2 Samuel chapter 4 and verse 1. And when Saul's son, that is
Ish-bosheth, when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in
Hebron, his hands were feeble and all the Israelites were troubled. And Saul's son had two men that
were captains of bands, The name of the one was Banna and the
name of the other Rechab. The sons of Rimmon, the Beerothite,
of the children of Benjamin, for Beeroth also was reckoned
to Benjamin. And the Beerothites fled to Gittim
and were sojourners there until this day. And Jonathan, Saul's
son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years
old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel,
and his nurse took him up and fled. And it came to pass, as
she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame, and
his name was Mephibosheth. And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite,
Rechab and Banna, went and came about the heat of the day to
the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon. And they
came thither into the midst of the house, as though they would
have fetched wheat, and they smote him under the fifth rib,
and Rechab and Banna, his brother, escaped. And when they came into
the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, and they smote
him and slew him and beheaded him, and took his head and gat
them away through the plain all night. And they brought the head
of Ish-bosheth unto David to Hebron, and said to the king,
Behold, the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, thine enemy. which sought thy life, and the
Lord hath avenged my Lord the King this day of Saul and of
his seed. And David answered Rechab and
Banna, his brother, the sons of Rimmon, the Beerothite, and
said unto them, As the Lord liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out
of all adversity, when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead,
thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him and
slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a
reward for his tidings. How much more when wicked men
have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? Shall I not therefore now require
his blood of your hand and take you away from the earth? And
David commanded his young men and they slew them and cut off
their hands and their feet and hanged them up over the pool
in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth
and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. There is an awful lot of killing
and murdering going on in these chapters at the moment and it
just shows us the nature of man and the sin of man. The death
of Ishbasheth is what we are considering today. And he was
murdered by two of his trusted captains. It may even be that
these men were his bodyguards. They were called captains of
bands. And this is the subject of this
short chapter. And as we've said again, it is
a sad reflection on the awfulness of sin and the lawlessness of
man, the way in which these atrocities are being perpetrated, are being
worked out in the narrative of our story here. Here we see instability
in the country. Here we see men wanting to have
power, wanting to have wealth, wanting to have influence and
prepared to do whatever they can, prepared to do whatever
they think is necessary in order to promote themselves and gain
what they wish. The way of evil and ambition
and greed and betrayal becomes so destructive and yet it is
so prevalent and widespread in this world. As I grow older and
as I see the injustices that are so evident in this world,
I find myself increasingly thankful that there is a holy God who
is in control and a God who tells us that he maintains records
of sins committed and promises to repay evil for evil. against those who wrongly imagine
that they can get away with their crimes and enjoy the benefits
of their wickedness. In fact, I could say that I wonder
how those who do not believe that there is a God who will
judge sin find any comfort at all in the face of the evil and
injustice that seems to go on all around us in this world. All the tears that are shed,
all the pain that is endured, all the suffering that is felt
when evil men have their way and they accomplish their own
aims and objectives at the expense of the vulnerable and the weak
and the needy. I thank God that there is a reckoning
to come. I thank God that there is an
omniscient all-knowing, all-powerful, all-wise judge, before whom all
men and women and boys and girls will stand. And I am both humbled
and grateful to be able to say with Abraham, shall not the judge
of all the earth do right? It's hard to know what to make
of Ishbusheth. He was a weak man. He was an
imposter. He was a tool of powerful influencers
and enablers, such as Abner. And when Abner was dead, who
knows what would have become of this man? who held the position
of king fraudulently only because he was supported by men like
Abner, powerful men like Abner. Nevertheless, no matter what
we might think of Ishbasheth, his assassination was a wicked
crime. And these two men, were known
and trusted by Ishbasheth, which makes it appear even worse what
they did. They had access to his private
quarters, they were even of his own kindred, they were of his
own tribe. and yet they were ambitious schemers
who grasped this moment of instability in Israel to commit foul murder
and then tried to ingratiate themselves into the good offices
of David, even calling upon the Lord and saying that this was
the Lord's will in order to justify their deed. Rechab and Banna
may have thought that they were doing the Lord's will in bringing
Ishbosheth's head to David, but the Lord does not require that
sin be committed in order to advance his cause, nor that wicked
men do evil to promote good. These men received their just
desserts at the hand of David and his decisive judgment in
this instance in holding them accountable for their vile act
is to be applauded and appreciated. They murdered a defenceless man
while he was asleep in bed in his own house. David had been weak in the matter
of Joab and Abishai and their slaying of Abner. He acknowledged
as much at the end of the previous chapter. And perhaps there is
a lesson for us here too in the different ways that David dealt
with these situations. As the Lord's people, We often
feel a heightened sense of injustice at the sin that we see all around
us, the evident sin that is in the world. We find it offensive. There are some matters in which
we can make a difference. And perhaps that difference can
be made by speaking out. Perhaps it can be made by helping
those who are persecuted, those who are exploited. Perhaps it
is in showing an act of kindness where it is needed. Being a friend
to someone in need. On the other hand, As we've seen
with David, some things are too much for us. Some things are
too big and must be left in the hands of God to deal with in
his own time. May the Lord grant us wisdom
in such matters. May he show us those areas of
life where we may be useful and helpful in the community and
to our neighbours and our friends and our family. And may he give
us a perspective on the great things, the big things, the perhaps
political things, the things that concern us and cause anxiety
as far as the world is concerned. And may he give us the contentment
to leave these matters in his more than capable hands. There
are a few lessons that I want to draw from this passage today. And the first one is this mention
that we have made of Mephibosheth, because I think it's very interesting
that Mephibosheth is introduced to us here. We're given a little
bit of information about him, but really he doesn't take part
in this story at all. As I say, we have a little bit
of history given to us here. He was the son of Jonathan. Now
Jonathan, you'll remember, was Saul's eldest son and David's
dearest friend. Jonathan had died with his father
in the battle against the Philistines on Mount Gilboa. And in the way of royal lineage,
Had David not been anointed king by Samuel, in fact, Mephibosheth
might have been expected to be the rightful king of Israel by
succession. The line of succession would
have gone from Saul to Jonathan, to Mephibosheth, Jonathan's oldest
son. So that Ishbosheth not only denied
David, but also Mephibosheth's claim to the throne of Israel. Now Mephibosheth was just young. He had been hurt, he'd been disabled,
he'd been rendered lame on his feet as an infant at the time
of his father's death and his grandfather's death. His nurse,
hearing about the death of his father and the defeat of Israel
against the Philistines, became anxious and afraid that very
likely, as would be expected, the Philistines would seek out
the family of Saul and put them to death. And so she tried to
preserve the life of the infant in her charge. but she dropped
him as she fled, as she rushed out of the house, she dropped
him following the Philistines' victory and fearing for the young
prince's life. In scripture, Mephibosheth is
given to us as a type of a sinner ruined by the fall of Adam. and incapable of walking in the
ways of the Lord. Now, if somebody was injured,
if somebody was lame and unable to walk, you could tell that
lame man to get up and to come to you. But if that lame man
can neither stand nor walk, then and insist as you may, He can't
respond. And that is a picture of a sinner. A sinner is a person who is incapable
of walking in the ways of the Lord. A sinner is a person who
is dead spiritually in their trespasses and sins and cannot
respond and come to Christ. Christ must say to the lame man,
as he does in the Gospel to the man who was let down into the
house by his four friends, Christ must say to the lame man, arise! and he must give that enabling
power of grace to do so. We're going to come back to Mephibosheth
in a later chapter but here we note his appearance and we're
given the reason for his lameness. Another thing that I would like
to point out to you is verse 9 of our chapter, especially
the reference that David gives us there to his faith in the
living God and the redemption of his soul out of adversity. I just think that that is such
an interesting phrase for David to use in the context of his
accusations and condemnation of these two wicked men. I'm sure that David knew that
the Lord had often redeemed his life from the threats of his
enemies such as Saul. And yet the words that David
used carry all the more significance coming from the lips of this
man who was beloved of God and chosen by grace to salvation. David's not just talking about
physical, temporal deliverance out of the hands of his enemies.
Because it's David who's speaking, he is also alluding to the spiritual
salvation and the spiritual deliverance which he experienced and enjoyed
at the hands of the Lord. David spoke of redemption by
the Lord long before the Lord Jesus ever came into this world
to redeem his people from their sins. And yet David knew that
his soul was redeemed. And here I think we have a lovely
example of how the scriptures tell us, inform us that these
Old Testament people knew about the redemption of a soul. They
knew because men like David spoke to them about these things. David's words anticipated the
coming of the Redeemer. And these men and women of the
Old Testament, these remnant believers, these true Israelites,
they knew about sacrifice and they knew about redemption. They
had faith and they trusted in the Lord just as we do today. Christ had not yet come but David
believed the Lord had nevertheless redeemed his soul. He looked
forward in hope and yet rightly referred to this in the past
tense because Christ had already been set up in the covenant of
peace, in God's divine plan of salvation, as the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. The sacrifice of Christ was yet
to come, whose life blood would be shed for the cleansing of
sin and the purchase of life for all the beloved of the Lord. David's comments somewhat in
the form of an oath which he uses to express his conviction
that the punishment of Rechab and Banna was being done with
a sense of justice in the sight of the Lord. He's calling the
Lord to vindicate what he's about to do in judgment and condemnation
upon these men and in this way David testifies publicly to his
faith in the holiness of God, the justice of God, and the redemption
and salvation to be found in God. And that is an excellent
witness. Testifying in our lives to the
holiness, justice, and salvation of God in Jesus Christ is the
whole testimony of grace. If we are believers, if we have
a personal testimony of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we
do exactly as David did. We testify of God's holiness,
we testify of God's justice, and we testify of his salvation
in Jesus Christ. That's the whole testimony of
grace. and it explains the background
of our great need as sinners and points to the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Lord and Saviour. Now finally, one last point and
then I'm done. I like the confidence with which
David spoke these words. Here's what I mean by that. If
you were listening last week, you might have heard me mention
how disappointed I was, how disappointing it was to note the absence of
the Lord in David's thinking when he met with Abner and then
when he dealt with the fallout of Abner's murder at the hands
of Joab. Now why David was so distant
from the Lord at this time, I do not know. Why he was so cold
in his heart towards the Lord is not said. And yet here's something changed. And it appears that David is
back thinking about the Lord in his life's experience. Perhaps
David had realised his own weakness because of Joab and Abishai. Perhaps he'd become lazy and
satisfied with his kingly role in Judah when he now realises that God
has more work for him to do, more responsibilities for him
to assume. Either way, I'm glad to see that
David is back fellowshipping with the Lord, thinking about
Him, speaking of Him in this public way. And it is very easy
for us to lose sight of the Lord, just like David, and grow cold
in our soul towards Him. Like David, we readily take God's
goodness for granted and we think that we're doing fine by ourselves. And sometimes the Lord has to
shake our lives up a bit to cause us to be aware of our weaknesses
in order to return our thoughts and our affections to him. We call this chastening. The
Lord never loses one of his children. He chastens us to bring us back
to himself. So if like David, you find yourself
going through a hard time, you find yourself in a troubling
experience, Use the moment, not as a reason to complain against
God, but as an opportunity to return to the Lord and to seek
his comfort and his help. Sadly, we often leave the Lord,
whether we're younger or we're older. but the Lord is always
faithful to us. Praise be his name. May the Lord
bless these thoughts to us today. Thank you very much for listening.