It looks like it's working, so amen. If you have your Bibles, I ask you to turn to 2 Samuel chapter 18. We will endeavor to pick up in our study of the life of King David. I am thankful for the opportunity to come and to be able to teach tonight and share God's Word. As we will see, and as Brother Jimmy mentioned this morning, this is a not necessarily good where we're at for the last couple chapters. One thing we can say about God is that God is faithful, isn't He? He's faithful to provide. He's faithful to protect, but He's also faithful to correct. And what we see is we see a form of correction. We see discipline. We see judgment on David and on David's family because of what David has done. And it's not over with yet. We'll see as we go through this. I don't want to ramble on. So here we are, 2 Samuel chapter 18 verse 1 reads, and David numbered the people that were with him and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them. Let's pray. Father, we do ask that you help us tonight as we look at your word. We pray that you'd grant us grace to see truth, that God you would help us, lead us, guide us, and direct us for your honor and glory in Christ's name. Amen. So we know the context. David is in in a hideout. He's waiting for an attack. He's waiting for word. And as he's doing this, the Bible says here that he numbered the people. This verb numbered here actually means to appoint. So when we look at this in the context, what David did here is he actually went through the people that he had. gathered them and then organized his army and arranged his men into companies and divisions is what he does here. We've got to understand that it probably took Absalom some time to gather. Remember the instruction that he got from Hushai was to gather all the nations of Israel together, all the nation of Israel, all the fighting men and go after David to kill David. And here we see that more than likely as this took some time and as there was some down time while this was taking place, David wisely used this delay to his advantage and what he does is he divides his men into ranks. I'm not sure if we realize it or not, but when these men came to David, bearing all these precious commodities. Remember we read last week that they brought beds, they brought cheese, they brought all these things that David and his men would need. More than likely, they did not come alone. There's a good probability that these men also brought troops with them. Now we just see a few names that were mentioned, but evidently they didn't just bring all this by themselves. They probably had people with them, more than likely troops with them, that came with them. So not only did they bring David the essential items that they needed, David and his men, but more than likely they brought a, I would guess, a small army to guard these things as they were traveling. And not only to guard them as they traveled, but also they brought this as a gift, more than likely, to David. Now, I'm speculating. To be used at David's disposal. So here's David with the men that he had. Others coming to join him. So what's David doing? He's taking inventory. As any good leader would. He's numbering. He's organizing. He's putting them into ranks. And I think David's decision to appoint commanders indicates his understanding of the need for structure, right? Isn't it good to have structure? To have rank? To have a chain of command? Because if not, then what's going to be when you go to war is just going to be a free-for-all. Everybody's going to do what they want to do and how they want to do it. And David's wise enough to know that, hey, we're fixing to go to battle. We have weather coming in, right? Or so they say. We trust the weathermen. I don't know why we trust the weathermen. Because they lie to us all the time, right? But yet we do. And because of that, most of us have tried to prepare because we don't No different here. David knows that war between Absalom and him is imminent. So what's he doing here? He's preparing. Instead of taking his ease, And enjoying all these commodities that were just brought to him, David, with the military mindset, is saying, okay, I need to arrange my men. I need to see my strength, my strong points. I need to appoint them. I need to divide them up. Why? Because we have to be effective. We have to be efficient. David was a gifted warrior. Y'all realize that? David was a very gifted man. But he was a gifted warrior. He was also a great military leader. He didn't rule his house real well. But we see that he was a great military leader. He fully understood the context of war. He knew how to fight. That's what made him a great leader. That's what made him a great king. Look at verse 2. And David sent forth a third part of the people under the hand of Joab, and a third part under the hand of Abishai, the son of Zuriah, Joab's brother, and a third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said unto the people, I will surely go forth with you myself also." So here we see that after setting captains over a thousand and then setting captains over hundreds, David then takes these groups and then breaks them down into what? in the thirds is what we see here. Which I think is wise of David to take because how can one man command 12,000? I don't know exactly how many men David had with him. But how can we see this in pastoral ministry? Y'all realize that? You take a big church like Grace, John MacArthur. There's no possible way that he can minister. Y'all know how many people he's got in his church? I don't know. Somebody give me a guess. 5,000. No way one man can physically minister to five. I understand he can get up, he can preach, but to one-on-one minister, so what do they do is they have a what? A group of ruling elders, teachers, ministers that have people under them that oversee, not necessarily so that it's a business. Some people say, oh, that's too businesslike. No, that's wise that you would set people that are trusted. We see here he sets three men above, three men that he knows he can what? Trust. So these men have men under them that have men under them that have men under them. So that way, the chain of command is passed down. And when they go out to fight, everybody knows what they're supposed to do. You ever been on a job and you got a bad boss and some of y'all, but Dustin may say that he's worked with me before and said, man, he didn't give me clear instruction. Sometimes people don't give you good instruction. You don't know what to do. It's important to be able to, in order to obey, A command, we have to what? First know it, right? That's why it's so important for us to know the scriptures. So that we can properly obey it. If we don't know it, we can't obey it, right? And therefore we can't please the one that God's given us perfect instruction. Sometimes we've been on jobs, we don't get good instructions. We don't know what to do. And when we don't know what to do, you know what? We're not very efficient at what we do. Here we see that David gives one-third to Joab, which was his general in chief, his nephew, and then another to Abishai, his other nephew, which was Joab's brother, and the last portion he gave to Ittai, the Hittite, I mean the Gittite. Now we must understand that this was a very common practice for armies to be divided in thirds during this time. Matter of fact, turn to the book of Judges. We'll look at Just a couple examples, and I'm going somewhere with this because we're studying this, right? We're not just reading this. We're actually trying to study this and learn a little bit and figure out what's going on. Book of Judges, chapter 7. We'll start reading in verse 15. Which reads, When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, Get up, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand. And notice this, he did what? And he divided 300 men into three what? Companies. And gave each man a rams horn and so on and so on and so on. We can keep reading. We can turn back to 1 Samuel chapter 11. Because we're looking at a few illustrations or examples saying that this was common, right, in that day. I don't know much about war. I haven't studied warfare and how it goes. I know today it's kind of unconventional, right? We have unconventional warfare, right? Is that what you would call it? We don't fight like they did back then. It's not man against man, horse against horse, now it's high tech. They send in drones, they do surveillance, and they bomb you, right? But here we see back in this era, it was common. 1 Samuel 11, we'll start reading, if I can find it, in verse, passed it up, verse 10, which reads, Am I in the right spot? Eleven, nope, yep. Then the men of, hold on, I'm in the wrong spot. Therefore the men of Jabesh said, tomorrow we will come out unto you and you shall do with us all that seemeth good unto you. And it was so on the morrow that Saul put the people in three companies, notice that, And they came into the midst of the host of the morning watch and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day. I'm not going to keep reading for sake of time, but we see that this was a common practice. We even see where the Philistines, you can go to, and I'm not going to read it, but we can go to the book of 1 Samuel, two chapters over, chapter 13. It says, Sol and Jonathan and his son are troops. They were staying in Gebe by Benjamin. And the raiders went out of the Philistine camps in three divisions. So this was common. And even though this was a common practice amongst the armies of that day, we see where this was not necessarily a common practice for David and his generals. As a matter of fact, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 10. 2 Samuel, not 1, 2 Samuel chapter 10. Start in verse 6, which reads, And when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David, what's that mean? They disgusted David, right? We've already looked at this. You can go back and study it. There were some things that done on. David sent some men over there and they mistreated David's men and David was what? Furious. They realized that. So when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth Rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 footmen, and the king Maaca, and 1,000 men, and of Ishbob 12,000 men. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of the mighty men. So what's David doing here? Has he divided anybody up? No, he hasn't. And the children of Ammon came out and put the battle in a ray at the entering of the gate. And the Syrians of Zobah and of Rahab and Ishtab and Maka were by themselves in the field. And when Joab saw that the front of the battle was against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel and put them in a ray against the Syrians. Notice this, "...and the rest of the people he delivered in the hand of Abishai his brother, that he might put them in array against the children of Ammon." So what do we see here? We see a division. How many divisions? Just two here, right? And he said, if the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me. But if the children of Amnon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee. So here we see in this battle, David originally sent them out as one big group, right? But as Joab realized what was taking place when he observed the battlefield, He decided it would be best to divide his men into two parts so that if the first part was overtaken, then the second group can come in and come to their aid, or vice versa. If the second part was overtaken, then they can go to their aid. So with that, we must ask ourselves, as we look at what David does now, and it was a common practice, why the threefold division? in this case that we see here in our current text. Why did David divide his men into three groups? The bad thing is I can't really say for sure why. But one guess that I have and what I can gather, the only reason was because of Ittai the Gittite. He had brought an army with him. Now we must understand that this man was a Philistine, y'all realize that? He was from the famous city, where? Gath. Who else was from Gath? We talked about that, Ms. Emily, who else was from Gath? You remember? Who? The giant. She remembered. I could see the grin on her face. She knew the answer before I even asked her. There was confidence there. So we've got to understand this man's a Philistine. Now let's keep this in mind. David, with his wisdom, divides these into three groups. And there's subgroups under those groups. But we see that he gives one to Joab, who we know he can trust. Abishai, was there any doubt with him? Iddi, the Gittite, was there any doubt with him? Not in David's eyes. David trusted him, fully trusted him. We've got to understand this goes back to when David was in where? Where did David go? He went to Gath. So this is a friendship that goes way back. We've already seen how this man and his followers were loyal to David. David tried to tell them to go back and they wouldn't go back. But what we must realize is that David fully understood that more than likely these men would not fight as efficient under an Israelite leader, nor would the Israelites fight efficiently under Itah. Why? They were different. As a matter of fact, due to cultural differences, major cultural differences, And the prejudice of the Israelites, David probably figured it would be best to separate these men as he did. That's my only guess. And as I began to look at this and read and kind of divide this up, I looked up from some other scholars and some never even touched on it. Some said some of the same things. And if you think about the cultural differences when they were camping, Did they eat different things? Did they eat different things in Gath than they did in Jerusalem? Yeah. So if these men were all mixed up in the one wide, it could cause division. I'm not saying that's the case for sure. But we see here David decides it's best to split these men up in three parts. So more than likely, David probably, because Ittah probably wasn't the only foreigner, if that's what you want to call them, or non-Jew, that was in this array of people. So more than likely, David placed all his foreign troops under whose command? More than likely under Ittah's command. Now I can't be sure about that. But he more than likely did that with wisdom and understanding, knowing that they would do better, and he probably figured it would be better to give his own nephews the command over who? The Israelites. Those that had been fighting with them previously, that knew them, knew their command. For instance, I remember going to watch these boys play ball, and they had a homeschool group that played lacrosse. Um, and well, it wasn't necessarily the homeschool group. What was it? It was like a, a localized team that was, uh, derived of kids that did not go to a school that had a lacrosse team at their school. So in other words, if you went to St. Paul's, you couldn't play on his team. You had to play for St. Paul. So it was a lot of homeschoolers, private schoolers that were joined together to play. These kids didn't really know each other. And you could tell when they were on the ball field. Why? They didn't know each other's voices. These kids that went to school together with each other every day, they knew what each other sound like. So they say, hey, so-and-so told me, you know, on the ball field, it makes a big difference. I don't know if y'all realize that or not. But when you are with somebody on a regular basis, you begin to gel and think like musicians, whatever it might be, a family structure. You ever heard family sing harmony? Like a brother and a brother, it's different. I don't know why. I challenge some of y'all to look that up. But there's a difference there. And the thing is, is on a battlefield, the chain of command and how all this plays out, I think would be highly important for people that have fought together. That's why they train in battalions and stuff, in small groups. Right? So these men know each other, and they become what? Bonded. They become connected. So when they go to battle, you know what they're willing to do? They're willing to die. They're fighting not just for themselves, but for each other. I think that's what Davis, now I may be wrong. One commentator I read behind said this, which would also, I think this was a great comment, would put their reputation at stake and would cause them to fight even harder in order to rival the Israelites in valor. So David does this with a purpose, and we see the genius. I know we can easily read over this, but we see David's mindset here of organizing and getting things, and I think that's important in our own life, right? Notice also that David said, surely I will go with thee. The indication here is that even though David divided these men into three groups, he was still planning on going to fight with them in person. Now how important is that? To me this reflects a leader who's not only a commander but also a participant in the struggles of his people. David could have easily said, y'all go fight for me. But he didn't, right? You know, I don't want to get political, but that's one thing that really bothers me today with our government officials. They can easily sit behind a desk and push a pencil, and they all seem to be gung-ho about starting some kind of conflict or war, but I promise you that most of them would not go fight for this country, unless you made them go fight for this country. I'm not saying all of them, but most of them. Now please don't misunderstand what I'm about to say, but I would not want my sons or my daughter going off to fight for a bunch of leaders who would not fight for us. I'm just being honest. I may be wrong, but I think, this is just my opinion, that for a man to be president of this great nation, he ought to have served at least in some capacity in the United States military. That's my opinion. Some may disagree and say that's not necessary. But I say if a man desires to rule a nation, I think he must be willing to fight for the people that he has rule over. I mean, we go back to our first president. I understand there was probably some things about him, I don't know, history, we can't trust everything that we've heard, right? But I know one thing, the man was willing to fight. Now I fully understand, and like I said, I'm not trying to be too political here, but I understand that the President of the United States is considered the Commander-in-Chief, right? I even looked it up. which under the Constitution, the President, in addition to being Chief Executive, is Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy." Now think about that for a second. He holds the prime responsibility for the conduct of the United States foreign relations. These duties carry very broad powers, including the power to deploy American forces abroad and to commit them to military operations when the president deems such action necessary to maintain the security and defense of the United States. To me, that is crazy that we would allow someone who has never been in the military, doesn't know anything about the military. Think about it. Now, let's not forget what we're looking at David, a man of war, that is a leader, that's willing, that wants to go and fight in person for his people. It's crazy that we would let someone who's never been in the military, knows nothing about warfare, to be our commander-in-chief. Am I wrong? Am I looking at that wrong? Now I understand that the President of the United States is not a king, I understand that. I understand he has limited control, we can get off in the bushes about who's running what, doing this, that, or the other. I understand they're advisors And I understand that he doesn't have, there's things that he can do and can't do. I understand that, as I've already mentioned, our warfare today is totally different than it was back then. But here we see David, the king, not only willing, but wanting, desiring to go fight out in the front of his people. There's no doubt that David's willingness to share. Y'all realize there's great risk in a king going out to battle? Who do you think they're going to target first? Now I understand that there's places when things go amok here that our president and those that are in charge can go into the mountains and there's things we probably don't even know anything about. Right? And I understand the wisdom in that. But let me ask you this, how many of us would be excited if our president was willing to say, hey, we're going to fight and I'm going in person? Do you see the example that sets for his people? These people left to go with David. Why? Because they love David. And had David been a punk, should I say, and said, I'm going to go hide in this cave. Y'all go fight while I hide out. No, what David does is he shares in the risk of battle. This serves as an inspiration to his people, and it also stands as a model of servant leadership. You know, that's what we're missing today in government, and we're bringing it home to churches. I'm not saying necessarily here, But in other churches, people want to be served. Leaders want to be served. They want to be what? Exalted. They want to be praised. They want to be bowed down to. Here, we don't see that with David. David is willing to go and lay down his life for his people. And that is a model of servant leadership. Here, David proves that he was willing to die for his people. and that being king did not give him an excuse to avoid conflict. Here, I say David sets a wonderful example for his men to follow. Does he not? You know, I thank God that the ultimate example of servant leadership was Christ's incarnation and His sacrifice for those that He died for. No better example. Here we see David willing to lay down his life. Christ as the King of kings, as the Lord of lords, as the Bible says, who being in the brightness of God's glory, the express image of His person, that is, being in His nature and upholding all things by the word of His power, right, is what the Bible says. COLOSSIAN 1 SAYS WHO IS IN THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD, THE FIRSTBORN OF EVERY CREATURE, FOR BY HIM WERE ALL THINGS CREATED THAT ARE IN HEAVEN, THAT ARE IN THE EARTH, VISIBLE, INVISIBLE, WHETHER THEY BE THRONES, DOMINIONS, PRINCIPALITIES, OR POWERS, ALL THINGS WERE CREATED BY HIM, AND ALL THINGS ARE FOR HIM. He didn't stop there. He said, AND HE IS BEFORE WHAT? ALL THINGS. And by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. Now we're looking at Christ, who is not just the King of Israel, right? Not just King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is God in person. And I read that so we could stop for a second and see who He is. What we must understand is that Christ, who was fully God, right? Was willing to be made flesh and suffer. Why? For us. The Bible says it behooved him to be made unto like his brother. Why? For a reason of death. The Bible says he was despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows, a man fully acquainted with grief. Who is this? This is God, the God of the universe. That if He ceased to exist, Uh-oh. Where would we be? What's he doing? He's holding all things together by the power of his word. And if somebody was to kill him, aren't y'all glad they can't? Was he not willing to lay his life down for his sheep? He did. The book of Philippians chapter 2, as a matter of fact, turn there right quick and that's where we're going to close. Now we can't forget what we look at. David set an example, right, as a king. I know I got off base a little bit looking at the president, but now we're back where we need to be and we're looking at what? The ultimate example. Philippians chapter 2 verse 6 says, Speaking of Jesus Christ. Who? Speaking of Christ. Being in the form of God. Thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Now I know this translation, we read this and I don't think we get a proper understanding of it. In other words, He was one, or fully, I hate to say, I was going to say 100%, but fully God incarnate. And even though he was fully God, he did not go around demanding that the people that he encountered with treated him as such. Could he have? Did he have every right to? But this thought about robbery, thought it as robbery, that means something to be grasped. In other words, his what? His identity wasn't wrapped up in the fact that he had to be worshipped as God. Although he was, I can't comprehend that. Let me ask you this, if you were God and had every right to be worshiped, wouldn't you make people worship you? It would seem right, right? Did he not deserve to be? Look, when he encountered demons, you know what they did? They knew who he was. Did they not? We see that all throughout the scriptures. There was no doubt. They didn't question saying, who are you? By what authority do you come in? No, that's never mentioned. But mere men, you know what they did? They mocked him. They cursed him. They spat upon him. Did he retaliate? No. And I challenge you to go back and read this second chapter in Philippians because Paul's giving instruction on how we are, we're to consider, have this mind in you, is what he says. Like the mind of Christ, who being in the form of God, who was very God in nature, did not grab on to that and make people think or make people treat him as God. But made himself. What did he do? Now we were looking at David a while ago. I said he was a perfect example of what? Servant leadership. Notice verse 7, but made, he didn't demand to be respected, but he made himself of no reputation. And took upon him the form of a servant, right? And was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man. Notice this, he humbled himself. and He became obedient unto death, not just any death, even the death of the cross. I don't think we fully understand what the cross represents. I know we can say, I don't think we can understand in our mind the greatness of God being cursed He that knew no sin, y'all know that scripture? Becoming sin for us. We can say it, we can quote it, we think about it, but I don't think we can comprehend it. The purity, the holiness, becoming defiled, becoming what we are. Wherefore," notice this, "...because of what he did, God also hath highly exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." One day, you know what we're going to do? We're going to see Him in His glory. And you know what, I think we're going to be so awestruck. We've been getting a glimpse of it in the book of Revelation. The first time he came, what, in a manger as a babe. And there's still people that want to paint that picture of him being a baby, lowly, humble, right? And then they moved from there to what? The cross, the suffering. He's not on the cross anymore. They took him off that cross. He satisfied the demands that was laid upon him by the Father. And the validation of that is when they laid him in the tomb, what? He was raised. He's no longer there. He's no longer on the cross. He's no longer in the manger. He's no longer on the cross. He's no longer in a tomb. Where is He at? He's in heaven. What's He doing? He's preparing for battle, right? Waiting to do what? Come back when the Father tells Him to come back. When's He coming back? I don't know. But you know what? He's not sending other people to come. He's coming what? Himself. as our champion. And I could imagine as these people, back to our text, are in a ray and David steps up. Now we understand David doesn't get to go, right? They don't want David to go. But as David's stepping to the forefront, could you imagine the encouragement that builds in some of these young warriors that have never been out to fight for their beloved king, that they've heard all this about, and finally they see him as he's before them, and he's ready to go to battle. Think about how encouraged... There's discouragements here on this earth, is there not? But think about when our Lord comes back. It's going to be over with. We're going to be on the winning side, and you know what? We're not even going to have to fight. Why? Because He is the victor. We don't have to worry about Him being, what, overrun? We don't have to worry about a rebellion coming in and overthrowing Him. He is victorious, and I'm thankful that we have the record of that, that we can trust We have a King that's willing to not only die for us, but to live for us, to fight for us, to take care of us. And you know what? We ought to be encouraged by that. That even though we face struggles, the Bible says He was tempted, as we've been learning, right? In all points. We learned that last Sunday morning. He was tempted in all points. Like we are, yet he didn't what? He didn't mess up like we do. He set that example. I'm trying to think in my mind right now. There was something that was mentioned this morning about Christ and the reason he did what he did. Everything that he did. Do y'all realize he did that? Brother Jimmy said he could have eliminated Satan right off the bat. Didn't you say that this morning? And he could have, but he didn't. Why? He was setting an example for us. He could have. There's no doubt he could have. He had power to do it. And there would have been no opposition whatsoever. But he didn't. Why? Because it was the plan of the Father from before the foundations of the world that He would come and set an example for us to follow. And you know what our plan should be? To follow in His footsteps. And if he was willing to die, if he was willing to serve, then you know what? We should be willing to die. We should be willing to serve. Is he not worthy to die for? Now, that doesn't mean we're going to run out and go pick a fight, right? Go pick a battle. No, what we do is we follow him. We trust him. And as he leads, WE FOLLOW. WE'RE GOING TO COME TO FIND OUT AS WE GO THROUGH THIS THAT THINGS END UP... THAT DAVID AND HIS MEN WIN THIS BATTLE, DO THEY NOT? BUT DAVID CAN'T ENJOY THE VICTORY BECAUSE OF THE BITTER, SWEET... THE DESTRUCTION OF HIS FAMILY AND THE RESULT OF JUDGEMENT AND SIN UPON HIM. DAVID IS LEFT IN TURMOIL EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE VICTORIOUS. I guarantee you, if we were to see David today, and if we were to talk to him, and if we asked him if he had any regrets, he would say, yeah. But you know what? Our King and our Lord, if we asked him if he had any regrets, no regrets. Why? Perfect obedience. That's the example that we should follow. We can follow David. We can follow Paul as long as Paul is following Christ. But our perfect example is Christ Himself. Let's pray. Father, we love you. We praise you. We do thank you for your grace and your mercy. We ask you to help us, forgive us where we fail you. Use us, God, for your honor and for your glory. Thank you for coming. I wish we could truly understand what you've done for us. God, I pray you would just reveal some of those things to us that, God, we can see. In Christ's name, amen.