So we're going to 2 Samuel, chapter
2, and we're going to read from verse 1 through to verse 11. 2 Samuel, chapter 2, verse 1. And it came to pass after this
that David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up into any
of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said unto him, Go
up, And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said, Unto Hebron. So David went up thither, and
his two wives also, Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and Abigail,
Nabal's wife, the Carmelite. And his men that were with him
did David bring up, every man with his household, and they
dwelt in the cities of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and
there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And
they told David, saying, that the men of Jabesh-gilead were
they that buried Saul. And David sent messengers unto
the men of Jabesh-gilead, and said unto them, Blessed be ye
of the Lord, that ye have showed this kindness unto your Lord,
even unto Saul, and have buried him. And now the Lord show kindness
and truth unto you, and I also will requite you this kindness,
because ye have done this thing. Therefore now let your hands
be strengthened, and be ye valiant, for your master Saul is dead,
and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them. But Abner the son of Ner, captain
of Saul's host, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and brought
him over to Mahanin, and made him king over Gilead, and over
the Assyrites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin,
and over all Israel. Ishbosheth, Saul's son, was 40
years old when he began to reign over Israel, and reigned two
years. But the house of Judah followed
David. And the time that David was king
in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Perhaps you've heard the saying,
when one door closes, another one opens. Have you ever heard
that saying before? When one door closes, another
one opens. Wonder what that means. I think
the meaning is that often in life, the end of one activity
is soon followed by the start of another one. If one thing
comes to an end, you'll soon have opportunity to try something
else. Sometimes the phrase is used
in the sense of disappointment. We get disappointed when something
that we had hoped for doesn't materialise or doesn't happen
or stops, closes down prematurely. And someone might say to us,
never mind, when one door closes, another will open. That a disappointment
now will lead to and result in a success in the future. And this is what happened with
David. He had spent years in the land
of the Philistines. He had made his home in Ziklag. But remember what happened to
Ziklag. Now that city was a heap of burned ruins. Furthermore,
the Philistines amongst whom David lived had shown that they
were suspicious of David. So that we could say that one
door was closing for David and his men. The Lord had taken away the things
that had held David in the land of the Philistines. At the same
time, another door was opening. With Saul dead and the Israelite
army defeated, an opportunity for David to return to his own
land opened up. So that God took away with one
hand and he gave with another. He took away Ziklag, and he gave
Hebron. He moved David out of the land
of the Philistines and he put him back in the land of Judah. And this is often how God's guidance
in our lives works as well. In his providence, Providence
is like circumstances that God arranges for us. That's what
we mean when we talk about providence. It is God providing for us in
the circumstances of our life, which might otherwise seem to
be totally random. But we see or we believe that
there is a thread of purpose through them all. And God's providence
is sometimes a little push and a little pull. Sometimes it's
a big push. and a big pool but often it's
a little push and a little pull because we do not know what the
future holds and when change happens we often become anxious
and we often become uncertain but the Lord knows what the future
holds and in order to bring his purposes about and to put us
in the right place at the right time for what he plans to do,
God often closes one door to us in order to open another. Sometimes we will get disappointed
when a door closes, but as believers, believers who trust God's wise
ways and his special love, It is best if we are content to
follow his leading and patiently wait on his direction. There's
a little verse in Revelation chapter 3, right at the end of
the Bible, and it says this, These things saith he that is
holy he that is true. So we're talking about God here,
he that is holy and he that is true. These things saith he that
is holy and he that is true, he that hath the key of David,
he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. It is God who opens and closes
the doors of our lives. David's life was about to change,
and it was about to change in a big way. But I like this too
about what we read together. It must have been obvious to
David that these doors had moved. As he looked around him in ziklag,
all he could see was broken down houses and burned out shelves
and nothing to keep him there in that place. He knew that there
would have to be change. But though it was obvious he
still went to inquire of the Lord, and he used the means that
were available to him. Now we've spoken about this in
the past, I'm not going to say too much about it, but Abiathar,
the priest, was able to use the Urim and Thummim, which We don't
know what those were, but it was some way of divining the
direction and the will of God. And this Urim and Thurim were
carried in an ephod or a garment that the priest wore. And so
there was a means of seeking direction from the Lord that
David used. He went to the Lord's servant
and he asked the Lord's servant to find out what he should do. And that's what we should do
as well. When doors appear to close or
doors appear to open for us, it is wise for us to test our
plans and the courses of action by the word of God. We don't
do things that are wrong. We don't do things that are unsuitable
just because we have the opportunity to do them. Rather, we ask the
Lord for wisdom and for guidance and for the decision that we
have to make. And the Lord speaks to us through
his word. This is one of the good reasons
for us to become familiar with reading our Bibles. And I encourage
you, those of you who are young, I encourage you all, but I want
to stress this for the young people listening. Read your Bible,
and I hope your parents, or you hear the Bible read frequently. But I want you to think about
reading your Bible for yourself. because becoming familiar with
it will help to be your guide in this life and in this world. David took his family and he
travelled to Hebron. He also took his men and their
families with him. He didn't leave anyone behind
in the land of the Philistines. And I think that this is a lovely
picture of the Lord Jesus. In this, David was a type of
the Lord Jesus. Remember what a type is? A picture
of something even more wonderful. So David is a lovely picture
of the Lord Jesus in this. These men that David had in his
band, in his group, his small army, these men had suffered
with David. and now they would prosper with
him when he came to the throne. And this is what the Lord Jesus
will do for those who love him as well. Paul tells Timothy,
and by telling Timothy, he tells us, if we be dead with him, we
shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign
with him. and the Lord's people died with
him figuratively on the cross as the Lord bore our sins and
carried our sorrows. And also figuratively, we rose
with him in his resurrection, having been united to him by
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that these men, that were with David, who had
lived with David, who had gone to battle with David, who would
have died with David, now they shall benefit with him as well. They will reign with him, which
is a lovely picture of what the Lord has done for us. Some of his men, in fact, had
recently murmured and spoken against David. You'll remember
that from a few weeks ago, perhaps. But David was faithful to them
as well. And even so, when we let the
Lord down in our lives, as we all do, and as you will, when
we let the Lord down, he does not forget us, but he takes us
with him anyway. This is God's grace to us. He
does not give us what we deserve, but he is merciful to his little
ones, because he knows that we are weak and we are needy. The
Lord will not take us to Hebron like David did his men, but he
will take us to heaven to be with Christ, which is far better. When David came to Hebron, we
learn that the men of Judah came and there they anointed David
king over the house of Judah. By now, it seems that almost
everyone knew that Samuel had anointed David as king. The people in Judah, which was
the tribe of David, they knew Saul, who was king of Israel. He admitted as much before he
died. And even the young Amalekite
brought the crown of Saul to David. And yet although David's
accession to the throne seemed obvious to many, it would not
be without difficulty. And we're going to learn about
those difficulties over the next few weeks, God willing. But the
problem was a man called Abner. Abner was Saul's uncle. He was the leader of Saul's army. Although interestingly, when
Saul and his sons died on the battlefield, Abner, who was the
leader of the army, did not. I wonder if there was a little
bit of embarrassment about that. Abner had ambitions of his own. And rather than acknowledge David's
claim to the throne, he quickly took another of Saul's sons. So Saul and three of his sons,
including Jonathan, had died on the battlefield against the
Philistines. Here was a fourth son, a man
called Ish-bosheth. And Abner made Ish-bosheth king. or rather he made him a puppet
king because the real power stayed with Abner. Abner was a fierce
man. He was a man of war, an evil
man, a cunning man, a man of blood and a man of violence. He had power to do what he wanted
to do because he commanded the army. And what he didn't want
was David to be king, irrespective of God's will. So Judah and Israel are now two
separate kingdoms. Judah has David as its king. Israel has Ish-bosheth as its
king. And Abner compels the rest of
Israel to support Ish-bosheth. So that though Israel and Judah,
or the tribes of Israel, the other 11 tribes, and Judah were
brethren, they were all the children of Jacob, the children of Israel,
Judah being one tribe of the 12, though the largest, now,
because of one man's ambition, there would be trouble, there
would be strife, there would be war, and there would be bloodshed. having lost to the Philistines
because of sin, Israel now turned upon itself. It isn't clear how to match up
the years that are spoken about at the end of our reading today. But during this period that is
reflected in those various periods, time periods that we're given, it would appear that very likely
there were many troubles that must have been endured in Israel
and Judah by individuals and families and tribes at that time. Either strife between the kingdoms
or strife because of the Philistines who had recently defeated the
children of Israel. And I just want to leave one
spiritual lesson here for us, and then we'll close. This division
that we find between Israel and Judah, it would be repaired during the
life of David, and we're going to see that in the coming weeks
as well. There's going to be battles,
there will be victories and David will come out on top and he will
bring the two nations together again. But the history of Israel
is mostly a history of division and a history of envy and conflict
and suffering. And we might make a little application
in our own lives from this. When the Lord Jesus comes into
a person's life, he takes control as king, just like David did
in Judah. Believers are united to Christ. He rules in our heart, he quickens
our soul, he fellowships with our spirit, However, while we live in this
world, we shall always be troubled by the sinful desires of our
flesh. There will always be an Abner. It is like a battle, it's like
a civil war. The old man doesn't want to give
up the throne. He wants it back and he claims
it for himself. Like Abner, he tries to usurp
the reign of Christ in our lives. Solomon, David's son actually,
said it's like the company of two armies, two armies living
together in one place. When the powers of sin and the
world and Satan join in opposition to the life of faith and the
reign of grace in a soul. At that time, a believer finds
many trials and troubles and hardships in his life. And I
want you to understand that, especially those of you who are
younger. I want you to understand that.
You might try to follow the Lord, but you will find it difficult.
You say you trust him, but you will often find yourself full
of doubts and confused. You try to live the right way
and honour the Lord Jesus and the things you've been taught, by the things that you do and
say, but you often find it easier to go your own way in the flesh. And this is the battle that I'm
talking about. What is important is to realise
that this fight is real. Your conflict does not mean that
the Lord has left you or that he has let you down or even that
you have let him down. It is a battle in which we need
spiritual help. When you feel the pressures and
the troubles of the world crowding in on you, then take those troubles
to Christ. Take them to the King and ask
for his help. The Lord Jesus Christ was called
the Son of David. He is David's greater son. and he is still on the throne,
and he will defend his people, and he will preserve his church,
and he will help you if you ask him to. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us today. Amen.