David, The "Lamp Of Israel!”

MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK

TEXT: 2 Samuel 21:15 17; Romans 8:28

A. As some of you know, most preachers spend quite a bit of time praying, meditating, planning, & preparing the sermons they preach. For me, personally, I often consider & work on several messages that I finally lay aside before choosing what I believe would be best to preach on a particular Sunday.

Today’s message is not what I originally began working on. Yet as I did, for some reason King David of Israel kept popping up in my mind. But over the years many of you have heard a great deal about David.

As a child in S.S. you heard about David as a shepherd boy tending his father’s sheep; & how brave he was fighting the giant warrior, Goliath. You may even have memorized the 23rd Psalm which David wrote.

In some of my sermons we looked at young David as an officer in King Saul’s army, a national hero, best friend of Prince Jonathan, the insane jealousy of King Saul & his attempts to kill David, & David having to go into hiding to escape.

Yet during those years David still maintained his faith in God, his loyalty to Israel & to King Saul himself. He even had an easy opportunity to kill King Saul & end Saul’s attempts to kill him. But he refused to do so &, instead, appealed for reconciliation. But Saul would not.

Then after both King Saul & Prince Jonathan died, the tribes of Judah & Benjamin chose David as their King. And later. all 12 tribes united to make David King of all Israel.

David was King for 40 years – 40 years of victories over foreign enemies, & establishing Israel as a nation to be reckoned with in the world of that day. It was the beginning of a golden age for Israel!

But with success came temptations & trials – his sin with Bathsheba & its bitter aftermath: The Prophet Nathan pointing his finger at David & saying, “You are the man!”; David’s anguished repentance; & writing of the 51st Psalm, pouring out his heart to God.

Then came conflict within his own family, son against son, with one son even starting a civil war, trying to seize the throne, & David’s obvious anguish at that son’s death.

Yes, David’s life was a long & eventful one! He made mistakes. He sinned! And he truly repented! Looking into David’s heart & actions & reactions, God’s Word proclaims that David was “a man after God’s own heart.” And God declared that one day a descendant of David would be the promised Messiah.

B. This morning we're looking at David as an old man, the Lamp of Israel. Turn with me to 2 Samuel 21:15 17, & listen as I read: "Once again there was a battle between the Philistines & Israel. David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines, & he became exhausted.

“And Isbi Benob … whose bronze spearhead weighed 300 shekels (about 8 lbs.) & who was armed with a new sword, said he would kill David.

“But Abishi … came to David's rescue; he struck the Philistine down & killed him. Then David's men swore to him, saying, 'Never again will you go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished.'"

ILL. If I asked you, "Who is Donald Trump?" or "Who is Kamala Harris?" what would you answer? Probably you would answer, "Donald Trump was President of the U.S., & Kamala Harris is the current Vice-President."

Those answers are not wrong, but people are much more than the job or title they happen to have. Yet today we associate people with what they do so much that when a person retires, & they cease doing what they have been doing, we tend to treat them as if they aren't anybody much anymore, & that's tragic.

We need to recognize there are things that we do to earn a living. There are other things we possess for a brief period of time. And then there is who we really are, our character, our inner being.

SUM. So we look at David, & if we had to introduce him, we would probably say, "David was a mighty warrior, & the King of Israel." But that's just what he did. To help us understand that, let's look at David's retirement.

I. DAVID'S RETIREMENT PARTY

A. David has been king for a long time. His kingdom is still growing, money is coming into the treasury, the army is strong & defeating one enemy after another. Everything is going David's way, & in the passage of Scripture I just read he is probably about 60 years old.