Show Notes
2 Samuel 2:1-7
Pastor Christopher Chelpka
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Pray.
[00:00:01] Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for guiding us through our lives, through the high places and the wonderful times, and through the valley of the shadow of death.
[00:00:13] In all these cases we have no reason to fear. And we make a decision, Lord, not to fear evil or the evil one. Lord, for you are great above all, powerful, supreme, and our Lord and our King. You have entered into this world to redeem us, to justify us, to sanctify us, to perfect us, glorify us. Hold us close to you and never let us go.
[00:00:44] Lord, indeed, we are blessed as those who have been forgiven.
[00:00:50] Lord, we thank you for the work of Jesus Christ. And we ask that you would help us to seek him more clearly and to follow him more zealously as we hear your word today.
[00:01:03] Work in our hearts and work in the hearts of all, Lord, who call upon your name today, even in those who do not yet call upon you. Lord, we ask that you would revive on the hearts of those who have hard hearts, stony hearts, rebellious, angry hearts.
[00:01:22] Lord, you can break through the strongest walls. You can raise up a life from the darkest, most deathly places.
[00:01:32] Lord, we and so we pray for those who do not yet know you, that your work in them would be done. Your saving work. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:01:46] Let's remain standing and turn our attention to second second Samuel, Chapter two.
[00:02:04] Now for those of you who have been following along through one Samuel, you know that we're at this point now when David Saul has killed on the battlefield. David will now come into his kingdom and everything's going to be great from here on out.
[00:02:21] No more problems, no more difficulties. The circumstances have changed and now life is smooth sailing.
[00:02:29] No, of course not.
[00:02:31] Just because a transition happens. Just because a change happens doesn't mean that everything's going to all get better or that everything's all been lost.
[00:02:40] Today we think particularly about who the Lord is in the midst of changes and how we give to him our allegiance.
[00:02:49] So let's hear God's Word. Second Samuel, chapter two, verses one through seven.
[00:02:58] After this, David inquired of the Lord, shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?
[00:03:04] And the Lord said to him, go up.
[00:03:07] David said, to which shall I go up?
[00:03:09] And he said, to Hebron.
[00:03:12] So David went up there and his two wives, also Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
[00:03:20] And David brought up his men who were with him, everyone in his household. And they lived in the towns of Hebron. And the men of Judah came and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.
[00:03:35] When they told David it was the men of Jabesh Gilead who buried Saul, 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.
[00:03:50] Now may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you.
[00:03:54] And I will do good to you because you have done this thing.
[00:03:58] 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.
[00:04:09] May God bless his word to us. Please be seated.
[00:04:23] Well, as I mentioned, we go through a lot of transitions in our lives. I've never.
[00:04:28] And all the years I've been here, I've never asked anyone to raise their hands, and I'm not going to do it now.
[00:04:34] But part of me is a little bit tempted to ask everyone to raise their hands and let everyone know whether or not you're going through a big transition. Now, I want to do it. I'm not going to do it, but I want to do it because I know that everybody would raise their hand.
[00:04:50] Everyone would. Why? Because we're always going through big transitions.
[00:04:56] We have people that come into our lives in a big way and people that leave our lives in a big way.
[00:05:03] Children, parents, grandparents, pets, jobs, governments. We change houses, we change all sorts of situations. We change cars, our taste buds change over the course of our lives. And sometimes in a really big, big way, not always in a pleasant way.
[00:05:25] These big effects, they happen and they can be hard to deal with. And there's lots of ways in which we deal with them poorly.
[00:05:33] And today I want to think about one way that we can deal with them well and how we think about change, particularly huge, big changes in history, such as the Son of God coming into the world and becoming the king over his people forever.
[00:05:54] It's a big change. And consider all that came before Jesus Christ.
[00:06:02] In 2nd Samuel, chapter 2, verses 1 through 7, the people of Israel are facing a huge change.
[00:06:09] David, for example, who has been on the run and has been in Philistia now, and he was running because of Saul, now wonders, where do I go now?
[00:06:19] Do I go back into Israel? Should I go up? And wisely he inquires of the Lord. He prays about it, likely seeking advice through his priest and guidance through his priest. But he inquires of the Lord, and the Lord answers him and tells him to go up into Hebron. David's going to Have a big change. So with his wives, same with his children, his household, all the people that have been following him. And this is a lot of people, probably in the thousands at this point. David started out on the run, and as over time, the number of people that have come to him have grown and grown and grown. And now they're leaving Philistia and coming into Hebron and the surrounding areas.
[00:07:05] It's a big change. It's also a big change for all the people who were in Israel following Saul, including these men of Jabesh Gilead.
[00:07:15] If you remember these men, what they did most recently was they did this great, honorable and valiant thing. When Saul and some of his sons had died on the battlefield, the Philistines took their bodies and took them back to their places, even putting Saul on a wall.
[00:07:39] These men in the middle of the night, if I remember correctly, they went there and they got these bodies, they brought them back to Israel.
[00:07:47] Not an easy thing to do, a valiant thing to do, a brave thing to do, so that then they could be brought back to Israel and buried there.
[00:07:58] They were loyal to Saul, they were loyal to their king. The thing that David was all throughout as well.
[00:08:06] And so David in here, instead of penalizing them and saying, you were serving Saul when you should have been serving me, says, you did the right thing.
[00:08:15] You served Saul, you were loyal to Saul, you were faithful to Saul.
[00:08:20] And so he commends them for this. He's not angry at them, he's not scared of them.
[00:08:25] He commends them for this and promises to reward them for this as an expression of the Lord's own will.
[00:08:34] Well, so the men of Judah, this is. Sorry, the men of Jabesh, Gilead, they now have this choice to make, though.
[00:08:41] Will they continue to honor Saul or will they, as David says in verse seven, let your hands be strong and valiant for the Saul, your Lord is dead and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them.
[00:08:55] Will they give their allegiance? Will they give their loyalty? Will they to David?
[00:09:02] Will they honor the one whom God has raised up?
[00:09:07] This brings them to a choice they have to make.
[00:09:11] They had had their loyalty placed in one place and one person. And now it's time to transition that a change has happened in history. God has done something in their lives and they need to decide how they're going to react to that.
[00:09:26] And the thing that they need to remember is that it's not David who's in charge ultimately, but it's God who is the thing that will help them. The Most to remember, and helps all of us to remember in these times of transitions, is that God is Lord over all. He's Lord over the past, He's Lord over the present, and He's Lord over the future.
[00:09:49] But before we start talking about moving forward, we need to see that God actually values loyalty to the things that he calls us to.
[00:09:58] That God values loyalty and calls us to be loyal and to honor the things that he has done in the past.
[00:10:06] First, a verse from Proverbs 3, verses 3 through 4.
[00:10:10] Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.
[00:10:14] Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
[00:10:20] Steadfast love and faithfulness given to the right things. These are good when it comes to good things. When it comes to the things of the Lord, we're not to be, you know, wishy washy about them. We're to be devoted, we're to be loyal, we're to be locked in. We're to be careful and zealous, to obey and to follow and to enjoy and serve in all the good things that God has given.
[00:10:45] Let not steadfast unfaithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. That's what these men did. And David calls them to him here and he commends them for that. May you be blessed by the Lord, he says, because you showed this loyalty to Saul, your Lord, and buried him.
[00:11:07] The Lord sees loyalty even when the world forgets it. This is important to remember. There's a number of scriptures that speak to this about the Lord rewarding those, even who do things in secret, who do things quietly, who do the right thing even when no one is looking.
[00:11:25] Hebrews 6:10 says, For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints as you still do, and. And even where the world would kind of pass by and say, no big deal, and I don't really care, like the widow giving that little bit of money at the temple.
[00:11:47] What happens in that moment? Jesus sees her. Jesus honors her.
[00:11:53] Faithfulness is a good thing.
[00:11:56] Faithfulness to the things of God. Faithfulness in honoring God, even when no one's looking, even when no one sees, the God sees and he honors that.
[00:12:06] But faithfulness doesn't necessarily mean. Well, it doesn't mean getting stuck.
[00:12:14] Faithfulness doesn't mean getting stuck.
[00:12:17] The men of Jabesh couldn't live in yesterday. They couldn't stay there. They couldn't enshrine Saul. Some people do this. Some governments do this. Right? When a leader or a king passes away, the. The reaction is to turn them into a God, literally, to enshrine them, to worship them, to create a cult around them.
[00:12:40] Sometimes this happens with teachers. Sometimes it happens with parents or people that pass out of our lives. Good things that go away and we don't let them go.
[00:12:52] They were good, and we were faithful in them, and we did right in them. But we do wrong when we overly attach ourselves to things that it is time to let go of. When God transitions us to something new, when God gives to us something new, it's right for us to follow him and not make idols out of the things that he has given us.
[00:13:17] We're not faithful to God if we refuse to change when he calls us to change.
[00:13:25] But this can be really hard.
[00:13:28] This can be really hard because sometimes the things of the past seem, and maybe even were better in some ways than the things of the present.
[00:13:37] Your old job, a former girlfriend, conversations that you used to have, a restaurant you used to go to, the way you used to be able to throw a football.
[00:13:52] The memory you don't have anymore.
[00:13:56] These things can happen in our own personal lives.
[00:14:01] The big picture. Things like government changes and movements and land and people.
[00:14:07] These big changes happen.
[00:14:10] And that's what's happening here in Israel. Big change in the government. Saul is dead. David is here now.
[00:14:17] What's going to happen? What do we do?
[00:14:20] Who is David anyway? We could say from this perspective, he's been on the run. He's been hunted by the king. We were to be honoring Saul.
[00:14:30] Why David now and then? Of course, there were good reasons for that, reasons which God has demonstrated throughout this book. But my point right now is it can be hard to change when we love the things that we love, even good things, and when we've been rightfully loyal to good things.
[00:14:51] And it's especially hard when those good things seem to have been replaced by something worse.
[00:14:58] A worse relationship, a worse state of being, a worse capacity in our bodies. How do we follow the Lord in that when it seems like he's leading us into a place that's not better, but it seems like he's leading us into a place that is worse.
[00:15:17] One thing that really helps is to remember what Romans 8:28 says, that God works all things for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, as those who are under the Lord, as those who are made by the Lord, as those who are redeemed by the Lord, as those who Belong to him.
[00:15:42] Our job, beloved, isn't to judge life by how it seems, but to judge life by who God is.
[00:15:54] And that was the test for the men of Jabesh Gilead at this moment. Honoring with Saul was good. David commends them for it. The Lord commends them for it. But they don't honor Saul just because he's Saul.
[00:16:06] They honored Saul as David did because he's the Lord's anointed One.
[00:16:11] They honor him because of God. And because they're honoring him. And because they honored him for reason of the Divine One.
[00:16:22] They ought to also honor David for reason of God.
[00:16:30] They are to change their loyalty, not shifting away from Saul, but giving it to David because he's the new king, because he's the one that God has placed over them.
[00:16:45] And if that was true for them, moving and giving their allegiance, being called to give their allegiance to David, how much more true is that for us when Jesus Christ is seated on the throne of David, Right? So David was not the final king, nor were his sons after him. Until, of course, Jesus.
[00:17:10] We are at this moment in history where the Lord has placed the final eternal king on the throne of David and calls everyone, not just in Israel, but everyone throughout the world to bow the knee to him. And we're in the same place as the men of Jabesh Gilead. Will we be valiant?
[00:17:31] Will we be strong? Will we serve him? And we must.
[00:17:37] Why?
[00:17:38] Let me give you three reasons.
[00:17:42] Number one, he is Jesus is the promised son of David.
[00:17:47] In Second Samuel, which was coming up in chapter seven, God promises David a son who will remain on his throne forever.
[00:17:57] And that son is Jesus Christ.
[00:18:01] I'm not speaking metaphorically here. I'm saying that is who it is. That is the person that we properly, rightfully acknowledge, just as the men of Judah did. He's the king.
[00:18:14] He's the fulfillment of that. Matthew 1:1 says that calls Jesus the Son of David. Luke 1 tells us that he will sit on the throne of of David forever. Jesus isn't just another king in David's line. He is the eternal king that God had promised.
[00:18:33] That's an amazing thing.
[00:18:35] And that means that we're not just expecting. Okay? So we'll be elite. We'll give our allegiance to Jesus now, and then we'll give our allegiance to whomever comes after him.
[00:18:45] That would make sense, except for the fact that he's eternal. He's the eternal king.
[00:18:51] There's no one after him.
[00:18:53] There's no one after him.
[00:18:56] How do we know this many, many reasons we know this one is Acts 2, chapter Acts 2, verses 30 through 36, where Jesus, or sorry Peter, preaches about Jesus and tells us, reminds us that Jesus was crucified, raised from the dead, and exalted as both Lord and Christ.
[00:19:18] Christ means what Messiah? Anointed one, right? He is the anointed One. Just as David was anointed here. Jesus was anointed for his kingship and by nothing less than the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit anointing him, and the Father saying, this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is God's seal. It's the vindication, the open acknowledgment that Jesus Christ is alive, that Jesus Christ is reigning, that Jesus Christ is enthroned, that Jesus Christ is undefeatable, and he's our king forever.
[00:20:10] Number three.
[00:20:11] He is now, right now, in this moment, seated at the right hand of God, above all powers, bringing all things into subjection under him.
[00:20:25] Philippians 2, 9, 11 tells us that God exalted him, that gave him above every name, gave him a name above every name, so that every knee shall bow.
[00:20:37] Not just this group of men here and that town there, but everyone.
[00:20:43] Everyone.
[00:20:46] This is no ordinary king, and of course not because he is God incarnate. He deserves not only the service and honor and loyalty, but he deserves worship.
[00:21:03] We have a hymn O Worship the King.
[00:21:06] You're not supposed to worship kings except him.
[00:21:11] Because he's the king above all kings, the Lord above all lords. He's seated at the right hand of God above all powers.
[00:21:20] Colossians 1, 16, 17 says, all rulers and authorities were created through him, and for him. Every other king is temporary. To Jesus is now, and Jesus is forever. And Jesus is the fulfillment of all these things in the fullness of time. Born of a woman, born under the law to redeem us out from under the curse and to become our king forever.
[00:21:47] This means that this king, this God man king, who rules over us, defends us, governs us, is the answer to. To every problem, every change, every transition, every difficulty. He is the answer to all our needs, all our broken hearts, all our guilt, all our shame, all of the diseases and illnesses in our bodies.
[00:22:12] His kingly victory has brought salvation and healing for everything and everyone who had put their faith in him.
[00:22:24] Jesus Kingly victory on the cross brought us freedom.
[00:22:29] Freedom from the consequences of our own sin. Freedom from the sinful nature that bound us. Colossians 2 says this. You who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
[00:23:00] And because Jesus is the promised Son of David, because he's the eternal Son of God, because he's the resurrected king enthroned over heaven and earth, and because he's the King who saved us from our sins and rules victoriously over the evil one and has taken the sting out of death, what do we do?
[00:23:27] We repent of our sins.
[00:23:30] We embrace his forgiveness.
[00:23:33] And we pledge our loyalty forever.
[00:23:38] We pledge our loyalty forever because he's our anointed victor, he's our Redeemer, he's our Savior.
[00:23:48] To think about it in terms of biblical examples, we when it comes to Jesus, we avoid the foolishness of the crowd and Pilate who cried out so stupidly, we have no king but Caesar.
[00:24:09] That's what you want to say.
[00:24:11] That is not what you want to say.
[00:24:15] They rejected Jesus in favor of old worldly powers.
[00:24:22] They rejected Jesus in favor of loyalty to a lesser king. A lesser one installed by God, sure, but lesser.
[00:24:31] An under ruler, an underservant.
[00:24:35] And by rejecting Jesus, ultimately you're rejecting everything that's good and holy and righteous.
[00:24:45] Instead of saying something foolish like, we embrace no king but Caesar, we do like the wise men did in Matthew chapter 2.
[00:24:56] These kingly figures who traveled from faraway places to bow down and offer the wealth of the world to Jesus. Even as an infant, he deserved these things. No need to wait for Jesus to go conquer a nation or give a law or do a miracle, just come now, because he's the final king.
[00:25:26] When we don't recognize Jesus as our king and we get ourselves attached to the things of this world, sometimes it's the things of the past, things that we've lost, things that we wish were still around. Sometimes it's things of the future, things that we're desperately hoping are going to happen.
[00:25:44] When we get ourselves overly attached to money and leaders or success or health or comfort, or the list goes on.
[00:25:55] We're not giving our loyalty to Jesus, are we?
[00:25:59] We're not giving our loyalty to the one who is ruler over all time, over past, present and future. The ruler who is guiding us into each and every season and who makes and creates changes in your life and calls you to follow Him.
[00:26:19] But when we do recognize Jesus as our king, when we do bow down before him and give him our loyalty not because of any great strength in us, but only in dependence on his grace. Receiving from him all these promises and the gifts that he has given to us.
[00:26:36] We do things like obey his word even when it costs.
[00:26:41] Obey his word even when it's hard.
[00:26:45] Even when it means giving up or letting go of past loyalties and loves.
[00:26:52] Even when it means giving ourselves over to him and trusting him with our current moment and our future.
[00:27:03] Recognizing Jesus as the King that He is and giving our allegiance to him means embracing all the things that we receive in this life through him as the One whom we know, loves us and cares for us and will one day wipe away every tear from our eyes and remove all sorrow.
[00:27:26] We don't want to say things like, we have no king but Caesar, or I've got to have this thing I used to have. Or in the future, I've got to have this thing that I really need.
[00:27:36] No, we want to be what David calls the men of Jabesh Gilead to valiant, ready, strong, ready to give our wealth, our time, our reputation, and even our lives for the sake of following Jesus.
[00:27:53] He gave his life for us even before we were ready to give anything to Him.
[00:27:59] While we were dead in our trespasses and sins, our King was at work, our king was reigning.
[00:28:08] And so that's the heart of the matter. Just as the men of Jabesh Gilead, the men of Judah, were called to embrace David as their king, so we also must embrace David's greater son, who David himself calls Lord.
[00:28:27] And let go of all the passing kings of this world that we might give our allegiance to Christ and to Christ alone.
[00:28:35] Let's pray.
[00:28:39] Our Heavenly Father, we honor you and we obey you and we serve you and we ask for your forgiveness.
[00:28:46] Our foolish wandering hearts say the foolish, most foolish things.
[00:28:53] Why do we reject the Lord and Savior of the world? For.
[00:28:57] For the things of this world, Lord, we recognize that not everything in this world is evil, terrible. Many, many good things that you give to us. Wonderful things, family members, pets and homes and jobs, environments, houses, abilities and capabilities in our bodies, certain foods.
[00:29:27] As we think about all these good things, Lord, we ask that you would help us to receive them not as idols, not to be enslaved by them or worship them, but to receive them as from you.
[00:29:41] And sometimes, Lord. This is so easy to say, but very hard to do, to even know how to do.
[00:29:51] And so we fall on our faces this morning and we ask, Lord, you would help us.
[00:29:58] Help us not to reject good things nor idolize them.
[00:30:04] Help us to be loyal and faithful and loving and serving in every moment, but always doing so in a way that follows you as our King and as our Savior.
[00:30:21] Lord, as we bring to our minds as you speak to us and remind us of your great power and your great salvation and the Son of God who now reigns and sits on the throne, we ask that you would take our hearts and make us strong and valiant, ready to serve and do hard things for the sake of following you.
[00:30:54] We ask, Lord, that you would help us to honor the past things in our lives without clinging to them.
[00:31:02] Help us to obey your call whenever you lead us into a change.
[00:31:08] And help us, Lord, in all those things to only and always give our loyalty to King Jesus.
[00:31:15] Help us to take every thought captive, to see everything in light of him, and to give him all praise and honor and glory now and forever.
[00:31:24] And as we do these things, Lord, we ask that you would encourage us and bless us and keep us in your loving arms.
[00:31:33] Watch over us as we go through the difficulties and trials of this life and please remind us constantly of your presence and of your care and of your promises.
[00:31:44] We pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen.
