1-2 Samuel Week Thirty-One: 2 Samuel 4:1 – 5:5

Now when Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost courage, and all Israel was disturbed. ² Saul’s son had two men who were commanders of bands: the name of the one was Baanah and the name of the other Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the sons of Benjamin (for Beeroth is also considered part of Benjamin, ³ and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have been aliens there until this day).

⁴ Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the report of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened that in her hurry to flee, he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.

⁵ So the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, departed and came to the house of Ish-bosheth in the heat of the day while he was taking his midday rest. ⁶ They came to the middle of the house as if to get wheat, and they struck him in the belly; and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. ⁷ Now when they came into the house, as he was lying on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him and killed him and beheaded him. And they took his head and traveled by way of the Arabah all night. ⁸ Then they brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king, “Behold, the head of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life; thus the Lord has given my lord the king vengeance this day on Saul and his descendants.”

⁹ David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress, ¹⁰ when one told me, saying, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him in 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 from your hand and destroy you from the earth?” ¹² Then David commanded the young men, and they killed them and cut off their hands and feet and hung them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.

5

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. ² Previously, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and in. And the Lord said to you, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel, and you will be a ruler over Israel.’” ³ So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them before the Lord at Hebron; then they anointed David king over Israel. ⁴ David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. ⁵ At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

—2 Samuel 3:6-39

Sermon Outline

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References

Weekly Study Guide

When I used to teach college theology classes, I sometimes began the semester by asking some of the biggest of all big-picture questions: What is the purpose of life? Why did God create the universe? My reasoning for this was to get the students thinking differently, thinking outside of their little boxes. We can so easily get lost in all the little details during our study of God’s Word that we forget to take that important step back, in order to gain perspective. In other words, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees. In these class discussions, we would often land on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which begins with the question, “What is the chief end of man?” The given answer to that question is “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” I think the Westminster Divines got this one right.

Everything in life begins and ends with the glory of God. This is why God created the universe; it is the reason that anything exists at all. When we highlight the centrality of Israel in the plan of God, it is not to extol the virtues of Israel; it is to extol the virtues of God. When God promised to bless Israel, He expressly told them that it was not because of them that He was doing these things. In Ezekiel 36:22, God tells Israel that it is not for their sake that He was about to act, but for His holy name’s sake. God works throughout history to demonstrate His faithfulness to the promises He has made, else His name and His Word would mean nothing. His honor is on the line before a watching world. “That the world may know” is a recurring theme all throughout scripture that explains why God does much of what He does. God acts so that His glory will be on display, and so that His Word is proven to be trustworthy. This is basically what Ezekiel goes on to say in that passage, describing why God is acting: “Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when I show My holiness in you before their eyes” (Ezek 36:23).

We are in the midst of exploring the covenants God has made with Israel and how these covenants put on display in helpful detail the overarching plan of God—His plan of glorifying Himself in the world. We can track God’s workings in the world by following these covenants. We discussed last time how the Mosaic Covenant works together with the promise of the Abrahamic Covenant to reveal to Israel the means by which they could live lives pleasing to God. The Mosaic covenant provided the structure within which the people of God in that period of time would be able to experience the Abrahamic blessing. The Abrahamic Covenant is the promise, and the Mosaic Covenant is the means. The difference between a promise covenant (Abrahamic Covenant) and an administrative covenant (Mosaic Covenant or New Covenant) is simple–the promise of blessing vs. the rules or means by which the people experience the blessing.

In the Mosaic Covenant, God promised great blessing to an obedient people. But He also promised great curses for a disobedient people. As David Guzik puts it: “It’s as if God said this to Israel. I will glorify myself through you. If you are obedient, I will bless you so much, that the world will know that only I could have done it. But if you are disobedient, God says that I will curse you so much that the world will know that only if I was with the nation could they be so cursed and still survive.” God’s purpose in creating the universe was to bring glory to Himself. God’s purpose in creating and sustaining Israel is to bring glory to Himself—whether through blessing or cursing. But we know that God keeps His Word. God keeps His promises. That is the only explanation for how Israel has survived the last 2,000 years: despite not having a homeland, despite not having a temple or way to gather to worship, and despite being mercilessly and unceasingly persecuted by every nation in which they have dwelt.

When King Frederick the Great of Prussia asked one of his generals for proof of the existence of God, the general replied, “In a word, the Jews.” Israel’s miraculous survival and very existence can only be attributed to divine providence. This is an undeniable modern-day miracle; namely, that over some 1900 years of being dispersed among nations around the world, the Jewish people have maintained their distinctive heritage, language, rituals, and religion. They fiercely protected their Jewish identity despite satanic pressure for them to do otherwise. And God fiercely protected them as well—because God keeps His promises. He promised that Abraham would inherit the land, and he will. God will bestow upon Israel all the promised blessings that the coming Kingdom will entail—which requires them to be a nation. Which, against all odds, finally happened in 1948.

We also saw, last time, that the Mosaic Covenant gave the people the answer to the “how” question. How can we live lives that are pleasing to God? In other words: what do we need to do to receive the blessings God promised us? We must remember that the Mosaic Covenant in no way replaces the Abrahamic Covenant. There’s no way it possibly could. In fact, the Mosaic covenant is completely dependent upon the Abrahamic. The Abrahamic Covenant is the eternal, unbreakable promise of salvation to the world. No, the Mosaic Covenant, as a housekeeping covenant, functions in conjunction with the Abrahamic Covenant (the overarching promise covenant) in mediating blessings to the people of God as they follow His commands for how to enjoy life in the land. This is the purpose of the administrative or housekeeping covenant. It is for the regulation of life and blessings promised to Abraham and his seed, but it is specifically for this people in this land. The purpose of the Law (the Mosaic Covenant) was not to impart life, it was to regulate life.

Galatians 3:21 clearly states this—that the purpose of the Law was not to impart life; it was unable to do so. The function of the law was not to grant the inheritance but to preserve and protect the people for the inheritance. That is the point of Galatians chapter three: to show the relationship between the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant. When we understand this relationship, then it becomes obvious that the Mosaic Law does not apply to us Gentiles. It was never designed to. It was designed to regulate the life of Israel in a theocracy where God ruled them both religiously and politically. That law would make no sense for us to follow. We do not live in a theocracy. We, Gentiles, are people called out from many nations. We do not have one political ruler over us. Thus, God regulates our life and obedience through a new law: the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus—also called the Law of Christ (Rom 8:2; Gal 6:2; 1 Cor 9:21). This law is revealed in the New Covenant—a covenant which did replace the old covenant, the Mosaic Covenant.

What did the Mosaic Covenant include? First of all, it detailed the privileges and duties of a covenant nation. It was also a contractual agreement between God and His redeemed people for how they were to receive His blessing in the land—and thus be a channel of blessing to the world. We must remember that these were THE people of God. They had a huge responsibility. They were charged with spreading news about God to the world. They were supposed to live such God-honoring lives that the world would stand up and take notice that “these people were different”. Thus, God gave them a set of instructions that would help them accomplish this task. But then, we must ask: is that any different today with God’s people? We too, are called to live holy lives such that the watching world takes notice and is drawn to God because of it. And God replaced the Mosaic Covenant with a New Covenant that serves as guide rails for God’s people who live after the cross.

The conditions which make up the Mosaic Covenant are clearly laid out in Leviticus 26, where we see that the ability to experience the promised blessings was dependent upon obedience. Essentially, God is saying, “If you follow these rules and laws, you will be demonstrating that you are indeed my people—and thus you will be blessed in the way I promised Abraham.  If you don’t follow these rules, you will be demonstrating that you do not have a circumcised heart and you will receive the curses instead.” As we continue next time, we will detail what these blessings and curses looked like.

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Discussion Questions

1. As the saying goes, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” David and Israel had to endure this bloody civil war before the golden age of David’s reign began. What episodes in your life can you apply this saying to? (MULTILINE)
2. In verse one, why would Ish-Bosheth lose courage, and why would all Israel become alarmed at the death of Abner? Why is it significant that the two sons of Rimmon were from the tribe of Benjamin? How were the deaths of Saul, Abner, and Ish-Bosheth similar and different in how David dealt with them? Why is Mephibosheth introduced in this chapter and how does this relate to a promise David had made? (MULTILINE)
3. What do you think motivated the change in the Israelites’ attitude toward David? Why do you think it took this long? What differences do you see between Saul’s and David’s leadership styles? Why do you think David had the two assassins promptly executed? How do we see God’s providence and sovereignty on display in this passage? (MULTILINE)
4. What do you think the people of Israel saw in David by how he dealt with the professed killers of both Saul and Ish-Bosheth? The sons of Rimmon claimed to be acting on behalf of the Lord. Is it possible to sincerely believe you are acting according to God’s will and be wrong? Where do you see this in the world today? How can we guard against this danger? (MULTILINE)
5. David had to wait many years for God to deal with the unjust threats from Saul. And just when the clouds finally seemed to have passed, David had to wait another seven years until the throne was fully his. What promises of God have you had to wait on? In what ways is God working patience in you right now? Ultimately, what are the benefits of learning patience? (MULTILINE)

Going Deeper

1. We are not given many details of David’s coronation over all of Israel here in 2 Samuel. Read 1 Chronicles 12:38-40. Some 340,000 soldiers came out to partake in this celebration. What other details do we see in the 1 Chronicles passage that help us understand the setting better? (MULTILINE)
2. David was most likely around 15 years old when he was anointed king, and he did not fully receive the kingdom until he was 30. What does this tell us about how God prepares us for what He has in store for us? What kind of training did David receive during this time? What benefits do we gain from life experience that we cannot gain elsewhere? (MULTILINE)

Transformational Activity

Worship

In this section of scripture, we see that David had much to be thankful for. He could praise God for fulfilling His promises. He could praise God for sustaining him through all the trials and tribulations that he went through in the previous 15 years. He could also praise and worship God for the obstacles he faced and the patience he learned through those challenges, because God was shaping him into the kind of leader Israel needed. What are you thankful for today? What has God been doing in your life to prepare you for service to Him? Set aside some time this week just to worship God for who He is, and for what He is doing in and through you.