Quick 1 Samuel Review
Saul was Israel’s first king and he didn’t do such a good job, which means he didn’t always do what God told him. In fact, Saul wanted to kill David (who was going to be the next king after Saul).
2 Samuel
2 Samuel is the 10th book of the Bible and the 5th in the historical books. At the beginning of this book, David learns of the death of Saul. Now at first only the tribe of Judah wanted to make David king (because David was from Judah and because Judah was a pretty large tribe they were almost their own country).
Usually when a king died, one of his sons became king and King Saul still had a son left: Ish-Bosheth. Abner was Saul’s commander and he thought Ish-Bosheth should be king and so did all the northern tribes in Israel.
For a while Ish-Bosheth was the king of the northern tribes and David was king of Judah. It was a mess.
So how did David end up as king over all of Israel?
After a while, Abner realized he had made a mistake helping Ish-Bosheth be king instead of David. When Abner went over to David in Judah, some people from Judah (not David) did not like Abner and they had him killed. Abner’s absence made Ish-Bosheth all alone and vulnerable in the north and he was subsequently killed as well.
After Ish-Bosheth’s death, the kingdom of Israel was united. All 12 tribes followed David as their king. And David followed God’s own heart. Things went really good for while. David took care of the Philistines, captured the city of Jerusalem, and made it the capital of Israel. Jerusalem was inhabited by the Jebusites and Israel (up to this point) hadn’t been able to conquer it, but David did! Jerusalem became the center of the consolidated Israelite government under David and the place of worship (the tabernacle).
What about the promise?
The one about the land and the nations and the blessing for the whole world… the one God gave to Abraham? No. But this is both a continuation and a narrowing of Abraham’s covenant. God was giving a new promise to David. God promised that one of David’s descendants would rule over God’s people forever. This was called the Davidic Covenant, which is a promise having to do with David.
So God’s ultimate rescue plan (to save the world), the blessing for the whole world, is going to come from David’s family. (Buck Denver)
Things go downhill in the second half of 2 Samuel… all because of David’s sin.
What was David’s sin?
David’s army was out at war, but for some reason, the king remained behind in his palace in Jerusalem with nothing to do. David saw a beautiful woman named Bathsheba and he wanted her to be his wife. The problem was that Bathsheba was someone else’s wife! But David took her as his wife anyway.
What about her husband?
Sometimes to cover up the bad things we do, we do things that are even worse. (Pastor Paul)
Uriah was Bathsheba’s husband and was one of David’s faithful soldiers. To cover up what he did, David told his commander to put Uriah in a place in the battle where he was sure to be killed. And he was. Uriah died in battle.
Summary: David committed adultery (against one of God’s commands) and then committed murder (another one of God’s commands that he broke) to cover up his adultery.
Did David think God wouldn’t notice what he had done?
Maybe. But we do know that this didn’t stay a secret for long. God sent a prophet named Nathan to confront David and shine a light on what he had done. David repented. He didn’t respond like Saul and made excuses. Instead, David repented, which means to change one’s mind and will, and to turn away from wrongdoing and sin. Psalm 51 records the repentant prayer that David prayed. David asked God to forgive him.
David shows us what to do when we sin, when we break God’s laws. David didn’t make excuses like Saul did. He asked God to forgive him. David took responsibility for his actions, then said he was sorry.
Did God forgive David of his sin?
Of course God forgave David. When someone repents, God always forgives. But sin has consequences: God will forgive you if you lie to your friends, but the consequences are your friends might not trust you for a while. What’s the penalty for sinning against a holy God? Death. However, God told David he wouldn’t die. He had removed that penalty from David. But the child that he and Bathsheba had together would die. Seven days after the baby was born, he died. David knew that his son’s death was caused by his own sin.
There was further chaos in David’s household. One of his sons, Absalom, tried to take over the kingdom from his father. David’s men had to kill Absalom to protect their king. There was more chaos than just Absalom’s rebellion. All of this mess in David’s family was caused by David’s sin.
This is the end of 2 Samuel.
source What’s in the Bible? Unit 5 Week 3
