1-2 Samuel Week Twenty-Nine: 2 Samuel 2:1 – 3:5

Then it came about afterwards that David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah?” And the Lord said to him, “Go up.” So David said, “Where shall I go up?” And He said, “To Hebron.” 2 So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. 3 And David brought up his men who were with him, each with his household; and they lived in the cities of Hebron. 4 Then the men of Judah came and there anointed David king over the house of Judah.

And they told David, saying, “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 of the Lord because you have shown this kindness to Saul your lord, and have buried him. 6 Now may the Lord show lovingkindness and truth to you; and I also will show this goodness 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 also the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.”

8 But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul’s army, had taken Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim. 9 He made him king over Gilead, over the Ashurites, over Jezreel, over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, even over all Israel. 10 Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, was forty years old when he became king over Israel, and he was king for two years. The house of Judah, however, followed David. 11 The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

12 Now Abner the son of Ner, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon with the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul. 13 And Joab the son of Zeruiah and the servants of David went out and met them by the pool of Gibeon; and they sat down, one on the one side of the pool and the other on the other side of the pool. 14 Then Abner said to Joab, “Now let the young men arise and hold a contest before us.” And Joab said, “Let them arise.” 15 So they arose and went over by count, twelve for Benjamin and Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. 16 Each one of them seized 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 in Gibeon. 17 That day the battle was very severe, and Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David.

18 Now the three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab and Abishai and Asahel; and Asahel was as swift-footed as one of the gazelles which is in the field. 19 Asahel pursued Abner and did not turn to the right or to the left from following Abner. 20 Then Abner looked behind him and said, “Is that you, Asahel?” And he answered, “It is I.” 21 So Abner said to him, “Turn to your right or to your left, and take hold of one of the young men for yourself, and take for yourself his spoil.” But Asahel was not willing to turn aside from following him. 22 Abner repeated 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?” 23 However, he refused to turn aside; therefore Abner struck him in the belly with the butt end of the spear, so that the spear came out at his back. And he fell there and died on the spot. And it came about that all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died, stood still.

24 But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner, and when the sun was going down, they came to the hill of Ammah, which is in front of Giah by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon. 25 The sons of Benjamin gathered together behind Abner and became one band, and they stood on the top of a certain hill. 26 Then Abner called to Joab and said, “Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that it will be bitter in the end? How long will you refrain from telling the people to turn back from following their brothers?” 27 Joab said, “As God lives, if you had not spoken, surely then the people would have gone away in the morning, each from following his brother.” 28 So Joab blew the trumpet; and all the people halted and pursued Israel no longer, nor did they continue to fight anymore. 29 Abner and his men then went through the Arabah all that night; so they crossed the Jordan, walked all morning, and came to Mahanaim.

30 Then Joab returned from following Abner; when he had gathered all the people together, nineteen of David’s servants besides Asahel were missing. 31 But the servants of David had struck down many of Benjamin and Abner’s men, so that three hundred and sixty men died. 32 And they took up Asahel and buried him in his father’s tomb which was in Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men went all night until the day dawned at Hebron.

3

Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David; and David grew steadily stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker continually.

2 Sons were born to David at Hebron: his firstborn was Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; 3 and his second, Chileab, by Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite; 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, by David’s wife Eglah. These were born to David at Hebron.—2 Samuel 2:1 – 3:5

Sermon Outline

1. A of Two (MULTILINE)
2. A of Civil (MULTILINE)

References

1 Samuel 8:19-20

1 Samuel 12:13-15

Psalm 5:4-7

Psalm 13:5-6

Psalm 23:6

Lamentations 3:22-23

Genesis 2:24

Deuteronomy 17:14-17

1 Peter 5:6-11

Weekly Study Guide

Admittedly, I have always been a bit of an oddball—an outsider, if you will. For some reason, when I was growing up, peer pressure kind of had the opposite effect on me. Maybe it is my rebellious nature, but when everyone at school bought the same kind of tennis shoe, or dressed in a certain way, I found myself doing the opposite. This did not bode well for me making a ton of friends, but that’s just who I was. But it seems like most people tend to lean in the other direction. Peer pressure is one of the most potent forms of influence there is. It can have a powerful impact on our kids’ formative years. The draw to be like everyone else is perhaps even part of our fallen nature. And that pull doesn’t go away when we are adults. Resisting assimilation into the culture around us is one of the most challenging aspects of a maturing faith. We are called to be “in the world, but not of the world.” And Satan uses that temptation we all grapple with to draw us away from God and more into “the world”, and into his image.

When God created the nation of Israel, He not only knew this to be true, but God knew that what naturally happens in society is that larger, more dominant cultures will, over time, inevitably influence the less dominant cultures to become like them. But that’s not what God had designed for His people. He had a plan for keeping His people from assimilating into the nations around them.  We see this preparation and protection at work even before Israel officially became a nation under Moses. Hundreds of years earlier, God had told Abraham that a people and a nation would be born from him and had even showed Abraham the land where this promise would take place. But this was a land full of idol worshippers who were engaged in evil practices that would most certainly influence a small tribe of people. But God was insistent that this people be different—that they would be a shining light upon a hill—that they would be the influencers, not the influenced.

We see this purposeful influence happening in this period of Israel’s history in the stories of the patriarchs. In Genesis 34, we see Schechem and Hamor, who were Hivites, actually admit their desire to assimilate Jacob’s family into their own. After Schechem had raped Jacob’s daughter Dinah, Schechem’s father, Hamor, parlayed with Jacob to get Dinah as Schechem’s wife. After Jacob’s sons responded to Hamor by asking that his entire family be circumcised, Hamor convinced his people to go along with this by arguing that the Hivites would essentially become one family with Jacob and his sons, and thus their property and animals would also become one. They were acknowledging that assimilation was their goal.

But the wicked influence of Israel’s neighbors did not stop there. We also see this drift towards worldliness and ungodly behavior later in Judah’s incestuous interaction with Tamar. God wanted His people to be separate and distinct—and it was not happening. They were becoming “Caananized”. Thus, God rescued His people from this inevitable drift by means of a famine. A small clan of people may not be able to resist this pull toward worldliness, but perhaps a people that had grown into a nation could.

As we leave the book of Genesis and move into Exodus, we see a large family—the offspring from this man Abraham. It is not yet a nation, and so would have little means for maintaining an identity in a land surrounded by idolatrous pagans. So, through this famine, God miraculously moved this family down to Egypt where He sequestered them in the land of Goshen. “Coincidently”, the people group in power at this time in Egypt had Semitic roots, and had more compassion on the family of Jacob than previous or later Egyptian ruling families would. Thus, they gave Joseph and his family an area of land to dwell in that separated them from much of the influence of the rest of Egyptian society. Israel was enabled to grow into a nation down in Goshen, sheltered from the corrupting outside influences from which God wanted them separated. Later, in Israel’s sojourn in Egypt, a Pharaoh (who knew not Joseph) enslaved the Hebrew people. A completely different people group had come to power. And these Egyptians were fiercely racist. They believed they were the only ones descended from the gods and thus wanted no intermixing with the “inferior” race of Hebrews. Again, God was protecting His people from assimilation. We eventually come to the Exodus and the birth of the nation. However, we can clearly see that this divinely providential incubation in Egypt helped preserve the people and their culture.

When they finally did arrive in the Promised Land, what did God command them to do? They were instructed to rid the land of its usurpers. They were to exterminate in some cases—and drive out in others—these pagan, idol-worshipping peoples who were so evil that they would sacrifice their own children to the god Molech. God did not want His people infected and affected by this evil Satanic idolatry. All of this is to say—God had very clear plans all along for helping His people stay separate and distinct from the peoples around them.

One of the many comforting things we know about God is that He prepares us for what is to come. Yes, we acknowledge the terrible hardships the people endured in slavery in Egypt. Yes, we know that spending an entire year at Mt. Sinai learning about God’s expectations would have been difficult. And yes, we understand that forty years in the wilderness would have been horrible. But what was God doing? He was preparing His beloved people for what was to come. He was transforming the people, who were slaves, who had a slave mentality, into a free, fierce, fighting force who would march into the land God promised them and take it with God’s help. He was training them to trust Him. After having entered the Promised Land, when they trusted Him, things went great! When they didn’t, things did not go so well.

Seeing that God prepares us for what is to come, what was God’s purpose in giving them the Law of Moses? He was preparing them to be His people, His chosen possession, His called-out nation, and His beloved bride. Did they know how to do that? No—they were slaves and idolaters. How do we know they were idolaters? Recall what happened when Moses left the people at the base of Mt. Sinai to receive God’s Law. They went right back to doing the only thing they knew how to do; they fashioned a golden calf and began worshipping it, just as they had learned in Egypt. So, God had them spend an entire year in that very place to teach and train them in His ways. He had the people spend forty years with no other influence around them in order to orient their thinking towards Him. And God gave very specific, very detailed rules and regulations for how they were to live their lives in a way that was honoring to God. This was one of the primary purposes of the Law He had given them through Moses: to create for Himself a people that would serve Him, and be a light on a hill drawing other nations to serve Him as well.

Just as the tribe of Levi was to be the priests for the nation of Israel, Israel itself was to be a kingdom of priests who served God as a priestly nation representing God to the world. This is what God was preparing them for. This is what they signed up for when they told God, “All that you have said, we will do.” The three primary purposes of the Mosaic Law were: to reveal God’s heart to the people, to set apart a people who were different and distinct, and to create a nation that would serve God as the priesthood for the world. Israel originally failed in that priesthood task, but God will enable them to fulfill that destiny in the Millennium.

As we head into a discussion of what the Mosaic Covenant contained, it is important to see God’s purposes behind it. In the covenants in scripture, God revealed His plan of salvation for the world, but here in this covenant, God was providing for, protecting, and really creating a people for His own good pleasure.

(MULTILINE)

Discussion Questions

1. Describe a decision you have made in the past in which you especially felt God’s leading. (MULTILINE)
2. Why do you think David sought the Lord’s guidance before moving to Hebron? What recent experiences might have influenced that decision? How might a hasty return home from the land of the Philistines have appeared opportunistic? David’s circumstances have radically changed in the space of just one chapter. He is no longer on the run. He truly trusted God to deal with his enemy. Judah has recognized him as the king. How do you think David would be feeling at this point? (MULTILINE)
3. Who anointed David as king? Why would they need to do this if he had already been anointed by Samuel? Why was only Judah involved in recognizing David as king, and not the rest of Israel? How is this a preview of what would happen after the days of Solomon? What factors do you think contributed to the Northern Kingdom so easily falling away from the Lord? What do we learn about God from this passage? (MULTILINE)
4. David very clearly did not rush in to seize the crown after Saul’s death. Why ought we to wait for others to build us up rather than building ourselves up? What was it about David’s character that made this humility so consistent in his life? Where do you see this trait in those around you? Where do you see the opposite? What would the world have told David to do once Saul died? (MULTILINE)
5. Do you find yourself truly seeking the Lord first in the decisions you have to make? What does this look like in your life? How was David pursuing unity based on what he did in this chapter? Where in your life do you need to pursue unity? What does this chapter teach us about patience? It had been perhaps 15-20 years since Samuel had anointed David king. What lessons do you think he learned in this time? Where do you need to rest, wait, and trust that God’s timing is perfect? (MULTILINE)

Going Deeper

1. What is the difference between justice and revenge? What is our role and what is God’s role in this? How does the distinction between these two concepts play out in this story? How would you evaluate the decisions Asahel made? What do you think motivated his choices? How would you evaluate Abner and Joab in terms of their decisions and character? How could Abner and Joab have handled their conflict differently? (MULTILINE)
2. What role do you think this civil war played in the psyche of the nation of Israel moving forward? What factors contributed to the unity of the nation under David? Why do you think the United Kingdom of Israel lasted through only two kings? Looking ahead, what differences between David and Solomon contributed to the descent towards two separate nations? (MULTILINE)

Transformational Activity

Bible Study

The Holy Spirit doesn’t include anything in scripture by accident. Seemingly innocuous facts are included for specific reasons. When we come across details that may not jump out at us as important, it is sometimes helpful to do a little digging to see why those details may have been included. Take some time to research why the men of Jabesh Gilead would have gone to the trouble to march all night to retrieve Saul’s body and give it a proper burial. What happened in their history, in the period of the Judges, and in their interaction with Saul, that would have prompted this?