This story unfolds in four main points:
1. David’s Desire for Jerusalem (v. 6a)
It’s interesting that the Bible does not say anything about David’s desire to take Jerusalem. Verse 6 simply says, “And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites.” However, David was a conqueror, and so he wanted to take this city which would be the perfect place for his capital.
Notice that God doesn’t tell David to take the city. Apparently it was David’s idea. It was his desire. And yet, the Bible is clear that Jerusalem was also God’s desired place.
Psalm 78:67-68, “Moreover he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim: But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved.”
Psalm 82:1-3, “His foundation is in the holy mountains. The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.”
Psalm 132:13-14, “For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.”
Do you have a desire for belonging? David could have been content with Hebron, but he desired a better place. You might be content with your life right now, and that’s good, OR you might desire a better place in your life. What do I mean?
I’m talking about the desires of your heart. You desire to be married; you desire to get that career; you desire the absolute best for your kids or grandchildren; you desire to overcome that besetting sin; you desire to start that ministry; you desire that your family would be united again; you desire to witness to those anti-Christian neighbors or co-workers; you desire to stop living in fear and step out by faith; you desire to stop being so shy so you can help people; you desire that the final years of your life would be the absolute best. The list goes on. Whatever that desire might be, chances are, God put it in your heart.
Psalm 37:4, “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
2. The Jebusites’ Response (v. 6b)
The city of Jerusalem was so well fortified that the Jebusites mock David, saying that even the lame and blind could fend him off! LOL They don’t seem to realize that they are talking about DAVID here. Perhaps many others had attempted to take Jerusalem and had failed miserably. So the Jebusites are smug in their response.
Often when you desire to do something great in your life, the world will mock you. They will mock you just for being a Christian!
John 15:18, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.”
I John 3:13, “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.”
“Hate” is a strong word, but it is the right word. The world hates you, and they don’t want you to succeed. Our culture prides itself on tolerance, and yet you can’t pray in Jesus’ name in school or on a football field; you can’t practice your convictions when baking a cake; the mockery comes the moment you mention the name of Jesus. They hated Him, and so they hate you too.
Nehemiah faced ridicule and persecution while he rebuilt the walls around Jerusalem. His enemies were Sanballet, Geshem, and Tobiah. First came the mockery.
Nehemiah 4:2-3, “And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned? Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall.”
Notice Nehemiah’s response in verse 4: “Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity.”
Next the enemies wanted to meet with Nehemiah in order to delay him and ultimately, harm him.
Nehemiah 6:1-2, “Now it came to pass, when Sanballet, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;) That Sanballet and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.”
But notice Nehemiah’s response in verse 3: “And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?”
After this, the attacks kept coming. They couldn’t get Nehemiah to stop the work, so they tried to make him afraid by threatening to tell the king that Nehemiah was leading an insurrection. Despite all of this, the work continued, and the walls were rebuilt in just 52 days! Nehemiah shows us that the world will mock you and attack you when you attempt to do something for God, but don’t let that stop you.
3. David’s Incentive for his Men (v. 8)
David gave an incentive for his men to succeed. I Chronicles 11:6 tells us that Joab was the one who led the charge, so David made him captain. But how did they do it? Jerusalem was supposedly impregnable! David mentions getting up to the gutter. Henry Morris explains: “This ‘gutter’ was what we today might call a culvert. It had evidently been built by earlier inhabitants of Jerusalem. David’s men were able to crawl up this shaft, past the ‘blind and the lame’ that the Jebusites had placed at the city’s gates, and attack the city by surprise.”
I love how blunt verse 7 is. (read)
Sometimes God will give you an incentive to keep pressing forward and trusting Him for that desire. Many times these incentives are the promises of God.
Joshua 1:9, “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
There will also be times when God will be silent, and you will need an incentive to keep you going.
Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”
Isaiah 40:31, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
C. S. Lewis states it plainly for us: “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Without the incentive, we tend to settle. We give up. Expectations are not met, which leads to disappointment. Disappointment leads to discouragement. And if you’re not careful, that will lead to despair. Despair is a deep pit, and getting out is almost impossible. But what are you doing in a pit? You don’t belong there; you belong on the mountain! Get back into God’s Word and find strength and hope.
4. The Reason for David’s Success (v. 10)
This was the secret to David’s success! He didn’t just “get lucky” and “happen” to beat the Jebusites. No, God was with him!
Don’t miss this! Remember Psalm 37:4, that God puts desires in your heart? Now let’s look at verse 5.
Psalm 37:5, “Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.”
You see, the desire in your heart, you can’t fulfill it. You can’t do it. But God can! He will bring it to pass. If God has put that desire in your heart, and you are trusting Him to fulfill it, He will bring it to pass! Count on it! Don’t ever settle! Don’t ever give up!
You might be saying, “But how do I know it’s God’s will?” I’ve learned that if it’s not what God wants, God will shut the door. Explain: David wants to build the temple, God says no
CONCLUSION
Illustration: Mariam Pare (Par-A) had a passion, and it was painting. For as long as she could remember, she was surrounded by color; paint tubes and brushes stacked high in every corner. At 20, she was one of the top art students at Benedictine College of DuPage. Until the night her life was changed in an instant. While driving in her car, a stray bullet from a spray of gunfire on the street outside pierced through her car, and went directly into her spine. “They told me I was paralyzed,” she says. “A quadriplegic. I wouldn’t walk, use my hands or even feed myself.” The talented artist was robbed of nearly everything, including the one thing she loved the most: she could no longer paint.
But months later, Pare started to question that assumption as she recovered in a Chicago rehab clinic. When a therapist asked her to put a pen in her mouth to write her signature, it hit Pare that if she could recreate her signature, she could probably paint that way as well. Fast forward 20 years later, and Mariam Pare’s mouth painting work is now one of the most recognized in the country.
Do you have a desire in your heart? Pursue it! Don’t let the world stop you. Don’t settle, give up, or give in. Make God your incentive to keep going. Give Him your desire and trust Him, and He will fulfill it. Don’t be content in the place you’re at; you belong in a better place.
