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you well good evening everyone welcome to Mountain Baptist Church take your song books and turn to song 215 song 215 in your song books we'll sing heaven came down and glory filled my soul and if you would stand we'll sing song 215 oh what a wonderful wonderful day day I will never forget after I wandered in darkness away Jesus my Savior I man oh what a tender compassionate friend he met the need of my heart shadows dispelling with joy I am telling he made all the darkness depart heaven came down and glory filled my soul when at the cross the Savior made me whole my sins were washed away and my night was turned today heaven came down and glory filled my soul born with a spirit with life from above into God's family justified justify three leads to Calvary's love Oh what a standing is mine and the transaction so quickly was made when as a sinner I came took of the offer of grace he did proffer he saved me Oh praises dear name heaven came down and glory filled my soul when at the cross the Savior made me whole my sins were washed away and my night was turned today heaven came down and glory filled my soul now I hope that will surely endure after the passing of time I've a future in heaven for sure there in those mansions sublime and it's because of that wonderful day when at the cross I believed rich is eternal and blessing supernal from his precious hand I received heaven came down and glory filled my soul when at the cross the Savior made me whole my sins were washed away and my night was turned today heaven came down and glory filled my soul and let's pray heavenly Father Lord again we just want to thank you God for the privilege and opportunity that it is God to hear preaching from your word and I pray Lord now that you would just be honored and glorified out of everything that's in don't be over there pastor film with your power and spirit Lord we love you for it's in Jesus name we ask all of it amen I may be seated and take your mountain Baptist Psalms hymns and spiritual song books and turn to page number six page number six in your song books we'll sing Psalm 96 on page number six Oh sing unto the Lord a new song sing unto the Lord all the earth sing unto the Lord bless his name show forth his salvation from day to day declare his glory among the heathen his wonders among all people for the Lord is great and greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all gods give unto the Lord all ye kindreds of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength sing unto the Lord a new song sing unto the Lord all the earth sing unto the Lord bless his name show forth his salvation from day to day for all the gods of the nations are idols but the Lord made the heavens honor and majesty are before him strength and beauty are in his sanctuary give unto the Lord all ye kindreds of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength give unto the Lord the glory to unto his name bring an offering and come into his courts Oh worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness fear for him all the earth say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth the world also shall be established that it shall not be moving he shall judge the people righteously let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad let the sea roar and the fullness thereof let the field be joyful and all that's there in then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord for he cometh for he cometh to judge the earth he shall judge the world with righteousness and the people with his truth Oh sing unto the Lord a new song sing unto the Lord all the earth sing unto the Lord bless his name show forth his salvation from day to day amen well welcome to Mount Baptist Church on this Wednesday evening just some announcements here before we get into the service or get into the rest of service first of all being prayer for all those that aren't feeling well still so my kids just seems like like two weeks now just dealing with this so I know others are being dealing with it as well just being prayer all those that dealing with the sickness and all that stuff so and I'm praying it misses me so I feel I've been thinking I'm like I don't have time to get sick but that's when I'm gonna get sick when I say that so anyway just being prayer for those family my family just other families that are dealing with it as far as services this Sunday everything should be normal so Sunday morning Sunday afternoon so winning time at 1 p.m. we do have the soul winning marathon coming up this Saturday so dress warmly just kidding bring plenty of water or just have a lot of water please no one pass out from heat stroke or anything like that I know it's hot it's crazy hot out so but be in prayer for that this coming weekend and pray for many souls to be saved but also just a good reception out there and all that in general as far as the soul winning regional times I know with just people being sick but also just obviously with the soul winning marathon this weekend that might be a little different so just be on the church group there and see what's going on as far as so many times all that stuff and then we have the the women's prayer meeting is going to be this Sunday on the 23rd and then the men's prayer meeting will be the next Friday so not this Friday but next Friday and then on July 5th we're gonna have our firework display but also cookout I guess you know I'm not in charge of the food at all so just so you know if any of the food is not done or anything like that it's not my fault but all joking aside if you want to bring something you're more than welcome to when it comes to that but you don't have to bring anything so a lot of times people will bring desserts different things like that but that's coming up on the list there our member our chapter memory for the month is Psalm 32 and proverbs for verse one is our memory verse for the week and pregnancy list there I'd be in prayer for Crystal McCloy do in August but being prayer for the employee family there with twin twins on the way so we're gonna be not finishing I keep saying finishing like we're almost done with this but we're continuing our study through 2nd Samuel tonight so brother Wade's gonna be reading 2nd Samuel chapter 10 after we do one more song and so the offering boxes in the back everyone gives had an offering mother baby room so the mother's babies only everybody's gonna come sing one more song and then brother Wade's gonna come and read 2nd Samuel chapter 10 for us all right take your song books in turn to song number 14 song number 14 in your samples we'll sing kneel at the cross song number 14 Neil at the cross Christ will meet you there come while he waits for you less to his voice leave with him your care and begin a life on you me let the cross leave every care me let the cross Jesus will meet you there kneel at the cross there is room for all who what is glory share bless their awaits harm can never be fought those who are anchored there me let the cross leave every care me let the cross Jesus will meet you there kneel at the cross give your idols up look unto realms above turn not away to less sparkling cup trust only in his love me let the cross leave every care me let the cross Jesus will meet you there all right take your Bibles and turn to 2nd Samuel chapter number 10 2nd Samuel chapter number 10 and your Bibles and we'll have brother Wade come and read that for us 2nd Samuel chapter 10 and it came to pass after this that the king of the children of Ammon died and Hayden his son reigned in a stead then said David I will show kindness unto Hayden the son of Neash as his father showed kindness unto me and David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servant for his father and David servants came into the land of the children of Ammon and the princes of the children of Ammon said unto Hayden their Lord thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father that he hath sent comforters unto thee hath not David rather sent his servants unto thee to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it wherefore he took David servants and shaved off the one half of their beards and cut off their garments in the middle even to their buttocks and sent them away when they told it unto David he sent to meet them because the men were greatly ashamed and the king said Terry Jericho until your beards be grown and then returned and when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Bethariah and the Syrians of Zobah 20,000 foot men and of King Mecca a thousand men and of Ishtab 12,000 men and when David heard of it he sent Joab and all the hosts of the mighty men and the children of Ammon came out and put the battle in a ray at the entering in of the gate and the Syrians of Zobah and of Roab and Ishtab and Mecca were by themselves in the field when Joab saw that the front of the battle was against him before and behind he chose of all the choice men of Israel and put them in a ray against the Syrians and the rest of the people he delivered into the hand of Abishai his brother that he might put them in a ray against the children of Ammon and he said if the Syrians be too strong for me then thou shalt help me but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee then I will come and help thee be of good courage and let us play them in for our people and for the cities of our God and the Lord do that which seemeth them good and Joab, Jernai and the people that were with him unto the battle against the Syrians and they fled before him and when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled they then fled they also before Abishai and enter into the city so Joab returned from the children of Ammon and came to Jerusalem and when the Syrians saw that they were smitten before Israel they gathered themselves together and had a razor sent and brought out the Syrians that were beyond the river and they came to hate Helam and show back the captain of the host of had a razor went before them and when it was told David he gathered all Israel together and passed over Jordan and came to Helam and the Syrians set themselves in array against David and fought with them and the Syrians fled before Israel and David slew the men of 700 chariots of the Syrians and 40,000 horsemen and spoke show back the captain of their host who died there and when all the kings that were servants to had a razor saw that they were smitten before Israel they made peace with Israel and served them so the Syrians feared to help children of Ammon anymore let us pray dear Lord thank you for let us hear your word please be the pastor as we hear your message in Jesus name I pray amen amen so you're there in 2nd Samuel chapter 10 and we are continuing our study through the book of 2nd Samuel chapter 9 last week we really was kind of a well just kind of a going through chronological order I believe of events with David's kingdom but it was talking about basically showing kindness unto the house of Jonathan and we have the story of Mephibosheth there chapter 8 before that we do see a lot of basically battles that David is winning and basically God is delivering all these different nations out of his hand or into his hand I guess you would say and in chapter 10 here we see a basically a two-front war that's going to happen here so it's an interesting story when you think about just the battle itself that's going to happen but how does that start okay so there's a battle that ensues there's a kind of a war that goes on between Ammon and the Syrians but how does that all even start and in verse 1 here it starts kind of out of a misunderstanding where Dave is actually trying to be nice to the new king of Ammon and and it turns into a war so just kind of one of those things where have you ever tried to compliment somebody or try to help you know you're trying to do something nice for them and they end up like biting your head off and end up being like against you for it and you're just like I was just trying to be nice and that's what really happens here and verse 1 it says it came to pass after this that the king of the children of Ammon died and Hanan his son reigned in his stead and then said David I will show kindness unto Hanan the son of Nahash as his father showed kindness unto me and David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants for his father and David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon so basically Nahash dies he was the king of Ammon and Hanan his son is now reigning in his stead but the thing that's interesting with this is that you know as far as I know I don't see anything in the bible and I could be wrong on this you could point this out to me later and be like well this passage over here in chronicles or some some passage where it's stating this but I don't see where it actually states what Nahash did when it came to being kind unto David we do actually see I believe this is the same Nahash that actually was coming against Israel and this is where Saul actually steps up and after Saul's anointed king and basically is fighting for Israel go to first Samuel chapter 11 first Samuel chapter 11 so but it's just interesting to me that he was kind unto David which kind of this may have very well been when David was basically running away from Saul just as much as the Philistines were basically kind unto David it's actually doesn't seem like it's out of the ordinary that you know maybe these other countries like Ammon and Moab or just different places would be kind unto him because you know the enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of thing so that's kind of maybe where where this was taking place okay but in first samuel chapter 11 verse 1 it says then Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash make a covenant with us and we will serve thee and Nahash the Ammonite answered them on this condition will I make a covenant with you that I may thrust out all your right eyes and lay it for reproach upon all Israel so when when you see Nahash here it's not exactly a good character here or a good guy when it comes to Israel and this is where obviously Saul steps up and basically you know he's down the yoke of ox and sends it throughout Israel says whoever doesn't come with me this is what's gonna happen you know to them right and chapter 12 first samuel chapter 12 verse 12 it's kind of recalling this as far as as far as saw being king of Israel but it says in verse 12 there says and when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you he said unto me nay but a king shall reign over us when the lord your god was your king so that being said is that I believe that's the same Nahash of Ammon I mean in the timeline of events I mean it makes sense that that he would be dying you know when David's reigning and all that um but uh that being said it's just interesting to me that you see that little phrase in there that he showed kindness unto me and there's a lot of things that if that just we just don't know that was going on at that time right we have obviously what the bible tells us and uh but that's why he's showing kindness unto uh the Hanen when Nahash dies okay but obviously there's a misunderstanding there and what it comes down to is that it's not it's not actually Hanen that that brings this up or or thinks something of it actually it's the princes of Ammon that basically bring up this idea that well he he's not actually coming to comfort you he's coming out the spot of the land it's kind of like if you remember with uh with Joab when Abner was coming to make peace and basically turn the kingdom over to David and he said no you know no that's not what's going on he's trying to basically see you know search out what's going on over here basically he's he's a spy right and so the princes of the children of Ammon knows what it says in verse three here it says in the princes of the children of Ammon said unto Hanen their lord thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father so obviously bringing up a question like do you think that's what he's doing it says that he has sent comforters unto thee and it says hath not David rather sent his servants unto thee to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it so you have these princes of Ammon that are basically whispering into Hanen's ears saying you know you think that he's coming here to just comfort you you know and all of that um which if you think about it i mean you know in the world that we live in it's hard sometimes to believe that people are just trying to be nice right and that there's not an ulterior motive okay not saying that that's the attitude that we should take but in the end sometimes it really is hard to believe that someone's just trying to be nice or that someone's just wanting to help you out or just comfort you and all of that so David doing this is kind of odd to the world right odd that David the you know this king of Israel that's obviously at has been an enmity with Ammon right Israel's been at enemies in the past why would you know the king of Israel be comforting Nahash and here's the thing what may really be the case is that these princes have no idea that Nahash actually was really kind to David in the past and David has that reason that that's the reasoning and a lot of times what it comes down to is he that answers the matter before he hears it it is shame and folly unto him right meaning that they're probably coming into it with an idea of like why in the world would he do this they've been enemies you know he's he's obviously of Israel like why in the world would he be doing the only reason that he could be doing this is because he's trying to figure out what's going on in the land so he can take it out right but a lot of times when you don't have all the information you end up messing up really bad and that's what happens here because in verse four here it says wherefore Hanen took David's servants and shaved off the one half of their beards and cut off their garments in the middle even to their buttocks and sent them away and when they told it unto David he sent to meet them because the men were greatly ashamed and the king said tarry at Jericho until your beard be grown and then return so uh he obviously basically just puts them to shame and you know I believe that when it's talking about like shaving their beards basically just like half the face kind of thing and they just shaved off half of it which at that point I think you just shaved the rest of it and it's probably what happened they probably just shaved the rest of their beards and just you know tarried at Jericho just stayed there until it grew back so that when they came home it wasn't like this thing like why is everybody shaving right why why is everybody coming back like this so David knows what's going on David knows what happened but all of Israel doesn't need to know that they were put to shame like that right and obviously their their clothes being cut down to the I believe it's talking about like the middle of their clothes meaning like basically kind of like just cutting their garments all the way down to the back end right and just basically being sent away kind of half naked if that makes sense and so uh obviously that's shameful it's shameful to be naked but obviously even to be half naked you know is is being put to shame and so uh with this story I can't help but when I when I see when it talks about them shaving off their beards and then and David saying you know tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown is getting through the idea of this this weird weird doctrine or doctrines of men of basically stating that beards are wrong for some reason and I feel like this is like more of just a doctrine that was more of an old IFB type of more I think those that went through the hippie years of like just basically beards being like people just growing out their hair and being having long hair it's like obviously we shouldn't have long hair as men right but just because you know like back in the 60s and 70s everybody was just growing out this hippie hair it doesn't mean that beards are wrong okay and this is a great case where you should never just take some standard that some somebody has and take that as gospel truth or as a commandment of god okay and how many Christian schools have like rules against having beards or Christian colleges that have rules against I mean preachers that would probably basically almost even state like you can't preach behind my pulpit unless you're shape you know clean shape you know and it's just this weird type of like doctrines of men okay and what the thing that's really crazy about it is that the bible doesn't teach anything about clean shaven as being like this high-end like hey respectable look okay now I'm not against being clean shaven but at the same time like show me in the bible where it says hey you must be clean shaven or you know hey you know that's like the way to go actually what you'll see is people having beards all over the place okay and uh and what it comes down to is that I don't care if you're clean shaven or if you have a beard I think in the end you want to be clean right you don't want to be like some vagabond that just like doesn't like take care of themselves you need to be presentable but you can be presentable with a beard and you can be presentable without a beard okay and so you don't want to be like Mephibosheth in the last chapter where it's like he's not trimming his nails he's not trimming his beard it's like have a beard but you know like maintain it you know like wash it don't be like these hippies that have dreadlocks and then they don't wash their hair and it's just this gross disgusting type of uh thing that's going on there you know be clean okay um but I want to show you you know obviously these men had beards and it was just it's kind of commonplace that men had beards because it's a natural thing okay now obviously some people can't grow beards or you know like there's certain uh you know groups of people that maybe struggle with growing beards uh and some people grow better beards than others and and all that type of stuff right I mean good night when I was in my 20s like I couldn't grow a beard you know it's not till I'm like almost 40 that I can even get a resemblance of like some kind of beard right it just is what it is and then you got my brother back there it looks like Paul Bunyan you know and like it's just you know full and no patches or anything like that you know it's just it is what it is not that I'm envious you know or that I'm like you know preaching against you for having a good beard or anything like that but the idea here is that there's all shapes and sizes this isn't a sermon to say like you must have a beard if you want to be right with God but this is also not a sermon what I want to state here is that just because you know doesn't mean you're extra spiritual if you don't have a beard right the thing is that people in the bible had beards and go to go to uh first samuel chapter 21 david had a beard his his men that he sent there had a beard had beards I mean for them to be shaven for their beards to be half shaven right they kind of had to have beards in order to do that right david a man after god's own heart now this is a funny story obviously because david is kind of acting crazy but we see detail about his physical features it says in uh verse 13 this is where david is basically when he's going to gath and he's afraid that they're gonna kill him or something like that so he's basically making himself look crazy and it says in verse 13 and he changed his behavior before them and feigned himself mad in their hands and scrabbled on the doors of the gate and let his spittle fall down upon his beard so david had a beard aaron the priest moses's brother had a beard go to psalm 133 psalm 133 psalm 133 it's a very short psalm but let's just look at the first two verses there so my point with this is that it's insane to basically condemn people for having a beard when the bible first of all doesn't condemn it and actually what you'll find is you'll see people being described as having men as having beards if anything there's a bigger case to be made to say men should have beards than the other way around now again i'm not making that case that like you must have a beard you're not right with god right not making that case at all all i'm saying is that if you were going to try to make a case of one way or the other beards would win okay as far as like what the scripture says in a lot of cases shaving is uh is a sign of basically kind of uh of like um you've gone through like kind of a cleansing process right and it's kind of like a renewal of like kind of starting off fresh okay and so if you want to say that to be like i'm clean shaving because i'm starting off fresh every day you know kind of renewing myself go for it listen let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind if that's if that's how you view being clean shaven then great and if you're like no i want i want to have a beer because i you know i you know it's manly i like it you know it's whatever right you're out there it's it's cold outside not now but it's cold outside in the winter and you're just like it's insulation whatever uh great and and psalm 133 in verse 1 it says behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity it is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard even aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments now i don't believe i used to believe that his beard went down to the skirts of the garments but i believe it's talking about the oil okay meaning like the oil is running down from his head going on his face going through his beard going down to the skirts of his garments right but it's basically just saying that the oil went into his beard and it's just describing that okay so you don't necessarily have to have this easy top beard here where it's going to your to your knees okay so a couple people got that reference but i believe jesus had a beard okay go to go to isaiah 50 isaiah 50 isaiah 50 i mean again i'm not teaching this as a doctrine of like you need to have a beard and you want to be right we've got to have a beard i don't think it matters honestly you don't have a beard don't have a beard i would say this is that when it comes to your your hairstyle or your beard and all that stuff don't be weird okay when it talks about the bible talks about not not marring the corners of your beard and stuff like that i think it's more so just don't be like weird about it right just as much as you you shouldn't have a mohawk you know you shouldn't have you know like you know just be normal you just have a normal haircut normal beard like just be normal with it right that doesn't mean you can't have variations right everybody's got to have the same haircut same type of beard it's like no like obviously there's variations but just don't be odd about it i think that's what's really getting into the the picture there but in isaiah 50 in verse 6 i believe this is talking about jesus it says uh i gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the beard or i'm sorry plucked off the hair i hid not my face from shame and spitting which obviously when you get into the fact when jesus goes to the cross he's being spat upon he's you know obviously buffeted they're beating him with rods all these different things the thing that we don't see in the new testament or there's just more detail i believe sometimes where you go back to the old testament where it'll state different things they were doing right and i believe they were actually plucking off the hairs of his beard okay and uh just as much as in isaiah 52 it talks about his vicious visage was so marred more than any man right now you can see that in psalm 22 where it says i can tell all my bones they stare about me right you know and it gives these descriptions of like what he went through whereas when you're reading a new testament doesn't necessarily give all that detail that's going on there so i believe that jesus had a beard and not only did he have a beard but when he went to be crucified they were literally plucking the hairs off his face okay and uh and so that being said it's not wrong to have a beard that's the point i'm making okay so so man you want to have a beard go at it okay and uh you don't want to have a beard i there's no scripture saying like thou must have a beard right you don't see a commandment to have a beard but you do see godly men having beard david erin like other you know other people the lord jesus i believe had a beard so to to like somehow say that beards are like taboo and like as a preacher you shouldn't have a beard you should be clean-shaven it's like that's ridiculous you're basically taking your standards and what your preferences are and and imposing it on others okay just as much as this listen i wear a shirt and tie when i'm preaching but there is no commandment in the bible that says thou must wear a shirt and tie to to preach or to you know be up in front of the pulpit and all that now as a pastor i have standards for the church and i'm leaders so listen if you're going to preach up here then shirt and tie right and that's my standard and you know what maybe other churches don't have that standard but i'm not going to go to a church and be like that church is wicked because they're not wearing a shirt and tie does that make sense like let's say they're preaching right they're going soul winning doing all this stuff it's like there's no commandment on shirt and tie okay and so obviously i think we should try to dress uh you know appropriately and all that stuff and and mainly be clothed and not be naked you know that's kind of my my listen when people are we'll go out soul winning and people will be talking about like you know what should i wear you know is is there a dress code i'm like as long as you're not naked okay as long as you're not naked listen if you're a man don't wear a dress in here you know like that type of thing but also like the idea of you know obviously if a cross dresser coming in here we're gonna have issues but if you're if you're clothed and you're not showing nakedness then whatever you know but i think as you grow as a christian you know obviously you know you want to wear uh not for other people but for the lord right is that when you when when you wear a suit and tie for example on sunday the idea there is that i'm not playing around that's that's that's why i wear a suit and tie okay it's not to look good or to be like impressive and be like oh look pastor looks good in a suit and tie right it's more just like you know i'm not messing around right you know i'm taking it seriously of the position right and so that's the idea just as much as when you wear a suit and tie to an interview right it's like i'm taking this interview seriously all of that that that's kind of the idea this isn't a whole sermon on dress standards and all that but here's the thing i'm not going to condemn people that don't wear suit and tie right they come to church and they're they're not wearing a tie or whatever and be like oh you know get right with god you know maybe you'd be more spiritual it's like no that's not not a commandment in the bible um and so anyway uh but i digress going on uh go to second samus hyper 10 and verse six so amin knows they messed up right you ever do something you're just like we messed up guys right so what you see is that they they send them off shamefully and treated right and it says in verse 6 it says and when the children of amin saw that they stank before david it's like how did you not think that was going to be the case right it's like of course david's not going to be happy with you when he said he was coming to comfort you and you set and you do that to his people it says the children of amin sent and hired the syrians of beth uh beth rahob and the syrians of zoba 20 000 footmen and of king mayika a thousand men and of ishtab 12 000 men so basically amin is basically hiring all these syrians and they're from different areas okay and what you have to understand is syria is obviously kind of like a world power not quite quite like a syria so syria and a series of different nations right but uh syria you know having damascus has their their their uh capital city is it's you know quite the power at the time and obviously they have people all around but the thing is is that there's different kings it's kind of like neba kineser he was a king of kings right he was babylon had other kingdoms that were around him that were basically submitted unto him okay and what you'll see at the end of this chapter is that after this battle all those kingdoms basically are just like we're not fighting with you against israel anymore right they basically kind of disband from being under uh uh had a had a reaser and all that stuff anyway so i'm getting ahead of myself but uh go to uh first chronicles chapter 19 first chronicle chapter 19 gives a little more information so first chronicles 18 covers uh a lot of stuff that's in second samuel 8 first chronicle 19 covers chapter 10 okay and so as you see in chronicles you don't see the story about mephibosheth in there but uh you know that's that's what's going on but we see a little more detail about how they hired in the the syrians and all that it says in verse six here it says and when the children of ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to david heinan and the children of ammon sent a thousand pounds of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of mesopotamia and out of syria mecca and out of zoba so they hired thirty and two thousand chariots and the king of mecca and his people who came and pitched before meet above and the children of ammon gathered themselves together from their cities and came to battle so basically they knew they messed up and they're like i guess we're gonna have to go to war right it's kind of like they know that this is probably going to happen and they're just getting ready for it okay and in verse seven of second samuel 10 it says and when david heard of it he sent joab and all the hosts of the mighty men now what when you read the rest of the chapter what you see is that this isn't all of israel basically he has joab basically take his mighty men and so basically it's kind of like the elites he took his elite men to go deal with this but he didn't gather all of israel okay and what you understand is that the mighty men are those that are david's mighty men of judah right so what you kind of see here is that judah's taking care of this battle and then what happens later is that david's like all right i'm taking i'm bringing the whole nation against you so that's kind of what happens here in this chapter and joab is the captain of the host we see that in chapter eight in the chapter eight when you see david's different officers uh chapter eight and verse 16 it says and joab the son of zero was over the host so he's the captain of the host that's why david's going to him saying get the host of the mighty men and then uh what we see here is kind of a true a two-front battle okay and what that means is that obviously you're kind of fighting on two different two different areas the two different directions if you will uh if you if you studied world world war two obviously you know kind of had a two front two front battles within even europe but then also just the fact that we were in europe but we were also dealing with japan right so it's kind of a two front war in that aspect as well right is that you're basically having to split your forces to deal with two different areas okay and what we see here is that uh joab is noticing this because in verse eight it says the children of aman came out and put the battle in array in the entering of the gate so the children of aman okay they're putting their battle on the ray at the entering of the gate and the syrians of zoba and of rehob and ash and ishtab and mecca were by themselves in the field okay so basically aman is at the gate and then the syrians are out in the field okay it says in verse nine when joab saw that the front of the battle was against him before and behind so obviously before and behind right so before would be in front of you behind would be behind him and he's noticing that it's a two front battle right essentially and this is what he does um it says he he chose of all the choice men of israel and put them in array against the syrians and the rest of the people he delivered into the hand of abishai his brother that he might put them in array against the children of aman okay so basically what we see here is that joab's like i'm going to take the syrians abishai you deal with aman okay so basically he's splitting the forces and abishai is obviously a mighty man of valor right i mean joab and abishai are like the top top of the list when it comes to the mighty men not the three mighties that no one could ever attain to but joab and abishai are there and like the three mighties that are below that okay and in this story uh obviously we see that uh in first chronicles you see the same thing in chapter 19 it says and the children of aman came out and put the battle in array before the gate of the city and the kings that were come or by themselves in the field so you just see okay these kings of all these different nations that are that are basically under this the syrian rule are coming out and they're in the field so we have this true front battle and and uh joab basically has a plan on how to deal uh to deal with this this issue okay um and go to uh verse 11 so if you're in second samuel chapter 10 verse 11 and it says here in verse 11 it says and he said if the syrians be too strong for me then thou shalt help me but if the children of aman be too strong for thee then i will come and help thee be of good courage and let us play the men for our people and for the cities of our god and the lord do that which seemeth him good okay so basically he's stating here you know whoever whatever whatever battles the hardest you know obviously he's he's basically just uh anticipating that one battle is going to be easier than the other and whoever it's like whoever beats down their their battle first go help the other one out right and so uh that's kind of the mission that's going on there the thing that's interesting is what's said here um with how he describes it says be of good courage and let us play the men for our people right is that term play there now look at first chronicle chapter 19 because it words it a little differently here um to just see an idea of you know obviously parallel passage helping understand what's being stated um and in verse 13 here it says be of good courage and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people and for the cities of our god and let the lord do that which is good in his sight so when it's saying play let us play the men for our people it's interesting that that uses that term because we saw this actually used earlier in second samuel go to second samuel chapter two second samuel chapter two so in the in the battle where abner and joab are basically going at it this is when obviously israel is split as far as after saul dies and you know how you know the part of the kingdom's with david the other parts with ish boshith but really joab the one leading that charge that they kind of they come to this well they come to this this area and basically they're like let's let the young men kind of fight each other right and so it's kind of this interesting kind of gladiator type of setup okay um so when you think of that term play i believe it's used for a reason i don't believe that it's like well you know no reason at all why it's being used there it just means that they fought no i believe it's telling you something okay in verse 14 it says an abner said to joab let the young men now rise and play before us now it's not like they're just going to go out there and play some dodge ball right it's like a friendly game of dodgeball out here a friendly football game no that's not what's going on because joab said let them arise and then there rose and went over by number 12 of benjamin which pertained to ish Bosch as the son of Saul and 12 of the servants of David and they caught every one his fellow by the head and thrust his sword in his fellow's side so they fell down together wherefore that place was called hellcath hasarim good night say that one five times fast which is in gibeon so this this playing okay now you say wow that's that's that's archaic to use that term play have you ever heard someone say that guy played you like a fiddle we use terms like that a lot you know how about how about rebecca was sporting or jacob was sporting with his wife right not jacob isaac was sporting with his wife right obviously they weren't out there playing dodgeball that's not what pharaoh saw right when he's looking out the window it's like oh they're out there just playing a nice nice game out there it's like no we all know what he's talking about right sporting playing all that stuff obviously playing can be talking about sports it could be talking about just having a jovial type time right but the thing is that what i believe is going on here in this story is the fact that that when he's saying let us play the men for our people is that basically we're not just going to go out there and beat them we're going to go out there and annihilate them right we're going to make sport of it okay making an example and basically showing the nation the the valiant like the might that we have does that make sense like it's not just that we're going to beat them we're going to make it look like it's child's play right like this is like we're just have it's just like easy like it's just sport to us that's what i believe is being because that's why he's saying let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people and listen when you read that what happens it's kind of like this battle is a big nothing burger right because i believe they beat them down so bad and basically kind of like they they they beat them so bad that they it's just kind of like an embarrassment where they just flee and so i believe that's what he's saying when he's saying let us play the men for our people basically let's let's let's uh let's have a good time doing this you know it's kind of like that kind of confidence like be of good courage like basically like we're gonna get it it's not even a doubt like are we gonna win this battle we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna have fun time doing this kind of thing and i'm kind of being facetious with that as far as having a fun time but more so just like we're gonna show our valiance on this field for everybody to see and that's exactly what happens when in this battle but i want you to think about this when it comes to this joab is basically devising a plan before he gets there right so before they because at this point they haven't gone into battle there's he's basically just telling them like here's what's going to happen right i'm going to take the syrians abishai is going to take amin and whichever one's stronger you know obviously we'll help out the one that's dealing with stronger battle right it's and he's kind of devising this plan basically saying we're gonna we're gonna basically be valiant we're gonna play the men we're gonna do it for our nation for our people all of that right and what you have to understand is that what we're dealing with is these valiant men like it's this host of this valiant men you're talking about the elites you're taking the special forces and they're like we're gonna we're gonna take them to task it's basically what joab and abishai are gonna do here we're gonna show them what we're about you know that's kind of like the modern vernacular of what's going on there okay and what i think about this as far as uh just preparing for battle is having a plan okay joab doesn't just blindly go into this even though he's confident that he's going to beat them right he still has a plan that like hey if this happens and by the way that doesn't even happen you don't even see that happen because they both just uh completely obliterate their the battle that they're that they're going after so like this whole plan doesn't even need to unfold but the idea of having a plan and having like hey if this happens this is what we're going to do it's very biblical and it's biblical when it comes to the christian walk as far as being a disciple and the idea of basically counting the cost and being mentally prepared for what you're getting into okay and jesus brings this up as an example of going to battle going to war go to uh luke chapter 14 luke chapter 14 as you're going to luke 14 proverbs 20 and verse 18 says this every purpose is established by counsel and with good advice make war you know in the multitude of counselors there is safety and the idea there is that when we're going to battle you're going to war we need to be wise about it we need to think about what we're getting into okay now obviously the bible does have cases where it says take no thought premeditate what you're going to say right but just because you know obviously in those cases basically what it's saying is like don't have like the speech prepared that you're going to say but that's different than just being prepared as far as for that situation and knowing that that's going to happen or or being mentally prepared that you're going to be taken up to a council right and just mentally preparing for that but it knows what it says in luke chapter 14 verse 31 it says or what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down first and counsel insulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand or else while the other is yet a great way off he sendeth an ambassage and desireth conditions of peace so likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaken not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple meaning this is that it's talking about counting the cost it's talking about the idea of like basically sitting down and knowing whether you're going to be able to do this and to be obviously to be saved is believing lord jesus christ to be his disciple that's where you're getting into the realm of taking up his cross daily and you know forsaking all meaning that obviously you're going to love god more than even your family and all of that and that you're not going to let family hold you back from following god you're not going to let anything the pleasures is life holding back from following god and that you're mentally prepared for the battle you're getting into and that being said is that it says you know just basically giving you kind of two different things one is just sitting down and thinking can i take out twenty thousand if i have ten thousand but then also you know maybe we should send an ambassage and see if we can just make peace right because if at all possible let us live peaceably with all men right i mean obviously we don't want to go to war but if we have to go to war we will but we're also going to be prepared for that battle and know that hey this is how we're going to beat them this is that this is a this is uh uh the battle plan if you will it's always funny to me when people bring up like archaic terms in the bible and ambassage is is one of those and i'm just like who here has not heard of an embassy an ambassador right an ambassador is what a messenger for a country or in this case it's a message right it's a message and they are the ambassador for what the king right of the army that they're going out there for so and you know i want to tell these people just like one you need to read more but two just look it up but sometimes you can just figure it out right i mean who here doesn't know that if i when i'm reading that that we're talking about bringing a message right but obviously specifically that someone is bringing it on behalf of someone else right we are ambassadors for christ is that is that archaic did no one ever i mean did they bring that one i'd be like i don't know what ambassador means it's like well i don't know what to say to you then anyway uh that being said is that obviously this does apply when you think about this battle and as far as preparing for it having good courage all this stuff as far as getting you know just the battle of life when it comes to being a christian go to second sam's chapter 10 and verse 13 we see the actual battle take place it's kind of anticlimactic right you're like looking at it like oh man you know two front war you know what's gonna happen who's gonna be you know who's gonna be the the stronger one who's gonna because you're kind of like wondering if you're reading the story and you don't know the story you're just kind of like okay is it going to be syria or amman that's stronger right who's going to have to help who and then you read the story and it says in verse 13 and joab drew nigh and the people that were with him unto the battle against the syrians and they fled before him and when the children of ammon saw that syrians were fled then fled they also before abishai and entered into the city so joab returned from the children of ammon and came to jerusalem so it's like all this planning you're just like well i guess we didn't need to do that but here's the thing obviously it's better to have a plan even if you don't need to do it you know just having a plan of attack and this is something that you know when it comes to the men in the church when it comes to safety and it comes to let's say dealing with someone that's a thread or you know like someone if someone comes in and they're uh you know threatening to hurt people or shoot people or something like that it's good to have a plan of attack hopefully it never happens though right hopefully we never have to deal with that but we need to be mentally prepared and know how would we go about that okay same thing out soul winning you know like okay what if this person does this what if this person does that you know like what uh just kind of running kind of the scenarios through your head be like how am i going to handle this how would i do this and it's better to be prepared mentally as far as what you're going to do and uh and listen if anybody ever has questions about that like hey what do i do in that situation you know come to the leadership and just let you know ask the question because it's better that we're all lock and step as far as how we handle certain situations um you know when it comes to that and hopefully in a lot of cases you know what we're planning for never takes place just kind of like this right this this is like a planned this is how we're going to do it and they don't even have to do it so that's kind of like the best case scenario is that you don't even have to deal with it okay it's not like one is getting smitten and like they need help or anything like that they're literally just joabs beats down the syrians so bad that am is just like we're out of here right because the syrians are fleeing we're like we're out of here and so uh they definitely played them like a fiddle i mean they they destroyed them okay so after that battle the syrians are going to reassemble themselves okay so notice what it says here in verse 15 it says and when the syrians saw that they were smitten before israel they gathered themselves together and had a reaser sent and brought out the syrians that were beyond the river and and they came to helum helum and show back the captain of the host of hadad and reaser went before them and when it was told david he gathered all israel together and passed over jordan and came to helum and syrians sent themselves in array against david and fought with him so now we have a full-blown war right so basically if you think about it when this when amin and the syrians are coming david's basically tells joab hey go take go take the valiant men go take the host of the valiant men a specific group of people take them it's kind of like if you think about our army right it'd be like okay go take go take the marines you know or let's say you said go take the navy seals go deal with this battle right but then they reassemble themselves and you're like all right everybody's coming right we had the army we had the marines we had the navy we had the air force everybody's coming and now david's there right think about joab and abishai are in that battle right now david's on the scene so now you have david joab abishai all his mighty men all of israel and now they're going to go take him to task that's what that's what's going on here so they basically you know the old term like uh out of the frying pan and then into the fire that's basically what happens here and they learn their lesson from the battle that they just lost and then it says in uh in verse 18 here it says in the syrians fled before israel and david slew the men of 700 chariots and the syrians and 40 000 horsemen and smokes show back the captain of their host who died there so show back their captain of their host you know their general if you will dies there and when all the kings that were servants to hadad reaser saw that they were smitten before israel they made peace with israel and served them so the syrians feared to help the children of ammon anymore so not only did they beat them down but all the kings that were there think about like zoba and all the there's different places they basically now we're not going to serve syria they're going to serve israel okay so basically he made allegiance with all these other nations that were there uh all these other ones that were under syria and you know the like i said out of the fire into the frying pan but you do see this idea of like the smaller battle with the elites that they had and then it was just like full full bore like the whole nation is coming together david's out there now and they're ready to go take him to task now i just want to cover one thing when you look at first chronicle chapter 19 so-called contradiction um which is not a contradiction uh grammar matters you know when you're looking at a passage and one of the so-called contradictions is is it 700 or is it 7 000 okay and i can't even say of what because if i did you would already know the answer right it's kind of like is it 700 or 7 000 it's like of what well if i yeah i mean you'll know then what the difference is okay but in in in second sam you're uh go to first chronicles 1918 19 verse 18 in second samuel uh chapter 10 it says david slew the men of 700 chariots in verse 18 it says david slew of the syrians seven thousand men which fought in chariots do you see the difference right you're dealing with he slew the men of 700 chariots it doesn't say how many men it just says men of 700 chariots and then it states that over here he slew of the syrians seven thousand men which fought in chariots so it just means that obviously there is more than one person in a chariot or they switched out people in the chariots like that person died in chariot someone else jumps in that person dies in chariot someone else jumps in right just like they're picking up where the other person left off and he ends up killing seven thousand men that are in a chair in chariots but there were 700 chariots does that make sense there were 700 chariots that were out there but obviously people were coming in and out there's probably multiple people on a chariot anyway and so it wasn't just like a one for one thing but see how stupid those those so-called contradictions like you can't even say it fully you can't even say the whole sentence because it would just give up like you'd already know what what the deal is okay but when it comes to hat and reaser it's interesting because david just smoked him right he just destroyed him in chapter eight so that's you know obviously there's different there's a long list of like the philistines different people that david is taking out but uh if you look back at uh first chronicles 18 actually in first samuel 8 it doesn't tell you the name of the king of zoba uh so first chronicles 18 tells you that it's hadad reaser um it says in verse three of chapter 18 it says and david smote hadad reaser king of zoba unto hamath as he went to establish his dominion by the river ufray so he's just like beating down this guy wherever he goes so uh he didn't learn his lesson you know the syrians didn't learn their lesson when they get beat down by joe abban abishai and then they come out with a full host and had a freezer leading this thing up and he didn't learn his lesson from chapter eight where he got beat down by the israelites and the thing is is that sadly to say this this is the last chapter till we kind of see a downhill slope in david's kingdom and uh so from this point you know like when you think about when david becomes king it's kind of all just uphill like god's blessing him god's doing great things like oh he's winning all these victories and it's just like it's just it's kind of like happy endings right you read these stories into like happy ending happy ending happy ending and then chapter 11 is the famous story of that shiba and just that that downfall that sin can cause to a nation and obviously when the king is involved in that and you just see it's just kind of like this downhill slope of just bad things happening and all that so um so that being said that's chapter 10 of second samuel definitely interesting it's always it's with with the the kings were saying the books of samuel and and the kings it's always kind of interesting to see the different battles and just how they were fought there's interesting things that they did like god told them to do you know whether it's from like digging ditches to like where there's gonna be water in it and then it looks like blood and then it causes them to be afraid and like just different things like there's different tactics that you see and uh and just fun stuff to read so let's end with a word of prayer we thank you for today thank you for the book of second samuel thank you for this chapter and just pray to help us to apply to our lives specifically lord that uh that we would be good disciples that we would you know sit down have a plan of attack when it comes to any type of battles or wars that we be in as christians and would just help us to be prepared for that and lord to be worthy to be your disciples and what we love you for us in jesus christ's name amen run the table come and sing one more song and that will be dismissed all right take your song books and turn to song 203 song 203 in your song books we'll sing the windows of heaven and if you would stand we'll sing song 203 the windows of heaven are open the blessings are falling tonight there's joy joy joy in my heart since jesus made everything right i gave him my old tattered garments he gave me a robe of pure wine i'm feasting on manna from heaven and that's why i'm happy tonight