1 Samuel 5

Chapter 5. Guidance and VictoryPut on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devils schemes…. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. (Ephesians 6:11, Ephesians 6:13; compare with 2 Samuel 5:17-25)There is an old couplet full of deep instruction and suggestiveness which runs as follows: If conquered, for tomorrow’s fight prepare; If conqueror, of tomorrow’s fight beware. This is finely illustrated by a significant and striking incident in the life of David. He had just achieved the most splendid victory of his life. Secure in the fastness of Zion, he might well defy, if any ever might, the threatening of his foes, and might indeed be tempted to imagine that his protracted conflicts were over. But this superb victory was immediately followed by some of the severest tests. As we look at the picture, we are reminded for ourselves that the very time to expect temptation is in the hour of triumph, and that there are many deep lessons to be learned every step of our pathway if we would escape the wiles of the devil and stand at last, having done all. Temptation

1. We see an example of temptation after victory. “When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they went up in full force to search for him” (2 Samuel 5:17). It was when they heard that he was crowned that they came to take him. It is when God has signally blessed us and sealed us by His Holy Spirit’s power that the adversary always seeks to assail us. He feels it is a crisis hour and he must challenge our high position and drive us back from this advance ground or his control over our lives will be lost. Therefore it happens that after we enter upon the highest blessing we are always exposed to the fiercest conflict. The new convert expecting to find a life of delightful freedom from the things that have assailed his life, is plunged into the severest testings. The newly consecrated life, glowing with high hope and holy purpose, finds itself confronted by the most subtle forms of strange temptation, and the first impulse is to become discouraged and to feel a touch of bitter disappointment. The real truth is we never feel temptation until we resist it. The man who is following his natural bent is unconscious of any opposing current, and his life is one of passive peace; but when we meet with the fires of evil within us and the adversary beside us, then we understand a little of what the apostle means when he speaks of withstanding in the evil day. It seems at such times as if all the Philistines had come up against us, and there was not a temptation in the category of evil which had not tried its hand upon our encompassed spirit. Let us not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try us as though some strange thing happened unto us (1 Peter 4:12); but let us remember Him who, after the baptism at the Jordan, was immediately led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and let us rejoice inasmuch as we are partakers of the sufferings of Christ that when His glory shall be revealed we may be glad also with exceeding joy. Vigilance
2. We see an example of prudence in meeting temptation. When David heard that the Philistines had come up against him, we read that he went down into the stronghold of Zion, which may have been at a little lower level on the height than his palace and his headquarters. He immediately took refuge in the fort. He did not rashly and impulsively dash into battle without divine direction, but he took refuge in the hiding place that God had afforded him. He went down to a lower level of humility and safety, and he waited for divine instruction. When the enemy comes the truly wise and brave spiritual soldier will always go down into the hold. He will humble himself at the Master’s feet. He will take refuge behind the defenses which God has provided him, and he will wait for orders from on high. There is no real courage in making light of danger, and the wise soldier of the cross knows that he is no match for Satan. God will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able to bear, but let us not forget what is added: He will also, along with the temptation, make a way to escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). It is often a way of escape rather than a way of attack, and when God has given us our defenses let us quickly hide behind them and find refuge for our helplessness, like the little conies in the shelter of the rock. Guidance
3. Next we have an example of implicit dependence upon divine guidance. David inquired of the Lord. He was a trained soldier and a skilled strategist, but he did not trust his skill or strength, but went like a little child to his God and asked immediate counsel. It is very remarkable to notice the form in which he asked counsel. He did not first ask if He should be successful, but he first asked what the Lord wanted him to do. His primary desire was to please God; his second request, to know what God was going to do for him. This is very beautiful and very important. It is much more natural for us to say, “Lord, will you bless me in this?” and then if He promises us prosperity we are disposed to accept His direction and go forward in it. David’s attitude was far more single and sincere. With him the supreme question was, “Lord what will you have me to do?” and quite subordinate to that was the other, “Lord, what will you do with me?” There are instances where God bids us go forward when it is to face suffering, self-denial and, it may be, even death. It was there that the spirit of the Hebrew witnesses came out so clearly in ancient Babylon, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it,… But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18). Let us only be sure of the path of duty, and then we can confidently ask the Lord to take care of us. And so God gave David both assurances. First, He told him what to do and then He promised him absolute and certain victory. Oh, how safe it is to go forward with God’s assurance! Nothing can daunt us, nothing defeat us. Praise
4. We see an example of modest and becoming acknowledgement of God as the source of victory. When the Philistines were defeated and scattered before the power of God and the onset of David, he did not, like Saul, set up a pillar of personal celebration, but he commemorated the praise and honor of God alone and gave Him all the glory. “As waters break out,” he said, “God has broken out against my enemies by my hand” (1 Chronicles 14:11). We are not told anything about the spoil that he took, but we are very distinctly told that he destroyed the images of the Philistines. It was a holy war, and David was much more concerned to destroy the enemies of God than to secure his own trophies of victory. A New Test
5. We see an example of repeated temptation on the very same lines. It was not very long before the Philistines came up again into the same valley. This time, no doubt, they came with greatly augmented forces, and determined that they should avenge themselves upon their enemy and recover their lost prestige. The spiritual lesson here is very important. God sometimes suffers us to be tempted over again on exactly the same lines, even where we have had complete victory before. It may be the devil wants to surprise us through our very security, as we are less likely to expect him to repeat his attack. It may be that God wants to teach us, as in the present instance, some new lesson. It often is because we have not quite triumphed on this line before, and God is good enough to give us a second opportunity. Let us never be too sure of the subjugation of our Philistine foes, but let us ever watch and be ready. A New Way
6. We see the same temptation met in an entirely different way. This was the great lesson that God was seeking to teach David and us also. Our danger is, when a similar experience comes, to go on by the forces of habit on the same lines, and thus really be trusting unconsciously in our own experience and wisdom. David was graciously delivered from this. It would have been perfectly natural for him to say, “I have defeated these Philistines here before, and I have only to do as I did then and I shall defeat them again.” But David, with great wisdom and simplicity, went straight to God, as though he had had no experience and possessed no wisdom of his own, and he was rewarded by receiving an entirely different direction. “Do not go straight up,” said the oracle, “but circle around behind them and attack them in front of the balsam trees” (2 Samuel 5:23). God had an entirely different lesson this time, and David was wise enough to be open to receive it. There are times when we are not to face the foe but to seem to retreat from the foe and let God fight our battle for us. A retreat is often a flank movement and a more certain victory. There are people who attack us that we can better answer by leaving alone. There are things that are said against us that can most strongly be met by silence. There are inward conflicts which, the more we think about, the more we provoke, and the best way is to turn from the conflict and be occupied with God. But the great lesson is that of listening, hearkening and obeying. We may often begin a good thing with God and end with ourselves, and there is failure. And so David clung close to God all the way through, and waited every moment for His direction in the minutest details. The Sound of Marching
7. We have an example of God’s manifest interposition in the trials and conflicts of His children. There is a very sublime picture given in this incident of the unseen forces that are in alliance with God’s faithful and obedient children. The Hebrew language, in which the march of these heavenly hosts is described, is exceedingly sublime. “As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army” (2 Samuel 5:24). In the original the style is dramatic and majestic, and it suggests the march of mighty armies in the air. The rustling of those leaves was caused by no passing breeze, but David knew that myriads of angels and chariots of fire were sweeping down the fields of air, and that his little army was just following in the train of the legions of the sky. All he had to do was to wait for the signal to advance. But he must wait. A premature step would have been an error, and perhaps a fatal blunder. During the battle of Waterloo, Wellington posted a brave detachment of British troops on a salient point of the field, and their orders were to stand firm and hold the point at all hazards. Again and again through that awful battle they had opportunity to charge upon the foe, and again and again their leader sent an orderly to the headquarters of Wellington to ask permission to charge, but again and again he sent back the answer, “Stand firm.” One by one the little band slowly fell without being permitted to make that charge for which they were so eager, and at last the messenger left the Duke of Wellington with the words, “You will find us all there.” When the battle was over they lay in a heap slain, but they had proved a living wall against the foe. That point was the key to the situation. The secret of victory was to wait and obey orders. Wait
8. And so our heavenly Master bids us wait as well as go. “But stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:48) is essential to all true success when we do go forward. We are to wait for “the sound of marching” (1 Chronicles 14:15), not on earth, but in the air—the moving of the breath of the Holy Spirit. It is hard to explain to any dull spirit what this means. There are lives that, like the dull-eyed ox, never catch a gleam of the light from the heavens, but see only the pasture field and fodder trough. There are others that are open to the voices that not all can hear and visions which many never see. We do not mean the trance vision of the fanatic, but the deep spiritual impulses and elevations which God still gives to sensitive hearts and quickened ears and eyes. They come to us when the Holy Spirit is pressing down upon our hearts with the baptism of power. They come to us when we have gone through the hour of trial, and our heart is bursting for some message from our Father to comfort and inspire. They come to us in the crisis time of life, when everything around is dark and difficult. They come to us in the providences of God when strange things lie in life’s pathway and the heart instinctively responds, “It is the Lord.” They are coming to us in these signs of our times, in the wonderful movements of our day, in the providences of God among the nations, in the shaking of the kingdoms of the earth and the harbingers of the coming of Christ. Oh, surely, there is a “sound of marching” in the earth and air and sky. God give us eyes to see and ears to hear and an understanding of our times! Workers with God
9. There is one more lesson of supreme importance, namely, the necessity of our cooperation with God when He begins to move. There was something for David to do as well as God, and that was to bestir himself when he heard the sound of marching. God’s work did not displace David’s, but it only led up to it; and it required that David should be the more alert and prompt to follow it up with intense activity and holy courage. There is a time to tarry, but there is a time to go out, and the men that have best learned to tarry know best how to go. Christian life is no dream, no listless, sentimental waiting for something to happen. It is the posture of hearkening until we hear His voice, and then it is the attitude of intense obedience, alacrity and holy activity in fulfilling our great commission and making the most of the divine opportunity and the command. There is the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees. Let us bestir ourselves. It is a time of marvelous opportunity in Christian life and Christian work and the world’s evangelization. God teach us to tarry in Jerusalem until we are endued with power from on high. God enable us then to go in the power of the Spirit and disciple all nations, and so haste the coming of the Lord.