Sermon Tone Analysis

Tracing a dead man’s shadow.

When we began this series, over two years ago, we chose the series title, “Tracing the Shadow of the King.”

And we did that on purpose.

From the outset, from page one, from barren Hannah’s song, we’ve claimed that this story about David wasn’t really about David.

The purpose of this story is greater, broader, more profound than merely a biography of an ancient king.

It’s more significant than merely a historical record of a long collapsed dynasty.

We’ve suggested, every chapter and verse, that the author of this history means for you to see shadows behind the life and words and work of David, and to trace those shadows to the ancient shepherd king of Israel.

I’ve told you guys, in a number of ways, that the author of Samuel meant for you to read this book in this way.

It isn’t an accident of history and inspiration that these words just happen to also teach us about the true King of Israel.

The human author and the divine author both intend for you to trace the shadow.

The shadows of the coming King are woven into this narrative, every chapter and verse, and the only right way to read it is to see Jesus behind these scenes.

I mention it often, and you’re probably tired of hearing it.

Yet I realized this week that I haven’t mentioned the most significant piece of evidence in favor of this conclusion.

It’s easy enough to say that an author means for his words to be read a certain way, but if ever I intend for you to be convinced of it, I should offer every bit of evidence that this is so.

And I fear I’ve failed you in this regard, because I haven’t yet mentioned what I think is the most compelling reason to read these words as pointing beyond David.

So here it is.

David, by the time the people of Israel are reading these words, is dead.

Indeed, there is very real and very striking evidence that David is dead, Solomon is dead, and many of their successors are dead by the time this book was widely read among the people of Israel.

We’ve read many stories about David that might have led you to believe that he was the promised King of Israel, that he was the seed of hope planted in the ancient law, the answer to the many prayers of the faithful sons and daughters of Israel.

You might have read these stories and believed that all of the building tension among the people of Israel was now resolved in the person of David, the shepherd king of Israel.

But you cannot read it that way.

Because David is dead.

It’s so basic, yet the fact of David’s death, the fact of Solomon’s death, is profound.

Because if this book has anything to say of the fate of the people of God, if it intends to teach the faithful sons and daughters of Israel of a final, permanent hope, of total and final deliverance, then it must be pointing beyond the life of David to another.

Merely because David is buried six feet under by the time they’re reading it.

So when you read the prophetic promises in Hannah’s song, when you read the prophecies of Samuel, when you read the faithful exclamations of Jonathan, you have two choices to make.

Either these words are an artifact of a dead dynasty, and therefore have no meaning for you and I, or these words are directing your hope toward a greater King — a son of David whose kingdom will never end.

I choose the latter.

I hope you do, too.

Now, the reason I mention all of this is because we happen to have just read and reflected on the single most explicit promise of this Son of David in the whole book.

The chapter just prior to the ones we’re about to read made explicit all that has been implied from page one - that is, that David wasn’t allowed or even able to be the great savior of Israel.

Instead, God promised a better King.

David’s son was coming, and he would make a place for God’s people, and they would rest under his rule forever and ever.

Never has the book made such explicit promises about a one who is to come.

All the whispers of this book are transformed into shouts at that moment.

David’s frail dynasty is not the hope of Israel.

A forever King is coming.

Look out for him.

Watch for him.

His kingdom is your only true hope.

That’s where we left off.

Now, walk a few miles in the shoes of the people of Israel, who are reading this book knowing that David’s dynasty is crumbling, knowing that their enemies loom, knowing that exile or death is inevitable.

Place yourself in their position.

What would you be thinking, now that you’ve read these promises?

You have recently lost hope in the dynasty of David, you face dreadful enemies and a terrifying fate.

Yet you’ve just read these promises, promises of rescue and rest in a coming Son of David.

If you’re that guy, and you’ve just turned the page after reading that all of your hopes are set in a coming son of David who promises rest, what are you thinking, just then?

“Tell me what he’s like!

What is this Son of David like?

Tell me about him, so that I can scan the horizon and know when my hope has arrived!

Tell me more about him, because this hope is all I have left.

Tell me about the coming Son of David, so that I’ll know when the promised rest is here!”

And that, I think, is why the next two chapters exist.

For the broken and lost and hurting and exiled people of Israel to know who to look out for, and to know what he’s like.

For those who had real hope set in the frail dynasty of David, when that hope is crushed and they turn to the book to read that a better Son is coming.

I think these chapters exist to teach them what to look out for.

So let’s read these words together, with the same longing and anticipation as the exiled people of Israel.

Their hope and our hope are the same.

We, together with them, look toward a better Kingdom and a better King.

And we can get through the dark days of our exile by remembering what he’s like.

We have a distinct advantage here, because we know who this coming Son of David is.

And we know what he’s like, on some level.

We know what he’s done, and what he will do, on some level.

But these chapters teac

Today we’re going to answer the question that this book means for us to ask.

“What is the promised King of Israel like?”

Tell me about the Son of David.

Turn with me to .

We’ll take it in parts.

So this chapter is often referred to as a “catalogue of David’s military victories.”

And that may be true, but it isn’t enough, because what this chapter is doing is deeper and more powerful than merely reflecting on David’s military might.

This is what I mean.

Let’s reread the first two verses.

He Fulfills God’s Promises

2 Samuel 8:2

Okay, so right off the bat we’re given a bit of information that ought to bother you a little bit.

Because this sort of this isn’t normal.

The first verse tells us that David has done what no other leader of Israel has ever done.

We’re told that he subdues the Philistines - Israel’s most aggressive enemy.

And that’s noteworthy, but what follow should give you pause.

The first verse tells us that David has done what no other leader of Israel has ever done.

We’re told that he subdues the Philistines - Israel’s most aggressive enemy.

And that’s noteworthy, but what follow should give you pause.

We’re told that David defeated the Moabite army.

And we didn’t really need any more information than that.

That would have been sufficient, if the author were attempting to communicate about Moab what he just communicated about the Philistines.

But the text goes further.

We’re told that David made the Moabite soldiers who survived the conflict lie down on the ground.

And he took a measuring line of some length and laid it on the ground before them.

The soldiers who happened to be laying within the boundaries of the first two of every three lengths he laid down were executed.

The soldiers who happened to be laying within the boundaries of the third of every three lengths were spared.

And that seems cruel to most.

And it seems uncharacteristic to nearly everybody.

Now, it’s worth noting that this sort of practice was actually seen as compassionate in the ancient world.

It wasn’t uncommon for kings to wholesale slaughter all enemy survivors.

Julius Caesar used to do it all the time.

But this sort of thing is unusual for Israel, and especially for David.

So what on earth is going on here?

This passage has bothered readers for thousands of years.

Jewish readers of this passage recognized that this action felt a lot more like the cruelty of pagan kings than the righteous justice of King David.