The Long Win: How Kingdoms Rise and Fall
Introduction: The Inevitable Kingdom
We live in an age of impatience. We want instant results, immediate victory, and overnight success. Our entire culture is geared toward the quick fix, the life hack, the shortcut. And when we bring this mindset to our faith, we often become discouraged. We look at the state of the world, we see the apparent strength of God's enemies, and we see the church struggling, and we are tempted to think that something has gone terribly wrong. We are tempted to believe that the kingdom of God is a failing enterprise.
But the kingdom of God does not operate like a Silicon Valley startup. It operates like an oak tree. Its growth is slow, patient, organic, and utterly inexorable. It is a mustard seed, the smallest of seeds, that grows into the largest of garden plants. This is the central lesson of our text today. We are given a divine summary statement, a narrator's overview of a protracted, seven-year conflict. It was a long war, a slow grind. But the outcome was never in doubt. God's anointed was growing stronger, and the house of the rejected was growing weaker. This is not just ancient history; it is a paradigm. It is the pattern of history itself.
The conflict between the house of David and the house of Saul is a microcosm of the great conflict between the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ and the kingdom of this world. It is a long war. It is often fought in obscurity, in small skirmishes, in political maneuvering, and in the birth of children. But the trajectory is fixed. One house is blessed by God, and it grows stronger. The other house is under the covenant curse, and it withers away. Understanding this principle is the key to faithful, confident, and patient Christian living in a hostile world. It is the antidote to both triumphalistic impatience and pessimistic despair.
The Text
Now the war between the house of Saul and the house of David was long; and David grew steadily stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker continually.
And sons were born to David at Hebron: his firstborn was Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess;
and his second, Chileab, by Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;
and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital;
and the sixth, Ithream, by David’s wife Eglah. These were born to David at Hebron.
(2 Samuel 3:1-5 LSB)
The Unseen Trajectory (v. 1)
The first verse sets the stage and gives us the thesis for the entire chapter, and indeed, for this whole period of David's life.
"Now the war between the house of Saul and the house of David was long; and David grew steadily stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker continually." (2 Samuel 3:1)
Notice the first descriptor: the war was "long." This was not a quick coup. It was a seven-and-a-half-year struggle. God had anointed David. God had promised him the kingdom. But God did not hand it to him on a silver platter the day after Saul died. There was a period of testing, of waiting, of patient faithfulness in the small things. David was king, but only over Judah, his own tribe, ruling from Hebron. The rest of Israel was still clinging to the ghost of Saul's dynasty through his son Ish-bosheth.
This is a profound lesson for us. God's promises are certain, but His timetable is His own. The victory of the gospel in the world is an accomplished fact in the resurrection of Jesus, but the outworking of that victory is a long war. It is a steady, grinding advance. This is the heart of a postmillennial eschatology. We do not believe the world is getting worse and worse until Jesus has to come back and rescue a defeated church. We believe that the kingdom of Christ, like the house of David, is growing steadily stronger, and the kingdom of Satan, like the house of Saul, is growing weaker continually. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against the church. This does not mean we will not face setbacks, defeats, and long periods where it seems nothing is happening. It means the ultimate trajectory is upward and onward.
The contrast is stark: "David grew steadily stronger, but the house of Saul grew weaker continually." This is the principle of covenant blessing and covenant curse. David was God's man. He was far from perfect, as we shall see, but his heart was oriented toward God. He was the recipient of God's covenant promise. Therefore, his house, his dynasty, his influence, was blessed. It had an internal, God-given vitality. Saul, on the other hand, had been rejected by God for his disobedience. He had violated the covenant. Therefore, his house was under a curse. It was rotting from the inside out. It had no future. It was a dead branch, still attached to the tree for a time, but with no life in it. History is the story of God blessing covenant-keepers and cursing covenant-breakers. Nations, families, and churches either grow stronger in faithfulness or weaker in rebellion.
The Politics of the Nursery (v. 2-5)
After this summary statement about the war, the historian immediately turns to a seemingly mundane topic: a birth announcement. A list of sons.
"And sons were born to David at Hebron: his firstborn was Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; and his second, Chileab, by Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Absalom the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; and the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; and the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital; and the sixth, Ithream, by David’s wife Eglah. These were born to David at Hebron." (2 Samuel 3:2-5 LSB)
Why this list, right here? Because in the ancient world, and in the economy of God, dynasties are built in the nursery. Sons meant stability. Sons meant a future. Sons meant the covenant promise was being visibly fulfilled. While the house of Saul was crumbling, the house of David was growing, literally. Every time a son was born in Hebron, it was another nail in the coffin of Saul's dynasty. It was a sign of God's blessing of fruitfulness. The primary way God's people conquer is through faithfulness, and that includes the faithfulness of raising up a godly seed. Demographics are destiny.
But we cannot read this list with unalloyed joy. We must be honest about what is happening here. David is taking multiple wives. This was a standard practice for kings in the ancient Near East, a way of cementing political alliances and demonstrating wealth and power. One of his wives, Maacah, was the daughter of a foreign king, a political marriage if there ever was one. But this was in direct violation of God's command for Israel's kings in Deuteronomy 17:17, "And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away."
Here we see the tragic mixture that is David. He is a man after God's own heart, and yet he is also a man of his times, and a sinner. God blesses him in spite of his sin, but his sin will bear bitter fruit. This very list of names is a foreshadowing of the immense grief that will tear David's family apart. Amnon, the firstborn, will rape his half-sister Tamar. Absalom, the third, will murder Amnon for it and later lead a bloody rebellion against his own father. Adonijah, the fourth, will try to usurp the throne from Solomon. The seeds of David's greatest sorrows were sown right here in the polygamous royal nursery in Hebron.
This is a crucial warning. God's grace can and does work through our messes. He can bring blessing out of our compromised situations. But that is never an excuse for the compromise. Sin always has consequences. David's attempt to build his kingdom through the worldly method of polygamy, instead of trusting God's method of simple faithfulness, brought a sword upon his house that would never depart. He was building his house, yes, but he was also building into its foundation the very rot that would nearly destroy it.
Conclusion: The Greater David's House
So what do we take from this brief snapshot of a long war and a growing family? We are to see the pattern of God's kingdom work in the world and apply it to our own lives and times.
First, we must learn to have a long-term perspective. The war we are in against sin, the flesh, and the devil is a long one. The transformation of our culture into a Christian civilization will not happen overnight. We must be steadfast, patient, and refuse to grow weary in well-doing. Like David in Hebron, we must be faithful in our small corner of the kingdom, trusting that God is making our house stronger, even when the progress is slow and imperceptible.
Second, we must see that the house of our Lord Jesus, the greater David, is steadily growing stronger. His kingdom is advancing. Every person converted, every baby baptized, every Christian school opened, every faithful sermon preached, is another son born in Hebron. The house of Saul, the kingdom of secular humanism, is growing weaker continually. It is spiritually sterile. It has no future. It is based on rebellion against the Creator, and it is therefore destined for the ash heap of history. We must not be intimidated by its apparent power. It is a hollow shell.
Finally, we must learn from David's compromises. We must build the church, and our families, according to God's blueprint, not the world's. We cannot adopt the world's methods of pragmatism, political compromise, or sexual confusion and expect to build something that lasts. When we do, we build sorrow into the foundations. The strength of David's house was ultimately not in his many sons or his political marriages, but in the covenant promise of God. And that promise finds its ultimate fulfillment in the one true Son, Jesus Christ.
His house is not built on the shifting sands of political power or the tragic brokenness of sinful families. It is built on the rock of His own resurrection. And of the increase of His government and of peace, there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. The house of Jesus is growing stronger, and the gates of Hell are growing weaker. That is the long win of the gospel.