Veteran’s Day 2012 - 2 Samuel 23
Take your bibles this morning and turn with me to the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 23. As a boy, I loved watching war movies -- whether it was John Wayne or Battle of the Bulge or the Dirty Dozen or one of my favorites, The Great Escape. A generation before me, it was Roy Rogers or Gene Autry or John Wayne also - in cowboy and indian movies. Why is there such a fascination with these movies? Because we LOVE heroes! They inspire us. We love to recount their great events. We love to revel in victory over insurmountable odds.
Today much of that sense of victory in war is transferred to sports - and for many today their heroes are heroes on the sporting battlefield. But the Bible gives us many examples of heroes - a couple weeks ago we talked about the “Heroes of the Faith” in Hebrews 11 - but when we read their stories, they weren’t just passive heroes who had great faith - many of them were engaged in active battle in life. Hebrews 11:32 records this about them: And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
Today is Veteran’s Day - and the post office will be closed tomorrow to celebrate the holiday - but it is a day that we often neglect in the church. We can easily dismiss it as a secular holiday - in 1938 the 11th of November of each year became a legal holiday - - a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as "Armistice Day." Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, celebrating the time the agreement to end WW1 was signed. But in 1954, the wording was changed to be Veteran’s Day and November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars. And we are more than happy to honor all our armed service veterans. They deserve both recognition and honor.
And as a nation we honor our Veterans today. But as a church we often fail to think about veterans. After all, if God thought honoring veterans was important, why isn’t there anything about it in the Bible? And the answer to that is simple: There IS - there are several places in the bible that speak about honoring warriors who fight in battle. And our passage here in 2 Samuel 23 is one of them! We’ll get to the passage in a few minutes.
When we turn to the scriptures we often read it through our “sanitized” safe culture, and we downplay things that aren’t part of our lives today. But as we read through the Bible, both old and New Testament, it is hard to ignore all the fighting and war and bloodshed. The easy thing for us to say today is “God is Love” and we need to love everyone. That is true! But sometimes the most loving thing to do for someone is to fight against them! While God is Love, our God is also a God of WAR! And that is something that can be hard for many Christians to accept.
Consider this passage - Psalm 144 - Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. When we read this Psalm of David, we get conflicted inside, to think that our loving God gives us skill in fighting in war. After all, is war okay? Or should be be pacifists and never fight? To consider that, we need to remember some other things that David says in Psalm 144. In verse 2 he says, He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge. David looks to God as his refuge in times of war. Verse 6-7 David looks to God for deliverance - Send forth lightning and scatter the enemies; shoot your arrows and rout them. Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners. But I believe the key to consider is in verses 12-14 where we see the REASON for war: Then our sons in their youth will be like well-nurtured plants, and our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace. Our barns will be filled with every kind of provision. Our sheep will increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields; our oxen will draw heavy loads. There will be no breaching of walls, no going into captivity, no cry of distress in our streets. David sees war as the means of protecting the safety of his family and his people. To keep from having the city overrun and families being taken prison and distress and turmoil, David fought in wars.
So, as we consider war and the role God and godly men and women play in it, let’s look at our passage in 2 Samuel 23. READ 2 Samuel 23:8-12
These are the names of David’s mighty men:
Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahkemonite, was chief of the Three; he raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed in one encounter.
Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty men, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim for battle. Then the men of Israel retreated, but he stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead.
Next to him was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel’s troops fled from them. But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory.
And the chapter goes on to list the names and exploits of many more “veterans” in David’s army. Why does David have to fight against the Philistines, Amorites, Canaanites, and all the other -ites? Because his forefathers FAILED to fight when they had the chance. If you remember the story of the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness, they are told to go in and destroy the people living in the land. In Deuteronomy 9 we find the reason: Hear, O Israel. You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. The people are strong and tall--Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?” But be assured today that the LORD your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the LORD has promised you. After the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The LORD has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
So the Jews were to annihilate the people in the land. They were to wipe them out completely. Deut.20 tells us why - Completely destroy them--the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites--as the LORD your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshipping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.
But the Jews failed to follow out God’s commands. And as a result, the enemy peoples lived on as a thorn in their side. In Judges 1 we read, But Manasseh did not drive out the people of Beth Shan . . . for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labour but never drove them out completely. Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites living in Gezer, but the Canaanites continued to live there among them. Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites living in Kitron or Nahalol, who remained among them; but they did subject them to forced labour. Nor did Asher drive out those living in Acco or Sidon or Ahlab or Aczib or Helbah or Aphek or Rehob, and because of this the people of Asher lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land. Neither did Naphtali drive out those living in Beth Shemesh or Beth Anath; but the Naphtalites too lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, and those living in Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath became forced labourers for them. The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down into the plain. And the Amorites were determined also to hold out in Mount Heres, Aijalon and Shaalbim, but when the power of the house of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labour.
So the Jews in Joshua’s day failed to fight the battle completely. In the time of Judges, we read of all the cycles of idolatry that the Jews go through - because they are influenced by these pagan people that they failed to drive out as God had told them. And they end up facing many years of captivity and bondage by these enemy peoples.
So it then comes to David, a man after God’s own heart - and David fights valiantly for his people. He fights so his nation will be able to enjoy PEACE. David’s legacy to his son Solomon was to inherit a kingdom that had peace on every side. And that peace came at the price of warfare and bloodshed.
David was a charismatic leader, and men loved to come be with him and join him. He had many valiant warriors. And God enshrines forever in His word the names and exploits of many of them. So why would God record this list of veterans? For our encouragement! He wants us to learn from their example. This morning, I would offer 4 things to come away with when we think about Veteran’s Day. First,
1. Remember the price of freedom - Valiant warriors do not fight for the sake of killing; they do not fight for rewards. In fact, if you remember the story of David & Goliath, Goliath has been out there for 40 days waiting to fight - Saul had offered anyone who would fight him great wealth, he would be able to marry into the royal family, his family got to skip paying their taxes for the rest of their lives! But NO ONE would fight. Men don’t fight only for money. But do you remember what David says - he hears Goliath blaspheming God and David knows he needs to do something. The KJV records David saying, Is there not a cause? The story goes on to record David saying to Goliath, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
Man, doesn’t that make you want to DO something great for God. Why does he fight? There was a cause - he stands up for the name of the LORD Almighty - so the whole world would know that there is a God in Israel!
Why do we fight today? We don’t fight for the sake of war - we fight for the sake of FREEDOM! And as we honor our Veterans today, we REMEMBER that they paid the price to preserve our freedom for us. Freedom is never free! (Read poem - Freedom is not free)
What do we learn? We learn to Remember the price of freedom. Secondly, we learn to
2. Honor those who fought for our freedom. If you look down in verse 18 it tells us of another veteran - Abishai the brother of Joab son of Zeruiah was chief of the Three. He raised his spear against three hundred men, whom he killed, and so he became as famous as the Three. Was he not held in greater honor than the Three? He became their commander, even though he was not included among them.
Notice the response to these veterans - they receive honor. Today, as we think about veterans, don’t just be thankful as you remember their service. I would encourage you to consider the next step - think about how you can show them honor! The first and most basic way is to thank them. When you see a veteran, thank him or her. And yes, I say her, because there are many women veterans as well as men, and they also deserve our honor and respect and gratitude. If you see a serviceman in uniform, even when it’s not veteran’s day, go up to them and let them know you appreciate their serving our country.
It may be that God leads you to do something more. Some people send care packages to soldiers overseas. Some people send Christmas Cards to soldiers. There is a Christmas movie titled “The Christmas Card” that is a heartwarming story of how one woman’s thoughful consideration impacted a soldier - it’s a great movie! Maybe you would consider writing a soldier - my niece Brenda is actually married today to a soldier she started writing to just to encourage him - even though at the time she didn’t know him.
Think about how you can HONOR our veterans. Third, Remember, Honor,
3. Learn from their example. As we look at the Veterans here in 2 Samuel 23, we learn that we need to Take a Stand and Stand Our Ground. We don’t run to a fight, but we don’t run from a fight either. We see men here who take a stand
- regardless of the opposition - in verse 8 we see Josheb-Basshebeth fights facing 800-to-1 odds.
- regardless of the allies - even when no one stands with you, we still stand our ground. In verse 11 we see Shammah, who draws a line in his pea patch and says “No Further!” Even though all his fellow soldiers ran, Shammah stood his ground. And we learn to stand
-regardless of the duration - in verse 9 we see Eleazar - who fought so long that his hand froze to his sword. Frozen? No, but he had gripped his sword for so long and so hard he couldn’t open his hand. I used to roof chicken houses, and after a day of constant hammering, I could hardly open my hand.
Mighty men and women have a policy of no retreat - no reserve - no regrets. They serve their king faithfully!
Then the last think we want to consider today - is soldiers do not fight their battle alone. Even though we stay at home, we can have part in the battle by
4. Pray for those in harm’s way. We believe that God hears and answers prayer, and so we need to cry out to God for His help in protecting those who fight to protect us. I mentioned Psalm 144 earlier, the Psalm where David cries to God for help in war. In verse 5 of that Psalm is a beautiful reminder of the way we can pray for the brave men and women fighting for our country. Part your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter the enemies; shoot your arrows and rout them. Reach down your hand from on high; deliver [them] and rescue [them] from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners. Is God moved to act when His people pray? Yes, He is.
Today, we thank God for our Veterans. We want to remember their service, honor them, learn to stand our ground for what is right, and we want to pray for those currently serving our country. In closing this morning, allow me to play a clip of a song by Allen Asbury that reminds us of the power of prayer and the part we can play.
-- play clip - closing prayer
