Turn to Samuel chapter 1. I am turning to a Psalm that I am going to read at the beginning of this study because in just a few verses of it we have a summary by one of the psalmist of what we are about to read in the next couple of studies. This is Psalm 78 verse 70: "The Lord chose David his servant and took him from the sheepfolds; from following the ewes that had young he brought him; to shepherd Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands." Just a few verses out of the Psalms give us in summary form what we are about to read in the book of Samuel. How David went from Shepherding in the fields, to serving in the court of Saul, to being sovereign over the nation as he was anointed to be the next king of the nation of Israel.
2 Samuel is an interesting title for a book especially since the name Samuel doesn't appear at all in the entire book. You may ask, "What's up with that?" Well what's up is that originally in the Hebrew manuscript, 1 and 2 Samuel were under one title called the book of Samuel. We know that Samuel probably wrote 1 Samuel up until his death in chapter 25 and then it was written by someone else. We think 2 Samuel, though it bears his name, waswritten by the prophet Nathan and the one who is highlighted in this book is none other than David. It's really a story about how he became the king of Israel and that's what we'll be looking at in the first ten chapters of 2 Samuel.
A few weeks ago I mentioned a book that was written by Michael Shapiro called, "The Jewish One Hundred." The book is about the one hundred most influential Jews in all of history and includes a little biographical sketch on each one. According to Shapiro, number one on the list is Moses, the great law giver. Number two is Jesus Christ. Number three is Albert Einstein. Number four is Sigmund Freud and number eleven on his list and in the book is King David.
Here's the setting. The first king of Israel, King Saul is dead. The Philistines had invaded the north. They had previously been down south and now they went up and took over Galilee. The battle took place on Mount Gilboa and Saul and his three sons were killed in that battle and now we'll see David ascending to the throne as the next king. David is the main character, and though he is certainly not perfect, he is called a man after God's own heart. You may remember that the prophet Samuel told King Saul, "The kingdom is going to be ripped away from you because you have been disobedient and it will be given to a man after God's own heart." That man happens to be David. It doesn't mean he's perfect or that he is superman with kryptonite; he falls, he fails and he has blunders but he is a man after God's own heart. The Knox translation says, "He's a man to fulfill God's purpose"; and he does that.
Let me give you the outline of the entire book which will be helpful in our study of this book. The book of 2 Samuel could be outlined in three sections: chapters 1 through 10 are David's triumphs and we'll see how he makes it to become the king of first of all the southern kingdom and then the entire nation; chapters 11 and 12 will cover how he blew it; and the rest of the book chapters 13 to 24 will be David's troubles. His triumphs, transgressions and troubles and his troubles are because of his transgressions.
In chapter 1 verse 4, a man comes from the battle that has just happened on Mount Gilboa in the previous book where Saul and his sons die and in verse 4 David said to him: "'How did the matter go? Please tell me.' And he answered, 'The people have fled from the battle, many of the people are fallen and dead, and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.'" If you have the freedom to write in the margin of your Bible or at the beginning of the chapter, you could title chapter 1, "Crying over the King," and that's what David does as he hears this horrible news. Think back to 1 Samuel chapter 15 where Saul has been instructed to kill the Amalekites and he does not do that but instead he brings King Agag back and he brings some of the best of the flocks and the spoils for himself and he glosses over it with spiritual talk. There Samuel says, "God has ripped away the kingdom from you and is going to give it to a man after His own heart because God told you, King Saul, to destroy the Amalekites." Remember what we had said about that. The Amalekites were those people who for years had been enemies of the Jews and tried to kill them when they left Egypt and attacked the old and feeble and now God says, "Get rid of all of them." Though it sounds harsh and cruel, God was thinking of their future. We understand why when we come to the book of Esther and there was a guy named Haman who tries to destroy all of the Jews in the Persian Empire. Haman was called an Agaggite which means he was related to King Agag who was spared initially by King Saul who was an Amalekite. God had a real purpose for cutting out the cancer so that the body could survive, sort to speak.
David wants more information and after he finds out about what has happened Verse 17 says: "Then David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son, and he told them to teach the children of Judah the Song of the Bow; indeed it is written in the Book of Jasher." Jasher means upright and this is thought to be some collection of writings and poetry about the great men of Israel. I want you to notice something about David. He is weeping, crying, and lamenting over King Saul. Now remember what Saul has done to David. For ten years Saul has chased David through all the cities and all the strongholds of Judah to kill him and exterminate him. You would think that when your enemy who has tried to kill you is dead you are going to dance around singing, "Ding dong the witch is dead," and would be really happy about it but not David. Remember that David would never touch God's anointed and he respected the authority of the King and would never retaliate, even now when Saul and his son Jonathan are dead. David has a song of lamentation that he wants to be passed on from generation to generation. This is the way I see it. David prefigures the greater Son of David, Jesus Christ. Jesus came into His own, and His own received Him not. The city of Jerusalem that He presented Himself to would crucify Him so what does Jesus do when He comes to the City of Jerusalem? Does he get angry, does he start fuming and saying, "Don't worry, you're going to get yours." No, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, the very city that would kill him and the very people that had turned away from him. So David like the greater Son of David weeps over King Saul and the rejection. Jesus tells us in the New Testament, "Love your enemies; do good to those who spitefully use you and scorn you." Now that's easy to quote and it looks good on paper but it's hard to practice, right? It's hard to love enemies; revenge is so much more fun and it comes naturally to us but loving and forgiving our enemies does not. However, whenever you retaliate or you exact revenge on somebody who has hurt you all you are doing is lowering yourself down to their level and being just like them. When you choose the high road of love and forgiveness and when you love your enemies it will drive them nuts. I think that's the best retaliation. The Bible says, "Heap coals of fire on their heads." Love them; prefer them and pray for them and you'll find the bitterness leaving and you'll find it will drive your enemies nuts that you are so kind and that you love them!
You may have heard the story of the little boy playing with his little sister and the mom heard the little boy scream. She ran into the room and the little boy said, "Mommy, she pulled my hair!" He was so angry he wanted to pop his little sister and the mom said, "Sweetheart, be careful because she is so much younger and she doesn't know that it hurts; forgive her because she doesn't know." So the mom left the room and a few minutes later she heard the little girl scream. The mom went right back into the room and the little boy was smiling and said, "Now she knows!" We can relate to that because that is so much easier than forgiveness; we want to let them know! Yet David though fleeing from Saul, refused to revenge, was always forgiving, said kind things to him, and escaped the spears that were thrown at him and is now lamenting over him.
In eulogizing what has happened David says this in Verse 25:
"'How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan was slain in your high places.'" He was speaking of Mount Gilboa. There was no doubt and no question that David and Jonathan had a special relationship. In 1 Samuel chapter 18 after the whole incident of David and Goliath, the Bible says, "The soul of Jonathan was knit together with the soul of David." You can translate that as "chained, bound, or glued" together. In verse 26 David says: "'I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; You have been very pleasant to me; Your love to me was wonderful, Surpassing the love of women.'" You know with all great things, there are people who love to come along and mess with it and this is one of those texts that the homosexual community has messed with. They have read this text and some will say, "This points to the fact that David and Jonathan had a homosexual relationship." I utterly reject that. I think to squeeze that meaning out of this is really stretching and ruining the text. You may ask, "What does it mean when it says, 'Your love to me was wonderful surpassing the love of women?'" Keep in mind that David didn't have the best marriage. He was married to Jonathan's sister and it wasn't a great marriage. Remember that David won her in a bet and Saul, her father, said, "Great, I'm going to give my daughter to David so that she can be a snare to him." Eventually she became a snare and spurned his love. So even though David was successful in his career he wasn't really successful in this relationship or for the most part in any marital relationship; he had six wives altogether. The Bible never flatters its heroes; it tells us the truth and he wasn't great in his martial relationships and he didn't have the best relationship with Michal, his wife. But Jonathan was a loyal friend and that is all that this means. He was so loyal that he was willing to set his own future aside even though Jonathan himself would have been and could have been the next king. He knew that David was called by God to be the next king so he put his robe on him and gave him his sword and was loyal to him. So chapter 1 is "Crying over the King.
We can call chapter 2, "Coronation as the King"; here David becomes anointed as the king. Verse 4: "Then the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah." Remember when Samuel came to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem and poured oil over the youngest son, the little shepherd boy, David? That was the first of three anointings; it was private. This is now public but it's not the whole deal; he's still only the king over the southern portion; the tribes are still not working well together but they will be soon when David becomes king. So he is anointed king over Judah in Hebron, not far from Jerusalem and later on he will be king over all of Israel. It continues: "The men of Jabesh Gilead were the ones who buried Saul." Saul and his three sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malschishua died in the battle on Mount Gilboa. There was one son left that was still in Jerusalem and his name was Ishbosheth. The commander and chief of Saul's army by the name of Abner escaped getting killed in the battle and he takes Ishbosheth and calls him the king over 11 of the tribes. Remember that the tribes are not working well together right now until David unites them. Abner is the commander and chief who has escaped the battle and says, "Ishbosheth, the remaining son of Saul is now the king over these 11 tribes." So now we are going to see a civil war developing between the house of Saul and the house of David. David is ascending in power; Saul or his house is diminishing in power and it begins with Abner placing Ishbosheth as the next king. So David's and Ishbosheth's men are at odds and in this chapter we have a fight of 12 men against 12 men. Abner, the commander and chief of Ishbosheth and Joab, the commander and chief of David's army say, "Let's get 12 guys out there and they'll fight it out and whoever wins then that house or that clan will be the next ruler in Israel." They start fighting and competing. Verse 14: "Then Abner said to Joab, 'Let the young men now arise and compete before us.' And Joab said, 'Let them arise.'" So 12 Benjamites fight 12 men of Judah and it's a fiasco and it leads to a bigger battle and this is what happens. Abner's men lose so that means that Joab, the house of David, has won this little 12 men battle. Abner, Isobosheth's commander and chief runs away because his men lost the battle but one of Joab's brothers named, Asahel, who is like a marathon runner chases him all day long. He keeps running after him; he's a great runner but not a good fighter. Abner finally says, "You better turn away boy. I know you are a good runner but I'm a good swordsman and if you keep following me I will kill you." Asahel keeps following him and Abner kills him. Now, when Joab finds out he is really mad at Abner.
Chapter 3, verse 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." Joab, the commander and chief of David's army goes away on business and in the mean time, Abner, Ishbosheth's commander and chief goes to see David for a private little meeting. He basically says, "Look David, the cards are on the table and I see what's happening. You're the next king, let's negotiate a hand over. I know that God has selected you and I'm willing to turn my master and all of his house and everything over to your hands." And he does it. He negotiates the kingdom. Verse 21: "Then Abner said to David, 'I will arise and go, and gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may reign over all that your heart desires.' So David sent Abner away, and he went in peace." Abner goes away thinking, "This is a done deal and I'm going to turn over the kingdom to David." In the meantime Joab returns and he finds out and he is still mad that Abner killed his brother so he is fuming and as Abner is leaving the city in peace, Joab sees this, goes to David, and rebukes David for even talking to Abner, "How dare you talk to the enemy." David says, "He came in peace." Joab doesn't believe him and goes out and chases Abner and kills him in revenge. So he sheds the blood of war, as David will say, in peace time. He eliminates Abner and he is probably thinking it was for a good reason. "I'm the commander and chief and here is another commander and chief turning over the kingdom and maybe David is going to turn on me and make him the next commander and chief of everybody and I want to make sure I don’t have any rivals; so I'll kill him and it will revenge my brother and make sure that David can't choose Abner as the next commander and chief."
The Bible is honest about its heroes. Understand as you go through it that you are going to find some shocking stories: revenge, intrigue, sin, and breaking God's law. You'll find that on every account with just about every person. Here you have the Bible which is inspired by God and telling us the truth about people and not hiding it, and not flattering its heroes but giving us an exact record of what happened.
So, chapter 1 is "Crying over the King"; chapter 2 is "Coronation as King," chapter 3 is "Conflict with the King's House" and now in chapter 4 is "Conflict in the King's House." Now that Ishbosheth has Abner dead, he is very vulnerable and it says that "He loses heart." He's very anxious. While he is vulnerable, a couple of terrorists, rouge soldiers, come in and they murder Ishbosheth, Saul's son. Chapter 4, verse 5: "Then the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out and came at about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who was lying on his bed at noon. And they came there, all the way into the house, as though to get wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. For when they came into the house, he was lying on his bed in his bedroom; then they struck him and killed him, beheaded him and took his head, and were all night escaping through the plain." Now imagine that: they are escaping through the plain all night with a head! Imagine going everywhere with a head! You walk into a convenience store and you have the head; you're on the road, and you have the head; and all through the day and night. They were perhaps thinking that, "David is really going to like this. We have his enemy's head." You know why they thought that David would like this? Because after David killed Goliath, the Bible says he cut his head off and he appears before King Saul carrying Goliath's head. It's kind of a gross big old bloody head (he wants to get ahead), so he brings it! And they want to get ahead with David and think, "We'll bring the head with us and David will really like this." Verse 8: "And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at Hebron, and said to the king, 'Here is the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul your enemy, who sought your life; and the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and his descendants.'" Now things are getting crazy; heads are being chopped off and all of this weird murder and intrigue is going on. You might wonder why the Bible would include all of these kinds of stories, all of these truthful and biographical sketches as gross as they are. Keep in mind, Paul in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 says, "All of these things were written before hand for our admonition." There are stories and applications and principles that are very honest so that we can apply God's Word to virtually every kind of experience that we are up against in life. David sees the guys with the head but because it's somebody that was the king's son, King David does something to them that they weren't expecting. He has them executed and verse 12: "cuts off their hands and their feet."
Chapter 5 can be called "Confirmation as King." Verse 1: "Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and spoke, saying, 'Indeed we are your bone and your flesh.'" David was king over the south for seven years before he was made king over all of Israel. Now we're reading about the third anointing. There was the private anointing with Samuel the prophet; the public anointing over just the southern portion which lasted seven years; and now they come to him at Hebron in the south near Jerusalem, representatives from all of the tribes and they say, "We are your bone and your flesh," and they make him king over all of Israel. There has been a civil war between the house of Saul and the house of David yet here are these men and they understand that, "we're all Israelites; we are your bone and your flesh." This is the tragedy about any civil war because it's bone and flesh fighting against each other. One of the most tragic episodes of our own history and I know we were fighting slavery and we should always stand against that, but one of the saddest blocks in American history is that we had to fight that civil war. State against state and brother against brother; in some cases families, long separated against families. It was a horrible period of our history. I'm going to make an application here. We are a family; a family of God. We're called into the common household of faith; we are brothers and sisters; we have the same Savior; we have the same heavenly Father; we are going to the same heaven together; we are going to have to spend eternity with each other. So as much as lies in you, be at peace with all men. Avoid fighting and confronting your brother and your sister whatever it takes. One of the tactics of the devil is to get Christians fighting each other. He loves that and he strategizes that and he lives for that and here is why. If the devil can get us distracted and fighting one another, it takes the heat off of him. We should be fighting the devil and his schemes and his plans for our lives and our community. That's who we should be standing against but as long as we are fighting and pulling out swords and cutting each other up, he's off the hook. Let's turn off of each other and turn all of efforts back on to him. We are flesh and blood; we belong to Christ and let's always keep that in mind. Fighting another believer is always bad form and they recognized that. Verse 6: "And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, 'You shall not come in here; but the blind and the lame will repel you,' thinking, 'David cannot come in here.'" One of the great highlights and marks of 2 Samuel is that it records this: the establishing of Jerusalem, the Jebusite stronghold, as the capital of the country and it's been the capital ever since even though Israel has been in and out of the land. After this point when Jerusalem is established it remains the capital. Verse 7: "Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David)." Jerusalem as a city was strategically located. Back in those days, if you are going to have a city you had to make sure that it had natural defenses so they would usually find a city built upon a hill. The city of David was established upon a hill with deep valleys around it. Why on a hill? Because if you were attacked you could see people coming and running through the valley and you'd have a wall. You could see them from the hill looking down on the valley because they would have to come down one hill into the valley over the wall and up your hill to attack you. So for natural fortification you would build on a hill. Secondly you would have to have a good water source. Of course Jerusalem has a great water source called the Gihon Spring. You don't read about this spring in the New Testament but you read about it in the Old Testament; it's the water source and it flows out of the ground. Later on one of the kings, Hezekiah dug a tunnel all the way from the Gihon Spring to the intercity of Jerusalem and it ended at a place called the Pool of Siloam; and you read about that in the New Testament. So number one, natural fortification and number two a good water source.
The Jebusites were so arrogant thinking that their city was invincible; they thought blind people, lame people, and individuals that were not even physically fit would be able to stave off any intruders. That is what they are mouthing off to David about. "Oh, come one, try to attack us; we are going to put our blind and lame citizens on the wall and you won't be able to get in." They did have a point because they were strategically located on a hill with a water source, but David discovered a weakness in the water system. As he got close he found a water shaft and saw how they were getting their water. They had dug a tunnel from the top down to the Gihon Spring and they lower their buckets down and bring the water up. So he said, "Whoever gets up the water shaft and gets into the city will be the one that will be my permanent commander in chief." Joab is the one who made it up the water shaft and he got the job. That breached the fortification and the city was taken by King David.
Chapter 6 can be called, "The Compromise of the King." This chapter is about doing the right thing the wrong way; making compromises because you want to be practical and pragmatic. Verse 1: "Again David gathered all the choice men of Israel, thirty thousand. And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, whose name is called by the Name, the Lord of Hosts, who dwells between the cherubim." Think about it. For 70 years, the Ark of the Covenant has been neglected; it has not been in a Tabernacle; and it has not been in a Temple because it hasn't been built yet. It's just been sitting around at somebody's house in somebody's backyard after they got it back from the Philistines. Verse 3: "So they set the ark of God on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill; and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, accompanying the ark of God; and Ahio went before the ark. Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the Lord on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals." Refresh your memory; what was the Ark? It was a box made out of wood covered with gold. The top or lid was pure gold and called the mercy seat. The Ark had been placed in the Tabernacle and the Tabernacle was the heart of the community. It was a tent-like structure and it had a courtyard, 75 feet wide and 150 feet deep. In the middle of that courtyard was the tent-like structure that was 15 feet wide by 45 feet deep and it was divided into two sections: a 15 by 30 section which was the foyer called the Holy Place and beyond that was a veil. When you go through the veil that's where the Ark of the Covenant sat, in the Holy of Holies. Once a year the high priest would go through the veil and sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. Why was the Ark so important? Because God said, "The only place that I will meet with you and atone for your sins is on the mercy seat." There were three things inside the Ark: a golden pot of manna; Aaron's rod that budded; and the Ten Commandments, a copy of the law, which the Children of Israel broke over and over again. So effectively the angels are on top hovering over and are looking down at the failure of the Children of Israel. However, once a year blood would cover the lid so that the angels were looking down at their failure (the broken law) covered by blood. It's as if heaven, when looking down upon the Children of Israel was looking down not upon their failure but they had to look at the blood that covered their failure. It's a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ. Why was the Ark so important? Because, if you take away the Ark you take away the atonement and if you take away the atonement there is no salvation and no hope and David understood that they had to get that back to its proper place. Verse 3 says: "They set the Ark of God on a new cart." Why did they do that? I think this is why. They watched the Philistines years before bring back the Ark to Israel and they set it on a cart so they thought, "We'll get a new cart; a new model cart; the '07 cart with nice Michelin tires and chrome wheels." Here's the problem, they are doing the right thing, but they are doing it in the wrong way. If you remember your Old Testament you know that the Ark of the Covenant had to be carried in a very specific way. Only one tribe could carry it, the Tribe of Levi. Only one family in that Tribe could carry it, the family of Kohath, the Kohathites. It was not only to be carried by the Kohathites of the Tribe of Levi but they had to carry it in a very special way. Not on a cart; not automated; not be practical and pragmatic, no the Kohathites had to bear it on their shoulders. There were four little ringlets on the four corners with two poles that went through them and they carried it on their shoulders. But David is thinking, "Well, times have changed and this is a modern era; we're not so old fashioned like they used to be; let's speed it up a little bit and let's get pragmatic. After all, it's a nine mile uphill jaunt, why carry it on your shoulders when you can put it in a nice pickup truck?" So they put it on their cart. Here's the question I'm leading to. I believe they were sincere; I don't think they were purposely trying to mess with God. I think they were sincerely trying to get the Ark back to Jerusalem. Is sincerity enough? This is a good thing to ask yourself because how many times do you hear people say when it comes to heaven or spiritual things for eternity, "Well, they are very sincere." Really? Is sincerity all that is required? Because you could be sincerely wrong and still be sincere. If you think, "Well sincerity is all you need to get to heaven;" what if you were going to get an operation done and there was a doctor who said, "I've never done this in my life but I watched it once; but I'm so well meaning and I'm very sincere and I'll give it my best shot." Would you go, "Well go ahead, because after all sincerity is all you need." No, you'd say, "See you later doc; I want a real experienced surgeon." So it is and much more with spiritual things. It's not just doing whatever you want the way you feel like it whenever you want to. It's worshiping God in His prescribed way and the only way to get to heaven according to the Bible is one way; not three, not four, not fifteen not make up your own way; but it's only through the Son who said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light." That's the way it gets done.
Verse 6: "And when they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the Ark of God." If you were there seeing that you would be shocked and asking, "What's up with that?" Here is a guy who is trying to steady it so that the Ark doesn’t fall off and get beat up; it's practical and pragmatic. Yes, but you know what? The end doesn’t always justify the means. You see, when God says, "I want to get something from point A to point B," you have to ask yourself, "How does God want me to get it from point A to B and not just think, "I'm going to just come up with my own way."
Remember what God had promised Abram and Sarah. "You're going to have a son." It was a promise. What they did they do? Well they thought, "God told us we're going to have a son but he didn't tell us how we're going to have a son so let's just have a son." Sarah thought, "I've got a handmaiden, she's young, she's fertile, I'm an old lady in my 90's, Abram, go lie with her and you'll have a child and we'll call that God's fulfillment." It wasn’t God's fulfillment. God said, "Oh, no, I'll bless Ishmael and I have a plan for him but it was Isaac that the seed would be called through.
So three months later they finally make it; the Ark gets taken up to Jerusalem; no one dies; they do it in God's prescribed way with the Kohathites. Here's the story in verse 13: "And so it was, when those bearing the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, that he sacrificed oxen and fatted sheep." Not only are the Kohathites walking the nine mile journey up the hill but they are stopping every six paces, for just a little extra worship; they offer an animal sacrifice, they walk six more paces; and offer another animal. "We're going to go really slow because we don't want anybody dying on this job and we don't want to make God any more angry than we made Him so let's just do it God's prescribed way but then let's kick in a little bit extra and we'll worship and sacrifice on the way." And that's what they did. Verse 14: "Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet."
Chapter 7 could be titled, "The Covenant with the King's King." The king being David and the King's King being God. This chapter is one of the most important chapters in all of the Bible. The rest of the message of the Bible onward rests upon this chapter and the promise that is made in it. In fact, I will say this, it's going to be hard to understand the prophets, the ministry of Jesus, and it's going to be hard to understand escotology unless you understand this chapter. It all rests upon this and a promise that God makes with King David. I'll give you a sampling: the New Testament begins with these words: "This is the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the Son of David," and that's put there for a reason. When Gabriel gives the Christmas message to Mary in Luke chapter 1, we read: "'And behold you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the highest and the Lord will give Him the throne of His Father, David.'" The New Testament closes with these words in Revelation, chapter 22: "I Jesus have sent My angel to testify to you that these things in the churches are true; I am the root and the offspring of David the bright and the morning star." David has built his house and he looks out and the Ark has been brought up but the Ark is not in a house but it's in a tent. David rationally thinks, "I don't know why I should live in such a nice house and the Ark of God is living out there in a tent, so I want to build a Temple for God." Then God is going to come and say, "Actually, I don't really care about a big monument or a big building, I've been happy in the tent." But David wants to build a temple for God. Verse 10: "'Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the Lord tells you that He will make you a house.'" (That is a lineage or a genealogy.) "'When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.'" Notice the "I wills" in what we just read; God said "I will" five times. David said, "I'm going to build a house for God." God says, "Slow down buckaroo! I'm going to do something for you." God is making a covenant with David of what He will do and it's an unconditional covenant. I'll sum it up this way. The covenant states that David will have a son and we find out that son is King Solomon who will build the temple. But also as part of this covenant, the throne of David will be established forever. That will be fulfilled through the greater Son of David, the offspring of David, which is Jesus Christ and not Solomon. What we have in chapter 7 is a blending (and this is frequent in the Old Testament) of the immediate and the distant fulfillment all in one. You will find that a lot now in the Old Testament, where you have two or three different components and some are fulfilled immediately and some are fulfilled in the distance. So Solomon is the son and Jesus Christ is the greater Son and the throne is established forever through Him. Solomon is sort of the arca type of Jesus Christ, the greater Son of David. David's house or his dynasty will last until the Babylonian captivity and then it will be cut off. We'll get to this later on in the end of 2 Chronicles and also in Jeremiah chapter 22. Here's what happens: king after king comes from David's household and they all reign. Then there is one king named Jeconiah or Jehoiakim, he's called a couple of different things in the Bible and he is so wicked and God finally says, "I've had enough; I'm sending you into captivity and Jeconiah's lineage will now be cursed and cut off and there will never be another king from his loins to sit upon the throne." Well, now we have a problem because if God said that the throne and the lineage of David would be established forever but then God says, "I'm cursing that lineage; no more will a king rise from his lineage," how is God going to fulfill His promise? It's a good question and it's unanswered until we get to the New Testament and we read Matthew and Luke and find that there is a genealogy in both of them and they are different from one another. One covers the genealogy of Jesus Christ through Joseph and one covers the genealogy of Jesus Christ through Mary. Was Joseph the father of Jesus? No he wasn't. He's the foster father because Jesus was born of a virgin through the Virgin Mary. One of the genealogies covers the genealogy of Jesus through Joseph and Joseph goes back to David through Solomon and Jeconiah whose blood line has been cursed. Mary has her genealogy all the way back to King David but not through Solomon but through another son of David named Nathan. You have something beautiful here. Jesus has the legal right to reign because Joseph, His adopted foster father has the lineage all the way back to the throne of David through all of the kings including the one that's cursed. You say, "But it's cursed." You're right, but Jesus has the legal right because of the adoption and the foster father relationship but His blood line isn't cursed because it goes back since He's born of a virgin through Mary to King David. Therefore God can curse the line of David and yet fulfill His promise simply by having His Messiah, the Son of David, pure and born of a virgin. That's what solves the problem. So it's a beautiful way of God getting out of His own curse and His own problem. There is only one way to do that and that is virgin birth.
Verse 18: "Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: 'Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far?'" David is so overwhelmed and he realizes God's greatness and his smallness. He also realized that God promised him that not only would his son sit upon the throne but there would also be an everlasting lineage and an everlasting kingdom and he's just thankful. Sometimes we are at an end of our human language to express thanks to God. Sometimes you just sit in God's presence and you can repeatedly say "thank you" but it doesn't really express all that is in your heart. So I am thankful that God has provided a way to communicate to Him directly from my spirit to His spirit to even bypass my intellect through one of the spiritual gifts that is one of the most complete ways of worship that honors Him.
You can take chapters 8, 9 and 10 together and name them: A Conquering Leader; A Kind Gesture; and A Cold Shoulder. In chapter 8 David is established and he expands the borders, takes over more territory; geo political expansion; and military alliances.
Chapter 9 is a story of kindness. One of Jonathan's sons named Mephibosheth is left and because David loved Jonathan so much he wanted to show kindness to the house of Jonathan and he does. Verse 1: "Now David said, 'Is there still anyone who is left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?'" And that's Mephibosheth. Again, here is something beautiful about David because typically, traditionally, and historically when a king came to power, any possible claimant from the family that he conquered would be immediately exterminated. It was just protocol because there could be a coup later on so you just go through and wipe them out. David says, "Is there anybody left from that other regime that I can show kindness to?" Verse 13: "So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king's table. And he was lame in both his feet." David shows him kindness and takes him in and feeds him, etc. We live in an unkind world and you know what that means? We have countless opportunities everyday. Because we live in an unkind world if you would just pause from time to time to show an act of kindness to someone, it will blow their mind. It stands out from the darkness so much that it can open up a door for you to share the love of Christ with a person. Today, several of us were at the convention center downtown where we, in cooperation with Joy Junction, fed about 1500 homeless people. We were playing music and feeding them and I was watching the volunteers as they were getting down on their knees and having conversations with them and feeding them turkey and pie and smiling and engaging in conversation and you just saw these folks come alive. This gesture of kindness went so far and it's so noticeable and so it was with Mephibosheth.
Chapter 10 can be called, "A Cold Shoulder" and this is how it goes down. Next to the nation of Israel and immediately east was a country called Ammon. Have you ever heard of Amon, Jordan the capital of modern day Jordan? That is named after the ancient country that used to occupy there, the Ammonites. David extends his kindness to the Ammonites but it's not received very well. The king of Ammon is a guy by the name of Hanun and he is the son of the previous king called Nahash. Nahash died and David, being a good guy wants to be kind to the son and gives him a greeting and a gift. But when they see the coalition of soldiers coming, they misinterpret it, and they think, "That's David and he's trying to spy on us and he wants to attack us and these are foot soldiers." It really was a kind gesture but it was misinterpreted and misunderstood. Verse 4: "Therefore Hanun took David's servants, shaved off half of their beards," (an overture of shame), "cut off their garments in the middle, at their buttocks, and sent them away." It's amazing what you find in the Bible, isn't it? If you are a dude and you come back with your beard all gnarly and your head all gnarly and you have on a skimpy little mini-skirt it's very embarrassing. These are emissaries of the king and it was done deliberately to shame David and his men. Now as soon as the Ammonites did it they thought, "Oh, no, we really blew it, we made a mistake." They knew that David would attack them so they hired 33,000 Syrians and other mercenaries. David says, "Joab, go out and get them." Joab divides his men into two companies and they defeat the Ammonites. It's sad because this misunderstanding cost the lives of 50,000 men and it caused their province to be subjugated by David; he would have left them alone.
This is how I want to close. Even though God selected David, a man after His own heart as the next king and God gave him the authority and God gave him the kingdom, David still had battles to fight. He was receiving the promise of God and coming into the authority that God had for him and yet David had battles to fight and you know what? We will too. God has an inheritance for you and He has a portion for you. He says, "Here, occupy this; walk in this; enjoy this in your life," and yet battles will come and so you'll wonder, "Is God really in control? Is He really in charge? Is God directing me? Why aren't things working out? Because you may have an expectation that says, "Once I come to God and commit my life to God and commit my day to Him, everything is going to flow smoothly." Get that out of your head! That is a misplaced expectation. You see, the Lord wants you and I to mature and to trust Him and sometimes we can really develop our trust deeply only when we are going through the fire. So if you are wondering, "Why the fire? Why the trials? Why the scars?" How could you ever grow and be Christ-like without them?
Amy Carmichael who was a missionary wrote a beautiful little poem as if Christ were speaking to us asking these questions: "Hast thou no scar? No hidden scar on foot or side or hand? I hear thee sung is mighty in the land. I hear them hail by bright ascending star. Hast thou no scar? Can he have followed far who has no wound or scar?" How many of you have scars in your life: emotionally or spiritually? "Oh God why would you let that happen?" "Because I love you, that's why and I want you to grow and mature. You're following the One who got beat up and was rejected." We're growing, we're learning and yet we're walking in victory and in the inheritance that God has for us.
Heavenly Father, we are so thankful even for the trials and the heartaches and the things that shape us more and more into Your image. We're Your children and like David, like Joab and like the others, we fail, we fall and we do dumb things and we do wrong and sinful things. Thank you for the blood of Christ which covers us and thank you for picking us up, dusting us off and getting us back on the trail. And thank you Lord for the wonderful fellowship of sinners saved by God's grace and rejoicing in the same salvation, the same Savior, and one day entering the same heaven. Teach us Lord to love one another and to turn our swords not on each other but on the real enemy. May we go forth in battle unafraid because greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. In Jesus' Name. Amen.