Trust God Through Hard Providence

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are going to be looking at Ish-busheth, one of Saul's sons. How's the son of Saul going to respond to David being anointed king in Hebron? Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's word.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day, and we thank you for your word. As we read your word, we pray that your spirit will be working in our hearts. Lord, we pray that we would follow in your ways always, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Here we go, 2 Samuel, chapter 2, verses 8 through 11.

But Abner, the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, interestingly, he survives the battle, not Saul.

Abner, the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, took Ish-busheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim.

And he made him king over Gilead, over the Asherites, over Jezreel, over Ephraim, over Benjamin, and over all Israel.

Ish-busheth, Saul's son, was 40 years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years.

Only the house of Judah followed David.

And the time that David was king in Hebron, over the house of Judah, was seven years and six months.

So, we need to ask ourselves our three questions.

A, what's this about?

B, what's the best verse to summarize this?

And C, what are we called to do?

So, A, what's this about?

This is the commander, goes and takes Ish-busheth, this 40-year-old boy of Saul,

sets him up as king over all Israel, right?

Both sides of the Jordan River.

And so, this is Ish-busheth becoming king.

David stays king as well, but only down in Hebron.

Only Judah follows David at first.

So, you have this divide, two kings.

You have Ish-busheth, kind of in the north,

and you have David down in the south.

Eventually, this is going to develop into the north and the southern kingdoms after Solomon.

Anyways, so, but this is the beginning of that.

So, what's this about?

This is about Abner setting up Ish-busheth to be king.

Best verse to summarize this in my Bible,

I would underline verse 8 and 9.

So, talking about Abner and Ish-busheth.

See, calling, what are we called to do?

Our covenant of grace for Jesus Christ,

I just want to pull us back here for calling to do a little bit.

Sometimes, we think that we know what's best.

Sometimes, we think when there's something standing in our way,

something's wrong.

And yet, we find here that God is working out His purposes slowly.

I mean, David could have gone into Jerusalem or somewhere else.

Maybe not Jerusalem.

There were still Jebusites living there.

But maybe he could have gone to any of these other cities

and he could have demanded that he was king over all of Israel

because Samuel had anointed him to be king.

He doesn't do that, though.

And here we find that even though there's something directly against David,

it's okay.

I'm sure that this caused grief for David.

We're going to find out later that this is going to cause a lot of grief.

It's pretty hard for two kings like this to live closely and be okay with it.

But sometimes in our lives, sometimes in your life, sometimes in my life,

there's adversaries, there's challenges, there's things that go wrong,

there's hard providences.

I'm not telling us to be stoics and just resign ourselves to the logos

and be okay with whatever pain happens.

No, I'm talking about an act of trust in the Lord.

I'm talking about knowing that we serve a God who has a plan.

A God who knows what he's doing is sovereign over all creation

so we can trust him with our souls, with our lives, and with the path we walk.

It's not always going to be pretty.

I love you too much to tell you a lie, to tell you,

oh, if you become a Christian, everything's going to be wonderful.

There may be some really, really hard days ahead.

But the Lord always has a plan.

The Lord always has a plan.

He knows what he's doing.

He's a wonderful Father.

So here we see, even in this, God knows what he's doing.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much that you have cared for us.

Lord, we thank you that you show us that there are sometimes

even contentions about legitimate things, like who's supposed to be the ruler.

But Lord, we thank you that when there are problems that arise in our lives,

we can come to you with our honesty about the things that trouble our souls,

but we can also bring to you our thanksgivings.

And we can set our minds upon Jesus

and those things that are good and perfect and true and wonderful.

Father, we pray that you would give us the peace of Christ

that surpasses all understanding.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, may the peace of Christ be with you today.

And I'll see you next time.

Bye.