So let us hear the word of our God, 2 Samuel 2, beginning in verse 1. It happened after this that David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up to any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, Go up. David said, Where shall I go up? And he said, To Hebron. So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitus and Abigail the widow of Nabal the Carmelite. And David brought up the men who were with him, every man with his household, so they dwelt in the cities of Hebron. Then the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, the men of Jabesh Gilead were the ones who buried Saul. So David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead and said to them, you are blessed of the Lord, for you have shown this kindness to your Lord, to Saul, and have buried him. And now may the Lord show kindness and truth to you. I also will pray you this kindness because you have done this thing. Now, therefore, let your hands be strengthened and be valiant, for your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah has anointed me king over them. But Abner, the son of Ner, Commander of Saul's army took Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim. And he made him king over Gilead, over the Asherites, over Jezreel, over Ephraim, over Benjamin, and over all Israel. Ishbosheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. Only the house of Judah followed David. The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. May God add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word. Amen. Well, last time we transitioned from Saul and Jonathan and their death to now David in the future, you might say. And so David begins by seeking God's direction. and then heads to Hebron with his wives and the 600 men with their families. And so possibly 2,000 or 3,000 people, if you will, invaded Hebron. David and his men, though, were welcomed because they knew David. David had helped them in different ways, and they knew that David was going to be the next king. Then the leaders of Judah anointed David as their king, and then they tell him that the men of Jabesh Gilead showed loyalty to Saul by respecting Saul and burying him and so on. And so David then sends this message of gratitude and blessing and seeks their support, hoping to unite Israel under him. Now, The first thing I want to address tonight is just notice the flow of the text. Something that I did, if you will, naturally last week, but I wanted to call our attention to it as we begin tonight. Since 1 Samuel 13, we have known that there would be a new king who would lead Israel someday. It was at that point that God said that no son of Saul would sit on the throne. Since 1 Samuel 16, we have known who that would be, and so we've waited these 15 years for David to be installed as king. Well, now the time has come, and what do we get? Half a verse telling us that it happened. And the first part of verse four, it's kind of like the crucifixion of Christ. For thousands of years, we've been waiting, for the seed of the woman to come and to be that atoning sacrifice. And certainly there is all kinds of description about Jesus on the cross, the things that he said, the dividing of his garments and things like that, right? But the gospels say very little about the actual act of crucifixion. You might remember that Matthew doesn't even put it as the main point of the sentence. And in the other gospels they do, but it's just very brief. It's almost like, oh, yeah, David's anointed king, no big deal. We've been waiting for this. Now, obviously, it is a big deal, but not much is said. What the author emphasizes here is how David was depending on the Lord, verses 1 to 3. And David's response to the men of Jabesh Gilead, that is the focus of the text. It's probably because we knew this day was coming for 15 years. But again, note the emphasis. Seeking Yahweh is the most important thing, not all the pomp and circumstance of putting a crown on somebody's head. What is most important is calling on Yahweh to bless others, even your potential enemies. That's the better focus, the bigger focus. So again, last week, I more or less did that without saying so, by just going right down through the verses, but I wanted to call our attention to it here as we begin tonight. And with that in mind, note now the contrast as we come to verses eight and following. So we come here then to verse eight. But Abner the son of Nur, commander of Saul's army, took Ishmael, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim. All right, now there's a lot of facts and figures in these verses, so I'll address them briefly, and then we'll look at the main point. The first one here is Habner. We come to this man here, and he's very significant, obviously, here in chapters 2 and 3. He is mentioned 62 times in the Old Testament. And so let's go back to the first time, and that is in 1 Samuel, chapter 14. And stick something here, I'm going to turn here in just a moment. But for now, look at verse 50, 1 Samuel 14, the name of Saul's wife is Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. And the name of the commander of his army was Abner, the son of Ner, Saul's uncle. And he's mentioned again in the next verse. We see him mentioned again in chapter 17. Remember, that's when David kills Goliath. And then basically Saul says to Abner, who is this guy anyway? Then in chapter 20, you remember, this is when David and Jonathan came up with their plan to see what Saul would do. And remember, David didn't come to the meal and Saul gets all upset. Well, it mentions Abner was there. And then in chapter 26, you recall that this is when David and Abishai stole into the camp of Saul. And there is Abner right by Saul. And David takes the spear and the jug of water and so on. And so we've been introduced to Abner. Well now he becomes a principal player. 15 times he's mentioned here in this chapter and 28 in the next chapter. You recall this is Saul's cousin. He is the commander of the army. Now it says that he took Ish-bosheth. Now who is Ish-bosheth? Let's look at this here just briefly. Obviously he's the only surviving son of Saul. He did not die on Mount Gilboa along with his brothers and his father. He was either spared in the battle or possibly he was not there. It is possible he wasn't a good warrior, or maybe they were wanting to preserve the line, and so they didn't send all the sons of the king into battle, and so they kept one back. Whatever the reason, he was not there, at least he wasn't killed. Now, looking again at 1 Samuel 14, this time verse 49. It says, the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Jishui, and Malkishua. This is just not mentioned. All right. So let's turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 8. We see the same list in 1 Chronicles 9, but I picked chapter 8. We could look at either one here. In chapter 8, note verse 33 of 1 Chronicles 8, verse 33, "...ner begot Kish, Kish begot Saul, and Saul begot Jonathan, Malkishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal." There's still no mention of Eshbasheth, so what's going on here? Well, we have Jonathan and Malkishua in both lists, okay? All right, now, most likely, this Jishui that we read about in 1 Samuel and Abinadab are the same person. Different names for the same person is most likely the case. And so, therefore, Eshbaal and Ishbasheth are likely the same person. It is possible that Saul had six sons, but it is more likely that he had these four, and this is how we should understand the connection. Now, his name Esh-Baal may seem a bit striking to us, but of course, if we anglicize it, right, Esh-Baal. And so we think of Baal, the god that the Canaanites worshipped. And maybe that's why he was named. Man is what Esh can mean here, man of Baal. But you may remember I've said before that Baal can mean a husband. It can mean a lord or a master depending on the context, and so possibly here it's just simply saying that this son is man of the master or his lord, which would refer to his father, who is king. So I'm not sure we have to bring in idol worship in this scenario. So then where does ishvosheth come from? Well, assuming it's the same man, it starts the same way. Esh and Ish are referring to a man. Ish b'Sheth means man of shame. And I'm inclined to think that the name change is because his father and his brothers are now dead. And so Esh Baal is now the only one left. There is shame in the family because his father and brothers are dead. And so likely, though, again, we have to speculate here to some degree, this is probably why he has this other name. He is filled with shame because of all the death in his family. All right, now, to the main point here of this verse, we see that Abner takes Ishbosheth and brings him to Mahanaim. Notice who is in control. Abner, obviously, is in control. And now, if Ishbosheth was not a good warrior, and that's why he was not in the battle, it would help to explain Abner's major influence. But regardless, Abner is clearly the alpha, and Ishbosheth is along for the ride. All right, now, notice that he is taken and established as king here in Mahanaim. Now, where's that? Let's look at our maps here. If you don't have the one that I've given to you before, hopefully you have one in your Bibles. I'm going to look at the land of the 12 tribes side of this. And right in the fold of the page, right there in the middle on the east side of the Jordan, you have Mahanaim. with a question mark. We're not totally sure. It might be roughly 10 miles in a different location, probably northward. But it's right there at the bottom of East Manasseh, right along the Jabbok River is likely where it was. And you may remember that this is where Jacob came when he came back from Laban's and he was going to meet Esau. He wrestled with God in the fords of the Jabbok River. So it's in this same area. Now why would he establish Ishtbesheth all the way over there? You remember, of course, that Saul was in Gibeah. And remember, Gibeah is just a few miles north of Jerusalem. But you also remember that the Philistines just killed Saul, and they now had at least some control over central Israel. And so the fact that Abner establishes him on the east side of the Jordan River is a clue that the Philistines had control, at least again, to some degree of Israel. And so this was the safest location for him to go. Okay. So. Let's look then at verse 9, and here now is the main point. He made Him king over Gilead, over the Asherites, over Jezreel, over Ephraim, over Benjamin, and over all Israel. All right, now, let me pause and maybe fill in the blank a little bit. The author doesn't tell us much here. Presumably, there was some kind of celebration. Presumably, Ishbosheth would have been anointed just like David was back in verse 4. Presumably, David had some kind of celebration too, some kind of ceremony, but the author doesn't emphasize it. And so, as I said before, he doesn't emphasize it with David because these other points are more important. He doesn't emphasize it here because he's wanting us to focus on something else. But that said, Likely, Ishvosheth was anointed by Abner and the leaders there in Israel. They would have used oil and probably mixed with various spices and so on. And you remember from things that we talked about, especially in regard to the anointing of David in 1 Samuel 16, that this then is pointing to the Spirit. As the oil would cover the head of, in this case, the king or also the priest, this is symbolic of the spirit coming upon that person and enabling to do that work of ministry. And so for David, it would be, of course, to rule as king. And you remember in 1 Samuel 16, it actually says about the spirit coming upon him. There's no indication the spirit came upon Ishmael. Ishbosheth was not doing the will of the Lord. And that is very likely the reason why the author doesn't develop this point here. That said, he likely was anointed. The celebration may have been part mourning for Saul, Jonathan, Malkishua, and Abinadab, as well as part celebration that now one of Saul's sons is continuing the line. And so maybe there were parades and fireworks and a holiday and free things given out and candy thrown to the kids and so on. And, of course, proud boasting that Ishvosheth is going to defeat the Philistines and maybe even some bad words about David. None of this is given here. But something like this is likely what did happen. And so for all of this, if you will, tangent, hey, And the author wants us to just almost skip over it because of the contrast with the true king. But more of that here in a bit. All right, now for the rest of the verse, if you look at your map here again, It says first that he ruled over Gilead. And at least on this map, you'll see Jabesh Gilead, right, where those men brought Saul's body. You also see Ramoth Gilead to the east and a little bit to the north. In fact, the whole eastern side of the Jordan River could be called Gilead. And that is the point here. He was ruling over the eastern tribes. But then it says also the Asherites. This has raised a lot of questions. In fact, we have indications that even by the time of Christ, the scribes were wondering what in the world this means. The challenge here is this particular word is only found here in the Old Testament. But it is similar to two other words. It is similar to the word for Assyrian. But there is no reason for us to think that Ish-bosheth was ruling over Assyria. Even though Assyria was not the big nation of power and evil and so forth as it came to be, there's still no reason that his rule went that far. But we do see some indication from the scribes that suggests that this should refer us to the tribe of Asher. It's not spelled exactly the same way. but that's how the scribes have taken it, and it's probably what is intended here, that he is ruling also over the tribe of Asher. So again, if you have your maps there, this is all the way to the north and west. Then next, it says about Jezreel. Again, on your map, you probably have that there. Certainly on this one, you do. The Kishon River, this is very near Mount Gilboa, the Jezreel Valley, and so forth. And then it says Ephraim, which, of course, became the principal tribe in the northern kingdom eventually, and then, of course, Benjamin. So these are the ones that are mentioned specifically. And then it says, over all Israel. Now, how should we take this? Well, it seems to be kind of an addendum, you know, well, and everybody else, too, kind of statement. And it may mean that the specific leaders from the specific tribes that are mentioned here came for this anointing, this establishment of Ishbosheth as king. And maybe the other ones didn't, but they sent their general consent or something to that effect. Whatever the reason is why he worded it this way, note what the emphasis of the next verse says at the end, everybody followed Ishvosheth except for Judah. And so it seems to be, if you will, setting us up for that point. Now remember, the Philistines have at least some control over even some of these very areas that were just mentioned. So the author may be putting the best spin on the situation here. He's ruling, sort of, over these places. All right, now let's read verse 10. Ishrasheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old when he began to reign over Israel. When he reigned two years, only the house of Judah followed David. All right, now this description sounds very similar to what we see in 1 and 2 Kings. Let me just read here briefly. This is 1 Kings 15, verse 1. It reads in that kind of way here. And so he's not just restating it. But it's like he's giving a more formal, official kind of statement here in verse 10 compared to verses 8 and 9. But one bit of information that he does give us that is new is that he was 40 years old. Now think about this a moment. Saul ruled for 40 years. So going back to 1 Samuel 14 when Ishmael is not mentioned, quite possible because he hadn't been born yet. And certainly at the beginning of Saul's reign, he either hadn't been or just was born. All right, now, the verse ends with this clear statement of contrast. Everybody followed Ishmael except for Judah. And as I mentioned last week, this also would include Simeon, who is now part of Judah. And so then this leads us to verse 11. And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. Or to put it another way, there are two kings in Israel. Something is not right. Now, before I develop that point, let's go back to verse 10, and let me briefly address the questions surrounding the length of Ishvosheth's rule. It says here, of course, that he rules for two years. Now, how do we understand this in comparison to David's seven and a half years in Hebron? Many suggestions have been given. Some of them, I think, are legitimate options. Others make no sense to me, but I'm inclined to go with those who would say something like this. David likely goes to Hebron within days or maybe weeks after Saul's death. As we read, right, into 1 Samuel, into chapter 2 that we saw last time, David probably didn't take very long to get to Hebron. God told him to go and he does right away. Abner, though, is leading Ishbosheth. And it is likely that this took an extended period of time. Some argue that it also was rather quick. But I think it is more likely that it took some time. Think about this for a moment. Saul is dead. The Philistines are controlling a significant portion of the northern kingdom. and everything is in chaos, okay? Not with David, but certainly in the north. If you look at chapter 3 here a moment, in verse 17, it says, now Abner had communicated with the elders of Israel saying, in time past you were seeking for David to be king over you. Now notice what that indicates to us, that there were people in the northern kingdom that wanted David as their king. It's not like everybody was fawning after this son of Saul, but some of them wanted David. So do you see how this adds to the chaos, the confusion idea? And so it is also possible that other people tried to assert themselves. Maybe other extended family of Saul, maybe some of the men from Jabesh Gilead, maybe even others. The text doesn't develop this point. We are speculating, but it is a reasonable speculation to say that things are just up in the air and there were all these problems in the Northern Kingdom and Abder maybe just said, okay, enough of this. I am taking Yisrasheth and we're setting him up in Mahanaim and enough of this. He just takes charge. And so it's possible then that this took even a few years, maybe as many as five years while David was in Hebron. So certainly questions here and we have to be careful with our speculations, but something like this does seem to be reasonable. As you look at chapter 4, Ishvosheth is going to be murdered. And as you transition to chapter 5, where all the tribes of Israel, verse 1 here, came to David at Hebron, that sounds like that happened relatively quickly, too. But again, there's debate. So this is the direction I lean, and there are other views, but I do think this makes some sense. All right, now, this is not pointless speculation. This isn't just to satisfy seminary professors or Bible geeks. The point is this, when people seek God's guidance like David did, when people obey God, when God tells them to do something like David did, as we saw last week, there is purpose, there is certainty, there is assurance, there is blessing, But when people do not seek the Lord, and there's no indication here in the text that Abner sought the Lord on this, or Ishmael or many of the others. When people do not obey the Lord, when God does give a specific word, then there's uncertainty, there is chaos, there is infighting, selfishness, power grabs. The author is trying to set this up. Remember where I started. Yeah, David was anointed king. Yeah, okay. But David sought the Lord and obeyed the Lord. Abner didn't do that. Ishmael didn't do that. You see the contrast. And so, again, the speculation of the two years, the speculation of why did they go to Mahanaim and not somewhere else, those all actually lead us to this conclusion. There was a power vacuum in the north, and that's because they weren't seeking the Lord. David did and obeyed him, but Abner and Ishvasheth and the rest did not. They followed in the footsteps of Saul. Look again at chapter 3 here a moment, and now verse 18. Now then do it, for the Lord has spoken of David saying, by the hand of my servant David, I will save my people Israel from the hand of the Philistines and the hand of all our enemies. Abner knew that David was supposed to be king. The people knew this. Remember, Saul knew it. Obviously, Jonathan knew it. Other people knew this. They knew God had chosen David, yet, like Saul, they ignored God and did their own thing. And this section of verses is basically saying that very point. We might get lost in the weeds of these places and meeting of names and so on and so forth, but don't miss the point. They were not following the Lord. What a contrast to David. Now, in one sense, you can say this is understandable. There's a transition of power that is taking place in the nation of Israel. You have Saul dead. And we know that it's supposed to go to somebody else. Other people might not have known that. Certainly people did know and should have followed it. But in this transition of power, there's no surprise then that chaos can rule the day. In our country, we have done something very unique in the history of the world. And that is a peaceful transition of power from one president to the next, along with the cabinet and other people and so forth. Unfortunately, in the last couple of these, we have seen a lot more chaos, haven't we? We hear all about January 6th and the insurrection and yada, yada, yada. But remember 2016, there was a lot of things that were done because they didn't want to transition power to someone like Trump. But do you see the point? The point is you have lots of people in our country that do not want to follow the Lord. And so to have chaos in a transition of power, that's no surprise. Okay. Now that's, Connecting the point here with the political context today, but the same thing can be said in our churches too. When a pastor leaves, when a key elder dies, you learn a lot about the people in the congregation. You learn a lot about people when there is a change in authority in a church setting. Are those people godly or not? What do they do when there is a transition of power? Now thankfully, like our country, and of course our country is based on what we do as Presbyterians, right, we're Presbyterians, so we have representative rule. And so the idea of transition of power is going to be much easier and much better because of this setup following what we see in Exodus 18 and other places. Nevertheless, if we are going to seek God's guidance and obey the guidance we are given, then any kind of transition we have in a church is going to go a whole lot better. But if we're going to do our own thing, chaos. And of course, we can think of a number of churches, well-known churches in our country, and even elsewhere and in other ages where it's either gone well or not. We can make this point of application in our families too. And I think especially of when the patriarch and the matriarch die in a family. When one dies and the other is still living, that power struggle isn't necessarily taking place. But especially when both have died, That next generation now becomes the authority. I'm sure we all know of examples where families just fall apart when that happens. But if we're going to follow in the footsteps of David, that shouldn't have to happen. If we follow in the footsteps of Saul and Abner, it's no surprise when families have trouble when the oldest generation dies. We can apply this also on an individual level, can't we? There are a variety of directions we can go here. I thought of this one. When children leave home, they grow up and they leave the house, they go to college or they get a job or something and they move out and so forth, when that authority is either gone or less or a long way away, how now do the children do with their new freedoms? Now it may be a complete loss of authority, depending on the scenario. Maybe it's just, again, a time and distance thing. But it's the same point. When our children grow up and they go to college and they seek to do their own thing rather than following the Lord, it's no surprise that there's chaos there. You see the principle here. We can apply it in a variety of ways. Verses 8 through 10 especially, and through verse 11, is indicating to us that Israel was still in the first Samuel 8 mindset. They still wanted a king like the nations, and they still didn't want to follow after the Lord. Thankfully, Judah was an exception, along with David and so on. But as a whole, Israel still wanted a human king and not God as their king. You might say just a remnant, a tenth of Israel wanted to do the right thing, but the rest of them still wanted to be like the nations. And you would think they would have learned their lesson after Saul, but they didn't. Most of them followed Saul's lead and would not accept God's judgment on Saul. Saul's sin led to all kinds of problems initially for David, to the death of his sons, and now seven and a half years of chaos until they finally submit to God's choice of David. And so when we do not seek after God, when we disobey His commands, it's a mess. It's a mess. approach the idea in this way. In Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, of course, Peter and Paul say that the governing officials are to be God's servants. And as God's servants, they have a specific job to do, and that is to punish the evildoer and praise those who do good. But we know from Psalm 2, that these rulers want to throw off this shackle. They don't want to just be limited in their power. They want unlimited power. You think of the emperor in Star Wars or something. This is true even in Israel. It isn't just the nations. Even in Israel, they did not want to submit to God. Saul didn't want to, now Abner and Ish-bosheth. But, you know, we must also talk about David. This point will be developed in chapter 3, but we've already seen David now has two wives with him, and he's married to a third, and the king is not to multiply wives. Surely we see these kinds of things throughout history in our land today, and it's going to be that way until Christ returns and our true King starts to rule. But the point is pretty simple, isn't it? If we follow God's way, there's going to be blessing. And if we do it our way, it's going to be a mess. And because a sizable portion of Israel did it their way, and we see this mess. There are two kings in Israel, and it's gonna be that way until they finally give it up, you might say, after Shemesheth's murder. All right, well, a few thoughts here tonight from these verses, and we will continue here next time, Lord willing. Let's pray together. Our Father and God, we thank you for your word and verses here that seem rather benign or insignificant in some ways, and yet are filled with a rich teaching for us. Lord, we do pray that you would be merciful to us We think of this for ourselves individually, for our families, for our church, even for our nation, our communities, and so on. Lord, we ask that you would work among us, that we would, like David, seek your guidance, that we would obey you to follow your will, and not to go the way of the world, to go the way of the unbeliever, and that is doing our own thing with the resulting chaos. We pray for your mercies in this way. As we are living in a society, and even in a church community here in our land, where more and more people are doing their own thing and more and more chaos is surrounding us, we pray for your mercies to stay true, Like David did in the midst of this chaos to the north, he sought to serve you for these seven and a half years in the south. Help us to be faithful, no matter what other people may do. And so again, we pray for your mercies in this way, that we would live lives honoring to you in all things. And so we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.