Introduction: The books of 1 and 2 Samuel were originally a single book, but the first Greek translation of the Old Testament, which is called the Septuagint, and was produced around the 2nd century BC, divided it into two books. The Septuagint’s dividing of the book into two books was adopted by later Latin translations that were used in the early Christian church.
The book of 2 Samuel is the divinely inspired record of the reign of Israel’s renowned King David.
2 Samuel 3:33-34 — Abner, who aspired to appease, died a fool’s death by being allured out of Hebron, a city of refuge, by his artful assassin, Joab, who had no mollifying intentions, but only a murderous one. (2 Samuel 3:27)
Abner needed to be neither bound nor fettered by his merciless adversary, since he, in hopes of appeasing his murderous antagonist, freely and foolishly handed himself over for his own assassination.
“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” (Winston Churchill)
2 Samuel 6:1-8 — To make oneself the self-appointed guardian of God’s Ark is a most serious offense against God. It is to insinuate that God needs your help to take care of what is His, because He is incapable of doing so by Himself.
In both the pulpits and pews of the contemporary church, there is many an Uzziah, a self-appointed guardian of God’s Ark, with his or her hands all over the untouchable things of God.
Although David blamed God for Uzziah’s death, the real blame belonged at David’s feet, for the Ark of God was not to be transported on an ox-drawn cart, but only on the sanctified shoulders of the priests (Deuteronomy 31:9; 1 Chronicles 15:14-15). How many times have lives been lost because of someone’s ignorance of God’s Word or disobedience to God’s Word? How many lives have been lost because something was done in a way we insisted on doing it rather than in the way God instructed us to do it?
2 Samuel 7:27-29 — There is no firmer place to kneel in prayer than upon the promises of God, since it assures us that God, who always pays attention to His promises and is always ready to perform them, will both hear and answer our prayer! (Jeremiah 1:12)
The best prayers are echoes of God’s promises.
2 Samuel 12:13-14 — Although believers' confessed sins are forgiven, the sins believers commit can still have serious consequences, which can lead to the demeaning of our faith and to the detriment of our family.
Sin can take us farther than we intended to go; keep us longer than we intended to stay; and cost us more than we intended to pay..
2 Samuel 12:13-20 — Even when he is broken-hearted, over his wholehearted prayers going unanswered, a man after God’s own heart bows to God’s will and worships God still. (1 Samuel 13:14)
Fasting and prayer should be means by which we partner with God in the accomplishing of His avowed plans and purposes, not means by which we we attempt to persuade God to alter His avowed plans and purposes.
2 Samuel 14:1-33 — Although King David reconciled with his banished and unrepentant son, who later usurped his father’s throne, there's no danger of the banished and unrepentant ever being reconciled with the King of Kings, nor of His throne ever being usurped by anybody.
While there is no such thing as an unrepentant child of God, there is also no such thing as a would-be usurper among God’s children.
2 Samuel 19:24-30 — Material possessions were rendered irrelevant to Mephiboseth by the return of his beloved benefactor, King David. Likewise, material possessions will be rendered irrelevant to us by the return of our beloved Benefactor, Jesus Christ, the Kings of Kings!
How excited would you be to win the lottery on the day of your Lord’s return?
2 Samuel 21:1 — In the trials of life, do you use prayer to insist upon a remedy or to inquire about a reason? Sometimes the reason must be revealed before the remedy can be realized.
Ignorant prayers are ineffectual prayers. How often we pray for what we want, while not even knowing what’s going on.
2 Samuel 23:1-5 — David was raised by God from being the mere son of Jesse, a Bethlehemite commoner, to the sublime heights of being God’s inspired psalmist, anointed prophet, and chosen king, with whom God established an everlasting covenant.
This passage of Scripture, containing the last words of Israel’s most famous king, as well as the swan song of Israel’s most famous singer, serves also as David’s Last Will and Testament.
2 Samuel 24:1-15 — A nation that sinfully depends upon the might of its army rather than the Almighty for its national security is skating on thin ice.
If Israel was plagued by God with a pestilence, because it depended upon its army rather than its God for its national security, could our dependence upon our military rather than the Almighty not explain why our nation was plagued by God with the COVID-19 pandemic?
2 Samuel 24:16-25 — A sacrifice that costs us nothing is worth nothing to God. If our worship is done at bargain prices; that is, it’s cheap or even costless, not costly and sacrificial, then, it is not just unacceptable to God, but intolerable as well.
No one after God’s own heart would ever dare to offer God a costless offering halfheartedly, but only a costly offering wholeheartedly. (1 Samuel 13:14)
If a pestilence befalling a nation, which has incited God’s wrath by trusting in its own strength for its own security, cannot be stayed by sacrifices to God that cost the sacrificers nothing, then, is it not possible that the reason the COVID-19 pandemic has not been stayed in America is the prevalence of cheap and costless worship in our contemporary churches?
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