Teaching Notes

II SAMUEL

As we move into II Samuel chapter 7 this evening, David has been firmly established as king over all of Israel. He has won each battle over the enemy and has taken back the land which was lost. And David has a beautiful palace built for him by Hiram, king of Tyre.

II SAMUEL 7

VERSES 1-3

1. It may have been a cool rainy night, as David sat in his new palace, warm and dry. And as he looked up the hill he saw the tabernacle, a tent, in which the ark of God rested in. The ark has had its home in this temporary structure for over 500 years, ever since the time of Moses. And David was compelled to build a house for God to dwell in. It is possible that David remembered what God told Moses in Deuteronomy 12:10-11. He said "But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there will be the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the LORD." As David rested in the land, he told Nathan his hearts desire to build a house for God, and Nathan tells David to do all that is in his heart.

VERSES 4-5

1. The Lord tells Nathan that he was wrong in telling David to build Him a house to dwell in. Their hearts were right but it was not what God wanted David to do. And David said in I Chronicles 28:2-3, "...`Hear me, my brethren and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and for the footstool of our God, and had made preparations to build it. But God said to me, `You shall not build a house for My name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.'" David's heart was right, but his hand were the hands of a warrior, and God would not allow David to build Him a house. Interesting enough, God is going to turn the tables on David, and tell him that He will build David a house!

VERSES 6-7

1. God is telling David that He has never asked anyone to build Him a house. I think the point that God is trying to make is that His presence fills the universe, how then can He be contained in a building. We do that many times as we build beautiful, ornate structures and we can only worship God in these structures because that is where He dwells. Wrong! God's presence is with us, wherever we go. Don't ever lose the conciseness of God by locking Him in some building.

VERSES 8-11

1. God is reminding David on how He took this little shepherd boy and made him king over Israel. How he has put down the enemies of Israel and now David's name and fame has spread throughout the land. God is saying that the children of Israel will remain in the land of Canaan, and never be removed again. That is future, but it will happen.

VERSES 12-17

1. God is telling David that He will build him a house. That is a dynasty for future generations to sit on the throne in Israel. Short term he is speaking of Solomon, but long term and broad fulfillment is seen in Jesus Christ, whose kingdom will last forever. In Acts chapter 2, Peter comments on this, saying that David recognized that from his descendants the Messiah would come.

2. Here we see a covenant established, and a covenant literally means "to cut". And in the Bible we see two kinds of covenants. The first is a unilateral covenant which is unconditional, one party covenant. It would be like a will, what you are going to receive is not based upon your actions. The second type is a bilateral covenant which is a two party covenant. You fulfill your part of the agreement and then I will fulfill mine. It is conditional. Let's look at a couple of these covenants to give us an idea of where they fall and why.

A. EDENIC COVENANT - GENESIS 1:28-29, 2:15-17 This was a bilateral or conditional covenant given to Adam. He was to populate the earth, subdue the earth, have dominion over the animals, care for the earth and not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was the conditional part, for if they did, they would die.

B. ABRAHAMIC COVENANT - GENESIS 12:1-3, 15:1-21 This was a unilateral or unconditional covenant given to Abraham and based solely on God's faithfulness, not man's. God was to make Abraham's descendants a great nation, they would be a blessing to all who respect them. And God was going to give them the land of Canaan.

C. MOSAIC COVENANT - EXODUS 20, 21-24 This was a bilateral covenant or conditional covenant based on man's obedience to God's commands. If you are obedient you will be blessed, and if you are not, then you will be cursed.

D. DAVIDIC COVENANT - II SAMUEL 7:4-17 This was unconditional, based upon God's faithfulness, not man's. And through this the Messiah would come and sit on the throne of David and it would be an everlasting dominion.

E. THE NEW COVENANT - JEREMIAH 31:31-34 This is not a conditional covenant, it is not based on man's faithfulness, but God's. Thus, this covenant was cut with the blood of Christ and is freely given to us. Man has tried to make this a bilateral covenant by putting us under the Law, but God came to set us free from the Law. The Law puts us under bondage where grace sets us free. You see, it is what God has done for us and not what we are doing or are going to do. It is the new covenant cut with His blood!

Thus, here in II Samuel, God is telling David that He will build David a house, a dynasty that will never end. And through his descendents, the Messiah will come.

VERSES 18-20

1. David is speechless. He is saying in verse 19 "Lord, only You can make a promise like that and fulfill it." David is blown away at God's awesome power and faithfulness to him.

VERSES 21-22

1. David recognizes that God is not blessing David because David was worthy, but because He loved David and was honoring His word and the desires of His heart. And the same is true as God blesses us, it is not because we are worthy, but because of His love towards us, His honoring His word which He holds above His name, and His hearts desire, for He is sovereign. There is no other God like the God we serve. See Isaiah 44:6-8.

VERSES 23-29

1. David is saying "Lord, if you want to bless me, your people, then do it. I don't want to stand in your way. I don't want to block what you are trying to do." And David continues to praise and worship God.

II SAMUEL 8

VERSE 1

1. This is not in chronological order, but most likely a continuation of II Samuel chapter 5. David is expanding the kingdom, gaining back more and more land. And the Philistines seemed to be a thorn in the side of Israel for years, but now David is able to push them back and finally do what Saul failed to do. Metheg Ammah is another name for Gath, which is located along the Mediterranean Sea, you can cross reference that with I Chronicles 18:1.

VERSE 2

1. Next David goes and kills 2/3 of the men of Moab. This seems strange to me because not only did David have Moabite blood in him, by his great grandmother Ruth, but David sent his family there for protection back in I Samuel chapter 22. In fact the king of Moab watched over his family. So why did David carry out these brutal killings? Some of the old Hebrew writings tell us that once David was made king over all of Israel, that the king of Moab killed David's parents. That is tradition, but it could help explain David's actions in this situation. Remember that Moab was on the east side of the Jordan River.

VERSES 3-8

1. Zobah is up in the north, in the area of Syria. And David "hamstrung" the horses or cut the tendons on their legs which made them useless for military use. (Footnote: It seems that in I Chronicles 18:4 the number of horsemen are listed as 7,000 as opposed to 700 here in II Samuel. And it does seem that I Chronicles is correct and a copyist error was made here in II Samuel.)

VERSES 9-10

1. Hamath was located about 100 miles north of Damascus, and when their king heard what David was doing throughout the land, he thought it would be better to join forces with David instead of trying to fight against him. So king Toi voluntary goes under the authority of David and pays tribute to him.

VERSES 11-14

1. David was not allowed to build a house for God, but it did not stop him from accumulating the materials for it to be built. And it shows me that if you can't do what you want for God, do what you can as David did.

2. The boarders of Israel have expanded tremendously under king David. Up to Lebanon and the Euphrates River in the north, down to the River of Egypt and the Gulf of Aquaba (Red Sea) in the south. On the west they went up to the Mediterranean Sea, and to the east, on the other side of the Jordan River, form the Gulf of Aquaba northward to the Euphrates River. David is in control but the enemy remains in the land. And this land that David occupied was almost all the land that God had promised them in Genesis 15:18 and Joshua 1:3-4.

VERSES 15-18

1. God has now established David firmly in the kingdom and has expanded the kingdom tremendously.

II SAMUEL 9

VERSE 1

1. If you remember back in I Samuel chapter 20:14-15, that Jonathan makes a covenant with David, that when David becomes king in Israel he will not cause harm to him or his descendants, but treat them kindly. Now David is trying to keep that covenant he made with Jonathan years before, by trying to find any of Saul's descendants.

VERSES 2-3

1. The word "kindness" in verse 3 speaks of a covenant love, a deep love. And Ziba, who was a servant of king Saul, tells David that Jonathan's son is still living.

VERSE 4

1. Ziba tells David that Mephibosheth is in Lo Debar, which was located on the east side of he Jordan River, about 10 miles south of the Sea of Galilee. It was just north of the Brook Jabbok and not far from Mahanaim, where Ishbosheth was ruling from. Thus, Lo Debar was a place of refuge for those who were fleeing, as was the case when Saul and Jonathan were killed in battle by the Philistines. It was kind of a safe haven in the area of the 1/2 tribe of Manasseh.

VERSES 5-6

1. Understand where Mephibosheth is coming from. He thinks David is going to kill him, for that is what kings would do as they came into power, they would kill any remaining family of the previous king so that they could not try to usurp the throne from them.

VERSES 7-8

1. Mephibosheth is blown away, he can't understand the kindness that David is showing towards him.

VERSES 9-13

1. David restores Mephibosheth and makes him part of the royal family. He eats continually at the kings table, a place of honor, and is cared for. Mephibosheth thought David was going to kill him, but instead David forgave and honored this man for his friend Jonathan's sake.

II SAMUEL 10

VERSES 1-5

1. The Ammonites were a nomadic people, descendants from Lot's youngest daughter. In fact it was Saul's defeat of the Ammonites that thrust him into being king in Israel. It was Nahash, king of the Ammonintes that was directing an assault against Jabesh-Gilead. And he gave the people of JabeshGilead a choice, they could fight against him or they could be his slaves, but in doing so they would have their right eye put out. When Saul heard what was happening, he was furious and rallied the troops of Israel together and defeated the Ammonites. And the people wanted a king to lead them in battle and they saw what Saul had done, and thus they made him king.

2. Sometime after this, king Nahash sided with David. He showed kindness to David. And now that Nahash has died, David wants to repay that kindness by sending emissaries to Ammon, and to express their sorrow to Hanun, Nahash's son. But Hanun responds by being suspiciousregarding David's actions, a wicked counsel he received from his men. And so they take David's men and shave off half of their beards and cut their garments, exposing their nakedness. This, obviously was a sign of disrespect. You see, for the Hebrew, their meticulously groomed beard was a sign of freedom. A slave had his face clean shaven. And they were a proud people and to cut off a part of their garment and to expose their nakedness, was a sign of disrespect and shame.

3. And as these men came home, David tells them to go to Jericho, which was an oasis in the desert, and to rest there for awhile. Their beards would grow back and they would change their clothes, and the humiliation will pass.

VERSE 6

1. You would think that with our telecommunications of today, we can pass information faster than they did back then, but it seems that word got around, even back then. And when the people of Ammon found out that David was upset with their actions, I'm not sure why they didn't expect him to feel this way, they go and hire mercenaries to assist them in the battle. 33,000 men they have hired to help them fight against David.

VERSES 7-10

1. The battle was going to be fought on two different fronts, and so Joab divides his forces. He will take one group and his brother, Abishai, will take the other.

VERSES 11-12

1. The Syrian group were the toughest, and so Joab will fight against that group, and his brother Abishai was to fight with his men against the people of Ammon. And Joab tells his brother, if you need help, we will come to your assistance. And if we are in trouble, you come to our assistance.

2. That is a great principle for us all to live by. We may not all be fighting on the same front, but we are all brothers and when someone is in trouble, we need to come and assist them. I think of the tragic burning of the church that Reggie White attends down south. He was devastated at what happened. And yet the people of Wisconsin, not even in the same state where Reggie's church is located, have assisted in the rebuilding of their church through donations. We may not all be on the same front, but we are all in the battle, and when a brother is in need of our assistance, we must be ready to go to their side and help them in the battle.

VERSES 13-17

1. I don't understand why Joab stops fighting and heads back to Jerusalem. He was winning the battle but did not finish the job. And so David heads out to complete the work that Joab did not finish.

VERSES 18-19

1. David again is victorious and the people see that no one can come against David. Satan has tried repeatedly through frontal, direct assaults, and has not been able to defeat David. But Satan does not give up. Just because these frontal attacks don't work, as we move into chapter 11 next week, we are going to see a new battle plan. He now moves to the area of the flesh, and we are going to see David succumb to this. And it will be from this point on, the wind is taken out of David's sails. He has no fight left in him. And what Satan couldn't do by direct assault, he does by a back door approach, and he is victorious. And we will see that this sin had far reaching implications, it touched many lives and destroyed his family. The flesh must be dealt with and crushed daily, or it will destroy you!