2 Samuel 2:1-32

And it came to pass after this, that David enquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the Lord said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said, Unto Hebron. ² So David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail Nabal’s wife the Carmelite. ³ And his men that were with him did David bring up, every man with his household: and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron. ⁴ And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, That the men of Jabeshgilead were they that buried Saul. ⁵ And David sent messengers unto the men of Jabeshgilead, and said unto them, Blessed be ye of the Lord, that ye have shewed this kindness unto your lord, even unto Saul, and have buried him. ⁶ And now the Lord shew kindness and truth unto you: and I also will requite you this kindness, because ye have done this thing. ⁷ Therefore now let your hands be strengthened, and be ye valiant: for your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them. ⁸ But Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul’s host, took Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim; ⁹ And made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel. ¹⁰ Ishbosheth Saul’s son was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. ¹¹ And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. ¹² And Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. ¹³ And Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out, and met together by the pool of Gibeon: and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool. ¹⁴ And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise, and play before us. And Joab said, Let them arise. ¹⁵ Then there arose and went over by number twelve of Benjamin, which pertained to Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. ¹⁶ And they caught every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow’s side; so they fell down together: wherefore that place was called Helkathhazzurim, which is in Gibeon. ¹⁷ And there was a very sore battle that day; and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David. ¹⁸ And there were three sons of Zeruiah there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel: and Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe. ¹⁹ And Asahel pursued after Abner; and in going he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner. ²⁰ Then Abner looked behind him, and said, Art thou Asahel? And he answered, I am. ²¹ And Abner said to him, Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his armour. But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him. ²² And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn thee aside from following me: wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother? ²³ Howbeit he refused to turn aside: wherefore Abner with the hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth rib, that the spear came out behind him; and he fell down there, and died in the same place: and it came to pass, that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still. ²⁴ Joab also and Abishai pursued after Abner: and the sun went down when they were come to the hill of Ammah, that lieth before Giah by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon. ²⁵ And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together after Abner, and became one troop, and stood on the top of an hill. ²⁶ Then Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren? ²⁷ And Joab said, As God liveth, unless thou hadst spoken, surely then in the morning the people had gone up every one from following his brother. ²⁸ So Joab blew a trumpet, and all the people stood still, and pursued after Israel no more, neither fought they any more. ²⁹ And Abner and his men walked all that night through the plain, and passed over Jordan, and went through all Bithron, and they came to Mahanaim. ³⁰ And Joab returned from following Abner: and when he had gathered all the people together, there lacked of David’s servants nineteen men and Asahel. ³¹ But the servants of David had smitten of Benjamin, and of Abner’s men, so that three hundred and threescore men died. ³² And they took up Asahel, and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, which was in Bethlehem. And Joab and his men went all night, and they came to Hebron at break of day.

The waiting has finally come to an end; or has it? Throughout our time walking through the life of David, we have been anticipating the time that would finally come when Saul would be removed as king and God would fulfill His promise to establish David on the throne over all of Israel. The setting of 1 and 2 Samuel as we come to 2 Samuel 2 is both dark and light. It is dark in that Saul and his sons have been killed, Israel has suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of the Philistines, and the Israelites have forfeited several cities to the Philistines. It is light in that God has brought the judgment that had been promised against Saul and opened the door for David to be king and fulfill his calling. However, 2 Samuel 2-4 reveals that there were still obstacles and there was still work to be done. 2 Samuel 2 begins immediately after David receiving the news of Saul’s death and his lament for Saul, Jonathan, and Israel. What was he to do now? How would he go about claiming the throne? In this chapter we learn from David some basic things that you and I should aspire to as we seek to walk obediently to the Lord, fulfill His calling on our lives as believers, and wait patiently for Him to fulfill His promises. From this passage and this time in David’s life we can learn three very important “Holy Aspirations.”

First, we are taught to prayerfully seek the Lord’s will. The opening words of chapter 2 reveal a shift in David’s actions that he learned from his time in Ziklag and that was that prayerfully seeking the Lord’s will was essential to all that he would do. When he failed to inquire of the Lord, David would sin and continually put himself in disastrous situations. When he sought the Lord and followed the Lord’s direction, he would act with the Lord’s character fulfill His purposes. The word “enquired” in verse 1 is actually a play on Saul’s name to show a contrast. It is the Hebrew word sha’al and Saul’s name is sha’ul. The two words are meant to draw our attention to show the difference between David and Saul. David sought the Lord and Saul did not. Saul’s life was marked by rebellion against the Lord. David, as the king after God’s own heart, had a life marked by seeking the Lord. Here, he inquired of what the Lord wanted him to do (“go up into any of the cities of Judah”) and where the Lord wanted him to do it (“Hebron”). The point of this was that David would begin to rule and God would begin to establish him as king in his home tribal territory of Judah in southern Israel. This would begin in Hebron which would serve as David’s capital city for the next seven and a half years. David took his wives and his men (v. 2-3) up to Hebron where he was anointed as king over the tribe of Judah (v. 4). While David had already been anointed by Samuel as king in 1 Samuel 16, this anointing was a public acknowledgement by the people of Judah that he was their king. They publicly recognized and affirmed the Lord’s calling. After this, David’s first action as king was to strive to bring unity and peace to the kingdom. This is going to dictate most of his actions in 2 Samuel 2-4. His goal was to bring the kingdom together. The method that he used to do this was to fulfill a promise that he made to Saul (1 Samuel 26) and Jonathan (1 Samuel 20, 23) and show covenantal faithfulness to their descendants. In 2 Samuel 2, the way he went about this was to honor the men of Jabeshgilead that had displayed loyalty to Saul, Israel, and the Lord by retrieving the bodies of Saul and his three sons from the Philistines and burying them (1 Samuel 31:11-13). David’s move was strategic in that he did good to those who had done good to Saul to show an attitude of peace toward those loyal to Saul in the rest of the kingdom. At the same time, he brought some men into his own ranks that had show a track record of loyalty and faithfulness (the men of Jabeshgilead). David not only sought the Lord’s will, but went about fulfilling the Lord’s will in the Lord’s way; the way of peace. David was not just going to be king, but a certain kind of king that reflected the Lord’s character. The only way that you and I can do the same in our lives is if we prayerfully seek the Lord’s will. Godly character is only developed in close fellowship and relationship to the Lord.

Next, we are taught to humbly submit to the Lord’s will. Verses 8-17 of this chapter turn the attention back to those loyal to Saul. Abner was “the captain of Saul’s hosts” (chief general) and took it upon himself to anoint Ish-bosheth, another of Saul’s sons, as king over virtually the rest of Israel. The author noted in verse 12 that Ish-bosheth was 40 when Abner did this and that his reign would be a short two years. It will come to a fast end in 2 Samuel 4. Joab and David’s army met with Abner and the servants of Ish-bosheth in Gibeon, about 5-6 miles NW of Jerusalem. Instead of both groups fighting against one another, each chose to put forward 12 men to fight. After those men fought, a battle broke out between David’s men under Joab’s command and Abner with his men. Abner and his men were soundly defeated. The place came to be known by a name that means “field of swords” because of the intense battle that occurred. While there would be more fighting to follow, the sons of Zeruiah (Joab, Abishai, and Asahel), while nephews of David that were extremely loyal to him, would begin to be a thorn in his side. Joab, in particular, would continually act rashly and apart from David’s authority, creating situations that were difficult for him and harmful to his rule as king. Both Abner and Joab demonstrated rash actions apart from God’s will. Abner’s anointing of Ish-bosheth was a power move to preserve his own position as a high-ranking official in Saul’s former kingdom and it was an act of rebellion against the Lord’s will. Both he and Joab demonstrate here a lack of humility and submission to the Lord, His will, and His ordained authority. Whenever we act in pride in our lives, regardless of the good cause we think we may be serving, we bring about devastation and destruction in God’s kingdom and among His people. Abner should have submitted to David. Instead, he was about preserving his own position and power. On the other side, Joab may have thought he was serving a noble cause, but instead acted apart from David’s direction and authority as king. His actions led to conflict with Abner that would lead to a prolonged conflict between David’s house and Saul’s house. Had he truly considered David’s desires, he would have remembered that David had made a promise to Saul in 1 Samuel 26 to do good to Saul’s house after him. Joab failed to act in accordance with his king’s wishes. What followed was conflict for the kingdom. Sometimes the most dangerous thing can be a noble cause that we are not meant to take up. Sometimes we can act in plain rebellion to our King (the Lord Jesus) and His will and character. We must humbly submit to the Lord’s will.

Lastly, we are taught to faithfully serve the Lord’s will. After the conflict, Abner and his men fled the battle. Thinking to end the “war” quickly, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel chased after him. Being faster, Asahel went ahead of his brothers and wanted to be the “hero” who took out Abner. After being warned by Abner at least twice, Abner struck Asahel with the butt of his spear and killed him. When Joab and Abishai arrived to find their brother dead, Abner cried out to them to consider the consequences of continued conflict. While the battle had been more costly for Abner’s forces than David’s, prolonged conflict would lead to more and more bloodshed in the kingdom. While Joab and Abishai would put off pursuing Abner that day to mourn for their brother, Joab would later take matters into his own hands once again and take revenge on Abner. There can come a point where serving God’s will is no longer about serving His will, but about serving our own ambitions. It takes great self-examination and discernment to know whether our motives are to serve the Lord or serve ourselves by serving the Lord. It is a very fine line, but it makes all the difference in the world as to the fruit that is born out in our lives. James 3:14-16 warns us that selfish ambition always leads to disorder and “every evil work.” Our goal should not be to take matters into our own hands, but to practice self-control and restraint in order to faithfully serve the Lord’s will in our lives. Asahel and his brothers failed to do so and it led to his death and the deaths of many others.

Ambition and aspiration can be either very good or very bad. There are holy aspirations and unholy ones. There are selfish ambitions and selfless ones. Ultimately, there are three marks and actions of holy aspirations. We must prayerfully seek the Lord’s will, humbly submit to the Lord’s will, and faithfully serve the Lord’s will. At each step, it is important to surrender our thoughts, motives, and intentions to the Lord, the principles of His Word, and His revealed character.  Where our motives are off or our actions would be out of line with His character, we must exercise restraint. Where they are right, we must diligently press on in obedience despite opposition. What aspirations to do you have in life right now? Are they holy?