David Wisniewski - Developing Spiritual Intelligence - Class 6 - Humility

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   We’re going to begin our third session this morning with a reading, and the reading is not what the plan says. The reading is going to be Second Samuel 7 verses 1 to 18.

2. 0:20

   So Second Samuel 7, verses 1 to 18. And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and Yahweh had given him rest round about from all his enemies, that the king said unto Nathan, The prophet, See now I dwell in a House of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.

3. 0:44

   And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart, for Yahweh is with thee. And He came to pass that night, that the word of Yahweh came unto Nathan, saying, Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith Yahweh, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt even unto this day, but have walked in a tent and in a Tabernacle, in all the places wherein I have walked with all the children of Israel, spake I word with any of the tribes of Israel whom I commanded to feed my people.

4. 1:26

   Israel saying, Why build ye not me in House of cedar? Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith Yahweh of hosts, I took thee from the sheep coat, and from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel, and I was with thee wither so ever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight, and have made thee a great name, like unto the the name of the great men that are in the earth. Moreover, I will appoint a place from My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more.

5. 2:10

   Neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them anymore. As before time and as since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel. And of course Thee to rest from all thine enemies also. Yahweh telleth thee that He will make thee in house. And when thy days before filled, and thou should sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish His Kingdom. He shall build in house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His Kingdom forever.

6. 2:51

   I will be His father, and He shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee and thine house.

7. 3:11

   And thy Kingdom shall be established forever before thee. Thy throne shall be established forever. According to all these words, and according to all this vision. So did Nathan speak unto David. Then went King David in and SAT before Yahweh.

8. 3:35

   This is Watchun Lake Bible School 2025. Our speaker for our third series of classes is Brother David Wisniski. This is class number six. His overall title is Developing Spiritual Intelligence in the Lives of Jonathan and David, and the title for this class is Humility and our reading was Second Samuel 7 verses one through 18. Brother David, please.

9. 4:17

   Well, it’s my last good morning to you, although I hope to say good morning to you tomorrow morning at breakfast. It’s been wonderful to be with you this week. Sister Nicole and I have thoroughly enjoyed our time together, and I wanted to thank especially the committee for making all of this possible. But of course, our Heavenly Father who enabled all of this, but also all of you for making us feel very welcome and friendly this week.

10. 4:47

    So we really appreciate the time we’ve been able to spend with you. Yesterday we saw behavior in David’s life that was not inspiring. In fact, his house became a reproach because of it. The sword would not depart from the House of David and through the rest of his life. But today we’re going to see an incident that we had read for Aspire Brother Bernard this morning where David is humiliated.

11. 5:17

    It may not come out at first when we read through Second Samuel Chapter 7, but I assure you he is by the response that’s given. And David’s response to the humiliation is one that will inspire his own generation and future generations of both Jew and Gentile. Regarding humility, Micah 6 verse 8 says He has showed thee, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to do justly while loving mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. And so if we wish to walk with God, we must learn this spiritual quotient this morning of humility. Now as David’s sitting on the throne, perhaps you noticed at the end of verse 2 and the beginning of verse three that Nathan interrupted David.

12. 6:21

    David actually didn’t get to finish his thought. See what it says in verse 2. The king said unto Nathan the prophet. See now I dwell in and house a cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains. And Nathan said to the king, Go do all that is in thine heart, for Yahweh is with thee. He doesn’t even get to to spell it out. I want to build a house for the Lord. Nathan cuts him off.

13. 6:48

    How does he know that building in house for the Lord is in David’s heart? Well, it had been in David’s heart for a very long time. Turn with me to First Chronicles Chapter 9. In First Chronicles Chapter 9, we have a genealogy, A genealogy which the author, perhaps Ezra states was reckoned of the Jews who were carried away to Babylon for their transgression. So this is much later, of course. And then the time period we’re considering this morning in Second Samuel Chapter 7.

14. 7:31

    And yet it’s going to take us back in First Chronicles Chapter 9. It’s going to take us back to an earlier time in David’s life. So what do we have in in First Chronicles Chapter 9, we have a genealogy and it’s a genealogy of the priests and the Levites. We see that at verse 10 and of the priests. And then it lists the priests that were counted. And at verse 14 it says and of the Levites, and it lists the Levites that were counted.

15. 8:01

    And then we come down to verse 17 and it says, And the porters were, and it lists then all the porters who would serve at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation, as it says at the end of verse 21. And then it says in verse 22 this all these which were chosen to be porters in the gates were 212. These were reckoned by their genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer did ordain in their set office. Now let’s think about that for a minute. When did David and Samuel plan out service for the temple? There was no temple.

16. 8:55

    Samuel died while David was fleeing from Saul, while he was dwelling in caves and in mountains and in wildernesses and fields and in woods. So it wasn’t while David was fleeing from Saul, it had to have been before he fled from Saul. And in fact, if we turn over then to First Samuel chapter 19, I believe we have the time period that David spent with Samuel that First Chronicles Chapter 9 is giving us some insights into.

17. 9:32

    So in First Samuel 19, Saul seeks to kill David. He’s tried to kill him in his own bed in verses 13 to 15, and now we read at verse 18. So David fled and escaped and came to Samuel and Rama and told him all that Saul had done. And he and Samuel went and dwelt and naoth.

18. 9:55

    And because David was with Samuel, Saul backed off for a period of time and is during this time. Now David is perhaps 1819 years of age that he’s spending time with Samuel that it’s revealed to us in the divine record in First Chronicles Chapter 9 and verse 22, that David and Samuel spent time by planning for a temple to be built.

19. 10:22

    They put together the organization for worship at the temple. So how long had David been thinking about building in house for God? Well, since he was in his late teens. So when David’s sitting upon the throne and God has given him rest from all of his enemies in Second Samuel Chapter 7 and Nathan comes before him, of course Nathan can finish the sentence. He knows exactly where David’s going to go and he knows that it’s been in David’s heart for over 20 years. This was not a a fleeting thought that David had. This was a dream of a work that David wanted to accomplish to strengthen the nation, and Nathan at the hand of God rejects David’s dream.

20. 11:20

    Furthermore, turn over with me to Psalm 132 and we find again how much this was on David’s mind. Now we know that Psalm 132 is written after Second Samuel Chapter 7 because David quotes the promise that God had made in verses 11 and 12 of Psalm 132. But consider what he says at verse one. Yahweh remembered David and all his afflictions, how he swear unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob. Surely I will not come into the Tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed.

21. 12:06

    I will not give sleep to mine eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for Yahweh and habitation for the Elohim of Israel, for the mighty God of Jacob. So there’s David’s covenant oath that he swears with God. He will not go to his house. He will not go to his bed.

22. 12:32

    He will not sleep until God reveals where he wanted to place his name. David’s on a sleep strike. He’s made an oath to God that until you reveal where you want your name, I will not go to sleep. Now, what gave David the idea that he needed to pursue this question? And of course, it comes out of the words of Moses as the children of Israel stood on the banks of the Jordan River ready to Passover.

23. 13:04

    And almost 10 times God says to the nation through Moses, that when you come into the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name, there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither shall ye come. When you get into the land, I’m going to choose a place, a place to put my name. And again in Deuteronomy 12 verse 11/6 verses later, then there shall be a place which the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there.

24. 13:40

    Thither shall ye bring all that I command you. And it goes on to talk about the offerings. And it says it again in Deuteronomy 12 and 21, and again in Deuteronomy 14 verses 23 and 24, and again in 16 verse 2, verse 6, and verse 11, and again in Deuteronomy 26 verse 2.

25. 13:57

    But it never says where the place was. And now consider this, brothers and sisters, God, from this time when they stood on the banks of the Jordan River, had in mind a place that he would cause his name to dwell in the land. And then Joshua enters the land, and there’s the years of conquest. And then the judges rule over the land for almost 400 years, and nobody asks where’s the place that God wants to put his name.

26. 14:33

    And Samuel becomes the last judge. And then Saul, the first king. And now David. David, who from a teenager had been thinking about building a temple for the Lord. Indeed, he wanted to know. And he gets to the point of crisis now. He heard of it when he was a child at verse 6.

27. 14:54

    Lo, we heard of it at Ephrathah. We found it in the field fields of the woods at Kerjat Jiram. So when he was a young man growing up in Bethlehem, Africa, he heard about the ark. He heard about these passages where God had said he was going to choose a place to put his name, and he started thinking about how wonderful it would be to have a temple built in that place. We found it at the fields of the woods in Kerjat Jiram, which is where the ark had been placed, and he brought it up to Jerusalem.

28. 15:30

    We will go into His tabernacles. We will worship at His footstool. Arise, O Lord, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength. And finally he gets the answer in verse 13. For the Lord hath chosen Zion. He hath desired it for his habitation. It’s no wonder that the scriptural definition of the word Zion is the city of David.

29. 16:02

    The first time it’s mentioned and the last time it’s mentioned in the Bible, it says Zion, which is the city of David. And it’s not only those times Zion, which is the city of David. And David’s name, of course, means the beloved. And in prophetic terms, Zion is the city of the beloved. David loved God and wanted a place where God could dwell even as he had spoken of throughout the law. So in first Samuel, second Samuel Chapter 7, when Nathan tells him, go, do all that is in thine heart. This has been in David’s heart for oh, such a long time. And of course, the blow of hearing the know was definitely softened by the promise that God made. Still, what a blow that would have been to have your lifelong dream of building a temple for the Lord dashed in pieces. When Nathan comes back the next morning, he’s not told here that there was too much blood, but he’s told in First Chronicles chapter 22.

30. 17:11

    Turn there with me in First Chronicles 22, he calls his son Solomon, and he charges him to build in house for the Lord. And then we what we find is from First Chronicles 22 on to First Chronicles chapter 30. The rest of the account of the Chronicles is all about David’s preparation for the temple.

31. 17:44

    So here we are. Here’s the command to his son in verse 6. Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build in house for the Lord God of Israel. And David said to Solomon, my son, As for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars. Thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. And so David recounts the rejection of his dream to his son Solomon.

32. 18:27

    And we have it repeated here in the middle. You’re not going to build a house. Why? You shed too much blood. You shed too much blood. Now, there were many choices David could have had in how he responded when we’re humiliated. Now, let’s just back up. Why would this have been humiliating once again? Well, let’s look at our cover slide to get a sense of the scene when Nathan tells David that he’s not going to build a house for the Lord.

33. 18:56

    You can see a couple people over there maybe working on plans for the House of the Lord because just the day before, Nathan had said, yes, do all that is in thine heart and David hadn’t started planning for the House of the Lord. After Nathan said do all that is in thine heart.

34. 19:10

    He started planning when he was in the house as Samuel 20 years earlier. He’d been planning for years to build a house for the Lord. He had plans, no doubt, to build a house for the Lord. And now before all the court, before the captains of the army, before his mighty men, before the Princess and the princesses and his wives and his concubines and the Royal Court, Nathan comes back and says you will not build a house for the Lord because you’ve shed too much blood. Now, we might respond in anger when somebody humiliates us like that.

35. 19:49

    In this case, the behavior of the humiliator was indeed righteous because he was sent by God with a message by God. But sometimes we’re humiliated at the poor behavior of other people. There were much better ways to have addressed the situation than how we ended up being humiliated in a situation publicly. And the question is, will we let other people control how we respond or will we control how we respond?

36. 20:30

    So I tried to put myself in David’s shoes, thinking about a lifelong dream that he’s told in front of all of his best friends and family that he’s not able to pursue in the truth and thought of possible responses. And the first one was anger. Why? Well, we made reference to the amygdala and frontal cortex yesterday.

37. 20:51

    And I am by no means a scientist, but what I have been told and researched is that that little part in the middle there, the red part is the amygdala at the base of our brain, and it is responsible for our fight or flight. So when somebody slaps us across the face, which hopefully doesn’t happen very often, and somebody slaps us or punches us, the amygdala kicks in. And according to scientists who have studied it, it kicks in within 74 milliseconds.

38. 21:26

    Before you can think actually, is how quickly it kicks in. So immediately we, our body, our brain has a response to either punch back or run. That’s the body’s response, and it takes place in milliseconds. And so that manifests itself in a verbal situation when somebody’s insulted us or somebody has humiliated us and immediately wanting to lash back and respond in like manner. But scientists have said that in order to activate the logical part of our brain, we need to do as I said yesterday, Take a deep breath because the frontal cortex, I couldn’t find anything, said the exact amount of time, but it was somewhere between two and three seconds that it takes for the frontal cortex to kick in.

39. 22:25

    Now the frontal cortex is the reasoning part of the brain. So when we read the Word of God and we develop the mind of the Spirit, as we’re told of in Romans chapter 8, the mind of the spirit is being developed in the frontal cortex, not in the amygdala, in the frontal cortex. So the part of the brain that responds when we’re humiliated in front of other people is going to respond like that before we even have time to think. So scientists say if you want to respond with your brain, the reasoning part of your brain, and not the fight or flight, the animal instinct part of the brain, take a deep breath, try 3 or 4 seconds and you’ve given the part of the brain that we developed the mind of the Spirit in to now contribute to our response.

40. 23:20

    So they say deep breathing and meditation can help us get better at accessing the local, the logical part of our brain. And of course, for us, what better thing to meditate on than to do some deep breathing while listening to the Word of God or reciting the word of God in our minds as our brother John has been instructing us to do. And then of course, saying a prayer is most helpful if we’re in a situation where the amygdala has given us a shot of adrenaline to help prepare our bodies to fight. There’s a chemical response that takes place when the amygdala kicks in a shot of adrenaline.

41. 23:59

    And that’s why we want to fight or run because the body has actually chemically prepared us for a situation that had deemed was dangerous to our health and well-being. And so take a deep breath, give a small prayer and then respond. David did not respond in anchor. And so he must have taken a deep breath and maybe said a little prayer.

42. 24:27

    David didn’t protest. Now this one I think would have been even more difficult because remember what it said in Second Samuel Chapter 7 at verse 1, the context of David expressing that he wanted to build in house for the Lord. It was when God had given him rest from all his enemies who gave him rest. God gave him rest.

43. 24:54

    And in fact, what we find is that David had a pattern of praying to God when the Philistines came up against the men of Keela, that he would later go down and hide and then find out they would turn him over to Saul. When David goes down to the men of Keela to save them from the Philistines, he inquires of the Lord and says, shall I go and smite these Philistines? And God said, go.

44. 25:18

    And then in Second Samuel chapter 5, when David’s sitting on the throne and he asked God, should I go up against the Philistines, God says go up for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into thine hand. In fact, there’s other places where God specifically tells him don’t go up quite yet. OK, go now when you hear the rustling of the wind.

45. 25:39

    So David could rightly have said, well wait a minute God, I asked you before I went out to battle. Each time he could have protested and he did not.

46. 25:53

    The third response is that he could have slipped into depression after dreaming about building the temple of the Lord for all these years and then to have that dream dashed in pieces. All we’ve wanted to do is 1 work in the truth our whole life growing up, and then something happens and it’s taken away from us.

47. 26:18

    We can’t pursue that which was our dream of service in the Lord, and we could be like Jeremiah, crawling under a juniker Bush and asking for God to take our life, for we have no more purpose. But that wasn’t the response of David. He could have just moved on. Oh well, what’s next? That was Saul’s response to things, but he didn’t move on. He didn’t say what’s next.

48. 26:51

    Well, what he did do was changed his behavior. It doesn’t tell us explicitly that I know of. If you do, please share it with me after the class that David now goes out and stops killing the Gentiles and starts converting Gentiles. In fact, we do have evidence that he still did fight a few battles after this.

49. 27:18

    But we know that David changed his behavior because when we come over to First Chronicles Chapter 11, we have, as we said yesterday when we spoke of Uriah being in David’s inner circle of influence, we have Gentiles that are part of David’s mighty men of valor. And we noted yesterday that Joab was not included in this list of mighty men of valor.

50. 27:50

    Joab’s relatives are included, but not Joab. And so that we don’t have to debate on what a name means and whether it’s Gentile or Jew, let’s go to three obvious references in First Chronicles Chapter 11, verse 39. Zoellick the Ammonite was one of David’s mighty men of valor, verse 41. Uriah the Hittite was one of David’s mighty men of valor, one of the seven nations, by the way, that they were to destroy, and verse 46 at the end, and Isma the Moabite. And so in this list we have an Ammonite, A Hittite, and a Moabite that are listed in David’s mighty Men. In fact, if we were to turn over to Second Samuel 15 when David is fleeing from Absalom, which we won’t forsake of time, we would see that 600 Gentiles loyal to David go with him across the river as he flees from Absalom’s rebellion. And in fact, one of the most trusted people that David has, the one he’s going to send, one of the few that he’s going to send back to Absalom, and in this case to be a spy, was Itai, from no other place than Wygath, Itai the Gittite. So David was converting gentiles. When we come to Second Samuel Chapter 20, it reveals that David had split his army into the Jewish army and a Gentile army, and that while Joab remained captain over the Jewish army, it tells us in Second Samuel 20 that Banaya was the captain over the Gentile portion of David’s army. And so David heeded the words of God. It wasn’t going to change the outcome, but he responded with an open heart and an open mind,

51. 29:55

    and he slowed down in his battles against the Gentiles. He stopped cutting off the Gentiles and started focusing on converting the Gentiles. What’s interesting, when we use that language, cutting off the Gentiles, he switched to converting the Gentiles. Sometimes we might wonder why it is that God and his Son didn’t just separate us.

52. 30:27

    Why not tell all Christadelphians to just come up here to the camp and we can all live together? Maybe a few different spots around the world where Christadelphians could congregate and have their own community and their own schools and their own places to work like some religions have tried to do. But that wasn’t Jesus prayer, was it?

53. 30:49

    In John 17 he said my prayer is not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should protect them from wickedness. Why didn’t Jesus pray to God take them out of the world? Doesn’t that make a whole lot of sense, especially in our day as the world has become so wicked, exceedingly wicked. Why would Jesus not want us just to go into isolation and to segregate ourselves?

54. 31:18

    Well, there’s only one reason, and it was stated beautifully by one of the teenagers. Because we can’t hide our light under a bushel. And that’s what we’d be doing if we segregated ourselves. But instead, we’re commanded to go out into the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It’s hard to do that if we’re in isolation.

55. 31:41

    If we cut everything else off from our community, we can only be letting our light shine. We can only be preaching, We can only be converting Gentiles as it were. If we’re out amongst the Gentiles like David started to become one who would be out amongst the Gentiles and letting his behavior be honest among the Gentiles that while they might speak I’ll of him, they would in the day of visitation turn to God. And so there’s an exhortation to us that we although the world is indeed evil and we can’t participate in the works of the world, We must follow the commands of Christ to go into the world and preach the gospel.

56. 32:27

    And you know, a brother once from Guyana said to Sister Nicole and I that when an ecclesia stops preaching, when an ecclesia becomes insular and is cut off the world and segregated themselves from the world, guess what they start to do? Well, first of all, what do we do when we’re preaching the word?

57. 32:48

    We’re out there in the world and we’re seeing all the tattoos and all the earrings and the horrible dress and, and the, the foul language and we’re seeing all of that. And we come together on a Wednesday night or a Tuesday night or a Thursday night, whatever night it is for Bible class. And we’re refreshed because our soul isn’t being vexed by the unrighteousness of the world around us. And then we go back into the world to our workplaces or school and, and again, we’re vexed daily by the wickedness of this world.

58. 33:20

    And we come together on a Sunday morning and we’re so happy to be with our brothers and sisters. But when we cut ourselves off from the world and we’re insular and we only see our brothers and sisters, instead of seeing the tattoos and hearing the foul language and seeing the gross behavior, now we start to see all the little different inadequacies of our brother and our sister. And we start to bite and chew at each other. And this brother from Guyana said to us, if you see in Ecclesia that is biting and chewing at each other, it’s because they become insular and they’re not spending enough time out in the world preaching the gospel to every creature that whosoever believeth might be baptized. And so let us learn the lesson of David and stop cutting off the Gentiles and work on converting them. And I’m not saying, of course, that we take on the Gentiles lifestyle, but we go out to preach the gospel and let our light shine.

59. 34:29

    Well, there’s another reason to be out there letting our light shine. Brother Roger quoted from Jeremiah 25 the other day when he was talking about the judgment of the nations. And it says there in the Hebrew, the dead in that day shall be heaps upon heaps. Not a pretty sight to think about, a most devastating sight because God would that the wicked repent from their way.

60. 34:58

    God would that none should perish, but that all would repent and come unto him and the gospel of salvation. And so another reason that we need to be out in the world letting our light shine is found in first Peter chapter 2, which I’d like you to turn with me to now at verses 11 and 12.

61. 35:29

    First Peter, chapter 2, reading at verse 11. Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. You see what Peter is saying, dearly beloved. He’s writing to the ecclesia, to brothers and sisters who are strangers and pilgrims. They’re not segregated. They’re not clumped together and cutting off the world.

62. 35:57

    They’re out there as strangers and pilgrims. And the first thing he says, Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul. Be careful because when you’re out there as strangers and pilgrims, there’s a lot of temptation and a lot of pressure to do what we shouldn’t do. There’s a lot of warring against the soul.

63. 36:19

    Have your conversation or your behavior as we should. Read Honest among the Gentiles. Now, what is he saying? He says we’re proclaiming that we’re followers of Christ. In fact, our name is that we are Christ’s brethren. So if you claim to be Christ’s brethren, walk with integrity amongst the Gentiles. Don’t get caught up in the fleshly lusts of the Gentiles. Don’t get caught up in their language, in their behavior. Walk with integrity among the Gentiles. And whereas they may speak against you as evil doers, they may mock you, they may ignore you, They may by your good works, by your behavior, by your example, which they shall behold, and can only behold if we’re there in the midst of them, Glorify God in the day of visitation. Now in the first instance, this day of visitation would have been AD 70.

64. 37:18

    But as it relates to the latter day prophecies, the day of visitation, I believe is the judgment of the nations, not the judgment of the nations. Rather sorry, the day of the delivering of the mid heaven gospel proclamation before the judgment of the nations. And So what we’re being told is that our behavior now if we live a life of integrity, if we live the name that we have Christ’s brethren, that we will convert some now, yes, as as David did Gentiles.

65. 37:53

    But there will be those who may speak evil of us now who will in the day when the mid heaven gospel proclamation goes out to glorify God and to submit to the rulership of Christ, who will accept the call to submit because of your good example and preaching now. So we can’t be discouraged, brothers and sisters, when we hold a seminar or a lecturer and and just a few people come out. Because what we’re being told by Peter is that when the mid heaven gospel proclamation is proclaimed by Elijah and the Saints as they go into every community, first into the synagogue as they did in the Acts of the Apostles to the Jews and then to the public marketplace to the Gentiles as Paul and his disciples did.

66. 38:46

    When they go out and proclaim Christ has come and submit. There will be those who at that time will submit to Christ’s rulership and will live as mortals in the time period of the Kingdom. Because we were, by our preaching and behavior, seeking to convert Gentiles, not cut them off. And if David had learned the lesson earlier, perhaps he would have been able to build the House of the Lord. But he sure did learn it.

67. 39:21

    How do we know? Because in Acts chapter 15 at the Jerusalem conference, which was all about should the Gentiles be welcomed into the ecclesia, James stands up at verse 13 as was referenced by a brother John in one of his classes the other day. Stands up in verse 13 and says, Men and brethren, hearken unto me.

68. 39:46

    Simon Peter has declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, read Babylon to take out of them a people for His name. And who did he call out of Babylon? He called out Abram and his family, and to this degree the words of the prophets. So in other words, God did go to the Gentiles to call out of them a people for his name, to this degree the words of the prophets as it is written. Now quoting from Amos Chapter 9, as your margin says. After this I will return and build again the Tabernacle of David which has fallen down.

69. 40:22

    And I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up, why, That the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. And so at the Jerusalem conference, when they’re trying to decide, should we welcome the Gentiles into the ecclesia? The argument is finished when James says, men and brethren, remember what David did.

70. 40:56

    He didn’t go up and grab the Tabernacle and bring it down and set it up in Jerusalem. When he brought the ark to Jerusalem, he created a new Tabernacle. Why? So that not just his Jewish brethren, but his Gentile converts could worship there together before Yahweh. And when James brings this point up, everybody says, Oh yeah, of course we should be welcoming the Gentiles into the ecclesia. It’s already happened.

71. 41:24

    David did it before. So yes, David humbly accepted the rebuke of God and it changed his behavior. And so the temple that Ezekiel sees is called by name the Tabernacle of David, as says Amos 9, verse 11 in Isaiah 16 and verse 15. Well, come back with me, please, to First Chronicles chapter 22 to see another response of David to this humiliation. Remember, in First Chronicles 22, we’re at the end of David’s life.

72. 42:07

    Now Solomon, his son is older. He prays that God would give him wisdom. He passes on the command that he would build a house, and he recounted to Solomon why he was rejected from building the house. And then it says down at verse 14. Now behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the House of the Lord. And that word trouble there means to find oneself in a stunted, humble, lowly position.

73. 42:53

    To find oneself in a stunted, humble, lowly position, humiliated. When was he humiliated? Well, back in verse 8. Thou has shed blood abundantly and made great wars. Thou shalt not build in house for my name, because thou has shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. Now in my humiliation I have prepared for the House of the Lord and 100,000 talents of gold, etcetera. So in his lowly estate.

74. 43:29

    Now what’s interesting is David doesn’t shy away from the humiliating part of the story. He could have just moved on. Second Samuel Chapter 7 is a wonderful chapter about the covenant that God made with David. If this was us, wouldn’t we rather just start there? Hey Solomon, God commanded that you will make the temple.

75. 43:55

    Let’s not worry about why I couldn’t make the temple. We’ll just start there. And it would have been an equally good passage. But no, he starts in my humiliation I prepared for the House of the Lord. Now that was to his son Solomon. But turn over a few pages to first Chronicles 28, and now read it verse one.

76. 44:19

    And David assembled all the Princess of Israel, the Princess of the tribes, and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king by course, and the captains over thousands, and the captains over hundreds, and the stewards of all substance and possession of the king and of his sons, with the officers, with the mighty men, with all the valiant men, unto Jerusalem a massive assembly he calls together.

77. 44:46

    Then David the king stood up on his feet and said, Hear me, my brethren and my people, As for me, I had in mine heart to build an House of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and for the footstool of our God, and made ready for the building he had made ready before he asked.

78. 45:06

    But God said unto me, Thou shalt not build an house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war and has shed blood. Not only does he repeat it to his son, but he repeats it again before all the leaders in Israel, and not only before all the leaders in Israel. Because when we go forward in the record to the the time of Solomon, in the record of the kings, it says Solomon sent to Hiram saying, Thou knowest how the David my father could not build in house unto the name of the Lord his God, for the wars which were about him on every side, even the Gentiles knew. How did the Gentiles know?

79. 45:50

    Because David repeated over and over and over and over again his humiliation. Why would he do that? I don’t understand. What we’re being told is that David embraced the humiliation and David repeated the humiliation. Why? Because every time he repeated that story, it counteracted the pride of life, which would have been so easy for King David, king over all Israel. And so he repeated over and over and over again before all Israel, before Gentiles.

80. 46:39

    It didn’t matter. Whoever would listen, he repeated the account of his humiliation. But David goes on, and he tells the nation how God chose before him the House of his father, and he to be king over Israel and his sons. And he’s chosen Solomon to sit on my throne. And then he says to all the children of Israel that he wants them to respond in a perfect heart, and to give. He says it verse 20, chapter 29 and verse 3. Moreover, because I have set my affection to the House of my God, and I have of my own proper good of gold and silver, which I have given to the House of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house. And he recounts in verses four and five of First Chronicles 29 all that he had given.

81. 47:35

    Then in verse 6, then the chief of the fathers and the Princess of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and the rulers of the kings, work offered willingly. And so David spends the remaining years of his life doing two things. God said you’re not going to build a house because you were a man of blood.

82. 47:58

    He says OK, and he starts converting Gentiles. God says you’re not going to build the house. And David says, OK, but it was my lifelong dream, so I’m going to do as much as I can to see that dream come true for the nation. And he made it his son’s dream by sharing the humiliation. And he made it the nation’s dream by sharing the humiliation.

83. 48:28

    And he made it the King of Tyres dream by sharing the humiliation. And he made it the Queen of Sheba’s dream. David took the opportunity of his humiliation to inspire Jew and Gentile to build a place of worship for all nations. Do you know that word that we saw back in First Chronicles 22 and verse 14?

84. 49:01

    In all my humiliation, I prepared mightily for the House of the Lord. It appears again in Isaiah 66. When we go through the speech of Stephen in Acts, we see that Stephen actually connects David’s rejection in Second Samuel 7 with Isaiah 66. David found favor before God, says Stephen, and desired to find to build a Tabernacle for the God of Jacob, but Solomon built him in house.

85. 49:40

    Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as Seth the prophet Isaiah. Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. What house will ye build me, saith the Lord? Or where is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things? And he’s quoting from Isaiah 66.

86. 50:01

    And he can do so with confidence, because that were troubled from first Chronicles 22. In all of my humiliation I prepared mightily. For the House of the Lord appears in Isaiah 66, starting at first one. Thus saith the Lord. The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that ye build unto mine?

87. 50:24

    Build unto me? And where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things hath been, saith the Lord. But to this man will I look. Here is my place of rest. Here is where I will Tabernacle. Here is where I will dwell in the man that is poor. Same word.

88. 50:57

    In the one instance it’s this word, and in the other instance it’s this word. 1 is an adjective and the other is a noun. Same word as was found back in First Chronicles 22 and verse 14. To this man will I look, in this man will I dwell. Even to him that is poor, that has been humiliated and embraced, the humiliation and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word. In the end, he would find a place to dwell in in David’s lifetime, and that was inside the man that it embraced the humiliation, and it learned to be poor in spirit. As our Lord says, Blessed is he that is poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

89. 52:04

    And so David ends his life preparing mightily for the building of the Temple. And just as we saw in First Chronicles 9, as we went through the priests and the Levites and the porters, and saw that David and Samuel had together prepared a structure of worship at the temple that Solomon in the end would make, you know, that structure of service in the Temple was still alive and well when John the Baptist was born.

90. 52:37

    For Zechariah went up to the temple and served in his course. And the course that he served in was the courses that David and Samuel had put together when David was a late teenager. And no doubt, no doubt David further refined in his older age. And I believe, brothers and sisters, that when we come to the time when the Tabernacle of David is built up again, as James spoke of Indiana Acts 15, that once again there will be courses of priests that will come up. And although we may be over one city, Oregon, 2 cities, or multiple cities, as the parable states, those that sing a new song in revelation, thou art worthy to take the book to open the seals thereof.

91. 53:33

    For thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and has made us unto our God kings and priests. And we shall reign on the earth, and we will as priests, as the sons of Zadok, come up in our course either for two weeks in the year or twice a year for the courses of the priests.

92. 54:01

    We’re 24, probably 2 weeks in the year We’ll come up and we’ll serve in the temple, the Tabernacle of David. Indeed, Psalm 122 speaks of seats of judgment, David’s seats of judgments in the temple that will be built, where the Saints will come up and judge from time to time and will serve in that large, most holy place as immortal priests.

93. 54:34

    Well, humiliation is not fun. It goes against the natural man, doesn’t it? But David has shown us that we can use humiliation to grow our spiritual intelligence, to develop a spirit that God can work with, that God will walk with, and that God can choose to dwell in.

94. 54:59

    And so if we wish to develop the spirit of humility, as we see in the life of David, we need to if we wish to walk with God, we need to recognize first and foremost that humility is a requirement. Secondly, we need to embrace it when it arrives in our life, which is only done with that 3 second breath and a short prayer, else will flee or fight.

95. 55:29

    Third, we need to rise above the behavior of others if the circumstances leading to our humiliation were not well delivered. Our behavior is not dependent upon the behavior of others. 4th as David did, rehearse the circumstances of our humiliation that we might combat against the pride of life. And finally, remember that God dwells with the humble, with this poor in spirit, whose is the Kingdom of heaven. Well, what a journey this week with Jonathan and David. Starting with Jonathan, we learn principles of leadership and how we can inspire others unto greatness. And then with the young man David as a shepherd in his field, watching over his father’s flocks, we saw the development of discernment that came by meditating upon the Word of God and gave such clarity.

96. 56:38

    Where Israel saw only a giant man of flesh, David saw that it was a reproach against God. We saw the principle of honor in both Jonathan and David’s lives, who had every reason to despise Saul and yet sought to build a good name for him. We saw the principles of friendship in David and Jonathan’s life, and that in the end Jonathan was willing to lay down his life for his friend. We saw the principles of faith in a surprising place in the struggle against sin and the failure that David had had shown all of Israel and how his faith restored him both before Israel and before his God.

97. 57:27

    And then today, the spiritual quotient of humility so that we can walk with God and that God can dwell with us.