The Goodness of God

Welcome to our Women's Bible Study on 2 Samuel, which is called The Reigning King. Today we're going to finish the book of 2 Samuel. And you know that the last four chapters in this book have been challenging, a little bit difficult. When something is difficult, at least if you can organize it, that makes it go down a little bit better. And this has been organized, which we've talked about on page 95 in your study guide, and I'll put it on the screen. Remind you of this chiasm, it's a Hebrew way of organizing material where there's a mirror image from top to bottom and then inward and inward. And so this week we're going to pick it up on what is C-David's psalm from his last days and we're going to finish the last three. And I think there's some really great stuff in here, I think we'll be a little bit surprised. So chiastic element number four, it starts with chapter 23, goes like this. Now these are the last words of David, which does not mean, these are the very last words that came out of his mouth. This is more like in our culture what we would say, a last will and testament. You know, where in your will you might talk in the first person. This is more of a prepared statement. And I want us to note that he doesn't start off by saying, I have been the king of Israel for, he starts off in a much more humble manner. Look at this.

What a positive attitude he has here. Look, we know what his life has been like. His life has not all been sunshine and rainbows. But yet look at these metaphors that he is declaring, it's because of the Lord. God has breathed goodness over him, over those who trust in the Lord, over those who live in the fear of the Lord. And so I've decided to call this week's lesson, the goodness of God, the goodness of God. This is what David is talking about here.

So once again, just like the last psalm in this chiasm, David compares the righteous to the worthless here. By this time in his life now, he knows that he is not sinless, but he knows that he is righteous. And that is something for us to remember as well. We know that we are not sinless, but are we righteous? Well, if we have placed our trust in the blood of Jesus Christ to cover our sins, we are indeed righteous, even though we're not sinless. Okay, so then chiastic element number five is about David's heroes and their exploits. And we know that in life, nobody wins alone. You need a team. And David is giving credit to his team here. And this as well is organized. We see David's three, and we see the 30. And you probably have the same thing in your life. Do you maybe not have a handful of very, very close friends? And then maybe you have more that are more than acquaintances. They're friends, but you have the three and the 30 in the same way. And so verses 8 to 12 tell us about the three, who they were, and how loyally they served. But as we like to say, a picture is worth a thousand words. And that's what the writer wanted to do here, is give us a picture of how loyal they were to David. So verse 13,

This should ring a bell with us, Bethlehem is David's childhood town, okay? He's in the stronghold, provisions in the stronghold are probably fairly bleak. He doesn't have like everything he ever could have wanted. And his mind here is probably wandering back, thinking about Bethlehem, where the enemy is, probably wandering back to childhood days. Don't we do that? There are tastes and sounds and smells of childhood that mean a lot to us. Just the other day in staff meeting, we were talking about the morning doves, we have a lot of morning doves on our property. And Paul was mentioning how he doesn't particularly care for their sound, but one day last summer he stepped outside and there was a meadowlark. And of course we're prairie kids, and so he heard the meadowlark and it just transports you back to a simpler time, a better time maybe in life. And so we think here that David is thinking about that sweet taste of water from the well at Bethlehem. And he says in verse 15,

And then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and they drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and carried it and brought it to David. What a daring and courageous thing for them to do. They risked their lives just to raise the morale of their commander. But David would not drink of it. He poured it out to the Lord and he said,

And on the surface of reading that, we're disappointed. We think that it seems somewhat ungrateful to those men. But David wanted to be thoroughly encouraged by the goodness of God, not merely satisfied by an appetite or by a passion. And so he took this and he poured it out as a sacrifice, as a drink offering to the Lord, which honestly is about the highest honor. He could give those men who sacrificed for him is then as a team to sort of sacrifice to the Lord. So the reminder here or the remainder of this chapter lists the 30. We talked about the three and now the 30 and there's some specific examples of their exploits like Abishai wielded his spear against 300 men and killed them. That's a big deal. One guy against 300. That gets your name in the Bible. And then it says, um, Benaiah struck down a lion in a pit on a snowy day. Well, I, I'm not sure you get your name in the Bible for striking down a line, but if it's a snowy day that just elevates it. And then, and also he killed a handsome Egyptian again, an Egyptian is one point, a handsome Egyptian is 10 X. And so their sticker books were full, like they really, that's what gets you in the Bible. It's kind of fun to have fun with the word once in a while. You won't forget the handsome Egyptian anytime soon, will you? But the last name on this list is Uriah the Hittite. And so now the laughter stops and we're reminded, I think it's purposeful that the author ended it with Uriah. And it reminds us of two things in life that while our sins may be forgiven by the Lord, history has not changed. We still live with the history. On the flip side, we're also reminded that we can be righteous even though we're not sinless. And this is a reminder to us that David was not sinless. And so now we come to the last chapter in 2 Samuel, end of our Bible study. And I just want to prepare you that the main importance of this chapter is to act as a bridge between what we have seen that it was David's desire to build a house for the Lord and Solomon will actually build the house for the Lord. That's our next study. It's going to be 1 Kings 1-11 called Solomon and the House of the Lord. We're basically going to take the life of Solomon, who we have not heard about again in the end of 2 Kings, but we will very soon. So chiastic element number six is David's sin against the census law, which produces a plague. Chapter 24,

Okay, what's going on? The key idea seems to be this numbering, this counting, which quickly we're going to see, seems to be a negative thing. But first, already we're troubled by this anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. God inciting David seems unbelievable to us. We checked in our study guide, didn't we, the companion passage in First Chronicles, and there it said Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. So which is it? Did God incite him or did Satan incite him? Well, we have a few clues in the word, and this is why it's wonderful that we go back and forth from the Old Testament to the New Testament, because James informs us in James 1.13 that God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. Okay, so we can cross that off. But we wonder, could this be similar to what we read about in Job, where Satan comes and says, well, of course, Job is all righteous before you. Nothing bad has ever happened, and the Lord allowed Satan to trouble Job in order for him to see what was under the surface. God always knows what's under the surface in our lives. We don't always know. So we wonder if this could be, we do have biblical evidence of the Lord allowing Satan to incite, to bring trouble, and again, to reveal the layers underneath. So what was the temptation? Counting people? That hardly seems like an evil against the Lord. But see, that's one of our problems, is we read the Bible all these thousands of years later, and we filter the Bible through our circumstances, through our experiences, through our culture, and we say, well, there's nothing wrong with that. That's a problem. We need to say, well, what is wrong with that? And so we have to process that, otherwise we get stuck in the mud. Look, even Joab knows here in a minute that this is a terrible idea. And Joab is not known for his very tender conscience, is he? So if Joab says, no, don't do it, something is really amuck here. Verse three, Joab says, may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are. Will the eyes of my Lord the King still see it? In other words, while you're still alive. But why does my Lord the King delight in this thing? In Chronicles, in the companion passage, Joab said, why should it be the cause of guilt for Israel? Oh, something is about to happen that's gonna cause guilt on Israel. This is where it begins to run parallel in our minds to that first, the top element of the chiasm, the business with Saul and how he failed to uphold the covenant with the Gibeonites that brought guilt upon Israel. So this census is really bothering Joab. And at the moment, he's showing better judgment than David, which is saying a lot for Joab. And we wonder if David had forgotten, maybe in this moment, that all of his success had come from the Lord. We wonder if Israel and David together had become proud and reliant on what they had built and on their military. And we wonder if everyone has cast aside the law of Moses. Because, let me show you, in Exodus 30, 12 to 13,

Saul did not take a covenant seriously, and now David is not taking God's law seriously. But yet, we also suspect that this isn't all about the shekel, that there's more to it than this, that this is also some, there's some undertone of pride that's going on here. Because Joab says, may the Lord give you a hundred times more, just don't go count all the people. So, there's a few things going on. Maybe we can sort it out. Verse four, but the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel, and then were given a map of their journey, and were told it took the better part of 10 months. And in verse nine, Joab comes back and he says, okay, in Israel, there were 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword, so this is a military counting, and the men of Judah were 500,000. And David hears the numbers, and now he regrets what he has done. Verse 10, David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, oh Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly. And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, who was David's seer, saying, go and say to David three things I offer you. Choose one of them that I may do it to you. Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days of pestilence in your land? Now consider and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me. And then David said to Gad, I am in great distress, but here's my decision. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great. But let me not fall into the hand of men. This is great logic. This is a great choice. This is a great example for us, whenever possible, when we are in trouble with the Lord, to fall into the hands of the Lord in whatever way that looks like. I love that worship song that we sing. Our sins, they are many. God's mercy is more. Always lean into God's mercy whenever we can. Verse 15,

And then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people and said, behold, this is David, behold, I have sinned and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house. Isn't it interesting that again, David is asking that the punishment be parallel to what we looked at with Saul in the situation with Saul. The punishment, the Gibeonites said, nah, just Saul's house. He's the one that did wrong. We don't wanna trouble all Israel. And David is coming back here now and saying to the Lord, they're innocent, don't trouble Israel. Just bring the punishment on me. And then Gad comes and informs David of the atonement required for his failure. Look at verse 18. Gad says, go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Aranah, the Jebusite. So David went up at Gad's word as the Lord commanded. And when Aranah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Aranah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground and said, why has my Lord the king come to his servant? And David said, to buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord that the plague may be averted from the people. Aranah said, let my Lord the king take and offer up what seems good to you. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. All this Aranah gives to the king. May the Lord your God accept you. But the king said to Aranah, no, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver, and David built there an altar to the Lord, offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and the whole book ends. So the Lord responded to the plea for the land and the plague was averted from Israel. So what I wanna do is bring us four points from this lesson that I wanna note. Two of them are about David and two of them are about God. And so the first one I'm calling David's brokenness. And I want us to really see this. It seemed to be a bout of pride that stirred up David in the first place with this whole episode. But it ends satisfactorily with brokenness and with humility. Human brokenness and humility are always a good thing. We face temptations all the time. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose to a temptation. But for the woman who loses to a temptation, has a failure, but realizes it, comes back in repentance, in brokenness and humility, she is stronger than the woman who never faced the temptation. It is possible for us to come back stronger. And this is, what it means to be human. If we were to have called these books of Samuel the life of David, I would say, for me, the biggest thing I have learned about David is that he was human. And what an example of humanity for us, that we see all the ups and the downs. Second point is David's sacrifice. David assumed personal responsibility when he realized that he had done wrong. And he said, I will not offer to the Lord anything that costs me nothing. Humility isn't free. It costs us our pride. Humility is actually quite costly. Worship isn't free. It's the price, there's a price that is paid for true worship. And so as we worship the Lord with our lives, as we give the Lord our time, our energy, our possessions, it's all costing us something. Look, you're in this room right now. This costs you something to be here studying the word. You could be working and making money. You could be taking care of your possessions. There is a cost to worshiping the Lord. It comes at a sacrifice. And so as we are doing what the Lord has given us to do, we should take pleasure in the fact that there's something left on the table in order for us to do what God has called us to do. It comes at a sacrifice. That's why we call it a sacrifice of praise. So number three point is God's response to this, which I find just fascinating. Both sections of this epilogue, the one about Saul and the Gibeonites, the one about David and the census, they both end with the exact same phrase, the Lord responded to the plea for the land. In both instances, God accepted the sacrifice, the atonement that was given. But it's interesting that it's phrased exactly the same way, which begs us, begs me, take a look at it. It's also interesting that it seems to be focused on the land, the location. And that begs me to look into locations. So let's go back to what we talked about with Saul. In that first element in the epilogue, it had to do with the Gibeonites. In this moment of history, Gibeon is the current location of the house of the Lord. And I'll show you where we get that from. Look at 1 Chronicles 21, 29. It says, for the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. Now David has brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem, but we are informed that the tabernacle and the altar is still at the high place in Gibeon. Interesting. The final element of this epilogue, which we just read, which resulted in a plague, was halted at Jerusalem. God told David, I want you to raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Aranah. God told him exactly where to do this. And this is the exact place that will become the new location of the house of the Lord. Let me show you where we get that from. 1 Chronicles 22, one. David said, here shall be the house of the Lord God, and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel. Just kind of interesting. Another thing that is interesting is this threshing floor, which is owned by Aranah in 2 Samuel. In the companion passage in 1 Chronicles, there's a different name, Ornan. This happened a lot because they were written many, many years apart. It's kind of like Peter and Cephas, the same guy, but we have different names. But this threshing floor, according to well-founded tradition, is in fact Mount Moriah of Abraham and Isaac fame, where there was another sacrifice at one time. In this moment, in David's Jerusalem, it was just outside the northern wall. So I find it fascinating in God's unfolding story of redemption that even these locations have some meaning and have a presence that we can enjoy paying attention to. But the final thing I wanna bring out, the final point, is God's plan of redemption. Even though these stories can be confusing, to me, the one thing that shines through in this is God's delight to redeem failure, to use broken things, and to recoup lost opportunities. I don't know how anybody can get this far in reading the Old Testament, and study it, and still come out saying, you know, the God of the Old Testament, he's just mean, he's so demanding, and all this. We look at this, and it's like, this is like our title, the goodness of God. We see in this over and over the goodness of God. And if God was good in ancient Israel, God is good today because he never changes. And he's good in our lives, too. So as we do turn to the next chapter in Israel's history, I find it fascinating that the next important person and the next important place both arise out of brokenness. Let me explain what I mean. The next important person is Solomon, okay? How did Solomon come onto the scene in the first place? Well, he's the offspring of David and Bathsheba. Not the offspring from their sinful relationship, that child died, you know, but still, he is the offspring from David and Bathsheba, which always points us to God's redemption and what he can do even with broken things. God taking beauty from ashes, and he leaves a permanent record of it now with Solomon. And the next important place that we're getting to is this very spot, this very threshing floor that we just read about. This is ground zero for the house of the Lord, okay? So how did this location come about? Well, it was David's failure. David's failure in taking this census that was judged by the Lord, God makes beauty from ashes. And he takes the place where he said, "Now make a sacrifice here." And this is the spot now that God is going to have Solomon raise the new house of the Lord. And when Solomon builds the house of the Lord, the presence of the Lord will come and dwell with his people again, just like he did with the wilderness tabernacle. And so it's really an important part, puzzle piece of God's redemption. But let's bring it back to us. God's plan of redemption, we see playing out here in the story of Israel. God's plan of redemption is playing out in your life and in my life as well. Because this same God who used broken things here is delighting to redeem my failures, to redeem my broken things, and to recoup my lost opportunities. What is the key that opens the door to the goodness of God to do that? Just like David, brokenness and humility. It is humility and it is repentance. So to me, I love how this lesson ends because I just see God's goodness all over this. God never comes to a point and says, well, that's it, I can't do anything more with you now. You've done it. He didn't do it to David and he won't do it to us either. Father, thank you for the ending of this lesson. Lord, all the things that we learn, things to ponder, Lord. And one thing we know for sure is that you do not change. And the character that we see here, your mercy, Lord, is something that we can claim and hold on to in our own lives. So I pray that you would enable us to do that, Lord, that we would not be robbed of that and that we would lean into your mercy whenever possible, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.