1-2 Samuel Week Thirty-Eight: 2 Samuel 10:1-19

Now it happened afterwards that the king of the Ammonites died, and Hanun his son became king in his place. ² Then David said, “I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent some of his servants to console him concerning his father. But when David’s servants came to the land of the Ammonites, ³ the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think that David is honoring your father because he has sent consolers to you? Has David not sent his servants to you in order to search the city, to spy it out and overthrow it?” ⁴ So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved off half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle as far as their hips, and sent them away. ⁵ When they told it to David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly humiliated. And the king said, “Stay at Jericho until your beards grow, and then return.”

⁶ Now when the sons of Ammon saw that they had become odious to David, the sons of Ammon sent and hired the Arameans of Beth-rehob and the Arameans of Zobah, 20,000 foot soldiers, and the king of Maacah with 1,000 men, and the men of Tob with 12,000 men. ⁷ When David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the army, the mighty men. ⁸ The sons of Ammon came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the city, while the Arameans of Zobah and of Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the field.

⁹ Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him in front and in the rear, he selected from all the choice men of Israel, and arrayed them against the Arameans. ¹⁰ But the remainder of the people he placed in the hand of Abishai his brother, and he arrayed them against the sons of Ammon. ¹¹ He said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the sons of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come to help you. ¹² Be strong, and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God; and may the Lord do what is good in His sight.” ¹³ So Joab and the people who were with him drew near to the battle against the Arameans, and they fled before him. ¹⁴ When the sons of Ammon saw that the Arameans fled, they also fled before Abishai and entered the city. Then Joab returned from fighting against the sons of Ammon and came to Jerusalem.

¹⁵ When the Arameans saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered themselves together. ¹⁶ And Hadadezer sent and brought out the Arameans who were beyond the River, and they came to Helam; and Shobach the commander of the army of Hadadezer led them. ¹⁷ Now when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan, and came to Helam. And the Arameans arrayed themselves to meet David and fought against him. ¹⁸ But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed 700 charioteers of the Arameans and 40,000 horsemen and struck down Shobach the commander of their army, and he died there. ¹⁹ When all the kings, servants of Hadadezer, saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them. So the Arameans feared to help the sons of Ammon anymore.

—2 Samuel 10:1-19

Sermon Outline

1. Peace is (MULTILINE)
2. Peace is (MULTILINE)
3.  Peace is  (MULTILINE)

References

Weekly Study Guide

A few weeks ago, we saw that the Abrahamic Covenant is the overarching “promise covenant” from God to Israel guaranteeing three things: land, seed, and blessing. We then discussed how the final three covenants in scripture are given to Israel for the purpose of expanding upon and clarifying aspects of these three elements of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Land Covenant gives more detail about the land aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Davidic Covenant elaborates on the seed aspect. And the New Covenant reveals more information about the spiritual blessing aspect.

We then began our discussion of the Land Covenant by exploring why it should not be called the Palestinian Covenant, as some have in the past. This gave us the opportunity to dispel several myths surrounding the terms “Palestinian” and “Palestine” as they are used—and misused—today. And through this discussion, we saw that Israel is the rightful owner of the land in three different ways: biblically, historically, and legally. The biblical support comes from the creator and owner of the universe giving Israel that land forever (Gen 12:1-3). Then historically, despite various occupations throughout its history, Israel has been the rightful owner of that land ever since the time of Abraham. Though others may have conquered it, that land has never been claimed by another nation to be its national homeland. And then legally, following WWI, the international community recognized Israel’s right to the land at San Remo, which carried with it the force of international law. All of the background we have covered in the past few weeks lays the foundation for us to jump back into the details of the Land Covenant.

In Deuteronomy 29:1 it says: These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb. This passage is where the Land Covenant is first introduced. Moses goes on in verse two to remind the people of everything God had done in rescuing them and forming them into a nation, and he reminds them that there are judgments connected to their disobedience. In a way, the Land Covenant can be seen as a prophecy pointing to the nation being judged for their sin of disobeying their covenant with God, and it reminds them that they will be evicted from their land and dispersed around the world. But then it goes on to highlight that in fulfillment of His promises, God will bring the Jews back into their land and restore them not only physically, but spiritually as well.

In verse 24 and following Moses says:

All the nations will say, “Why has the LORD done thus to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?” Then men will say, “Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them. Therefore, the anger of the LORD burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.”

As we transition to chapter 30, Moses’s message is that as the curses have their intended result of bringing the people back to God in repentance, that the Lord will then restore them from captivity and regather them back into the land. In verse 1 of chapter 30 Moses continues:

So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you, and you return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

Moses emphasizes here that after the blessings and curses have come upon the people, and the Jewish people are in exile in foreign lands, they will reflect on God’s promises and return to the Lord with all their heart and soul. That ultimate restoration of Israel was God’s design all along. God’s purpose in meting out these blessings and curses was, and will be, to draw His people back to Himself in repentance. As mentioned earlier, this will be the purpose of that final and most extreme curse, the tribulation period. It is to traumatize Israel so severely that they have nowhere to look but to God. That seems to be how humans operate. We must often get to the absolute end of our rope before we surrender to God.

If you notice, it clearly states here that this regathering is from the ends of the earth. Two points are important to highlight here. The first point is that this is not a regional regathering, as happened in the return from Babylon. This is a worldwide regathering—the first of two regatherings foretold of Israel. And we will explore the significance of those regatherings next week. The second point is that some people question whether or not this regathering is literal—that God is going to actually bring the Jewish people back into the land of Israel from all over the world.

That might have been a valid question back in the late 1800’s. Israel had not been a nation since 70 A.D., and the Jews were scattered to the four corners of the world. No nation in history that had disappeared like this has ever reemerged. Readers of scripture back in the 19th century might have asked why they should believe that this impossible thing should happen literally. After all, they had been taught through centuries of church tradition to allegorize things that are difficult to understand—especially when it comes to the nation of Israel. Church history has sadly redacted the Jewish people from the narrative of salvation history so completely, that, according to them, any reference to Israel in scripture must now be understood as referring to the church. This is how insidious allegorical hermeneutics is.

The answer to the question of whether we should take this promise literally is pretty simple. In verse 3, it says that God will restore and regather the Jews from all over the world from where they had been scattered. All we must do is ask if the scattering in verse 3 was literal. Obviously, we know from history that the Jews were literally scattered across the world. That occurred under the Romans starting in 70 A.D. So, unless you are laboring under presuppositions that God is through with Israel in His plan, it’s obvious that if you take the scattering as literal—which you must, because it already literally happened—then you must take the regathering as literal as well. And history itself proves this to be a silly question. The regathering has happened as well.

Starting in the 1600s in England, God began laying the groundwork for what would become the Zionist movement—a worldwide movement of Jews being drawn back to their historic homeland. Then, in the late 1830s, this movement really took off and we saw strategic developments in the rest of that century that made this Zionist movement a reality. Jewish people started returning to the land from all over the world. They resurrected the Hebrew language. And God moved through political structures in many different nations to change hearts and minds to enable this to happen. Then in 1948, it actually happened. Israel became a nation again. Despite tremendous opposition, Ezekiel 36 & 37 began to be fulfilled, where God promised that He would bring the dry bones of Israel back together and begin to put flesh back on those bones. So, yes, we take that promise seriously and literally. The Land Covenant is an important clarification of what God promised in the Abrahamic Covenant regarding the eternal promise of the land.

(MULTILINE)

Discussion Questions

1. We discover in this story how important beards were for men in the culture of that day. So much so, that they couldn’t even go home half-shaved because of the shame this would cause. What is one custom or cultural phenomenon you have come across in your travels that surprised you? (MULTILINE)
2. Coming on the heels of David’s surprising kindness to Mephibosheth, in this chapter we see David extend additional kindness to an unlikely recipient. Why do you think this kindness was met with hostility? In honor/shame cultures, the disrespect Ammon shows Israel is one of the worst things you can do. But how does David respond? How does he honor his men’s dignity in this situation? Why would the two things the Ammonites did to the envoys of Israel be so disrespectful in that culture? How did David handle this with integrity? (MULTILINE)
3. When Israel trusts in God, they are invincible. Paul asks in Romans 8, “…if God is for us, who can stand against us?” How is this true in the battles Israel faces? How is this true in our lives? What do we learn about divine intervention and the sovereignty of God in this story? Even though we see the fruit of this kind of trust time and time again—not only in scripture, but in our own lives—why do you think it is so difficult for us to consistently and fully place our trust in God to be our champion? (MULTILINE)
4. Why do you think these advisors to Hanun gave the counsel they did to their king? Were they truly suspicious of David’s motives? Or perhaps they were trying to make a name for themselves? How does the world typically view the kindness of strangers—especially when it does not appear on the surface to make sense? Why is cynicism so prevalent today? How can the love of Christians be an antidote to that cynicism? (MULTILINE)
5. Why do you think David did not overreact when he was falsely accused of espionage by the Ammonites? Why is it so hard to act with integrity when facing false accusations or misunderstandings? When we face overwhelming odds, where do we naturally turn: to God, or to our own strength or ingenuity? What is one way you can train yourself to immediately look to God when challenges arise? (MULTILINE)

Going Deeper

1. Who was Nahash, King of the Ammonites, whose death was reported in verse 1 of 2 Samuel 10 (1 Sam 11:1-11)? Why do you think David would reach out in kindness to his son, when Nahash had been such a wicked ruler? What does this say about David’s character? Why do you think the new Ammonite king Hanun was so distrustful? What do we learn from this part of the story about how we often go about making decisions, and about the importance of surrounding ourselves with the right people? (MULTILINE)
2. Why do you think scripture records the method by which Joab fought the battle on two fronts? What does this teach us about leadership? How does Joab’s statement in verse 12 speak to the goodness and sovereignty of God? How does this reveal that he is leaving the outcome in the hands of God? Where else do we see Joab’s leadership on display in this passage? (MULTILINE)

Transformational Activity

Community

One minor detail in this story involves the guidance and counsel King Hanun got from his advisors. This was not unlike the situation after King Solomon died. Hanun is a new, young king and listens to his advisors—perhaps foolishly. This highlights the role that our community plays in our lives. With whom do we surround ourselves? Whose voices are in our heads? We typically recognize the importance of this when looking at the friends our kids hang out with, but do we recognize this same issue in ourselves? Perhaps we can take a fresh look at who we most associate with, who we listen to (in the media, and in our teachers), and who the biggest influences are in our lives. Come back next week and discuss the role our personal communities have in shaping us.