2 Samuel, Chapter 4 - True Kingship | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friends, welcome to the Prophets of Israel daily. This is the book of 2 [music] Samuel chapter 4. My name is Jeremy Gimpel. I'm here with my dear friend, my chavruta, my study partner, Ari Abramowitz. This series is brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com. By the way, I want to thank everyone who clicks like, leaves a comment. I mean, I can't do this for all of our content, but I try to read every single comment that's posted for the book of Samuel. And you can see I started liking the comments back. So, thank you for engaging and making this more of an interactive conversation because the more you engage, actually, it really helps the algorithm to get the words of the prophets out to more and more people. >> And it also helps us, Jeremy. I have to say it really helps me, too, because I read the We put out a lot of content, but when it comes to this series, I really do read so many of the comments because I find it helps me and it intrigues me and it challenges me. It's just sort of like an ongoing study session together. Anyways, I agree with you. >> If you comment in the comment section, Ari, I'm going to comment back. Just click like so I can see that you're actually engaging cuz I always feel like I'm doing it by myself. >> Okay, you got it, Jeremy. >> All right, very good. All right, guys. Yesterday, chapter 3, we watched the great general Abner murdered at the gate of Hebron, struck down by one of Joab's daggers at the exact moment the nation was one handshake away from becoming united under David. And so, chapter 4 begins and the house of Saul has just lost the one man who is really holding it together and the whole northern kingdom is like holding its breath. Look at verse 1. Uh Vaishma ben Shaul ki met Abner. And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands grew weak and all Israel was dismayed. Ish-bosheth, Saul's surviving son, really the puppet king of the north, the moment he hears Abner is gone, the strength drains out of him. The northern tribes of Israel, they feel exposed and vulnerable. There's no leader now. I mean, he was just called Ben Shaul, Saul's son. He's defined entirely by his father. He's propped up entirely by Abner. Take the general away and there's nothing really there. And then into that vacuum steps two men from Shaul's own tribe, from the tribe of Benjamin, Baanah and Rechab, captains in the house of Shaul. >> Yeah, Jeremy, before we even get into what these two men do, I want to talk for a second about those two words, "Vayiru yadov." His hands grew weak. Because the Tanakh has been building this exact contrast for two chapters now. And I think here it's like reaching its breaking point. Right? Think about the two kings standing on either side of this story. We open the second book of Samuel David in Hebron, and the first verb of his kingdom is "Vayishal." And he asked, he inquired of Hashem. He acted with strength rooted in trust. That's where his strength came from. And here is the rival king. And his defining verb is "Vayiru." His hands fell limp. Right? The contrast there is clear. One king is "Holech v'chazek." Going and growing stronger and stronger. And the other is growing weak weaker. And And Jeremy, I want to tell you why that struck me. You see, Ish-bosheth's collapse isn't really about losing a general. It's about a man who never had his own foundation. He was placed on a throne by someone else's ambition, and he stood on someone else's strength. So, the instant that prop is gone, he crumbles. And I think that the lesson there is that when you have a kingdom or anything else for that matter which is built on someone else's strength instead of your own roots, well, it will collapse the moment the prop is removed. Right? David rooted himself in Hebron, in Hebron in the graves of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Hashem. Ishbosheth rooted himself in Abner. Right? It's pretty clear who's going to stand firm when that inevitable storm comes. >> You know, and that's exactly it, Ari. And watch how fast the storm comes. Because these two captains, Rechab and Baanah, they just do the math. The king is weak, Abner is dead, the kingdom is leaderless, David is rising. They see a political opportunity. So, in the heat of the day, while Ishbosheth is lying on his bed taking his afternoon rest, they slip into the house under the pretense of fetching wheat. They stab him in the stomach and they kill him in his own bed. Then they cut off his head and they carry it all night through the Aravah all the way down to Hebron. And so, it's like this defenseless man, asleep in his own bed, murdered by his own tribesmen. It's not the battlefield, it's not against an enemy defending the nation. There's nothing noble here. This is the lowest kind of killing. It's murder. And they march that severed head over to David with the confidence that they're going to get a reward. Verse 8. Vayisu et rosh Ishbosheth el David Hevron. And they brought the head of Ishbosheth to David in Hebron. And said to the king, "Behold, the head of Ishbosheth, son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life." Listen how they frame it. It's like, "Your enemy who sought your life." Like they've packaged this murder as a favor to David. They've convinced themselves that they're doing God's work. They even add that Hashem has avenged the king against Saul and his offspring and they think they're handing David his crown. They think they're going to be heroes and they don't realize David's not down with this. >> Yeah, Jeremy, I just want to cut in for a second here and focus on one word these two men used because it really reveals I think the essence of what's really going on here. They march in and call Ish-bosheth, "Your enemy who sought your life." "Your enemy." That's the word. They were so sure, like you said, Jeremy, that they knew what was in David's heart, but they didn't. They didn't really know David's heart at all. They knew their own. Right? Our sages teach kol ha posel be mumo posel. We've been best friends for 30 years now. Whenever you accuse me of anything, Jeremy, I always say that to you. You're It's your seeing your >> [laughter] >> The one who disqualifies another is broadcasting his own blemish. These men assumed David hated his rival because they would have hated their rival. They assumed David would be grateful for the killing and reward them handsomely because that's the only kind of king their imaginations could produce. They couldn't conceive of a king who looked at the man blocking his throne and felt no enmity at all. So, they didn't just misjudge a situation, they really revealed themselves. Every word they speak about David is actually a confession about who they are and that's um that's a scary truth that we can learn, too. You know, that you can stand in front of the most righteous man of his generation and still see nothing but a mirror of your own smallness or inadequacies. You know, they they came expecting a reward from a man like themselves and they had new no idea who they were standing in front of, that they were standing in front of a man who would call their victim a tzaddik, a righteous man. >> Exactly. Righteous is exactly the word David is about to use. Look at the showdown between these captains and King David. This is verse 9 and 11. By Hashem as I have put out my shame in cold sorrow, as the Lord lives who has redeemed my life from all trouble. When someone told me saying, "Look, Saul is dead." thinking to have brought good news, I arrested him and had him executed in Ziklag. The one who thought I would give him a reward for his news. How much more when wicked men have killed a righteous person in his own house on his bed. Therefore, shall I not require his blood at your hand and remove you from the earth?" I mean, he reminds them of who he is, how he lives today, and what he's already lived through, and he gives all the credit to God. And in that way swears to do justice. He tells them about the man who once came to him at Ziklag announcing he had killed Saul expecting good news, and how David had that man executed. David calls Ish-bosheth, like what Ari pointed out, an Ish-tsaddiq, a righteous man, his rival, his adversary, the puppet king of the opposing kingdom, the very obstacle between David and the United Kingdom, David calls him righteous. An innocent man murdered in his bed. David refuses to let the politics rewrite his morality. It's like a defenseless man was slaughtered in his sleep. David is not going to call it anything other than what it was. And so he commands it. And the young men execute Rechab and Baanah. He sees evil for what evil is and he calls it out. And what the job of the king of Israel is, he's going to remove the evil from the world. And then verse 12, he takes the head of Ish-bosheth and buries it honorably in the tomb of Abner in Hebron. The rival king of Israel is laid to rest with dignity alongside the general David wept over just a chapter ago. >> Yeah, and Jeremy, you know, there it is, right? The burial is the seal on the whole thing. But, notice where he buries it. David doesn't just decline to display the head as a trophy, obviously. He carries it to Abner's grave in Hebron and lays it there. Consider that for a second, right? Hebron is Ma'arat Hamachpelah, the cave of the patriarchs, the ground where Abraham and Sarah and the whole family of Israel lie together. And David takes the head of the rival king and the bones of the rival general and the I mean, these are the two pillars of the house that fought against him to bring down his kingdom, to take his life. And he takes the the head and the bones and he folds them back into that family parcel, into that family burial place, into that family ground. He's not erasing the house of Saul. He is regrafting it onto the body of Israel. And the one place on Earth that means we're all one family. And that's the move that builds something eternal. Anyone can win a throne by subtraction, by cutting off whatever stands in the way. David wins it by addition, by gathering even his rivals back into the nation in the city of the Avot. And friends, I believe with all my heart that this is the work Hashem is asking of us in this generation. Back on these same Judean hills, we are we're rising again. And the temptation in a rising nation is to define ourselves by who we cut off. And David is showing us that kingship really defines itself, true malchut, true kingship defines itself by who we can bring home. >> I really agree with that. Like, there's so many forces right now in Israel that are trying to cut these people out, not accept those people. Oh, those people, they're totally off. And the goal is to just walk everyone home together. That's the ultimate king that's going to do it. And I feel like that's really the frame for the whole chapter. All right, that's just, you know, that's the way it is. Because when you first read chapter 4, it reads a little bit like a political drama that could have come from some other pagan nation like Rome and their emperors. Like a weak king collapses, the opportunists commit murder trying to win favor with the new potential king. But underneath that story, the Tanakh is laying down the moral foundation of the entire Messianic kingdom, just brick by brick. King David's mission as king of Israel is to remove evil from the world. And after that, he actually brings the family together in Hebron. And so, inside Israel today, there just so many divisions. There's so much to learn from here. Literally, there are tribes that are in conflict. This group wants to import and raise pigs for slaughter because they don't believe Israel should be a Jewish state. This This tribe, they don't want to serve in the army while the rest of the country is giving their lives to serve and protect the nation. And here David sets the bar for all of us. Ish-bosheth, Abner, they were literally at war with King David. The assassins come and call Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, the enemy, and David refuses to see him that way, even after all of that. Or he treat him that way. He honors him. He buries him in his capital where he's reigning. Right near the tomb of the patriarchs and matriarchs of Israel. His kingdom is the one that brings all the tribes together because Mashiach is ultimately going to unify all of Israel and then bring the whole world together. And so, may the son of David come soon and bring us all together in Jerusalem. Hazak u'barukh, my friends. Either way, if this journey through the life of King David is a blessing in your life and you want to be a part of it, take the next step. Join our global community. We've talked about it, but we're bringing people together from all over the world. Talk about unity. The Land of Israel Fellowship, it's ahead of its time. Families from all over the world, from so many different backgrounds and cultures and nationalities and educations. We gather together live every week from the hills of Judea. It's something that you have to experience because there's nothing like it anywhere else on Earth. So, to find out more, click on the link below or just go to the landofisrael.com. Bezrat [music] Hashem, we will see you tomorrow for chapter 5, the day all [music] Israel comes to Hebron to make David king over the nation. >> [music] >> Shalom from the mountains of Judea.