So 2 Samuel 4, beginning in verse 1, let us hear now God's word. When Saul's son heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost heart and all Israel was troubled. Now Saul's son had two men who were captains of troops. The name of one was Ba'anah, the name of the other Rehob, the sons of Ramon, the Bearethite, the children of Benjamin. For Beoroth was also part of Benjamin because the Beorothites fled to Getaim and have been sojourners there until this day. Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. Then the sons of Ramon the Beerethite, Rakab and Ba'anah, set out and came at about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbasheth, who was lying on his bed at noon. And they came there, all the way into the house, as though to get wheat, and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rakab and Ba'anah, his brother, escaped. For when they came into the house, he was lying on his bed in his bedroom. Then they struck him and killed him, beheaded him and took his head and were all night escaping through the plain. And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth David at Hebron and said to the king, here is the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life. And the Lord has avenged my Lord, the king this day of Saul and his descendants. But David answered Rachab and Baanah's brother, the sons of Ramon, the Bearethite, and said to them, as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all adversity, when someone told me, saying, look, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good news, I arrested him and had him executed in Ziklag, the one who thought I would give him a reward for his news. How much more would wicked men have killed a righteous person in his own house on his bed? Therefore, shall I not now require his blood at your hand and remove you from the earth? So David commanded his young men, and they executed him, cut off their hands and feet, and hagged him by the pool in Hebron. And they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the tomb of Abner in Hebron. May God add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word. All right, well, we spent the last few weeks talking about chapter 3 and learning from the events there, and simply for all the efforts of the ungodly against David, God blessed David. God took David's opponent and made him David's ally in the story of Abner. Then He took Joab's selfish actions and turned them into benefits for David, and that's certainly what we are going to see. But as we talked about last time, David had to scramble to go out of his way to prove that he was innocent in regard to Abner's murder. And so we have his words of innocence. We also have his various actions, including some poetry to demonstrate to everyone that he had nothing to do with this. And so you might say all of his honest politicking worked, and more and more people saw David as the next king over all Israel. But of course there's still an obstacle. Ishbosheth was still king over the rest of Israel. Abner's process had not concluded in terms of transitioning everything to David. And so how would David now be able to unite Israel with Abner dead and Ishbosheth still in place? Would David have to negotiate things? Would Ishbosheth step down now and give him his place? Would David give Ishbosheth a place in his administration? Would the elders come who came with Abner demand Ishbosheth resign? All kinds of questions here now. What would happen? Plus, you have the situation of those in Hebron who were convinced that David was innocent regarding Abner, but what about the rest of Israel? Presumably, the 20 men who came with Abner saw and heard all that David did that we talked about last time, and surely they would spread word, right? Or was Abner possibly twisting their arm? What's going to happen? Well, obviously, we see some answers to these questions in chapter four, and you might say a not-so-unexpected event took place to bring David to the brink of full kingship. So, as I mentioned earlier, we're gonna focus on the backstory here. The author, you might say, goes out of his way to give us some history of these two men who kill Ishtar Sheth. And so I thought we'd focus our time on that here this morning, or excuse me, this evening, and then next week, Lord willing, we'll look at their deed and what happened to them. So let's look at verse 1. When Saul's son heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost heart, and all Israel was troubled. Obviously, word spread, and this is no surprise whatsoever. In fact, You might expect the word spread possibly even before David finished his fasting for the day. But however long it took, word spread to the rest of Israel regarding these things. Now, it says here that Saul's son, note they don't even call him Ishtbesheth here in the text, but Saul's son hears about Abner's murder. And it says then that his hands dropped, literally, is what the Hebrew says. So, you know, basically the little strength it takes for us to hold our hands up, he had no strength left. His hands just dropped. And so note the paraphrase in the New King James, he lost heart. He had no more fight left in him or something like that. He was demoralized. And since Abner was the real strength behind Ishbosheth, Abner's defection and now Abner's death leave Ishbosheth totally powerless. And of course, we've seen this idea in chapters two and three. Presumably, though, Ishbosheth knew that Abner had convinced the other tribes to follow David, even Benjamin. And with the whole situation with Michael and so on, as we saw in the last chapter, indicate, you would think, that Ishebosheth knew everything that had gone on. But still, what's Ishebosheth going to do now that he hears this? Is he going to follow through? Is he going to resist? Okay. We see the verse end then by saying that all Israel was troubled. You could translate that word as terrified, similar to the passage Eric had us read in Sunday school this morning, and in Jerusalem when the Magi showed up, right? Everybody is troubled. What's going on? Now, the rest of chapter 4 is going to deal with the murder of Ishmael. But by the time we get to chapter 5, verse 1, this initial terror is gone. Israel's ready to follow David. If you look at that just briefly, right, all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and spoke, and on and on, right? They anointed him king. So in the meantime here, from chapter 4-1 to 5-1, the initial word that terrified them was mitigated in some way. The word about David's response to Abner's murder must have spread too, but maybe not right away. The word of murder, the murder of Abner advanced quickly, but maybe it took until the 20 men returned or something like that for the rest of Israel to hear everything else. It would make sense that that's the case because bad news usually spreads faster than good news. But again, the text doesn't tell us specifically, but if it is true, then it's possible that these two men murder Ish-bosheth in the context of partial knowledge. Maybe after they murder Ish-bosheth then word spread around of what David did and his innocence and so forth. We don't know. The text doesn't tell us specifically but it's certainly possible. But what is clear is that at some point, the terror caused by Abner's murder is alleviated, and the remaining tribes do trust David and follow after him. But for all the questions, and especially how would Ish-bosheth respond, all of them are rendered moot by these two overly zealous men. But as I've said here, the author kind of drags his feet, you might say, before he gets to this real exciting part of the story. And he gives us some of this background. Now, some of us like history and so on. All of us should like history because it is God's story, as we say. And so let's look a little more at the background that he gives to us. Notice how verse two says about Saul's son again. Now Saul's son had two men who were captains of troops. The name of one was Baanan, the name of the other Rekab, the sons of Ramon, the Bearethite of the children of Benjamin. Now, first notice, excuse me, in verse one, it says Saul's son. I believe some of your translations actually say Ishbosheth in verse 1, but it's not actually there in the Hebrew. And again, then we see Saul's son here in verse 2. And then if you look at verse 4, it says, Jonathan, Saul's son. Why this Saul's son three times here in just these few verses? What's the author trying to emphasize? Well, I think he's pointing us in this direction. I think it's to recall the original anointed king, Saul, who forfeited a dynasty because of his sin all the way back in 1 Samuel chapter 13. Remember, he had been ruling for only a couple years when all those events happened, and God told him, all right, you're not going to have anyone from your family sit on the throne and succeed you. And so by saying, Saul's son, three times here, the author's reminding us of that. And so Ish-vasheth, one of his sons, and Mephibosheth, his grandson, now factor into the story in this way. And neither one of them should be king. And so, again, I think this threefold emphasis is to remind us of this judgment. All right, now. The author now gives us some of this background. And let me pause and just put it this way. The probably two most well-known assassins in our country are known by their full names, right? Lee Harvey Oswald. John Wilkes Booth. We know their full name and we likely, every one of us in here probably knows a variety of things about these men. Notice it says here their full name, Ba'anon Rehob, sons of Ramon the Bearethite. and even the connection to Benjamin there. And then again, it says this in verse five, and then again down in verse nine. It's kind of like saying John Wilkes Booth three times here in the text. And it makes sense. They assassinated the king. He was a legitimate king, but nevertheless, they assassinated him, and the author is, again, going out of his way to emphasize some of their background. And so these two men, we are told, first of all, are captains or were captains in Ishbashet's army. They may have been relatively obscure at the time, but certainly no longer. But the fact that they were captains in the army indicate they weren't nobodies. They were leaders in some way. Now, as for their names, as I've said a number of times over the years, names in the scripture usually have significant meaning. And we see that to some degree here. Abana means with affliction. Now, does this mean that he was a good warrior and afflicted bad things on the enemy? Rehob means rider, which would suggest that he was a horseman. We don't know for sure, but if we associate it with their work in the military, it would make some sense. Now, as for the sons of Ramon, Ramon was a common name. Let me briefly trace this a little bit here tonight. Ramon actually was a place name. If you look at your maps here a moment and you see the land of the 12 tribes, if you look north to the tribe of Zebulun, On this map, Ramon is actually mentioned there. It's about a half a dozen miles north of Nazareth, and of course where Jesus grew up and so on. So you see that place name. And then if you come down south to the tribe of Judah and you see Simeon was within the tribe of Judah, there was another Ramon town name within the tribe of Simeon. Now, to the one in Zebulun, that was a Levitical city, so one of the 48 cities where they were supposed to teach Israel the things of the Lord. Now, another Ramon connection takes us all the way up to Damascus, and you'll see Aram on this map. Some of your maps will say Syria. Of course, we have modern-day Syria in the same area. Well, they worshiped a god named Ramon. He was the god of wind, rain, and storm, similar to Baal. So let's turn here, first of all, then, to 2 Kings chapter 5. As we're trying to fill in some of this history, since we're 3,000 years removed, we need to do a little bit more research, if you will, than the people in Israel's day. In 2 Kings 5, you remember the story of Naaman from Syria, or Aram, and that he had leprosy. He couldn't find any healing, so he hears about Elisha and goes to Israel and finds healing there in the Jordan River and so forth. Well, notice Naaman in verse 17 is speaking to Elisha. presumably after his conversion, and he starts to say about sacrificing to Ramon, and note especially verse 18, yet in this thing, may the Lord pardon your servant when my master goes into the temple of Ramon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the temple of Ramon. When I bow down in the temple of Ramon, may the Lord please pardon your servant in this thing. So we have this connection with this name, and it was a false god. Let's turn then to Judges chapter 20. This one has more to do with our story and some of the background. You recall in these last few chapters in Judges that the Levite brought his concubine and didn't stop in Jebus, right, where those terrible Gentiles live, and he stops in Benjamin in Gibeah. Remember, Gibeah was Saul's capital city later on? And all kinds of evil things happened there. Well, because of all this, right, Israel fights against Benjamin. And in chapter 20, we see at the end of the chapter these words, Judges 20 verse 43, they, meaning Israel, surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and easily trampled them down as far as the front of Gibeah toward the east. And 18,000 men of Benjamin fell. All these were men of valor. Then they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the Rock of Ramon. And they cut down 5,000 of them on the highways, and they pursued them relentlessly up to Gidom and killed 2,000 of them. So all who fell of Benjamin that day were 25,000 men who drew the sword. All these were men of valor. But 600 men who turned and fled toward the wilderness to the Rock of Ramon and stayed at the Rock of Ramon for four months. And they still fight, and as we get into chapter 21, eventually Israel says, hey, wait, we've gone too far here. And remember they go steal women from one tribe to give to Benjamin, the remaining Benjamites, these 400. And if you look at chapter 21, verse 13, then the whole congregation sent word to the children of Benjamin who are at the Rock of Ramon and announced peace to them. All right. The connections here seem to be what the author is driving at, some of this background. Now, as for the name Ramon, it means pomegranate. And this is likely why there were different towns in Israel called pomegranate, because you remember, even all the way back in Numbers, when they came to inspect the land, they didn't just go back with a bunch of grapes. They went back with pomegranates, with figs, with other things. And of course, only Joshua and Caleb said, let's go take the land. But pomegranates were common. In fact, if I read just briefly, this is 1 Samuel 14 in verse 2. This is when Jonathan and his armor bearer went to fight against the Philistines, and it says in verse 2, Saul was sitting in the outskirts of Gibeah under a pomegranate tree. So this man, Ramon, is likely named after the pomegranates in the area. Probably not the god Ramon, though I suppose that's possible. It is more likely this connection with pomegranates and the connection with Benjamin and this fight and so on and so forth, this rock. Remember, just briefly also, the priest's garment had pomegranates on the bottom and the temple had pomegranates carved into the pillars and so on. All right, now, as we come back to our text here, you'll see then that it says that he was a Bearethite. Now, Be'er in Hebrew refers to a well. Be'er Roth is the plural form here, so it's referring to a place with multiple wells. I was reading just this morning. And Exodus, remember when they came to the bitter waters and Moses threw the branch in and it healed the waters and such. And then it says they came to Elim with all kinds of wells and palm trees and so on. So Beeroth may not have had 12 wells, but it certainly had multiple wells. And so there is this connection here in this way. And if you look at your map again, you see in the tribe of Benjamin, you see where Bethel is. while Beeroth was toward Bethel. It's roughly nine miles north of Jerusalem. So now let's make this historical connection. Again, since we're so many years removed, we tend not to make these associations. If you turn to Joshua chapter 9, Joshua 9, You remember this is, of course, when Joshua brought Israel in and they were successful in Jericho, not so much in Ai, at least right away. And then remember the story of the Gibeonites and how the Gibeonites pretended to be from far away and they deceived Joshua. Joshua didn't seek the Lord. They made a covenant and so on. And in verse 17 here in Joshua 9, this is where, excuse me, verse 16 is when they find out about it. And then in verse 17, it says, and the children of Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, remember just a couple of miles from Gibeah, Keropha, which we're not sure where that is, Beoroth, and then Kiriath-Jerim. And Kiriath-Jerim is going to be central in our discussion in chapter six, when David brings the ark from there to Jerusalem. Well, these are the four key cities of the Gibeonites. And I'll just read this one, Joshua 18, verse 25. It says, the cities that were given to the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon, Ramah, Beoroth. So again, the author wants us to pay attention to these things. Why else would he make mention of it? Well, he is wanting to make clear that Ramon and his sons were Benjamites, not Gibeonites. Even though they were from Beoroth, they were Benjamites. Again, as you look there at verse three, of the children of Benjamin, even though they were living with Gibeonites. So a fellow Israelite killed Ishmael. All right, now how does the rest of the verse, note the parenthesis here, for Beoroth was part of Benjamin, just showed you that, because the Beorothites fled to Getaim and have been sojourners there until this day. How in the world does that fit? What's going on? Lots of questions here. When did it happen? Why did it happen? Where's Getaim? And so on. The problem here with verse three is there is no other passage that clearly tells us. So as you would expect, there are various guesses that have been made over the centuries, and two in particular. First of all, some say that this event, with the murder of Ishbosheth, is why the Beerithites fled to Getaim. Because Ba'anon, Rekha, murdered Ishbosheth, the whole family and even townspeople fled to Getaim to escape further payback. Remember what happened in Judges? They don't want that to happen again. Now, the challenge here is, of course, there are actually many challenges, but where is Getaim? We don't know, but it can refer to Gath in Philistia. Presumably, there was nowhere safe to go in Israel, so they fled to Philistia, like David did at the end of 1 Samuel. Now the author then tells us, right, they've been there until this day. Maybe that's the time of Gad or Nathan or whoever wrote this. Maybe somebody added that line in later. But whatever the case, they fled and they're still there. So that's the first option. You might say that's nice and clean and so on. The other option takes us back to some more history. And that is, it connects with the Gibeonites, as we just saw in Joshua 9. We already saw that these non-Israelites survived the conquest by lying to Joshua. And we really have every reason to believe that some of them, anyway, stayed in these four key cities of the Gibeonites. Remember, some of them were going to minister in the tabernacle? You remember that part of the story? But not all of them would have moved to Shiloh. So let's turn to 2 Samuel chapter 21. because not all of them moved to Shiloh, and there still were some in the land, and maybe kind of like Israel and Egypt, maybe there were more Gibeonites than the people in Benjamin really liked. And so we have this story. It takes us back in time, actually, even though we turn forward. In chapter 21 here in 2 Samuel, down through verse 14 is the whole story. Let me just read a portion of it, verse one. Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year, and David inquired of the Lord, right? Why is this happening? And the Lord answered, it is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house because he killed the Gibeonites. So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. The children of Israel had sworn protection to them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah. Now let me pause here, say a couple of things here. We've learned about Saul's character in 1 Samuel, and we've seen that Saul has done a lot of rash things in his kingship. We made reference to chapter 13. Remember in chapter 14, he said nobody can eat until we defeat the Philistines, and the whole situation with Jonathan and the honey and such, we see the rashness of Saul. And of course, chapter 15, he doesn't kill all the Amalekites and so on. Well, here's another example of it. Saul probably is thinking something along the lines of, well, I'm going to make a name for myself and I'm going to get rid of all the rest of the Canaanites in the land. And let's start with the Gibeonites. You know, they just live right down the road from me. So let's just get rid of them and I'll look good. You know, help me in the polls or something to that effect. And so he kills off the Gibeonites. Whatever his motivations were, something like this certainly makes some sense. And so now, many years later, they come to David and they want justice. And now it continues, right, verse three, what do you want? Verse four, we don't want money, we don't want you to kill anybody else in Israel. But verse five, let's kill some of the descendants of Saul, just like he killed our family. And so David does, verse seven, not Bephibosheth, but some of the others. Note, you'll see Rizpah is mentioned here, as well as the New King James has Michael here with a footnote, it's probably Merab, the other daughter of Saul. and her sons, and these are ones that are executed, and so on. So, here's our background now to this second option. Why did they flee Bari Roth? Well, this may have been why they fled. The people of Bari Roth fled to Getaim, which again, you would think that probably is referring to Gath, so they could escape Saul's reach. And if this is the case, If this is the background, the author then is indirectly calling our attention here in chapter 4 to Saul's sin. It may also be why he talks about Saul's sons, as I pointed out a few moments ago. Certainly there's more to say in chapter 21, but this may be the background to what's referred to here in verse 3. It would help to explain why Saul's own tribe would murder Saul's son. Think of it like this. Since the Gibeonites were still living in the land received into Israel by Joshua, the Gibeonites and Benjamites living together, it is quite likely that there was some intermarriage, right? It's several hundred years later now. And so it may very well be that the animosity against Ishbosheth takes us back to Saul's actions against those in Beoroth and the Gibeonites. And so this is retaliation on their part. Maybe their not full Israelite cousin was attacked and killed or something to that effect. Now both views here have, I think, credible ideas. I'm inclined to lean toward the second position with the connection with the Gibeonites and so forth. But once again, all of this is backstory. The author is holding the punchline of verses five and following by saying, okay, let's learn more about John Wilkes Booth, so to speak, so that we can better understand what happened. Alright, well, let's then turn back to chapter 4, and he gives us one more bit of information about the backstory, and that's verse 4. But notice he shifts away from these two men. Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel and his nurse took him up and fled. And it happened as she made haste to flee that he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. Alright, so not only does the author give us the history of these two men, he gives us a brief history of another claimant to the throne. It's briefly reviewed here and we are told basically why Mephibosheth is not going to succeed Saul. Mephibosheth here is Jonathan's son. There's another Mephibosheth that is Rizpah's son. And so you may wonder, as we saw there in chapter 21. But even here in chapter 3 and verse 7, you'll see that Rizpah was a concubine. So think of this in this way, right? You are adamantly convinced that a descendant of Saul should sit on the throne. Well, who is next in line? We know Ishmael is going to be taken out. So who else would it be? Well, it wouldn't be the sons of Ritzpah even though she gave Saul sons. These are Saul's sons, but she was a concubine, she wasn't a full wife, so they were lower on the totem pole as it were for succession. Also, the five sons of Merab were sons of Saul, a generation removed, right? Grandsons. But since she is his daughter and not his son, right? Again, they're lower on the succession totem pole. But Jonathan is Saul's son, and his son would be next in line. Again, this is why he's giving us all this information. Okay, he should be king after Ishbosheth. All right, now, let's turn a moment to 1 Chronicles 9. Let me give you just a brief other thought here as you're turning there, 1 Chronicles 9. You remember the discussion that was had regarding Barack Obama's heritage when he was first elected president? Of course, everybody said that was conspiracy and craziness and so on, but it's that kind of thing. There has to be a legitimate, in our case, age and birthplace and so forth in terms of being president. Same idea here. All right, now, if you look here at the end of the chapter, 1 Chronicles 9, let's pick up in verse 39. Here we see some of the line. Ne'er begot Kish, Kish begot Saul. Saul begot, notice, Jonathan, Malkishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal. Remember, Eshbaal is the same as Ishbosheth. And then it says, the son of Jonathan was Meribal, And that's the same as Mephibosheth. And then notice how it continues. Meribah begot Micah and had these sons and so on and so forth. Notice it doesn't say anything about any other sons of Jonathan. It doesn't say anything about sons of Malchishua or anything about sons of Abinadab or about any sons of Ishbosheth. Is it possible then? that Saul only had one, if you will, full grandson. We've got Ritzpah and all that, and we have Merab and so on, but in terms of his sons, they only begot one son, and that is Merabal, or Mephibosheth. So again, as we're dealing with this question of succession, and you want a legitimate succession, here's some of the background to it. Let's talk a little bit about Meribbal and Mephibosheth. I mentioned a little bit ago about the meaning of names. Let's do that again here. Meribbal obviously has the name Baal in it, and it could refer to Baal the false god. But Baal or Ba'al in Hebrew means master or lord, so it doesn't have to refer to the false god. And I have a hard time believing that Jonathan would name his son after a false god. So I think it is more likely that Baal here is referring to master or Lord. And so the meaning of his name then is my master is my advocate or something to that effect. The master here of Jonathan is or was Saul, his father, right? His king. His king is his father, and he is Jonathan's master, and so he names his son, right? My master is my advocate, and so on. Now, remember, as I mentioned a moment ago, that Eshbaal is the other name for Ishbosheth. Same idea. Though it's maybe more possible that Saul would name his son after a false god, I still think it's the same thought here. The man of Baal is the man of my master. Referring to himself, you could say. A man from me, Saul is saying. I am the master. And so for both of these boys, there's a reference to Saul. But for both boys, their names also have changed to Ishbosheth and Mephibosheth. And you might remember Ishbosheth, that name means man of shame. And now Mephibosheth, you have the same ending, right? Means something along the lines from the mouth of the shame or possibly from the mouth of the shameful thing. Both boys had their names changed, or at least given this other name, because both of their fathers were killed in battle by the Philistines. Both of them were filled with shame. And Mephibosheth has the added shame of being lame. And so our connections in this way are these. Let's come back to the point. Mephibosheth cannot be the king. Ultimately, of course, because God chose David. But again, if you're coming from the mindset of you want Saul's family to continue, he is incapable due to his age, we are told here, and his ability. Okay, so again, notice then in verse four, it says he was five years old when his father and grandfather were killed, which means he's now approximately 12 years old, and so he's still too young to rule, would be the idea. And then add to that that when his father and grandfather were killed, they had to flee. Now, the text does not give us this detail, but it does seem to suggest to us that when the Philistines killed them further to the north, They came storming down to Gibeah to try to eliminate any remaining connections with Saul. Remember, of course, Ishvosheth ends up on the east side of the Jordan. And now we see Mephibosheth's nurse is trying to get him out of there, too. Maybe it was just a word of threat. Maybe they were under attack. But something like this seems to be the background. And so his nurse, or we might say glorified babysitter, a tutor, a nanny, tries to escape with him. But being a five-year-old boy, he's probably relatively heavy. And in her haste, he falls. Maybe she fell too. Maybe she dropped him in accident. But whatever the case, he's injured. Maybe both of his legs were broken, his ankles, maybe his feet were crushed, maybe he's paralyzed. Whatever the case, he can't walk. And so again, this background is not just for Bible trivia enthusiasts. The author wants us to see that Mephibosheth is not able to be the next king either. All right, so as we have some of this background and foundation, what's the overall point? The overall point that we are seeing in chapters two and three, and even back to chapter one, is that God is blessing David and not Ish-bosheth. Continues that theme, doesn't it? Okay, or to put it this way, All of Israel's options to have a king other than David have been exhausted. Saul can't be king any longer. We saw that in 1 Samuel 15, but he held on to it until the end. Ishvosheth cannot be king because God said no son of Saul can do it. And even though he tried to do it, Abner defects and now he's going to be murdered as we'll see. He is weak. Okay? And Mephibosheth, the next in line, he can't be king either because he is too young and he is lame. Abner, of course, can't be king even though he was essentially king with Ishvosheth. He's now dead. You know, interpreting history can be a challenging thing. But do you see what's happening here? God's eliminating any opposition to David. He did it even on the day of Saul's death here with Mephibosheth. And he does it here in this way with the murder of Abner and now the murder of Ishmael. Can you say that God is tightening the noose around Saul's line? hanging Saul's sinful aspirations out to die, so to speak. God said, no son of Saul will ever sit on the throne. Well, that's happening. And the better you know the history, the better you will see some of these points. God's promises to David are coming to pass, even in these seemingly innocuous and maybe seemingly unimportant details. Abner's infection, Mephibosheth's fall, Abner's murder, and now Ba'anah and Rakab's murderous action are all ways God is saying, I'm keeping my promises to David. And so as we see people trying to be king in our day, the same is true. God has promised that the wicked will fail. God has promised that his people, his church, will be blessed. God's gonna do the same today. We're gonna see him fulfill his promises to his people today too. Maybe in ways that we will not see completely in our lives, maybe we will see it come about, time will tell. But do you see the broader point here? So let me end then with this thought. God did not reveal himself to us in a list of doctrines to believe and accept, like he didn't drop down the Westminster Confession of Faith. God did not give us a list of rules to follow and obey. Yeah, we have the Ten Commandments and some other passages, but God revealed himself to us in a story. And even that list of Ten Commandments was given in the context of the story of Israel at Mount Sinai. The better we know the story, the better we will know what to believe and how to live. And so I don't shy away from passages like this where the author is telling us, focus on history, focus on geography. The tendency is just skip over that. But no, the better we know the story, the better we will understand what God is teaching us and how we then should live. And so the background of this story has been given to us here in these opening verses. We'll look at maybe the more exciting part of the story, Lord willing, next week. And so let's close with prayer. Our Father in God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what you have given to us here. And we do thank you that you have made yourself known in time and space and that you have worked out your plans and purposes and the lives of Israel and here in this particular case with these men and the Benjamites and Saul and his descendants and so on and so forth. Lord, we are thankful that you have in a sense, given us a movie to watch. Obviously, it's given in words. But you've given us a story to help us to understand more abstract things. And we thank you for that. And we thank you, then, especially, that you're the same God, and you keep your promises in the same general way as you did back then, and though we are not David, and we don't have the promises that our descendant will be the Messiah and that we're king, we don't have any of those promises, and yet you have made us kings and priests, and that you have united us to Christ, and you have given us so many blessings, both now and eternally through him, and as you tighten the noose, so to speak, around Saul's family. We know that you are doing the same today in regard to the wicked. And you are, as you bless David, you're blessing us in your church. And so may this give us hope and confidence, especially as we look around us and we see all these things opposing what is righteous and true. And may it give us just encouragement to stand and to live lives that are pleasing to you. And so we pray all these things then in Jesus' name. Amen.