The Right Thing the Wrong Way

Good evening. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come this evening to worship in song and to study your word. Father, we come before you just as we are. We ask your blessing on each aspect of the ministry this evening as youth group meets, the children's church group meets, those looking after the youngsters in the nursery,

and as we meet here in the sanctuary. Would you be glorified, Lord? Would you speak to us by your Holy Spirit? Fill us afresh this evening, Lord, by your Holy Spirit. Bless our time as we worship in song and as Ryan teaches us in your word. We come to you, Lord, and ask for your blessing on our time. And we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Welcome. We also welcome those of you who are joining us online.

Take two. You know the deep within us, Lord, with those kinds of... The fact that we deal with our flood... Working... Oh, there it is. To the book of 2 Samuel, chapter 3. 2 Samuel, chapter 3. I've entitled the message tonight, The Right Thing, The Wrong Way. Because that's kind of what we see take place as the transition continues from the line of Saul to the line of David.

When last we were together, David, after Saul's death, had come and become the king of Judah, had been brought into Hebron and become the king of Judah, but Abner had sort of set up his own kingdom, if you will. Abner had been Saul's general and had set up his own kingdom, and made one of Saul's sons, Ish-bosheth. The only one that was remaining of Saul's sons had made him king over the rest of Israel. But it was just kind of a puppet kingdom.

Abner was ultimately the one who was ruling. He was just doing so through Ish-bosheth. And so that kind of brought us where we are today. Oh, and there had been one other scene, and that scene's going to be important for us to pay attention to because there's going to be an issue with that today. There was a great battle that was taking place between the house of David and the house of Saul,

and it started with Joab. Joab, who was David's commander, coming to Abner, who was Saul's former commander, and sort of proposing a contest. And in that contest, a great deal of death ensued, and then a battle began. And in the middle of that battle, one of Joab's brothers, a man by the name of Asahel, was pursuing Abner. And as he was pursuing Abner, Abner, in self-defense, we have to be honest and say,

killed Asahel in battle. And there was great, great consternation, if you will, because of that. And so we're going to find that come to play today. And so we pick up in chapter 3, verse 1, and this is what it says. Now, there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. And David grew steadily stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker continually.

Sons were born to David at Hebron. His firstborn was Amnon by Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess. His second, Chiliab, by Abigail, the widow of Nabal, the Carmelite. The third, Absalom, the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. The fourth, Adonijah, the son of Haggath. And the fifth, Shephetiah, the son of Abitel. And the sixth, Ithrium, by David's wife, Eglah.

These were born to David at Hebron. So we're sort of given this little linking, kind of summary statement that David's house continued to grow stronger, which would make sense, because he was the anointed king. He was the one God intended to be in power, but he was again waiting for God to establish his kingdom and waiting for him to ultimately establish him as the ruler over all of Israel. And at the same time, Saul's house was becoming weaker and weaker.

And we are given an example here of how David's house was continuing to grow stronger. The hand of God's blessing was upon the house of David and that his power continued to grow and he continued to be honored by the people that were around him. But something else, something else had taken place. You may have noticed that we just read about several of David's children, six sons that were born to David, but you may have noticed something about each of those six sons.

Each of those six sons was born to a different woman. Now, this was completely against what God told kings that they were supposed to do. As a matter of fact, in the margin of your Bible, you might write Deuteronomy 17, 17. Deuteronomy 17, 17. Because in the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter 17, God gave his commands for what the kings were supposed to do and what the kings were not supposed to do.

And in verse 17 of chapter 17 in Deuteronomy, God explicitly says, a king shall not multiply to himself wives. Multiple marriages like this or multiple spouses is never God's plan. God's plan from the very beginning, as Jesus told us in the New Testament, was that one man would be married to one woman for life. That that would be, what was supposed to take place.

There was not supposed to be this amassing of wives. And in particular, especially a king, the one who was head over the nation, the one who was the one who to an extent represented God to the nation was not supposed to amass to himself wives. And yet David did this. And I'm gonna be honest with you, this at the time when David lived was an easy thing to justify doing.

Because what David did is what every king in that region did at that point. And David did it in time. When they came to power, they amassed wives to themselves. Why? Because it showed how strong their posterity was. And they made political alliances through these wives. Did you notice that one of them was the daughter of the king of Gesher? That was a political alliance.

It was, if you will, strengthening his political power and strengthening his kingdom. And so even though God had said don't do this, you can imagine how David would have justified himself. Oh, but you don't understand, all of the other kings are doing it. Everyone else is doing it. This is what takes place when you're the king. And it's easy to justify things when we say,

but it's not that big of a deal because everyone else is doing it, right? That's sort of the thing that's easy to justify. Not only that, it would have been easy for him to justify it because he would have been able to say, but you don't understand. I've got to build up my political power. I've got to show that I am ultimately the one in power. And part of that is making important alliances.

Isn't it? Isn't it amazing how we can trust God so much in so many ways, and yet we can still justify the sins of our flesh. We can still justify certain things in our lives with seemingly good reasons. And at the end of the day, no matter how good the reasons are for the things that we justify, we still have to come back to the same thing. But God said, don't.

You can come up with all of the worldly justifications that you want to. You can come up with all of the worldly ideas and reasons why you should be able to do that, and you can justify it in your own mind. Our flesh is so good at justifying things that we want to do. But at the end of the day, we have to come back to God's word and say, but what does God have to say about it?

And if God says don't do it, then we should probably pay attention to what God says. Because just because the rest of the world says that it's okay, just because the rest of the world has changed their morality, just because the rest of the world has changed their mind on what God says, doesn't mean that God changed his mind. And what we see here is we see a red flag in David's life. Now, it's interesting because God at no point in time condemns David for this, what God does instead is the same thing he does with us a lot of times.

When we walk out of the will of God, he allows natural consequences to take effect. And as a matter of fact, one of these sons will go on to rape his stepsister, another of the sons will kill that son, and one of his sons will ultimately try to take the kingdom from him. Because you see, while God does not always directly deal with us in the areas of our sins, he often does allow natural consequences to take their place in our lives. And when we start to see those natural consequences, we kind of go, man, I wish I would have listened to God.

I wish I would have just done what God said. And so we see this red flag begin to show itself in David's life, and of course, ultimately, this will lead to David's greatest sin, which we'll get to soon, but all of these sons were born, we're born to David, nonetheless, God in his grace continues to allow David and his kingdom to grow because God's grace is greater than all of our sin, amen? I'm so glad that just because I have failures in my life, that just because I have weak places in my life, God's not like, well, I just can't use you anymore. No, God takes those weak places and says, I'm still gonna show myself strong on your behalf because that's what my grace does.

And so, David's happy. His house begins to be strengthened. But now we're back to Abner and his king that he had set up, Ish-bosheth. Notice what it says. It came about while there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, that Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul. And now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, and Ish-bosheth said to Abner,

why have you gone into my father's concubine? And Abner was very angry. He over the words of Ish-bosheth and said, am I a dog's head that belongs to Judah? Today, I show kindness to the house of Saul, your father, to his brothers and to his friends. And have I not delivered you into the hands of David? And yet today, you charged me with a guilt concerning the woman.

May God do so to Abner and more also, if as the Lord has sworn to David, I do not accomplish this for him, to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul, to establish the throne of Israel. The throne of David over Israel, over Judah, from Dan, even to Beersheba. And he could no longer answer Abner a word because he was afraid of him and I don't blame him one bit. So there's an accusation that came about.

We're gonna see that what's going to take place now is there's gonna become an alliance with Abner. Abner of course had strengthened himself in the house of Ish-bosheth and that's exactly why he wanted to be in charge. That's exactly why he wanted to, or excuse me, why he wanted to establish Ish-bosheth as king. It's because he ultimately wanted the power and he ultimately wanted the authority.

And can I just be real honest? Remember we talked about this last week. Abner knew what was supposed to take place. He knew what God's will was, but he did not want to surrender to God's will. Why did Abner not want to surrender to God's will? Because he wanted the power for himself. You know, at the end of the day, everybody finds himself in the same place.

You will either surrender to God's will and surrender all of the power and the authority of your life to God, or you will fight against God's will and try to keep all of the power and the authority for yourself, but eventually you're gonna have to make a decision. But I'm here to tell you right now, when you choose to keep all of the power and the authority for yourself, it always ends tragically. And that's what we're gonna find for Abner. And so he had continued to grow in power, he had continued to strengthen himself, but while he was doing so, it appears as though this was a false accusation that was made by Ish-bosheth, who comes to him and says, what have you done?

You've gone and taken one of my father's concubines. Which at that point in time, was akin to him trying to take over the kingdom. It would have been the same as saying, all of Saul's authority now belongs to me. That's the statement that would have been made by that. And of course, Abner's going, I don't need to try to make myself look like I'm the authority in the kingdom.

I am the authority in the kingdom. I didn't need to try to do this. And he gets very offended that he would have made this accusation against him, which would lead us to believe that this probably was a false accusation on the part of Ish-bosheth. And so he makes this accusation against him, and notice how Abner reacts. He reacts by saying, may God do so to me and more also,

if I do not do exactly, did you notice those words, as God has promised to the house of David. It's written right there in verse nine, may God do so and more also, if as the Lord has sworn to David, I do not accomplish this thing for him. See, that tells us right there, he knew what was supposed to happen. He knew what was supposed to take place. He just wouldn't surrender to it.

Only now, he's doing the right thing, but he's doing it the wrong way. Why does he want to transfer all of the power and the authority over to David? Why does he want to transfer the kingdom over to him? Well, he wants to do it because he just got offended. Because now he's upset with this guy that he had established as king, and so he decides, I'm gonna do the right thing.

But he kind of goes about it the wrong way. Can we all agree with that? He kind of does this for the wrong reasons, and yet God moves anyway, and so he decides to set up this alliance. Notice what happens in verse 12. It says,

So David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, saying, give me my wife, Michael, to whom I was betrothed for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines. And Ish-bosheth sent and took her from her husband, from Paltiel, the son of Laish. But her husband went with her, weeping as he went, and followed her as far as Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, go, return.

So he returned. Now, I don't agree with what David does here. And I've heard this both ways in the way that I have studied this from different commentators. First of all, again, let's remind ourselves of the age in which he was living, and let's remind ourselves of what had taken place. When Saul had defeated Goliath, or when David had defeated Goliath, Saul had made a promise.

He promised that his firstborn would be betrothed to David, his firstborn daughter. Well, he reneged on that, and would not give him the firstborn. And so, finally, Saul's daughter, Michael, was in love with David, and he thought she would ultimately be a stumbling block to him. He said, oh good, I'll give him the one that'll ultimately end up being his downfall.

Well, Michael lied for David, and protected David as he was being pursued by Saul. And then Saul gave her to another man to be married. Now, maybe she really loved David. It would appear that she did. Maybe David really loved her. We're not really given that commentary, but 10 years ago, she was given away to another man. And so, David says, yes, I will make this covenant with you

on this one condition, that you bring me Michael, the woman who was betrothed to me, as my wife. Now, some have said he was trying to align himself with the house of Saul, to bring about a great deal of peace between himself and the house of Saul. That feels like a stretch to me. That feels like maybe we're excusing something that David did. I actually agree with Chuck Smith quite a bit on this one

when he said, there's a lot of things I admire David for. This is not one of them. This is not one of those things. Because at this point in time, David should have left well enough alone. Again, a little bit of a red flag in the life of David. And yet, God still worked in his life. And so he says, this is what I need. So they brought Michael to him. And now this covenant is going to be made between the house of

Abner, ultimately Saul's house, and the house of David. It says in verse 17, now Abner had consultation with the elders of Israel. He said, in times past, you were seeking for David to be king over you. Now then, do it. For the Lord has spoken of David saying, by the hand of my servant David, I will save my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and from the hand of all their enemies.

And Abner also spoke in the hearing of Benjamin. And in addition, Abner went to speak in the hearing of David and Hebron, all that seemed good to Israel, and to the whole house of Benjamin. Now Abner at this point in time makes a very interesting statement. He goes and he talks to all of the elders of Benjamin, which is the tribe that Saul had been a part of.

And he goes and he talks to all the elders of Israel. He, if you will, goes as an ambassador for David to say something very interesting. He says, in times past, you sought for David to be king over you. Now this is a little bit of surrender on the part of Abner at this point in time. He says, now then, do it. It's time to do what you had always wanted to do.

It's time for you to make David king over yourselves. Now, it's kind of interesting, Charles Spurgeon taught or preached a sermon on this one little verse. And I read about it in David Guzik's commentary today, and I thought it was kind of interesting. And he equated that statement to our relationship with Jesus Christ. That there are some who have made David the ruler over you

as one of his mighty men. He's kind of a part of you, but he's not really the ruler over you. Some of us have made David the ruler over Hebron because we'll give him certain point, or we'll make Jesus the ruler over Hebron. We'll give him parts of our life, but we don't want to give him everything. We'll give him the things that maybe we don't like, maybe some of the things where we are a little bit insecure,

but we are not willing to give him everything. But Jesus doesn't just want to be the head of the mighty men. He doesn't just want to be in charge of Hebron. He wants to be in charge of everything. He wants to be the Lord of your entire life. And I'm here to tell you right now, if you're one of those people that's been fighting against making Jesus the Lord of your entire life,

like Abner said to the nation of Israel, now then, do it, do it. Because far too long has been spent in wavering back and forth between who ultimately is going to be the Lord of your life. Far too long has there been a civil war inside of you, just like there was between David and Saul, as to who is actually going to be ruler over your life. And quite frankly, you have found that there is so much stress and so much angst and so much worry in your life because you will not just surrender to Jesus.

You will not just finally get on your knees and say, I want to follow you with all of my heart. What is holding you back? What is holding you back from doing what you know you're supposed to do? What is holding you back from doing what you know God is calling for you to do? To say, Lord, not just my hands, not just my feet, not just my head, everything. I want you to have all of me.

I want to go where you want me to go. I want to do what you want me to do. I want to live as you have called me to live. I want you to be the Lord of my life. Because it's not just me. Because it's all too easy to sit in a church and know that Jesus has purchased your salvation and forget that he didn't just come to pay for your fire insurance. He came to redeem your life.

And he wants every part of who you are. So Abner looks at the elders of Israel and he says, in times past, you had wanted David to be king over you. Now then, do it. And so the elders agree this seems like a great idea. Let's do exactly what Abner's telling us to do. And so in verse 20 it says, then Abner and 20 men with him came to David at Hebron. And David made a feast for Abner

and the men who were with him. And Abner said to David, let me arise and gather all Israel to my Lord, the King, that they may make a covenant with you and that you may be king over all that your soul desires. So David sent Abner away, and he said, and he went in peace. Now I don't know if you've thought too much about what a monumental moment this is in the life of David.

About how powerful of a moment this was in the life of David. David who had been anointed king 10 to 15 years before this. David who had then fled for his life from Saul. Because the moment that Saul began to realize that David was rising in power and he was lessening in power, he decided he wanted to put Saul to death. And so David literally fled for his life.

David who had been waiting all of this time, and finally Saul's gone. And maybe he can be king, but he still had to wait seven and a half more years for the time when there would ultimately be peace to where he would be king. And now sitting in front of him, across the table from him, in this covenantal feast that's taking place, this peace treaty, if you will, that's taking place, there's David. And can you imagine the surreal moment this had to have been for him?

Can you imagine what it must have been like for him to sit there? To sit there and go, I've been dreaming about this day forever. I've been dreaming about this day since Samuel poured oil on my head and I was going, what is even this supposed to mean? I've been dreaming that one day I could stop running from my life, that one day there would stop being this war, that one day I would find myself in this position.

And now the day has come. What an amazing moment this had to have been for David. I have a question for you. Do you ever just allow yourself to live in those moments? How many of us have found ourselves in a place where you prayed and you sought the Lord and all you wanted to do was end up in the position that you're in right now? Do you ever take time to allow yourself

to live in the moment of going, this is what I prayed for, this is what I've been seeking God for, and now I sit at this feast of whatever it is that you've been asking God for, and it's all right here in front of me. David wrote a song. In the beginning of this psalm it says that he wrote this psalm on the day that God gave him rest from all of his enemies. And David found himself in that place where he was finally at peace, and he could finally say God has done what he's promised that he would do.

What an amazing moment this must have been for King David. And so God works through all of these things because God even sometimes uses the wrong way, right? The wrong motives to bring about the right things. Well, unfortunately this moment of peace is only gonna last for a moment, as often does happen in life. Verse 22 it says, and behold, the servants of David and Joab

came from a raid and brought much spoil with them. But Abner was not with David and Hebron, for he had sent him away and he had gone in peace. And when Joab and all the others, all the army that was with him arrived, they told Joab, saying, Abner, son of Ner, came to the king and he has sent him away and he has gone in peace. And Joab came to the king and said, what have you done?

Behold, Abner came to you. Why then have you sent him away and he is already gone? You know Abner that he came to deceive you and to learn of your going out and to find out all that, you are doing. Now, remember Joab had made a promise, right? Sort of like that scene in Princess Bride, my name is Antigua Mendoza, you killed my father, I'm prepared to die, right?

It's kind of like that moment, only Joab's like, my name is Joab, you killed my brother, I'm prepared to die. And so he finds himself in this place and he goes, Abner was just here, what are you gonna do about that? And David just let him go. And Joab, of course, the last time he'd seen him said, I'm gonna kill you. He goes, David, what are you thinking? Don't you know that Abner has deceived you?

Don't you know what's really going on here? And he says, I can't believe you let him go. He came here just to spy it out. And it says, when Joab came out from David, he sent messengers after Abner and they brought him back from the well of Sirah, but David did not know it. You should keep that in the back of your mind. But David did not know it. So when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside

into the middle of the gate to speak with him privately, and there he struck him in the belly so that he died on account of the blood of Asahel, his brother. And afterward, when David heard it he said, I and my kingdom are innocent before the Lord forever of the blood of Abner, the son of Nir. Now there's so much wrong with what Joab does here. First of all, Joab accuses Abner of being deceptive, right?

And as Joab accuses Abner of being deceptive, how does he do that? he lure Abner back to Hebron through deception, right? He deceives him to bring him back. Not only that, he lures him back to Hebron. Now, that may not mean too much to you, but let me remind you of what were established in the nation of Israel. There were established in the nation of Israel these cities. They were called cities of refuge. Those were places where if the avenger

of blood, Joab, found you in that city, Abner, in the city of Hebron, he could not do anything to you because in the city of refuge, you were safe. Joab was, if you will, that avenger of blood. And even though his brother was killed in battle, he was so embittered at what had taken place that even in a city of refuge, a place where God said that if you are guilty of bloodshed, no one can harm you until you receive a fair trial, he deceived them. And he lured him back, and he killed him. Why did Joab do that?

Well, again, this would be easy to justify, right? Abner had been in pursuit of David all of these years. Abner had been the one who was trying to kill the man that he loved, the master that he followed, his own flesh and blood. And you could say that maybe he was trying to avenge all those years on David. You could justify it that way. You could justify it by saying,

Abner had killed Joab's brother, and he deserved to die. But the fact of the matter is, no matter how much you try to justify it, at the end of the day, it was murder. It was murder. And should Abner have ultimately been dealt with for some of the things that he's done? Maybe. Was Joab the right guy to do it? Absolutely not. There's actually two points that I'll make

to you about this. The first is, what led Joab to this place? What led Joab to this place? What led Joab to this place is a little word we like to call bitterness. You see, Joab was so bitter against Abner that he could not see what had really taken place. Did Abner go out just to seek David to kill him for no good reason, or seek Asahel to kill him for no good reason? No, Asahel

was pursuing him in battle. It was down to a place where one of them was going to die. It's just that Abner defended himself after he had warned Asahel to say, hey, back off and go find somebody else. I don't want to look your brother in the eye after I've killed you. Of course, Joab didn't know any of that, but his bitterness brought him to that place. And that

bitterness and unforgiveness aided him. And it aided him, and it aided him, and it aided him, until he was willing to deceive Abner and violate not only God's law, but the law of the land to put another man to death in cold blood. Brothers and sisters, we have to beware of this, because bitterness can set into our lives really easily. As a matter of fact, that's an area where the enemy loves to get to us, right? Somebody has done something to hurt you. Somebody has done

something to hurt your feelings. And the enemy loves to just kind of come and perch on your shoulder and say, I can't believe they did that. I just, I can't believe they would treat you that way. I can't believe they would talk about you like that. Can you, who would do that, right? And starts whispering all these things. And it's like, the longer we listen,

we listen to that, that whispering of the enemy, the more bitter our heart gets. And it's like, he's just, he just keeps throwing some more fuel on the fire. And pretty soon the fire is raging. And the only thing that can put out the fire of bitterness is that cold water of forgiveness. That cold water of forgiveness. And the only way we can have that in our lives

is through the work of Jesus Christ. Through the work of the understanding that when a covenant is made, through forgiveness, that absolutely puts out all that fire of bitterness. And so that's the first point that I want to make. The second point that I want to make about Joab is this. Joab had not learned the lesson that David had learned. See, David had learned the lesson,

vengeance is mine, I will repay, declares the Lord. David had learned through everything that had gone on with Saul, that the best thing he could do is let God fight his battles. Because if God fought the battle, then there's no God. And if God fought the battle, then there's no God. And if God fought the battle, then there's no God. And if God fought the battle, then there's no God.

There's no guilt on his hands. If God fought the battle, then there's no bloodshed on David's hands as far as that's concerned. Remember, he learned that lesson with Nabal, that it's the best thing to do is to let God fight your battles. And you would think Joab would have taken a lesson from David at that point in time, but he didn't. Instead, he said, vengeance is mine, I will repay,

declares Joab. And we have to understand that you can go around trying to fight every battle and trying to take vengeance on everybody that's ever hurt you, and all that it'll end with, is a whole bunch of hurt. Instead, let God handle those things, because he's way better at it than we are. He'll either bring about the most peaceful resolution possible, or he will turn it on the other person's head. Because that's what God does. God ultimately fights those battles for us. As it

says in Psalm 37, he is able to bring forth our righteousness as the noonday sun, and we can rest in that. But Joab hadn't learned that battle. But the most important line in all this, David didn't know it. And it's important to know, because David did not send Joab after Abner to kill him. As a matter of fact, he shows that this wasn't his idea when it says this, verse 28.

David pronounces a curse, if you will, on Joab. Now, it's interesting that David doesn't punish Joab at this time. And again, maybe this was wrong on the part of David, but I think there's two reasons why he didn't. Number one, because he'd learned to let God fight his battles. Number two, I think he was a little bit scared of Joab. Because at this point in time,

he's become one of the roughest, toughest generals he's ever had. And I think he kind of goes, you know what? I'm just going to let God handle that, because I don't want to get in that fight. That was not my battle to fight. And so he pronounces this curse on him. And then he goes on to mourn for Abner. It says,

And all the people wept. The king chanted a lament before Abner and said, Should Abner die as a fool dies? Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put in fetters. As one who falls before the wicked, you have fallen. And all the people wept. Then all the people came to persuade David to eat bread while it was still day. But David vowed, saying, May God do so to me and more also, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun goes down. And all

the people took note of it, and it pleased them, just as everything that the king had said to him. Did pleased all the people. So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the will of the king to put Abner to death. Then the king said to his servants, Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day? I am weak, though anointed king, and these

men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too difficult for me. May the Lord repay the evildoer according to his evil. So the mourning took place. Now, the last part that we'll look at here is the murder of Abner. And the last part that we'll look at here is the murder of Abner. And the last part is the murder of Abner. And the last part that we'll look at here is the murder of Abner. And the

murder of Abner is the murder of Ish-bosheth. It says in chapter 4, verse 1, when Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost courage, and all Israel was disturbed. And Saul's son had two men who were commanders of bands. The name of the one was Baana, and the name of the other, Rechab, son of Ramon, the Barathite, of the sons of Benjamin. For Barath

is also considered part of Benjamin. And the Barathites fled to Gittayim and have been aliens there until this day. So the scene is set. Again, Ish-bosheth is pretty nervous about what's going on. Abner's been killed. He doesn't know how this is all going to end for him. And we read about these two men that we'll talk about more in just a moment. But now we've got this kind of like

parenthetical statement in verse 4. It says, Now Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the report of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him and fled. And it happened that in her hurry to flee that he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth. Verse 4 is just this kind of interesting interjection in the story. A story that is going to get a little

bit sad here in just a moment. But an interesting interjection where we're introduced to this young man. Who is the son of Jonathan. And remember, David had made a promise to always take care of Jonathan's descendants. And so keep that name in the back of your mind. Not only because it's a fun name to say. Say it to yourself later. It's fun to say Mephibosheth. Not only because it's

fun to say, but because he's going to be an important character that we see here in a few chapters. Now, meanwhile, back at the story. So the sons of Ramon, the Barathite, Rechab, and Baana departed and came to the house of Ish-bosheth in the heat of the day, while he was taking his midday rest. They came to the middle of the house as if to get wheat, and they struck him in the belly. If you're reading the old King James, it says

underneath the fifth rib, I think. And Rechab and Baana, his brother, escaped. And when they came into the house as he was lying on his bed in the bedroom, they struck him and killed him and beheaded him. And they took his head and traveled by the way of the Areba all night. What a crazy gruesome scene, right? So you've got these other two men who are descendants of Saul. They're a

descendants of Benjamin. They're Benjamite. They're, if you will, family members. And they have decided that they are going to take matters into their own hand. David has been made king over Israel. All of the elders have decided on it. And so I think that they have found themselves going, let's earn ourselves a spot in the kingdom. Let's earn ourselves a little bit of a place in David's good graces.

And while Ish-bosheth is taking a little siesta, if you will, in the middle of the afternoon, not an uncommon thing in Mediterranean cultures where it gets so hot like that, they go in disguised as those just delivering wheat. And they go in and they kill him. Not only do they kill him, they lop his melon off, right? And then they take that melon and they're going to carry it to David. They go all night long. Now, should Ish-bosheth have been

dealt with? Is he ultimately going to have to be dealt with as the king? Yes. Did it need to be dealt with like this? No. They did the right thing, but they did it the wrong way. They knew that the king needed dealt with in order for David to be the king, but they didn't need to take matters into their own hands. They didn't need to do it that way. Listen, we

have to remember, God does not need our help. Too many times we find ourselves going, I'm going to help God out with this one. I don't think God knows what the plan is going to be. I don't think he's figured out how he's going to handle this. I have a plan and I will help God and I will do the right thing. Only when we try to help God and do the right thing, we oftentimes do

it the wrong way. Now, God still moves. God still works because that's what he does. But sometimes there's consequences when we do the right thing the wrong way. And so they carry this. Can you imagine just carrying a head with you all night long? Just, hey, who's going to hold it now, right? These are things I think about.

You can imagine themselves being really proud right now, right? Look, look, David, here it is. It's the head of Ish-bosheth. He's going, I know who that is. I don't know where the rest of his body is, right? Like, what's happening here right now? And you know David's not shocked by heads. He carried the head of Goliath around when he was like 16 years old, right? Like, he's not shocked

by these things. And so they're like, there's been vengeance. Everything's taken care of. Don't you worry about it. We took care of the situation for you. And David's going. So he goes on to say, David answered Rechab and Baana, his brother, sons of Ramon the Barathite, and said to them, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress? When one told me, saying, behold, Saul is dead, and he thought he was bringing me good

news, I seized him and I killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed, shall I not now require his blood from your hand and destroy you from the earth? Then David commanded the young men and they killed them. They cut off their hands and their feet. They hung

them up beside the pool in Hebron, but they took the head of Ish-bosheth and they buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron. Now, I love what David says and how he starts off, because he starts off by saying, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress? You know where David's confidence in life came from? Do you know where his confidence as king at this point in time came from?

Do you know why he wasn't sending people to try to go kill Ish-bosheth? Do you know why he wasn't worried about what was going to take place with that? Because he served a God who had delivered him from all of his distress. And when you know that your God has delivered you from all of your distress, it's a whole lot easier to trust in the fact that the next thing that's going to come up is going to be taken care of by God. The next thing that comes up, God's going to be able to

handle that, because He's not going to be able to handle that. He's not going to be able to handle that. He's not going to be caught off guard by it. He's not going to be worried about it. He's not worried about the next thing that's going to come up in your life, because He's already delivered you from all your distress, and He's going to keep doing that. That's why David was able to say,

I was young, and now I'm old. I've never seen the children of God begging for bread, because he had known God in that way, and that's where his confidence came from. And these men thought they had really done something for David, only they hadn't. They had just done a brutal act on him. And so, David was able to say, I was young, and now I'm old. I've never seen the children of God

an innocent man. And so, David looks at him, and he says, do you understand that the first time that this happened, they just reported to me that they had killed Saul, but I put them to death? How much more if you have killed an innocent man on his own bed? And you can imagine how their countenance has turned immediately. They went from, I bet we're going to get commanding positions too.

We're going to die, right? In a really short amount of time. And of course, their lives were taken from them, because they'd done things the wrong way. God never asked them to go kill that man. God never asked them to do that. All they wanted to do was trust that God would take care of it. So, David dealt with those things. And so now, as we kind of wrap up here tonight, I just want to point out one

main thing to you. In all of these things, and it's very Games of Thrones-ish, right? Like, there's just some craziness that goes on in the Old Testament. As I've said to lots of people, I just can't believe there's not been more of that. And so, I want to point out one main thing to you. There's not been more movies and miniseries made about the life of David, because it feels like it

would be the next hit on You Name the Streaming service, right? Like, David, who will be in charge. That's a terrible name. But anyway, you get the idea. But in all of it, what we see is we see God's grace. We see God's grace in the life of the nation of Israel. Because even though they had been through so much turmoil, and so much ups and downs, and so many different things with the

people over who was going to be the king, God still preserved the nation of Israel, because God is a God of grace. And David was nowhere near a perfect human being. He had lots of red flags in his life, and he made mistakes. And yet, God continued to use him, because God is a God of grace. And even though some of the right things were done in absolutely wrong ways, God's work

was still happening. God was still creating a line. For the Savior, because God is a God of grace. Amen? Let's all pray. Father, we come before You, and as always, I just thank You for these stories, Lord. So many things to learn, and so interesting to read, and good to know that Your line of redemption was at work, even in all of the failures of man. And Lord, I thank You that we only have one true King that is perfect, and that's

Jesus. And so, Father, may we come to You, and may we come to You, and may we come to You, and may we come to You, and may we continue to surrender our lives to You. May we continue to know that You ultimately rule and reign, and may we find our rest in You. And Father, we thank You for who You are. In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed.