2 Samuel Chapter 00

Introduction

Kingdom Matters

2 SAMUEL AND MATTHEW 6:9, 10

David is one of the most important figures of world history. This assessment, and the reasons for it, will emerge in the course of our study of the account of his reign through the pages of 2 Samuel. In general terms, however, the claim can hardly be doubted. In cultures that have been touched by his story, David has captured the imagination of great artists, sculptors, and writers. From children’s storybooks to (perhaps the most famous representation) Michelangelo Buonarroti’s David this man is remembered and recognized by people of many backgrounds over 3,000 years after he lived.

A large part of the reason for this is the remarkable account of his life and reign found in the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. The story is captivating. In one of the world's finest pieces of narrative literature, the greatness and the weaknesses of this man’s life are portrayed in vivid and gripping detail. This remarkable literary work has made David known to the world and provided the basis for every other representation of him. David’s impact on human his­tory, thought, and culture has been, directly or indirectly, through the books of 1 and 2 Samuel.

However, we miss the significance of David almost entirely if we do not take careful note of the fact that his story belongs to the whole Bible story. While David, the man and the king, is as interesting as almost any great fig­ure of human history, this is magnified many times over when we understand that he is a major figure in the history of God’s purposes for the whole world. Again this fact, and its importance, will be elaborated as we see the narrative of 2 Samuel unfold.

As a great and significant historical figure, David can be (and has been) viewed from many different angles.

Each of these may or may not have a convincing claim to yield true insights into the importance of David. How­ever the perspective from which to properly and fully understand David is that of faith.

While this claim might sound puzzling (or even of­fensive) at first, it follows simply from recognizing that the whole Bible story (in which David’s story is set) culminates in the news about Jesus Christ (importantly introduced in the first sentence of the New Testament as “the son of David,” Matthew 1:1). 

Those who believe this message are in a posi­tion to understand the importance of David as the Bible presents him, rather than arbitrarily taking his story out of this context. In the pages that follow we will repeatedly consider the importance of David for those who have faith in Jesus Christ.

This does not mean that David should be of interest only to Christian believers. On the contrary. But the biggest reason that David should interest believer and unbeliever alike is that his story illuminates the most important story in the history of the world—the story of Jesus Christ. David’s story is an essential part of the story of Jesus Christ. Even a person who does not yet believe that story deserves to understand it.

In the course of listening to the story of David in the book of 2 Samuel we will discover many facets to the way in which this story illuminates the story of Jesus and the life of faith in him. The central idea is the kingdom of God. David’s story and Jesus’ story are about the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God?

The Kingdom and Jesus Jesus taught his disciples to pray for this kingdom:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:9, 1 0)

This is an astonishing prayer. That God’s kingdom would come means God’s perfect will being done here on earth as it is in Heaven. The kingdom of God is God’s own rule, his reign over all. We are praying for a kingdom of goodness, glory, righteousness, grace, peace, blessing.

Christadelphians pray “Thy kingdom come” (v. 10) because we be­lieve the promise on which this prayer is based. The promise has come to us from Jesus Christ, who began his public life “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom” (Matthew 4:23; 9:35). “The gospel of the kingdom”  (or in Chris­tadelphian vocabulary simply “the gospel”) is the news (“gospel” means “news”) about God’s kingdom made known by Jesus. His message was, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). He taught about what the kingdom is like (see Mat­thew 13:24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47; 18:23; 22:2; 25:1) and about “enter[ing]” the kingdom (Matthew 18:3; 19:23, 24; 21:31; 23:13; cf. 25:34; John 3:5). This kingdom was his constant theme (see Acts 1:3) because it is his kingdom (Matthew 16:28; Luke 1:33; 22:29, 30; John 18:36; 2 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 1:8; 2 Peter 1:11; Revelation 11:15); he is its king (Matthew 21:5; 25:34; Luke 19:38; John 12:15; 18:37; Acts 17:7; Revelation 17:14; 19:16).

The Kingdom in our Experience

This kingdom is therefore the theme of the Bible message (see Acts 8:12; 14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31). The kingdom is central to the Chris­tadelphian experience: we have been transferred to, are being called into, and are receiving the kingdom (Colossians 1:13; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; Hebrews 12:28). We are looking forward to this kingdom (2 Timothy 4:1, 18; 2 Peter 1:11) and to the day when Christ “delivers the kingdom to God the Father” (1 Corinthians 15:24).

Furthermore the kingdom defines the Christadelphian mission. Just days before his death Jesus said to his disciples, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). Those engaged in the task of mak­ing known the news of the kingdom are “workers for the kingdom” (Colos­sians 4:11; cf. Revelation 1:9).

Believers are therefore kingdom people. We receive the king­dom of God by humbly coming under the royal rule of Jesus Christ. We pray for the coming of God’s kingdom (just as we pray “Come, Lord Jesus,” Revelation 22:20). We are committed to the task of proclaiming the news of his kingdom to all people everywhere.

This way of speaking, thoroughly Biblical as we have seen it to be, can be difficult for us. It is certainly awkward for our contemporaries who may be seeking to understand the Christadelphian faith. These days most of us have little, if anything, to do with kings and kingdoms. We may be aware that historically these ideas can have terrible associations. Kings have been ty­rants. Monarchies have become acceptable in today’s world only when trans­formed into a largely ceremonial and symbolic role, as we see in Britain’s “constitutional monarchy.” Even then many long to be rid of such archaic forms with their associations of privilege, power, and worse. Only a short time ago (in historical terms) the people of the United States of America fought a bitter eight-year-long war to gain independence from a king and declared, in an apparent repudiation of the very idea of kingship, that “All men are created equal.”

We, for whom kings and kingdoms are at best strange ideas, may well ask, what is the kingdom of God, for which Christians have been praying for 2,000 years, and of which the New Testament says so much?

The Kingdom of God: The Bible's Theme

The Bible’s answer to that question is astounding. On the one hand, the kingdom of God is what the history of all things has been about. On the other hand, the kingdom of God is the ultimate solution to all of the world’s troubles.

However, this kingdom is not a human achievement. Human activity, po­litical or otherwise, will never establish God’s kingdom. Indeed the Bible’s promise, and the Christian hope, is that this kingdom will come despite the weakness, foolishness, and wickedness of human efforts. The kingdom of God will come as God’s gift, not our accomplishment.

When Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, he was not introducing a new idea. Indeed, his message was that the time for the kingdom was “fulfilled” (Mark 1:15). That is, the long-expected time had come. This expectation was created, in no small measure, by the story of David, the king who had reigned over Israel 1,000 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. Our reading of 2 Samuel will help us understand the expectation that makes sense of Jesus’ announcement.

The kingdom of God can be rightly seen as the theme of the whole Bible. The idea is not limited to the actual expression. God’s kingdom is both his rule as king (in this sense “kingdom” means “kingship”) and the realm that is under his rule. To say that the theme of the Bible is the kingdom of God is to recognize that the Bible is about God’s rule and the bringing of all things under his rule.

David's Reign and the Bible's Theme

Before we begin to read the story of David’s reign it is important to see that it is, in a significant sense, pivotal in the Old Testament’s presentation of the kingdom of God. At the risk of oversimplification, we can say that everything in the Old Testament before David (Genesis to 1 Samuel) is leading up to his reign, and everything after David (1 Kings to Malachi) looks back to David’s kingdom and confirms the expectation that this was the beginning of some­thing of monumental importance for the whole world.

In brief, the Bible’s story prior to David’s reign may be summarized as follows: God created all things by his sovereign will and word (Genesis 1, 2). His kingdom is seen in creation itself. However, humankind repudiated God’s good and wise rule, and the goodness of the whole creation was disrupted by this upheaval (Genesis 3—11). And yet, despite humanity’s corruption, God promised to yet bring blessing to the world through a nation descended from Abraham (Genesis 12—50; especially 12:1-3), a nation in which his rule would be honored. He redeemed this nation from bondage to another king, Pharaoh of Egypt (Exodus—Leviticus) and brought them into the land he had promised Abraham (Numbers—Joshua). Sadly, this nation repeatedly turned away from God (Judges), ultimately demanding a human king so that they could be like the pagan nations around them rather than the people over whom the Lord God was king (1 Samuel 8:4-8; 12:12, 17, 19). Astonishingly God gave them the king they asked for (1 Samuel 8:22), but he refused to forsake the people he had made his own (1 Samuel 12:22). They could have their king only so long as both king and people followed the Lord (1 Samuel 12:13-15). Saul was that king (1 Samuel 10:1,24; 11:15). But he failed to fulfill the condition of his kingship (1 Samuel 13:13; 15:10, 17-23; 28:17-19). When God rejected Saul, he promised that he would provide a different king, one of his choosing (in this sense “a man after his [God’s] own heart,”1 Samuel 13:14), and therefore “better” than Saul (1 Samuel 15:28). This king was David. In contrast to Saul, he was not chosen by the people for themselves (1 Samuel 8:18; 12:17, 19), but he was a king provided by God for himself (1 Samuel 16:1).

As the book of 2 Samuel begins, therefore, we may anticipate that God’s king will at last rule over God’s people in God’s way. In David’s reign, in other words, we expect to see the kingdom of God. Up to a point, that is what we will see. However, too soon we will find that even David failed to be the righteous and faithful king we have been led to expect.

After David’s death, and after the brief period of glory in the early part of his son Solomon’s reign, the kingdom that had been David’s disintegrated. The books of 1 and 2 Kings tell the story. Where then, we reasonably ask, is the kingdom of God? What has become of the promises that supported its expectation? The answers to these questions come through the prophets who appear during and after the collapse of the kingdom that had been David’s. Their message includes the clear promise that the hopes that had rightly be­come attached to David will yet be realized. For example:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for Da­vid, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. (Jeremiah 33:14, 15)

We have therefore seen that the story 2 Samuel tells is central to the Bible’s message. God is the King. He is at work in the history of the world establishing his kingdom. As we hear of David’s remarkable reign, we will see this purpose of God taking shape. We will more clearly understand what Jesus meant when he announced, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). More than this, we will know more deeply what it means to pray, “Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10).