Sunday School | David - 2 Samuel 2

Alright. So we are continuing our series. We're studying the life of David. We finally crossed the line here into the second half of the story. We're in Second Samuel. Last week, Bob closed up book one and began book two, and he did a fantastic job. I really appreciate all that you shared and the focus you brought to how this points to Christ's life. Everything about David, this king, points to the king that is coming, and it was fantastic content there, Bob, so thank you.

We're gonna be in chapter two. However, before we do, I just want to let you know I have a resource here, and I don't have enough for everybody, although I can make more if you want them. But up here on this table, after the service, if you want to grab one: as we begin Holy Week, the Passion Week of Christ, it's reasonable and natural and good that we would direct our minds to the crucifixion of Jesus. This is the week that really begins in a focused way our paying attention to the death of Jesus. It's a pretty big scene in the Gospels, right? Not only is it the obvious climax, but the Gospel writers—if you read through them, like John has 21 chapters—if you go through John's Gospel, he gets to this week and his first three years of Jesus' life get 11 chapters, the last seven days get the other 10, right? This, it's all about right now.

What we're celebrating this morning of Palm Sunday, this time that Jesus enters into Jerusalem and is declared to be king by a very fickle crowd, this starts our particular focused march to the cross. And Jesus' death is what the whole thing is about.

So I went through, a little while ago, the New Testament and I just made note. I just marked every verse in the New Testament that reflects on Jesus' death. And this is them—I don't know, seven, eight pages, 10 pages of every passage on Jesus' death. And I find this—I saw this. I pull this out from time to time and go and read through it and think, when the New Testament reflects on Jesus' death, what does it say? What are the implications? Where does this go? And of course, it's all comprehensive. And so I just made like 30 copies of this. If you want to grab one, they're here up front and it might serve you for this week. If you're spending time in the Scriptures this week, perhaps this might be where you would be. And just every day go through a page and ponder and consider: what does the Bible say about the death of Christ as the center of all things? So these will be up here if you want to grab one after the service or after this class.

But otherwise we're going be in Second Samuel. So open your Bibles to Second Samuel. We're really going be in chapter two. Bob took us into the beginning of chapter one. What's the event that Bob talked about last week? What happened? Saul died. Saul's dead. We've been waiting for this for a very long time, right?

So David has been anointed to be king, but he doesn't get to be king until the old king is dead. Along with the king, right? The old king is dead. And so finally, he's died and David's response to that is really appropriate. He grieves and he mourns, for as he has consistently said for years and years, Saul is the Lord's anointed and he's not going to lay a hand on him. And so when he dies, he doesn't dance on his grave, he grieves. And not only is Saul dead, but who else is dead? Jonathan. His best friend, right? And so David enters into this time of grieving, and that's really what you see in chapter one: he grieves the death of Saul, grieves the death of Jonathan. But now it's time to pivot. It is time to move.

So what do you think are the most pressing questions that David would be facing now that Saul is finally dead? What do you think? Are you king? Okay. So does he get to be king now? It's a major thing, right? Is it go time? Absolutely.

What else? There's a couple things. Not only is the old king dead, but Saul has another role in David's life besides king. What is Saul's other role in David's life? Father-in-law. Okay. Father-in-law, that's true. That wasn't what I was thinking of, that's absolutely true.

How does David experience Saul for the last 15 chapters? Antagonist. His antagonist, his pursuer. He's the one who made him flee from Israel, right? And so what's the question that would flow from that? If Saul is dead, what's David going to wonder? His family. Yeah. How's his family going to go? But what might David want to do that he couldn't do as long as Saul was alive? Come back. Right? He wants to come back to Judah. He wants to come back to Israel. He's been living out with the Philistines. Maybe he's been running around, he's on the hiding, he's living in caves. And now it's like, can I go home? Like, if my pursuer is dead, can I come back?

Chapter two is about all of those questions. The king is dead, the pursuer is dead, do I get to go home? Where should I go? Will I be enthroned as king? What's happening? This is a big transition period for David. So that's where we're going to take a look.

Oh, by the way, where do you think David's gonna go to get his answers to those questions? God. He's gonna seek the Lord. This is just very consistent with David. We're gonna see now that everything has changed, this fundamental aspect of who David is doesn't change at all.

Take a look at chapter two verse one:

In the course of time, David inquired of the Lord, "Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?" He asked. And the Lord said, "Go up." And David asked, "Well, where shall I go?" And the answer is to Hebron. — 2 Samuel 2:1

Which is so interesting. I'm not sure that I would have thought of that. We'll talk about why that's significant in a minute. And so in verse two:

David went up there with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And David also took the men who were with him, each with his family, and they settled in Hebron and its towns. — 2 Samuel 2:2

So the answer is yes, go home. You can go back in. You don't have to hang out with all these Philistines anymore, and I want you to go to Hebron. Does that city have any significance to you? Do you know why there?

The Significance of Hebron

So Hebron is what is known as a city of refuge, and this is a funny little Old Testament thing that we may not know too much about. You might remember this—we studied this with the fellows. The Levites are given special towns. The Levites are the priests. They don't get a region. All twelve sons get their own kind of state or county because it's kind of small, but some region—this is Judah, this is Benjamin, you know, whatever, Manasseh, this is Ephraim, these different places—but the Levites don't get any. They are the priests and they have cities scattered throughout all of them, but some of their cities are special.

Take a look at Numbers thirty-five, verse nine. This is the history you have to know if you're gonna understand why David goes to Hebron:

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Speak to the Israelites and say to them, 'When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, select some towns to be your cities of refuge to which a person who has killed someone accidentally may flee. They will be places of refuge from the avenger so that a person accused of murder may not die before he stands trial before the assembly. These six towns that you give will be your cities of refuge. Give three on this side of the Jordan and three in Canaan as cities of refuge. These six towns will be a place of refuge for the Israelites, aliens, and any other people living among them so that anyone who has killed another accidentally can flee there.'" — Numbers 35:9-15

It's gonna seem strange to our sense of jurisprudence, but if I kill George, George's family members can essentially issue retribution against me. They're sometimes called kinsman redeemer, also called the avenger of blood. So if I kill you, you want to be the avenger of blood? If Terry comes after me, she can kill me, and it's fair game, right? Unless I can make it to the City of Refuge. The City of Refuge is base. Once you're on base, nobody can touch you. You stay there and wait there, and it's interesting—as long as you're inside the city, nobody can touch you.

Now, they can hold a trial to slow the thing down because Terry in her white hot rage might come after me not realizing that it was completely accidental, there was no cause. And so we want a place where we're going to slow the system down, where everything's going to be okay. Slow down, relax, nobody can kill anybody. Let's sort this out. Then we can hold the trial. And then you stay there until the high priest dies, which is interesting symbolism.

What kept them as cities of refuge? So it's interesting. There's all kinds of rules that Israel is given that they completely disregard. They never ever do. As far as we know, this one they kept. Hebron became a city of refuge. There were other cities where they really followed these rules. And I don't know historically, but there was a rule—do you know this?—every forty-nine years all debts are cancelled. It's called the year of jubilee. All the debts are cancelled. Everybody returns to their land, whatever you've sold into debt to get yourself out of it, you get it all back. They never did it. Not once. They never followed that rule. This one they followed. So some they did, some they didn't. My guess would be the ones they found to their liking they kept. Right? Does that sound familiar? And the ones they didn't, they didn't.

Cities of Refuge: Protection and Justice

So for the city of refuge, just watch this—it's so interesting.

If a man strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, he's a murderer and that murderer shall be put to death. If anyone has a stone in his hand that could kill and he strikes someone so he dies, he's a murderer, he should be put to death. — 2 Samuel 2:16, et al.

He goes through all these sorts of things that can happen, but then he gives what we would consider manslaughter down in verse 22. But look at this:

If the accused, which would be me in this case, ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he has fled, the avenger of blood finds him outside the city, the avenger of blood may kill the accused without being guilty of murder. The accused must stay in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest, and only after the death of the high priest may he return to his property. — 2 Samuel 2:26

We're not going to spend much more time on this, but every year with the fellows, we walk through the scriptures to see how all of it points to Christ. Not just the life of David, but all of it does. And these cities of refuge are just this fascinating portrait. There is a place where the accused may go and they're safe, they're rescued. Jesus is that city of refuge. If we're hidden in him, we're safe, but apart from him, there's great danger. And then you stay in that city until the high priest dies, which I think itself is a picture that one day the high priest, the great high priest will die, and once he dies we're safe anyway. We flee to him for refuge, and he's the one who gives us this safety.

So that's what a city of refuge is in broad terms.

It's interesting that Joshua gave Hebron to Caleb as part of the priesthood. Yes. So Hebron is also—remember Joshua and Caleb? These are the two guys that when the twelve spies go out, ten of them are all, "This is terrible. Everybody's going to kill us. We're like grasshoppers on their side." Joshua and Caleb are the two guys that are, "No. Let's trust the Lord. He said he would give it to us. Let him give it to us." And then Caleb is given this particular city. So Hebron is a city of refuge, it's a Levite city—all the cities of refuge are Levite cities—it's a Caleb city, and so David is sent to go there.

Why David Goes to Hebron

Now, why would David be sent to a city of refuge at this moment in time? What might be going on here? Why would he need to be in a place where everybody slows the thing down and there's no avenging of blood?

All of the officers of Saul, all of his second in commands, would probably be wondering about this transition period and wondering if they'll keep their status. It's such a complex situation. When Saul is dead, now there's going to be a whole big question: who's going to be the king? How's the new king going to come about? And there's also in that this undercurrent of, "Did David conspire against Saul?" And if you've been reading the book, you're like, "He said like five hundred times, 'I'll never lay a hand on the Lord's anointed.'" Nevertheless, when the old king dies, the new king's under suspicion. Right? What are you doing? This author is very at great pains to say, "Now David wasn't—he was a hundred miles away, he had nothing to do with it." Well, maybe he was and maybe he wasn't. And so God sends him to a place where no avenger of blood can come and get him. Does that make sense? So that's why I think he goes to Hebron.

And also, at that point, everybody's going to want to grab power. Absolutely. And we're going to see the way the story plays out—you might think in your sweet naivete that now that the old king is dead, everybody's like, "Alright, David, your turn, step right up." But that's not the way the world works, right?

And now there's going to be a vie for the throne. Who's going to be the king? We'll watch what happens.

So the big issue now is who's gonna be the king. Take a look at verse four.

When David was told that it was the men of Jabesh Gilead who had buried Saul, he sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead to say to them, the Lord bless you for showing this kindness to Saul your master by burying him. May the Lord now show you kindness and faithfulness, and I too will show you the same favor because you have done this. Now then, be strong and brave, for Saul your master is dead and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them. — 2 Samuel 2:4-7

What is David doing with the Jabesh Gilead crowd? Why is he thanking them for their kindness to Saul? To get them into his camp. Right? He is trying to curry favor to get them into his camp, but he is also sincere about this.

You watch this human nature play out every time like a Supreme Court justice dies. And though we have an apolitical Supreme Court, it seems like there's some sense of whose side you're on. Have you ever noticed this? When Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies and a Republican says something snippy, we all jump all over him because he just shouldn't do that. And when Scalia dies and a Democrat says something snippy, we all jump all over him. There should be a sense across the political spectrum that even if they're not on your team, there's honor and respect.

You know that's what we wish was the case, and maybe if you've got a good PR person and you're on the opposing team, your Twitter person will send out something about how much you honor their contribution. But secretly you know you're like, nope, I am so glad they're dead. Right? That's this phenomenon. This is across the board.

But David here—he's really not secretly so glad he's dead. He has been saying, "This is the Lord's anointed. I'm not going to touch him." Right? And so in this moment, he might be suspected to be sending off tweets to his friends that he's not publicizing. But what he's doing here is he's saying, listen, you honored the king and that is good and we honor you.

And then it says in verse seven something significant:

Now then, be strong and brave, for Saul your master is dead and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them. — 2 Samuel 2:7

What is that about? The house of Judah has anointed me king. What's going on with that? Is this good news or bad news? There are 10 other tribes. There's 10 other tribes, or 11, depending on how you count where Benjamin lies. So there are other tribes.

So David had been anointed king—did we say? Fifteen years ago, king over what? The whole thing. It's all his, right? He's supposed to be king over the whole nation and now he's been anointed king over Judah. It would be like if you were elected president of the United States and you're ruling over Texas or something, right? It's like, well, what about the other 49? How are we doing?

That's what we're about to see. You might have expected that finally Saul is dead, David is king. This is not going to play out that way. It's going to take a little bit more of an effort.

The Characters You Need to Know

There's going to be some distinct sides. This is where it's going to be helpful to get some characters straight.

Does anybody remember who's David's commander? Who's David's military guy? Joab. Okay. You gotta keep a couple names straight. Joab is David's guy. So you remember this: DJ. David and Joab. David is king over Judah, and the military guy over Judah is Joab. So the D's and J's are over on this side. David and Judah and Joab. Got it?

The other side is Israel. Do you know who the standard bearer for Israel is gonna become? Ishbosheth. Okay, so I's and I's. You've got I's over here.

On the other side, you're going to have over Israel, Ishbosheth, and do you know who his military guy and sponsor is? Abner. So it's not an I, but at least it's a vowel. You've got I's and A's.

You've got D's and J's over there, and vowels over here. You're going to want to keep this straight because when you read through the story, you're going to get lost. At least, maybe you don't have my disorder. I have a horrible time—I do not recommend this at all—but whenever I read anything at all, I just skip all proper nouns and am endlessly confused. Some dude said this, and somebody went somewhere, and then I'm like, "Wait, what's happening?"

This has been true for like forty years, and I can't tell you how handicapping it is to read like that. So you gotta keep Joab and Abner distinct. They're on opposite sides of the team. Ishbosheth—the vowels, I's and A's over here, J's over there. There's a lot of weird names in the Bible. My favorite is Meher Shalal Hashbaz, which means "quick to the plunder, swift to the spoil." Can you imagine naming your kid that? I don't know what they'd call him, speedy or something.

Okay, so with your names straight, we're gonna watch—there's gonna be intrigue here. You're gonna have David versus Ishbosheth. You're gonna have Joab versus Abner. And there's gonna be a lot of conflict here. We'll see how it plays out.

So go to verse eight. Chapter two, verse eight.

Meanwhile, Abner son of Ner, the commander of Saul's army, had taken Ishbosheth, son of Saul, and brought him to Mahanaim. And he made him king over Gilead, Ashurah, Jezreel, and also over Ephraim, Benjamin, and all Israel. And Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, was 40 years old when he became king over Israel, and he reigned for two years. The house of Judah, however, followed David and the length of time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. — 2 Samuel 2:8-11

It's a little bit hard to reconcile two years here and seven and a half years here. What we think is that those two years were at the end, that for about five years, nobody was king over Israel. It lines up not like this but like this. You with me? So if it's true that it took five years for Israel to have a king, who was reigning over those lands in the meantime? The Philistines, right? They killed Saul. And so what happens when you kill the king? You're the man, alright? So it's probably the case—we don't have a lot of historical data on this, but it's probably for those five years the Philistines are like, "David Shmavid, it's ours. We killed Saul. David didn't kill Saul. We did. It's our land." And it took a while, maybe under Abner's leadership, and maybe David's gonna have to come in, but it's probably the case that during this whole thing it's not just that David dies and the new guy comes in—the enemy comes in, right? And so it's a sloppy time, it's a painful time, it's a messy time. It's not generally good news when your king dies.

But David's made king over Judah, whatever's going down in Israel, and then finally it's time and the power's going to begin to coalesce. Now we're gonna see if David can become king over all of it. And the answer is, of course, yes. But not yet. We got a little bit of work to do.

The United Kingdom and the Future Split

So there's kind of like a split between Israel and Judah at this point, but I thought that didn't happen until later. Right. So the Kingdom of Israel is a united kingdom under three kings. Do you know who they are? Saul, David, and Solomon. They reign over the whole thing—all 12 tribes. Then after Solomon dies, you're gonna get this split between two guys. Do you remember their names? Jeroboam and Rehoboam. So Jeroboam and Rehoboam, and the nation's gonna split. In American terms, it's like the North and the South. They have a civil war, except there's not actually a war. They don't fight each other. They just kind of decide they don't like each other and they get a divorce. You have the northern tribes—the 10 northern tribes, most of Israel, most of the land mass—and then just the two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin. The northern tribes are gonna keep the name.

So the North keeps the name and then the South doesn't call itself Israel, it just calls itself Judah, right? But they keep the promise. It's from Judah. It's from the kings of Judah that the Messiah is gonna come. So the North gets Israel, the name Israel, but the South is really the faithful tribe. That's coming and this is in some way an anticipation of that. You get a sense perhaps that there's already fault lines, right? That even though we're like a hundred years away from that happening, you already get a sense that maybe there are some distinct cultures, some distinct loyalties, a ease that Judah is David's guy. I mean, David is like Judah's all on board for David, and maybe the North is a little more skeptical. So it's probably whatever kind of natural fault lines exist there are gonna be more exploited when Solomon's finally dead. So it does kind of anticipate it.

It even says that Ishbosheth was made king at that point. Yeah. We almost never—it's almost like, you know, Saul, David, and Solomon, and then this little also ran Ishbosheth, and I think that's probably because Ishbosheth, which is hard to say, was just singularly ineffective. His reign was two years, it was a limited reign, and he wasn't very effective. We're gonna see more of his failings in chapter three, but he's kind of a footnote of history, you know, not the real thing.

So this opposition to David's kingship does coalesce, and it coalesces around this one guy, our boy Ishbosheth. So he's the son of Saul, and that's something, right, in a monarchy. But we'll save it for next week.

We gotta end early because it's Palm Sunday, so we gotta move quick. Let me tell you what I want you to see. Go to verse 12.

Abner son of Ner, together with the men of Ishbosheth son of Saul, they leave this place, they go to Gibeon. Joab and David's men go out to fight and meet them at the Pool Of Gibeon. — 2 Samuel 2:12

You can see it's already coming. There's two clear factions. There's team David, there's team Ishbosheth, and they're gonna fight. And what they choose to do is have this weird, kind of direct combat. You get a dozen men from each tribe, and we're gonna go up and fight, and whoever wins, wins. And do you know what happens when they do this? Nobody wins. Why does nobody win? They all kill each other. There's like 12 guys on 12 guys, they each stab each other and they all fall dead. It's like, well, now we don't know what to do. And so you know what they do? Now it's open battle, and they go. And there's huge conflict. These are all—we've been used to fighting against the Philistines, this is the North and the South. This is inter-tribal war, this is like our team, this is the people of God fighting against the people of God, is always a wretched tragic thing.

The battle that day was very fierce and Abner and the men of Israel were defeated by David's men. — 2 Samuel 2:17

What do you think that comment is meant to show? Once they get down to the 12 on 12 and its stalemate, what's going happen? Is Judah going to win? What is that preparing us for? Do you know what's happening? This is gonna happen throughout chapter two and chapter three, so you're gonna begin to see—right now we don't know who's gonna win. David is going to ascend and Ishbosheth is going to descend. The people fighting for Judah are gonna win, the people fighting for Israel are gonna lose, and David's kingdom is gonna overcome. We're seeing—we've been waiting, we think it's gonna happen, it's not gonna happen easily, but it's going to happen because David is anointed. David has been anointed king over the whole thing. So you just gotta go clean up the mess.

The Personal Conflict

And then a very personal conflict happens. This is what I want you to see before we close out of here. Who are the main guys over here on the David side? Who are our characters? David and Joab, right? And this is on what's the other J? Judah. So over here on the Judah side, get David and Joab is the guy. And then who's the main military guy over here on the Israel side? Abner. Okay. Now Abner and Joab are going to be not real close.

Three sons of Zeriah were there. Joab, over here, he's the David guy, Abishai and Asahel. — 2 Samuel 2:18

You've got to say Asahel very carefully, by the way.

Now, Asahel was as fleet footed as a wild gazelle. He chased Abner. — 2 Samuel 2:18

That's this guy over here, right? So Joab's brother starts going after Abner and the problem is Joab's brother is quick and he chases him and chases him and chases him.

He chased Abner turning neither to the right nor to the left as he pursued him. — 2 Samuel 2:19

Abner looked behind him and said, "Is that you, Asahel?" "It is," said Asahel. And Abner said to him, "Turn aside to the right or the left. Take one of the young men and strip him of his weapons." But Asahel would not stop chasing him.

Why do you think Abner doesn't want Asahel to chase him? Because Abner's gonna kill him if he does. Abner's gonna win and he knows what happens—what's gonna happen if the commander of team Israel kills the brother of the commander of team Judah? It's gonna be on. It's gonna be on.

Now, Asahel is fast, but this is a military man. He's chasing a military guy and he's like, "Stop it, just stop it." One more step, just stop it. And then he tries to stop him without killing him. Look at what he does.

Again, Abner warns him in verse 22, "Stop chasing me. Why should I strike you down? How could I look your brother Joab in the face?" — 2 Samuel 2:22

This is going to mean like open war. So this is just, can we not do this? But Asahel refused to give up the pursuit, and so Abner thrusts the butt of his spear—not the pointy side, but the blunt side. He goes after him to stop him, but not to kill him. He's trying to de-escalate.

But the spear butt Abner thrust into Asahel's stomach and the spear came out through his back and he fell there and died on the spot. — 2 Samuel 2:23

This is gruesome. This is wretched. I don't know how fast this dude is. This is like the blunt end of the stick—it comes in him, through him, and out his back. It's so gross that these military men, who are used to blood-splattered fields, when everybody gets there, look what it says:

He fell there and died on the spot and every man stopped when he came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died. — 2 Samuel 2:23

It's a weird death. It's gross. It wasn't what he was trying to do, but it is what he did. Maybe the boy is just so quick, but whatever it is, too much force is applied and he dies.

And as you would expect, Joab's like, "You just killed my brother." And so in verse 24:

Joab and Abishai pursued Abner, as the sun was setting, they came to this hill and they're just, it's on, it's gonna go. They rally themselves under group, they take a stand. — 2 Samuel 2:24

But Abner—who is wisely, he's on the bad guy, right? We're on team Judah, okay? We want Judah to win, we want David to be king. But Abner is an honorable man. He's on the wrong side, but he's on his home team, right? It's a little bit, not exactly like, but we struggle in The United States to try to make sense of the Civil War. There's so much grief and misery and sin and wretchedness to go around.

If you look at a guy like Robert E. Lee, by all accounts Robert E. Lee was an honorable man. Right? And I'm in Virginia, so it's probably safer to say that here than in some places. They tried to recruit Robert E. Lee to fight for the North, but he's like, "Dude, listen, I'm not going to fight against Virginia." Abner—the impression we get of Abner is that he's fighting for the home team, but he's an honorable guy and he's trying to de-escalate.

Even after he's killed Asahel, he still wants to kind of slow this thing down. And so in verse 26 he calls out to Joab:

"Must the sword devour forever? Don't you realize that this will end in bitterness? How long before you order your men to stop pursuing your brothers?" — 2 Samuel 2:26

For the second time, maybe the third, but at least the second time in this book, this happens. Tell me if this reminds you of anything.

Joab answered, "As surely as God lives, if you had not spoken, the men would have continued the pursuit of their brothers until morning." — 2 Samuel 2:27

Does that remind you of anything? Yeah. Where is it? David with his second wife. Yes, David with who? With Abigail. This is the same speech that Abigail gives. He's like, "Put on your swords. We're gonna go kill Nabal." And Abigail sends up like a million sheep and fig cakes and stuff, and she's like, "Don't do it. Why shed innocent blood? Just de-escalate." And David's like, "You know what? You're right. I was gonna kill everybody, but now I won't. Thanks for the Fig Newtons."

And that is happening here. So you're meant to be reminded of that and be like, "Oh, that was a good thing. That was a Godly thing. That was a transformative moment where we step back from the cliff." And it's happening again. So it should elevate Abner in your mind, but also elevate Joab—that the men here, they are trying not to go to all-out war, or trying to calm this thing down.

Nevertheless, it's still going to get ugly. Lines are drawn, two sides are formed. Who's winning right now? Does it seem like Judah? Judah's winning, right? But what's the death count? Did you see that? Have we looked at that yet?

Go to verse 30. Take a look. The author is preparing us for this.

Then Joab returned from pursuing Abner and assembled all his men. And beside Asahel, 19 of David's men were found missing. — 2 Samuel 2:30

Missing means dead. 19. But David's men had killed 360 Benjamites who were with Abner. Of those 19, we can account for 12, right? 12 of them died in that mutual knife stabbing. So they only lost seven people in open battle whereas the other guy lost 348. It's a rout.

And again, the picture is here. It's coming. And really by the end of next week—two weeks, because we won't have class on Easter—the week after Easter we'll look at chapter three and the kingdom is about to finally, after years of waiting and then another seven years of distress, David's finally gonna become king. That was rushed because we're pressed for time and I couldn't allow you guys to speak, so I apologize for that. Normally we have much more interaction, but I wanted to get through that before we get ready to go to Palm Sunday.

But that's where we're at. We're transitioning. David's about to become king. It's just gonna be a little bit harder, but there's some godly men on each side trying to bring this about in a fresh way.

So, up here, the death of Jesus. You wanna reflect on Jesus' death this week? This is what every time the New Testament does. Come grab one of these. And if you're coming to church, grab palms. We wanna go in and we're gonna celebrate, and Quig will lead us in.