2 Samuel Lesson 51
Political Chaos – 2 Samuel 3 & 4
Turn to 2 Samuel 2; we’re on the first part of David’s recovery after
the death of Saul. From chapter 2-11
deal with God’s blessing upon the Davidic dynasty, and chapters 2-4 deal with
how David secured control over twelve tribes.
This all may seem to be very dull history until you realize that there
are principles that apply to your Christian life and not only do they apply but
if you understand this history it will add to the great exhortation for you to
trust in the promises of God more than you are because if we see in this
history true principles, obviously they worked once because this is a record of
how they worked, and if they worked once in history and God is immutable, then
they can work again in history. So these
stories are very important from the standpoint of God’s Word.
Let’s look at a principle that comes out over and over. God has a
certain essence, a certain character; it can be described with various adjectives
and nouns and one of these words we use to describe it is sovereignty, that God
decrees whatsoever shall come to pass.
Nothing occurs in history apart from God’s decree. God is a totally sovereign God. However, the
Bible also says that God in decreeing does not invent a set of automatons, does
not program history like an IBM machine.
We don’t know how He does this, but in some way God sovereignly decrees
whatsoever shall come to pass in history, and yet whatsoever comes to pass in
history is a result of responsible choice.
We don’t know how that works, but we just know that the Bible gives us
picture after picture after picture of this principle.
Let’s give some applications of this. We
have, for example, God’s sovereign decree to bring the elect to salvation. But He doesn’t force you, you believe,
apparently just the course of events in history, you don’t feel some
pressure. And so even though God has
decreed it, it doesn’t mean it’s a deterministic, mechanistic way. Another example is that God has decreed that
Israel will survive, regardless of the Hitlers, the Arabs or anyone else that
tries to erase Israel from the face of the map; they aren’t going to succeed,
and yet you don’t seem to see any big wall of fire come down from heaven and stop
them; nevertheless, it always works out in the course of history, no matter how
chaotic it is, no matter how disorganized, no matter how unfavorable the
balance of power seems to be, Israel comes up smelling like a rose every time. Why?
Because of God’s decree, that’s why.
In Samuel we have seen God’s sovereign decree to bring David to the
throne through a series of all sorts of acts.
We’ve seen David’s anointing in the house of Jesse; we almost missed it
there because remember where David was when Samuel came to the house and wanted
to anoint him; he was out with the sheep, almost got overlooked, almost but not quite. God decreed David would be king and David was
anointed. Then we have the many military
battles that David engaged in in 1 Samuel; he could have been the victim of an
arrow like Saul was, he could have,
an arrow theoretically might have struck him, a sword, a javelin might have
struck him in the chaos of battle but decreed David would rule and so no sword
did strike him, and no arrow or javelin did.
We find how Saul attempted seven times to assassinate David; seven times
he tried to kill David; seven times he put all of his might to kill David,
through accidents, miscalculations, and all sorts of (quote) “chance” (end
quote) phenomena David was saved.
Why? God decreed David would get
to the throne.
We find David’s errors, probably the most dangerous thing of all, David
himself sins, puts himself in a position where he himself can either be
annihilated or can ruin the typology of his office by slaughtering members of
Saul’s house. And it looks like just at the last moment David is going to
finally fail, just at the last moment history changes, there’s an (quote)
“accident,” there’s something else that happens, always David is preserved
from destroying the typology of his office. Why? God has decreed David will reign on the
throne.
Now in chapters 3-4 we come to a series of accidents and violence in the
course of David’s ascension to this throne, things that look on the surface to
be like tremendous political upheavals, look on the surface from the human
standpoint that the situation is totally out of hand, you have one plotter
trying to assassinate somebody else with another big political plot, you have
assassination teams, you have people trying to conduct negotiations, you have a
very, very confused political picture.
But in back of it all God has sovereignly decreed David will get to the
throne. So in chapters 3-4 are just
another lesson in this balance between God’s sovereign decree to get David to
the throne and man’s responsible choices, accidents, quote “chance” end quote,
and all the other things that seem to compete against God’s sovereign decreed,
seem to overwhelm it, except in the last analysis the decree stands there.
Let’s look at 3:1, “now there was a long war between the house of Saul
and the house of David; but David grew stronger and stronger, and the house of
Saul grew weaker and weaker.” Now this
follows chapter 2 where we had a man be the name of Abner. Abner conducted a tournament at the pool of
And this accident should again remind you that there can be accidents in
your Christian life but these accidents always have two very, very nice
features, that go for you every time, no matter how big your problem is, no
matter how massive it is, how helpless it is, there are always two things that
you have working for you in every one of these problems, accidents,
catastrophes that may come into your life.
One of them is that it’s never going to cancel out God’s decree for you;
God has decreed you to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. Now if He has decreed you as a believer to be
conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, you will be in spite of all the
accidents, the pressures, the adversities, the problems that look too big for
God’s grace. No problem is ever too big
for God’s grace. Proof: this
history.
The second thing you’ve always got going for you in the middle of every
pressure or every trial, not only is it not too big for you, but oftentimes in
the Christian life you go along and you hit one setback, and you start going
down the drain, and then somehow you recover, go on, get down, go on and so
forth, and you look back and say these are often distracting, they don’t seem
to be related, they seem to be just a chance, just an isolated event here and
an isolated event here and there’s no
rhyme nor reason to them; yet if you have been paying attention
carefully in 1 & 2 Samuel, have these really been isolated examples? No, remember all the times David got out of
fellowship and it was always one point wasn’t it; David was not patient to seek
God’s will and he had to learn the lesson and learn it and learn it. So what looked like chaos was very carefully
ordered. God had sovereignly controlled
everything, worked it out very carefully and they were not disjointed, they were
part of one continuous plan. So no
matter how big that problem may be in your life, no matter how awesome it may
be, no matter how awful it may be, you can rest assured that it’s not
disconnected, it’s not a distraction, it’s just one more thing that’s working
together for good, in one continuous unbroken patter of working in your life.
Now this war which began in verse 1 began five and a half years after
Saul died. Saul died in the last chapter
of 1 Samuel and for five and a half years you have the Philistines dominate the
Now in verses 2-5 you have an official record that apparently is part of
the document and is put in by the narrator here, to bring us up to date on
David. You read it and you wonder what
has this got to do with the battles. It
has a lot to do with it; the whole point of this passage in Samuel is to show
David is gaining power. Yeah you say,
but what does verses 2-5 have to do with David gaining power. A lot!
Because in the Ancient Near East the king’s power is expressed through
his harem, believe it or not. The kings
under the Ancient Near East, his claim to his throne, this operates about three
or four times tonight, his harem, and the word “harem” was a word which originally
meant off limits, and it started because he had all his girlfriends parked
there and it was off limits to everybody except the king. So the king had a
harem and the harem was an expression of his right to the throne. Now we’re not sure exactly of all the
connection but I’ll show you before we’re finished that it very definitely, the
harem is connected with the right to rule.
So this also heads off at the pass some character that thinks David was
a polygamist, therefore I can be one.
You don’t sit on the throne, sorry, so you’re disqualified, so any
applying David’s polygamy to your life is out, so let’s not have illegitimate
application. These are only for kings
and only under the Old Testament dispensations.
All verses 2-5 do is relate the firstborn sons for all his wives, six
wives and six sons; he had more than that but those are the wives that are
listed at this point, to indicate that David is accumulating a harem and
therefore the royal seed to the throne.
[2, “And unto David were born sons in Hebron: and his first-born was
Amnon, of Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess; [3] And his second, Chileab, of Abigail,
the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom, the son of Maacah,
the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; [4] And the fourth, Adonijah, the son
of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah, the son of Abital; [5] And the sixth,
Ithream, by Eglah, David’s wife. These
were born to David in
Verse 6, “And it came to pass while there was war between the house of
Saul and the house of David, that Abner made himself strong for the house of
Saul.” Now this is a very interesting
word, the Hebrew has many stems for its verbs.
One of the stems is called the hithpael stem. Now the hithpael stem is not used too
frequently but it is used here. It is a
reflexive use, in other words, Abner made himself strong by his own
effort. This use of the hithpael stem
here is to draw emphasis to the human viewpoint, the gimmicks that Abner was
using. This is sheer human viewpoint
politics where autonomous man seeks to solve his problems in some way divorced
from the grace of God; so the hithpael draws attention to the works, nature,
this is not by grace like David, this is by works, just like the rest of the
family. And of course, it’s no wonder
because look at the word, Ab-ner, what does that mean? Do you know what “Ab” means? You should
because of Abraham, what does “Ab” mean, it means father, “ner” means the lamp,
and Abner’s father was Ner, Ner happened to be a brother of
You’ll lose the point of the story if you don’t catch it right here and
that is every character you’re going to see here is in the house of Saul; all
the shenanigans that go on have to do with the house of Saul. That’s very, very important to the story
because God is going to dispense the house of Saul and replace David and He’s
going to do it without David having to lift a finger. David is not going to
have to “hithpael” it, he isn’t going to have to do it by his own works. The other thing that is interesting about
this verb, that Abner “made himself” strong, is that it is a participle, and
this means that it was a process that went on and on and on and on. In other words, Abner continually set
gimmicks; Abner continually strove to make himself powerful in this new
dynasty; he set up a puppet king and he pulled the strings.
Verse 7, now we get into the harem.
And Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah:
and Ish-bosheth said to Abner, Why have you gone in to my father’s
concubine?” Now what’s happening here
and what is the problem? To analyze the
passage we have to know a little bit of history. First of all, “have gone in” I hope you know
that means have sex with, so this is sexual intercourse with one of Saul’s
concubines. Now why is this considered a
big affront, because obviously it’s not the wife of Ish-bosheth, why should he
bother with Saul’s concubine, and why should he be bothered if Abner wants to
go out and shack up, why should he be bothered with those things. Well, we’re going to see that this is a claim
to a throne.
Turn to 2 Samuel 16:20-23, you’ll see where this strange practice comes
out again, strange by our standards in the west so we have to understand the
Biblical world. A lot more went on here
than just a night with a concubine. Now
this is later on in the life of David, and Absalom is trying to take over his
father’s throne; got the picture.
Absalom is David’s son, this is at a later time in history, Absalom
wants to take over his father’s throne, so watch how he does it. “Then said Absalom to Ahithophel,” Ahithophel
was his advisor, “Give counsel among what we shall do. [21] And Ahithophel said
unto Absalom, Go in unto thy father’s concubines,” in other words, have sex
with the concubines of David, “whom he hath left to keep the house, and all
Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy father; then shall the hands of
all that are with thee be strong.” Why would that act of going in and having
sexual intercourse with the concubines of David have anything to do with the
throne. Read on. Verse 22, “So they spread Absalom a tent upon
the top of the house;” and he did it every night, see, made sure everybody saw
what was going on, couldn’t miss it, “and Absalom went in unto his father’s
concubines in the sight of all Israel,” do you get it that this is rather a
public affair that’s going on. Now what has this got to do with it. Read on. [23] And the counsel of Ahithophel,
which he counseled in those days, was as if a man had inquired at the oracle of
God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel, both with David and with Absalom.” Now here you have an oracle and it’s an
authoritative word to Absalom how to claim the throne; how do you claim the
throne? By going in and claiming the
concubines as yours. Now again it sounds
strange by our standards but you have to understand this was the custom if you
are to understand what we’re trying to study in the passage tonight.
We see this even further, turn to 1 Kings 2:13, it occurs again. This is
a boy that wants to go into the concubines of Solomon, and he apparently has a
girlfriend in there or something and he wants her. So he tries to go through the queen, who at
this point is Bathsheba. And verse 14,
“He said, moreover, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And she said, Say on. [15] And he said, You
know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel set their faces on me, that
I should reign,” now that shows you right away this boy has some royal motives,
it’s not just he’s out for a party, he’s out for politics. “Howbeit, the kingdom is turned about, and is
become my brother’s; for it was his from the LORD. [16] And now I ask one
petition of thee, deny me not. And she said unto him, Say on. [17] And he said,
Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king …that he give me Abishag, the
Shunammite, in marriage. [18] And Bathsheba said, Well, I will speak for thee
unto the king. [19] Bathsheba, therefore, went unto King Solomon, to speak unto
him for Adonijah. And the king rose up
to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused
a seat to be set for the king’s mother; and she sat on his right hand.” At this point Bathsheba is the Queen mother
actually, she’s Solomon’s mother. By the
way, there’s another illustration of sitting on the right hand, and how the son
sits on the father’s right hand, notice what she does at the right hand of the
king; the very next thing, she makes petition.
That’s where that expression the Son sits at the Father’s right hand got
started. [20] “Then she said, I desire one small petition of thee; I pray thee,
refuse not. And the king said unto her,
Ask on, my mother; for I will not refuse thee.
[21] And she said, Let Abishag, the Shunammite, be given to Adonijah,
thy brother, in marriage.”
Watch Solomon’s answer. [22] “And
King Solomon answered and said unto his mother, And why do you ask Abishag, the
Shunammite, for Adonijah? Ask for him
the kingdom also,” why is that linked in there, for that was tantamount to
asking for the kingdom, why don’t you just come right out and say what you
want, that boy wants my kingdom. So
asking for the concubine was, as a matter of fact, claiming the throne. Now we don’t understand the custom, all we
have to do is understand that it occurred; that was the custom at the
time. Verse 23, “Then King Solomon swore
by the LORD, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken
this word against his own life. [24] Now, therefore, as the LORD lives, who has
established me, and set me on the throne of David, my father, and who has made
me an house, as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day.” Now see, asking for a woman’s hand in
marriage isn’t the question; what was behind this was asking a royal privilege,
or a claim. That’s why he got capital
punishment.
Now 2 Samuel 3; this is the significance of Ish-bosheth’s attack on
Abner. However in this case, because
Abner is a member of the family, Abner is cousin to Saul and he apparently
honestly wasn’t actually claiming the throne because as far as he was concerned
he was going to get it anyway; to him he just wanted a girlfriend for the night
is the way the text reads here, so he just wanted one and that’s how he got it,
so to him it wasn’t a claim on the throne at all. Verse 7b, “Ish-bosheth said, Why have you
gone in unto my father’s concubine?” In other words, he said you are trying to
claim my throne Abner, why have you done this.
And so Abner is very furious, and as we have seen him before in the
text, as a military man, he’s quite blunt with his language.
Verse 8, “Then Abner was very angry for the words of Ish-bosheth, and
said, Am I a dog’s head, which is against Judah,” now we would say it
differently, I am a you know what, and that’s the way we’d say it but in that
day, I’m the head of a dog, which meant that I am a … you finish it, people get
upset when I use that language so figure it out for yourself. “…do show kindness this day,” in other words,
Abner is saying look, I am showing you kindness, chesed, I am loyal to our house, see it’s his family too, as well
as Ish-bosheth’s, I show kindness to this house, I am loyal to this house, I am
not claiming the throne. So at this point he’s denying, he is actually denying…
by the way, when he says, I’m a dog’s head in Judah, literally, that shows you
the segregational attitude that the north had against the south here. At this
point the people in the north were very proud and they can’t stand the people
of Judah.
And this is one of the political problems that David has to overcome; is
that the people in Judah are not well-liked by the people in the north, for
some reason. But it leaks through every
once in a while in these comments and here’s one of them. And I “show loyal love this day unto the
house of Saul, thy father, to his brethren, and to his friends, and have not
delivered thee into the hand of David,” see, for five and half years I had this
place up here, safe in the Philistines, and now for two years I’ve been helping
you; “that you charge me today with a fault concerning this woman?”
Verse 9, “So do God to Abner, and more also, except, as the LORD has
sworn to David, even so I do to him. [10] To transfer the kingdom from the
house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah,
from Dan even to Beer-sheba. [11] And he could not answer Abner a word, because
he feared him.” So what is Abner saying
in verses 9-10? This is a very
interesting verse and it shows you something about the spiritual climate of the
time. When he says in verse 9, “May God
curse me,” literally, “may God curse me, except as the LORD has sworn to David,
even so I will do to him.” What he is
saying is you’d better watch your marbles, kid, because I have the power to
deliver this whole kingdom to David. So
if you play tough with me, you’re just going to lose the whole kingdom, period. You accuse me of claiming the kingdom by
going in to your concubines, listen, the kingdom isn’t even yours in the first
place, I’m the one that gave you the kingdom and I’m the one that can take it
away. See the human viewpoint political
attitude.
And he says, interestingly, “as the LORD swore to David,” now that is
very, very interesting. Do you know what
that tells us? That tells us that the
Davidic Covenant was well-known, or at least the antecedents to it, God’s
promise to David was well known by the house of Saul and even Abner knew
it. Now you say, wait a minute, how can
Abner know that is’ God’s will to give David the throne and yet Abner’s the one
that’s keeping David off the throne by setting up this northern
confederacy. What’s the story? It’s simple, just like today, people know
what Genesis says, don’t they? Most
people know something about Genesis, but how many people believe it? Most people know the New Testament teaches
Jesus Christ is going to literally and physically return, but how many people
believe it. So here, this is just the same,
in Abner’s mouth, yeah, he knows it says God said he’s going to have the
throne, ha, kind of thing. Just like
people today say oh yeah, you know, Christ is coming, sure, tell me another
story. Same kind of attitude. The Word
of God is known but not believed. Abner
is a compound carnality believer just like Saul, or an unbeliever, he may have
been either one, but he shows his lack of spirituality here by knowing the Word
of God and not bowing down to it. And so
he says I’ll give David the whole kingdom.
Verse 11 is the result, Ish-bosheth is a puppet king under Abner.
Now in verse 12 we have the defection; here’s the diplomatic goings on
that occurred at this point. “And Abner
sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, Whose is the land?” Now in a few verses here you have a very
intriguing confrontation. Abner represents human viewpoint; David represents
divine viewpoint and both these men are butting heads at the bargaining
table. Abner starts off his message,
“whose is the land?” Well whose is the
land? It’s the Lord’s land, isn’t
it. Of course it is, but who does Abner
mean? Him. Abner says now David, he starts off from his
strong point in the bargaining sessions, now the land is mine and maybe we can
make a deal, maybe I can give you my
land. So this is his human viewpoint
analysis of the situation, even though, notice, by verse 9 you know that he
knows that it’s God’s will that David rule it.
In spite of that Abner says it’s my land. Now he says, make a covenant with me, [Saying
also, Make thy league with me] and behold, my hand shall be with thee, to bring
about all Israel unto you.”
There’s the human viewpoint proposal.
He says I’m in a position of power, I can’t stand this brat,
Ish-bosheth, now I’d like to be the commander in chief under David, we’d have a
lot more action, David is a lot more Biblical in how he runs his military than
this jerk over here that I have to serve under, so actually I’ll just bring the
whole northern kingdom down and we’ll unite and have one big happy family; I’ll
do it, it’s my kingdom, my land, and by my hand we will do this. Now David finds out immediately, he sees the
name of the game, and he makes a very clever reply that goes back to the same
principle of the harem again. Verse 13,
“And he said, Well; I will make a league with you; but one thing I require of
thee, that is, thou shalt not see my face, except you first bring Michal,
Saul’s daughter, when you come to see my face.”
Now why does David make that request; again, he’s saying oh, the land is
yours Abner, oh really, who is the husband of Saul’s daughter? That’s what the diplomatic answer to Abner
is. Abner says the land is mine; David say oh no it isn’t, because my wife is
Saul’s daughter, now you just bring that girl right down to me when you
come. See this is David’s very high
finesse in the diplomacy of counterattacking the human viewpoint of Abner. He says you don’t own the land, who are you
kidding? You’ve got my wife up there,
Michal. Remember Michal, and notice she’s called Saul’s daughter, she was the
girl that acted like her father, very proud, very self-righteous and she
inherited, like many daughters do, the behavior patterns of her father. And she acted just like her father.
Verse 14, “And David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, saying,
Deliver me my wife, Michal,” and David is still laughing at the way that he got
this girl, in the ancient world a dowry was paid and Saul thought he was going
to kill David and he asked him to go out, kill a hundred Philistines, cut off
their foreskins and bring them back. And
you have to relax, there is a sense of humor in 1 Samuel, God wrote it and this
is the way it is, so just chuckle at it, it’s God’s sense of humor. David thinks this is pretty funny to, so he
says, “Deliver unto me my wife, Michal, whom I espoused for an hundred
foreskins of the Philistines.” Bring me
old hundred foreskin Michal down. This
is just his way of playing along with the Lord’s sense of humor, he’s relaxed
about it, he just went along with it and it was also a very good divine
viewpoint quip against Abner.
Verse 15, “And Ish-bosheth sent and took her from her husband, even from
Paltiel, the son of Laish.” She’s been
remarried now. [16] “And her husband
went with her, weeping behind her, to Bahurim. Then said Abner unto him, Go,
return. And he returned.” Abner told him
to get lost and he did. And finally
David wound up with Michal. Now this has
more than just humor in it, the acquisition of Michal, again, is a divine claim
upon the throne. It’s David’s way of
asserting…we don’t understand why all this went on, all we can say is that all
through history at this point, that the claim to the throne is somehow linked
to the women that are around that throne.
There’s more to this than just a big joke.
Verse 17, now the deal has been consummated and the next step would have
been a very peaceful acquisition of all the tribes, Abner has completed his
portion of the deal, Abner has secured the royal lineage, Michal, now Michal is
added on with the six other women, it’s getting kind of crowded but she’s the
seventh, and she comes back and now everything is seemingly worked out. Now here is where you’re going to see
sovereignty, an accident, occur again, because over it all, overarching the whole
story is God, who is sovereign; but within the story you have an upset because
we encounter the second great human viewpoint gimmick. The first one was Abner’s plot to deliver all
the nation into David’s hand; it almost succeed; Abner’s plot almost succeeded. Now we have the second plot of the story.
The second plot is by Joab, the commander in chief of David’s armies,
and the second plot destroys the first pot.
[17] And Abner had communication with the elders of Israel, saying, You
were seeking for David in times past to be king over you; [18] Now, then, do
it; for the LORD has spoken of David,” now isn’t that a pious sweet thing, look
what he’s just admitted in verse 17, “you were seeking for David in times
past,” it is a participle and it means you were continually seeking for
David. Now when were the people in the
north seeking for David? During the five
and a half years when Abner was trying to secure the land, and during the two
years of Ish-bosheth’s reign, all during that time, this verse tells us, that
there were believers who were regenerated and being sanctified by the Holy
Spirit in the north that recognized God’s will, knew God’s will and wanted to
submit to it. That asked, let David be
our king, you know that’s God’s will for us.
So verse 17 is a frank admission that there were hundreds and thousands
of believers in the north that wanted to swing in under David’s rulership and
they recognized that David was of the Lord and they wanted to obey the
Word. So who was it that prevented the
elders from swinging.
Now here’s the irony of the whole thing; Abner is saying I am going to bring the north down to
the south, but the north wanted to come down to the south in the first
place. Who was the one who was blocking
the north from coming down to the south by his own little plan? Abner; so now Abner in effect, didn’t ask in
verse 18, “Do it, because the LORD has spoken of David,” well if the Lord had
spoken why didn’t he do it seven and a half years ago? Because he didn’t care what the Lord had
said, this is just another one of his little gimmicks, use the Word when it’s
convenient to use it and forget it when it’s not convenient. So Abner uses the
Word, he didn’t care whether the Lord had spoken it or not, this was just using
the Word of his human viewpoint purposes.
“…the LORD has spoken of David, saying, By the hand of My servant David
I will save My people, Israel, out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of
the hand of all their enemies.” See how
much he knows; don’t say that Abner doesn’t know the Word. Abner knows lots
about the Word of God, he has lots of doctrine that he knows, and has
rejected.
Verse 19, “And Abner also spoke in the hearing of Benjamin,” now why is
verse 19 put in there? Because Benjamin
was his home tribe, you’ve got to secure Benjamin. “…in the hearing of Benjamin, and Abner went
also to speak in the hearing of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Israel,
and all that seemed good to the whole house of Benjamin. [20] So Abner came to
David to Hebron, and twenty men with him.
And David made Abner, and them men who were with him, a feast.” Now verse 20 is another illustration of David’s
excellent diplomacy. Remember David’s
age here is 29; David is only 29 years old when all this was going on so you
can imagine the wisdom that he has acquired as a young man, not only by age 29
has he become a military hero, but he has also become the king of the south, he
has also had a massive amount of training in Scripture under the prophets and
now he is a master diplomat. And he is
going to go along with this first plot with Abner. Now he’s not excited about it because you
know from verse 13 he clearly said that he doesn’t recognize it’s Abner’s gift
to give in the first place, but if Abner wants to bring all the tribes down,
David is not going to fight him, so David goes along with it. And he made him a feast. Now the feast was a diplomatic party. And David knew the etiquette of the day, and
he staged a party. Don’t tell anybody,
but they weren’t drinking Ginger Ale.
This was a party that was conducted, in the times in which it was
written, would be drinks and beverages that were served in that day.
Verse 21, “And Abner said unto David, I will arise and go, and will
gather all Israel unto my lord, the king,” now it looks like right here plot
number one pays off, the deal has been made, “that they may make a league with
thee, and that you may reign over all that thine heart desires. And David sent Abner away; and he went in
peace.”
Now the bad news, [22] “And behold, the servants of David and Joab came
from pursuing a troop, and brought in a great spoil with them: but Abner was
not with David in Hebron; for he had sent him away, and he was gone in peace.
[23] When Joab and all the army [host] that was with him were come, they told
Joab, saying, Abner, the son of Ner, came to the king, and he has sent him
away, and he is gone in peace.” Now Joab
blows his lid. At this point, as David’s
commander, he walks in and he chews out David.
And here’s an example where the military is out of line. Now David knew what he was doing and he was
an excellent diplomat. And here’s a case
where Joab, as a man in the military, was still fighting the battle from the
field perspective, and he tried to dictate his field perspective to the overall
strategic perspective of David.
Verse 24, “Then Joab came to the king, and said, What have you
done?” Now he’s going to tell David,
he’s going to give David advice.
“Behold, Abner came unto you; why is it that you have sent him away, and
he is gone?” Now why do you suppose Joab
is infuriated? Is it just to Joab a
matter of national security or is it a little bit more personal than that. Obviously it’s a little bit more personal;
remember what happened at the tournament of Gibeon? Remember who it was that was killed,
accidentally, chasing after Abner, Abner turned around with the blunt end of a
sphere and it went through him and impaled him there, killed him; that was
Joab’s brother. So Joab is a little bit
more personally involved than just a matter of national security.
Verse 25, “You know Abner, the son of Ner, that he came to deceive you,
and to know your going out and your coming in, and to know all that you
do.” In other words, it’s just a spy
attempt, that’s all. Verse 25, “And when
Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, who brought him
again from the well of Sirah; but David knew it not. [27] And when Abner was
returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly,
and smote him there under the fifth rib,” this is an idiom for in the stomach,
“so that he died for the blood of Asahel, his brother.” Now that blows the whole first plot. See, the plot of Abner was to deliver the
kingdom, so plot number one fails right here.
Everything was just ready to bring this human viewpoint gimmick, and now
we’ve got another “accident.” I want you
to get an idea of the chaos here. The
political arena is always going to be filled with chaos and the thing that is
so foolish is that you have people in the conservative camp who go around and
insist that the communist control every move of history, or that the Jewish
bankers control every move of history.
Let me tell you something; there are plots and there will always be
plots, always have been plots. If the
communists really controlled history, like these plots all say, then aren’t you
saying the communist party is sovereign?
You’re saying the communist party, a group of men, control history. Nonsense!
This passage should smash the tendency to have plot theories of
history.
Look at this, it’s one accident after another, nobody is in
control. That’s the whole point of this
passage; David’s not in control, he’s going to admit it; David can’t control
it; Saul can’t control it, he’s dead; Jonathan can’t, he’s dead; Abner can’t,
you just saw how Abner controlled the situation, and now we’re going to find
Joab can’t control the situation. Nobody
can control it, that’s the point of the story, there are no human agents in
control of history, period! There are
plots in history, yes, but no one group of men can ever control history; it
denies the Word of God.
What’s the next thing that happens.
Verse 28, now hears about the second item; see, this is plot number two,
Joab has his little plot going and he’s going to get his will accomplished, and
he gums up the whole thing; that was a real smart move, now the unity of the
kingdom is again threatened. “And afterward,
when David heard it, he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless before the LORD
forever from the blood of Abner, the son of Ner.” Now David’s passion, so far in Samuel was to
get on the throne without murdering anyone in Saul’s family; we’ve seen that.
Remember the time he caught Saul in the cave, and he wasn’t sleeping; he caught
Saul in the cave and he could have killed him; he didn’t. He caught him again and he could have killed
him but he didn’t. Why? David has an obsession that when he walks up
and he takes the crown and he sits on that throne that his hands are clean of
the blood of the previous dynasty. But
this is politics by grace and if he attains the throne it’s going to be by
God’s grace, not by human gimmicks. And
the human gimmick in that era of ancient history was assassinate the dynasty,
get rid of it, kill them off and take over.
That’s not what David wanted. He
waited and he waited and he waited upon the Lord to take care of the situation.
Now this point, in verse 28, small though it sounds, grieved David for
the rest of his life. To his dying day
David grieved over the death of Abner.
Let me show you this; 1 Kings 2:5 here is David when he’s turning over
the power to his son, Solomon. And then
he talks to Solomon, he gives him some instructions. What’s on his mind when he talks to Solomon,
his son, in his last days. Remember what
“Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me, and what he did to the two captains of
the host of Israel, to Abner, and to Amasa, the son of Jether, whom he slew,
and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle
[belt] that was on his about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his
feet.” Again in verse 32, “And the LORD
shall return his blood upon his own heard, who fell upon two men more righteous
and better than he, and slew them with the sword,” this is Solomon speaking,
“my father, David, not knowing of it: Abner, the son of Ner.” So it was something that plagued the house,
David’s house, for a long, long time.
It should be too hard for you to conceive of David’s position. David has not control over the people under
him, and here’s a beautiful illustration of it.
Joab is under the authority of David but David does not exercise total
control over Joab. Now watch this
because there’s going to be a tremendous lesson about the Messiah in this in a
moment. David is the king, he’s the human king, but no human king, no matter
how powerful he is, can control all of his lieutenants. There will always be guys under him that will
undermine him and David now experiences this.
He goes on and in verse 29 he lets all Israel know this; first he curses
the family, “Let it rest on the head of Joab, and on all his father’s house;
and let there not fail from the house of Joab, one who has an issue, or who is
a leper, or who leans on a staff, or one who falls on the sword, or who lacks
bread,” this is sickness and deformities in the family. [30] “So Joab and
Abishai, his brother, slew Abner, because he had slain their brother, Asahel,
at Gibeon in the battle. [31] And David said to Joab, and to all the people who
were with him, Rend [tear] your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn
before Abner.” He proclaims, in verse
31, a national repentance over this assassination. “And King David himself followed the bier.
[32] And they buried Abner in Hebron; and the king lifted up his voice, and
wept at the grave of Abner; and all the people wept. [33] And the king lamented
over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dies? [34] Thy hands were not bound,
nor thy feet put into fetters; as a man falls before wicked men, so fell you.”
Now that is a song actually, it’s part of a song, we don’t have the whole
thing, it’s one of David’s laments.
We’ve seen one lament in the first chapter of this, here’s David’s
musical ability coming out at a critical point in his career. “And all the people wept again over him.
Verse 35, “And when all the people came to cause David to eat food while
it was yet day, David swore, saying, So do God to me, and more also, if I taste
bread, or anything else till the sun be down.”
David said I’m not going to eat meat until the sun goes down. [36] “And all the people took notice of it,
and it pleased them; as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people.” Now verse 36 is the reason that David made
the great lament; David is not being insincere, but he must demonstrate that
the blood of Joab does not hang on his administration, and he’s got to conduct
a public ceremony to make and dramatize this clearly, that I am not responsible
for Joab; this happened but my administration is not going to be held guilty
before God because of Joab. So he goes
through all these careful pains to purge from his administration all signs, all
connections, all legal guilt for this murder.
And that’s why in verse 37 the result was successful. “For all the people and all Israel understood
that day that it was not of the king to slay Abner, the son of Ner.” You see,
he had to convince the public that this was a sin of Joab, not part of his
administration policy. And then he mourns
him as a great prince. [38] “And the
king said unto his servants, Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man
fallen this day in Israel.”
Now in verse 39 he makes a very important point that is going to point
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, after
this terrific blow, think of it now, David has been reigning for only seven and
a half years, and he hasn’t even reigned over all Israel yet, he’s only reigned
over Judah, one tribe, that’s all, only seven and a half years, and right now,
because of this political mess with Joab, he confesses, “this day I am weak,
though I am the anointed king; and these men, the sons of Zeruiah,” that was
his sister, Joab was related to David because Joab was the son of David’s
sister, Zeruiah, “the sons of Zeruiah, are too hard for me.” The word “hard” means vengeful, the Hebrew
word for callousness, vengefulness, vindictive, they’re too vindictive for
me. “The LORD shall reward the doer of
evil according to His wickedness.”
Now the confession in verse 39 is an important and very powerful piece
of Biblical political philosophy. What
that verse is teaching is that the greatest human king that ever reigned in
history confessed that he could not control his own administration. Now what does that point to? What quality is needed for a man to totally
control his administration? He’s got to
be sovereign, and that’s just the point; the perfect king, who is going to be
the Messiah, is going to be sovereign and He will control everything in His
administration. This points ahead, it
shows the frailty of even David, blessed as he was by grace, could not handle a
perfect administration; he couldn’t keep corruption down in his own
administration and he had to confess, I am weak, and these men that I have even
under me are too strong, to hard, to callous, too vengeful for me; I can’t
maintain it, I am not sovereign. That’s
why Messiah is going to be God and man together.
Chapter 4 is a very parallel passage to chapter 3, and it gets across
much the same points. [1] “When Saul’s
son, heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble,” he really
fell apart, “and all the Israelites were troubled.” This is the story of the assassination if
Ish-bosheth, see, it was one mess after another, this was the third plot. So verse 2 introduces tow men, “And Saul’s
son, had two men who were captains of bands: the name of one was Baanah, and
the name of the other, Rechab, the sons of Rimmon, a Beerothite, of the
children of Benjamin (for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin.” Now what is a Beerothite? A Beerothite is a foreigner, just like the
Amalekite boy that killed Saul; the Bible is careful to point it out, it was
not a Jew that did this.
It’s just a notice. [3] “And the
Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and were sojourners there until this day).”
Verse 4, “And Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his
feet. He was five years old when the
tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up,
and fled; and it came to pass, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and
became lame. And his name was
Mephibosheth.” Now that is Jonathan’s
son, and why is that stuck in the middle of all this. To show a principle. Let’s look at it; here’s the house of Saul,
let’s take a roll call. Saul is dead; Jonathan is dead, his other sons,
dead. Jonathan’s son, Saul’s grandson,
Mephibosheth, an invalid. Abner,
dead. Not a very impressive role for the
survivability of Saul’s house. There’s
one man left, Saul’s son, Ish-bosheth and now he is going to die. Saul’s house has been eliminated, apart from
David raising a finger. Let’s look at
it.
Verse 5, “And the sons of Rimmon, the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah,
went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, who lay
on a bed at noon.” This shows his
character. [6] And they came there into the midst of the house, as though they
would have fetched wheat; and they smote him under the fifth rib,” they really
did a good job with the rib, “and Rechab and Baanah, his brother, escaped.” So you have the third assassination. Do you see the mess, the political upheaval,
the chaos, everything. Now don’t tell me
somebody is in control here; nobody is in control of this thing. First you have the first plot, Abner; that
ends in a disaster. You have the second
plot, Joab, that ends in a disaster because Joab gets cursed. [7] “For when they came into the house, he
lay on his bed in his bedchamber, and they smote him, and slew him, and
beheaded him, and took his head, and went away through the plain [Arabah] all
night.”
Now you have the third plot and that ends in disaster because now
Ish-bosheth dies and they’re going to commit the same blooper that the
Amalekite did. Verse 8, “And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth unto David to
Hebron, and said to the king, Behold, the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul,
thine enemy, who sought thy life; and the LORD has avenged my lord, the king,
this day of Saul, and of his seed.” Hey
David, how about pinning on the medals, we solved another one of your problems,
David, you ought to be glad. Verse 9,
“And David answered Rechab and Baanah, his brother, the sons of Rimmon, the
Beerothite, and said unto them, As the LORD liveth, who has redeemed my soul
out of all adversity,” now look at that, isn’t that fantastic, that’s David’s
motto for his life, he said now look, I don’t need you guys around, I don’t
build my administration on creeps and political amateurs with their human
viewpoint gimmicks. The Lord has decided
what is going to happen here and he’s delivered me out of these problems. “…the LORD lives, who has redeemed my soul
out of all adversity.”
Now he goes back and this gives you a good indication of David’s mental
attitude. Verse 10, “When one called me,
saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings,” that’s
the gospel, same word, “I took hold of him and slew him in Ziklag, who thought
that I would have given him a reward for his tidings. [11] How much more, when
wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? Shall I not, therefore, now require his blood
of your hand, and take you away from the earth.” So he kills him, and he buries Ish-bosheth
with Abner. [Verse 12, “And David
commanded his young men, and they slew them, and cut off their hands and their
feet, and hanged them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of
Ish-bosheth, and buried it in the sepulcher of Abner, in Hebron.”]
The principle you get out of this is God’s sovereignty. And in all this upheaval and tumult you have
a perfect illustration of Romans 8:28; that’s all that’s happening here, this
is just another Romans 8:28 passage. I
suggest to you if you feel under the pile, if you feel that everything is
breaking apart around you in chaos, think of David in this situation. When you read the newspaper and see the mess,
think of David; David confessed I too am weak, I, the anointed of Yahweh, I
can’t control it either. There is only
one ruler to whom be glory and honor and power, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. With our heads bowed….