I think it’s easy to have a romantic view of the history of David as King of Israel. It’s such a great story isn’t it? The good looking shepherd boy who becomes king. The youngest son who is chosen and anointed by God to lead his people. The young lad who defeats the battle seasoned giant Goliath. The musician who turns out to be a great warrior. The young king who falls in love with the beautiful Bathsheba. It’s got all the ingredients of a classic chick flick hasn’t it? That is until you read the details of the story. Then you discover that sometimes the fulfilling of God’s plans takes more than romantic wishful thinking. Sometimes overcoming the obstacles requires political acumen and even a strong right arm. And sometimes God’s plans come to fulfilment through the unjust actions of sinful men.
What we’ll discover today is that God is in control of history, but his control of history doesn’t preclude things happening that are outside the way he would have things work. There’s a paradox at work in the history of Israel and indeed in our own history that can cause us great perplexity when we look at the details within the big picture.
Saul is dead. Now nothing stands in the way of David assuming the kingship. David is still living in Ziklag in the territory of the Philistines, so he enquires of the Lord whether the time has come to move up to one of the towns of Judah and make his claim public. The Lord says "Go up." Go to Hebron.
Hebron is near the Oaks of Mamre where Abraham first lived in the land and where he purchased a burial cave for Sarah. It’s also one of the cities that aided David when Saul was chasing him. It’s just south of Jerusalem and is the highest city in Israel. So it’s a fitting place for him to take up residence and to be crowned king. But not yet of the whole of Israel. Politics takes over and it’s only Judah at this stage that recognises his anointing by God.
Now I’d like you to notice how even someone as well respected as David, someone who’s outdone Saul in killing the Philistines can be ignored when it comes to the leadership of the nation.
So why is that? Why is it that someone with obvious gifts, with the clear calling of God can be opposed by God’s own people? If you’ve had anything at all to do with the Diocese of Melbourne you’ll realise that this is a phenomenon that’s still present with us today. Even someone as gifted and personable as our current Archbishop has his strong opponents within the diocese. I’m not talking about people in the media, or people from the gambling lobby or some non-Christian power group. You could expect them to be opposed to someone in the Archbishop’s position, particularly when he speaks out on issues of public importance. But no, I’m talking about our own brothers and sisters within the Church. Why do they refuse to accept his role as our spiritual head? It’s the same question we face here.
Why did the people of the 11 northern tribes take so long to recognise the King that God has provided for them, despite David’s attempts to at least get the people of Jabesh-Gilead on side? Well, the answer lies in the person of Abner. Abner is a politician as well as a general. He has his own agenda for Israel. He wants to maintain his power and influence in the north and he does it by taking one of Saul’s sons and making him king of Israel. Israel is still a disparate group of loosely connected tribes and they seem happy to take Saul’s son as their king if he brings with him Abner and the remains of Saul’s army.
And so begins the first of a number of civil wars that will mark the history of Israel for some years to come.
Abner is matched on David’s side by Joab. Joab and his 2 brothers are the leaders of David’s Guerilla brigade that’s been so successful up to this point in fighting the Philistines and the Amalekites. And Joab is as power hungry as Abner.
The two armies fight it out in the absence of David and Saul’s son, Ishbaal. They begin by organising a battle of champions. Each side selects their 12 best men and they’re sent to fight it out. Well, if you thought the Rugby Union World Cup was tough, it’s nothing compared to this contest. In the end there’s a surprising result. Both sides are killed by each other. Instead of there being a clean cut end to the contest (if you’ll excuse the pun), the result is pandemonium. Both sides pour out onto the field and begin a fierce battle for superiority until in the end Abner’s men are defeated.
Abner flees but Joab’s brother Asahel chases him and overtakes him. Abner tries to dissuade him from continuing the pursuit because he knows how it will end. Abner hasn’t made it to General by accident. Asahel is no match for him in one to one combat and he knows it. But Asahel won’t give up. And in the end Asahel is killed by Abner.
Now this is just one death among many, but it gets special attention because Asahel is Joab’s brother and before the story is over, Joab will have taken his revenge on Abner, by killing him in a fairly underhand manner. And the result of that murder will be that when Solomon is made king 40 years later one of his first tasks is to bring judgement on Joab. But that’s another story.
But for now, can you see how one person’s desire for power above everything else leads to a series of tragedies; tragedies that could have been avoided if David had been accepted as King from the start?
Well, that hasn’t happened and so there’s a long period of time, about 7 and a half years of civil war, as David gradually grows stronger and Ishbaal and Abner get weaker and weaker. Until at last Abner, being the experienced General that he is, realises that discretion is the better part of valour.
And so Abner makes a deal with David. He’ll give him the northern kingdom, presumably in exchange for the same power he’s wielded while Ishbaal was king.
In the meantime he manipulates Ishbaal to the point where he can justify his betrayal on theological grounds (3:9). Although up until this point he’s supported Ishbaal against David, now he claims to be acting in response to God’s choice of David as King over all Israel.
Have you noticed how there are some people around still who seem to be able to justify all sorts of wickedness and rebellion by quoting verses of Scripture? Oh, they’ll only quote selected verses, but they’ll make out that their action, whatever it is, is justified on theological ground. Never mind how ungodly or unscriptural it may actually be. And if someone tries to refute them with other parts of Scripture they’ll accuse them of fundamentalism or literalism.
Apparently there was a debate on ABC TV the other night between Colin Kruse and a couple of others, including Muriel Porter. Now I didn’t see it so I’m not sure of the exact context, but I believe at one point the discussion got around to the issue of homosexuality and whether practising homosexuals have anything to answer for before God.
One of the panelists apparently quoted Jesus saying "Let whoever is without sin cast the first stone." The implication I take it was that none of us can criticise someone for having a homosexual relationship because none of us is without sin. The trouble is, as Colin Kruse pointed out, they omitted to finish the quote, where Jesus then says to the woman: "Go and sin no more!"
But that’s often what happens isn’t it? Just find a suitable Scripture verse (or phrase) that appears to support or justify your action and quote it over and over again.
Well, that’s what Abner does here. He justifies his betrayal of Ishbaal by quoting God’s anointing of David. However, Abner’s manipulation finds its match in Joab. Joab is absent when Abner and David make their pact together and by the time he returns, Abner has left. He doesn’t care about diplomacy or politics. He’s a man of action and he isn’t going to forget what Abner did to his brother Asahel. So he sends for Abner to return.
When Abner comes back, Joab takes him aside, pretending they’re going to have a private discussion. But in fact all he wants to do is to take vengeance on Abner for the death of his brother. And so he kills him in cold blood. Now, Joab thinks he’s doing David a favour as well as getting even, but again David surprises us.
David reacts as soon as he hears, first with a curse. He curses Joab and his family for this cold blooded murder. Then he mourns Abner’s death. He makes Joab and his men join in the funeral procession; to walk at the head of the procession as they go to bury him.
David, you see is a King in more ways than one. He’s not like his generals and fighting men. He can see beyond killing and warfare to other possibilities. Joab and his brother in fact will continue to be a thorn in David’s side as his reign goes on. They think they’re on his side, but they don’t understand his way of doing things. They want to win the day by force of strength, but David sees the need to work by diplomacy. In fact he’s just got the Northern tribes to come over to his side and now Joab has killed their general. This has put the treaty on shaky ground. So he publicly repudiates the actions of Joab and his men. He makes it clear that he had no part in it. In fact he honours Abner. He laments the loss of such a great General. And the people join him in his mourning.
I think I pointed out last time some of the similarities between David and Jesus and here’s another one. Jesus, too, was misunderstood by his followers. His way of achieving victory didn’t fit with the way the disciples thought he should go about it. You no doubt remember the incident when the disciples finally worked out that Jesus was the Messiah. But then when he began to explain that he was on his way to Jerusalem where he’d be put to death, they protested. That isn’t how the Messiah should be thinking. He should be thinking about victory not defeat. But in fact his way was the right way. His victory would come about through the apparent defeat of death.
Well, David too saw that there were others ways to win victory than through violence and killing. Much of his life was spent in diplomacy. You get a hint of it in the list of wives and children in ch. 3. As was the practice in those days, David made strategic alignments through marriage. Not that this was necessarily a good thing to do in the long run, as much of his trouble came about through those children being at odds with each other and even with him, but he used the political process as much as military might to bring about the ends that God had in mind.
Now before we finish I want us to just think about the sorts of things we see happening in this series of events from 2 Sam 2 to 2 Sam 5. We know that God is in control of the events of history and that here God is shaping the history of Israel to bring his promises to Abraham to fulfilment. But what we see doesn’t seem to be all that godly does it? There’s bloodshed in battle. There’s cold blooded murder. There’s political manoeuvring. Marriages of convenience. There’s betrayal of trust. There’s hatred and revenge. So what do we make of all that?
Well, let me suggest that some of these things are the necessary behaviour of someone like David who has to work within an imperfect political system in an imperfect world. Some of them are the result of God allowing sinful men and women to do sinful things, but using their sinful actions to bring about the results he wants. And some of them are sinful actions that have no good results. The death of Abner is one such error. That’s why David laments. Abner is a great loss to Israel!
But also, through it all, David is seen again to be a King who acts with integrity no matter what is thrown before him. At every stage so far we see him seeking to do what’s right, to maintain his right standing before God before he worries about how he’ll be seen by those around him.
In our lives we’ll find ourselves in situations from time to time where choices are difficult. Where perhaps there seems to be no perfect answer. Where perhaps it seems that God is allowing evil men and women to hold sway. Or where things are happening that don’t seem to be very Godly.
At that moment we’ll have a number of choices. We might be called at that moment to use the political processes available to us to bring about a godly end. We might need to choose to stand against those who would do the wrong thing even if it’s with the right end in view. We might need to open our eyes to the way God works despite people’s sinfulness. We might need to accept that sometimes to bring about God’s will in this world requires a process that’s less than ideal.
But in the end God is in control. As we’ve seen in these 4 chapters of 2 Samuel, God is bringing about his plan, to make David king of all Israel, even if there are some things that happen that are less than perfect in his eyes. He’s able to use the things that happen in an imperfect world to further his plan to correct those imperfections. In the end it’s Jesus Christ, the son of David, who also suffers through the actions of evil men and women, who through those actions brings about the salvation that God had planned from before the creation of the world.
For more serons from this source go to www.sttheos.org.au
