In 2 Samuel we arrive at 2 Samuel 8 verses 1 through 8, 1 through the end I mean, the whole chapter, 8, 1 through 18. Please rise as the Lord now speaks to us by his word. Thus saith the Lord. After this it came to pass that David attacked the Philistines and subdued them. And David took Methag, Amah, from the hand of the Philistines. Then he defeated Moab. Forcing them down to the ground, he measured them off with a line. With two lines he measured off those to be put to death, and with one full line those to be kept alive. So the Moabites became David's servants and brought tribute. David also defeated Hadadazar, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to recover his territory at the river Euphrates. David took from him 1,000 chariots, 700 horsemen, and 20,000 soldiers. And David hamstrung all the chariot horses, except he spared enough of them for 100 chariots. When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadazar king Azobah, David killed 22,000 of the Syrians. Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became David's servants and brought tributes. So the Lord preserved David wherever he went. And David took the shields of gold that had belonged to the servants of Hadadazar and brought them to Jerusalem. Also from Betah and from Barathi, cities of Hadadezar, King David took a large amount of bronze. When Toi king of Hamath heard that David had defeated all the army of Hadadezar, then Toi sent Joram his son to King David to greet him and bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezar and defeated him. For Hadadezar had been at war with Toi, and Joram brought with him articles of silver, articles of gold, and articles of bronze. King David also dedicated these to the Lord, along with the silver and gold that he had dedicated from all the nations which he had subdued, from Syria, from Moab, from the people of Ammon, from the Philistines, from Amalek, and from the spoil of Haradazar, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah. And David made himself a name when he returned from killing 18,000 Syrians in the Valley of Salt. He also put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became David's servants, and the Lord preserved David wherever he went. So David reigned over all Israel, and David administered judgment and justice to all his people. Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was over the army. Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was recorder. Zadok, the son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, were the priests. Sariah was a scribe. Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over both the Cherithites and the Pelethites. And David's sons were chief ministers. Recall that David was not allowed to build the temple to the Lord. The reason that was embedded in our text there was that the people of Israel were not as settled and at peace as much as the Lord would like. And he himself then would not become settled and at peace and established in the land by way of his own fixed house, the temple, until Israel was. And so David could not build the temple because the time was not right. Israel as a people were not established in the land as much as God would like. There was not peace that reigned as much as God desired, but there's much work to do to truly establish and plant and root Israel into the land. And so David could not build that temple. But David could and was supposed to and was called to zealously prepare the way for that temple to be built. The way that he did that was to fight all the enemies of Israel and to subdue them so that there would be a great long-standing peace established that was not under threat constantly by enemies. And that is exactly what we find David doing here. He is working to prepare the way for the temple. Likewise, the spoils of war that he takes are dedicated for building the temple. And so everything we see here is David accepting what God has told him that he may not build the temple and doing what he is called to do to prepare the way for the temple to be built. providing substantial peace and substantial products with which to build that temple. And it is true that peace must come through war. At least for the Christian engaged in this spiritual battle, it is true that peace only comes through war. The enemies of God and of his people are engaged in a battle to the death. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent are battling, and neither side will be content until the other is utterly and absolutely destroyed. There will therefore be no peace because of that inveterate hatred that our enemies have for us until God destroys them all." And that is what we find David doing, essentially, in our passage. As Dale Ralph Davis writes, conflict precedes conquest. Surely the cross has taught us that no one defeats the dominion of darkness in a bloodless coup. That kingdom will come at the last because Christ, David's seed, imposes it over all objections and opposition and conquers all his and our enemies. We see David as the foreshadowing of Jesus Christ doing just that, conquering all his and our enemies, the enemies of Israel. With that in mind, then, let us consider the various battles that are cited here, the various conquests that are given to us, and their significance under David's conquest, verses 1 through 14. Then we'll turn to briefly David's administration in verses 8, 15 through 18. Now David had defeated the Philistines before when they had come into the land to seek him out, and he had defeated them then soundly. But this time, notice, they are not coming to him. He is going to them. After this, it came to pass that David attacked the Philistines and subdued them. And David took Metheg-ama from the hand of the Philistines. They are not coming into his land. He is going into theirs. He is the aggressor. He is the one who takes the offensive in this battle. Because the Philistines are a severe threat to Israel. They are the bitterest enemies of Israel and the most successful ones, at least in the time frame here. The Philistines, recall, had attacked and subdued Israel time and time again. And no one had managed to do anything other than push them out of the land. No one up to this point had ever encroached into their territory and took the battle to them. The most they had been able to do is simply defend their own borders, and often not even that. Prior to David's victories over the Philistines, including the ones that he really led when Saul was king, only Samson had managed to destroy many of the Philistines by giving his own life to it. But here, David goes into their land and strikes a very significant blow. Because we are told he took Methed, Amah. This literally means bridal of the mother. It refers to this being the mother city that has the bridal or control over the other cities. In the parallel passage of 1 Chronicles 18.1, we are told that David took Gath, that city of the Philistines, and her daughters, that is the other cities. Gath then is this mother city in view, and the other cities are her daughters. Gath then is the capital city that has control, bridal, over all the other cities. The Philistines had five primary cities with five different rulers, but by this time, apparently, Gath had distinguished itself and become preeminent and ruled over all the others. And so he went into this great city of the Philistines that had the rule over all the others, was the capital city, was the seat of power, was the control of the whole land, and he conquered it. He took it, and he subdued that great city and all of its subordinates, and he made them to be his vassals. He took this land and subdued it, something no one had ever been able to do up to this point in Israel. No one had done anything like this. And it is not only a significant win for Israel as a nation, which it clearly is, but also for David personally. Remember that Gath is the city that David defected to in unfaithfulness when Saul was chasing him. And instead of trusting in the Lord and remaining in Israel as the Lord had told him to come there and never told him to leave, He took cowardly refuge in Gath and was almost brought to that crisis point where he had to decide whether to fight for Gath or to fight for Israel. And so here, this city, which had become the preeminent city, represents, as one commentator put it, Gordon Keddy, it was symbolic of overcoming the temptations and backslidings of the past. so that when he takes this city of Gath, he is declaring, as it were, the very opposite now in his life. No longer does he lack faith in God, no longer is he cowardly, but he, by God's grace, is equipped to go forth and take that which was before shameful to him and bring it under submission and dominion under him. The same is true for all of us, because the power of God is the same. yesterday, today, and forever. There are shameful things in our past, shameful sins we have committed, but by God's grace we are able to take those shameful things and have dominion over them, to exercise self-control, to exercise and exert the strength of the Lord to control and to mortify these sins of the past. That is the sort of thing here in view symbolically when David takes Gath, that city that represented for him such a shameful period of his life now represents the opposite, that he has dominion over it, that he has subdued it, that he has mortified that city in that place. And so it is a great victory for Israel and for David himself. Well, that brings us to the second battle, verse two, against the Moabites. Really, David is attacking the enemies all around. The Philistines were to the west. The Moabites are to the southeast. And finally, the Syrians, as we will consider them, will be to the north. So all around the west, the east doesn't count as much because the sea was there. And so we come here to consider the Moabites in verse 2. So the Moabites became David's servants and brought tribute. So he goes against the forces of Moab now. Again, he seems to be on the attack. He seems to be the aggressor. He comes and defeats them. Now, the Moabites have something of a mixed history with God's people. David himself, you recall, is descended from a Moabite, Esruth. And when David fled from Saul, he sent his parents to the kingdom of Moab for some protection. Likewise, the Lord denied Israel from taking the land of the Moabites. They were to let them continue in their land. And yet, at the very same time, the Moabites were enemies and a real threat to Israel. The Moabites, remember, by Balaam, had tried to curse Israel. And when they could not do so, they enticed them to adultery and to idolatry. They also subdued Israel in the book of Judges and ruled over them. Eglon, for example. So that they are clearly an enemy of Israel, they pose a military and a spiritual threat to the Israelites. And so David conquers them and he puts two-thirds of them to death. When you read the method he chose, making them lie down and measuring out two-thirds of them to die and one-third to remain alive, it may seem to be rather a cruel thing to do, an unjust thing to do. Aren't these POWs and so forth? But let us remember that the Lord prophesied in Numbers 24, 17 by Balaam that Judah would batter the brow of Moab and destroy the sons of Tumult. Well, here is the son of Judah, the first king of Judah, doing the very thing God had prophesied. This is the fulfillment of God's prophecy, the fulfillment of God's will for Moab, apparently. And let us remember this, that God is in charge here, and every sin that man commits deserves death. God has the right to execute the death penalty against every single person in the world. And here he measures out only two-thirds of them to be executed by his servant David, his minister of vengeance. This is absolutely just and right. This is the justified death penalty against the enemies of God's people who have harassed them and enticed them and ensnared them in the past in grievous sins. And by this method, David undercuts their strength for years to come. He decimates their population. There's but one third of them now. 66% are gone. You cannot recover from that sort of decimation in a few years. And so He has rendered them to be powerless by His method of executing them. And those who remain, He has made to be servants who brought tribute to David. He subdues them entirely. These enemies of God's people become his vassals and bring tribute to him. This is a long-lasting subjugation that will not easily be reversed. And that is the point. He is ensuring long-standing peace for years and years to come under his son Solomon. Third, we turn then to the north in verses 3 through 6, as David fights the Syrians. This is a bit different. David also defeated Hadadezar, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to recover his territory at the river Euphrates. The Syrians then had lost territory to David already. We read more of these wars in the 10th chapter of 2 Samuel, but at this point we have but the overview. They have already fought a war. David has already prevailed and encroached on the Syrian territory, taking some of it. But Hadadezar rises up again in presumption and rebellion. Although he's been defeated once, he goes to retake that territory. Well, David will not let that stand. He will not see his enemies rise up whom he has subdued. He will not see his clearing out of the way and providing a land between himself and his enemies, this buffer zone to be taken away. But rather, he goes out to war then against the Syrians. And he destroys them again. As we read time and again, this is the modus operandi here that he absolutely destroys them. David, in verse 4, took from him 1,000 chariots, 700 horsemen, and 20,000 foot soldiers. Likely, this is actually 7,000 foot soldiers, not just 700, because in the parallel account of 1 Chronicles 18.4, it is explicitly said to be 7,000. That number fits better the context here of the number of horsemen and so forth. Perhaps he meant 700 units of 10, some suggest, or the word thousand was simply missing, or to be understood, or it's a scribal error. Whatever it is, this is a massive number of people and of horses that David took. He shattered the power of this army, and he disabled a majority of the war horses. He hamstrung all the chariot horses except that he spared enough of them for 100 chariots. And so here he is absolutely disabling and slaughtering the enemies that would presume to rise up against him and try to take back what he had already gained from them. And yet that is not enough. In verse 5, the Syrians of Damascus came to the aid of these Syrians that were being slaughtered by David. And for their troubles, David killed 22,000 of these Syrians. The sheer numbers of men that he is slaughtering, of the amount of war and the battles that he is waging, is staggering, is astonishing. This is fantastic success. No success like this has even come close to David's against these enemies. He is going forth and everywhere he turns, all around Israel, simply decimating the enemies of God and of his people. And notice as well here, he makes them again his vassals. In verse 6, and David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians became David's servants and brought tribute. He makes them to be subject to him, not just in this one battle, but he puts garrisons there. He's keeping a watch on them. He has a presence in their land. He is subduing them substantially everywhere all around Israel. Why is this? Well, the conclusion of verse six tells us why the Lord preserved David wherever he went. Literally, this is not preserved, but saved David wherever he went, which means that salvation is not merely freedom from the power of our enemies, but ultimately it is achieved by destroying them. The war between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman will not end until one side is utterly destroyed. such as the bitterness of the fight between the people of God and the seed of the serpent, that it will not end until one side is absolutely destroyed. This is salvation. This is what Christ came to do, to strike a fatal blow against the head of the serpent, to utterly destroy his and our enemies, ultimately casting them into the utter destruction of hell itself, removing them entirely from us altogether. Only then will we have true, lasting, eternal peace. That is what David is picturing here. That is how he is foreshadowing Christ. And the same is true for us. As with David, so too we, with God's help, are not merely to survive our temptations, but aggressively to seek out and to put to death the sin that is in our members. We are to be looking at the scriptures and comparing ourselves to it to expose in us the sins that we have. We're to be praying to the Lord, reveal to me the sins that so easily entangle me. Show me the sins in my life and grant me the grace to mortify them, to put them to death. We are not merely to be on the defensive, but also on the offensive to put to death sin in our members. War comes before true established peace. That time of peace is when the temple comes. And so David, by his aggression and by his great success, is opening up the way for the building of the temple of God by destroying these enemies. But notice as well, he also takes the plunder and he uses it to store up material for the building of the temple. We see that hinted at in verses seven through 14, where we read this, and David took the shields of gold that are belonging to the servants of Hadadezar and brought them to Jerusalem. Also from Bethan, from Barathi, cities of Hadadezar, King David took a large amount of bronze. You may say, that doesn't say anything about the temple. No, it doesn't directly, but in, again, the parallel passage of 1 Chronicles 18.8, we are told explicitly that the bronze mentioned here was used by Solomon to build the temple. And likewise, all of the plunder, as verse 11 puts it, was dedicated to the Lord. Notice what we read here, King David also dedicated these to the Lord, along with all the silver and gold that he had dedicated from all the nations which he had subdued. As he dedicated the bronze to the Lord, so he dedicated all the silver and gold in these conquests to the Lord. For what purpose was it set apart? For the purpose of building the temple. David could not build it himself, but he certainly could make sure that all the materials were there when Solomon, his son, was able to build it. therefore, that is what he is doing. He is ensuring a time of peace and provisions necessary for it. Imagine if David had rejected the Word of God and said, no, I'm going to build the temple. How could he have done so with so many battles all around him? How could he do so if he didn't have the resources and material to do so? No, the Lord gave him the perfect calling for him, and that was to advance the kingdom of God through aggressive war and through plundering of the enemy. And so, too, we ought to see our own calling and follow it and not seek to do something else, which ends up damaging the kingdom of God, not advancing the kingdom of God. But what are you called to be or to do? a mother, a father, to be single, to be constantly sick, perhaps, to work a job that you do not like, perhaps. What are you called by God to do in this life that will advance the kingdom of God? There are many different ways in which we can advance the kingdom of God. Simply according to how God has called us, we are to work and to labor for him. And that will advance the kingdom of God. But we don't know our calling, you might say. But there's always a general calling of God upon every believer. You may not even know your specific calling, but generally you are called to worship God, to read his word, to pray often, to fellowship with his people, to work faithfully where God has put you at the moment. God will use you in these ways to advance his kingdom. Children, do you know what your calling is? Your calling is to be children. which means to obey your mother and father. If you want the kingdom of God to be built and God to be honored, you are to obey your mother and father. You are to study hard at your school, to do your chores cheerfully. You are to love your brothers and sisters and help them and not hurt them. That is what you are called to do, in that you will build the kingdom of God. And of course, all of us are called, especially within this context, to fight our sins and to mortify them. This is the calling of God upon our lives. You may not know the full calling of God upon your life, but there are always things that you can be doing. that serve and honor the Lord that he has called us to do and to be. For David, it is to prepare for the temple. It is to prepare for the building of it. And he has tremendous success in subduing the enemies. So much so, in fact, that in verses nine through 10, we read of one king who does not want to fight him, but to congratulate him. When Toy, king of Hamath, heard that David had defeated all the army of Hadadezar, then Toy sent Joram, his son, to King David to greet him and bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezar and defeated him. For Hadadezar had been at war with Toy, and Joram brought with him articles of silver, articles of gold, and articles of bronze. Toy was happy, of course, because the enemy of his enemy is his friend. Hadadazar was one he was fighting against, and David had conquered him and removed that thorn in his side, and so he sent this tribute to David and blessed him and praised him. And David did not, therefore, destroy Toy. Why is this significant? It is significant because we often look upon the enemies that David destroys and thinks, we begin to think that they're the victims. They're not the victims. If they, like Toy, had simply sought peace with David, if they had not been aggressive in trying to attack Israel, if they had not tried to seduce Israel spiritually and so forth, they would not be destroyed by David. They need not be destroyed by David if they seek peace with David and with his kingdom instead of seeking to harm it. No, all of the enemies that David aggressively went after are those who sought to attack and to harm and pose a threat to Israel. Toi does not pose a threat, therefore he is not destroyed. And so here comes one king who has sense enough to seek peace with this great Christ figure, David. And again, in verses 11 and 12, everything that David received from these battles, he dedicated to the Lord. He would prepare for the building of the temple. David himself, of course, was exalted and successful. But he did not use that which he gained from it to serve himself, but the Lord. He understood that whatever he accomplished, whatever he was, it was owing to God and to be devoted to his honor. And we ought to know the same, that everything we have is to be devoted to God's honor. In fact, that is why he gives it to us. Do you use your position at home, at work, in the church, wherever it is? Do you use your position and your resources to honor the Lord? Do men think more of you and you let them than they think of the Lord? Or do they think more of the Lord because you insist it is the Lord who is to be honored and not you yourself? David was one who attributed all of his success and honored the Lord because of what the Lord enabled him to do. And whenever you honor the Lord, He honors you. Notice then what happens in verse 13, David made himself a name when he returned from killing 18,000 Edomites. Now, this is clearly David making himself a name, but he makes himself a name because he honors God, and God then, therefore, makes him to be wildly successful and famous in his military campaigns. And so he is honored by God and made to be famous. Now, you may have noticed that I said Edomites. The New King James here says 18,000 Syrians. but this seems quite clearly to be Edomites for the following reasons. First, the Edomites are mentioned in the parallel passage of 1 Chronicles 18.12, that 18,000 Edomites were killed here at the Valley of Salt, which is confirmed in a second passage, 2 Kings 14.7. The battleground here in view where the Valley of Salt is, is to the south where Edom was, not to the north where Syria was. Likewise, the rest of this passage speaks of the subjugation of the Edomites. He killed 18,000 Syrians in the Valley of Salt. He also put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom, he put garrisons and so forth. So that this Syrians appears to be, I believe, a scribal error. How could that be? Well, the difference between Syrian and Edomite in the Hebrew is one small stroke. It would be like the difference between a lowercase i and a lowercase j. Unless you get that hook prominent, it will look like an i. And the same thing here in our passage, so that it is very possible a scribe miscopied this and it said Syrians instead of Edomites. But if that is the case, should that not trouble us? Is God's word not inerrant? Remember, we believe that the original autographs are inerrant. There is absolutely no error in them. And we believe that God has faithfully preserved his word and the copying of those autographs throughout human history so that there is no significant damaging error in here in the word that we have so many thousands of years later. Even this small scribal error we can easily understand and correct. And even if it is not an error, or even if it is an error that we cannot understand, it makes such little difference to the doctrine of God's Word. Any such small scribal errors that we might detect or think there are make no difference to the doctrine of God's Word. God has faithfully preserved His Word throughout history. That doesn't mean that man in his sin hasn't left a bit of a mark upon it in his translation or in his transmission of it. And I believe this is one of the cases here. This clearly, in my view, refers to the Edomites, The Edomites came into Israel at the Valley of Salt because this is in Israel's territory. The Edomites, the descendants of Esau, those brothers of Jacob, the brothers of Israel, they came arrogantly and presumptuously into Israel's land. and were slaughtered by David and by Israel there because of their presumptuous arrogance in attacking God's people. And he subjugated them greatly. Again, he not only killed 18,000 of them, but he put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom, he put garrisons. Then all the Edomites became David's servants. And the Lord preserved David wherever he went. That is, the Lord saved him wherever he went by means of destroying his enemies wherever he went, as a foreshadowing of the son of David, who saves us by destroying all his and our enemies. That brings us very briefly to our second point. David administrates in verses 15 through 18. While David secured peace from enemies without, he also established judgment and justice within Israel. He not only dealt with the enemies outside of Israel, but he established a system of equity that would ensure peace within Israel itself. He judged fairly without impartiality. He was a truly Christ-like ruler, foreshadowing Jesus Christ himself, who judges with absolute equity and impartiality. And while he appointed, he himself did some of this work, he made sure that it was done. He appointed others to help him wisely in delegated work so that he would not be overwhelmed by it all. He had learned this perhaps from Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, who had said this very thing to Moses, that he needed to have helpers or he'd be overwhelmed by the work. Well, here's David, the king of a vast kingdom. He needs to appoint those to help him. And so he does. He appoints Joab to be the general of his army. Joab may not be a very moral man, but he is a competent war captain for sure. He appoints Jehoshaphat to be the recorder to make record of judgments and events that have occurred in the land. He makes Zadok and Ahimelech to be priests, both of them, likely because there are two tabernacles at this time, one in Jerusalem and another in another city in Israel. They did not move the original one back to Jerusalem, so he has two priests for the two tabernacles, it seems. He has Sariah, the scribe to write down the laws and propagate the laws of the land. He has Benaiah, who is over the special forces of Israel, over the bodyguards of David, the Charithites, and the Pelethites. And he sets his own sons as ministers to serve in some capacity in the kingdom. He makes sure that there is stability and order within the kingdom as well as outside of it. He is making the path to the temple smooth. He is establishing all that is necessary to have a permanently peaceful kingdom in which the temple could be built and God could be established there in his house in the center of Israel permanently. This is what David is doing. It is all geared towards the building of the temple as the significant event in view. As we look at this then, let us recognize again that David foreshadows Jesus Christ, who came to defeat all our enemies on the cross. He put to death our old nature. He struck a fatal blow to the head of the serpent. He paid for our sins. He has given us a spirit of God that we might be changed and made into new creatures. And he calls, Jesus that is, calls officers to serve his church. He establishes order and rule and peace within his church, particularly by the establishment of officers there as well. so that when we consider the kingdom of God in which we continue to live, we should ask, but what is our role in this kingdom? How are we to advance it? What has God called us to be and to do? Because our desire is to advance this great kingdom of God as well. Our desire is ultimately to go then to the place of permanent peace and stability, to dwell with God permanently, to arrive at glory. And in the meantime, however God has called us, let us fulfill that calling faithfully as we work towards and walk towards that inevitable reality of the great kingdom of God and the temple of God, the permanent glory of dwelling with God forever in heaven. Let's pray. Our Father, as we come before you now, we are grateful for how you so powerfully work through David, how you have decimated his enemies and given him such unprecedented victories. We pray, Lord, that you too would grant us the same strength, the same power of your spirit at work in us to deal with our own sins, to decimate our own sins that dwell in our members, to mortify them, to aggressively seek them out and root them out, that we might truly honor you and advance your kingdom. We long for the day when we'll be in that ultimate and glorious temple where you are present, Emmanuel, that we'll be with you and you with us forever and ever and dwell in peace and stability without end. Lord, until that day, help us to serve you well and to play our part in advancing your kingdom. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.