2 Sam 24, theme verse 2 Sam 7:16
The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.
In the end of the era of the Judges, as the darkest times of Israel, the Israelites became to forget God, and even while living under the rule of the Philistines, they neither repent nor cry out to the LORD for help, and even Samson, who was sent to save them, did not save them while living in his own lust and even after telling the secret of his strength was in his hairs to Delilah and being cut off his hairs and being this eyes, even though he killed 3000 Philistines when God restored his strength when he prayed to God. After that, in the time of Eli the priest and the judge, even the Ark of the Covenant had been taken away by the Philistines. At that time, Samuel was born to Hannah who was baren, yet prayed God with oath that if God gave her a son then she will offer him to God so that God heard her prayer. And God's word came to Samuel, and he fought against the Philistines and delivered the Israelites from the Philistines. But due to the sins of his sons, Israel eventually demanded a king, entering this reigning monarchical era of the first king Saul and David and Solomon, and Israel enjoyed the greatest era of prosperity. So, throughgh the books of 1 and 2 Samuel including 1 Kings, which record the era of the unified kingdom, we hope to learn a few lessons.
1) The Book of Samuel records the activities of Samuel, the priest, the prophet and also the last judge of Israel. It contains the records of the era of the unified kingdom of Israel led by Saul, David, and Solomon. Its structure is as follows:
a) Prologue 1 Samuel 1-7 Samuel’s birth and growth, becoming a judge
b) Transition to the Monarch 1 Samuel 8 Transition to monarchy
c) Story of Saul 1 Samuel 9-15
d) Story of Saul & David 1 Samuel 16-31
e) Story of David 2 Samuel 17-20
f) Epilogue 2 Samuel 21-24
For reference, the Story of Solomon is recorded in 1 Kings 1-11.
Prophets active in this era were Samuel, Gad, and Nathan. Samuel laid hands on Saul and David, the first two kings of Israel. Prophet Gad told David to choose one of three plagues when David committed the sin of taking a census. Prophet Nathan not only rebuked David when he knew Bathsheba, but also helped Solomon ascend to the throne when Adonijah rebelled against his father David. Traditionally, these three prophets were told the authors of the Book of Samuel, but recent research has not yet revealed anything definitive about the author.
2) First, Samuel was the person who ended the period of judges and started the period of monarchs. He was born to Hannah, the second wife of his father Elkanah, who was of the tribe of Levi. When Hannah had no son, she made a vow: “If You gives me a son, I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life and no razor shall touch his head.” And when God gave her a son, she offer him as a Nazarite to the priest Eli in front of God. So Samuel lived in the temple serving the Lord from a child, when the word of the LORD was rare and there was no frequent vision. At that time, as God called Samuel and gave him a message about the sons of the priest Eli, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord was taken away by the Philistines in a battle, his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died, and also the Judge Eli, died. Then, Samuel gathered the Israelites, who were disappointed at the loss of the Ark of the Covenant, to Mizpah, and after repenting with all the people, he became a judge of Israel and began to rule. When the Philistines who heard this news came to attack Israel, he called on the strength of the LORD to fight them and defeated them.
3) Afterwards, when Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons Joel and Abijah as judges, but when they did not follow Samuel's actions and accepted bribes to bend the judgment, the elders of Israel were dissatisfied with them, and asked for installing a king like other nations. So when Samuel prayed, God said, “They have rejected me from being their king,” and warned them that if the monarchy system is implemented, the kings will use their as their subjects, soldiers, and servants, and will collect tithes and make them slaves. But when Samuel told them these, since they still asked for a king, so Samuel anointed Saul, whom God had chosen, and the ballot appointed, as their king.
4) Saul, who became the first king of the Kingdom of Israel, was humble at first, saying in 1 Samuel 9:21 that he was from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and that his family was the weakest among all the families of the tribe of Benjamin. However, after becoming king, as the Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he prophesied, and people whose hearts were touched by God were with him, the Lord helped him to defeat the Ammonites, he became arrogant to offer the burnt offering, being impatient, not waiting Samuel’s arrival, when he was about to fight with the Philistines, when the Philistines attached Israel, due to the Jonathan’s attack to the Philistine garrison. And also after God helped him to defeat not only the Philistines, but also the Ammonites, the Edomites, and the kings of Zobah, when again God commanded him to attack and completely destroy Amalek because they had opposed him during the Exodus 400 years ago, but he committed the sin of disobedience to leave the best of the livestock as spoils, so God abandoned him and commanded Samuel to anoint David.
5) Afterwards, when Saul, from whom the Spirit of the Lord had departed, was tormented by the evil spirits, David played the lyre to refresh Saul, departing the evil spirits. And when the Philistines attacked with Goliath and fought against the Israelites, David had a rod and a sling in his hand, taking five stones and went out to him in the name of the Lord Almighty and slew him on the forehead, knocking him down, and then killed him with his sword. Because of this, he became famous among the Israelites, but Saul, who was jealous of him, chased him for ten years. So David ran away in the wilderness, eventually fleeing to the Philistine land of Gath. Being about almost participated in the battle between the Philistines and Israel, but the Philistine leaders disliked him, so he could not participate in the war and returned to Ziklag. In the Battle of Gilboa between the Philistines and Israel, Saul and Jonathan, Saul’s son died so that David became king of Judah in Hebron and ruled for seven years. And then after he fought and won the Battle of Gibeon against the house of Saul, establishing a unified kingdom, he beccame the king. After that, he conquered the Philistines and conquered Jerusalem, where the Jebusites lived, and built the Palace of David. He moved the Ark of God there and ruled for 33 years. When David finished the City of David, he wanted to build God's temple, God said that He would build a temple during the time of his son and promised that his house and kingdom would be preserved forever. This is the content of today's text called the Davidic Covenant. And God was with David and enabled him to win wherever he went. To the west, he attacked the Philistines and made them surrender, to the east, he attacked Moab and made them pay tribute, and to the north, he defeated Hadadezer, the king of Zobah, and Damascus Aram who came to help them. Later, he set up a garrison in Aram, Damascus, Aram made him pay tribute. Then, he attacked Edom in the south, set up a garrison, and made Edom his servant.
6) Afterwards, when he fought against Ammon, in the midst of that, he knew Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and when Bathsheba became pregnant, he had Uriah killed. Then the LORD rebuked him through Nathan, and said the sword did not depart from the house of David because of that sin and also his wives would be molested and that the child born to Bathsheba would die. As he said, after the first child died, Bathsheba gave birth to another son, who was Solomon. And because David's son Amnon had known his son Absalom's sister Tamar, Absalom took revenge by killing all the king's children. As a result, Absalom fled to Geshur and then returned and rebelled with David's counselor Ahithophel, so David fled. So Nathan's prophecy came true as Absalom occupied the City of David and slept with David's concubines, but Absalom was eventually defeated by David's army and died, and David returned to Jerusalem, conducted a census, so God told him to choose one of three punishments through the prophet Gad, and he chose the punishment of a three-day epidemic in the land of Israel, killing 70,000 people. When he grew old, Adonijah rebelled, but Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and David The warriors of , helped defeat Adoniah and installed Solomon as king. Afterwards, David died after urging Solomon to keep the law of God.
7) Through today's passage, we would like to learn few things. First, one thing we need to know about the transition from this theocratic era to the monarchy era is that God did not dislike the monarchical system itself through the king. In other words, during the time of the judges, when Israel worshiped idols and suffered from their enemies as punishment, but they did not know this came from their sins and asked for a king because they thought it was because they did not have a king, even though God said that they did not accept Him as their King, yet the monarchy itself was already a system set out in the regulations for the king in Deuteronomy 17:14-20, in which it said that the kings should be the person whom the LORD chose and the king was not to have many horses and many wives and excessive silver and gold, and also had to keep the law of God and follow all the laws and regulations, so that he and his descendants will reign for a long time. However, the three kings of the Unified Kingdom era all violated God's regulations for the kings. Saul was humble at first, but he gradually became arrogant and not only committed the sin of offering burnt offerings that only priests could do, but also committed the sin of disobeying God's command to destroy completely Amalek and leaving his livestock behind. When Solomon succeeded his father David as king, when the LORD appeared and asked him what he wanted to give him, Solomon became the listening ear, that is, the one who governed the people. He asked for wisdom, so God, who saw it as beautiful, gave him not only wisdom but also great blessings. However, after having over a thousand wives and concubines and importing horses and chariots from Egypt, and hoarding silver and gold, he also committed the sin of idolatry. And even David committed the crime of violating Bathsheba, the wife of his faithful servant Uriah, and killing him, and also committed the sin of conducting a census in his later years. Likewise, all three were imperfect people who sinned before God, but only David became a man after God's heart and received God's blessing. The reason for this was David's repentance. I mean, after Saul committed a sin, when God rebuked him through Samuel, but rather than repent, he asked to save face in front of people. Solomon worshipped other gods, having over a thousand wives and concubines despite the Lord appearing to him twice and warning him not to follow other gods so that the kingdom was divided. But, David was different. When the prophet Nathan rebuked him for his sin with Bathsheba, and when the prophet Gad rebuked him for his sin when the census was taken, he immediately repented. Although all three of them fell short, only David who repented received God's forgiveness. So, it was said in Acts 11:18, repentance results in life. And one last thing we need to know is that, as in 2 Samuel 12:13, if you commit a sin and repent, you will receive forgiveness, but you must receive the corresponding punishment for that sin. Therefore, we believe that we must read the Bible, which is God's law, and live according to God's pleasing will without being biased to the left or right, according to God's law, so as not to commit sins and fall into His punishment. I pray that all of us should read and meditate on God's law day and night and live a life that is free from deviations from the will and is not biased to the left or right. However, when we realize that we have committed a sin due to weakness, I hope we should immediately kneel and ask God for forgiveness.
Key Questions as Small Group Activity
Q1 Looking at today's text, compared to Saul, who was humble at first but later became arrogant and ultimately could not sustain the kingship given to him by God, although he was not perfect and committed, when God made him realize his sin, David repented so that we learned that although we are imperfect, we can receive forgiveness from God when we repent of our sins. Through this, we come to realize the gospel given to us who is imperfect. I hope that you will think about this and share your thoughts and understanding with each other so that we can share grace.
Q2 Second, if you look at David's covenant in today's text, it says that his throne will be eternal, but you can see that this does not simply mean Israel. Rather it represents the kingdom of God which began when Jesus Christ came, performed the work of atonement, ascended to heaven, sat at the right hand of God, and was ruled by Him, and will be eventually completed in the new heaven and new earth. And also we can see that we Christians, that is, the Church of God, have been invited to the work of establishing and expanding the Kingdom of God on this earth. Think about the calling of each of us in building this Kingdom of God and share your thoughts and ideas on His kingdom with one another.
Love you. Thank you. God bless you.
Prayer Note
Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!
Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or even during the week )
Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!
Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),
please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized ).
I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon )
Please help me to live in that ( learned way of life )
I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.
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