2 Samuel part 1

 

Tonight we will be getting back to our OT series as we begin to dive into the book of 2 Samuel. I want to remind you that 1 and 2 Samuel are really one book. Now the material that we have in 2nd Samuel is believed to have been written by Nathan and Gad. This assumption in made because of what,

 

1 Chronicles 29:29 Now the acts of King David, first and last, indeed they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer,  30 with all his reign and his might, and the events that happened to him, to Israel, and to all the kingdoms of the lands.

 

While it is certainly possible these men wrote 2 Samuel we don’t know for certain who did.

 

Key phrase: before the lord occurs 10 times

 

Key verses:

 

2 Samuel 7:12 " When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.  13 "He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

 

This of course is prophecy of Christ and the establishment of his kingdom which we are a part of today.

 

2 Samuel 22:21 "The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me.  22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD, And have not wickedly departed from my God.

 

These verse show how God looks favorable on those who do his will and how he will remove his favor from those who do not serve him.

 

Key Chapter:  11.

 

This chapter is a turning point in the life of David because this is when willful sins against God. It records his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and how she becomes pregnant with his child. It also records how he tried to cover it up and when that failed he ordered Bathsheba’s husband Uraih to the front lines of a battle and told his men to withdraw so that he would be killed. Then David takes Bathsheba as his wife. Even though David thought he had pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes he could not hid his sin from God. God sends Nathan the prophet to let David know that he hadn’t got away with his sin and that there was going to be great consequences for his sin.

 

2 Samuel 12:10 'Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'  11 "Thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.  12 'For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.' "

 

Because of David’s sin he would never rest from his enemies and he would have great turmoil within his own family. If this wasn’t bad enough God also made David’s new born baby die all because of his sin.

 

The main subject of this book is the reign of David. First it deals with his reign over Judah where he resided in Hebron for 7 ½ years. Then it covers his reign over all of Israel where he resided in Jerusalem for 33 years. This book covers a time period from around 1055- 1015 B.C. A parallel history of the events that take place in this book can be found in 1Chron. 11-29.

 

Some of the key events of this book.

  1. David drives out the Jebusites and builds a strong capital at Salem which set the stage for a long eventful history of Jerusalem. Jerusalem becomes the heart of the Hebrew nation and most of remainder of the Bible revolves around this city.
  2. We will see how David conquers the Philistines and returns the ark of the covenant.
  3. We will see the kindness he shows to Jonathans’ crippled son.
  4. As we talked about earlier we see the details of David’s sin wit Bathsheba
  5. We learn about the brave prophet Nathan and the rebellion of Absalom.

 

Some other notable points.

1.      David is the first one to describe a King as “the Lord’s anointed” 2 Sam. 1:14

2.      In chapter 6 Uzzah touches the ark to steady and he dies instantly because it was against God’s law for him to do. This shows us just how important it is to follow God’s law.

3.      This book contains two parables. The selfish rich man and the little lamb Ch. 12 and the banished son Ch. 14.

4.      David claims that his word came from God in 23:2 and Jesus backs up his claim Matthew 22:43 He said to them, "How then does David in the Spirit call Him 'Lord,' saying:  44 'The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool" '?  

5.      David wants to build a temple for the Lord but God does not allow him because he was man of war.

6.      David sins once again when he numbers the people when he wasn’t suppose to and we are told that the devil provoked him to sin.
1 Chronicles 21:1 Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

 

 

David.

Early on his life David was a called a man after God’s own heart Acts 13:22. He was the greatest king of Israel. We know more details about David’s life than any other OT Character. We know that he was Jesses’ youngest son, a shepherd boy, a musician, a soldier, musician, king, poet and writer of half of the Psalms. He is considered to be right up there with Abraham and Moses. It interesting to note that he is the half way point between Abraham and Christ because his story takes place a 1000 years after Abraham and 1000 years before Christ.

 

2 of David’s greatest accomplishments was that he established a great kingdom and the many wonderful Psalms that he wrote. Although David sinned from time to time he was a man who served God with his whole heart.

 

1 Kings 14:7 "Go, tell Jeroboam, 'Thus says the LORD God of Israel: "Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel,  8 "and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes;

 

The reason why David was such a great servant of God was because he always recognized when he had sinned and he was always repetitive of his actions and knew that God would forgive him of his sins. Now the best way I can show you how repetitive is to read a couple of the Psalms that he wrote. Please listen careful to his words.

 

Psalm 51:1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.  2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.  3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.  4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight -- That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.  5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.  6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.  7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  8 Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice.  9 Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.  10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.  11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.  13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted 

 

When you take the time to allow David’s words here to really sink in it become evident that David was true sorry for what he had done and he was very concerned about making things right with God. The last thing that he wanted was to be separated from God. Also I want to read,

 

Psalm 32:1 A Psalm of David. A Contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered.  2 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit.  3 When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long.  4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah  5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah  6 For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You In a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters They shall not come near him.  7 You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah  8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.  9 Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you.  10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him.  11 Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous; And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

 

Of course there are many other Psalms we could look at but these 2 should be enough to show just how much love David had for God and how much trust he put in the Lord that when repented that his sins would be forgiven. This is certainly important for us to remember today as well. You know there is not anybody in this room who is perfect and we all fall short of the glory of God but because of what Jesus did for us we all have the ability overcome sins by confessing them to God and asking for forgiveness just like David did and most important we must learn to trust that God has indeed forgiven us of our sins and that our slate is now clean once again. Of course we also learn from David that we cannot hid our sins from God and we shouldn’t even try to. Well that it for our introduction into 2 Sam now let dive Chapter 1.

 

2 Samuel 1:1 Now it came to pass after the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had stayed two days in Ziklag,  2 on the third day, behold, it happened that a man came from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and dust on his head. So it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the ground and prostrated himself.  3 And David said to him, "Where have you come from?" So he said to him, "I have escaped from the camp of Israel."  4 Then David said to him, "How did the matter go? Please tell me." And he answered, "The people have fled from the battle, many of the people are fallen and dead, and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also."  5 So David said to the young man who told him, "How do you know that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?"  6 Then the young man who told him said, "As I happened by chance to be on Mount Gilboa, there was Saul, leaning on his spear; and indeed the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him.  7 "Now when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. And I answered, 'Here I am.'  8 "And he said to me, 'Who are you?' So I answered him, 'I am an Amalekite.'  9 "He said to me again, 'Please stand over me and kill me, for anguish has come upon me, but my life still remains in me.'  10 "So I stood over him and 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 bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord."  11 Therefore David took hold of his own clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him.  12 And they mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son, for the people of the LORD and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

 

Now you might remember from our last lesson from the book of 1 Samuel I told there was more to the story of Saul’s death that we would look at in this chapter that we are in now. Now according to this Amalekite he saw Saul leaning on his spear begging for his life to be taken and this man says that he killed Saul at his request and as we read we can see that this really upsets David and his men as the tore their clothes and cried and fasted until evening. Now if you will remember I have shown you several times where the Bible records what someone is saying and it sometimes it doesn’t come right out and say whether or not the person was lying. Well I personally believe then Amalekite was lying to David about how he killed the King at his request and here are the reason why.

 

First of all look at,

 

1 Samuel 31:3 The battle became fierce against Saul. The archers hit him, and he was severely wounded by the archers.  4 Then Saul said to his armorbearer, "Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised men come and thrust me through and abuse me." But his armorbearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it.  5 And when his armorbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword, and died with him. Also 1Chron. 10:3-5

 

Here we have 2 different records that show that Saul was severely wounded. Then on top of arrow or arrows that was in his body he then falls on his sword and his armor bearer sees that he is dead and then kills himself. Now the only way the Amalkites story could be true is if somehow Saul had just passed out and this fooled his armor bearer and then he came to and then asked him to kill him. However I cannot see this happening when Saul was already severely wounded and had fallen on his sword. One thing we know for sure is that man was there and saw Saul because he took his crown and his bracelet.

 

Now another reason I think this man was lying was because he had a motive for lying as we read in,

 

2 Samuel 4:10 "when someone told me, saying, 'Look, Saul is dead,' thinking to have brought good news, I arrested him and had him executed in Ziklag -- the one who thought I would give him a reward for his news.

 

Here David lets us know that this Amalekite thought he would get a reward from David for what he had done. So all of these things combined together tells me that this man was lying about killing King Saul and we continue to read we see that his lie didn’t pay off.

 

2 Samuel 1:13 Then David said to the young man who told him, "Where are you from?" And he answered, "I am the son of an alien, an Amalekite."  14 So David said to him, "How was it you were not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy the LORD's anointed?"  15 Then David called one of the young men and said, "Go near, and execute him!" And he struck him so that he died.  16 So David said to him, "Your blood is on your own head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, 'I have killed the LORD's anointed.' "

So instead of receive a reward he received death instead.

 

Now in the last part of this chapter David being a great song writer writes a song about Saul and his sons because he wants everyone to remember them. I will finish our lesson this evening by reading this song.

 

  19 "The beauty of Israel is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen!  20 Tell it not in Gath, Proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon -- Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.  21 "O mountains of Gilboa, Let there be no dew nor rain upon you, Nor fields of offerings. For the shield of the mighty is cast away there! The shield of Saul, not anointed with oil.  22 From the blood of the slain, From the fat of the mighty, The bow of Jonathan did not turn back, And the sword of Saul did not return empty.  23 "Saul and Jonathan were beloved and pleasant in their lives, And in their death they were not divided; They were swifter than eagles, They were stronger than lions.  24 "O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, Who clothed you in scarlet, with luxury; Who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.  25 "How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan was slain in your high places.  26 I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; You have been very pleasant to me; Your love to me was wonderful, Surpassing the love of women.  27 "How the mighty have fallen, And the weapons of war perished!"