(Through The Bible) – 2 Samuel: Zac Poonen (Transcript)

Full text of Zac Poonen’s teaching on the Book of 2 Samuel which is part of the popular series called Through The Bible.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Zac Poonen – Bible Teacher

We turn today to 2 Samuel — 2 Samuel chapter 1.

We saw in our last study how God picked up David when he was a young man. And in 2 Samuel we read about the reign of David. The whole book deals with that from the time of the death of Saul. And David is made king, and then how he wins a number of victories, his fall into sin, and then the problems he has in his family, right on till the end of his life and ministry as king.

So we’ll try and look at the important points in this chapter and the spiritual lessons that we can learn. You remember in the first session I said that all Scripture has been given by inspiration of God, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work, for our life and for our ministry.

If we keep that verse before us as we study all these books, we will receive something that will equip us. You see, there are many ways in which we can look at the Old Testament.

We can look at all the types of Christ in the Old Testament, and a clever brain can discover many, many things there. But we don’t find the New Testament emphasizing so much of typology – a little bit. We saw a little bit in when we studied the tabernacle of what Christ stood for, but there are many other types that we could study. We could study Joseph as a picture of Christ, and there are many, many ways in which he is a type of Christ. We could study Boaz and Ruth, which we looked at yesterday, as a picture of Christ redeeming us and making us His bride.

Now, all that is interesting, but I have not placed too much emphasis on it because the New Testament doesn’t give too much emphasis to that type of typology. A little bit is all right. Ultimately, God’s Word is given for our life and not for intellectual stimulation. It’s very important to remember that, that we can study the Bible like we study a book of chemistry, that’s not the way God wants us to study it. He wants us to study in a way that it applies to our life, that it equips us for better living and for more effective ministry. That’s what we must always keep in mind.

And we must set aside the temptation to be intellectually stimulated, because if we go into that line, gradually what will happen is, our ministry to people also will be just intellectual stimulation, and we’ll find people remain carnal, defeated by sin, even though they’re getting a lot of intellectual stimulation from Scriptures.

So let’s keep that in mind and let’s look at 2 SAMUEL CHAPTER 1.

Now, in chapter 1, we read of the death of Saul, and I want you to see something about David’s attitude when he hears about the death of Saul.

Now remember, Saul was David’s sworn enemy. More than once he tried to throw a javelin at him to kill him. He chased him all over the caves and villages of Israel to try and find him to kill him. More than once, David spared his life when Saul was at his mercy, asleep in a cave, and this is the man whom David now hears is dead. It’s something like you’re hearing that the man who was trying to kill you is finally dead. The man who once had an anointing but lost that anointing.

And it says here, a man came from the camp of Saul, (verse 2), and he told David, I have escaped, (verse 3), from the camp of Saul, and David said, ‘How do you know, (verse 5), that Saul and Jonathan are dead?’ And this man tells a lie.

Now we know that Saul committed suicide, that we already saw in 1 Samuel 31. But this man, in order to get some favor from David, tells him that I was the one who killed Saul. He says, by chance, (verse 6), I happened to be in Mount Gilboa, and Saul was leaning on his spear, and he asked me to kill him, (verse 9). He said, please stand beside me and kill me.

(Verse 10), so I stood beside him and killed him. And I took the crown and his bracelet and I brought it to you. And he expected David to say, wonderful.

But David took hold of his own clothes, (verse 11), and tore them. You see, that was the sign of weeping. When a man was in great sorrow, he would tear his clothes, and that’s what David did. And they mourned and wept and fasted from morning till evening for Saul.

And then David called this Amalekite and said to him, (verse 14), how is it that you were not afraid to stretch out your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed? And David called one of the young men and said, kill him. And he killed him.

You see, David’s attitude there, and he said to him, ‘Your blood is on your head, because with your own mouth you said that you killed the Lord’s anointed.’

This is one of the things that made David a man after God’s own heart. He was a new covenant man in old covenant times. Jesus said, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hurt you and harm you, pray for them that persecute you, (Matthew 5:44) and David was one man who did it.

You see, just like I said the other day, you can be an old covenant Christian in this time, and in old covenant times there were a few men like Moses and David who lived by new covenant principles, and here was one of them. He did not hate his enemies, and particularly even if once upon a time that man was anointed, even if he has lost the anointing, he said, I will not touch him. Once his heart convicted him deeply when he even cut off a bit of Saul’s robe, and David wrote a lament, we read, and he lamented (verse 17) over Saul and Jonathan, his son, and he says such wonderful words in praise, sincerely from his heart, about a man who was a backslidden person who had lost the anointing and who had been chasing him all through his life.

Here is a lesson for us to learn, how a man of God should behave towards those who are evil towards him. And David says, (verse 19), your beauty, O Israel, is slain on your high places. And a number of times he says, how are the mighty fallen? (Verse 27)

(verse 25), how have the mighty fallen?

And he says, Jonathan — of course, Jonathan, to praise him is understandable, because Jonathan was a close friend of David’s, and he says, you have been very pleasant to me, but to praise Saul, and to call him a mighty man, and to praise him for the victories he won, and that they were swifter than eagles and stronger than lions, (verse 23), to appreciate the good that he saw in Saul, and not to speak evil. A tremendous example. There are very few people like that today, and that is why I say there are very few people who are men and women after God’s own heart.