2 Samuel 4:1-5:5

From Shepherd Boy to Shepherd King

Introduction.

In the military there is a saying, “hurry up and wait.” It is fairly self-explanatory. You hurry up in order to wait. You rush to load out your container to deploy, then you wait on the tarmac for hours on end. You rush to make it to an objective, then you wait for the enemy to show up. The commander needs this brief done right now, you scramble and hurry up to complete it, then you wait days until the brief.

And we live in a society that is much like this. We hurry up and do everything we can only to wait in anxious longing for what will happen next. Seldom do we live in the moment. Even more so, seldom to we wait with patience and rely upon the Lord. David exemplifies what it looks like to wait. There was nothing hurried or forced about his kingship. It took years yet throughout that time, the Lord pruned him, molded him, and shaped him into the king he would become.

We often need to exercise more patience with the Lord. The Lord’s timing is perfect, why bother trying to thwart that. Patience is a virtue of a godly life grounded in a firm grasp of the Lord’s providence. Wait patiently for the Lord. God’s timing is the best timing. And so we come to the present text asking ourselves, how does God’s timing fit into man’s actions? How does God bring forth his will amidst such chaos?

A Prideful Action By Sinful Men (4:1-7a)

A Pronouncement of Godly Judgment (7a-12)

A Patience Given by the Spirit (5:1-5)

[1] A Prideful Action By Sinful Men (4:1-7a)

This is the beginning of the tragic end to Saul’s descendents. Abner having been killed by the hands of Joab out of revenge, Ish-Bosheth, Saul’s Son, lies in despondancy and trouble in his soul for what will happen next. His great military commander has been killed, Ish-Bosheth is the last target.

We see the effect of losing one’s military commander in verse 1. It is said that his courage failed and Israel was dismayed. For one’s courage to fail literally means for the “hand to become limp.” In Hebrew, the hand represented power. It was an idiom that Ish-bosheth’s powerful confidence in his military prowess had ceased. Similarly, Israel is utterly dismayed, meaning, they were horrified, or put out of their senses. This is the same term used of the Medium of En-Dor whom Saul seeks. Her reaction is the same reaction Israel experiences, 1 Samuel 28:21 “And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw that he was terrified, she said to him, “Behold, your servant has obeyed you. I have taken my life in my hand and have listened to what you have said to me.”

In verse 4, we are briefly introduced to Mephibosheth, who will become an important character in the life of David later on. It is common in Hebrew narrative to alert the reader early on to events that will occur later in the story. Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, will receive mercy at the hand of David for the relationship both David and Jonathan had with one another.

Saul has died, Abner has died, and now Ish-Bosheth is the last living leader of Israel. Yet, we are introduced to two more individuals who would take matters into their own hands and eliminate the last of Saul’s dynasty, representative of 2 Samuel 3:1, where we are told, “There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. And David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker.”

Rechab and Baanah take it upon themselves to murder Ish-Bosheth in the comfort of his own home. Betrayal, revenge, and covetousness lie at the hearts of these wicked, sinful men. We are told in verse 6 and 7 of seemingly two opposing stories. One option is that these assassins of Israel came into the midst of Ish-bosheth’s house, a possible reference to arriving at his property. They inquire of wheat and presumptively murder one of the servants of Ish-Bosheth, as verse 5 tells us Ish-Bosheth was already resting. In verse 7, they come back to finish the job.

However, a more likely possibility, once again fitting with Hebrew narrative, is that this story is being told twice, with the same result in mind. The men stab Ish-bosheth in the stomach and flee. In verse 7, we are given more clarity as to what they did. They strike him, put him to death, and behead him. It is almost as if verse 6 acts as a dramatic pause to the reader to recognize that Ish-Bosheth has indeed been killed. Verse 7 acts as a further explanation of what had occured.

Regardless, the result is the same. These men have committed murder, not killing in terms of just war, but murder, as in a violation of the sixth commandment. How clear is it that we see the depravity of sinful man in his fallen state to commit such atrocities. Although it is quite alarming, it should really come of no surprise to us. These men are representative of those who are of the nation of Israel, but who did not conform their hearts, or circumcise their hearts, to the love the Lord their God and obey His Word. It is simliar in effect to the way in which Joab reacted to Abner’s peace treaty, namely, taking it upon himself to vindicate justice.

It is also quite obvious that these two men were trying to make a name for themselves in the assassination of Ish-Bosheth. Perhaps they were drawn by discontentment, or the current political situation of the Kingdom. Perhaps they believed that the tribe of Benjamin was being ill-represented. It seems as though man will go at any length to earn a reward or to make a name for himself. Those who do not humble themselves will in the end be humbled.

We must be aware and alert of the propensity in our own hearts to commit grievous sins against the Lord. We cannot think that merely our acceptance into the covenant community of the Lord, that is the Church, is the means by which we are saved. Rechab and Baanah represent a disturbing picture of those who think they are in covenant with God, yet who are in fact not. No where is murder, or assassination, listed amongst the fruits of the Spirit.

Jesus provides us with the stern warning to identify those who are in communion with God by their fruits. Matthew 7:15–20““Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” Be mindful and watchful lest you fall into the same ensnaring sins.

[2] A Pronouncement of Godly Judgment (vv. 7b-12)

The two assassins travel nearly 55 miles by foot to bring the head of Ish-Bosheth, Saul’s son, to David himself. Not only are the circumstances of the murder alarming but their response as well. They attribute their vicious murder and beheading of Saul’s son to the work of the Lord, “The Lord has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring,” they tell David. Man will often go at great lengths to justify their sinful behaviour. We get this clearly portrayed here.

They violated the law of God in hopes that David would perhaps provide a benefit to them. They murdered, they lied and bore false witness, and they used the name of the Lord profanely, by attributing sin to the work of the Lord. As the WSC Q 54 answers regarding the requirements of the third commandment, it says “The third commandment requireth the holy and reverend use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.” These men, again, assumed that murder was justified in the works of God.

Unfortunately for them, they were unaware that this exact issue had already occured with the Amalekite. 2 Samuel 1:14–16“David said to him, “How is it you were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?” Then David called one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him.” And he struck him down so that he died. And David said to him, “Your blood be on your head, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have killed the Lord’s anointed.’ ””

David even mentions this explicit event in verse 10. 2 Samuel 4:10 “when one told me, ‘Behold, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and killed him at Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news.” The Amalekite who sought good fortune with the king of Israel, David, received his sentence. And like the Amalekite, Rechab and Baanah think as though they are proclaiming the good news. The same word in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, is used. They announced the gospel to David.

David reaches back and alludes to the penalty for murder back from Genesis 9:5–6“And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” The law of God, man being created in his own image, recognizes that man, despite their sinfulness, retain the image of God and are not to be murdered.

David exclaims that Ish-Bosheth was not deserving of such a death. In 2 Samuel 4:11 “How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed, shall I not now require his blood at your hand and destroy you from the earth?”” What is the meaning of David calling Ish-Bosheth righteous? Righteousess in the Old Testament does not always carry the same nuance in the New Testament. Here, righteousness, refers to Ish-Bosheth’s innocence in the matter. It is the same words used when Abraham inquires of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to the Lord in Genesis 18:23-28. Abraham asks if there are a certain amount of innocent people in the cities, then they shouldn’t be destroyed.

The killing of Ish-Bosheth falls outside of military warfare. He was asleep in his own home. He was not engaged in overt battle against David at the time. He recognized that a peace treaty was being presented anyway. Yet these assassins kill him in his sleep and in the comfort of his own home. And So David pronounces a godly judgment against them.

The brutality by which they are killed is challenging for us in our own modern sentiments. However, this was a common method of the execution of justice from kings in the Ancient Near East. The very instrument the individual used to sin was removed. Rechab and Baanah’s hands are removed as they were the very hands that struck and killed Ish-Bosheth. Their feet were removed as they carried their sinful act all the way to David. The hanging was to be a reminder to those who saw them of the horrific consequences of such terrible sins.

Twice now David has had to execute justice to those who would claim the spoils of war for themselves. Twice now David has had men take it upon themselves to enact justice, first with Joab and the killing of Abner, and secondly with Rechab and Baanah in the killing of Ish-Bosheth. Nonetheless, the narrative continues to show that the Lord brings to pass His will in His own way. There is absolutely no grounds for David to boast as if he has achieved for himself the kingship by his own doing. God ordained it and God brings it to pass.

So it is in our lives both in terms of salvation and the various ways God has called us to serve him. In terms of our salvation, works are excluded lest any man should boast. Apart from Christ you are so behind the power curve being totally dead and incapable of saving yourself, that it takes an act of God. In terms of God’s calling upon our lives, yes we work, but apart from God working those details into our lives, we would be utterly hopeless. God has continued to demonstrate his steadfast love towards those who love and serve him with all their heart, mind, souls, and being. It is a sure testimony to the good providence of God to uphold all things.

[3] A Patience Given By the Spirit (5:1-5)

After many years, after many trials, a people who despised him, a king who tried to kill him, David is finally anointed king over the entirety of Israel. This brief civil war in the lives of the people is now at its temporary end, until the kingship begins to crumble again. Nonetheless, Israel stands united behind King David. Unification occurs in verse 1. All of the people come to declare of David that they are his people.

In the same verse, the people recognize the unity of the kingship, using the idiom, “we are your bone and flesh.” We are both the internal and external elements of your kingship David. Any time this phrase is used, it represents the kingship as in 2 Samuel 19:12–13“You are my brothers; you are my bone and my flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?’ And say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me and more also, if you are not commander of my army from now on in place of Joab.’ ”” or also as a close familial relationship in Genesis 29:14 “and Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh!” And he stayed with him a month.”

Not only that, but they recognize that David is to take the great privilege and responsibility of shepherding the flock of Israel. In the Old Testament, when human leaders are divinely appointed, they are labeled as shepherds, as with David and also Joshua in Numbers 27:15–17“Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, “Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.””

This is an honorific place because it is the very same term, or metaphor, used for God as well. In Israel’s blessings to his twelve sons, he says of Jacob, Genesis 49:24 “yet his bow remained unmoved; his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (from there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),” So also in the well known Psalm, Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” Psalm 80:1 “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.” The Lord is the shepherd of his people. He leads, nourishes, and supplies all that we need.

Yet we see this trait and quality in one to come. David acts as the stepping stone not only to Jesus Christ as King but also as Shepherd. Jesus himself says in John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” The author of Hebrews writes of Jesus in Hebrews 13:20 “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,” Peter echoes the same sentiment in 1 Peter 5:4 “And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” And John proclaims the glories of Christ to come in Revelation 7:17 “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.””

It is such a place of blessing to be in the flock of the Good Shepherd. Our Shepherd and great King went before us, being tempted in every way imaginable yet did so without sin, to purify for himself a holy people, set apart from the world, uniting them to Himself, sustaining them and preserving them until the end, that they may receive the fullness of blessings in the age to come. Jesus as our Shepherd reminds us that though life throws many trials our way, he will sustain us. The grace of Jesus Christ far surpasses anything in this world.

As David receives the great blessings from the people, he makes a covenant with them. The act of a covenant is so important in the life of Israel. David takes upon himself the oath to care for the flock and the people take it upon themselves to obey him, on pain of death. This covenant act looks backward and forward. It looks backward as a reminder of the covenant the Lord made with Abraham and all of his physical and spiritual descendents. The Lord walks through the animals and takes upon himself the curses of the covenant, takes upon himself the breaking of the law, and graciously gives the blessings of the covenant to his people by the blood of Jesus Christ. It looks forward to the covenant God will make with David when he will always have a descendent upon the throne, pointing to Jesus Christ.

Verse 4 gives the standard introduction to the kingship found throughout the Old Testament. It is obviously interesting to point out how David’s official kingship began at the age of thirty, the same age as the promised Messiah hundreds of years later would begin his ministry. And David’s total ministry in Judah and Israel extends to the total ministry that Jesus had on earth. David then sets out to finish the job that began ages ago in defeating the Jebusites.

Many of you have heard the old adage, “good things come to those who wait.” Do we really take hold of that though? If you think about it, David was promised the kingship as a meager shepherd boy. Most would estimate that he was somewhere between the age of 8 and 15 years old when Samuel anointed him. It was probably closer to teenage years, but again, it is unknown.

What we do know, is that in 1 Samuel 16:10–13“And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.”

David was already anointed king, yet did not enter into that ministry until years later. If he was at the latest possible age of 15, that means he waited 15 years to be king, an astonishingly long time to wait for the Lord. We often think that patience, or waiting for the Lord, is a 6-12 month ordeal. 15 years is a long time. Yet this idea of patience, long-suffering, and endurance is ripe through the Bible.

We are told often in the Psalms of the encouragement to wait for the Lord. We patiently wait for the Lord, as David says in Psalm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” Therefore, as he concludes in Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” So also in Psalm 37:9 “For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.” Or also Psalm 130:5 “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;” Proverbs 20:22 “Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.”

Patiently waiting and confident enduring in the Lord is only possible when one is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Look again at 1 Samuel 16:13 “Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.” The Spirit of the Lord was upon David. So also, the Spirit is upon us by way of our union with Christ.

The marks of the Christian life are the fruits of the Spirit. One of which, is patience Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,” We are patient because the Lord is providential. We are patient because of the Lord’s promises. We are patient because the Lord is preserving us. Even amidst suffering, we endure. 1 Peter 5:10–11“And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”