God Establishes Israel, Pt. 1

Ronald Weinland

December 19, 2020

Last Sabbath I wasn’t certain whether we were to continue with the series about pursuing a heart like David’s. Just thought I’d share this with you. I’ve done it at different times. But I think it’s important that this is done from time to time. In serving God as far as giving sermons we went through a period of time in the Church where they began to try to get ministers to plan ahead, to give specific kinds of sermons, to put them on a calendar, to give a specific type of sermon at a specific time.

In so many ways that didn’t ring true by any measure, that it’s omitting an important fact that you have to look to God to lead and guide and direct. He’s the one who molds and fashions the Church. There are different things that happen in different areas at different times and when God is working with us, He and His Son mold and fashion us. There are certain things that they want to give to us specifically that will benefit us the most, and if we’re receptive to that and we’re striving to do that that’s how we’re fed.

This is one of those occasions where there are situations where you don’t know necessarily; you come to certain times when you’re not sure what’s coming next. You’re praying about some of these things. This was an example here, of coming toward the period of this series. It was getting rather long, but very exciting and beneficial to go through the things about pursuing a heart like David’s. In that process then to go through that being rewarding, but not certain, as far as I was concerned, as to whether we were to continue to do so.

I did feel that we may be at the end of the series but didn’t feel like we were through with the story concerning David. So, had that feeling there but wasn’t certain the direction to go at this point. I’ve mentioned this many a time, about being at the Red Sea. There are times we just don’t know unless God gives it, and if God doesn’t give it you get to that point where there is no point in giving anything. If God’s not going to give it, what’s the point?

So, it has to come from God. It has to come from Christ and with that focus God has blessed us. That’s important to understand, that it’s God that leads and guides and directs His Church, molds and fashions us, gives us what we need in a timely fashion. I think that’s going to become even more keenly aware in this particular series as we go through it, to refer back to some other things, to look at how God does mold and fashion us.

I always find that encouraging, to see how God’s leading us, how He works with us, because there are things you can’t plan out. You can’t. We’re not smart enough. But when you look at what God’s doing you see a design in it, you see planning involved. That becomes to me, and I think to all of us, a very encouraging thing.

I did feel that we may be at the end of the series but didn’t know how it should be concluded if it was to be concluded. It was uncertain if this story was to take on a new focus because there was a bit of that feeling in the back of my mind here last Sabbath in giving the sermon, but still involved David and how God worked with him. There’s so much to learn in the story. We’re just barely at the beginning in the sense of certain things of his life. There’s just a lot there. There really is. So, do you cover the whole story?

Well, all this has become clearer as we indeed are going to continue into the story of how God is working with David but with a new overall focus. So we are shifting gears a little bit. Last Sabbath did bring an end to the series Pursuing A Heart Like David’s.

Today we’re beginning a new series entitled God Establishes Israel with this being Part 1. A new series might be better entitled, It Is God Who Establishes Israel. Little bit long for a title so it’s been whittled down a little bit – God Establishes Israel. I felt like that was a rather long title so shortened it a little bit. But yet with this focus we need to keep in mind as we go through this series what that focus is. It is very specifically about the longer title, if you will, It Is God Who Establishes Israel, but to understand what that means.

We understand that it’s not about a physical Israel. We grasp that and that’s kind of our focus as we go forward here in some of the things we’re to look at in the life of David and how God worked with him. But it’s seeing how God works even more fully, in that respect, and that’s exciting as well. Not just pursuing a heart like David’s, because that will be a continuation as we go through and see some of these things, because that heart, that motivation, that desire that he had is clear in his life. But some things begin to change a little bit here in some of the focus.

So candidly, at this point here, it’s a matter of God and what He’s doing and how He worked with David and what God does with us in our lives and with the Church. So, again here, just a little bit of a shift, if you will.

So indeed, it is God who establishes Israel and what happened in this story of God establishing David as king over Israel has much to do with what we’re to glean out of it. There is a greater picture if we are to come to grasp it, in that respect, concerning a focus we need to have on God and how what He is doing now concerns a greater fulfillment of God’s spiritual kingdom becoming established on earth.

There is so much going on right now in the world. There is so much that’s really going on in the Church as well. Sometimes we don’t see those things, about where we are and what’s taking place. But if we see some of those things as well in the world, where we are in the sense of living in the world, it’s an incredible process.

There is a lot going on out there that we don’t literally see. Behind the scenes there is a plan, there is a purpose, there is a design of things that are happening, just as God had a design in things He did with king David and with Israel, as we go through this story.

Let’s turn over to 2 Samuel 4:1. That’s what we came to at the end of the last series here. But we’re going to continue in the story of David’s life, again, with the story changing here in the sense of the focus of how God established David in the kingdom over Israel, how God establishes Israel. We recognize the types that are involved there. It’s exciting.

2 Samuel 4:1—When Saul’s son, Ish-Bosheth, heard that Abner had died in Hebron… We know the story here, how he was stabbed. Brothers got together. Abner was responsible in that respect then, obviously, for killing their brother; he did it personally. So, now they plotted against him.

Even in this story here it’s kind of remarkable. We can think things happen by chance sometimes, but there is so much design in it. God knows us as human beings. He was working with David. He was molding and fashioning David. There were things he was doing with David that were to be used later on – hence now and in the Church at different points in time in people’s lives as they read about these stories and God inspired them to grasp and understand more about Him and His plan and purpose.

Even those things that took place, God knew full well what the brothers would do. He knew what was in them. He understood fully. It didn’t happen just by chance that they weren’t there at the time that Abner came down.

Sometimes we don’t think about those kinds of things. We don’t see a design and how God works in our lives. He doesn’t make us make the choices. He doesn’t force us to make the choices. He knows what we will do! God has a design and a purpose, and if that design and that purpose has to do with molding and fashioning those that are going to be in His Kingdom in the sense of that first government that comes to the earth that’s going to come with Christ on his return, these are not small things.

His working with David and the things He molded and fashioned within him, there are a lot of things that had to take place over a long period of time. That’s why this concept that used to exist within the Church that if you get baptized and you get killed two weeks later in a car wreck that you’re going to be okay, you’re going to be in the first resurrection. That didn’t make sense.

How can you be transformed in that length of time? How can you be changed in that length of time? How can you be proven in that length of time? How can you receive the things…? You can’t. It takes a long time. And so, the reality, thankfully, God’s showing us the reality of these things and how He works in our lives, that it takes a lot of time to go through what we must go through, for this mind to make the kinds of choices that it has to make yielded to God before God will say, “Now I know you!”

It can’t be just a few decisions you make in your life. You have to be tested and tried in different things you go through to see if that’s going to be repeated over and over and over again in some of the hardest choices you’ll have to come to in your life. What choices will you make?

We’ve gone through a lot. I think of the things we’ve gone through in the Church leading up to, but especially after the Apostasy and on. A lot of choices people have had to make. Those are the things that strengthen us the more we continue to press forward, to pursue a right relationship with God, really, pursing a heart like David’s.

Because that’s what it involves, a yield in this to God, a desire to keep focused on God, a desire to choose God in all those circumstances and situations. God blesses us and blesses us with growth in character in mind and thinking, to become more at one with Him. It’s a beautiful thing. We have to make those choices.

Here it is, not by chance that Abner happened to be there at a particular time to talk to David, to talk about restoration of the kingdom, bringing the kingdom into one under David, and then for Abner to leave and be headed back at the exact time then that Joab and some of the others are coming back from their excursion, their battle.

Then they find out the news, David let them go, the man who killed their brother. God knew exactly what they would do under those circumstances. How they would do it, how they would go about it, not necessarily, but what they would do. And so, they did it, they killed him, and it caused a lot of difficulties.

But David was going through things at this point in time, how would he deal with this? How would he respond to this? How would he work with the overall knowledge knowing that God had chosen him to be king of Israel, not just Judah? All those choices he had to make along the way, not being presumptuous, but looking to God, that God knows the timing, that God is in control, and that God will fulfill His promises. So, we’re tried in those kinds of things.

We’re all tried in different ways for a different purpose. We’re all molded and fashioned for a different place. That’s an awesome thing to understand in itself. That’s why we’re not yellow pencils. We’re all different for a purpose because we fit into different places. God knows those places, and His Son, what they’re building, what they’re constructing. Those have to fit perfectly. They have to be perfectly prepared and there are no short cuts.

I was reminded of that this week. You can’t take short cuts in construction. I took a short cut this past week. I was working on doing the water connections and so forth to the bathroom area, the new renovation, and I was trying to do some of that without removing all the furniture out from downstairs in the little office area there, and not removing some shelves, and cut a small hole where I should have cut a larger hole, because I was trying to save time and work and effort.

Got my ladder down there and reached into places trying to do some things and the ladder collapsed on me and I brought down all the shelves, and the ladder gave way. After a ladder that I’ve had for fifty years, I now have a new one that’s stronger. But you know, I looked at that and thought, this is awesome to be reminded of something so important about what God’s doing in our lives. Because I’ve had prayers about a desire to speed along this process as much as possible but knowing that you can’t push forward. But I had to be reminded of it, in a sense. That’s good. Good lessons. Physical things we can learn the spiritual things of how God works. He’s not going to take any short cuts in what He’s constructing. We are going to be fully prepared and whatever time that takes, so be it. Whatever we have to go through, so be it.

There are incredible lessons to learn in that process that are unique to us. Just like people who went through the Apostasy, that experience was unique to them. Those who came along afterwards, that is unique to them. There are people who have gone before, have gone through different things that is unique to them that God has molded and fashioned, designed something in them that is different from us. All in unity and harmony with God but with different characteristics of things that He’s going to use in time that we don’t understand fully. Because we have to fit perfectly into the building. God is doing that and that’s awesome to understand.

God was working with David over a long period of time, to go through a lot of experiences—not a few—because of what is prepared for him as well, where he’s going to fit into his service in the Kingdom. Because it’s great, it truly is, what God has said about him and what he’s going to accomplish and what he’s going to do.

That’s not a small thing, and so certain things have to be done, certain things have to be worked out. God knows the mind. Isn’t that a marvelous thing to understand? God knows our minds. He knows what we need in order to be of a certain character, a certain mindset, a certain fit in the temple. That’s an awesome thing to know and to understand.

That’s what this is all about, this process of what we go through in the Church, what David was going through, and to understand there are a lot of things that happen in our lives. When God is working with someone that there are things that can go on around us that God will mold and fashion for our sake, for how we’re being molded.

Whatever you’re going through in your life that is unique to you, there’s a purpose in it. There are things that God will work out. He’s always there to bring us through the trials and the hardships but He lets us go through them because that’s where we’re brought to those important times in life where we make choices. We’re the ones that have to make them. Awesome.

2 Samuel 4:1—When Saul’s son, Ish-Bosheth, heard that Abner had died in Hebron he lost heart. Well, he had probably lost a lot of heart already when he knew what he was doing. Because now he understood his life was in jeopardy, not knowing fully, having heard indeed certain things about David, but not knowing how or what David would do and how he would deal with him. But now that Abner was dead things don’t look good at all. Because not only is it a problem now as far as what David might do, but what will Israel do, what will different ones do? That even comes out in the story here in a little bit, what some do who were of his own tribe.

It goes on to say, and all Israel was troubled. He had his own reasons for being troubled. Indeed, he was. But all of Israel, not speaking of Judah, but all the rest of Israel, as a whole, was troubled because of what took place. Because the message had already gone out through Abner. He’d even gone through to Benjamin. Because this is the lineage of Saul, this is the lineage that had mighty military men that were fighting for and loyal to him all this time, and Abner had served in the army over them. And so, he went to the different tribes, but it specifically mentions Benjamin at the last one he went to and had agreement from him of what he was getting ready to do with David.

These were not small things. These were hard things that they went through, a civil war that was taking place between Judah and Israel, and brothers, family on the sides, relationships that are sometimes hard to grasp and imagine how such things could exist.

Anyway, all Israel was troubled. Well, in looking at something like this I think of what had to happen to cause this to be of that mindset, where Israel was troubled by what took place. Because they weren’t sure about what Judah would do, what David would do with his military, with his army. Because they knew; they knew the stories about favor that God had given to David over and over again fighting against the Philistines. This is not something they relished, having a strong civil war, all out war, if you will, and family being involved as they would be.

So again, heart wrenching, gut wrenching things that they went through. Here it was, what do we do? Abner was killed. He went down there as an emissary to have a treaty for all of Israel, to work for a treaty for all of Israel, that there would be peace and we would unite as one kingdom. This was devastating to them in their thinking.

I couldn’t help but think of what this nation is going through and what some other nations are going through right now and how there are things taking place that sometimes we don’t grasp why they’re taking place. They’re not at a place where they’re deeply troubled yet. There are some bad things going on out there in feelings, but you think they’ve got to go a lot farther. We have to go a lot farther with them.

Because what’s taking place now is worldwide. It’s kind of surreal but it is real. Though things are fudged here and there it is still serious and it is still something that is very real. It is a process that in some ways is beginning a process of working toward bringing people to humility – hopelessness, helplessness, what can we do? Despair. In some cases, everything taken from them, despair.

That’s not a small thing. But it’s slow in coming because the pride is so great and the stories of things, that the stock market continues to rise. “This is good news.” “This is good news.” “We have a vaccine. This is good news.” And you think, hmm, well, what’s right behind this?

Because they don’t realize the time we’re in. They don’t realize what’s fully taking place in the world right now. We do. How blessed are we that we have that peace of mind to know what’s going on? To know that this world and this country and others have to become far more troubled before they’ll really begin to look for help, receive help, ask for help, or be receptive to any kind of help.

That’s why it’s been such a dilemma of what to do right now with advertising, what to do with what we have. Because, candidly, as a whole, people don’t care! They don’t care as much as they did back in 2005 to 2008. There was a different kind of response. People thought differently. So much has changed, just in that short period of time. We’re really right now, as a whole, people really don’t care!

How do you even get their attention? People are so messed up with media right now and people playing with phones and all this stuff and Facetime, and all these things that people do, everything on the internet, everything on their phones. It’s a crazy world, the things that are in the minds of individuals. It’s a sick, sick world and it is going to become a lot more troubled before this is all over with.

We’re going to experience part of it and the world, obviously, is going to experience the biggest brunt of it. But we’re going to experience certain things along the way all the way to the end side-by-side. We’re not going to be, as I’ve talked about in times past, at a point where we’re totally in a bubble, where nothing will touch us. God has given of the evidence of that. No, there are things we are to experience along the way.

That’s why this concept of a rapture… If you’re on the plane at the wrong time, and the pilot, he hasn’t lived his life as he ought to, it’s going down, you know? If you’re on it you get raptured away and you’re okay and you get to stay up there somewhere and watch it all. Like, you think, what a horrible thing! Or you get to go over to a place in Jordan and you get to hear about certain things that are happening in the world, but you don’t have to experience anything. You have everything you need! You think, what a horrible thing!

But to be there side-by-side, to be around the world in different little areas, onesie, twosies, witness of those things that take place and what you live all the way to the end. That has power and meaning to it, purpose in it. To experience certain aspects of it, but not to the point of loss of life unless it’s fine that that life be lost now. There is a resurrection. There is one that’s coming soon and there’ll be people who die who will be a part of that one. There will be others who will be protected because they’re to live on into a new age. Awesome! But that doesn’t mean people don’t escape death or suffering, certain things that we go through in life.

So again, God is molding and fashioning things as He did back then in working with David’s life, in working with Israel, working with Judah to establish a physical kingdom at that time. But now we’re toward the end of the establishment of God’s Kingdom. There may be just a few who are a part of all that in the sense of a spiritual kingdom that’s coming with Christ.

But there are many things that God is doing. It’s hard for us to grasp sometimes that He’s working through different ones throughout the world in countries all over this world right now. He’s allowing a demonic world to do things they weren’t allowed to do a few years ago. But He’s allowing them to do it now.

It’s like the timing of a pandemic. You can say, “Oh, but it’s not and it isn’t…” There are so many conspiracy things going on out there. Be careful. It’s a real thing that’s going on. Numbers are inflated and different things, yes, because of the greed of human beings, but it’s still a real thing. It’s just one of the first big ones to affect the world.

There’s going to come a point in time when there is going to be radiation that affects all the world. You can’t help it. When things go off in the mass that they’re going to go off and they go up in the atmosphere and the way that they’re going to go up there, it’s going to affect every human being on earth. You can’t escape it all. Can you still have decent health? Yes. But you’re still going to have some things you’re going to suffer through that aren’t going to be pleasant. It’s just the way it is. It’s the time we happen to live in. Not to be fearful of, but to understand a reality in order to deal with reality.

Don’t think that what happened and that’s started around the world now is something that is not very specific in the sense of what God is allowing. Because He is. It’s going to trouble Israel, literally, the nations that make up that in a physical plane, but all the world because of what God is building and molding and fashioning in order to build something far greater that’s going to come out of all that. Anyway, things to learn from.

Again, to understand that what happened back then and what’s happening now is a prophetic type. There are things to learn from it. You can see certain things that God is doing and be able to be inspired by that, to realize they’re not just happening by chance.

What’s happening right now around the world is not by chance. It’s a part of a design that God is allowing to be done for a purpose. There will be things on its heels that will be as great or greater. There will be other things on the heel which will be far, far greater. All for a purpose.

It’s very akin to what took place when God led the children of Israel out of Egypt. It takes a lot to humble nations. It truly does. Because pride in human nature, it’s really strong. Those are things we need to be able to see. It’s truly, exceedingly strong in human nature and it doesn’t just disappear to the point where God can begin to work with people, to bring them to a point of humility. Because until that time God can’t work with people.

He couldn’t work with us until we came to a point of humility. He worked with us in our lives to accomplish that because He had a purpose in calling us. Whatever stage certain things happen, we responded and God blessed us, whatever that might be to whatever degree that was.

Now, I find it interesting and inspiring that we’ve come full circle in the sermons that began in January this year. I really do. Because there are certain things here that indeed have brought us exactly full circle. There are means and ways that God has to drive things home in our thinking, to mold and fashion our thinking, our minds, the spirit essence that’s within us to transform our thinking. This is a part of that process that I find very exciting and very inspiring.

I want to read some verses, actually, that were covered in the two series. One was entitled, The Greatest of Civilization, as we went through that, and the other was To Build For God. Now, this brings us full circle back to God, to understand that God is doing the building.

It’s God who establishes Israel, when we understand that that’s about the Israel of God, the Church of God in embryo, then indeed Israel, spiritual, Elohim, the God Family, the Kingdom of God that’s going to rule on this earth, the Kingdom of God that’s going to grow mightily and powerfully by the end of a thousand years, and on and on we go, and then at the end of the hundred years behind that to complete it all. Awesome! All by incredible design.

2 Chronicles 6:7. This is Solomon speaking in what he had to say at the time. Again, we’re familiar with these scriptures but it’s good that we review them and think about them and to understand all that God went through with them on a physical plane and what He’s doing with us on a spiritual one with far greater meaning.

Verse 7. He was telling them that My father, David, had it in mind, in his heart… And so, we’re focusing on some of those things because it’s the same kind of word that’s used. That’s what it’s about. It’s what was in his heart and his thinking. He was so moved and motivated in putting God first, knowing that God ruled his life as he yielded to that. He wanted that in his life.

He had it in his mind, in his heart, to build a house, a place of dwelling, if you will then, or in this case can refer to the temple, for the name of the Eternal.

I think of a time when Herbert Armstrong wanted to have a house that was dedicated to God, something that would stand out as special and meaningful to those who would see it, to those who would be invited there, to those who would experience that on a beautiful campus because he was dealing with a lot of people and situations in a physical world.

There were a lot of people in the Church – a lot of people in the Church at that time – who never got that. They just saw a lot of tithes and offerings that they were giving (that was God’s; the tithes were all God’s), but that they were giving that were being used in a manner that they weren’t fully in agreement with. For this was lavish. This was big. This was being done on a big scale. Why do we have to have something like that?

It’s like those who ask why does he have to have a jet? Okay. If I had to sit down and explain that to you, you’re not there anyway, so why even talk about it?

David is going through this in his mind of what he’s desiring to do. We understand the greater meaning of it all. But this was in his heart and in his mind, to build something to be dedicated to God, to have use, that would stand out, that would be able to be seen by leaders, and other peoples to be in awe of something that God had given to His people, to show the wealth and the power and the strength of the people, of Israel, God’s people. That’s how he looked upon it.

He says, he had it in his mind to build the house for the name of the Eternal, the God of Israel. But the Eternal said to my father, David, In that it was in your heart to build a house unto My name, you did well in that it was in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but the son who shall be born of you, shall build the house, a place of dwelling, a temple unto My name.

I love this story and stories like this when you realize something is being said that he didn’t understand. He didn’t grasp what the Great God of the universe was doing. He saw something on a physical plane that he was following up with, having God included to a point of how his father had been blessed to establish Israel. Because God was behind it. God was doing it, giving peace to a country, giving wealth and favor to a country, as we’re going to go through some of the story and see. But always knowing that God is there molding and fashioning and doing these things. Exciting!

Then for him, Solomon, to be talking about some of this when he thinks he is the one that is now building this structure. It’s not about that structure and it’s not about him. But he can’t see that. But we can see that. What an incredible thing to understand that it’s about something far, far greater.

Now, all the way up until the time of Christ people didn’t understand these things. Even within the early Church there were many of these kinds of things that people still didn’t grasp and understand. Slowly but surely as God worked through different ones of the apostles and the like, more began to be given and a greater picture of certain things began to be given. Finally, things began to begin to fit.

Just like in the book of Acts, the inspiration of something we’re going to cover here next. That finally, at this point in time, it was being pointed out this is what this is all about. It’s beautiful! God progressively revealing things, sometimes hundreds of years apart, sometimes thousands of years apart, until we are where we are right now.

I hope you marvel at where we are right now, that there has never been anyone through time, not even Herbert Armstrong who was given so much, who has what we have today! How blessed are we because of the timing? Because of God’s purpose? Because of the nearness to His Son’s return that He’s giving all that He is?

It’s not because of how great we are, who we are, what we are. We’re a part of something great if we choose to continue to fight for it and to understand the thankfulness and the gratitude, to have that deeply inside of us, to continue to pursue that kind of heart and mind and desire, to yield to and want what God has placed before us. Those are the choices we make.

It says here, Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but the son who shall be born of you shall build a house unto My name. Solomon was inspired later in what he said, but he didn’t grasp it to the degree of what was there.

But again here, what an incredible thing that he was thinking about what he was doing, what he had done now, and here this building, this magnificent building, this magnificent structure that people could hear about and come and see the grandeur of it, the beauty, the wealth of it.

Because that’s what human beings are moved by and God works with that. Those who are called to be a part of something molded spiritually don’t have to have any of that. But because of certain things and working with others around or what God is doing for them that in time when they’re called, even in the Great White Throne, there are things that they are to experience that will benefit them later on. And so, they’ll be able to put those things together. But always recognizing, as they did with Herbert Armstrong, those leaders who would invite him or come to the headquarters there in Pasadena and walk on the campus and be on the campus and to go into those buildings. They were moved by, impressed by.

People found fault with the fact that Herbert Armstrong had a Rolls Royce that would go and pick people up at the airport. It’s like, “Why do you have to have that?” Well, it’s a whole lot different than a Volkswagen bus if you’re a leader of a nation, if you’re important as far as where you’re from. It’s just not something that’s done. “Well, it’s a Church so they would understand if we go up with a Volkswagen bus and pick them up.” No, they wouldn’t. They wouldn’t be move by it but because carnal human beings are moved by things that they see.

God allowed this and gave this for the purpose of Israel becoming established, that nations, literally, could see the grandeur, the beauty of what God blessed David in building up to the time of Solomon, and then Solomon building more upon the plans of David. The nation, in that respect, being looked to, and with the wealth and the power and the military that was there, other nations had a fear.

Because the thing at that time, as it is to this day, nations try to conquer nations. It’s just in the heart of human beings. That’s why we’re coming down to what we are right now. That’s why China just keeps getting bigger and bigger, more powerful.

We are so dumb in our actions! To not recognize what they’re doing? Some see it. What they’re doing in South America, what they’re doing in Africa, what they’re doing in the Caribbean, what they’re doing in many poor nations around the world, and the help and the aid and the roads, and on and on it goes, and then in some cases, some military help. That’s what follows. All that giving, it’s all by design and by plan.

It’s inevitable that there will be a third world war in time if God didn’t have a purpose in how certain things were to happen differently, which He does, that it would be an all-out conflict more with China even now than with Russia. That’s just the way it is. We live in those times. It’s sad that people just aren’t able to deal with that.

There is a little bit of rippling right now because of things going on but nothing of what it should be, could be. But there’s a purpose behind it all and God’s the designer of it, that it should happen in a certain way. Things are going to happen not only a certain way, but at the exact time that He wants them to. God has that power.

It’s in their hearts to do certain things. God can work with that to control the timing of that. He has done it over and over again in human life. They have the choices and decisions of what’s in their heart and mind to do, and God has allowed that for a purpose. But there are things He doesn’t allow to a point in time if He has a design in it being done at a specific moment and that’s where we are.

To understand the power of the Great God of the universe that controls these things, He is in control. These things aren’t by chance in so much of the timing of what takes place. It’s not like God slapping His forehead and thinking, “Oh, now they’ve done something different than what I thought, so what am I going to do now?” God isn’t caught off guard like that at all. Not in the slightest.

Anyway, let’s go on to Acts 2. I’d mentioned that. Finally, all this time later Judah believing, thinking different things, leading all the way up to the time of the death of Christ, of Joshua, and then shortly after that here in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost Peter and different ones that were inspired to speak as they did, God giving more.

Christ gave a lot in what he gave to them, and now it was their time to give more as God inspired them, as Christ inspired them as the head of the Church, to give even more clarity to what was taking place and the timing of things and the importance of those things. So much of that begins here at the beginning of the book of Acts, things that the Jewish people had no comprehension of. They didn’t grasp any of this. He has to correct a lot of their thinking because they have different ideas and they’re way off base.

Christ condemned the Jewish religion at that time and all the different factions of it because they were all off base because they’d all gone so far away from following God. Incredible. That’s why it always boggled my mind that we had people and ministers in the Church, and even an evangelist, who would go to Jewish leaders or work with Jewish leaders or look at Jewish written material from different rabbis, and it’s like, this stuff, they know more about the Jews and history of Israel than we do. You think, “No, they don’t, you fool! They don’t!”

Because God Almighty is the one that inspires the ability to understand what’s in the Old Testament. Not some rabbi. Just because you’re a Jew that somehow you have great knowledge of all these things? They don’t! You read some of the stuff that’s written by them? Absolute ignorance. If they were condemned by Christ 2,000 years ago how much better do you think they’ve gotten since that time?

I get a little worked up when I think about some of those things that happened in the Church because I think, how dumb can we be? How dumb could a minister be to think that somehow they can get a book and read something about Judaism and learn more than what God will give by inspiration of just putting it in your mind to see what’s there because it’s true. Because that’s what God does, has done since the beginning. He’s the one that has to give it. When He opens it up in the mind you see it.

I think a good example of that is what happened a long, long time ago before it was ever given to the Church, because God had a purpose in what He was doing and how He was working with what was going to come now in this age of a remnant, of Joshua the Christ, even as it explains here in Acts, coming in the flesh, what that means.

Because it was always looked at, well, we understand things that others don’t. You think, the Protestant world knows that. They believe that he came in the flesh. So, where is the mystery? They all believed that he lived on this earth. They don’t grasp, the scattered Body does not grasp that that means that he is able to come into our lives, coming in the flesh spiritually, living and dwelling in us as we’re blessed to dwell in him and his Father spiritually. Incredible.

But that was given a long time ago. Not because it was read out of a book in the sense of studying it and knowing what the Greek words meant, and so forth. That came many years later when it was like, it is there! It is there in how the Greek words are structured. Incredible, in what they mean. But it was revealed long before that, that that’s what that meant because it was given in the mind.

That’s what God does with us. That’s how God works with us. The only reason we’re here, the only reason we know the things we know is because God has to put it in the mind. And if you believe it? That’s how we know if someone is of the same mind.

I think of someone right now of another country and another language who associated for a time in the Church and then became exceedingly upset when what happened to me happened to me. Well, I was upset too. But some people responded differently, and things didn’t happen in 2012 or 2013 so it’s like… Because they didn’t believe all the truths. And unless you believe those things and have that mind to know there has to be reasons for various things, and God will reveal that in His time.

Anyway, they have had a desire in part to have fellowship again. But no change in the sense of thinking, repentance if you will. There are some things it just boils down to the fact you can’t give it to someone else. If you don’t agree still about certain things you think that you should be received back because, kind of like the Protestant world, as the prodigal son, and “I’ve come back to be with you, but if you’re not receiving me with open arms and with love, what are you? Who are you?” It’s like, “All these different Churches of God, they treat you this way,” and I think, “Ah, but there can only be one that has the truths of God. Where is that?” Because there’s only one Church.

Just because it says, “Church of God,” they’re not all God’s Churches. But you can’t give that to someone. You can’t convince someone of that. You can’t spend a lot of time trying to convince them. Because that’s not our job. Either God gives it to someone, He draws them, they repent along the way, they change as they are yielding to the truth they’re receiving, and you know what, that becomes clear to God’s Church. It becomes clear when someone is of the same mind and is in agreement. If someone is in disagreement, they haven’t repented. Simple. It truly is.

We don’t do that ourselves. It’s what God gives to us. That’s pretty simple. He communicates it to your mind, and you can see it and you can know it. That helps you then to know what you’re to fight for, because you know it’s true. If you lose the truth you begin to go off in different directions and think different things. Only you can be responsible for those choices. But if God has given us something it’s God that’s done it.

It’s God who establishes us. He’s the one who establishes us. Kind of interesting, the word “establish,” that’s sometimes translated in the Old Testament as “prepare.” I love that because I think of “Preparing for the Kingdom of God.” Becoming established in the Church in embryo so that we can be established in Israel, in Elohim. It’s God who does these things. He’s the one who works with us in preparing and working. He is the one who helps us to become set in this way, established in this way, prepared for all that’s ahead of us. It’s beautiful.

It’s God who does it. That’s why we have to remain close to God and have a heart like David’s, to pursue God. In everything that we strive to do that God must be at the forefront of our thinking in our choices and our decisions and how we’re living our lives and whether they’re truly yielded to God.

Anyway, Acts 2:25, beautiful verses here. Now, what we’re getting ready to read the scattered Church does not understand. They don’t agree and it’s really quite simple if you have God’s spirit. And by that, I mean God had to unlock your mind, work in your mind to help you see the simplicity.

That’s why I always loved the title The Plain Truth Magazine. The only way it was really plain to anyone who read it is because with God’s spirit it’s so clear. It’s like, “Uh, why didn’t I see that before? That’s so clear.” It’s like, “I could have figured that out if I’d just seen that before.” Well, you can’t see it before because God has to give it to you. He has to open up your mind. Then it’s plain, it’s clear—Awesome! —and inspiring, uplifting, encouraging, because it’s of God’s spirit. That’s a beautiful thing.

Acts 2:25—For David spoke of him: I foresaw… Now, this is David. For David spoke of him. So, who’s speaking? He’s talking about a process here of a difference between something that’s not about David but of someone else and misunderstanding that the Jews had at that particular time. So, there are things they confused about David and God, or David and the Messiah, that they couldn’t put it together and neither has the scattered Church been able to do that.

For David spoke concerning him: I… So, this is what’s being said, I foresaw the Eternal, in other words, Yahweh. That’s the word. When you go back and look at some of those things in the Old Testament and what’s being quoted in the Old Testament, this is what’s being said. Joshua was speaking.

I foresaw Yahweh. It’s beautiful. It’s simple. He can’t be Yahweh and that’s what causes some in the scattered Body problems. Because they believe Yahweh was Christ, was the Messiah, and he wasn’t. He was the Yahweh Elohim, the one Eternal God, the Creator, the Sustainer. As He’s said of Himself, there’s only one Yahweh Elohim.

And so, there are even those in the Body that when they’re confronted with some of this they think, well, then there must be two who have the same name, Yahweh. It’s like that gets them out of the pickle. They say, “Well, sometimes it’s God and sometimes it’s…” Because they haven’t gotten blessed to get to that point where God has given to them like we have, that it’s not anything to do with the trinity. There is only one Almighty Eternal existing God.

For I saw Yahweh, the Eternal, always before my face. For He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore, did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Again, it says a prophetic thing being spoken of, in that respect, by the Messiah, by Joshua that would be fulfilled.

Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope. Because You… Who? Yahweh. Because this is the conversation between God Almighty and His Son. That’s what it’s about. For you will not leave my soul in the grave. He knew that. He understood exactly what would happen. It was his mind. He was the Word of God made flesh. He knew exactly what was happening in his life, what was going to transpire. Things that we can’t grasp, that we learn a little bit along the way and God gives us His spirit to grasp certain things. He was given full measure of God’s holy spirit in ways that we cannot fully comprehend. We only get to taste of those things in part.

Because You will not leave my soul in hell, in hades, in the grave. Neither will You allow Your Holy One, His own Son, Your Holy One to see corruption. So, it’s quoting things here in different places out of scripture about the decay of the human body and what would happen when one is in the grave. He’s saying, “You are not going to allow that to happen.” Whether it did or didn’t, it’s about a resurrection in a certain period of time. Those things become important, of what God can do, and did do in this particular case. But it’s a reality here that the body wasn’t even going to see the decay as a normal dead body would see over a period of time because He’s going to intervene and do something in three days very quickly.

You have made known to me the ways of life. That’s the way it is with all of us. That’s the only way we can know what is true and what is right. And with him, far, far more than what we, as I said, have ever experienced. On our best day we’ve only experienced a smidgeon of what he had always.

You have made me to know the ways of life. You shall make me full of joy with Your countenance. And that’s a beautiful thing to understand in itself, of things to grasp and understand of what it means, of why he died in the first place. The world stops in their teaching that he died so we can repent and be forgiven of sins. Yeah. It goes so far beyond that because there’s a purpose in that.

The reason we must be forgiven of sin is because God will not dwell with, will not dwell in sin, and we have to be forgiven of sin so that God will dwell in us and give us the blessing and opportunity to dwell in Him on a spiritual plane. It’s about a fellowship, a unity and oneness of mind and being and thought, in that respect.

You shall make me full of joy with Your countenance. I don’t know about you, but my best times of life, truly, the most exciting, the most meaningful to me, are when I know that I have been blessed with a greater portion of God’s spirit. A lot of that time comes at the Feast of Tabernacles for me, and it does for all of us because we’re fed so much over a longer period of time, day after day after day, and we’re strengthened by that.

It’s not just a matter of the excitement we have of being with others and fellowshipping with them and being with people we haven’t seen for a long time, it’s because of what God is giving to us to experience that in the first place, but in all that it means in what we’re receiving. We’re strengthened by that. We truly are. We’re lifted up by that in ways we don’t experience, as a whole, during the rest of the year. We may at certain points on a Holy Day or whatever, to a portion, but not like the Feast of Tabernacles. Incredible!

Indeed, we can say that “You shall make me full of joy with Your countenance.” We’re able to rejoice, which God commands us to do and we learn from that and examine ourselves, “Is that what I’m really doing? Is that my motivation, to go before God and rejoice and rejoice in all that He’s given,” to sit under, as it were, the booth and to consider and think about all that we have been given to bring us to this point and to understand all that’s before us because of that, because that’s what it’s about. It encourages and strengthens us immensely so. We’re lifted up by it, by His countenance, meaning His life, His being, His spirit. Because that’s what does it.

The world seeks experiences of things, but it’s not the same by any measure. It’s different. It’s fake. It’s not true and sometimes some of the experiences that are there, they don’t realize where they’re really coming from and it’s not this. This here is fulfilling. It is a real joy that is sound and balanced and plain, the plain truth. Beautiful.

Men and brethren let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us to this day. He had to drive that point home for a reason. Because it wasn’t about David! But they thought this is about David and that this is something that’s coming from David, therefore, it’s about David and Yahweh. No, it isn’t. It’s about God Almighty and His Son, Joshua. Incredible.

He had to drive the point home. “He’s still dead and buried and in his sepulchre. His bones are there. His body did see corruption, so this isn’t about David.” So, they were so screwed up they couldn’t begin to see those things.

Therefore, being a prophet, speaking of David. He was a prophet. God blessed him with things that are written. You can go through the Psalms and read things that are prophetic that Christ quoted from over and over and over again in his ministry, and the apostles at different times quoted from, because they’re prophetic things that are there. There are some things there that you wouldn’t know are prophetic except that God, or in this case, of things that Christ said, except that he said them. Then it’s like, “Oh, okay.” Because you wouldn’t be able to know that unless he said it, or God inspired a person to see it.

…and knowing that God (Yahweh) had sworn with an oath to him, to David. Because it was an oath given to David. But Judaism hasn’t understood that oath, nor accepted any portions of some of those things and the scattered Body hasn’t accepted these things because God has to give it. Not because they won’t accept it, it’s just it hasn’t been given to them yet because God has to open the mind to see it.

We’re not better because we can see it; we’re just exceedingly blessed because we’re blessed to see it. Awesome! God has to give it. God has to establish those things in us.

That’s why humility must abound and always be there. Because I’ve seen this so often, so much within the Church and within the ministry. It’s easy to get lifted up with pride and for people to think, “Oh, look what I see! Let me give this sermonette.” “Let me give this sermon.” Or “I’m going to give this sermon about ‘this,’” and be so off the wall it’s not even funny because God’s not in it. It has to come from God. It doesn’t come from us.

That’s why I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, if God doesn’t inspire it what’s the purpose of getting up and flapping the lips and the tongue. It’s just flapping and sound goes out, but it can’t be received spiritually because it’s not inspired. If it’s inspired, it can be received spiritually. That’s how God works in our lives. Awesome!

Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God (Yahweh) had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins… Not Solomon as Solomon thought. …according to the flesh, He (Yahweh, God Almighty) would raise up Messiah, the Messiah, Christ to sit on his throne. Simply meaning “the anointed to be king.” The one anointed to be king that’s promised throughout the Old Testament (and through the New), but here is the point at the beginning of what was new, the Church.

…He would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; he, seeing this before, because it was given to David to see as a prophet, of something that was being spoken of here, of the resurrection of the Messiah. He was given to see it prophetically. To the depth he understood what it was all about?

…spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah (of Christ), that his soul was not left in the grave, neither his flesh did see corruption. Because he made the point David’s buried and with us to this day. He saw corruption, dust and some bones there. This wasn’t about David. This Joshua has God has raised up, whereof we are all witnesses.

Can you imagine on that day of Pentecost being there, being so filled with God’s spirit on that day as He poured out so much of His spirit upon them on that particular day because of the impact it was to have and how it was to move and motivate them forward to do things now, to give them the encouragement and the strength to press forward in something brand new, a Church that was beginning? And to go out and do the things they were ready to do? Because they were ready to go back and fish or whatever. They didn’t know what to do. And now, God was blessing them with purpose, with design, with power, and they moved forward. Incredible.

Therefore, being on the right hand of God, exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the holy spirit, He has poured out this which you now see and hear. He understood what was happening. “And it’s happening now. He’s pouring out His holy spirit. This is what you’re experiencing. This is what you’re seeing. These people are speaking to you, that I’m speaking to you. It’s coming from God. It’s through the power of the holy spirit. It’s something that God gives.”

Because some of them were talking, “Well, these are drunken, the things they’re saying. It’s like 9:00 in the morning, here they are, they’re already drunk,” you know, because they couldn’t grasp what was taking place, what was being said. This was so crazy to them. He’s telling them this is of the holy spirit. This is from God Almighty.

And being on the right hand of God, exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the holy spirit, He has poured out this. Showing that this is coming from God Almighty through His Son being given now to them. …which you now see and hear. For David is not ascended into the heavens. It wasn’t about him, that he went into the heavens. His grave is here. It wasn’t about him not seeing corruption. He saw corruption, his body.

…but he said himself, The Eternal (Yahweh), said unto my Lord, David’s Lord, Sit on My right hand. David’s Lord is the Messiah. That’s what he’s saying here. That’s what he’s talking about. He said unto my Lord. It’s not about David himself. He was showing this was about someone else, the one who wouldn’t see corruption, and so forth, the one who wouldn’t stay in the grave.

Sit on My right hand until I make Your foes Your footstool. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this same Joshua, that same Joshua, whom you have nailed to a pole, both Lord and Christ. Messiah. Awesome!

What an incredible thing. If you’d been in the Church twenty-seven years ago, twenty-five years ago, as a whole, you wouldn’t know this. You wouldn’t know what this was about. But God has blessed us to understand what this was about now. He’s blessed us to understand there is only one Eternal God. He’s blessed us to understand that there are not two Yahwehs, that this is a conversation between Christ and his Father, between Christ, the anointed to be king and God Almighty. It seems very clear and simple enough, doesn’t it? You didn’t figure it out. I didn’t figure it out. God revealed it in your mind. That’s the only reason you have it.

Isn’t that an awesome thing? Other’s in the scattered Body can’t receive this yet because God hasn’t given it to them. You have to be awakened first. Then one day those who will receive it will receive it and they’ll be dumbfounded and think, “Why couldn’t we see this before?” Then they’ll come back around and same thing, “Well, God has to give it. It wasn’t time. He has to awaken us to see it. He has to give us of His holy spirit to see it.”

We need to grasp mightily the power of God and how He’s working in our lives and that we are set apart for holy use and purpose in a very powerful way for what God is doing in our lives right now in an age where we’re getting very close to that reign taking place.

Let’s return to where we started in the beginning here today. Again, 2 Samuel 4:1—When Saul’s son, Ish-Bosheth, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost heart, and all Israel was troubled.

God, again, was preparing the nation of Israel to become established under David. This was all part of a process and it was going to require that Israel first become troubled. There are things that it was good for them to go through as well. It wasn’t just to happen, that somehow it would be strongly united. But because of what they were going to experience it would be more meaningful when it finally came together and there would be things that they would even be able to see to a certain degree about what God was doing because of what they were going to be told and what they were to hear and what they already had been told but now would take on a stronger meaning for them, especially in the direction David was going to lead, under God, for Israel.

I think of the physical nations today that constitute the scattered nations of Israel. Again, they are not yet troubled. But they need to be, and in time they will be. But I think we are learning that it’s going to take so very, very much to accomplish this. That’s why one wave after another after another has to come, one on the heels of the other. That some have to be on top of each other then, because that’s not even enough. Then, finally, when it’s time, the Trumpets themselves and what they have foreshown and told are to take place, begin actually happening.

Again, it’s sad that it has to be that way, but it shows what we’re like, all of us. It shows the kind of battle that’s in our minds, that’s in human life, the human mind and pride is a very powerful thing and it’s something to be loathed in ourselves.

Sometimes, if we’re not careful, it can cause us to be a little impatient with the world around us. I get that way from time to time, expecting more. But should know better. But sometimes it catches you off guard.

We’re very blessed to know and see what we do, to be able to have the kind of peace of mind that we do, to know what’s taking place. Because I’ll tell you what, what’s happening out there right now, people are unnerved. People don’t know how to deal with everything that’s taking place right now and they’re reacting in a lot of different ways. It’s really a little surreal, again, of what’s taking place out here.

I want to read some news articles. I thought it’d be good to go through a few of these. Again, all a part of a process but it’s just like things are speeding up more and more at times here, but again, recognizing that God is in control of the speed. My choice? I want it to go much faster. But like falling down off that ladder and hurting myself immensely as a result of that, helped to jar some things into my mind once again to realize you can’t rush certain things.

You can’t rush things about the temple at all. And you know what? That’s the most important thing that God is doing right now. It’s about the temple. It’s about the Church. It’s about establishing us, preparing us, establishing us in moving forward to the actual return of Joshua and others for that Kingdom. That part, especially – neither part can be rushed because both have to be prepared to a certain point. That’s God’s design and God’s purpose in what He’s doing and we are blessed to share in that, to be a part of something like that. That in itself, to understand that, should be very humbling. It truly should be.

Because who are we? Well, we’re the blessed of God. We truly are and it’s by His great power that we’re able to accomplish and do the things that we do as we continue to move forward, to be a part of that when those things come to reality.

“UN:” article here “2021 is literally going to be catastrophic.”[1] “Next year is ‘going to be catastrophic’ in terms of worldwide humanitarian crises, World Food Program executive director David Beasley warned on Friday, per Reuters.”

“Driving the news: The stark outlook comes as many countries contend with not only the coronavirus pandemic, but also possible famine, economic instability, conflict and other humanitarian crises.”

You think, just this thing alone of what’s taken place here, the devastation it’s causing it can’t even be calculated yet, and because of people having to react or needing to react in certain ways, being told to react in certain ways, and some of this lockdown type thing mentality and restrictions and so forth, it’s causing something that can’t be measured yet.

They know it’s bad, but they don’t comprehend how bad. The impact of that isn’t really there yet because they’re dealing with other things right now thinking that on the other side of this, that all of a sudden, it’s going to get peachy-keen. The reality is it’ll never be the same in this age.

Possible famine? They’re not even discussing some of these things as a whole because the movement of food, the ability to produce certain things, they’re not being done like they were before. And because of that, candidly, there are going to be hundreds of thousands of people that die from now through the following year just going on in a normal cycle just because of that part alone, of not having food, of not having the ability to feed all it’s citizens or whatever in different parts of the world.

Then, if you were to add to that now, any kind of adverse things and storms and different things that happen around the world, like happened last year, add to that what we’re going through now and now you’ve made it many times worse, the impact of what’s going to take place. People being displaced, no homes, things of that nature, homelessness. We’re not able to measure that yet because of the timing of how this is coming about and because of how people react to it.

“A record 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection next year, a nearly 40% increase from 2020, the UN projected earlier this week.” So, they’re seeing what’s taken place during 2020 and they’re saying it’s going to be much, much worse now during 2021. This has been a very bad year for those things when you talk about the inability to feed the populations of the world, when you have the kinds of problems you do with displaced people into the millions, multiple millions around the world.

Another one here: “‘Beyond Repair’" - Sino-US Relations Badly Damaged, Warns China State Media.”[2] You know, some of the things they’re saying you really have to be pretty blind. And sadly, that’s the way the world is, as a whole. Some see certain things that are taking place, but not to grasp all this rhetoric that’s coming out of that area of the world? Some of it being met with some strong words now but very well appears that’s going to get smoothed over and they’re going to push forward to do what they want to do. Maybe because they don’t want to see 2024, who knows? But at some point, they’re going to be motivated to do what they already believe they must do. They’ve been preparing for it.

When I come up here, as I did recently, and read the article about how their navy now is far more powerful than ours, their ships are far, far better, newer, more electronically, if you will, sophisticated, in that respect. Because they’ve taken certain things and improved upon them. They’ve made them better, stronger, new things that we don’t even have, and we don’t even know about fully in the sense of what they’re capable of because we don’t have them. Interesting. That’s why, then, some make comment now. You think, that’s an incredible thing for some of our military leaders to say, that they’re not sure now that we can really win a war with China. Duh! Think who’s going to side with China and what that means in an all-out war?

“‘Even if the incoming administration has any intention of easing the tensions that have been sown, and continue being sown, some damage is simply beyond repair…’” So, this is what they’re saying. So, what they’re saying is it’s already gone too far and there’s some things that you’re not going to be able to repair now. Now, how does that affect them? A lot differently than it does us and how we’re motivated in this country and what we’re doing. They set their path on a specific course more determined and stronger than ever before. ‘…some damage is simply beyond repair, as the sitting U.S. president intends,’ the paper added.”

“Relations between the two countries are being shifted to ‘a dangerous path,’ the editorial warned.” I mean, when their own leader already has told them start thinking (their military), think about war. “That’s what we need to be focused on now, is to think about the fact that war is in front of us.” Okay.

“Earlier this year, UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres, speaking to the General Assembly in September, said the world must do everything to prevent a new Cold War.” Well, this is beyond that which is a cold war in front of us. This isn’t like what took place during some of the times of what we call the cold war. This has gone past that. So, really, what is on the heels of this, we are already in a pretty cold war, if you will, that’s happening and has been accelerated much, much faster than what a normal cold war might be. The only thing on its heels is the real one. Again, you’d think those things would be simple to see, but they’re not for a purpose.

He ended by saying, “We are headed in a very dangerous direction.” That’s putting it mildly.

Another article here: “Around The World In Two Hours? Chinese Scientists Test ‘Revolutionary’ Hypersonic Engine.”[3] They’re at a point where they’re passing us. They have had the resources to build some of the things they have. They have the technology. And with that, with their scientists, they have improved upon things. They have made things better. They’re passing, powerfully so. Incredible, what’s taking place. To have things of this nature, to be able to have that kind of power to move things that quickly, engines that can propel something that fast around the world to do the things they want to do?

The truth is, in time, it doesn’t matter when it might be, if it weren’t the fact that it’s the end of an age, the handwriting is on the wall. They want power. They intend to take the power. They intend to control the world. That’s their objective. That’s their thinking.

Then I see something like I did last night and talking about the Guardians of the Galaxy. Did you see that? We are going to be now the guardians of the galaxy. What’s this new military called? Space Force. It’s spacey, space force. It’s like you’re taking this out of a comic book and saying things. How do you think sound people, sharp people think about that, other countries? “Oh, space force. Heh, heh, heh. Star Wars! Guardians of the Galaxy.” How pompous! How empty are those words? I’m sorry, but I just am appalled. I’m not trying to make fun of anyone, I’m just saying the thinking isn’t really good. Do you think that scares the Chinese? “They’re the guardians of the galaxy. Maybe we’d better listen. Maybe we better cave in a little bit here and there.” No, they laugh, scorn, ridicule.

Yet people are duped by those things. “Oh yeah, this is great! Boy, we’ve got a good start. Can you think in millions…”? They can’t think that far. “…hundred years from now where we’re going to be and how great we’re going to be. We have ships all over the world and we control things all over the world.” You think, “No, we don’t. No, you don’t and you sure aren’t going to control it out there. You let them pass you up – hypersonic…” Anyway.

Another one here: “While harping on the nuclear issue, Iran builds more precise missiles – and uses them.”[4] Tehran is ratcheting up its nuclear upgrades to generate a crisis for pressuring the new Biden administration into a hasty deal “without revisions.” I don’t even want to read the article because you already know what’s going on and the politics involved. And sure, they’re ratcheting up the power of their missiles, the ability to manufacture, to do things with missiles because it doesn’t take a whole lot then to put something in the tip of it and send it where you want to, Israel, military bases… There you are, third world war, which is what they want. I don’t even want to read the article, parts of it anyway.

Another one here: “Beijing preparing ‘firm countermeasures’ after US sanctions Chinese officials over Hong Kong.”[5] That really scares them. Some of the things going on with Hong Kong, Taiwan? We live in a sick, sick world.

“Restaurant Closings Top 110,000 With Industry in ‘Free Fall.’”[6] It’s sad what’s going on out here and it boggles my mind that there is a balance in here and yet there’s not any soundness of mind of dealing with some of these things. How can you open 25% capacity? Yes, it’s bad and yes, people are getting sick. But there’s a point where you either destroy everything that’s there and there is no coming back or you go through it the best you can. There’s a balance in there. That soundness of mind doesn’t exist and there’s much debate and because of that we have repercussions that are coming that can’t be measured, as I said, and it’s just the beginning of some of that.

So many articles. “New UK Coronavirus Variant Has Key Mutations, Scientists Say.”[7] “…more than 1,000 cases of the new virus strain had been found in almost 60 areas, predominantly in southern England and London.” This is coming over again, things coming out of different parts of the world. It’s like, okay, what happens now?

Of course, their concerns too that this is affecting vaccines. It’s like the flu thing, you can prepare flu shots, but if you don’t hit the right one that particular year it can be useless, basically, because it’s a different kind of strain. The same thing is true here. If you get a different mutation, a different strain of something because of how a lot of these things work. Anyway, they pass it up, go on a different direction and something doesn’t affect them because they’re fighting. As scientist are fighting to combat it, it’s fighting to find ways around in a natural scheme of things in a sick world for disobeying God Almighty. That’s what it boils down to. Anyway, so many things here. Don’t have time for them all.

“A Record 61% Of Restaurants, 35% Of Small Businesses Can't Pay December Rent.”[8] Surprise, surprise. What about the people that are owed that money and what happens to them? It just has this ripping effect, and it can’t be bailed out. You can’t bail out everything. Insanity.

“New Covid-19 strain features 17 mutations sparking fears vaccine won't work.”[9] What’s on its heels? Well?

I’m going to bypass all that because we just live at a time of uncertainty and it’s affecting people in a crazy way and an incredible way. Again, people don’t know how to deal with it so you’re seeing a lot of different kinds of things out here to the point that some are ready to fight against it—that’s how bad some of this is getting—the disagreement is so great.

2 Samuel 4:1 again. We read that about how all Israel is troubled, Ish-bosheth was troubled. Then the next few verses go on to talk about, the rest of the chapter talks about how he was killed and was lying on his bed in the heat of the day when two former captains of Saul’s army, of the tribe of Benjamin, snuck in and killed him, and cut off his head and took it to David in Hebron and then David responds to that in a way that they weren’t fully expecting. Because David is not like most would think in these situations in a carnal way, thinking they might receive favor and so forth, and realizing you did the wrong thing to him because he lives by certain principles that you don’t grasp and don’t comprehend. Again, that mind of David that was unique.

2 Samuel 5:1—Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, Indeed, we are of your bone and your flesh. So, as time went along here some of these things that took place. Sometimes the timing of some of this is rather difficult to piece together and there’s a lot of argument and history and so forth about much of this.

But anyway, this is basically the story flow of some of these things as they happen. It goes back and forth because it’ll go to one point in time in talking about what they did, another time it’ll talk about what some of the Philistines did, and on and on it goes here. Some of them are kind of overlapping at points here and so forth, and some aren’t.

Verse 2— Even in time past, so, this is what they’re saying, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in; and the Eternal… So, now here they’re recognizing something. They’re saying something in the sense that “You are the one. You were the head of the army. You went out. You led Israel into battle, and you brought them back with victory.” Basically, they recognized here, they’re acknowledging that God gave certain favor that was given to him that was different from what Saul had. Because Saul didn’t have the same things. It was very apparent to them on a physical plane; they could grasp that. They’re acknowledging that.

And the Eternal has said to you, You shall shepherd My people Israel, and be over Israel. There are certain things, at what point that they’re receiving this information, being told this and by whom, again, sketchy in the story here, but still at this point here something that they’re saying.

Therefore, all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and king David made a covenant, as a treaty. That’s what it is. It’s more than just a covenant, spoke of in other places of scripture. This is about a treaty, in essence, because they’re coming together, they’re wanting to have a treaty. Just like Abner did when he came there with Joab. They were on two sides there and then this battle broke out and they were talking about a treaty and what they wanted to have. Then finally David wanted and talked to, accepted Abner, and he came down. This is spoken of as a treaty, not a covenant as we think of a covenant, although when you make a treaty there is absolute, that agreement that’s written there, recorded or whatever, that is what you agree to do, the terms and so forth.

So, again, just a use of words. More a use of “treaty” here when you’re talking about different peoples agreeing on a certain thing not to war anymore but to be united.

King David made a treaty with them at Hebron before the Eternal. So, with David that was always the case. It was always before God Almighty. He always included God in what was being done. That’s what motivated him. He is going to treat the rest of Israel in a certain manner because they’re God’s people. It’s God’s nation. That’s his mind, it’s God’s nation.

What a mind to have when it comes to thinking about the Israel of God, the Church, because that’s what we are in, in that respect, when you talk about in embryo, growing and so forth, and how we think toward the Church, and to recognize how important that is to God.

That’s how David thought because he understood how important Israel was in the scheme of things. Not all the rest of the nations because God wasn’t working with them. He knew He was working with Israel, that bared His name, God’s name.

So, again, same thing with us. How much more the Church? And to understand then the importance of relationships and how we think toward each other?

I think from feedback I’ve been getting that we’re seeing this in a stronger way than ever before, which I’m very thankful for. That’s an exceedingly good thing in the sense of understanding God in every one of us and how dangerous it is to judge another in a wrong way in any fashion or form, to be caught judging God.

David didn’t do that. He put God first. This is in God’s hands. God will reveal. God will give what is needed in His time to him as a leader or whatever it might be. He knew that. He didn’t take things presumptuously. That’s the way we have to be in our lives, to be very careful how we walk before God, to understand we all belong to God. God is molding and fashioning every one of us as we continue down this course fighting.

I’m highly encouraged when I just see people still fighting. Because I know it’s hard because I have literally seen thousands who have quit the fight over time, just quit. I think it says a lot. We need to understand that. If you keep fighting, that’s awesome, take courage in that, encouragement, because the ability to continue in that comes from God. But you have to make the choices to continue fighting. It isn’t easy and it’s not meant to be easy by design. The very fact that it’s difficult reveals much and that God is always there to help us no matter how hard it is. When you do what is right, He will give you the victory. You may not taste it immediately.

Just like with David, how long was he on the run before God began to establish him and to make it clear that he was being established? It took a long time and a lot of opportunity to begin to doubt and to wonder. “He’s still out to kill me! I’m not out to hurt him, but he’s still out to kill me, to take my life. Now I’ve got to go cozy up to a Philistine king in consideration of him, Saul, so he doesn’t have to feel pressured into keep pushing after me, that I’m after his life, be paranoid like he was.” Led by spirits giving him that thinking and those thoughts.

“So, I’ll remove myself with this army, these men, and we’ll go and raid other places and so forth and make this pseudo kind of relationship with the king that maybe can be used some day.” He didn’t know what to do fully, but when he had major decisions to make you know what he did? He went before God and said, “Should I do this, or shouldn’t I?” God was always in the picture. Always! God should always be in the picture with us day by day by day, every day. The day that He’s not there, it’s not good.

So again, we need to be able to place ourselves in these situations as well and to learn from it, to realize what God was doing there and how much more in our lives. Because that was David being worked with singularly, and for us it’s a body, it’s a Church and we have fellowship with one another, God’s people who have His holy spirit in them.

Have to be careful in how we think about that, that we don’t let carnal human nature in to interfere in that. To learn to truly love each other, to have great desire for one another to succeed, to come through these things. Patience, whatever it might be. Mercy, whatever it might be that you must exercise. To live God’s way of life. Because that’s what it’s about, each one of us living God’s way of life.

They said, You shall shepherd My people Israel and be ruler over Israel. Therefore, all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and king David made a treaty with them before, again, in Hebron before the Eternal. And there they anointed David king over Israel.

Now this is their acceptance of that and making it clear that this is what they desire, their part of it as well. He’d already been anointed by the one he needed to be anointed by long before this, Samuel. But David wasn’t presumptuous, and he waited until God did what He would do to bring things to pass that He said.

We’re living through those kinds of things and it’s happened to many who have gone before us. There are things you do, you continue to follow God keeping your focus on God and relation, a desire to be close to God, a desire to conquer and overcome sin, a desire to continue in that relationship.

There they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign. That’s an amazing thing. When God molds and fashions us, it’s not a matter of age. It doesn’t matter what the age is. When God has a purpose and God has a design there are things that He will work in people’s lives.

I think of the marvel of Christ and the disciples, young men. I think of Daniel, young man when God began to work with him, teenagers. How God works in our lives and if we just continue on a certain path and yield to God and want what God has to offer, He continues to work with us and He has a place for us. He begins to work with us to place us in wherever He wills.

That will always be more exciting than we can comprehend, more fulfilling than we could ever begin to understand now at least, later on to grasp it more fully in time. But when it’s a matter of God being involved, it’s big. It’s always big, bigger than what we can comprehend.

David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for forty years. He died at seventy. Incredible. The life he lived, the things he went through, the things he experienced after he was even king over all of Israel? Much to be learned from all those things as well and we don’t even have time right in this series to go through all the different kinds of stories, but we’ll go through some as it pertains to what we’re focusing upon now. I don’t really know what all that is yet, but it will be there.

It’s incredible, a man’s story of things that happened to teach the Church today. It’s a beautiful thing, it really is.

Even though the story of David’s life and him being made king over Israel is a kind of prophetic type, again, of God’s work to establish Israel, because that’s the greater picture. Just as we read about in Acts about this relationship between Yahweh and His Son, Joshua, and all that was meant there and all that was recorded. Yet David having such a big part in those things as a prophet in what was written and what he lived and the lessons to be learned from all that.

All that he wrote in the Psalms, absolutely mindboggling. We’re going to read some Psalms next Sabbath because we don’t have time this Sabbath. Inspiring things that God has given that sometimes we only unlock a little bit here and there. There are tons written in the Psalms that we do not yet know. There are things in the Psalms that will not be revealed until the Millennium, things that we don’t see, things that we can’t grasp yet because God hasn’t given it yet. God reveals things in His time, in His purpose, in the process of molding and fashioning. It’s incredible.

But again here, it was something being built physically and what God is building is spiritual. This is much better, being a part of that which is spiritual. A physical building, physical things, they come and they go. But we’re to last forever if we yield to God. Truly.

So again, David’s life reflects much of all this of this process, of how God was working with him as a matter of patience and purpose that God works to transform us and how God was working with him, as I mentioned earlier on, and how He’s working with us to transform us and why we have to go through the things we do over a longer period of time and choices that are always before us. But what a mind to constantly choose God.

The reason you’re here is because you’ve been continuing to do that, and if you ever lose that focus you will lose it. It’s as simple as that. You have to fight for that too. David had to fight. He had to enter into battles. He had to fight. He had to fight physical battles, but he had to fight spiritual ones too, and that, especially when he was king.

David’s life as king reflects much about this process of life that is used to mold, to transform us as God works with us to establish His family, to establish Israel.

2 Samuel 5:5—In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah. I love this, again, thinking about the words “Israel,” again, being that compound word “God strives.” “God perseveres.” God has done that for 6,000 years with mankind, long before within the angelic realm and things that took place. But what is taking place here is the greatest of it all because it’s about His family.

I think of that mind and that’s what we have to yield to and that’s what we have to do. We have to persevere and learn from that, of what God has done. I think of the sermon at one time given that began the process of discussing it, of how God sacrificed, which was given at a Feast of Tabernacles. How God has sacrificed so much through time knowing what was going to take place and why it had to take place. Sacrificed peace and desires peace, is creating peace. But a lot had to happen. Maybe for billions of years.

We don’t know for how long that’s been going on, and yet we, too, are to learn from that. We have to sacrifice a lot in order to have and receive that peace. As I’ve talked about, to get away from the drama. I hope we really hate drama. Because the more you hate drama the more you’re going to love peace and work for it. Because it’s worth working for.

So again here, God perseveres, God strives, and we have to as well, don’t we? To yield to that.

Then the king and his men, soldiers of his army, in other words, went to Jerusalem. Now, it was called “Jebus” at that time. It was under the Canaanites, particular tribe, group of people of the Canaanites, the Jebusites, and this is what it’s talking about. So, at this time here this is how it was known to those who had been there.

There was that period of time that – it’s an interesting story here of some of the things that took place – because when they came into the promised land under Joshua they were to go out and destroy and kill all. This is one area they couldn’t conquer fully. There were those of the Jebusites who were in a mountainous area there, hilly, strong high region, in some of those areas that were hard to get to all of them to destroy them all. They went on killing other areas, in other areas, the leaders and so forth, the kings at that time they’d killed. But there were some who escaped at that time and they lived on then in that particular area in this particular strong hold and it’s known for that.

Again here, known as the Jebusites, Canaanites. It says, they went up to Jerusalem. So, certain names that were there that some of these things are written looking back and recording what took place even when names changed later on. Here is the case where it wasn’t known as Jerusalem, per se, it’s referred to by writing later on and so that’s how they referred to things.

Just like God’s name. You go back in scripture and read about Yahweh Elohim and some of the words. I think of Exodus 3, I believe it is, where God is talking to Moses and saying that He wasn’t always known by His name, by those who had gone before. He wasn’t known by that as far as Abraham was concerned or as far as Noah was concerned, or others with whom He had worked with. He hadn’t revealed Himself by His fuller name. But yet, that name is used when you go back to Genesis because they’re writing about some of those things looking back and who they’re referring to, and so it’s clear and that’s how scripture was written. But God making it very clear that wasn’t there.

The same thing is true with different cities and locations and so forth. At times you’ll find something like this that’s referred to as Jerusalem and everybody knows what it’s talking about here, but that’s not what it was known of in some of these cases.

Then the king and his men went to Jerusalem; it was called “Jebus” at that time. …against the Jebusite, the inhabitants of the land, who sent word to David, saying… Now, well, they were quite haughty. They were quite comfortable in believing that David had no ability to take them, because after all, Joshua and that huge military (it was huge when it came into the land), and they couldn’t take them, root them out totally. So, they were pretty confident, little overly confident.

Who sent word to David saying, If you do not turn away, the blind and the lame will keep you from coming here. That’s what he was saying. Some of these are really poorly translated but that’s what they were saying. They were taunting David and saying, “You can’t take us.” Because that’s what it goes on to say, …because they thought David could not come in there, that he couldn’t take them. This is why they were acting this way. Overconfident indeed. They sent this message to David, taunting him, “The blind and the lame will take care of you.” That’s who’ll be out there in front.

Anyway, that’s why David responds in some of the things he had to say. Nevertheless, it says, David took the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David). Some of these words that begin to be thrown in there, because it begins to show a greater plan and purpose that God has for establishing Israel. Not about a physical nation. It’s not about a physical establishment, though these things are there to teach us and we can learn lessons from them, to understand the greater purpose and focus that God has and has had for so very, very long.

Verse 8—Now, David said on that day, Who will go and climb up by the way of the water shaft and strike down the Jebusites (the lame and the blind, who hate David’s life)? That’s what it’s talking about here. It’s not about something, in that respect, that David hated. It’s about this thinking here; they’re taunting David, they’re undermining David. This is what he’s saying. “We’re going up. Who is going to go up by this way and start the slaughter,” if you will, “this killing?”

I want to read 1 Chronicles 11. I’ll just read it, verse 6-7. You don’t need to turn there. Because it adds a little bit more that’s written in the Chronicles. Now, David said, Whoever attacks the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain. So, this is what it’s referring back to and this is how some mistranslate. And you’ll find, if you look in your Bible, sometimes it’s written differently there, italicized on the letters, and it’s not really what’s written there. But they’ve taken something out of Chronicles and brought it into here when that’s not the entire story.

So anyway, this is the rest of the story. So, David said, Whoever attacks the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain. So, Joab, the son of Zeruiah… Joab, there he is again, the nephew. He’s out front. Here he is, he’s ready to go, he’s ready to attack. He’s been this kind of a person, he’s been gaining in strength and purpose and service to David.

So, Joab, the son of Zeruiah, went up first and became chief. Then David dwelt in that stronghold, therefore, they called it the City of David. So, this is when it began to take on it’s name as the City of David.

2 Samuel, verse 5. Well, let’s stop there. We’ll continue on. Incredible stories here of things that God did to establish the nation, to establish David as king over Israel. Again, so many lessons that we don’t even have time to begin to touch on that happened in his life. Incredible.

[1] https://www.axios.com/un-2021-catastrophic-covid-humanitarian-crises-b19e05d0-a8bd-4b0e-b509-c99e642b8b24.html

[2] https://laptrinhx.com/beyond-repair-sino-us-relations-badly-damaged-warns-china-state-media-3395455297/

[3] https://laptrinhx.com/around-the-world-in-two-hours-chinese-scientists-test-revolutionary-hypersonic-engine-3746365316/

[4] https://www.debka.com/while-harping-on-the-nuclear-issue-iran-builds-more-precise-missiles-and-uses-them/

[5] https://www.rt.com/news/508997-china-countermeasures-us-sanctions/

[6] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-07/over-110-000-restaurants-have-closed-with-sector-in-free-fall

[7] https://www.arabnews24.ca/en/World_news/110003.html

[8] https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/record-61-restaurants-35-small-businesses-cant-pay-december-rent

[9] https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/new-covid-19-strain-features-23177387