Note: Here are some sermon notes from one of the
applications drawn from last Sunday morning’s sermon on 2 Samuel 10:
We could meditate with profit on Joab’s charge to
his brother Abishai as they were heading into battle against the Ammonites:
“Be of good courage, and let us play the men for
our people, and for the cities of our God: and the LORD do that which seemeth
him good” (2 Samuel 10:12).
The
Christian life is indeed often described by the apostles in martial terms. Compare:
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
2 Timothy 2:3 Thou therefore
endure hardness, as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ.
2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith:
The
question is: What kind of soldier will
you be for Christ? When the enemy stands
arrayed against you, when you are surrounded on all sides, when you are about
to go into battle, how will you respond?
Listen
to Joab: Be courageous and let us be
courageous! Play the man! Play the man for your people and for the
cities of your God—for your family, for your children, for future generations,
for your church!
I pray
that we and our children will never have to suffer as some of the saints of old
did, but if we do may we be found as faithful as they. Two of the old martyrs who died under the
Marian persecutions in England were Latimer and Ridley. As they were being burned at the stake, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs famously records
that Latimer encouraged his fellow martyr by saying, “Be of good comfort,
Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle, by
God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”
Finally,
we also need to mediate on Joab’s final words in v. 12: “And the LORD do that which seemeth him
good.” Notice Joab does not say, And the
Lord do that which seems good to us. Or,
the Lord must give the outcome that we think is best or we will walk away from
him. No, this is a serene confidence in
the Lord. It is a trust in the Lord to
give the outcome that is good to him, that gives him the most glory and man the
most blessing. And it confesses that we
do not know what this is, because we are not God. This is complete submission to the will of
God. Compare the words of the three
Hebrew youths to the pagan king who is about to toss them into the burning
fiery furnace:
Daniel 3:17 If it be so,
our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and
he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known
unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden
image which thou hast set up.
Or the
prayer of the prophet Habakkuk:
Habakkuk 3:17 Although the fig
tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the
labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock
shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the
stalls: 18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my
salvation. 19 The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like
hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the
chief singer on my stringed instruments.
Consider
that the Lord allowed the greatest evil, the greatest injustice that the world
has ever known in order to bring about the greatest good and the greatest mercy
the world has ever known. He permitted
his beloved Son to be rejected, to be humiliated, to be brutally murdered.
When
Jesus was arrested, Peter tried to intervene and fight off those who came to
seize him. Jesus replied:
Matthew 26:52 Then said Jesus
unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the
sword shall perish with the sword. 53 Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to
my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then shall the
scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
Jesus
was in essence saying, “And the LORD do that which seemeth him good.”
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle
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