September 27,
2007
Rise
up, LORD, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee
before thee. (Numbers 10: 35 KJV
2 Samuel Chapter 21 Author: Unknown KJV
Donna and I were talking at breakfast this morning about how God has so far worked in David’s life. We see God move in His own timing to establish his plans for David. From the time David was anointed king to becoming king David went through a lot of hardship and testing. We also see God deal with David as a result of his sin. There was strife within David’s family with 3 children being killed or dying and a daughter raped by a brother. Even though David repented, David must suffer consequences for his sin but God does not walk away from David because David always turns back to God and away from his sin.
Bringing this forward to our lives, the same pattern works for those who love God. We are all a work in progress if indeed we belong to Him. (Hebrews 13: 6-7 KJV) “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” Because we all are sinful we need correction, if we accept correction then God counts us as sons.
There will always be correction and consequences for our sins. It’s better to accept correction now so we will turn out to be something beautiful before God and as such we are allowed to live with him for eternity. When we refuse to repent and accept the correction we turn out to be something ugly before God. Most criminals of today refused correction throughout their life. A lot of them are in prisons refusing to accept the consequences for their wrong and becoming bitter. They are receiving man’s punishment. When we refuse God’s correction then we receive the consequences of God’s eternal punishment in hell.
God tells us to receive Him and his ways. Since we were redeemed through Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, we come to the Father through the Son. Refusing to do so, we fail at God’s redemption first and foremost and we also fail in accepting His correction as that now comes to us through the Holy Spirit, which lives in All Christians. We cannot receive the correction of God without first accepting the work of the salvation of Jesus and having the Holy Spirit abide in us.
First and foremost without the salvation of Jesus Christ we are doomed to eternity in hell forever.
David repented from all of his sins, he accepted God’s correction and as many of you know, David was the Grandfather of Jesus many generations apart. Mary was of the House of David. The stepfather of Jesus, Joseph, Mary’s husband was also of the House of David, but the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and she was impregnated.
Make
sure you are capable of having the Holy Spirit live in you to keep you on the
straight path. Accept Jesus as your
Lord and savior today, ask him to forgive you of all of your past sins. You
don’t have to enumerate them now He knows what they are. Tell Jesus you wish to turn from sin in
your life and you wish to accept His ways (not the world’s ways) and His will
for your life. If you need help or
prayer, call me local 420-0414 toll free 866-203-4797.
As
recently as ten years ago, I really did not understand what it meant by turning
your life over to the Lord. David
stepped in and out of God’s favor a number of times. When he was in God’s favor, God took
care of things, when David stepped out of God’s favor and said he could do
better himself, everything was in turmoil.
I hope you have seen it as we have gone through his life, but we aren’t
through just yet. We have some more
to go.
In
yesterday’s lesson and in today’s lesson, God is in
control.
A big
lesson to me from my own experience is the Lord provides. I don’t mean to be
bragging, but rather I am sharing. In times past, I worried about getting
business. My mind was always on
business. A good portion of my day
is spent in the things of God and not business, and yet the Lord keeps the
business coming in. I was praying
the other night; Lord I have some bills to pay. Yesterday a gentleman called me from
Chicago a major private vocational school is locating here and invited me to
come over and show him some samples.
He gave me a list of the items he needed, and I’m working on getting the
samples. I told him further I have
had another relationship with another school, though not competitors and if they
would like a reference, they would be good.
The
Lord brought it to me, praise God.
(Matthew 6:32-34 KJV) “For after all these things do the Gentiles
seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take
thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof.”
The
Gibeonites Avenged
(2
Samuel 21:1 KJV) "Then there was a
famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of
the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his
bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites."
The
massacre of the Gibeonites is not recorded anywhere in 1 Samuel, and David did
not question that the massacre happened, but what could be done about it. Joshua 400 years earlier had allowed the
Gibeonites to live among them as servants.
The Gibeonites were acceptable to the agreement as they came to Joshua
wishing for such. Saul had violated
the covenant between Joshua (the Lord) and the Gibeonites and killed a bunch of
them.
(2
Samuel 21:2-6 KJV) "And the king
called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not
of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children
of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the
children of Israel and Judah.
{3}
Wherefore
David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I
make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?
{4}
And
the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of
his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel.
And
he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.
{5} And
they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us
that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of
Israel, {6} Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will
hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose.
And
the king said, I will give them."
Since Saul’s
family benefited from the massacre, it was only right that Saul’s family should
have to pay for the damage done.
(2
Samuel 21:7-9 KJV) "But the king
spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD'S
oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of
Saul. {8} But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah,
whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal
the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the
Meholathite: {9} And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites,
and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven
together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days,
in the beginning of barley harvest."
The men were
hanged.
The
method of death was also important because it fulfilled the promise of Deuteronomy
21:23: he who is hanged is accursed of God. These descendants of Saul
bore the curse Saul deserved and so delivered Israel from the guilt of their sin
against the Gibeonites.
This
promise from Deuteronomy
21:23 explains why Jesus died the way He did. Galatians 3:13
explains:
Christ
has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it
is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree").
(2
Samuel 21:10 KJV) "And Rizpah the
daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the
beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered
neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field
by night."
As Rizpah
guarded the bodies from the beginning of the harvest to till the rains poured
indicates that the bodies were exposed for some time. This indicates an act of judgment for
which the men were executed.
(2
Samuel 21:11-14 KJV) "And it was
told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
{12} And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his
son from the men of Jabeshgilead, which had stolen them from the street of
Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain
Saul in Gilboa: {13} And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and
the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were
hanged.
{14}
And
the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in
Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king
commanded. And after that God was entreated for the land."
David gave
Saul, Jonathan and these seven men a proper burial in the tomb of Saul’s
father.
The famine
ends. “David
directed all of this and he did it partly on the principle stated in Numbers 35:33: So you shall not pollute
the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made
for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who
shed it. The idea is that blood from unpunished murders defiles a land and
God will one day require that blood from the nation.” (David
Guzik)
“It
wasn't as if from the time Saul massacred the Gibeonites until David's day that
God did not answer any of Israel's prayers. Yet there came a time when God
wanted to deal with this sin, and at that time He would not answer their prayers
until they dealt with it.” (David Guzik)
(2
Samuel 21:15-17 KJV) "Moreover the
Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants
with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint. {16}
And Ishbibenob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of
whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he
being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David. {17}
But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and
killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more
out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of
Israel."
David has become a
senior citizen by now, and he hasn’t the strength to stand in the heat of
battle. He is nearly killed by this
giant of a man Ishbi-Benob, but the Lord sends Abishai to David’s rescue. Israel could not be without a leader,
and it is not quite time for Solomon to reign. David by winning these victories makes
it better for Solomon.
Guzik suggests that
it is a good thing the older generation can make things easier for the
succeeding generation. While it is
good for us now, the younger generation benefits by learning from the older
folks and perhaps that will be a battle they will not have to fight
themselves.
The fact that David
can no longer fight shows us God always has someone waiting in the wings to
carry on. Even when all of Israel
and Judah are destroyed in about 450 years because of sin, God will still have
those people who will carry on His work.
(2
Samuel 21:18-22 KJV) "And it came
to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob:
then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the
giant.
{19}
And
there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of
Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the
staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
{20}
And
there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that
had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in
number; and he also was born to the giant. {21} And when he defied
Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah the brother of David slew him.
{22}
These
four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the
hand of his servants."
Even though
David is to old to fight, he is rightly credited with the defeat of the enemy
because it is under David’s guidance and directed by the Lord that these battles
were won.
"Let
those who after long service find themselves waning in strength, be content to
abide with the people of god, still shining for them as a lamp, and thus
enabling them to carry on the same Divine enterprises. Such action in the last
days of life is also great and high service." (Morgan)
24 The LORD bless
thee, and keep thee:
25 The LORD make his
face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26 The LORD lift up
his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
27 And they shall
put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless
them.
Numbers
6 KJV
Have
a blessed day
Lee
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