3’use of the betrayal of a false friend.
What sort of a friend are you? Are you trustworthy and steadfast amid opposition and trouble? Is your friendship pure in its origin? Is it based upon the right motives? Is your desire the welfare and 1 blessing of another, even though it means that you are thrust into the background?
We come now to the major theme in this passage. I would repeat that though there is in Jonathan a reflection of the love of Jesus for my soul, I say it is only a very pale reflection as I hope to show you.
“Thy love, to me, was wonderful,” said David concerning Jonathan.
But somehow I want to take those words and put them in your heart and on your lips. I can scarcely preach about them but would bear If- testimony in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and say to Him,” Lord, Thy love to me is wonderful!”I have taken three thoughts concerning Jonathan’s love for David. Let me apply the same to Christ’s love for us, and begin by saying it was also pure in its origin. When did the Lord begin to love me? I don’t know. Certainly, it was long before the day when He said, “Let there be light!” It was long before there were any such creatures as human beings at all: for away back in eternity the Lord looked through the mirror of His foreknowledge, and His understanding, and His omnipotence and His love and delight were with the sons of man. j His love had no beginning; there never was a time when He didn’t love you and me. “I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3).
Did Jonathan love David in the first place because of what he saw of character and beauty and things to admire in David’s life? Yes, he did. But oh, Lord Jesus, I can. think of a thousand reasons why You should pass me by completely! For if that be the basis of God’s love in Christ for my soul, I have not a hope in eternity. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He died for the ungodly, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. There wasn’t one lovely or good thing in any of us that could draw out love from the heart of a holy Saviour there was everything to repel. Yet the infinite God, the altogether lovely One, whose ideal of love surely is far beyond anything we could ever imagine, whose capacity for love is beyond our understanding altogether, He loved us and gave Himself for us.
That is the miracle of miracles! That is far beyond our understanding. He could not rest in heaven without us, and heaven would not be complete unless you and I were there, that we should be His bride and. He should be our Bridegroom. Oh, what love for an object that is so absolutely unworthy! God’s love is so pure in its origin, without a single thing in us to attract, with no motive at all except for the great fact that God Himself is Love.
Furthermore, the love of God in Christ was also disinterested in its action. Did Jonathan strip himself of all the emblems of royalty and lay them at David’s feet? Was he happy to suffer and to be in the background if only he could secure, the promotion and honour of the one he loved? A greater than Jonathan is here today. He laid aside the glory which He had with the Father. He said of Himself, “The Son of man came nor to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
Let us sit down at the foot of the cross and just gaze at Him there. Mark that thorn-crowned brow; look at those hands and feet pierced with nails and see the blood. Look at that broken heart, the water, and the blood, the gaping side. Think of it! This is the Lord of glory, dying amidst the scorn of the people He came to redeem. Think of Him in heaven with all authority in His hands and the angelic host around Him. Then look at Him hanging on a cross with the riff-raff of humanity sneering and gaping at him. When I realize that there He took my sin, the pollution, and filthiness of my life, as if it were His very own, and then poured it into oblivion as far as the east is from the west, I say, “Lord Jesus, Thy love to me was wonderful!”
Have you ever felt that your love for those who have gone on beyond would be like a great flood tide in its intensity if only they could come back? Suppose you found waiting in your room the child you loved, the husband or wife, sitting there to welcome you it just doesn’t bear thinking about! But Jesus did come back! He rose again! He lives and loves us now as much as He ever did then!
A greater than Jonathan is here today, right now where you are. He is here to plan for you, to care for you. Is your lot hard to take? Is the going rough? Is there a cup of bitterness to drink somewhere? Are your friends of a different kind from Jonathan and have they hurt and grieved )? The Bible says that joy comes in the morning, for then we will see the King in His beauty with never a cloud between, and we will serve Him without any weariness or sin, and He shall present us faultless before the presence of God with exceeding joy. His love is so wonderful. His love was so disinterested in action that He not merely stepped into the background, but He stepped right down to the cross. He came, not merely to” comfort and strengthen our hands in God, but Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In our place condemned He stood (Philip P. Bliss),
So that He might promote and honour those He loved, those who were so abased and sinful, so utterly unworthy, He stepped down and down until He was made sin itself that you and I might be exalted to the height of heaven. The love of Jesus is so wonderful!
His love remains steadfast in opposition. Did Jonathan endure the hatred of Saul for the sake of David? Did he strengthen David’s hand in God in the face of all the enmity of his father? A greater than Jonathan is here, for not only did the Lord Jesus endure the hatred of His enemies, but think of the reception He had from me! Perhaps you can echo my testimony as I say in God’s presence that there was a day when I refused the Lord when I told Him 1 didn’t want Him. I would not listen to the Lord because the devil was holding my heart and gripping my life. Yet Jesus came back again and again, through books and preachers, through testimonies and providences, through sufferings and troubles of every kind He came back, and He would not take “no” for an answer.
Oh, the love of Jesus is so wonderful! Since that day when He captured my heart and brought me to Himself, there have been many times when I have been so cold, so worldly, so sinful. There have been times of being misunderstood and maligned, times of darkness and weariness, times of sorrow and pain. In all these experiences of life, His love would never let me go.
I wonder if it is too much to think that perhaps in heaven, through all eternity, I will be telling out that love, not to a handful of people, but the whole
constellation throughout the universe, to millions of rational souls who have never heard of the love of a dying Saviour. I trust that my imagination is not running away with me—certainly, my heart does! I believe that God’s immense universe will need millions of redeemed people to go through all His creations everywhere in space to make known in limitless regions to countless intelligent beings who have never known what sin is, the story of what happened on this little planet called Earth where God Himself lived and bled and died and rose again to bring salvation to unworthy men.
When I think about that, I am not very interested in present attempts to reach the moon and the planets. As a member of the ransomed throng, I expect to have a part in telling redemption’s story to all of God’s created universe. That is space travel with an objective! Is it fantastic? No, listen to Ephesians 3:10, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God.” I believe we have never begun to understand the tremendous scope of the redemption that is ours in Christ. . I would remind you “what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead,, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1: 22). Let that reecho in your heart and mind as you think of what heaven is going to be like. And to think that you and I may “have a part through all eternity in declaring the mystery and the marvel of God’s redemption in this little planet to countless multitudes who have never heard or seen the love of God as we know it!
Indeed, the love of the Lord Jesus is wonderful! Can you say that? This example of human friendship, David and Jonathan, forms the link in this message. If you can say, “Lord Jesus, Thy love to me is so wonderful!” out of a heart full of gratitude and praise, as you have accepted that love, then the amazing thing is that. His love is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit to make you a Jonathan. You cannot claim to know the love of Christ if you are one thing to a man’s face and something else behind his back. The Lord tests the reality of your response to His love, which He made known to you at Calvary through the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you behave with your friends? And also, how do you behave toward your enemies? For when dying love of God pure in its origin, disinterested in its action, steadfast amidst all opposition is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit, you love like that, too.
As we are told in I Corinthians 13, love is forbearing and kind; love knows no jealousy; love does not brag, is not conceited; love is not unmannerly, selfish, irritable, or mindful of wrong. Love does not rejoice in injustice, but joyfully sides with the truth; love can overlook faults; love is full of trust, full of hope, full of endurance. Love never fails! Do you Jove like that?
And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, and he smote, the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night. Saul also sent messengers unto David’s house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal David’s wife told him, saying If thou save-not-thy life to night, to morrow thou shalt be slain. . . .
So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and
told him all that Saul had done to him.
1 SAMUEL 19:10-11, 18
Deliver me from mine enemies, 0 my God: defend me from them that rise up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody
men. I For lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, 0 Lord. They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold. Thou, therefore, 0 Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awa\e to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. . . . But thou, 0 Lord, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen
in den si on. Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my de-fence. . . . Consume them in thy wrath, consume them, that they may not be:
and let them \now that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the
earth. … Bui I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in
the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge:n the day
of my trouble. Unto thee, 0 my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence and the
God of my mercy.
PSALM 59:1-17
PERSECUTED BUT NOT FORSAKEN
(I Samuel 19:10-11, 18)
STUDENTS OF SCRIPTURE have suggested quite a few alternatives for the date and context of the 59th Psalm. Some say that it was-si written in the time of Isaiah and that the enemies referred to are the Syrian army. Others suggest that it was written in the lime of Nehemiah, and therefore the enemies are Sanballat and Tobiah. But both the Hebrew text and the Septuagint (Greek) Version of the Old Testament give to this Psalm the title which appears at the head of it in the King James Version: “David prayeth to be delivered from his enemies when Saul sent, and they watched the house to kill him.”
It is this context that I prefer to accept, and thus place the 59th Psalm at the point we have reached in our studies on David: “Saul also sent messengers unto David’s house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning” (I Samuel 19:11). This was the beginning of a very unhappy time in David’s life, a dark and lonely experience which never¬theless played a tremendous part in the making of his character.
As we study Psalm 59 in this context, I suggest there is, in the first place, what I would call the presence of a gathering cloud in David’s life. Its approach can be seen clearly from the record in I Samuel: “David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly, and he became his armourbearer” (36:21); “Saul hath slain his? thousands, and David his ten thousand. And Saul was very wroth . . . And Saul eyed David from that day and forward” (18:7-9). “Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him” (18:12). “Saul was yet the more afraid of David, and Saul became David’s enemy continually” (18:29). At last, “Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin. . . . Saul also sent messengers to David’s house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning” (19:10-11). Do you see the pressure growing, the gathering cloud relentlessly rising over? the horizon until it reaches its bursting point? If only Saul had drowned that first fit of jealousy in a bath of prayer, what a different story we would have to tell! In the same way, if you and had only drowned the first attack of something in our lives in a sea of prayer, what a different attitude perhaps would be ours today. But Saul didn’t do it; he allowed jealousy to eat at him until nothing but murder would satisfy it.
You will recall how many attempts Saul had already made upon David’s life. He made him a captain in his army (over a thousand men) to have him killed in battle. He demanded from him one hundred dead Philistines as the price of marrying his daughter, and David produced twice that many. Twice Saul hurled a javelin at David to pin Kim to die wall, and finally, he sent messengers r6~’~his’ Rouse to kill him. Only the warning of David’s wife enabled him to escape through a window and run for his life.
Oh, what unhappy days those were! He was separated from his “home by the pressure of Saul’s hatred, and it was not David’s fault, for he had done nothing to deserve it. He was not conscious of any sin in his life that might have brought this attack upon him: “The mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O Lord” (Psalm 59:3)- Not that he would have claimed to be anything but a sinner, but on this particular occasion he knew he had not done one j riling to deserve the pressure that threatened to crush him completely.
Before going further I would pause to ask if you are facing something like this. From one quarter or another, the pressure on you is being applied it has almost overwhelmed and broken you. As far
as you know you are clear of guilt; you have done nothing to justify the attack that is being made upon you, yet this cloud has gathered.
You saw it coming and tried to avoid it, but you could not; you find yourself in the middle of a cyclone, and there is no escape. How real is the pressure of a gathering cloud!
How true it is for those in Christian work: the pressure of criticism, the pressure of “financial problems, the pressure of a thousand and one I details, the gathering cloud that presses deeply upon you is very reak It may be in your home life; it may be in terms of sorrow or hardship, suffering or persecution. All of us at one time or another know an experience of the gathering cloud which we cannot avoid. The horizon which recently was clear has darkened until it is black ( and ominous, and we find ourselves right in the path of a hurricane. If you find yourself in that setting, I would have you learn a lesson from David’s reaction, and how you may triumph in such a situation. Notice particularly, therefore, what I would call the prayer of growing confidence. Watch how David reacts to this pressure you may learn a lesson that will be a blessing to you for the rest of your days. Indeed, it may help us to understand why God allows the cloud to come at all.
David commences this Psalm by casting himself upon God for deliverance. He prays himself out of his sense of helplessness into quiet confidence, and then into a burst of victorious song, although the situation hasn’t changed and the enemy is still there. He begins down in dead depths, crying out to God that He would save him. Then he moves into a calm, quiet assurance that God is in control before finally bursting into a song of triumph. Traps and snares are laid for him ah” around, but he seems somehow or other to escape parficaiid find rest in the Lord.
”Thou, therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit, all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors”
(Psalm 59:5). Notice what he calls God. He accumulates all the titles he can think of to call heaven to his aid in this crisis. “O Lord Jehovah, Elohim of Sabaoth, Lord God of hosts! Nothing \tss than all Thy resources are going to be adequate for me at this
moment in my life. Lord, I need all there is of Thee, every attribute
of Thy power and grace, faithfulness and strength. Lord, just at this
moment in the teeth of the wind that is now against me, in the thick
of the clouds that are engulfing, me I need every bit of Thine omnipotence!”
That prayer is not at all presumptuous. David knew that in this particular situation he was innocent, and therefore he described his enemies as workers of iniquity, heathen, wicked transgressors. How was he sure that this was an attack of the enemy upon him? Because he knew that Saul was fighting against God. Samuel had told Saul that he was rejected from the kingdom and David had been anointed, as king. Hence David knew that the pressure was coming from an enemy who was doing battle against the will of God. In his attempt to take David’s life, Saul was deliberately seeking to frustrate God’s purpose. Nor is he the last man who has stepped into the arena of life to defy God, nor the only one to be crushed in doing it.
“Thou, O Lord, shall laugh at them; thou shah have all the heathen in derision” (Psalm 9:8), is how David expresses his conviction that his enemies are God’s enemies.
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I am Christian and know and believe in the Trinity, God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I found it an interesting explanation about the Trinity in using the Sun. That can certainly help others to grasp the idea of the Trinity. You provide a great amount of history, which is great for someone like me that is eager to learn more.
I find this a very good and advanced post, but it looks difficult and complex. It will look very difficult to some people to read, so in my opinion, it would be easier if the paragraphs were shorter, And maybe even split it into more than just one post that the reader doesn’t lose interest. There is a lot of repetition in the headings, like The man of God tested in training, souls in harmony, souls in conflict, and several others. Apart from this, Typology is a topic that traces every types of Christ from the old to new testament. Thanks for this message.
I think I understand you LineCowley. All suggestions taken and pleasures are mine. Thanks for being there.
Hi LMercadal, nice reading through your comment. We need to know Exegetically the meaning of trinity and Typology and their various applications. Thanks for at list stopping to read.