David was anointed by Samuel. This will be his second anointing coming up. Part of a three-phase anointing. And yet he is still consulting the will of God and not saying, How I'm anointed, I'll do what I please. That again would have been Saul.
An anointing is a calling. to remain closer to God. Because you've been assigned a specific work and you are. Most deaf to be in rhythm with God, you know that you depend on Him. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston.
Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 2 Samuel. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically, how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of 2 Samuel 2. with today's edition of Cross Reference Radio.
2 Samuel chapter 2. Kings and fools, that's who we are going to be looking at. Unfortunately, maybe more often than not, Kings. and fools are the same thing. In this chapter we have one king that's a fool, the other is not.
But we have a Bunch of other characters. who behave as fools and Hopefully we'll learn something. If not, we'll be righteously entertained by their mistakes. Proverbs fourteen. Go from the presence of a foolish man when you do not perceive in him the spirit of wisdom.
You find out you know this guy It's just a fool. There's no reason why he can't make right decisions. You need to try to separate yourself. Unfortunately, sometimes you know that's your supervisor. Or someone else, maybe it's someone it's you're you are supervising, it's a partner, who knows?
So we are going to discuss David, the anointed king of Judah. Ishposheth. The one who is appointed king in Israel, And then there is The duel between the men, the young men, of Judah and Israel and then The ensuing battle.
So we look now at verse 1. It happened after this that David inquired of Yahweh, saying, Shall I go up? to any of the cities of Judah. And Yahweh said to him, Go up. And David said, Where shall I go?
And he said, To Hebron.
Well, David, of course, received news of Saul's death. We discussed that in chapter 1 of 2 Samuel. He's about 25 years old at this point, as near as I can calculate it, because we've got to get him on the throne at 30, age 30. And so we walk it back from there. And He is going to Be king in Hebron for seven and a half years before he gets to the throne.
He in it says David inquires of the Lord. A biofar. The priest, the survivor from the massacre of the priest by demonically influence Saul. He is with David still. And he has the ephod with him.
And because of that, he is going to be able to inquire from the Lord. It took Faith. to get an answer from God using the Urim and the Thumim, It must have been difficult Or should I put it this way, it was not. easy or casual. Otherwise, it would have just stayed in a, it would have been like consulting a crystal ball or something like that, or the oracles.
So there must have been some more to it than what we are told. Yet, what we know is that righteous men consulted for the will of God and received an answer. And David here actually gets into dialogue, a brief, but it is, he asks a question of God. David initiates this, God does not. What would have happened if David had not initiated the question to God?
What would happen in our lives if we do not initiate the prayer? It's something that we should be mindful on of. Uh common sense. is not faith, however, Faith is not senseless. Faith has sense with it.
Faith is uncommon sense. It's a blend of the natural abilities and the spiritual. participation and the Holy Spirit for the believer. And what makes David such a man of God? Is not only that he seeks God, but he's going to subject himself to whatever God says.
When we get to Jeremiah, I think, I don't know, 47, 48, maybe 44. He encounters a group that tells him, Jeremiah, whatever you say to us, we're going to do it. Just consult God and just tell us, whatever you say, we'll submit. And Jeremiah says, Give me 10 days. He comes back.
He says, Well, this is what, thus says the Lord. And they said, We're not going to listen to that. And they get quite nasty with him about it. Of course, King Saul, who we won't have to talk about too much soon, but we still have to refer to him in these early stages of David's. Appointment to king over Judah, he would.
Seek God in the early years of his reign. But he had no intention of submitting, and this is why he lost, of course, the rule. And the Christian, of course, we zero in on our Lord in Gethsemane when he says, Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. We never forget that. We know every time we make a prayer, that is part of our relationship.
If the Son of God subjected himself. Through those terms, then we better find ourselves doing the same thing. It's not enough. to be anointed, A saul was anointed. Judas Iscariot was anointed.
to be an apostle. You still have to commune with God. You must be in tune with Him, in rhythm, desiring Him. Anointing never makes us. Free from the necessity of consulting God.
And this is one of the lessons from this phase. David was anointed by Samuel, this will be his second anointing coming up. Part of a three-phase anointing. And yet, he is still consulting the will of God and not saying, Hey, I'm anointed, I'll do what I please. That again would have been Saul.
An anointing is a calling. to remain closer to God, Because you've been assigned a specific work and you are most deaf to be in rhythm with God, you know that you depend on Him. A dangerous time if a person feels that they don't need to pray about this, they're so good at it. Imagine Imagine the pastor stepping into the pulpit. No, that's all right.
Never mind the prayers. Let me get the preaching.
Well, you got nothing to preach about prayer.
So anyway, say he's saying, Shall I go up? to any of the cities of Judah. So, what attracts me about that? David is essentially saying, not a single step will I take without God telling me what step to take, in what direction to take it. Shall I go up?
To the cities of Judah.
Well, he knew he could not go to any of the other cities. They wouldn't welcome him there, but his own people would. Jesus said, I can do what Of myself, I can do of myself nothing. As I hear, I judge. And my judgment is righteous because I do not seek.
My own will. But the will of the Father who sent me. Of course, we all are familiar with Proverbs 3. Who hasn't owned a coffee mug with Proverbs 3 not on it? Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
Well, just because we're very familiar with the verse doesn't take any of its power away. any of its authority in our lives.
Sometimes, God's many times, God says, okay. I'm directing your path. You need to go stay in the wilderness for a while. That was David's life. He had been seeking God all of his life, and what did it get him?
Chased by Saul for. I don't know. I've been walking that number back to now. I'm about five years, he was running from Saul. give or take.
And then there's the months. Anyway. He was willing to be inconvenienced in the will of God. I mean, Daniel was willing to be thrown to the lions in the will of God. If they hate you enough, They will make laws to kill you.
And that's what they did with Daniel. And he said, Fine. The cities here, saying, Shall I go to the cities of Judah? Hebron, incidentally, where the Lord is going to send him. Its original name actually has that in it.
Genesis 23 The name of Hebron was Kirajath Arba. which means city of four.
So it appears that Hebron, which is a very high elevation, incidentally. was made up of four towns or cities that Made up Hebron. And David is saying, is it one of those cities? Shall I go to Judah? Yes.
Where shall I go? To Hebron. That's the city where he's going to end up. And so the Lord tells him to go up. There's a dialogue.
And I find in this another interesting point for Christians. Is, you know, we get discouraged, we battle discouragement. If you're doing, some of you, some of you just in life, but then there's in the work. of the Lord. You ask him what his will is, he tells you what his will is, you go forward and you meet with discouragement.
Well What happens when you overcome that discouragement? Still, stuff has to take place. It's not enough to say, okay, I feel better now, I'm not so bummed out.
Well then what?
Well you you have to receive a refreshed Direction or directive from God? Do I continue on this course? Do I do anything different? That there still has to be this dialogue? And then to execute it with faith and vigor.
Not just faith, but some energy, some some thrust behind The confidence of knowing that God is directing you and that. area. Otherwise, what do you end up with?
Sort of a melancholy ministry. I mean, that's not going to help anyone. If you don't, I think, do it this way, discouragements, they stack up. And every time we're discouraged, some we lose some.
Well, to get that something back, I think we have to be refreshed and we must have some vigor.
So it's a defiant spirit. Especially again when people hurt your feelings. That's a big hit in Christianity. People are going to hurt your feelings, sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. You can hurt your own feelings.
What are you going to do with that? Because it will knock you out. It could knock you completely out of the fight. You're hurting. A lot of sour puss Christians won't go back to a church because their feelings were hurt.
If the angels could talk to them, they'd say, get back in there. How dare you run away over that? But These are the facts. And Jesus said, To them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me, but And to finish his work, to finish it, to see it all the way through. Not to just get pieces put together.
And of course, his finishing involved his assignment. There was more to the work than what he did. That's why he sent the apostles out. And said, greater works you're going to do collectively.
So Hebron, to Hebron, David said, Where shall I go? And he said, To Hebron.
At very defensible position because of its elevations. It would be a deterrent for. attackers in the early ages of his reign. Uh he probably not sure what's going to happen there. Verse 2.
So David went up there. and his two wives also Ahinoem, The Jezreelites. and Abigail the widow of Nabile the Carmelite Again, that's not the Mount Carmel. To the north, where Elijah put down the false prophets. This is Carmel to the south in Judah's territory.
and or towards it at least This Having two wives The Lord said, The two, not the multiple, shall be one flesh. He said the two And that's critical to the commandment. God met this polygamy. In the Old Testament, With tolerance. He also meets it in the New Testament with some tolerance, because otherwise you'll see alternatives, to divide families.
When people who were polygamous got saved and came out of the Gentile world into the church, God did not massacre the relationships. He just gave them a clean slate under those terms, and it phased out of Christianity. Ehenoem, the first wife of David.
Well, we don't know if she was a problem or not. We know that she gave birth to Amnon, his father. First son, his firstborn. and he was one of the mighty despicable creeps of the Bible. And we'll get to him in latter chapters.
And Abigail, the widow of Nabal. Three times her name is brought up, and it is presented to us this way. Actually, four, but three identical. And I haven't really figured out why. Is the historian kind of harping on this.
Why can't he just say an Abigail? But he always says when she's brought up in in Samuel Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. I think there's something there. I just can't put my finger on it. I have some guesses, but those aren't trustworthy.
Verse 2.
And David brought up the men who were with him, every man with his household.
So they dwelt in the cities of Hebron.
Well, he had six hundred about. Probably more by the time he leaves Ziklag, where he was based, and he moves to Hebron, and now he's going to have the nation. Not the nation, but. all of Judah. A significant the largest tribe.
His force is going to go from from about You know, a um Small a battalion to Armies And uh We got just keep mindful of that because there's going to be some Fighting in this chapter, if I ever get there. But now he can settle down. Saul was the reason why these men could not go home. Once they sided with David, they were enemies of Saul forever, and they joined themselves to David. Could not return home now.
This is, they can see their families again and go back to their lands. 2 Timothy, Paul says this. If we endure, we shall also reign with him.
Well, we're seeing this in David. These men endured with David. And now they're going to reign with him, not as kings, but they're going to be part of his kingdom. If we deny him, he will also deny us. It would be redundant if the Calvinists can take that out of their Bibles.
They don't need that section. Anyway, I know that's not a cheap shot, it's my shot. But anyhow, verse four. Then the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah, and they told David, saying, The men of Jabesh Gilead were the ones who buried Saul.
So he knows Saul has been killed. that Amalekite informed him, But he doesn't know any more details than that. He gets to Judah, and of course, they're sitting around getting plugging in. He's told, by the way, the men of Jabesh Gilead, they retrieved the body of Saul. He may have asked, whatever happened to Saul's body?
Was it properly handled? And so the men of Judah came and they anointed David king over the house of Judah.
Now he is. Being anointed a second time, it is a confirmation. of the first anointing years ago. Uh Samuel And Men are not to really wait. Would we technically do not anoint, we recognize the anointing.
Samuel Did not. Technically, in this sense, anoint David. He obeyed God. God told him to anoint. It was God's anointing.
Samuel just carried it out. You know, there are people who they can say, Hey, anoint me. Say, no way. You know, Simon Magnus, give me this power that he said to Peter. And Peter said, You poison with bitterness and bound in iniquity.
He just launched on him. Yet there are others that are certainly to be. Recognized as having a calling on them to a greater or a closer work with God. And this is the case with David, the men of Judah, saying, We recognize what Samuel did. Samuel wasn't from Judah, he was.
A Levite. But he anointed David, and so now begins another phase towards the fulfillment. I would like the whole thing right away. I mean, how would you like your paycheck? In sections, you know, or the whole thing.
Well, if God is the one that is God, and He is, then you take it as He decides. This is still the making of a man of God. That ought to cause all of us to pay closer attention because there is the making of us as a child of God. It doesn't stop. David is being fitted for a greater work.
And by the time he becomes king of the whole nation, He will end up becoming Israel's greatest king. And now he's just a tribal king. albeit the largest of the tribes, he will eventually have all of the nation under him.
So this was only a partial victory. no longer hounded by Saul, living outside of the promised land, but Now king over. uh at least his people. Oh, the men of Jabesh Gilead. Jabesh Gilead was on the east side of Jordan.
where the two and a half tribes were content to Settle when Joshua brought them into the land.
Well, actually, they settled there when Moses was still leading them. And they risked their lives to retrieve the body of Saul and Jonathan. And David is moved by that. Verse 2, verse 5.
So David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead. and said to them You are blessed of Yahweh, for you have Shown this kindness. To your Lord, to Saul. and have buried him.
Now They're not going to side with David. They're loyal to Saul and his. descendants. They're not going to move, but they're not going to They don't appear to react either against David. We won't read of them much.
But going back to the book of Judges, remember the Benjamites committed that horrific crime, and all the tribes gathered and fought them. And then after defeating them, they said, Okay, was anybody called to the battle that didn't show up? And well, Jabesh Gilead did not show up, and they had Six hundred survivors from Benjamin with no lives now because they wiped everybody out. And they were determined to give them six hundred wives, but they took an oath. None of our daughters will be given to them.
So they had to start coming up with a plan. And part of the plan was: well, did anybody not go with us to make the oath?
Well, Jabash Gilead did not. And Jabez-Gilead were from Manasseh, incidentally.
So they, of course, wipe out the men at Jebesh Gilead and the children and the Women, except the virgins, who had a different garb, dress, you could identify them. And they took them and gave them to the survivors of Benjamin. They were still 200 short. And that's when they you know, if you see the wen when the women come out the dance, you just clobber one and she's your wife. You drag her home.
Cavemanish like, but that's A little embellished, but technically, without the clobbering in the head, that's what happened. It's just kind of a blend of the caveman, because it was the goofiest thing. It's so goofy. But some men would kind of like to have that system today. You go to the mall, you say, I like her and you just take her home.
It could be a lot of problems that way. Anyhow. The reason why I bring all this up also is because Here's Sebesh Gilead. How did they get more men back? They were wiped out.
Well, they were part of Manasseh.
So, Manasseh is a large tribe. They just send men, hey, the city's not burned down, or if even if it is a good piece of land. Go there.
So they resettled it. It's the only answer that I think works. That's my answer, and I like it.
So It's not an important one unless you. I get stumped. I have to try to answer these, it has to fit. That fits.
Well, not that I lost any sleep over that one, but I did spend some time in my days thinking about it. Verse 6. And now many Pardon me, and now may Yahweh show kindness and truth to you. I also will repay you this kindness because you have done this thing.
Well he's king now in Judah and he's behaving like a statesman. He probably knows they're not going to come and say, David, you're king over us, too. That would be tall order. Just where they're located, it's too far from Judah. But he says here, kindness and truth, he puts them together.
If we had a nickel for every time we came across a Christian who thought they had truth but had no kindness and were very content with that. we'd probably be rich. It's sad that the blend is neglected. We have no right to only be kind to people that might be able to do something for us. People in leadership learn in time that there are those that.
Behave very nicely around them, and then when they are off with the others, they're not so nice. It's a very sad thing when someone leaves the church and others come up and say, Boy, the whole time they were there, let me tell you what they were doing. It wasn't anything, you know, robbing or anything. Blatant But they're just mean. or snarky or something.
Anyhow, we can't sweep these things under the rug because then you just trip over them later. It's best to at least know where the lumps are and avoid them. And say, Lord, may it not be me. May this word that comes from your anointed king, kindness and truth. Have some value in how I behave all the days of my life.
Verse seven Now therefore let your hands be strengthened and be valiant, for your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah has anointed me king over them. And of course they're reading this and they say, Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's all good for you. But he's not making any attempt to force them or to convince them. They will, in fact, Jabesh-Gilead will become the headquarters of Ish-Bosheth, Saul's. surviving son Once he becomes king, five years after the events that we're looking at here.
Verse 8 But Abner, the son of Ner, It's like he did it in complete his name. Ner what? Finish. It can't be his name. Habna, the son of Ner.
commander of Saul's army, took Ishberseth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim. Abner, we've met him before. He was Saul's military commander and a cousin of Saul. Incidentally, And he initially is rejecting David's claim to the throne. But he will he will come around.
Uh we have a lot to talk about him for a while. But just because Saul was out of the way does not mean that things just fell into place for David or for Saul's surviving son Ishbosheth. The son of Saul He survived, evidently wasn't at the battle, at least not that battle of Battle of Gilboa, maybe one of the off-side battles is old enough. Maybe Saul Was wise and said, Well, you stay back. Just well, he knew Saul knew he was going to die.
Maybe he left him behind to say, Yosuka. Seed will survive and to take the throne. Yeah. Um This has been the latest edition of Cross Reference Radio. Pastor Rick Gaston is teaching through the book of 2 Samuel, which details the reign of David as king of Israel.
There are so many life lessons to be learned during these years of David's life. We're glad you've tuned in to hear more from God's Word. This radio ministry comes to you from Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you're interested in accessing more messages just like this one, you can listen online or download these messages at crossreference radio.com. You can also subscribe to our podcast by going to your favorite podcast app.
We can't wait for you to step into the next teaching that Pastor Rick has for us.
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