Who you reject when you reject God as your king.
The God who saves.
Song: Psalms 100
God has given salvation freely as a gift to all who call on him for salvation and believe that he is able to save; and who follow not what the world is saying is right but what God is saying is right (belief in him for salvation). God does not reward us according to our own righteousness but the righteousness of God, which is Jesus. We can never be perfect or right, our righteousness, what gives access to salvation is the cleansing that Jesus gave on the cross. (2 Samuel 22:21-25)
God who is merciful, just and upright and perfect demands this of those who trust in him. Jesus is the mercy, justice and perfection that we cannot obtain on our own and allows us to have access to God’s mercy and perfect justice. (2 Samuel 22:26-28)
God, through Jesus, gives revelation that brings insight, knowledge, wisdom and light in situations that are clouded by the darkness of purposelessness, fear, direction lessness, hopelessness, sorrow and oppression. (2 Samuel 22:29)
God brings salvation to those who put their trust in him and delivers his people out of seemingly insurmountable structural barriers, armies of laws, armies of societal norms, actual armies, armies of defeatist thinking, armies of naysayers and wall of impossibility. (2 Samuel 22:30)
God is a God who you can trust because only his way is perfect, without fault. God doesn’t fail and then try again next time. God doesn’t succeed only on good days or only when he is at his best most fit strongest. God’s salvation, safety, success is certain to those who put their faith and trust in him. There is no other God like God. There is no other foundation more secure than the security trusting God brings. (2 Samuel 22:31-32)
God gives this power and this strength to everyone who believes and calls on him. Strength to get out from under whatever oppresses, not by your own strength or power but by his spirit. (2 Samuel 22:33-34)
God is a living God who intervenes on behalf of those who call on him and fights their battles for them, takes vengeance into his own hand because he loves justice and is able to bring rulers and people in authority to their knees and raise up those who trust him from the dust to replace them. (2 Samuel 22:47)
God is a God of justice and he rewards according to people’s faith in him. When Israel rejected God, they also rejected the blessings that come with worshipping and honoring God. When they rejected the splendor of his deity to worship lesser gods, things that were incapable of doing what God can do, God stepped back and said, I will allow you to see the difference between my might and yours.
When God is for you, he protects you from all your enemies, even those in your own household. In Matthew 10:22, Jesus says to his disciples you will be “hated by everyone because of me but the one who stands firm (in their faith in me) to the end will be saved.” Then Jesus says in Matthew 10:34-36, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to ‘turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household (Micah 7:6)’ followed by ‘anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37-38). Belief in Jesus, God as your savior requires faithfulness and when you are faithful to trust in him alone to be your salvation, God protects you from all of your enemies.
David had many sons. One of his sons attempted to take the throne from David and to also take his life. This account is detailed in 2 Samuel 15. Absalom, David’s son, campaigned with the people of Israel to win their hearts over to him. He had murdered his brother, an act that he felt he was justified in doing because this brother had raped their sister (2 Samuel 13).
David banishes Absalom from the city of Jerusalem this crime for three years (2 Samuel 13:34-39) and when he finally allowed him to come back, he refused to speak to him for another two years (2 Samuel 14:28).
So Absalom felt justified in campaigning against his father. To all the Israelites who journeyed to visit Jerusalem, “he would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city” with a chariot and fifty men in his entourage and “whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king he would call out to him, ‘what town are you from?’ and they would answer, ‘your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel.’ Then Absalom would say to him, ‘look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you.’ And then he would add, ‘If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that they receive justice” (2 Samuel 15:2-4).
After four years of this, “he stole the hearts of the people of Israel” (2 Samuel 15:6) and conspired to steal the throne from his father David. One day he asked the king, David, to let him go make a sacrifice to God in a place called Hebron and David sends him with his blessing.
As Absalom was travelling through Israel to Hebron he sent messengers to tell the people of the towns that he was going to Hebron to be anointed king (2 Samuel 15:10). On his journey to Hebron he had invited two-hundred people from Jerusalem including his father’s counsellor to join him in Hebron. The image of the people in his entourage made the conspiracy grow although they had all joined him under the assumption that he was merely offering a sacrifice to God (2 Samuel 15:11-12). However, everyone in Israel began to believe that the sacrifice was a declaration of him as king and the people of Israel were with him (2 Samuel 15:13).
Word came back to Jerusalem and to king David that Absalom had anointed himself king and that all Israel was with him, so David and all of his officials, his entire household and the armies who were with him ran from Jerusalem thinking that Absalom would return to Jerusalem with the support of Israel and kill them all (2 Samuel 15:24).
Although David was distressed that his own son would conspire to take his life, he believed that God would protect him. When David left Jerusalem and fled, he took with him the priests and the Levites from the temple as well as the ark of the covenant of God (2 Samuel 15:24). Then he had a change of heart and said that “if God chooses to save me, he will find a way to save me and bring me back to see his promise and his dwelling place” followed by “if I have done anything to deserve what is happening to me and if God is displeased with me, then I am ready, let him do to me whatever seems good to him” (2 Samuel 15:26). So he told the priests to go back; that they and the Levites and the ark belong in the city of Jerusalem, the city of God (2 Samuel 15:25-26).
David continued with is entourage on their journey to the mount of Olives where people used to worship God in the wilderness. While on their way there someone told David that his counsellor, Ahithophel, had conspired this overthrow with his son and David prayed to God, “Lord turn Ahithophel’s counsel into foolishness” and he sent a confidant named Hushai back to Jerusalem to send any news back to him from what was happening (2 Samuel 15:30-37).
Song: Isaiah 57:14-21
“and it will be said: Build up, build up, prepare the road! Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people. For this is what the high and exalted One says –he who lives forever, whose name is holy: I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.
I will not accuse them forever, nor will I always be angry, for then they would faint away because of me—the very people I have created. I was enraged by their sinful greed; I punished them, and hid my face in anger, yet they kept on in their willful ways.
I have seen their ways, but I will heal them, I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel’s mourners, creating praise on their lips. Peace, peace, to those far and near, says the Lord. ‘and I will heal them.’
But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. ‘There is no peace’ says my God, ‘for the wicked’.”
When David flees the city of Jerusalem he runs to the mountain of God and everyone in Jerusalem that supported him as king follows him, his family, his household, his officials and fighting men. When they arrive at the top of the mountain, there, waiting for them is the servant of the grandson of Saul named Ziba. David asks Ziba why he isn’t with Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, Saul’s grandson, who is disabled, and the man answers that the grandson Mephibosheth thinks that his house will be restored to the throne, since David has fled. But Ziba had brought with him food and wine for David’s companions as well as donkeys for his household to ride to their next destination on (2 Samuel 16:1-4).
They rest and then continue on to a city called Bahurim, in the land of Benjamin and as they approach the city a man named Shimei meets them along the road and is hurling stones and insults at David and cursing him and all of his officials (2 Samuel 16:5-7}. He was yelling that David was a murderer and that is the reason he is in the situation that he’s in today; God is repaying him for the death of Saul and his household (2 Samuel 16:8).
Not only was Israel against David and in support of his son Absalom but some like Shimei believed David to be a murderer who unrightfully took the place of Saul. Some of David’s officials wanted to kill the man when they heard him cursing them and David, but David said, “My son, my own flesh and blood is trying to kill me. How much more then this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, let him curse, for all we know he is cursing me because the Lord has said to him, ‘curse David’ (2 Samuel 16:10). Don’t bring more curses on us because “it may be that the Lord will look upon my misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of his curse today” (2 Samuel 16:12). Weary and exhausted with stones and dirt and curses being thrown at them, David and his entourage entered the city and rested.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, two advisors were with Absalom, Ahithophel, David’s former counsel whose counsel was regarded like that of one who enquires of God (2 Samuel 16:23) and Hushai David’s confidant who he had sent to Jerusalem to spy on his son Absalom and the situation. Absalom accepts Hushai as an advisor and asks for counsel. Ahithophel says that Absalom should “sleep with his father’s concubines, whom he has left to take care of the palace” to disgrace his father. He also advises for Absalom to not do it in secret but publicly so everyone will know (2 Samuel 16:21-22). One of the purposes of a concubine is to preserve the lineage of the king. In this act Ahithophel is advising Absalom to take David’s lineage from him, and he does it on the roof for all of Israel to see (2 Samuel 16:21-22).
After Ahithophel advises Absalom to contaminate David’s lineage he then suggests that Absalom send twelve thousand men right away to attack David and his men, “while he is weary and weak”. He believes that the attack will terrify all those who are with him and they will disperse, but to only have them kill the king and bring everyone else back with them, because if David dies everyone who is pledged to him will pledge themselves to you (2 Samuel 17:1-3).
Ahithophel was advising Absalom to surprise attack David and his followers while they were weak because they were tired and to win all of his followers so that there would be no one left in the kingdom to challenge Absalom’s position as king.
Absalom liked Ahithophel’s advice, but he also asked Hushai his opinion. Hushai advised that Absalom take all the men from Israel into battle with him against David. His reasoning was this, “you know your father and his men; they are fighters and as fierce as a wild bear robbed of her cubs, besides, your father is an experienced fighter; he will not spend the night with the troops. Even now, he is hidden in a cave or some other place. If he (David) should attack your troops first, whoever hears about it will say, ‘there has been a slaughter among the troops who follow Absalom.’ Then even the bravest soldier, whose heart is like the heart of a lion will melt with fear, for all Israel knows that your father is a fighter and that those with him are brave” (2 Samuel 17:8-10).
Hushai was advising him not to bring so few people to attack David because he is probably hiding and is a better fighter than a handful of men. Bring everyone “from all of Israel Dan to Beersheba-as numerous as the seashore, with you leading them” and whatever city he is hiding in attack and he will not be able to defeat all of Israel when you find and attack him (2 Samuel 17:11-13). Absalom preferred Hushai’s advice, as did all of the leaders gathered with him from the tribes of Israel, and they set out to find David and his men.
Meanwhile, that night, Hushai told Zadok and Abiathar the priests to tell their sons Ahimaaz and Jonathan to send word to David about both plans that he and Ahithophel had advised Absalom and to leave where they are and cross the Jordan quickly.
When David fled Jerusalem these priests and their sons had left with him and when they returned their sons were being watched for possibly being spies, and they were. When a woman was sent to tell the sons the news about what Absalom’s advisors planned, Jonathan and Abiathar were seen meeting with her near the city and Absalom was informed and sent men to go find them and kill them before they could warn David.
The two sons of the priests went to hide at the house of a man in Bahurim and the man and his wife hid them in their well and covered the opening and threw corn on it as though they were drying it (2 Samuel 17:17-19). When the scouts came looking at their home the man’s wife told them that they, Jonathan and Ahimaaz had crossed a brook in another direction but when the men searched and didn’t find them, they went back to Jerusalem and Jonathan and Ahimaaz informed David of the plans Absalom’s advisors had given them (2 Samuel 17:21). So David and all the people with him set out to cross the Jordan. “By daybreak no one was left who had not crossed the Jordan” (2 Samuel 17:22). That night Ahithophel hangs himself because he saw that his advice had not been followed and that Absalom was preparing to bring to battle all of Israel to fight David (2 Samuel 17:23).
Soon all of Israel and Absalom were camped in the land of Gilead and David was in Mahanaim outside of Gilead and a man from Gilead met David and his company with provisions of bedding, bowls, pottery, wheat, barley, flour, roasted grain, beans, lentils, honey, milk, sheep and cheese for David and his people to eat because he thought the people with David must be exhausted and hungry and thirsty from wandering in the wilderness (2 Samuel 17:27-29).
David and his troops rested and prepared for battle, however his men would not allow him to go into battle, so he stayed in the city, while his troops marched to fight all of Israel who had come with Absalom that day, but David told the commanders not to harm Absalom.
The battle happened in a forest, the forest of Ephraim (2 Samuel 18:1-6). And David’s men killed twenty thousand of the Israelites that day and battled them all over the countryside, even the forest took ‘more lives’ than the sword (2 Samuel 18:7-8). In this way all of Israel was witness to a slaughter under the leadership of Absalom by the hands of the armies that were pledged to David.
During the battle that day Absalom was riding through the forest and happened upon David’s officials. While he was riding through the forest “under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s hair got caught in the tree. He was left hanging in mid-air while the mule he was riding kept going” (2 Samuel 18:9).
One of David’s officers saw it and told Joab, the commander of David’s armies and Joab said, ‘why didn’t you kill him right there’ (2 Samuel 18:11)? The officer replied that he could not kill the son of a king, plus he had heard David telling Joab not to kill him (2 Samuel 18:12-13).
Joab was incensed and told the officer to step aside that, ‘I’m not going to wait for you to decide’ whether it is right or wrong. Joab “took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom’s heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree and ten of Joab’s armor-bearers surrounded Absalom, struck him and killed him. Then Joab sounded the trumpet, and the troops stopped pursuing Israel, for Joab halted them. They took Absalom threw him into a big pit in the forest and piled up a large heap of rocks over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled to their homes” (2 Samuel 18:14-17).
Ahimaaz, the son of the priest Zadok was witness to Absalom’s death and said to Joab, let me be the one to tell David that “the Lord has vindicated him by delivering him from the hand of his enemies” (2 Samuel 18:19). But Joab knew that because this enemy was David’s own flesh and blood that the death of his son would not sound like victory to David today, so he did not want to send a son of a priest to him and told Ahimaaz to stay and sent a Cushite servant running back to Mahanaim with the news.
Ahimaaz pleaded with Joab to run with the Cushite, but Joab said to him that he didn’t have any good news. Ahimaaz said, be that as it may ‘I want to run’ so Joab said ‘run’ and “Ahimaaz ran by way of the plain of the Jordan and outran the Cushite” (2 Samuel 18:19-23).
Ahimaaz came to David who was sitting at the gate of the city and said, “Praise be to the Lord your God! He has delivered up those who lifted their hands against my Lord the king” (2 Samuel 18:28). But David said, ‘Is Absalom safe’? Ahimaaz replied that there was a lot of confusion and ‘I don’t know what it was about’. Just then the Cushite arrives and says, “My Lord the King, hear the good news! The Lord has vindicated you today by delivering you from the hand of all who rose up against you.’ David then asked the Cushite, ‘is the young man Absalom safe?’ The Cushite replied, ‘May the enemies of my Lord the king and all who rise up to harm you be like that young man” (2 Samuel 18:31-32).
“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgement; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
If he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard—
If this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgement.”
Sometimes your enemy will be people you love, people dearest to you. David loved God more than his family but David also loved his family and after God rescues him from the uprising that his son started David cries and is so heartbroken over the betrayal and death of his son he wishes that it was himself who was dead and his son alive (2 Samuel 18:33).
God uses the commander of David’s army, Joab, to rebuke him. David’s army fought their brother Israelites because they believed in David and the God that he served. They believed in this God to the death; and that David’s son unrightfully was conspiring to take the kingdom from him and that all of Israel was in the wrong against God and David and they fought to the death for this belief.
David had to be taught that sometimes it will be those you love who will be against God and against you and in that moment Joab, his commander said, you cannot be found weeping over the loss of this kind of betrayal, your faith in God must be greater than your love for someone who doesn’t love you. Joab said to David, ‘Today you have humiliated all your men, who have just saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters and the lives of your wives and concubines. You love those who hate you and hate those who love you” (2 Samuel 19:5-6).
I would add that it was the Spirit of God speaking through Joab to David that day to not humiliate the name of the Lord, the God you believe in by trying to side with or sympathize over or cry over who God is defeating on your behalf. Do not weep over the old ways of being, over the old law, over the princes of this world, over whatever God destroys to make way for his kingdom to be established. Do not weep when those walls come down, when God destroys them, or you bring humiliation on the work that God is doing for you. Don’t be sad to watch your enemies be defeated, to see old ways come to an end, do not try and comfort them or side with them. Let what God has determined for destruction be destroyed even if that ideology or structure or person is as close as blood to you and you love them. Do not let your love for them blind you and make you try and save what God in his wisdom, justice and saving power has determined to put to an end. You are either for what God is doing no matter the cost or you are against him.
Joab said to David, if you don’t stand by God’s victory today against this enemy that you love, all of the people who believed in you and the God who brought this victory will lose all faith in you and God (2 Samuel 19:7). So David went to the gate of the city to welcome the men back from battle (2 Samuel 19:8).
God was so faithful to David that not only did he allow his son to conspire against him to overthrow him, but God used Absalom to make all of Israel a witness to the fact that God was with David to bring him victory over all his enemies, yet the man they chose was killed in battle.
God was so faithful to David that after Absalom was killed and the uprising defeated, the leaders of Israel went after David to bring him back to Jerusalem. David did not need to make the case for his reinstatement as king, God sent leaders running to meet him to usher him back to Jerusalem and to the throne.
Even the man from Bahurim, Shimei, who had cursed David, his men and had thrown stones at him came running to greet him and beg forgiveness and said, “may my Lord the king not hold me guilty. Do not remember how your servant did wrong on the day my Lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king put it out of his mind. For I your servant know that I have sinned, but today I have come here as the first from the tribes of Joseph to come down and meet my Lord the king” (2 Samuel 19:18-20).
God was so faithful to David that he sent those who cursed David to honor him as God’s chosen king. Everyone who had defected to Absalom went to meet David as he was crossing the Jordan to return to Jerusalem including the leaders of the tribe of Judah and a thousand people from the tribe of Benjamin as well as half the troops of Israel (2 Samuel 19:14-17,40).
God was so faithful to David that the men of Israel began fighting over who should have welcomed David back to Jerusalem and by doing so find favor in the eyes of the returning king. The people of Judah said, we went alone to get him and bring him back because he is one of us. This did not sit well with the people of the other tribes that Judah should be more favored than all of Israel, that it wasn’t the place of the ruling king to have one tribe rule over the other tribes, but that the king was a representation of all of them.
In the confusion of that argument, “a troublemaker named Sheba, son of Bikri, a Benjaminite, happened to be there. He sounded the trumpet and shouted, ‘we have no share in David, no part in Jesse’s son! Every man to his tent. Israel!” (2 Samuel 20:1). Meaning this king is not for us he is for himself and the people of Judah; and all of the tribes listened to Sheba and deserted David to follow Sheba and make him king of Israel, just as David was making his return (2 Samuel 20:2).
So David told Amasa who was the commander of the army that Absalom had appointed, to gather all of Judah to find Sheba and take him down before all of Israel defected to him and anointed him king.
Amasa took his time with this request and Joab, David’s commander of his army believed that he did this to give Sheba time to escape and gather his own forces. So “Joab’s men and all the mighty warriors went out to pursue Sheba” (2 Samuel 20:6-7).
While they were searching for Sheba, Amasa met up with them and Joab stabbed him to death upon greeting him, with a dagger he had hidden in his military uniform (2 Samuel 20:9-10). One of Joab’s men said to all of the men in his company who witnessed it, “if you’re for Joab and David follow Joab” in an effort to ensure that everyone in pursuit of Sheba who was for Sheba knew that the same fate awaited them if they defected (2 Samuel 20:11-13). So, everyone went on with Joab to pursue Sheba.
God was so faithful to David that none of David’s men had to fight or attack Sheba or the people in the city where he was hiding, a town called Abel Beth Maakah. Joab’s troops began to build a ramp to the city and were battering the wall to bring it down (2 Samuel 20:15) when a woman from the city went to Joab to reason with him saying, that the town that they are destroying is a peaceful town and if he would just tell her what can be done to stop their raid she would do it. So Joab said, hand over Sheba, and the woman replied, ‘his head will be thrown to you from the wall’. Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice, and they cut off the head of Sheba and threw it to Joab. So he sounded the trumpet and his men dispersed from the city, each returning to his home and Joab went back to the king in Jerusalem” (2 Samuel 20:16-22).
“This is what the Lord says: ‘Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there:
Hear the word of the Lord to you, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. This is what the Lord says:
Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.
For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanies by their officials and their people.
But if you do not obey these commands, declares the Lord, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin. For this is what the Lord says about the palace of the king of Judah:
Though you are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, I will surely make you like a wasteland, like towns not inhabited. I will send destroyers against you, each man with his weapons, and they will cut up your fine cedar beams and throw them into the fire.
People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?’ and the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshipped and served other gods.’
Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss; rather, weep bitterly for him who is exiled, because he will never return nor see his native land again.
For this is what the Lord says about Shallum son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place: ‘He will never return. He will die in the place where they have led him captive, he will not see this land again.’
‘Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor. He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.’ So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red.
‘Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. De defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?’ declares the Lord.
But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion. Therefore this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:
They will not mourn for him: “Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!” They will not mourn for him: “Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!” He will have the burial of a donkey—dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.
Go up to Lebanon and cry out, let your voice be heard in Bashan, cry out from Abarim, for all your allies are crushed. I warned you when you felt secure, but you said, “I will not listen!” This has been your way from your youth; you have not obeyed me.
The wind will drive all your shepherds away, all your allies will go into exile. Then you will be ashamed and disgraced because of all your wickedness. You who live in Lebanon, who are nestled in cedar buildings, how you will groan when pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman in labor.
As surely as I live, declares the Lord, even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. I will deliver you into the hands of those who want to kill you, those you fear—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Babylonians. I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die. You will never come back to the land you long to return to.
Is this man Jehoiachin a despised broken pot, an object no one wants? Why will he and his children be hurled out, cast into a land they do not know? O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says: Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule any more in Judah.”
So David returned to Jerusalem as king, however there was a famine for three consecutive years, so David sought God for guidance as to why and God spoke to him and said: it is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death (2 Samuel 21:1).
Because God is a just God he spoke to David and said that there was something his predecessor had done that David, as inheriting the throne was responsible for correcting.
2 Samuel 21:1 said that Saul in one of his campaigns to expand the kingdom into the inheritance that God promised, by removing the people who were there had tried to annihilate the Gibeonites, in his zeal for expansion even though the Israelites had sworn to spare them (2 Samuel 21:2).
God said Saul killed people that he promised to spare, correct this and the curse will be lifted from the land that you’ve inherited. So David asked the leaders of the Gibeonites what could be done to atone for what Saul had done to their people and they replied that only the death of men in his house could atone for the deaths of the men of their house and asked David to take the lives of seven of Saul’s descendants (2 Samuel 21:3-6).
It seems barbaric that taking the lives of these men would appease God, but God had rejected Saul for his unfaithfulness and wanted to make a distinction between the lineages that he honors and blesses verses the lineages who are unfaithful and subject to his judgement and curses.
God was saying that as long as there are sons in Saul’s line, they would have future reasons to try and remove David or the descendants of David, or anyone God placed on the throne of Israel from their place.
The inheritance was cursed physically by drought, but spiritually by a family that God had determined to completely remove from any future claims to the throne. In God’s wisdom and God’s faithfulness to David, God removed the lineage of Saul as a present or future threat to David’s claim to the throne and seven of Saul’s descendants were handed over to him to be killed and their bodies exposed before the Lord on a hill. “They were put to death during the first days of harvest just as the barley harvest was beginning” and rain poured down from heaven on their bodies (2 Samuel 21:6-10). But David had compassion on them and the bodies of Saul and his son Jonathan and put them in a proper tomb (2 Samuel 21:10-14).
The remaining verses of 2 Samuel 21:15-22 detail more victories that God gave David’s armies over their enemies, the Philistines. In one battle his commander kills a man who tried to kill David while he was exhausted. After this battle his commander and troops would not let David fight in any future battles (2 Samuel 21:15-17).
God was faithful not just to David but everyone in his army to give them victories over their greatest enemies, and over the greatest warriors of their greatest enemies all of whom fell at the hands of David’s men (2 Samuel 21:18-22).
Then David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul (2 Samuel 22:1):
Song: 2 Samuel 22
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—from violent people you save me.
I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and have been saved from my enemies. The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears.
The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens shook; they trembled because he was angry. Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.
He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew, he soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his canopy around him—the dark rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth. The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of breath from his nostrils. He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters.
He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.
The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I am not guilty of turning from my God. All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees.
I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.
To the faithful you show yourself faithful to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure but to the devious you show yourself shrewd. You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low.
You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall. As for God, his way is perfect: the Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.
For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights. He trains my hands for battle, my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
You make your saving help my shield; your help has made me great. You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way. I pursued my enemies and crushed them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed. I crushed them completely, and they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet.
You armed me with strength for battle; you humbled my adversaries before me. You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes. They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—to the Lord, but he did not answer. I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth; I pounded and trampled them like mud in the streets.
You have delivered me from the attacks of the peoples you have preserved me as the head of nations. People I did not know now serve me, foreigners cower before me; as soon as they hear of me, they obey me. They all lose heart; they come trembling form their strongholds.
The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior! He is the God who avenges me, who puts the nations under me, who sets me free from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from a violent man you rescued me.
Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing the praises of your name. He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.”
“Now Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, along with cedar longs, stonemasons and carpenters to build a palace for him. And David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and that his kingdom had been highly exalted for the sake of his people.”
Prayer: Daniel 9:4-19
“Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our ancestors, and to all the people of the land.
Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame—the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. We and our kings, our princes and our ancestors are covered with shame, Lord, because we have sinned against you.
The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you. Therefore the curses and sworn judgements written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you.
You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing on us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster on us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.
Now, Lord, our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.
Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name.
We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”
“We have heard it with our ears, O God; our ancestors have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago. With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our ancestors; you crushed the people and made our ancestors flourish.
It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory, it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.
You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob. Through you we push back our enemies; through your name we trample our foes. I put no trust in my bow, my sword does not bring me victory, but you give us victory over our enemies, you put our adversaries to shame. In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever.
But now you have rejected and humbled us; you no longer go out with our armies. You made us retreat before the enemy, and our adversaries have plundered us. You gave us up to be devoured like sheep and have scattered us among the nations. You sold your people for a pittance, gaining nothing from their sale.
You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, the scorn and derision of those around us. You have made us a byword among the nations; the peoples shake their heads at us. I live in disgrace all day long, and my face is covered with shame at the taunts of those who reproach and revile me, because of the enemy, who is bent on revenge.
All this came upon us, though we had not forgotten you; we had not been false to your covenant. Our hearts and had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path. But you crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals; you covered us over with deep darkness.
If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart? Yet for your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
Awake, Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.
Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground.
Rise up and help us; rescue us because of your unfailing love.”
“O God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture? Remember the nation you purchased long ago, the people of your inheritance, whom you redeemed—Mount Zion, where you dwelt. Turn your steps towards these everlasting ruins, all this destruction the enemy has brought on the sanctuary.
Your foes roared in the place where you met with us; they set up their standards as signs. They behaved like men wielding axes to cut through a thicket of trees. They smashed all the carved paneling with their axes and hatchets. They burned your sanctuary to the ground; they defiled the dwelling-place of your Name. They said in their hearts, ‘We will crush them completely!’ They burned every place where God was worshipped in the land.
We are given no signs from God; no prophets are left, and none of us knows how long this will be. How long will the enemy mock you, God? Will the foe revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the folds of your garment and destroy them!
But God is my King from long ago; he brings salvation on the earth. It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert. It was you who opened up springs and streams; you dried up the ever-flowing rivers.
The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter. Remember how the enemy has mocked you, Lord, how foolish people have reviled your name. Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts, do not forget the lives of your afflicted people forever.
Have regard for your covenant, because haunts of violence fill the dark places of the land. Do not let the oppressed retreat in disgrace; may the poor and needy praise your name. Rise up, O God, and defend your cause; remember how fools mock you all day long. Do not ignore the clamor of your adversaries, the uproar of your enemies, which rises continually.”
My Seed Faith 