The Lord Of The Breakthrough

THE LORD OF THE BREAKTHROUGH

TEXT: 2 Samuel 5:17-21

2 Samuel 5:17 21 -- “But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the hold.” “The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.” “And David inquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? And the LORD said unto David, Go up: for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand.” “And David came to Baalperazim, and David smote them there, and said, The LORD hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me, as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baalperazim.” “And there they left their images, and David and his men burned them.”

I. THE LIFE OF DAVID

-We find in our text the point that David is finally going to enjoy. He has waited for this day now for fifteen years. He is finally going to take the throne and rule as God’s rightful heir.

-The paths that he has had to walk through have been difficult. He has found himself fleeing from the hands of bitter enemies. He has had to endure the disdain of his older brothers. He has had to learn to keep his heart right with God. It was by long and painful discipline that David would have to preserve his anointing.

A. The First Anointing

-The youngest son of any family usually bears two distinctions: He is considered to be both spoiled and uninformed. Usually very little is expected of him therefore he displays fewer characteristics of leadership than the other children. He never leads, he only follows.

-But all of that would change in David’s life once he was hurriedly called in from the pastures as he watched his father’s sheep. An old sage, who roamed the towns and burgs of Israel, now came to Bethlehem on God’s business.

-Samuel had already reviewed and interviewed all seven of Jesse’s sons, not once, but twice. Now, David was summoned in to fill the bill. He looked with curiosity at the old prophet. Nothing about his appearance would arrest the attention, except for the eyes. The eyes of Samuel seemed to burn like hot coals taken from a dying fire.

-From the eyes of this old prophet emanated a passion that was startling to David. He had never met one of Jehovah’s prophets. He had never felt the hunger come from someone’s soul like Samuel’s.

-Commanding the young teenager to kneel on the floor, Samuel reaches inside of his cloak and removes a horn of oil. That horn had been provided upon the basis of a sacrifice from some animal now long dead. The animal’s blood had been spilled on some altar in the distant past. Out of the sacrifice came the oil of anointing.

-One must always remember that true and real anointing never comes without some form of sacrifice. It is a biblical pattern that we find beginning with Abel’s sacrifice and ending with the one in Revelation where the cries of the saints come from under the altar. If you are not yet prepared to sacrifice, then you really aren’t prepared to be anointed.

-Now the young man bends to his knees. He hears the old prophet pray and he feels the oil immediately drench his hair and run down the back of his neck. It was his first anointing, but it would be years before he finally came to be the king.

-Those first anointings that occur in our lives are crucial. The decisions that we make. The paths that we take. The lessons we learn with those first anointings hold so much magnitude. Those first few prayers that we pray. Those first few moments of real worship. Those first times that we become involved in spiritual warfare will always be significant to us.

-But often after that first anointing, we have to plod the weary path of preparation for God to use us in His Kingdom. Time spent waiting for advancement or for deliverance often seems like lost time. Men forget that preparation is demanded for all promotions.

-He had to sing to a mad king. He would be purified in furnace of affliction and humiliations. His faith would grow strong in the fantastic deliverances. His heart would feel the heaviness of despair. At other times, his soul would leap to the mountains with praise and worship for answered prayer.

B. The Other Two Anointings

-Besides the anointing at Bethlehem, he would have two more anointings in his life. One would be at age thirty and the last anointing would be at age 37 (2 Sam. 5:5).