Sermon for Sunday Evening, November 2nd, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church at Unionville, NY (BPC)
Sermon Text:
[2 Samuel 5:1-25 ESV] 1 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Behold, we are your bone and flesh. 2 In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the LORD said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.'” 3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel. 4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. 5 At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and at Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years. 6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off”–thinking, “David cannot come in here.” 7 Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. 8 And David said on that day, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David’s soul.” Therefore it is said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.” 9 And David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built the city all around from the Millo inward. 10 And David became greater and greater, for the LORD, the God of hosts, was with him. 11 And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, also carpenters and masons who built David a house. 12 And David knew that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. 13 And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David. 14 And these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, 15 Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, 16 Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet. 17 When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. But David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. 18 Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. 19 And David inquired of the LORD, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” And the LORD said to David, “Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.” 20 And David came to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there. And he said, “The LORD has broken through my enemies before me like a breaking flood.” Therefore the name of that place is called Baal-perazim. 21 And the Philistines left their idols there, and David and his men carried them away. 22 And the Philistines came up yet again and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. 23 And when David inquired of the LORD, he said, “You shall not go up; go around to their rear, and come against them opposite the balsam trees. 24 And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then rouse yourself, for then the LORD has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.” 25 And David did as the LORD commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba to Gezer.
Introduction
An honorable leader fighting for GOOD and triumphing over EVIL.
This is the classic storyline of MANY novels and of many movies. Good OVER evil.
It is the story of The Pilgrim’s Progress, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of Rings, and of Star Wars.
It is the story of the Wizard of Oz, of St. George and the Dragon, and of Dracula.
It is a natural story; the story we SHOULD all like.
We SHOULD all want good to triumph over evil.
Today, the message of books and movies gets muddled. Made “complex,” “nuanced” even supportive of evil.
We ought to remind ourselves of that obvious fact, evil is bad. Evil is what is against all that is good, and it leads to destruction and death.
We SHOULD all want good to triumph over evil, because that is the situation that we are in. Not that we are sinless, perfect. But, being made in the image of God who created all things good, we need good to triumph. The wolves need to be killed; the bad guy imprisoned, the tyrant removed from power.
We ought to cheer for the good guy.
We ought to want to see a believing leader fighting FOR God and WITH God against evil.
We have that in our account today from 2 Samuel chapter 5.
David is ANNOINTED of God and made King of Israel, now united with Judah AND Israel as a single kingdom. And this leader FIGHTS and DEFEATS the godless Philistines.
Application: We should desire good, godly leaders today.
Before I even get into the text, I want to look at an application. “We should desire good, godly leader today.”
This would not have been a controversial statement at any point in world history.
But it is now.
If Christians say that want a Christian leader people get bent out of shape.
We have gone through a long era of passivity, of saying and allowing “no religion in politics.” But that position is impossible; every leader brings some beliefs, some influence from his or her own culture and religion. To say “NO” to Christianity but allow the rest, is inconsistent as well as wrong.
There is a growing trend – a positive trend I think – among Christians to stand up for ourselves, to elect Christian leaders, and to fight against evil.
Some call this “Christian Nationalism.” And it goes by other names as well. Like any movement, there are various views and meanings of this term. And every decade of so in the Christian world we have some new fad come and go. So I’m certainly not signing up for any such movement, especially one that has some really bad features and bad views espoused among its adherents.
However, I’ve been growing more and more ACTIVE in my thoughts on Christian engagement in the world. We need to be active, not passive. We need to think “Christian leader can and SHOULD be elected, and evil ought to be dealt with.” Otherwise, it will consume us, and already is.
Talking with another minister the other day, it dawned on me, and I said to him, “maybe I like the idea of a small c “christian nationalism.” That is, I like the idea of Christians being involved in leadership and policy without necessarily agreeing with the various leader of any movement that takes upon itself that term.
Well, the Presbyterian Church in America, at their last General Assembly assigned a half dozen solid ministers with the task of writing a report of Christian Nationalism, and I very much look forward to seeing what they write. I suspect they will conclude with some positive and some negative thoughts on the subject. And I hope it will be gain to read it, for I’m honestly not that knowledgable on the subject.
But we ought to consider the whole subject in light of certain passages like that which we have today, and which I summarize in two points: 1. David is Anointed King, and 2 The Jebusites and Philistines are Defeated.
It is a simple outline. Good over evil. Good elected by God, over evil. And we should cheer that result, and not say “Oh the poor Philistines.”
I. David is Anointed (v. 1-16)
We find that the place of David’s anointing is Hebron. This continues to be the major center of activity, David having not yet established Jerusalem as the capital.
And there at Hebron is a recognition of the people that David is chosen of God. They know that God had said to him, “You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.”
My ESV says “prince” could be “leader.” It’s not prince as if he’s waiting in the wings to be king. He is the leader.
But he is also called a shepherd. This is quite different from the other leaders in the world. Most leaders are in it for themselves, but David is to be there for the benefit of the sheep, of the people.
We also see that typology, with Christ later being “The Good Shepherd.” David shepherds the people in a the way of national affairs and guidance, but Christ will shepherd his people spiritually, given them guidance through his word and through the Holy Spirit working in them. Ideally, in the end, in heaven, we won’t even need a human ruler like David to guide us; for we have God keeping us holy.
We have a historical note that David was 30 years old when he began to reign and he reigned for 40 years. Seven years and six months he reigned over Judah alone, and the remaining thirty-three years he reigned over Israel and Judah together. So at this point he is about thirty-seven and half years old.
I want to note something about this age. Especially, consider David was 30 when he first began to reign over Judah. In our day and age this is thought to be quite young. “Children” aren’t even off of their parent’s insurance until age 26, and rarely are they leading any organization or even local government at age 30. We live in a very different time where people are living much longer than they ever have historically. I looked up the Average Age in the United States Senate – 64.7 years of age. It is a “young” 58 in the House of Representatives.
But if you go back some years, in the histories I’ll find stories of pastors, having learned Latin at age 13, going off to Seminary at age 16, leading large churches at age 21.
And I saw some really interesting quote recently, I can’t remember where, that said in effect, “By age 30 (?) a person will be as ready as they ever will be for leadership.”
So David is plenty old enough and ready to lead. And he has God on his side, which helps(!) to say the least.
II. Evil is Defeated (v. 17-25)
There are two episodes then of military engagements in which David as a newly-chosen leader gets involved.
1. The Jebusites Defeated
The first is against the Jebusites. (v. 6-10)
These are the people of the city of Jebus.
That is the old name of Jersusalem.
We read:
6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off”–thinking, “David cannot come in here.” 7 Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. 8 And David said on that day, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David’s soul.” Therefore it is said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.” 9 And David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built the city all around from the Millo inward.
What is going on here?
Back in the book of Judges, the tribe of Judah had taken the city, but the tribe of Benjamin allowed the Jebusites to continue to live there. And the Jebusites grew in number and it became their city. In conquering Jebus, David is fulfilling the mandate God gave to take all of Canaan, and this mandate David was not able to abide by until he had the tribe of Benjamin on his side rather than it being with the House of Saul. So David is obeying the Lord at the first possible opportunity.
What is the reference then to the lame and the blind?
Well, perhaps the fortifications are so strong, that they can be defended by the blind and the lame.
They sent a provoking message to David believing that no one could enter their gates.
Clearly they were overconfident, and David takes the city, including the “Millo” which is the ramparts or fortified wall.
And from then on, even till today, Jerusalem becomes “the city of David.”
We find another account of those days in 1 Chronicles 11:4-9
[1 Chronicles 11:4-9 ESV] 4 And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, that is, Jebus, where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land. 5 The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, “You will not come in here.” Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David. 6 David said, “Whoever strikes the Jebusites first shall be chief and commander.” And Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, so he became chief. 7 And David lived in the stronghold; therefore it was called the city of David. 8 And he built the city all around from the Millo in complete circuit, and Joab repaired the rest of the city. 9 And David became greater and greater, for the LORD of hosts was with him.
2. The Philistines Defeated.
The second battle we then find, for our believing, anointed, GOOD, leader David is against the evil, pagan Philistines.
And we don’t find ANYONE, in the Scriptures certainly, saying David is in the wrong. We don’t find anyone saying “David should leave his religion at the door.”
This all comes back to that final choice. God or not God. And if you fail to choose for God, that is practical Atheism, or practical opposition to God. Ultimately, are are commanded to obey God, and if you don’t then you are against Him.
Its notable that the Philistines start this latest round of trouble. “When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David.” And they weren’t looking for him to congratulate him! They wanted to kill him.
But we ought to step back and just look how far we have come. Once David was the weakest, a young man against the giant Goliath. Some year later and we find him in the top position, King of Israel.
Then, we find that David did the right thing and consulted the Lord, “Shall I go up against the Philistines?” And God said “Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.”
God himself says to go to battle! There can be no room there for pacifism.
And there is no room for evil; God will destroy it.
And note that God says that HE will give them into David’s hands. So the Lord gets the credit, He gets the glory for the victory over the Philistines.
There are two battles or skirmishes mentioned, and each time God gives the victory. Evil is defeated by Good.
The old story is revived and retold.
And the “old old story” of Jesus and his love is similar. Good defeats evil. Ultimately, death is conquered in Christ.
We look to that narrative of Good conquering evil, because that is what we need too. We need evil – outside and INSIDE – to be conquered and destroyed. We should not harbor evil in our cities, not allow it in the nation. We ought to work and pray for good to triumph. And, in Christ, we are promised that will indeed come to fruition, perhaps a little now and more later, but in the end completely. For Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and He defeats Satan forever.
Let us pray.