2 Samuel chapter 3, and we're reading
from verse 1. Now there was long war between
the house of Saul and the house of David, but David waxed stronger
and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker. And unto David were sons born
in Hebron, and his firstborn was Amnon of Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess,
and his second was Cheliab of Abigail, the wife of Nabal, the
Carmelite, and the third was Absalom, and the third Absalom,
the son of Maaca, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur, and
the fourth, Adonijah, the son of Haggith, and the fifth, Shephatiah,
the son of Abital, and the sixth, Ethriam, by Eglah, David's wife. These were born to David in Hebron. And it came to pass, while there
was war between the house of Saul and the house of David,
that Abner made himself strong for the house of Saul. And Saul
had a concubine, whose name was Rispa, the daughter of Eah. And Ish-bosheth said to Abner,
Wherefore hast thou gone in unto my father's concubine? Then was
Abner very wroth for the words of Ish-bosheth, and said, Am
I a dog's head, which against Judah do show kindness this day
unto the house of Saul thy father, to his brethren, and to his friends,
and have not delivered thee into the hand of David, that thou
chargest me today with a fault concerning this woman? So do
God to Abner, and more also, except as the Lord hath sworn
to David, even so I do to him, to translate the kingdom from
the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel
and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba. And he could not
answer Abner a word again, because he feared him. And Abner sent
messengers to David on his behalf, saying, Whose is the land? Saying also, Make thy league
with me, and behold, my hand shall be with thee to bring about
all Israel unto thee. And he said, Well, I will make
a league with thee, but one thing I require of thee, that is, thou
shalt not see my face except thou first bring Michael, Saul's
daughter, when thou comest to see my face. And David sent messengers
to Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, saying, Deliver me my wife Michael, which
I espoused to me for an hundred foreskins of the Philistines.
And Ishbosheth sent and took her from her husband, even from
Phaltiel the son of Lysh. And her husband went with her
along, weeping behind her to Baharim. Then said Abner unto
him, Go, return. And he returned. And Abner had
communication with the elders of Israel, saying, Ye sought
for David in times past to be king over you. Now then do it,
for the Lord hath spoken of David, saying, By the hand of my servant
David I will save my people, Israel, out of the hand of the
Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies. And Abner
also spake in the ears of Benjamin. And Abner went also to speak
in the ears of David and Hebron, all that seemed good to Israel,
and that seemed good to the whole house of Benjamin. So Abner came
to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made
Abner and the men that were with him a feast. And Abner said unto
David, I will arise and go, and will gather all Israel unto my
lord the king, that they may make a league with thee, and
that thou mayst reign over all that thine heart desireth. And
David sent Abner away, and he went in peace. And behold, the
servants of David and Joab came from pursuing a troop, and brought
in a great spoil with them. But Abner was not with David
in Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he was gone in peace. When Joab and all the host that
was with him were come, they told Joab, saying, Abner, the
son of Ner, came to the king, and he hath sent him away, and
he is gone in peace. Then Joab came to the king and
said, What hast thou done? Behold, Abner came unto thee. Why is it that thou hast sent
him away, and he is quite gone? Thou knowest Abner, the son of
Ner, that he came to deceive thee, and to know thy going out
and thy coming in, and to know all that thou doest. And when
Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner,
which brought him again from the well of Sirah. But David
knew it not. And when Abner was returned to
Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly,
and smote him there under the fifth rib, that he died for the
blood of Asael his brother. And afterward, when David heard
it, he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless before the Lord
for ever from the blood of Abner the son of Ner. Let it rest on
the head of Joab, and on his father's house, and let there
not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that
is a leper, or that leaneth on a staff, or that falleth on the
sword, or that lacketh bread. So Joab and Abishai, his brother,
slew Abner because he had slain their brother Asael at Gibeon
in the battle. And David said to Joab and to
all the people that were with him, rend your clothes and gird
you with sackcloth and mourn before Abner. And King David
himself followed the buyer. And they buried Abner in Hebron.
And the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner.
And all the people wept. And the king lamented over Abner,
and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth? Thy hands were not bound,
nor thy feet put into fetters, As a man followeth before wicked
men, so fellest thou. And all the people wept again
over him. And when all the people came
to cause David to eat meat, while it was yet day, David swear saying,
So do God to me and more also, if I taste bread, or aught else,
till the sun be down. And all the people took notice
of it, and it pleased them, as whatsoever the king did pleased
all the people. For all the people and all Israel
understood that day that it was not of the king to slay Abner
the son of Ner. And the king said unto his servants,
Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day
in Israel? And I am this day weak, though
anointed king, and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, be too hard
for me. The Lord shall reward the doer
of evil according to his wickedness. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
that rather longer reading from his word. We spent quite a long
time then reading the history of this chapter and I hope that
you've understood and been able to follow the narrative as we've
been going along. So I really don't feel that I
need to go over it again. Very simply, if I may, in a paragraph,
recount the whole chapter. We see this continuing struggle
for supremacy between the House of David in Judah and the House
of Saul and the rest of the Kingdom of Israel. It doesn't appear
that there were any more large battles certainly none that are
mentioned, but David's position, David's relative strength is
in the ascendancy while Israel's is decreasing. David's position
fares better, perhaps due to smaller skirmishes and likely
too because Israel knew that David was God's appointed king
and they leaned towards him and away from Ish-bosheth. And I
have no doubt that Abner, while he was the general of the Israeli
army, he was dominant in that position. I have no doubt that
he and Ishbosheth were aware of their diminishing influence.
And I'm also in no doubt that neither of them trusted the other. A quarrel takes place between
this puppet king Ishbasheth and his enabler-in-chief Abner. And because of the quarrel over
a concubine, Abner abandons Ishbasheth and proposes a treaty with David. Abner will betray Ishbasheth.
and he will convince the elders of the tribes of Israel to support
David and bring the whole nation under David's rule. The special
mention of the tribe of Benjamin was because, of course, Abner
was of Benjamin, Ishbasheth was of Benjamin, and Benjamin was
the tribe of Saul. So in a sense, they had the greatest
amount to lose, and Abner made especially overtures to the tribe
of Benjamin and the other tribes. David, when he hears Abner's
proposal, secretly agrees to enter into a treaty and there
is only one condition, that his first wife, Michael, is also
returned to him. As Abner attempts to bring over
Israel to David's side, he meets with David and the outcome of
that meeting is that he is slain by Joab while visiting David
in peace. And in order to distance himself
from the appearance of guilt concerning Abner's murder, David
makes a great public show of distress at Abner's funeral. So there's a little potted history
of the chapter. In truth, there are very few
positive things to say about this whole episode. No one in
the story shows any real character or comes out of this well. And I think we can make a point
about this. Sin in the life of men, sin in
our lives, always brings us down, always brings shame and judgment. And perhaps the only thing that
we can say is that out of this whole episode, God's justice
is accomplished. Even when the rats eat each other,
God's will will be accomplished. That's not a Bible verse, by
the way. The Bible references in Psalm 76 verse 10, it says
there, surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder
of wrath thou shalt restrain. But the very wrath of man, the
evil nature of man, of Abner and Joab and Ishbosheth and even
David, though it was all in this mix of political intrigue that
caused so much destruction and distress. The very wrath of man
shall honour God and God will be honoured and accomplish his
purposes out of it and through it. Ishbasheth was a weak, nervous
man who makes unproven allegations concerning Abner. Abner is proud
and devious and deceitful. David in this at no point Despite
his history, despite all that he had been through, David at
no point involved the Lord in any of this politicking or scheming. In fact, he appears rather to
spend his time taking more and more wives and fathering more
and more children. which in the end is to his shame
and his ultimate misery. Joab is a vicious, spiteful man,
self-serving while outwardly supporting David. He is insolent,
he is vengeful and he is impulsive. And actually, the only one that
I've got any sympathy for in this whole chapter is Falthiel,
the son of Laish, because he clearly lost the wife that he
loved. All of that said, I think there
are a few lessons that we can learn from this account because
the Word of God always has something to teach us, even if it is only
how to mark and note the bad example of others in order to
avoid the pitfalls for ourselves. And I think, despite what I've
said, there is one positive encouragement right at the beginning of the
passage. Verse one says this, that there
was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David,
but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul
waxed weaker and weaker. And I think that this is a lovely
type of the effect of grace in the life of a believer and in
the Church of Jesus Christ. We often feel that we are at
war with this world. And true it is, while we are
on this earth we fight against principalities and powers and
spiritual wickedness in high places. Even in our own souls
there's a battle between the old man of sin and the new man
which is spiritual. And it goes on a long time. But
though the battle is prolonged, although it is sometimes hot
and fierce, although it is sometimes covert and subtle, David's kingdom, or rather Christ's
kingdom, will wax stronger and stronger. And the kingdom of
Satan will wax weaker and weaker. Wax. I guess we all know what
beeswax is. This is a different kind of wax.
This is a different meaning to the word wax. Wax is an old word. It's a kind of poetic word I
suppose nowadays if you were to see it being used. It means
to grow progressively, to grow a little bit at a time. We don't
use the word very often. Probably the place where it's
most used is when we speak about the moon because we say that
the moon waxes for two weeks every month and then it wanes
for two weeks every month. So the moon has a full cycle
in the space of a month and it waxes and it wanes during that
cycle. It starts at zero, goes to full
and goes back to zero again. It progressively gets bigger
and then it progressively gets smaller. That's not to say that we wax
and wane in our holiness, but what it does mean is that our
holy man, the holy man of the heart, waxes and wanes in his
battle against sin. Sometimes we feel as if we're
a little bit victorious, sometimes we feel as if we're losing ground. Sometimes we feel as if we go
three steps forward and two steps back. But here's the promise. This is the promise that God
makes to his people, to his church. Good will overcome evil. Truth will overcome lies. Grace will prevail and the victory
that Christ won for his people at the cross will be possessed
and will be enjoyed. For now, We're all grown under
the trials that we feel but these trials will not last forever. They're sent to test us, they're
sent to build our trust in the Saviour who is our deliverer
and who is our friend and the kingdom of Christ will wax stronger
and stronger and the kingdom of Satan will wax weaker and
weaker until the end time. Here's another thing that we
learn from this chapter. Abner's death at the hands of
Joab, Abner's death was publicly lamented by David. And to me,
it seems likely that a large part of David's mourning and
his outward expressions of grief and respect for Abner were for
political reasons. The elders of Israel all knew
that Abner was trying to make a deal with David. And in truth,
it looked really bad that Abner had been killed while doing so. There is no question that Abner
surely deserved to die for all the many crimes that he had committed
and the many times that he'd set himself against the Lord's
servant, against the Lord himself and resisted God's will. Abner
knew that David was the anointed king. He says as much when he
is negotiating with the elders of the tribes of Israel. Nevertheless, Joab's act was
murderous in itself and it left David exposed to the anger and the wrath of
the other tribes in Israel. It was basically an assassination
and it could well have galvanised the whole of Israel to rise up
against Judah in a, well, what would have been surely a mutually
destructive rage. I think that this was a moment
in which the whole history of Israel was on a knife edge and
David understood that. Abner, for all his faults, was
a highly respected and experienced leader. David's actions are a
case study in damage limitation. And yet, I say again, There is
little evidence in all this that David was actively seeking the
Lord's help and direction in any of it. Previously, as we've
followed the story of David, he had asked the Lord to lead
him. And on each occasion when he
had asked the Lord to lead him, the Lord's guidance proved to
be faultless. Where was the Lord in all of
this? Perhaps David thought that Abner's proposal and the combining
of the kingdoms was all so clearly part of the Lord's plan that
the Lord didn't need to be inquired of. For whatever reason, David did
not seek confirmation for what he was doing. He did not allow
for the disruptive intrusion of a joab or any other eventuality
that could have set this plan awry. And I think that this too
is a lesson for us. As believers, we know that everything is going to work out all right
in the end. We believe that. We know as believers
that God is in control and that his sovereign will is being accomplished. However, that knowledge does
not release us from seeking the Lord's help daily and praying
to the Lord for guidance and support. These two things go
together. Our confidence that God's will
is being done and our frequent and regular approaches to God
and inquiries of him for his help. In fact, the Lord told
Ezekiel the prophet, I will yet for this be inquired of by the
house of Israel to do it for them. What that means is that
the Lord is saying that the things that he is going to do for us,
he wants to be asked for them. He wants us, he wishes us to
ask. And I'm sure that our pathways
in this world are harder because we don't cast our cares upon
the Lord as we should. And I'm as guilty of that as
ever David was. We can only look forward to the
time when in David's life, in David's experience, we look forward
in hope for that time when we shall read again and David inquired
of the Lord. Perhaps until that time, we could
practise more inquiring of the Lord for ourselves, for even
the things that we imagine we've got well under control. Often
we all think, I've got this, and then we discover we haven't.
Here's my third little lesson for today and then we're done.
At Abner's grave, David asked a question. He asked, died Abner
as a fool dieth? His hands were not bound. Had
Abner realised the danger he could have fought and defended
himself? But he didn't. His feet were
not tied. Had the odds been so overwhelming,
he literally could have run away. But he trusted Joab. He trusted
Joab. And Joab was too much like Abner
himself to be trustworthy. Neither of these men were trustworthy.
When we trust someone, we leave ourselves open and vulnerable. And it is wise to be careful
about who we trust in this world. We will undoubtedly be disappointed
and most likely we shall in turn disappoint others too. You young
people who are listening, listen to me on this point. In the end,
there is only one person who truly and fully merits our trust
and our confidence in this world and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. The psalmist says, Psalm 118,
it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in
man. And I would like us all to lay
hold on that. It is better to trust in the
Lord than put confidence in man. The Psalmists write, Joab was
a vengeful, deceitful, insecure, selfish, and not-to-be-trusted
man. Our Lord Jesus is sacrificial,
truthful, loving and kind. He is gentle. He is worthy to
be trusted. And I heartily recommend him
to you all. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy
ways acknowledge him. and he shall direct thy paths. Amen.