Let's turn to read another Psalm together. We're going to read Psalm number 2. You'll see a pattern here in the Psalms that we're reading. There's Psalms of the King. We saw Psalm 110 already. Now we're going to read about Psalm 2 and the reign of the Anointed. Listen to God's Word. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. After this David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, Go up. David said to which shall I go up? And he said to Hebron. So David went up there with his two wives also, Hinnom of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David brought up his men who were with him, everyone with his household, and they lived in the towns of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. When they told David it was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul, David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead, and said to them, May ye be blessed by the Lord, because ye showed this loyalty to Saul your lord, and buried him. Now may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you, and I will do good to you, because ye have done this thing. Now therefore let your hands be strong and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them. But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, took Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim. And he made him king over Gilead, and the Asherites, and Jezreel, and Ephraim, and Benjamin, and all Israel. Ishbosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. And the time that David was king and he brought over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. Abner the son of Ner and the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. And Joab the son of Zeriah and the servants of David went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. And they sat down, one on one side of the pool and the other on the other side of the pool. And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men arise and compete before us. And Joab said, Let them arise. Then they arose and passed over by number twelve from Benjamin and Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. And each caught his opponent by the head and thrust his sword in his opponent's side, so they fell down together. Therefore that place was called Helkath Hazarim, which is at Gibeon. And the battle was very fierce that day, and Abner and the men of Israel were defeated before the servants of David. And the three sons of Zariah were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was as swift a foot as a wild gazelle. And Asahel pursued Abner, and as he went, he turned neither to the right hand nor the left from following Abner. Then Abner looked from behind him and said, Is it you, Asahel? And he answered it is I. Abner said to him, Turn aside to your right hand or to your left and seize one of the young men and take his spoil. But Asahel would not turn aside from following him. And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I lift up my face to your brother Joab? But he refused to turn aside. Therefore Abner struck him in the stomach with the butt of his spear, so that the spear came out at his back. And he fell there and died where he was. And all who came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died stood still. But Joab and Abishai pursued Abner. And as the sun was going down, they came to the hill of Amo, which lies before Gia on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon. And the people of Benjamin gathered themselves together behind Abner and became one group and took their stand on the top of a hill. And Abner called to Joab, Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that the end will be bitter? How long will it be before you tell your people to turn from the pursuit of their brothers? And Joab said, As God lives, if you had not spoken, surely the men would have not given up the pursuit of their brothers until the morning. So Joab blew the trumpet, and all the men stopped the pursuit of Israel no more, nor did they fight any more. And Abner and his men went all that night through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, and marching the whole morning, they came to Mahanaim. Joab returned from the pursuit of Abner, and when he gathered all the people together, there were missing from David's servants nineteen men besides Asahel. But the servants of David had struck down of Benjamin three hundred and sixty of Abner's men. And they took up Azahel and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was at Bethlehem. And Job and his men marched all night, and the day broke upon them at Hebron. Well, this is the chapter that we've been waiting for for a long time in the story of Samuel, because this is the first time that David is actually recognized as the king he really is. Remember, back in 1 Samuel, he's been anointed as king in the place of Saul, but this is the first time that he is now publicly declared to be that king. He finally has a kingdom to rule. but it's not the whole kingdom. There are still many obstacles in the way of David as he fulfills God's promise to be the king of all Israel. One of those obstacles we see this evening is a man named Abner, the king of Saul's army, and a man who has rejected God and rejected God's king. That leads us then to our main idea tonight. We'll see that God begins to fulfill his promise to establish his righteous king in the face of sinful rebellion. And God begins to fulfill his promise to establish his righteous king, and he does it in the face of sinful rebellion. As we look at these two kings and two kingdoms, we'll see three things. We'll see the contrast between the two kingdoms, verses 1-11, and we'll see the conflict between the two kingdoms, verses 12-32, and third and finally, we'll see what this teaches us about Christ's kingdom. So first, the contrast between two kingdoms, verses 1-11. The contrast is very clear here. And at first, it seems like these verses are only describing a political reality. There are two competing kings, there's David in the south, and Ishmusheth in the north, and we learn how they became king in their two kingdoms. But in these verses, there's a much more important spiritual reality being demonstrated. The difference between David and Abner and Ishbosheth is primarily spiritual. David and his kingdom are godly, and Abner, Ishbosheth, and their kingdom is fundamentally opposed to God. Now you might not immediately see that contrast, but it's very important for understanding the next few chapters of 2 Samuel. Now it's easy, I think, to see how David is leading a godly kingdom. Look first at how this opens. Verse 1, After this David inquired of the Lord, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said to him, Go up. Now David said, To which shall I go up? And he said to Hebron, you would think at this point that the way would be clear for David to be king. Saul's now dead and David knows he's going to be the next king. But David still waits for God's guidance on his next steps. We might expect David maybe to gather with his wise counselors to plot his next moves as the rightful king, but that's not what he does. He remains dependent on the Lord. Remember in 1 Samuel, that was one of the key themes that we saw. We saw how dependent David was on God's Word. At crucial moments, he turned to God for guidance. And we saw how different David's dependence on God was than Saul. So David here, even in these first steps that he takes as the king, is continuing to rely on God. The foundation of his kingdom is godly and strong. And Judah responds to this godly king in the right way. They are submitting to God's will as they anoint David king at Hebron. This is a very significant step because Judah is formally recognizing that David truly is God's anointed king. Again, the men of Judah are submitting to God's will. I'm sure that David did many things in these first few months of his reign in Hebron, but the only thing that the author records is this kind of curious letter to the men of Jabesh Gilead. But this letter is very important because it shows us David, again, as this godly king. Look at verses 5 to 7. David begins this message by praising the city for their faithfulness to Saul. You remember the story of what happened. After Saul had been killed, the men of Jabesh Gilead launched a raid to rescue Saul's body. and to bring it back to be buried. And David here praises them for that action. He says, May you be blessed by the Lord because you did this. Now may the Lord show steadfast love to faithfulness to you, and I will do good to you because you have done this thing. David here is asking God to abundantly bless Jabesh and Gilead, and he promises to bless them as well, all because they were loyal to Saul. If you are the new king, then the men of Jabesh Gilad are probably the last people that you would want to be praising. I mean, after all, didn't they just show how much they loved and respected the old king? But David acts as he has always believed. Remember, Saul was the Lord's anointed. So how you treated Saul was how you treated the Lord. And if you believe that like David did, then of course Jabesh Gilead should be greatly blessed. This message from David is meant to be so encouraging to the men of Jabesh Gilead. Their loyalty, their faithfulness, not just to Saul, but really their faithfulness to the Lord should be rewarded. Now this message to this city is also evangelistic. Because David is asking Jabesh-Gilead to submit to him as the rightful king. Notice how he closes. He says, Now, therefore, let your hands be strong and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them. I mean, essentially, David is saying here, join me. Submit to me. We don't know how Jabesh Gilead responded, but David recognizes a godly faithfulness in this city that is not present in the rest of Israel. And David challenges this city to be faithful to the Lord's anointing, and by doing that, to submit to God's will. So then we see here, David is the godly king who depends on God's word, who rules by God's command, and who invites others to submit to God's will. And none of those things are true when we look at the kingdom of Abner and Ishbosheth. In verses 8 to 10, we see that they establish a kingdom that is fundamentally opposed to God and to His word. Look at the details. But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, took Ishvasheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim. And he made him king over Gilead, and the Asherites, and Jezreel, and Ephraim, and Benjamin, and all Israel." There are so many things that are wrong with these actions. The first is maybe the most obvious. Abner is creating a rival king and a rival kingdom. What Abner does here is to defy God's word. Abner knew God's promises to David. In chapter 3, verses 9-10, he's able to quote them. He says there that the Lord has sworn to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah from Dan to Beersheba. So that shows us that Abner knew that what he was doing was wrong. It went exactly against God's will, but in his sinful rebellion, he did it anyway. This sinful attitude appears in all of his actions. Another part of the promise that God had made, and that Abner knew, was that the house of Saul specifically would not rule. There should not be another king in the line of Saul. And yet, the very man that Abner chooses is Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul. Abner is continuing to go against what God has said. The sinful nature of this kingdom is further displayed when Abner made Ish-bosheth king. Pay very careful attention to what Abner actually does. It may not seem like a significant detail, but here is one man appointing another man to be king over God's people. But the king of Israel is supposed to be the Lord's anointed. He is supposed to be the man that God has chosen, God has appointed, and God has anointed through his prophets. But because Abner has rejected God's word, he has also rejected God's way. It's really amazing to see the depth of Abner's rebellion against God. How do we explain this rebellion? He knows God's word, he knows God's way, and he purposely chooses to ignore them. Well, what we see in Abner is what we've seen in Saul in the previous book. This is how sin works. Sin is rebellion against God. The most people may not look as openly rebellious as Abner is, but every sin in its core is a rejection of God as King. Romans 1 says that every person knows God and rejects Him. So every sinner then has turned their back on God and gone their own way. Abner is just more blatant about his rebellion But everyone shares the exact same problem. Abner is acting as sinners do, because Abner is a sinner. So the contrast between these two kingdoms and these two kings is very, very stark. Judah has a godly king, but Israel has godless leaders. That's the important distinction to see here. But if you think about it from another perspective, Israel looks like it's ahead. After all, David is only the king of one tribe. Abner and Ish-bosheth control the entire rest of the country. But appearances are deceiving because Abner has built his kingdom on sin. But David rules with God's blessing and God's promise. David will inherit the entire kingdom. Abner will lose. But David has to wait for that. In verse 11, we learn that David had to wait seven years and six months before he became king over all Israel. Now the fact that David was already part of Israel was a partial fulfillment of God's promise. So that must have been incredibly encouraging for David. Think about it. When he's running for his life in the wilderness, when he's running away from Saul, all that he has is God's promises. Nothing of what God has said has he really seen come true in his life, at least in terms of his rule as king. Now, as he's sitting in Hebron, he is able to see God's word coming true. But I still have to wonder, I wonder if it was hard for David to wait those long years, especially because he knew God's promises, and because he knew the damage that Abner and Ish-bosheth were causing to God's people. I mean, wouldn't it have been easier if David had just gotten the entire kingdom right away? That would have solved all these problems for David and for Israel, but instead he just gets a piece of it. Maybe that would have been easier, but God spent seven years and six months doing some really great heart work in David, refining David and increasing his faith as he made him wait for the fulfillment of his promises. This long period of waiting we're going to see is also a time of conflict. It's a time of conflict because these two kingdoms are fundamentally incompatible. That's what we see secondly in verses 12 to 32, the conflict between these two kingdoms. Now we only hear about one battle during these entire seven years, but we know that there must have been many more. Chapter 3 says there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. So the author chooses just one battle to focus on, the battle at Gibeon, and he does this because this battle seems to capture the nature of the conflict and the character of Abner, and also because it explains the events in chapter three. Now, I'm going to leave chapter three alone for tonight. We'll look at it next week. And instead, I'm going to focus more on that first reason that this battle at Gibbon really illustrates the nature of the conflict and the sinful character of Abner. And when we look at the battle this way, then a few things really stand out in this account. First, Abner is the aggressor. Abner the son of Ner and the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon, and Joab the son of Zariah and the servants of David went out and met them at the pool of Gibeon. Abner marched his army across the Jordan River to the border town of Gibeon. Joab starts this battle. He starts this war. Joab and the servants of David are simply responding to Abner's threat. It's also Abner, notice, who proposes the contest that leads to the actual battle. In verse 14, Abner suggests that 12 men from both sides fight each other, and it turns out that they fight to the death. We see that Abner wants conflict. Now we'll find out later that Joab himself is no angel. He's actually a very bloodthirsty man. But Abner and his desire for conflict take center stage here. But look at how the battle ends, verse 17. 17. The battle was very fierce that day, and Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David. We get the final statistics later in verses 30 to 31. David's army lost 20 men. Abner's army lost 360. This is a complete defeat for Abner and the men of Israel. And this result in this one battle matches the general trajectory of the war. In chapter 3, the author summarizes the general trend. David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker. at Gibeon, and through the entire war, it becomes clear that God is with David, and God is actively opposing Abner and Ishbosheth. As we look at verses 18 to 23, we see the death of Asahel. And like I said, a lot of what happens here is showing us why some of the events in chapter 3 take place. I'm going to put some of that to the side, but I'm going to say this. Part of the purpose of this extended description of the death of Asahel is to show us the sad reality of this civil war. Four of the greatest warriors of Israel are present here. There's Joab, Abishai, and Asahel on one side, and there's Abner on the other. They should have been fighting on the same side. They should have been fighting for God's people, fighting the Lord's battle, but instead, they fought each other. And the death of Asahel, then, is a loss for the entire nation. But notice that Abner really doesn't care about the whole nation. He doesn't care about the unity of the nation until it's convenient for him. He is the one who has rejected David. He's the one who started the battle. Every problem we see in this chapter is caused by Abner in his sin. He doesn't want a unified nation under David. He wants power for himself. So the only time that Abner actually looks at the good of the nation is when it serves his interest. When the soldiers of Benjamin gather for a last stand on the hill of Amma, all of a sudden then, for the first time, Abner seems to care immensely for the harm that this battle has caused. Verse 26, Then Abner called to Joab, Shall the sword devour forever? Do you not know that the end will be bitter? How long will it be before you tell your people to turn from the pursuit of their brothers? You know, what Abner says here is true. David's army is killing their brothers, and Joab, to his credit, responds to Abner's speech in the right way by stopping the battle. But Abner's words ring so hollow. If Abner was so concerned about the death of his brothers, why would he start this war? Why would he have this battle? Abner doesn't care. Abner's actions throughout this entire chapter indicate that Abner is only concerned about himself. Abner is even willing to use the fact that everyone is involved in this battle. They're all related. He's using that fact really just to save himself and his own position. Abner's false words fit neatly with his actions and attitudes. Abner is fundamentally opposed to God, to God's king and to God's kingdom. This fits what we know of Abner already. Now we'll see in chapter 3 that Abner seems to change. He seems to turn a corner when he eventually is ready to join David. But it's only an apparent change, because Abner remains interested in what he can get at Gibeon. He tried to get his way by force, and later he will try to get his way by betrayal. So the battle of Gibeon, then, is showing us the nature of the much larger war between the two kingdoms. It's a bloody civil war among God's people. God's people were killing each other instead of fighting alongside each other. But it was also a war that David was winning. And as I said, this battle also shows us the character of Abner. He's a violent, self-seeking, godless man who even uses the truth to get his own way. Now given who David is and who Abner is, we should not be surprised that there was conflict between their two kingdoms. Conflict was inevitable, because Abner opposed God, and he led Israel in opposing God's king. That's part of why conflict is inevitable. But conflict was also inevitable because David's victory was assured. God had promised that David would rule over all Israel. And that could have been achieved by peaceful means, maybe. Maybe they could have made a peace treaty and joined together. But that's not what happened because Abner's sin was so deep. His hatred of God was so strong that he could not give up his search for power. Now what does this passage teach us about Christ's kingdom? So we're going to see third and finally Christ's kingdom. In this passage, we see very important truths that point us forward to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And the two truths that we're going to particularly focus on here are that Christ's kingdom involves waiting and fighting. Now before we look at those details, I want to remind us that we should expect to see these kinds of parallels, because David is a type of Christ. That means that many of the things that he does or experiences points us forward to Jesus. And what is true for David is also true for his kingdom. So notice, for instance, that David's kingdom and Christ's kingdom involve waiting. Again, David has been anointed king of Judah, but he is not yet king over all Israel. God's promise to him is beginning to be fulfilled, but there is a long period of waiting before that promise is completed. That's a period where David and his kingdom become stronger and stronger, so the outcome seems even more certain. But waiting is still necessary. That must have been hard for David, but just put yourself in somebody's shoes in the land of Judah. If you were someone living in Judah during those early years of David's reign, you'd have to be very good at waiting. It would be a test of your faith, just like it was a test of David's faith. Well, there's a similar period of waiting in Christ's kingdom. God has made much greater promises to Jesus. He's promised to give all of creation to his Son. And God has done a much greater work to establish Jesus as King. And Jesus now is a much stronger King than David. He's defeated all of his enemies. He reigns in heaven now. But the promises of God have not yet been completely fulfilled. God promised that all of creation will be summed up in Christ. We don't see that yet. God promised that all of his enemies will acknowledge Christ's rule. We don't see that yet. We also are still waiting for these promises to be completely fulfilled when Jesus returns. We are waiting for Jesus' Second Coming. When He returns, then He will be the Universal King, and He will be acknowledged by everyone as that Universal King. So this means that if we put our trust in Jesus Christ, we are citizens of His kingdom, and that means that we have to be good at waiting. It takes great faith to wait for Jesus to return. And it takes great faith to wait as we watch a world that is opposed to Jesus and to us. Don't we want the kingdom of Satan to be destroyed and the kingdom of Jesus Christ to cover all of creation? Don't we want the knowledge of God to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea? Don't we want, as we saw in that worship in heaven from Revelation 5, don't we want everything in creation to praise God? But that hasn't happened yet. And we are waiting. We are waiting for that to happen. And it's hard sometimes to submit to God's plan. But as we wait, God increases our faith, because we see Christ's kingdom growing stronger and stronger. This really helps us. We know how God started His kingdom in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and now we see God doing the work to build the kingdom. We see God saving more and more of His people. And we see the church surviving and even thriving in the face of persecution. So that's strength. Those facts strengthen our faith, but we haven't yet seen the promises fulfilled. David's kingdom also points us forward to Christ's kingdom because it involves fighting. And we saw that David's kingdom and Abner's kingdom were fundamentally opposed. David followed God and Abner opposed God. This is the same fundamental difference between Christ's kingdom and the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of this fallen world. Jesus and his people follow God. Satan and his people oppose God. And conflict between those two kingdoms is inevitable. Satan and his sinful world and sin itself openly rebel against Jesus Christ and try to destroy his church. There is constant warfare in the life of the church. Constant temptations, constant assaults, constant persecution, constant discouragement, constant heresy. All of this means that our time of waiting is also a time of fighting. In Ephesians 6, Paul says that we need to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might to put on the form of God so that we can resist the devil and his schemes. This is just one of those great passages in the New Testament that remind us that spiritual warfare in the Christian life is normal. This is what we should be expecting as we fight alongside Jesus Christ, our King. It's important to remember that as we fight, we are on the winning side. We are on the winning side because we are in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. This is a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And that truth, that truth of the final victory helps so much because as we fight as Christ's people, we so often lose our battles. We give in to temptation. We get discouraged. We doubt God. But our ultimate victory is certain because victory doesn't depend on us. We serve our victorious King, King Jesus. He is the one who has won the decisive victory. He did that at the cross when he defeated Satan in sin. So now he is empowering us to fight, not just with the strength of a strong king, but he is empowering us to fight with the strength of a victorious king who has already won. That is the strength that we are using when we resist Satan, and we fight sin, and we flee from the world. We are fighting with the strength of Jesus Christ. And He promises. He promises that what we are doing now is leading to His victory. He says He's going to come back. And He's going to complete the victory by judging sin and Satan and all of His enemies when He returns to rule. I've said this before. I hope it's true in your life. Revelation, the book of Revelation, is one of the most encouraging books in the whole Bible. Because it tells us the battle is won and the war will be over. Jesus Christ wins. So we're citizens of Jesus's kingdom. And as citizens of Jesus's kingdom, we need to wait, and we need to fight. But this is not just the experience that we have today. This has actually been the experience of every single one of God's people. From Adam, through David, through the New Testament church till today, every single believer of Jesus Christ has been doing these very same things. We have all waited for Jesus to rule completely. We have all served in Jesus' army, and we all have this confidence that we will all see Jesus reigning in His glory when His kingdom comes and He reigns as the victorious King. Let's look forward to that and use that as motivation and also as strength as we fight our battles day by day in the Christian life. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank You that Jesus Christ is our King. We know that so often, even as His people, we fight and we fail. And it's discouraging. And Lord, it's discouraging too, sometimes, to wait and to wonder when you're coming back. What are you doing in this world? Why are we still here? Why isn't Jesus Christ dealing with Satan, sin, and enemies around us? Lord, help us to look at a passage like 2 Samuel 2 and to realize that it's pointing us forward to Really, the experience of every believer, the work of Jesus Christ and the reality that Jesus Christ is the King and He is reigning now and He will come back to reign and completely defeat His enemies and bring us into His presence forever. Lord, we pray that You would make us faithful, make us strong, and we pray, Lord, that You would be victorious. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.