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Trusting God in Opposition - 2 Samuel 2-4
Introduction
If you want to go ahead and take your Bibles and turn to 2 Samuel, I won't try to one-up Rory's reading ability and read 2 Samuel chapters 2 through 4. Well, I'll narrate the event for you and we'll dip in and read particular points.
I was struck, though, as we're sitting there, or standing, as Lorelei was reading, impatient I felt as as she was reading and just how counter to my nature and I'm sure to many of us it was to just stand still and listen to the word of God being read for an extended period of time and and how I just as I'm thinking about that how how indicative is that of my heart that I don't have the patience to just stand and drink in God's word I should be rejoicing in that and yet I'm feeling antsy like. Okay, I can see where she's at in the paragraph.
I just thought that was probably a poor reflection on my own heart. And I think that's probably indicative of many of us. That's why churches don't do that kind of reading through God's Word very often anymore. It's because people don't want that. People don't want to be patient under God's Word.
So this morning we're going to look at a big long section of 2 Samuel chapters 2 through 4. And we aren't going to read the whole thing. But we are trying to drink in as much of God's word as we can. That's why we gather together.
The Central Question
What do you do in the face of opposition? When, as a Christian, you face hostility in friendships or family over your faith, what do you do? When, as the church, the winds of culture blow against our message, how do we respond? And the first and most obvious answer to that question is that we trust God. But what does trusting God look like? Or to change how we put the question, what does trusting God stop us from doing?
The Setting of 2 Samuel 2-4
The first four chapters of 2 Samuel, so we looked at chapter 1 last week, but the first four chapters together prepare the way for the introduction of David as the king over the whole nation of Israel, an event which takes place, chapter 5. Lord willing, we'll look at that next week.
But at this point, the arc of David's life is still very much on the rise. It's on the ascendancy. This point is emphasized by the first six verses of chapter 3, which recount the comparative increase of David's power over against the house of Saul, the former king. However, while David's ascendance is the keynote of these chapters, there are hints that the author gives us that the foundation may have cracks.
The Tale of Two Houses
David's Increasing Strength
So let's read 2 Samuel 3, verses 1 through 6. It says: "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. And sons were born to David at Hebron. His first was Amnon of Ahinoam of Jezreel. And his second, Kiliab of Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And the third, Absalom, the son of Makkah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Gesher, and fourth, Adonijah, the son of Haggith, and fifth, Shefaltiah, the son of Abital, and the sixth, Ithrium, of Eglot, David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron. 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 bracketing that paragraph in 2 Samuel chapter 3, there's notes on houses. In verse 1, we saw that there's an extended warfare between the houses of Saul and David. And though we don't have the dates, we can reasonably assume that this war goes on the full seven years, seven and a half years that David is king at Hebron.
It's interesting, though, that in this period, Saul's house is losing steam. Peter Lightheart notes in his commentary that while David is the king in Hebron for over seven years, we see in chapter 2 that Ish-bosheth is king in Mahanaim for only two years of that seventh. So Abner seems to have had a really hard time establishing Ish-bosheth on the throne. And this is likely due to the advance. So the Philistines had defeated Saul and his army on Mount Gilboa, and they probably took over a lot of the Israelite territory at that point, giving Abner a really hard time trying to set Saul's son up on the throne.
The Weakness of Saul's House
Now there's hints, again, at this weakness in Saul's house as we pick up the narrative from where we left off last week in chapter 1. One, we read of a messenger coming to David with news of Saul and Jonathan's demise, and then we read about how distraught David is. He and his men are weeping, and then we get this long song from David about the greatness of Jonathan and David and what a tragedy for the people is that Saul and Jonathan have died.
But while David is obviously cast down by the loss of his friend and disturbed by what the loss of Saul in battle could mean for the nation, This nonetheless opens an opportunity for him to return to the land. And so he turns to the Lord in 2 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 1 and asks if he should return.
"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. And David said, To which shall I go up? And he said, To Hebron."
When the Lord answers, Hebron, I don't have any consistency in how I say that. Hebron, Hebron. Abram, David goes there and he's made king over the tribe of Judah. And some people have wondered why would Judah act in isolation from the rest of the people of Israel? Why would they set up their own king?
But you'd have to remember the political situation. So Israel had not functioned with a central leader from the death of Joshua until Saul was made king. They'd had various judges, but very rarely were those judges in control over the whole nation. They were judges usually set up over a portion of the land. And so the king brought in a centralized government. And so Saul was the first king, and now Saul is dead. And it seems like the first thing that these tribes are doing is just going back to how they had functioned before. We're going to fend for ourselves. We're going to do what's right for us.
Further, Judah is in the south, separated very likely. If the Philistines have made incursions with their battles against Saul and his army, they probably pushed in and largely cut off Judah from the rest of the tribes. So it makes sense that they would set up their own king, at least in an earthly sense.
Abner's Conflict with Ish-bosheth
And while in verses 8 and 10 here in chapter 2, We read of Abner making Ish-bosheth king. Again, that was only for two years. It seems like it took a really long time for him to be able to set that up. And his position is far from certain, even once he is in place.
So this weakness that chapter 3, verse 1 told us was present in Saul's house, an increasing weakness. It's exemplified by just how strong Abner, the commander of Saul's army, was in comparison to Ish-bosheth, Saul's son. In chapter 3, verses 7 through 11, we read of Ish-bosheth accusing Abner of sleeping with Saul's concubine, Rizpah.
I'm going to read those verses. Chapter 3, verses 7 through 11: "Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Ai-ai. And Ish-bosheth said to Abner, why have you gone into my father's concubine? 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 have I keep showing steadfast love to the house of Saul your father and 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. God do so to Abner and more also, if I do not accomplish for David what the Lord had sworn to him, 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, from the very north to the very south. And Ish-bosheth could not answer Abner another word, because he feared him."
The king feared the commander of the army. When Ish-bosheth accuses Abner of sleeping with Saul's concubine, he's not just accusing him of adultery. He's claiming that Abner is trying to take the throne for himself.
You see this in 2 Samuel chapter 16 when Absalom drives David out of Jerusalem. Absalom then goes up and sleeps with all of David's concubines. It's a claim to the throne. It's as if he's saying, I now own the royal throne and the royal bedroom.
But the difference here between what Absalom does and what Ish-bosheth accuses Abner of is that Ish-bosheth is making a false accusation, it seems. He seems to have fallen into the same paranoia that his father Saul had done. Remember how Saul had chased David all over the countryside trying to kill him, even though David was loyal to him. David loved Saul, and Saul was paranoid that David was out to get him and he tried to kill him. And Ish-bosheth seems to have fallen into that same kind of paranoia.
Abner has been loyal. Remember, he's the one who sets Ish-bosheth up on the throne. But in light of the ingratitude that Ish-bosheth shows, Abner shifts his loyalties to David and says, okay, if you don't believe me, you don't trust me, you don't value that I've sent you on the throne, I'll just do what God said was going to happen anyway. I'll give the throne to David. And Ish-bosheth, the king, is so afraid of this military commander, he doesn't have anything to say to him. He's like, okay, you shut me up.
The Complete Collapse
The ever-weakening house of Saul lost its strongest defender. And this has been compounded in chapter 4 when Abner himself is murdered in cold blood by Joab. And then in chapter 4, verse 7, we read of Ish-bosheth being beheaded in his own bed. While the house of Saul was not entirely snuffed out, its weakness became overwhelming.
David's Military Success
And all this stands in stark contrast with David. So Saul's house is doing this number, just all the way down. And David, at the same time, is coming up. During the seven and a half years in heaven, David's strength continued to grow. In chapter two, he's working to establish political allies in Ish-bosheth's rear. So Jabesh-Gilead, the men who had gone and rescued Saul and his son's bodies off the wall in Philistia and brought them back. Jabesh-Gilead is a city in the rear of where Ish-bosheth reigns on the throne. So David sends messengers to them, and he probably genuinely does appreciate what they've done for Saul and his sons. But he's also making allies up north in Ish-bosheth's rear. And he's telling them, he's comforting them with the idea that, don't worry, I've been made king, and I'll look out for you.
And we see how strong his military begins to grow. So in chapter 2, in verses 12 through 16, we read this: "Abner, the son of Ner, so this is the commander of Saul and then Ish-bosheth's army. Servants of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. And Joab, the son of Zeruiah and the servants of David, And Abner said to Joab, let the young men arise and compete before us. And Joab said, let them arise. Then they arose and passed over by number, twelve for Benjamin and Ish-bosheth and the sons of the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. And each caught his opponent by the head, and thrust his sword in his opponent's side, so that they fell down together. Therefore that place was called El-Kath Hazurim, which is at Ibeon."
This kind of one-on-one or small group combat was a normal way in ancient warfare to try to eliminate mass fighting. If things could be settled by just putting your best soldiers forward, many lives could be spared. So, I mean, you'd think like back in 1 Samuel chapter 17, David goes to face Goliath. That's exactly what's happening there. Goliath is coming out as one man saying, send a hero out to fight me. We'll just decide this whole war with two guys fighting. It's a similar thing happening here where 12 from each side are picked. But they just kill each other. They grab each other by the beard and stab each other. All 24 die.
So then a great battle ensues. Verse 17, "the battle was very fierce that day, and Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David."
The small group battle failed, and the large battle ensued, and Abner and his men get driven from the field. In verses 18 to 23, we read one of the more tragic wartime incidents in the Bible, as Azahel, brother of Joab, and it says he's fleet of foot as a gazelle. He's chasing down Abner. He's trying to catch the commander of Ish-bosheth's army and kill him. And he must have been really fast because Abner is pleading with him while Abner's in a chariot. He's pleading with him. Turn around, Azahel. Kill one of the young men and take their stuff. Don't. Just leave me alone. I don't want to have to kill you. I couldn't look your brother in the face. Like, leave me. And Asael says, no. I'm not going to turn away. I'm not going to turn to the right or the left. I'm going to keep pursuing you. And Abner, it seems, really doesn't want to kill him. Because instead of turning around and stabbing him with the spear, he just hits him with the butt of the spear. Like, maybe he's trying to knock him down. But Asael is running so fast that even though he hits the butt of the spear, he's impaled on it. And he dies.
which breeds the rage of Joab and his brother, because this was their brother who had died, and ultimately leads to Abner later being murdered in chapter 3. But despite the loss of Asael, David's men carry the day. David's army lost 20 men, and it says 360 of the men of Benjamin were killed.
You have to remember, these are not standing armies. These guys don't just have tons of soldiers that that's all they do. These are guys who have jobs, they work farms, they're the providers for the nation. That's why they would try to do the small group combat if you could, because you don't want all of your farmers at harvest time to be dead. You've got to have people to work the field, you've got to have people to be blacksmiths, you have to have people to do all of these jobs. So this is a devastating loss for Abner's army to lose 360 men compared to David's 20. The house of Saul was growing weaker and weaker, but David continued to increase in strength.
David's Strategic Marriages
And then when we get to chapter three, that's the point of listing out all of David's wives and the sons that he fathered with each of them. This display of strength or prestige is a marked increase from the two wives mentioned in chapter 2. Those marriages also were strategic. The marriage, one commentator says, to Makkah of Gesher, a small Aramean kingdom northeast of the Sea of Galilee, his ally, by making Gesher his ally. Again, that's another ally he's made up in Ish-bosheth's rear.
And as commentator Victor Hamilton notes, the only other Ahinoam mentioned in scripture is the wife of Saul for Samuel 14. So it might be that Ahinoam is the person that Nathan the prophet refers to in 2 Samuel 12 when he tells David, "God gave you the wives of your predecessor and he gave you your master's wives."
So this possible allegiance with or even conquering of Saul's house would only have been further cemented by David's demand to have Saul's daughter, Michael, return to him in chapter 3. Andy and I had a little bit of an argument about this last night. She still thinks David loved Michael. But while he may have felt affection for Michael, and he certainly had paid a high price for her hand in marriage, But what he's doing right there is he's making a bold, strategic move to position himself as the true son of Saul, who should sit on Saul's throne. He's the one who has the right to claim the throne of the fallen king.
David's house grows in strength, and Saul's increasingly fades into the background. God's blessing of David with an increasing house foreshadows the strength that God promises later in chapter 7. There, in chapter 7, verse 2, David seeks to build a house for the Lord, but in chapter 7, verse 11, God says, No, David, I'm going to build a house for you.
Lessons from the Narrative
And what are the lessons to learn in this narrative? I said when we did our overview of 1 Samuel a couple weeks ago, that there are no unvarnished heroes in the Bible except for Jesus. None of them. And this becomes brutally clear as we read David's life. There are many lessons to learn, positive and negative, if we slow down and listen to how the narrator leads us through the story.
So as we approach the question, as we think about the question, how do I face opposition? I want to suggest two main lessons from these chapters.
Lesson 1: We Trust God by Not Acting in Revenge
Number one, we trust God by not acting in revenge. We trust God by not acting in revenge. David continues throughout these chapters to be a sterling example of leaving revenge to the Lord, as Paul tells us to in Romans chapter 12, verse 19.
When he hears of the brave men of Jabesh-Gilead in chapter 2 and verse 4, he sends messengers to commend them for showing love to Saul. He's not threatened by their love for Saul. He's not angry that they've somehow failed to come join his throne at Hebron. He simply commends them for what they've done. They've done a good thing.
Further, unlike Joab, David understands that what happened to Azael being killed in battle by Abner is one of the tragic consequences of war, but was not something to take revenge over. Thus, when Joab pulls Abner aside and murders him in chapter three, David is deeply upset and he proclaims himself and his kingdom guiltless in the matter. He condemns Joab's action. David then proceeds to mourn over Abner, even though for many years Abner had been David's enemy, had led an army that tried to kill David.
And finally, we see in chapter 4 when Ish-bosheth is assassinated, and then those servants, trying to garner favor with David, cut off Ish-bosheth's head and bring it to him. Well, much like the Amalekite in chapter 1, who was seeking a prize for killing the king, They find out with David they're barking up the wrong tree, and he has them hanged.
While David refuses to take revenge, he does not hesitate when it comes to executing justice. Through all of this, we see in David's life a calm confidence that God is the one who will establish him. He does not need to lift his hand against his foes.
Application to Current Events
And I think this is an important lesson for us today. We live in a society, in a world where our politics embraces this language of war, right? And we've lived to see what I certainly didn't think we'd ever see with the overturn of Roe on Friday. Roe and Casey both. Ever since abortion became legal across all 50 states with that court decision in 1973, 63 million babies have been killed inside the womb. And this is one of the greatest tragedies in human history.
But Christians often have compounded that tragedy when, or at least people claiming to act in the name of Christ, maybe I should put it that way, when they would bomb abortion clinics or kill abortionists. One murder doesn't cancel out another.
Today, there are many who are threatening violence against the pro-life cause. Clinics all over our country have been attacked. Churches and other religious centers are being protested today. How should Christians respond? We must trust God and refuse to take revenge while we are reviled.
Matthew chapter 5, verses 9 through 12, Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
We rejoice when courts rule in righteousness. We rejoice when life is defended. But we should not be shocked that not everyone feels the same way. And our hearts should not be filled with rage towards those who are deeply angry or upset over the court's ruling. We should be filled with sorrow and compassion. Think of Jesus as he looked out over Jerusalem, the city which was to kill him. And he cried out, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
Does your heart break not only for the lives lost in these last 50 years and the many which will continue to be lost in the states where abortion will be legal, but does your heart also break for those who, when they look at an ultrasound image, don't see the glory of God on display? The image of God?
Friends, let us not return reviling for reviling, but go down on our knees and plead to God for mercy for those who are far from him. Let us embrace the fact that to be identified with Jesus, the greater son of David, is to be outside the camp of normalcy. And there, to go there and be with him, we must bear his reproach with him. That's what Hebrews 13 says. But to do so is worth it, because while we have no lasting city here, he is building for us an eternal one. That's what Hebrews 11 tells us.
So we learn from these chapters, we learn from David, the importance of not seeking revenge.
Lesson 2: We Trust God by Always Doing Things His Way
How else do we practically trust God in the face of opposition? Well, secondly, we trust God by always doing things his way. And this is really the flip side of the not seeking revenge lesson. To seek revenge would be one example of a worldly way to solve your issues, to solve your problems. And David rightly says, no, I'm not going to seek revenge. But there are other forms of worldly wisdom which David clearly falls prey to.
God's Instructions for Kings
And God had previously given instructions for how a king ought to behave in Israel, and I want to read some of those in Deuteronomy chapter 17, verses 14 through 20.
Deuteronomy, beginning in chapter 17, verse 14. It says, "When you come to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it, and then say, I will set a king over me, [He says,] And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it, in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brother's, And that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel."
David's Disobedience
One of the key commands in that text, chapter 17, verse 17, is that the king should not multiply wives for himself. But in stark contrast to God's law there in Deuteronomy 17, multiplying wives is exactly what David begins to do for himself as soon as he becomes king. The two wives listed in chapter 2 are tripled to six by the beginning of chapter 3.
Further, in chapter 3, verses 12 through 16, David reaches out and says, Okay, Abner, you want to come to my side? Don't you come even try to see my face unless you bring my wife Michael with me. Michael was taken away from David when he ran away and given to another man, and David says, Don't even show up here, Abner, unless you bring my wife with me.
But when David is asking for Michael to come back, he's not just adding another wife, make it seven. He's also clearly breaking the divorce laws in Deuteronomy 24, which says if you're separated or divorced and one of you goes to be with another person, do not reunite. That marriage is now over. If they've gone and they've become married to somebody else, your marriage is ended. Do not go back together. God calls it an abomination there in Deuteronomy 24, and yet David chooses to do so.
So strategically, bringing in Saul's daughter, perhaps in addition to his wife Ahinoam, seems like brilliant 10th century B.C. politics. But it's also an example of blatant disobedience to the Lord. And while the narrator of 2 Samuel doesn't go out of his way to give us comments here or tell us, warning, warning, this is bad, we ought to take note.
At least two of the sons listed in chapter three, Amnon and Absalom, are going to become great sources of sorrow in David's life. These various marriages, most of them taken primarily for political reasons, will end up blowing up in David's face. Again, commentator Lightheart says, ironically, the very institution intended to unify Israel ends up dividing it.
Personal Application
How are you tempted to follow the wisdom of the world rather than the wisdom of God? In what ways do you think this isn't that bad, or no one's ever going to know, or that's just the way it is these days? Maybe you point to some other area of faithfulness in your life and use that as an excuse to justify your sin over here. Well, at least I'm doing that right, God.
As I said, the narrator doesn't go out of his way to point out how bad all of these marriages and children by multiple women are for David. He doesn't pause and say, now, dear reader, thou shalt not. But he doesn't have to. Because if we keep reading through 2 Samuel, we are going to see over and over the tragic consequences of David's sin in his family life. The man after God's own heart really isn't much of a husband or a father. And his kingdom eventually splits because of that.
Friends, we should not let the world's wisdom draw us away from the plain teaching of God's word. David could find good reasons for all of those marriages, but that didn't make them right. Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths. He will make your paths straight."
The Tragic Consequences of Compromise
So those first six verses of chapter 3, they're a key text demonstrating that God was indeed building David's house. And though that process was slow, drawn out over the course of years, David's quiver was being filled with arrows, to reference Psalm 127.
However, disobedience to the Lord's design for marriage and family would ultimately mean that David's house was one full of trouble and ascension. God built up this house, but it was a house full of trouble. And all of this would eventually lead to the splitting of the kingdom following Solomon's reign and the seeming destruction of David's house in exile.
The Greater Son of David
But ultimately, all of those troubles lead the reader to anticipate the greater son of David talked about in Matthew chapter 1 verse 1. The one who would be faithful over all of God's house as a son, Hebrews 3, 6 says. Jesus is the one who built the home David really needed. And he's the one who has prepared rooms in his house for everyone who trusts in him.
Have you trusted Jesus to save you from your sins? David needed someone to save him from his sins. So do you. As we look at David, we see that even the great heroes of the Bible are great sinners in need of salvation. But as we sang last week, for those of you that were with us, though our sins, they are many. His mercy is more. And if you trust in Jesus and his work on the cross to rescue you eternally, you can certainly trust him to get you through your difficulties today, to get you through opposition today.
Conclusion: Practical Application
So practically, the take home from this passage is to lean upon the Lord to fight your battles. Trust in the Lord. David was faithful in trusting the Lord to increase his house, never desiring to engage in open warfare with Saul or his descendants. But even in the midst of that general faithfulness, we see David's error in seeking to make alliances outside of God's provision, embracing what to earthly eyes was political shrewdness, yet in reality was the seedbed of many of his own heartaches.
Building David's house was God's work. Building Jesus' kingdom is Jesus' work, a work into which we are invited. But let us heed the words of Hudson Taylor and be diligent to do God's work in God's way. Obey him no matter what.
Closing Prayer
Would you pray with me?
Father God, we thank you for your word. And your word is so honest. There's no sugar coating, no varnish here to make people look better than they really were. And we need that, Lord, because we're just like the people in the scriptures. We are sinners prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.
And so, Father, would you give us hearts that are devoted to you, that trust you no matter what. Help us to be obedient by the power of your Holy Spirit. Thank you that we have a gift that David didn't have. The Holy Spirit indwelling us and giving us the ability to want to obey you in a new way. We pray that we would experience that day by day. Help us to grow, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
