2 Samuel, Chapter 8 - God First | Prophets of Israel Daily

Shalom friends. Welcome back to the Prophets of Israel Daily. This is brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at the land of Isisrael.com. I am on the road right now traveling from Montana all the way to Miami. I I think that I'm somewhere in South Dakota right now on my way to Colorado. But we would not miss this opportunity because I see all over the country how many people are benefiting and enjoying the prophets of Israel daily. So Ari, you should know all of our efforts, all of our time. It is truly a blessing to people all across the United States and I get mails from people all around the world. So that's really a marvelous thing. How's it going in Israel? >> It's going great. I go to Jerusalem, go to Judea, you know, all around the place, people are coming up to me, prophets of Israel daily. It's really people are hooked in. Thank God. And so am I. And so am I. So let's dive in, Jeremy. >> All right, let's go. You know what's beautiful about what we're doing now is that it's not just a verse taken out of context. It's really telling the story of King David. It's a narrative. It's not also we're not watching a cartoon of David on Amazon or a Hollywood version. It's the real David, a man of amuna, a faith, a man of war, the man carrying the destiny of Israel on his shoulders. And to really understand what happens now in chapter 8, we have to remember where we left off in chapter 7 because it's the key to everything that follows. In chapter 7, David is finally settled in his palace. The wars have quieted down. His heart's deepest yearning rises up. I want to build a temple. I want to build a house for God. Here I am living in this palace of cedar. And he says, while the ark of God is still sitting in a tent. And God answers, well, it's a little bit bittersweet. He says, "David, you're not going to build me a house. Instead, I'm going to build you a house, an eternal dynasty, and your son will build my temple." And so, hold that in your mind because here is the heart of who David is. The moment he reaches the height of achievement in worldly terms, no enemies, victory, prosperity, a palace, his one yearning is to build a home for God. That has always been David's deepest desire to put God first. And here in chapter 8, it's the rest of the story. It's the chapter where David clears the board. Verse one. And it came to pass afterward that David smoked the Philistines and subdued them. And it came to pass afterwards David goes out and finishes the work. Is he going to accomplish his ultimate goal in life? No. That's just simply not his destiny. David accepts it. And what he does do next is he does the very next thing that the best king could do. He is going to be the best king he possibly can for Israel with no regard for the outcomes. So he strikes the Philistines, Israel's tormentor for generations, the enemy who killed King Saul, and he subdues them at last. Then Moav, David divides the Moabitete captives by a 2:1 ratio, killing 2/3 and sparing a third. And at first, it sounds harsh and then looking into the midash, it says that when David was escaping Saul, he requested that Moab take in his parents, Moav betrayed David, killed his family, killed all of his brothers except for one. And this was David's payback. And then verses 3 through8, the big one, king of Sova, up by the Euphrates and the Arameans of Damascus, they called them to help. David defeats them all, takes their chariots and horsemen, captures enormous amounts of gold and bronze. And this area, it's the northern part of the land of Israel, a bit northeast of modern Israel. In today's map, you're looking at southern, central, Syria, and maybe the eastern parts of Lebanon. And victory after victory. There's north, south, east. The borders of Israel expand to sweep the nation in a way that they've never known. And this is the peak. And by now, the world recognizes King David has arrived. Yeah, Jeremy, I want to stop there for a second because on that word afterwards because I really think that the order of these two chapters is the whole point. And it's sort of easy to miss that. Just think about how a normal king story would be told. First, you conquer everything. First, you secure the borders. You defeat every enemy. You fill the treasury. Then once you're safe and rich and have nothing left to worry about, then maybe you turn to God and build him something nice with the leftover gold. God comes last usually, right? God is the luxury you get to once the real work is done. But the Tanakh deliberately tells David's story in the opposite order. Chapter 7, the yearning to build God's house, comes before chapter 8, before the conquests are even finished. David's hunger to put God at the center doesn't wait for the victories. It comes first and the victories comes afterwards. And I really think that reordering is a big part of the spiritual revolution of who David is. Most of us live our lives saying, "Let me get established first. Let me get secure first. Let me handle everything first, and then I'll make room for God." And most often that first never comes. But David flips it. He puts God at the center while the work is still unfinished and there's still enemies out in the field on the battlefronts. Right? The the God- centeredness isn't the reward at the end of the success. It's the foundation underneath the whole thing. You know, that's exactly it. I mean, everything about David's motivation was always so God- centered. And now, you look at what David does with all of the gold and bronze that he captures because it proves your point completely. He captures the golden shields of Khadzar's officers, the vast amounts of bronze from the conquered cities. A normal king lines his own palace with it. But if you look at verses 10 and 11, look at what it says. These also King David dedicated to the Lord with the silver and gold that he dedicated from all the nations which he subdued. Hikadish, he made it holy. He dedicated it to a temple that he wasn't going to build, but he was going to do everything in his power to lay whatever foundations he needed for the temple to be built. So, every nation David conquers, every treasure he captures, he sets it aside for Hashem. And friends, here is what is so beautiful about David. He's been told he won't build the temple himself. His son will. So, what does David do? He spends his entire reign gathering the gold and bronze and silver of empires and consecrating it, storing it up so that Solomon when he's ready, the materials to build God's house are already there and they're already holy. I mean, every battle David fights become a brick in the temple that he'll never build in the temple he'll never see. But as he sees it, David is going to do as much as he possibly can to be a part of the greatest project on planet Earth. >> And Jeremy, I just want to say that that really is a very powerful thing. And it's powerful because of when David's doing it. Think about it. Hashem explicitly told David, "It won't be you. You will not build my house." That's the dream of his life. And the answer is no. Not you, your son. And how does David respond to being told no? Is he uh does he sulk? Does he say, "Well, if I don't get to build it, I'm not I'm not going to do the work. I'm not going to lift a finger." That's how I imagine many people would react. If I won't see the fruit, why plant the tree? Instead, David spends the rest of his life quietly gathering the materials, like you said, building someone uh putting it together so someone else is going to be having the glory of completing it. He fights the wars. He wins the gold. Sanctifies it. Stockpiles it all for the temple that will rise after he's gone with another man's name, albeit his son, but another man's name on the dedication. That is one of the rarest forms of greatness that there is to pour your whole life into a foundation you'll never stand on. And I think the the deepest meaning of putting God first is really is really right there. It's not just about sequence, God before success. It's about subduing the ego. David wanted to build the house himself. He wanted to be associated with it personally and he was willing to surrender even that to do the unglamorous, invisible work of preparing so that Hashem's house would be built whether or not he gets the credit. He cared more that the temple rise than that he be the one to raise it. And that is a man who's who has genuinely made it about God and not about himself. >> Yeah, that's really beautiful. Sorry. You know, in the chapter, it doesn't end on the battlefield or in the treasury. It ends with a verse that sums up the beating heart of the kingdom of God that's finally coming to be. Verse 15, David Israel. And David reigned over all Israel. And David executed justice and righteousness unto all his people. Mishbat, justice and righteousness for all his people. So friends, don't push past that after all the conquests, all the gold, all expanding the borders. The Tanakh tells us what David did with it. He didn't just use his power to enrich himself or to dominate it. He used it to do justice. The whole point of the strength that he had was to bring righteousness into the world. And then it lists his cabinet. Yoav over the army, Yhoshafhat the recorder, Sadok and Ebatar the priest. David builds the institutions of a just and functioning kingdom like power finally in the service of righteousness and Hashem. Well, I I think that final verse, Jeremy, is the seal on the chapter because it answers the question every conqueror in history, I think I think every conqueror in history really fails to answer, which is what is all this power actually for, right? The world is full of kings who won every battle and built nothing worth having. They subdued nations, they filled treasuries, expanded borders, and used it all for what? for their own glory and their own appetites. And then they die and they decompose and they're forgotten. And the Tanakh, having just spent 14 verses describing David's overwhelming military might, lands the whole thing on this. He did justice and righteousness for all his people. Not he was feared from the Euphrates to the Egypt to whatever. He was he was just. That's the verse the text chooses to define his reign. And my friends, here's the thread that I believe ties it all together. Chapter 7 to chapter 8. David put God first. And because he put God first, the power never became about him. The gold became God's. The victories became a foundation for God's house. And the throne became an instrument of justice for Hashem's people. When God is genuinely at the center, strength doesn't corrupt you. It gets concentrated. That's the difference between a David uh a King David in history once in generations and generations and every other strong man that the world has ever produced. >> Nori, that's a perfect way to articulate it. It's hard to even imagine a modern politically elected leader that truly puts God's first above all else. I mean, chapter 8 is a war chapter, a list of battles and conquered nations, but underneath it, it's teaching us David's relationship between his power and his purpose. You know, for David, greatness sometimes means pouring yourself into a temple you're never going to see finished. And that speaks to us in two directions at once in our days. Now, first in our own lives, I mean, every one of us is building something, a career, a family, a mission in the world. And the question David puts to us is the question of order. It's like, do we put God, righteousness, the things that actually matter? Do we put them first at the center when the work isn't finished yet? Or do we keep telling ourselves, you know, later once I'm established, once I'm secure, that's when I'll really focus on what matters. David teaches us to put first things first. What matters shouldn't be the grand finale at the end. It needs to be the foundation to start and to build on. And second, the message to Israel. I mean, look where we are. David. I mean, he we have come into our strength just like David came into his. A nation reborn, an army that's able to defend us on so many multiple fronts. I mean, the borders that we fought for, a prosperity that our grandparents could only dream of as they were draining the swamps. And chapter 8 puts to our entire generation the exact question put to David. Now that we have the country, we have the economy, we have the power, what is it for? Is it just for security and prosperity? Or do we look to David as our model and dedicate it and make it holy? Will we use our strength to build a nation of justice and righteousness with the presence of God in the heart of our national life? That's the choice. David won every war in this chapter, but the verse that crowned him wasn't about the conquest. It was justice and righteousness. And so, may we be the generation that earns that same verse. My friends, I'm moving across America every night. I'm in a different town. I'm speaking from Montana all the way to Miami. And people from all over the country are joining the land of Israel fellowship. It's so exciting. And I would love for you that's watching to join us as well. Join our global community. Learn with us. Communicate with us. Let's grow this movement together. Bringing the Torah from the land of Israel to the nations of the world. We would love to partner with you to come together and to shine a bright light that this dark world needs so much. Desraat Hashem, we will see you tomorrow for 2 Samuel chapter 9 and we will see you then.