2 Samuel 2:12-3:5

We studied through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.

We've got extra copies.

If you didn't bring one and you'd like one to follow along, just raise your hand up real high.

We'll get somebody to drop one off at your row, your aisle.

Anybody at all need a copy?

Always helps to follow along.

I'll also post up there the uh password for the local network here in the building.

If you have a Bible, an online Bible or a software uh version of a Bible you'd like to uh dial into.

We put the which we did change the password this week to something a little easier from last week.

What?

So it didn't go to David, it went to Baal Perizim.

And I think uh that way you can really really reach for it if you want to.

Uh the unlike the story of unlikely redemption is what we're calling our study of 2 Samuel, uh, the most unlikely thing in the world as you look at some of these folks and some of the trouble they get into, some of the trouble they cause, some of the inconsistency.

And of course, it serves to uh somewhat be a mirror uh held up to us as well uh in our own relationship with God as we start to see uh with our uh more open, honest eyes, and as we're humbled before the text, we start to see even ourselves and some of their stories.

And uh uh it's it's it's a great thing to do to learn from uh this three these three 3,000-year-old events exactly uh what God was up to, how God was revealing himself to people back then, how um how they were responding or not responding to him sometimes.

And uh and it's just helpful, I think, as we study this kind of history.

One commentator described today's passage, which will be uh uh chapter two, verses twelve through uh chapter three, verse five.

One commentator described this, listen to this, as uh filled with death and deceit, intrigue and unkindness, murder and general mayhem, interspersed with elements of bravery and enterprise.

Most of these are told in a vivid style with colorful detail that suggests that the writer, if not actually present, had been privy to eyewitness accounts.

So I like that.

I uh good history is important to me.

Uh, and doing the work of good history, uh I hope, is what we can be in pursuit of.

So, what we'll do, as I'll remind you all along the way, is we won't try to drag David forward into our time and interpret what goes on in this uh ancient text in light of ourselves and our world and our wishes and our preferences and all that.

We're gonna go back in time.

We're gonna go back 3,000 years and and try to do the work of good history uh to see how God revealed himself to these folks.

To see and watch, to see what we can learn uh from them and the way that God was in pursuit of a people he could call his own.

And this does mean that we'll need to acknowledge our weaknesses and our uh inability to see everything and to understand everything because there are these huge gaps and hurdles we've got to jump.

3,000 years is a long time.

Western culture versus ancient Near Eastern culture is a huge thing to the the religious practices, the uh development of theology in their time versus our time, all of that.

With God's help, though, we are eager to learn those timeless truths of Scripture that reveal to us who this redeeming God is, this God of the Bible.

Uh we seek to remind ourselves through the ancient scriptures uh about our own vulnerabilities and sinfulness.

Uh we're praying the Holy Spirit will lead us to the hope of the gospel, even through this Old Testament text and these ancient stories, and that we would find as well the call of God, hear the call of God, how he wants us to respond to him in our own day and time.

With that in mind, let's pray before we read the text.

Lord, what we see not, would you show us?

What we know not, would you teach us?

What we have not, would you give to us?

What we are not, Lord, would you make us?

In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray.

Amen and amen.

I will remind you that it's early Iron Age, and it's the beginning of uh the early parts of the monarchy in Israel.

The monarchy runs about 1050 B.C.

to about 586 B.C.

And so what you have is King Saul.

His reign has come to an end.

He and his sons and several uh a bunch of the armies of Israel have been defeated on Mount Gilboah by the Philistines, a marauding group of people that enter into uh Israel and and wreak all kinds of havoc in Mahem.

Philistia and its five major cities, Gaza, Ashklon, Ashdod, Ekron, and uh uh uh Girah, are up there, as you can see on the map on the left in the green area.

And what we will uh be reading about today will include uh uh some uh Mahanaim, which we're not sure exactly the location of Mahanaim, we just know is to the eastern side of this, this is the Jordan River that runs up from the Dead Sea, all the way up to the Sea of Galilee, which is all the off the map here.

But Abner will come from Mahanaam.

Abner was the commander of Saul's army.

Abner survived the battle on Mount Gaba somehow, and uh he has gone and crowned Ishbishith, one of Saul's sons, to be the next king, even though uh they all knew that God's choice was David.

But Abner is it's it's stark contrast in the first half of chapter two, how Abner doesn't consult God, and yet David's inquiring of the Lord over and over again.

Uh several people have uh emailed this week talking about how they they went through their week inquiring of the Lord in a very proactive way, and it radically changed their week and their relationship with God's really wonderful uh theme that we saw from last week's study.

But Mahanem is where Abner will come from, with some of the soldiers that are loyal to Saul's house, uh meaning and including uh Ishboshef as the potential king.

They will travel down here to Gibeon.

Uh there's a pool there in Gibeon.

I'll show you a picture in just a minute of the uh archaeological dig there.

It's quite a find, actually.

It's one of the uh uh very, very clear that this is indeed the pool of Gibeon where these folks are going to meet up with.

And uh David is currently in Hebron.

I'm sorry you can't see that because it's a little too bright in the room here, but Hebron is right there.

David is there with his men, uh, somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 men and all of their families, and they've moved from their Philistine town of Ziklag back into Israeli territory, back to the area of Judah, the tribe of Judah, and specifically to Hebron, all because they inquired of the Lord, and the Lord told them exactly what to do, and was clear with them about his will for their lives.

And um, so they're here, and Joab is the commander of David's men.

He will go up here to Gibeon.

Uh Abner will come down here to Gibeon.

They will have a little bit of a uh well, I I won't I won't spoil it, we'll read it.

They'll have a little bit of a summit, if you will, that that that kind of goes south.

Um here's the the view of that current archaeological dig.

It's amazing.

38 by 38.

Some of us who've been to Israel have actually been to some of these uh large underwater um uh uh rivers that flow and streams that flow.

And if you've ever been to Benias Falls, you know, at the head of the uh the top of the Jordan River and the Dan River, it all comes together there and it feeds the Jordan River as it runs all the way south to the Sea of Galilee, and then beyond that south to the Dead Sea.

Really powerful the way that uh God, in his his order and his love for beauty and creation, uh has some of these uh fantastic uh sites and some of these uh uh providing water, especially for the city of Gibeon in ancient days like this.

But let's take a look at our text uh here.

Uh verse 12 is where we'll pick up.

Abner, the son of Nur went out from Mahaneam to Gibeon with the servants of Ishbasheth, the son of Saul.

All that should be familiar to you uh uh from our uh introduction here.

I'll remind you that the focus of this text will be on Abner and Joab, not so much on David and Ishbasheth.

David, uh, again, crowned king by the folks in Judah, Ishbash crowned king by Abner and the folks in the north called Israel.

But those two guys, David and Ishbash, are gonna sort of be set aside now.

And we're gonna see what happens with Abner and Joab.

And they're the ones that are gonna meet up at this place called Gibeon, as it says here.

Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David went out and met them by the pool of Gibeon.

They sat down, one on the one side of the pool, the other on the other side of the pool.

So you can, it's kind of a face-off.

It's kind of a bit of a, you know, the pool is serving as a little bit of a buffer between them.

Uh they're loyal to different people who they've uh anointed as king, you know, Joab and his men to David.

Abner and his men to Ishbasheth.

What's going to happen?

You know?

Um so there's a little bit of a uh a summit and a formality to the whole thing.

Abner says, he brings this up in verse 14, let the young men arise and hold a contest before us.

Let them arise, says Joab.

They arose.

They went over by count twelve for Benjamin and Ishbasheth, the son of Saul, and twelve for the servants of David.

Each one of them seized his opponent by the head and thrust his sword into his opponent's side.

They fell down together, meaning they died together, all 24 of them.

Therefore, that place was called Helkath Hazurim, which means the field of the sword's edge.

They did this often.

They would name a place to remind them of an event that happened.

Something like this, as tragic as this, where 24.

But there comes up a battle, verse 17 tells us the battle was very severe.

And Abner, the men of Israel, were beaten before the servants of David.

That's a summary statement by the narrator of 2 Samuel.

He'll give us another one in a little bit.

I'll point it out to you.

Now the three sons of Zeroiah were there.

So the three sons of Zeroiah are Joab, Abishai, and Azahel.

Okay, so let me remind you, some of you know this, some of you don't, but Zeroiah is actually not a male, it's a female.

This is actually Zeroiah is actually the mother of Joab, Abishai, and Azahel.

And Zeroiah is also the sister, the older sister, of David.

Okay?

So Joab, Abashai, and Azahel are the nephews of David.

There's a lot of family stuff going on here, and I think it helps to just kind of know that.

Alright?

So what's unique is that Azahel was swift-footed as one of the gazelles which is in the field.

In other words, he had the speed of youth.

Azahel pursued Abner, presumably not so youthful, presumably not so fast, because Abner's been around for a long time.

He was there when David fought Goliath.

He was the commander of Saul's army then.

And David was but a youth at the time.

Azahel was as swift-footed as one of the gazelles which is in the field.

Azahel pursued Abner and did not turn to the right or to the left from following Abner and chasing him.

Then Abner looked behind him and he said, Is that you, Azahel?

And he answered, It is I.

So Abner said to him, Turn to your right or to your left.

Take hold of one of the young men for yourself and take for yourself his spoil.

In other words, he's trying to distract him from chasing Abner, from chasing him.

He's trying to say, You'll do better to go after one of my soldiers, not come after me.

Okay?

Azahel was not willing to turn aside from following him.

Abner repeated again to Azahel, Turn aside from following me.

Why should I strike you to the ground?

How then could I lift up my face to your brother, Joab?

However, he, meaning Azahel, refused to turn aside.

Therefore Abner struck him in the belly with the butt-end of the spear, so that the spear came out at his back.

He fell there and died.

On the spot it came about that all who came to the place where Azahel had fallen and died stood still.

It's like freeze frame.

And it's it's terribly graphic.

And again, we've got to jump 3,000 years.

In our day and time, we're used to push-button computerized on-screen wars.

We've even got video games that help us practice that sort of thing.

If that's good for us, I don't know why.

But in their day, this is very real.

And Abner, who may be a slower runner, but has the experience of age, stops up short.

Azahel, who is running so fast he can't stop, becomes impaled on Abner's spear and dies.

He didn't want that to happen.

Abner tried to dissuade him from pursuit, tried to steer him in another direction, but it came to the point where Azahel was about to capture catch up with Abner, and there was going to be a fight.

And so Abner, in self-defense, I would argue, at this point, does what the only thing he can do.

And he takes him out.

However, he refused to turn aside.

It's very clear that Azahel was very headstrong, very intent on getting to Abner.

Verse 24, Joab and Abishai pursued Abner.

So now the two brothers are coming for Abner.

And when the sun was going down, they came to the hill of Ammah.

And presumably, I might add, these folks are all on foot.

Presumably, because there's so much attention given to Azahel's ability to run fast, that's what's happening.

So they're about the countryside.

And Abner now is going up a hill, and you'll see he, as it says right here, in front of Gia by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon.

Look at all of that geographic detail.

This isn't just a mystery fairy book fantasy with false, just made-up names.

These are places.

This reminds us again, this is historical narrative we're reading.

Sounds like eyewitness account, or at least somebody who's talked to the eyewitnesses.

The sons of Benjamin gathered together behind Abner.

The sons of Benjamin.

Benjamin was the tribe that Saul had been from.

And the sons of Benjamin gathered behind Abner at the top of this hill as he come to the top of a certain hill.

And they stood there.

Abner called out to Joab, who's in pursuit.

So see Abner, I see Joab and his men following in hot pursuit, about to come up the mountain, because Abner and his men and Benjamites are all on top of the mountain.

And that's the most defensible place.

That's a good place for them to be if they want to have the upper hand.

Abner called out to Joab and said, he asked three questions.

One, shall the sword devour forever?

Do we have to be violent all the time?

And it's a little bit like the pot calling the kettle black here.

Verse 1 tells us Abner is the one that came for the fight.

Abner is the one that initiated this.

Abner's the one that said, let's let the young men battle, do battle in some kind of an ancient, perhaps representative way of deciding who's going to be king, Ish, Beshith or David, you know?

Abner's man or Joab's man is going to be king.

Let's let the young men step up and do that.

And it didn't go the way that Abner wanted it to because David's men routed Abner's men.

But Abner runs, he finally gets to this hill, he's up there, the Benjamites come to his rescue, and they're standing behind him on top of the hill.

And Abner calls up, shall the sword devour forever.

Do you not know that it will be bitter in the end?

In other words, this isn't gonna have a good outcome.

How long will you refrain from telling the people to turn back from following their brothers?

Joab, why don't you tell your men to stand down?

This isn't gonna go well for any of us.

Does there have to be violence all the time?

Good questions.

Joab said, as God lives, and this is the only time God is mentioned in this passage, by the way.

Interesting.

Such a contrast to what we had in the first half of chapter two.

David inquiring of the Lord.

Lord, do you want me to go back to Judah?

Lord, if you do, where do you want me to go in Judah?

Earnestly seek.

This was his practice discipline.

Was he perfect?

No.

Is he the hero of the Bible?

No.

He needs redemption just like I do.

But he inquired of the Lord.

And we can learn something from him in that regard.

And Abner is not requiring, inquiring of the Lord at all.

Joab is just mentioning God in passing as God lives.

It's almost like a he's just swearing by God, if you will.

If you had not spoken, surely then the people would have gone away in the morning, each from following his brother.

So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the people halted and pursued Israel no longer, nor did they continue to fight anymore.

Abner and his men then went through the Arabah all night.

So they crossed the Jordan, walked all morning, and they came to Mahanaam.

That's where they started out from.

That's where they've now returned to.

Joab returned from following Abner.

When he had gathered all the people together, nineteen of David's servants besides Azahel were missing.

So there's twenty basically missing from the side of David's servants.

But the servants of David had struck down many of Benjamin and Abner's men, so that three hundred and sixty men died.

Huge contrast there.

Twenty on one side, three hundred and sixty on the other side.

Was it necessary?

Was it even necessary?

But the servants of David, they struck down 360 and they died.

And verse 32, they took up Azahel, his body, and buried him in his father's tomb, which is in Bethlehem.

And then Joab and his men went all night until the day dawned at Hebron.

So Joab and his men went back to Hebron.

Abner and his men, the few that were left, went back to Mahanam.

Do you see how this epic battle, this amazing, uh horrific event uh happened, and they each end up just going back to their hometowns.

Now I gotta go on and read five more verses here, if you will.

Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David.

Don't know how long it lasted, it's just a long war.

A civil war, these two kingdoms in conflict, if you will.

Okay?

Abner, who set up Ishbeshith without consulting God, David representing the sons of Judah, uhnointed by God to be the king, reanointed by the sons of Judah to be the king.

And David grew steadily stronger.

This is another summary statement by the narrator in 2 Samuel.

You understand we've had one.

That was verse 17.

The battle was severe.

Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David.

Here he builds on that in verse 1 of chapter 3.

David grew steadily stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker continually.

Remember, Saul had turned away from the Lord.

Saul representing really all of those who don't inquire of the Lord anymore.

He even inquired of a witch of Endor.

David sort of representing those who inquire of the Lord.

Not perfect, but at least in pursuit of the God who is there.

His ways, his will, honoring God and God's name.

This is interesting because it gets messy.

Watch this.

Sons were born to David.

This is describing at Hebron what's going on.

His firstborn was Amnon by Ahinoam the Jezreelitis.

His second, Chileab, by Abigail, the widow of Nabal the Carmelite.

And the third, Absalom, the son of Ma'akah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Jeshur.

And the fourth, Adonijah, the son of Hagith, and the fifth, Shephatiah, the son of Abital, and the sixth, Ithraim, by David's wife, Egla.

These were born to David at Hebron.

How did I do with those names, okay?

Somebody's got to come up to me later and go, no, it's not Haggith, it's Agaif.

Something.

It depends on which side of the Mediterranean you're from, as to how you pronounce those, I'm sure, when it gets right down to it.

Alright, I promised you last week that we would uh talk a little bit because we had learned a little bit about um uh heard a little bit about David and about his two wives.

And here, by golly, he's got six.

So, and that's Bathsheba hasn't even come on the scene yet uh in terms of that bit of the storyline.

So, what about polygamy in the Old Testament?

This will be a side road because I want you to know that's not what this passage is ultimately about.

This passage isn't a teaching about polygamy.

Um, and I'll try to make that point for just a few minutes, if you will.

But whoever said the Bible isn't relevant or that it doesn't touch that it's somehow out of touch with the real world in which we all live, I think just has it wrong completely.

I think the Bible is quite relevant, and I think it's timeless in its truths.

I think it's broad in its reach and transforming in its power.

What is the Bible's teaching on marriage?

This is especially relevant in our own time with all the cultural shifts and the definition of marriage itself.

What about all these instances of polygamy in the Old Testament?

Was that within God's will?

Some people today are surprised to read that David had as many as seven wives, the six mentioned here, plus Bathsheba, and there may have been more that we don't know about that aren't recorded here.

But those same people are probably shocked to find out that Solomon in uh 1 Kings 11 3, we read that Solomon had, and one of the, supposedly one of the wisest men in the world, had 700 wives and 300 concubines.

I just like to put all those people together and trying to make a church on time.

I mean, you guys, you know, some of you are going, we can't get out of the house.

We're fighting and kicking and screaming, nobody get in the bathroom.

What about the bathrooms needed for that?

I mean, that's just that's just blowing my mind to even think about that, right?

But what is it about Solomon?

Why three?

Why 700 wives, 300 concubines?

Especially since Deuteronomy 17 explicitly states, let not a king have many wives.

And there's Solomon with all those wives and all those concubines.

What does the Bible teach about this?

Let me put it in perspective.

This is historical narrative for reading.

I don't believe that the first five verses of chapter three are a teaching on polygamy.

I think they're just reporting what was going on on the ground at that time.

So, I'd like to say this then, with that in mind.

Polygamy was never a part of God's creation design.

If we want to know what God's creation design is like, we go back to the book of Genesis.

Okay?

And I think that's a good thing for us to do over and over and over and over again.

If in the beginning God created everything out of nothing, then everything that exists belongs to who?

So God, the creator, has a rightful claim on literally everything.

Do I recognize that?

Do I inquire of the Lord as a creature to a creator?

Or do I inquire of the Lord trying to fit the Lord into what I want it to be like?

Or what I think the culture wants it to be like, so I can just gain the approval of others.

What am I interested in?

I think it's a good thing for us to ask ourselves the question.

Genesis account is clear, and the rest of scriptural teaching on the subject supports God's creation design for marriage as a lifetime covenant, union between one man and one woman, calling them husband and wife.

Reportage like this in the Bible in chapter 3 of 2 Samuel, where David's got all these wives, is not necessarily the same thing as endorsement.

And it's certainly not mandate.

It's not instruction that you should go thou and do likewise.

When I was a kid, we used to play Bible roulette.

How many of you ever did that?

Bible roulette, where it's like, you're looking for God's will, you're trying to find it.

Lord, speak to me, and you just throw the Bible open and point to a verse, and I'd always point to something like, and Judas went out and hung himself.

And then I'd go, come on, God, speak to me.

Throw a few pages and boom, go thou and do likewise.

You know, you're kind of freaking out, you're not sure.

That Bible roulette thing, that's not a good game to play.

You know, it's going to lead you to all kinds of mischief.

We need to let the Bible speak and let the kind of literature that we're reading speak as that kind of literature would speak.

This is historical narrative.

It's reporting.

It does not mean it's an endorsement.

Any more than the reportage of all this violence that we read about in this passage would be an endorsement of violence.

You understand?

You see the difference?

So all the people that say, oh, the Bible's filled with all this instruction for God to go and kill everybody all the time.

Anybody that you don't like.

No, that's not it.

God has been in pursuit of a people he can call his own for a long, long time.

Yeah.

And we sometimes get so rebellious, and we sometimes do not inquire of the Lord, and it always goes south for us when we leave him out of the picture, leave him out of the equation.

Additionally, I would say that when it comes to this polygamy issue, some of the images that run throughout, like a thread throughout the Old Testament and New Testament, I mean we have the exclusivity and faithfulness of monogamous love exhibited in God's relationship with Israel.

Some of you read the book of Hosea, you know what I'm talking about.

Here's God monogamous.

This pic uses this picture of Hosea, whom he says, go marry this woman named Gomer.

First, I'd change her name.

I definitely would change her name.

But he wants Hosea to go marry this woman.

And it's she's a prostitute and she's faithless and leaves him and abandons him all the time.

And it's God uses that as a picture to show that he desires a faithful relationship with his people.

You know?

And so that thread runs through.

In the New Testament, both Jesus and Paul speak of man and his wife.

Christ's relationship to the church is compared to a husband and wife, not to a husband and many wives.

It's very important.

And Christ is said to be returning, not for his brides, but for his bride.

And so throughout Scripture, we have these images that teach us what God's design, what his intent is, what his desire is for us.

That we would have faithful relationships, that we'd be loving and serving and covenant relationships with one another.

How quickly we forget that most Christians, down through church history, have studied these issues over and over and over again.

Ours is not the only time to wrestle and struggle with what is marriage and what does it mean to be a couple and what does it mean to be a family.

Ours is not the first.

We all think that because it's all so heightened right now.

It's all so much up in our face, in our grill all the time.

We need to relax and rest in the love of God and rest in God's design for us.

By God's grace, Christians who have studied these things before have navigated, endured, and I'd say even flourished.

In cultures that are indifferent or even hostile, while remaining faithful to biblical convictions about God's creation, design for marriage.

By God's grace, I believe that we can too.

And we can do it with love for our neighbors.

See, I know the world out there wants you to think there's only two choices: either full endorsement or you're a hater.

Those are not the only two choices.

I beg to differ.

There is me surrendering to God and loving those who don't agree with me.

And I know the idea of doing that seems so foreign in a world that's so filled with acrimony and anger and outrage.

But can we not learn to love those who don't think like we think, don't look like we do?

Don't even live like we think God wants us to live.

We can learn to do that.

I believe we can.

Where should we turn to determine for our for how what God might want for us when it comes to just understanding the human person or understanding relationships like marriage or whatever?

Where do we turn for that?

Do we turn to the culture?

No, I don't think so.

Do we just look within?

No, because man, Jeremiah tells me the heart of man is deceitful.

I'll tend toward what is convenient for me or pleasurable for me.

I'll want to go in pursuit of that.

Rather, it's important for me to turn to God.

Inquire of the Lord, like David did.

And even though I'm doing it imperfectly, just like he did it imperfectly, here's a God that speaks.

He's not silent.

Here's a God that has spoken to us and made some things very clear.

The question is: do I want to do what he wants me to do?

David Brooks is a brilliant writer.

Um, I have quoted from The Road to Character before.

Um, this man is either a believer and doesn't know it, or he's well on his way to faith.

Somebody came up to me in the last hour and said he has actually made a commitment.

I don't know, I don't know what the reality is, but I know this.

This is a pretty profound quote.

In prayer, people gradually reform their desires so that more and more they want the things they would they believe would delight God rather than the things they used to think would delight themselves.

So the question for all of us is Is that the disposition of your heart?

Do you want to delight God with your relationships?

Do you want to delight God if you're married?

Or do you want to delight God if you're single in all of your relationships, your relationships at work, your relationships here in church, your relationship with your family members?

Do we want to delight God or not?

Are we interested in inquiring of the Lord or not?

Now, let's go to the primary text.

If you want more information on polygamy or any of that sort of thing, send me an email and try to get back to you with something that might be helpful if that's of interest to you.

I want to try to understand the characters of this story.

I want to go back to their time period a little bit.

Zariah, as I said, was not a male, but rather she was the older sister of David.

That means that Joab, Abishai, Azahel were nephews of David.

They're very loyal to David.

They're a part of his uh uh even uh Azahel was one of his 30 mighty men, we're told in Chronicles.

So it's really interesting when you start looking at all these relationships.

When you look at Abner now, though, what you're gonna find is he's about to, in the in the few verses, he's actually gonna flip from Ishbishith to David.

But Joab, because of what we just read, that Abner killed Azahel, and Joab was Azahel's brother, Joab isn't going to be able to let it go.

We'll read that uh in the coming week.

But what's happening here is fascinating.

Abner, I think, reminds us that you can know the truth and still choose to resist the truth.

He knew that David was supposed to be the next king, but he goes and tries to crown Ishbish king.

Um Abner reminds us to be able to quote, he can even quote the truth and still not embrace the truth.

We'll see that later in this chapter.

Um Abner will see that to fight against the truth, even though history shows us that God's word is true and God's purposes will be accomplished.

This happens over and over and over again.

Why?

Because we're inconsistent, all of us.

Why?

Because I don't always want what God wants.

Why?

Because I don't always see things the way God sees things.

Oh, but I want to, like David.

I read this passage and I want to inquire of the Lord.

I hope you do too.

I hope we as a church do.

And I hope that's our intention.

But self has to go.

That's what's difficult about all of this.

Um we tend to get in the way.

The struggle of civil war, which is depicted here, these two kingdoms in conflict, with their two kings, Ishbish and David, in the background for the time being.

But they seem to resonate with me as the kind of thing that happens inside of me all the time.

There's a struggle between me, the creature, and my creator.

There's a struggle between me wanting to have the last word and God who will have the last word always.

And I do well when I align myself with him, when I surrender myself to him.

And that's the important thing.

But to do that, self has to go.

The civil war between us as creatures and creator is huge.

The civil war between our desires and God's desires is huge.

To surrender to God as our true king, uh, where we are not so puffed up, but where we actually become small.

Chester to put it this way, how much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it.

Is that profound?

Pithy, but profound.

And yet the world outside of us is telling us to puff up the self, that the self should be at the center, that you are the most important person in the universe, that you should be the one to decide what's right and wrong, that you should have the final word.

And that's the world outside of us.

But the the scriptures teach us, no, we become smaller.

We find our life by losing it, Jesus said.

We belong to God, He's the creator, we're His creatures.

So we belong to Him, lock, stock, and barrel.

If I were to summarize three points from this, it would be that God allows human beings the option of leaving Him out, but there will always be consequences.

Significantly, like I said, God's only mentioned in passing here in this text, and the story is horrific.

When you leave God out, that's the kind of stuff that happens.

We look at our own world, it's horrible.

When you have a wrong-headed idea of who God is, or when you leave God out altogether, what you get is mayhem.

Just exactly what that commentator said we would find in this text.

Faith, though, will often mean leaving unanswered questions in the hands of a sovereign God.

The typical temptation of the young is lust, Frederick Brunner said, of the middle-aged ambition of the elderly, bitterness.

Actually, all three drives are similar and related.

Ambition is a refined lust, bitterness a disappointed one.

I think I must be a young, middle-aged elderly person.

How about you?

You see yourself up on the screen there?

The problem for all of us is just like Abner, we come on the run because we want our agenda to be public.

Just like Azahil, no matter what, I'm the fastest, I'm the greatest.

A little overconfident, a little too focused on getting Abner.

And what happens is just our ego, our ambition, all of that just runs away with us.

And we end up either self-destructive or there's collateral damage around others.

God allows human beings the opposition of leaving him out, but there will always be consequences.

If you find yourself constantly frustrated and confused, or if you are chronically disappointed, I would ask you to consider.

Just prayerfully consider where you're at with God.

I don't make these points lightly.

I recognize that each and every one of us wake up with a struggle of some kind.

For some of you, it's a daily ongoing thing.

For others, it's it's something you're about to face and you don't even know it's around the corner.

For others, it's stuff in your past or whatever, it's just nagging you and haunting you all the time.

We're all struggling with something like that.

Why would we want to leave God out of that?

Why would we not inquire of the Lord?

Perhaps it's time to return to the Lord.

Perhaps it's time to allow God to be God in your life instead of you trying to be God yourself.

Secondly, sin separates us from God, from each other, and from our true selves as God designed us to be.

We see the way Abner and Joab and their armies were divided.

We see that split them up, their selfish ambition, their desire to be in charge themselves, all of that.

They didn't inquire of the Lord in all of this.

We see the way the entire nation was in an uproar and conflict and acrimony.

We see the same thing today, and it's the same basic human problem.

We all want our own selfish way, and we're willing to walk over other people to get it, or to ignore needs that need to be met, uh, or offering help when it is needed.

When sin is reigning in our lives, there is an impact most of us don't see coming.

We literally cut ourselves off from God, we separate ourselves from others, and we even separate ourselves from the true self that God would like for us to be.

I don't find myself, though, by looking at myself, and I know that's what they tell you out there, but that's not how you find your true self.

You are a created being just like I am.

So I look to my creator to find out who I am, and who I belong to, and where real wisdom is, and where the guidance that I need so much in a morally confused and intellectually confused world is.

I look to my creator for those things.

C.S.

Lewis said self is the real problem.

He said the terrible thing, the almost possible thing, is to hand over your whole self, all your wishes and precautions to Christ.

But it's far easier than what we're all trying to do instead.

What we are trying to do is to remain what we call ourselves, to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be good.

Not too far from that closing statement in Mere Christianity.

He also says, true humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.

And that's exactly what Jesus did.

Thought of himself less, left the comforts of heaven, came to earth, laid down his life for his enemies, me, you, sinners.

That makes us God's enemies, okay?

He came on the run with rescue for us and sacrificially loved us and gave himself for us.

He's the greater king.

He's the king we really need.

Ishbish, David, they're both faulty and frail.

David's gonna fail miserably.

We're gonna read all about it.

The Bible's really honest with us about all that.

But David points us forward to the greater David, Jesus himself, the greater king, the true Messiah, the one that we desperately need.

And so I finish with this point.

Christ has come to reconcile us to God, to one another, and in union with him, to our true selves.

Abner, Azahel, Joab, they're historical reminders of our need for reconciliation, our need for peace with God, our need for peace with others and even within our own souls.

Augustine famously said it, you could almost quote it with me, You've made us for yourself, O Lord.

In our souls, we're going to be restless until we find our rest in you.

Christ came to reconcile us to God, to give us peace with God and the peace of God, and to even help us as we begin to surrender to him, as we begin to think like Jesus thought, that is, that I'll lay down my life now and sacrificially love others.

That's what Jesus did.

True followers of him do the same thing.

See?

We follow in his way.

And what happens is all of a sudden, our relationships begin to heal and become more healthy.

Doesn't mean it's perfect, still a broken world until he comes again and sets all things right.

I understand we're going to be having struggles and struggles with others as well.

Alan Redpath, brilliant, uh, very passionate.

In the lives of many Christian people today, there's a raging, literally a civil war.

The flesh, the kingdom of Saul, struggles with the spirit, the kingdom of David.

The conflict is bitter.

We do everything we possibly can to hold up the tottering kingdom of self so that it might exist just a little bit longer.

If only we could preserve some rights.

If only we could have at least part of our own way.

If only we could keep this or that at any cost.

We feel we must bolster up this kingdom of self, that we cannot let ourselves be crucified with Christ.

You see, that's where real life is to be found, to be crucified with Christ, to find our life in Him.

Why?

Because He's the one that rose up from the dead.

And that's the gospel news for each and every one of us.

The one who can really and truly transform us, reconcile us to God, reconcile us to others, and even reconcile us inside of our own selves is Jesus.

He's the only one that can actually do that.

Pastor David Guzik is a guy that loves to teach through the Bible like I do.

He said, when we try to make peace between King Jesus and King's self within us, the result is a long, bitter war.

We find deep and lasting peace as we surrender and submit to the reign of King Jesus in our lives.

Giving yourself completely to Christ is the right way to discover who you really are.

Giving yourself completely to Christ is the right way to find out what your purpose in life is.

It's the only way to end the civil war in your soul and be reconciled to God and to become the person God has designed for you to become.

It's the only way to experience a flourish and abundant life, the only way to fulfill the purpose for which God made you.

And it may at times and in many different ways seem frightening.

Some of us know this.

It may seem strange to some of us.

What do you mean, apologize to them?

What do you mean be the first one to extend the olive leaf of peace?

What do you mean honor my mother and father after the way they've treated me?

There's so many ways in which the world programs us to think at odds with God's ways.

And sometimes the kingdom of heaven seems like an upside-down kingdom.

But we have this amazing king who came and sacrificed himself, laid down his life for us.

And that's what we come to this table to say thank you for.

God always allows human beings the option of leaving him out of our lives, but there will be consequences.

Is the civil war still raging inside of you?

Sin separates us from God, from each other, and even from our true selves as God designed us to be.

Where are you looking to find out who you are and how you can be reconciled to God and to others?

Christ has come to reconcile us.

Will we trust Him?

Will we surrender and bow before King Jesus?

I pray that that would be the case for you and for me this day and this week.

Amen?

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for who you are.

Thank you for helping us to see the gospel in these old narratives like this and to be filled with the hope of the gospel.

The brokenness that we see in these pages.

It's tragic.

It's horrific.

So much of it didn't have to be that way.

Awaken us to what we need to learn, these timeless truths of scripture.

Holy Spirit, move on us as individuals.

Transform us, soften our hearts.

Some of us have grown hard and callous.

Some of us have forgotten to inquire of the Lord.

Help us, Lord, grant us the faith that leads to the repentance that we so desperately need, that we might turn away from self and sin and turn toward you in faith, believing.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen and amen.