The Good Of Unity

Title: “The Good of Unity”

Text: 2 Samuel 10:1-19

Introduction:

You know David was a very friendly person even though he was a warrior with the blood on his hands from the deaths of many enemies. As we begin this chapter we begin with the recognition of a friendship that existed between David and a resent King of Ammon, however this friend of David’s is dead now. However, David wants to do something in memory of his friend. This is one of many interesting stories found within the bible, one that doesn’t get a lot of attention and recognition. The lesson we’re going to learn by the time we get to the end of this chapter is the good that comes from God when good people hang tightly together. In vs. 1-5, we have David’s servants “ill-treated” by the Ammonites. In vs. 6-14, the Ammonites were defeated because they underestimated the ability and the courage and the determination of David’s men to hang together. And then finally, vs.15-19, the Israelites defeated another enemy, the Syrians, because they joined forces against God’s people. Truly, this wasn’t a good move to make because the bible says, “One man and God makes a majority.” right? In other words “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Gain with me some spiritual strength from these chosen passages of scripture.

· Psalm 3:6 – “I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.” Tens of thousands folks! We’re not just talking about a few enemies. Our God when he goes to battle for us has great power.

· Psalm 5:10 – “Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you.” You see what he’s saying here? God, get them! And get them good!

Illustration – While watching high school girls team play volleyball at the state volleyball tournament this weekend against a very good prepared Mead girl’s team, I watched the Mead girl’s closely and I perceived that they were laughing at our girl’s team play. I said, “God, this isn’t right! Our girls are playing ready hard to win. They deserve to win! So, I said, “Please God, prove your power through their weakness.” And amazingly the team play immediately got better, but then the opposing team started taking control of the game again. And it’s kind of like the drama behind the war where as long as Moses kept his hands in the air the Israelites were winning, but Moses became tired and he had to put his hands down and so Israel started to lose. I looked around me in the stands at the audience at seem like we had already conceded to the opposing team. Even the audience had not prepared themselves for such a battle that afternoon. They had their arms crossed in disappointment and stopped cheering. We didn’t prepare well enough to play this caliber of a team.

Well, one more scripture to set the tempo for this chapter.

· Psalm 18:48 – “He delivers me from my enemies; yea, you lift me up above those who rise up against me; you have delivered me from the violent man.”

Transition:

These three verses surely ought to set the tempo because we’re about to engage in a war.

Look at vs. 1-5. First of all, we have David’s messengers being “ill treated” by the King of Ammon. And this “ill-treatment” I think might have sparked a war.

DAVID’S MESSENGERS ARE ILL- TREATED BY THE KING OF AMMON (VS. 1-5)

INTERPRETATION

On September, 1st, 1939 a German battleship opened fire on the Polish garrison of the Westerplatte Fort, in Danzig, which is now called Gdansk. (Point it out on the map) This plan of attack is what started World War II. At the exact same moment this fort was being fired upon from waters of the North Sea, simultaneously, 62 German divisions supported by 1,300 aircraft commenced with an invasion of Poland coming from the other direction. To this day they say the decision of Hitler to invade Poland was a gamble. Why? Well, because the German army wasn’t at full strength and the German economy was still locked into peacetime production. So, Hitler’s generals urged him to be cautious because they needed more time to complete the defenses of the West Wall. You see, they expected to be attacked by the British and the French along this border (Show the picture of the Western Wall) At this point of the war, Germany was already heavily engaged in war in the east against Russia. Well, you can imagine what Hitler said to his generals. He dismissed their concerns of being unprotected from the west and he demanded complete loyalty. He was absolutely convinced that the invasion of Poland would result in a short victorious war for two reasons. First, he was convinced that the deployment of the world’s first armored tank unit would swiftly defeat the Polish armed forces. And he was right! Secondly, he judged the British and French to be weak and indecisive and certainly opt for a peace settlement rather than war. This time Hitler was wrong! He found out that Winston Churchill was more than he bargained for. He was like the energy bunny! He just didn’t give up. He continually pulled his troops together by saying, “We can win this war.” “We must win this war.”