Honour Among Thieves

 “Honour Among Thieves”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, July 5, 2015

Text: 2 Samuel 3 // Series: Divided Kingdom

Welcome to summer at Jericho Ridge.  It’s always fun – Mike Ryder & Ruth Ellen and I are excited to teach through the 10^th book of the Bible, 2 Samuel in a series called Divided Kingdom in our family inclusive format. 

If you were with us last weekend, we talked about the death of Saul, the very first king of Israel in 2 Samuel 1.  And we saw that David had learned to trust God’s timing.  We had an excellent skit by Sienna Chuah, Kayla Sands and Jared Sumner.  The big question looming now in our story is if King Saul is dead who will be the next king? 

On your chairs today you have two coloured rectangular sheets of paper.  One is green and one is a kind of orange or salmon.  And today, we’re going to do some real-time engagement and voting where we get a read of the room and who thinks what.  So if you are going to vote affirmatively or say ‘yes’ to something, you are going to hold up your green card.  If you think “not so much” and you want to vote “no” to something, you hold up your orange card.  Kind of like ref at a soccer game.  OK, so let’s just do a test, OK?  Now that Saul is dead, who thinks that it’s time for David to become king over all of Israel?  Hold up your green cards.  Who thinks that David has to wait a bit longer: hold up your orange cards. Orange it is! 

Turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel 2 – We discover that David is anointed king over Judah but not yet over all of Israel.  He’s going to have to wait 7.5 years for that event.  You see, when Saul died, the people of the southern part of the nation from the tribe of Judah, proclaimed David as king.  But the people from the northern tribes, known collectively as Israel, proclaimed Saul’s son Isbosheth as king.  [whiteboard].  So the kingdom was divided.  And here we have the beginning of a civil war between the armies of David, let by a general named Joab who is David’s cousin and the armies of Israel led by a seasoned military strategist named Abner.  Both of these guys are bad dudes.  Serious military types.  And there’s nothing so helpful to communicate this as Lego.  Some of you have seen this before, it’s called the Brick Testament and so I’ll be showing some pictures of the text as I read in from the New Living Translation up on the screens.  I think you’ll be surprised how lively the Bible can be in Lego!   

Turn in your Bibles or phones to 2 Samuel 2.  We’re going to begin by looking at one of the early battles between the armies of David led by Joab and the armies of Isbosheth led by Abner.  I’ll be reading from 2 Sam 2:17.      

Slide 4 – A fierce battle followed that day…

Slide 5 – “Is that you, Asahel?”

Slide 6 – ‘Get away / Turn aside. How could I face your brother Joab?

Slide 7 – But Asahel refused to turn back (no way dude)

Who thinks Asahel catches Abner and gets him – hold up your green card. 

Who thinks Abner lives to fight another day – hold up your orange card.  Orange cards have it…  Abner wins on this one!

Slide 8 – So Abner thrust the butt of his spear into Asahel’s stomach

Slide 9 – He stumbled to the ground and died there

Slide 10 – black slide  

Abner has killed Joab’s brother.  Even though Joab’s army wins that fight that day, Joab has lost someone significant to him and he can’t let it go. 

Here’s where the story gets interesting.  Because after a while, Abner gets fed up of working for Isbosheth over in Israel.  Isbosheth has accused him falsely of something and Abner flips out!  Abner is so mad that he becomes a double agent.  He decides he is going to take Saul’s kingdom and give it to David.  So Abner holds secret meetings with the leaders of Israel and gets them to all agree to come over and support David.  Abner goes to meet with David in Hebron to tell him the good news.  But there’s a deep cost to Abner.  Let’s pick up the plot in 3:19 (I’ll be reading to verse 30)…

Slide 11 – When Joab arrived, he was told “Abner came to the king…”

Slide 12 – What have you done?

Let’s vote…  Green cards if you think Joab was concerned that Abner was spying on David.  Orange cards if you think Joab was upset that he missed a chance to kill the man who killed his brother. (Both could be true!)

Slide 13 – Joab sent messengers asking Abner to return

Slide 14 – Joab took him aside at the gateway…

Slide 15 – He stabbed Abner in the stomach

Slide 16 – Killed him in revenge for killing his brother

Slide 17 – When David heard about it he declared…

Slide 18 – May the family of Joab never cease to…

Slide 19 – May Yahweh repay the evil doer w an equal amount of evil. 

That last one is my favorite J David’s helper: So I take it he’s fired?   David: Let’s not get carried away!”

It can be easy for us to isolate Joab as the bad guy in this story.  The one who murders poor innocent Abner in cold blood.  There’s no doubt this was wrong.  But one of the things that we need to learn to do when we come to the Scripture is to dig a bit deeper into the story and think not only about WHAT people did but also WHY they did it. To look at their motives.  Because this helps us learn to hold up a mirror to our own lives and examine our the motives of our own hearts.  So we’re going to broaden our lens and do a little bit of digging into the people our whiteboard…  Let’s look at their actions AND their motives.    

First, we have Abner.  Let’s focus on his actions to bring the kingdom over to David.  Let’s vote.  From what you heard of the story, do you think Abner is doing the right thing to bring the kingdom over to David?  If yes, hold up your green card now.  If you think Abner is wrong to do this, hold up your orange card.  I would suggest that Abner is attempting to do the right thing. BUT for the wrong reason.  Why would I say that?

Look at 2 Sam 3:7…  Abner acts to hand the kingdom over to David NOT because he believes that David is the Lord’s anointed, but because Isbosheth offended him and falsely accused him.  Further to this, in 3:12,

Abner says that he knows that David is the rightful king… so if Abner truly believe this, why didn’t he act sooner? Why was he opposing David up the point where he got his feelings hurt and then they were best friends?  To the outsider, Abner’s actions look great – he is working to unite the kingdom.  But his heart is full of all kinds of bad junk.       

Here’s the challenge.  Sometimes, we can do the right things, but they are a charade.  We aren’t doing them because we believe them – we are playing a game or we are doing them for all the wrong reasons.  Think of an action you are thinking of taking – ask God to give you insight into your motives Maybe you are going to purchase something but you are only doing it to look good, not because it’s the most financially wise.  Maybe you can think of an apology you need to make… Are you doing it because you have to do it or because you genuinely are sorry?  In a few minutes, I’m going to lead us through a prayer that can help you sift through some of this – its hard work but keeping a soft and clean heart before God is always worth it. 

Let’s shift the lens to Joab for a minute…  His action: he murders Abner.  But why does he murder Abner?  Well, it’s pretty clear in 2 Sam 3:30 that it’s for revenge.  Perhaps Joab pretends to David that his deepest motive is his concern for the safety of the kingdom - that Abner is a double agent sent to spy on us!  But the more I think about it, I wonder if part of his action was also motivated by fear.  When you read more about each of their lives, we learn that Abner has much more senior military experience than Joab.  We’re not going to vote on this, but maybe Joab was afraid that if Abner came over to David, Joab would loose his job and his place as the commander of David’s troops.  Whatever the reason, Joab does the wrong things for the wrong reasons with a trio of wrong motives: revenge, jealousy, and fear.   He might have told himself “I’m doing this to protect the king” but he is operating under a pale of self-deception. 

Whenever our actions are motived by fear, or suspicion, or revenge or a desire to get even, we are operating under a cloud of self-deception.  If you sense this in any of your relationships, take that to God and invite the Holy Spirit to root that out in your life.  In Psalm 139:23-24 David says it this way “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Before we leave him, I want to point out one more thing.  That even if he is self-deceived, Joab knows just how wrong his actions are.  You see, there’s another layer to this… Joab murders Abner just outside the gate of the city of Hebron.  When God gave the people of Israel the land, God specifically instructed the Israelites to set up things called cities of refuge.  These were places where a person who had done something wrong could flee to and they would be safe from the person who wanted to hurt or kill them.  These were places where justice was given time to be carried out and mercy ruled.  No one was to be killed inside the walls of that city.  And Joab knows this.  So he steps just outside the city gate and kills Abner within a stone’s throw of safety.     

But let’s look at our last character, David.  Though he is a man after God’s own heart, he isn’t fully innocent in this deal either. After the general of the opposing army is killed, David declares his innocence but what does he do about the man who killed another leader in innocent blood?  Nothing.  He doesn’t’ fire Joab, he throws his hands up at the end of chapter 3 and says “oh, well… Joab is too strong for me to control!”  Really?!  You’re the king, David. You can declare your innocence all day long but

On our chart, David does NOTHING.  His motives? Conflict avoidance.  Joab is still getting David what he wants and needs: military victories.  Oh sure, David places a curse on Joab and his descendants.  But unlike last weekend, where David waits for God’s timing to deal with Saul, with Joab, David isn’t so trusting.  This is a spoiler alert… If you fast forward to the end of David’s life, one of his final instructions to his son Solomon is to get rid of Joab.  Solomon’s first action is to give the order to Kill Joab.  Joab dies clinging to the horns of the altar in the temple.  One commentator says accurately “the whole affair was a mess, but it would not be the first or last mess or even the biggest mess of David’s kingdom”.    Even David acts out of places of fear and revenge.  Ultimately, even David’s actions are wrong and his motives are wrong.  One of the things that we’ll see as we study through 2 Samuel is that Bathsheba wasn’t David’s only mistake. 

So where do you and I go from here?  One of the things I want to grow in is examining the WHY in my own life.  Looking at my motives.  It’s a hard thing to do!  But one of the useful tools that has been practiced for centuries by Christians around the globe is something called the Prayer of Examen.  This is a prayer that helps us to reflect on our day and our actions in order to pay attention to God’s presence, to discern God’s will and to give us increased insight into our motives.  In its simplest form, it contains 5 steps (you don’t have to hurry to write these down – I’ve posted them on our Facebook page):

1. Be grateful for God’s blessings.
2. Review the day with openness & gratitude looking for times where God has been present and times you may have ignored Him
3. Pay attention to your emotions
4. Express sorrow for sin & ask for forgiveness
5. Pray for the grace to be more available to God who loves you

As we close our time together this morning, our shared challenge is to look at our motives more carefully this week.  Use this prayer, talk and process with a trusted spiritual friend, let the Holy Spirit nudge you to walk in greater holiness and honour with regards to your motives.  To guide us toward that, we are going to close this morning with a responsive reading and time of silent prayer.  This is a liturgy based around the framework of the prayer of examen.  The leader part will be read by ________________ and we will respond out loud all together at the part that says “everyone”.  There are two places noted for silent prayer to reflect on your motives and confess.  When this prayer is complete so is our time together this morning and so this will also serve as our benediction.  Let’s pray together.

A Liturgy based on the Prayer of examen

Leader            God, this morning we approach you with confidence and faith to express our gratitude for all of your blessings

People:          Father we thank you that your word promises us that you are “near to all who call on you, to all who call on you in truth.” We draw near today to say thank you for all of your good and perfect gifts to us.  You have poured out your love into our hearts.  We humbly praise you for giving us for more than we deserve.  Make us truly thankful for your many blessings and increase in us more and more a humble submission to your will.

Leader:           Spirit of God, we pause to think about our day so far with openness and gratitude.  We invite you to show us times when you have been present and times we may have ignored You.  [SILENT PRAYER]

People           “Gracious God, in these moments please remind me of your presence and generosity, and give me the wisdom and courage to live gracefully with myself, others, and the world you have wonderfully made.

Leader:           Jesus, you have created us with minds & wills, hearts & emotions. Thank you that you call us to love you with all of who we are. We want to pay attention to our emotions in order to listen to you.

People:          God, thank you that you give us experiences of joy & peace in your presence.  Thank you that we can know a sense of nearness & connection with you & that our emotions are part of who you have created us to be.  We acknowledge also that we experience at times sadness, apathy, & disconnection from you & from one another.    

Leader:           God, we come to You in a spirit of confession.  We say that we are sorry for our sins and we ask for your forgiving love.  [Silent prayer]

                        Create in me a clean heart, God.  Renew a right spirit within in me. 

People           “Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul…Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.”

Leader:           Almighty God, as we go into our week, we pray for grace to be more available to You. 

People           “Ever-present Father, help me to meet you in the Scriptures I read and the prayers I say; in the bread I break and the meals I share; in my investments at work and my enjoyments at play; and in the neighbors and family I welcome, love, and serve, for your sake and that your love and peace may reign now and forever. Amen.”