2 Samuel 2:1-3:5: Establishing God’s Kingdom

Outline

• David seeks the kingdom
• Abner seeks the kingdom

Introduction

Saul is dead and you would expect that David who had been anointed King years earlier would suddenly ascend to the throne and rule Israel. This is not the case. Chapters 2-4 cover a 7 ½ year period, only at the end of which David will be the uncontested king. These chapters will be dominated by two men seeking to make themselves king in Israel, David and Abner. David seeks God’s will and God’s kingdom, Abner seeks his own. The overarching theme in the opening 5 chapters of 2 Samuel is that God keeps His promise to make David King, we zoom in now to look at how David as a believer cooperates with God in His providential outworking of this promise, noting the triumphs and failures, and we also want to remind ourselves of the stubborn blindness of unbelief that always resists God’s kingdom.