1 Samuel 3

Chapter 3. Making Jesus KingYou are those who have stood by me in my trials. And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me. (Luke 22:28-29)David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his fathers household heard about it, they went down to him there. All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him. (1 Samuel 22:1-2)All the rest of the Israelites were also of one mind to make David king. (1 Chronicles 12:38)We have looked at David as a fugitive. We are now to behold him crowned a king. Nine years of bitter persecution are exchanged for 40 years of glorious triumph. In his kingdom we behold a type of the kingdom of his greater Son and the crowning of Jesus Christ as earth’s millennial Sovereign. In the loyal fellow-sufferers and soldiers who so nobly fought to win for David the high crown of Israel, we behold the picture of men and women that God is summoning today to follow our rejected and crucified Master outside the camp, in reproach and suffering, to win for Him the crown of all the world and then to sit down with Him on His throne even as He has sat down with His Father upon His throne. It is said of the proud Napoleon that he refused to be crowned by human hands, but with his own arrogant fingers he placed upon his brow the crown of what he designed as the world’s last empire, and stood before the world a self-made monarch. Our blessed Lord and Savior, while He might well conquer His own kingdom without the help of any of His followers, chooses to take it from our loving hands and to permit us to share with Him at once His sufferings and His glory. Three Stages In the followers of David and in the successive stages of his triumph and coronation we see the most vivid foreshadowing of the age to come, upon which we are about to enter. There were three stages in David’s kingdom.

1. The Wilderness The first was his trial, when he was a fugitive from Saul, and his court was the cave of Adullam, and his followers the outcasts of Israel. In like manner our blessed Lord is also as yet a King without His crown, still driven outside the camp, rejected by the world and followed by a faithful few to whom He is still saying, “You are those who have stood by me in my trials” (Luke 22:28).
2. Crowned at Hebron The second stage of David’s kingdom was his coronation at Hebron, where for seven and a half years he reigned over the tribe of Judah alone, while Abner maintained for Ish-Bosheth, the son of Saul, at Mahanaim, a temporary crown and kingdom over the other tribes of Israel. So, in like manner, our Lord Jesus Christ is to have at His coming the first fruits of the gospel, the called-out ones of the first resurrection, and He shall form with them the government and the rulers of the millennial age; for God is not now calling to Himself the subjects of His future kingdom, but He is calling out its rulers, and preparing the men and women who are to form His cabinet and sit with Him on His throne in the age to come.
3. The Throne of Israel There was a third stage in the kingdom of David when, more than seven years later, he became the king of Israel, and the whole land recognized its sovereign. His scepter extended over the surrounding nations until he was the ruler of an important and more mighty kingdom than any of his time, reaching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates, and from the Persian Gulf to Damascus and Lebanon. And so there will be a heavenly stage in the kingdom of Christ when, in the millennial years, He shall reign from sea to sea, and all the nations shall be subject to Him, and earth’s millions shall, without exception, own His peaceful sway. Now we are called to take part in the first two stages, to be true to Him in His exile, and to reign with Him in His first coming, and then to sit at His side and rule over the universal empire which He is then to bring. Let us look at the men that helped to make David king, and let us emulate them and be “of one mind to make Jesus King.” Sinful Men
4. They were sinful men; they were outcast men; they were men without a character or a reputation; they were men in debt and deep discredit, men under a cloud and without a hope, whom the instinct of a common sorrow drove to David’s side in the caves and mountains of Judah. David accepted them, not because they were bad men, but because they were true to him, and he trained them and lifted them up to his own level and afterwards made them his princes and commanders in the kingdom of Judah and Israel. And so our Leader and Lord is calling to His side and choosing for His kingdom not the mighty and the noble of the earth nor always the good, but He hath chosen the “weak things” and the “foolish things” and the “despised things” and “the things that are not” (1 Corinthians 1:27-28). Yes, He has even chosen the most worthless, hopeless and sinful of our race to be the special objects of His mercy and the prized jewels of His crown. It is the noblest nature that Satan seeks to devour and destroy. When a man is at his worst, you may be sure that he might have been at his best under different influences. God takes such men and turns them back to their true center, and there is power in the blood of Christ and in the Spirit of God not only to blot out the past but to transform the character, and out of the thistle and the thorn to create the fir tree and the myrtle for the paradise of God. Don’t let your sinfulness keep you back. Don’t let your misery discourage you. Don’t let your failure crush you. Others have failed you. You have railed yourself. Hope is gone. All is lost. There is One that will receive you still. One drop of His blood will make you pure. One touch of His hand will make you noble, and in one moment you may pass from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son and the aristocracy of the new Jerusalem. True Men
5. They were true men. The one redeeming quality of their lives was that they loved David and were loyal to him. When they first came to him, David had good cause to suspect their motives, and he frankly looked them in the face, and said: “If you come to me in peace, to help me, I am ready to have you unite with me. But if you have come to betray me to my enemies when my hands are free from violence, may the God of our fathers see it and judge you” (1 Chronicles 12:17). Then came the frank reply, “We are yours, O David! We are with you, O son of Jesse! Success, success to you, and success to those who help you, for your God will help you” (1 Chronicles 12:18). No matter how lost a man may be there is one thing that may always become a link of hope and a bond of contact with God, and that is the simple, single, rare and indispensable quality of true sincerity. If the worst of men can look up into your face with an honest look and an earnest heart and say, “God knows, and you know, that I mean to be true,” there is hope, there is salvation for him, and all the resources of God’s grace and strength are on his side. But a traitor, a double-hearted man, a man with a reservation, a man, who, back of all his pretenses and services, is seeking his own interest and ready to barter all else for it in the supreme moment, that man is base to the core, a man of whom we may well be afraid in every true work. He is bound to betray himself at last. He is the most unfortunate creature on earth. The very object which he is seeking will yet fail him, and detected by all men, rejected by God and execrated by himself, he will go down to the damnation of a hypocrite and a traitor. Brave Men
6. These men were brave as well as true. They were not afraid of danger. Their faces were as the face of lions, and even Jordan’s swelling floods could not dismay them. They did not wait for propitious circumstances or favorable seasons, but they made circumstances subservient to their high purpose and turned difficulties into steppingstones of victory. They came up to Jordan in the first month, when all its waves had overflowed, and they found on both banks of the river a strong force of armed foes; but they met their enemies on the eastern shore and scattered them. Then they plunged into the swollen floods and swam and forded the raging Jordan, and when they landed on the western bank, another army was confronting them. But again they charged their foes and scattered them, and came to David victorious over flood and foe. And so the men that would make Jesus King must not wait for favorable circumstances nor be intimidated by the devil’s growl. The best evidence that you are in God’s will will often be some sudden difficulty, some fierce assault of the foe, some bitter trial of your faith. When Paul began his great campaign to give the gospel to Europe, the first place he found himself was in the Philippian jail with bleeding limbs and feet fettered in stocks. But this did not dismay him. Rather he accepted it as a pledge of the devil’s hate and the Father’s love and he went forward undismayed until all Europe had received the gospel, and victory had been wrung from the defiance of the foe. God is preparing men today for days of conflict, danger and the utmost trial, before the Lord shall come. Let us not shrink from the higher classes in the University of God and the School of Sorrow. There all great souls have graduated, and there all high character must be proved. God give us courage, and make us brave enough to believe all that this Book declares, to testify to all we believe, to live all that we testify, to do what others only dream about and glory in what others dare to do. All-Round Men
7. They were all-round men. “They were armed with bows and were able to shoot arrows or to sling stones right-handed or left-handed” (1 Chronicles 12:2). So many Christians have only one hand for service; the other is so busy grasping for the world that they cannot be wholehearted for God, or freehanded for work. So many men can work when things suit them, but cannot adjust themselves to unfavorable circumstances and unusual methods. God wants ready men, and all-round men, who can meet the devil, who can adjust themselves to all the necessities of the Master’s work. Men of Faith
8. They were men of faith. They “could handle shield and buckler” (1 Chronicles 12:8). The shield is the type of faith. The buckler is the type of a kind of faith that we do not have to keep, for it keeps us. It is what Paul calls “the faith of God” (Romans 3:3). It is a divine trust wrought within us by the Holy Spirit and fixed, like the buckler, which was fastened on the arm, and still remained even though the shield might fall and every other defense be lost. The work of hastening our Master’s kingdom needs men of mighty faith, with a divine trust which rests not even on their own best feelings, but is nothing less than the faith of the Son of God who lives within (Galatians 2:20). Self-Sacrifice
9. They were men of self-sacrifice. They shrank from no peril or pain when their leader needed their service or their sacrifice. A noble example is given of three of these heroic men who one day, when David longed for a drink from the well of Bethlehem by his father’s gate, dashed through the ranks of the Philistines, who filled the valley between, and while their enemies scattered on either side, or looked on with amazement, they brought back a helmet full of crystal water and handed it to their king. But David would not drink of that which was the blood of men who had jeopardized their lives for him. The richest quality of love is sacrifice, and the noblest credential of any work is the spirit on the part of the members which has laid every selfish interest down at Jesus’ feet, and counts all things loss for Christ (Philippians 3:7); which holds its money, its friendships, its life, all subservient to the Master’s claim, and, living a dying life, at last gives life itself as a willing offering to Him who gave His life for us. In this selfish and luxurious age, it is the rarest quality found, but it is the most needed, and as the end approaches and the last tribulation draws near the age of martyrdom will reach the climax, and the tears of sorrow and the blood of sacrifice be transformed into the jewels of the coronation day. It needs a greater sacrifice sometimes to live than to die, and the men who will be found some day ready to die for Christ are those whose lives are now laid down in 10,000 little tests that come to us all from day to day. Wise Men
10. They were wise men. They “understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). Christ needs more than blind devotion. He wants intelligent partnership in service. He still needs men that have understanding of the times, not wasting their lives on ideas that are obsolete and for work that is needless, but grasping the Master’s thought and working out His plan for the age in which we live. “David served his own generation by the will of God” (Acts 13:36). It is a great thing to understand the will of God for our own generation and fulfill it. Millions of dollars are thrown away today in building costly cathedrals and ambitious universities for the display of man’s ecclesiastical and intellectual pride, none of which helps forward in the faintest degree the kingdom of God or the coming of Christ. Many a well-meant offer is wasted for lack of sympathy with the Master’s thought. Millions are giving and working today to get the world converted instead of working intelligently with Christ to gather out a people for His name, and to hasten His return and the inauguration of that day which will accomplish more for the conversion of the world than all the centuries of our ignorance and failure. Discipline
11. They were disciplined men. They “were fighting men who volunteered to serve in the ranks” (1 Chronicles 12:38). They were working together. They were working in unity, in order, and in wise organization. Many a brave man throws his life away in isolation and independent efforts, and they fail because of no wise cooperation. The great work of missions requires fellowship of service, and intelligent organization by which workers on the field can stay in touch with those at home, and all together move as an army in wise and intelligent cooperation. Christ wants men who are able to subordinate their own strong opinions and work in subjection to one another in the fear of God. No man is fit to lead until he has long learned to follow. No man is a good commander who has not proved a perfect soldier. No lesson needs more to be learned by young missionaries than the lesson of humility and mutual subjection in Christian service. It has been wisely said that there is no trouble in getting along with a fully consecrated Christian, but a half consecrated one is always in trouble and always getting others into trouble. Patriotic
12. They were men of one patriotic purpose: to make David king. They had a sublime ambition and a single aim, and to this all else was subordinate. They were there to make David king. This suggests the real purpose of Christian consecration and service in our day. Our business is to make Christ King. It is not to achieve for ourselves a high position. It is not even to save a great multitude of souls. It is not even to build up a cherished cause, but it is so to sacrifice and witness that we will hasten the return of our blessed Lord. It may be hastened. God’s times are not wholly regulated by the progress of centuries and the lapse of years, but by spiritual conditions. One generation may live as much as 10 that preceded it; and by wise and patriotic energy, we may hasten the coming of the Lord in our own lifetime by working for the preparation of His bride and the immediate evangelization of the world. Often in the last few years it has seemed as if the providential conditions of His advent were just about to be fulfilled, and the great political events of the world were converging to the crisis. But something seems to hold, and that one thing is the spiritual preparation and the sanctification of Christ’s own people, and the calling out from among the Gentiles of the remnant of His bride. Let this be our object, and thus let us be of one mind to make Jesus King. That is what our world needs. All other plans must fail, all other governments disappoint, all humanitarian, moral, social or political movements end in confusion. The only remedy for all earth’s wrongs is Jesus. The only campaign that will never disappoint its self-denying leaders and martyr followers is the noble campaign of true hearts bound in one ambition to make Jesus King. Future Kings And let us not forget that the men who made David king were the men that reigned with him when the kingdom came. The fugitives of the wilderness became the nobles of Israel. The outcasts of Adullam became the aristocracy of Jerusalem. Christ is, as we said at the beginning, calling out not the subjects of His future kingdom but the rulers. The millennium will bring earth’s millions to His feet, but these days of testing and of conflict are bringing to Him the tried and the faithful ones who are to sit with Him on His throne and share with Him the government of the millennial age.