2 Samuel 10

Unmute myself here.

Are we good?

Well, it's good to see you all here tonight.

Let's ask the Lord for our help as we look at his word.

Please pray with me.

Lord, be with us now as we open your word.

God, I pray that you will graciously and kindly, Lord, by your spirit, open our hearts and our minds to understand and to know what you are saying through your word tonight.

Lord, I ask that you would speak through me, that my words would be useful as you teach us about who you are.

The greatness of your love.

Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Who died and made you king?

It's one of the great playground retorts.

Right up there with, says who and am not, right?

Who died and made you king when you grab the kickball and say, I'm the captain and I get to pick first.

Or whatever it is.

When someone asserts themselves in a position of authority or control over something that you care about, maybe a little, maybe a lot, how often do we respond with this?

We resist it.

But if we remember correctly, this is in fact the very spirit that infected Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden back in the beginning of creation.

When they lived in a paradise, a world where everything was provided for them as they lived under the kingship of God himself.

And the serpent, Satan, came and whispered doubt.

Is he really good?

Can you really trust him?

Is it really better to submit to him than to try to be like him?

To be his peer?

To be independent of his rule?

To find life on your own?

Who died and made you king?

Is ultimately what Adam and Eve said to God with disastrous results.

If you've been coming to evening service, you know we're continuing the book of 2 Samuel.

In the series of 2 Samuel, we've been looking at God is establishing his physical kingdom for a period of time in the nation of Israel.

And he is starting with his chosen anointed king, David.

And that's what 2 Samuel is all about in many ways.

God establishing his king and answering the question, what kind of king can rule over his people?

We've seen in the first couple of chapters, David consolidating his power.

His rivals fleeing or disappearing and being eliminated.

Most importantly, in chapter 7 of 2 Samuel, we see God coming and making a covenant with David.

And saying, I will set you on a throne where your descendants will reign forever.

I will build you a house that will last for all of eternity.

And now we're in this section of chapters 8, 9, and 10,

where we see David in light of this covenant sitting upon this throne and extending his kingdom.

It shows David in many ways at his best, giving us a glimpse of the kind of king that God would have rule over his people.

And in fact, because we all know the story that's coming in chapter 11 with Bathsheba,

it's setting up a contrast between David at his best and David at his worst,

which is going to confirm our fears that who can sit in that role?

Who could ever do that?

God is doing this to point us to a greater son of David who will come at the end of the ages.

And we'll come back to that at the end of our sermon.

There will be another who will follow David who will sit on that throne.

And we will never have to worry whether we can trust him.

But in this chapter, we're in chapter 10, which is on page what?

I forgot to look it up.

261, page 261 in your pew Bible.

2 Samuel chapter 10.

2 Samuel 10 · chapter mention

We see God establishing the rule of his king, David, by his covenantal love,

extending grace to the nations and producing courageous faith in his people.

That's what this chapter is all about.

So turn with me to that passage, 2 Samuel chapter 10.

2 Samuel 10 · chapter mention

And even as we dive in, it's going to be a bit hairy because there are a lot of names

and there are a lot of people and, you know, this kind of happens sometimes.

So let me give you a few quick pointers before we even read the text.

All right?

First of all, the Ammonites are a key people in this story.

And who are they?

If you have a mental map of the Middle East, here's the Mediterranean Sea here, right?

Okay?

Wait, did I do that right?

Am I backwards or forwards?

Yes.

Okay.

So here's the Mediterranean Sea.

Here's Israel, right?

To the east of Israel.

Am I doing this right?

Okay.

To the east of Israel, along the eastern border, there are a couple of nations.

There's Moab down here.

And then just north of that is the Ammonites, right?

And just north of that is the Syrians, right?

The Ammonites live in vaguely what is now Jordan today.

Moab may also cover it.

Syria is mostly where Syria is today, although it extends further up.

So these are where those people live, right?

And what we've learned is that the Ammonites are enemies of the people of Israel.

They're people whom Saul, in 1 Samuel chapter 11, had a big military conquest against.

1 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

In fact, it was his victory over them that established Saul as the unified king over all the various tribes of Israel.

Right before he completely blew it and showed that he wasn't actually the one that God had intended to start his kingdom with.

We also see that, as if you were here a couple weeks ago when Justin talked about how David was expanding his kingdom,

the land that the Ammonites were in was not actually a part of the promised land.

It was outside of that.

But it was part of the area where David was extending his kingdom in order to create a buffer of peace around Israel

so that they could dwell in safety and worship God rightly.

Alright?

So that's a couple of just key things.

We'll see some names here.

Nahash and Hadadezer and some things like that.

But, you know, don't get caught up with those.

Just follow along a little bit as best you can.

I'll give a little commentary along the way just to follow along as we read 1 Samuel chapter 10.

1 Samuel 10 · chapter mention

After this, the king of the Ammonites died, and Hanun, his son, reigned in his place.

And David said, I will deal loyally with Hanun, the son of Nahash, as his father dwelt loyally with me.

So David sent his servants to console him concerning his father.

And David's servants came into the land of the Ammonites.

But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun, their lord,

Do you think because David has sent comforters to you that he's honoring your father?

Has not David sent his servants to you to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it?

So Hanun took David's servants and shaved off half their beards of each

and cut off their garments in the middle at their hips and sent them away.

When it was told, David, he sent to meet them.

For the men were greatly ashamed.

And the king said, Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return.

When the Ammonites saw that they had become a stench to David,

the Ammonites sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-Rehob and the Syrians of Zobah,

20,000 foot soldiers, and the king of Maaka with 1,000 men,

and the men of Tob, 12,000 men.

And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of the mighty men.

And the Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the gates.

And the Syrians of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maaka

were by themselves in the open country.

Okay, let's just stop and say, so what's happened here so far?

David sent a consolation to the people of the Ammonites, to the king, right?

His advisor said, don't trust him.

He's just trying to rule you.

And he completely embarrassed and shamed those messengers.

Sending them back, unmanning them in the way that he shaved their beards

and exposed their privates is basically what he's saying by cutting their trousers.

Right?

And he sent them back in shame.

And here's the thing.

You don't even see David's reaction except mercy to his things.

What happens?

The Ammonites know we have blown it.

We have now made ourselves so offensive to David that we've got to muster our army against him.

And so that's what they do.

And they call out, they hire, they make treaties with these Syrian kings from various places.

And they gather together in an army.

And David sees this and he calls out, Joab is general.

And he sends out the mighty men to meet them in battle.

Right?

That's just a summary.

Case you missed with all those names, what was going on.

That's where we are.

So, when Joab saw that the battle was set against him, both in front and in the rear,

he chose the sons of the best men, he chose some of the best men of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians.

The rest of his men he put in charge of Abishai, his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites.

And he said, if the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me.

But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you.

Be of good courage and let us be courageous for our people and for the cities of our God.

And may the Lord do what seems good to him.

So, Joab and the people who were with him drew near to battle against the Syrians and they fled before him.

And when the Ammonites saw that the Syrians fled, they likewise fled before Abishai and entered the city.

Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.

But when the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel,

they gathered themselves together.

And Hadadezer sent and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the Euphrates.

And they came to Helam with Shobach and the commander of the army of Hadadezer at their head.

And when it was told, David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to Helam.

The Syrians arrayed themselves against David and fought with him.

And the Syrians fled before Israel.

And David killed the Syrians, the men of 700 chariots and 40,000 horsemen,

and wounded Shobach, the commander of their army, and so that he died there.

And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw they had been defeated by Israel,

they made peace with Israel and became subject to them.

So the Syrians were afraid to save the Ammonites anymore.

Okay, brief summary.

We'll get back to some of the details of this because it's important in the second half of what we're going to talk about.

But brief summary.

So they go out to battle.

Israel wins, right?

And the interesting thing is the Ammonites don't say,

shoot, we just got our tails handed to us.

We've got to go and try again.

It's the hired guys who say, how did we get beat by them?

We can muster a better team than that.

So they go back and they pull all these Syrians from, remember the map?

Across the Euphrates is like way out here.

They're drawing this huge army over to try to defeat Israel.

David hears of it.

He goes out to battle.

The battle's won.

Right?

So that's a very brief story about what happens.

Right?

And what we will see, just so you know, is that the end of the story happens at the end of chapter 12.

David finally, well, Joab actually leads the army to the capital city of Rabat.

He lays siege to it.

He finally defeats it.

As he defeats it, he calls David.

David comes and rides in as the conquering king.

And that's the end of the battle with the Ammonites for the foreseeable future in the Bible.

And so there's an end to this.

And it doesn't actually end here.

What does end here is the Syrians, who have been kind of the hired hands, are out of the picture.

No longer will they help this Ammonite country.

Because David has defeated them roundly and soundly.

Multiple times.

So here's the question.

Why did the author put this chapter in the Bible?

Right?

There's a great theologian, 20th century theologian, who said,

This chapter in the Bible has no theological significance whatsoever in the canon.

I don't believe that.

But it's interesting that a really learned Bible scholar said,

What the heck?

Why is this in here?

So this is the question.

This is the question that I want to explore for just a few more minutes tonight.

The narrator, I think, gives us two indications in the middle of what is basically a very clipped account of a battle.

It doesn't say much about what happened during the battles.

They went out to battle and the bad guys fled.

That's all it says when you look at it.

There's very little in the story.

But there are two places where the narrator inserts something that seems to be more significant.

In verse 2 and in verse 12.

And I think that what you see in verse 2 is actually a very core and central idea

that any Hebrew reader reading this story would think,

Wow!

There's something more going on here.

I think what the reader would see is that God is doing what he's doing in this chapter

because of his covenantal love and his loyal faithfulness.

Why do I say that?

Look at chapter 10, verse 2.

There's this word here that you don't see.

It doesn't stand out very much.

David says,

I will deal loyally with Hanun, the son of Nahash, as his father dealt loyally with me.

The word loyally there is a very rich word in the Hebrew Old Testament.

It is the word that is used of God's faithfulness to Joseph

when he's sent to prison after being falsely accused by Potiphar's wife.

It is the word that God uses to describe himself

when after the people of Israel had made themselves an idol of a golden calf

and begun to worship it at the very time that God was revealing himself to them

by giving Moses the Ten Commandments in the law.

After that event, God comes to Moses.

Moses says, I have to see you.

I have to know who you are.

You know the story.

God hides Moses in the cleft of the rock

and God passes by and he says,

The Lord, the Lord, slow to anger.

His steadfast love, this is the same word,

his steadfast love

is never ending.

It is the same psalm that David in Psalm 51 will begin

as he's confessing his sin about what happens with Bathsheba

in just a few chapters.

Have mercy on me, O Lord, according to your loving kindness.

So this word, loyally, steadfast love, loving kindness,

is translated variously in different places.

But it has this very central and weighty idea in the Bible.

And what it is is that the God of the Bible

is a God who makes gracious covenants with his people.

And those covenants are certain enough

and secure enough to put their whole weight of trust and faith in.

And they are characterized not by the harsh lex to lonis of the day,

the eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth

that normally governed relationships in the ancient Near East,

but instead were characterized by abundant kindness,

graciousness, undeserved favor and goodness towards his people.

And that's what David says,

I'm going to extend to these people.

And that's what, if you were here last week,

that's what David said that he wanted to show to Mephibosheth.

This idea of covenant love and loyal faithfulness,

that this is the character of God

and therefore the character of the king

who would rule over God's people,

is I think the key to understanding this passage.

Because what you see then is,

on the basis of this kind of God,

we see God's king extending this kind of love

to his enemies,

to the nations, right?

David doesn't have to do this.

He's beaten everybody he's gone up against so far.

But he goes to the Ammonites and he says,

hey, let's make a covenant, you and I.

Let's be at peace together.

And it's remarkable

how they respond, isn't it?

Do they respond and think,

wow, peace, unmerited favor

with a powerful nation.

That's great, let's do it.

No.

How do they respond?

Fear, suspicion, scorn, derision.

If you've ever seen the great

Kenneth Branagh version of Henry V,

there's a great scene at the beginning

where the Henry, young Prince Hal,

who has just descended to the throne

and everyone's wondering

whether this playboy could ever be a king,

is sitting on the throne with his counselors

and he has this first court audience

with the French ambassador.

And he's made claims saying,

we own part of northern France

that seemingly are legitimate.

And the French send him a tribute,

not of gold, not of silver,

but of tennis balls.

It is an act of scorn.

You are a king,

but you are really a playboy.

We don't fear you.

We don't honor you.

And we're not going to give you

what you have claimed.

It's a remarkable scene,

if you've ever seen it,

of this kind of thing that wells up,

I think, in our hearts as well.

Because I think we are often like

the Ammonites.

God comes to us

with his loving kindness and grace

and says,

I offer you a covenant

if you will be at peace with me

and honor me as your king.

But like trying to pet an abused dog,

God finds that we instead

snap at him,

run away,

cower in fear in the corner.

We struggle so much

to receive this gracious initiative

from God.

Our hearts well up instead

with resistance,

suspicion,

fear,

and sometimes even scorn.

That's what we do to our God.

This is what Adam and Eve did

in the garden.

No, God,

I won't submit

and receive from you.

I choose rather to be independent,

even though that means death,

even though that means

expulsion from the garden,

all the separation from providence,

provision.

We are like the Ammonites.

We are not like David.

Are we?

We are so rarely willing to extend

grace, kindness, compassion,

peace to those that we are afraid of,

to those who we view as our enemies.

Maybe in this world today,

the church struggles to do this.

In America,

we may struggle to do this

towards radical Islamists

or to hardened atheists.

We don't extend grace

and invite them into relationship

with ourselves and with the creator God

out of fear

as well.

We often want to win

the battles of our day

out of fear

rather than winning people

with offers

of covenantal kindness.

Because that's what David was doing.

He was saying,

let me extend to you

grace and peace

so that we can have

peace with one another

rather than conflict.

They refused it,

just like we often do.

But at the end of the day,

it reminds us that

the God of the Old Testament

is a God of mercy

who has extended this to us.

God has shown mercy to me.

How have I received it?

The story goes on, doesn't it?

Verses 1 through 5

tell that story

and then it goes on

to tell the story of the battle.

They array themselves up

against David.

And Joab comes out

and he finds himself

in actually quite a predicament.

It's a little difficult to tell

because the narrator

doesn't seem to make

a big deal about it.

But Joab finds himself

with his band of

mighty men

but he's between

a rock and a hard place.

He's between

two large forces

with a small force

in the middle.

And any military tactician

would say,

this is a really terrible

place to be.

You've got to somehow

get yourself out of this

so you can fight

only on one front.

Particularly when

you're outnumbered.

But what we see

what we see

with Joab

is

that God's

covenantal faithfulness

his covenantal

commitment

to his kingdom

means that David

can live with

courageous faith

in these circumstances.

Right?

He takes action

he says

alright

this is where we are.

You go there

we go there

we agree to help

each other

if we see

that one of us

is in trouble

and at the end

of the day

may God

do what is good.

It's fascinating.

Joab wasn't

a particularly

pious person.

This is about

the greatest

statement of trust

and faith

that we see

in the whole

Bible

from Joab.

Right?

But what he does

is

in the face

of overwhelming odds

with no promise

of victory

Joab knew

that God

would

ultimately

establish

David's kingdom

but

in contrast

to some other

places where

God clearly

says

David

go up here

and do this

and I will

give you victory.

There's no promise

here.

There's no clarity.

There's no evidence

that God

has promised

Joab

you will win

this victory

today

and yet

in the face

of that

Joab lives

with great

faith

and do you see

what his faith

is in?

His faith

is not in the

victory.

He says

let's go be

courageous.

Let's defend

God's kingdom

God's people.

Let us go

and lay

ourselves down

in this

noble battle

not because

we trust

that God

will give

us the

victory

but because

we trust

that God

will be

good.

The only

way that

Joab

could do

that

is because

he knew

the covenant

that God

had made.

He knew

the kind

of covenant

faithfulness

that this

God

had showed

to his

people

and so

at one

level

what Joab

is saying

is hey

let's go

and let's

fight the

good fight

let's be

courageous

and we

will trust

God that

whether we

win or

lose

whether we

live or

die today

God

will be

good.

God

will not

abandon

his kingdom

God

will not

forsake

his covenant

and his

king.

Amen.

what does

it look

like for

us to

trust

God

like

that?

What does

it look

like

to trust

God

when

what

seems

good

to

you

doesn't

seem

good

to

him?

What does

it look

like to

take

courageous

steps

of risky

faith

without

confidence

in the

outcome?

It

reminds me

of five

men

who back

in the

1950s

heard

of a

tribe

back in

the jungles

of Ecuador

people who

did not

know the

name of

Jesus

Christ

people who

lived in

a stone

age culture

that was

marked by

violence

they would

kill one

another

over petty

disputes

all the

tribes that

surrounded this

tribe were

afraid of

them because

of their

ferocity

and because

of their

effective

violence

against

people

but these

five men

said

for the

sake of

Christ

we will

go

and may

God do

what is

good

with us

they

found

where they

lived

they made

contact

from the

air

they finally

went in

and landed

their plane

and set up

a camp

and waited

for the

tribe to

come

knowing

that they

would come

and explore

them

so these

five men

I can remember

all their

names

Nate Saint

Jim

Elliot

Roger

Ewardian

I got

that wrong

who are the

other two

anyway

I forgot

to write

them down

these

five men

went

and they

interacted

with the

tribesmen

for two

days

and the

third

day

the

warriors

came

and they

were slaughtered

and it

was a

tragedy

tragedy

in the

eyes of

the world

it was a

tragedy in

the eyes

of the

American

press

that wrote

stories

about it

but these

men said

let us go

and fight

the battle

for the

name of

Jesus

being known

throughout

the world

for these

men and

women who

are living

in darkness

of this

incredibly

violent

and destructive

culture

who need

to hear

of the

grace and

love

that can

be theirs

in Jesus

Christ

and they

took a

risk

and they

died for

it

was it

a waste

was God

not good

to them

no

others

came behind

them

and the

gospel was

preached

in fact

the very

act of

killing

these

men

some

reported

that they

had visions

of seeing

angels

the very

site where

the men

were killed

and that

was the

beginning

of God

speaking to

them

and God

drawing

them to

himself

in faith

it's a

remarkable

story

about trusting

God

without knowing

what the

consequences

are

if you

were in

church a

couple weeks

ago you

might have

seen

Stanley and

Laura

Kolisar

come and

tell the

story of

one of

their

colleagues

named

Yusuf

who

recently

was

executed

in front

of his

home for

his faith

in Christ

for his

fearlessness

in proclaiming

Christ

and yet

the

chesed

that's the

word for

covenant

loyalty

the chesed

God

has not

changed

he has

not

failed

us

you see

friends

what

2 Samuel

10 points

us to

is that

there is

a king

who will

sit

on the

throne

of David

to come

and his

name is

Jesus

and that

Jesus

comes

and offers

this

covenant

faithful

love

to us

he

actually

establishes

a covenant

with all

who have

faith in

him

by laying

down

his

very

own

life

he

establishes

a new

way for

us to

come to

him

that

doesn't

require

us to

do

anything

but to

admit

our

sinfulness

and our

need

to admit

that we

are like

the

Ammonites

who run

away from

the grace

of God

and this

Jesus

comes

and he

says

I've

laid

down

my

life

for

you

now

come

believe

in me

trust

in me

and in

my new

covenant

you will

find

life

new

spiritual

life

now

and

life

everlasting

in my

death

and in

my

resurrection

I

have

overcome

the

greatest

battles

that you

will face

in the

world

against

your

own

sinfulness

I

have

died

to

break

the

power

of

sin

and

offer

you

forgiveness

that can

change

you

so that

you

no longer

need to

be

slaves

to

your

sinful

hearts

and

death

itself

the

thing

that

we

most

fear

if

we

are

really

honest

with

ourselves

Jesus

rose

from

the

dead

to

say

death

has

no

hold

on

those

who

have

faith

in

me

because

I

have

risen

and

all

who

are

with

me

will

rise

again

and

so

we

live

in

the

world

like

Joab

in

between

knowing

that

there

is

a

king

sitting

on

the

throne

and

yet

not

experiencing

the

fullness

of

peace

and

victory

and

being

called

to

trust

him

in

the

meantime

trust

him

with

our

singleness

when

it

goes

on

and

on

and

we

wonder

will

it

ever

change

will

God

ever

provide

trusting

God

as we

face

chronic

or

terminal

illness

not

knowing

will

God

heal

and

extend

or

will

God

end

this

life

trusting

God

to

change

your

career

so

that

you

will

be

free

to

share

the

gospel

in

another

part

of

the

world

trust

in

God

to

make

it

through

one

more

day

on

the

street

in

the

shelter

Jesus

has

come

to

establish

a

covenant

with

his

people

that

is

certain

and

secure

because

of

his

death

on

the

cross

he

is

the

king

of

David

who

offers

now

this

grace

to

all

the

nations

of

the

world

and

because

of

his

death

and

his

resurrection

we

can

live

with

great

courageous

faith

facing

the

challenges

where

we

feel

overwhelmed

in

between

a

rock

and

a

hard

place

with

courage

saying

maybe

God

will

show

us

his

goodness

today

and

so

friends

this

seemingly

worthless

chapter

in

2nd

Samuel

points

us

to

a

great

God

who

has

done

great

things

for

us

let's

pray

Lord

thank you

for

this

chapter

in

the

scriptures

and

thank you

that it

points

us

to

your

unfailing

love

your

steadfast

love

your

loyalty

and

faithfulness

Lord

you have

shown us

this

most of

all

in

Jesus

Lord

that he

is the

king

who

has

established

a

covenant

that

will

never

fail

and a

kingdom

that

will

never

end

Lord

you

have

graciously

invited

us

to

come

and to

be

at

peace

with

you

and to

be

in

your

kingdom

Lord

I

pray

tonight

for those

here

who are

seeking

and who

are far

off

from

you

Lord

that they

would

respond

to your

grace

and love

and turn

to you

in faith

hope

Lord

for all

of us

may we

learn

to live

with

courageous

faith

because of

what you

have done

for us

we pray

in Jesus

name

Amen