DAVID'S KINGDOM
E.C.Burr
I do not suppose there is anybody here who has not at some time in their life been attracted by the history of David. Certain men in the Old Testament stand out in our knowledge because their history is presented so attractively and so simply. I expect in Genesis most people here know more about Joseph than they do about Abraham, and in Samuel more about David than about Saul; and elsewhere we could look in the Old Testament and find men who are presented by the Spirit attractively to us so that we may have our attention drawn in relation to them and then find, as the Spirit helps us, that their history is not given to us on their account alone so that we may learn about them as you could for instance about George Washington or Abraham Lincoln or somebody like that, but they are presented to us in order to bring before us features which we shall find perfectly set out later in the Lord Jesus. I am sure that one reason why the Spirit has made certain men in the Old Testament especially interesting to us is that He saw in them things that were later going to be interpreted for us and enlarged upon in the Lord Jesus Himself. That would be a way that the Spirit works, to make a man interesting and attractive to us so that as we think about him and begin to learn about him we may later have our attention drawn to the One whom he anticipated and whatever qualities there were in him, were later set out in their fulness in Christ. Of course the gospel is not about David, and it is not about Joseph, the gospel is not even about Abraham or Isaac or Jacob or any of these worthy men; the gospel is about Christ. Now as the Spirit has recorded the Scriptures He has given us a shorter part in the New Testament and a much longer part in the Old, and preachers often draw on the Old Testament because it has a lot of things in it which can effectively be drawn on for the preaching without attracting you to a man, but presenting a man to you, as James says "a man of like passions to us" (chap 5: 17), so that in him you can readily see things that you will later find in Christ. But I just say this again, that the gospel is not about David, it is about Jesus.
Now this does not hinder me from speaking about David. One thing I am going to do as I speak about a part of David's history (and I specially want to come to the verses that I have read - you might actually wonder why I have read those particular verses with all those names in - but I have something to say about them) is to go back a bit and tell you that several things in David's history fit into Luke's gospel. That should begin to be a bit more interesting, because the application and interpretation of Scripture is very interesting in itself.
David is fairly old by this time. It is difficult to say exactly how old he was because we are not told how old he was when he was anointed. I was doing a little calculation in my mind and thinking that if David was not very old when he was anointed - suppose he was in his early teens or something like that - then Saul reigned for forty years, and David had already been on the throne for a little while, and I was led to think that David in this chapter where I read may even be just about my age. These things help you to think about a man in the reality of the circumstances in which he was. But if we go back to the beginning of David's history, the first occasion when he comes to our notice is, as we well know, when God sent Samuel to anoint a king among the sons of Jesse. What a wonderful day that was! It must have been a wonderful day for Jesse's house, yet nobody there really seemed to understand the greatness of the day. In fact when Samuel came they were all rather frightened. He brought a heifer with him, but he came simply to anoint a king among the sons of Jesse. We well know that Jesse produced his first seven sons and over them God said "Neither has Jehovah chosen this one", 1 Sam 16: 8. And then he said "Are these all the young men?" Oh, said Jesse, "There is yet the youngest remaining, and behold, he is feeding the sheep. And Samuel said... Send and fetch him; for we will not sit at table till he come hither". When he was brought in he was beautiful and of a ruddy countenance and God said "Arise, anoint him; for this is he". That is Luke 3, Jesus coming to the baptism, and the Spirit came upon Him and He was anointed. Not many people knew evidently about the anointing of David but everyone who was there to see, if they had any spiritual penetration at all, would apprehend that something new had begun when Jesus was anointed by the Spirit. That, I say, is Luke 3: Jesus is anointed.
Now another interesting thing is this; David did not begin to do anything particularly spectacular or distinctive the moment that he was anointed, but he was anointed in view of the place that he was going to have. In Luke 3, Jesus, if I could use the expression carefully, having so little time before Him, immediately begins to be active in service to God. If you read on in chapter 16 of the first book of Samuel where David was anointed, the next instance that you find is this: a rather bad tempered man, Saul; he was in a difficult day and they said, We want a man who is skilful in playing the harp. And someone who was there said, I know a man, a son of Jesse, who is skilful in playing the harp. And as you come to the end of that chapter, they sent for David. It was not now "Arise, anoint him; for this is he" and "We will not sit at table till he come hither", but there was no possibility of peace and rest until David was brought in to play with his harp. And that, brethren, is Luke 4: they "wondered at the words of grace which were coming out of his mouth" (v 22). What were the words of grace? "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor". Let us never forget that that was the first thing. The first thing was not that the deaf heard and the lame walked and the blind saw, but the first thing was "he has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor". On another occasion, when John the baptist, rather depressed, wondered what was taking place and if Jesus was really the One who was to come or whether they were to look for another, he gets a message, Tell John what you have seen and heard; how that deaf hear, lame walk and the poor have the glad tidings preached to them (see chap 7: 22). What a great thing that is! Never forget that the great characteristic of the present day is that the poor have the glad tidings preached to them. And, beloved, do not stop preaching; preach better, and pray that you might preach better, and preach the gospel. It does not say that the poor have an outline of the truth or an abstruse outline of some scripture presented to them; they have the glad tidings preached to them. Therefore, beloved, let us in our day preach the gospel, and let it be the gospel in its simplicity and its power. The brethren love it and you might be used by God as you preach the gospel, you might even be used for the conversion of a sinner. What a privilege that would be, a privilege very little known among us! Most of the work of God goes on apart from us; it goes on apart from anything that we have done or in any way intervened in or been used for. But what a privilege it is to have any part in the· conversion of a sinner! Do you not wish, beloved, that you had been used for the conversion of a sinner? Have you any greater ambition than that? Would you sooner be a ministering brother than someone through whom someone had been converted? Which will have the greater result eternally? Which will? Ask yourself? One should not decry ministry, but to have been used for the conversion of a soul is a very remarkable and outstanding privilege: the poor have the glad tidings preached to them. And I connect David playing with the harp with "the words of grace which were coming out of his mouth".
Now in David's history things move on very quickly to the great challenge. Hardly has he put his harp down than Goliath is challenging the armies of the living God; he says, Give me a man that we may fight together. And there are the people of Israel threatened with oppression and bondage, threatened that they will be brought into captivity by this man who is waving armaments over them against which none of them could do anything. There was not a weapon in Israel equal to the weapon that Goliath had. Goliath, as far as I can see in the scripture, had a weapon and no one in Israel could do anything about it. Now Goliath does not belong in Luke, he belongs in Hebrews, and David's action in the slaying of Goliath belongs to this; "And might set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage", Heb 2: 15. That is the state of man, beloved, and he who has the might of death wields a weapon that nobody can do anything about; none of us have a weapon against the might of death. I know that physically the doctors have very great skill and you sometimes think it is a wonder that people are still alive after what they have been through. We might even think of our beloved young brother in Plainfield, it is a miracle that he is still alive; and medical skill may in a certain sense postpone death; but that is all it does, it postpones it. It may give you a few more years like Hezekiah; it may give you a few more years that you can enjoy, and something may enter into your life in those few extended years that seems to you to be the whole reason why your life was extended for that little while. But death still remains: there is no armour against death. But One has come in who was able to meet him who had the might of death. What is the might of death? Well, it means being cut off of course from all the things you have enjoyed in your life, people you have known. I sometimes think of that; you hear of people being killed on the road as they drive - how much mercy we all need in that - people went out in the morning, they left everything just as it was, saying, 'O I will do that when I come back' or 'I will straighten up tonight', or 'Later on I will do that', but they never come back, later on never comes and there are perhaps all kinds of disorder left behind by someone who was confident that he would be there that night. But "him who has the might of death" is allowed to use what instrumentality he has and persons are cut off. Yet there is One who had the power to meet it; not with his own kind of weapons either, He met him as the hymn says, 'Through weakness and defeat' (No 24). Think of a giant being slain with a stone out of a brook! What a great thing it was on that day when David comes out confident in the living God, and he comes out in power. He takes a stone out of the shepherd's bag that he had and he slang it and he smote Goliath in the forehead and he collapsed to the ground, and then David went and cut off his head and took it in triumph to Jerusalem. Beloved, Christ has not slain death with a stone; when Christ came out of death every stone was rolled away, no stone remained. The Romans brought up, you might say, their biggest stone and sealed the grave with it, but He came out of death, the stone was just rolled away. There is no stone there now; He has been into death and broken its power, and He has delivered those who through fear of death all their life were subject to bond age. Why the bondage? Because of the fear of death which is wrapped up with the reality of sin. The reason why people are afraid to die is not just that their affairs will be left in disorder and that their wives and husbands or children will sorrow over them, all that is true; but the fear of death is because the sting of death is sin.
But, beloved, Jesus in going into death has not only broken the power of death but has met the whole of the power of sin. How many things He did at once! I remember (and I certainly have said this before although perhaps not here) listening to a young man preaching and as he spoke about the cross he said, Think how much was accomplished compared to how little was said. Think of that! As you think of the cross how much was accomplished compared with how little was said. And just as David rose up and immediately, you might say in the type, they had wondered at the words of grace that came out of his mouth; he comes out in immense power. He will not use any armour, he comes out in the power of God and slays Goliath. In Luke's gospel eighteen chapters intervene between the words of grace coming out of His mouth and His going into death in order that He might destroy him who had the might of death, and yet He did it, and the interval is filled up with the music of the harp, God in grace coming out towards men and Jesus making known what God is in grace, chapter after chapter. There was no condition beyond its reach. Luke's platform is humanity, and there is grace extended towards humanity in a Man; and you can, as it were, hear the harp all the way through, a skilful player of the harp. Let us take chapter 15; the Pharisees begin to murmur saying "This man receives sinners and eats with them" (v 2) and He gets out the harp and plays three tunes on it and in the end God is justified; "it was right to make merry and rejoice". I suppose one of the instruments in the father's house that contributed to the music is the harp, just like David played. The words of grace go all through those intervening chapters in Luke's gospel, and in the end He did not just take a stone and smite the enemy, He went into death and broke its power in its own place. One thing where the type of David does not reach to Christ is that David never actually died for anybody, nor could he; he could not actually die for anybody because if he had died that would have been the end of his life. But Christ has been into death and has been raised, and as I say, the stone has been rolled away, and just as He has come out of death, so the way through death is now opened up for every believer on Him. Christianity therefore presents a way of triumph and a way of liberty.
Now by His going into death and His rising again, presenting Himself as an object of faith to persons, He has established a kingdom. Now if I can sort out the parallels for you: in David's history you have the anointing, the words of grace, the slaying of the giant, in two chapters and then you have a very long time before the kingdom is established. Of course in a certain sense that is parallel to the establishment of Christ's kingdom; it is taking Him a long time, at least in me and perhaps in you, fully to establish His kingdom. But in the history of Jesus there was the anointing, and the words of grace, extended as I say over three years and then His death; but immediately He arose it was to establish His kingdom. Here in the scripture that we read David reigned over all Israel, he had established his kingdom. What a great thing that was for Judah and for Israel that David had established his kingdom! And he sets up an administration. I do not want to go into the history of all these men; a certain amount could be said about most of them. Joab is there and he is over the army; he was quite a good soldier, one of the sons of that very tough woman Zeruiah who was actually David's sister, but he had his place. The great thing when David established his kingdom was that Joab's propensities were kept under control. They needed to be and they were; in the freshness of David's kingdom the awkward propensities, the political propensities of Joab were kept under control, and he is presented here as a man of honour. You may think he did not altogether deserve it, but in David's kingdom in this chapter he is presented amongst honourable men. And then there is the chronicler and the priests and the scribe, and Benaiah, the man who could kill lions was there too over the executioners and the runners, people who had to do with the maintenance of the kingdom. What Benaiah has to do is represented by the expression 'where the king's writ runs'. He represents the way in which the king's authority extends right out into the edges of the kingdom. But David had established a kingdom. And beloved, Christ has established a kingdom, He has established it in the Holy Spirit, and God gives the Holy Spirit to persons who believe in Him: Christ has established a kingdom in the hearts of men, a place where He rules, a place where His writ runs, where, just to interpret that expression, what He says goes. That is what Christ has established. I know expressions like 'the moral sway of God in the soul'; but it is God's dominion established in the souls of men in Christ that is established here. David established his kingdom. Everything that was needed for the maintenance of the kingdom was there; if it needed military power it was there, if it needed the records kept - I suppose in a certain sense Jehoshaphat must have been a kind of civil servant in a way, he was a chronicler and he kept things in proper order, and so on - that was needed, and the priests were needed, and Benaiah was needed, all the men that were needed were there, the whole system of things was there. And Christ has established a kingdom in which everything that is needed is there and it is for everybody's good. As has been said in ministry before, the kingdom is for man's benefit. And the man who was anointed and the man who played with the harp and the man who slew the giant established a kingdom; and the Man who was anointed, and the Man out of whose mouth words of grace came, and the Man who went into death and triumphed over it has established a kingdom and He intends that that kingdom should embrace you, He intends that His authority should reign in your soul. God intends to have that now in Christ.
Now chapter 9 is very familiar to us, it has often been preached from no doubt in this room. But I would just like you to have a view of chapter 9 like this: at the end of chapter 8 David's kingdom is established, and the Spirit says, I must now show you what the kingdom was like: I have shown you what the officers were now I will show you what the kingdom was like. So we will take just a sample day of David's kingdom. What is the sample day, beloved? Is there anyone to whom I can show kindness? That is a sample day in Christ's kingdom. Joab would have had to spring to attention and say, It is not a day for turning out the troops, it is a day for showing kindness. The priests of course would enter into that very easily, and even Jehoshaphat would enter into that, I am sure that Jehoshaphat would look forward to writing up the record that day, a sample day in the kingdom when words of grace were not only coming out of his mouth but were actually going to be put into effect. He says, Is there any one? Let us take one of the extreme cases; that is what David says. We will not think of someone who was friendly with us and nearly came on to our side and we will just try and win him round, but let us take an extreme case, let us take someone whose father was opposed to us all the time, someone who fought against us, someone with whom the war was long, let us go out to the edges and bring someone in. Is there anyone left of the house of Saul? And nobody said, David, what do you mean, Saul fought with you most of his life, Saul never had any time for you? Do you not remember the time when he threw a javelin that nearly hit you and went into the wall, and you are looking for kindness? Oh, yes, says David, but you are going to have a sample day in my kingdom and you will see that it was not just words of grace, it was activities of grace. I am going to show you what my kingdom is like by manifesting the kindness of God.
Now I have not read the chapter because I do not want to go into all the detail - pretty well everybody here could tell me the detail of 2 Samuel 9 anyway - but they sent and fetched Mephibosheth. They said, Yes, there is still Mephibosheth. So David had him sent for and fetched in. A pretty poor chap he must have looked, he was lame on both his feet; as we know his nurse was running away to protect him and she dropped him and ever afterwards he was lame on both his feet. He must have shuffled in to the king's presence. And the king said, Mephibosheth, you are going to sit at my table after this. That is what you are going to do, you are going to sit at my table amongst the king's sons. And Mephibosheth does not argue, he does not discuss it, he does not say, Oh, no, your majesty; you could not think of that. Mephibosheth in faith took it on. That is the great thing, he accepted what had been extended to him in grace straight away. Of course he found quickly that he had thirty six servants to look after him but Mephibosheth had a place amongst the king's sons. A sample day of the kingdom, beloved! And the next day would be just like this too, David would be reigning in grace and extending things to people in grace. The great character of the kingdom is grace and the kindness of God, and that the words of grace are not just words, but in grace, as was said many years before, that He takes up the beggar from the dunghill and makes him sit among princes (see 1 Sam 2: 8). You had to wait till you found Mephibosheth, until you found a beggar sitting amongst the princes, but eventually you found it because, as I say, the words of grace were not just words, it was the activity of grace.
I was just impressed the other day that 2 Samuel 9 must just have been a sample day of David's kingdom. There would be other days on which there would be trouble, and there would be Philistines to be fought, and it would be necessary to check up on the garrison that is down there among the Syrians, and to see that Hadadezer is not coming back over the Euphrates and things like that, all these things would have to be seen to; but if you wanted to test the kingdom you did not exactly go out with the troops, you came to the king's table and you found that this is what the kingdom is like. You sit down among the sons of God, that is really what it is like and you find that one of the other sons who is sitting next to you is actually the King's son and He is a chief ruler. You can sit next to Him; do you know that? David's sons were chief rulers, and as you sit at the table among the king's sons you find you are among the chief rulers; that is to say, you yourself can begin to act like the kingdom. You would not go away from David's table thinking that you are going to show people - 'I’ll show them' or something like that - you would not go away even saying "Come... and see my zeal for Jehovah", 2 Kings 10: 16. The man who said that was in a very precarious situation and he got someone else into a precarious situation. You go out in grace and you would remember where your seat was. I suppose if you went out and spent an ungracious day you would actually be late for the evening meal because you would have some tidying up to do. You see David's kingdom was a time of grace. Beloved, Christ's kingdom is a great system of grace. I repeat again, Christ's kingdom is not just words. There are words of grace but there is activity of grace, grace demonstrated and people drawn into the blessings of grace, and Mephibosheth is there.
One thing it did was to make Mephibosheth the most loyal person in the kingdom. If David was away in sorrow and burdened and with conflict and in rejection, Mephibosheth would in spirit share it, and then when David comes back he says, Nothing matters to me but that my lord the king is come again to his own house in peace. Do you know what this is? This is Luke 4: "I must needs announce the glad tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities also" (v 43). Are you like that? Can you go out from the king's table to a city and tell them about the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, that it is established in Christ and it subsists in grace? What a thing to have any part in! You may think that the king's table would be too high for you, but, beloved, there are no other tables there. That is a distinctive thing about this kingdom, there is only the king's table, a very big table and there is no other. There is no table at the bottom of the room, there are no lone places within the door. If you come in you must sit at the king's table; there is no choice of seats, you have to go to the king's table and sit there and you enjoy it. And beloved, it makes people loyal to Christ, that they are the great recipients of His grace; they have been taken up from what they were and have been given a place where they rejoice in David's place, and they rejoice in the company they are in, and they know that what they are in is a blessed system of grace. You do not wonder when Jesus had said in Luke 4 "I must needs announce the glad tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities also" that if you run with Luke to the end of his gospel and then through Acts you find the great apostle of the gentiles preaching the kingdom of God to everybody who would listen to him. That is what Paul was doing, anybody who would listen heard about the kingdom of God, and I expect they went away saying, By grace we are saved.
Well, beloved, may the Lord give us some impressions of it. For His Name's sake.
BROOKLYN NY
10 December 1978