THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

The Books Of Samuel: God's Shift Of Israel From Apostasy Under The Judges To David's Reign

II. 2 Samuel: The Reign Of David Over Israel

L. Handling God's Permitted Unavoidable Conflicts With Others

(2 Samuel 10:1-19)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

Romans 12:18 NIV directs, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone," but as implied in how this verse is framed, in spite of our best efforts to the contrary, we can still face unavoidable conflicts:

(1) We face it at the international level: Richard Lardner's Associated Press story, "Tillerson says China asked North Korea to stop nuclear tests" (Republican-American, April 28, 2017, p. 3A) cited "Adm. Harry Harris, Jr., commander of U. S. Pacific Command" as claiming "he has no doubt that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un intends to fulfill his pursuit of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the United States."

(2) We face it at the national level: another Associated Press story ("Berkeley protests peaceful as hundreds rally over Coulter," Ibid., p. 4A) told of the pressured cancelation of the appearance of "conservative commentator Ann Coulter" at "the University of California, Berkeley," with student Joseph Pagadara, 19, being quoted as saying, "'Both sides are so intolerant of each other. We are a divided country.'"

(3) Many face it locally: the story, "Schools chief opens dialogue with parents on Netflix series," Ibid., p. 1B, noted how Litchfield "Superintendent Sherri Turner emailed a letter to parents . . . to address the popularity of the Netflix series, 'Thirteen Reasons Why'" that "'covers many topics including adolescent bullying, rejection, sexual assault, mental health, abuse and suicide,'" and most of these issues involve interpersonal conflicts.

She added "that the National Association of School Psychologists has expressed concern over the series."

(4) We as a church face an unavoidable conflict today in regard to our faith: Melissa Skinner's story, "Funding Darwin in the Church" in the latest Answers In Genesis magazine, Answers, May-June, 2017, p. 70-77, tells how the secular billion-dollar John Templeton Foundation has spent millions to get even historically conservative Christians to adopt theistic evolution, the belief that God used evolutionary processes to create the universe over long ages of time.

Two historically conservative seminaries affected by this foundation's efforts are Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Multnomah Biblical Seminary, and the latter is associated with the Bible school from which I received my bachelor's degree, Ibid., p. 74-75! We have thus been handed an unwanted conflict with theistic evolution!

Need: So, we ask, "Though I try to evade conflicts with others, how should I respond if they unavoidably rise?!"

I. God told Israel in Deuteronomy 20:10 to try to make peace even with foreigners they were about to fight.

II. However, David's effort to heed the spirit of this law by consoling a new Ammonite king over his father's death was met with distrust and an act that declared war, 2 Sam. 10:1-4; Bib. Know. Com., O. T., p. 466:

A. Since David had been helped by the late Ammonite king Hanun, when he died, David sought to show Hanun's son Nahash kindness by sending some of David's officials to console the new Ammonite king, 2 Sam. 10:1-2.

B. However, Nahash's advisers distrusted David, telling their new king that David's officials had really come to spy out the land for David's later conquest, 2 Sam. 10:3. The advisers likely recalled Israel's victory over them under Israel's past king Saul at Jabesh-Gilead 50 years before, so they harbored hatred and distrust toward David as Israel's new king though Hanun had once befriended David likely when he fled from Saul, Ibid.

C. Nahash believed his advisers, and committed a cultural atrocity against David's officials amounting to a declaration of war: he shaved off half of their beards, which is still a grave indignity among Arabs today, and he cut off their garments halfway down, exposing their buttocks as if they were prisoners of war. (2 Sam. 10:4; Ibid.; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to 2 Sam. 10:4; cf. Isaiah 15:2 and 20:4)

III. David thus fought the Ammonites and their allies, and God gave him victory over them, 2 Sam. 10:5-14:

A. Hearing of the cultural atrocity against his officials, David sent a messenger to meet them in Jericho and to direct them to stay there until their beards had grown before returning to Jerusalem, 2 Samuel 10:5.

B. Realizing they had made themselves culturally abominable to David, the Ammonites hired 33,000 Aramean soldiers north of them to help them fight David's army, and David sent his military commander Joab and his brother Abishai with all Israel's forces to do battle with the Ammonites and their allies, 2 Samuel 10:6-7.

C. Israel faced a formidable challenge: the Ammonites came out of their capital city, aligning themselves on one side of Israel where their Aramean allies countered Israel from the opposite direction, planning to crush Israel's forces in between the two allied nations, 2 Samuel 10:8.

D. Joab responded by aligning Israel's special forces under his command against the Arameans and assigning Israel's regular forces to his brother, Abishai to battle the Ammonites. If Joab's men needed help, Abishai's men would help them, but if Abishai's men needed help, Joab would assist them, with the decision that they all would trust the Lord to give them the victory, 2 Samuel 10:9-12.

E. The Arameans then fled before Joab's special forces, demoralizing the Ammonites so that they also fled before Abishai's regular army, giving Israel the victory on both battle fronts, 2 Samuel 10:13-14.

IV. However, this victory led to another more intense confrontation from the Ammonites' Aramean allies, but God also gave David great victory in this additional battle, 2 Samuel 10:15-18:

A. The Arameans reacted to their initial loss to Israel by enlisting their warriors from beyond the Euphrates River, and they all approached Israel with many more infantrymen and chariots, 2 Samuel 10:15-16, 18.

B. When David heard of this enhanced challenge, he led all Israel's men across the Jordan and up north to Helam east of the Sea of Galilee to fight the Arameans, 2 Samuel 10:17; The MacMillan Bible Atlas, 1968, map 102.

C. The Arameans fled before David, with Israel slaying 7,000 charioteers (the 1 Chronicles 19:18 parallel passage reads 7,000 charioteers, not 700 of them as here, making 700 likely a scribal error, Ibid., B. K. C., O. T., p. 467), 40,000 foot soldiers and even the Aramean general Shobach, 2 Samuel 10:18; Ibid.

D. This defeat persuaded the Arameans no longer to help the Ammonites fight David, and the Arameans made peace with Israel and came under Israel's rule as her servants, 2 Samuel 10:19.

V. Significantly, these unavoidable conflicts for David were allowed of God to subjugate lands to Israel that God had promised to Abraham's seed back in the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 15:18-21:

A. God had promised Abraham in Genesis 15:18-21 to give his descendants the land running from the Nile River in Egypt to the Euphrates River where the Arameans ruled in David's era; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Gen. 15:18-21.

B. For this reason, since David's conflict with the Ammonites led to conflict with the Arameans who ruled land stretching up to the Euphrates, though David did not initially want conflict with anyone, God let it come to David to enable Israel to begin to dominate territory that the Lord had always wanted her to rule!

C. Since David was obeying the Lord at Deuteronomy 20:10 in trying to make peace only to face unavoidable conflict, God blessed him in the conflict he faced that the will of the Lord for Israel might be accomplished!

Lesson: When David heeded the intent of Scripture by trying to make peace with the Ammonites only to face hostility and conflict, God gave him great victory over Ammon and its allies in alignment with God's will for Israel.

Application: If we face unavoidable conflict, (1) may we obey God by trusting in Christ for eternal life, becoming a child of God, Acts 17:30; John 1:11-12 (2) May we then heed Romans 12:18 and try to be at peace with all people. (3) However, if we still face unavoidable conflict, may we view it as God's permissive will that He might fulfill His plan for us, and follow His Biblical leading in the power of the Holy Spirit for spiritual victory, Galatians 5:6-23.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

In our introduction, we noted how the John Templeton Foundation's efforts to get even conservative Christian seminaries to adopt theistic evolution has brought us into unwanted conflict with its efforts, so, in doing the will of God for us, we apply this sermon and claim that regardless how this foundation tries to get us to think otherwise, the words of Jesus and the Bible do not allow for any kind of evolution. We explain: (a) in Matthew 19:4-6, Jesus taught that the record of God's making the first humans in Genesis 1- 2 is to be interpreted by way of the normal, literal method of interpretation, for Jesus asked His hearers, "Have you not read . . . ?" in referring them to Genesis 1:27 and 2:24 in their contexts to teach that God did not condone divorce since Adam and Eve were literally one flesh since God had made the first woman from Adam's literal rib in Genesis 2:21-22 for Adam to have a mate. (b) Evolutionary processes cannot produce a woman from a rib, so Jesus and the Bible teach that Eve did not evolve! (c) Genesis 2:7 claims God made Adam from the ground, and since no woman existed before Adam did to give him birth, Adam was made directly from the ground. (d) Genesis 2:19 then claims that God formed every land animal and bird from the ground, implying that they also did not evolve. (e) If Jesus meant that we interpret Genesis 1-2 literally and since the 7 consecutive days of Genesis 1-2 are each composed of an "evening" and a "morning," parts of a 24-hour day, Jesus and the Bible do NOT allow enough TIME in God's Genesis 1-2 creation for ANY KIND of EVOLUTION!

The words of Jesus and the Bible CANNOT be harmonized with any kind of evolution, so we must hold to pure creationism and reject the John Templeton Foundation's efforts to get us to adopt theistic evolution.

May we trust in Christ to be saved. If we face unwanted conflict, may we see it as God's will and handle it in obedience to God and in the power of the Holy Spirit for victory.