The Valley No.5 Strategy for the valley

The second book of Samuel, chapter 5, we commence at verse 17. But when the Philistines heard that they, that is the Israelites, had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David, and David heard of it and went down to the hold. The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim, and David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? Wilt thou deliver them into mine hand? The Lord said unto David, Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thy hand.

David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there, and said, The Lord hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim. And there they left their images, and David and his men burnt them.

The Philistines came up yet again and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. When David inquired of the Lord, he said, Thou shalt not go up, but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, then thou shalt bestir thyself.

For then shall the Lord go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines. And David did so as the Lord had commanded him. And smote the Philistines from Geba, until thou come to Geza.

Now Acts chapter 4, we read from verse 23, I remind you that Peter and John, after being used by the Lord to perform a miracle, were arrested, brought before the Sanhedrin. And when they were released, they returned to the disciples to report what had happened. So we pick up the reading from verse 23 of Acts 4. And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.

And when they had heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is. Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken, where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. And they spake the word of God with boldness, and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.

Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, that they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.

Amen. Now, I generally commence my preaching by asking you to turn to the Scripture reading that we had earlier, and particularly this morning I would make the request, if you have your Bibles, would you open them at the second book of Samuel and chapter 5, and from time to time I shall be referring specifically to verses from verse 17 to the end of the chapter. I usually look upon Sunday mornings and our time of worship as affording an opportunity to encourage, convince Christians along their pathway of faith.

And I think I have reason and permission for so doing, because as one investigates the ministry of the Apostle Paul as he writes to the various churches, you will find that there he is giving help and offering advice, sometimes praise and sometimes admonition to the early Christians, and thus it's my privilege to, in the name of the Lord, bring certain matters to your attention that I pray most fervently will be of help to you and of challenge, and also of help to myself. And it's the Apostle who you remember when he's writing to the church at Rome who says of the Old Testament that the things contained within these scriptures were written down for our learning so that we would profit by them. Because even within the historical passages of these books there are principles embedded which will help the early Christians as they live out their lives and by extension of Paul's claim will help twentieth century Christians today as they endeavor to implement the will of God and to fight a good fight for Jesus Christ.

Indeed, you will remember that it is largely from the Old Testament that I have been directing your attention along this series that I have entitled The God of the Valleys. I use such a title because it suggests itself to me from some words of David in the twenty-third Psalm when he says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me. There is much in this life that reminds us of a valley, the patches of sunshine and darkness, the long periods when all is twilight, the moments of absolute joy are far and few between, the times when we are conscious of nothing else but supreme happiness and supreme peace, I suggest to you, are rare occasions because there is always a tinge of regret for things that we have done that are wrong or there is sorrow directed by us on the part of others who are going through difficult circumstances.

So it is right, I feel, and not pessimistic but rather realistic to look upon the journey of the Christian through life as that of a pilgrim going down a valley. The Bible, with an incredible realism, admits to the difficulties that there are as a Christian lives out the life of faith here in this world. He passes through difficult territory.

He must always remember that he is just a stranger going through, he is in transit. Here he has no abiding city but he is looking for a city whose maker and whose builder is God. He is moving on and on from this life eventually to a life in the heavenly dimension.

Now from a historical incident in the Old Testament, I want once again to try to show you the Christian attitude to life in this world. And I want to share with you certain teachings that have become quite plain to me as I have meditated upon these verses in the fifth chapter of the second book of Samuel. And once again, it won't surprise you, you have to have in mind the picture of a valley.

You are to imagine the ancient enemy of the Jews, the Philistines, coming within striking distance of the holy city Jerusalem. David is king at present, at this particular moment. He has, by a brilliant military maneuver, ousted the Jebusites from their fortress in the Judean hills.

He has taken their headquarters and renamed it Jerusalem, and there no doubt he is attending to the fortifications of what shall be his capital. The Philistines have heard of what David is doing. They've gone to visit him and there's mal-intent in their purposes.

And so they've marshaled all their forces and they're scattered around the valley, the valley of Rephaim. And I say to you that that's the sort of picture, geographically and politically, that you must bear in mind as you come to study these verses. But two more things are important for us to remember, and they are these.

First of all, that David represents a man who has been appointed by God to do a certain task. He is to consolidate the occupation of Palestine, which was first brought about, if you remember, by Joshua many years before the birth and the ministry of David. David is the man who is going to be used towards the implementation of God's will.

And the second thing that you must bear in mind is this, that the Philistines are opposed to the will of God being realized in that particular part of the world. So you see, not only the geographical and the political situation that obtains as you study this passage, but also the spiritual one. And I say to you that here we find a tremendous setting from which we can deduce principles which will be of value for us today as we live out our Christian lives.

You see, God has a plan and a purpose for every Christian. God wishes the believer to implement his teachings in this world, but the world through which we pass is difficult country. There are there many dangers.

There are many foes that are, if you like, spread-eagled about amongst the valley, waiting to strip the Christian of his power, to rob him of his effectiveness, to reduce him in his testimony for Jesus Christ. So I put it to you that what you find in the Old Testament passage here is an illustration of the Christian life, and thus from it we can learn a great deal. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ warned his followers that when they were called to serve him, so they would be engaged upon a difficult task.

The early disciples recognized this. Indeed, on one occasion the Lord in his earthly ministry said that the foxes and the birds were better catered for than he was, and obviously than his disciples were also. And when you read the expansion of the Christian church, the story of that expansion in the Acts of the Apostles, again you see a story of great difficulty.

You see the Christians being confronted by what seemed to be on occasions overwhelming odds, overwhelming problems, and that was the reason why I read to you from the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. For there the early Christians come together and they listen to Peter and John rehearse what has happened to them after they have been arrested, and they appreciate the enormity of the difficulties that confront them, and thus they quote from the second psalm, and they say, The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ. Studied, I say, through the pages of the New Testament is advice, is teaching that is given to the early Christians and therefore to ourselves that tells us to anticipate great difficulty and great problems as we engage in the Christian way of life.

So in passing through the valley of the shadows, we need as much help as we can possibly get, and it is for this reason that I direct your attention to this historical passage in the second book of Samuel. What was necessary for David when he heard of the arrival of the Hebrew's ancient foes near to Jerusalem? What was he to do when he heard that the Philistines were coming up towards the Holy City? Well, one thing that I suggest to you was of supreme importance, and it is extremely important for us today. It can be summed up in one word, and that is the word strategy.

David was to work out what plan he was to put into effect to be able to repel the Philistines. You and I today, as we pass through the valley of the shadow of death, as we go through this life, must also realize the dangers that are there and have a strategy, have a plan of campaign, have an ability to be able to live out our lives and to fulfill the plan of God within them. If you will give me your attention, I think I might be able to surprise you by showing you what are remarkable, valuable teachings, spiritual principles that are embedded within these verses from this Old Testament incident, teachings that will be of help to you as together we investigate what was David's strategy on this occasion.

Now, obviously, my time is limited and I cannot possibly exhaust all the teaching that there is here, but nonetheless, I want to put out one or two principles for you to study with me. And the first thing that I suggest to you was part of David's strategy, and must be part of our own, was an awareness of the reality of the enemy. David appreciated that the Philistines were actually there in the valley of Rephaim.

David had a lot to do in Jerusalem. The fortifications there, they must be made much more strong, and it would have been perhaps easy for David to have attended to the task at hand in the city, instead of going down into the valley where were the Philistines. But we gather that David was a realist, and he appreciates that it's not just part of the Philistine forces that are assembled against him, but all the Philistines have come up and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.

You read the description of the total number of the Philistines in the 17th verse. There were five Philistine cities on the coasts of Palestine, and it seems that each city had sent its own battalion, and they had joined together to form one great army, and it was this army that now lurked dangerously in the valley of Rephaim. David recognized that the enemy was real, and I wonder whether we admit to the same strategy as David as we're passing through the valley of this life.

You see, the evangelical church in the 20th century has, I feel, lost to some extent its consciousness of the reality of evil forces. The thing about the Philistines, at least it seems by implication, to be the real danger that they constituted in the valley of Rephaim was that they were hidden. They were spread-eagled in the valley.

They were waiting for David to come down to surprise him in an attack, and the forces that the Christian is up against as he journeys through the valley of life are equally concealed. They are hidden, and it's so easy for us to suggest that these evangelical preachers today are exaggerating the situation when they warn of the wiles of the devil. But my friend the Apostle Paul and the whole of the New Testament converges to underline the teaching that the force that we're up against is a mighty force.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickednesses that are in high places. And when the Christian goes through the valley of life and feels that there is no danger there, then in one respect he's already been robbed of his ability to withstand an attack, for being forewarned is forearmed, and the man who's unaware of the problem is indeed extremely vulnerable. But David recognizes in his strategy that the Philistines are a real enemy, and he must go down there.

He must confront them. But there's something else that I put forward for your attention that is part of David's plan, and it is this, do not underestimate the resilience of your enemy. Now it's true that the Scriptures teach us that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us.

But the Scriptures don't say that the devil will never come back into our lives and make another attack. Have you never heard of an army withdrawing and mustering its troops, and once again coming down the valley and engaging in a tremendous battle? And David, you see, is a classic example of what I'm putting forward in terms of a proposition, because the Philistines have two attacks that are recorded here. And after the first one, and David has been successful, it would have been easy for the king to have thought, well, that's paid to them.

I can now go back to my fortress city. I can now go back to the work that is at hand. Had David thought that, then he would have not only imperiled his own life, but he would also have brought into danger the security of the Israeli nation.

But David is aware, he's aware of the fact that the Philistines might muster their forces again and come through and attack him up the valley of Rephaim. And as you pass through the valley of life, so the Bible tells us you must expect repeated attacks from the devil. And again, I'm not engaging in exaggeration from the pulpit.

Look at the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a classic illustration of that in his life. You remember how the devil in the wilderness came and assailed him, and the temptation was a dreadful one.

And then the devil went away, and he came back again. And then away and back again, three times the Lord is tempted in the wilderness. And we're told that when the devil withdrew on the third occasion, he left him only for a season.

And once more, I put it to you that what the Lord experienced, we are to anticipate ourselves. This is what the Savior said in the world, you shall have tribulation. The Savior referred to the devil in terms of a roaring lion who goes around seeking whom he may devour.

Now don't be too wooden in your understanding of the metaphors of Scripture. Realize that in any given situation that crops up in your life, the devil could be there to deflect you from achieving what is God's plan for you. He can be there to strip you of the power that is at your disposal as a Christian.

Do not underestimate the resilience of your enemy. David did not, and neither should we. And something else that I must bring to your attention as a warning, because again, it's part of David's strategy, and it is this, never become overconfident.

Never become overconfident. You see, again, I repeat what I hinted at a few moments ago, David, when first he heard that the Philistines were present in the Valley of Rephaim, he goes down and he engages them and he is successful. He repulses them.

And it could have been the case that David thought that the Philistines would not come up the valley again. He had finished with them. And even if they did come up the valley again, again, he would be able to cope with the situation himself.

But he would have been wrong. He would have been top-heavy with his overconfidence. His ability, he would have thought, was in himself and not in God to overcome the Philistines.

And had he been guilty of that, then he would have made a serious judgment, a serious error. Never become overconfident. The Third Reich was overconfident.

You remember, the Führer opened up the Russian front and his timing was absurd. He was overconfident in the encounters that the Nazi forces were engaged in in the desert. He completely underestimated the ability of the Allies.

And I put it to you that David also could have become heady had he not taken Jebus. Was he not, according to earlier references in this chapter, engaged in some alliance with Hiram, the king of Tyre and Sidon? Was it not possible, therefore, that David could cope on his own with the Philistines should they come up through the valley of Refehim once more? Let me warn you, my friends, that spiritual headiness has taken its toll on many alleged believers. You know the attitude, I can cope.

Oh, I can get along, go to church now and again, read my Bible occasionally, engage in prayer. I can get along. I've been a Christian for many years.

I was brought up in a Christian home. There's nothing that can be brought across my path that will deflect me from doing what I believe to be God's will. It's so easy to talk yourself into this situation, into this type of temperament.

But the scripture says, beware, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. You must always be in an attitude of complete dependence upon God. This is the paradox of the Christian faith.

It's when you're weak that you're strong, and when you're strong, you're weak. When you think that you can do it alone, you can go it alone, you can pass down the valley of Refehim alone, it's then that you're vulnerable. David recognizes this.

Oh, is it not a blessed thought that when David hears of the invasion of the Philistines and that they're lurking in the valley, that he inquires of the Lord. Look at verse 19. The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Refehim.

That's verse 18. Verse 19, David inquired of the Lord saying, shall I go up to the Philistines? And then we read that he smote them. And then in verse 22, reference made to the second attack, the Philistines came up yet again and spread themselves in the valley of Refehim.

Verse 23, and when David inquired of the Lord, he said, thou shalt not go up, but fetch a compass behind them, and so on. You see the point? David never duped himself into thinking that he could cope, but rather when a situation presented itself and he needed to have the resources of spiritual power behind him, he inquires of the Lord. He didn't become overconfident.

Something else that I bring to you for your attention, and it is this, never hastily assume God's intentions. Never hastily assume what God would have you do when a specific situation develops. You know, one of the great dangers that confronts us as Christians is to systematize God in the way that he works.

An Anglican theologian, Griffith Thomas, in his book on theology, makes this comment that sometimes Christians are more systematic in their theology than the Bible is. How we like to reduce God to certain formulas that we can understand, and in a certain situation God will always work in this fashion. But this doesn't happen, you know? I mean, here is David, and he's confronted on the second occasion with exactly the same type of problem as he had on the first.

The Philistines are there in the valley of Rephaim, and David has once again got to repulse them. Now, it's so easy for him to say, well, I'll adopt the same strategy as God gave to me on the first occasion. But that would have been wrong.

It would have been disastrous. And when David inquires of the Lord, verse 23, God says to David, thou shalt not go up. In other words, you are not to engage in a frontal attack.

What have I got to do? Well, says the Lord, you are to fetch a compass behind them. You've got to go upon them, over against the mulberry trees. In other words, it's going to be a rearguard action this time, not a frontal attack, but the same situation obtained.

You see, this is the point that I'm trying to underline for you. God is completely unpredictable in the way that he would have us cope with the various problems that life presents. And time and time again and again in the New Testament, you find this, the underlining of the versatility of God.

You can't reduce God to a program. God doesn't deal with you or with me on the mass production principle. He deals with us as individuals.

He has his own plan at a given time in our life, and we're not to think that on a future occasion the plan will be the same. It may not. The Philistines are there in the valley.

There's difficulty. There are problems. The same situation as I found last year.

Ah, yes, my friend, but don't let familiarity with God's purposes breed its own contempt. Rather, you come to the Lord, and you put your problem to him, and you take your direction from what he has to say. This is the strategy, the strategy that David employs in the valley of Rephaim, and I put it to you, it's equally good tactics for us to employ today.

Another thing that I deduce from this passage of scripture, and once more I put it in a proposition to you, do not be over-hasty, how often we're told by the Lord to watch and to pray, to constantly be in an attitude whereby we know what God's will is in a given situation, waiting upon the Lord for his timing, waiting upon the Lord for his direction. I'm referring here specifically to the second occasion when David repulses the Philistines. David is given his instructions in verse 23, thou shalt not go up, but go behind the troops and come upon them over against the mulberry trees.

What's David got to do then? Immediately attack them? This is what you might think. This is possibly what he himself would have wanted to do, but no, you see, it's not just important to be aware of God's will, that obviously is necessary, but beyond that, you've got to also be aware of God's timing. When thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, then thou shalt bestir thyself, for then shall the Lord go out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines.

Oh, I tell you that teaching is blessed and it's important, not for the Christian alone to know God's will, but for the Christian to so have his eye upon God that he knows when to act in a given situation and how often, and come on, let's confess it, how often have we anticipated God? You remember Saul did this, Samuel was late, a sacrifice needed to be offered, let's speed things up a bit, we're always in a hurry, aren't we? And so I come back, you knew that I was going to return to it, one of my favorite verses of scripture, let him that believeth not make haste. Don't anticipate God, but rather wait for the right moment, the Lord is there, he's in the valley of Rephaim, his presence, it's going to be felt, those mulberry trees, the foliage is going to move, how will it move? Well, not of its own accord, the trees can't move themselves of their own accord, God by his wind, symbolizing the Holy Spirit will come and this will be the prearranged signal for David and his men to leap out from behind the trees and to engage in a rearguard action against the foes of the Israelites. So David is not over hasty, rather he waits for God's moment, he waits for God's prearranged signal and then he attacks.

And finally, let me put this thought to you, remember in whose strength your life is lived and in whose strength the victory is to be won. The battle you see is not yours, it's the Lord's. Now let's make this perfectly clear from the pulpit, that the life that you live if you're a Christian is not your life, it's God's.

There's not one thing that you have that belongs to you, it belongs to God. If you don't agree with that, then in effect you're saying you're not a Christian, because Christianity teaches this, that we're not our own, we've been bought with a price, we have now surrendered everything to Jesus Christ. And this is the principle, surely, that David is latching onto when he writes the 23rd Psalm.

David, why is it that when you pass through the valley of the shadows, when you go through the valley of deepest darknesses, that you're not afraid? He says, David, I'm not afraid because the Lord's with me. You see, he's my shepherd, I'm just one of his sheep, I belong to him, I'm in his flock, therefore I'm not afraid. And this is the principle that we surely are to adopt in our own lives.

As we live them before the Lord, let us recognize that they are his lives and that the victory to be won is his victory. Have you noticed how many times the name of the Lord, the covenant name of the Hebrew God crops up in this passage of Scripture that we have read together? The Lord was central to David's strategy, and so the Lord must be central to my life. But here is something, and I've kept the best for the end, because I think it's sometimes a good thing to do.

When you go through the valley of Rephaim, when you pass through the valley of the shadows of this world, what can you anticipate? Well, you can anticipate just what David experienced as he confronted the Philistines. Turn back to the 19th and the 20th verses, and what do we find? I read particularly verse 20, and David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there and said, The Lord hath broken forth upon mine enemies before me as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim.

Do you know what that means? The Lord of breaking through, the Lord of breaking through. Here he is in the valley, so many difficulties, so many problems. He's a young king.

He's got to marshal all his forces over against the foe of the Philistine army, and David commits it to the Lord, and in the valley he finds that God operates for him, that God works for him, like some mighty rushing torrent of water. So God surges through with his power right down the valley of Rephaim. Who is it that puts the Philistines to flight? Not David, but the Lord.

The Lord is my breaking through. The Lord is the one who has broken forth upon mine enemies before me as the breach of waters. The Lord is my Baal-perazim, and when you go into the Acts of the Apostles, you find exactly the same teaching, if not the same terminology.

Who is it that enables them to withstand the combined power of the Jewish priests and the Roman police? Well, it is the Lord. He is there with his early church. He gives to them the power of the Holy Spirit.

He deluges his blessing down upon them, and they break out on the right hand and on the left hand. And in Jerusalem, within a matter of a few months, many of the people in the city, including some of the priests, have committed themselves to the Lord. Within a matter of a few years, those who are antagonistic to the gospel are saying of the early Christian church that the whole world has been turned upside down as a result of their ministry.

What are you seeing happening? The power of man utilized and harnessed? The intellectual ability of ordinary men used in the conveying of the gospel? No, my friend. You're seeing the power of God demonstrated in a human situation. You see the power of God being channeled through a human life.

This is a marvel of God. He takes ordinary men, and he pours out his blessing through them, and they surge through the valley of Rephaim because the Lord is their Baal Perazim. The Lord is their breaking forth.

Well, might the psalmist say in Psalm 115, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be the glory given. Unto thy name give glory. The Lord is our Baal Perazim.

And I wonder, my friend, if the various principles that I have put to you that certainly constitute the strategy of David as he confronted the Philistines, are they lived out in your life? Let me go through them again very quickly. Are you aware of the reality of the enemy? Are you guilty of underestimating the resilience of the enemy because he's going to come again and again until you pass through this life and eventually are taken into the presence of God? Are you in danger of becoming overconfident? Never hastily assume God's intentions, never hastily and automatically you think you know what his plan is in a given situation, but always be looking unto Jesus and take your guide from heaven itself. Never be overhasty and remember in whose strength your life is lived and whose strength the victory is to be won.

Says the Apostle Paul of his own life as he passes through the valley of the shadows himself, I therefore run not uncertainly, so fight I not as one that beateth the air. He had a plan. He had a strategy.

He knew where he was going. He was looking up to the commanding officer and always taking instructions from him. And Paul found what David experienced earlier, that the valley of Rephaim could indeed become a veritable valley of Baal-perazim, a valley in which God broke forth.

May God break forth in your valley as you employ the strategy that is here illustrated in this historical passage from the Old Testament. Amen. Our Father, for our meditation this morning, we give thee thanks.

And should it be as we dare to believe that thy Spirit has spoken to us, may we be able to respond to what we have heard and take to mind these principles and apply them to our lives. And as we continue our journey through the valley, so may we know the Lord as our Baal-perazim, the Lord who breaks through in every circumstance, no matter how difficult it may appear to be. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, the friendship and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be our blessing now and until Jesus comes.

Amen.