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Lessons From the Brook Besor

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Lessons from the Brook Besor

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Lessons From the Brook Besor

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God gives many different gifts through His spirit, and His work includes a variety of tasks. Scripture show that all have great value.

Transcript

[Frank Dunkle] But, you know, we do sometimes use military analogies in describing our work as a church, and us as individual Christians, you know, onward Christian soldiers, we might say. We sometimes talk about being on the front lines, of preaching the gospel. That reminds me there are some elite military units, who liked to refer to themselves as the spear point of the military. And of course, the others get to be considered part of the head or the shaft of the spear. I don't think they like that so much, but we use that in times past. Some of you might remember that there was times when some men, I heard, referred to the work that Herbert Armstrong was doing as the spear point of preaching the gospel, as he was, you know, recording the world tomorrow program, writing articles, meeting leaders of nations around the world.

And of course, the rest of us would be content to be the shaft in someone's hand. That's where some people thought that analogy might be a little less than flattering. And I don't mean it to be that way, but face it, we all want to be on the spear point, am I right? It seems a little more glorious to say, "I'm on the front lines." Than, "I'm back on the home front." But maybe there's something more to that idea of being on the home front. And to be honest, that's a part of fighting a war that really is only been in our vocabulary, you know, well, I guess now coming up on 100 years or so, it's funny what you think of is recent, but I'm a history teacher. So, recent means something different in those ways.

But, you know, it was during those world wars in the 20th century that people started talking about what was called the Home Front because these were some of the first of what we could call great industrial wars, where the result would be decided, not just by which group of soldiers could fight better or have better weapons than the other group of soldiers, but really, those became wars of a nation against another nation or even alliances of nations. And so what determined the victory was often which nation, or groups of nations could best marshal their resources. What the people were doing at home really made a big difference. You know, when we study American participation in World War II, there's a branch of inquiry that's called the study of the Home Front, and it's really fascinating.

When I've taught that I've looked into things like Victory Gardens, and, you know, scrap metal drives. People had meatless Mondays. You know, how does not eating meat on Monday help us win the war? Well, it provided more meat to send to the soldiers who needed the protein. People were encouraged to save their bacon grease. Usually, I get some funny looks when I say that, you know, this thing on? No, but actually, people would collect their kitchen grease and take it to a holding center. And a certain type of glycerin chemical could be extracted from it that would be used to make explosives.

So, it's amazing these things that made a difference. And the army itself changed. As I said, it's not just the best weapons or how they're wielded, the army became… well, let me throw a vocabulary word in, more variegated. And I've looked at that over the years, and there's one fact that I like to point out that to me, for some reason, symbolizes the difference. During World War II, the United States Army became the number one in the world for purchasing typewriters. The most typewriters in the world, the army needed a lot of typewriters. We think of soldiers, you know, wielding weapons, but war became so complex that we had a lot of men in uniform.

Well, maybe for some younger people, I should explain what a typewriter is. That's before we just used our thumbs and we had a keyboard, and… okay, at least that got a laugh. Well, while the idea of the home front and these different tasks, you know, really became studied, and maybe we realized the importance during those wars. I don't think it was new then. It is something that's always been around. And in fact, there's a story from the Bible, from the time when David was leading a troop of men that I think does help to illustrate that. I think it helps to illustrate that a point, and an important point about our role in God's Church. So, I would like to talk about that today.

The story can be found near the end of the book, 1 Samuel. If you want to start turning into 1 Samuel 30, while you're turning there, so I'll let you take your time. I'll summarize a little bit of the story. Because this is set at the time when, I say King David because he had been anointed king by the prophet Samuel, but he wasn't yet on the throne. Rather, he'd been serving King Saul, and King Saul became a little jealous, a bit wary. Eventually, he decided this David guy is got to go, you know. I'm going to kill David because he's trying to take my place. So, David went on the run, and a group of men followed him. And, you know, there are a lot of amazing stories of when David was leading this band, you know, and some near misses when Saul almost captured him.

Those aren't the stories I want to focus on today, although they make great reading. But eventually, David realized we've had too many close calls, we need to get out of here. Sooner or later, he's going to catch me, catch me and my men. So, they went to the land of the Philistines, and David attached himself to Achish, the king of Gath. And he let that king believe and believe wrongly, that David had turned traitor against his home country, that he was willing to fight against them. He didn't support them. Achish was so convinced that he promoted David and he gave him his own little town, a village where he and his men could live with the name that, what I think of is slightly comical name, of Ziklag. So, David and his men were there for some time, and they made trades against other peoples.

Achish trusted him so much that at some point, the Philistines were going to go to battle against Israel. And Achish say, I'm going to bring David and his men. Now, the other Philistine leaders didn't have that same trust of David, they looked at it as, "What are you doing? We can't bring these Hebrews along with us. If nothing else, how would they win favor with the king better than hand him our heads?" So, they sent David and his men back. Here's where the story gets interesting. When David and his men get back, they find a huge surprise. And here's where I'm going to begin reading in 1 Samuel 30:1, "Now it happened when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who are there, from small to great; now, they didn't kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and daughters had been taken captive. David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep.” And they cried and cried till they couldn't cry anymore. Man, what a tragedy?

Everything they own has been burned or taken. And they didn't get to read what we just did, saying that no one had been killed. You know, they just don't know for sure. Fortunately, there's no dead bodies laying around so they have this hope, but what to do? What do we do? You know, a little bit later, David, when he's done crying till he can't cry anymore. And hears some of the men talking about stoning him, he calls for the priests.

Let's begin in verse 7. "David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, ‘Please bring me the ephod here to me.’ And Abiathar brought the ephod. And David inquired of the Eternal, ‘Shall I pursue this troop? Or shall I overtake them?” The answer, “‘Yes, pursue, you'll overtake without fail recover all.’ So David went, he and the six hundred men who are with him, they travel, they come to the Brook Besor," I tend to say Besor, Besor, Besor. "Where those who stayed were left behind. But David pursued, he and four hundred me; for two hundred men stayed behind, who were so weary they could not cross the Brook Besor." Now, that's always been intriguing to me, enough that I've spoken on this more than once, but what happened? There's room to speculate a little bit. It seems this Brook was flowing perhaps fast and deep.

And we're not told exactly what time of year this is, but I'm reminded of when Israel came to the Jordan River when they were about to go over and attack Jericho. It said the banks of the Jordan overflowed, or the Jordan overflowed all its banks in the spring. They couldn't just get across it. This Brook Besor was perhaps too fast, too deep for people to get across just by an easy wade. And all these men didn't have the same physical abilities, obviously, 400 felt they could go on, 200 not. They weren't able. The men didn't all have the same abilities.

Now, some who were able to go, we know what happened, they would cross. I'm not going to read the account, but they caught up with the Amalekites, fought a successful battle, and recovered everything they'd lost. Not only everything they'd lost but probably a good bit of spoil that the Amalekites had taken from other villages. And they brought it back. Now, the other men who were not able, for whatever reason to continue, you know, they were too exhausted, they couldn't get across. What did they do? It doesn't tell us for certain. Now, a little bit later, it does say that they stayed by the supplies, which tells me those 400 that went, maybe they were able to go more easily because they left some things behind.

They lightened their load. 200 stayed and watched the supplies. Somehow I doubt that they just sat there going, "Hmm, nice supplies we got here. I'm going to watch those a bit." You know, I would suspect they had a little rest and then they got busy. You know, maybe they knew when our fellows come back, they're going to be tired. They're going to be hungry. They might have wounds that need medical care. It makes sense that those 200 men would work to set up a camp, that they would draw water, make sure it's fit to drink, have food ready. Now, many things perhaps. Let's look at verse 21 of this chapter, we can read some of what happened. "David came to the two hundred men who had been so weary they couldn't follow, whom they'd also made to stay behind.”

I like to emphasize that apparently, they had orders. “Okay. You guys stay here.” "So they made them to stay behind it, and they went out to David to meet the people who were with him. And David came near and greeted them." I imagine it was a joyous reunion, especially when they saw, look, they brought back the people. There's my wife, my children. But they probably eagerly went up to them in coming back saying, "Here, let me take that off your back. Let me carry that for you. Come over here, we got some food cooking." You know, they showed them perhaps tents with cots or bedding ready where they could lay down and rest. Quiet places to spend time with their families. Now, again, a lot of this is speculation. Those of you that were here in the room this past week, remember, speculation worth 0%.

Okay. Maybe there's not as many here from last week as I thought. Mr. de Campos on the first day started something relating to the value of some speculation. But anyway, I imagine some of what happened in this particular occasion, based on something I experienced three years ago. Three years ago, I and seven other people were doing a scouting trip to establish the Boundary Waters program. You know, we were up there in Northern Minnesota and checking out the lakes, learning how to set up camp and do equipment. We found a particularly nice campsite one day and, you know, the next morning it's like, what do we do? It's kind of rainy. One person in our camp was coming down with a bit of a cold. There's some of the fellows that really thought it'd be great to be able to do some more fishing. So, we decided we'd stay there and not move on to another campsite. But some of us don't know when to leave things be.

There were four of us that said, "Well, we'd like to explore a little bit. Let's go up some of the route that we plan to use next year." And so we did, you know, we went off and had a little bit of an adventure, and one of them did some fishing. We discovered a Portage that we named The Portage from Hell because seemed like it was all uphill with mosquitoes swarming. We learned later when we came back down that Portage that the lakes were at different levels. It really was almost all uphill.

Fortunately, it was almost all downhill coming back. But when we finally got back, we were tired and wet and sweaty. And it was so nice to come to a camp that was set up, the folks that had stayed behind had drawn water and had it purified. They'd caught some fish. We saw the fish cleaned and on the frying pan. Man, that was nice.

The equipment was laid out and organized. I think it was likely that way for David's men. Those 600, no, the 400 who crossed the Brook Basor, when they came back, you know, they saw that those who stayed behind had been busy. They had done valuable work. All these men on the campaign were warriors, but because of different physical abilities, they took on different tasks. You know, some fought the Amalekites and won, some guarded the supplies, set up camp. The decision that David made next shows us very clearly that both things were very valuable.

And verse 22, say, "All the wicked and worthless men of those who went with David answered and said that, ‘Because these didn't go with us, let's not give them any spoil that we've recovered. Just let them have their wife and their children and make them go away.'" I'm paraphrasing a little there. “David said, ‘My brethren, you shall not do so with what the Lord has given to us, who preserved us and delivered into our hand this troop that came against us. Who will heed you in this matter? But as his part is who goes down to the battle, so shall his part be who stays by the supplies; they'll share alike.’ And it was from that day forward; he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day." We have a good example here. Differing tasks still have value, very important value.

I think the principle is important. Matter of fact, we see it in some other places in Scripture, what does it mean to us? You know, we might sing the song onward Christian soldiers and think of ourselves in a role like that, but we're certainly not pursuing a troop of Amalekites. We're not drawing a sword and doing battle. What's the relevant lesson to us? Maybe I should ask, what are the things that we are doing? Because we should note, as with David, all were warriors, here today, we're all Christians. We've all been called by God the Father to be a part of the Church, and brought into the Body of Christ. And even though we're not all exactly alike, not by any means, but we have that common calling, common commission. As I said, we together make up that Body of Christ. And we have one commandment for certain that Christ gave to us all, and He says, "Love one another, as I've loved you, so you should love one another.”

So, we have varying abilities, but we use them in accomplishing a common duty, a common goal. Christ commissioned the Church to go and make disciples in all nations. You know, go preach the gospel to every creature. So, we do that, and then the commission is given to all of us. We also use the language that when God calls disciples, we're to care for those disciples, that's part of the mission of the United Church of God. So, we have preaching and teaching and caring, that can break down into quite a multitude of small differing tasks and varying responsibilities, especially in this modern era with electronic communications. I look straight ahead, there's a camera, some of you are looking at me on a screen, which, probably worse for you guys than people in the audience, they at least have a safe distance.

But what I'm saying is a lot of talents and abilities must be brought to bear for us to do the work. And we don't all have those talents and abilities, not an equal measure. I want to turn to 1 Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul wrote about that. Like soldiers in King David's army, we Christians don't all have the same abilities, not all in the same measure. And that goes for physical abilities, but also for mental and for spiritual. And, of course, as we know, this weekend, tomorrow, we'll celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, when God poured out His Holy Spirit. And with that Spirit, He gives gifts, Spiritual gifts that the apostle Paul wrote about.

Let's begin in verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 12, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries,” that could have been translated, say different ways to serve, “but the same Lord… diversities of activities, but the same God who works all in all.”

Paul then proceeds to describe some Spiritual gifts that through His Holy Spirit He gives to us. And verse 8, he says, "To one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the Spirit, to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, and the other one interpretation of tongues. One and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. As the body is one and has many members, but all members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also as Christ.”

It's interesting, the various different things that we see there, and I sometimes comment, although it's not my main purpose today of… You know, when I was younger, I always thought about these miracles, you know, I want to do healing, I want to walk on water, you know, and all that, but some of these gifts are faith, wisdom, knowledge. I bet you there's a lot of people in this room, and watching wherever you are, have those gifts in great abundance. I skipped over verse 7, not because it's unimportant, but I wanted to come back and emphasize it because it's of such crucial importance. I have to turn my page back. "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all." Whatever gifts we have through God's Spirit, it's not just for our self, if I have the word of knowledge, it's not, so I can look in the mirror and speak words of knowledge and say, "Woah, didn't that sound great? What a wonderful word that was.”

No, it's for the benefit of all, for everyone in the church. If God gave me the gift of making water into wine, it's not so I can always have lots of wine, it would be so I could share it with other people. By the way, I don't have that one, so I'd invite you all over to the house afterwards if I did. "God has the overall benefit of the church, and of the church's work in mind and the needs of the members in determining how he gives us these different gifts." Now, this is not a new message, I imagine you've heard this type of thing before, and no new truth, but it's good to remember.

I think, good to focus on that at a time when we think about the Holy Spirit coming into us. It's good for us to be reminded that we contribute to the work of the Church, that we each contribute to our congregations in different ways. And we can do so in different ways based on whatever gifts and abilities God is giving us. I've gotten an example for me. You know, for the last year or so about once a month, I get to go that way. I'm not sure how far it is, into that nice new studio we built a few years ago. And I sit in the audience while the Beyond Today program is being produced. Now, that's my role. I could ask, "Wait a minute, I need to get up in front of that camera. Get out of the way Darris McNeely, I'm going to give a message." Why am I not doing that? I have no trouble at all answering. I would not be good at that. You know, that's not the gift that God has given me.

And I'm thrilled for the men that do have that gift to do it. And if you've done a tour of the studio, you know, if you want to sit in the audience up above and behind us, there's people sitting at these controls, you know, recording things, and then they edit the video and the audio. When we see them operating the camera, there's just one nifty camera that zooms out over the audience and comes back. And if you lean the right way you can feel it brush your hair. Why don't I get to do that? Well, one easy answer is I don't know how. I do not have that training. We have some very well-qualified, experienced people who bring their talents together. And you might be surprised how many different people work on making that half-hour TV program.

It's good and important. I don't need to do that, and I can make similar explanations about a lot of other jobs and positions in the Church. When it comes to a lot of those positions, I'm standing at the Brook Besor, and I say, "You guys go get them. I'll set up the camp, and see if I can catch a fish." But I'm not sitting and doing nothing either, like those men in Besor as they prepared and did the things they could do, you know, I could do other things. And God's Word indicates that doing those other things is valuable and important. Matter of fact, I say I was a little surprised, but I'm very gratified that when we started having live audiences, the response to the program started going up and up and up. Somehow it makes a difference.

So, you know, I'm helping to do the work. I'm preaching the gospel by sitting in a chair, and I don't feel bad about that. And I wanted to mention that because it's been just the students for this past year because of COVID restrictions. We got the 20 chairs spread out. That's going to change before long and you might hear the announcement, "Hey, we're recording on the first Wednesday of the month, if you have the freedom in your schedule, come and sit in a chair, help us preach the gospel." And as I said, you know, there's value in all those different jobs, and there's a similar reward. At the end, we all want to hear our Master say, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter the joy of your Lord." Now, there's lots of things we can do in the Church and in the congregation. Some years ago, for various, somewhat selfish reasons, I volunteered to coordinate the Feast side here in Cincinnati. And boy, did I get an education. There's a lot of stuff to do.

A lot of different people are doing these tasks that all come together to make a Feast site work, and Cincinnati's the easiest Feast site, I think. Similarly, you move into a congregation. When I became a pastor, I was also surprised, you got to assign someone to do this, and to do that, and people are jumping in and doing different jobs, some of which I didn't even know existed. And then sometimes years later, I learned that there's members of the congregation on their own, taking on certain tasks that no one knew they were doing, but they made a difference. And I say, those are the ones that I learned about, how many did I never learn about? But somebody did them. I might not have known. You know, if you're doing that in your congregation, your pastor might not know, God knows, God sees all of those things. And like Mr. Delamater said, some of those tasks aren't pleasant.

I don't know if they're as unpleasant as cold spinach, but they can build character. You know, with that in mind, you know, knowing that all of us have these important parts to play. I want to turn to a slightly different circumstance that might leave us standing by the Brook Besor while others go ahead. You know, there's a different dimension to this, that maybe especially this time of year, it's good to look at, because, along with different talents, and abilities, and education, there's also differences in, we could say, energy, vigor, youth. It's funny when I gave this last week, there are a lot more people with gray here in the audience. I was saying, you know, as you get older, you start realizing you don't have the same sort of oomph that you used to have, at least I don't know, or maybe I'm different.

But you know, there are some jobs where you need just some of that vigor and energy that comes to mind because, not only is it Pentecost weekend, but we're in graduation season. You know, in this room, last week… last week a week ago tomorrow, you know, we graduated a class of ABC students, but there are colleges and high schools having graduation ceremonies, probably some today, some tomorrow, next week. I think about that with some of the Ambassador students, some I remember seeing on blankets, you know, in services, then as teens or even preteens at camp. Now, they're adults, maybe young adults, well, not all young. So, we had some retirees in the class, and we really value them, but mostly young adults, and I'd say, but they're adults, in many ways, more mature and capable than we sometimes want to give them credit for.

And I think, are these young adults graduating? You know, don't just say ABC, if you've got college graduates, high school graduates, they're going off to do things. Are they like the soldiers wading across the Brook Basor, while some of us are watching them go? I admit, I don't necessarily like seeing myself in that way in the analogy, you know, I want to be the one that's charging in, you know, I can swim, I can carry a heavy load. Well, I'm thankful that in the Church, you know, a lot of the duties we have to do, don't include carrying a 60-pound pack and a sword and all that. You know, some of it is sitting at a desk and typing or working on messages. But still, there's something to be said for youth and that we go through different stages in life. And I think we can demonstrate from Scripture.

There are some places where it shows that we go through phases, and there's a time for us to leave one phase behind and move into another one and acknowledge there's people coming behind us who will pick that up. I want to turn to the book of Numbers if you will. Numbers 8, and we'll begin in verse 23. Numbers 8:23, it's in the midst of a lot of instruction that God has given to Moses for how to set up the nation, how to do their system of worship. One of the things he gave them instruction for was building this elaborate, what they called tabernacle, like a portable temple. And the tribe of Levi had been designated to serve at that temple with the family of Aaron, which was from the tribe of Levi, being the priests.

And you know, there was a lot of work that went into doing that. You know, animals had to be brought, and they had to be killed and cut up and offered in sacrifice. Every now and then the pillar of cloud would decide to move, and the whole temple is got to be taken apart. And they got to get it organized and carry it, and then get there and set it back up. That's one of the things in studying and preparing to teach this. I learned there were like 10 tons of silver and gold in that tabernacle. And that's not counting the weight of the curtains and the animal hides and… so, there's a lot of work for these Levites to do. And verse 23, let me get there.

Numbers 8:23, God has given these instructions, "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘This is what pertains to the Levites: From twenty-five years old and above one may enter to perform service and the work of the tabernacle of meeting; but at the age of fifty years they must cease performing this work, they shall work no more." Now, doesn't say they're done, they're going to go sit on their couch, it says, "They may minister with their brethren, and they may serve in the tabernacle of meeting to attend to needs, but they themselves shall do no more work. Thus you shall do to the Levites concerning their duties." So, there's times to do that heavy work and times not to. Now, I'm going to give reference the scripture earlier in the book to which I didn't turn, but in Numbers 4:3. Interestingly, there it says the Levites will go to do the work starting at age 30. From age 30 to 50, they work.

And here in chapter 8, it says 25. I don't think the Bible contradicts itself so there's got to be an explanation. The explanation that all supply without being able to prove it, is I think there was a five year training period. It was kind of like going to college, you got to get your degree in Levitical studies. I just made that up. But just think, it's a job that needed to be done just right. Just ask Nadab and Abihu about how right it had to be. That was Aaron's sons who brought the wrong fire, and actually were coming in to burn incense when they should not have done it, and God took them out. So, these Levites, they had a period to learn to do the job properly.

Maybe they were also being prepared for other duties. You know, the Levites didn't all stay there first at Shiloh and then at Jerusalem, they had villages all through the nation. And there's an indication without it being as explicit as I wish it were. That's why I said God didn't send me a manuscript to the Bible so I could edit it for Him. That was I'm sure a very wise. Okay. Yeah, someone give me a break, smile a little. What I'm saying though, is I think these Levites were also well prepared to be educators and administrators, perhaps a justice system throughout all the land. So, they had a five-year training period. And after that, they moved into service. You know, it was a work that did include some heavy labor. If you've ever carved up an ox for sacrifice, which I haven't, but I've read about it, that's heavy work. Moving those 10 tons of metal, you know, so you wanted men in physical prime to do it.

And so when that physical prime starts to pass at about age 50, you move on to another phase, you let the younger men move in and do it. But they're still allowed to do service, attend to needs. You know, I've speculated on that, I wonder if those men over 50 didn't start doing administrative work, bookkeeping, maybe a lot of teaching. We got some 25-year old showed up who we got to teach them how to be proper Levites. Now, I'm not suggesting that in the modern Church of God we should adopt this system, if so I'd be retired already. We're not doing those same type of work, those same types of tasks, but I hope we can see the value in understanding the phases of life that we go through. You know, there's a time when we're really well suited for a certain type of thing, and at a time when someone else's better suited and we can move on.

And to relate this to the point I was making earlier, whatever phase we're in, whatever type of task we might be doing. It has value. The men who stayed at the Brook Besor and the men who went and fight, they shared alike. I suspect the men who are 25-years old, starting to learn how to serve, and the men who are 60, who is teaching others. They all have value. They're all important to doing this work. Now, those at Brook Besor, I wonder if some of the men who said I can't go on, maybe they were older. You know, it's not like a modern army where you draft the 18-year-olds, and you have all young men, so maybe we had some older men who just had less stamina and a little less strength. So, they watched the younger ones cross the Brook, and they did some things back at the camp, things that were of value.

You know, as I said, they probably set about some very important tasks, and David said they would divide evenly. Doing this thing with my hand… I got a learn a new gesture before next week. There's another one of my favorite stories in the Bible that I think helps to illustrate this and this one also involves King David at a much later phase of his life. This story appears near the end of 2 Samuel. If you want to begin turning, to 2 Samuel 17 is where all go. But this story is said in the context of Absalom's rebellion. So, King Absalom… well, he was king briefly but Absalom was one of David's sons. But, you know, as David was getting older, I think they started looking and saying, "Dad's not going to be around a whole lot longer." And we see enough of the story to see that several of them started setting their sights on the throne, "When David has gone, I want to be king." Meanwhile, the other brothers, "I want to be king." And there's some interesting stories about this.

Absalom took action well in advance, he situated himself to where, if people were coming for a trial or something like that, he would grab them and say, "Oh, there's nobody from the king to hear your matter even though you've got a good case." And if they wanted to bow to him he’d kiss them, and you know, he… well, as it says in 2 Samuel 17:27. I didn't ask you to turn there but I'll read it. It says… Oh, no, actually that is where I want to go to. It's 2 Samuel 15:6, it says that "Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.” He stole their hearts and when he felt like he had them in the palm of his hand, he launched a scheme to be made king. He invited certain people to Hebron and they said Absalom reigns in Hebron. And word spread throughout all the land and it was assumed David's done, for Absalom is king. Absalom gathers his troops and starts moving on to Jerusalem. But David got word in time, word comes “Absalon is coming." And realizing that sometimes wisdom is the better part of valor, you know, David and some of his followers leave the city.

And there's many interesting stories about who comes with him and the discussions they have. But bottom line, they leave Jerusalem, they go across the Jordan, and they get word that they need to keep moving. They go to Gilead, you know, the land of the plains beyond Jordan. While they're there, they have a chance to regroup. David is going to build a new army. He's going to fight for control of his kingdom.

Now, I want to read 2 Samuel 17:27 because he has some support. "It happened when David had come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash from Rabbah of the people of Ammon, he came, Machir the son of Ammiel from Lo Debar, he came, and also Barzillai, the Gileadite from Rogelim…” Three men, who later we find out have riches and they bring supplies.

They “brought beds and basins, and earthen vessels, wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans…” and it sound like an inventory from a warehouse, honey, curd, sheep, cheese of the herd, for David and the people who were with him to eat.” And they brought these things “for David and the people to eat.” I got a say this properly. "And they said ‘The people are hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness.’" So, they brought all the supplies needed to feed an army and to help them start setting up camp. A new civil war breaks out, people have to choose sides. Which side will you be on? Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai chose David's side and they committed all their resources to it. And David won. I'm going to skip across the quote from another part of the Bible. Absalom died and David reigned.

And in some time, David is on his way back to Jerusalem. He's recalled, they want him to be king again. And here's where I want to focus on an interesting exchange between David and Barzillai, one of these wealthy men that had provided supplies for him. So, I want to turn ahead to chapter 19 verse 31. Chapter 19 verse 31. As I said, David is on his way back, and it says, "And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim and went across the Jordan with the king." Now, why is he going? To escort him across the Jordan. He'd been in some ways the king's host and he wants to see him on his way.

Sometimes I think if you ever have people over to your house for dinner, when it's time to go, you walk out to the car with them because you have to spend at least 20 minutes saying goodbye. It's kind of like that. So, he's escorting him. And we're reminded, "Barzillai was a very aged man, eighty years old. And he provided the king with supplies while he stayed at Mahanaim. Also, he was a very rich man." Now, David is about to extend an invitation to Barzillai that I think is more than we might read on the surface. I think he's going to do more than just ask Barzillai to come and have dinner with him, you know, hey, you fed me, come back I'll feed you. I think that David sees in Barzillai as someone who's trustworthy and capable and loyal. And David's got to rebuild his government. He had several people he trusted desert to Absalom and some men die in battle, and he needs to form a new government.

I think he's going to ask Barzillai to serve. And we read this in verse 33, "The king said to Barzillai, ‘Come across with me, and I'll provide for you while you're with me in Jerusalem.’" Here, as I said, he trusts Barzillai, you could say he's saying, come and work with me and I'll pay you well. Again, some people would speculate and say no, he's just inviting him to come and have food, but I think he implies more. And if I'm right, this is a special opportunity for Barzillai. We don't know, but what Barzillai had been waiting for years to get to go to Jerusalem and show him how to run things, but he's not a young man anymore. And we don't know that he ever wanted that, but Barzillai makes an interesting answer. Barzillai, this is in verse 34, "He said to the king, ‘How long do I have to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I'm today eighty years old. Can I discern between good and bad? Do I have good judgment anymore? Can I taste what I eat? Can I hear the voice of singing men and singing women? Why should your servant be a burden to the king? I'll go with you a little ways across the Jordan. Why should the king have to repay me?’" Sorry, I'm getting into paraphrase mode, but he says something interesting now. And I want to relate this to the Brook Besor because we could say, you know, now, he's already crossed the Jordan, but David is going to Jerusalem, and he says to Barzillai come with me. Barzillai might be like those men at the Brook Besor saying, "Should I try to go across? No, I don't have what it takes anymore.”

But you know, when David Cross Besor to follow the Amalekites, he certainly needed some men to go with him. He wasn't going to go conquer that troop by himself. And now when David's going back to Jerusalem, he needs some competent men. And Barzillai looks at himself and says, "That's not me anymore." But he knows someone who is showing partway through verse 37. He says, well, let's start beginning of verse 37. "Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and mother. But here is you're servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord. Let the king do for him what seems good to you.”

I imagine the king looks him over, “Okay.” And now, not just looking at him but he must trust Barzillai a lot, say, "Yes, Chimham will cross over, I'll do for him what seems good to you. Whatever you requested me, I'll do. And the people went on over the Jordan. The king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and the king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went with him." And there's some hints of later in the Bible that Chimham did well. As I said, you know, Barzillai couldn't go. And many of us have some jobs that we're just not right to do anymore. I love the fact that this story I think illustrates that, you know, there are different stages in life, and there's great value in all of them. Barzillai was a man who saw his place in that, and he didn't try to be younger than he was. He didn't dye his beard black. So, I'm saying that because I've tried that, and it's pretty useless.

And there was a time for him to play a certain role, he provided support, maybe gave David advice, but going to Jerusalem and helping with the government was not for him. It was for someone younger. And he thought Chimham was the man. Woah, there's a rhyme I built-in. You know, maybe he had advised Chimham. Some scholars think maybe Chimham was one of his sons, I think more likely perhaps a son-in-law. And that's based on some obscure scriptures, but you know, we experience things like that. I've said we're at Pentecost season, we're in graduation season. We're coming up on summer camp season. How exciting is that for those who didn't get to go to camp last summer? I've been involved in the Church's summer camp program, and I like to keep count because this is one of the few things I'll brag about. 33 years in a row now, and I love to do it. Although it's tiring, you know, I'm starting to feel like Barzillai more. When I was younger, I loved to be a dorm counselor.

You know, that was the great job, you know, and I got to do it several times. I tell people, it's the best job in camp. It's also the hardest job in camp. I did it several years, but then I was too old. The time came for me to pass that task to others, and I'm glad I had help recognizing that. You know, teenagers don't want to come and have someone old enough to be their dad as their counselor, they need someone a little closer. So, I transitioned into a different role. And I got to enjoy watching younger men and women be good camp counselors. I see that somewhat nowhere teaching in Ambassador Bible College. You know, every year, we teach and work with a group of mostly younger adults. And this time comes along and we have to watch them go, but they're like Chimham going off to Jerusalem, taking on important tasks, tasks that aren't necessarily for us anymore.

Matter of fact, I thought, you know, here in this congregation, we've had the blessings of the Lamoureuxes here with us for a year and they're getting ready to go, they're going to swim across the Brook Besor and fight the Amalekites in Alabama. If anybody's watching in Alabama, I don't mean that as an insult. But similarly, many people here probably have known Troy Phelps since he was one of those kids on a blanket. He's not a kid on a blanket anymore. He's also swimming across the Brook Besor. He's ready to go and do great things. You know, we probably have some members of the congregation who if they were younger, could easily go and be pastors. And maybe they still could in an emergency, but, you know, I thought of like, some of our elders, like John McClain, and Dave Metzel they've got the know-how and the experience and the knowledge.

But if they were here, they'd probably look at me and say, "No." I'll wave goodbye and let them go across, and be glad to have younger men available and ready to do it. And like I said, some of the things our graduates are going to do, they're going to start to build marriages, have children, build careers. I'm glad I've already done most of that. I want to keep doing the things I'm doing. And I hope, as I'm talking about students, many of you are thinking about your kids. You know, if you're older, you've had kids growing up, going through phases. We ardently want to prepare our younger generation for these important things, and I think we do pretty well. One of our problems is sometimes we have difficulty getting out of the way and letting them do it. What we need to do is be like those 50 plus-year-old Levites who get there and ready to help. Now, that's assuming we're at that phase. Some of us are in the phase still going. I think that's good.

Matter of fact, as I think about the Feast of Firstfruits, you know, when people coming up and joining it. One of the most exciting things about us looking forward to joining the Kingdom of God is, there's going to be room for all of us. We're not going to have to prepare some others and then step aside out of the Kingdom while they come in. You know, we won't have generations who pass and have to be replaced when we become Spirit beings. There'll be room for everyone, we won't be replaced by… You know, if we're the firstfruits, then the second fruits don't take our place, they come alongside and join us. And it's funny, I wrote big notes and big letters in my notes, what will that be like? I have no idea. I'm looking forward to finding out. I think God has a plan for that. I'm looking forward to that.

But for now, you know, we celebrate the Holy Day and what we do know about it. And as I said, we're at the end of an academic year, and there are high school graduations, college graduations, kindergarten graduations. And last Sunday, we had an important graduation right here. And when that happens, sometimes I feel like one of David's soldiers at the Brook Besor and I watch him go across, and I think now what do I do? There was a time I wouldn't have hesitated, just get in there and swim myself, but that's not where I'm at in life right now. And the nice thing to remember is I'm one member of God's Church, one member of the Body of Christ. I don't have to have every spiritual gift. I just have to use whatever gift God gave me, and whatever task and challenge he sets before me, but God called many.

All of you out there, we're part of that one Body, and we put our gifts and our talents together for the good of all. God always sees to it that there's someone to help, someone to fill the role that needs to be done. And I say it's been a privilege for me, you know, to see that the program's preparing youth in God's Church, the camp program, ABC. But every congregation has parents and children and grandparents, and the same thing is in action. And we all have a part to play in God's work, and we can be confident that God will provide what's needed and confident that God's Church and God's work will go on.