2 Samuel 4 – 5 part 3
Now last week we ended with Abner putting things into place
so that David would reign over all of
2 Samuel 4:1 When
Saul's son heard that Abner had died in
When Saul’s son hears about Abner’s death it causes him to
lose all hope and his death had troubled all
2 Samuel 4:2 Now
Saul's son had two men who were captains of troops. The name of
one was Baanah (bay-uh-nah) and the name of the other Rechab, (ree-kab) the sons of Rimmon (rim-uhn) the Beerothite, (bee-uh-roth-ite) of the children of Benjamin. (For Beeroth (bee-uh-roth) also was part of Benjamin, 3 because the Beerothites fled to
Gittaim (git-tah-em) and have been
sojourners there until this day.)
Now the only thing we
need to take in here is the detail that the writer goes into showing us that
these 2 men were part of the tribe of Benjamin. I believe he points this out to
show that these men should be loyal to Saul’s house hold but we will get to
that in just a min but first we have to look at this next verse.
2 Samuel 4:4 Jonathan,
Saul's son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years
old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel; and his nurse took
him up and fled. And it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and
became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. (meh-fib-oh-shehth)
Besides Isbosheth
Jonathan’s son is one of the living heirs to the thrown. However as we just
read because of an accident at the age of 5 he was now crippled which meant to
the people back then that he would never reign as king.
2 Samuel 4:5 Then
the sons of Rimmon (rim-uhn) the Beerothite, (bee-uh-roth-ite) Rechab (ree-kab) and Baanah, (bay-uh-nah)
set out and came at about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who
was lying on his bed at noon. 6
And they came there, all the way into the house, as though to get wheat,
and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab (ree-kab) and Baanah (bay-uh-nah) his
brother escaped. 7 For when
they came into the house, he was lying on his bed in his bedroom; then they
struck him and killed him, beheaded him and took his head, and were all night
escaping through the plain. 8
And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at
Again here we have these 2 men mentioned that should have been loyal to household of Saul especially since they had their roots with the Benjamites. Now these 2 men were used to being important people as they served as captains over their troops. So I think about their situation to me it appears that in their mind they want to make sure that they will still be important people under the reign of David. No doubt they knew that the power was shifting to David’s side and they would soon be out of job and so they thought if they killed Saul’s son and brought his head to David that maybe he would reward them with a position of honor and power within his kingdom.
Well notice David’s response to what they did as we read in,
2 Samuel 4:9 But
David answered Rechab (ree-kab) and Baanah (bay-uh-nah) his brother, the sons of Rimmon (rim-uhn) the
Beerothite, (bee-uh-roth-ite) and said to them, "As the LORD
lives, who has redeemed my life from all adversity, 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. 11
"How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous person in his own
house on his bed? Therefore, shall I not now require his blood at your hand and
remove you from the earth?" 12
So David commanded his young men, and they executed them, cut off their hands
and feet, and hanged them by the pool in
Once again we find some
men thinking they had done good thing that would cause them to have a reward
and it backfires on them. First of all notice David gives credit to God for
saving his life from all the hardships that he had to endure and then he
compares these 2 men to that Amalekite who had told him that he had killed king
Saul hoping for a reward and because of what the 2 men did to a unarmed man
sleeping in his bed David was now going to put them to death and we read he
cuts of there hands and feet and hangs them up for display. This would
accomplish 2 things.
1. It would show that
David had no intentions of killing Saul’s son.
2. It would teach a
future lesson to anyone else who thinks carrying out similar action trying to
impress King David.
2 Samuel 5:1 Then
all the tribes of
So after the death of Isbosheth a huge group of elders and
warriors go to
1 Chronicles 12:23 Now
these were the numbers of the divisions that were equipped for
war, and came to David at Hebron to turn over the kingdom of Saul
to him, according to the word of the LORD:
In verses 24 – 37 you can read a
break down of all the different tribes and people that are represented.
Basically there was somewhere between 300 to 350,000 people that came to David
in
1 Chronicles 12:38 All
these men of war, who could keep ranks, came to Hebron with a loyal heart, to
make David king over all Israel; and all the rest of Israel were of one
mind to make David king. 39
And they were there with David three days, eating and drinking, for their brethren
had prepared for them. 40
Moreover those who were near to them, from as far away as Issachar (ihz-ah-car)
and Zebulun (zebb-you-lun) and
Naphtali, (naf-tuh-lie) were
bringing food on donkeys and camels, on mules and oxen -- provisions of flour
and cakes of figs and cakes of raisins, wine and oil and oxen and sheep
abundantly, for there was joy in Israel.
Here we learn that all of
these people spent 3 day with David and they had a big feast in celebration of
David being their new king. You know sometimes we don’t think a whole lot about
the little details but I can help but think how crowed
Now back in our text in 2
Samuel we learn that there was 3 reason why the children of
1. we are your bone and your flesh. There were the children of
Israel God’s people and so it would make sense for them to united together.
2. when Saul was king over us, you were the one who
led Israel out and brought them in You see the recognized the fact that though Saul was their king David was
the one who had lead them to victory over and over again and so he would be a
great choice for a king.
3. the LORD said to you, 'You shall shepherd My people
Psalm 78 sums it up this
way.
Psalm 78:70 He also
chose David His servant, And took him from the sheepfolds; 71 From following the ewes that
had young He brought him, To shepherd Jacob His people, And
Now
look at what happens next starting in
verse 6
2 Samuel 5:6 And the
king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of
the land, who spoke to David, saying, "You shall not come in here; but the
blind and the lame will repel you," thinking, "David cannot come in
here." 7 Nevertheless
David took the stronghold of
Now that David had all
these men at his disposal he was ready to reign from
This is why these
Jebusites were being so cocky. They didn’t think David and his men would be
able to defeat them. But they were wrong and David ran them out and took
control of that great city. From this time forward
2 Samuel 5:11 Then
Hiram king of
Here we are introduced to
the King of Tyre for the first time. This king would end up having a very long
reign because we will find out the he was still reigning as a king at the 24th
year of Solomon’s reign. Apparently David’s victory over the Jebusites had made
a big impression on this King of Tyre because he sends men and supplies to
build David a house. Now
2 Samuel 5:13 And
David took more concubines and wives from
Now in verse 14-16 it list
the names of his children. Again I want to point out that having a huge harem
back then was considered a reflection on just how powerful and rich a king
was. However as I pointed out last week this was a sin and David just kept
adding more and more women to the mix. This opened all kind of problems for
David and his family life and later on we will see just how bad it gets. We
know that David’s lifestyle also was passed on to his son Solomon who had
even more wives and concubines than David every dreamed of having.
2 Samuel 5:17 Now
when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all
the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it and
went down to the stronghold. 18
The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the
The Philistines had been
gaining more control of the land and when the heard about David victory over of
the Jebusites this got their undivided attention and they probably wanted to
attach David and his newly formed kingdom before it became stronger. Now
somehow David finds out from someone what the Philistines are up to and so
David does a great thing because he ask God what he should do and he gets his
answer. He is to go fight the Philistines and he will win. Just as God promises
David defeats the Philistines. Once again we see the David gives God the glory
for the victory. It interesting to note how David describes how he defeated his
enemy.
"The LORD has broken through my enemies
before me, like a breakthrough of water."
What this is describing
is like water that is breaking through a Dam.
22
Then the Philistines went up once again and deployed themselves in the
Well we see that the
Philistines don’t give up very easily and they try to attack David again. But
this time they were in for a surprise. Based on God instructions David and his
men were going to ambush the Philistines from behind and God was going to help
them win. In fact we are told the God will strike there camp before David and
them get there themselves. Now sometimes God would do this for his people but
God still wanted David and his men to do their part as well. They still had to
go and fight what was left after God did what he did to them. This was just the
beginning of many battles that David and his people would have to fight
throughout his reign.
There are several lessons
that we can learn from these 2 chapters.
1. No matter how big of a
battle we face against our adversary the devil if we trust in God and we are
faithful to him he will deliver us just as he made possible for David to defeat
the Jebusites and the Philistines.
2. We also learn that no
matter how big our problems may seem they can never stand against the power of
God.
3. Finally we learned how
important it is for us to follow David’s example by praying to God for answers
to those difficult situations in our lives.