PROPER 9B 2009

King David as Warrior

Text: 2 Samuel 5:1-10

One of the most colorful, and most important characters in the Old Testament is King David. For the past two weeks, and in the coming weeks, we will be reading more about his life. In Sunday school we learn about David and Goliath, but often many of us don’t take the time to study his life and learn how complex and interesting a man he really was. When we read his story, we learn that being a spiritual person, or as the Bible says, a person after God’s own heart, does not mean that we are perfect and always nice people. David, as we will see, had great weaknesses, and yet we can learn from him that the spiritual life is a relationship with God, not just religious exercises. So over the next few weeks we will look at David as a poet, a musician, a worshipper of God, a politician, a great sinner, a leader, the ancestor of the Messiah, and more. This morning I want to talk about David as a warrior and then make some practical applications for our lives.

In our lesson this morning we read about the establishment of Jerusalem as the city of David. It now becomes the center of a new kingdom. In Psalm 48 we read how important it was in the life of the people. It is the city of God, the very center of the world, and the city of the great king.

Jerusalem was called Jebus, and was a last stronghold of a people called the Jebusites. In our lesson we read that David occupied the stronghold and named it the city of David. In essence, David took the city by force..But lets go back and give a little history to catch up to this point.

As we read two weeks ago, David began his public career by defeating Goliath. This victory caused him great difficulties because King Saul became jealous of David’s success. Upon returning from this great victory, the women sang: Saul has killed his thousands… and David his ten thousands.” Saul began to fear David and thus begins a fascinating drama of Saul both loving David and trying to kill him -- told in 12 chapters of the rest of the book of first Samuel. Then Saul and his son Jonathan are killed in battle with the Philistines, and last week we read that beautiful lament written by David over their deaths.

After their deaths, David goes to Hebron and becomes king over the tribe of Judah, but then ensues a long struggle for power between Saul’s son Ishbaal and David. Isbaal was not a strong leader, but at the beginning he had the support of one of Saul’s warriors named Abner. But Abner has a falling out with Isbaal and decides to throw in his lot with David. But Abner had killed the brother of David’s leading warrior Joab. So, Joab betrays Abner and kills him. Mean while, Isbaal is killed in his bed by two of his own men, so now the way is paved for David to be king over all the tribes of Israel. This is how our OT lesson begins.

2 Samuel 5:1-3 ( NRSV ) 1Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron, and said, “Look, we are your bone and flesh. 2For some time, while Saul was king over us, it was you who led out Israel and brought it in. The LORD said to you: It is you who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you who shall be ruler over Israel.” 3So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel.

One of the reasons that the people of Israel wanted a king in the first place was so that they would have a warrior who would help protect them and lead them to victory over their enemies. David was a great leader in battle, and the establishment of the nation, or state of Israel was largely due to his leadership in battle. David as a warrior was one who fought against the enemies of God’s people.

But this concept of warrior for God makes many of us very uncomfortable, especially today with people who sacrifice their lives killing others in the name of God, believing they are fighting God’s enemies. And it should make us uncomfortable, for our Christian heritage, in the beginning, had a strong aversion to war of any kind. While the New Testament uses the image of warfare in describing the spiritual life, it spiritualizes the battle. Listen to this familiar verse again from Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6:12 ( NRSV ) 12For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Here is another verse from 2 Corinthians. I am going to read it in the KJV, because I think it is a better translation.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. 2Cor. 10:3-4

One could make an argument that the early Christians were pacifists when it came to taking up arms in battle. Remember Jesus said this:

Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword Mt. 26:52

The early Christians, because they had no power base for hundreds of years, understood that the war, or battle they were in was one against the spiritual forces of evil, not against human beings. They did not think they could extend the kingdom of heaven through physical war. As Paul wrote, the weapons that the early Christians had were not carnal, or physical. The weapons they wielded were love, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, patience, gentleness, truth and the struggle of justice.

They understood, as we should today, that Christians are in a battle, or a war. But this war is a spiritual one. Thus in Ephesians chapter 6 we read about the Christian arming themselves for battle, but it is not a physical battle, but again, a spiritual one.

Our battle is against hate and injustice and evil and sin itself. In our baptismal covenant we promise to renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness, the evil power which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God, and probably most important of all, our own sinful desires.

While we see in the Old Testament actual battles among men, what we see in the New Testament is a totally different type of war. This is why Christians have not thrown away all the Psalms which talk about destruction of our enemies. We can read the Psalms and sincerely want our enemies to be destroyed, but they are not people, but sin and evil and suffering and in justice and all that destroys the creatures of God.

For the first three hundred years of Christianity’s existence, Christians, and the church, were powerless in a worldly sense. Christians did not have control of nations and states. But after Constantine made Christianity the faith of the Roman empire, the question of war became more complicated. Now Christians were in power. So very early on Christian thinkers began developing what is called the just war theory, attempting to set forth conditions which might justify Christians going to war. But because of our first three hundred years of existence, and the teachings of Jesus and of the New Testament, Christians have seen war as unholy and have felt uneasy when it was seemed necessary.

But because fighting seems to be such an ingrained part of human character, Christians have often forgotten this truth, and have engaged in wars for unholy and selfish purposes.

As an aside, since this is the fourth of July weekend, our nations history of revolution and war against England is very interesting to me. If you read about the reasons for our revolution, then most countries of the world today have reasons for armed revolution. Our revolution was led largely by upper class people for reasons that would seem trivial in many countries – taxes and authority from a King. But if you go to countries like Honduras or Haiti or many like them, the situation of the people is so much worse, that revolution in the American sense would be justified.

This issue of war by Christians is a very complex issue. I have no easy answers. But the one truth I do know is that Christians should hate war, never champion war, never talk about bombing enemies out of existence, and seeing “people” as the real enemy and not seeing the deeper truth that our struggle is a spiritual one.

There is a great verse in Psalm 20 that goes:

Some put their trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God.

We as Christians need to see our strength not in the might of weapons and material wealth, but in the spiritual weapons of love and truth and justice and mercy and kindness. Down through history, nations that rely upon military power always fail at some point, Rome being a great example.

So back to our day to day life. We Christians are in a battle. It is a very serious one. We learn from the very first chapters of the Bible the our enemy is tricky, and we see also that sin is very deceptive, yet destructive. The greatest strategy of the enemy is for us to think that there really is no problem.. evil is not a problem, sin is not a problem, and injustice in not our problem. Then we can be taken out of the battle, and thus do little damage to the enemies of God.

As we have said over the last few months, we should strive to see the world through the eyes of Jesus. When we do, we will see our own sin, as well as the evil and suffering and injustice of the world around us. Thus we will understand that we are in a battle, and that we need to be warriors. But as we do so, we learn like Paul that our strength does not lie with ourselves, but in the presence and spirit of God. Paul learned that in his weakness he found God’s strength and power. We too learn this same lesson as we face the daunting challenges of fighting the sin within our own hearts and the evil and injustice that exists all around us.

To do this, we need to be in trained and prepared. So returning to Ephesians chapter 6, we are given the image of spiritual armor… a belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, a shield of faith, a helmet of salvation… and a sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. This image teaches us that spiritual growth and spiritual exercises are necessary for a healthy Christian life. Thus regular Sunday worship, personal reading of the Bible and prayer, gathering with other Christians for study and support and helping and reaching out to others are all a part of making us effective in extending the kingdom of God in this world.

In conclusion, when we read about David as a warrior, we can also see ourselves as warriors, but in the New Testament sense. While it is an image that has created problems for Christians down through the years, it is one which, if we understand it properly, is very helpful for us in our day to day Christian walk. Next week we will look at David as a worshipper and lover of God. AMEN!