NSR: Beyond the Flannelgraph | David’s Mighty Men

In today’s episode, Brody walks through 2 Samuel 23 and shows what we can learn from the action of David’s mighty men. These men show loyalty, unselfish bravery, and the ability to discern the needs of others. They took action and embraced responsibility.

The water that these men got for David represents something a whole lot bigger. God has made it clear to David that He has bigger plans for them. The water is about God’s promises and David’s longing to see those fulfilled. These men are so attuned to the needs of others they acted in a way that drove David to worship God. 

David’s life and kinship foreshadows Jesus’ own ministry and work. Jesus poured out His own life to give us salvation and freedom to live in victory over sin. In the end your faithfulness to God will be worth whatever it costs you. 

Let’s learn from the actions of David and his men and worship God by serving those around us well. 

Resources

• 2 Samuel 23
• Mark 14:3-9
• Matthew 26
• David’s Mighty Men – Be Strong Men’s Conference

Transcript – David’s Mighty Men

Morning, everybody I say good morning I have no idea what time you’re listening to this, but you can probably tell by the scratchiness of my voice that I slept about three hours and got up very early to record this, but we’re going to have fun. We’re having a good time now. It’s pouring rain. I got a hot cup of coffee, hot cup of Joe and we’re going to talk about something that I’m really excited to share with you, probably one of my favorite, I guess I could say my favorite portion of scripture is the life of David and especially as a man at the middle of what I love about that is the story, the tales of David’s mighty men, their exploits and this morning I want to consider something really, I think that we can all learn from something that three of these guys do. It’s been very like challenging for me and then, also, I want to give you guys some updates on some things a lot of you been praying for a little girl named Blessing in Uganda, follow us on other social media platforms and even praying for her, I want to give you an update, it’s good news and then, a quick update on what’s going on here at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters and then, we’ll dive right into a cool story from the book of 2nd Samuel and some of David’s mighty men, 2nd Samuel 23, so thanks for tuning in and being here with us at No Sanity Required. I’m really excited to share this and bring this to you.

So, I don’t know, maybe you’re listening in the morning, maybe you got a cup of coffee. If not, that’s okay, but I’m going to sit back, enjoy my coffee and enjoy talking about things that will help us understand the Lord more so and then, last, I want to tell you about the we’re going to start doing a giveaway. So, let me get, we’re going to start doing a weekly giveaway and here’s what you need to do to pick yourself up some SWO swag. So, as a listener, need you to leave a rating and a review on Apple podcast. Now, if you listen on Spotify, I don’t know our media folks have told me that this is for those that listen on Apple. So, we’ll get something together for our Spotify listeners, but for right now, if you go to the Apple podcast store or the Apple podcast app and listen, leave us a rating and a review, then okay, screenshot that rating and that review and email that screenshot to media@swoutfitters.com, you can also screenshot. If you share an episode on Facebook or like on your social media platforms and you share that, take a screenshot of that, send that in. If you share an episode and comment on it, send that in. So, anything you do that is going to help us advance this, because some of you have already left a comment.

It’s also fine if you left a comment three months ago, six months ago, go screenshot that and you send that in. We’re just starting this right now and we’re going to do a weekly giveaway. Send you some really cool SWO swag, if your name gets drawn and then, also, emails are welcome. There’s a young lady in San Antonio that wrote me an email a couple weeks ago and I thought it was just awesome. I don’t know that she’s ever been to Snowbird. I don’t know that she, I’m not sure how she came in contact with us or how she started interacting with the podcast, but it’s pretty awesome, but she emailed a question for a future episode that we’re working on about is it okay for a Christian to smoke marijuana if it’s legalized? So an interesting question we have. We’ve started working on a response to that and going to have that in a future episode, but if you email us a question, we try to respond to that and we try to process those questions, but that’s one that we’re going to try to do an episode on. So, anything you can do, though, to share what we’re doing here at No Sanity Required. We’ll make sure and get your name in the draw. We’ll do a weekly draw that’s going to start next week. So, next week, we’ll be pulling from our reviews and doing a giveaway, look forward to that and so, help us out any way you can. Thanks for tuning in. I’m excited about today’s episode. Welcome to No Sanity Required.

Welcome to No Sanity Required from the Ministry of Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, a podcast about the Bible culture and stories from around the globe.

Well before we get into this, I want to talk. This morning, from out of 2nd Samuel 23 story from the life of David and let me give you a little context for why I want to do this, because there’s a couple things that we had planned on bringing over these next couple of weeks. One was an interview with Matt Milligan, a pastor from Missouri and we don’t quite have that ready to go yet. The plan is still to get that up, he’s got an amazing testimony, dude was crazy, addicted to drugs and wild story and now he’s a pastor, doing a phenomenal job, really love that guy, he’s a good brother and then, I’m still, I’m trying to interview Kilby, my daughter in Uganda and just because of the difficulties of it’s almost crazy to think that even five years ago, we would have thought, or definitely 10 years ago, we’d think that we could sit down at a desk in North Carolina, in the mountains of the rural mountains of North Carolina and have a conversation with someone in the remote regions of northern Uganda, East Africa, close to Congo, close to South Sudan, it’s a crazy part of the world and that we could just sit down use a Bluetooth feature to record that conversation. So, still want to bring that to you.

But, we haven’t been able to do that this week and the reason is there’s this little girl named Blessing and I think a lot of our listeners will be aware of Blessing’s situation, but she had a terrible case of malaria, she’s six years old, she’s a little girl that Kilby, my oldest daughter, has been ministering to and she’s in a group of young girls that Kilby has been ministering to and Blessing had literally been on the just the verge of death, facing death’s door, malaria is real common over there, but they also because it’s common, there’s a lot of medication to treat it and she just wasn’t responding, her little body was, probably nutritionally deficient. I know that a lot of kids over there, even if they look fairly healthy, they’re not super healthy because they have such a diminutive diet and she just didn’t have, she doesn’t have the nutrition she needs, for sure and so, she was, I’ll tell you, it was a heavy week for a lot of us here, praying, fasting. So, many people praying and supporting that so, I’m excited to report that this morning, as I’m recording this, which is Friday, June 11, I got a report from Kilby this morning after five days of touch and go, that Blessing has recovered, She’s recovering and it was hard.

Because Kilby was not able to see her any this week because she lives in one of the more remote refugee camps so, Kilby and Greg, they live in Arua, Uganda, but then they travel to some refugee camps consistently weekly and that travel, requires a couple hours of driving, typically, rougher roads and so, they weren’t able to get out there this past week because of several factors. One thing that’s going on in Uganda right now, there’s a lockdown, they’re back to heavy lockdown for six weeks and so, that’s made it even rougher, not being able to go out there, but we’re going to link a picture to Blessing. This is a new picture of Blessing back on her feet, smiling, sweet little Blessing and so, thank you all for praying for Blessing, she’s doing well, but that being said, Kilby I was going to interview her this week for next week’s episode and she was just not in a position where she felt like she could give herself to the interview, just so heavy hearted. So, we’ll put that off, but what I did receive was an incredible amount of feedback from the Memorial Day episode, I had so many people message me.

Text me, email like, just really neat and so, I wanted to circle back and that Memorial Day episode we just looked at men who had given their lives in the defense of others and I want to circle back to what I think is one of the greatest stories of valor and bravery ever recorded, but there’s a twist and a component to it that I want to challenge us with, that I think can help us live our lives in a way that we can bring focus and attention and glory to the Lord and learn from these guys. So, if you enjoy these episodes where we dig into a passage of scripture, then, grab yourself a cup of coffee or a cold glass of water or your favorite beverage and maybe sit down and let’s open the word together. Grab a notebook or a journal and I want to walk through, just a really encouraging and neat story. So, this is going to be, we’re going to look at the book of 2nd Samuel 23 and I want to start by giving you a little background, so I once heard a pastor say something to the effect of, I really like this quote. “There is a passionate element to loyalty.” It’s a neat quote and I would say that the men who God led to King David when he was a fugitive were men, who were homeless, outlawed. They’re in need of a leader. They’re men who society had forgotten. You might recall that the scripture says.

They were in 1st Samuel 22:2 they’re described as everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, everyone who was bitter in soul gathered to him and he became commander over them and there were with him about 400 men, there’s a movie that came out a few years ago. I’ve never seen it, so this is neither an endorsement of or, I didn’t see the movie. So, take it for what it’s worth, but it was called the Suicide Squad and I was thinking that these guys are, like the original Suicide Squad, just reading that verse describing those guys. It’s like a scene right out of a movie. They also, they kind of, remind me of the old movie, The Dirty Dozen. I don’t know if you saw that the Dirty Dozen. It was a World War Two movie about a group of convicted murderers; remember that, any of you see that? That movie was before my time. I think that movie was made like a 1950s or 60s, but the setting was World War Two and there’s this group of convicted murderers who were taken out of prison, sent on a suicide mission to track down Nazi leaders during World War Two. I think, if I remember right, I remember they had, there was a guy named Clint Smith; Clint Smith is a gun instructor out with. What was it? Clint can remember his name anyway, big; I always liked that guy in old movies.

Big old dude, he was in this movie called Night of the grizzly, where this grizzly bear was killing everybody and it was in, I think that movie set maybe in the 70s and it was just cheesy cinema, but I love that guy and then, I think Lee Marvin was in that dirty dozen movie and Yul Brynner, bunch of old actors that our younger listeners will have no clue who they are, but that movie was awesome. I still remember and then, remember that movie, The Magnificent Seven, where you got sorry when there’s a pause, it’s because I’m taking a drink of coffee. Keep my throat from I got a scratchy throat right now after three weeks of camp and a lot of travel in between for all these recruiting visits that we talked about last week, but which, by the way, I’ll try to give an update on that at the end. We loved our trip to Iowa State, but I’ll try to circle back to that. So, these guys were a couple thoughts, if you break that down that verse, These are dudes that were considered outlaws by society, outcasts, no home, nowhere to go, drifters, malcontents like these dudes are just, to be honest, they’re either misunderstood or just outright bad people. Some of these guys are just bad people and then it describes them as everyone who was in distress, people who are in distress, are typically not enjoyable to be around. They’re either complaining a lot, or they might be reserved and quiet, unapproachable.

But, people who are in distress are in distress for a reason, the people I’ve met who are distressed are often unemployed or broke or in a great deal of debt, no way to pay their way out of it, maybe they’ve been abandoned, feel very alone, could be that they’re men who dealt with mental disorders, depression, anxiety. These are guys, for the most part, are avoided by others, they’re loners, these guys come to David and we’ll talk it in just a minute about what’s the timeline when is this happening? Because, we know David became king. We also know he killed Goliath and this is in between those two events. This is when David was a younger man, but had not become king and was a fugitive from the current king, King Saul. Since they were in debt, these guys owed people money, in those days, debt collection was deadly. What’s that show called where Repo Men? I never saw, I think I saw one episode of that, Repo Men, where those guys go and repossess stuff, kind of, in the same vein as Dog the Bounty Hunter. Dog, the everybody’s favorite mullet-ed, muscle shirted tan in bed, fake tan Dog to bounty hunter, that dude, that dude’s a piece of work and he’s going and he’s getting these guys that are wanted for jumping bail, skipping bail this is the kind of, guys we’re talking about the kind of, guys, think of this David’s surrounded by the kind of, guys that Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Goes after and so, back then you go to prison, you could become a slave. You could even be killed for not paying your debts. So, if you’re in debt to somebody, back then it was no bueno and then, the last thing, it says they’re bitter in soul. I can’t imagine being surrounded by 400 guys who are bitter in soul. So, this verse, I think, describes kind of, in good detail, what, what kind of, guys David is surrounded with and it says that they basically became David’s ragtag army, he became their leader, just a bunch of messed up dudes, hurting dudes, angry dudes, bitter dudes, most of them have probably experienced heartache and pain at a very intense and intimate level. So, that’s David’s crew and this is at a time when, to give you the timeline, God has told David, you’re going to be my king and then, David is, he is then. So, he, he’s anointed as a young man to become the next king and then, a few years later, he kills Saul, I’m sorry, he kills Goliath and Saul then, celebrates him as this war hero, as a young man. We’ve looked at that in past episodes, earlier episodes, but then Saul gets jealous, he gets real jealous of David. David has to go on the run. Saul puts a bounty on his head basically makes him public enemy number one. So, David is a man who’s a fugitive from the law.

Now, I know a little bit about fugitives. I live in Andrews, North Carolina and maybe some of our listeners have watched the show. I believe it was on Netflix. I watched a couple of episodes to see how accurate it was and it was probably 50% accurate. A lot of the details were off, but the big story was accurate, I think that’s the way they do those types of shows, big story accurate, details off, so this show about what you call it Manhunt was the name of it, Andrews North Carolina was the, like the central command, like that, literally, the trying to think of the word, but it was like this manhunt for this guy named Eric Robert Rudolph, who he’s the guy that was eventually convicted of the Centennial Park bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and that was, made really famous, or brought back into the limelight couple years ago with Clint Eastwood, produced a movie called Richard Jewel and Richard Jewel is one of the was a security guard that was at the center of that they thought he had done that bombing and it was, I didn’t see that movie, but big time national news story and then, a couple years later, ‘98 it comes out that this guy, Eric Rudolph, who’s from this area where Snowbird is, here in Western North Carolina, he was a kind of, a mountain man, survivalist guy.

He was the one that had actually done that bombing and he did some other bombings, he bombed some gay night clubs, maybe one or two of those and then, one or two abortion clinics and the last one he bombed was in Birmingham, Alabama and then, they end up getting some leads, which it’s a fascinating story and if you’re interested in that, there’s a book, I think it’s out of print, but you can find it if you like to read true crime or just a riveting account of something that really happened. There’s a book. I don’t know the author’s name. I apologize, I should have looked it up, but it’s called Lone Wolf because he operated. That’s what they call a single, unsupported terrorist lone wolf. So, he operated by himself and it’s the story of Eric Rudolph, but his name’s Eric Robert Rudolph. That dude, for five years lived in these mountains right here, did not even leave the bigger part of this valley, just lived on the ridges around this valley where we live and, it’s dense. It’s like a rainforest here. It’s rough and that was a crazy time, because I can remember being in the woods deer hunting opening day of rifle season. I took a local kid two local boys and this would have been like fall of 1998 I took a couple local boys out. They were like 12, 13, years old and we parked and walked in, went up in the woods.

I think let’s see we hunted in the morning and we were like probably three miles from the truck and it’s a long walk. Its funny thinking back at drag little boys, they were game. They rolled and so, we got back up in there, I set them up and we hunted and nobody killed anything and we came out. We were going to walk out towards the truck. I think we’re just going to walk out away from the area we’re hunting in and then, prepare some lunch and we’re walking up the trail and there’s all these federal agents that are, cameo-ed out and they’re like, jump off the trustee, they went, I think they might have been a city crew that they had sent out here. Some of those dudes were squared away. They knew what they were doing, but some of them came from, field offices in cities and it was lot of FBI. Then you had Georgia GBI, because those guys had a real good, task force that did, rough terrain stuff here in the mountains, North Carolina Bureau of Investigation was here and in Georgia’s because we’re right on the, our county touches the Georgia border. So, it was crazy. It was in run into those guys in the woods, really, our little town of, 1500 people. There’s 300 federal agents here, probably 300 news crews. It was crazy, it’s like, it was like something in the movies.

It’s a massive manhunt and so, David, go back to our story. David’s like, at the center of this national manhunt, because Saul wants him killed, he wants him killed or captured, he wants him off the scene, he’s going to take control this guy and it’s all because Saul’s just crazy jealous, because he knows that David is going to be the next king and he doesn’t know when and God has already said he’s going to take the kingdom away from Saul and David’s going to be king. So, Saul’s fired up about that, he wants him dead and so, Saul puts a bounty out on David, puts a hit on David, we got to take this guy down and so, for years, this goes on for years, David lives in the mountains and these 400 guys that come to him eventually grow to 600 and they live in these, like these mountains, right in the southern region, outside of Bethlehem in Judah, there’s a mountainous region and it’s also that hill country is also borderlands with some other at that time, some of the enemies of Israel and it’s crazy, because while David is a fugitive, him and these 600 dudes, the 400 that grow to 600, these ruffians, they start to wage this guerrilla warfare against neighboring people groups and during that time, a lot was going on. There was a lot of upheaval nationally, including the Philistine army has invaded southern Judah and they take over Bethlehem.

So, Saul’s Kingdom is starting to sort of, unravel and fragment and David is his top fugitive, but he’s got these international crises that he’s trying to deal with. So, he’s obsessed and consumed with killing David, but he’s also having to try to maintain some stability in his country and he’s older, he’s losing his mind, because God has just taken his hand of protection off of him and letting him kind of, fall into his own depravity and it’s a crazy time, very tumultuous time. It must have been crazy though to be like say, you’re a farmer, a shepherd, a herder and in that region, you’ve got Saul trying to chase down David and his scary dupe group of, outlaws and then, those guys are on the run, there’s a lot of, there’s stories of those dudes interacting with some of the people, in fact, David ends up marrying a girl who’s, she’s a widow of a wealthy landowner in that region and David and his men have provided protection for their herds and just crazy, it’s, it’s so foreign compared to, where we’re at now, as a society just living in the 21st century, these dudes were, had to kind of, band together network to protect properties, kind of, like the, probably, like the wild, wild west, if you were a cattleman and in Kansas or Wyoming territory, something like that, just having to having a band together with other people to protect what you had so, David and these 600 guys.

They become sort of, like these local protectors and they start to defend, these guys become seasoned fighters, because they’re fighting this guerrilla warfare against Israel’s enemies. Well, the Philistines, they come in and they take over like some of the cities of southern Israel, particularly in Judah and around Bethlehem and they are like Garrison city. So, a Garrison City would be a fortified city that’s in a strategic position that would protect the greater nation or the national interest and so, they’re in this Garrison city of Bethlehem, which is we know, it’s where Jesus would one day be more of it’s also we know the home, the birthplace and home city of David, that’s right outside of Jerusalem and so, they’ve taken over this Garrison, fortified city that was home to David and so, at this point where we picked the story up in 2nd Samuel 23 little background of what’s going on here. You got Saul, this is around the time that Saul dies in battle and the most seasoned and experienced fighting men, NCOs and officers, are all dead too, like Saul’s death is pretty catastrophic and a lot of people die with him and a lot of key military leaders die with him and in that defeat, the enemy takes over a lot of these key cities and positions So, the nation then further fragments and so, you’ve got, now, no real leadership.

In Israel and so, it’s just a really bad time David and his men, about 600 dudes at this point like I said, they’ve gone into these strongholds in the mountains and there’s, networks of caves. You read the stories about the Taliban and the early part of the war on terrorism and what’s his name, bin Laden they’re living in Tora Bora and these strongholds of these caves. So, David’s got 600 fighters and it’s, it’s real strategic location in this network of caves right outside these key southern cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem and so, there’s a story in 2nd Samuel 5 that most people believe is the story of these guys that I want to read to you about, but I’m going to read you like the, just the summary from 2nd Samuel 23 so let me read this and look at just a couple of applications that I think will be really encouraging, challenging and kind of, hopefully for some of us, be like oh, wow, like a kind of, a wow moment concerning how we could emulate the actions of these brave men so 2nd Samuel 23 put all my danger glasses, danger, danger ranger, tactical reading glasses. 2nd Samuel 23 this is where, if you read the whole chapter, it’s just awesome. It’s telling about all of David’s mighty men and their exploits. I’ll tell you what, let’s start it actually start at verse 8. We’re going to focus on 13 – 17.

We’ll start at verse 8. These are the names of the mighty men whom David had, Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahkemonite, he was chief of “the Three”. He willed to spear against 800 whom he killed at one time. Next to him, among the three mighty men, was Eleazar, the son of Dodoi, son of Ahohite, he was with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle and the men of Israel withdrew, he rose and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand clung to the sword and the Lord brought about a great victory that day and the men returned after him, only to strip the slain and the next to him was Shammah, the son of Agee the Hararite the Philistines gathered together at Lehi, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils and a man fled from the Philistines, but he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines and the Lord worked a great victory and three of the 30 men went down and came about harvest time to David at the cave of Adullam, this is where we’ll focus on the on the story. When a band of Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim, David was then in the stronghold and the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem so, David, little context here, David’s in the stronghold.

In the caves and the Philistines have taken over the city of Bethlehem. David said, longingly, oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, that is by the gate. Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew out water of the well of Bethlehem and this was by the gate and carried and brought it to David and he would not drink of it, he poured it out to the Lord and said, far be it for me, oh Lord, that I should do this, shall I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their own lives? Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did. So, what in the world, there’s a lot going on. It’s a fantastic story, but the thing that always kind of, confused me is David pouring this water out. You think, like the way he could honor these guys the most would be to drink the water. So, let’s think about this for a minute, so these three guys, let’s think about the situation tactically or strategically. So, let me set it up again. David and his men are in the caves and these caves are about 13 miles from the garrison city of Bethlehem. The garrison city of Bethlehem, the fortified city of Bethlehem has been taken over by the Philistine army, David and his men are in the caves, which and those caves are fortified in one sense, it’s a very strategic and tactical location, but the city is not a city that you’re going to attack easily.

The fact that it was a fortified city, this is like these guys are going to leave the stronghold and go to the most fortified, probably most difficult place that they could have attacked at that time to get David a drink of water. So, they’re going to take the analogy, the water bag, whatever they would have carried it in canteen, they’re going to take it down there, fill it up with water and bring it back to David, just because David said, oh, I wish I could have a drink of water from down there and so, these guys go 12, 13, miles across the desert, just the gate of that city would have been the most vulnerable position and so, it would have been, you got to think it’s heavily defended and then, the city was terraced, is that, what you call it, where it’s like the ground, like steps up, it’s hard to attack, because it would have set in a strategic high ground with, fortified walls and then, the city gate would have been fortified We know from archeological studies, even modern day geographic context, that the well was in a very fortified position within a fortified city. So, these guys, they travel 12 miles. It’s like, David says, I’d give anything for a drink of water from that city, but it’s not about the water. I did a message on this one time called it’s not about the water. It wasn’t about the water.

It was about, what David recognize, I think what David’s recognizing is he longs for the freedom of his home city and the deliverance of that city from God’s enemies and he’s saying this recognizing, the city that I love is under siege by an enemy that hates Yahweh and he’s like, this is not okay and so, he’s longing for that. I think he knows that the day will come. I think he has strong faith the day is going to come when he’s going to experience freedom again and when Bethlehem is going to experience freedom again. So, he makes this statement. These guys are like, let’s do it, let’s go. I just picture these guys standing around and one of them is like what you think you want to make a run, make a, water run, yeah, great, let’s go 12 miles. You talk to guys that operated in the mountains of Afghanistan and I’m talking to Gar, who’s going to be on the show here in a few weeks, he’s going to be the podcast in a few weeks, around the Fourth of July. We have him on here. I remember we’ll get him to tell some of these stories. So, this episode will be three weeks, maybe three episodes before that one and some of some of the stories we’re going to be talking about. We’ve already kind of, outlined how that talks going to go that interview and maybe get him to talk about some of those, the way they would patrol into those mountain regions.

They’d start at like, two in the morning and go, 12 kilometers or miles, 12, 14, miles, or whatever it was, but long way, like they travel a long way by foot to get in there without helicopters making those people aware that they were coming. So, they would drop them way far out, so they’d travel in. These guys, they go through the night, 12 miles, maybe they go across the desert. They take control of the well. They had to have taken control of the well. Now, I don’t know if they did it covertly, if these guys like snuck to the well, but, if they did, it’s hard to believe that three guys could get through, the fortification of this city and when you read those earlier exploits, I think these guys fought their way to the well for three reasons. I’d say, let me give you a maybe look at my notes here, four reasons. I think they fought their way to the well, first, when we read the exploits of these guys, like those first few verses we read there, this is the kind of, stuff these dudes did. They went up against crazy odds and they did so because of the Spirit of God was on them and then, second reason would be the Philistines were very they were like a formidable foe. They just conquered the entire Israelite war machine and took over one of their garrison cities. Those dudes are not like lounging down there.

Drinking, drinking wine and snoozing, I just don’t have a hard time seeing that they would have let their guard down and they know David’s out there too, third, but and maybe they did, maybe because they had conquered the armies of Saul, maybe they did let their guard down. I don’t know. We don’t really know. The text doesn’t tell us, but either these guys snuck through, or they fought their way, but I think, again, I think they fought their way through. Third reason is the city was positioned, so that even the approach would have been very difficult. The hills were terraced large rock walls at each level of the terrace. So, how do you sneak in there without being seen? The fourth thing is that the Philistine King would have been there. So, this is not, attacking a fortified position, random, out like, this is not a forward outpost, this is not like a tactical operations command, this is not a forward outpost, with just a bunch of military fighters. This is the king is there. This is like attacking the Kremlin in the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Is what this would be like, but anyway, regardless of whether they fought straight on or snuck in, they were good and what these guys did was very courageous. These are men of valor and they got it done.

It’s probably pretty bloody and dirty when they got back 12 miles there, fought their way in and out, get this water and get back 12 miles back, these dudes have got to be smoked. They got to be so tired and I want to look at, here’s the first little bit of application that we can learn from what these guys did and this goes back to some of the conversation from the Memorial Day podcast, first, these guys discern the needs of others like we need to be people who discern the needs of others, even when we’re not told like be perceptive to the needs of people around you. As a dad, be perceptive to the needs of your children, pay attention, in the line of ministry that we are in at Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, there’s so many kids that are hurting and I think, if the dad would just step in and be aware of this, just perceive the needs of others, pay attention to your wife, pay attention to your husband. Think about what they need, discern those needs and ask the Lord how you might meet those needs, even if it’s sacrificial for you to do so. The second thing we learned from what these guys did is what loyalty looks like, what unselfish bravery looks like. We learned the assumption of responsibility. These guys embraced responsibility. You all, we live in a society right now where people are saying.

How can I get away from responsibility, how can I be less responsible? Talking to people, a couple of different conversations this past week with young men that are like in their early 20s now and they’re ready to marry the woman of their dreams, get engaged, get married and there’s, parental hang up, because, well, we want you get your degrees, get those finished, be debt free, get a house, basically, the average age now of someone getting married in our society is 28. Well, you do the math, it’s like, yeah, they want to have their college done and then, have maybe, if not, their debt paid off, have themselves set up to do that with a job and getting some traction like, like embrace responsibility at a young age, prove yourself responsible and know what we’ve done is we’ve created a willingness and a softness in terms of creating people who are in their early 20s not responsible. We’ve extended adolescence as a society, look if you’re a young man, young woman listening to this, assume responsibility at a young age, start to be a doer, a mover, a person that’s acting constantly and moving forward and if you’re a parent, don’t facilitate a sense of entitlement in your kids. Teach them to embrace responsibility and then, the last thing to consider from what these guys did is this act on the part of these men, brought out an act and attitude of gratitude and worship in David.

He responded to them and he responded to what they’ve done by worshiping God. So, this is cool. So, this is the last and main point that I want to drive home David is not only longing for water because of a sense of nostalgia that this is his hometown, that’s part of it. I think that’s part of it, he’s got childhood memories there, David’s probably only late 20s, 30-ish 30, 31 something like that. So, he’s only a decade removed from the nostalgia of that town, but he’s also longing for the freedom of Bethlehem. This is the city of his faith, David knows the promises of God and that he’s going to be king and I don’t know if he understands the repercussions of God, bringing a descendant through his lineage to Bethlehem at this point, but he knows that God has promises for this place and he longs for the water, but his faith longs for the fulfillment of God’s promises. God has promised David that he’d be king, he knows that, but here is the city of David’s home and has actually now become a, garrison city of the enemy, the enemy of David’s family has pillaged, raped, robbed, defiled in every way, the very way of life, like Israelite life and then, now they’re standing guard over what David sees as, rightfully belonging to Yahweh. This again, this is not about the water.

It isn’t about the water. Try to, get my brain around, did he really want that drink of water. No, I don’t. It’s not about the water. Those who hate the very God of David, those who hate the God that David has literally devoted his life to serving their standing guard over the city. David loves this for us is like seeing what the enemy has done the ground that he’s taken in so many strongholds in our world right now, the spiritual enemy of the Christian, the believer and it should vex us, the strong word in the old King’s English, vexation of spirit and conscience, this water represents something a whole lot bigger than a good drink of water, David’s in the mountains, he’s probably got cool water up in those mountains, I’m on a spring, the water at my house is not a well and it’s not city water. It’s a spring. I’m tapped into a spring on the side of the mountain. It’s the best water you can ever drink. David had good water. It’s not about the water. It represents something much bigger. So, as a man, I would say that we need to understand that little things are big things as a man I need to understand little things are big things. If David was content with the water and the stronghold, he would likely have been content with the stronghold altogether. The water represents something bigger. If David’s like, the water up here is really good, let’s just stay here. This is not God’s destiny for us.

But, boy, it sure is comfortable. We’ve got a good thing going. We’ve got a good system. We can wreak havoc on the Philistines, let them take over Bethlehem. We’ll go down there and steal their sheep and steal their cattle and make them fear us. We’ll wreak havoc, he could have gotten comfortable with the system, but he knew God had a bigger like God has made it clear to David he has a bigger plan for him. I am personally, I’m a mountain boy through and through and I can tell you that the water that rolls from these springs and caves and hollers up high, it’s good water, as good as or better than any water laying on the bottom of the deepest valley well, by the time these men carried that water across the desert in animal skin canteens, it was not as good to drink as the water that’s cool in those springs. It wasn’t about the water. It was about God’s promises and David’s longing to see those promises fulfilled. David has been let me read something I wrote from a journal. David has been promised the kingship and he has seen God do many things to spare his life and grow him into the leader that he has become, but David is at a place of discontent. Sometimes God builds a longing in our hearts for something and uses a process to prepare us for that something. Have you been there?

Then know this that God wants us as men to be the leaders and fighters he has called us to be, let’s go back to the beginning and consider God’s design for what originally men were supposed to be Genesis 2:15 – 17 we’re to work, provide, keep, protect, shepherd, instruct, fight for, care for and make sacrifices for those that we’ve been entrusted with and that’s our responsibility. So, David gets this water. These men have displayed all of that and David gets this water and he gives thanks for the faithfulness and selflessness of these three men. Many leaders in history, like you study through history, a lot of leaders, even church leaders in our own day, would have been more likely to complain that the water had heated up during the 12 mile trek. Oh, you all got me some water, but couldn’t you bring it in a Yeti cooler so it wouldn’t be so hot, mind blowing, but true. So, David pours the water out, I think, okay this, to me is like this moment, what David’s doing is he’s turning this gift, this sacrificial gift, into an offering to God. This is like the woman in Mark 14 that poured out everything for Jesus. The Woman in Matthew 26:13 like, these are situations and stories where someone’s pouring out everything to worship Jesus, in Mark 14:3 – 9 this lady, you probably heard this story.

He’s at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper. He was reclining at table. A woman came in with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. So, this woman, like this was we know that this would have been a huge expense. This was a lifetime savings. It’s like she drained her savings account, but it also had like emotional and spiritual significance and in Matthew 26:13 Jesus said of the woman who anointed him, this is cool, truly, truly, I say to you, wherever this Gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her. So, this sacrificial act by this woman in Mark 14, in Matthew 26 Jesus said people can tell this story for a long time and so, for David and his men, this becomes a moment that’s solidified in stone in the annals of history, their bravery drives David to pour out and worship, what to him at that moment is the most valuable gift he has. The woman of Mark 14 and Matthew 26 she pours out.

The most valuable thing she has to worship Jesus. David pours out at that point the water, because he sees it so valuable. It’s too valuable to just consume and drink. It’s worth more than that. So, he worships God through it. It’s a really cool moment. So, in conclusion, consider David and Jesus. David, in scripture, is a type of Christ, in other words, he’s a man whose life and kingship foreshadow Jesus’ own ministry and work and kingdom that will come 1000 years later. Jesus kneels in a garden near the same spot where this mission took place and prayed that God might take the cup that he was to drink. That was the cup of God’s wrath, but God asked him to drink that cup and Jesus did just that, he poured out his own life to give us salvation and freedom to live in victory over sin no matter what you are facing in life, Jesus died, so that you could live. You may have to wait and fight and grind it out before you see all that God is going to do in your life, but in the end, your faithfulness will be worth it.

In 2nd Samuel five, the story is told of David and his men driving the Philistines out in defeat, in the end, David’s Kingdom is established The Lord put him on a throne that would be symbolic of the throne Jesus would sit on in his eternal kingdom. Today, brothers and sisters, Jesus sits on that throne, he is our king. We fight for him and through him, we give him loyalty and praise the way these men did. David, the conclusion and thoughts that I would have would be these men; they are so in tune to the needs of others that they act in a way that drives David to worship God, let’s live our lives, so that we drive people by our actions, people are drawn to the Lord in worship. What a cool picture. Thank you for tuning in. I hope it’s been meaningful and edifying and encouraging to you today and if you would let us know what you think about it and we would appreciate that. Thanks and we’ll see you soon.