God's Will
Preached by Jason Abbott
June 11, 2017
When there’s a terrorist attack in Brussels, we hear about it within minutes. If the Queen of England died, we would find out about it with astounding rapidity then watch—in real time, some weeks or months later—the coronation ceremony of the next monarch. News travels fast in this modern, globalized world we live in. And, because of this, we can have trouble understanding the timeframe of passages like the one which we’ll look at today in 2 Samuel. We can have trouble grasping how it could take 71/2 more years for David to succeed Saul as king.However, imagine one thousand Paul-Revere-esque midnight rides to report: the death of a king then the coronation of another in Judah then countless struggles for control over Saul’s throne—as politicians and generals and family members each make their bid for power. Imagine all these taking place over several years and being reported across a country the size of New Jersey—by couriers on horse (in the best scenarios) but more often on foot. Change . . . happened . . . slowly.As the author of Samuel, thus, tells us at the very beginning of chapter three: “There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David” (v. 1). David couldn’t simply ride over to Saul’s capital city to be crowned King of Israel the day after Saul had died.Consequently, the three paragraphs that we’re going to look at this morning likely bring together events that spanned about 51/2 years—from the death of Saul to the promotion of Ish-Bosheth as Israel’s new king. Then, after his appointment, Ish-Bosheth ruled for 2 more years. Change for David . . . happened . . . slowly.So let’s keep all this “slowness” in mind as we read the passage.
2 Samuel 2:1-11
1 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.” David said, “To which shall I go up?” And he said, “To Hebron.” 2 So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 3 And David brought up his men who were with him, everyone with his household, and they lived in the towns of Hebron. 4 And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.When they told David, “It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul,” 5 David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, “May you be blessed by the Lord, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him. 6 Now may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done this thing. 7 Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.”8 But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim, 9 and he made him king over Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel. 10 Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. 11 And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.
As we read through these three paragraphs, we’re going to see individuals: (1st) who are pursuing the will of God, (2nd) who are discerning the will of God, and (3rd) who are fighting the will of God. Let’s see what we can learn from each as we study the text together.
1. Pursuing God’s will (vv. 1-4)
After David hears of Saul’s death, he begins to contemplate his next move. But, he doesn’t make his decision in a vacuum. He’s been waiting about 15 years since he was anointed as a teenager to be king by Samuel. So you’d think he’d be chomping at the bit to get that crown on his head. Yet, he doesn’t appear to be. Instead, David is very measured in his decisions.Look at what the text says about him. The author explains:
After this [the death of Saul] David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?” And the Lord said to him, “Go up.” David said, “To which shall I go up?” And he said, “To Hebron” (v. 1).
Here we see that David doesn’t presume upon the Lord. David doesn’t jump to conclusions about what comes next. Rather, he is prayerful and submissive.We can learn a couple of things from David’s example here. For starters, his prayer is grounded in God’s history. Remember he’s been in exile from Israel because of the death sentence Saul had placed upon him. Now that Saul has died, David asks God if he can return to his tribe. When God affirms that he can return to Judah, David requests a specific city. And Hebron is God’s sweet reply to him. David asks: “May I enter my inheritance—the Promised Land?” And God answers: “Enter into it. Go to Hebron.”David knows Israel’s Bible. He knows that outside of God’s will and work, on his behalf, there will be no peace in the Land for him . . . let alone a kingship.I imagine him recalling Israel’s inability to defeat a small city in the Land because the Lord wasn’t with them on account of their sin (Joshua 7), and him remembering Gideon’s stunning defeat of a vast foreign army with a mere 300 men because, of course, God was with those few men (Judges 7). David had learned from Israel’s mistakes (being outside the will of God) and from Israel’s successes (being inside the will of God). So, David didn’t presume upon God at this moment. In a sense, with his questions, he’s praying: “Not my will but yours be done.”Friends, if you’re a Christian, I wonder if you know the revealed will of God as much as David did. Are you steeped and grounded in the Bible? When you are, you’ll find it easier to pray for the kinds of things which most please God. If not, you’ll find that your prayer life soon becomes disoriented and stale.The other thing we can learn from David’s prayer is that it’s exceptional. When David receives these direct and clear answers from God, it’s extra-ordinary. In other words, this shouldn’t be the normal expectation for our prayer life.This, by the way, is another reason to be steeped and grounded in the Bible, for often times God leaves us with less clarity than David gets here when he prays. Yet, if we’re praying in harmony with the will of God as revealed in the Bible, we’ll find it’s far more difficult to really blow it with our decisions. For example:
You may pray for direction with a career. If God doesn’t answer directly, you aren’t completely in the dark in how to move forward. In the Bible, God gives us a general principle—“whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). So choose, then do your job that way!
Or, maybe you wonder how Benjamin and I choose the Scripture texts for the sermons. Well, we pray about it but rarely do we get an answer like David gets here. Yet, the Bible is pretty clear about its own value—“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching . . . reproof . . . correction, and . . . training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). So if we’re not certain after we pray, we choose a book and we preach it because the Bible is all from God. Do you see?
Now, before we move on, allow me to point out that God encourages David when he sends him to Hebron. God reminds him that he’s a promise keeping God, and that he’s faithful and true and capable. How’s he doing that?Well Hebron’s a city to which Israelites would’ve gone and remembered this because Hebron is where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah were buried. These were the individuals with whom the Lord had originally made and kept his promises. Hebron was a testimonial to the faithfulness and goodness of God. David would’ve been encouraged when God sent him there.But we should be encouraged too! For the same God who encouraged David at Hebron encourages you, if you are a Christian, or offers now to encourage you, if you’re not a Christian, through the person and work of Jesus Christ—in whom “all the promises of God find their Yes . . .” (2 Corinthians 1:20). Thus friends, trust in Christ today and receive the encouragement that only he can give you!Well, we need to move now to the second paragraph of today’s text.
2. Discerning God’s will (vv. 5-7)
Now this short paragraph is all about a little town which Saul had saved from destruction in 1 Samuel. The town, Jabesh-gilead, was about to be conquered and tortured by a foreign king, but they sent out pleas for help which Saul heard and answered in a last-minute, heroic rescue. This, as a result, made Saul their guy. If anyone was for Saul, it was Jabesh-gilead.Their loyalty was proved when the Philistines took Saul’s corpse and hung it from the wall of one of their cities as a trophy. The men of Jabesh-gilead hear about it and immediately set out to bring his body back and give it a proper burial. It’s a courageous and honorable and touching act of loyalty!Yet, remember that if David is God’s chosen king then Saul is a false king. Jabesh-gilead is serving a false, God-rejected king. They’re honoring a phony king and pursuing a counterfeit kingdom. They’re not in God’s will!But what does David do with them? He hears of their fearless loyalty to Saul and is touched by it. Then, he dispatches messengers to the town of Jabesh-gilead, and these messengers bring a complementary invitation.Look at what these envoys say:
May you be blessed by the Lord, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him. Now may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done this thing. Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king . . . (vv. 5-7).
What’s David doing? Well, he’s inviting Jabesh-gilead to move from serving what’s false, Saul, into serving what’s true, David. And, he proffers this invitation, into his kingdom, by recognizing what’s commendable and honorable in them—namely: their fierce and courageous loyalty, their bold faithfulness.Oh, how we can learn from David here! Friends, too often when engaging with non-Christians, believers begin by focusing on what is wrong with their lives. We major on the negatives in them. But God’s image is stamped on each person—believer and non-believer alike. Everyone has commendable, God-given qualities which we can admire in them—qualities that long to find and fulfill their purposes in the service of God. (I wonder if you think of the lost this way.)It was Augustine who wrote to God in his Confessions: “You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless, until they can find rest in you.” For him, this was a truth encountered after a long, wayward struggle to find meaning in life. What to do with his intellect or his sexuality or his relationships or his anything? These questions plagued Augustine before he found his purpose in God.Christians, we must learn to dwell upon what’s commendable and honorable in our unbelieving friends. We must learn to use the marks of God still within them as an invitation to find their rest in their Creator—to use these giftings from God for their true purpose: to praise and to glorify and to serve him.Well, we don’t know what Jabesh-gilead did in the end with this invitation from David. We don’t know how they went about discerning God’s will for them. But the real question is not what they did . . . but what we will do.
What will we do when God invites us to serve his will with our finances?
What will we do when God invites us to serve him with our sexuality?
What will we do when God invites us to serve his will with our time?
What will we do when God invites us to serve him if serving him means pushing against the orthodoxies of our secular culture?
Friends, like the town of Jabesh-gilead, we have the question of God’s will before us every day. So, what are you going to do with it?And this brings us to the end of today’s passage—this third paragraph.
3. Fighting God’s will (vv. 8-11)
It was common knowledge in Israel that David was God’s anointed king—even Saul knew it. However, knowing the will of God doesn’t necessarily mean accepting the will of God. So, even though Saul knew that God had chosen David, he had tried to kill him. And he had recruited military men, like Abner, to help him in thwarting God’s will—to help him kill David.But now that Saul’s dead what will happen? Apparently much of the same! Apparently more kicking against God’s purposes! So the author tells us:
But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over . . . and . . . made him king (vv. 8-9).
Friends, it’s easy for us to wonder why someone would fight against God. How utterly hopeless! How futile such efforts are! But, when we think such things, we’re forgetting the deceitfulness of our own sinful hearts. Each of us does this. Each of us fights against God’s will in one way or another. Each of us, like Abner, sets up a kingdom of our own—sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly. But always in opposition to the will of God for us!
A kingdom of unforgiveness against God’s will for us.
A kingdom of gossip and slander against God’s will for us.
A kingdom of personal prominence against God’s will for us.
We all have our false kingdoms. We all kick against God’s will in some way or another. So, we must be vigilant and constantly make war against our tendency to make war against God’s purposes. This is the Christian struggle.Yet, we can’t and we shouldn’t try to do it alone. Rather, as David does here, we must prayerfully turn to God and ask him to lead us, by the power of his Spirit, into the pursuit of his kingdom. Let us pray to that end now.
