Weekly Sermons

2 Samuel Overview

2 Samuel is the 10^th book of the Christian Bible.

But remember: both I Samuel and II Samuel were together in the Hebrew Bible.

This is still in the section of the Bible that is referred to as the historical books, from Joshua to Esther.

The Historical Books are the 12 books between Joshua and Esther that show Israel’s successes and failures in trying to live according to the Law.

I Samuel marked the transition between the time of the Judges and the time of the Kings. 2 Samuel is the record of King David’s Rule in first Judah, then all of Israel. The biggest thing that happens is the giving of the Davidic Covenant.

Outline:

David rises to become Israel’s model king                            Chapters 1-10

David falls into sin and deals with sins consequences       Chapters 11-24

Ch. 1              David leads the mourning for Saul and Jonathan   

What did David do when he heard of Saul’s death?

Ripped his own clothes! Mourned, wept, fasted. Avenged his death. Wrote a song to be sung by all in Israel, recorded in chapter one and the book of the Upright (Jashar).

Ch. 2              Civil War and Assassinations

David’s side:                        Ish-bosheth’s side:            Ish-bosheth is Saul’s son

Judah, David’s tribe           Benjamin, Saul’s tribe       Judah makes David king

Joab, David’s “general”     Abner, Saul’s general        Makes Ish-bosheth Israel’s king

Joab’s brothers: Abishai, Asahel

Now look at the map I gave you…

Do you see Mount Gilboa? That’s where Saul died.

David moved from Ziklag to Hebron after Saul’s death – do you see those places?

The tribe of Judah recognizes David as their king there.

This in essence means the South of the country has recognized David as king.

They tell him that it was the men of Jabesh-Gilead who had honored Saul by retrieving his body for proper burial.

Do you see where Jabesh-Gilead is? In the North; East of Jordan.

Why would they want to honor Saul in that way?

Saul’s first act as king, and maybe his best act as king, had been to rescue Jabesh Gilead from the Ammonites in I Samuel 11. They were still grateful. David honors them for honoring Saul!

Abner, Saul’s general, knows he needs to act quickly or David will have the whole nation following him.

Not for love of Saul, but for his own ambition, he sets Saul’s son up as a puppet and moves him to Mahanaim. Do you see where that is?

Read 2:8-13

Do you see Gibeah on your map? That’s about where Gibeon is. That’s where the two sides meet!

Read 2:14-17           The Field of Blades!           Helkath-hazzurim!

Well, Asahel chases Abner after that, and unfortunately for Asahel catches him. Abner reluctantly kills Asahel.

Read 3:1 David makes gains, moving toward uniting Israel.

Abner decides to support David instead of Ish-bosheth. Then David has a political nightmare on his hand! Joab kills Abner, avenging his brother. And it’s here where we again see David’s character.

David wins the heart of Israel through appropriate mourning

Read 3:31-39

We also have foreshadowing that Joab will continue to cause David pain in the future.

Chapter four ends with the assassination of Ish-bosheth, and David condemning to death his assassins. We also hear about a living son of Jonathan that David will one day take in, Mephibosheth. That happens in chapter 8

Ch. 5-10        Highlights of David’s reign: the wonder years!

Read 5:1-5

So here we read that David was about 37 when he became King over all of Israel.

If he was about 15 when he fought Goliath as a lad, that means he had spent around 20 years dealing first with Saul and then Civil War. What an education on the way to becoming King!

Lots of us want the glory in serving Christ! Not many of us can handle the battles on the way to doing great things for God!

David’s first move after being anointed king is taking Jerusalem!           Read 5:6-12

Then the Philistines attack him, so he takes the opportunity to beat them back to the Gaza strip.

Then in chapter 6 he moves the ark to Jerusalem, WITH GREAT DIFFICULTY! Uzzah dies for touching the ark, Michal doesn’t appreciate David’s dancing!

We’ll talk about chapter 7 in a moment, but chapters 8-10 show David being blessed by God and Israel moving toward her biblically given borders as they defeat their enemies.

Ch. 7              The last major covenant of the Old Testament is given

Read 7:1-17

Did you see all those “I wills”?

David wants to build God a house; God tells David through Nathan the prophet that He is going to build David’s house! This is called the Davidic Covenant.

Now here’s a question for you: Is this a conditional or unconditional covenant?

It’s unconditional! A descendant of David will rule on the throne of Israel!

Verse 14 makes clear individual descendants of David would be punished for their sin, but the promise would continue!

Don’t miss it: this “Davidic covenant” is the biggest thing that happens in the historical books!  

It is as key to understanding the Bible as the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant!

Psalm 89:20-37                   Isaiah 9:6-7              Matthew 1:1           Acts 13:16-23

Every future king of Israel will be compared to David; Jesus, the Son of David surpasses them all!

In the first ten chapters we saw David’s rise to power and expansion of Israel;       In the last 14 chapters we see David’s decline due to his sins.

Ch. 11            David’s sin and cover-up lead to worse sin

At the time that kings go out to war, David does not. David is older now, and his identity has been as a warrior.

Many people sin when they no longer can do physically what they one could, and they start looking for something to fill the vacancy left in their life. Often Satan seizes the moment to put a big temptation in front of them, and many succumb to the temptation and sin.

David used to out to war; now he remains in Jerusalem.

He’s got free time on his hands, so he strolls around the roof of the palace, and sees a naked lady bathing, and he is hooked; now a person can surf the internet and also be hooked by a snare from Satan.

“I wonder how so and so is doing from High School. Oh, look, there’s their profile. O, they have sent me an e-mail. It’s nice to catch up with you. What, meet for coffee, okay?” Before you know it, adultery and a family torn apart!

David should have been out leading his troops or in writing a psalm. Instead, he abuses his authority to have an affair with another man’s wife. When she gets pregnant, David tries to cover it up by quickly bringing Uriah home on furlough to have sex with her.

Ironically, Uriah shows the kind of integrity young David had shown and doesn’t do it while his comrades are out fighting and the ark of God is in the field.

So David, desperate to cover his sin, essentially orders his general Joab to orchestrate events so that Uriah would die. And he did. And David thought he had it all taken care of. But there are at least three consequences even in chapter 11.

What are some of the early consequences of David’s sin and cover-up?

David’s difficult to deal with general Joab knew about the matter and could use it against David to justify his own violent actions; Bathsheba would enter into this marriage struggling to respect David; But biggest is verse 27: the Lord considered what David had done to be evil.

Oh for more people in our day to care more what God thinks than what fickle man says is okay. Don’t miss this big principle:

When we sin against God, we only make things worse by trying to cover up our sin. It will only lead to more sin and worse consequences.

Ch. 12   David repents and is forgiven; but his sin will have lasting consequences

Read 12:1-15

The skill with which Nathan confronts David is beautiful! David acknowledges his sin, and Nathan assures him of God’s forgiveness.

Read Psalm 32

Principle: the sins we try to cover-up will be uncovered, but the sins we uncover through confession and repentance, God will cover with His forgiveness.

Unfortunately, there are some sins that have lasting consequences even after we are forgiven of them.

You don’t always get your job back, your spouse back, your kids back, your reputation back, your church back, your life back.

David will grow mightily in his relationship with the Lord, but there will be sad family consequences to David’s sin.

Nathan tells of three more of those consequences before verse 15 – what are they?

The sword will not depart from your house/ disaster on your family; Someone will sleep with David’s wives publicly/ public humiliation; The baby growing in Bathsheba will die.

David’s response: Read Psalm 51

Ch. 12-18      The aftermath of David’s sin

12:15-23       The baby dies        

From this passage we get hope that infants are with the Lord!

Good out of the bad: David’s hope of going to where the baby is has given lots of others hope!

More good out of the bad: Solomon is born, who will write three books of scripture.

This reminds us that God can bring about His plan A out of our plan B choices!

It also reminds us that God isn’t done with us after our sin. God still has a plan for David, and for Bathsheba, and for them as a couple despite the sinful way they got started. He also has a great plan for their children.

God’s GRACE blows my mind! But we won’t experience it by claiming our sin was no big deal.

13:1-20         David’s son Amnon rapes David’s daughter Tamar (different moms)

David had engaged in sexual sin; Now his son engages in sexual sin, helped by David’s nephew

13:21-39       Amnon is killed by David’s son Absalom (Tamar’s full brother)

Throughout these chapters we see people tricking David like he had tricked Uriah; You reap what you sow.

15:1-37         Absalom revolts against David who has to flee Jerusalem

Sin often does this to us; it often has us engaging more in civil war than flourishing within our borders and even expanding our borders. It happens to families; it happens to churches; it happens to nations!

Absalom steals the hearts of the men of Israel; Then he organizes them to fight against dear old dad.

And you find out who your true friends are in moments like these. David’s advisor Ahithophel joins Absalom; But a new friend for David emerges in Ittai the Gittite; a Philistine!

Read 15:19-22        Every bit as cool as what Ruth says to Naomi!

Ittai will become a key general for David! Others agree to help David in various ways; Hushai will be a double agent for David; Joab and Abshai are with David as usual; Amasa is Absalom’s general

Even during this difficult time we see David’s character and trust in God: 16:5-14

16:21-22       Absalom sleeps with David’s concubines

Just had been predicted back in chapter 12

17:24 shows us that David and his men crossed over to Mahanaim ahead of Absalom. Why is that place ironic?

That is where Saul’s general had installed Saul’s son as King, regrouping there against David. Now David is the one regrouping there!

18:1-33         Joab kills Absalom despite David’s wishes

And David grieves; there has been one consequence after another of his sin.

Whenever you yourself or anybody else tries to justify sin by saying, “David did it” remind them of the awful consequences David faced because of his sin.

Ch. 19-20   The grieving David reunites Israel, again through humility & strength

Read 19:11-23

Unfortunately, in chapter 20 we see a man named Sheba drive a wedge between the tender relations between Israel and Judah, and again David has to send Joab to whoop him! Joab returns with his head!

21:15-22       When it comes to Giant-killing, it takes one to make one!

Read 21:15-22

How many giant-killers were in Saul’s army?             Zero

Here we read of four of David’s men also killing giants like he had! It takes one to make one! David was still inspiring younger men! And he also is singing again!

Ch. 22            David sings a beautiful song of thanksgiving to the LORD!

This is almost identical to Psalm 18. Some wonder why it is both places. I don’t! Isn’t it obvious that God is clearly showing how much he had restored David? He’s fighting again, he’s influencing young giant killers, he’s singing!

God is using Him despite having experienced consequences because of sin. What a word of encouragement for sinners like you and me!

Ch. 23            David’s last words and chronicle of his great warriors

Read 23:1-7; note verse 39.

Ch. 24            Final note of caution: even godly old men can sin

David numbers the people; 70,000 people die due to this leader’s sinful actions. Leaders need to take careful note here. Our sins can deeply affect others.

Look at David’s heart in 24:17. We need to be very careful to not act presumptuously. Instead, we need to seek the Lord!