Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Year 1, Day 319: 2 Samuel 2

Failure to be Humble

In 2 Samuel 2 we discover the true assumption of David as king.  But even here David is not without challenge.  The road is not easy for David.  Saul’s general does not desire David as a king so he anoints another king.  Rivalries begin.

I’m going to make a statement here, but before I do I am going to confess that this statement is an obvious over-simplification.  Here’s the statement: This whole chapter is the result of people desiring their own will rather than humbling to seek out the will of God.  Had the Hebrew people sought out the will of God, this rivalry and the war among the Hebrew people would not have taken place.

I can make this over-simplification because in its most basic sense it is true.  In spite of modern contemporary opinion, there actually is often a correct answer: there is God’s answer. 

Yes, in some situations we have liberty and should approach those with grace.  As an example, think of wine vs. grape juice for communion.  I don’t think God genuinely cares what people use for Communion. 

But in other circumstances there is a right and a wrong.  When it comes to the Lord’s Anointed who will be king over His people, there is actually a correct answer.  There is the one God has chosen.  In this case, there is a right answer and his name is David, not Ishbosheth.

Abner, and especially the tribe of Benjamin, do not humble themselves to God’s will.  They do not stop to inquire from God about the direction that they want to go.  They do not think about anything other than their desire to have a king from their own tribe on the throne.  Their pride leads them right past God’s will and into the rejection of God’s will.  Their refusal to humble themselves and genuinely seek out God’s will causes them to completely miss the boat about what God desires.

This is so true in our Christian lives today.  How often do churches get embroiled in debates among their members and nobody stops to inquire about the will of the Lord?  How often do we get into arguments at congregational meetings with people asserting their will in conflict with others and nobody pauses to check out the will of the Lord?  How many times does this happen between believers of different congregations?  A member of one congregation rashly calls down judgment on the practices of another congregation without pausing to reflect if God’s will might actually be in the other congregation’s practice?  Our sinful human instinct of asserting ourselves without pausing to ascertain God’s will gets us into an almost immeasurable amount of trouble.

Ishbosheth as a Case Study

In an attempt to continue to make this point, let’s turn to look at Abner’s choice in Ishbosheth.  The name Ishbosheth literally means “man of shame.”  This seriously brings up the question of what parent names their child something like this?  Keep in mind that Ishbosheth was Saul’s son!  However, when we look at this name more deeply we find that Ishbosheth was actually also known by another name: Eshbaal (or sometimes translated Ishbaal).  You can see 1 Chronicles 8:33 as evidence of this.  The name Eshbaal would mean “Ba’al exists” while the name Ishbaal would mean “man of Ba’al.”  Keep in mind that Ba’al was one of the leading Canaanite gods.

This brings a bit of perspective back into the life of Saul and his choice of Abner as general.  What godly king over God’s people would readily name their son “Ba’al exists” or even worse “man of Ba’al?”  For that matter, what godly general would desire to anoint someone named “Ba’al exists” or “man of Ba’al” as king over the people of God?  This more than anything else proves to me just how uninterested Abner and the Benjaminites were in following God’s ways.  They assert themselves over God’s will.

Consequences

What is the result of Abner’s refusal to humble himself to God’s will?  Conflict and sorrow abound.  That should really make sense.  Sinful behavior doesn’t often end in peace.  Sinful behavior leads to problems and conflict with those who readily choose God’s ways.  This conflict can also be internal – hence our need for the word “conviction” in the English language.  When we are behaving sinfully we are internally at conflict with the Holy Spirit.  If we are in conflict with the Holy Spirit, we need the conviction of the Holy Spirit to bring us back to God.

This chapter should be a warning to all who desire to seek their own will without pausing to check what God’s will really and truly happens to be.


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