David The Warrior Series

When I was preparing for this talk, I read some thoughts on David as a warrior by an American called Luisa Rodriguez. Rodriguez had worked as a military analyst and strategist. She comments: ‘In the Bible, men are expected to fight.’ I liked that! Either the Bible is sexist or Rodriguez is, or both! But let’s be happy, men! There’s a job for us! Rodriguez continues, ‘There are no better examples of fierce warriors than King David’s mighty men.’ Today, we’ve taken a look at them!

After returning, David acknowledged that God had given them success. He said, ‘He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us.’

David sought God’s guidance before the pursuit and afterwards he acknowledged that God had given them success.

I asked, ‘How did David fight?’ The thing that came across loud and clear for me is that when David fought, he did so in absolute dependence on God. He knew and acknowledged that his success came from the fact that God was with him. The writer of 1 Samuel totally agrees. He comments, ‘And David had success in all his undertakings, FOR THE LORD WAS WITH HIM’ [1 Samuel 18:14].

When I say that David fought in absolute dependence on God, he CONSULTED WITH GOD before the battle. He went into the battle TRUSTING THAT GOD WOULD BE WITH HIM. After the battle, he ACKNOWLEDGED GOD. But there is something even deeper than that. David had a living relationship with God. He was walking with God. We know that David prayed a lot, and some of his psalms show that he loved God’s word. He is a great example to us.

If you can only remember one thing from today’s talk, I hope you’ll remember this. The decisive factor in a battle is having God with us. If we want to win battles, we need to follow David’s example in maintaining our relationship with God. If we fall away from God, if we allow sin to separate us from God, if we give into doubts and fears, then we’ll be found out when we find ourselves in a battle.

We’ve asked, DID DAVID FIGHT? WHY DID HE FIGHT? And HOW DID HE FIGHT? Let’s move on to the final part of this talk. How does this apply to Jesus and how we can apply it to ourselves?

HOW THIS APPLIES TO JESUS

In my first talk in this series, I said that one big reason why David is important is that he’s a ‘type’ for Jesus. But we might think, ‘But David was a warrior! Jesus isn’t a warrior!’ If we think that, we’re mistaken.

When Jesus entered our world 2,000 years ago, he came as the Lamb. The world needed Jesus the Lamb to save it. We know Jesus as the sacrificial lamb who died in our place.

But Jesus is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. But we don’t know Jesus in that role.

Nonetheless this is a picture of Jesus we see in Revelation. Jesus will come again. When he does, he will no longer be riding a donkey. This time, he’ll be on a white horse. He will judge and make war. He will carry a sharp sword. The armies of heaven will be following him. They will all, like Jesus, be on white horses [Revelation 19].

We need Jesus the Lamb AND we need Jesus the Lion. Jesus the Lamb has dealt with the penalty of sin. But we need Jesus the Lion to destroy Satan and his agents and everyone who lines up with them. Then we will be delivered from the evil in the world. In David, we see this side of Jesus.