I am a big fan of the Chuck Norris joke. It’s really an art form. Consider this example: “When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he’s not pushing himself up; he’s pushing the earth down.” Or this one: “Chuck Norris doesn’t read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.” Or: “Death once had a near-Chuck Norris experience.” Aren’t those simply beautiful? When you read 2 Samuel 8, you get the impression that King David was the Chuck Norris of his generation. Do you think the common people in Israel used to say, “King David doesn’t breathe; he holds air hostage,” or, “When King David jumps in a lake, he doesn’t get wet. The lake gets King Davided”? I certainly hope they did. Either way, what is clear from this summary account of David’s reign over Israel in 2 Samuel 8 is that in military terms, David was an unstoppable force.
But we would miss the point of this passage if we only read it and thought about how amazing a leader David was. That’s because this passage is not ultimately about David. It is about Jesus. David, the ancestor of our Lord, ruled over an earthly kingdom of Israel at a time when it grew to become a small empire, just before it reached its pinnacle under David’s son Solomon. But that kingdom was not the kingdom of God. It was a foreshadowing of the kingdom of God. It was an imperfect, earthly picture of a far greater heavenly reality, a heavenly reality to which this passage should stir and orient our hearts. In biblical terms, David’s kingdom was a type. A type is defined as a person, event, or institution that points beyond itself to a greater reality to come. And in this small empire that David built by crushing the enemies all around him, we see an earthly picture of a far greater kingdom to come under the rule of our serpent-crushing Savior, Jesus Christ. This chapter is a prophecy. It is not a direct prophecy, foretelling in words a direct prediction of something to come. But it is prophecy through events, pointing us to the kingdom Christ has inaugurated by his death and resurrection and will consummate at his second coming.
My goal in working through this passage is to make two main observations about David’s reign that shed some light on the meaning of this account in its context in 2 Samuel and as a type of Christ and his kingdom. Then I want to make one major point of application to our lives.
First,
1. David’s empire points us to the kingdom of Christ.
David ruled over a small empire, but an empire nonetheless. His political influence extended beyond the borders of Israel into neighboring nations who became vassals of his kingdom. And this happened by means of David’s military conquest. The key verb in this chapter is a Hebrew verb usually translated “defeated.” In verse 1 David “defeated” the Philistines. In verse 2 he “defeated” Moab. In verse 3 he “defeated” Hadadezer. In verse 5 he “struck down” (same Hebrew verb) 22,000 men of the Syrians. Over and over this verb is used, seven times in this single chapter. David built an empire by plowing over the enemy kingdoms around him.
And when I say “around him,” I mean that in every direction. The Philistines were Israel’s neighbors to the west. David took a territory called Metheg-Ammah from them. The kingdom of Moab was located to the east, and they became David’s servants who paid him tribute. King Hadadezer of the kingdom known as Zobah was located to the far north of Syria. And verse 5 tells us that the Syrians of Damascus came as reinforcements for Zobah, but David killed 22,000 of them and then set up garrisons in Damascus. Verses 13-14 tell us that David struck down 18,000 Edomites and put garrisons throughout the territory of Edom, Israel’s neighbor to the south. So there we have David expanding his rule and influence in all directions of the compass: west to Philistia, east to Moab, north to Zobah and Damascus, and south to Edom.
By establishing a presence in these territories, David was able to exact tribute from these neighboring kingdoms and to impose taxes on important trade routes that ran through these territories, greatly increasing the revenue of his kingdom. David became such a formidable force that King Toi of Hamath (west of Syria) sent his own son to visit him and initiate a treaty with him, paying tribute to David in return for peace with him.
If you read this account in light of passages that have come before it, you begin to see bigger connections that go deep into the past, as far back as the time of Abraham around 1,000 years before David. In Genesis 15, God made a covenant with Abraham, promising him in verse 18, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.” 1 That length of territory, from the river of Egypt southwest of Palestine to the Euphrates River in the far northeast, was not in Israel’s possession at any prior point in its history. But now, during David’s reign, it is. God’s ancient promises are being fulfilled.
If you read closely, the account of the Moabites may have taken you by surprise. Verse 2 tells us that when David defeated the Moabites, he decimated their military force by putting to death two-thirds of his prisoners of war. To modern sensibilities, that seems simply barbaric, but in the context of David’s time it might have seemed merciful that David allowed any of them to survive at all. The text doesn’t necessarily give a moral endorsement to David’s action here, but I think the deeper issue that the author wants to us to grasp about this account of the Moabites is the echo of an earlier prophecy from a man named Balaam, who had been hired by Balak king of Moab during the days of Israel’s wilderness wanderings (roughly 600 years before the time of David) to come and curse them. But instead of cursing Israel, Balaam received prophetic words from God that blessed them and cursed their enemies. In Numbers 24:17, prophesying of a king who would one day arise from the people of Israel, Balaam prophesied, “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth.” Here in 2 Samuel 8:2, that prophecy is fulfilled in King David’s crushing the forehead of Moab. The Moabites who sought the destruction of Israel when they were in the wilderness received their comeuppance from the Lord, by the hand of his anointed king. And thus God’s great love to his elect people Israel is revealed in this event of David’s triumph over Moab.
One more brief observation about past promises of God: verse 13 tells us that David “made a name for himself” by striking down 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. At this point your mind should go to the chapter that immediately precedes this one, 2 Samuel 7, where God made a covenant with David. Among the promises of this covenant, God had said to David, “And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth” (2 Sam. 7:9). In David’s reign, promise after promise after promise is being fulfilled. Why? Because of what the author tells us two times in this text at the end of verses 6 and 14: “And the LORD gave victory to David wherever he went.” David’s empire was the Lord’s doing, fulfilling his words to Abraham, to the newborn nation of Israel in the wilderness, and to David himself. God has been true to his Word.
David’s small empire brings these earthly promises of God to fulfillment, and in doing so it points beyond itself to Christ, his kingdom, and the fulfillment of God’s heavenly, redemptive promises. David ruled over an empire that stretched from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates, but Christ, now enthroned at God’s right hand, will one day according to Psalm 72:8 manifest his rule “from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” David ruled over a handful of vassal states who paid tribute to him, but in Psalm 2:8-9, God says to the Messiah his Son, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” King David crushed the forehead of Moab, but our Lord Jesus Christ has crushed the head of the serpent who held us under the power of death in fulfillment of the promise of Genesis 3:15. When you read passages such as this one in 2 Samuel 8, learn to read them as prophecies of Christ that give faith-nurturing texture to our hope of his kingdom.
Having considered the significance of David’s empire, we now turn to a second observation:
2. David’s righteousness points us to the righteous reign of Christ.
David is certainly not a perfect man. A few chapters over in chapter 11 we will see that very clearly. But this summary account in chapter 8 presents his rule over Israel as a righteous rule that is oriented to honoring the Lord. His effectiveness as a military leader does not depend on thug tactics that protect and extend his power. You don’t read stories about political opponents of David suddenly getting “suicided.” King David represents, not perfectly but generally, the ideal king for Israel as a servant of the Lord who walks under the authority of the Law of God.
How do we see David’s obedience in this text? Some indications are subtle. Notice in verse 4 that David hamstrung the chariot horses that he captured from the army of King Hadadezer. To hamstring a horse is to make it useless for military purposes and, essentially, to turn it into a work horse for agriculture. David showed no interest in building up an army of chariots and horses in Israel. He kept a mere 100 chariot horses, probably for ceremonial state occasions, not war. So why does this even matter? It’s because when Moses gave the Law to Israel when the nation stood on the brink of taking over the land of Canaan, one of the stipulations he gave reads as follows from Deuteronomy 17:14-16: “When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you, who is not your brother. Only he must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’” Chariots and horses represented for Israel a temptation to trust in their military abilities and alliances instead of trusting in the Lord. By hamstringing the chariot horses he captured in battle, David showed that he sought to obey the Law of God given to Israel for kings.
In addition to that, notice also what David did with the spoils of war and tribute that were paid to him. Verses 10-12 read, “Toi sent his son Joram to King David, to ask about his health and to bless him because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him, for Hadadezer had often been at war with Toi. And Joram brought with him articles of silver, of gold, and of bronze. These also King David dedicated to the LORD, together with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations he subdued, from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, Amalek, and from the spoil of Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Zobah.” As David acquired immense wealth, he did not use it to enrich himself. He dedicated it to the Lord. Do you recall from chapter 7 that David had an idea to build a temple for the Lord? As it turned out, the Lord would not let David build a temple, but he did tell David that his son would build a house for the Lord’s name. So David here sets aside this immense wealth to be used for the future construction of a glorious temple for the Lord in Jerusalem. According to 1 Chronicles 22:14, the amount of wealth was simply astounding: 100,000 talents of gold, a million talents of silver, and bronze and iron beyond calculation. David was certainly not serving in his role as king to enrich himself. And again, that act on David’s part fulfilled God’s Law given through Moses. Deuteronomy 17:17 says that the king of Israel should not acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. So with two opportunities to amass earthly things in which he could place his trust instead of trusting the Lord, David chose to trust the Lord by hamstringing chariot horses and dedicating the spoils of his empire to the Lord, not himself.
After the account of David’s military victories in verses 1-14, verses 15-18 give us a summary of David’s administration, beginning with this statement in verse 15: “So David reigned over all Israel. And David administered justice and equity to all his people.” We live in a society that has redefined the terms “justice” and “equity” through Marxist presuppositions. Many people who use these terms today use them to refer to social engineering that is driven by partiality toward one group (construed as categorically oppressed) over another group. One extreme example I heard about was a program in San Francisco to provide a guaranteed basic income to transgender people. Yes, the city of San Francisco is piloting a program that literally pays people for being transgender. The justification for this insanity is that transgender people are oppressed and deserve special favors from society to balance the scales. But that approach to justice is simply partiality, which is the opposite of justice. When the text tells us King David administered justice and equity, it means he ruled according to the law of God, giving every person his due without partiality. As Psalm 33:5 tells us, God “loves righteousness and justice,” using the same two Hebrew words from verse 15. What a contrast we see here between David’s rule and that of his unjust predecessor Saul.
One final thought regarding David’s obedience. After listing the various officials in David’s administration, we come to this statement at the end of verse 18, “…and David’s sons were priests.” It is possible that the word translated “priests” here means “chief officials.” That is how the parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 18:17 renders it. But it is the exact same word that is used in verse 17 to refer to Zadok and Ahimelech, who were clearly priests. Is it possible that David’s sons, who were not from the priestly tribe of Levi, could have participated in some priestly functions (though presumably without usurping the role of the Levitical priests)? I think it is. As I mentioned when I preached on chapter 6, David seems to engage in activities that echo the mysterious figure Melchizedek, king of Salem, from Genesis 14. It seems that when David conquered the city of Jerusalem (formerly called “Salem”), he inherited the priesthood of Melchizedek, and thus his sons had certain priestly prerogatives. My point here is simply to observe that David, as a priestly kind of king, seeks not merely the prosperity of his kingdom. He seeks to honor the Lord through his rule.
In his obedience, righteousness, and equity he is also a type of Christ. As Isaiah 11:1-5 tells us regarding the coming Messiah, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.” For me, the past three years have exposed a lot of deep rot in our government and institutions that I didn’t previously realize was there. It seems that on a daily basis more evidence of corruption from this federal agency or that politician comes to light, and no one is ever held accountable. The regularity of that experience can be demoralizing, and as is the case in communist countries, we as Americans are simply becoming more acclimated to knowing our government is corrupt, and we have very little power to change that. We don’t really expect justice at this point, though we long for it, pray for it, and fight for it. We give thanks for every limited measure of it we see in this present evil age, and those can often seem few and far between. But let us thank God that things will not always be this way. One day the rule of our King will be fully revealed, and justice will come.
As I reflect on this chapter, my mind is drawn to 1 Samuel 8, the time before Israel had a king and the prophet Samuel, the last of the judges, was leading the nation. Samuel was not a military leader, but through his prayer the Lord had delivered Israel by divine intervention when the Philistines had come upon them by surprise at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7). It seems that the people of Israel didn’t ever want to be put in a position where they would have to trust the Lord again. They wanted a king, a strong man, to give them a sense of security. So they asked Samuel to appoint one for them. The Lord told Samuel to do it, and the man he chose to be Israel’s first king was Saul. Saul was an impressive man, a head and shoulders taller than average. And he led Israel into several victorious battles. But due to his disobedience to the Lord he was rejected as king, the Lord withdrew his Spirit from him, and King Saul died in a battle against the Philistines at Mount Gilboa, a battle that Israel decisively lost. So much for your strong man, Israel. Here's the irony: Israel rejected the Lord when they asked Samuel for a king (1 Sam. 8:7). Instead of the Lord, they wanted earthly security. As it turned out, that got neither the Lord nor earthly security.
But now consider David, a man chosen by God’s initiative to be king. David has demonstrated trust in the Lord and a hear that seeks to obey him. David has led Israel to prioritize the worship of the Lord and obedience to his law above all else. And the picture we get of the security of David’s kingdom here in chapter 8 is exactly what Israel’s elders had wanted when they asked Samuel for a king. They aimed at earth and missed both heaven and earth. David aims them at heaven, and they get earth thrown in with it.
In a 1942 essay entitled “First Things and Second Things,” C.S. Lewis wrote, “The longer I looked into it the more I came to suspect that I was perceiving a universal law… The woman who makes a dog the centre of her life loses, in the end, not only her human usefulness and dignity but even the proper pleasure of dog-keeping… Of course this law has been discovered before, but it will stand re-discovery. It may be stated as follows: every preference of a small good to a great, or partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good for which the sacrifice is made. Apparently the world is made that way… You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first.”2 In a letter written in 1951, Lewis made the same point this way: “Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first and we lose both first and second things. We never get, say, even the sensual pleasure of food at its best when we are being greedy.”3 The people of Israel wanted earthly security, and they wanted it more than they wanted to trust and honor the Lord. As it turned out, earthly security would come once they learned, under the leadership of a godly king, how to trust and honor the Lord. They aimed at second things and missed both first and second things.
The application for us is this:
Application: Let us seek first things first and second things second.
As Augustine would say, let us order our loves rightly. That means we must love most that which is most worthy of our love, namely, God. Let us seek first to know God and to enter his kingdom, nurturing our faith, walking daily in repentance, and attending to the means of grace God has given us in the church: the preaching of the Word, the sacraments, and prayer. Aim at these first things above all second things, and you just might find that second things will come with them. Do you have a difficult marriage that you desperately want to see improve? That is a good desire. But do you desire more to know and obey the Lord more, regardless of how difficult your marriage is? Do you trust the Lord for the grace to endure whatever path he has for you in marriage, even if it is a difficult one to walk? If you and your spouse both come to that conclusion, I can guarantee you that your marriage has better days ahead.
Are you struggling financially in this season of rising costs? Is that leading you to orient your life around earning more money rather than seeking first the kingdom God, trusting that all these other things you need will be added to you (Matt. 6:33)? Are you working regularly on Sundays instead of worshiping because you believe your time is more valuably spent giving it to your employer rather than to the church? Are you hoarding money to seek security instead of giving sacrificially, laying up treasure in heaven? And are you discovering that in spite of these things you still never seem to have enough money? Could it be that the Lord is disciplining you to teach you not to worship money but him? Might it be the case that he is waiting to bless you financially until you learn how to desire him first?
In a world full of injustice, one temptation the church will face in every generation is the temptation to focus its efforts on earthly social and political goals. You know me. You know that I want Christians active in society and politics, not withdrawn from these things. This is one way we can love our neighbors, by fighting against the moral insanity that has settled over us. Some say that Christians should not be involved in the culture wars. I say that the culture wars are upon us, whether we want to be involved or not. You can’t live in a society that pretends not to know what a woman is and not somehow be involved in the culture wars. But here’s something we must always keep in mind as we fight: culture war is a second thing, not a first thing. The extent of our earthly influence must always come second to our pursuit of the Lord and the hope of entering his kingdom.
In our Sunday School rotation, I teach a class on the sexual revolution. Why do I address that topic? Is it because I want to change the culture? Well, I do want to change the culture, but I have little hope that a Sunday School class at Cornerstone Community Church is going to accomplish that. We are not a powerful enough institution in our society to make that happen. So why do I teach it? When I was in the process of buying the house where we have now lived for a little over a year now, I discovered that there was a family cemetery practically in the yard of the house. There is one tombstone sitting there, marking the grave of a man who belonged to the Wallace family who died in 1877. I can look out from my deck and see that tombstone just a few feet away. And maybe that’s why we got a pretty good deal on the house. Not a lot of people want to be that close to a cemetery. But I don’t mind it at all. In fact, I find it is good for my soul to look over at the tombstone regularly as a reminder to me that one day, I am going to die. Why do I teach that Sunday School class? Because you who are sheep under my care are one day going to die. And when you do, I want you to die holding fast to the truth of the gospel, the gospel that is under constant attack from our new state religion, which goes by the name “Pride.” Will we win the fight against Pride in our society? Who knows? But one thing is certain: if you are faithful to Christ to your dying breath, you have won, no matter what happens in the culture. Aspire to fight the good fight, to finish the race, to keep the faith. Yes, fight the culture war, but fight it as a second thing, not a first thing.
Israel wanted a strong man who could protect them more than they wanted to trust the Lord. And what they discovered was that apart from the Lord, their strong man was actually weak. But the Lord’s chosen king, David, gave them the kingdom they desired only because the Lord was with him. May we never seek the Lord’s blessings apart from trusting the Lord himself. May we never seek second things first.
So what is the matter of first importance for each one of us? It is knowing God and entering his kingdom, the kingdom of which David’s was a mere shadow. But the kingdom of God is a holy realm, and as a sinner against God, you are unholy. You need to be forgiven of your sins and given a new heart to become a citizen of this kingdom. I hold up the cross to you this morning as both warning and promise. In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “The cross is the danger signal to you. It warns you that if God spared not His only Son, He will not spare you. It is the lighthouse set on the rocks of sin to warn you that swift and sure destruction awaits sinners if you continue to rebel against the Lord.” But that same cross that stands to warn you is the cross where God’s open arms are extended to you. For it was on that cross that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, fully God and fully man, died in the place of sinners, taking on the punishment that we deserved. And God raised him on the third day, promising that any who takes hold of him by faith will escape that punishment he took in their place and receive the same life he has received. The Christ who stands as the greatest threat to you is also the Christ who offers you amnesty, forgiveness, reconciliation with God if you will turn to him in faith. Take hold of him, and be baptized.
If you are a believer in Christ and you are a member of a gospel-preaching church, one means of grace God has given to keep our hearts oriented to first things is the Lord’s Supper. Let us eat and drink together, remembering Christ crucified for us, Christ who crushed the head of the serpent and established a kingdom of righteousness that will never end. Amen.