David, “Spirit Led versus Flesh Driven”
2 Samuel 2:1-32
Vs. 1-7 Led by God
Vs. 8-17 My army is better than yours.
Vs. 18-32 The foolishness of the flesh
Intro.
Over 15 years have passed since David first heard the word of the Lord through Samuel in chapter 16:12, saying, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!” If you recall, I told you that there were three things God must do to a person whom he will use, two of which David received that very day, “calling and anointing.” Those my friends come as gifts; they require nothing from us; they are simply given. The third? Well, it is what causes the other two to be useful, “Brokenness.” A.W. Towzer put it so well when he wrote, “Those whom God will use greatly, He must wound deeply!”
Hey saint, faint not if you find yourself in a season like David did being wounded deeply, as in do season our great God will turn your weeping into a season of fruitfulness. The key to David’s success is being led by God, inquiring of Him, and not assuming that he knew what way God was leading. Corrie Ten Boom once asked, “Is prayer your steering wheel, or just your spare tire?” That’s a great question to ask ourselves, don’t you think? Most people don’t use prayer to guide them or steer them to where God wants them to be. No, they use prayer when they feel flat or have had a blowout. I’m convinced I’d have a lot less flats and blowouts in my life if I’d just come and let the Lord drive me away from those things that puncture my life in the first place. How about you?
Led by God
Vs. 1-2 David is now poised to enter into the promise God made to him some 15 to 20 years ago, but he does not rush in blindly; instead, he carefully seeks the Lord. You will recall that David had spent 16 months backslidden in the land of the Philistines. The tragedy is that it took him going through this to bring him back to the goodness of God.
There is something I’m looking forward to understanding about myself, and that is why, even as a believer, do I resist the proven love of our Lord? Here is how the scenario usually unfolds in my life: I resist the word of God and He lets me go, then I fail and make a mess of things, then I blame God for it.
David asks two very important questions in verse 1:
- Should I go?
- And where should I go?
Hey, saint, there is a lot of talk today about you and I being “purpose-driven.” Hear me out. Personally, over the last 25 years, I have had very little problem with being “purpose driven,” but I have always struggled with being “spirit led.” David didn’t struggle with being “purpose driven,” it was being “spirit led” that he battled with. Listen to James in chapter 4:13-15 when he admonishes us, saying, “Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit,” whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
And what of that city, Hebron? Hebron was the capital city of the time for the tribe of Judah; it was a priestly city, but even in this David does not assume to know where the Lord would place him. Take it from me, Christian, it is a good thing to seek the Lord for “deployment” and not for appointments. Furthermore, Hebron was the city given to the patriarchs, “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Thus, Hebron was a city that came to symbolize God’s promises being fulfilled. Ah, but God never led those fellows to that city until they stopped trying to get their own on! Hey saint, could it be that we fail to move into God’s glorious promises in our lives because we continue to do so in our own power rather than saying, “Shall I go up… Where shall I go up?” Here’s where I’m going with this: God wants to lead us into His promises for our lives, and we continue trying to obtain them. We want them our way, on our terms, in our time frame, but then they would not be a gift; rather, they would be something wrought of the flesh, and God wants just to bless us, not be a debtor to us.
Vs. 3-4 David did not seize the throne; the elders of Judah approached him. Because he didn’t take matters in his own hands, he can forever know that it was not by his own effort that he has become king but rather by the Lord, who in His timing has brought about what He promised. David didn’t say to God, “Hey God, tell you what, make me king, and I’ll go where you want me to go.” You see, he sought the Lord if he should go and where he should go with no deals or expectations; he simply left those up to God. So it is in verse 4 that we read that “the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.”
My point is that there are a great many of us that have the cart before the horse as we place our order with God and tell Him that we will follow Him after He does what we ask of Him. Hey, saint, we are supposed to be the servants, and He is the master, and David has the right order as he asks the Lord if he should go and where he should go and makes no demands. When you and I do it this way, seeking His will for our lives, then God is free to bless us as we place our trust in Him.
Did you realize here that it has taken the people of Judah a better part of 15 years to recognize what God was doing and that He had called and anointed David as their king? There is a really important lesson in this saint, and that is not to waste those years in bitterness against people who aren’t noticing what God is doing in your life. Don’t get ahead of the Lord! Hey saint, the joy in the journey isn’t just in the destination; (listen up now) no, the joy in the journey is who you get to travel with! Hebron was located 25 miles from Ziklag, and for the first time in over 10 years, David and his men were no longer fugitives. This is the second time of David’s three times that he will be anointed as king (Samuel, here, and 71/2 years later by Israel).
Now you may be tempted to think, What does that matter? David could have achieved by self-effort much earlier than what it took the Lord to accomplish in 15–20 years. We may be able to outwardly obtain what the Lord has promised us, but the question is, can we maintain our enjoyment of it? You see Abraham and Sarah are great examples of giving birth to what the Lord promised earlier than the Lord had planned. Only that which is gained by the Lord in His timing is what He will honor. Again notice that David sought the Lord and not a title, as it isn’t until after he obeys the Lord and takes all to Hebron that “the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king” (verse 4). There are far more that make the outcome a condition on our obedience and that my friend makes as the Lord and God the servant!
Vs. 5-7 Well, David does just what the Lord tells him to do and brings his army with him. It has taken 15 years of refinement for David to come to the place to realize that he wants to be only where the Lord wants him to be when the Lord wants him to be there. Imagine being in the place where you have the winning lottery pick and asking the Lord, Should I cash it in?
The first act of David as King is to thank those “valiant men” of “Jabesh Gilead.” And you will recall that they were the ones who risked all to properly dispose of Saul and his son’s bodies; is that not amazing? Why would David care? Well, I suggest to you that David cared more for the honor and glory of God and His reputation in the world and not what folks thought of him. David invites the men of Jabesh Gilead to join him, but they would not and instead would follow Abner. These men, as valiant as they were, allowed their loyalty to Saul to blind their hearts to God’s will for the nation and instead sided with “Baal’s man.” They had a good heart-right idea but didn’t allow the Lord to do the leading. Many folks today do the same thing: “Hey, saint, Jesus will be Lord of all, or He won’t be Lord at all.”.
Now, even though David’s own tribe hadn’t recognized the anointing and calling on his life, David does not want to do the same, and when he hears of the valiant men of Jabesh Gilead, his first act as king is to send an official proclamation honoring their efforts in recovering the body of Saul and disposing of his body properly. I suggest to you that this illustrates the work that God had accomplished in David’s life. How so? Well, God had taken David down a road where he had been unappreciated, and he has come out the other side sensitive towards others who are going through similar circumstances. Typically Saul’s tribe Benjamin and David’s tribe Judah linked together, so David offered his hand out to these fellows who happened to be from the same tribe as Saul and said, “Oh, by the way, I’ve been made king by my tribe Judah, and if you want to, I’d be honored to serve folks like you as well.” In showing compassion for those valiant men who took Saul’s body off the wall, David is demonstrating that others are more important than himself. You can observe how people respond to others, and it will usually be a good indicator to see if they are being led by the spirit or driven by the flesh.
My army is better than yours
Vs. 8-17 Abner and Joab get together; both are generals; Abner is the cousin of Saul and Joab is the nephew of David, and they get together and want to have a “winner take all” kind of deal, and all come out ahead. Instead of Abner doing the right thing, he decides to make a contest out of it.
Abner was Saul’s cousin and personal bodyguard, which raises the question: Why is he still alive? This isn’t the first time we see Abner not doing his job, as in chapter 26:14. David crept into a camp of 3000 commandos and took Saul’s spear and jug of water, with Abner sleeping right next to Saul, causing David to question his talents as a bodyguard. I mean, we are told that Abner is the commander of Saul’s army, but we wonder what kind of general he was as we never see the fellow winning a battle.
There are far too many servants of our King who like the title but forget the responsibility; sometimes God’s children forget who’s the king and what kingdom they’re in, if you know what I mean. It was Abner who brought David to Saul after he killed Goliath, but it was also Abner who, with Saul, pursued David and his men for some 15 years. So when Saul died, Abner found himself out of a job as David’s Nephew Joab already had the position of general, so he decided to try to stay in power by supporting Saul’s remaining son, but even that took 5 years as the nation of Israel wasn’t into Saul’s son, and he made “Mahanaim” Israel’s capital.
Abner seems to be quite political as he sees David has been made king of Judah; perhaps he heard about the offer David made to folks of Jabesh Gilead and thinks, “Man, I better act quick because if I don’t, I’ll be out of a job.” But Abner has got a bit of a problem as he is down to just one son, Ishbosheth, who isn’t much of a fighter or leader, even though he is about 10 years older than David. How do we know that he is not a fighter? Well, why was he not beside his father or brothers? So really, what you have is a puppet king, and Israel is really being led by the general Abner, who is pulling all the strings.
Looking at these two generals shows me that God wants the leaders He chooses to serve and not to be lords over people but rather to lead them by example to shepherd the flock, and it is something the two opposing generals don’t understand. The scene shows us three types of leaders:
- Abner: Who knows how to manipulate others—a bully who controls others for his own benefit.
- Ishbosheth: Who is in power simply because they have connections?
- David: Who is called, anointed, and tried under fire?
The sad truth is that even in the body of Christ, we see at times that the wrong person is placed in the right position.
Joab and Abner are cut from the same cloth; they are both ruthless men, the kind of guys you don’t want as neighbors. In fact, David, upon his deathbed, would leave instructions to have Joab executed by Solomon after he died for all of his brutality. To illustrate the kind of men these two fellows were, we’re told of the two men and their armies meeting by “the pool of Gibeon” for a gladiator fight to the death. So we have these two generals sacrificing 12 each of their men in a fight to the death just in some morbid contest for their entertainment.
I’m not a big fan of this stuff; you got all sorts of barbaric things going on today as fellows get into rings and folks pay big bucks to see blood spilled, afraid we are not much removed from Abner and Joab. At the end of the first quarter, all 24 were dead, and apparently neither side cared much for the way the contest had ended up, as they didn’t want a draw. They even name the place the “field of sharp swords.” You talk about stupid. It kind of seems as though the stands are cleared and we end up in a full-out bench brawl. According to verse 30-31, the final score was Joab 360 to Abner 20, as David’s men killed 15 to 1 of Abner’s as his rebellion caused the death of 360 men. But who really won? I can tell you that those 20 didn’t win as they were just entertainment for two generals with many problems.
The foolishness of the flesh
Vs. 18-32 When Abner declared Esh-Baal king, he was making a declaration of war against David; he obviously felt that he had the superior army and set out to prove it in a contest 23 miles north of Gibeon in a large cistern. The end result of this stupidity is that these two families are going to be at odds with each other, and we see what is behind all this gang warfare.
A while back, two idiots got together to see who was the bigger idiot and killed the other idiot, who now gets some other fellows to go get even for being stupid in the first place, and this just goes on and on. The Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s (famous rivalry between two American clans of hill folk in the late 1800’s) had their feud over the price of a pig, and in the end hundreds died. Zeruiah was David’s sister (2 Chronicles 2:16). It is clear that Abner kills Asahel in self-defense, but his question (How then could I face your brother Joab?) will indeed haunt him, and in revenge, killing cost him his life.
Asahel is a track star, and he is hot on the heels of Joab, who tells him, “Hey buddy, you don’t want to catch me, so you better just turn aside.” So to save his own life, Abner sticks the spear into the ground and lets Asahel impale himself. Now, they come to where Asahel is dead, and they have a moment of silence, but the two remaining brothers take up the chase, but Abner’s buddies take his side, and now we have a standoff until Abner says, “Hey, man, were all brothers here? What say we all just cool it before any more get hurt?” So the contest is called, and Abner and his gang of Benjamites go back home while Joab and his gang bury Asahel. Abner requests the cease-fire, and both parties agree in hopes of avoiding a long, bloody civil war. The great difference in casualties (360 to 20) shows that God’s hand is definitely upon David in this entire struggle. The increasing strength of David and increasing weakness of Saul’s house did not begin when Saul died; it began when God first chose David and withdrew His Spirit from Saul (1 Samuel 16:13–14).
So in a brief amount of time, the king has used diplomacy and restraint while his army has plunged the nation close to civil war. Yet David will wait 71/2 years and still does not push his agenda. He would have to wait this time. What this chapter illustrates is the importance of being Spirit-led versus being flesh-driven, and it is an important lesson for us to receive.