2 Samuel 4

2 Samuel chapter 4 is what we're going to be reading. Jen's going to come and read it for us.

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

2 Samuel chapter 4.

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

When Ish-bosh-sef, son of Saul, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost courage and all Israel became alarmed.

Now Saul's son had two men who were leaders of raiding bands.

One was named Benem and the other Rechab.

There were sons of Rimon, the Berothite, from the tribe of Benjamin.

Beroth is considered part of Benjamin because the people of Beroth fled to Gideon and have resided there as foreigners to this day.

Jonathan, son of Saul, had a son who was lame in both feet.

He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel.

His nurse picked him up and fled.

But as she hurried to leave, he fell and became disabled.

His name was Mephibosheth.

Now Rechab and Berner, the sons of Vimon of Berothite, set out for the house of Ish-bosheth.

And they arrived there in the heat of the day while he was taking his noonday rest.

They went into the inner part of the house as to get some wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach.

Then Rechab and his brother Berner slipped away.

They had gone into the house while he was lying on the bed in his bedroom.

After they stabbed and killed him, they cut off his head.

Taking it with them, they traveled all night by way of the Arabah.

They brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king,

Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, son of Saul, your enemy, who tried to kill you.

This day the Lord has avenged my lord, the king against Saul and his offspring.

David answered Rechab and his brother Berner, the son of Rebom of Berethoth,

As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble.

When someone told me Saul is dead and thought he was bringing good news,

I seized him and put him to death in Ziklag.

That was the reward I gave him for his news.

How much more, when wicked men have killed an innocent man in his own house and on his own bed,

should I not now demand his blood from your hand and rid the earth of you?

So David gave an order to his men and they killed him.

They cut off their hands and feet and hung the bodies by the pool in Hebron.

But they took the head of Ish-bosheth and buried it in Abner's tomb at Hebron.

Amen.

Thanks so much, Jen. That's great.

Well, keep that passage open in front of you.

We're going to have a look at it in a moment.

But before we get stuck into the passage, I want, if I can, just to say to you a few words

about how we go about understanding Old Testament stories like the one that we've just read.

We are here as disciples of Jesus Christ,

believing that the Bible is not just a kind of interesting record of some things that happened in history,

but that the Bible is the way that God speaks to us.

The Bible is the place in which we engage with God.

And by his spirit, he speaks to us, changes us and transforms us.

So it's really important, isn't it, in these moments as we gather together as a church with the Bible open,

that we are working hard to understand what this says carefully and thoughtfully.

And that's important on your own as well.

If you're a Christian this morning and you're not spending time in God's word,

you are, if you like, blocking your ears to God's voice,

because God speaks through his word as we open it together.

And we want to be careful listeners.

Now, I think that when it comes to Old Testament stories like the one that we have just read,

our temptation, if you like, is to read it like a moral example,

as if we're trying to use it to look for someone good that we can follow.

You know, so, ah, you know, I want to be like them.

That's who I want to be.

But let me suggest to you that that's not a very good way of reading the Old Testament.

And let me tell you that for two reasons.

One of them is really clear in this passage.

The first reason it's not a good idea to read the Old Testament looking for a moral example,

someone who are, oh, yeah, I want to be like them,

is because actually when you read the Old Testament,

there aren't really that many people who you would really want to be like, yeah?

Our story here is a pretty good example, isn't it, of that case.

I mean, there are some exceptions in the Bible,

but on the whole, the heroes of the Old Testament are rogues, flawed men and women.

David himself is a good example of that guy who starts out really well,

and we'll be finding that in the beginning of 2 Samuel.

But when you get towards the end of the story,

you find that he kills a man in order to get his wife.

So if you look for moral examples as you read the Bible,

as you read the Old Testament stories,

what you end up doing really is just making up your own ideas of what you would like to be like.

But the second reason why looking in the Bible just for moral examples is a bad idea is because of this,

and that is that you and I don't really need moral examples,

because our problem is not an absence of moral examples.

Our problem is that we need a saviour and a rescuer for being immoral, yeah?

For disobeying God.

Our big problem in life is that we have sinful hearts that are unable to obey God and love God and live for him.

You know, the point of 2 Samuel is not so much read it and go,

I want to be like David.

It's not so much that.

You're supposed to read 2 Samuel and go,

I want David's God.

I want David's saviour.

I want to know God like David knew God.

I want the forgiveness that David experienced.

I want to see how God is at work like David saw.

I want to see how God rules and reigns and saves and rescues.

I want to see how God deals with moral failures and losers like David and like me.

Not just looking for a hero or a saint.

And this is really important then for how we understand the book of 2 Samuel.

So listen up to this,

because I think there are a number of different ways that the Old Testament does this.

But one particular one that I want to draw your attention to is this.

Is the Old Testament points us to knowing God and a saviour by giving us types.

Types.

Or if you like, foreshadows or mini pictures of the whole thing.

Or models of the saviour.

Or signposts to the saviour.

Now these types aren't perfect.

They don't have to be because they're not the real thing.

They're just the signposts to the real thing.

They're just a type of the real thing that's still to come.

But as people who know Jesus, because we read the whole Bible, right?

So we know the end of the story.

We know the coming of Jesus Christ.

Actually, we read in the Old Testament and see how it points us forward in types to the coming Jesus.

Now one last little bit of detail.

I think there are three main types in the Old Testament.

Or three big signposts to the Lord Jesus.

Based around three different jobs that are given to Old Testament characters.

And they are prophet, priest and king.

Prophet, priest and king.

God's people in the Old Testament have prophets.

People like Elijah or Isaiah or Ezekiel or Malachi.

And their role is to speak on behalf of God.

The prophet is to speak God's words.

They speak on behalf of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord, they say.

And people are to listen.

Then we have the priests, those who provide sacrifices to deal with sin.

People like Aaron and Eleazar and Eli.

People working in the temple to provide the forgiveness of sins through the sacrificial system.

And then there are the kings.

Those people who rule and reign over God's people.

People like Saul and David and Solomon.

And in the New Testament, as we read the New Testament, what we find is that Jesus becomes the prophet, the priest and the king.

So Jesus is the one who comes and doesn't just say, thus says the Lord.

He says, I am the Lord.

I am the word, he says.

He comes not just really as the priest working in the temple.

He becomes both the priest, the sacrifice and the temple, doesn't he?

As he provides forgiveness for sins.

And he becomes the king of God's people as he rules and reigns.

Jesus, I've come bringing a kingdom.

The kingdom of God is at hand, he says.

And so as we read the Old Testament and you read to Samuel, what we are seeing is being pointed forward to Jesus in the area of these types.

So as we look at King David, he's not an example to follow so much as he is a signpost to Jesus, a type of Jesus.

Sometimes David is a really brilliant, clear signpost.

And sometimes is he a battered, bruised, pointing in the wrong direction kind of signpost.

But all the time he is a type of what is to come.

Now, one last bit of introduction.

I want to say that this is brilliant.

It is brilliant that the Bible is like this.

You know, I know that you might be thinking, oh, my goodness, Steve, this is making this all very complicated.

I've got to think of prophets, priests and kings when I understand the Old Testament.

I'm not looking for moral examples.

I'm looking for something that points me to Jesus.

Maybe you think, oh, that all sounds very complicated.

But I don't think it is.

It's brilliant, this.

It's brilliant to understand the Bible like this because it is full of joy and hope.

It's a message of grace and glory as we see more clearly Jesus in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

You know, it means, doesn't it, as you read the Bible, you don't go away going, must try harder, Steve.

Must try harder to save myself.

Must try harder to be a moral good person.

Instead, I go away going, wow, Jesus saves people like me.

Jesus saves people like me.

What great news.

I belong to him.

He is my king, a better king than David.

I'm in his kingdom and I belong to him.

So with that in mind, let's have a look at this passage from 2 Samuel chapter 4.

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

And I'm going to start by making sure that the story is straight in our mind.

So look down at your Bibles and let's work through it together.

Our passage this morning starts with a terrified King Ish-bosheth.

Ish-bosheth, if you remember him, is king of the northern tribes.

But his father Saul is dead.

His brother Jonathan is dead.

The commander of his army is dead.

And I'm guessing that Ish-bosheth is beginning to see a pattern.

And so despite his horror and dismay in verse 1, when you actually find him in verse 5, Ish-bosheth is taking a nap.

Now taking a nap in the middle of the day is not really a great idea, especially if you happen to be in a class at school or at work.

But the writer is not making a point to us about the laziness of Ish-bosheth.

Instead, he's trying to say to us that he is vulnerable.

In the Greek edition of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, it underlines this by adding in verse 6 that his housekeeper had also dozed off.

In other words, what we are finding here in verse 5 and 6 is an unguarded, vulnerable, sleepy king who should be awake.

Which means that when Rakab and Barna, who verse 2 have told us are a couple of commanders from Ish-bosheth's army,

when they come and find the king, they're able to walk straight in,

pretending for the sake of anyone who asks that they're coming to collect wheat.

Such are the poor defences around the king that in verse 6 you're told that they come right into the inner part of the house,

by which they mean that they've made it to the king's bedroom.

They are at the edge of the king's bed while he is dozing.

And what do they do while he's dozing off there on the bed?

They stab him in the stomach and escape.

If you look down at verse 7, it repeats that point with a bit more detail,

which is that as well as king killing Ish-bosheth by stabbing him in the stomach while he slept,

they also chop off his head and run away with the head.

Now that's pretty gruesome.

But they have a plan, don't they?

So the plan is that they head out, pun intended, to Hebron where David lives.

But again, importantly, they don't go down the main road.

We are given the detail that they go the way of the Arabah,

which is presumably so that no one will spot them.

This is the back road down to Hebron.

I guess getting caught with the king's head in your backpack is a little suspicious if somebody finds you.

If you look down at verse 8, you'll find that they've arrived at David's house in Hebron.

And they think David's going to be really pleased with us.

Look, we've brought the head of your enemy Ish-bosheth.

So they say, don't they, verse 8b,

Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, son of Saul, your enemy, who tried to kill you.

This day the Lord has avenged my lord the king against Saul and his offspring.

Now this turns out to be a massive miscalculation, doesn't it?

The boys clearly didn't know the story of 2 Samuel chapter 1,

2 Samuel 1 · chapter mention

where the Amalekite runner told David that he'd killed Saul,

thinking, oh, I'm bringing good news for you,

and actually ended up being executed for it.

So David likewise executes these two guys, telling them, verse 11,

that killing an innocent, defenseless man in his own bed is a wicked thing to do.

It's murder.

And so David makes an example of them by chopping off their hands and their feet

and hanging them at the pool of Hebron,

if you just wanted a bit more gore at the end of the story.

Now that's the story, isn't it, of 2 Samuel chapter 4,

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

but let us see together how it points us to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And let me take you, if I can, through four steps,

four steps that are made in the story that help us see the Lord Jesus

here in 2 Samuel chapter 4.

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

The first one is this, step one, God makes David king.

God makes David king.

I hope as we are looking at 2 Samuel together

that you're beginning to see this over the past few weeks,

that the whole sweep of the story is this inevitability of David becoming king.

You read the story and you're not meant to be kept in suspense, really.

You're meant to go, oh, actually, this is only going in one direction.

David is becoming the king.

God had promised it to him back in 1 Samuel chapter 16.

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

And the events that we've been looking at are working to the end of God making David king.

Death of Saul in battle, the defeat of the Israelite armies by Joab and his men,

Abner changing sides, all these things.

Even verse 4, this detail about Mephibosheth,

who's the boy who is dropped by his nurse.

All of those point to the fact that there is no one left

to challenge David for the throne of Israel.

David will have it.

God will make it happen.

Now, the point is that God is in charge.

God is going to make David king in his own good time.

That's why David says in verse 9 to these two thugs

that it is the Lord who lives who has delivered him out of trouble.

In other words, Rechab and Barnet,

you don't need to get involved here.

This is not your thing to do.

God is doing this.

God will deal with this.

You don't have to take it into your own hands.

God will rescue me from Ish-bosheth, says David,

just like he's rescued me from everything else.

So that's the first step.

God makes David king.

Now, just see with me, just very briefly,

just how helpful that is.

We live, don't we, in a world where God rules and reigns.

And where the reign of God's king is inevitable.

Jesus will reign.

You don't have to worry about it.

You don't have to make it happen.

You don't need to stress that you don't see it working out perfectly yet,

because God will make his king king.

That's what will happen.

And so you can have great assurance, can't you?

The second step adds an important word to clarify that first step.

And it's this.

God rightly makes David king.

He rightly makes David king.

Now, this is important.

God's king, David, and the kingdom he rules will be established in rightness,

not wrongness.

It will be established in righteousness, not wickedness.

That's, again, what David means in verse 11,

when he calls these men out for their wickedness.

You know, David's saying,

I'm not going to weasel my way to the throne by acts of cunning and deceit and murder.

No, I'm going to act righteously,

and that's how I'm going to find my way to the throne.

It's not the throne at all costs.

It's righteousness establishing David's throne.

Again, what's interesting in the story so far is how often David has not grabbed the throne

in morally dubious ways.

He's had lots of opportunities.

If you know the story of one Samuel,

you'll know that David has lots of chances to kill King Saul,

but refuses at every time.

He finds Saul asleep with his spear next to him

and has the opportunity to kill him, but doesn't.

He's in a cave when Saul comes into the cave to go to the loo.

He could have killed him then, but he doesn't.

David doesn't do that because he knows that God will rightly establish him as king.

If you turn in your Bibles to Proverbs 16,

you'll see this idea there.

It's going to come up on the slide if you don't want to turn to it,

but you can turn to it if you like.

Proverbs chapter 16, verse 12.

Proverbs 16:12

Kings detest wrongdoing,

for a throne is established through righteousness, we're told.

Now, again, you can see, can't you, just at this point,

how David is a signpost to Jesus.

Jesus is tempted by the devil right at the beginning of his ministry,

and he is offered by the devil all the kingdoms.

Listen, I'll give you all of this, he says.

Just follow me.

Bow down.

Follow me, he says.

Worship me.

And Jesus refuses.

Why does he refuse?

Not because all the kingdoms won't be his one day,

but because Jesus will rightly be made king,

not through an act of wickedness.

King Jesus will be a good king,

a king established by righteousness.

So that's step two.

So God makes David king.

God rightly makes David king.

Thirdly, and this is complicated, but you need to stay with me.

God rightly makes David king, even using wickedness.

It's a bit more complicated,

but it might seem initially to contradict what we've said.

But notice this twist in the story,

or really, I suppose it's an irony, isn't it?

That Rechab and Barna think that their wicked act

will give David the kingdom

and win them a place in his heart.

But God's king, David, refuses to accept their actions

and calls them out as morally wrong.

He kills them for their wickedness,

saying instead, God will redeem me,

God will rescue me,

God will give me the throne.

And God does give David the throne, yeah?

God does rescue David from Ish-bosheth

and from the armies of Israel.

How does God do that?

How is it that God rescues him?

How does God in the end save him from Ish-bosheth?

Well, using Rechab and Barna and their wicked action.

In other words, Rechab and Barna were wrong

to kill Ish-bosheth,

but they were right that God would avenge David

and make him king.

And even their freely chosen wicked action

could not stand in the way of God making David king.

Now stay with me,

because this I think is the big moment in the story,

and this is the big help for us this morning

if we will get this.

In the story,

you are given this picture of the sovereignty of God

that is so great and so powerful,

he is so in charge,

that even the freely chosen,

naturally desired wicked intentions of human hearts,

selfish intentions of Rechab and Barna,

the wicked actions springing from those things

can only ever achieve God's righteous purposes.

Now let's get this straight.

This is not the end justifies the means for God,

as if God is going,

well, you know,

it's all going to work out in the end,

so their wickedness doesn't really matter.

It's not that at all, is it?

Now what you've got in 2 Samuel 4

is God working at such a high and sovereign level

that they can be free to pursue

their wicked desires and actions,

and yet can only ever achieve God's plan and purposes.

He's not for a moment endorsing their wickedness

or giving them a free pass

because it results in something good.

The other point is that God's sovereign power

even uses the sins of culpable people

because we can never stand in the way of God.

In 2 Samuel 4,

Barna and Rechab are free moral agents.

They do what they want to do.

They live out the intentions of their heart.

They do exactly what they want,

even when it's wicked,

but they do it in a world

that happens to be ruled by a God

who is so sovereign,

so powerful,

so in charge,

that even their wickedly intended actions

will be used to achieve his righteous purposes.

Think about the implications of it with me.

Think about it from Barna and Rechab's perspective.

Notice in the passage

that they are absolutely responsible for their sin.

Do you notice that?

God's sovereign purpose

does not wipe out their moral responsibility

for what they do.

You know, Barna and Rechab can't stand before God

and say,

well, listen,

you used what we did to make David king.

That makes it all right, doesn't it?

They can't say that, can they?

At all.

Not for a moment.

Think about it like this.

Let me try and illustrate it for a moment.

Imagine for a moment

that there is a giant concrete wall

at the end of the road.

Okay?

A giant, immovable,

un-knocker-downable concrete wall

at the end of the road.

Okay?

And there are signposts along the way

showing you that it's there.

Yeah?

There are markings on the road that say,

you know,

un-knockdownable concrete wall ahead.

Yeah?

Something like that.

Right?

So you know that it's there.

And so you drive your car,

but you totally ignore any of the signs.

You totally ignore the markings on the road.

And you smash your car into the wall.

And you scrape along the wall

as it kind of pushes you along

as your engine still runs

and your foot is still on the gas.

The wall never gives way.

But you crash into it

and slide down like that.

And the police turn up.

And you get out of your car

and they say,

what happened here?

And you say,

well, listen,

it didn't give way.

So, you know,

what's the problem?

They say, no, no,

we're going to charge you

with driving without due care and attention.

No, no,

you can't charge me with driving

without due care and attention

because I didn't knock the wall down.

I didn't knock the wall.

In fact, actually,

if anything,

the wall pushed me along

and I scraped my car down it.

So you can't accuse me

of driving without due care and attention.

Listen,

of course they can,

can't they?

The fact that the wall didn't give way

is no excuse

for your crashing into it.

Yeah?

And it's the same

in 2 Samuel 4

with the sovereignty of God.

There is in our world

an un-knockdownable concrete wall

of God's sovereign plan

in Jesus Christ.

You can't knock it down.

God will make his king the king.

But it is not an excuse

for you to behave

in whatever way you like

just because God's purposes

will not be thwarted.

You can't use the fact

that God's sovereign plan

cannot be toppled

as an excuse

for you doing whatever you want to do

and crashing into it

and scraping alongside of it

as it pushes you

in the direction of his will

and his purpose.

And that's what's going on here

in 2 Samuel 4.

Let me say gently,

but I'll try and be as clear as I can,

but I think it's almost certain

that there are people in this room

who are living their lives

like that.

You know,

deep in your heart,

that there is a concrete wall

of God's will and purpose and plan.

But you're driving headlong at it,

crashing into it

and scraping along it,

hoping against hope

that the fact that you haven't

knocked the wall down

might be sufficient excuse

for crashing into it.

But it's not.

It's not.

You know, you know, don't you,

that Jesus is the king.

You know that Jesus rules and reigns.

But you perhaps think,

do you know what?

Let me just have a bit of fun

before I do that,

before I submit to him.

God will let me off for that,

won't he?

Well, 2 Samuel 4 says,

no, there is a wall

of God's sovereign plan in Christ

and it will not budge,

but that's no excuse

for driving headlong into it.

So surrender to the king

and don't take it into your own hands

and act in morally dubious ways

like Raqqab and Barna.

Now that brings us

to the final step this morning,

which is this.

God rightly makes Jesus king

even using wickedness.

Wickedness.

I hope as you stand back now

from 2 Samuel chapter 4,

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

there's something strangely familiar

about the story.

You've got wicked men

killing an innocent man

to bring redemption

through God's anointed king.

And you know that story, don't you?

That's what you should be thinking.

I've heard this story before, Steve.

I know this story.

This is Jesus.

Jesus is the innocent man

who's killed by bloodthirsty men

who are pursuing their own wicked ends,

but under the sovereign hand of God

end up providing righteous redemption

for all who turn to God's king.

In other words,

Jesus in 2 Samuel chapter 4

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

is greater than King David

and greater than King Ish-bosheth.

In 2 Samuel chapter 4,

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

Ish-bosheth's death in weakness

hands the throne to the righteous David,

doesn't it?

Whereas in the New Testament,

Jesus' death in weakness

enthrones him as king,

as God the Father in sovereign power

installs the eternal son

in human flesh

to the throne of the universe

by allowing him to die

at the hands of wicked men.

Men whom he didn't fight,

not because Jesus was asleep,

but because he trusted in his father.

And now that king,

King Jesus,

is ruling from heaven

as all things are placed beneath his feet,

knowing that if the wickedness

of his execution on the cross,

if all that could do

was install him as king,

then nothing in all of history

will be able to stop God's plan.

Jesus will be king,

of that you can be sure.

That's what we need to see

as we finish, isn't it?

This is the brilliance

of 2 Samuel chapter 4.

2 Samuel 4 · chapter mention

What you're getting in 2 Samuel 4

is a snippet of the story of history.

You know, we don't get to see

the whole story of our own lives, do we?

But we get to see it in David's life

and we get in 2 Samuel 4

a snippet of the whole of history

as God in sovereign power

uses the wickedness

of sinful men and women

to rightly install his son,

Jesus, as king,

meaning nothing can stand

in the way of his rule.

And more than that,

it means that you and I,

although we live in a world of chaos,

we live in a world

where God is sovereignly in charge

and able to achieve

his purposes in glory,

even in the midst of the chaos,

even using the chaos.

See, think about what's going on here.

You know, there probably should be

a warning over this passage,

shouldn't there?

We're perhaps used to this,

but this is a gruesome passage, right?

What have you got here?

You've got a murder in a bedroom,

you've got a beheading,

you've got a going on the run

with someone's head in your backpack,

you've got blood, death, madness, chaos.

And that's our world, isn't it?

You know, even in this room,

we know what that world is like,

don't we?

We know what it's like to flee from nations

where our lives are in danger.

We know what it's like

to live in the face of civil war

played out in the front

of our friends and our family.

We know what it's like

to live in a city

where there are knives on the street

taking the lives of young people.

We know especially what it's like,

don't we?

We know what it's like

to have housing

that's so uncertain and expensive

that we don't know

from one month to the next

where we'll be living.

We know as families

what it's like to have children

wander away into sin

and break our hearts.

We know what it's like

to have friends die.

We know what it's like

to have families

that break apart.

We know what it's like

to have health that fails.

We know what it's like

to have freeholds

as a church

that we might never own.

And what does 2 Samuel 4

say to that?

What's the message

of 2 Samuel 4?

I'll tell you this,

this is what the message is.

It's this.

In a verse,

this is the message

of 2 Samuel 4.

And we know

that in all things

God works for the good

of those who love him,

who have been called

according to his purpose.

And 2 Samuel 4

tells you the truth

of that verse

in a story

so that you can feel it

as well as know it.

Brothers and sisters,

we need to see this,

don't we?

Romans 8, verse 28

Romans 8:28

is not just a statement

in Paul's letter

to the church in Rome.

It's the story

of David's life.

It's the story

of the kingly rule of Jesus.

And if you trust

in Jesus Christ,

it's your story too.

This is our story

as West Kilburn Baptist Church

as well,

of God working

even evil things

for the good of Christ's glory

in our lives.

Praise him.

Praise him.

Adam Ramsey

has written a book

called Truth on Fire

and he puts it like this.

It's a brilliant quote

so I thought

I'd just read it to you.

Here it is as we finish.

He says this,

there are days

in your future

that are going to

knock you to the ground.

There are situations

on your horizon

presently unknown to you

that will expose you

to just how

not sovereign you are.

Disappointment

will make its mark.

Despair

will coil around

your heart.

Disease

will rob your family.

Death

will strike

without warning.

Where will you look

when the skies

turn black?

Here's where

you look higher.

In the same way

the sun shines

with uninterrupted constancy

above every clouded sky

so is Christ

reigning over

every difficult circumstance.

If God's ultimate

in authority

we needn't be held

hostage by our anxieties

because our lives

are held securely

in the hands

of a loving father

who is also

the king.

Let me pray

and then we'll sing together.

Heavenly Father

we thank you so much

for the way

that you

teach us

these great truths

about who you are

and what you're like

and how you work

in stories

like 2 Samuel 4

which grab our attention

and help us

to feel the truth

as well as know the truth.

We thank you

Heavenly Father

that you have rightly

installed Jesus

as king

even through

the wickedness

of the cross.

Thank you

that wicked men

and women

calling out

for his death

on the cross

nailing him

hands and feet

to that cross

all they did

was enthrone him

as king of kings

and lord of lords

the one who rules

and reigns

forgives our sins

and brings us

into his glorious kingdom.

Thank you

for the great confidence

that gives us

that like David

we need not fear

because we know

that you are so sovereign

that all things

work together

for our good

as we love you

and are called

to belong to you.

So we praise your name

for all that we've seen

in 2 Samuel 4

and help us we pray

to remember it

in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.