2 Samuel 4

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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June 21, 2023

Job 6:21-30

00:01: Heavenly Father, we thank you that in your goodness you again brought us to your house.
00:09: We thank you for this day that you set apart for us and we pray, Lord, that you would bless those men who teach and preach in your name and that you would use this time to glorify yourself and to strengthen your people and to save the lost for us in Christ's name we pray.
00:29: Amen.
00:29: Amen.
00:30: All right, 2 Samuel chapter 4 and thank you, Mike, for handling those weeks that I was gone.
00:43: And Mike did bring to my attention, at least I feel like I was on the right track.
00:47: He said that Alistair Begg said, Admire the Kingmaker.
00:51: So at least I feel like I was on the right track.
00:57: All right, we're going to read the chapter.
01:02: Now when Ishbosheth, Saul's son, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost courage and all Israel was disturbed.
01:09: Saul's son had two men who were commanders of bands.
01:14: One of the name of them was Banna and the other was Rechab.
01:17: They were sons of Ramond the Bereathite and sons of Benjamin, for Beeroth is also considered part of Benjamin.
01:25: And the Bereathites had fled to Gittium and have been aliens there until this day.
01:30: Now Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son with crippled in his feet.
01:35: He was five years old when the report of Saul and Jonathan had come from Israel and his nurse took him up and they had fled.
01:41: And it happened that in her hurry fleeing, he fell and became lame and his name was Mephibosheth.
01:50: So the sons of Ramond the Bereathite and Rechab and Banna departed and they came to the house of Ishbosheth in the heat of the day while he was taking his midday rest.
02:01: They came to the middle of the house as if they were going to get wheat and they struck him in the belly and Rechab and Banna, his brother, escaped.
02:08: Now when they had came into the house as he was lying in his bed in his bedroom, they struck him, they killed him, they beheaded him and they took his head and they traveled by the way of the Erebah all night.
02:22: Then they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at Hebron and they said to the king, Behold the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, whom sought your life.
02:33: Thus the Lord has given my lord the king vengeance this day on Saul and his descendants.
02:39: And David answered Rechab and Banna, his brother, and the sons of Ramond the Bereathite.
02:45: And he said to them, As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all the stresses, when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead.
02:53: And though he thought he was bringing good news, I seized him, I killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news.
03:01: How much more when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house, on his own bed, shall I not now require his blood from your hand and destroy you from the earth? Then David commanded the young men and they killed them.
03:17: They cut off their hands and their feet and they hung them up beside the pool at Hebron and they took the head of Ishbosheth and they buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.
03:27: So, a number of weeks ago when we had finished up chapter 3, Abner was struck by, remember who killed Abner? Joab.
03:39: Joab struck him.
03:41: And actually he kind of tricked him, called him back thinking there was going to be an exchange, no maybe, and make their conflict end.
03:51: And basically he sneaked him.
03:53: He stuck him in his gut, him and Abishap.
03:56: So, and David at that time did not enact justice.
04:01: He actually deferred to the Lord.
04:03: He says the Lord will pay back these evil doers.
04:06: So, that's where we ended that the actual man, I would call him the puppet master, because he was the one working Ishbosheth, the puppet master's dead.
04:16: The guy that was working, the puppet king is gone.
04:20: And that brings us to verse 1.
04:22: It says, And when Ishbosheth Saul's son heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost courage and all Israel was disturbed.
04:30: Well, I'm sure Ishbosheth lost courage.
04:33: Who was protecting him? Yeah, Abner.
04:36: And it is interesting that when he did call out Abner for sleeping with Rizpah, that he had the authority as the king to have Abner struck down.
04:49: I go, in my mind, I'm going, man, I'd have been, I'm the king, man.
04:53: You've done what you've done.
04:55: And when he refused to do that and he felt threatened, he should have done something to Abner to exert his kingly authority.
05:02: But he did not.
05:03: Because he was afraid of him.
05:04: Yeah, he said he was afraid of him.
05:06: So, that tells us the type of person that Ishbosheth named.
05:09: Well, you remember what we said, what they said his name meant? Anybody remember? Bashful.
05:15: Shameful.
05:15: So, we also wouldn't take that, that Ishbosheth was not a battle guy.
05:20: I mean, all the other sons died in battle, right? Where was Ishbosheth? He was back at home, hanging out with mama.
05:28: Which would be why Abner picked him to be the one to put up his king because he knew that he would be able to maneuver him.
05:35: So, that gets us to verse 2.
05:37: It says, but Saul's son, interesting, it doesn't say his name, Ishbosheth.
05:42: And in the original, it doesn't say Ishbosheth either.
05:45: It says he, in the original language.
05:47: They actually have put the Ishbosheth in our English translation so we know who it is.
05:51: It actually says he, Saul's son.
05:53: So, Saul's son had two men who were commanders of bands.
05:56: And the name of one of them was Banna.
05:58: And the name of the other, recap, they were sons of Ramon, the Beerithite, the sons of Benjamin, for Beeroth was also considered part of Benjamin.
06:07: And the Beerithites had fled to Gittim and had been aliens there until this day.
06:14: Okay, this brings about an interesting scenario with these men.
06:19: Because these are men that, by the text, Ishbosheth had put them in charge of going out and raiding and looting.
06:28: Okay, so we would understand that they were looting Philistines and all the enemies of God's people.
06:36: And he had put these men in place to do this.
06:39: But when you get down, it gives us their name and then it says the Beerithites.
06:43: Does anybody know anything about the Beerithites? What do we know about them so far? Nothing.
06:52: Nothing.
06:56: Beeroth is right here and the Gibeonites are right here.
07:04: Okay, you may remember what happened in Joshua, I think it's chapter nine, with the Gibeonites.
07:11: Remember when we were doing judges? We got to what the Gibeonites, they actually became, it was in Gibeah that they raped and brutally raped the Levites' concubine.
07:26: Okay, so the Gibeonites are part of Benjamin's tribe.
07:32: And it does say that, it says part of Benjamin.
07:33: But here's what had happened.
07:35: When in Joshua chapter nine, you remember when they were coming into the land, they saw that all the people of Israel were going out and they were conquering everybody.
07:44: So they sent some ragtag yahoos over.
07:47: Do you remember now? They sent the ragtag yahoos over there with torn up clothes, threw dirt on their face, old bread, molded, patches on their clothes, yeah, broken wine skins.
07:57: And he said, hey, we want to, we just want to make peace.
08:00: Well, they didn't know that these were actual enemies.
08:04: They didn't know.
08:05: This would be one, if you want to say a character flaw in Joshua, this would be a time, and I don't even like to say that because Joshua was a stellar guy.
08:13: He was deceived.
08:14: So what, do you remember what Joshua did? He made a covenant with them.
08:20: He made a covenant with them.
08:21: It was to protect them and that they would always be, once they found out, they were angry, but they wound up making them saw, sawyers and lumber toters and whatever.
08:31: So they basically enslaved them, but treated them good.
08:34: So that's how the Gibeonites come into the picture.
08:38: Now, remember Benjamin, that's the land of Benjamin, sort of like that.
08:54: It's small.
08:55: So when they got parceled out the land, Beeroth, Gibeon, and there's two other cities in this area that became part of Benjamin, but they were not Israelites.
09:12: The Beerothites were not Israelites.
09:14: They were Gibeonites.
09:17: Now, in order for us to understand part of the motive of what these men did, we really need to go forward in the book of 2 Samuel.
09:26: I briefly said this when we were doing 1 Samuel, what Saul did.
09:30: We don't understand why these men had a vendetta against Ishmael, but if you move forward in chapter 21 of 2 Samuel, there was a plague and we'll get to that at some point.
09:41: There was a plague in the land for three years.
09:43: David entreated of the Lord and he said, why is there a plague? Remember, famine was an act of God's judgment, was it not? So when you see famine in the land, they were supposed to entreat the Lord and find out if there was any sin within the community.
09:58: Well, when he did that, he said, yeah, this, remember, this is towards the end of David's reign.
10:04: So we're talking maybe 37 years, 35 years later, after Saul had died, he says, you need to go to the Gibeonites.
10:18: Saul tried to extinguish them and tried to kill them brutally because they were in his land.
10:26: Okay, follow me? So the Beerithites and the Gibeonites, what was Saul doing to them? It says for his zeal, Saul, for his zeal, he was trying to exterminate these people.
10:38: So it says here, and you go, well, why would they have fled to Gattin? That's what it says right here.
10:44: They fled to Gattin, why? Because Saul was killing them.
10:49: They found safety by leaving Gibeon and leaving Beerith and found safety in Gattin.
10:57: So now we do have a better understanding why would Rachab and Banna, why would they want to kill Ish-bosheth? Ol' Grudge and their father had actually killed their ancestors.
11:14: And if you go, when we get to chapter 21, you're going to see where God says, you go talk to the Gibeonites, see what they want.
11:20: They say, hey, we don't want money.
11:22: We don't want reparations.
11:24: What we want is seven descendants of Saul and we want to hang them.
11:29: And that's what David does.
11:31: He goes and gets seven descendants of Saul.
11:32: He sends them to the Gibeon and they hang them in the square.
11:37: The only person he saves out of that is Mephibosheth.
11:41: He winds up being the only descendant of Saul that's left.
11:44: So that gives us a better understanding of why these guys have a vendetta against Ish-bosheth.
11:51: So not only do I think that's part of it, but I do think they go, hey, we killed this dude.
11:58: We come to David.
11:59: David would be more kind to us.
12:02: Maybe.
12:03: Okay.
12:03: David's going to say, well, you thought you did from the guy from Ziklag came.
12:07: You made a huge miscalculation.
12:10: So Gibeonites, Berethites were under basically Saul's persecution.
12:16: Now that Saul's dead and Abner's dead.
12:19: Remember, Abner was carrying out that persecution with them too.
12:22: Remember, he was the leader of the army.
12:23: Now that this person is dead, they see the opportunity to come in here and we can take care of a personal vendetta.
12:31: It says in chapter four, verse four, that while Jonathan's Saul's son, once again, it doesn't say Ish-bosheth or Mephibosheth.
12:41: It says, now Jonathan Saul's son had a crippled young son in his feet.
12:48: Now, does that not sound like it comes out of nowhere? Here, we're talking about Ish-bosheth, these, uh, these, uh, Rachab and Bonah.
12:59: And all of a sudden we've got, hey, Jonathan had a son named, it's almost like when you're watching TV or on your phone, beep, you get that Amber alert or whatever, or di-di-di-di-di-di.
13:11: Oh, here, there's a, an emergency that's telling us that, hey, Saul, Jonathan had a son.
13:18: His name was Mephibosheth.
13:19: He was crippled in his feet.
13:20: What is that telling us about the house of Saul? Just, do you remember when Abner took over, it said that the house of Saul was doing what? Growing weaker? Weaker? In the house of Saul.
13:41: Yeah.
13:42: So Saul's house was getting weaker.
13:48: David, stronger.
13:56: What we see right here under the providence of God is Ish-bosheth, one, he was not fit to be a king, was he? Because, we'll just take it from Abner.
14:06: He didn't even exert the authority that he had over Abner.
14:09: He was a coward.
14:10: So, Ish-bosheth is not fit.
14:12: He would be the only descendant of Saul, meaning of his actual loins, that could take over the throne.
14:19: But then we get the one that if Ish-bosheth was dead, who would take the throne? Jonathan's son.
14:28: Remember, Jonathan was the crown prince.
14:29: So now we have one who's a coward, unable to, to, to take the throne, and we have one who's here probably around 12 years old, but would he be able, even if he was, even if he was of the age to fight, could Mephibosheth have carried anybody to battle? No, he's crippled.
14:52: So, we could say, now the house of Saul is no longer weaker.
15:00: It's gone.
15:02: It's gone.
15:04: There's nobody there to, to take that position.
15:07: Under the providence of God, how God was using in time, carrying out his redemptive plan, he was removing Saul from the picture.
15:15: Now, it says that he was crippled in his feet.
15:17: He was five years old when the report came that Saul had, that Saul and Jonathan had came, had died in Jezreel.
15:25: That's how I came up to the number 12 years old.
15:28: Remember, it was, it was roughly seven years that has passed from the time of the, the battle in Jezreel where Saul had died.
15:37: That's how I come to him being 12 years old, because it said he was five years old when this happened.
15:41: However, this happened, we don't know if she picked him up trying to run, to flee.
15:45: Maybe the invading armies were coming.
15:48: Should they get up from Gibeah to leave? Either she trips, falls on him, or maybe the kid just fell and broke his leg.
15:55: In that time, they didn't have a way of resetting bones.
15:58: It was obviously broke enough that the young kid, young man wouldn't be able to walk properly.
16:03: And as we get further on into Samuel, he actually calls Mephibosheth back when there is a, the civil war, and he talks about his feet not being taken care of, and they're undressed, and they're worn, meaning that his lame legs were basically to the point of needing to be removed.
16:24: And David tries to take care of him again as his fulfilling his promise to Jonathan.
16:30: So we get to verse six.
16:32: So we get out of that little interrupting stage of Mephibosheth, and we get back to the narrative of Mephibosheth.
16:41: It says, so the sons of Ramon, the Bereathite, Rakab, and Bonham, they departed, and they came to the house of Vishasheth in the heat of the day while he was taking his midday rest.
16:53: All right, so where do we, where we have been, you may remember where this probably would have been taking place.
17:03: This was overrun, Gibeah.
17:06: Remember, the invading armies come.
17:10: Dude comes here and sets up, Abner sets up at Mahana.
17:14: That's where this would have probably taken place.
17:17: Did you remember, David, when he becomes king, he comes up here to Jabeshgilead, he offers a branch of peace, and immediately, what does Abner do? He comes right just below him and sets up the house of Saul right here to basically to try to stop him from moving forward.
17:35: It was a calculated move, political move, and militarily move.
17:38: So this is probably where this is taking place in Manahan, because that's where his, quote, throne would have been.
17:46: It says they come to him in the midday, in the heat of the day, while he was taking a rest.
17:50: Why would they be taking a rest in the middle of the day? Hot.
17:54: We can even go all the way, even moving forward at this time, you could even go to the time of Paul.
17:59: You remember Paul would go teach in the halls and the synagogues in the middle of the day, because that's when people would come out of the heat.
18:07: They'd go in the morning, before the sun got up, right overhead.
18:10: They would go out, do their stuff early in the morning.
18:13: Then in the middle of the day, they would either go rest, go teaching, go to the synagogue, go to the halls for lectures, or whatever.
18:18: In Paul's case, it was to go hear lectures and stuff in the hall.
18:21: Or Saul went to a cave and got some rest.
18:23: Yeah, yeah.
18:25: So that is why he would have been lying down in the middle of the day.
18:29: It was not uncommon.
18:31: I know there are some commentaries that say it's because he was cowardly.
18:35: Well, I mean, that's not there.
18:38: I mean, we can agree that he was cowardly, but that's not why he was laying down.
18:41: It was hot in the middle of the day.
18:43: If you've ever been hot in the sun, you ever get drowsy if you just sit there? Yeah, he was like that.
18:49: So he goes and he gets in his bed.
18:52: It says now, verse 6, they came into the middle of the house as if they were going to get wheat, and they struck him in the belly, and Rakeb and Banna, his brother, they escaped.
19:05: So it looks as if when they came into Ishbosheth's house, they did not look like an intruder.
19:12: I would imagine there was somebody there other than Ishbosheth.
19:16: It was not in his house alone.
19:18: I would imagine someone was there.
19:19: So when these two riffraff come into the house, they're basically saying, hey, we're going to go get some cereal out of the kitchen.
19:26: So it wasn't uncommon for them to go do that.
19:29: We're going to go get some wheat.
19:31: Went on about their way.
19:32: No big deal.
19:33: They go as if they're going to get some wheat, and what do they do? They make a turn to the left.
19:37: They go to the bedroom, see where he is sleeping, and they stick him in the gut.
19:41: Okay.
19:42: Now, it says they struck him in the butt.
19:46: I mean, in the butt.
19:47: In the belly.
19:49: Sorry.
19:49: They struck him in the belly, and Rakeb and Banna, his brother, escaped.
19:55: Now, that seems like that is it, but then they give us a little more exposition as to actually what took place.
20:05: It says here in verse 7, now, when they came into the house, he was lying in his bed.
20:10: So now they're going to tell you exactly what was going on when it happened.
20:14: He was laying in his bed, asleep in his bedroom.
20:18: They struck him.
20:19: Look at the three words that they use.
20:22: Verbs.
20:22: Struck him, killed him, and beheaded him.
20:26: That is brutal.
20:29: Brutal.
20:31: So they struck him, gutted him, let him bleed out.
20:38: Once he was bled out, they go to whacking.
20:43: Yeah.
20:43: They go to removing his head.
20:44: Now, we in our American westernized culture, that seemed very brutal, and rightfully so, but you understand, in this culture, that was not uncommon.
20:56: You have your enemy.
20:58: What's the best way to show somebody that you have conquered your enemy? Take his head.
21:02: Take his head.
21:03: People don't walk around with no head.
21:05: You bring somebody's arm, like, ah, yeah, the guy's just armless.
21:09: You bring his head as the trophy.
21:13: He's not coming back.
21:14: Why do you think David, when he killed Goliath, he took the head of Goliath and walked around with it? You know, he carried it around.
21:26: Matter of fact, he had to go from here to where he threw it over the wall in Jerusalem.
21:32: Okay? And at that time, it was Jabez.
21:35: But when he threw it over the wall in Jabez, he carried around that thing, and remember, he went to Gibeah with it first.
21:42: You know, it shows Saul, hey, look what I got.
21:45: Well, then he throws it over the wall in Jerusalem to show, hey, man, I'm coming.
21:51: Just to move them forward, we're going to get that to a couple of weeks, is the people inside Jerusalem were enemies of God.
22:02: Enemies.
22:03: The Jebusites.
22:06: Saul cohabitated with them.
22:09: You know that? The Calebites and all inside Jerusalem came in and cohabitated with the Jebusites in Jerusalem.
22:18: What was Saul's job supposed to do? Run the enemies out of Jerusalem.
22:22: Okay? Look at the contrast that happens.
22:24: He takes these people who were enemies of God, no covenant, and protects them, doesn't do his job of running them out of Jerusalem, but he takes the ones that Joshua, one of the leaders, the conquest into the land.
22:39: He makes a covenant with these people under the word, and what does he do? He fights against the people of God.
22:45: It's just interesting in how what Saul's disposition was towards, one, God's covenant, and two, hey, we don't care about Jerusalem and not having, you know, inhabitants of people that God said extinguish.
22:59: We're not going to worry about that.
23:00: That is why I understand David throwing the head over saying, you ain't supposed to be in our land, and I'm coming, and the best way to do that is to throw your champion's head over the wall.
23:11: So in this case, they take, they cut his head off, they strike him, they kill him, and they behead him.
23:19: Since they took his head and they traveled by the way of the Arab all night, meaning the desert, the plain, however, some translations may say plain or desert.
23:27: Did anybody say something different than the Arab? It's basically the plain going through the desert all night, and I do, I wonder, I go, all right, well, they're going from here to Hebron, here, all night with the head of that dude.
23:51: That's doing some hopping, skipping, and jumping to get there.
23:55: So all night, they go through carrying this head, and y'all are more sanctified, but I go, do they take turns holding it? I mean, a head's about 12 pounds, probably, you know.
24:05: Do they take turns? Was it in a bag? Was it on a stick? You know, that's what I'm thinking of, and either way, they brought the head to David in Hebron, and then they said to the king, and this is the second time that David has called king in 2 Samuel.
24:23: The first time was with Adner, when Adner was being carried out on the coff, and it said king.
24:28: This is the second time David's actually addressed as being the king.
24:32: It says, and they brought the head to David at Hebron, and he says, behold, the head of the, they said to David, behold, the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life.
24:45: Now, it was Ish-bosheth the enemy of David.
24:52: No, he was not.
24:54: Was Saul? Yes, no doubt.
24:57: Saul was David's enemy.
24:58: David was actually an enemy to Saul, but, I mean, Saul was the enemy to David, but David actually embraced Saul.
25:06: He loved Saul.
25:08: In this case, they're saying, look, here's the head of your enemy.
25:12: He sought your life.
25:13: Well, one, Ish-bosheth did not seek his life.
25:16: I believe it was Adner, ultimately, who was seeking the life of David, up until they tried to make their little consolidation, and Adner trying to do that one to save his own skin, and it says that the son of Saul who sought your life, thus the Lord has given my Lord, the king, vengeance this day on Saul and his descendants.
25:39: Did Rachab and Banna have any authority to try to do vengeance for David? Did they? No.
25:49: So, what they did is murder.
25:53: What they did was murder a young man, or how old he was.
25:58: If you're Jack, everybody's young.
26:03: They killed this man on his bed, murdered him, and then it says in verse 9 that David answered Rachab and Banna, his brother, the sons of Ramon the Berethite, and he said to them, as the Lord lives who has redeemed my life from all distress.
26:23: This is an interesting, as I read through that and the life of David, this would be the first time that David, there's no rival anymore for the throne, correct? The puppet king and the puppet master are gone.
26:44: So, that is 2 Samuel 4, verse 9.
26:50: Is that right? Yeah.
26:53: I'm going to do it like this, put little brackets, because I do want you to hear this is the beginning of his reign.
27:01: If you go over to 1 Kings, I think it is, chapter 1.
27:15: Let me see here.
27:17: I think it's around verse 29.
27:28: 1 Kings 1, verse 28.
27:31: I'm going to start at 28.
27:33: This is at the close of David's life.
27:36: And listen to what he said.
27:37: Remember, this is the beginning of his kingship here, when he makes this statement in verse 9.
27:42: And this is going to be at the end of his kingship.
27:45: He's about to die.
27:46: He's going to say, hey, look, I'm going the way of all men.
27:48: Solomon's going to be the man, all this.
27:50: And he calls Bathsheba to him.
27:53: This is verse 28.
27:53: He calls Bathsheba to him.
27:56: And she came to the king in his presence and stood before the king.
27:59: And the king vowed, and he said this.
28:01: Listen to what David says.
28:02: As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress.
28:10: So, look at that.
28:15: 1 Kings.
28:22: That's 29, wasn't it? It's David's life.
28:27: What is it? What's the motto of David's life? The Lord.
28:34: The Lord redeemed him.
28:41: Not some riffraff running across the Araba with a man's head.
28:47: Not the guy that came from Ziklag, who thought he was bringing David good news.
28:52: Go ahead.
28:53: No, that's what I was going to say.
28:54: They obviously didn't know the account or forgot the account.
28:57: Oh, David's fixing to remind them.
28:58: Yeah.
29:00: Yeah.
29:00: It's interesting that when we get to that, we're fixing to, that David, I mean, it's like in rapid succession, he's going, I remember this scenario.
29:10: And it didn't go well for those guys, or that guy that came.
29:14: So, look at David's life.
29:16: All his fallacies.
29:18: Okay, David.
29:19: Was David the man that God had chosen to be on the throne? Did he have failures? Yes.
29:27: But was he not a man that knew what God had done for him? No.
29:33: Hey, did God use other means to save him? But he knew ultimately who was doing it.
29:40: The Lord.
29:40: Even when he went out and killed Goliath, the first defeat he did.
29:43: What did he say? The Lord will give you into my hands.
29:47: But then he goes, right? He says, the Lord will give you into my hands.
29:49: I'm going to knock you out.
29:51: I'm going to cut your head off.
29:52: And I'm going to let the birds eat all your skin.
29:54: But he knew that it was the Lord that was going to do it.
29:57: And even before that, when Saul said, you can't go out there and fight again, what did he say? The Lord's delivered the bear and the lion into my hands.
30:07: So he constantly pointed back that it was the Lord's doing that had preserved him.
30:13: Even when he was going out and coming in, doing all of his stuff, he knew it was the Lord that preserved him.
30:18: I can't remember, it's 34, one of those psalms, where he is talking about when he goes to Achish, and it talks about him foaming out the mouth.
30:28: But he didn't say in that psalm, it does not say that David said, oh, you know, I trusted in my own ingenuity and I was able to deceive Achish.
30:36: What does he say? He says, the Lord protected me from Achish in that time.
30:40: The Lord protected me from Achish in that time.
30:43: So he constantly points that it was God that had redeemed him.
30:47: And he says here, redeemed my life from all distress.
30:53: Had David had a life filled with distress at this point? Sure.
30:59: He's had kings try to kill him for however long, yeah, 12, 15 years, whatever.
31:03: And then on top of that, he's not got a unified kingdom yet.
31:06: So there is still all these skirmishes between the two for seven years.
31:11: So was there distress? Most definitely.
31:14: And he says this, and behold, Saul is dead, and when they told him, saying, behold, Saul is dead, I'm sorry, and when the one told me, he's talking about, he's speaking to Rachab and Bonn about, hey, the Lord has redeemed me from distress, basically saying not wicked men.
31:30: And he says, hey, there was a one man that told me, behold, Saul is dead, and thought he was bringing me good news.
31:37: When that Amalekite came to David, one, when that Amalekite came to David, he was going to get killed no matter what.
31:44: One, he was an Amalekite, and he was supposed to have been destroyed years ago with Saul, and he didn't.
31:53: But either way, this dude, his death warrant was done.
31:56: I mean, it was over.
31:57: So when he comes to give David good news, he says, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag.
32:04: Why did David kill the man in Ziklag? Ultimately, because he had said he had touched the Lord's anointed, and he did not have the authority to do that.
32:14: He said, that guy thought he brought me a reward.
32:18: Remember, he brought his watch, his Rolex, and his hat.
32:23: Yeah.
32:23: And he said, he thought he brought me good news.
32:27: I seized that young man.
32:28: I killed him at Ziklag, and that was the reward I gave him for his news.
32:34: I don't know about y'all, but if I was Rachab and Bonn, I'd be going, uh-oh.
32:39: Wow.
32:40: I wonder what our reward's going to be.
32:43: I don't think they had to wonder too much.
32:45: Yeah.
32:46: They'd be like, hey, it was his idea.
32:48: Yeah, it was his idea.
32:51: Was it accustomed to cut their head off and put them in the tomb? What's that? Oh, what's fixing to happen? Oh, sure.
33:00: No, hang on.
33:00: We're getting there.
33:01: Yeah, hang on.
33:02: So it says here, I seized him, killed him, and then in verse 11, it says, How much more when wicked men, okay, what is he saying about Rachab and Bonn? They're following the wicked man category.
33:14: The wicked man category.
33:16: So they would be in the same category as Joab, Abishai.
33:22: Remember, he saw what he called them just one chapter earlier.
33:27: I'm going to let God deal with these wicked men because they have done wickedly.
33:31: He says here, How much more when a wicked man hath killed a righteous man in his house, on his bed, shall I not require his blood from your hand and destroy you from the earth? Okay, he's making a distinction when we talk about righteous.
33:49: When it says he was righteous, what is the text trying to reveal about Ishbosheth? Is it saying that he was without flaw or was, excuse me, or is it saying, Hey, man, this man was not worthy of death.
34:04: He was in the sense that he did not, what happened to him, he did not deserve.
34:09: You didn't have the authority, nor did Ishbosheth need to have his head taken off.
34:14: So therefore, he was righteous in this sense.
34:17: He had done no wrong.
34:19: You have killed this man on his bed, and I shall now require his blood from you and destroy you from the earth.
34:26: That's a question.
34:27: Well, David's going to answer that.
34:30: Then David commanded the young men, they killed them, they cut off their hands and feet, and they hung them beside the pool in Hebron, and they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.
34:42: Okay, David kills these two young men, and he does something specifically to make a statement.
34:50: He cuts off their hands and their feet.
34:52: He cuts off their hands, as I've represented, these hands will never do a wicked act of murder towards a righteous person ever again.
35:03: Then he cuts off their feet.
35:05: These feet ain't going to run to take advantage of somebody ever again.
35:09: And he hung them outside the pool so that, hey, this is for all people that do wickedly.
35:16: This is what David's going to do.
35:18: Once again, this points so much to the Lord Jesus Christ of how He's going to rule in righteousness.
35:24: Look, Jesus Christ is going to rule with a righteous rod.
35:30: And when He comes, He's going to make all those wrongs right.
35:33: David is pointing to that by what is David doing? Doing righteous.
35:39: He's dispensing righteous acts when people have done wickedly, showing that David is going to be a righteous king.
35:47: Not a perfect king.
35:49: That's how this also too points to Christ, is because David's going to have failures.
35:54: But the true king that would come, the true son of David, the greater son of David, would rule perfectly and righteously.
36:02: You need to say something, Jack? No.
36:03: No.
36:04: Okay.
36:05: So, He cuts off their hands and feet.
36:07: He hangs them by the pool.
36:09: And just to let you know, that was not uncommon to hang criminals in that time.
36:13: Even if you go to the Middle East now, it's not uncommon to hang people and let them be shown what their sins were.
36:20: I had a guy in that former church I was at, he built ships in the United Arab Emirates and some of those other places over there.
36:28: And he said he would go through the market and there would just be diamonds laid out.
36:33: Like you go to the flea market here, he said, diamonds, bricks of gold.
36:37: And he said, hey, he asked the one in the place, man, y'all don't worry about anybody that wasn't protecting anybody taking? He says, no.
36:45: He said, nobody ever grabs? He says, no.
36:47: He says, the guy's wife says, walk around the corner.
36:51: And there was a JGL lift.
36:53: People hanging, no hands, dead, hung.
36:56: So, people don't make that mistake here.
36:59: So, it was this interesting that she said, go around the corner.
37:03: And that's what they did.
37:06: And he did say, because at that point, we started looking around a little bit and started going, oh, wow, there are some people missing hands.
37:14: You know, obviously, that's Sharia law in some of those countries over there.
37:17: You don't get, there's no grace.
37:19: You stole, whack.
37:21: So, it was not uncommon in Middle Eastern culture that this would happen, that they would put people up as basically an object lesson of what happens to wicked people.
37:34: And then it says here, but they took the head of Ish-bosheth and they buried it in the grave of Abner and Hebron.
37:41: Now, in an attempt to give Ish-bosheth a proper burial, basically, they took his head and put it, didn't have his body.
37:54: Obviously, we don't know how long it had been from, to go retrieve.
37:58: So, instead of trying to retrieve his body, they do have his head.
38:01: So, they put it with Abner.
38:03: Why would they put it with Abner? Just.
38:05: Well, Abner was a general.
38:06: He was a man of, you know, some of the prestige.
38:09: Yeah, and he was a Benjamite.
38:12: Therefore, he was going to be buried with his people.
38:15: He was Saul's cousin.
38:18: So, with an attempt to try to give him a proper burial, that's why they put his head in there.
38:23: And they are eventually going to gather all their bones up towards the end of the book and they're going to take him and give him a proper, try to give them a proper burial with everybody together.
38:32: Um, burial under Jewish culture was supposed to be done within one day and supposed to be done with honor.
38:45: That's how they honored them, was to put them in the bones.
38:48: That's why you would go to the sepulcher and there would be bones from whoever was there before.
38:52: They just pushed the bones and keep packing people in there.
38:56: Abraham, under the Oaks of Mamre, remember, that's what would happen.
39:00: They would just keep putting the bones in there.
39:02: And we can see them wanting to be buried with their fathers or their ancestors.
39:07: What did Joseph say? Remember when Joseph died and he said, Don't leave me here.
39:13: Don't leave me in Egypt.
39:14: So, when they did the exodus, they're leaving with a box of bones.
39:19: You know, think about how long it had been.
39:23: 400 years in captivity and slavery.
39:27: So, let's just lowball it.
39:29: 350 years.
39:31: Somebody had been, under the providence of God, had protected the bones of Joseph.
39:35: To get him out of the land of bondage, into the land of promise.
39:40: Well, that leaves us with Ishbosheth gone.
39:45: Mephibosheth unable to try to be put on the throne and nobody there to do it.
39:50: And now, we're going to get into next week, in chapter 5, where David actually is coronated as king over Dan to Beersheba.
40:00: From Dan to Beersheba.
40:01: Top to bottom.
40:02: Yep, top to bottom.
40:03: And then, that is the unifying of, honestly, what I believe, David had been waiting for for seven years.
40:11: God promised him that he was going to be the king of Israel.
40:15: Not Judah.
40:16: Not Judah and Benjamin.
40:19: All the land.
40:20: So, now, he is actually getting the fulfillment of seven years.
40:25: Hey, I'll even say this.
40:26: Was David not patient for seven years? I don't want to get too far into it.
40:29: Hey, was David not patient for seven years? I mean, when Saul died, he did not try to make a military campaign to run it over and take it by force, did he? He was patient.
40:42: And we don't have it specifically said this, but we do it by his actions, is that he was waiting on God to give him that kingdom in totality.
40:50: He didn't want to kill his countrymen.
40:52: He didn't want to go lay waste and brutalize his family, meaning the other Israelites, to try to take it by force.
41:00: He just patiently waited on the Lord, and the Lord will give it to him, and we'll get to that next week.
41:06: Let's pray.
41:08: Father God, thank you for David.
41:10: Thank you, Father, for his example that we have of a person who, under great distress, realized that, and great adversity, realized that it was you that had redeemed him.
41:21: Thank you, Father, that we can look at his life and see a man that trusted in you.
41:26: Father, we can see a man still that failed, which reminds us that one day you were going to send a king, the king that would never fail, a king that would rule righteously, and would rule with kindness and with glory and with honor over his people.
41:42: Father, we love you.
41:43: We thank you for this day you have given us.
41:45: We pray that as we go in to sing songs and give offerings and to hear the Word preached, that, Father, we would have our hearts equipped, and that, Father, we would leave this day loving you more than when we came.
41:58: In Christ's name, amen.