Follow the King of Righteousness

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions.

This morning we are at 2 Samuel chapter 4.

I'm going to look about Ish-bosheth.

What's going to happen with this guy, this king of the north,

even though his main kind of general has deserted him to David?

Let's have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for your Word and we pray that as we read your Word,

your Spirit would be working in our hearts,

teaching us what we ought to believe and how we ought to live.

Lord, we need your Spirit to please help us.

So God, guide us, teach us.

Let us love you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Here you go.

First, or 2 Samuel chapter 4.

When Saul's son heard that Abner had died in Hebron,

he lost heart and all Israel was troubled.

Now Saul's son had two men who were captains of troops.

The name of one was Benah and the name of the other was Rechab,

the sons of Rimon, the Barothite, of the children of Benjamin.

For Baroth also was part of Benjamin,

because the Barothites fled to Getaim

and have been sojourners there until this day.

Jonathan, Saul's son,

had a son who was lame in his feet.

He was five years old

when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel

and his nurse took him up and fled.

And it happened as she made haste to flee

that he fell and became lame.

His name was Mephibosheth.

Then the sons of Ramon, the Barothite,

Rechab and Benah,

set out and came at about the heat of the day

to the house of Ish-bosheth,

who was lying on his bed at noon.

And they came there all the way into the house

as though to get wheat.

And they stabbed him in the stomach.

Then Rechab and Benah, his brother, escaped.

For when they came into the house,

he was lying on his bed in his bedroom.

And they struck him and killed him,

beheaded him and took his head

and were all night escaping through the plain.

And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron

and said to the king,

Here is the head of Ish-bosheth,

the son of Saul, your enemy,

who sought your life.

And the Lord has avenged my lord,

the king, this day,

of Saul and his descendants.

But David answered Rechab and Benah, his brother,

the sons of Ramon, the Barothite,

and said to them,

As Jehovah lives,

who has remedied by,

sorry, who has redeemed my life from all adversity.

When someone told me,

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 own bed.

Therefore, shall I now require blood at your hand

and remove you from the earth?

So David commanded his young men.

And they executed them,

cut off their hands and feet,

and hung them by the pool in Hebron.

And they took the head of Ish-bosheth

and buried it in the tomb of Abner in Hebron.

Well, we need to ask our three questions.

A, what is this about?

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

And C, what are we called to do in response to this?

So A, what is this about?

Right?

Well, it's kind of like two stories.

Well, one story with a rabbit trail somewhere,

but that rabbit trail is going to be important.

The rabbit trail is Mephibosheth, right?

This child who's lame and is of the line of Saul.

David's eventually going to show kindness.

We'll get there later.

But here, it's Ish-bosheth has these two guys,

these captains of his guard

that are supposed to be for him.

And instead, they carry out a political assassination.

They go into the guy's room.

It's not wartime.

His own generals, they go in,

act like they're just getting some food.

He's laying on his bed.

And they not just assassinate him,

but then they cut off his head

and try to take it to David.

See, this is the difference, okay?

David then, when they come, says,

whoa, hold on.

Remember the Amalekite who I had executed

and Ziklag who killed,

who said he killed Saul, right?

You killed a righteous man, right?

Ish-bosheth wasn't doing anything.

That's outright murder.

That's what's going on here.

This is a political assassination.

This is not just war.

This is not okay.

This is unrighteousness.

This is a violation of the law of God,

not to kill, not to commit murder.

And so David has them executed.

There's some political ethics

and religious ethics here.

David is, once again,

showing himself

as a king who is about righteousness

more than about his own power.

David is showing himself

to be a king whose throne

is established in righteousness

and justice,

not in vigilante, power-hungry.

And so that's what's going on here.

He has these two men put to death.

He has their bodies publicly executed

and he takes the head

of who they think is his arch enemy,

Ish-bosheth.

And he has it buried in the tomb

that he had already set aside for Abner,

the guy who had defected from Ish-bosheth

and had also been unjustly murdered.

And so we see David

being this hard guy

that doesn't fit the political spectrum,

doesn't fit what the power-hungry kings

are willing and ready to do,

doesn't fit what Saul was trying to do

even with David.

David had opportunities to kill Saul

and he didn't

because he was the Lord's anointed.

Let the normal thing play out.

Let the just laws prevail.

Christianity for hundreds of years,

Augustine really helped us with this

in the 4th century

with just war theory.

And this is not just war.

This is wrong.

And so David is proving himself here.

So what is this about?

This is about Ish-bosheth

being politically assassinated

and Mephibosheth,

one of Saul's children,

and David's throne

being established in justice.

B, what's the best verse

to summarize this?

Well, I have verse underlined

in my Bible,

underlined verse 11,

how much more

when wicked men

have killed a righteous person

in his own house

and in his own bed,

therefore shall I not now

require his blood

at your hand

and remove you

from the earth?

That's what I have

underlined in my Bible.

Maybe you have something else.

Feel free to underline

something else.

Let me know down in the comments

if you want

or shoot me a text message.

What are we called to do?

We follow King Jesus

and Jesus is the King of Kings.

He is the King of Righteousness.

And so we operate our lives

not by power plays,

but by principle.

Not by whatever's going to get us ahead.

We're not pragmatic politicians here.

But instead,

Christians are to be those

who take seriously.

What has God called me to do?

How do I live out my life

to God's glory?

But it also means

that we know that God

has set Jesus

as the judge of the universe

and Jesus is righteous.

Jesus is the Lord of Righteousness.

His throne is established

in righteousness.

He's a better king than David.

And that we know

when we even stand

before his great judgment seat.

He will judge with equity.

And so we trust our King.

We follow after him.

And we live our lives

of principle

because we want to be like him.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you

that you were bringing about

your King,

even working through

all these things

in your providence,

even winning favor

of all the people with David.

Lord, because of his desire

to be a king of justice.

Lord, we pray that you would please

let us be people

who are serious about justice,

not just the power plays

of the moment,

not just the politics

of our parties,

but Lord, we pray

that we would follow after you.

We pray that we would

rise above the fray,

that we would not just be

doing what is most advantageous

at the moment to us,

but Lord, we pray even though

it may hurt us at times

to be principled,

to seek after truth

and righteousness.

Lord, please help us

to walk in your ways

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

May the Lord bless you.

May you walk in the joy

and the peace of Jesus Christ.

I'll see you next time.

Bye.