THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

The Books Of Samuel: God's Shift Of Israel From Apostasy Under The Judges To David's Reign

II. 2 Samuel: The Reign Of David Over Israel

E. Overcoming Intimidating Brainwashing Efforts By The Ungodly

(2 Samuel 5:13-25)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

We live in an era when influential, ungodly parties try to control the thinking of many other people, and they often do so by use of intimidating brainwashing practices, a fact we can readily illustrate (as follows):

(1) This has been occurring in public classrooms for several generations: the Republican-American ("Quotable," February 24, 2017, p. 6A) cited Bret Stephens' February 21, 2017 column, "Do We Still Want the West?" in The Wall Street Journal where he wrote: "'There was a time when the West knew what it was about. It did so because it thought about itself -- often in freshman Western (Civilization) classes. It understood that its moral foundations had been laid in Jerusalem; its philosophical ones in Athens; its legal ones on Rome . . . And it believed all of this was worth defending -- in classrooms and newspapers and statehouses and battlefields. We've since raised generations to believe none of this, only to be shocked by the rise of anti-Western politics.'"

(2) It happens in the mainstream media: the story, "Wielding Claims of 'Fake News,' Conservatives Take Aim at Mainstream Media" by Jeremy W. Peters in The New York Times (nytimes.com, December 25, 2016) told how the mainstream media reported "on data models that showed Hillary Clinton with overwhelming odds of winning the presidency," and he asked if this was "'fake news,'" adding that conservative radio talk show host "Rush Limbaugh" has said, "'The fake news is the everyday news' in the mainstream media . . . 'They just make it up,'" Ibid.

(3) It happens in evangelical realms, too: (a) in a recent form letter, Ken Ham of Answers In Genesis noted the John Templeton Foundation is spending millions of dollars to sway evangelicals to adopt theistic evolution! (b) Then, in his March 2017 newsletter ("Can We Trust the Media?"), Mr. Ham held The New York Times on December 8, 2012 ran a nationally syndicated Times columnist's article that claimed AIG's ark would be built "'with $43 million in state tax incentives,'" and AIG sent the Times a rebuttal letter to say "taxpayers 'will not see their money used to build the Ark Encounter and no money will be taken out of the state's budget to fund the Ark.'" Yet, opposite journalism ethics, the paper never printed the letter. (c) Mr. Ham told of the paper's failure to print another AIG rebuttal letter to a Times May 31, 2011 editorial that had made "a similar false claim," Ibid.

Need: So we ask, "How does God direct that we overcome intimidating brainwashing efforts by the ungodly?!"

I. When David moved his capital to Jerusalem, he again disobeyed Scripture regarding taking more wives in his OWN effort to STRENGTHEN his RULE (2 Sam. 5:13-16; Deut. 17:17), what involved RELYING on his OWN THINKING and what left him vulnerable to INTIMIDATING DECEPTION by others.

II. Satan then led the Philistines to use a mind-game to intimidate David into losing a battle, 2 Sam. 5:17-22:

A. Initially, the Philistines vainly tried to defeat David before his kingdom could become strong, 2 Sam. 5:17-20:

1. Hearing that their vassal David was now king over their arch enemy Israel, all the Philistines came up to the Valley of Rephaim that angles in from the western lowland to within a few miles of Jerusalem where David was to attack him, 2 Sam. 5:17-18; R. S. B., KJV, 1978, ftn. to 2 Sam. 5:18; B. K. C., O. T., p. 463.

2. David rightly asked the Lord whether he should fight this Philistine force, and God affirmed that he was to do so, that the Lord would give David victory over them, 2 Samuel 5:19.

3. Thus, David obeyed the Lord and saw Him cause his troops to break through the Philistine assault, giving him great victory in line with God's Exodus 23:20-27 promise that the Angel of the Lord would go before an obedient Israel to give her army victory over her enemies, 2 Sam. 5:20; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to 2 Sam. 5:20.

4. David and his men then rightly obeyed God's Deuteronomy 7:5 command to destroy the carved idol images that the Philistines had discarded when they fled before David's men, 2 Sam. 5:21; 1 Chron. 14:12.

B. However, since Israel had destroyed their idols, the Philistines were led by Satan to see an opportunity in their pagan way of thinking to wage another battle against David in the same valley so as to scare and defeat him:

1. In ancient pagan theology, there was a close tie between the image of a god and the god himself since "the gods and the cosmos" were thought to have "originated from the same primordial realm," Bruce K. Waltke, Creation and Chaos, 1974, p. 57. Thus, the Philistines thought that their gods would be so angry over Israel's having taken their discarded idol images from the battlefield and burned them that these gods would help the Philistines defeat Israel were they to confront Israel again on the same battlefield!

2. Besides, when the Philistines in the era of the judges had captured Israel's ark of the covenant over which God's presence dwelt, Israel's God had afflicted and slain many Philistines, angered at having been taken from His land though He had not helped Israel defeat the Philistines in the last battle, cf. 1 Sam. 4:1-6:12.

3. The Philistines thus thought that since Israel's army had seized their carved idol images and burned them, the Hebrews had committed an act that would anger their gods like they had angered Israel's God in taking the ark, so attacking Israel where her men had seized and burned their idols would give them the victory.

C. This viewpoint in light of David's vulnerability in thought left him open for intimidating deception and defeat:

1. David was already vulnerable to the human thought of others by having relied on his own human thinking in trying to strengthen his reign by adding more wives to his harem in violation of Deuteronomy 17:17.

2. So, by thinking in his own human initiative, David was left vulnerable to being intimidated in yielding to the Philistine way of thought -- the view that he would be defeated for having angered the Philistine gods!

III. However, David sought GOD'S GUIDANCE, so the LORD UNDERMINED the PHILISTINE MIND-GAME, giving David DISCERNMENT and thus VICTORY over the PHILISTINES, 2 Samuel 5:23-25:

A. David rightly asked God for guidance on this second Philistine challenge to fight that was accompanied with its intimidating mind-game threat to him, 2 Samuel 5:23a.

B. Aware of this Philistine mind-game threat to a vulnerable David, God had him go around behind the Philistine army to a grove of baka' trees, fast-growing, full-bodied trees that were related to cottonwoods, 2 Sam. 5:23b; B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 113; Zon. Pict. Ency. Bib., v. Four, p. 309.

C. God then told David that when he heard the sound of marching in the top of the baca' tree grove, the Lord was thus signaling that He was going before him to fight as Exodus 23:20-27 foretold, that David was to attack the Philistines, 2 Sam. 5:24. This plan in view of pagan Philistine theology would undermine their mind-game:

1. The Philistines' worship was "clearly either Canaanite or adaptations of Canaanite cults" (The Cambridge Ancient History: v. II, Part 2, The Middle East and the Aegean Region, c. 1380-1000, B. C., 1975, p. 374), and the female consorts of the male Canaanite gods were often associated with tree groves, trees, wood, etc., Ibid., Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, v. One, p. 355.

2. So, for Israel's God to march in the top of the baka' tree grove was for Him to express His sovereignty over BOTH the Philistine female goddesses associated with the tree grove below Him AND their male consorts who allegedly were gods of the sky, storm, wind, etc. above the grove! (Ibid., v. Two, p. 2; Ibid., v. One, p. 431-433) If David heard God march in that location, he would know that he need not fear any reprisals from any Philistine gods, and the Philistine mind-game against him would be undermined!

D. In then hearing God march in sovereignty over all the Philistine gods in the top of the baka' tree grove, David was assured of the futility of the Philistine mind-game, and in faith he led Israel to victory, 2 Samuel 5:25!

Lesson: When David disobeyed Scripture to rely on his own human thinking to take more wives to strengthen his reign, and the Philistines then tried to intimidate David by playing a human false theology intimidating mind-game into losing against them, by CONTINUING to OBEY GOD relative to handling the PHILISTINES, David saw GOD GUARD his MIND from their INTIMIDATING ERRORS to get him to RELY MORE on the LORD!

Application: To overcome intimidating brainwashing efforts by all ungodly parties, (1) may we trust in Christ as Savior to become a child of God and be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, John 3:16; Romans 8:9b. (2) Then, may we OBEY SCRIPTURE (3) INSTEAD OF RELYING ON EVEN OUR OWN THINKING and (4) see GOD provide ENCOURAGING INSIGHT to EXPOSE the ERROR of the INTIMIDATING BRAINWASHING efforts we face!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

Some years ago, a medical doctor told me that scientists had discovered that it is good for one's intestines if he spends time crawling on his hands and knees, that this finding indicates man evolved from four-legged creatures! He added that he did not know how I could handle this finding from science as I hold to pure creationism, not evolution!

When he as a medical professional told me this, I felt pressured to feel intimidated for holding to creationism until I recalled that Genesis 2:15 KJV taught when God made man, He "put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it," and I have seen catalogue ads for gardener's kneeling benches as people who garden spend time in the crawling position! The gardening job God gave man meets his health needs to crawl apart from any evolution!

When I focused on Genesis 2:15, God guarded my belief in creationism in spite of the doctor's words!

May we trust in Christ for salvation. Then, may we overcome intimidating brainwashing efforts by focusing on God's Word to see HIM guard our minds as He did David's mind that we might do His will.