Crimes and Mythdemeanors

Let's pray and get started. Lord Jesus, again, as we open up your word, we ask that you would send your

Holy Spirit to open up our hearts and minds, and through the means of grace, through the word of truth, you would help us to rightly understand what you have revealed there, that we are to believe, teach, do, confess.

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, by way of a little bit of summary, last time we were talking about David, we noted that David was engaged in quite an elaborate ruse.

And in this particular case, we're not giving any credit to David as far as what he was doing as being right.

He had decided to go again, once again, on Israel's most wanted list.

He heads to the land of the Philistines because he's convinced that Saul would continue to hunt him down if he stayed in Israel.

He was speaking the truth. He goes to the land of the Philistines, puts on the pretense that he's become a loyal Philistine citizen and an upstanding

Philistine. He ended up getting this town of Ziklog. It was given to him by one of the lords of the

Philistines. And from Ziklog, that became his base of operations, and he was attacking all of the friends of the

Philistines and then leaving nobody alive, because of course, everybody knows dead men tell no tales.

And then he would straight up lie to the face of the Philistine overkeeper. This guy just fell for it.

Eventually, the Philistines gathered their forces together to actually go to war against Israel.

And David, having to keep the pretense up, he and his men traveled with all of the

Philistine army. And when the lords of the Philistines saw that David was among them, they freaked out.

And then we had this insanely bizarre story of how this lord of the

Philistines just said, I really fought for you,

David, but these other guys are not comfortable with you. And David having to say, what do I need to do to show to you my loyalty?

And he says, we must part the ways. And so they parted ways, and David has now split off from the

Philistine army and is heading back to Ziklog. And this is the point in which we're going to note that these lies that he's been telling, although they preserve his life, there's nothing really good that comes of it.

And it literally almost cost David his own life, because he wasn't where he should have been in this next part of the story.

So just to kind of reorient ourselves, the Philistine army is encamped.

They're getting ready to go to war with Saul. And Saul has already consulted the witch of Endor, and she engaged in necromancy.

And God actually permitted Samuel to come up from Sheol to let Saul know that he was going to die the next day.

And tragically, Saul, rather than repent, they kill the fatted calf and barbecue it and eat it, rather than him head to the tabernacle and offer up sacrifices for the forgiveness of his sins.

So Saul is tragically going to die in his impenitence and rebellion. It's just a terrible story, but that's still coming up.

So you kind of get the idea of where we're at in the story at the moment. Okay, so we read 29, how

David parts the ways, good, achish, and all that kind of stuff. So David, verse 11, so David set out with his men early in the morning to return to the land of the

Philistines, but the Philistines went up to Jezreel. They're getting ready to go to war with Israel.

That's just where our context is. 1 Samuel chapter 30, then, now, when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, pay attention to that third day stuff in Scripture.

It's always kind of a telltale sign. Something's going on here. The Amalekites made a raid against the

Negev and against Ziklag. They had overcome Ziklag, and they burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great.

They killed no one, but carried them off and went their way. And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire, their wives and their sons and their daughters taken captive.

Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep.

Then David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahanoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Naval of Carmel.

David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters.

But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. So a little bit of a note here.

David wasn't where he should have been under any circumstances. This pretense that he had put on nearly got him killed among the

Philistine army. He escapes with his life, and then when he gets back, Ziklag has been sacked.

Everybody taken captive, all of their loved ones gone. They're talking about stoning him.

And you can almost hear what their argument for stoning David was.

If it hadn't been for you putting on this big pretense, acting like you're all for the

Philistines and lying to their face and us having to go out and march out with them, we would have been here to protect our family.

So this is all your fault. So they're bitter in soul. So David, his popularity numbers have plummeted greatly here at this point.

Plummeted greatly. And so you'll note then that David, we get this wonderful phrase,

David strengthened himself in Yahweh his God. Which is actually what we're all kind of called to do in the midst of our troubles.

Is David faultless about how this trouble had come upon? No, he practically bears all of the blame.

And so he biffed it. Now, that's like an 80s term, but showing my age.

Renee can get it. Yeah, when I was in high school, yeah, yeah.

We'd say no duh and biff and, you know, this weird 80s isms. But he totally biffed it.

I mean, he fell on his face here. He is totally responsible for this. And what does he do? He strengthens himself in the

Lord. How is that possible? He's been a complete moron, a buffoon.

He's morally culpable. He's to blame. Answer, how do you strengthen yourself in the Lord when you're the one who biffed it?

The prayers go something like this. Lord, I biffed it. And if it hadn't been for me, we would not be in this trouble.

I totally screwed up. I sinned. I've done wrong. Have mercy on me.

And guess what? God does. That's the amazing part. So I like to look at stories like this where we see somebody even as great in Scripture as King David and see that he is every bit as sinful by nature as I am, as you are.

And I sit there and go, man, if God can forgive that guy, he can forgive me.

And so you'll notice the saints... Let's put it this way.

David didn't walk on water. Far from it. He actually made some decisions that were utterly boneheaded, sinful, indefensible, and the like.

So, now that David has strengthened himself on the Lord, David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech.

We all know how the song goes, Ahimelech, Ahimelech. He said, bring me the ephod.

Now, what's the ephod? The ephod is the vestments of the Levitical priesthood. And on the ephod, you have the breastplate.

As part of the breastplate, they had the Urim and Thumim. These are ways by which you can literally talk to God that was set up for Israel at this time as part of the covenant.

It's kind of like throwing dice, but not quite. And you would get yes, no, or no answer at all.

If they came up a particular way, there was no answer. And this is what was happening to Saul. Remember, he was consulting the

Lord. Should I go up against the Philistines? What do I do here, God? Throw the Urim and Thumim.

Nothing. God, do it again. Nothing. Do it again. Nothing. God's not talking to you.

Yeah, right? That works for Joseph Smith. No. No, actually, no.

Okay, if you know Mormon mythology, and that's the best way to put it, Mormon mythology, there is an

Urim and Thumim in Mormon mythology. I call it that for a reason. Because the claim is that after the angel

Moroni revealed to Joseph Smith where the golden tablets were, that the golden tablets, when translated, become the

Book of Mormon, nobody's seen them, by the way. Nobody's ever seen these golden tablets. Yeah.

It's because they didn't exist. Anyway, so no one was ever permitted to see them.

But what Joseph Smith claimed is that the angel had also given him the

Urim and Thumim from the Old Testament. And the way it worked was he was behind a curtain.

So he was behind a curtain saying that he was looking at the golden tablets, and there was a guy on the other side of the curtain who was not permitted to see the golden tablets who was like transcribing, right?

And so the way he tells the story is he put the Urim and Thumim into a hat and then put his face into the hat, and they gave the magical ability to see through the hat and then read the characters on the golden tablets which were supposedly

Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics. There's no such thing as... Totally plausible, right?

Yeah. Yeah, there are some claims that there may have been.

But I mean, that's... Okay, so the Mormon claim regarding the Urim and Thumim doesn't even remotely match the

Old Testament. It was a Mosaic Covenant thing specifically to ask God direct questions.

Okay. We went down a bunny trail, but that's okay. We got it out of the hat.

I'll be here all week. Anyway, David inquired of the Lord, Shall I pursue after this band?

Shall I overtake them? God answered, Pursue, for you shall surely overtake and you shall surely rescue.

So David set out and the 600 men who were with him, and they came to the brook of Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.

Now, a little bit of a note here, two things. Typologically, when you read the Church Fathers in their sermons or commentaries on this text, they see this as a little bit of a mini -typological picture of Christ going to rescue

His Church, the Bride of Christ. That's kind of the picture that they... And I think that's kind of a good devotional way of reading it.

But typologically, it's just a little bit thin. Now, this is another piece of this that is really important.

And that is... Let me ask you this question. In the Kingdom of God, is anybody, in the truest sense, greater than anybody else?

No, not at all. Do you remember last Sunday's... I think it was last Sunday's gospel text about the workers in the vineyard?

The workers in the vineyard. The guys who started at 6 in the morning. How much did they get paid?

Dinero. A denarius. They got paid 30 pesos.

Anyway. Dinero. They got paid one denarius.

Well, that's funny. I'm going to have to remember that one.

No dinero. No dinero. Anyway. So they got paid a denarius.

How much did the guys who got hired like one hour before sunset, how much did they get paid? Same. And what was the big thing?

You're treating them and making them equal to us who've borne the heat of the day.

That was the claim, right? This is another story that is a lot like that. And if you remember last week's gospel text, the kingdom of God may be compared to.

This is how it started off. Jesus started off the parable with those words. This is a kingdom section of Scripture.

This is teaching us about the kingdom itself. And so you're going to see in what comes next this difference between the guys who stayed to guard the baggage and the guys who went to fight the battle.

Based upon, this is a kingdom thing, were they treated differently or treated the same based upon what you know of how things work in the kingdom.

The same. And you're going to see it's almost the same exact theme and motif.

But we see it in the Old Testament. So we'll see that as we read this out. It looks like it's raining rats and sheep out there.

Is there a lightning? Right there? Lightning.

Okay. Okay. All right.

So David pursued. He and 400 men. 200 stayed behind who were too exhausted to cross the brook

Besor. And you're going to learn that these fellows, they guarded the baggage, which is actually kind of an important thing if you think about it.

When armies travel, especially in the ancient world, and really even up to this day, supply lines are a big deal.

Is an armed force able to move quickly if they are really bogged down with supplies?

No. In order for an army to be really effective, they need aggression and speed.

Those are two key components to winning a battle. And so the fact that some guys were willing to stay back and they were too exhausted anyways to basically guard all the food and supplies and all that kind of stuff made it so that David's army was able to just totally lighten up and only take what was necessary, armor and swords for the engagement, which makes them a very, very deadly force.

So they found an Egyptian. So they're on their way. They found an Egyptian in the open country. They brought him to David. And they gave him bread and he ate.

They gave him water to drink. And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins.

I mean, isn't it fascinating? I mean, we're getting the menu that this fellow engaged in.

Isn't it fascinating? It's little details like this that tell us this isn't mythology. This is history.

And whoever was recording this history had an intimate knowledge of even some of the minutia. And that minutia actually helps demonstrate this ain't some long time ago in a galaxy far, far away kind of stuff.

So when he had eaten, his spirit revived for he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights.

He was near death. David said to him, to whom do you belong? Where are you from?

He said, well, I'm a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite. And my master left me behind because I fell sick three days ago.

Isn't that just great? Yeah, yeah. Here goes this third day stuff. So you've got a slave who falls sick.

I've got the solution. We're just going to leave you to die. Human life was worth like nothing.

Nothing. All right, so I fell sick.

When we had made a raid against the Negev of the Carithites and against that which belongs to Judah and against the

Negev of Caleb, we burned Ziklag with fire. David said to him, will you take me down to this band?

He said to me, swear to me by God that you will not kill me or even worse, deliver me into the hands of my master and I will take you down to this band.

Can you imagine what would have happened to that fellow if he had been returned to his master? Yeah, he's the guy that led us to you.

You can have him back. Yeah, that wouldn't be good. So good deal on his part. So when he had taken him down, behold, they were spread abroad over all the land, eating and drinking and dancing because of all the great spoil they had taken from the land of the

Philistines and from the land of Judah. This is just foolishness. Have you ever seen game video footage of college football games where some guy, literally, they're on the 20 -yard line back on their side of the field and the running back gets the ball and he runs that ball and nobody's catching up to him and he gets 10 yards from the end zone and he starts doing like this and then boom!

You ever seen that? That's kind of like what this is happening here. You don't party and dance just a few kilometers away from the town you sacked.

This is just dumb on so many occasions. So I'm just saying, if you're going to do an end zone dance, wait until you get across the end zone.

Just kind of. All right. So they were dancing because of all the great spoil and David struck them down from twilight until the evening of the next day.

Not a man of them escaped except 400 young men who mounted camels and fled.

Apparently camels are fast enough that you can get on one and get out of town. So David recovered all that the

Amalekites had taken. David rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing.

Whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken.

David brought back all. David also captured all the flocks and the herds.

The people drove the livestock before him and said, this is David's spoil.

All right. A little bit of a note here. This is how this works. The guy who led the raid, he's the one who decides what happens with the spoil.

Remember when Abram conquered the ten kings? All right. Who did the spoil belong to?

Himself. He tied the part of it and gave the rest back to everybody. Didn't keep a penny for himself.

Who does the spoil belong to? David. The text says so. This is David's spoil.

So then David came to the 200 men who had been too exhausted to follow

David and who had been left at the Brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him.

And when David came near to the people, he greeted them. Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered except that each man may lead away his wife and his children and depart.

But David said, You shall not do so, my brothers, with what

Yahweh has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us who would listen to you in this matter.

As for his share, for as his share is who goes down into battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage.

They shall share alike. And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day.

Does this not sound exactly like the same concept taught in last week's

Gospel text? It's the same thing. So, small or great?

Apostle or young child? All are seen, treated, and rewarded equally in the kingdom of God.

That's interesting. So you notice, this kingdom theology is present and in play all the way back in the

Old Testament. By the way, this is something that's actually stated quite explicitly in Scripture.

The opening chapter of 2 Peter. Listen to this.

2 Peter 1, verse 1. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Those are some pretty big, ginormous credentials within the church.

He is a true apostle of Jesus Christ. We know about his discipleship.

We know his great successes, terrible failures. We know about his great fall and his restoration into the apostolic ministry.

This is a man who gave his life, laid down his life to preach the

Gospel. So he's Saint Peter. And here's what he writes about you.

To those who obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our

God and Savior Jesus Christ. Equal standing.

Equal. Now, it's been a tradition among Lutheran churches for a long time.

Time immemorial, if you would. Lutheran churches are oftentimes named after saints.

Saint Matthews. Saint Peters. Saint Pauls. Common names for Lutheran churches.

What about Saint Robin? Saint Janet? Because of that, there shouldn't.

But you see the point I'm making. Saint Scott. Are you not saints?

Is your faith not on an equal standing with Peter's? Uh -huh.

And so you kind of get the point that I'm making. We don't oftentimes think of it in these terms.

We always and again have this hierarchical view of Christianity. And we inherit it from the world's understanding of how power works.

Right? The power is always this hierarchy. Look at an organizational chart for a

Fortune 500 corporation. CEO at top. And then below him the

VPs and then their different departments. And then the guy who just hired on in the mail department.

He's down at the bottom here somewhere. And this is how we think. Top. Down. But in the

Kingdom of God, the last will be first. The first will be last.

Everything's flipped. You have a faith of equal standing. You have a citizenship of equal standing as Peter's, as Paul's, as David, as Jonathan, of Abraham.

In fact, have you considered this? You will be resurrected on the exact same day they are resurrected.

They will not precede you. You will not be behind them. We will all have the same rebirth day together.

Yeah, that's right. We get grandstand seating for the destruction of the heavens and the earth and the creation of the new heavens and new earth.

Grandstand seating. And we'll all be in the nosebleed section, by the way, for that. This is true.

But there will be no nosebleed, so we'll have to call it something else. This is just critical stuff.

And so I love how this text in 1 Samuel talks about those who said,

Nuh -uh, you get nothing. We get more than you. The Scripture calls them what?

Worthless fellows. Remember when Jesus responded to the guys who were grumbling?

We worked the whole day long and bared the heat of the day, and you've made them equal to us?

What did Jesus say to them? Buddy. Hey, buddy. I'm doing you no wrong.

This is my stuff. Can I not do with my stuff what I want to do with my stuff? Or do you begrudge me because I am generous?

I find it always fascinating. When you look for the connections between Jesus and David, the connections are clear.

And what's fascinating is that David is exemplifying something that's taught by Jesus explicitly in one of his parables.

I mean, there it is. Just does it. Fascinating.

So we continue. Let me get back. So he made it a statute and rule for Israel from that day forward to this day.

All share alike. When David came to Ziklag, he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the elders of Judah, saying, here is a present for you from the spoil of the enemies of Yahweh.

It was for those in Bethel, in Ramoth, of the Negev, at Yathir, in Ereor, of Shipmoth, Esh Tamoah, in Rachal, in the cities of the

Jeheramilites, in the cities of the Kenites, Hormah, Bor, Ashan, Atach, in Hebron, and for all the places where David and his men had roamed.

Let's see what comes next. So you notice we're going to jump back now.

Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel. So while all of this was going on, the

Philistines launched their attack against Israel. The men of Israel fled before the

Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. The Philistines overtook

Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchushua, the sons of Saul.

So three of his sons die in the battle. The battle pressed hard against Saul. The archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers.

Then Saul said to his armor -bearer, Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and mistreat me.

But his armor -bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Now this is important data.

Keep this in mind so you know how this actually went down. So the battle just couldn't go worse.

Israel's fleeing before the Philistines. The archers of the Philistines are able to figure out, Hey, Saul's over there, and they launch barrage after barrage.

He gets hit, wounded. He's probably mortally wounded, but we don't know for sure.

And so he says to his armor -bearer, We're about to be taken prisoner. They're about to take us.

And you can only imagine what would have happened to Saul had they taken him alive. And so he literally says to his armor -bearer,

Kill me. Have mercy on me. Kill me. And the armor -bearer's like, No way.

Killing a king is a big deal. It's a big deal.

I oftentimes, not in our lifetime, but in recent history, a person who kind of stands out as one who you have to really wrestle with as far as his morals is

Bonhoeffer. Does anyone know the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer? He actually played a part in the plot known as Operation Valkyrie.

So he's a clergyman plotting to kill Hitler. And when you kind of just sort this out, there's no way that what he was doing was not a sin.

In fact, he himself acknowledged it as a sin. And he said that it would have been the greater sin for me to not try to take his life because by his life being ended, other people's lives would be saved.

This is how he justifies it. But nonetheless, it's a sin. And when

Operation Valkyrie totally blows it, pun intended, and if you know the story, they tried to assassinate this guy so many times and nothing ever seemed to work.

This was a bomb in the same room as him, feet away from him, and just the way the table in the conference room was and where the bomb was deflected the blast enough that he got out of it with just his ears ringing.

And you sit there and that's just crazy. But Bonhoeffer, they find the plot, he finds part of it, he ends up in prison, and as the

Allied forces are about to liberate the prison where he's at, the

Nazis execute him. And you sit there and go, yeah, it's a sin to actually kill a head of state.

And so he's one of these guys that you just, he creates some real thorny issues for us.

And in this text, here we have this fellow, the king begging him, kill me, and he's, no way, no way.

And you know how the real story is because what's going to happen is that somebody else is going to take credit, but you now know how this happened.

So, his armor bearer would not, he feared greatly, therefore Saul took his own sword and he fell on it.

Saul dies by suicide. And when his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and he died with him.

Thus Saul died, and his three sons and his armor bearer and all his men on the same day together.

And when the men of Israel, who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled and the

Philistines came and lived in them. This is just devastating. This is like the

Dodgers playing the San Diego Padres. It's just like that bad. None of you seem amused by that.

Okay, a little inside baseball joke. Yeah, pun intended again. Tough crowd today, tough crowd.

Okay. It's like the Yankees and the Twins, right? Yeah, okay. Alright.

The next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

So they cut off his head, stripped off his armor, sent messengers throughout the land of the

Philistines to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people.

They put his armor in the temple of Ashteroth and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth -Shan.

And when the inhabitants of Jabesh -Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, went all night, took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth -Shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.

And they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and then they fasted for seven days.

This is an Israeli special ops operation at this point. What if they didn't have his head?

Well, yeah, that was separate. Yeah, they had the bodies, but they didn't get the head. And what these fellows did, and this is going to come up.

It's going to be mentioned again very shortly. What these fellows did is they basically sacrificed their ceremonial cleanness in order to take away the dishonor that was being shown to Saul and his sons and their carcasses, and to take that away from them.

In the ancient world, when one army would lose to another army, it was always seen as a victory of one god over another god.

And so they risked their lives. They became ceremonially unclean for seven days as a result of this.

They ended up fasting after it in order to remove that dishonor that was being shown to Jonathan and Saul and his other two sons.

And it's a real testimony to kind of the right thing to do.

Even showing respect for those who have departed. Not dishonoring them in death.

Alright, let's see here. 2 Samuel 1. Now, in order to get this next part, let's review some of the kingdom theology here.

David has been up to this point the anointed but not yet coronated king of Israel.

Who was keeping him from being the king? Well, the other king that God had anointed, and that was Saul. And we see two completely different fellows.

One is a man of faith, one is a man of no faith. One bears fruit in keeping with repentance and obedience to God.

The other one despises the word of the Lord and is constantly disobeying Him. It just plays out.

One is like the old Adam, the other is like the new Adam, Christ. And you see how this is all playing out.

And now, things are different. Saul is dead. And you're going to note that David does not immediately become the king of Israel.

It's going to take some time. He becomes the king of the Jews and then later becomes the king of all of Israel.

There's growth in his kingdom. And this kind of has eschatological significance for where we are right now.

But things are going to change. Things are going to change for him, but they're going to change slowly. He's always been the anointed king.

He will eventually be coronated the king of Judah, the king of the Jews. Then, after some time, he will eventually become the king of Israel.

And this is so kind of typologically important. So, David inquired of Yahweh, Shall I go up into the cities of Judah?

The Lord said to him, Go up. David said to him, Which shall I go up? He said, To Hebron. So David went up there, and his two wives, also

Ahanoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Noval of Carmel. David brought up his men who were with him, everyone with his household, and they lived in the towns of Hebron.

The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.

So remember, he was anointed by Samuel. Now he is coronated the king of the

Jews. I say that because when we talk about Jews, Jews are descendants of Judah.

We think they're all Hebrews. No, no, no, not all Hebrews are Jews. Somebody from the tribe of Levi is not a

Jew. They are not from the tribe of Judah. Somebody from the tribe of Reuben is not a

Jew. They are a Hebrew of the tribe of Reuben. So you're going to note, David is first the king of the

Jews. When Jesus was on the cross, he was declared to be what?

King of the Jews. That's his coronation day, is it not? I mean, the governor of that region declared him to be the king of the

Jews. He was even crowned. There was even a coronation ceremony.

Granted, it involved being punched in the face, but he was clothed in purple, crown of thorns pressed on his head, and the titulus, that's the name of the thing above the cross, read the king of the

Jews. And the scribes and Pharisees took issue with it. And they said, no, no, no, no, no, no.

It should read, he claimed to be the king of the Jews. What was Pilate's response? What I've written,

I've written. When Christianity begins, who does it begin with?

Jews. It takes a while before Christianity eventually spreads to the rest of the world.

It begins as a Jewish affair. In fact, Jesus himself said in Luke 24, Proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sins in my name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem.

So you're going to note, David first is the king of the Jews. The majority of the people who live in Israel today, they are either from the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Levi, or the tribe of Benjamin primarily.

There are some who claim that they are Reubenites and others, but that's a small percentage. Do you remember what happened to the

Northern Kingdom after they split, after the death of Solomon, and the

Northern Kingdom goes into idolatry? How does God punish them? He scatters them.

It's called the Diaspora. He literally disperses them into the other nations. It's called the

Diaspora. We call them the 10 lost tribes of Israel, right? So today, the

Jews are primarily from the tribe of Judah. Primarily.

And you can always tell somebody who is a Levite by their last name.

Does anyone know anybody with a last name of Cohen? C -O -H -E -N. Cohen is

Hebrew for priest. The way they kept track of who the Levites were, they took the last name of Cohen.

So Moshe Cohen, that's Moses Cohen. He's a Levite. So if you ever meet somebody with a last name

Cohen, they are a descendant of the tribe of Levi. But the rest of the tribes, I don't know anybody who claims to be from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, Reuben.

Nobody talks like this. And if there are some people who are saying this, it's a tiny, tiny percentage.

Where'd they all go? We don't know. God literally took them, scraped them off of the top of Israel, sent them into the nations, and they've scattered into all of the rest of the nations.

So now David is the coronated king of the Jews. But he's still the anointed king of Israel, all of Israel.

But he's not reigning over all of Israel yet. So when they told David, it was the men of Jabesh -Gilead who buried

Saul. Okay, let me pause here, and I want you to consider this. In the ancient world, when a king dies and the new king arises, first order of business is what?

Put to death those who are loyal to or are going to potentially make a claim or run at the throne, who are loyal to the other guy.

That means if he has children, you kill them. No joke. Any of his close supporters, people who are a part of his cabinet, dead.

This is the way you secure power is you destroy anybody who you think could potentially rise up to take it from you.

So loyalty to the dead king is bad in the ancient world.

Really bad. Now you think of these fellows from Jabesh -Gilead who showed real respect and honor to Saul and to Jonathan and Malkishua and took their bodies down and burned them and buried them.

In the ancient world's way of thinking, should David be chumming up to these guys or keeping an eye on them?

He should be keeping an eye on them. But watch how David behaves. So when they told

David, it was the men of Jabesh -Gilead who buried Saul. David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh -Gilead and said to them, may you be blessed by Yahweh because you showed this loyalty to Saul, your lord, and you buried him.

Now may Yahweh show steadfast love and faithfulness to you and I will do good to you because you have done this thing.

Now therefore, let your hands be strong and be valiant for Saul, your lord, is dead and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.

Wow. David isn't like the kings of the earth.

He's a lot like Jesus. Isn't that fascinating? He's not threatened at all by their loyalty to Saul.

Now, here comes an interesting chapter. It's going to take a little bit of time for this to resolve and I want you to consider this.

We'll talk about the end as well as the beginning of this. Do you remember when

David was in the wilderness the second time running from Saul? God gave

Saul into David's hands a second time. First time, Saul was relieving himself in the cave.

That was the first time. Second time, he was asleep. In fact, everybody in the camp was asleep and David and Asahel went into the camp.

They got the spear of Saul and Asahel said, oh, let me just kill him. He won't feel a thing.

And David said, no, don't touch the Lord's anointed. So they took his spear and they took his water jar and remember when they left the camp, they went to the other side of the ravine and David calls out, who's the person's name he calls out to?

Abner. Abner is the second in command. He's like the major general over the whole army, right?

Abner, you deserve to die. Who's calling to the Lord, right? Who's calling to the king?

You didn't protect your master. Behold, this night people came into your camp to do your master harm.

You should remember that. So Abner and Saul were tied. Abner was there with Saul while Saul was out there chasing

David down like a dog. I'm going to kind of talk about the whole story arc here in this little mini part of the story.

Abner has not at this point bent the knee to God and he's going to rebel against God.

And we're going to see later in the story that Abner knows perfectly well what

Yahweh has said about David, that David is anointed to be king, that Samuel anointed him and that at David's anointing as king that God promised to save Israel through David.

He knows this perfectly well because you're going to see later he's going to quote these verses. But at this point, what he does is utterly treasonous.

He's going to act without an office and he's going to do something that he has no authority to do.

He's going to set up another king. He does not have the ability, the authority to do that.

He does not have permission, pick on the sermon here, to do this. And so this fellow is going to start off in utter treason and rebellion against God.

And this is a fellow, if anybody should get justice, if anybody should have their carcass strung up on a tree and have the birds eat the flesh off of the carcass, it's this guy.

But that's not how it's going to end. His story is a beautiful story that will end in his repentance.

And it's beautiful what his repentance does, but it'll also show the scandal of God's mercy.

So pay attention to the story of Abner and how this plays out because at this point, he is totally bucking

God. And in so doing, he is defying the word of the

Lord and following in the footsteps of Saul. But he will not perish in unbelief as Saul did.

Yeah. The implication is that he might have been in the heat of battle and realized, oh, we're overrun.

Run away, run away. Okay, yeah. He should have died also. The fact that he lived kind of begs the question.

It's like, oh, okay, all right. Yeah. And you're going to see that this is a fellow who thinks he's pretty darn important is the best way

I could put it. So let's keep reading a little bit and then we'll wrap up in just a few minutes. So Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, took

Ish -bosheth, the son of Saul, brought him over to Mahanaim, and he made him king over Gilead and the

Asherites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all of Israel.

Did he have authority to do this? None. Ish -bosheth is not a valid king.

He was not installed and anointed by the will of God. Abner is totally defying the

Lord at this point. Ish -bosheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old when he began to reign over Israel.

He reigned for two years. But the house of Judah followed David and the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

Abner, the son of Ner, and the servants of Ish -bosheth, the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.

Now, this is going to become known as the Battle of Gibeon. It's going to start off as kind of sparring games and turn into a full -blown skirmish with people dying.

So Joab, the son of Zariah, and the servants of David, went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon.

Now, if you remember, Joab is like David's mighty men of valor. Joab is like David's right -hand fellow.

Joab has two brothers, Asahel and Abishai. Those are his two brothers.

That's going to be important stuff to keep that in mind. So David's right -hand fellow goes to Gibeon at the pool of Gibeon, and there he meets

Abner and his guys. Joab and his guys are there on the other side of the pool.

Abner said to Joab, let the young men arise and compete before us. So this is like a competition, a skirmish.

We'll have some martial games. We'll have a little tournament.

They arose, passed over by number, twelve for Benjamin and Ish -bosheth, the son of Saul, twelve of the servants of David, and each caught his opponent by the head, thrust his sword into his opponent's side, so they fell down together.

Therefore that place was called Hel -kath -hazurim, which means the field of the sword edges, which is at Gibeon.

And the battle was very fierce that day. And Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David.

So let's just say the competition turned into something more than competition.

It's like going to a hockey game and a fight breaks out. It started as a game, turned into something else.

So the three sons of Zariah were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel.

Now Asahel was as swift a foot as a wild gazelle. That tells me a lot about wild gazelles.

I had no idea how swift a foot they were, right? Asahel pursued Abner as he went, and he turned neither to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner.

So as the battle is getting out of control, it started off as friendly competition, turns into a full -blown battle.

Everybody's kung fu fighting. Abner decides that he's going to skedaddle and get out of town.

So he's fleeing, and Asahel, the brother of Joab, sees this.

This is the same Asahel that was with David who wanted to pin Saul to the ground with his own spear.

And he sees Abner, and he's in hot pursuit. He's single -minded in pursuing

Abner, and he wants to kill him. That's what he wants to do. Abner looked behind him and said,

Is that you, Asahel? And he answered, It is I. Abner said to him,

Turn aside to your right hand or to your left and seize one of the young men and take his spoil. But Asahel would not turn aside from following him.

And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn aside from following me. Why should

I strike you down to the ground? How then could I lift up my face to your brother Joab?

But he refused to turn aside. Therefore Abner struck him in the stomach with the butt of his spear, so that the spear came out of his back.

Now a little bit of a note here. He didn't intend to kill Asahel. In the heat of the moment, if he had intended to kill him, he would have speared him with the sharp edge of the spear.

His intent was to just kind of knock the wind out of him and get him to stop pursuing him.

Abner's feeling threatened, so he takes the butt of his spear, does this, but it's too hard.

It goes into Asahel, out his back, and Asahel dies a horrific death.

It's actually quite terrible. So the butt of his spear, that spear came out of his back, he fell there and he died.

Where he was, all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died stood still.

But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. Of course they did.

Now at this point the story gets interesting. Joab and Abishai, who are the surviving brothers, they are going to bear a grudge and everything that they are going to do at this point regarding Abner is going to seek revenge for the blood of their fallen brother.

And that's going to play into this. They pursued Abner, and as the sun was going down they came to the hill of Ammah, which lies before Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon, and the people of Benjamin gathered themselves together behind Abner and became one group and took their stand on the top of a hill.

Abner called to Joab, Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that the end will be bitter?

How long will it be before you tell the people to turn from the pursuit of their brothers? Joab said,

As God lives, if you had not spoken, surely the men would not have given up the pursuit of their brothers until the morning.

So Joab blew the trumpet, all the men stopped and pursued Israel no more, nor did they fight anymore.

Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah, they crossed the Jordan, and marching the whole morning they came to Mahanaim.

Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner, and when he had gathered all the people together, there were missing from David's servants nineteen men besides Asahel, but the servants of David had struck down of Benjamin 360 of Abner's men.

And they took up Asahel, buried him in the tomb of his father, which was at Bethlehem. Joab and his men marched all night, and the day broke upon them at Hebron.

Now a little bit of a note here, I seem to have missed a part of 2 Samuel chapter 1. That was an unintentional skipping.

Let's take a look at it real quick. I'm not sure how

I did it. Hey, I'm getting old. Okay.

Let's go back to 2 Samuel chapter 1. 2 Samuel chapter 1.

So the death of Saul has occurred.

Just go back in your minds a little bit. And we've noted that the men of Jabesh -Gilead, they have been honored and will be honored for their loyalty to Saul.

Let's see how this story ends then. After the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the

Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag. And on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul's camp with his clothes torn, dirt on his head.

And when he came to David, he fell to the ground, and he paid homage. David said to him, Where do you come from?

And he said to him, I've escaped from the camp of Israel. David said to him, How did it go? Tell me.

He answered, The people fled from the battle, and also many of the people have fallen and are dead.

So Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead. Then David said to the young man who told him,

How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead? Now watch what happens.

You all know how this happened, right? How did Saul die? He killed himself. Watch what this fellow does.

This fellow is going to tell a lie. He's going to tell a lie, thinking that by saying this lie, he's going to make himself look important in the eyes of David, and that he will receive a reward for the story that he's going to tell.

He's going to take credit for Saul's death, and basically claim to be the one who now makes it possible for David to be king.

So he said, How did it tell me? How did it go? The people fled from the battle, also many of the people have fallen and are dead.

Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead. David said to the young man who told him, How do you know that Saul and Jonathan are dead?

The young man who told him said, By chance, I happen to be on Mount Geboa. And there was

Saul leaning on his spear. Behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and he called to me, and I answered,

Here I am. And he said to me, Who are you? I answered him, I am an Amalekite. And he said to me,

Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers. So I stood beside him, and I killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen.

And I took the crown that was on his head, and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to you, my

Lord. Is that how it went down? Nope. Now, bringing

David the crown that belongs to him, probably a smart thing to do. Huh?

How did he get it? That means this guy was probably close on the scene when

Saul had committed suicide, and he took it. Because you'll notice part of the story actually has the same language.

When Saul says to his armor bearer, he says, Here I am, you kind of get the same dialogue.

So he probably overheard that part of it, and he's now brought David his crown. And you would think,

Oh man, you're the guy who killed Saul, you're the guy who made it so I could be king, and you brought me the crown too? Oh my goodness.

Here's a big reward. I'm going to give you a villa on the Mediterranean. Things like that, right?

Watch what David does. So David took hold of his clothes, tore them, so did all the men who were with him, and they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan and his son and for the people of the

Lord and for the house of Israel because they had fallen by the sword. David said to the young man who told him,

Where do you come from? He answered, I am the son of a sojourner. I'm an Amalekite. David said to him,

How is it that you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy Yahweh's anointed?

The armor bearer was terrified by the thought and wouldn't do it. David called one of the young men and said to him,

Go, execute him. He struck him down, so they died. David said to him, Your blood be on your head for your own mouth has testified against you, saying,

I have killed Yahweh's anointed. So he treats him as an assassin.

Isn't that fascinating? Then David lamented with his lamentation over Saul and Jonathan, his son.

He said, It should be taught to the people of Judah. Behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.

He said, Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places. How the mighty have fallen. Tell it not in Gath.

Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon. Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice. Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult.

You mountains of Galboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor fields or offerings.

For the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul not anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty.

Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely in life and death, they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles.

They were stronger than lions. You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously and scarlet, who put on ornaments of gold on your apparel.

How the mighty have fallen in the midst of battle. Jonathan lies slain on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother

Jonathan. Very pleasant have you been to me. Your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women.

How the mighty have fallen. The weapons of war perished. Isn't that fascinating?

He has nothing bad to say about Saul, and he honors him in his death, recognizing that he was

God's anointed and that he filled that office and died in that office.

Very interesting. Backing up to that guy who said he killed

Saul. Yeah. And David killed him. The Amalekite, yeah. How should we take it that Saul mistakenly killed an innocent man?

That David served to die to be alive? Yeah, okay, good question. So here's the thing, okay?

He said your blood be upon you because you have said. David's king, right?

In our country, we have three branches of government. Legislative, executive, judiciary.

In a king, all three are in one. David as king has the right to try cases.

This fellow has just confessed with his own words and given evidence that he assassinated the sitting king of Israel.

So David said, your blood's on you. Did it matter to David?

David had no way of knowing that he hadn't done it. He just took his word for it and said you just confessed to doing this crime. That'd be like Lee Harvey Oswald.

I mean, after he shot Kennedy, going and turning himself into the police station saying

I'm the guy who did it. In fact, if anybody had done that...

Except Oswald. Yeah, actually, Oswald did it. Some guy named

John Curley went and turned himself in and said I'm the one who did it. They would have prosecuted him for it.

You see it? He was thinking he was really going to do well.

He would have done well to just tell the truth and say here's the crown, I found it. He would have done very well.

But he decided to embellish the story and make him the killer of a king. Not a good thing. All right, we'll pick this all up next week.