while we're reviewing the book known as first chronicles and we're in chapters 18 18 through 21 which will focus on the Wars of David and just by way of background the Hebrew name for this book are the words concerning the days and Chronicles is considered one book in the Hebrew Bible which is in a reckoning in which sets up 22 books in the Old Testament one for each letter of the alphabet the Septuagint that is the Greek translation of the Old Testament calls it really the supplements because it views this very it's very much a supplement to second Samuel and first and second Kings in effect the latin vulgate called it the chromic on wheat from which we draw the english english sized version of that called chronicles the first and second Kings first second semaphore second Kings are the historical record from a political point of view first and second chronicles reviews that from a priestly or Levitical or I might say religious point of view and the the this followed Ezra and Nehemiah and probably and most people suspect that that was compiled by Ezra after they returned from the exile in Babylon but now they take the form of a history the early chapters are pretty dreary because there's long lists of names but it starts in fact with Adam goes all the way through the death of Saul simply with the genealogy and some fragmentary segments it ends the the first and second chronicles will end with the decree of Cyrus when he conquers Babel and then frees the Jews to go back when the Exile is and over they go back and the history would be picked up by Ezra and Nehemiah and David and Judith are the focal points for lots of good reasons not the least of which it's setting the background for the ruler of the planet Earth because date God committed to David that his son would be great great great great great grandson would be the would be thus option Kingdom it would have no end on the planet earth and so so we're setting the background there now you look at a timeline if you're familiar I learned the Bible 24 hour product you're familiar with this timeline and the monarchy of course started with Saul and first-first and Samuel takes you to the end of Saul beginning of David ii same it gives you the career of david first kings picks it up with solomon and carries it through a path for a good portion of the southern kingdom and second Kings takes it to the Babylonian exile and now and they break about the difference between Elijah and Elijah of the two two prophets the Book of Chronicles parallels the first chronicle really parallel it's pretty much second Samuel as we'll see but second Chronicles will carry it from Solomon to the end of the Exile and so the first first chronicles really is establishing the Davidic dynasty but the second Chronicles takes it from the death of David on to to the Exile so that's a it's a parallel to to the Samuel Kings Chronicle in fact it's almost like an appendix you really to really get the most out of this book you should have already been through second Sammy and for second Kings because it has a lot more detail but here the writer the chronicler selects certain things to amplify and emphasize and it's surprising what he omits and we'll get to that tonight some of it now the first nine chapters of chronicles are simply a genealogy they're little nuggets in there but it's it's it's pretty dreary reading because most of those names you have never heard of and even if you research them you'll find they don't have a lot of visibility in the Bible elsewhere but one of the inferences we can draw is that God has a record of all his people as people are numbered and you're in that number I trust okay hope you trust okay the reign of David then is from first ten to twenty nine in other words first Chronicles is the genealogies and the reign of David himself the Davidic dynasty starting the Solomon on is what second chronicles all about Solomon himself for the first nine chapters and the Davidic dynasty through to the end and of course we're in in this portion of the reign of David it's a very summary recount it's not a detailed we count if you want the details you go back to first Kings and so on and so it's just another slice of that whole thing now one of the things that we covered last time in previous sessions is the Davidic covenant it's detailed for you in 2nd Samuel 7 but it's obviously recorded also in chronicles but it's we can't over emphasize its importance the that covenant affects everything that follows it not only in the scriptures of course but also in all of mankind the challenge of the world today is a challenge to that Davidic covenant whether they realize it or not there's a divine confirmation of the throne in Israel the perpetuity of Davidic dynasty it would go on forever and the fact that it is unconditional many many churches fail to really countenance the fact that there's nothing they could do to forfeit it if they try gabriel promised mary that her child would sit on the throne of david throne of David did not exist in that year at that time so this has profound messianic implications obviously and so this thread of commitment by God starts of course in Eden with the promise of the seat of the woman where he indicates that he's going to use the human race to redeem the entire creation not only that as we get to Genesis 15 and then 17 he focuses on Abraham that it would come through a specific nation and within that nation with Jacob the tribe and then the tribe of Judah and then David the family the Abrahamic covenant is really where our covenant studies should begin in Genesis actually 12 when he's called but then Genesis 15 and 17 with Abrahamic covenant that and David then Judah and of course David was anointed by Samuel in in reference to this covenant David is very aware of his election and that's amplified especially in his Psalm Psalm 2 which is really a portrayal of what you might call a trilogue ad a dialogue if you will between the father son of the Holy Ghost and some hundred and ten and so forth and obviously the prophets throughout the Tanakh throughout the Old Testament a test to a Davidic Messiah the term Messiah and the Son of David are virtually synonyms now David's family he of course was the son of Jesse and but he had a in effect a half sister and a half two half sisters that get mentioned in the scripture and there that gives rise to some nephews and Joab is one of those in a by shy is one of those a couple of those nephews we're gonna see them a lot in David's Wars because joke Joab is the leader and Misha is also a key player in the wars we're gonna look at now David made a mistake of course we talked about this before Saul by way of review contrary to what the scripture instructs us he took a number of wives and from those wives he had a number of different sons obviously and he had more sons than are listed here from other wives and concubines but the two critical ones will turn out to be Solomon and Nathan the Solomon the first surviving son of Bathsheba and Nathan the second surviving son of Bathsheba not to be confused with the Prophet Nathan there's a couple other Nathan's in the text they're going to be both important because Solomon is the link that Matthew uses to build the legal inheritance - Jesus Christ nathan is the link that Luke uses to come down through Mary the bloodline so that Christ has both the legal and the bloodline linkage and so that's all by way of just some of the highlights of what we talked out let's jump in then tonight in chapter 18 and we're going to be in the next few chapters about wars of David we're in deal with a Philistine several times three major incursions the Moabites the Arameans and their remains are what you and I would think of as Syria to some extent and the okay now at his peak just looking ahead to give you a perspective here David is going to turn out to be an outstanding warrior he's very clever he's a great general he subdues the Philistines to the west I'll give you Shirley's on a map in a minute and that was Saul's nemesis in fact it almost continues to be a nemesis although David finally gets them under control the Syrians and head of these are in the north the ammonites and Moabites to the east think of them as the area that we think of today is Jordan and the of the Amalekites to the south south east actually and David is also a remarkable administrator we're going to see that in the next session especially as he organizes the Levites and the singers and so forth in fact a couple of things just to anticipate there as David organizes that we will discover in second chronicles of verse highlights the fact that God gave him not only the plans for the temple he designed the temple and he paid all the bills in advance Solomon builded but David prepared the way prepared at all but God not only gave David the plans for the temple that's important to understand he also gave David the organization that we want to study that very carefully because part of it has a profound it creates a profound insight to the book of Revelation and we'll talk about that when we get there now as if that wasn't enough David was also a major poet he didn't just write poetry he's one of the most prolific of their poets and a songwriter he wrote pretty much the bulk of the hymnal the national hymn o of Israel so he's quite a guy well it's Kingdom of course the kingdom proper you can see on the map here from north to south but the vassal states the Philistines and Ammon and the Hema up north eventually become vassal states doesn't recon for them but they become subservient to him and then there's a acknowledged as right sovereignty over the air man's Moab and Edom as a result of these wars during so David's Kingdom is very substantial brought about by his military skill and I shouldn't say it that way because it was not his military skill actually it was God did it but he did it but he did this in ways that they used a very very effective military to accomplish these goals anyway first chronicles 8 verse 1 a first chronicles 18 verse 1 now after this it came to pass the David smote the Philistines and subdued them and took gaff in her towns out of the land of the Philistines last time we were together we talked about the five towns of the Philistines Gaza GAF ekron hashed rod mescaline and the the humorous aspect of the of the golden hemorrhoids and so on but we'll go on for we will get out of here tonight if you haven't been through that if you want to have evidence of God as a sense of humor you've got to check that Oh anyway and he smote Moab the mow lights became David's servants and brought gifts and what relationship with David have to the Moabites anyone one walter who was his great-great-great grandmother Ruth Ruth was a Moabite us Ruth and Boaz there was their fields that the Shepherd's were in the night that cheese was met was born and it was a mob itis that ends up linking the town of Bethlehem to the line of David that's why Joseph Mary had to go to Bethlehem to register because it was that was there that was a linkage anyway but anyway they became David's servants brought gifts and David smooth had a razor the king of Zola at Hema that swept north as he went to establish his Dominion by the river Euphrates and so this description here is very summary if you read 2nd samuel 8 you'll find a much more detailed and harsher reckoning of all of this and so the salmon spoke of david systematic slaughter of two-thirds of the population of moab and and but here the the that passed over lightly here is just by way of summary here and david took from him a thousand chariots and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand footmen david also hold all the chariot horses but reserved of them one hundred chariots and when the syrians of damascus came to help had her either the king of Zopa david slew of the syrians two and twenty thousand men you know we glibly read these verses but you're talking major military operations here by anybody standard slaughtering twenty-two thousand is a that's a big number and anyone's vocabulary then David put Garrison's in Syria Damascus and the Syrians became David's servants and brought gifts thus the Lord preserved David whithersoever he went and I hope I won't be misunderstood david was a very very skilled general and we need to recognize that that's part of the picture here at the same time let's not make the same mistake david will make shortly in assuming that it was his skill that brought it about god is the one that gets the glory we need never lose sight of that at the same time we would be so focused on that we may not the some of the operational aspects of that and David took the shield's of gold that were on the servants of header either and brought them to Jerusalem likewise from tip F and from chin cities of Henry's er brought David very much brass wherewith Solomon made the brazen see the pillars and the vessels of brass just looking ahead when you get to the temple that which is outside the temple proper the nowis is brass and not just a few implements these two pillars gigantic bronze pillars have names and they're not holding anything up what are they there for that's it let your homework assignment find out what their names were why they're named that and what's their spiritual significance one of his name Boaz and the other Yaakov what's it all about I'll leave that with you we'll move on now when Tao king of humma I've heard how David had smitten all the hosts of Henry's or the king of zobo he said had Haram his son to King David to inquire of his welfare and to congratulate him because he had fought against Henry's ur and smitten him for had a razor had war with tau and with him all manner of vessels of gold and silver and brass them all so King David dedicated to the Lord with the silver and the gold that he brought from all these nations from Edom from Moab and from the children of Ammon and from the Philistines and from emilich moreover a Bosch I the son of Neriah slow of the in the valley of the salt 18-thousand it's going to go on here a little bit but sintering that David takes everything that he gets and dedicates it to the Lord pretty much and it's interesting that he has his nephew Abba shy his is one of the military commanders Joab is the big guy but average high is gonna be very prominent here and he takes he gets the credit for the in the valley of salt with 18,000 and put Garrison's and Edom and all the became David's servants thus the Lord preserved David whithersoever he was see the chronicler isn't detailing the operations are summarizing the conquest to give you he's setting the the groundwork here to understand David's David is reaching his peak as a way of trying to cover that so David reigned over all Israel and executed judgment and justice among all his people that's a very very profound important verse good guy and Joab the son of Zahra aya was over the host and Jehoshaphat the son of ila had the recorder and Zadok the son of ahead and Amalek the son of a defier where the priests and Yasha was the scribe and benaiah the son of jehoiada was over the chera thights and the Pella fights and of the sons of David were the chief about the king so we constantly get the military lineup which is important for the chronicler but unless they have special significance we won't take a lot of time on them we get we'll get to the background of the few but as we go chapter 19 we're going to double back on the ammonites here now it came to pass after this that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon died and that's interesting that the same way this topic was introduced in Samuel they used the same approach when that king died and his son reigned and instead David said I will show kindness unto her uh none the son of Nahas because his father showed kindness to me and David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father this is going to be a strange event here so the service of David came into the land of the children Amman to Hannam to comfort him sounds good so far doesn't it he had a a friend that just died his son's there he's going there sending his messengers to comfort him but the princes of the children Ammon said to none thinkest thou that David death honor thy father that he has sent comforters unto thee are not his servants come unto thee for to search and to overthrow and despite the land where for her none took David's servants and shaved them to a Jew that's a sign of disgrace and now that the Razr was not to touch there shave them and cut off their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks and put them away not a very hospitable way to treat ambassadors of the king then there went certain and told David how the men were served and he sent to meet them for the men were greatly ashamed the king said tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown and then returned I assume also they probably got some new uniforms but now and when the children Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David huh none of the children Hammond sent a thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia and out of Syria macaque and out of Zorba Mesopotamia is but is far to the east it's but the return means between the two rivers between the Euphrates and the Tigris and so there they have been done better to send that thousands of talents to David as an apology but rather they used that money to hire mercenaries so to speak to help them so they hired thirty and two thousand chariots that's a lot of chariots and the king of Maha and his people who came and pitched before a medibot and the children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities and came to battle and when David heard of it he sent Joab and all the hosts of the mighty men now we've been in we've been through those several groups of thirty that were the elite the Republican Guard if you will or whatever and the children Hammond came out and put the band put the battle in array before the gate of the city and the Kings that were come were by themselves in the field now enjoyed saw that the battle was set against him before and behind he chose out of all the choice of Israel and put them in array against the Syrians that's the one he sweated first and the rest of the people he delivered into the hand of a bee-sh I his brother and they set themselves in array against the children of Ammon so salmon to the south Syrian to the north and he said if the Syrians be too strong for me then I shall help me but if the children Hammond be too strong for thee then I will help thee but be of good courage and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people for the cities of our God let the Lord do that which is good in his sight and job in the people that were with him Doon I before the Syrians under battle and they fled before him so they had confidence in the Lord that's where the confidence should rest and the ammonites retreated to the security of their fortifications fortified city a trauma and when the children saw that the Syrians that were fled they likewise fled before a be shy his brother and enter into the city that's their fort if you will then job came to Jerusalem and when the Syrians saw that they were put to the worst before Israel they sent messengers and drew forth the Syrians that were beyond the river and show her and the captain of the host of Henry's er went before them and it was told David he gathered all Israel and passed over the Jordan and came upon them and set the battle in array against them so when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians they fought with him but the Syrians fled before Israel and David slew of the Syrians 7,000 men which fought in chariots and 40000 footmen and killed choukaku and the captain of the host when the servants of had a razor saw that they were put to the worst before Israel they made peace with David high time and became his servants neither would the Syrians help the children of ammon anymore that became a problem between Isis pect okay let's get back to the Felicity's in chapter 20 came to pass that after the year was expired at the time that Kings go out to battle job led forth the power of the army and wasted the country of the children Amman and came in besieged rubba but David Terry to Jerusalem and Joab smote raba and destroyed it now it's interesting this is where if you are going to deal with David staying at Jerusalem while Joab is out there fighting this is where you would expect to see an account of the the the business with Bathsheba if you want to read that you've got to go back to 2nd Samuel second Samuel 11 it's interesting that the chronicler didn't deal with that because from his point of view that was a personal sin it wasn't something God forgave him and but yeah he says will be remembered no more and so forth so it's not a it was not regarded as material to the purpose of the chronicler which of course has established the background to the Davidic dynasty and so it's interesting that it's not mentioned here that's where you'd expected David took the crown of their King which by the way weighed 75 pounds according to second Samuel took the crown of their King from off his head and found to weigh a talent of gold and there were precious stones in it and it was set up on David's head then he brought also exceeding much spoil out of the city and he brought up the people that were in it and cut them with saws and with the Haros of iron and with axes even so dealt David with all the cities of the children Haman and David and all the people returned to Jerusalem they didn't mess around do they it came to pass after this that there arose Ward geezer were the Philistines at which time civic I the who chef fight SLUSA pie which was of the children of the Giant and they were subdued we're going to keep hearing reference to the giant anak the sins were called the Anakim we're going to talk more about them because they're widely overlooked and misunderstood by most viable students let's continue and as war again with the Philistines and Hal ahem the son of Jer slew Lommy the brother of goliath the gittite whose spear staff was like a Weaver's beam i'll summarizes to the minute let's just go through it and yet again there was a war in goth where there was a man of great stature whose fingers and toes were four and 26 on each hand and six on each foot and he also was the son of the giant and when he defied Israel Jonathan the son of shimmy-shimmy a David's brother slew him these were born into the Giant and Gath and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants so if you're reading your Bible kids a couple of giants they knocked them off let's talk about this you may call when David was a kid and his father Jesse sent him to bring food to the his older brothers that were with the army and at that time there was a big challenge by a Goliath you all know the story of course and young David is quite upset that no one stepped accepting the challenge on behalf of Zinn they're all sitting there quivering on their boots so David steps up to handle it so I'll offers him his armor but David realizes he can't handle that he's just to get he's not he's not used to dealing with military armor so but he's what he's used to doing is a sling as a shepherd boy but as it crosses the brook he picks up five stones five everybody misses that verse forty of First Samuel 17 that is if you read that story carefully he picks up five stones smooth stones put some in his pouch and it takes on Goliath how many stones did he need for Goliath one right between the eyes brought him down he used Goliath's sword to cut his head off many people missed the fact that Goliath had four brothers I think if he had five brothers David would have picked up six stones David killed Goliath how many knew that before he got here about 80% okay that's pretty good all right another of the jaws brothers was issued men table which David was almost killed by a be shy saves David's life by killing it Sheba knob second one sipara is killed by another of david's mighty men civic i and la me is killed by l Hanan and there is a fourth brother of goliath he's not named in the text but he's the one that they D through that with the six fingers six toes etc they all may have had that for that matter Jonathan Davis nephew kills him that was all what we just read in Chronicles summarized you'll find the details in second samuel 21 but this gives rise to a whole nother thing i'm going to suggest to you that many people fail to understand major portions of the Old Testament because they haven't done their homework in Genesis 6 so we won't just touch on who on earth are the refined all through the Old Testament you will find four tribes mentioned sometimes generalized as the ref a meme but they also have specific names as MZ Miam the EMA goes well here we'll get in a minute but who are earth were they to understand the ref I mean it appears to be a virtually a synonym for what's called also in the Old Testament than the filum or the Nephilim and it takes you into Genesis 6 now everybody study Genesis 6 knows about these strange creatures that were apparently hybrids between fallen angels and women that's a view we'll touch on here in a minute but what many people overlook in verse 4 of Genesis 6 these were not only before the flood they were also after that so this whatever was going on in Genesis 6 apparently happened to a lesser extent but happened again after that when Moses sends the 12 spies into the Promised Land we all know the story how 10 of them came back terrified two of them Joshua and Caleb said hey the Lord's on our side let's go get it it's a wonderful land etc you all know the story if you notice carefully in numbers 1333 it says there we saw the Nephilim the sons of anak which came of the Nephilim and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers so where were we in their sight now most of us take that as a ridiculous exaggeration but maybe it wasn't because we have other text indicates that some of these Nephilim were 13 feet 6 inches they're not they're not just you know a little oversized and they're very strange and in Genesis chapter 6 is what came to pass when men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair and they took them wives of all which they chose but most people miss in the in Genesis six is the first two verses are a single sentence when men in general began to multiply and daughters in general were born to them that the benaiah hello team we'll get into that term very strange turn it's used in the Old Testament always of a direct creation of God namely angels and the in it's that we used in job a New Testament Luke even Book of Enoch which is not a part of the Bible but it is a sound guide for vocabulary sentence structure and the beliefs of the rabbis from 200 BC to about 200 AD and also the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament makes it very very clear that what we have here are fallen angels in effect and so the sons of God saw the daughters of men and they were daughters of men not just there were daughters but not domme daughters of Adam there has been a view to try to make them just the daughters of Seth but that twists the text if you will and so the Neph there were Nephilim in the on the earth in those days and the word Nephilim means the fallen ones it comes from the Hebrew verb in the fall to befall or cast away or desert these are fallen angels from them also came the Berean the mighty ones and the Septuagint make it uses the term Gigantes in which is transliterated as of giants they were giants but that's not what the word means the word actually comes from Jigga's which means earth born so from one point of view of their fallen ones and the other point of view their earth born okay and also after that not just before the flood and that's I encourage you to review your notes on Genesis 6 because that's essential background for what we're going to get into in verse 9 of Genesis the generations of Noah Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations that and what does that mean the word perfect is to mean it means without blemish and speaking of his genealogy was without blemish sound helpful without spot unimpaired um one of the distinctives of noah was that he was unblemished by these shenanigans that satan had undertaken to try to corrupt the human race to prevent a messiah the new testament this you always want to make sure you don't want to build your views on a single verse in the mouth of two or three witnesses is the ground rule all through the Torah we'll find this whole view that angel view what I'll call the what I'm presenting to you is the ain't what's called the angel view of Genesis 6 you'll find confirmed in Jude 6 and 7 first Peter 3 and second Peter 2 and in Jude verse 6 and 7 it speaks of the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of that great day in other words these particular fallen angels that participate in this have a very specific incarceration awaiting the last days he goes on even in Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh so see these angels left their own habitation I'll come back to that word in the Greek in a minute and they went after strange flesh so that was inappropriate for them the word habitation in the Greek is ocut Aryan it's translated avocation it only appears twice in the Bible in Jude 6 and second Corinthians 5 - in Jude 6 of course it's referring to that which the Fallen Angels disrobed from in 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 2 it's the the state that you and I aspire to in our resurrection bodies where this weak groan Paul says earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house a bond with our house which is from heaven and the word house there's habitation it's actually the same word ok terian so it may be a technical term for something very specific second Peter 2 says much the same thing for if God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Tartarus very troublesome word because it doesn't fare anywhere else in the Bible but it's very widely used within Greek literature or Quebec let him down TARDIS and delivered them into chains of Darkness to be reserved in a judgment and spared not the old world but saved no one goes on 80 ties this event to the days of Noah interestingly enough but the word Tartarus is troublesome it's translated hell typically in your Bibles but it's actually a Greek term for a dark abode of woe a pit of darkness in the unseen world in Homer's Iliad is described as being as far below Hades as the earth is below heaven Wow I don't know what it is but the Greek term is obviously in the case some place that I don't want to go okay it's interesting how this view is embodied in the mythology of every ancient culture on the planet Earth the Greek titans partly terrestrial partly celestial those are Nephilim they rebelled against their father Uranus in their mythology after prolonged contests they were defeated by Zeus and condemned into Tartarus that's where that word occurs in their mythology the angel view is the view that's held by the typical rabbinical literature it's also the amplified in the Book of Enoch 2nd century BC which is not inspired don't miss it don't miss understand that it's not part of the Canon but it does embody the rabbinical views of that period the testimony of the 12 patriarchs likewise Josephus Flavius and the Septuagint all endorsed support this view that I've mentioned the early church fathers Philo Justin Martyr Irenaeus and the rest of them modern scholarship gh Pember Dion McIntosh Tillich able in pink barn house Morris hungar Brockton Bell and and some other of our contemporaries that are conserved scholars see this a view not all some have a different view there is a view that's more comfortable that's taught in most seminaries strangely enough called this the south I'd view which argues that what's really in view here that the the the sons of God were the the godly line in the line of Seth and what they were what they were what they did they intermixed with the line of Cain and so forth and they try to they have a whole thing they try to build out of that well the problem with is tech that's twist the text itself it also implies that they were meant to keep separate lines of stuff in line of cane separation doesn't come for eleven chapters later it implies that the Semites were the godly ones and cane not so that's got it backwards because the first one to defy God was the son of Seth you know and it also inferred it infers that a canine subset of the Adam i'ts that it doesn't the the the the McCain enable distinctives are not implied in the text but the main problem has that does not the set view doesn't explain why the offspring would be unsupervised or but they're not monstrous they don't have six fingers and big and all that so so there's no explanation fair doesn't see it set view ignores the New Testament confirmations this but the reason I'm getting into this tonight is you will not understand a lot of the post-flood issues unless you understand that there were Nephilim not as extensive as that brought on the flood of Noah but when God when God told Abraham 10:17 but his descendants after four hundred years would come back to this land that gave Satan for centuries to lay down a minefield and there were certain tribes that Joshua was instructed to wipe out every man woman and child of certain tribes as a New Testament reader you read that as hard to take because we don't understand the problem it's the gene pool problem and so those are issues then it raises other questions who built the ancient monuments the Great Pyramid of Giza stone engine Britain these are all issues the circle of rephaim if you fly in the helicopter over the Golan Heights you'll see an unexcavated site called the Gilgal roughly and it has yet to really be discovered in any serious terms but it's believed by those that have looked at it that it was built by the referee some want more than four thousand years ago a five five circles containing 20-ton stones dated about 3,000 BC I guess I should say five thousand years ago build on a flat plateau it's only visible like I showed you from the air from the ground it doesn't look like much and we had a chance to go on a four by there were some friends and that just look at it so it's the post-flood Nephilim that we're dealing with they're called the rephaim the II mean the jaurim nizam zooming these are different labels by the Moabites the the ammonites by the lovely stripes I mentioned Genesis 1415 elsewhere then we have our BA and an ik and his seven sons known as the Anakim that were are encountered in Canaan in numbers 13 we looked at that all the king of Bashan is known as the king of the Giants and Bashan that what we call the Golan Heights up there his was their domain and Aude was their king and of course Goliath has four brothers are part of the picture that's what gives rise to this insert that I've chosen to insert here there's a little verse in Isaiah 26 that in the English doesn't quite reach you but it says they are dead they shall not live they are deceased they shall not rise therefore has thou visited and destroyed them and made all their memory to varnish what's he talkin about the word deceased there is the ref I mean this implies the ref I am are not eligible for resurrection why this Christ did not become a ref I am and died for them there a strange creature that's also one of the reasons I hold the view that a clone if you when they argue about human clones I don't believe a human clone can be saved because they're man-made anyway Satan had a lot of stratagems in Genesis 6 he corrupts Adams line in the hope of preventing Amaziah as God calls Abraham Abraham's seed are singled out by Satan as a target the famine in Genesis 50 the destruction of the male line in Exodus 1 Ferriss pursuit after he says go you can go ahead and go he changed his mind goes after the trying to wipe them out these are satanic attempts to try to wipe out God's plan the population of Canaan and as God now focuses on David the Messiah is going to be a son of David that allows Satan not of focuses his attack on the house of David we're going to see in second chronicles a joram kills his brothers but he misses one the Arabians slew all but one that's Araya again and again their servant catches a baby and hides it so it doesn't get that wipeout doesn't take place now falaya kills all but joash Hezekiah is assaulted and so forth Heyman's attempt in the days of the Persian Empire to wipe out every Jew and the Empire these are all satanic attempts to try to fort the plan of God in the New Testament Joseph spheres with Mary's going to put away privately for fear because of the situation Herod's attempts Matthew to wait or slaughters all the babes of Bethlehem very analogous at Nazareth when they tried to throw him off a cliff and there are two storms at the seat of MMSE and those were just not that was I don't believe we're normal natural storms because these fishermen that had venom as their native waters were terrified with what's going on and then of course the olive bone is a cross say well gee and of course we see a summary of all of this and in Revelation 12 so just review your revelation 12 notes for all us but the main point is Satan's not through he still had it he still thinks he can thwart the plan of God to understand his strategy you need to understand the plan of God how it was that well you know what were the spots and that's why Satan is specifically targeting the Jew and specifically the believing Jew what does the Golan Heights have run and the Gaza Strip have in common they're all areas that Joshua failed to exterminate the Rephaim if you and Deuteronomy 20 tells him to do it Joshua 14 and so forth and following he tries if you do a study of the book of Judges the generation after Joshua Joshua did a pretty good job doing the first step but there wasn't the follow-up the generation that followed him failed to completely defeat the the pockets of the Rephaim and if you study the book of Judges in the geographical thing you'll see the certain territories that they failed to seize and control those are the same territories that are contested today then tell me that demons aren't territorial that fascinating I think that's Jericho was that Yara the house of the moon-god where's the pl o--'s headquarters today Jericho how interesting Jesus on the cross is applied by some twenty two twelve sets something very strange as many boats have compass me the strong Bulls of Bashan have beset me round what on earth does that mean I have no idea but I do suspect that it has echoes somehow from the demon world okay enough of this let's get back to first Chronicles pick up chapter 21 David's major sin if I said to you what was David's major sin most you'd say well that was the thing with Bathsheba and killing Uriah absolutely from a personal point of view from a national point of view and that's why the chronicler spends a chapter on this one there's a more subtle perhaps but more terrifying result here David census Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel this is an editorial comment by the chronicler he's summarizing how did Satan do that I have no idea but somehow Satan success successfully got provoked David to number Israel would say gee what's wrong with that he's a military leader he ought to take a census find out what the Yeti needs to know how strong his forces are so forth it seems quite innocent to us naively but let's be careful and David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people go number Israel from bear Sheva even unto Dan and bring the number of them to me that I may know it bear Chevis wait in the south very desert II the University of them togethers down there and Dan of course is at the northern tip so it's like it's sort of like saying from California domain if you want or something sort of number them and job answered the Lord make his people a hundred times so many more as they be but my lord the King are they not all my Lords servants why then death my lord require this thing why will he be a cause of trespass to Israel Joab recognizes that this is not a kosher move this is Joe abbs words here indicate that he recognizes this is assertive this is David's pride talking nevertheless the Kings word prevailed against Joab wherefore joy departed and went throughout all Israel came to Jerusalem and job gave the sum of the number of the people unto David and all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and a hundred thousand men that drew the sword Wow and judo is four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew the sword it's using word Israel here for the northern Bunch in addition to Judah ok 1,100,000 in the north virtually a half a million four hundred seventy thousand in Judah itself David has you know Moses had a took a took a census The Book of Numbers she was told to and he did David has a million more than then Moses said the nurse Joab did not count the Levites or the Benjamites will find them omitted well Levi is not surprising because he was exempt from military duty in court numbers one but the Benjamin is just silent we just the the commentators presume that the census itself may have been frustrated before Benjamin could be counted jobs heart was probably not in it and it was a resistant kind of thing in any case Benjamin's not counted here because we and David's command was repulsive to job as we noticed now if you go to the Samuel account these don't quite jibe the the same accounting indicates that there were eight hundred thousand combat troops in Israel and five hundred thousand juda now the NIV picks up a little on this that the 1.1 in chronicles was all Israel included the 470,000 of Judah that would give that would give a total of 630 thousand for Israel proper so that gets a little closer the inner in thousand and second semi 24-9 might include an estimate of one hundred and seventy thousand Levites plus six hundred and thirty other Israelites that's another these are all different commentators try to reconcile that the numbers don't quite jibe between the two the five hundred thousands of judy ends of second segment could also include an estimate 30,000 Benjamites who are not counted by the chronicler these are all ways to try to reconcile the discrepancies the court another way to look at is the chroniclers grand total of a million one may have included a standing army of 300 thousand thus reducing the total to eight hundred thousand given in second Samuel and that helps explain why the chronicler detailed all those leaders of the of the top military guys the standing army the five hundred thousand Judeans given in 2nd Samuel may have included four hundred seventy of the first Chronicles along with a standing army of about thirty thousand so these are all attempts to reconcile the discrepancy but moving on the chronicles but Levi on Benjamin counted he not among them for the Kings word was abominable to joy and God was displeased with this thing therefore he smote Israel O David said unto God I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing but now I beseech they do away the iniquity of thy servant for I have done very foolishly this is the winning thing about David when he makes a mistake he acknowledges it and repents of it even Bathsheba when called on it he repented of it that's why God could say of David there's a man after my own heart not because he was perfect made mistakes but he repented of him he owned them he did what he could to make them right what was David doing wrong well because he was not delighting in the Lord he was delighting in his own right taking pride pride is always the enemy and it's the vulnerable trap for every one of us so the thing motivated the motivate him to number the people was the sin an awful sin of unbelief David was trusting numbers instead of trusting God and let me suggest that every one of us probably do that every day and don't realize its dangers if we're confronted with an adulterous situation it's pretty black-and-white we understand that that's wrong but this caused God in a sense as much if not more grief than the sexual sin with Bathsheba and yet it's more subtle it's something that we need to be tuned to that's probably the main lesson of this session let's say if the Lord let not the wise men glory in his wisdom I'm quoting here from Jeremiah 9 just he view perspective let's say if the Lord let not the wise men glory and his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in his might let not the rich man glorious riches but let him the glorious glory in this that he understands and knoweth me that i am the lord which exercised loving-kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord amen so continuing chronicles the Lord speaking again David seer saying go and tell David saying thus saith the Lord I offer the three things to choose the one of them that I may do it under thee so God came and said of him thus saith the Lord choose these so here's what we call Hobson's choice here are the three that David had to pick from either three years of famine oh boy on the whole nation man or three months to be destroyed before thy foes while the sword of enemies over taketh II ouch three months of victory military defeats or else three days the sword of the Lord even the pestilence in the land and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel now therefore advise myself what word I shall bring again unto Him sent me man what would you juice those are tough tough choices right they've sent and again I am in a great straight let me fall now into the hand of the Lord for very greater His mercies but let me not fall in the hand of man so he chose to get it directly from God rather than from his enemies yesterday so the Lord sent pestilence upon Israel and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men boy God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it and as he was destroying the Lord beheld and he defended him of the evil and said to the angel who destroyed it is enough staying out of thine hand and the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite the angel of the Lord now many scholars identify that phrase with a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ and I'm not here to mean that I'm not here to promote it just let you aware of it that is the view of a number of conservative scholars there are places in the scripture where I do suspect it as the printer Incarnate Christ is that what's going on here I really don't know there we don't know you can you can get into these theological debates but we'll pass on that for our purposes and David lifts up his eyes and saw the angel Lord stand between the earth and heaven having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem and the David in the elders of Israel who were clothed in sackcloth fell upon their faces and David said unto God is it not I commanded the people to be numbered even I it is that if sin and done the evil indeed but as for these sheep what have they done let then hand I pray thee O Lord my God beyond me and my father's house but not on thy people that they should be plagued the Angel LORD commanded gad to say to david the david should go up and set up an altar unto the Lord in the thrashing floor of Ornan of Ornan the Jebusite David went up the saying of God which he spake in the name of Lord and Orrin now Ornan was the Jebusite by the way David had conquered the city but this guy was a friend of his turned out to be number reasons to believe that and so he's a Jeb you sight but he's watching this all go on he's pretty impressed Cioran turned back and saw the angel and his four sons with him hid themselves I can imagine no one was thrashing weed it's a thrashing floor that's what you expect a thrashing floor by the way so you understand we're talking about is a Saddleback it's not the peak of a mountain it's typically a Saddleback situation which in which there's a prevailing breeze and what you did at harvest time is you took the the wheat and thrashed it and threw it up in the wind the grain which is a little heavier would fall down wind a short distance but as you did this right the chaff which is lighter would fall downwind further if you did this skillfully you would end up with two piles the nearer pile you'd bag for market and guard the second file you'd burn to keep away the vermin and you typically did this in the evening as a celebration like a great big pizza party kind of thing but a threshing floor was a very coveted piece of ground in that culture because that's where you would thrash the way it was typically a saddlebag situation not certain at the top of the hill it's a side of it anyway so he was thrashing wheat and as David came to on and on and looked and saw David and went out of the threshing floor and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground the David said on and grant me the place of this threshing floor that I may build an altar there in unto the Lord thou shalt granite me for the full price that the play may be stayed from the people there was a going rate for this piece around apparently and one and said to David take it to thee and let my lord the King do that which is good in his eyes and I give thee the oxen also for burnt offerings and the thrashing instruments for wood and the wheat for the meat offering I give it all King David said or Nanay but I will verily buy it for the full price for I will not take that which is nine for the Lord nor offer burnt offerings without cost boy we should take a good look less than there to always in offering you always give the best and you don't give that which didn't cost you anything so David gave to Onan or the place 600 shekels of gold by weight we'll come back to this because it's a big debate about some subtleties here but just let's go in here and David built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and call upon the Lord and he answered him from heaven by fire above the altar of burnt-offering notice that we missed that often the way they knew their offering was accepted his fire from heaven came and took it that is in poetic language that's what happened here in some place I'll give you a list a minute the lord commanded the angel and he put his up his sword again into the sheath thereof the sword of judgment was now sheathed but at Golgotha a little bit further north thousand years later that sword will pierce the sight of the Lord someone's when they got into the heart of God through a spear wound now there are two words you'll encounter Ornan is the way she recorded here in chronicles when you read the same account in Samuel its aruna it's not clear from the English transliteration here but that they're both derivative of the same same Hebrew root word and in effect now Ornan sold to David a place for 600 shekels of gold we just read that in first grade was 2115 the accountant second samuel speaks of the seller as aruna and he sells to david the materials were fifty shekels of silver and you wouldn't believe the viewpoints that derive from this the simple answer is the same guy slightly different transaction we'll come back to there are some who were the nickel scholars that argue that these are two different transactions in two different locations and where this ends up there are people that believe that the cross of Christ stood on the Mount of Olives and the reason they believe that is they have this view that you could see from there down through the golden gate through the temple into the Holy of Holies and there's an elaborate set of traditions around them there's a number of front because the the temple veil was torn from top to bottom and to make that all visible at one instant assuming that was the case the fact that Matthew records it all together doesn't mean all happen at one to have it together but in any case a lot of this all derives strangely enough from this textual discrepancy between these two I won't get into the other thing it's hard for me to defend something that I don't think it's correct but and I wouldn't do it for justice but the general view of most conservative textual scholars is that aruna and Ornan are the same guys slightly different accent in terms of the Hebrew derivation of it but what David bought for 50 shekels of silver was the floor itself and the oxen and the the tools package on threshing floor apparently then maybe in a subsequent discussion bought the whole site for 600 shekels of gold that's the guts the the typical common exposition expositional commentary view of this that the 600 shekels of gold much larger price was for the entire site so now Aruna was one of David's chief friends and spared by him when he took the citadel and this is you'll find in Josephus in his antiquities of the Jews in chapter 7 verse 13 and Center to familiarize yourself a little bit with the tafolla topography Mount Moriah is actually a ridge system and this shows you Solomon's walls that will come later North is to the top Mount Zion is the mountain to the west and Mount of Olives a mountain to thee to the east so visualized three mountain ranges between the Mount Zion and Mount Moriah is the Terrapin valley between Mount Moriah and my olives is the key Grand Valley and to the south as the Hinnom Valley and they all virtual prominently and the City of David is down at the southern end it's about six hundred meters above sea level and the Thresh the threshing floor is at a Saddleback but it's not at the peak yet and the Gihon spring is also there and they have an under kyod maid-of-honor non tunnel so you could get to the pool of siloam and so forth now let's take a look at this on a topo map a little more accurately and Mount Zion is to the west the Mount of Olives to the east and the ridge system the high point of that ridge system is between those two with the Kidron Valley to the east the Terrapin Valley to the west and the Hinnom Valley to the South Salem the city the Jebusite city that David conquers is at the southern part of this ridge system the threshing floor of Araunah is which is what later becomes the Temple Mount we're going to deal with that in the next chapter a little but that's about 741 meters above sea level a little further north is the peak place called Golgotha and I believe that's where Abraham offered Isaac and that's also where another father offered his son some 2,000 years later and this is just an amplification of the same thing to give you a little tighter perspective fire from heaven that's the way Abel knew his offering was accepted in Canaan as his wasn't in Genesis I believe fire from heaven is when the first when the tabernacle was first set up in Leviticus nine Davis repentance here the fire from heaven is specifically called for when the temple is ultimately consecrated under Solomon's second chronicles seven you'll see it happen again fire comes from comes from heaven and judgment Sodom and Gomorrah had fire from heaven Elijah called down fire from heaven on several occasions the 50s and then Carmel and all that and of course after the Millennium after a thousand year reign again Satan is loosed again there's another GOG Magog event and fire from heaven deals with that Revelation chapter 20 verse 9 fire from heaven will also be called down by the false prophet revelation 13 13 now that's that's going to be a grabber so let's finish this up at that time when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite he sacrificed their Tabernacle Lord which Moses made the wilderness and the altar of the burnt offering were that at that season in the high place at Gibeon a David could not go before it to inquire of God for he's afraid because of the sword of the angel lord I can understand that so he began to worship at this site regularly that is the threshing floor that he purchased and that's where that becomes them the site of the temple it's going to be very very prominent so again it's important for us to learn the lesson that David learned what did David learn well he reflects it in psalm 118 is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man it's better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in Princes no Envy Oh Lord do I put my trust let me never be put to confusion that's his lesson what's our lesson what are we carrying away from this we need to ask ourselves these questions do I really trust God I think God finds a different way every day to say hey do you really trust me that's the whole issue do we really believe God writer Hebrews tells us that without faith is impossible to please him Lord you said that when the Holy Spirit would come to the world he would convict the world of sin really what kind of sin because they believe not on me in John 16 for what servers not a faith to sin hoo-boy whatever you're doing it's not a faith to sin think that's real read first chronicles 20 through 25 for the next session
