The Lord of Breakthroughs Text: 1 Chronicles 14:8-17
Introduction: The Anointing and the Attack
There is a fixed pattern in the economy of God, one that we see from the first pages of Genesis to the last pages of Revelation. The pattern is this: divine blessing is invariably followed by demonic assault. When God anoints, the devil attacks. When God establishes, the enemy seeks to undermine. We see it when God creates a good world, and the serpent immediately slithers into the garden. We see it when God anoints His own Son at His baptism, and the Spirit immediately drives Him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. And we see it right here, in our text today.
David has just been anointed king over all Israel. The divided kingdom is united. The promises of God are being fulfilled. This is a moment of high celebration, a great victory for the covenant people. And what is the immediate result? "All the Philistines went up to seek out David." The enemies of God do not take kindly to the establishment of God's kingdom. They do not applaud the coronation of God's chosen king. They muster their forces and attack.
We live in a sentimental, therapeutic age that has this precisely backward. We think that if we are truly following God, our lives should be free from conflict. We think that opposition is a sign that we have done something wrong. But Scripture teaches the exact opposite. Opposition is not a sign of failure; it is a sign that you have been anointed. It is a sign that the enemy considers you a threat. If you are a Christian, and the world, the flesh, and the devil are not actively seeking you out, you are not a threat to them. You are a tame lion. But when God's people begin to take Him at His word, when they begin to live out their anointing as kings and priests in Christ, they can expect the Philistines to show up. The question is not whether the battle will come. The question is how you will fight when it does.
This passage gives us a glorious, practical, and deeply encouraging blueprint for spiritual warfare. It teaches us how to fight, not in our own strength, but in the strength of the Lord of Breakthroughs.
The Text
Then the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, so all the Philistines went up to seek out David. And David heard of it and went out against them. Now the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim. Then David asked of God, saying, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? And will You give them into my hand?" And Yahweh said to him, "Go up, for I will give them into your hand." So they came up to Baal-perazim, and there David struck them down; and David said, "God has broken through my enemies by my hand, like the breakthrough of waters." Therefore they named that place Baal-perazim. And they forsook their gods there; so David said the word, and they were burned with fire.
Then the Philistines yet again made a raid in the valley. So David again asked of God, and God said to him, "You shall not go directly up after them; circle around from behind them and come at them in front of the balsam trees. And it will be that when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall go out to battle, for God will have gone out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines." Then David did just as God had commanded him, and they struck down the camp of the Philistines from Gibeon even as far as Gezer. Then the name of David went out into all the lands; and Yahweh brought the dread of him on all the nations.
(1 Chronicles 14:8-17 LSB)
The First Battle: Dependence and Destruction (vv. 8-12)
The Philistines make their move, and David goes out to meet them. But his first strategic action is not to consult his generals. It is not to count his spears. His first move is vertical.
"Then David asked of God, saying, 'Shall I go up against the Philistines? And will You give them into my hand?' And Yahweh said to him, 'Go up, for I will give them into your hand.'" (1 Chronicles 14:10)
This is the fundamental posture of a man of God. He inquires of the Lord. He does not assume. He does not lean on his own understanding. This is what distinguished David from his predecessor, Saul. Saul was a pragmatist. He acted out of fear and presumption. David is a man of faith. He acts out of submission and dependence. Notice his two questions. "Shall I go up?" That is a question of permission and wisdom. "Will You give them into my hand?" That is a question of promise and power. David knows that unless God commands the battle and unless God grants the victory, any effort is pure folly.
God gives him a clear and simple command, and David obeys. The result is a decisive victory. But look at how David interprets this victory. He doesn't say, "My superior tactics won the day." He says, "God has broken through my enemies by my hand, like the breakthrough of waters." David sees himself as the instrument, the hand, but God is the agent. The power is like a flood that cannot be stopped. And so he names the place Baal-perazim, which means "Lord of Breakthroughs." This is a polemical act. The Philistines served their own Baals, their own lords. David is declaring on the field of battle that Yahweh is the true Lord, the one who actually breaks through.
The battle is not over when the enemy flees. There is a cleanup operation. "And they forsook their gods there; so David said the word, and they were burned with fire." The Philistines brought their idols to the battle, assuming their gods would give them the victory. When they were routed, they left their gods behind. David does not take these idols as trophies. He does not put them in a museum. He follows the law of God laid down in Deuteronomy 7, which commands that the idols of the pagans be utterly destroyed by fire. Victory is not just about defeating the enemy; it is about purifying the land. It is about removing the stench of idolatry. A true victory for God's kingdom always involves the destruction of idols, whether they are made of wood and stone or of pride and unbelief.
The Second Battle: Attentiveness and Obedience (vv. 13-16)
The enemy is persistent. They come back for a second round. And here we come to the crucial test for David, and for all of us. The great temptation in the Christian life is to rely on yesterday's victory. The temptation is to turn a past success into a present formula. "It worked last time, so it must work this time." This is the essence of pragmatism, and it is a deadly form of unbelief.
"So David again asked of God..." (1 Chronicles 14:14a)
This is the mark of true spiritual maturity. David does not assume that God's will for this battle is the same as His will for the last one. He goes back to God with the same dependent spirit. And God gives him an entirely different set of instructions. "Do not go up directly. Circle around. Come at them from in front of the balsam trees. And wait for a sign."
The instructions are peculiar. They are specific. And they require patience and attentiveness. The sign is not a fleece, but a sound: "the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees." What is this? This is the sound of the armies of heaven, the angelic host, going out before David. God is telling him, "I am going to fight this battle first. You will hear My army engage the enemy in the spiritual realm. When you hear that, then you are to join the fight." This is a profound lesson for us. Our battles are not won on the horizontal plane. They are won in the heavenly places. God goes before us. Our job is to listen, to be attentive to the work of His Spirit, and when He gives the signal, to go out to battle with all our might.
David's response is simple and complete. "Then David did just as God had commanded him." He obeys the strange, counter-intuitive command precisely. And the result is an even greater victory, a rout that extends from Gibeon to Gezer. Specific obedience to the specific commands of God is the path to total victory.
The Result: God's Fame and God's Fear (v. 17)
The passage concludes with the result of David's dependent, attentive, and specific obedience.
"Then the name of David went out into all the lands; and Yahweh brought the dread of him on all the nations." (1 Chronicles 14:17)
Notice the two-fold result. David's name, his reputation, becomes famous. But the text is clear that this is Yahweh's doing. God is the one who establishes the reputation of His anointed king. And the effect of this fame is not mere admiration. It is "dread." Yahweh caused the nations to fear David. This is a fulfillment of the covenant promise in Deuteronomy, that God would put the fear and dread of His people on the surrounding nations as they walked in obedience.
This is not the kind of cowering, servile fear that a tyrant inspires. This is the awe and respect that comes from seeing the power of the living God at work in His people. When the church walks in radical dependence and joyful obedience to her King, the world takes notice. They may not like what they see, but they cannot ignore it. A holy dread falls upon them, because they are encountering a power that is not of this world. This is how the kingdom of God advances. Not through worldly marketing schemes or pragmatic programs, but through the simple, faithful obedience of God's people to their King.
Christ, the True Lord of Breakthroughs
As with all things in the Old Testament, David is a pointer. He is a type, a shadow, of the greater David to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the ultimate anointed King. And when He was anointed, all the forces of hell went up to seek Him out. But in every confrontation, He first inquired of His Father. He only did what He saw the Father doing. He only spoke what the Father gave Him to speak.
On the cross, it looked as though the Philistines had won. But Jesus was following the strange and specific command of His Father. He was circling around behind the enemy. And on the third day, there was a great breakthrough, like the breakthrough of waters. Christ, our Baal-perazim, broke through the gates of death and hell. He routed the enemy and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
And now, He commands us, His people, to fight. He does not give us a one-size-fits-all formula. He gives us His Spirit and His Word. He calls us to inquire of Him for each battle, for each day. He calls us to listen for the sound of His marching in the tops of the trees, to be attentive to the work of His Spirit in the world. And when He gives the command, we are to go out to battle, whether that is in raising our children, sharing the gospel with a neighbor, or standing for righteousness in the public square.
When we do this, when we walk in the dependent obedience of our King, He promises the same result. His name will be made famous through us. And He will cause a holy dread, a profound and sober respect for the living God, to fall on the nations. For we serve the great Lord of Breakthroughs, and His kingdom shall have no end.