May 04, 2014 - Sunday

Start Time: 6:56 A.M.

End Time: 7:21 A.M.

Title: David Anointed King Over Judah

Scripture: 2 Samuel 2:1 – 32

God’s Message / God’s Promise / God’s Commands:

→ In the course of time, David inquired of the Lord. “Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?” he asked. The Lord said, “Go up.” David asked, “Where shall I go?” “To Hebron,” the Lord answered. So David went up there with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. David also took the men who were with him, each with his family, and they settled in Hebron and its towns. Then the men of Judah came to Hebron, and there they anointed David king over the tribe of Judah. When David was told that it was the men from Jabesh Gilead who had buried Saul,  he sent messengers to them to say to them, “The Lord bless you for showing this kindness to Saul your master by burying him. May the Lord now show you kindness and faithfulness, and I too will show you the same favor because you have done this. ⁷ Now then, be strong and brave, for Saul your master is dead, and the people of Judah have anointed me king over them.”

NOTES:

Ø God rewards every kindness we give to His anointed one and even when the person we show kindness to is no longer available, God remembers our good actions and gives us favor to the next anointed leader of God!  Note that all kindness we show to God’s anointed one, we give to God directly.  So it doesn’t matter if the person will not be able to reward or repay our kindness, for God will be our rewarder and He will make us favorable in the sight of His chosen leader always.  Praise Jesus!  Thank You because You never forget what we do for You and Your people.         

→ Meanwhile, Abner son of Ner, the commander of Saul’s army, had taken Ish-Bosheth son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim. He made him king over Gilead, Ashuri and Jezreel, and also over Ephraim, Benjamin and all Israel. Ish-Bosheth son of Saul was forty years old when he became king over Israel, and he reigned two years. The tribe of Judah, however, remained loyal to David. The length of time David was king in Hebron over Judah was seven years and six months. Abner son of Ner, together with the men of Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, left Mahanaim and went to Gibeon. Joab son of Zeruiah and David’s men went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. One group sat down on one side of the pool and one group on the other side. Then Abner said to Joab, “Let’s have some of the young men get up and fight hand to hand in front of us.” “All right, let them do it,” Joab said. So they stood up and were counted off—twelve men for Benjamin and Ish-Bosheth son of Saul, and twelve for David.  Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his dagger into his opponent’s side, and they fell down together. So that place in Gibeon was called Helkath Hazzurim.^[a] The battle that day was very fierce, and Abner and the Israelites were defeated by David’s men.

NOTES:

Ø God will send others to fight your battles when you pursue God’s will!  God’s plan all along is to make David king and when David was anointed king, God gave him loyal people who fought for his battles.  Joab son of Zeruiah and his brothers were a few of them.  As we can see in the passage above, Joab and his men fought Abner, son of Ner, who took Ish-Bosheth, Saul’s son and made him king over Mahanaim.  So Joab fought against the opposition of David’s kingship as David became occupied of becoming the new King of Israel, God continued to rescue and fix the other problems.  Let us focus on God’s plan for us for He will always have our back! Amen!

→ The three sons of Zeruiah were there: Joab, Abishai and Asahel. Now Asahel was as fleet-footed as a wild gazelle. He chased Abner, turning neither to the right nor to the left as he pursued him. Abner looked behind him and asked, “Is that you, Asahel?” “It is,” he answered.  Then Abner said to him, “Turn aside to the right or to the left; take on one of the young men and strip him of his weapons.” But Asahel would not stop chasing him. Again Abner warned Asahel, “Stop chasing me! Why should I strike you down? How could I look your brother Joab in the face?” But Asahel refused to give up the pursuit; so Abner thrust the butt of his spear into Asahel’s stomach, and the spear came out through his back. He fell there and died on the spot. And every man stopped when he came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died.  But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner, and as the sun was setting, they came to the hill of Ammah, near Giah on the way to the wasteland of Gibeon. Then the men of Benjamin rallied behind Abner. They formed themselves into a group and took their stand on top of a hill.  Abner called out to Joab, “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize that this will end in bitterness? How long before you order your men to stop pursuing their fellow Israelites?” Joab answered, “As surely as God lives, if you had not spoken, the men would have continued pursuing them until morning.” So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the troops came to a halt; they no longer pursued Israel, nor did they fight anymore. All that night Abner and his men marched through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, continued through the morning hours^[b] and came to Mahanaim. Then Joab stopped pursuing Abner and assembled the whole army. Besides Asahel, nineteen of David’s men were found missing. But David’s men had killed three hundred and sixty Benjamites who were with Abner. They took Asahel and buried him in his father’s tomb at Bethlehem. Then Joab and his men marched all night and arrived at Hebron by daybreak.

NOTES:

Ø When God fights our battles for us, peace is always the end result!  God resolves our problems in peace, especially when the conflict is within His people.  God is not an advocate of war when it comes to His people.  He wants them living in peace together but when necessary, He engages or allows war among them but He always find a way to bring peace in His people!  Hallelujah!  So let us trust God to win our battles; because He does not only come out victorious from it, He ensures peace is restored!  Praise the Lord!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus precious Lord and God; amazing and wondrous King; Loving and merciful Father; I worship You Lord because only You deserve my praise.  Lord thank You because You always look after me and You always have my back.  Help me Lord to focus on Your will and not concern myself with meaningless issues because in You Lord, I am taken care of.  Every conflict is resolve and I can trust You to fix every problem in peace and ensures victory because no one can go against You God.  Lord, always remind me to show kindness to others especially to You anointed one, to You people.  Help me to keep myself from being mean or tactless in front of others that I may end up hurting them.  Lord, give me the wisdom and the love to deal with them not because You will repay it but because I represent You to them.  And the rewards You give because of my kind action is just a bonus after becoming a good representation of You to them.  Help me to show Your ways to them by You using me and showing Your ways to me first.  Help me to practice what I preach and become the person You designed me.  Give me the strength to continue when all things seem to fail in my life Lord.  Open my eyes to see the good even when everything seems to be dark.  Let Your light shine upon me Lord.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!