So lesson seven is entitled David and Throwned in Jerusalem. We're going to be looking at the first chapters of Second Samuel now. So first Samuel is concluded in the past, what is it? Six lessons.
We've seen all the hardships that David's endured. We passed from the paton from Samuel, the last judge, to King Saul, who was exactly the king that everybody wanted and they didn't need. So now we're going to get to the king that they need and the king that's after God's own heart. So we're launching in here to Second Samuel.
We're going to focus on chapters one through six and see how he journeys to Jerusalem because as a matter of fact, it's not a simple journey from point A to point B. David's been extremely patient for many years running away from Saul in exile, fighting off enemies from his own countrymen, fighting enemies from outside the Philistines and with his wit and intelligence and with God's blessing naturally, he's able to survive. But he's going to have to wait seven and a half more years before he becomes the king over all of Israel. He does not become king of Israel right away.
So chapters one through four is basically the story of David's patience. His patience, he is waiting for God's blessing to come upon him. And in the meantime, his opposition being removed one after another, beginning with Saul and Jonathan, we're going to look at that in this opening chapter, chapter one. We're going to see Ishbo-Chef, which is Saul's last remaining son.
He's going to be removed as a threat. And then there's going to be Abner who's going to be removed as a threat as well. Abner is Saul's main military commander and cousin as well. And so one after another, these threats, these speed bumps, opposition, whatever you want to call it, are going to be removed.
Now David's going to be innocent throughout the entire time. So as we go through chapters one through four and understand the narrative of David's patience and waiting for God's blessing and removing the various obstacles to David being king over Israel, it's really important to emphasize, and I'll point this out especially as we go through these three steps of Solomon Jonathan, then Abner, then Ishbo-Chef. David does not want to use force or violence or injustice in removing his enemies. Now I guess we're talking about enemies from within because he certainly handles the phyllis means very, very well in getting rid of them.
So we're talking specifically about the lords anointed and the house of the lords anointed. So because remember, a couple of times, two to be precise, David does not raise his hand against Saul. He's also promised back in 1 Samuel if you remember that he's not going to raise his hand against Saul's house either. Okay?
So that's just kind of setting up chapters one through four. And then we'll see him become king over Israel, making Jerusalem his capital. And then he becomes by the end of chapter six and the end of our lesson here, he is enthroned. He's the king over all of Israel and thrown in Jerusalem.
All right. So chapter one, this new era of salvation history begins with the beginning of a second book and it begins after the death of Saul, et cetera, et cetera. Now a couple of different commentaries depending on what you're reading because not all commentaries point this out. But it's really interesting because this particular expression after the death of so and so the story continues that's been presented here.
That's been used that style has been used a couple of different times already back in Joshua and back in judges. So it's interesting. I got a quote here for you. Let me actually just read Josh, Joshua chapter one verse one, then judges one verse one and then I'll share with you this quote that ties it all together because I think it's really interesting.
We are we are at a new stage in salvation history where David is the king and the Davidic covenant is going to be established from Jerusalem. It's all incredibly important going all the way forward to Jesus Christ because again, I've said this before in this Bible study and elsewhere, you can't understand the kingdom that Jesus restores and preaches unless you understand the Davidic kingdom. The first words out of Jesus's mouth as well as John the Baptist mouth as a matter of fact is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Well, what does that mean?
What kingdom are we talking about? We're talking about the kingdom of David. So this new era is beginning here in second, same with chapter one, but there are echoes back in Joshua and judges. So let me just read Josh Joshua chapter one verse one.
It says after the death of Moses, the servants of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, et cetera, et cetera. And then judges begins the same way. One verse one says after the death of Joshua, the sons of Israel, and choir to the Lord, et cetera, et cetera. And now we have here in second Samuel chapter one verse one after the death of Saul.
So after the death of such and such a person is a pattern here that you're going to find. So check out this little quote here on the top of your notes. It says the opening of second Samuel parallels that of two other Old Testament books, Joshua and judges, which I just read to you through these parallel introductions three periods of Israel's history are tied together, the liberation from Egypt, the conquest of Canaan, and the institution of the Israelite monarchy. I would be more precise and I would say the Davidic monarchy.
Is there a future for Israel after Moses? Yes. Is there a future for Israel after Joshua? Yes.
Is there a future for Israel after Saul? Yes. In quote. So that's pretty cool.
It's pretty cool to see what scripture is doing here, bringing us from one chapter to another throughout salvation history with these opening words after the death of someone. So and I think what you could do if you were to speculate and pray about this a little bit more is that with God, death does not have the last word. You know, there's a big theme in Paul's epistles and the gospel is like Jesus conquers Satan's in death. So after the death of a great leader or a leader who's failed in the case of Saul, that's not the last word.
I think that's the big spiritual point that we're going to reflect on this. That's not the last word. God will continue his mission. God will continue his, his providential care of his people.
I think that's the big takeaway point here. All right. I like that. I like that very much.
So what's going on here is after the death of Saul, David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekite to talk about all of that at the last, at the end of the last lesson here. And it turns out that there is a messenger who comes to David and brings report of Saul's death and Jonathan's death. And David says to him in verse three, where did you come from? I've escaped from the camp of Israel.
How did it go? Tell me and he gives the bad news. The people fled from battle. Many of the people also have fallen and are dead.
Saul and Jonathan, his son are dead. And David said, well, how do you know this? And he tells this story here in verse six and following by chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa and there was Saul leaning upon his spear and behold, the chariots and the horse and were close upon him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me and answered here, my, he said, I mean, who are you?
I said, I'm an Amalekite. Note that I find that personally very, very ironic that he is an Amalekite. He said to me, stand beside me and slay me for anguished season me yet my life still lingers. So I stood beside him.
This Amalekite said I stood beside Saul and I slew him because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. I took the crown which was upon his head and the arm which was on his arm and I brought him here to my Lord. And at this point, David mourns he cries out. He tears his clothes as do other people with him.
This is very, very tragic to hear about the death of Saul who was his father in law. I don't know how it comes on that in just a moment here. He mourns and weeps over Saul who was his father but also is going to me. But also Jonathan.
Jonathan is his best friend. Like he's his bestie, his BFF for all time and Jonathan was supposed to help David and sit at his right hand and ruling the kingdom. It was supposed to be a glorious future and yet he's dead. So he really mourns this tragic, this tragic story and I find this interesting because David in response in verse 14, well, how is it that?
Well, first he says, well, where you come from? I'm an Amalekite. How was it that you were able to put forth your hand to destroy the Lord's and going to it and call when it was all men said, execute him for by your own mouth. You have testified against you because you have raised your hand against the Lord's anointed.
So what's going on here is that the Amalekite is killed for claiming to execute Saul for ending Saul's life when Saul was at the brink of death. This is the whole story anyways of what's going on here. Now I find this interesting a couple of things I want to point out. First off, is this a contradiction with what we read in 1 Samuel 31?
Because in 1 Samuel 31, the story goes that Saul killed himself. His armor bear refused to kill Saul because he was afraid. Saul falls upon his own sword and then the armor bear does right afterwards. And now you've got a story that seems to contradict that one.
So a lot of enemies of scripture will say, well, this is very clearly yet another indication of the Bible contradicting itself. I think there's no way it can be inherent. You've got two different stories of the event put side by side with no attempt at reconciliation. And that's just disappointing because there's very clearly an easy way to explain this apparent contradiction.
I talk about this a lot in the scripture 101 course. There is a lesson in there about how to deal with apparent contradictions because scripture is inherent. It does not teach falsehood. And so this is certainly one of those instances where you can have an easy explanation.
And so here's a little quote here for you from a Catholic Bible study commentary. It says, Saul committer, suicide back in 1 Samuel 31, but here the messenger fabricates a tale intended to make himself look like a hero. Apparently, the messenger has come to David with the expectation of reward. Instead, he utters his own death sentence.
And that end quote, so that means total sense here. The true story is what happens in 1 Samuel 31. And I think it's important because Saul is the one who effectively in acts his capital punishment for consulting that medium, that which. Okay, if you remember that.
So here he really executes himself fulfilling his own death sentence. And then this Amalekai happens to find him before the Philistines do. He takes the crown in the armlet and brings it to David expecting to bring good news and be rewarded in some way, like maybe a position. I doubt that.
But certainly money or some sort of blessing or material gift of some kind, right? But unfortunately for the poor to do it backfires, right? Because David doesn't understand what happened. And he just simply thinks that the Amalekai killed his father-in-law.
And he's killed for it, right? So that's a simple, simple way to harmonize these two accounts. And that'll actually be really important as we go on the next couple chapters here too. Because the story is revisited.
There's another echo, a deja vu moment here where the same intention is clearly at play here where someone tries to execute David's enemies or the fact that case does will get there in the moment. And their reward is not what they would expect. Okay? So, the other thing here besides reconciling the current contradiction and harmonizing the two accounts.
The other thing is the irony behind the fact that it is Amalekai. It's an Amalekai who brings the crown to David. This is so interesting to me because if you go back to first Samuel chapter 15, the final straw that broke the camel's back, you remember, was when Saul was supposed to go utterly execute and wipe out the Amalekites. He doesn't.
He takes a bunch of the booty for himself. It doesn't kill the king. And then what happened as a result is Samuel approaches him and punishes him. Saul makes excuses and lies to Samuel's face.
And he doesn't really care. He's not really contrite. What you can't hear, you remember is that the kingdom is going to be taken away from him and given to someone who is better than him. Okay?
Now, that's interesting that this is all in the context of him not fulfilling the duty of wiping out the Amalekites. So, I find it really ironic. Sadly, ironic that guess what? It is an Amalekite who literally brings Saul's crown and gives it to David.
Right? So, like this Amalekite, not knowing anything obviously fulfills Samuel's prophecy that the kingdom will go to someone else. And that is literally fulfilled by the hands of this Amalekite. I find that super ironic super sadly ironic tragically ironic and kind of humorous as well.
I guess I can tell you the truth. Humorous that this is the fulfillment that is taking place right as Saul dies. This is crazy to me. Okay.
So, what happens here with the news? David warns. He sends this, sings, excuse me, this hymn, this song, this beautiful moving hymn of grief about the death of Saul and Jonathan here. And I cannot read the whole thing here for you.
I just want to point out one thing. A couple of things. When he sings this hymn, he sings this refrain multiple times about how the mighty have fallen. It's repeated in verse 1, or even verse 19 in verse 25, verse 27 with a couple of other references to the mighty as well in the middle of the song.
This theme of the mighty falling here is very much an echo to the song of Hannah's Canticle. So in 1 Samuel chapter 2, we've talked about Hannah's Canticle, how it's foreshadowing the anointed one which is going to be filled with David. But there's this theme of reversals that's taking place within that hymn. And one of them is how the mighty wolf will fall.
So God is always doing what you don't expect. The mighty, the strong, the proud, are brought low, the low are brought high or raised up. The hungry are filled and those who are satisfied go away hungry and so on and so forth. There's a lot of connections with the Magnificat.
So essentially, this is what we're seeing here in the theme where Saul is raised up, but then he is brought low and then the humble shepherd is raised up in his place. So the song of Hannah is being fulfilled here in the lives of Saul and David. And others as well, you should always be looking for the theme of reversals in these stories as well as an overarching theme of the whole scriptures. Because remember, I mean, I'm way ahead of myself here, but you go and you read the epistles of Saint Paul, you still have the same theme of the Jews and the Gentiles, right?
The Jews, not all of them, but the Jewish establishment, if you want to call them that reject Christ. And then the Gentiles are brought in, they're grafted into the roots, or they're grafted into the tree, Paul talks about this a ton of Romans. But the whole theme of reversals is playing out right here with Saul and with David, and he's singing about it in his hymn. So just as Hannah begins, Hannah's song begins first, Samuel, David's hymn begins second Samuel, and they echo each other very, very strongly here.
Okay. So I want to point that out here as a reference to first, Samuel chapter two. I want to also point out to you that in this whole chapter where he tears his clothes and he weeps and he mourns and he sings this tragic hymn of grief, this lamentation, he's making it very, very clear that he's innocent. He does not desire the violent overthrow of his predecessor.
Like I said before, at the beginning of this lesson here, David makes it very clear that he's going to wait for God's timing. He's been waiting for God's timing for potentially up to a decade at this point, depending on how you number that. And so he's going to, he really wants to make it very clear and everybody notices as well. And I'll share that with a future verse that he did not desire this.
He did not orchestrate it in any way. And another thing that's so beautiful about David as you read this lamentation, he doesn't say one bad thing about Saul. That blows my mind. Saul's been chasing him around the countryside for all those years, trying to kill him.
He tried to skewer him with a spear a few times back in the palace and he's been poor David's been living life on the edge, not full of anxiety and fear, ultimately turning to trust in the Lord 100%. But still nevertheless, you can imagine like running for your life for years from your father in law. I mean, how many marriages go so bad that the father in law tries to kill the son-in-law, but that's the story of David right there. And yet here, despite everything, he says not one bad thing about Saul.
What does this tell you? It tells you probably, I think David is a very, well, he trusts in God number one, but he's very forgiving. I think he's a very forgiving person here. And to me, that echoes Joseph.
Remember Joseph after his years in slavery forgave his brothers from his hearts. And he said, you know, you're sitting here, you wished evil, but God brought good about it. Powerful story with Joseph, but it's equally powerful in my mind with David. You know, David could have said, good riddance to that Saul.
You know, I was innocent this whole time. Why did you try to keep any of that? So it's very beautiful. I think the show is David's virtue.
David's virtue of forgiveness and love and under maybe he David really understood that Saul was tormented by that evil spirit. And he was patient with the whole thing, despite it all. So I don't know. Between you and me, I think David is a very forgiving person in this chapter really nails it.
All right. So now let's move on. Chapter two, three, and four is going to talk about the demise and the removal of the rest of David's opposition because it doesn't happen immediately. He's not made keen immediately over Israel.
Just Judas. Let's check this out here in chapter two, verse one, it says, after this David inquired of the Lord, shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, go up. And to which shall I go up to Hebron?
So David went up there and his two wives also, Hinoem of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal. And David brought up his men who were with him, everyone with the household. So if you remember that's about 600 men give or take, they dwelt in the towns of Hebron. And the men of Judah came and they're the anointed David king over the house of Judah.
All righty. So after David and Jonathan are slain and he mourns them after a certain amount of time, he inquires of God. What do I do next? And that's also very good about David.
He's always inquiring to God. Like, Lord, what do you want me to do? He's trying to discern God's will in his life. That happens nine times out of 10.
It doesn't happen in every instance. So I'm going to go up and tell David to do it there. But by and large, he is always inquiring of God. What shall I do?
And discerning God's will. That's very beautiful. That's another two thumbs up for our buddy David here. So he's instructed go to Hebron of Judah.
And that's where he's anointed king over all of his kinsmen of Judah because of course David is from Bethlehem. So it's natural that he becomes king of Judah first. And the anointing here. Now the true anointing that took place was at the hands of Samuel.
That's when the spirit comes upon him and it says God was with him and everything that he did and he was successful and all that he did. So this here is this very brief quote here says, it's a more political secular act of recognition or enthronment. Where they're anointing him king and they're essentially ratifying the lower case as sacramental anointing by Samuel. It's not strictly speaking of sacrament, but in any case the spirit does come upon him by Samuel's anointing.
And now it's just formalized here with Judah. So he reigns king of Judah for seven years specifically. This is said in a couple of different places. Chapter two verse 11 also chapter five versus four and five.
It's very clear that he when he's an anointed king over Judah, which seems to be when he's 30 years old, some people argue that he was 23. And then he reigned from Judah for seven years. Then he reigned at the rest of Israel for 33. At least right now, I'm of the opinion.
I'll share with you in a second why he was 30 years old when he began to rule. He ruled for seven years for Judah and then the rest of the 33 years over all of Israel. And he begins to reign from Hebron, not Jerusalem. Jerusalem is going to be important back in chapters five and six.
We're going to see all that take place there, that beautiful story of making him making Jerusalem as political and religious capital. But right now in this sort of holding pattern, he is king of Hebron or from Hebron, I should say why? Why is Hebron important? I'm going to give you at least two reasons why Hebron is an important place.
But first is because that's the burial side of the patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with their spouses, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah. They are buried here in your Hebron with a little small plot of land, a little cave that Abraham bought for the burial site of their family. And you can check that out in Genesis 23 and 19, and Genesis 49 and 29 following.
So it's really interesting to me that David begins to reign from Hebron exactly where the patriarchs were buried. Because if you think about Abraham's life and to summarize this quickly, go to the Genesis Bible study for more details here. God promises to David, I will make of you a great nation, kings will come forth from you, and all nations will be blessed from you. And as a little token, a little sign of this blessing, he is buried in a tiny plot of land, which later on is going to become the entire territory.
So this is interesting because David begins to, so the second promise to Abraham is kings will come forth from you. And now David is going to the Davidic kingdom that's going to come from him, begins with his reign at Hebron exactly where the patriarchs are buried. I think there's a beautiful connection here. It's essentially showing how the second promise to Abraham that kings will come forth from him is being fulfilled here with David.
So that's the first point. The second point is that Hebron is where Caleb settled after the conquest or after they began the conquest. Remember that Joshua and Caleb were the only two righteous men from the first generation who entered into the promise land. Everyone else from the first generation that left Egypt died in the wilderness.
So Joshua and Caleb come in with the second generation, and at the end of the time of their lives, Joshua gives Caleb the territory of Hebron to rule. And Caleb is amazing. Like you can go back to Joshua, he just like slaughters giants. I think it's really important to point out as a matter of fact you're with David.
Caleb does a great job conquering the land, removing their enemies, and he even conquers giants. That 100% is typology for David. David also, he basically is finishing what Caleb started. He's finishing the conquest.
And that's certainly true. By the end of David's reign, all the territory had been conquered, whereas only some of it had been conquered after Joshua and Caleb died. Because naturally, you know, they're not going to conquer everything by the time of Joshua and Caleb's life. So David finishes the job.
He has a new Caleb figure ruling from Hebron. David also kills the giant Goliath and all the rest of their enemies. I think that's also really cool. So Hebron is significant for these reasons.
It's very, I don't know, typological and symbolic, but also a continuation of the mission of the patriarchs and the conquest that David reigns from here. You see that? Okay. Let's move on here with the story about the Civil War because while David reigns for seven years in Judah from Hebron, unfortunately, he's going to have to deal with a contender of the throne, which is going to come from Saul's house through his fourth son, Ishkosheth.