2 Samuel, Chapter 2 - He Asked First | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] Shalom friends, welcome back to the prophets of Israel daily. This is the book of 2 [music] Samuel chapter 2. My name is Jeremy Gimpel. I am here with my karuta, my study partner, Arya Brammoitz. And this [music] series is brought to you by the land of Israel network at the land of Israel.com. Ari, how you doing? >> Thank God I'm doing great, Jeremy. Very excited about this chapter. >> Yeah, we're really getting into King David now. And that's what I want to say like just take a moment and where we're standing. We just mourned on Mount Gilboa. Shaul is dead. Jonathan is dead. The army shattered. The Philistines are occupying Israelite cities. I mean, it really ended in darkness. And now we're opening up to a whole new scroll, a new beginning. It's the book of King David. And you'd expect like, all right, King David, trumpets, coronation, glory. And David isn't even standing in Israel's territory now. I mean, this chapter opens up and he's in Clog, the Philistine town down in the Negv and Akish, the king of Gth, gave it to him and he's been there for maybe a few years now on the run and he's still in exile. The future king of Israel is sitting in enemy territory behind enemy lines where he's hiding in exile. So, the story of the rise of the kingdom of Israel begins in exile. And I think that's important to note. I mean the very first thing King David does is he asks a question. He doesn't like seize the throne and march to Jerusalem. He stops. He turns upwards and he asks for guidance. Verse one. And it came to pass after this that David inquired of the Lord saying, "Shall I go up into one of the cities of Judah? The king to be." He's anointed years ago by Samuel himself. He's a giant slayer. the man who the whole nation is talking about. I mean, he's not going to take a single step without asking Hashem first. And Hashem answers, "Go up." And then David says, "Where?" And he says, "To, I mean, to the place it all began. To the first place that Abraham first acquired in the land of Israel, to the place the fathers and mothers of Israel are buried, the place where the covenant between God and Israel first started to manifest in the land of Israel. And you just can't ignore the contrast with the man that we just buried, Sha. I mean, Saul's story ends with him falling on his own sword, alone in despair. Never once before the battle, during the battle, did he reach out to a prophet. Never once did he ask God for guidance. David opens his story doing the exact opposite. The very first verb of the Davidic kingdom is Vishal is he asked and I mean the whole tragedy of Sha was a man who acted without asking. He like froze without asking. And the foundation that David is building here it's a kingdom that's built upon asking. It's like prophetically he's always going to be connected. And so the difference between like that is the difference between a king who serves the throne and a king who serves Hashem. And that's what David represents. >> Yeah, Jeremy, I want to just hold on to that word for one second, Vishal, because notice where Hashem sends him to, right? And again, that's no random dot on the map. Like you said, is the first piece of land Aram ever purchased in this country, the cave of the patriarchs. It's where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are buried. Sarah, Rebecca, Leia. It's the deepest foothold of the Jewish people in this land. So when David asks, "Where do I begin my kingdom?" Hashem doesn't say a palace, doesn't say a fortress, doesn't say a capital. He says, "Go back to the graves of your ancestors. Go back to the foundation. Before you build the future, you anchor in the roots." And by the way, I think that's a message screaming at our generation. The kingdom of David doesn't launch from Tel Aviv or some shiny new tower. It launches from Hebron, from Judea, from the most ancient, most contested, most foundational soil there is. The same mountains we're sitting on right now. At least I am. You're in Jerusalem right now, but close enough, right? David teaches us that you build forward by going backwards first, back to who you really are. >> You know, it's funny. I am in Jerusalem now. But the truth is that for Israel to really take shape and become the kingdom it's meant to be, it really needs to start in Hevron. I know our focus has always been on Jerusalem, praying for the peace of Jerusalem. I'm in Jerusalem right now. But King David started exactly in the place of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He started in Judea. He started in Hevron. In Zechariah, the prophet says the tents of Judea will be saved first. it really needs to begin in Judea and the capital of Judea is anyway that's exactly why he plants himself on that ancient soil and eventually uh the moment arrives and the men of Judah came and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah like he's the king finally it's like but look he's the king over the house of Judah it's like one tribe his own tribe Not all of Israel. I mean, the boy was promised the throne of the entire nation, and now he's being crowned over a single tribe. It's a little bit closer to a judge of old than a king of a nation, but he waits 7 and a half more years David waits. And I find that part the most powerful. I mean, David was anointed by Shuel as a teenager. I mean, he's been running for his life, hiding in caves, living among the Philistines, dodging Sha's spears in the I mean, just like two decades, he's running. And finally, he gets a crown, and it's only a partial crown. He still doesn't have what he was promised, but he doesn't grab for more. He accepts the peace he's given, and he starts to build from there. And on that point, I just like sometimes I'm in the middle of a process in life and I feel like it's so hard and I'm waiting for my prayers to be answers, for things to open up for months and it feels like gosh, this is so long. But sometimes godly processes take years and years and only with time and patience can we see the divine order in it all. And that's one of the deepest patterns in the whole journey. I mean, redemption almost never arrives all at once, even though that's what everyone is like hoping for and expecting and dreams of. It always comes in stages. Joshua received the land, but not all of it. I mean, we returned to Israel in 1948, but not to Jerusalem in 1967. Not fully to Judea and Samaria even today. I mean, King David's kingship arrives in pieces. One tribe first, then the whole nation years later. It's a prophetic template for how redemption actually unfolds. It unfolds slowly, faithfully. Redemption takes time. And it's not just this one-time event. It's a process. And the first thing Ke David does as king, it really tells you everything about what kind of king he's going to be. He doesn't issue a decree. He doesn't try to consolidate power. If you look at verses 5-7, he hears that the men of Yavesh Gilad risked their lives to bury Sha with honor and he sends them a blessing. Verse 5, blessed are you of the Lord that you have shown this kindness to your Lord to Sha and embarried him. Think about who Shaul was to David. [laughter] I mean Sha hunted him, threw spears at him, tried to kill him, murdered the priest of Nove trying to get him. And David's first act as king is to bless the people who honored Saul's body. No bitterness. There's no score settling. I mean, he never saw Saul as his enemy. He saw him as Hashem's anointed. That's a king. That's mut. >> Yeah. Really strengthens me, Jeremy. You know, and and that act of compassion makes what comes next a little bit heartbreaking because not everyone really wants unity. Not everyone has David's consciousness. No one has David's full consciousness but David. And I think it's because it was given as a manifestation of his soul and his anointing from God. But anyways, in verse 8, Aer, Saul's powerful general, takes Saul's surviving son, Ishbosett, and crowns him king over the northern tribes. So now there are two kings. Great, right? David and anointed by God and by Judah. Ishbett and Mahanim, installed by a general that can't let go of power. And look at the contrast in how those two kingships are born. David rose because God called him and the people came to him. Ishbett rises because one powerful man won't surrender control propping up a weak heir so he himself can keep pulling the strings from behind the throne. One kingship is built on heaven and the other is built on human ambition. And the Tanakh is teaching us right at the dawn of the monarchy the difference between authority that comes from above the power and and the power that's grabbed from below. Right. They look similar from the outside. Both men wear a crown but one is a king and the other's a puppet. Exactly. And that power grab, that ambition from below leads straight to the bloodshed. I mean, the two armies meet at a pool at Gon Yav leading David's men and leading Ishbett's men. And what happens is it's kind of freaky. Verse 14, Aar says to Yo, let the young men now arise and play before us. Play. He calls it a game. It's like 12 young men from each tribe. They grab each other by the head and drive their swords into each other's sides. All 24 fall down dead together. They name the place, the field of swords. And friends, that word play, it really haunts me. I mean, let them entertain us. I mean, these two commanders sit on opposite sides of a pool of water and treat the lives of these 24 men as a sporting match to break the tension. And I don't know, every single one of them dies. I mean, the Tanakh is showing us something that's just really honest about civil war, about baseless internal hatred. It maybe even start off as a game, a little posturing, a little let's see who's tougher. But no, I mean, nobody thinks it's going to spiral and then 24 mothers have to bury their sons by sundown. And the game becomes a war that drags on for years. I mean, we just spent the entire book of Judges learning that the deadliest threat to Israel was never the enemy outside. It was the breakdown inside. And here in the opening chapter of the monarchy, the first blood spilled isn't Philistine blood. It's Jewish blood spilled by Jewish hands because these two leaders couldn't put their egos down. There's no such thing as a small civil war. And the chapter ends with a moment that makes that warning unforgettable. I mean, that battle turns against Abnair and he runs. And one of David's men, Ael, Yov's brother, a young guy, the text says he runs swift a foot like a gazelle, chases him down. He's fast, fearless. He locks onto Abner and he won't let go. And Abner pleads with him twice, "Turn aside, Assel. Stop chasing me. Take a soldier's armor instead. Why should I strike you down? How could I then face your brother Yo? The hardened old general is begging the young Assa to stop. And Asel won't turn aside. He's too proud. He's too fast, too sure of himself. And Aer, running backwards, drives the spear backwards into Asel's stomach. It comes out of his back and the young gazelle falls dead. And that death plants a seed of vengeance that will poison the house of David for years. Yu will never forgive Aar. >> Jeremy, what gets me about Assa is what Aer is actually offering him. It wasn't cowardice. It was wisdom. Yes, Aer wanted to maintain control and he propped off Ishboset, but everybody's somewhat of a mixed bag. He didn't want to kill him. You know, he was offering him wisdom and Asael couldn't take it. He had the speed. He had the courage. He had everything except the ability to know when to stop. And that's the noteworthy um book end of this whole chapter. It opens with David asking a question. Should I go up and waiting for the answer? And it closes with a young man who never paused, never turned aside, and ran straight to his own death. David's restraint builds a dynasty, and Asael's momentum digs a grave. It's the same lesson Saul taught us played out again in a single afternoon. In the kingdom of God, knowing when not to act is every bit as holy as knowing when to act. This whole book on some level, one of the great themes is knowing where you are in that space between those two instincts, right? The one who asks and the one who just runs and acts. Where where is that? You know, that's really the perfect way to hold this chapter because 2 Samuel chapter 2, it's the foundation stone of everything that comes next. It shows us the king of Israel will I mean, it shows us the king we were always meant to have. The one who asks before he acts, who roots himself in the soil of Judea, of the fathers and mothers of the nation. David blesses the men who honored the man who tried to kill him. And he never seizes power. He just waits patiently for the promise to come to pass in Hashem's time. And so this chapter not only shows us the foundations of the beginning, it also shows us the shadow that follows David after his life, the danger of division and civil war within the people of Israel. In our generation, the message is clear. We've returned to our land. We have a state. We have an army stronger than David could have ever dreamed. And the question of the book of David, it's it's like ask it's like starting today. It's the same one as then. Will we be a people who asks Hashem before we move? Will we root ourselves in Hevron in our deepest foundations? Will we have the patience to let redemption unfold in stages? Cuz the king is rising, friends. The dynasty that leads all the way to Messiach begins in this chapter. And it begins with a question v. He asked before we act always remember King David and ask to live a guided life my friends. And of course if this journey is a blessing in your life and I want to invite you to take the next step and join our global community the land of Israel fellowship. Families from all over the world. We gather every week rooted in Judea. So many started learning the prophets of Israel with us together and now they're a part of our global family. It's like nothing else on earth. And I would love for you to join. You can find out more at the land ofisrael.com. Bizashem. We'll see you tomorrow for chapter 3. Shalom from Jerusalem. Oh.