Well, we're going to continue our study through the kingdom. We're in our phase two walking through 2 Samuel. We're going to look at 2 Samuel chapters 2 through 4 together this morning. Last week we looked at 2 Samuel chapter 1, and the king was killed. Saul, the first king of Israel, lay slain on Mount Gilboa, his three sons with him. The Philistines celebrating a great victory over Israel, Israel's king, and Israel's God. They behead Saul. They take his armor and put it in the temples of their gods and they celebrate their great victory.
Last week we looked at David's response to the death of Saul, and it was, I think, surprising, because Saul had been trying to kill David for a decade, multiple times, driven him out of his home, taken his wife from him, his family. David had to abandon the land of promise to live as a vassal to a Philistine king in a foreign land because Saul kept trying to take his life. And yet when Saul died, David didn't rejoice. He didn't celebrate. He mourned. He composed a lament, and he called all of Israel to join him lamenting the death of Saul. Not because Saul was righteous. Not because Saul didn't deserve to die — Saul did. Saul earned the consequences of his choices. God was just in the judgment that came upon Saul. But David shared the heart of God. We saw it in Ezekiel 33:11: God does not delight in the death of the wicked, but would much rather they turn. So David mourns. He mourns what could have been, what should have been.
Now, as we get into chapter 2, the obvious question is: well, what will happen now? Samuel the prophet came to Saul and tore his robe and said, "The kingdom has been torn from you." And then he went and anointed David, the young son of Jesse, and said, "God has chosen you, a man after His own heart, to become the next king." And so, as we're walking through this story, the natural expectation is that now David will become king. The path to the throne is open. The crown will be put on his head. And if we read Chronicles — because remember, there's two versions of this story — if we read Chronicles, that's exactly what happened. Last week we saw 1 Chronicles chapter 10 gives us the story of Saul's death. 1 Chronicles 11, we'll just start with David becoming king over all of Israel. So Chronicles gives us the destination, the summary of what's going to happen, but Samuel gives us the path — the dirty, sometimes nitty-gritty, sometimes boring, sometimes gross, very real story of the long road to the throne.
So as we look at it this morning, we're not asking ourselves what's going to happen to David. We know that David will become king. What we want to see is: how does David become king? And as we get into the text: why does it take so long for David to become king over Israel after the death of Saul? I think the answer to those questions lies at the heart of David's character. See, and I'm going to say this multiple times throughout this sermon: David refused to take by force a crown that had been promised to him by God. He refused to do it. He wouldn't do it when Saul was alive. If you remember the two opportunities he had, where with a flick of his wrist he could have taken the life of Saul and gathered for himself the crown and the throne — but David would not seize for himself what God had promised to give and deliver. He wouldn't do it while Saul was alive. He's not going to do it while Saul is dead.
And I think there's a deep and profound wisdom here in David's refusal to take for himself by force what God had promised. And I think it comes down to this: how something begins shapes how that thing exists and grows over the entirety of its life. If David had taken the throne by force, he would have had to maintain it by force. If David had come to the throne with bloody hands, his hands would have stayed bloody. There's something about the beginning of something that matters. I think David understood this.
I found this to be very true in my life. I shared with y'all a few weeks ago, a couple decades ago I got fired from a large church, a very successful ministry, and it was — I was treated unjustly. I was lied about, and it was just such an ugly, hard, difficult experience, and I went into a pretty deep depression afterwards. What I didn't share is that part of the depression and the challenge of that experience wasn't simply that I was treated unjustly. What was really hard was the temptation — the temptation to want to defend myself, the temptation to want to hit back when others hit me, the temptation to prove myself right. And I'll admit it here before you, not proudly, but I'll admit it: the temptation to take revenge. I felt it in nearly every fiber of my being. But I did learn something in kindergarten — I'm so grateful for all the kindergarten teachers — I learned that two wrongs don't make a right. I learned that if somebody treats you unjustly, you responding in injustice doesn't help the situation; it makes it worse. And I knew in my gut that if I succumbed to that temptation, it wouldn't go well. Now, part of the problem is that it wasn't just internal, it was external, because of the way things went down, I — I lost count — over 200 people came to me and said, "Hey, if you start another church, we're in." Three of the other staff members of the church came and said, "Hey, if you start another church, we're in. We'll do it tomorrow." I was getting pressure. I literally could have started a church with hundreds of people. I could have split that church and proved how right I was, and what a terrible way that is to start a church. And I knew that how something started — you start out of division, guess what, you're going to have division. So David understood that how he came to the throne was just as important as his coming to the throne. Are you with me this morning?
So these three chapters — and I know some of you are going, "How's he going to preach three chapters?" I'm going to do it. I did it in the first service; we'll do it again, I promise — it's a unit, and the author is very, very intentional. He wants us to see, and let me say it again, that David refused to take the throne by force that had been promised to be given to him by God.
So let's pick up in 2 Samuel chapter 2, verse 1. So after David hears of Saul's death, after he laments and mourns his death, it —
1 After this David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” And the Lord said to him, “Go up.” David said, “To which shall I go up?” And he said, “To Hebron.”
You understand David has been living outside of the land. He's been living with the Philistines. And for David to go from the land of the Philistines back into the land of Israel would be considered by everybody in Israel as an act of aggression, as an act of offense. He's coming to take the kingdom, he's coming to take that. Obviously David wants to go back. But we see here in David, he's so different than Saul. The very reason Saul had the kingdom ripped away from him is because he didn't inquire of God. The very first thing David does after he hears of Saul's death is inquire of God: What do You want, God? Is this the time? Do You want me to go back now? Do You not want me to go back? Is it time to go up? And God responds, "Go up." And David says, "All right, to which city shall I go up?" And He said, "Go to Hebron." The word here for go up is Alah. It means to ascend or to go up, but it's a word that's used to describe an army going on the offensive. It's a word that we find in Judges, for instance, after the death of Joshua and Israel's like, "What do we do now? Who shall go up against the Canaanites?" This is the idea. So it's not just David wants to go home, but, "Lord, how are You going to bring me into the kingdom? How are You going to give me the crown and throne that You've promised me? Where should I go first?" So we see in David, he's not going to take it. He wants to receive it, and he's asking God, "Where shall I go?" So He tells him to go to Hebron.
So David went up there. We get this little detail thrown in here, and also
2 So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
So David's already got two wives. We know that he had another wife, Michal. She'll come up here in a little bit. She was taken away from him by Saul because she was Saul's daughter. So David has a wife problem. The author of Samuel is going to run this thread through the whole story. Okay? So I just want you to hold on — like, David's going to do some awesome things, but he's got a significant weakness that's going to come back to hurt him.
It continues. It says,
3 And David brought up his men who were with him, everyone with his household, and they lived in the towns of Hebron. 4a And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.
— not Israel, Judah. So at the start that sounds good — oh, David's finally getting anointed king. But it's really not good, because what this means is that he's being anointed as the king of one of the tribes, not all of the tribes. Which means that now we have an actual divided kingdom. This is a civil war context. David is promised the throne of all of Israel, not just of Judah. But as he comes back, the men of Judah recognize that God has chosen him, so they anoint him as their king. And yet the rest of Israel has yet to acknowledge David as king. We'll meet the other king here in a moment.
But before we get there, David does something — I think this is beautiful — as his first act as the king of Judah. It says this: when they told David it was the men of Jabesh Gilead who buried Saul. So if you remember in the story, they cut off Saul's head, they put his body on a wall, they took his armor into the temple. And the men of Jabesh Gilead, who were kinsmen of Saul and loved him and treasured him — Saul had rescued them early in his kingship — they went on this dangerous nighttime mission and got his body and brought it back so that he could have a burial. They risked their own lives to bring his body back and honor him that way. And so when David hears that the men of Jabesh Gilead had buried Saul, it says
4 4b When they told David, “It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul,” 5 David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, “May you be blessed by the Lord, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him. 6 Now may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done this thing. 7 Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.”
That's that great Hebrew word, hesed — the loyal, faithful, covenant love of God. May the Lord show His hesed. So it's a really interesting and beautiful thing. The first thing David does is reach out to the men of Jabesh Gilead, who are not of the tribe of Judah. They're not under David's kingship — they're under the other king. He's reaching out to those that are now technically his enemy. And he's not reaching out with a curse; he's reaching out with a blessing. He blesses them for what they did. He honors them for what they did. And he invites them — you catch that invitation at the end — "May you be strong, may you be valiant, because Saul's dead, and, oh, by the way, I'm here as king." David's not going to force them, he's not going to bribe them, he's not going to grab that which God has promised to give, but he's going to have open hands and extend the invitation.
So now we get to the other kingdom and the other king. Verse 8, Abner, the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army. Now I want you to notice
8 But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim,
9 and he made him king over Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel.
Alistair Begg, the great preacher, calls Abner here the kingmaker. Ishbosheth is a pawn in his hand. Now, it's interesting — so he's the commander of the army, so he rules by power and might. Now he did just lose to the Philistines in a big way, and his king was killed in that battle, but he's still the biggest dog on the block. So he sees the death of Saul not as an opportunity for God's choice to become king, but as an opportunity for him to empower himself in the power vacuum that comes with the death of Saul. So it wasn't just Saul, but Jonathan, who was the heir apparent, and two of the other older brothers had died on Mount Gilboa with him, and so now there's just this last son, Ishbosheth, and he has nothing to do with this — Abner comes, sees him, takes him, and makes him king. Definition of a puppet king. The real power is with Abner. But we don't know much about Ishbosheth. It says Ishbosheth,
10 Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David.
So there's this reality — we don't know a lot about him except for his name, Ishbosheth, which is actually not his name — at least not the name he was given at birth. The name he was given at birth was Eshbaal, which means "the Lord lives." Eshbaal — you may recognize that phrase, "baal," the last part of the name. Baal simply means Lord. Now, we probably recognize it because so many of the Canaanites and the other ancient Near Eastern deities called their gods Baal, a word that simply means Lord. And the ancient Israelites used the word quite often early on, but as time goes on, they're not so comfortable using the word Baal to mean Lord because of its associations with the Canaanite deities. So Eshbaal is called Ishbosheth. But there's more. Now, we've seen in the Old Testament how names are often changed for a theological meaning. Ishbosheth means "man of shame" — man of shame. Ishbosheth is representative of the shame and the fall of the house of Saul, and he's little more than a puppet king controlled by Abner the general. It's a tragic reign and kingship of Ishbosheth.
It says at that
11 And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.
So Chronicles goes right from chapter 10 to chapter 11 — Saul dies, David's king, boom. Samuel walks us through the nitty-gritty: seven and a half years of David refusing to grasp what God had promised to give. Are you with me? Right, so this is the context. So seven and a half years, finally things are going to come to a boiling point.
So we go to verses 12 to 16, and it says, Abner,
12 Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.
13 And Joab the son of Zeruiah and the servants of David went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool.
Now, notice David's not there. Ishbosheth's not there. The two generals of their army are there, Abner and Joab. They bring the armies, they come together, they meet at a pool, and they sit across from each other.
14 And Abner said to Joab, “Let the young men arise and compete before us.” And Joab said, “Let them arise.”
What's happening here is a very common practice in the ancient Near East. This is going to be a representative battle. They're going to choose select men from each side, they're going to fight, and if there is a clear winner, that's clearly the gods' decision, and maybe the whole battle doesn't have to take place and the armies don't have to fight each other — have a representative battle, settle it that way, less bloodshed. So they agree. But I want to point out — this is a haunting detail to me in the Hebrew text. Abner says to Joab, "Let the young men arise and compete." Compete is the Hebrew word sachek, and frankly it's almost unbearable, because it means to laugh or to play, to make sport, to laugh or to play. This is what children do on playgrounds — make up games and have fun and laugh and play. And Abner says to Joab, "Let our young warriors, our mighty men, let them get up and play at blood sport." Because listen to how it goes. It says,
15 Then they arose and passed over by number, twelve for Benjamin and Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. 16 And each caught his opponent by the head and thrust his sword in his opponent’s side, so they fell down together. Therefore that place was called Helkath-hazzurim, which is at Gibeon.
We have some ancient reliefs from the ancient Near East that show similar practices of this kind of fighting. If you've ever seen sumo wrestling, you know, you've got this very formal, like, sumo posture, and everybody takes that posture and then they begin. This was similar. They would get next to each other, you'd have a knife in one hand, a sword in one hand, and they'd grab each other by the hair, and then somebody would say, "Go." I don't know about you, that's not how I want to play, right? But this is what's happening here. But they all die — it's 12 versus 12, they all stick each other and all 24 die, they fall down together. Therefore, the place was called Helkath Hazzurim, which is there at Gibeon.
So the representative battle didn't work. So now the full battle begins to take place. Verse 17,
17 And the battle was very fierce that day. And Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David.
So as the battle begins to take place, David's force immediately from the outset begins to win, and Abner and Israel are being pushed back. And in the midst of this battle, one particular fight and one particular death will become very significant. It says the three sons of Zeruiah were there — Joab, he's the general, and then his two brothers,
18 And the three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was as swift of foot as a wild gazelle.
Asahel could run, right? He was fast. And so it says,
19 And Asahel pursued Abner, and as he went, he turned neither to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner.
So as the battle begins, Asahel has a mission — he's going after Abner, strike the head, let's take out the general. And he's fast. So Abner's running away, but he's fast. Now it says in verse 20, then Abner
20 Then Abner looked behind him and said, “Is it you, Asahel?” And he answered, “It is I.”
Remember, as we're walking through this, this is civil war — this is worse, this is family war, this is brother against brother. These men have fought and bled together fighting common enemies; now they're fighting each other. Abner knows him. Abner knows what's going on. He says, "Is that you?" He says, "It is I." So Abner says
21 Abner said to him, “Turn aside to your right hand or to your left, and seize one of the young men and take his spoil.” But Asahel would not turn aside from following him. 22 And Abner said again to Asahel, “Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I lift up my face to your brother Joab?”
Yeah, we're fighting, let's avoid this, let's take a different path. If I turn and fight you, if I kill you, the relational dynamics between our families are going to be broken — it's going to be devastating.
23 But he refused to turn aside. Therefore Abner struck him in the stomach with the butt of his spear, so that the spear came out at his back. And he fell there and died where he was. And all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died, stood still.
Sometimes we get details in the Old Testament — they're just like, "That's gross." Like, this is violent, it's bloody, it's deadly. He kills him, and he fell there and he died where he was. And all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen died — they stood still. But Joab and Abishai, the other two brothers, pursued Abner.
24 But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. And as the sun was going down they came to the hill of Ammah, which lies before Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon. 25 And the people of Benjamin gathered themselves together behind Abner and became one group and took their stand on the top of a hill.
So they've been running and fighting, running and fighting, running and fighting. Finally, they're losing bad, and so they gather together for kind of one last stand — they take the high ground. And then Abner calls out. Abner called out to Joab, "Shall the sword devour forever?" And part of me wants to go, "Yeah, Abner, that's easy to say when you're losing — you're the one that picked this fight, as much as anybody. But now that you're losing, you want mercy and peace." And I get that. He says,
26 Then Abner called to Joab, “Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that the end will be bitter? How long will it be before you tell your people to turn from the pursuit of their brothers?”
And there may be a lot of things — but here, at least in this moment, he's calling everybody back to reality: we're killing our own family, we're slaying our brothers, there's something not right about this. And so he calls out for mercy.
27 And Joab said, “As God lives, if you had not spoken, surely the men would not have given up the pursuit of their brothers until the morning.” 28 So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the men stopped and pursued Israel no more, nor did they fight anymore.
So there's a halt, a cease — we call it a ceasefire today. They have a cease to their battle.
29 And Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, and marching the whole morning, they came to Mahanaim. 30 Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner. And when he had gathered all the people together, there were missing from David’s servants nineteen men besides Asahel.
So only 20 in David's army died.
31 But the servants of David had struck down of Benjamin 360 of Abner’s men.
It's a pretty decisive victory on David's side. It says,
32 And they took up Asahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was at Bethlehem. And Joab and his men marched all night, and the day broke upon them at Hebron.
Here's what I need you to remember as we move forward through the story: Abner did kill Asahel, but he did so in the context of battle, when Asahel was trying to kill him. He did so after repeatedly warning and asking Asahel to stop, and Asahel refused. So yes, he did kill him, but in the context of battle. So Abner has no blood guilt on him for this death. Right? I need you to hold that in your mind as we keep moving forward.
So chapter 3 continues the story, and it opens a little bit ominously. It says,
1 There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. And David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker.
Well, of course it did, because Saul's dead, right? Saul can't build his family anymore, but David can. And that's actually exactly where the author takes us in the next few verses, because it tells us that in that seven and a half years, while David refused to grab the throne by power and violence, he was a little busy at the same time.
2 And sons were born to David at Hebron: his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam of Jezreel; 3 and his second, Chileab, of Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel; 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, of Eglah, David’s wife. These were born to David in Hebron.
The first two wives he already had when he came to Hebron, but now we find out he's got four others. And as we walk through the story and dig into it a little bit, what we discover is that David's doing what ancient kings did — he's marrying for political alliances. He's marrying women to create connections between other kingdoms and other people so that he can build up his power base. And I think this is important — sometimes we just kind of glaze over when we start reading genealogies. The author of Samuel didn't have to put these verses in — it's not like he had a quota. He puts them in for a reason. In the midst of this defense of David and his road to the kingship, the author will also very realistically point out David's flaws and brokenness. Because while David will refuse to take the kingdom by force — that's a very godly and good thing — at the same time, he's acting like all the other ancient Near Eastern kings, gathering for himself wives. And if you don't know the rest of the story — spoiler alert — it doesn't go well for him. This is the Achilles' heel in the life of David, even worse in the life of his son Solomon, who hasn't even been born yet, because David hasn't killed the one guy to take his mother, his wife, and have Solomon.
I think the author includes this to keep in front of us and fresh in our minds and hearts that even at his best, David is a man after God's own heart, but he's still got feet of clay. But I think it's more than that — it's that the sin that you reject and are vigilant against isn't always the sin that is actually eating you and destroying you. So David refuses to grab that which God has promised — that's good. But at the same time, he's grabbing other wives, gathering for himself that which he should not have taken for himself.
So we get back into the narrative, verse 6.
6 While there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul.
So the house of Saul is growing weaker, but all that happening, Abner is growing strong — so he's the power player in Israel at the time. And as is often the case, power corrupts, and tensions come — not just tensions between David and Ishbosheth, between Judah and the rest of Israel, but tensions within Israel. So in verse 7 it says,
7 Now 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?”
So Ishbosheth, the puppet king, turns to the kingmaker Abner, because he's heard that Abner has taken for himself one of Saul's concubines, which is more than a sexual dalliance. In the ancient Near East — and we've seen this in other texts that we walked through in years past — to take a concubine of another man, of another king, is to usurp and assert your authority over that person. It's the ultimate power move. "For Abner: yeah, you've got the throne and the crown is on you, Ishbosheth, but I'm the real man, I've got the power, I am Saul's true heir. In fact, I'll take his concubines for myself." So Ishbosheth calls him on it, and that doesn't go well. Abner becomes very angry over the words of Ishbosheth and said, "Am I a dog's head in Judah?" This is a crazy phrase — I'd like to bring it back, I think we should start saying this to each other.
8 Then Abner was very angry over the words of Ish-bosheth and said, “Am I a dog’s head of Judah? To this day I keep showing steadfast love to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not given you into the hand of David. And yet you charge me today with a fault concerning a woman.
— which is not a denial, by the way, of taking the concubine. He gets mad. He's like, "I made you king, I've done all this — how dare you bring this up, how dare you throw my sin in my face?" And then — this is where Abner stands in stark contrast to David.
9 God do so to Abner and more also, if I do not accomplish for David what the Lord has sworn to him,
That seven and a half years that Abner made Ishbosheth king, he did it knowing that God had promised the kingdom to David. He knew it. But he did it anyway — it was to his advantage, he wanted the power. He didn't just go against David — he's going against God. But now, because there's all this tension and his sin's getting public, he's like, "You know what, it's fine, we're going to give it to David." So he says, "May
9 God do so to Abner and more also, if I do not accomplish for David what the Lord has sworn to him, 10 to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan to Beersheba.”
So David's been waiting for seven and a half years. There's been battles, there's been tension. But now the power player, the kingmaker Abner, says, "You know what, we're giving it to David — this is what God wanted from the very first." And Ishbosheth
11 And Ish-bosheth could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him.
He had no real power.
12 And Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, “To whom does the land belong? Make your covenant with me, and behold, my hand shall be with you to bring over all Israel to you.” 13a And he said, “Good; I will make a covenant with you.
sends it in his own name — not with Ishbosheth. Like, "I'm the power player here, David — if you want the kingdom, I'll give it to you." Which is interesting, because David has refused to seize that which God had promised to give to him. And we might think and expect, well, David's not going to accept this offer, he's not going to respond positively, because Abner's a wicked guy and he's been doing all this stuff. But David responds and says, "Good, I will make covenant with you." David's waiting for God to give him the throne, and now Abner has come and said, "Here's the throne." As far as David knows, this is God's doing, and it's not going to require brother to kill brother — there's no bloodshed, there's no violence, there's no force. God is going to bring the family back together, unite the kingdom once again. So he says, "Good, I will make covenant with you." But there is one price David demands, and it shouldn't surprise you that it involves a woman.
13b But one thing I require of you; that is, you shall not see my face unless you first bring Michal, Saul’s daughter, when you come to see my face.” 14 Then David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, saying, “Give me my wife Michal, for whom I paid the bridal price of a hundred foreskins of the Philistines.” 15 And Ish-bosheth sent and took her from her husband Paltiel the son of Laish. 16 But her husband went with her, weeping after her all the way to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, “Go, return.” And he returned.
We talked about this last week — Michal was one of David's first wives, she was Saul's daughter. He had to go kill a hundred Philistines and bring their foreskins as a bride payment to Saul to marry her. And when Saul and David's relationship fell apart and David had to flee, Saul took his daughter back and gave her to another man in marriage to hurt David, to insult him. Now David's back in a position of power, and Abner's coming to him to make a deal, and he says, "Listen, you got a deal, but there's one condition — you got to give me that wife back." Maybe he loved her, maybe he wanted the political authority that having Saul's daughter as one of his wives would give him as he ascends to the throne, maybe it's a combination of both. But whatever it is, I'll tell you what it is — it's human tragedy. Common people pay when kings play games.
Listen to how this unfolds. It says so David sent messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul's son, saying, "Give me my wife Michal, for whom I paid the bridal price of a hundred foreskins of the Philistines." And Ishbosheth sent and took her from her husband Paltiel the son of Laish. Paltiel — man, can you imagine this guy? Like, he wakes up one day, it's beautiful, he's having a good day, and then guards show up and say, "Yeah, your wife's going back to David." And so her husband went with her, weeping after her, all the way to Bahurim, and Abner said to him, "Go, return." And then he finally returned. There's something so hauntingly heartbreaking about the human cost of these political games.
But aside from that heartbreak, it looks like Israel is now going to be reunited without bloodshed. So verse 17, Abner
17 And Abner conferred with the elders of Israel, saying, “For some time past you have been seeking David as king over you. 18 Now then bring it about, for the Lord has promised David, saying, ‘By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines, and from the hand of all their enemies.’ ” 19 Abner also spoke to Benjamin. And then Abner went to tell David at Hebron all that Israel and the whole house of Benjamin thought good to do.
So Abner keeps his word. He goes, he's the power broker, he makes the deals, he gets all the tribes together, they agree, David's going to become their king. And so it says, verse 20, when Abner
20 When Abner came with twenty men to David at Hebron, David made a feast for Abner and the men who were with him. 21 And Abner said to David, “I will arise and go and will 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.
So the deal's been struck right now. Now it's just to make it happen — Abner's going to go get everybody, they're going to come together, they're going to have a convocation, and they're going to install David as king. David didn't seize it — God is now going to give it to him. But
22 Just then the servants of David arrived with Joab from a raid, bringing much spoil with them. But Abner was not with David at Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he had gone in peace. 23 When Joab and all the army that was with him came, it was told Joab, “Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has let him go, and he has gone in peace.” 24 Then Joab went to the king and said, “What have you done? Behold, Abner came to you. Why is it that you have sent him away, so that he is gone? 25 You know that Abner the son of Ner came to deceive you and to know your going out and your coming in, and to know all that you are doing.”
I think it's fair to say there's no love lost between Abner and Joab. There's a lot of jealousy, a lot of hatred, especially because Abner had killed Joab's little brother. So when he hears that peace is coming, but peace is going to involve Abner in the mix, and Abner and David had come together and peace was on the table, his jealousy and his thirst for vengeance overtakes him. So it says
26 When Joab came out from David’s presence, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the cistern of Sirah. But David did not know about it.
So David leaves — David's fine with Abner leaving, Joab arrives after Abner leaves. So Abner starts coming back — David didn't ask him to come back, Joab did.
27 And when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak with him privately, and there he struck him in the stomach, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.
So Joab acts as a kinsman avenger, avenging the blood guilt of his brother that Abner bore. But here's the problem: Abner didn't bear that blood guilt. And it's even worse than that, because he does it in the name of the king, he does it pretending friendship, and he does it in Hebron. Why does that matter? Well, because Hebron is one of the six sanctuary cities laid out by God where blood vengeance is not to be taken. Joab doesn't care. Doesn't care what David wants, doesn't care what God wants, doesn't care what anybody wants. All he wants is vengeance, and he takes it. Looks like it's coming together for David peacefully without bloodshed, and yet now blood has been shed. Afterwards,
28 Afterward, when David heard of it, he said, “I and my kingdom are forever guiltless before the Lord for the blood of Abner the son of Ner.
David and the author of Samuel — this is what they want us to know: David didn't do this. He does not go to the throne with bloody hands. He refuses.
29 May it fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father’s house, and may the house of Joab never be without one who has a discharge or who is leprous or who holds a spindle or who falls by the sword or who lacks bread!”
You don't really want to get on the king's bad side. David blesses the men of Jabesh Gilead for what they did to Saul. Now David curses Joab for what he has done. It continues. So,
30 So Joab and Abishai his brother killed Abner, because he had put their brother Asahel to death in the battle at Gibeon. 31 Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, “Tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and mourn before Abner.” And King David followed the bier.
Must have been unbelievably humiliating for Joab. David, as the king, commands him to tear his clothes, put on the garments of mourning, and mourn at the body of the man that he has just murdered. And then, as they take the body, as they prepare it, as they bring it for burial, David comes and he follows.
32 They buried Abner at Hebron. And the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept.
What's the author of Samuel want you to know? He wants you to know that David did not seize the kingdom by violence and force, and that when someone else did that — even if it was in his name and on his behalf — he refuses to align himself with the violence of injustice and wicked men. And so he weeps with the people over Abner.
33 And the king lamented for Abner, saying, “Should Abner die as a fool dies? 34 Your hands were not bound; your feet were not fettered; as one falls before the wicked you have fallen.” And all the people wept again over him.
This little lament that David composes about Abner is not just about Abner — it's actually calling out Joab. Abner didn't die as a fool; it was the fool and the wicked one who killed him. And all the people wept again over him.
35 Then all the people came to persuade David to eat bread while it was yet day. But David swore, saying, “God do so to me and more also, if I taste bread or anything else till the sun goes down!” 36 And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them, as everything that the king did pleased all the people. 37 So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king’s will to put to death Abner the son of Ner. 38 And the king said to his servants, “Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel? 39 And I was gentle today, though anointed king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are more severe than I. The Lord repay the evildoer according to his wickedness!”
There's a way of reading this on the surface: "I was gentle today, I chose to show mercy and not judge Joab for what he's done." But the word there for "I was gentle today" is a word that means to be weak. And this is a very political text, and David's navigating this political reality, and I think it's a very likely reading as well — maybe it's a double meaning, but it's a likely meaning: David's saying, "I don't have the political power to kill Joab right now, even though he deserves it. So I'm going to call upon the Lord to judge. I trust that even what I can't do as king doesn't mean Joab's going to get away with it." We're going to see this come back much later in the story, at the end of David's life, so it's a significant thing in his mind and in his heart.
You'd hope that after this maybe now everything would come together without bloodshed, but life's never that clean. Chapter 4 — and I'm just going to read through this really quickly because really it's just a bookend, it's an echo of what we saw last week in chapter 1. Okay, so listen to this. It says:
1 When Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, heard that Abner had died at Hebron, his courage failed, and all Israel was dismayed. 2 Now Saul’s son had two men who were captains of raiding bands; the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, sons of Rimmon a man of Benjamin from Beeroth (for Beeroth also is counted part of Benjamin; 3 the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have been sojourners there to this day). 4 Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who was crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled, and as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.
— one of my favorite characters in this story, we're going to come to him in a few chapters —
5 Now the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, set out, and about the heat of the day they came to the house of Ish-bosheth as he was taking his noonday rest. 6 And they came into the midst of the house as if to get wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. 7 When they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him and put him to death and beheaded him. They took his head and went by the way of the Arabah all night, 8 and brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron. And they said to the king, “Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life. The Lord has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring.”
Just chapter 1 on repeat, but worse. Chapter 1, the Amalekite messenger came and said, "I saw Saul dead, and I—" and David's like, "By your own admission you killed the Lord's anointed." Now these two, they're not generals, but they're commanders, they're important warriors in Ishbosheth's army. They betray their own king, they kill him, they take his head to David, hoping to curry his favor. That's not who David is. So his response,
9 But David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life out of every adversity,
Do you catch who David credits with his protection and his provision? "I didn't need you to kill Ishbosheth." He says,
10 when one told me, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. 11 How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed, shall I not now require his blood at your hand and destroy you from the earth?” 12 And David commanded his young men, and they killed them and cut off their hands and feet and hanged them beside the pool at Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it in the tomb of Abner at Hebron.
So these three chapters, the long road to the throne for David, where he refuses over and over and over again to take by violence and force that which God has promised to give him — it's messy, and it's ugly, and it's broken, and it's deadly, and it's brutal, because that's the world that we inhabit, it's the world that David inhabited. He knew that if he took the throne violently, with bloody hands, that that would be the nature of his kingship for the rest of his life. And his hope was not in his power, not in his strength or his ability to take for himself the crown and the throne, but his hope was in the God who had promised to give it to him.
In so many ways, David is a shadow of the true and better David, the Christ, Jesus. I think this is so true in this narrative and this story. David refuses to take what God had promised to give by his own means — he refuses to grab it. And so did Jesus, just on a cosmic level. I think about Gethsemane — Jesus, after the Last Supper, goes to pray, and He's fighting, He's fighting the fear and the pain that lies ahead. "Lord, if there's another way, if there's another way" — but what does He say? "Not My will but Yours be done." In the garden, Jesus refuses to grab, He refuses to seize, He refuses to take another way. He submits Himself to the will of the Father. What God has promised Him, He will trust God to give Him even if it includes a cross.
But it's not just what He prays in the garden that struck me this week — it's what happens immediately after. Matthew describes it in chapter 26 this way. He says,
47 While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” 49 And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.
They seized Him. And I need you to know this morning: that's not because Jesus was weak, it's not because Jesus didn't have power — it's because Jesus chose not to grab what God had promised to give. Listen to what happens, because not everybody got the memo.
51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
See, there's a part of me — maybe it's just the man part of me or whatever — but you read this and you're like, "Yeah, it's time, it's go time there." But this is what Jesus came to do. Jesus's response, you know it —
52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
Jesus didn't come to perpetuate the cycle of violence and power — He came to end it. He came to end it. But listen to what He says next. He says,
53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?
— which is overkill, by the way, twelve legions, right? Anytime one angel shows up, everybody's wetting their pants — these are like crazy ninja angels, right? You've got to understand what Jesus is saying here: "I'm not going to the cross because I'm weak. I'm not going to the cross because I don't have other options. I'm going to the cross because the Father has asked Me to go, and I will not grab for Myself what the Father says He will give Me."
How
54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”
? See, David would not receive his crown and throne with blood-stained hands. Jesus gained His throne and crown by His blood-stained hands — not the blood that He shed of others, but the blood that He shed of His own, that we might be forgiven. Jesus had the power to save Himself but didn't — one of the most amazing things about Jesus to me: rescue was available but refused, because He chose instead to trust the Father's will. Because Jesus was promised a throne and a crown, but He had to go through the cross first. See, power is the way of the world; obedience and trust is the way of the kingdom. It's the way of Jesus, shadowed by David. And it's the way that you and I are to walk.
Let me close this morning with 1 Peter 2:21. "For to this you have
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one, Jesus. What are the steps that we're supposed to follow Jesus in? He says,
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
This was the path of Jesus to the throne and the crown, the throne above all thrones, the name above all names, the unending reign of Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords. It came as He entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly. When He was hated, He didn't respond with hate. When He was beaten, He didn't fight back. He trusted God.
Oh, may God give us the grace to walk in the footsteps of Jesus — to not take it upon ourselves to grab that which God and God alone can truly give us, to understand that there's a crown promised to those of us who are in Jesus as well. But like Jesus, it comes when we pick up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him. And the way that we follow is to entrust ourselves to the One who judges justly. May God give us grace and wisdom to live like that. Amen.
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