September 25, 2016 2 Samuel 23:1-7 The Final Words Last words, and farewell speeches, are what some people are often remembered for. We think of General MacArthur saying, Old soldiers never die, they just fade away. Some of them are humorous, others serious and some make you wonder about the persons destination after their last words. The entertainment profession has many of those. Humphrey Bogart s last words spoken on January 14, 1957 were, I should have switched from Scotch to Martini s. John Barrymore said, Die? I should not, dear fellow. I would not allow such a conventional thing to happen to me. P.T. Barnum asked, How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden? The serious include the following from Karl Marx to his housekeeper asked for his last words so she could write them down. His reply was his last words, Go on, get out: Last words are for fools haven t said enough. Sir Winston Churchill sighed and said, I m bored with it all. Joan of Arc, as the fire was lit around her cried out, Hold the cross higher so that I may see it through the flames. Finally, Union General John Sedgwick spoke these words just moments before being shot dead by a confederate sniper at Spotsylvania, Don t worry men, they couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." No but they could hit a General. God caused David s last words to be recorded for us and they come down to us from 2,980 years ago. Turn with me to 2 Samuel 23:1-7. 1 These are the last words of David: "The oracle of David son of Jesse, the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High, the man anointed by the God of Jacob, Israel's singer of songs: 2 "The Spirit of the LORD spoke 1
through me; his word was on my tongue. 3 The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: 'When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, 4 he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth.' 5 Is not my house right with God? Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire? 6 But evil men are all to be cast aside like thorns, which are not gathered with the hand. 7 Whoever touches thorns uses a tool of iron or the shaft of a spear; they are burned up where they lie." There are some things I want us to learn from this. The first thing is that our background doesn t matter. David wasn t ashamed of his background or family. He freely admitted that his father was Jesse. Jesse was a common man. David grew up chasing sheep outside the backwater town of Bethlehem. Shepherds were a dime a dozen. There was nothing special about them. David was the eighth son of the family. He was the runt. In one of the first episodes of the new Dragnet released sometime ago, the suspect in the crime was a rich fellow. He had worked hard and moved up the social ladder. When Detective Friday went to his parents house, he found that they had died a several years earlier. He asked a neighbor who had lived next door for twenty years what had happened. The neighbor didn t even know that the man had a son. He had never gone back to visit his parents. He was ashamed of his roots. David wasn t ashamed of his roots. He was proud of them. He must have marveled at the fact that God had plucked him out of the pasture to be king of Israel. King Saul had 2
been described as being a head taller than all the others. David was an average looking Joe. This goes to show us that God can use ANYBODY. He can use me and you. The prophet Amos was a shepherd, and God used him to deliver his message to the people of Israel. Nehemiah was a cupbearer in the service of the Persian king, and God used him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Peter, James and John were fishermen, and God used them to light the fire that started the Church. The religious officials of the days saw them as uneducated men. When God called the prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah replied, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth. Jeremiah thought he was too young to serve the Lord. God can use anybody for his purpose. We can think of more recent examples. Joni Eareckson Tada is a quadriplegic who spreads the Good News around. Nicky Cruz is a former street thug who now preaches the gospel. The truth is God uses whomever he wants. God can use anybody. Not only does God us anybody but when he uses anybody he equips them. When I was first answering God s call to the ministry, I was concerned about my abilities, and frankly I still am. I was sharing my concern with my pastor at the time. He reminded me of the old saying, God doesn t call the equipped, he equips the called. God gives us the ability to do what he calls us to do. He took a ragtag bunch of disciples that included fishermen, a tax collector, a political radical, among others, and turned the world upside down on the Day of Pentecost. God gives ability to those he calls to do his work. It doesn t matter what our backgrounds are. Some of us are from middle class, and some are not. Some are drop dead gorgeous, like well you look around, Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and look 3
around again others aren t. Some are bold in public, and some are shy. Some of us were raised in the church, and some of us weren t. It doesn t matter what our background is or was. All that matters is that God can equip us for the job he has planned for us. Frankly, early in my life I had a real problem with public speaking. I took a speech class in college and got a D. It wasn t until God empowered me that I have overcome the internal problems of head and heart to get up here every Sunday and speak. That tells us that whatever God calls us to is not a matter of our will or desire. It s about God equipping us. This is true because God is our security. In verse 3 David says, The Rock of Israel has said to me. The term Rock occurs frequently in the Old Testament as title for God relating to stability, safety, and security. When we think of rocks we may think of the Rocky Mountains. They are strong, steady and sturdy. They aren t going anywhere. They have weathered storms, winds, and rain. We have blasted tunnels through the mountains with dynamite, but they have not collapsed. And the fact is, is that God is our rock. The old song goes, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee. When the storms of life batter us, God is our Rock that offers us stability, safety and security. In Psalm 62, David wrote, On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. God is our source of strength. And God is more faithful as anything. We are driven by guarantees in our world. We want everything guaranteed. Cars, houses, computers, and anything else that we buy, we want to see a guarantee that will come with it. Many cars come with a 7-year/70,000 mile warranty. Some even tout a 10 year and 100,000 mile warranty. Mufflers come with lifetime warranties. Whose lifetime? God s guarantee is 4
eternal. When those cars rust into nothingness and every piece is blown away, God will still be there. How do I know this? Because God honors his promises. God s Word is permanent and unchanging. God s Word is not dependant on our actions. The only thing God requires of us is faith in Him. We recall that God made a covenant with David recorded in 2 Samuel 7 that the Savior would come through his descendants. In chapter 11, we find David guilty of lying, adultery and murder. We would expect God to rescind his covenant with David and choose someone else, but that isn t the case. In verses 3 and 4 of our passage, David paints the idyllic picture of a leader. For the most part David was an excellent king in Israel. He was the measuring stick against whom all future kings of Israel were measured, but he wasn t perfect. David was not the picture of perfection. He reminds us in verse 5 that God had made an everlasting covenant with him. God s Word is true, and we can count on it. Jesus said that God s Word is truth. Despite the problems that David had, God held true to the covenant that he had made. God s covenant with us is that he offers us salvation through his Son Jesus Christ. The offer is as good today as it was ten years ago. It doesn t matter where we come from or what kind of life we have lived God still offers us salvation. It doesn t matter if we have never known him or if we ve walked away from him. The offer is on the table. The problem is that there are people and things that lead us away from God. God has stated what happens to them as well. Verses 6 and 7 tell us that worthless, or evil, men will get their reward. If you are leading people away from God, God will bring that to 5
an end. Never let someone or something become a substitute for the security found only in God. God is our Rock. No one else is. That perhaps brings us to the bottom line of this whole series. What is our commitment? It doesn t matter if we grew up rich or poor. It doesn t matter if we grew in the church or out of the church, or what church we grew up in. It doesn t matter what we ve done. It doesn t matter what kind of education we have. It doesn t matter what our ancestry was. It doesn t matter if we move high social circles or not. None of that stuff matters. All that matters is our commitment to God. We have to trust God and act on that trust. David trusted God. He knew where he had come from. He had come from following sheep. David never forgot where he came and who got him there. God had put David where he was. Verse 1 tells us, Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of David, the son of Jesse [he didn t forget his roots], the oracle of the man who was raised on high [he didn t forget how far he had come], the anointed of the God of Jacob [he didn t forget who got him where he was], the sweet psalmist of Israel. David knew that without God, he would probably have lived his life out as a shepherd in total obscurity. We have already learned that for the most part, David was a godly man. He had committed sin, and it really messed up his family, but he was a godly man. For the most part, he did fulfill the role God had given him. David s time was always looked back on as a golden age for Israel. They were the good ol days. I mentioned earlier that David became the standard by which all of the future kings of Israel were judged. None of them quite measured up to David. 6
David was a larger than life character. We look at George Washington and Abraham Lincoln the same sort of way. They are larger than life to us. Their names are always on the top of the list of greatest presidents. No one can seem to measure up the standard they set. The point is that David took his trust in God and put it into action. David trusted God, and acted on that trust. What counts at the end of the day is our commitment to God and our willingness act upon that commitment. God is calling us to trust him and act on that trust. God may ask us to do something we never thought we could. When God first called me into the ministry, I said, You want to what? I had heard the stories of countless people who have done great things for God, things they never thought they could do. It s not just missionaries and pastors. It s ordinary people. We never know how our obedience will affect someone. I have told this true story before. There was a teacher in a New York City school who one day felt impressed to do something unusual. She called each student up to her desk, and told them how much she appreciated them. She gave each person a ribbon of gratitude. She then handed everybody another ribbon and told them go and give the ribbon to someone else. One of the girls took the ribbon to her part-time job. She went to her supervisor and gave her the ribbon and told her she was appreciated. The student then asked her supervisor to do the same. The supervisor went to her supervisor. She told her supervisor that he was appreciated and gave him a ribbon. He thanked her. He took a ribbon home. He went and knocked on his son s bedroom door. The son told him to come in. The dad noticed that the son was writing and thought that he was studying. The dad told him that he loved him. The son 7
said, Dad, today was a terrible day. I had a fight with my best friend, and my girlfriend broke up with me. I was beginning to wonder if you cared, or if anyone cared. I was just sitting down to write a suicide note. We never know what our obedience will yield. The teacher at the school had no idea that a young man was in such desperate need when she called her students to her desk to tell them that they were appreciated. God wants our commitment. God wants our trust and action based on that trust. It doesn t matter where we come from or who we are. God is our Rock and our Equipper. Are you willing to give it all to God? Are you willing to put your full trust in God? That is the life of David, now where will your life take you? 8