2 Samuel 3:1-11

Prayer Before the Reading of Scripture

Burt, will you open us up with a word of prayer, sir?

Our Holy Father, we do thank you for another day, another day that's in the Christian life, a very special day. A day we worship and come together as a community to worship, as a congregation. We pray now, Father, that your voice might today as He has studied and prepared for us today, so we can reap from this.

And I would ask you to prepare our hearts for the services to follow in Jesus' name. Amen.

Reading and Initial Exposition of 2 Samuel 3

I guess I need my tool, my moment.

Chapter 3, 2 Samuel, it says,.

Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. David grew steadily stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker continually. Sons were born to David at Hebron. The first was Amnon by Ahinoam, the Jezreelitess.

And the second was Kiliab by Abigail, the widow of Nabal, the Carmelite. The third was Absalom, the son of Machal, the daughter of Talmah, king of Jeshur. And the fourth was Adonijah, the son of Haggath.

The fifth was Shethetai, the son of Abatal. And the sixth, Ethreum, by David's wife, Eglah. These were all born to David at Hebron. And it came about while there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, that David, I'm sorry, between the house of Saul and the house of David, that Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul.

Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. And Ishbosheth said to Abner, why have you gone into my father's concubine? And then Abner was very angry over the words of Ishbosheth.

And he says, am I a dog's head that belongs to Judah? Today I show you kindness to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers and to his friends, and have not delivered you into the hands of David.

And yet today you charge me with a guilt concerning this woman? May God do so to Abner, and more also, if as the Lord has sworn to David, I do not accomplish for him to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and to establish the throne of David over Israel, over Judah, from Dan to Beersheba.

And he could no longer answer Abner a word because he was greatly afraid of him. Then Abner sent messengers to David in his place and he sang, Whose is the land? Make your covenant with me, and behold, my hand shall be with you to bring all of Israel over to you.

And he said, good, I will make a covenant with you, but I demand one thing of you, namely, you shall not see my face unless you first bring Michal, Saul's daughter, when you come to see me. So David sent messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul's son, saying, Give me my wife Michal, to whom I was betrothed for 104 skins of the Philistines.

And Ishbosheth sent, and he took her from her husband, from Paltiel, the son of Laish. But her husband went with her, and she was weeping as he went, and followed her as far as Baharim. And Abner said to him, Go, return, so he returned.

Now Abner had consultation with the elders of Israel, saying, In times past, you were seeking for me to be king over you. Now then, do it, for the Lord has spoken to David, saying, By the hand of my servant, I will save my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines, and from the hand of all their enemies.

Abner also spoke at this hearing, in the hearing of all the Benjamites. And in addition, Abner went, and he spoke in the hearing of David and Hebron, and all seemed good to Israel and to the house of Benjamin.

Then Abner and twenty 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 go and gather all of 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 went in peace. And behold, the servants of David and Joab came from a raid, and brought much spoil with them. But Abner was not with David in Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he had gone in peace.

Then Joab and all the army that was with him arrived. They told Joab, saying, Abner the son of Ner came to the king today, and he has sent him away in peace. And Joab came to the king, and he said, What have you done?

Behold, Abner came to you. Why have you sent him away, and he has already gone? You know, Abner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive you, and to learn of your outgoings and your comings in, and to find out all that you are doing.

And when Joab came out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the well of Sarai. But David did not know it. So Abner returned to Hebron, and Joab took him aside in the middle of the gate, speaking to him privately.

And there he struck him in the belly, so that he died on account of the blood that he had killed his brother Asahel. Afterwards, when David had heard it, he said, I and my kingdom are innocent before the Lord forever of the blood of Abner and the son of Ner.

May it fall on the head of Joab and all of his father's house. May there not fail from the house of Joab that one would have a discharged, one who is a leper, one who leans on a staff, and who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread.

So Joab and Abishai, his brother, killed Abner, because he had put their brother Asahel to death at the battle of Gibeon. Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, Tear your clothes, gird on sackcloth, lament before Abner.

And the king of David walked behind the beer. Does anybody say anything else other than beer there? They say casket, coffin. Everybody says beer? It means corpse. I don't know if anybody translates that.

Thus they buried Abner in Hebron. And the king lifted up his voice, and he wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept. The king chanted a lament for Abner, and he said, Should Abner die as a fool dies?

Your hands were not bound, nor were your feet put in fetters. As one falls before the wicked, you have fallen. And all the people wept again over him. 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 until the sun goes down. Now all the people took note of it, and it pleased them. Just as everything that the king did pleased all the people.

So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king's wishes to put Abner the son of Nir to death. Then the king said to his servants, Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?

I am weak today, though anointed king, and these men, the sons of Zariah, are too difficult for me. May the Lord repay this evildoer according to his evil deeds. Lots to try to get through here. So I'll just be honest with you, we may not get through everything in chapter 3.

Abner, Civil War, and David’s Growing Kingdom

But I do want us to remember, kind of recap what happened last week. Anybody remember? Started a war. Started a war. Then what happened? Where did we end at? Yep. So obviously there's widespread civil war.

Incursions, skirmishes, however you want to call it. And it's interesting, the next thing it says, There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. Why was there a war between the house of Saul and the house of David?

Why? Because of Abner. It wasn't Saul's fault. It wasn't Ishmael's fault. It was Abner. And what was Abner? Besides the kingmaker, what was he? He was a politician. He's always looking out for his best interest.

So it says here that the war between them was strong. It says that David steadily grew stronger and the house of Saul grew weaker. So we can see what God is doing by having his now appointed king. Remember, this is the first time in history that God's appointed king is now ruling in Hebrew.

But what's the problem with him ruling in Hebrew? It's not the way God intended it to be. What were they supposed to do? He was supposed to rule God's people, all of Israel. Right now we've got Ishmael who was a puppet king for Abner.

He's ruling in the north, basically not doing anything, but just basically living off whatever the benefits that Abner has provided for him. So we know this, that God's got to do something for David, and David is aware of that.

Hey, I'm king here, but not here. God's going to have to figure out how he's going to bring all this together. And Abner the kingmaker will come in and try to do that. But it said that in verse 2, it says, There were sons born to David at Hebron.

His first was Amnon. What do we know about Amnon? If I misspell this, somebody make me spellcheck. What do we know about Amnon? He set it up. Alright, so this is, He sets up Tamar, towards the middle, end of the book.

We'll get into that. And it says, Then by Ahinoam the Jezreelite, I'm sorry, his first one was Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite. The second was Kiliab. I'm going to do, I know how to spell this better.

His name's Daniel if you look in, I think it's 1 Chronicles 3, verse 11. It's translated Daniel. Kiliab, it's the same, it's basically the same. What do we know about this guy? Wasn't he one of David's mighty men?

Did he become one of the mighty men? Him? Just a son. We don't know much about him. We don't know much about him. This we don't know a whole bunch about. Other than that he was born to his first two wives on his on his fugitive.

His wife from him being a fugitive. Then it says here, the third, Absalom. A-L-O-M, what is it? O-L-M. What do we know about this cat? He does. We'll put a couple up. He was the brother. Yep. Well yeah, half brother.

Half brother of Amnon obviously because of David. He was pretty. We're going to find out this guy, he was pretty. That's what it says. I'm just telling you what it says. He was pretty. He was gorgeous.

But who was he born to? What's that? Who was his daughter? King of Gesher. Pagan or non-pagan? Alright. He tries to usurp. We'll stop there. Because that one gets pretty tough. He's also a good speaker too.

Yeah, the people loved him. Actually it's funny. I think when we get to this part it says he was a Imagine being that dude. Imagine being that guy. Everybody loved him. Oh, what else do we know about that guy too?

That mug has some big hair. Remember that? Goldilocks. Here, we'll do that. Goldilocks. There we go. We got Goldilocks. That ain't you, Luke. That ain't you. Alright. But pagan wife. Fourth Adonijah. What do we know about this cat?

He's also the one who's going to try to be king after David. Well, he tries to get the concubine or something like that. Because that.

If you understand If we go, and we're going to look at this in just a second We're going to look in Kings and you understand what he did the next section is going to make more sense. So if you want to, why don't we look over to 1 Kings I think it's 1 Kings and I think it's chapter 2.

Yep. Yeah, because it's after David dies. Alright, we'll begin at chapter 2 verse 10 1 Kings. It says, Then David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. The days of David rained over Israel was 40 years.

7 years he rained in Hebron 33 in Israel and Solomon sat on the throne of David his father and his kingdom was firmly established. Okay, so we know that Solomon was established by David to be king correct?

Right? We all agree with that. But prior to that what Stephen was just saying is adonijah seeing that his dad was weak and it's probably the first part of chapter 2 he is seeing that he is weak he is not doing anything he gets chariots for himself he begins to have men run with him and he basically says he's going to be king.

Okay? So, Nathan says and Bathsheba go to him and say hey you got to check out what your son's doing what he's doing is trying to usurp the throne and you've not told everyone who's going to be the successor.

So David being weak says okay I will take care of that. He gets them together lets know that it's going to be Solomon and when I die he's going to be the one to take it. But here's what happens. He acquiesces and says to David or to Bathsheba I know that David has said it's my brother Solomon to be king.

But I ask one thing one thing.

That you give me Abishag. Back.

Up to verse 1 of chapter 1 of 1st Kings. It says now the king David was old he was anced in years they covered him with clothes but he could not keep warm so his servants set out all the land they said seek a young pretty virgin for him for the lord that she may attend the king and become his nurse.

Let her lie with him in his bosom that the lord that our lord the king may be warm. So they searched for a beautiful girl throughout all of the territory of Israel and found Abishag the Shumanite and they brought her to the king and the girl was very beautiful and she became the king's nurse and served the king but the king did not cohabitate or have relations with her.

So why did they get Abishag? That's it she was a heater. He was old he was cold and he needed somebody no matter how much clothing they could put on him. He couldn't get warm. The easiest way to get warm if you've ever been out in the freezing cold and you're cold is to take the body heat of another person and put it next to you.

I just think it's funny that he didn't want an ugly one. It was like hey man if it was me I want you to go find the biggest woman so that I.

Can be all snuggled up to it. Yeah I want her to just.

Hold me. Yeah so they gave him a pretty one so at least she's pretty to look at. But when he dies okay here's what happens after he dies. Verse 13 of chapter 2. Back over to chapter 2. Now Adonijah the son of Hagath came to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon and said do you come in peace?

And he said peacefully I come. And he said to her I have something to say to you. And she said speak. So he said you know that the kingdom was mine and that all of Israel expected me to be king and however the kingdom was turned about and had become my brothers for it was his from the Lord.

Now I'm making one request of you do not refuse me. And she said to him speak. And he said please speak to Solomon the king for he will not refuse anything that you ask that you may give me Abishag the Shumanite as my wife.

Bathsheba said very well I will speak to the king for you. Verse 19. So Bathsheba went to king Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah and the king arose and met her and bowed down before her and sat on his throne.

Then he had a throne set for the king's mother and she sat on his right and she said I am making one small request of you. This is not a small request but it's interesting that's how she coins it. I am making one small request and please do not refuse.

And the king said to her ask my mother for I will not refuse you. So she said let Abishag the Shumanite be given to Adonijah your brother as a wife. King Solomon answered and said to his mother and why are you asking for Abishag the Shumanite for Adonijah?

Ask for him also the kingdom for he is my brother even for him for Abathar the priest and Joab the son of Zariah. Then King Solomon swore by the Lord saying may God do so to me Amorah if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life.

Now therefore as the Lord lives who established me and set me on the throne of David my father and who has made me a house as he promised surely Adonijah shall be put to death today. So King Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and he fell upon him that day and struck Adonijah dead.

You understand what Adonijah was saying by wanting.

Abishag. Anybody? No.

Under kingship whoever took the throne got the harem the concubines and all the ones the servants that came with it. So by him saying okay I don't get the kingdom right? I don't get the kingdom but you give me her in its place.

What did Solomon just say by doing that they would see? I might as well give him the kingdom might as well give him Abathar and Joab and although Abathar and Joab wind up being part of Adonijah trying to usurp the kingdom they come alongside behind David's back and try to help Adonijah do that.

Okay now they get their they get put to death as well we won't get that far in King but anyway they wind up getting put to death too. Abathar he gets exiled and he gets his life spared because he did walk before David and he says I'm not going to kill you because of this.

But Joab he's going to die. So he says hey because you've asked for Abishag that's like asking for the kingdom it's going to look like you've taken the kingdom and because you're trying to back door me I'm going to put you to death.

And that's exactly what he did. He put Adonijah to death. Now.

Polygamy, Kingship, and the Meaning of David’s Sons

Back to 2 Samuel chapter 3. Then.

Sheph what is it? Shephitah? We don't call him Sheph. What do we know about that guy? Not a whole bunch do we? And then.

What do we know about Ephraim? Anything? Not really.

But what we do know. Problem, problem problem. Major problems.

Each one of these men had no respect for their father. And I think as you know man Absalom was absolutely adored by his dad. He was probably going to get the kingdom. He was probably going to get the kingdom.

But because he, and you will see the conspiracy that takes place but because he tries to usurp it we'll see that he winds up dying in battle. And it's interesting, I don't want to jump too far ahead but it's interesting that there is a curse in this chapter on Joab for killing Abner.

Joab kills his own son and he does not curse him for killing his son. I don't know about y 'all but if somebody kills my son I'm probably going to take care of that relatively quickly. But he did not.

So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, so how many wives does that say he has right now in Hebrew? Go back 20 years ago maybe?

Let's say 20 years ago he had one. Anybody remember who that was? We read it.

McCall, or Mecall, whatever. Don't say Michael because I don't want to sound like I married David. That might not sound good in today's culture. Michael and David were married! So, what do we see? He is certainly expanding but we're seeing polygamy.

What does Deuteronomy 17 say about polygamy? He shouldn't multiply wives. Now, I understand it as he shouldn't take more than one. That would be my understanding. There are some men who believe that the multiplying does not mean he could not take any.

But that he has taken too many. But I go, where do you draw the line? Where do you draw the line? If you take 1 times 1 1 plus 1, what do you get? You get 2. That's multiplied. So, he should not have taken any more than Michal.

And I know that's a whole different situation and we'll deal with that if we get there, which we probably won't today. But he is expanding his seed. Was it uncommon for kings to do what David did? No.

Did King Saul do what he did? Yeah, King Saul did what he did. Did all the other kings in pagan lands do that? Yeah. And what was the reason? Make sure you had offspring to one. If military campaigns and all that, your people are put in place and we'll learn.

We might even go to Chronicles at some point and you see that David's men, David's sons, even the ones that are born in Jerusalem from concubines and all that, they learned that being in the army, he takes care of them.

So, hey, have that quiver full. Have a lot of offspring because a lot of offspring means you have a lot of influence. But that was not God's intent. Now, has the Bible said anything wrong about polygamy?

Hang on. Old Testament revelation. Old Testament revelation. Is there any prohibition except for the king? Any prohibition? Me and Andy were talking earlier this week and I said, you know, Job was smarter than we really realized.

You know, Job had one wife. Look at all the patriarchs that we have. How many wives did they have? At least two. And we know that Abraham had more. Yeah. And Keturah, after he died, we know that he had more sons and daughters were given to him.

So we know that the patriarchs had multiple wives and concubines. You know, it never says anything about but one wife and it was Mrs. Job. It's like, wow, man, that guy was smarter than we think. And what he held to the view of marriage, just from what we're drawing from Scripture, never said.

But David here, was it David's influence? Did he have just an eye for hot women? I mean, we don't know. I think taking Abigail and, what was her name? Ahinoam? Ahinoam? I think that was out of an act of compassion.

Remember, he had died. It doesn't say, but I do believe that Ahinoam was Nabal's wife. If you go back and we read what happened, he married both of them about the same time. And it happened after Nabal died.

Did he do it out of an act of compassion? Yeah, I do believe that he did. I think he did what he did because he says to her, I want to take you as my wife. And he saw her as being a trustworthy, godly woman.

Remember, she came to him and warned him, don't do what you're doing because if you do it, you will have it on your conscience when you take the throne. So he's like, hey, not only am I going to get a rich, pretty woman, I'm going to get a smart one too.

So this is what we do know about David in the time that he was at Hebron. Six more wives, one twenty years reserved or whatever, back in Gibeah. And he's expanding his kingdom. Now we get to chapter 3 verse 6 and we're going to see a switch in scenery.

It says, and it came about that there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David and that Abner was making himself stronger in the house of Saul. Alright, it just said that the house of Saul was getting weaker and weaker.

But what does it say about Abner? He's getting stronger. He's putting himself in more of a prominent position in the house of Saul. From my understanding, and it's not explicit, this would be an inference.

An inference is drawing a conclusion based on internal evidence that's not explicitly spoken. But we see Abner, if his prominency is getting stronger and stronger in the house of Saul, it shows that he's wanting to be in Saul's position.

It said... He's putting himself in a position to go, hey, remember Mr. Shameful? Mr. Bashful? He's just not cutting it. I'm going to be your guy. I'm the one that's actually going out and coming in with all of the military campaign.

Let's do a parallel. What did they think about David when he was going out and coming in and doing his thing and doing all the wars? Who was king? Saul was. But how did they see David? Because he was going out and being among the people and doing all these military campaigns and slaying tens of thousands.

And they were like, man, that's the guy. Well, here, we have that same kind of parallel. Ishmael being a weenie, okay, he's not a strong man. If you go back and look at those three verbs, he took, he brought, and he made.

I mean, it's all on a person who seems very passive. Abner is now putting himself in the position to go, this guy's not your guy. I'm your guy, and I'm going to be the one that ultimately will come this way and overthrow David until this takes place.

Or he won't make it out of this chapter.

No, we're not going to do that. Abner also is doing basically the same thing that Adonijah tries to do later on with Saul's concubine. That's exactly,.

And that's why we needed to see what that meant because when this accusation is made, you go, well, man, what does that mean? Well, now we'll know. Hey, Absalom, Absalom does the same thing, okay? Absalom takes ten of David's concubines, puts them up on the roof, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, for all to see on the roof, okay?

And he actually, and he was told to do that by a prophet. That's crazy. Hey, you want to gain authority? You want to gain position and power? Take your dad's harem, put them up on the roof, sleep with them for all to see, and then people will know that you're king.

You see what takes place when you take their harem. That was the point. And just to let you know as well, when Absalom does that, that was also a curse from God on David. He said, because David, what you did in private with Bathsheba, I'm going to have your neighbor do on the rooftop for the whole world to see.

And that was a fulfillment of that prophecy. So it says that Abner was making himself stronger in the house of Saul. Now Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Iah. And Ish-bosheth said to Abner, why have you gone into my father's concubine?

What do we know? We have no idea. But we know this. Ish-bosheth has been very passive. And here it is, there's a confrontation between the Ish-bosheth, the puppet king, and the actual real prominent person.

He says, hey man, why did you go into my dad's concubine? Now, he doesn't deny it. Look what he says. He doesn't say, I didn't do that. He doesn't say that. He says, why have you gone into my father's concubine?

Then Abner was very angry over the words of Ish-bosheth and said, am I a dog's head that belongs to Judah? Okay, he's saying, look, am I one of them dirtbags down here in the south? Am I one of those guys?

He never denies it. Now, how we should understand that is if Abner is gaining strength within the house of Saul, he goes into his concubines. What does that look like? He's the man. He's the man. He's the man.

I'll come to the conclusion that that is what he did. I know it's not explicit. We can disagree, and that's fine. You can throw books or whatever and say, I don't think he did that. I'm fine. But if we take him growing stronger and stronger in the house of Saul, gaining more prominence, he is then confronted by a man who's been passive the whole time.

Now he's confronted about, hey man, it looks like you're trying to usurp the throne, and then he gets angry. Good. He's busted. Yeah, he's busted. He sure does. He now defects because he's busted. Okay?

So here it is. Remember, Abner the kingmaker is always looking out for Abner. Abner is now, if my conclusion is correct, he's busted for making out with Rizpah. He now has been called to the carpet by Ish-basheth.

You have went into my father's concubine. You're now making yourself in the same position that I am. And what does Abner do? He says, hey man, basically says, am I a dirt bag like the guys in the south?

And he says this, today I show kindness to the house of Saul, your father, to his brothers, and to his friends. Now, did he do that? Was that an accurate statement? I would say yes. Was it not a kind thing for him to protect Ish-basheth?

It was. It was a kind thing. Yeah, but it was with ulterior motives. Sure was. But there was still something about it that said, hey, I can't let this guy die. Maybe I'll use him before I get done and use him up and then he'll be down the road.

But he did show kindness to him by not letting David kill him. Although I don't believe David would have killed Ish-basheth, and here's why. You remember when he made a covenant before God. Hey, Saul says, hey man, when you become king, just don't ruin my name and don't ruin my family.

And David said, okay. Yeah, and I think... It's almost like, you know, throwing water into the wind. It's like, what are you doing? You know this is inevitable. He's not a dumb man. He's a smart guy. Very smart guy, but I also need to remember this.

He is probably 70 to 77 years old. If he is Saul's age, let's just say, remember we said if he was Saul's age, okay, remember they were cousins. If he was Saul's age, he could have been anywhere between 60 and 70 years old.

If he was 60 years old, he'd be 67 right now. If he was 70 years old, he'd be 77 years old. You see what I'm saying? He's still looking at, okay, I'm getting to where I can't go out and do all these battles, but maybe I can put myself in a place of leadership if I defect from Ishmael and now go to David, and that's the plan.

He says, may God do so to him. He said, I'm sorry, back up. He said, I have not delivered you or any of the family into David's hands, and yet today you charge me with the guilt concerning this woman.

Once again, no denial. May God do so to Abner, and more also, if as the Lord has sworn to David, I do not accomplish this day for him. If you want to see taking the Lord's name in vain and it's a perfect example, this is it.

I certainly believe that using the Lord's name as a cuss word or flippantly or something like that certainly, but taking the Lord's name in the Old Testament, even in Jeremiah, he talks about it. He says, you use the Lord's name to say peace, peace, when there's no peace?

You tell the people that the Lord said this when He didn't? Why do they use the Lord's name? Why do they do it? Why did He do it here? To validate. To bring, hey man, what I'm fixing to do as the Lord lives is going to be done.

He's trying to use that to bring authority and to bring validity to His words. And that's what He does. We'll see it a couple more times happen with other people through this chapter. I do not accomplish this for Him to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and establish the throne of David over all of Israel.

So, once again, Abner the kingmaker, who's going to make David king over everything? Who does Abner think it is? Abner thinks he's the man. He's putting himself into position to say, you know what, I'm going to be the one to unify all of this.

And I'm going to do it for you, David. I haven't said it to him yet. That's what he's telling Ishmael. I'm going to do this for you. He's trying to keep polishing up his resume. Yep, he sure is. He says, and I will establish it from Dan to Beersheba.

Remember, what was Dan to Beersheba? This was establishing the time of the judges. Basically, from the furthest city to the furthest city. That's how anytime you hear from Dan to Beersheba, that was to encapsulate the whole tribes.

Then Abner sent messengers to... What time is it? Where are we at? We got five minutes? Maybe I shouldn't start. Questions? Comments? Maybe I should stop here for now. Do we know where Abner was from?

He was the son of Nir, so he would have been a Benjamite. Remember when Saul came into power? Sort of like we have it done today. We get a president comes in. He's a Democrat. What does he put in all of his offices?

Is there any conservatives in there? No. It's all liberal Democrats. When the Benjamite becomes king, what does he put in all of his offices? Benjamites. Actually, and if you remember, when they were at Giba, they were standing around.

The first time we saw him standing there was under the Timorous Tree. Remember he had a spear in his hand? He was saying, man, look at all you guys. My fellow Benjamites and nobody's told me where David is.

So that means when he was under this tree, there were probably 3 ,000 men with him. Remember? That was kind of what he kept with him. That means there were probably all 3 ,000 what? Benjamites. And what do we know about the Benjamites?

The jokers were ruthless. They were ruthless. Just prior to that, in the Book of Judges, you remember what happened in.

Gibeah? It's where the had to chop up the concubines.

The concubines. And what was the curse on the Benjamites from Jacob before he pulled up his legs and he died? They're going to be ravenous wolves. They're going to be ruthless. And when all of Israel came to here to fight Gibeah, you remember what happened?

But they got slaughtered the first time. They laid waste to the tribes. But then the next time they came, they did leave nothing but 400 and 200 grand and then they had to go kidnap wives and all that.

Closing Prayer and Benediction

So next week we'll pick up at verse 12 and just for Mike Smith's sake, I will promise I will get through next chapter. Every time I go, hey, I was going to be three weeks in chapter 2 and I'm going, Mike's going to say, you're never going to get out of here by the end of the year.

I did my part.

You'll close us with a word of prayer, Mike? We thank you for your word. We thank you that it's true. We thank you. Use it to strengthen us in our faith and ultimately to conform us to the image of your son.