| This “caveman” is.. of course,
King David from the Bible. We followed his life from his
shepherd boy days to his “killing the giant” days…and then out
into the wilderness… running for his life from King Saul… and we
were able to tap into his thoughts, and emotions, at each step…
by seeing what he wrote in his Psalms during those times.
Mike Brown- who’s wife, Betty’s, funeral was this last Monday
said to me…I never really thought of David later in life… I
thought he threw the stone and that was it. Many of you know
that little shepherd…giant killing boy David became “ all grown
up” King David.
How did that happen? One day he’s running for his life.. the
next day he gets an e-mail from King Saul saying…
Let’s call a truce… I’m not going to chase you anymore… in
fact I’m going to retire as King and you can just take over my
kingship. I’ll go live in the North America on a peninsula
called Florida.
You know that’s not true…and I mean more than just the
Florida part. King Saul gets whacked in battle…His son Jonathan,
David’s dear friend, dies in the same war.
So all of Israel calls David up…Come on over and be king…
they say…your throne awaits you! David and his men march
triumphantly into Jerusalem and Mrs. David starts to redecorate
the palace??? Yes??
T or F The palace had not even been built, in Jerusalem,
only the temple?
(False)
T or F Israel didn’t even control Jerusalem yet, it was
controlled by the Hivites? (No the Jebusites..but close)
T or F Like every other part of David’s life… his trip to
kingship was a trial of patience? (True)
Let me describe how David’s kingship… and even the conquer of
Jerusalem itself unfolded.. David is still hiding out in the
wilderness, running from cave to cave when he gets the word
about Saul. Instead of feeling huge relief… he is swamped by
huge grief…not only for his dear friend Jonathan, but also for
King Saul…God’s first king.
Caveman Principle # 1: When God works out the answer to your
prayers… it may not come in the way you think.
Not one time…did David ever pray: God kill that despicable
old man…Saul!
Now, in his Psalms David is known for praying some pretty
tough prayers…but not directed at King Saul. Saul was God’s
anointed…and while David may have gotten pretty fed up with
Saul… he had never gotten fed up with God.
Even if Saul died of natural causes…his son Jonathan and
probably forty other children were in line for the throne…not
David. It’s not like all Saul’s kids are just going to roll over
and hand the throne to David So David really has no idea how God
is going to fulfill his promise to make him king.
When word comes of Saul.. and Jonathan’s death…at the same
time… David doesn’t begin marching toward Israel. He knows
better. He and 600 men may be able to hide from Saul's army but
they cannot take them on. However I did find an interesting
tidbit in the Bible;
1 Chronicles 12:22 Day after day more men joined David
until he had a great army, like the army of God. (NLT)
I don’t know how big an army of God is but it is obviously
more than the original 600. It became the fashionable thing to
leave one’s occupation and join David’s army. There is a
surprising lot of space devoted, in Scripture, to listing which
great warriors joined David. When mercenaries, and maybe even
some of Saul’s army, heard about the standoff in the desert…
they couldn’t wait to scurry out into the wilderness and be a
part of it. Notice David did not recruit them…. God sent
them!
This brings us to:
Caveman Principle # 2: When you wait patiently for God’s
divine will in your life… he will, often, bring together the
most unusual circumstances to achieve his purposes in you.
We’ve all been experiencing this in the building of the new
church. Had we rushed into construction we would have spent
two-to- three times… as much money for the exact same building.
It’s taken four years to get to this “almost done” point. Many
of you don’t see it but those who are working with it on a
regular basis are exclaiming how God is, weekly, providing ways
to save even more money.
So it can be in our individual lives… Your life is not moving
along at random …
Whatever your life situation God has a plan for achieving his
purposes in you…
Caveman Principle # 3: God will probably use a
pathway, in your life, that will keep you, and every other human
being, from taking the credit and glory.
As we have seen so far… God had never made it simple for
David ( and he probably isn't for you either) and God didn’t do
so between Saul’s death and David’s coronation.
Saul’s followers, sure enough, fought to keep control of the
throne. Turns out, David needed all those additional warriors
that had voluntarily joined him.
2 Samuel 3:1 That was the beginning of a long war between
those who were loyal to Saul and those loyal to David. As time
passed David became stronger and stronger, while Saul’s dynasty
became weaker and weaker. (NLT)
But… notice… It was a step by step, one battle at a time
progression. God gave David an early picture into what his life
would be like….(He doesn't do that for everybody). But after
David's anointing… the screen goes dark… and except for the
brief time after he killed Goliath …it stay dark.
Caveman Principle # 4: If you’re expecting God to unfold his
whole plan for your life tomorrow morning… you’re probably going
to be disappointed.
Caveman Principle # 5 If you’re expecting God to unfold his
whole plan for your life in his perfect time… you’re not going
to be disappointed.
There are 73 Davidic Psalms in the book of Psalms…We’ve only
looked at a dozen of them written in David’s early life. But the
general theme continued:
God help! You're the All Powerful One!
Save me from my attackers!
He wasn’t writing those Psalms as an old man with all his
enemies defeated… He was writing them in the heat of the daily
battles.
Psalm 144:1 Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my
hands for war,
my fingers for battle. 2 He is my loving God and my fortress, my
stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues people under me…. 5 Part your heavens, O LORD, and
come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. 6 Send
forth lightning and scatter them; shoot your arrows and rout
them. 7 Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue
me …. (NLT)
God never let David forget where his deliverance was coming
from. That's kind of the point of this whole series of messages.
We do often think of "David and Goliath" and David the cute
shepherd d boy writing the 23rd Psalm…and David the great
king. But we can often miss all the struggle that David went
through to achieve God's purposes for his life.
It's the struggle part of David's life that should teach us.
We all want our lives to accomplish something, eternal, but we
often feel like we are "swimming in syrup"
Exactly!
Caveman Principle # 6 The pathway to God's best for our life
usually passes through the battles necessary to make us into the
people God want to use!
Well; to make a long story short… David is asked by the tribe
of Judah to become their king. He accepts and sets up a
mini-capital in Hebron.
Eventually, the other tribes get around to asking him to be
their king too, and what they say, to David, makes you want to
string them up…
1 Chronicles 11:1 All Israel came together to David at Hebron
and said, "We are your own flesh and blood. 2 In the past, even
while Saul was king, you were the one who led Israel on their
military campaigns. And the LORD your God said to you, 'You will
shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.'
Well Duh!!! If you knew that all this time why have you been
sitting idly by while Saul chased me all over the wilderness?
It's odd, that even after Saul's tragic death… you didn't come
to me then…you appointed another in my place. If you want me to
be the King of Israel you're going to have to get down on your
knees and beg.
We don't really know what David said… We know David had a
pretty good temper…like in the case of Nabal…the fool… We've
seen repeatedly that he was no wimp. What he should have
demanded is that everybody that was in a position of power when
he was being chased through the wilderness be deposed and new
people put in their place. We know he didn't do that…at least
not initially…Why?
Caveman Principle # 7 Sometimes the process of moving
forward in our lives doesn't rest on what people are saying but
on what God is clearly saying!
Don't over-interpret that…I'm sure David had a lot of Godly
advisers that he ran his plans through… but he didn't base his
forward motion on which way society's wind was blowing.
1 Chronicles 11: 3 When all the elders of Israel had come to
King David at Hebron, he made a compact with them at Hebron
before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel, as
the LORD had promised through Samuel. (NIV)
Look at this in Chapter 12…
1 Chronicles 12:38-40 All these men came in battle array to
Hebron with the single purpose of making David the king over all
Israel. In fact, everyone in Israel agreed that David
should be their king. 39 They feasted and drank with David
for three days, for preparations had been made by their
relatives for their arrival. 40 And people from as far away as
Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali brought food on donkeys, camels,
mules, and oxen. Vast supplies of flour, fig cakes, clusters of
raisins, wine, olive oil, cattle, sheep, and goats were brought
to the celebration. There was great joy throughout the land
of Israel. (NLT)
"We got a King…we got a king!" The great warrior David who
was anointed to be king as a shepherd boy and then killed the
Phillistine giant, Goliath…is our new king… Oh come
on…people…how fickle can you get.? Where were your little chants
two years earlier?
Caveman Principle # 8 When others are celebrating the
blessing of God in your life they probably won’t have a clue
what trials you went through to get there.
Let's add one more element to this unfolding story…
1 Chronicles 14:8-17 When the Philistines heard that David
had been anointed king over all Israel, they mobilized all their
forces to capture him…
Caveman Principle # 9 Every victory from God will be
tested with a new trial from the evil one!
This is a weird saga. David kills their giant warrior…then
tries to retreat to Philistia in his running from Saul…gets
chased off. Next thing you know he's living in their country and
helping them fight their wars… and now that he becomes king of
Israel…they finally wake up to the fact that this man is not
their friend…
But David was told they were coming, so he marched out
to meet them. 9 The Philistines arrived and made a raid in the
valley of Rephaim. 10 So David asked God, “Should I go out to
fight the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?” The Lord
replied, “Yes, go ahead. I will hand them over to you.”
Notice how he's leaning on God for every move in his
life…where did he learn that? Where did he learn that? In the
wilderness of his life…
Where do you learn to lean on God for every move in your
life? Also…In the wilderness times of you life!
11 So David and his troops went up to Baal-perazim and
defeated the Philistines there. “God did it!” David
exclaimed. “He used me to burst through my enemies like a raging
flood!” So they named that place Baal- perazim (which means
“the Lord who bursts through”). 12 The Philistines had abandoned
their gods there, so David gave orders to burn them.
Notice when he achieves victory who he's giving all the
credit to God…This is a perfect example of how we should be
living our lives. When things started to go too well in David's
life and he lost this close dependence on God…that when he fell
into sin with Bathsheba.
If you're up against impossible situations in your life…hear
me when I say to you… It is God's merciful way of shaping you
into the person God wants you to be… into the purposes for which
God has created you.
A hundred years from now when all of us are in heaven… the
individual trials we faced, here on this earth, will seem so
tiny in comparison to how they look today.
13 But after a while the Philistines returned and raided the
valley again. 14 And once again David asked God what to do. “Do
not attack them straight on,” God replied. “Instead, circle
around behind and attack them near the poplar trees. 15 When you
hear a sound like marching feet in the tops of the poplar trees,
go out and attack! That will be the signal that God is moving
ahead of you to strike down the Philistine army.” 16 So David
did what God commanded, and they struck down the Philistine army
all the way from Gibeon to Gezer. 17 So David’s fame spread
everywhere, and the Lord caused all the nations to fear David.
Caveman Principle # 10 If your life achieves anywhere near
what God has planned for you it will only be because of the
phrase: "The Lord caused"!
Conclusion:
Some of you feel like you are between the teeth of a huge
pair of earth-sized vise- grips. We need, today, to back up a
step and look into the face of God: Hear the voice of the
shepherd boy turned King…
Psalm 145:13b. The Lord always keeps his promises; He is
gracious in all he does.14 The Lord helps the fallen and lifts
those bent beneath their loads. 15 The eyes of all look to you
in hope; you give them their food as they need it. 16 When you
open your hand, you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every
living thing. 17 The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he
is filled with kindne ss. 18 The Lord is close to all who call
on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth. 19 He grants the
desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and
rescues them. 20 The Lord protects all those who love him, but
he destroys the wicked. (NLT)
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