To 2 Samuel chapter 5, there is no city on earth, believe me, that is so dear to the
Jew as the city of Jerusalem.
You can take any other city in Israel and give it away, but you cannot give away the
city of Jerusalem.
I was there just two years after the Israelis took the city of Jerusalem from the Jordanians.
They had already marvelously cleaned up the city.
They, of course, had united it.
By that time, they had bulldozed houses away from the Wailing Wall, the Western Wall of
the Temple Mount, provided a large area for Jewish people to come and pray, and others,
tourists like myself, to come and observe.
One could tell that they were wed to the city of Jerusalem, and I am convinced that they
will never, ever, ever willingly give up the city of Jerusalem or even a part of it again.
The city of Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible as early as Genesis chapter 14, where
it speaks about Melchizedek, the king of Salem.
Most Bible scholars believe that the city of Salem mentioned there was ancient Jerusalem,
and that Melchizedek was the high priest of that city, a believer, follower of the true
God, one of the very few, apparently, upon the earth in that day.
It was famous, therefore, even in the day of Abraham.
When the land of Canaan fell to the Israelis in the time of Joshua, and the land was divided,
that particular city fell to the lot of Benjamin.
If you have a map that divides up Palestine as it was allotted to the various tribes,
you will notice that Jerusalem is just inside the border of Benjamin, very close to the
land that was given to Judah.
We usually think of it in connection with Judah because it became, as we will see, the
capital city of David.
However, in that day, when that area was conquered, more or less, by the Israelis, they were not
successful in driving out the Canaanite inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem.
The Jebusites, they were called, and the city was called Jebus.
The Jebusites remained there even in the day of David, as we will see, and though they
were conquered in the city by David, they nonetheless lived there, and later on, the
descendants of these same people were put into a certain kind of servitude by King Solomon.
I'd like for us to think tonight what Jerusalem was to David and to Israel.
In the first place, it was the place of rule.
It became the capital city.
It was in a strategic location.
Jebus, or Jerusalem, was in a no man's land, so to speak, between the tribe of Judah, which
of course gave allegiance to David while he was reigning down there in Hebron for seven
and a half years, and the tribes of Israel that followed Saul and then his son, Ishbecheth,
for that seven and a half year period.
It was sort of a neutral land or city in between these two areas, and so it was a strategic
location politically, and undoubtedly that was part of the reason that David selected
Jerusalem as his capital city.
It was a place to which both the people who followed him from Judah and the ones who had
followed Saul's son would be able to look without a lot of prejudice.
It had a sort of neutral feel to it.
It was also a strategic location militarily.
It would be a capital city easy to defend.
In fact, that's why the Jebusites were still there, because the Israelites had been unable
to unseat them.
Archaeologists differ as to how large the city was at this point, but it seems to be
the most popular current thinking that it was not a large city at all, that it was perhaps
1,200 feet in length and 400 to 500 feet in width.
Not a perfect square, but it looks something like a footprint located on the southeast
ridge where the city of Jerusalem is located.
On the east, on the south, and then around to the west side were valleys, very steep
valleys, which of course led right up to the wall of the city, and anyone coming from those
directions would be easy targets for the archers and others on the walls of the city.
They had therefore really only one side to defend, the north side, and they had done
that successfully.
It was also a city, as most of them were at that time, which had a water supply.
That was very important because when cities were put under siege, they had to be able
to exist for long periods of time without going outside their walls.
So they had devised a very elaborate system of reservoirs and so on underneath their city
and a tunnel that went down to a spring so that they were able to provide for themselves
all the fresh water they wanted.
So it was a strategic city.
It did not become the capital of the new, united Israel without a battle.
And we see that in verse 6 of 2 Samuel 5.
Now the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of
the land, and they said to David, You shall not come in here, but the blind and lame shall
turn you away.
They had been rather successful at this point, and so they threw a jab or two at David and
his followers.
They thought David cannot enter here.
Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David, as it
came to be called David's city.
And David said on that day, Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him reach the lame
and the blind who are hated by David's soul through the water tunnel or through the gutter,
some translations say.
So it seems as though David is saying here, well they think the lame and the blind can't
take them, but in fact they're the lame and the blind and we are going to take them.
The last statement in verse 8 is mysterious.
It's difficult to understand the meaning of it.
It says, Therefore they say the blind or the lame shall not come into the house.
There are many different understandings of that verse, and frankly I don't have a real
opinion about it.
But it is interesting to note here that David mentions that through the water tunnel or
through the gutter they would come into the city.
Now once again, those who study the Hebrew language differ as to the meaning of that
word that is translated water tunnel.
There are some who see it meaning hook, and they say that David was saying that they would
be able to use grappling hooks to throw up on top of the wall and pull themselves up
to get into the city.
But it does seem that there is a good case for the translation being water tunnel.
If in fact that is the case, there is an interesting archaeological insight that helps us understand
how that might have taken place.
It was not known until just 100 years ago or so when Captain Charles Warren in a company
with a crowd of pilgrims visited the Spring of the Virgin it is called.
It is according to legend, notice that word, the place where Mary washed the swaddling
clothes of her little son.
Despite the semi-darkness, the account says, Warren noted on this visit a dark cavity in
the roof a few yards above the spot where the water flowed out from the rock.
Even no one had ever noticed this before because when Warren asked about it nobody could tell
him anything.
Filled with curiosity, he went back to the Virgin Fountain next day equipped with a ladder
and a long rope.
He had no idea that an adventurous and somewhat perilous quest lay ahead of him.
Behind the spring a narrow shaft led off at first horizontally and then straight up into
the rock.
Warren was an alpine expert and well acquainted with this type of chimney climbing.
Slowly hand over hand he made his way upwards.
After about 40 feet the shaft suddenly came to an end.
Feeling his way in the darkness, Warren eventually found a narrow passage.
Crawling on all fours he followed it.
A number of steps had been cut in the rock.
After some time he saw ahead of him a glimmering of light.
He reached a vaulted chamber which contained nothing but old jars and glass bottles covered
in dust.
He forced himself through a chink in the rock and found himself in broad daylight in the
middle of the city with the Fountain of the Virgin lying far below him.
Closer investigation by Parker who in 1918 went from the United Kingdom under the auspices
of the Palestine Exploration Fund showed that this remarkable arrangement dated from the
second millennium BC, in other words a thousand years before the day of David.
The inhabitants of old Jerusalem had been at pains to cut a corridor through the rock
in order that in time of siege they could reach in safety the spring that meant life
or death to them.
Warren's curiosity had discovered the way which 3,000 years earlier David had used to
take the fortress of Jerusalem by surprise.
David's scouts must have known about this secret passage as we now see from a biblical
reference which was previously obscure than he quotes from this verse we just read.
The authorized version translates gutter, the Hebrew word means shaft or channel.
Actually Warren's discovery only solved half of the problem because when he came up, he
came up at a point that was outside the wall where they thought it used to be.
And so if David's men had used that, it was thought 100 years ago, then apparently they
did still come up outside the wall.
But excavations since then, in fact as recently as the 1960s, have located more ancient walls
than have been known before.
So that in fact, that tunnel from the spring led up right into the middle of the ancient
city of Jebus or Jerusalem and is probably the very way that David and his men actually
got inside the city and therefore were able to conquer the city on this occasion.
So David lived, it says in verse 9, in the stronghold and called it the city of David
and David built all around from the milo and inward.
Now again there's a mystery, we don't exactly know what the milo is.
It means perhaps a heap, it could refer to something as simple as a garbage dump there
in the city that was noted or an ancient mound of earth.
There are those who think that milo may have been a fortress part of the city and that
its name which means to fill was actually because it was a fortress with two walls around
it with dirt filled in between them, between the two walls giving a very strong sturdy
defense.
Nonetheless, David attached to that milo and built around it and inward and strengthened
the city and it became greater and greater for the Lord God of hosts was with him and
Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David with cedar trees and carpenters and stone
masons and they built a house for David.
And David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, that he had exalted
his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.
And so the city of Jerusalem was taken by David and it became now the capital city of
the united kingdom of Israel.
Remember for the last seven and a half years David had been king only of Judah, not pushing
himself on those of the other tribes, waiting for God's time, waiting for God's way.
What a lesson for us.
And then when it was God's time and way he moved quickly and established the capital
city in Jerusalem in that rather neutral territory so that now the tribe of Judah to the south
and those other tribes to the north and somewhat to the east gave their loyalty to him and
to the city of Jerusalem as well.
So it was to David and Israel the place of rule, it was the seat of government and it
would remain that way until the kingdom of Judah was taken away in captivity by Nebuchadnezzar
in 586 B.C.
The Jews did not control Jerusalem, it was always under foreign domination until 1967.
That is very exciting and somehow all of that plays together for the end time prophecies.
It's still a little foggy or misty to us but it is not by accident that even in our generation
the Jews have for the first time in all of these thousands of years taken the city of
Jerusalem as their own.
And as you know there is a debate today as to whether they should move the capital city
to Jerusalem.
The Knesset, their parliament is there, the prime minister is there but technically they
have called Tel Aviv their capital city.
They wish to move it and are calling upon the United States to recognize Jerusalem as
their capital city, a move which of course the Arabs very much oppose.
So the city of Jerusalem was a place of rule but secondly it was a place of worship as
well.
God knew that it was not enough just for the political headquarters to be there.
There had to be something more to attach the people to the city and frankly to His rule
than just the fact that that was where He lived and that was the capital.
He needed something to draw the heart, the devotion of the people to Jerusalem and partly
for that reason, partly because of His love for the Lord God, He decided to make Jerusalem
the place of worship as well.
For the last 80 years the Ark of the Covenant had been in the village of Kirioth Jireen
which means village of the woods.
You remember that for many years it was located at Shiloh but in the days of Samuel's youth
the Philistines were able to capture the Ark and they kept it for a period of time, suffered
great judgment of the Lord and finally sent it back to Israel and said let's get rid of
this thing.
So they sent it back to Beth Shemesh, a village located some 15 miles to the west of Jerusalem.
And the record in 1 Samuel is that the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh out of curiosity looked into
the Ark, something they should never have done.
It was an offense to the holiness of God and God struck them with the plague and 70 people
probably died as a result of that.
And so the people of Beth Shemesh said let's get it out of here to the next village and
so they sent it on to Kirioth Jireen and it had been there in the possession of Abinadab,
a godly man and his family for these long years.
David wanted to bring the Ark to Jerusalem.
Shiloh did not exist any longer.
The Philistines had destroyed Shiloh.
It could not be taken back there from where it had come.
He determined in his heart that it should belong in the city of Jerusalem.
Notice that it says in verse 1 of chapter 6, David again gathered all the chosen men
of Israel, 30,000 in rows and went with all the people who were with him to Baal Judah.
That's another name for Kirioth Jireen.
To bring up from there the Ark of God which is called by the name, the very name of the
Lord of hosts who is enthroned above the cherubim.
And they placed the Ark of God on a new cart that they might bring it from the house of
Abinadab which was on the hill.
And Uzzah and Ahiou, the sons of Abinadab were leading the new cart.
So they brought it with the Ark of God from the house of Abinadab which was on the hill
and Ahiou was walking ahead of the Ark.
Meanwhile, David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with all
kinds of instruments made of fir wood and with lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets
and cymbals.
And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out toward the Ark
of God and took hold of it for the oxen nearly upset it.
And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah and God struck him down there for his irreverence
and he died there by the Ark of God.
And David became angry because of the Lord's outburst against Uzzah and that place is called
Perez Uzzah to this day.
It means the outburst against Uzzah.
So David was afraid of the Lord that day and he said, how can the Ark of the Lord come
to me?
And David was unwilling to move the Ark of the Lord into the city of David with him.
But David took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Getite.
Thus the Ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Getite three months and the
Lord blessed Obed-Edom and all his household.
David with a sincere heart and motive had a wonderful purpose in mind.
The Ark of God represented his very presence and it brought the blessing of the Lord upon
those who obeyed him, judgment upon those who disobeyed him like the Philistines.
David wanted the Ark in Jerusalem and therefore he made a brand new cart and chose oxen that
were undoubtedly without blemish to transport that box, yea big, back to the city of Jerusalem.
There was only one problem.
He was trying to do the right thing in a wrong way.
Now whether David rationalized this way or not, we are not sure, but it certainly is
an example of the end justifying the means, isn't it?
He felt like this would be an appropriate way to bring the Ark into Jerusalem and yet
it was not God's way.
It was a way but it wasn't God's way.
You see it's not enough just to be sincere in one's heart to have the right motive.
It's not enough just to have the right purpose and view as good as that purpose may be.
But what we do with the right motive has to be done as well in the way that God has ordained
or it displeases him.
How was the Ark to be transported?
Well, we'll see that in just a moment.
Let's go on and read in verse 12.
It was told King David saying, the Lord has blessed the house of Obed-Edum and all that
belongs to him on account of the Ark of God.
And David went and brought up the Ark of God from the house of Obed-Edum into the city
of David with gladness.
And it was so it was that when the bearers of the Ark of the Lord had gone six paces,
he sacrificed an ox and a fatling.
And David was dancing before the Lord with all his might and David was wearing a linen
ephod.
So David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the Ark of the Lord with shouting
and the sound of the trumpet.
Then it happened as the Ark of the Lord came into the city of David that Michael, the daughter
of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the
Lord and she despised him in her heart.
So they brought in the Ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent which
David had pitched for it.
And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord.
As the Ark was being transported on that cart, it appeared as though it was going to fall
because the oxen stumbled.
And this man, Uzzah, once again apparently a sincere man, mistakenly reached out and
touched the Ark which represented the very holiness of God.
And again it was an offense to the holiness of the Lord and God struck him dead.
It was severe, that judgment.
It caused David to be angry and apparently even angry against the Lord initially.
And he named the place as a memorial to Uzzah who he had felt sincerely tried to protect
the Ark and he had.
Again I say sincerity is not enough.
David left the Ark there and apparently in the interim three months he studied to find
out how to bring the Ark into the city the way God ordained.
That was with staves, long poles that were to be slipped through rings that were on the
side of that box.
The bearers of the Ark at the appropriate time accompanied David back into the city
of Jerusalem.
And David, a man who was full of passion and emotion, was so filled with joy and excitement
at this occasion that he took off his outer kingly garments, wearing only the linen garments
of a servant, a Levitical servant, and he danced and sang before the Lord.
This was the most spiritual kind of response on the part of David.
There is nothing unseemly or even unkingly about what David was doing.
Here is a man whose heart overflowed with love for God and for joy at what was taking
place.
The Lord represented by that Ark, the presence of God represented by the Ark, was coming
to the city of Jerusalem.
So the city of Jerusalem would be the place of worship.
But one of his wives, Michael, looked out the window and saw him.
She despised him.
Now why was that?
Well, because she had a mind a great deal like her father Saul.
She was not a spiritual woman.
It is sad how often the carnal mind cannot appreciate the joy and liberty of a spiritual
person.
Because of her spite for David, she was childless until the day of her death, which was the
mark of greatest dishonor to an Israeli mother.
The Ark was brought in and pitched in a tent that David had prepared.
We do not know what happened to the tabernacle and to all of those other instruments involved
with it.
It is gone at this time.
David pitches a tent there and the Lord, as it were, has come to Jerusalem.
It has become the place of worship.
And now all the people from Dan to Beersheba, from the southernmost part of the tribe of
Judah, all the way up there to the tribe of Dan, all the people will look to Jerusalem
with hearts of devotion and worship, and that will unite the kingdom under David's rule.
How much this city meant to David.
I want to tell you, if you ever get to the city of Jerusalem in your lifetime, it will
become precious to you.
I was reading some of Jay Vernon McGee's remarks on this passage and he says that it is not
his favorite place at all.
He does not care for Jerusalem.
That's one place I have to part company with the dear brother because I think the city
of Jerusalem is the most fabulous place on the face of the earth.
It is said that in the 67 war, when the fighting was going on around Jerusalem, that there
was not a bomb or an artillery shell that fell within the city of Jerusalem.
Why was that?
Well, because the city is considered sacred by three great religions of the world, for
one thing.
There is the story that is passed around.
I do not know if it can be a legend in its time, but the story is passed around that
there were bombs that were dropped over Jerusalem that actually fell sideways, missing the city.
Now, today we do not look to the city of Jerusalem as our place of rule, nor do we look to the
city of Jerusalem as the center of our worship.
You and I look for a city whose builder and maker is God.
You and I look for the heavenly Jerusalem or the new Jerusalem that the Lord is preparing
for us His own.
It is the Lamb's bride, His wife.
This new Jerusalem in its beauty far surpasses anything that is known in the world today.
Read about it in Revelation, chapters 21 and 22.
It is a city that is crystal, which reflects the glory of God like a rainbow, and which
will be the center of attention, not just for the earth, but for the whole of God's
new heaven and new earth which He will create.
My friend, that will be the Jerusalem which we will inhabit for eternity to come.
We may travel throughout the new heavens and new earth on assignments for our Lord as we
reign with Him, but that will be home.
That is headquarters.
That is where the throne of God and of the Lamb are located.
That is where the pure river of the water of life flows, where the trees of life grow
beside it.
That is the place which God is preparing for all of those who love Him.
You can visit the city of Jerusalem today on the earth, whether you're saved or lost.
It makes no difference.
But you will never see the new Jerusalem unless you're a child of God, unless you're saved.
Have you ever trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior?
Is the new Jerusalem your eternal destiny, your home?
I hope it is, but if it's not, my friend, you can change that tonight.
You can change it.
Reservations are still wide open.
You can invite Jesus Christ into your life tonight and make a permanent reservation,
an eternal one, so that a place will be prepared for you by Jesus Himself in that city.
Go call the house of the Lord.
Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, thank You for the study tonight and for the lessons that we see affecting
our walk with You.
I thank You for David's heart, and my prayer is that I may have even a little bit of that
kind of a heart for God.
Oh Lord, I pray that we might be known as men and women after the heart of the Lord,
as was David.
And may we be filled with such spiritual joy and fervor as was he, such passion for God.
And I pray that our greatest delight will be to dwell in Your presence, as was David's
desire, to commune in fellowship with You.
May that be the one thing that we desire of the Lord, as was David's heart.
And I pray, Father, that You will make us sensitive to holy things.
Deliver us from irreverence, carelessness about the things of God.
Ask You for Your grace and mercy, which spare all of us in those times when we become careless.
But God, give us a holy sensitivity to it and deliver us from it.
And Father, I pray that every person who is here tonight may know the joy and the reality
of the New Jerusalem and have that assurance deep within his heart that that's home.
We bless You, Lord.
We thank You that we are marching to Zion.
Beautiful, beautiful Zion.
And we pray, our Lord, that You will come quickly and receive Your bride to Yourself
so that we may be there with You, never to be separated from You again.
In the meantime, I pray that we will walk with You faithfully, day by day, this week.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Well, let's turn once again.