2 Samuel 3:22-37

I will invite you to please open your copies of God word and the look of second Samuel chapter three and second Samuel chapter three now uh it’s kind of hard to remember where we are at, especially when we have six days in between um the book of Samuel and let me just remind you that it starts with chapter two and this is one single story that doesn’t end until chapter four of the Book of Second Simon. So this is one long story that we are seeing in a small bits and and pieces. And if if um if we lost that, I am afraid we will lose the unity of uh scriptures in this portion. 
The second thing I want you to notice is uh how you need to pay attention about how much movement in the narrative there is. There is people coming and going, coming and going all the time. And there is a reason for that. 
There is a contrast here between Abner job and David who stays there trusting in the Lord. So pay pay attention to that as well as we read the text. So with that in mind, please stand to hear the ring of God God’s holy inspired in their rent word. 
Now congregation of the Lord, this is indeed God’s holy word, verse 22, just then the servants of David arrived with Job from a raid, bringing much spoil with them, Abner was not with David at Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he had gone in peace. when Job and all the army that was with him came, it was told Job, Abner, the son of N came to the king, and he was let in he had let him go, and he has gone in peace. Then Jab went to the king and said, what have you done? behold, Abner came to you. 
Why is it that you have sent him away so that he is gone? You know that Abner the Saint Abner came to at deceive you, and to know you are going out and you’re coming in, and to know all that you are doing. When job came out from David’s presence, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the cistern of Sarah, but David did not know about it, and when Abner returned to Hebron, Job took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak with him privately, and there he struck him with in the stomach, so that he died, for the blood of Ashel, his brother, afterward, when David heard of it, he said, I and my kingdom are forever guiltless before the Lord for the blood of Abner, the son of aner may fall upon the head of Joab, and upon all his father’s house, and made the house of Joab never be without one who has discharge, or who is leprous, or who holds his spindle, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread. 
So Jo and Abishai, his brother, killed Abner, because he had put their brother ashel to death in the battle of Gon. Then David said to Joab unto all the people who were with him, take your clothes and put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner, and king David followed the bier. They buried Abner at Hebron, and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept, and the king lamented it for Abner, saying, should Abner die as a fool dies? 
your hands were not bound, your feet were not fettered, as one falls before the wicket you have fallen, and all the people wept again over him, then all the people came to persuade David to eat bread while it was still day, but David swore saying, God does suit him do so so to me, and more also, if I taste bread or anything else till the sun goes down, and all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them, as everything that the king did pleased all the people, so all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king’s will to put to death Abner, the son of Ner. And the king said to his servants, do you not know that the prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel? and I was gentle to the, though anointed king these men, the sons of the Azzeriah, are more severe than I. The lord repaid the evil doer according to his wickedness. 
Thus hard the rein of God’s word, you may be see it. Now their congregation on the Lord, if you remember during the times of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the land of Palestine, and especially in the narrative of the gospels, we find that there was a group called the zillots, and we and we read in the scriptures even that one of the disciples of Jesus was in fact a zillot, one of these guys, and on this group was kind of like a gorilla, if you want to think about it in that way. They had taken upon their own shoulders the task of fighting against the Romans, and in their minds at the Messiah will only come only come if Israel was active, engaged in war in efforts in vengeance against the Romans, fighting for Israel’s kingdom, and if if if that conquers it, that succeeds, excuse me, then they understood the Messiah will come then. 
But but the zealots are not the only example of this kind of thinking. Eire movements, as you know, have been existing throughout history, always camouflaging their efforts with a godly excuse. But this is not only a group endeavor It manifits itself at the individual level as well as you know very, very well, with people who want to exact a vengeance in their own way, and that is precisely the case of the text this morning that we just read. 
We see vengeance and a very ugly one, do we not, but at the same time the theme remains the sin the same despite vengeance with still are seeing how God is advancing the kingdom in the narrative, so our theme for this morning is kingdom advancement, part two, and we are going to see it in two parts. first through murder and curse, and second through death and lament, so through murder and curse and second through death and lament, and I believe this is in page eight of your bulletins. So let’s see the first part, uh kingdom advancement through murder and curse. Now, it will be good for us congregation. 
If we remember that the situation of the whole chapter two and chapter 3 has been very convoluted, has it not? We have seen two kings fighting against each other, we have seen wars, we have seen people dying, we have seen political deception, but also we have seen political negotiations, and at the same time we saw how David has this open invitation back in chapter 2 to all Israel to come to him and to find shelter under him as this a shadow of Christ of Christ himself, and last time it seemed at least from a different angle that Abner was accepting in fact this invitation, and now we heard last time that Abner has departed the presence of the king in peace, but just when things to be seemed to be improving, the narrator throes are really hard pilled to swallow. He’s kind of like a mustard of intrigue, because he violently interrupts the narrative in verse 2 In fact, the Hebrew starts as follows, and behold or here he is or more contemporary in a more contemporary way to put it, not so fast. 
Why because the men of David and Joab are coming back from a raid, and, and we know, do we not congregation what has been going on in the heart of Job? His heart is burning with this hatred for Abner Abner excuse me. he has been waiting for this opportunity now to kill the man. He hates him. 
However, Avner had gone in peace as the Bible, and not this hell not everything is perfect, nor not everything is ideal in the court of of David, because as soon as job arrives, we find people running to job, saying to him, Abner the son ofner came to the king, and he has let him go, and he has gone in peace. What are the disappointment for them and here we understand we not how sin doest stop creating havoc in the lives of God’s people, does it? The reality of David’sur is that there seems to be an internal division here. not every one in other words agrees with what David has done. and instead of coming to the king, talking to the king about it, they have come to gossip about it and and in this way before general job. 
And one of the problems with sin is that it doesn’t result in in order. It doesn’t result in resolution. It doesn’t result in healing, but actually creates chaos and disruption. 
Gossip congregation is what Satan is using in the hearts of these men in order to open a breach between David and Job and gossip is alive and active even today is it not? Is he congregation? We normally think about gossip as one of those small innocent things. that everyone does indeed in in our small town in in in our small town, we we seem to want it. 
We seem to enjoy it. We like to pass it around. Everyone feels entit to it, but hardly what do we think on the damage that gossip can do or how it can destroy the lives of many people and social media boys and girls has made us professional gossipers. 
We share videos, we share images, we share posts without even thinking about the repercussions of such such actions, but the truth is the gossip can kill people in more than literal ways. Listen to a verse 24 What have you done? This. 
Job, as speaking. behold out there came to you. Why is it that you have sent him away so that he is gone? You know that Alner is an ofir came to deceive you and to know you’re going and you’re coming out and you’re going out and you’re coming in and to know all that you are doing. 
See what we find here is a protest. Now Joab believes that David lacks justice and that he lacks common sense. How could David let our abner go so easily? 
Are you out of your mind, David? Why not ceasing the opportunity that you have here to just finish the man off? Ah, but instead you are doing a feast for him. 
What’s wrong with you, David? See doesn’t David know that Abner is a manipulator, a dangerous man who can seize the opportunity and kill you, and the irony of this congregation is that you and I know that job is right. David doesn’t know this, but we have seen Abner acting in a very, very a sinful way. 
We do know, he says kings with the readers know that and and makes this picture in the text very complex, doesn’t it? Abner is not trustworthy, but job is not trustworthy either. Job speaks the truth out of convenience, but the truth n nonetheless, his instincts are right on the money, but what are we to think about job now? 
Well, that will become clearer later. Because even if David believes job, which we don’t know, because the text is silent about what David told him, the fact still remains that David cannot kill Abner without without making that without sinning seriously, the meaning that they had was a meeting of peace, if you remember that in verse 23enty one, which mean which means that David would have a violated every hospitality rule. He would have violated his his own kingdom and sin against it. 
So so there is a contrast here. One between David and Job, a Job’s heart that burns for vengeance, forgetting justice done in his own way and by his own hand, no matter what it takes, no matter what it takes, David, on the other hand, is a still resting, not as the this word resting in the fact that God will take care of fulfilling his promises. This is why the text never shows you right now and right here David moving. 
Job comes in, comes out. Abner comes in, comes out. David doesn’t move because his heart that is the communicate that his heart is still resting in the Lord. 
Job’s heart, perhaps, is the one that we feel closer to that we not how many times congregation have we seen in justices and we need we we think that we need to remedy them. we think that we need to protest against, to solve it immediately because we want justice and we want it now. resting, resting, remaining in God’s justice is not a popular thing in our modern days, is it? And don’t we hear about people who encourage us to make our voices be heard? don’t we hear about people who are encouraging us to react to to to protest to to telling us that we need to retake what is ours by force, if we need to. 
And see our problem as a society is congregation, that we cannot wait for the right means of justice. We cannot wait for God to display it. We think is too as low, or maybe, even though we don’t say it in that way, we think that God is not going to do anything about it. 
Therefore we want to do it ourselves. And that has infected our churches as well. The proof of that is how we express ourselves in social media about other people. 
We may not have guillotines to day, we may not heads may not roll today physically, but they do roll in the social media arena. and this is what Job wants and this is what Joab is going to do. Listen to the text. He sent messengers after Abner and they brought him back from the cistern of Syra, but David did not know about it, and when Abner returned, he struck him in the stomach, so that he died. 
Three sins he commits aside from murder here. first, according to Old Testament laws, Joab had no right whatsoever to kill Abner, because as a hell, if you remember, he died in a war, he didn’t die innocently, so he couldn’t job couldn’t avenge him, doesn’t apply to him. Second, Hebron is a city of refuge. It’s a city that was designed to protect life, not to take it away, and third, Adner enjoyed the protection of the king. 
He had gone in peace protection now that has been violated by job. But see if this is a problem with job, as we have said before, job’s heart is filled with anger, cold, in fact, anger. He has waited, he has calculated, he has planned, and then in the end he doesn’t care about anyone. 
He simply comes and kills him. As a result of that, two things happen in the text verses 28 and 29, David said, I am my kingdom are forever guiltless before the Lord for the blood of Abner, that’s the first thing, and second, may it fall upon the head of Joab and upon his father’s house, and may he never be without any one who has discharged leprous, whole suspendle, falls by the sword, or lacks bread. So first, David is declared innocent by the text. second, a job receives a curse upon him and upon his family, and I want you to understand this because it’s very, very important congregation. 
Sen always brings with it consequences upon our lives because sin all that sin wants is to destroy, all that sin strives for is self destruction. So this, of course, is a scripture’s warning about about the bringing sin into our lives. We are in other words, if you want me to be more specific, we are not to allow ourselves to be dominated by these this kind of anger. 
Now, that doesn’t mean that you are never going to sin, and it doesn’t mean that you are never going to feel angry, not at all, but it does mean that we not allow ourselves to simply foster anger, as if with as if it were nothing to dwell upon this anger and and think about this people and and trying to revenge ourselves against them. That’s not what we need to allow in our hearts to grow. We need to remember, congregation, that we are the ones who first send against Christ, that we were the ones who injured him, that we were the ones who despised him, and yet, even then he still loved us, and he still died for us, and because he has done that because he suspared is living in us and has cleansed us from all of our since, then we are to cast all our anxieties upon him, we are are to cast all our wound upon him, and he may be our avenger, he may be or the one who avenges his people, not ourselves, not in our own hands, but there is also something important, is it notalef, what if, what if if you have fallen prey of this kind of anger? 
What if you’ve been fostering this anger out against someone else? What if in your mind this person has already died a thousand times in your thoughts and in your heart? Maybe you cannot even endure the presence of this person. then what do we do then? 
Well, simply put, we repent. We repent. We come to Jesus Christ, whose mercies are never ending, and these are the good news of the gospel. 
If we confess, if we repent before him, if we come at his feet, and and if we are repent from our hardened hearts, and we confess that we have been fostering this anger against people, then he will forgive us. He will restore our hearts, and he will take that burden away from us, because to be angry at some congregation, even if we don’t recognize it, it’s a great burden. It’s a horrible burden. 
It doesn’t let you rest, it doesn’t let you sleep, it doesn’t let you continue in advance, it traps you in there. But what a comfort is to know that we have Jesus Christ, when we come to him, he takes away the burden from us, when we come to him, he puts peace and love in our hearts, and then he also restores through us those relationships that we have damaged and broken. In that way the reformation of an angry heart does never stub with us or with ourselves, but it actually extends as far as the curse is found, and the families are restored, spouses reconcile, churches and divisions are healed, and Christ in all of it shines his glory. 
See, in spite of all the darkness that we are seeing here, we will need to see the text still through the light of Jesus Christ and through what God is doing here. There is death that’s true, there is a curse that’s true, but David has been vindicated, and and the fact that David is is still alive, the fact that David’s kingdom is still here means that God is still advancing his promises means that he is still working in history to be to bring Jesus Christ through David’s line God, the god man will appear and will come for our sakes Jesus Christ suffered evil, anger, the attacks of the devil, and he more than any one else in history has died innocently on the cross. He was killed for her sakes, but that death only only gave way to his resurrection, our redemption and our path to glory. 
A sea congregation, the point is that we need to read rest in Jesus Christ. only in him we are going to see justice and not a facal justice, not frail justice, but enduring perfect justice in the hands of the judge who is faithful and perfect. Now, having said that, I want you to move with me to the second point of the text, kingdom advancement through death and lament. Now, of all the characters that we find in the scriptures, I find that David congregation is perhaps the one who puzzles us the most. 
His attitudes feel weird, don’t they? They simply don’t seem to align with what we would have done or what we we do. and that feeling of puzzlement, however, doesn’t happen when we see David singing. That’s perhaps when we understand him the most, but here here in the text, why is he such a puzzlement to us? 
and I I went to argue that this because they will congregation here in the text is is serving as a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. and that the heart that he is displaying here is the heart of the Lord for sinners. The lord boy and girls, he never rejoices in the dead of the wicked. He is desire is that all shall live, and that all may find life in Jesus Christ, and that’s exactly what we see in David here. 
This is why he is lamenting, not just the interesting arrangements, though. David said to Joe up and to all the people who were with him, tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and mourn before Abner and king David followed the bier. See, David takes job them murderer of this commander and commands him to be in front of the procession and commence him to mourn for Abner. 
In this way, Job is forced to show everyone else that that he has pain for what he has done, which is ironic, to say the least. David, on the other hand, he gets close to the bier, and this place is usually or was usually reserved to those who felt closer to the deceased, which are already highlights on other characteristic of David, does it not? David, he may be an enemy of Abner, and an Abner may have been the persecutor of David many, many times, but that doesn’t mean that David cannot respect an unlove and show admiration towards Abner, and there is Bivical wisdom here congregation We may disagree with one another, but we can respect each other, and we can learn from one another, and this respect is rooted in the fact that even with people that we disagree the most, no matter who they are, they are still made after the image of God, and even the worst sinner, the worst of the worst, can still be reached and rich generated by God’s holy Spirit, and that will transform him or her in part of your family. 
There is the potential in there still to that change for that to change, but in any case, the elephant of the room still needs to be addressed. does it not? Some people think this demonstration of David’s lament is kind of convenient for him. Isn’t isn’t the main beneficiary of this death, David himself? 
And if we are honest, we need to recognize that in a first reading of the text, we have suspected David here of manipulating things, have we not? Come on, be honest. Every single time that you read it for the first time, you go, this is weird. 
That’s very convenient, David. I don’t know about what you are doing here. But we need to remember congregation. 
Bach in verse one, the lord of god left not note, excuse me for us about David’s kingdom increasing, and we have seen how God advances his promises, have we not, even through bad and good, which means that in the final analysis, it is God himself who is advancing David’s kingdom, despite David himself, in fact, and untrue this means that job has been a tool used by God himself in order to advance David’s cause. yet at the same time at the same time job is guilty of a crime. Again, both things have to be maintained. God is far away from sin, and yet he can use the sin of Jab to advance his purposes, to advance his promises, and yet at the same time, Joab will be judged for what he has done here to Abner, and we will discover that later on in the book of second Samuel. but not this how complex the works of God are in history, and this complexity congregation should give us comfort. 
We should find comfort in the fact that in the end it is God who makes all things work for our good. difficult things, easy things, and it doesn’t matter if we don’t see things moving in our favor right now. It doesn’t matter because God’s purposes advance precisely through those difficult things that right now, and from our perspective, we think are against us. That is, through us, despite us, through people around us, despite people around us, all things, the interconnected interconnectedness, excuse me, of the happenings in our lives with advancements, regressions, sin, lack of sin, everything, all of it is being controlled, guided, directed by God in order to bring about his plan. and you in the end to words him in glory, I think about that. 
Even your sin, even the things that don’t work well in your life right now all of it is being used by God to bring you into his presence in the end. And and if God can advance his promises, his kingdom despite of sin, how much more when we are obedient, and we have a humble heart before the Lord. That is how David sooreain, God do thought to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else till the sun goes down, and all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them, so all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king’s will to put to death Abner, the son of Ner. 
See this is how God works congregation, and we cannot read this in any other way that God working in the life of David. As you can see, he’s ever present in the story, because who can move the hearts of the people, if not God himself? Who can show them to to love David and move them to love David, if not God himself? 
Who can make a heart so tender that feels sad for the death of an enemy, but only the lord in his power, and not only that, but listen to the confession of David, and the king said to his servants, do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel, and I was gentle to day, though anointed king these men, the sonos, the sons of Zeroiah, are more severe than Naya, I I am here here are some things for you to ponder congregation politically speaking, it seems that job, just like Abner, has lots of power in the court of David, among the people of Judah, so much so that after the funeral David has to retire with his servants and speak in the secret. but more than the political side, we need to read this story from a Christian perspective with Christians, Christian eyes, and and these verses shows us how David reminds remains true to to the Lord. In chapter 2, David sent an uponym invitation to everyone as you, as you heard just recently. But by the end of chapter 3, David still shows how how Asa king his politics are still that of open invitation, not forcing anyone, not coercing anyone into obedience to him. 
See, he himself seems to affirm that even though he has the power to co people, he has chosen not to exercise his power in that way, and that by the way, becomes again a mirror of the better king, the lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom. See, in this present administration of the kingdom of grace, of the of the king of the covenant of grace, excuse me Jesus, the king does not execute his power full blown. No, his patient with the sinner until the time comes. 
This means that any attempt to coerce people from our part into the kingdom its at odds with how Jesus Christ rules had present. Now, that doesn’t mean, however, that Jesus simply is indifferent or or or that he ignores injustices and sufferings, by no means that is not the case it simply means that we are not to understand Jesus’ gospel invitation as something that we need to force people into. Excuse me. 
It doesn’t mean that we are to be like John and his brother, another set of brothers in the gospels, asking him fire to come down from heaven because some Samarians don’t want to believe in the gospel and receive Jesus Christ. In fact, to do so would be to run against the interests of the kingdom of God, and in fact, align ourselves with the sons of Seroya, with with Job and his brother, who clearly have no clue about how the kingdom of God is to be advanced. Job congregation doesn’t trust God’s justice. 
He only trusts his own justice. He believed he can bring the kingdom using force, and he believes that he can do it in his own strength, but he cannot be more mistaken. It is actually David, who is guiding our eyes in this text to the right on the understanding of what to do. 
Listen to him, the lord repay the evil doer according to his wickedness, and this confession of trust from David, we find through wisdom, do we not? We find the heart of the gospel it is Christ who is in charge of conquering hearts, but also every Christian needs to learn that they need to trust in Christ and to leave revenge to him because a day is coming congregation when the present administration of the commonal of grace will end, and the the times of patience, a patience will end as well as Paul puts it, and and everything of that will come to an end, and at that time, the Lord Jesus Christ will return in power and in glory. That will be the day of judgment and vengeance. 
It will be that it will it will be the day in which the saints of Christ will see the Lord finally returning to vindicate them and to do justice for them in that day Satan, death, and sin will be entirely defeated by Jesus Christ, and they will be no more. That’s the day will look forward to. That’s the day we expect so eagerly. 
So we see three things that we closed this historian. We see the open invitation of the gospel is still running through the narrative, calling people to God through the shadow of Jesus Christ, David. We also see the glorious power of our god in advancing his kingdom with no one, not even sin, not even the devil opposing him, and we also see the fact that injustices congregation of the lord are not overlooked are not overlooked. a day is coming in which he will judge that is Christ will judge the wicked, those who reel against him. 
So what are we to do in the meantime? Where is simply to give ourselves to Christ? We are to rest and to trust in him. 
We are to live our ancys, our burdens to him, and we will find peace, even even in the middle of the storm may we do so even now let’s bring. Tell father, what a comfort is to know that we don’t need to avenge ourselves. In a world that is devoid of justice and seems to have forgotten about what that word means, we find solace and justice in the fact that you are the ultimate one who does justice. that our sense will never come again before us because of Jesus Christ, and that in fact, a sin, evil, suffering, pain, all of those things will be no more, because you will destroy them. 
So father, as we walk in this world as foreigners to it, exiles, and yet at the same time, a shining your glories in this world help us to remember that help us to advance your kingdom, us us lord, and and may it be true of us as well that we rest in Jesus Christ, just as David did rest in him. None of these things we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.