The Sons Of Hebron

Q: What does the Bible say about God's timing in our lives?

The Bible teaches that God's timing is perfect and sovereign, shaping us through trials and waiting periods. The Bible emphasizes the importance of God's perfect timing, particularly in how He prepares us for His purposes. In the life of David, we see that he was anointed king long before he ascended the throne, indicating that God's plans often unfold slowly. This delay is purposeful, shaping David's character and teaching him dependence on God. Similarly, in Romans 5, we learn that the trials of our faith produce patience, and patience leads to maturity (Romans 5:3-4). Understanding God's sovereign timing helps us to trust Him amidst difficulties.

Q: How do we know that God's plans cannot be thwarted by human failures?

God's plans and purposes are unstoppable, transcending human weakness and sin. Throughout Scripture, we see that God's purposes are not hindered by human failures. Despite the dysfunction and sin present in David's family, God’s promise to establish a kingdom through his lineage remained intact. Paul reminds us in Romans 3 that God's faithfulness is not dependent on our belief but on His sovereign will. Thus, even when we encounter failure and sin, God's ultimate plan of salvation through Christ cannot be thwarted, illustrating His grace and sovereignty over all creation. This offers believers hope, knowing that God uses even our shortcomings for His glory.

Q: Why is the contrast between David's sons and God's Son important?

The contrast highlights the sinfulness of humanity versus the perfection of Christ as our Savior. The contrast between David's imperfect sons and God's perfect Son, Jesus Christ, is profoundly significant in understanding the nature of salvation. While David's sons were flawed, bringing conflict and heartache, Christ embodies perfection and reconciliation. He is the fulfillment of God's promise, accomplishing what David’s lineage could not—providing peace between God and man through His sacrificial death. By recognizing this contrast, believers understand that true righteousness and salvation come solely through faith in Christ, not in human merit or lineage, emphasizing the essential grace of the gospel.

Q: How does God's purpose continue despite human imperfection?

God's purpose persists through our shortcomings, magnifying His grace and mercy. Despite human imperfections, God continues His redemptive purpose throughout history. The Scriptures are replete with examples of flawed individuals through whom God operates to fulfill His will—highlighting that grace abounds where sin increases (Romans 5:20). David's life is a key illustration; his failures did not prevent God from establishing a covenant through him. Each imperfection and sin serves to magnify God's mercy, as He chooses to work through our weaknesses to accomplish His sovereign plans. This reality underscores the doctrine of sovereign grace, where God's election stands firm despite our shortcomings.

Turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 3 again, please. Last week we looked at verse 1. We'll begin in verse 2 today. Just to remind you, it's been estimated to be 22 or 23 years that have passed since Samuel first anointed David to be king to the time he actually became king over all Israel, 22, 23 years. God anointed David long before he enthroned him. The oil came quickly. The throne came slowly.

And in the course of those years, there was obscurity, which simply means lack of recognition. There was rejection, even from his own brothers. There was danger. There were caves, two caves, the cave of Adalim in Gedi. And there were multiple betrayals in that time period. Doeg, the Edomite, the Zephites on two different occasions betrayed David. The men of Kila and many of Judah, David's own tribe betrayed him.

The path to the throne was not an easy one. And doesn't that point us to Christ? He was rejected and betrayed by his own people. Those years in David's life brought much waiting and much brokenness. And this again points to the Lord Jesus, who was the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. He was rejected and betrayed by his own.

And God chose David privately before he was ever recognized publicly. And this is often God's way. God declares what He purposes before anyone else can see it. And after David was already anointed king, he kept tending sheep. When Samuel came and had all his brothers go before him and then finally anointed David, God said, you're looking on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart. And God said David was the one, he had known him, David went right back to tending sheep.

He worked as a hired musician, a harp player for King Saul who tried to kill him more than once. But this delay of David's future was not accidental. There are no accidents. No accidents in this world. Everything happens according to the will and purpose of God. And it was on purpose that these things happened.

It was God shaping his King. David learned to depend upon and trust in God. We read there in Romans 5 a minute ago that the trine of our faith works patience. And patience, in another place, Paul said, let patience have its perfect work, making you complete. That word means mature. Growing up, experiencing things, learning these experiences, God shaping his king. And had David received the throne immediately, may have ruled with immaturity and pride and self-confidence.

And the wilderness, now hear me on this, the wilderness became David's classroom. The wilderness is often our classroom. We've all heard people claim to have graduated from the School of Hard Knocks, you heard people say that. I graduated from the University of Adversity, I hear folks say. That's a simple way of saying that they got their education on life through trials and difficulties. That's where David received his degree.

That's where many of us have received ours. And it's not by chance. It's not bad luck. It's appointed by God. God is going to wean His people from this world. I have to say that all the time, but it's so. And it's not easy. It's difficult. It hurts. God's sometimes gotta break our hands for us to let go of this work. God's gonna show his people their need of him. He's going to. If you're one of his, he's gonna show you your need of him.

And all these years of turmoil and all these years of trouble are a picture and a mirror of the Lord Jesus Christ. David was anointed king long before the nation received him as such. And in a greater way, the Lord Jesus Christ, the true anointed king was rejected before ever being openly enthroned. The world didn't recognize Christ for who he was, yet God had already declared him king.

Men and women today sure carry on like they know a lot. But they still don't know Christ is the only means of salvation, just as they didn't know Him to be when He walked on this earth. God's got to reveal it to you. You and I would never see it ourselves if God didn't show it to us. That's why we ought to be thankful for His divine revelation to us. And like Christ, David refused to seize the throne by forcing the inevitable. He waited for God's timing.

Many times the scripture tells us that Christ's time had not yet come. They took him one time by the, they grabbed him. They physically took him and were gonna throw him off a hill. And then the scripture says that he just walked through the midst of them, his time had not yet come.

And this reveals true faith. May the Lord help me. I sincerely mean this. May the Lord help me to be patient. Wait on His timing. Cause me to trust in His good timing. A man who truly trusts God does not need to try to make things happen Because what God has promised, He'll bring it to pass.

It'll always come to pass in God's good and sovereign timing. And silent years often teach us a great deal. It's not wasted time. Never wasted time. The delay is often, very often preparation. God preparing us. Now in the verses before us tonight, it at first glance may seem like the reporting of just mere genealogy. But the Gospel message in these verses, I believe, is somewhat profound. Look at verse 2 with me. And unto David were sons born in Hebron. I titled this, The Sons of Hebron.

Unto David were born sons in Hebron, and his firstborn was Amnon. of Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess, and his second, Kiliab of Abigail, the wife of Nabal, the Carmelite, and the third, Absalom, the son of Mahah, the daughter of Taumai, king of Geser, and the fourth, Adonijah, the son of Haggath, and the fifth, Shephateh, Shephateh, these names, whatever happened to Fred? Joe. Of Abitall and the six, Ethreum, by Eglaw, David's wife. Now there were six sons born to David in Hebron.

Six sons? And then if you count, here's six mothers. One location. No doubt a breeding ground for trouble. Now, just to observe, the number six is the number of man. The number six is associated with human weakness. It has to do with incompleteness. Six falls short of seven, which represents perfection. Seven's the number of perfection or completeness. God rested on the seventh day. Man was created on the sixth day. Man was to labor six days and to rest on the seventh. So six is tied to man's incomplete labor.

Six represents man's great pride. Goliath's measurements were six cubits tall. His armor weighed 600 shekels. This is just pictures of man's great pride. Nebuchadnezzar, you remember he made that big image of himself and wanted everybody to fall down and worship it? It was 60 cubits tall and six cubits wide. As you know, 666 is the number of the beast and it's the number of man. Six gives biblical reference to humanity to human labor, weakness and incompleteness, man apart from God, human pride and self-exaltation. And I said all that to say this, here we have a list of six sons and six mothers.

It's a historical record of names tucked here in the middle of a political conflict between the house of Saul and the house of David. So what is the purpose of mentioning David's sons here. Scripture never wastes words. God, the Holy Spirit is telling us something here. In this list of sons, the Spirit of God is revealing something about the human heart, about man's heart, the brokenness of man, the consequences of man's sin. and the unstoppable, and this is the best one, the unstoppable purpose of God in bringing forth the true King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

David here is rising to power. The time has finally come for him to become king. God has promised him the throne, and here 23, 22, 23 years later, his kingdom is being established, and yet, trouble. Trouble is already brewing inside David's own house. The kingdom is advancing outwardly. Things are looking up, but corruption is multiplying inwardly. And this is again, the result of sin. And this is a picture of the sin in us. Now, so my first point is, first we see that God advances His kingdom through imperfect people.

David's now reigning in Hebron. God's promises are unfolding. Sons are being born to him. His household is expanding. And from a human perspective, from the world's perspective, David looks to be blessed. He looks to be successful and fruitful and powerful. No doubt some were envious and said, you know, he's our obvious King. Look how the Lord's blessing him. Yet hidden inside this passage, these four verses is great spiritual danger.

David has taken multiple wives. Let's talk about that for a moment. Kings could do pretty much whatever they wanted. They didn't answer to man. They still answered to God. And oftentimes they reaped what they sowed. But David was already king in Hebron and he was about to become king over all Israel. And listen, if David told his men to kill you, they'd kill you and wouldn't question it. You may have been someone in their own family. And if he said, go kill your brother, you go kill your brother or you'd be killed. A king's will was always done. A king had absolute power.

Yes, David took multiple wives. You got six here in Hebron and six sons, one from each wife. Was that okay to do? Was it okay to have concubines? I was reading one of the writers today about this, and they said between the six wives he had here in Hebron, and then the ones he took when he became king, and then all of his concubines, he could have had as many as a hundred children. Huh, better him than me. Was it okay?

No, it's not okay. God has always meant for marriage to be monogamous. Polygamy is never God's design. And though it was tolerated in the Old Testament narrative, it always, always, always produced sorrow, produced jealousy, confusion, and conflict. And that was to teach us something. Believers as the bride of Christ are to be espoused to one husband. Do you hear me? One husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. And our heavenly bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, is to have one wife, the Church of the Living God.

And if you remember, that was the trouble with Hagar and Sarah. And that was the problem with Leah and Rebecca. And that was the case with Hannah and Peninnah. And that's the situation here with David and his wives. And we're told in other parts of the Old Testament that Solomon had hundreds of wives and concubines, and it nearly destroyed him in the end. This is what the results of these marriages brought. Sorrow, jealousy, confusion, and conflict. Listen, later these boys became a source of devastating sorrow and trouble in David's life. Seeds here are being planted that are later gonna bring great grief, division, violence, and heartbreak.

And sin often disguises itself as a blessing. Sin often seems successful before it becomes destructive. And sin often works before it ruins. Secondly, we see that human kings produce broken kingdoms. Yes, David is a man after God's own heart, but he's a man. and he's a fallen man at that. And the gospel always, always reminds us that even the best of men are men at best, and the best of men are but sinners in need of the grace of God.

Amnon, the firstborn, became morally corrupt. He's the one that raped his half-sister Tamar. Absalom. You know the story of Absalom. He became rebellious and ambitious and he killed Amnon for raping his sister and he launched rebellion against his father David and he declared himself king before being killed himself. Adonijah exalted himself. He too attempted to seize David's throne while David was still alive. And then the other three sons are mentioned only for their existence. They didn't do anything else worth mentioning. They didn't do anything good or bad that was worth mentioning.

Just kind of, you know, just there. Now, my question to you is, do these sons sound like anybody that you know? Sound a whole lot like me. It's the same nature, the same fallen nature that's in all of us, all of us. A throne can't save a man. Personal power, power can't sanctify a man. Family cannot complete a man. Only Christ can. Yes, human kings produce broken kingdoms. And David, like all of us, needed a great king himself to come after him. David couldn't build a perfect kingdom because he himself was imperfect. Everything that we do, everything that we touch is imperfect because of sin. The gospel shines here because God does not wait for flawless people before accomplishing His purposes. Isn't that amazing?

The coming Messiah would come through David's line, through David's lineage, and that was the Lord Himself, the greater David. Friends, a greater than David is here. A greater than David is who died for your sins. A greater than David is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

God's purpose is never ever thwarted by human weakness, human dysfunction, human sin, but man is still responsible. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shall thou restrain. God takes man's evil And He turns it into good. That's what Joseph told his brothers. He said, you meant this for evil. You threw me in that pit. You sold me into slavery. I went into Potiphar's house. I went into prison.

And then God took what you did, what you meant for evil, and made it good so that I could sit on the throne of Egypt and be in control so that you could have food to eat today. To save much people alive. God did it on purpose. He took man's wrath and he turned it into good. And he restrains man's wrath when he's through using it. That's the God whom we serve. God remains faithful even when his people don't. Paul wrote in Romans 3, for what if some did not believe? What if some were unfaithful?

You ever think about that? Many are. Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? Absolutely not. God's going to do what He wills in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth regardless of where the man believes or not. God is faithful. We're not.

Christ is the true King whose kingdom will never end. And the hope for chosen sinners is that we have a righteous King who did for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He's the one who never sins. He knew no sin. He never corrupts justice. He never fails His people. Isn't that good news? And He, you're saved.

God's purpose continues, thirdly, despite human failure. So if salvation is dependent on us, we're in trouble. But God's purpose continues despite human failure. our shortcoming, despite our sin. That's what makes grace, grace. That's what makes mercy, mercy. God continues His covenant purpose despite the great shortcomings and failures of man. Now that doesn't excuse sin, but it does magnify grace. And it does glorify God and His beloved Son. David has promised God has promised the Messiah would come through David, yet despite David's weaknesses, Christ came. And the genealogy of Scripture is just filled with flawed people. And God doesn't hide it. It's seen throughout the Scriptures. Adulterers, liars, murderers, failures, rebels, deceivers. It's amazing.

Rahab the harlot. Her name is never mentioned in scripture when it's not told what she was. Rahab the harlot, never just Rahab, it's always Rahab the harlot. Manasseh, he was a wicked king. Rehoboam, he was an arrogant man. Bathsheba was an adulteress. We don't stop and think about Bathsheba. Of course, I know David was king and she couldn't resist him, but in her heart, she was an adulteress.

And even David, the adulterer and murderer he was, they were all, now listen, they were all in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ came through all of those. Isn't that something? God brought forth a savior from them, And God brought forth a Savior for them. My, that's the glory of the gospel. Despite you and me, in spite of us, God had mercy on us. While we were yet ungodly, yet without strength, Christ died for us.

Paul said it this way. And I really wish we could get a hold of this. He said, we're sin abounded. And it does, doesn't it? We're sin abounded. Grace did much more abound. That's the gospel. We're sin abounded. Grace did much more abound. Fourthly, we have the contrast between David's sons and God's son. All the sons of David were touched by Adam's corruption. All of us are. All of us are. Each of them was a wretch by nature. All of us are.

David's sons brought conflict. They would eventually fracture David's house. But centuries later, another son's gonna come. He's called the son of David, but he's also David's Lord. That's the Lord Jesus. Not merely a son of David. Christ was the Son of God. And Christ was God the Son.

This Son came without sin. He had no sin. He knew no sin. He had a godly nature. Not a fallen nature like every man and woman has. He did what no son of Adam could do. He obeyed God perfectly. He loved perfectly. Not selfishly like we do. Our love is so fickle and so conditional. We love conditioned on how we're treated. Not Christ. His love was unconditional.

He loved those who hated Him without a cause. This son didn't cause any trouble. This son resolved the trouble between God and man. David's son caused their father grief and on the cross, God the son brought his father joy. See the contrast? He brought no conflict. He bought reconciliation. David's sons brought division. Christ bought peace between God and man. That's the difference. Big, big difference. David's kingdom eventually crumbled, but Christ's kingdom will never, ever end.

Who's your king? What king would you have? And fifthly, and this is again a reminder that man cannot save himself. God's anointed earthly kings were flawed. Every, even blessed households or full of sin. David's was. Abraham's was. Every saint could say the same thing.

Even growing kingdoms decay under the curse of sin. But these verses point beyond flesh to the greater King who has come. And unlike David, he does not fail. Unlike earthly kings, he can truly save. Unlike sinful sons, he's the spotless Son of God. Salvation doesn't come through a bloodline.

We say that. It doesn't. I often think about some of the godly men and women that I have known over the years, and just because the Lord saved them and they were sold out to Christ don't mean God's going to save their children. It doesn't come that way.

It comes by grace alone, in Christ alone, in mercy alone. Salvation doesn't come through status or family privilege. Salvation comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to believe on Him for yourself. You can't get in on your mama's faith, your grandma's faith, your husband's faith, your wife's faith, your children's faith. Your children can't get in on your faith.

We must look to Christ. Throughout the Scriptures, we're reminded that we can not place our hope any in human strength and success and families or rulers. We've got to look to Christ, look to Christ, look to Christ. How many times have we said it? Look to Christ. I believe that's what I'm going to preach on Sunday. The Lord will it. That's the charge of the gospel. Look and live. Look to Jesus Christ and live. We don't just look at anything. We've got to look to him. He's the King greater than David. He's the Son who never sinned. He's the one who gave us perfect righteousness. He's the King who paid our great debt in full. He's the eternal King who reigns forever. And in Him and Him alone, so shall we.

My hope of eternal life is not in what I've done. The only thing I, when I look at my works, the only thing I see is eternal death and condemnation. But because of His finished work and me being one with Him, I got a good hope. God writes the story of redemption here into history. It's called His story. And I'm glad this is His story, aren't you?

And again, God, through flawed human history, in, by, and through the Son of David, Jesus Christ, established the perfect righteousness and eternal kingdom that you and I desperately need. And He's the only way that we'll ever obtain it. Now this passage, in many ways, points us to Christ, the greater David.

And these boys' names, We see God, we see that God sees us, the sons and daughters of Hebron that we are, that when he looks at us, he sees his beloved son. Now, I just want to briefly give you these, and I want you to be encouraged by it. Because you know names mean something, and this can be easily seen in coordinates in some study Bibles. But Amnon, the firstborn, you know what his name means?

Faithful and true. Was he faithful and true? No. He raped his half-sister. Christ is the faithful and true one. It's pointing us to Christ. Christ can be completely trusted. He's faithful. He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That's the kind of Savior we need. Somebody that's faithful and just. Chilliab.

You know what his name means? Sustained of his Father. or like his father. Again, that pertains to Christ. He and his father are one. And if you've seen the Lord, told Philip that, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. I've been so long with you. You've seen me, you've touched me. You've seen and touched the Father when you've touched me.

Absalom, probably the most well-known of David's sons as far as being a rebel, means my Father is peace. Our Father is at peace with us because of Christ. Adonijah means my Lord is Jehovah. I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine. The Lord is my Jehovah. Where are we accepted? In Christ the Beloved. Shephateah. Shephateah. means judged of Jehovah. Jehovah has judged.

Our salvation is a just salvation. How? Because God has judged us in strict righteousness. And the very justice of God demands the salvation of all God's elect because of Christ's finished work for us. You know what that means? That really truly means that we don't have any sin. Christ took all our sin. Past, present, future. All of it. Sin we haven't even committed yet. And I know what some people are going to say. They're going to say, oh, you're just giving people an excuse to sin. No, sir, I'm not.

That's what God did. He took all of our sin. Past, present, and future. And He put it on His beloved Son. And He extracted the judgment and justice and wrath that you and I deserve on Him. And in return, gave us His perfect righteousness. You ever heard anything like that? That's what really happened. That's what God says in this book. Our sins have been judged in Christ, and we're no longer found wanting. Everything God requires of me, Christ fulfilled for me, and I have before God. Perfect righteousness. No sin.

Ithrium, the last sun, means abundance. You know, when I thought about looking up these names, I thought, boy, they're gonna be bad, you know, because they were bad. And names always mean something. But God, they were given these names to point us to the Lord Jesus. Every one of these scoundrels had names that points us to Christ.

Christ is the believer's abundance. In Christ, we have life. Not just life, we have life more abundantly, it says. Abundance in Christ. Christ the greater Son of David's kingdom. It's not built on human merit. How could it be? It's built on sovereign grace in and by and through David's Son, who is David's Lord.

What think ye of Christ? So, in spite of who and what you and I are by birth, Those who are in Christ can have a confident hope. You know, that's what faith means. Faith means a confident expectation. And you and I can have a confident hope, a confident expectation, because being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work, In me, in you, we'll perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. God's gonna finish what He started. God's gonna finish what He started. For it's God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. If God has determined to save you before the foundation of the world, you're gonna be saved.

Nothing's gonna stop it. No one, nobody, nothing. Going to get in the way. None shall be able to pluck them from my hand, God said. Not a one's going to be lost. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and I'll in no wise cast you out. God won't cast you out. He's the only one that could do it. And He said, I'll in no wise cast you out.

Sounds to me like one saved always. I was chosen in Christ. I was redeemed by His blood. He forever intercedes for me. God the Son is on the throne of God interceding to His Father for me. Father, I died for Him. I died for Her. I gave Him my perfect righteousness. He forever intercedes for us. He preserves His own until the end. Men talk about persevering. No, no, no. You persevere because God has preserved you in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you know, I thought about this today most of my life. I caused my earthly father mostly grief. And in and of myself, that is, in my flesh, as Paul put it, I'm still a great disappointment to my Heavenly Father. But my salvation not found in me. It's in Christ, who loved me and gave Himself for me. And when God looks at me, He sees my Lord, He sees my Savior, He sees my sacrifice and my substitute.

Well, I have hope. That's why I have a confident expectation of being saved. How amazing. Many sons and daughters of Hebron have been made sons and daughters of the living God. And it's only one way. Only through one person. Christ. Our Lord and Savior.

The Sons Of Hebron

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's timing in our lives?

How do we know that God's plans cannot be thwarted by human failures?

Why is the contrast between David's sons and God's Son important?

How does God's purpose continue despite human imperfection?

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The Sons Of Hebron

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's timing in our lives?

How do we know that God's plans cannot be thwarted by human failures?

Why is the contrast between David's sons and God's Son important?

How does God's purpose continue despite human imperfection?

Sermon Transcript

About David Eddmenson

Comments

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