Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Not Allowed | David's Life in 22 Stories | 2 Samuel 2

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. And I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're working through the story of David's life found in First and Second Samuel. Stop and think about some of the most popular shows of the last decade. Game of Thrones, House of Cards, Mad Men, Breaking Bad. They're all shows about the politics of power. shows about how kingdoms rise and how kingdoms fall.

Starting point is 00:00:35 And the answer is pretty much the same, isn't it? The will to power. The empires in each of these stories, they're all built on sweat and blood. People have to fall, whether literally or figuratively, to make way for these Nietzschean heroes. And if profit is any measure, we love, we love, love, love, love, to watch these stories.

Starting point is 00:00:58 Second Samuel II is actually one of these stories. In this chapter we see that in the southern tribe of Judah, they're anointing David as their king in Hebron. And Saul's last remaining son, Ishpasheth, he's made the king over the northern tribes by Abner, who's Saul's former general. Two kingdoms rise in this chapter. Which one's going to stand? It's no surprise that the very next story is a story of violence. Verse 12, Abner, son of and Nr, together with the men of Ishishbusheth, son of Saul, left Manaheim and went to Gibbon. Joab, the son of Zeri Ria and David's men, went out to meet them at the pool of Gibbon. One group sat down on one side of the pool, and the other group sat on the other side.

Starting point is 00:01:48 Then Abner said to Joab, let's have some water polo. No, no, no, no, of course it's not what happened. He said, 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 Ishbusheth, son of Saul, and 12 for David. Okay, so at this point, what are you expecting? Well, at best, it's going to be some sort of wrestling match,

Starting point is 00:02:14 or maybe at worst it's going to be a UFC fight. But we keep reading. Verse 16. Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his dagger into his opponent's side, skipping to verse 17. The battle that day was very fierce. and Abner and the Israelites were defeated by David's men. The English doesn't quite capture the strength of the Hebrew here. The battle isn't just fierce, it's a bloodbath, but this is how kingdoms rise. This is how

Starting point is 00:02:47 powers consolidated. This is how you win. And finally gets so bad that Abner, and keep in mind, I mean, Abner is this old, hardened warrior. He's been a general for most of his life. He calls out to David's General Joab, and this is what he says. He says in verse 26, Must the sword devour forever? Don't you realize that this will end in bitterness? It's a funny phrase. And in fact, it's not the last time that Joab is going to hear someone say, the sword devours. The next time that Joab hears these words, it will be on the tongue of David. It'll be when he commands Joab to plot the murder of Uriah, Bathsheba's husband. that later instance, David is building his power, his empire, his world on the blood of an innocent

Starting point is 00:03:38 man. And similar issues are at stake right here in our current story. And I think it's supposed to strike us as strange again that a lifelong general, a guy like Abner, that he would ask this kind of question, must the sword devour forever? Don't you realize that this will end in bitterness? It's a question for the ages. Will the cycle of power and violence go on forever? Must the sword devour forever? Must every story end in bitterness? Is there a way out of this mess?

Starting point is 00:04:14 If you live in middle class America, like I do, this story in some ways can feel distant. Wars happen in other countries. Most violence is pressed outside of the suburbs. Although it never quite leaves, does it? In every suburb, there are abusive, husbands who set up their violent kingdoms at the cost of their wives and their children. And it's not just them, it's you and I too. We might not strike blows or draw blood,

Starting point is 00:04:41 but we use our words to make cuts that are just as lasting. Because I don't care who you are. We all want to set up our own kingdom. We all want my way in life. We want our families, our friends, our workplace to bend to my will to match my vision. And we'll pick up the sword, Whatever sword do you have, we'll pick it up to get that power to, you know, change our spouse or change our kids or change our friends or change our coworkers into whatever it is that we want. What are the everyday ways that we pick up the sword? How do you and I do it? There's probably a lot of ways, but let me highlight a few. Sometimes we pick up the sword by showing unforgiving unkindness.

Starting point is 00:05:25 We show unforgiving unkindness towards a friend who didn't meet our expectations. And we do it because we think, yeah, now they'll get in, now they'll see. Or we use passive aggressive comments. Maybe it's to an irritating parent or in-law or to a boss. And we're thinking in our head, oh yeah, well, hopefully that's going to get through. Hopefully they'll hear that one. Or most often, we do the silent violence of gossip. And we think, if we can't change them, okay.

Starting point is 00:05:55 We'll just wreck their reputation. We hurt. We cut down. We demand. We lie. We take what isn't ours and we leave a wreckage behind us all in order to make our world the way that I think it should be. You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, right? And so Joab's question, I think it actually cuts across every socioeconomic boundary from those who suffer the violence of domestic abuse or all-out war to those who suffer and deal out the violence of words. must the sword devour forever? Don't you realize this will all end in bitterness?

Starting point is 00:06:35 Is there any way out of this cycle of violence and power? Can any king rescue us without just spilling more blood? In this chapter, there are three very short verses at the beginning, which actually stand and stark contrast to the violence that follows. In verses four to six, David makes peace with some of Saul's greatest allies. Why do that? Why would you do that with your enemies? Well, it's because they rescued Saul's remains after his death. And so David says, because they've done that, David prays for God's loving kindness to fall on them. He asks God to bless them and he says, I promise, I will always do good

Starting point is 00:07:15 towards you. David is, for all intents and purposes. He's loving his enemies. He's blessing people who would probably by all expectations end up persecuting him. Ultimately, despite these three short verses, in the end, David, he builds his kingdom on blood. It's actually for that exact reason that God says he won't allow David to build his temple. But in these three short verses, we also see a very different way. And I think it's there to point us towards a future king, towards a future king who would make peace with his enemies and promise God's love and God's blessing precisely on the people who persecuted him. Like all kingdoms, his kingdom would be a kingdom built on blood, but not the blood of his enemies. His kingdom would be built by shedding his own blood.

Starting point is 00:08:08 Jesus is the only one. He is the only one out there who could possibly answer Abner's pressing question. Must the sword devour forever? Must all end in bitterness? No, Jesus says, no. The sword can be able to be. be stopped, but only if my life ends in bitterness. To receive Christ's grace, to receive his forgiveness, is to actually receive an upside down pattern of life and power. In Jesus' kingdom, the way up is down. The king is the servant. The path to true power is self-sacrifice. Today, let King Jesus set you free from the cycle of violence and power. He let the sword devour him so that it wouldn't have to devour others any longer. He took the sword's violence

Starting point is 00:08:55 so that we wouldn't have to take up the sword ourselves. Let his love, let his forgiveness break the cycle of violence in your life, the cycle of anger, the cycle of power, so that you too can be freed to love your enemies, to bless those who persecute you, and to participate in this new kind of kingdom. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps other people find this podcast more easily. Also, ask yourself, who could you share this podcast with? Texting an episode to a friend or a family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Not Allowed | David's Life in 22 Stories | 2 Samuel 2

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