448
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
July 1924
“ Thou mayest reign over all that thine heart desireth.” So Abner went to tell all the people about the goodness of King David, for after he' had accepted God’s chosen King there was great peace and happiness in his heart. Now how many people do you suppose King David wanted to rule over? All the people in the kingdom, of course! And how many hearts do you suppose the Lord Jesus wants to accept him as God’s King that he may rule over them? Everyone’s heart! So we must be just like Abner—we must accept God’s King, the Lord Jesus, and then go and tell all the people, our school friends and play mates about him. Shall we tell them our memory verse? “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And if we bring our friends to Sunday School they will hear the beautiful stories in God’s Word, and give their hearts to the Lord Jesus, too. August 3, 1924 No. 44 WAR WITH THE PHILISTINES 2 Samuel, Chapters 5 and 6 Golden Text: “ And David went on and grew great, and the Lord God of hosts was with him.” 2 Samuel 5:10. The tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron, claiming him as their kindred, acknowledging his service in the past and God’s expressed will that he should be king, making a league with him, and anointing him king. The Jebusites who occupied the city of Jerusalem, defied LESSON him and David challenged his officers to EXPOSITION take the city, which they did, and called T. C. Horton it “ The City of David.” (1-a) THE CHOSEN OF GOD vs. 1-5. “ They anointed David king over Israel” v. 3. Some of the events leading up to our lesson have been covered in previous studies. Saul and Jonathan are dead and their departure lamented by David. Abner, the cap tain, of Saul’s army, had been murdered by Joab. Ishbo- sheth, the son of Saul, had been murdered, but Mephibo- sheth, the son of Jonathan, had escaped the sword. It has been a long and weary experience for David. Twenty years have passed since Samuel anointed him king, and seven years have passed since his anointing as king of Judah. He is now thirty-seven years of age and is entering the official place and position which God has designed him to fill. God’s school is different from the schools of men. The people had to be educated through bitter experiences, and David, also, had to be schooled through great suffering and humiliation. It takes time, trials, testings and sometimes torture, to prepare one, under the discipline of God, for the triumphant life. Commence with Noah and run through the Bible story and there are no exceptions. God’s men must be moulded and fashioned after His own methods before He can put them in the place of power. David was chosen of God, but he was never cradled in luxury, nor cultured in ease, but in the custody of the over-ruling power of the unseen (1) OUTLINE OP CHAPTER 5 (a) The Chosen of God, vs. 1-5. (b) The City of David, vs. 6-12. (c) The Conquered Enemy, vs. 13-25. (2) OUTLINE OF CHAPTER 6 (a) Seeking the Ark, vs. 1-6. (b) Startling Judgment, vs. 7-11. (c) Setting the Ark in Place, vs. 12-23. THE CONDITIONS
were not divided,” was David’s tribute to King Saul to whom he had always been a loyal subject. And he mourned for his beloved friend, Prince Jonathan, “ O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places; Thy love to me was won derful!” Talking to God about this sorrow David asked the Lord whether he should go to any of the cities of Judah and the Lord told him, “ Go up unto Hebron.” Obediently, David marshalled his great army of soldiers with their wives and children and started for the old city of Hebron, which with its small surrounding villages lay about thirteen and a half miles south of Bethlehem, the city where David lived as a shepherd boy, and where Samuel found him and told him that he was chosen to be God’s king after Saul. Don’t you think David’s people were glad to leave the city of ruins and begin a new life under their leader on the green hills of Hebron? Hills with great groves of olive trees and marvelous grape vineyards covering their slopes. It was indeed a wonderful country with many beautiful natural springs and deep, refreshing wells. The houses in those days were built around courtyards with great fountains in the center and many gay and frag rant flowers. The roofs were flat with low walls enclosing them for they were used for outdoor rooms. There, per haps, David walked in the cool of the evening, or perhaps with his family gathered around him on the roof, he may have sat on the low wall playing his harp and singing one of his beautiful Psalms. And I think that on the roof alone, he surely must have spent much time in meditation and prayer, don’t you? To David’s house one day there came a group of men, stately in their long flowing robes and their snowy white turbans. Who do you suppose they were? They were the great men and the leaders of the house of Judah, which was the tribe to which David’s father belonged. Do you know why they came to visit David? They came to make him King over Judah! They brought with them holy oil and poured it on his head, which was the custom of anointing kings in those days. They knew that David loved and obeyed God, and they knew how kind he had been to King Saul, and perhaps some of them knew that Samuel had chosen him to be God’s King over Israel. • So Captain David became King David. But do you know there was someone in the kingdom who did not want David to be made King. That someone was Captain Abner who had for many years led King Saul’s army. He was a cousin of King Saul’s too. Abner would not accept David as King, so he found one of Saul’s sons, the only one who was alive at that time, and made him King. Then Captain Abner got a great many soldiers together and began to fight with King David’s men. There was a long war between them which lasted seven years and King David’s men kept getting stronger and stronger, winning many battles. After a long time God made Abner see how wicked he had been because he would not be reconciled to God’s chosen King, and Abner sent a messenger to King David asking to be forgiven and to be at peace with Him. King David sent for Abner to come and see him, and Captain Abner took twenty men with him to visit King David. When they came to David’s house the King greeted them with great joy and led the visitors into a large room where he had prepared a wonderful feast for them to show'them how glad he was to be friends with them and to be at peace with them. Captain Abner was so overjoyed, he told King David that he would go out into all the country and bring all the people to the king, and Captain Abner said to King David,
Made with FlippingBook HTML5