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Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh. Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that ledest out and brought est in Israel. And the Lord said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron, and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. So if you remember at the very end of chapter 4, Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul that was kind of reigning but really Abner was the one who was in real power, Ish-bosheth had been murdered, so now that he's been murdered, now that Abner's been murdered, they don't really have a leader, so the rest of the tribes of Israel turned to David finally, and the prophecy that the Lord had given that David would become king over all Israel is finally coming to fruition. David's been reigning in Hebron for seven years, but now he's going to start reigning over all of Israel as opposed to just Judah, because for the last seven years he's only reigned over that one tribe of Judah. So all the elders of Israel in verse 3 come and they make David king in Hebron, and they make a league with them. It says in verse 4, David was 30 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 40 years. So some of the parallels we see here with Jesus Christ, the symbolism, because of course Jesus Christ is called the son of David. So a lot of things about David in the Bible picture the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, David was anointed king long before this. So he's anointed king, but he hasn't yet received the kingdom, you know, and then later he receives that kingdom and he dwells in Jerusalem and so forth. Well that's exactly like the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus has already been anointed king. I mean he's already the king of kings and lord of lords, but he has not yet received the kingdom. He's going to receive that kingdom in the millennium and he will physically, like David, come to Jerusalem and he will rule and reign for a thousand years. Now if you think about it, Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about 30 years of age and the Bible says that when David started to reign over Judah, he was 30 years of age. So those two things are parallel. Then it says that he reigned for 40 years and it's interesting because King Saul reigned for 40 years, David reigned for 40 years, and also Solomon reigned for 40 years. So all of those three kings all reigned for the same amount of time, 40 years. It says in verse number five, in Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months and in Jerusalem he reigned 30 and three years over all Israel and Judah. And the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, which spake unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither, thinking, David cannot come in hither. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, the same is the city of David. So before we really get into this part of the story, I want to just take some time and just explain to you the situation here with the city of Jerusalem, also known as Zion, because the Bible says David took the stronghold of Zion, the same is the city of David. So all of these names are referring to the same place, Zion, the city of David, Jerusalem, okay, and also what it was previously called, Jebus, all right? And this city was called Jebus because the Jebusites lived there. Also it's just known in Genesis as Salem when the Bible says that Melchizedek was the king of Salem and the priest of the Most High God. Now you can see where the word Jerusalem comes from because if you look at the first part it's like Jebus, Salem, Jerusalem, you know, it's almost the same. You can see how words evolved over time and how that name came to be. So Jerusalem is a really interesting place in the Bible. It says here that the Jebusites were the inhabitants of the land and they were in control of Jerusalem at this time. In the stronghold, the Bible also calls it in 1 Chronicles the castle. Here it calls it the hold or the stronghold and it also calls it the fortress, okay? So there's a castle or fortress or stronghold at Jerusalem and it's inhabited by the Jebusites, okay? David comes in. The first thing he does when he becomes king over all of Israel, not just Judah but also Benjamin and the rest of it, is he takes over Jerusalem and he makes that his headquarters. He makes that his capital city and it's been the capital city, you know, or was the capital city from that time all the way up until the time of Christ. I mean Jerusalem was thought of as the capital of Judah, Judea, and even to date obviously people talk a lot about Jerusalem as being an important place and so forth and it is an important place because all throughout the Mosaic law, God will talk about how he's going to choose a certain place and cause his name to dwell there. You remember reading that in the books of Moses? He says the place that the Lord shall choose and there's going to be a place where I'm going to cause my name to dwell there. Now for a while, God's house was portable. It was the tabernacle and they would pitch it here and pitch it there and it would move from place to place but the place that God eventually chooses is Jerusalem and there's a lot in the Bible about how God chose Jerusalem and God chose to put his name there and David is the one who takes it over right here. This is where it starts being an Israelite city. This is where it starts being the city that kings rule from and the first one to rule from there is David. And so it's David's line that rules from Jerusalem and then Jesus is the son of David. He's going to rule from Jerusalem. So that's the significance. So let's talk about why the Jebusites were there. If you would, turn in your Bible to Joshua chapter 15, Joshua chapter 15. First of all, who are the Jebusites? Well, the Jebusites are one of the seven nations of the Canaanites that the children of Israel drove out when they came up out of the land of Egypt. So when God brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, he was going to bring them into Canaan, into the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, and he said, I'm going to drive out before you seven nations that are mightier than thou. And he lists off those nations in many places. I'll read for you some of them in Exodus 23, 23, for example. We can't turn to all of them for sake of time. But it says, for mine angel shall go before thee, which is actually a reference to Jesus. It says, mine angel shall go before thee and bring thee in unto the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. So he lists off these nations, I'm going to bring you into these nations. And listen to this, he says, and I will cut them off. Then in Exodus 33, 2, he says, I will send an angel before thee and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. So he tells them over and over again, I'm going to drive them out. I'm going to cut them off. I'm going to defeat these nations for you. Exodus 34, 11, observe that which I command thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Deuteronomy 7, 1, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land where thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hivites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. He tells them in chapter 20 verse 17, but thou shalt utterly destroy them. So he says over and over again, you're going to drive these people out and he's saying it's your, he said I'm going to drive them out but it's your job to utterly destroy them. And he said you shall utterly destroy them, namely the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, as the Lord thy God commanded thee. So he's saying specifically I want you to destroy these particular nations, he names sometimes six, sometimes seven, but the Jebusites are always on that list of the people that they must wipe out. He said in Joshua 3, 10, and Joshua said hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, that he will without fail. So is there any doubt that he's going to do this? No, he said without fail, drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites. Now why would God want to drive these people out? Well there are a lot of scriptures that talk about the sins of the Canaanites, but just to give you an example, in Leviticus 18 when he lists off just all of these horrible perversions and the type of things where you look at the list and you can't even believe that anybody would even do those type of things, but all these sick perversions of sodomy and every other weird thing, he says at the end of that list in Leviticus 18, he says that all of these abominations have the inhabitants of the land done. All these seven nations, the Canaanites, they had indulged in all of those sick things in Leviticus 18 and he says therefore I abhorred them. You know abhor means what? You know I hated them, I loathed them, I was disgusted by them. So he says because they did all these abominations, he said they've done all of it. He said therefore I abhorred them, he said wipe them out, utterly destroy them. Now in Joshua chapter 15 we have mention of specifically this place Jerusalem or Jebusi or Jebus as it was called earlier on, but look down at your Bible first of all in verse number 8. This is where he's talking about the border of the children of Judah and he says and the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom, that's also known as Gehenna or Tofat is another place that that's called, he says the border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom unto the south side of the Jebusite. The same is Jerusalem and the border went up to the top of the mountain that lieth before the valley of Hinnom westward which is at the end of the valley of the giants northward. So the Bible talks about the border of the land of Judah or the tribe of Judah being Jerusalem. So how can they tell the edge of what belongs to Judah? Jerusalem is part of that border, okay. But look at the last verse of the chapter in verse number 63, it says as for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah and Jerusalem unto this day. Now this is an important verse because first of all God already told them a whole bunch of times I'm going to drive everybody out. I will without fail drive out everybody and the Bible makes it clear that it was not God's fault that these nations weren't driven out but it was the failure of the children of Israel. They did not obey. In many cases they did not have the guts to engage the enemy even though God already told them that he had given them victory that they will win. A lot of times they said of certain battles these people are too mighty for us, we cannot face them and they did not drive out all the inhabitants. Now what's interesting about Jerusalem is that in Judges chapter 1 the Bible specifically tells us in verse number 8 that the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem and had taken it and smitten it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. So there was a time when the children of Judah defeated Jerusalem in Judges 1 verse 8, set the place on fire, smote it with the edge of the sword but they didn't drive out all of the enemy. And they allowed the enemy to remain there and live amongst them and the Bible tells that they were mingled amongst the heathen and learned their works and served their gods and so forth. So even though they militarily had the power to defeat the Jebusites from Jerusalem they took the city, burned it with fire but they did not eradicate the Jebusites. As God specifically said, wipe them out, they've committed all this perversion and sickness, their sons of Belial, take them out, they did not obey the Lord and so therefore they allowed them and the Bible says that they coexisted there with the Jebusites. So eventually what happened? The Jebusites eventually take it back over and by the time David comes on the scene they're in control of that city. Now if you flip over to Joshua 18 because you're in Joshua 15, flip over to Joshua 18 and look at verse number 21. It says, now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin according to their families were Jericho and Beth-hagla and the valley of Kizes, and you know he's going to list all these cities of Benjamin, jump down to verse 28. And Zelah, Eliph and Jebusai which is Jerusalem, Gibeah, Kirjeth, 14 cities with their villages, this is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin according to their families. So flip over to Judges 1. So what we're learning here is that Jerusalem was actually originally intended to be a city of Benjamin, right? He said these are the cities of Benjamin and he lists off Jerusalem as being one of them. But he said that Judah, the border of Judah went to Jerusalem. So if you get the picture, Jerusalem is the border between Judah and Benjamin. Technically it was supposed to originally be a part of Benjamin but it's right on the border between these two tribes. Now if you think about it, what tribe was Saul of? Benjamin. And what tribe is David of? Judah. And if you look at who has been resisting the uniting of the nation, it's been the house of Benjamin. They're the ones following Abner. They're the ones with Ish-bosheth and so forth. So it makes sense that when David takes control of the whole kingdom, the first thing he's going to do is take over Jerusalem, make that his headquarters. It's kind of like a bridge between the two nations, the two worlds. It kind of reminds me of, even with the founding of the United States, why Washington D.C. was originally chosen as the capital. Because it's right on the border of what? North and south. Because even though it was not until the Civil War that the nation actually split into two separate nations, the United States of America and the Confederate States of America, along that line, there was already an ideological rift that went back all the way to the founding of our country. There was a difference between the north and the south. Just like even though Judah and Israel aren't going to split until the days after Solomon with Rehoboam and Jeroboam, there was still a foreshadowing of that even at this time. Well, that's why the capital of the United States was put in Washington D.C., because it's right there on the border, so that the capital wouldn't be deep into the south or deep into the north, because there was an ideological difference between the south and the north, which eventually culminated in the Civil War. Many ideological differences. So that's why, even though Philadelphia and New York were places that were originally thought of as being a good capital for the United States, they weren't chosen because they were too far north. Especially New York, people worried that the bankers would be running everything. Because even back then, the bankers were in New York, even in the late 1700s. So that's why Washington D.C. was chosen. So basically Jerusalem is kind of like that, right on the border. You know, Washington D.C. is on the border of Maryland and Virginia, but this is on the border between Judah and Benjamin, the two tribes that are kind of both wanting power at this time. So that's where he wants to set up his capital. And not only that, but Jerusalem is an extremely easy city to defend when you study the Bible. It was a great fortress and castle, just the natural geography lends itself well to being defended. That's why the Jebusites are so confident when David comes against them. They said, David cannot come in hither. David cannot take over this stronghold. David cannot defeat this city, because it's a well-defended city, and there are the mountains that are there and so on and so forth. So look if you would, where did I have you turn, judges? Judges 1? Okay. Well, Judges 1, we talked about verse 8 where it says the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem and had taken it, and smitten it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. But jump down if you would now to verse 21, and the Bible says the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day. So the Bible tells us in Joshua 15, Judah did not drive out the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And then it tells there Benjamin did not drive out the inhabitants. And it's actually the Benjamites that are dwelling there in coexistence with the Jebusites. Now isn't it interesting that the Bible tells us specifically that it's Benjamin that's dwelling with the Jebusites, okay? And Benjamin is going to end up becoming an evil, perverted, wicked tribe at the end of Judges, and God literally wipes out 90-some percent of the tribe of Benjamin at the end of the book of Judges. You all know the story I'm talking about, hopefully, if you study the Bible a lot. But there's a story at the end of the book of Judges, Judges 19 is where it all starts, but in chapters 20 and 21 we see Benjamin being wiped out as a tribe down to 600 men. And then those 600 men take wives and rebuild the tribe. That's why King Saul, when he comes on the scene, he says, I'm of the least tribe of Israel. Why was it the least tribe? Because they were wiped out at the end of the book of Judges. Why were they wiped out at the end of the book of Judges? For being Sodomites. Because a lot of the tribe of Benjamin, not all of it, a lot of the tribe of Benjamin had been given over to Sodomy, okay, being queer. And in Judges 19, they want to commit these acts of Sodomy and God ends up, you know, electing the children of Israel to go against Benjamin and to fight against their own tribe of Benjamin and they tell the Benjamites, just turn over to us the sons of Belial that did this. Like, they didn't want to wipe out the whole tribe. They said, just turn over to us the sons of Belial that we might execute them and everything will be fine. But basically they say, no, we're not going to turn them over. And so basically they go to war and a whole bunch of the good guys get slaughtered. And then also a whole bunch of the Benjamites get slaughtered. Eventually the tribe of Benjamin is virtually wiped out. And by the way, that shows, you know, when you tolerate a bunch of Sodomite sons of Belial in your midst, you might get wiped out. So the nation that says, oh well, you know, we're not going to punish the Sodomites. We're going to let them dwell amongst us. You end up getting destroyed with them is what that story teaches us. So this gives you a little bit of the background of why the Benjamites had all these perverts. Why? Because they learned it from the Jebusites. That's who had rubbed off on them, okay? Now look down at your Bible in Judges chapter 3, just a few pages over. Because we saw that neither Judah nor Benjamin wiped them out, but it was really Benjamin that was dwelling amongst the Jebusites the most. It says in verse 5, the children of Israel dwelled among the Canaanites, Hittites and Amorites and Perizzites and Hivites and Jebusites. And they took their daughters to be their wives and gave their daughters to their sons and served their gods. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and forgot the Lord their God and served Baalim and the groves. Therefore the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel and he sold them into the hand of Cushan Rishtathaim, king of Mesopotamia, and the children of Israel served Cushan Rishtathaim eight years. And on and on that story goes. So what do we see here? But that the children of Israel are mingled among the heathen, they learn their works, they serve their gods, they sacrifice their sons and their daughters unto devils. This was never supposed to happen because what was supposed to happen to the Jebusites? Drive them out of the land. Wipe them out, drive them out of the land, get rid of them, they didn't do that. So what is David doing when David comes on the scene and wipes out the Jebusites? In reality, he is wiping out those which God had originally told the children of Israel to wipe out in the first place. So a lot of people have different interpretations of this story and you say, well why are you going into so much background? Because it helps us to understand the story. If we understand, okay, who are the Jebusites? Why are they there? Where is Jerusalem even located geographically? Now we know, okay, it's the border between Judah and Benjamin. That's why it makes sense for David to unite the kingdom and make that the capital. That's why, you know, he wants to be there because it's a defendable position. He's going to dwell in that castle, that fortress, that stronghold for the rest of his reign. And the kings of Judah are always going to be out of Jerusalem. And even to this day, everybody wants to control Jerusalem. It's an important city biblically. But the Jebusites had it at this time and so it's called by their name of Jebusite. Now with all that background, now let's go to 2 Samuel 5 with a greater understanding of why, but before, actually before I get into the story, let me point out the folly of these Christ-rejecting scholars who so many people will look to and say, well scholars tell us, and a lot of these people do not even believe on Jesus Christ. What you have to understand is that colleges like Harvard, Stanford, like these Ivy League type schools, Yale, did you know that they have a Department of Theology, all of them? You might think to yourself, well, you know, these state universities, they're not going to talk about the Bible. You know, they're a Christ-rejecting university. But in fact, there are religious classes being taught at state universities all over America. And in fact, these Ivy League schools started out as Bible colleges. And they still today have Department of Theology. And in fact, a lot of it's on YouTube, because I've been surfing YouTube before, looking up certain information, and I found all these videos where it's like a class at Harvard or a class at Yale or a class at Stanford, and they're teaching on Genesis, or they're teaching on Exodus, or they're teaching on Joshua, or they're teaching on Matthew, Mark and Luke. And let me tell you something, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And here's the thing, these people who run these theology departments, they're not even claiming to believe that the Bible is the word of God for five seconds. They're not even saying that. They study it as literature, as history, as culture. It's just important to Western civilization and society. They do not study it spiritually. They don't believe it. And they'll even get up and say like, yeah, this is false. It's a myth. But they study it. And here's the thing, there are even chaplains and people, you know, if I wanted to go to go be a chaplain for the military or a chaplain in the prison system, if I had a theology degree from one of these schools, they would, you're in. You're in the door. I mean, if I say I want to be a military chaplain, here's my degree in theology from Harvard, from Stanford, from Yale. They'd say, oh man, yeah, you're in. That's what they want to see. In fact, because I've gotten stuff in the mail, hey, do you want to be a chaplain? And I'm thinking like, do I get to go in and say whatever I want, you know? And of course the answer is no. And so I would never want to be a chaplain. But the thing is, you know, it says right in there, these are the requirements. And they want you to have a degree from, you know, a state university or something that's accredited by that system. And they love that. But these people don't believe the Bible at all. And let me tell you, scholars tell us, scholars, you know, a lot of these scholars are just openly Christ rejecting. But that doesn't stop them from being quoted by so many Bible teachers and commentaries and so forth. So when you look up the scholarship on the book of Joshua and on the book of Judges, based on the internal evidence, they will say something along the lines of that the book of Joshua was probably written around the time that the children of Israel were coming back from Babylon. You know, around the days of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. That's about the time that, you know, Joshua is being written. They say well, judges might have been a little earlier, but they claim that Joshua and judges are written way after the events. They claim that most of the Bible wasn't even written until, you know, the Babylonian captivity or shortly thereafter. Now do they have evidence for this? What's the evidence? Well, first of all, it's not manuscript evidence because of the fact that until the 20th century, the oldest manuscripts of the Old Testament were from like AD 1000, AD 1000, okay. So they didn't have a lot of really old manuscripts. And then they found, you know, the Dead Sea Scrolls, which is like first century AD stuff. You know, there's some other dates associated with that. But look, all it is is they're like, well, we looked at it and we decided it's not that old. But what it really is is they don't want to acknowledge the prophetic material. So they don't want to admit that it predicted stuff before it happened. So they're just like, well, this was written way later. That's kind of how they explain away the prophetic aspect, okay. So don't believe when you're reading your Bible, if you have like a study Bible, sometimes it'll tell you when books are written or a Bible encyclopedia or Bible. Don't believe that stuff. If you want to figure out when stuff's written, look at the Bible itself and you can find clues about when it's written. Or they'll say, well, linguistically the language, they'll say the language is too late. They'll say the style of languages is later, therefore it was written later. That's so ridiculous because think about it. If language changes and you're copying down old scripture and the language changes, they probably just brought it up to speed with the new alphabet or whatever. I mean, think about it. You know, the King James Bible was printed in what year originally? 1611. 1611. Well, when we reprint a 1611 KJV today, are we going to make it look exactly like the language looked in 1611? No. Because what are we going to do? We're going to update the spellings, we're going to update the font, you know, and we're going to update the punctuation, we're going to update the capitalization. Why? Because we're not living in 1611. Does that mean we change the words of what's being said? No. So obviously what they did was, you know, the book of Joshua was written way back when I'm going to prove to you that it was written back then. Book of Joshua and Judges are written way back when and then as it gets copied down, they bring it into the language of what people are speaking at that time. They're going to make the alphabet current. They're not going to use the paleo Hebrew. They're going to bring it up to the current script. Well, here's the proof. In Joshua, they said they could not drive out the Jebusites and that's why the Jebusites are dwelling with them there unto this day. Now what does that tell you about the book of Joshua that is written before David? Because David drove them out. David took over and they ceased to dwell among them. So if Joshua says, hey, the Jebusites took control of it and they dwell there unto this day. And there are a lot of statements like that unto this day in the books of the kings and other places. It helps you date the material because you know it was written. You know Joshua and Judges were done and written and in place before David based on the internal evidence because otherwise why would they say, yup, and they still control it to this day? Why would anyone and you, wow, they're lying is what these Harvard, Christ-rejecting, unbelieving scholars would say. But here's the thing though. First of all, they're not lying because the Bible is the word of God. We believe that by faith. But second of all, why would you lie about that? You know if you're writing the story, why, oh I know, you know, let's just put down that the Jebusites are still there just so that later people will think we wrote this a long time ago even though we're writing it right now. It doesn't even make sense. The reason that they're saying, hey, they dwell there to this day is because it explains to people, hey, have you ever wondered why the Jebusites are living there? This is why. So it makes sense. So let me get into the story now in Second Samuel 5 now that we have all the background and you say, well, that's too much background Pastor Anderson, it's too complicated. You know what? Get some smarts. Grow up. You need the strong meat of the word sometimes and not just always being a babe that only useth milk, you need to wrap your mind around the scripture as a whole. And you know, when you're a babe in Christ, you read the Bible and you don't always know what part of the story you're in, you know. And we all started at that point where you're reading the Bible and you're kind of confused about what time in history is it. But as you study the Bible more, you start to see the big picture. And you understand the big picture of like, okay, the children of Israel come out of Egypt, they come into promised land, they're taken over, they're under the judges, then it's the kings. So I'm trying to bring you up to speed in the story because otherwise this chapter might not make sense to you. Because a lot of people look at this chapter and they think that David is just being a sadistic monster, he's just shedding blood for no reason, he's just wiping people out and going to war of his own caprice. When in reality, if you know the background, it makes more sense. So let's read it with that in mind. It says in verse 6, Now, he's doing this because he thinks to himself, this is land that God gave us, this is city that God gave us, this is the best city to rule from, this is the best, most defensible position, it's the most beautiful place, you know, in the region. It's a city that God had chosen to put his name there, all the way back to Melchizedek, God's choosing that city. This is the city where God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on one of the mountains that I will show thee. So it's an extremely important place and David's thinking these wicked, perverted heathen are dwelling there and they need to go and we're going to take over. So I don't look at this as David just wiping out a city for no reason but that he's actually following the mandate from the book of Joshua and Judges, which I might add had already been written, as we just proved. So he knows what they say because they're around, they existed, you know, and the chances are very good that he read these books or heard them read unto them. So therefore, he goes up to them and look what they say unto David when he shows up to fight, which speak unto David saying, except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither. Now that's a statement that confuses people when they read it. Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither. But he explains it in that last phrase, what he meant by that? Thinking because he explains what they were thinking when they said that. Thinking David cannot come in hither. So what are they thinking? David can't come in hither. So that's why they say, except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in hither. I believe that what he's saying here, or what the Jebusites are saying, they're basically mocking him or taunting him. Like basically saying, we could defend this city against you with the blind and the lame. Like we could put the blind and the lame on the front lines, we could put them on the wall to defend the city, and you're going to have to get through them to basically take over the city. Almost like saying, you know what, I could beat you with one arm tied behind my back. Just a taunt. Basically they're talking trash, you know, talking smack unto David. And so they're thinking David cannot come in hither. Nevertheless, verse 7, David took the stronghold of Zion, the same is the city of David. And David said on that day, whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David's soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house. So David dwelt in the fort and called it the city of David, and David built roundabout from millo and inward. So the fact that these people are hated of David's soul, again, kind of lends credibility to the fact that the Jebusites were still just as perverted and wicked and godless and worshiping Satan as they had been back in the days of Joshua and Judges when God's saying just wipe them out. That's why I don't think that it would make any sense to think, hey, David was not in God's will here. But that's what a lot of people will say about this, but I tend to believe that he's doing the will of God here because he's wiping out people that God specifically told him should be wiped out. They're wicked ungodly people, they shouldn't be dwelling amongst the children of Israel, and this city is something that God had planned for Judah and even to be the seat of Jesus Christ's kingdom someday. It's going to be in Jerusalem. Now, verse 7 is a key verse because here we get the definition of the word Zion. And the word Zion is a verse that's used, it's a word that's used a lot in the book of Psalms and Isaiah and also even in the New Testament, but in the New Testament it's spelled with an S, S-I-O-N. And in Hebrews chapter 12 he says you're coming to the Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. So in the New Testament he talks about Zion as being the heavenly Jerusalem. It makes sense, there's an earthly Jerusalem and there's a heavenly Jerusalem, okay? There's an earthly Zion, there's a heavenly Zion. Now you'll hear about people today known as what? A Zionist. Now that ending is on the end of something means you believe in something. So a Buddhist is somebody who believes in Buddha, right? And a Zionist is somebody who basically believes not in the heavenly Zion that Jesus is going to bring, but they believe in the earthly Zion as being a physical homeland to the Jews or that it belongs to the Jews or that the Jews deserve it because it's their gift from God, that God gave the promised land unto the Jews. Now that's a lie because the Bible is real clear that God gave the land of Israel, including Jerusalem, unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and unto the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt with the condition that they keep his commandments. And he said if you follow my commandments and obey my voice and worship me, this land will be your land. But he said if you break my commandments, if you go after other gods, he said I will drive you out of the land. He didn't just say, oh, it's just an unconditional. And Bible teachers today will say it was an unconditional promise. Don't even use the word unconditional. Now this covenant over here was conditional, but the Abrahamic covenant was an unconditional covenant. And you know what a bunch of other, you know what, here's another stupid doctrine while you're at it, unconditional election. That's the ewe and tulip that Calvinists believe in. Sorry, election's not unconditional. Now when the Calvinists talk about it, they're talking about being saved. They say salvation's not, it's unconditional. It's unconditional election. What's election mean? What do you do when you elect a president? What are you doing? You're choosing. So the Calvinists believe in unconditional election, meaning God chooses you based on no condition. Whereas actually becoming God's chosen people is based on a condition. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. That's a condition. Even a computer programmer will tell you that's a condition if then, you know, and we need a lot more logic today in reading the Bible. That's why computer programmers understand the Bible well often because they, you know, they can think it illogical. Some people just are illogical, but he's saying, look, if you believe you shall be saved. That's a condition. See, what does that have to do with Zionism? Because they're saying that these Jews are unconditionally God's chosen people because of just the fact that they supposedly are the seed of Abraham. But if you stop and think about it, it's never been, it was never unconditional. The land was not given unconditionally. He says over and over again, if you don't obey, you're going to get driven out of land. And were they driven out of the land? Repeatedly. And when were they brought back? When they believed. When they obeyed. Okay. And then he drove them out when they rejected Jesus. And look, they still haven't repented. They still haven't turned to Christ. And by the way, I don't believe that they ever will. People are, you know, people twist Romans 11. That's another sermon in and of itself. That's not what Romans 11 is teaching. These current Christ rejecting Jews, most of them will go to hell. Now you say, well, some of them are going to get saved. Some of them will get saved today. Oh, in the end time, some of the Jews are going to get saved. Some of them are going to get saved today. Some of them get saved every day. But that's not the point. The point is that 99% of them are going to hell because they don't believe in Christ. And it's only the remnant that believes in Jesus, even on a daily basis in this world that we live in, that shall be saved. So this idea of an unconditional election, and here's what's funny, there are independent fundamental Baptists that would scoff at the Calvinist unconditional election. I mean, I've heard plenty of independent fundamental Baptists saying, I don't believe in any of the five points of Calvinism. I don't believe in unconditional election. But here's what's funny. They believe in unconditional election of the Jews because they believe they're unconditionally God's chosen people based on nothing. Oh, it's based on Abraham being their father. Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. I mean, they're about as much God's chosen people as a rock in Jerusalem. So basically, if we have a rock in Jerusalem, we could pick up that rock and say, well, this rock is God's chosen people because it's in Jerusalem. That makes the same amount of sense as saying, well, this white blond haired blue eyed European is God's chosen people because he's in Jerusalem and says he's a Jew. Same logic, my friend. I mean, God can God can make the stone, you know, a child of Abraham. I mean, what in the world? But that's what these teachers are teaching today. And it's called Zionism. And it's this teaching that says, hey, that's their land. That belongs to them. But you know who it belongs to? Who took it over in the first place? David. And who's going to take it over the second time? Jesus. And, you know, the son of David. And by the way, David went in and threw out the people who shouldn't have been there and said, hey, these people, they don't inherit this. This is for us. We're the chosen people. We are going to take it. Well, guess what? When Jesus comes, he's going to cast out the imposter, the Antichrist, and the fake Jews and all the other fraudulent fake Christians. And he's going to cast out the interloping Jebusites of this world. And Jesus Christ will take that city of David and rule from it. But don't make a mistake. The Antichrist will rule first from Jerusalem. And by the way, when Jesus comes and takes over Jerusalem, he's not going to need any help. He just shows up. He shows up and just fire from heaven, devours people, and then basically the rest of them, he just slays with the sword proceeding out of his mouth. I mean, Jesus does it all at Armageddon. He doesn't need any help. But here's what's funny. Christians today are trying to help the Jews take over Jerusalem. And they're going to send money to rebuild the temple and take it over. And we got to get them back and bring it back and Zion, Zion, Zion, rah, rah, rah. The real Zion's not going to need your help. Jesus is going to do it. He's going to go in and take over. Now the gutter, what's the gutter? He says, whosoever getteth up to the gutter at the beginning of verse 8. Well if you think about what does the gutter do on your house? It's a channel of water. So probably this is referring to some kind of a water channel, whatever kind of a water system. Because these cities back then, I mean, they had a degree of technology of irrigation, aqueduct, water coming in, water going out, whatever. And so this is some kind of a water apparatus. Probably David's strategy might have been, you know, to go in through these water sources or water outlets or whatever the gutter is. We don't know exactly what it is. Something to do with the water based on the word gutter. So they came in. They take over. And you say, you know, he said, let's go smite the lame and the blind. Basically he's just responding to their taunt and saying, okay, that's what you want. You know, we'll kill whoever stops us. So it says in verse number 10, it says, David went on and grew great. And watch this, the Lord of hosts was with him. So that should remove any doubt because if God didn't approve of what he did, he wouldn't have just put that like right in the same breath with, hey, he took over Jerusalem because the Lord's with him. And other people had tried to take over Jerusalem and failed. That's why the Jebusites are so confident. So it says in verse 11, and Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees and carpenters and masons and they built David a house. And David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel and that it exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake. And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem. And I'm not going to spend any time talking about that because I've already covered that in previous chapters. But obviously that was sin. But it says he was come from Hebron and there were yet sons and daughters born to David and these be the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem, Shamuah and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon. And that's the famous Solomon. He's just listing them all in advance even though he hasn't been born yet. He's just listing all the sons he's going to have in Jerusalem here besides the ones he already had. Ibar also and Elishua and Nephag and Jephiah and Elishama and Eliada and Eliphilat. But when the Philistines heard that they 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 because remember David is the old arch enemy of the Philistines because David is the one who slew who Goliath the champion of the Philistines. 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? And the Lord said unto David go up for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand. And David came to Baal-Perezim and David smote them there and said the Lord has broken forth upon mine enemies therefore are before me as the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of the place Baal-Perezim and there they left their images and David has been burned them. So this is talking about destroying their idols of the Philistines. And it says in the Philistines came up yet again and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim and when David inquired of the Lord he said thou shalt not go up but fetch a compass behind them meaning go around the back of them and come upon them over against the mulberry trees and let it be when thou hears the sound of it going in the tops of the mulberry trees that 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 Gezer. So what do we learn from this chapter? First of all we learn that when God gives us a mission and God gives a task to perform and God says you're going to go up against a certain enemy he's going to equip us to defeat that enemy and he's going to give us the victory because he gave it to them hundreds of years earlier when he said I'll drive out all these inhabitants and he even allowed them to burn Jerusalem and defeat Jerusalem. The only thing that will prevent us from succeeding is our own disobedience because they had the power to defeat Jerusalem they already burned it and destroyed it once they disobeyed by not driving out the Jebusites. So it's not that God can't give us the victory in our lives we're only going to fail because of disobedience. We're not going to fail because we can't because the Bible says I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. So whatever God tells to do we can do it but we will fail when we start to live a life of disobedience. That's what caused us to fail in our Christian lives it's not it's not that we can't do it or that God can't do it whatever the task whether it's soul winning you know God wants you to be a soul winner it's not that you can't do it it's just that you might disobey and fail. You know if God wants you to start a church it's it seems like an insurmountable task it's a big job but if God wants you to do it you can do it you can succeed but how's your obedience? And then fast forward hundreds of years later David is told by God go against the Philistines and he says I'm going to deliver him into your hand he obeys and then God and then he asked God again he said you know should I go now should I go fight him now he says wait go around the back wait for the sound in the mulberry trees then attack and then you'll win you know it's when we follow God's instructions to the T that we win when we listen to every detail I mean are you serious a sound in the top of the mulberry trees I mean think about that okay go around and wait until you hear a sound of going I mean that means you really have to pay attention you stop you wait and you listen and you're looking for a detail of you know in the top of the trees okay now's the time but little things like that mean the difference between succeeding and failing because look at look at Peter you know he's fishing on the wrong side of the ship it's the same activity same net same skill but when you do it on the other side of the ship you catch all the fish why it's just because that's what God said to do it's not that this side I mean look how do you catch a hundred and some fish on this side 153 fish and nothing on this side it's because that's where God told you to fish so a lot of times we decide like details aren't important just roughly kind of do what God said roughly as long as you just have a lot of love love love love everything will be fine but God says this the love of God that we keep his commandments and God is a God that says follow my detail in these in these stories that's what he's showing us and so if we obey we win always even if it seems like it's a it's a temporary setback we're more than conquerors in the end if we obey but when we disobey that is the reason we fell so if we fail in life it's not God that failed and it's not because we just were inherently too weak or well you know what it turns out I'm just a loser no it's because you didn't obey because God's strength is made perfect in weakness and if you are a loser and if you are weak God can use you because God's strength is made perfect in weakness and you will win if you obey and then the other thing that we learn from this chapter is simply that these scholars don't know what they're talking about and that everything that they say should be either taken with a grain of salt or completely disregarded because the Bible is crystal clear that both the books of Joshua and Judges were written before David was king and no scholar will tell you that and it's not because they have hard evidence first of all it'd be impossible to prove that a book could not have been written earlier now you could prove that a book was written earlier if you found a really old manuscript and said well we know it was written before this because we found this but how can you prove and say oh we know it was written after the Babylonian exile can't prove it especially when the internal evidence proves that it was written before that before David but they say oh well the style of language yeah but that's because they probably just updated the book didn't change the wording didn't I mean they didn't change what it's saying I mean think about it if we translate the Bible from Hebrew into English have we changed what's being said no we're just saying in a different language well if you update the language from the old Hebrew to a newer Hebrew it's the same word of God preserved and if you quote it in Greek from Hebrew it's the same word it's the same teaching it's the same verbally inspired perfect pure word of God and so these scholars should be completely rejected they're reading the Bible blindfold the Bible says if you're not saved the veil is there so I wouldn't give you a dime for all the scholarship coming out of Harvard about when the book of Joshua was written and about what you know the scriptures mean I wouldn't you know it's spiritually discerned they cannot receive it let's borrow that word of prayer father we thank you for your word Lord and we trust that it's true Lord we believe Joshua is the word of God we believe in judges and we believe it was written before the book before David was king Lord help us to get the victory in our lives through obedience Lord and in Jesus name we pray amen