2 Sam 2:7, Now therefore, let your hands be strong, and be valiant; for Saul your lord is dead, and also the house of Judah has anointed me king over them." 
	In this morning’s passage, we have the newly crowned king of Judah, David, addressing the men who had been brave and courageous in the matter of taking the body of Saul and his sons and burying them. These men had risked death on two fronts. 
	First, in the very act of going forth to gather the bodies of their slain sovereign and his dead sons at the place in which the Philistines were so powerful and victorious and taking to themselves the lands and the properties of the vanquished Hebrews. This was a tremendous act of courage on the part of these men of Jabesh-gilead. They had shown both valor and dedication to the honor of Saul as their anointed king. This was no small action of fidelity on their part to risk their very lives for the sake of their final service to the first king of Israel. 
	The second front of the severe consequences of this action was from the possible retribution by the new king. These men had no idea how David would react to their action of honor unto the body and the memory of Saul. While they were set on this task against the Philistine’s dishonoring of Israel’s slain monarch, there was no certainty how the new king would respond.
	It was entirely possible that David would see them as anti-loyalist to his newly established reign over them. As such, there was every possibility that David would see them as a threat and seek to eliminate that group of men who were obviously steadfastly loyal to the former king. 
Therefore they might have been seen as enemies to the new regime and thus subject to the deadly consequences of that action. The new king, David, might seek to have them neutralized in order to lessen the power of any forces that would contest his ascension to the throne. This was entirely possible in the political intrigues of the human efforts to establish an uncontested base of kingly power.
	However, the heart of David was filled with that self-same love and loyalty to the one whom God had chosen as the first monarch over Israel. David was wise in trying to consolidate, rather than subjugate his way to the throne that The Lord had given him. 
He saw the actions of these men of Jabesh-gilead as completely honoring to the king whom David had as well served and so honored to the best of his ability. That is why he chose to express to those brave men his heart of love for Saul that they, as well, had so manifestly shown. David, rather than rebuking and accusing them, sought to encourage and thank them for the fact that they had put forth the bravery to face the spears of the Philistines in order to retrieve and honorably bury the slain sovereign of themselves as well as of David. 
	There is a heart of encouragement that comes forth from the new king of Judah, which we would do well to consider. He was in the midst of the consolidation of the nation of Israel. David was not immediately made king over all the people. There was, as we read together, those forces that were trying to maintain the kingship within the house of Saul. Actually the majority of the tribes of Israel were so swayed. There was physical turmoil in the land as the people were forced to make decisions as to which of the royal lineages they would follow. 
This was not an easy step to the throne for David. He had to negotiate the manner in which the kingship over the nation would be established through the means of winning over those whom he could. This was with the fact that Samuel had anointed him, by the very word of Jehovah, to be the next king of all Israel. 
In these days of social uncertainty and strife and unrest, as we see our nation and the world devolving into socially chaotic and morally bankrupt manifestations of human hopelessness and fear, we can look to this heart and mind of David to see what God saw in him. There is a reality of godly influence which carries throughout the Word of God, that heart which seeks to influence others to come to the place of trust in the Lord. That was the full measure of what David had to have established in the hearts and minds of those over whom Jehovah had declared him to be king. 
Please remember, this was not something that David had chosen unto himself. If that had been the case, he would have had ample opportunity to kill Saul and make a claim of kingship in the course of his annihilation of any who stood in his way. 
However David ever had in his heart this manner of dealing righteously and justly with those whom he sought to lead as a shepherd leads his beloved flock of sheep. This meant that encouragement, as so given in this morning’s passage to …let your hands be strong, and be valiant….
David made sure that these men were recognized as brave and courageous in the manner of their care of the corpses of the former king and his sons. He also encouraged them with the fact that they were to be admired for what they had done. They had willingly put their lives on the line to bring the bodies of the former royal family to rest was commendable and an act of valor. 
This was such to be acclaimed that The Lord includes them in the Word of God that we are reading together as a fellowship. This heart of David to so bring forward his support echoes the heart of God as the means of dealing with His people throughout the scripture.
Please turn back in your Bibles to Gen 15:1. In this passage, The Lord is encouraging Abram, soon to be called Abraham, as to the fact that he could count on Jehovah to see him through everything that was required to become the father of the nation that would become God’s heritage in the world.
Gen 15:1, After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great." 
	There is that call to not be afraid to obey and to honor God in the course of our moment by moment walk on this earth. This is something that so many of us find ourselves facing when we are dealing with those choices that we make or with the distractions that are so violently aimed at our testimony of God. There is that earthly fear that needs to be conquered, not by us, but by the Lord as He works in us. What is required is that trust and obedience which is set fully into the working power and wisdom and sovereignty of God over everything that we feel is threatening our living relationship with Him and with Him Alone! 
	We have spent many times together with the reality that we are not to fear this world or anything of this world because Jesus has overcome it all by His glorious and victorious resurrection power. There is nothing of this age which can stand against Him. 
We know this in our heads. However, it needs to be concretely set into our hearts as the foundation upon which we stand! We need to beseech God to make Himself, through all the means necessary to imprint upon our being the reality of what He says to us, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day - Do not fear… I am a shield to you… 
	Have we come to the place in our lives at which we know, without any hesitation, that there is nothing to fear in this realm? This is not a rhetorical question. It is a factual and actual reality that needs to be set into the very depths of our beings! There is nothing to fear in this life that we live as we live forth unto the glory and the praise and the adoration and the worship of The Lord God, Jehovah! He is our bulwark, our shield as we abide in Him and obey Him and trust Him! We will learn this bedrock truth as we walk with Him in a relationship in which He is everything and His will becomes our will. 
	That is the basic reality at hand. For us to learn not to fear, we have to go through all those valleys of the shadows of death wherein God proves Himself ever faithful, ever true, ever powerful, ever comforting, ever providing, and ever sovereign over every desire and longing of our hearts and minds and beings! This is the way, by whatever road, with whatever means, through whatever trial and tribulation and struggle, that we come to know Who God is and all that He has done, is doing, and will ever continue to do!
	Listen to what He told His people in Deut 6:1-7, those descendents of Abraham, as they were about to enter into the Promised Land of their inheritance. This was the course of what they were to come into as they had undergone those years of learning to fully trust God as He led them in the wilderness regions.
They had watched their faithless parentage being fully maintained by the love of God, yet slowly dying away because of their lack of trust in the Sovereignty of Jehovah. It was through all those years of wilderness experience that they came to know Who God was and all that He did to cause them not to fear but to trust and to obey with all their heart and all their mind and all their might.
	Deut 6:1-7, "Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 
	Much later in the history of Israel, long after the kingship of David had been established, there was another account that we would be wise to have before us in our consideration of what it means to …let your hands be strong, and be valiant… before the Lord, Our God. Please turn to Neh 2:17-20, where the account of the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem is detailed. 
	There had been a complete desolation made of the city of the Lord. The people who lived in the land surrounding Jerusalem were set on making sure that it would not be rebuilt. There was a powerful force to try to deny God that witness on earth which would be recognized as the dwelling place of the Most High. 
Accordingly, when Nehemiah was sent back with the king’s blessing to rebuild the city, there was a great fear that needed to be dealt with. Would those who seemed to be in control of the territory stop the building and prevent the faithful Israelites from once again inhabiting the place that God had ordained for His presence in their midst? 
	Nehemiah had to encourage the workers to be on guard, to work with diligent endeavor and without fear to accomplish that which Jehovah had ordained to be rebuilt. They had to be encouraged to trust in the Lord once more because they were working for His glory and His testimony and His honor to be again established within the hearts and minds of His people in their humble submission to His Sovereign power.
	Neh 2:17-20, Then I said to them, "You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach." And I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me, and also about the king's words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, "Let us arise and build." So they put their hands to the good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard it, they mocked us and despised us and said, "What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?" So I answered them and said to them, "The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, right, or memorial in Jerusalem." 
	We now jump ahead to the encouragement from the Apostle Paul to the church at Corinth, and to each of us as part of the Body of Christ Jesus. 1 Cor 16:13+14 details, with all boldness, the fact that we are not to fear anything in the course of our walk here, right now. We are to be alert in our considerations of what is taking place around us. We are to be firmly and steadfastly set in our resolve to only honor and obey and trust the Lord. In so doing, we are to treat others in love. This returns us to the manner in which David, then king only of Judah, so lovingly and kindly encouraged those men of Jabesh-gilead.
	1 Cor 16:13+14, Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. 
	The Apostle then gives us all the greatest of encouragement to …let your hands be strong, and be valiant… before the whole of creation in the so forcefully wonderful proclamation that is recorded in Eph 6:10-19. This is the manifested truth, the bed-rock assurance, the encapsulated declaration of what the walk of a Christian is to entail on this earth. We are not to give into fear in any matter. We are to be strong and valiant in our service unto the Lord and King of all His creation! 
	Eph 6:10-19, Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints… 
	Thus we support and help each other and we stand together in the Lord Jesus Christ, throwing off all the hindrance of earthly fear and loathing. We, rather, revel in the reality that our lives belong to Jesus. He is Our Lord and Our God and Our Everything! We know that He is the Eternal Victor over all the forces that could ever be arrayed against Him. Unto Him, every knee will bow and every man, woman, child, and every created thing will give homage and acclamation. Every tongue will declare that He is the risen and Sovereign Lord of all! So be it!
	Now therefore, let your hands be strong, and be valiant; for Saul your lord is dead, and also the house of Judah has anointed me king over them." Amen.

	
This morning’s benediction is Ps 25:4. Make me know Thy ways, O Lord; Teach me Thy paths. Amen