Uniting a Kingdom

Welcome to the Well Community Church. I am so glad you’re here with us today. My name is Brad, and if we haven’t met yet, welcome to those in the auditorium, those at one of our campuses or venues, and those joining us online. I am so thankful that technology allows us to share the Word of God and distribute it all over our great city, if not all over the world.

Today, we are going to be in 2 Samuel, chapters two and following. If you haven’t been with us, we are in the middle of a series called Monarchy, where we’re covering Kings Saul, David, eventually Solomon, and ultimately Jesus, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The Sovereignty of God

If you’re new to the Bible, one of the things you’ll begin to pick up on pretty quickly is that God is wholly other than we are. God is infinite, God is Creator, and God is sovereign. Now, “sovereign” is a big 50-cent word. It simply means that God is in control; He is in charge, ruling and reigning over all things both actual and possible. This means He doesn’t waste anything. He is aware, He is able, and He is involved.

Because He is sovereign, He isn’t surprised by anything. He is intimately involved in every detail, nuance, and story of our lives, and He is working things out for His glory and our ultimate good. If you’ve been around the church for any length of time, you’ve probably heard someone quote a very familiar passage when difficulty strikes.

Romans 8:28 (NASB)

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose.

I don’t mean to make light of that verse. It is biblically true and factually true. However, it is not always helpful to quote when someone is in the middle of a very difficult situation. Well-meaning people use it to say, “Hey, in the midst of your suffering, God is doing something.” While that’s true, when you are in the depths of grief, you can’t always turn there first. It isn’t an easy switch to say, “You’re right, I shouldn’t feel this way because God is working it for good,” even though He ultimately is.

What we do see is the principle that God can be trusted even in the difficult times. He has never abandoned us—not even if we’ve made bad decisions. He is with us in the carnage of our own stupidity. God is faithful to us in the good and the bad. We see passages all throughout our Bible trying to help us understand this because we live in a fallen world, and we’re fallen people who sometimes make really good decisions and sometimes really bad ones.

Maturity through Trial

The book of James tells us that we can actually find joy in the midst of the struggle because of what that struggle produces in us.

James 1:2-4 (NASB)

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have [its] perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

It’s interesting to me that difficulty, trial, and hardship seem to be the essential elements required to produce maturity in us. When we go through a difficult time, our first response is usually to pray that God would remove it. I know that’s certainly my tendency as a parent. As I look at my kids, if they are ever struggling, my first instinct is, “Oh God, would You remove that?”

And yet, if you’ve ever seen your son or daughter go through something hard, and they turn to the Lord, and they learn to pray in heartache, and they learn to seek God in difficulty—when their journal is full of tear-stained pages as they cry out to God—you realize, “On second thought, maybe don’t take it away. But God, would You be their ever-present comfort in their time of need?”

There is a process we go through. Through pain, hardship, and testing, God produces a maturity that a life without hardship would never produce.

The School of the Woodshed

Why do I bring this up? Because for the last fifteen years, David has been going through exactly that. David was anointed king all the way back in 1 Samuel 16, and he has spent the last fifteen years on the run. He’s been one step ahead of death, fleeing for his life, hiding in caves, faking insanity before his enemies, and even aligning himself with his enemies.

In those fifteen years, we’ve seen it all from this guy—the good and the bad. David has made some great decisions and some really terrible ones. We’ve seen times where he prayed and times where he didn’t. We’ve seen times where his circumstances made sense and times where they didn’t. Yet, God was doing something in David’s life through the difficulty, producing in him a maturity and an endurance that would have never been there otherwise.

We’ve quoted this passage several times, but it’s the key to David’s journey.

1 Peter 5:6-7 (NASB)

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

The end goal of life with God is humility. We can get there one of two ways: the easy way, where we humble ourselves, or the hard way, where we are humbled. Either way, as finite creatures before an infinite, sovereign God, we will end up in a place of humility. Peter tells us to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God so that He might exalt us at the proper time. That is what David is learning. He is learning what it means to allow God to raise him up from the ashes at the right time.

A Kingdom Divided

Last week, we saw that King Saul was killed on Mount Gilboa, falling on his own sword. David mourned for him, and then, something beautiful happens in chapter two.

2 Samuel 2:1 (NASB)

Then it came about afterwards that David inquired of the LORD, saying, ‘Shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah?’ And the LORD said to him, ‘Go up.’ So David said, ‘Where shall I go up?’ And He said, ‘To Hebron.’

There are two things worth noting here. First, David has been in a pretty dark place lately. He had been operating in the flesh and making bad decisions. He had been stripped of everything that gave him consolation and was left in the ashes of his own choices. Yet, in verse one, he prays again.

Typically, we tend to be very causal in our relationship with God: “If I do well and pray, God hears me. If I don’t do well, God doesn’t hear me.” That’s not biblically true, but we feel it. I want you to notice that after a series of really bad decisions, David just turns to the Lord, and the Lord answers him. That is beautiful.

Second, notice the humility. Saul is dead, but David isn’t going to make himself king. He is humbling himself, waiting for God to exalt him. “Shall I go up?” “Yes, go.” “Where shall I go?” “Go to Hebron.”

So he goes. In verse four, the men of Judah come to Hebron and anoint David king over the house of Judah. Now, if you’re not familiar with the history, there’s a distinction here between Judah and Israel. Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel) had twelve sons. One of them was Judah. David did his 23andMe DNA test, and sure enough, he’s from the tribe of Judah. At this point, David is king over the South, but the North is a different story.

Not every son of Saul died on Mount Gilboa. One son, Ishbosheth, remained alive. And as is often the case in history, people with power want to keep it. Ishbosheth disregards God’s anointing of David and decides he’s going to be king of the North.

This leads to a civil war that lasts for five to seven years. It’s like a bad episode of Game of Thrones. Everyone is fighting everyone. We see Abner, the commander of Ishbosheth’s army, and Joab, the commander of David’s army, going head-to-head. It’s dark and twisted. At one point, Abner kills Joab’s younger brother, Asahel, in battle. Joab does not forget this.

Grudges and Power Vacuums

As the war goes on, David’s house grows stronger while Saul’s grows weaker. Abner, sensing the shift, decides to switch teams. He has a falling out with Ishbosheth and reaches out to David, saying, “I’ll bring all of Israel to you.” David agrees, but only if Abner brings back David’s former wife, Michal, who had been taken from him. Abner does it.

They feast together and make a covenant. The kingdom is finally coming together. But there’s a problem: Joab finds out. Joab is still holding a grudge over his brother’s death. Without David knowing, Joab pulls Abner aside for a “chat” and murders him in cold blood.

David is grieved. He takes no joy in this bloodshed. He fasts and mourns, and the people notice. The text says that everything the king did pleased the people. That’s saying something, because you can’t get four people to agree on where to go to lunch, let alone an entire nation. David is still a bit of a scoundrel—he’s still collecting wives like trinkets—but he is leading with a different heart than before.

With Abner gone, Ishbosheth is left vulnerable. Two of his own commanders sneak into his room, kill him, and bring his head to David, thinking they’ll get a reward. They clearly hadn’t heard what happened to the last guy who cheered over the death of Saul’s family. David has them executed. He wants a united kingdom, but not through treachery.

The King of All Israel

Finally, after fifteen years of running, waiting, and being humbled, the moment arrives.

2 Samuel 5:1-5 (NASB)

Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, ’Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. ’Previously, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and in. And the LORD said to you, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel, and you will be a ruler over Israel.’’ So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them before the LORD at Hebron; then they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he became king, [and] he reigned forty years. At Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

David is 30 years old. He reigns from Dan to Beersheba—from the top of the country to the bottom. But I want you to think back to the 16-year-old David who was first anointed by Samuel.

How would you describe that teenager? He had chutzpah, sure. But he was all passion and no polish. He was probably arrogant, prideful, and “ready-fire-aim.” He had no business leading a nation.

Now look at the 30-year-old David. He is seasoned. He is humbled. He is allowing God to exalt him rather than taking the throne for himself. What was the difference? The difference was that he spent fifteen years getting kicked in the teeth. He spent fifteen years in the proverbial woodshed.

Those years of desolation and hardship were not lost. Because God is sovereign, those years were purposeful. You could even argue they were mandatory. If you remove those fifteen years of suffering, David is not prepared to lead at the level God required.

My Own Fresno Story

I wonder if you can look back at your own life and see seasons of difficulty and ask, “God, what were You showing me?”

I think about my own life. I rewind the tapes to early 1993. I was playing football at Fresno State, I was a captain of the team, and I hated it. I was this close to walking away from a full-ride scholarship because I’d rather have been the president of a fraternity. I was about to make the dumbest decision of my life. I was a moral wreck, living a life of complete indulgence. All flesh, no spirit.

Then, a buddy invited me to an FCA event for free food. I went for the meal and I left with eternal life. As I started reading my Bible, I realized God had a plan for my life, including my sexuality and my character. I started a Bible study called Operation Timothy. It was supposed to take twelve weeks; it took me a year because I couldn’t stay sober.

Eventually, I ended up on staff at a church. My responsibilities far exceeded my character. I thought I knew everything. I’d known the Lord for about three days and I was already arguing with my pastor. One day, the lead pastor asked me, “Are you a company man?” I told him I’d go wherever God called me. He said, “Right. We’re letting you go. Here’s a box, clean out your office.”

I was destroyed. I was sitting at the Fresno Bible House crying into my coffee. I ended up moving to Texas for a discipleship program and eventually went to Dallas Theological Seminary. Talk about being humiliated—I was intellectually crushed. I was in a small group with guys who were true scholars, and I realized I knew nothing.

When it came time to move back to Fresno, I told Mitch Rivera, “Not a chance. Those people know me.” I was embarrassed by who I had been. But Mitch gave me a book called Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. The principle of the book is that God put King Saul in David’s life to kill the “King Saul” inside of David.

I realized God hadn’t wasted any of those experiences. Every bad decision, every person I dishonored—it could all be used for His glory if I would face it. I came back to Fresno with my tail between my legs. There isn’t a week that goes by that I’m not reminded of who I was, because I pastor in my hometown. Many of you went to high school with me. You were at Willikers with me. You have the stories. (Just remember, I’ve got yours too!)

The Beauty of the Gospel

I look back at that 1993 version of myself and I know I would never be the man I am today without the hardship and the trial. I praise God for the woodshed.

God is doing something in your life for His glory and your ultimate good. But you have to be open to the process. He wants to show you the arrogance, the pride, the jealousy, or the greed. Why? Because He has something for you. He doesn’t want you to stay who you were.

Does God work everything to the good of those who love Him? Absolutely. Is it an easy ride? Absolutely not. But our God is faithful. Because He is sovereign, He is not through with you, and He is not through with me. What God has begun, He will be faithful to complete.

Let’s pray.

Father in Heaven, what a gift it is to be a part of the gospel that makes old things new. Lord, as You continue to have Your way with us and change us, thank You that it is You who is at work in us. We open ourselves to that. God, we don’t want to be who we’ve been. We want to be made new. By Your grace, for those who are in Christ, may we indeed be new creatures. Old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. In Jesus’ name, Amen.