The Amazing Promise

2 Samuel 7:1-17

Hello saints! I want to thank all of you who are joining us live via Zoom and to thank all of you who are reading this message in the text form and/or are listening to the recording of this message. Today we continue our series on David the Warrior King and how God used him to build God’s Kingdom. Last week John Farmer shared the message on how David was worshipping, and praising God as the Levites brought the Ark of the Covenant into the city of Jerusalem. Today I am going share a message on the promise that God made to David through the prophet Nathan but before I do that let us pray and ask God to speak to you through this message today.

The Worshiping King

2 Samuel 6:1-23

Good morning!  We are at a transition point in our series David: Kingdom Builder.  In previous weeks, we have observed the challenges David and others experienced as a result of the death of Saul and the end of his family’s dynasty reigning in Israel.  In last week’s message, Jonathan explained how David was recognized by all the tribes of Israel as king.  David then made a covenant with the elders of Israel, and they anointed him as king over Israel.  We saw how David conquered Jerusalem and established his capital there and called it the City of David.

Jonathan also explained how David sought God even in the details of how he should plan to face an enemy in a military engagement.  We also saw how God directed David in the details.

I know for me, I seek the Lord.  I commit my plans to Him like Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.”  I ask God for wisdom, like James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”  These are both right and good, but I think I have room to inquire of God even more, into the details.  I know He often gives us freedom in our decision-making, but I think over time, I have gotten comfortable to the point where I don’t ask God questions like I used to, like David does.

David routinely draws near to God.  He’s not perfect at it either, but He perseveres in coming to God, in seeking Him.  Today’s message is another example of that as David goes to bring the Ark of God to Jerusalem both honoring God and placing God at the center of the nation as the people had not done since perhaps even Eli’s time nearly a hundred years earlier.

Sometimes in worship, we sing a song by Charlie Hall called Center.  I didn’t think of it when preparing the worship set, but I think that song exemplifies David’s desire.  The chorus of the song says, “Oh Christ, be the center of our lives, be the place we fix our eyes, be the center of our lives.”  The bridge adds, “We lift our eyes to heaven, we wrap our lives around your life, we lift our eyes to heaven, to You.”  David is not only passively waiting for God to be the center of his life.  David actively seeks to center his life around God.

Let’s pray and look together at 2 Samuel 6:

The Expanding Kingdom

2 Samuel 5:1-25

Good morning! We continue in 2 Samuel this morning, and our study takes us to chapter 5.  A chapter we have been waiting a long time for. Let’s do a quick review before we get into our passage.

After Saul was killed in the battle with the Philistines, David’s men rescued his body from the Philistine temple and gave him a proper burial.  His commander-in-chief, Abner, made Saul’s son Ishbosheth king over Israel.  The people of Judah instead followed David as their king.  After a brief civil war, Abner realized that David was the rightful king and began working to merge the two kingdoms.  But before he could really get started, he was murdered by Joab.  Last week, we saw that Ishbosheth was assassinated by leaders in his military.  When the murderers bragged to David about their deeds, he had them put to death.  Let’s pray and then look at 2 Samuel 5.

Kingly Correction

2 Samuel 4:1-12

When Ish-Bosheth son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost courage, and all Israel became alarmed. Now Saul’s son had two men who were leaders of raiding bands. One was named Baanah and the other Recab; they were sons of Rimmon the Beerothite from the tribe of Benjamin—Beeroth is considered part of Benjamin, because the people of Beeroth fled to Gittaim and have lived there as aliens to this day. – 2 Samuel 4:1-3

Ishbosheth was king over the Northern tribes of Israel and the eastern ones across the Jordan. Abner was the commander of Ishbosheth’s military. When Abner died Baanah and Recab exerted a grab for power. They wanted to seize the opportunity while the timing was ripe. They were trying to solve a broken system by using a broken solution.

Kingly Compassion

2 Samuel 3:2-39

Good morning!  Today is my first time giving a message live online.  With God’s grace, I hope it will go smoothly.  We are in our third message in a new series about the life of David as he becomes king and unifies Israel.

We are going to look at 2 Samuel 3.  It is a chapter with a multitude of events.  We’ve got a lot to cover, so I’m going to try to keep the intro short.

As to the time period, it is interesting to consider how the bible gives us quite a number of details from which the reader can grasp a decent flow and spacing of events.  At a somewhat wider view, there is a time window of 140 years created between Judges 11:26 (300 years after the conquest, or 340 years after the Exodus) and I Kings 6:1 (480 years after the Exodus when the building of the temple begins in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign as king).  In this time period of 140 years, we have the events of 1 and 2 Samuel and the first five chapters of I Kings.

Here is my attempt at a graphical representation of approximate dates and the relationship of the key leaders.  You can see the outline of the times of 1 and 2 Samuel.  Then, in the bright red box is the timeframe of today’s passage.  It is somewhat narrower than that, but hopefully you get an idea.  We are looking at David’s life nearing the midpoint when he was 30-35 years old.

On the next slide, we see a map of the approximate range of the two kingdoms.  Last week, we learned that the remaining son of Saul, Ish-Bosheth, was installed as king over ten tribes of Israel in a northern kingdom while David had become king over two tribes, Judah and Simeon, in a southern kingdom.

In last week’s passage, we read how David had returned from the land of the Philistines to the territory of Judah in Israel.  David asked God if he should return, and when God answered yes, David asked to which town.  God said to go to Hebron.  In 2 Samuel 2:2, it says David went there with his two wives.  In total, David would live in Hebron and reign as king over Judah for seven and a half years.

With that, let’s take a moment and pray and then we will dig into today’s passage in 2 Samuel 3.