Cited in sermons
Robert Alter
93 sermons · All people cited
1 Kings 14:21 - 15:24
The books of Kings and Chronicles present the reigns of Rehoboam, Abijam, and Asa in the southern kingdom not as mere political history but as theological testimony to the universal depravity of the covenant people and the sovereign faithfulness of God to the Davidic covenant. Both north and south are shown to have plunged into idolatry and its attendant wickedness, echoing the progression Paul traces in Romans 1 from the exchange of God's glory for idols to moral collapse and divine judgment. Asa stands as a partial exception — a reformer compared favorably to David — yet his reliance on Syrian military alliance rather than on Yahweh exposes the persistent weakness of even the best of David's sons. The passage ultimately directs the reader to David's greater Son, in whom the lamp promised to Jerusalem is eternally secured.
1 Kings 13
1 Kings 13 records the confrontation between an unnamed man of God from Judah and Jeroboam's idolatrous altar at Bethel, followed by that prophet's fatal disobedience when deceived by an old prophet, and Jeroboam's unmoved persistence in sin. The chapter turns on how men respond to the word of the Lord: the man of God obeys it before Jeroboam but abandons it under the old prophet's lying claim of angelic revelation, receiving temporal chastisement rather than condemnation. Jeroboam, by contrast, witnesses message, sign, mercy, and providence in sequence, yet does not turn from his evil way — becoming the negative standard against which subsequent northern kings are measured. The study calls hearers to simple, unreserved obedience to whatever God commands, and to recognize that signs and evidences do not produce faith; the Holy Spirit does.
1 Kings 11:14-43
The consequences of Solomon's idolatry unfold in 1 Kings 11:14–43 as God raises up three adversaries — Hadad the Edomite, Rezon of Syria, and Jeroboam — as instruments of divine chastisement against the king who built altars to Ashtoreth, Chemosh, and Milcom. The passage expounds the conditional and unconditional dimensions of the Davidic covenant: Solomon's unfaithfulness triggers judgment, yet God's promise to preserve the line of David remains inviolable, pointing forward to its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. The prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, including the acted parable of the torn garment, sets the course for the divided kingdom that will dominate the rest of Kings. The study closes with a call to reckon honestly with the ripple effects of sin before committing it, and to find hope in the truth that God's promise may be eclipsed but never eliminated.
The Idolatry of Solomon
Solomon's reign, celebrated across 1 Kings 3–10 for its wisdom, wealth, and temple-building, collapses in 1 Kings 11 under the weight of multiplied foreign wives, hardened idolatry, and a heart turned away from Yahweh. The sermon exposes the problem, precedent, and practice of Solomon's idolatry in verses 1–8, and then traces the divine response — God's righteous anger and covenantal judgment — in verses 9–13. Solomon's sin is shown to be aggravated by his knowledge of the law, his good example in David, and his twice-repeated experience of God's direct appearing. Drawing out seven practical warnings, the sermon calls believers to vigilance in marriage, obedience, and utter dependence on the Holy Spirit, while pointing to Christ — the greater Solomon — as the only secure ground for salvation and perseverance.
1 Kings 11:1-13
Solomon's fall in 1 Kings 11:1–13 confronts the reader with the most disorienting reversal in the narrative of the monarchy: the wisest man who ever lived, a man who built the temple and prayed for God to incline the hearts of his people, ends his reign bowing before Chemosh, Milcom, and Ashtoreth. The study traces how violations of Deuteronomy's prohibitions on foreign marriages and the principles governing kings — compounded by great privilege, faithful example, and divine warning — render Solomon's idolatry inexcusable and God's threatened judgment just. The divine response in verses 9–13 demonstrates both God's righteous anger at covenant-breaking and his covenant faithfulness to David, as the conditional and unconditional elements of the Davidic covenant together shape the coming division of the kingdom. Eight practical warnings are drawn from Solomon's fall, all converging on the believer's utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit as the only safeguard against apostasy.
1 Kings 10: Solomon's Glory and the Greater Than Solomon
1 Kings 10 presents the glory of Solomon's reign through the Queen of Sheba's visit and the narrator's account of surpassing wealth and wisdom, yet it casts the shadow of Deuteronomy 17's prohibitions for kings over the entire scene. The chapter functions as a hinge: Solomon's prosperity is a genuine answer to his prayer in 1 Kings 3 and a display of God's faithfulness, but the accumulation of gold, horses, and chariots foreshadows the apostasy detailed in chapter 11. Typologically, the pagan queen's pilgrimage and the conferral of gifts upon Israel's king anticipate the nations streaming to Christ, whom Matthew 12 identifies as greater than Solomon. The sermon calls hearers to receive God's material gifts with gratitude and joy rather than guilt, and to marvel that the one greater than Solomon stands among us without pomp or gold.
1 Kings 1:1-27
Adonijah's brazen self-installation as king over Israel — in defiance of David's sworn oath that Solomon would succeed him — exposes the dangers of undisciplined character, unqualified leadership, and a kingdom whose security rests ultimately not on any human actor but on the sovereign hand of God. Expounding 1 Kings 1:1–27 under three headings — David's declining health, Adonijah's ambitious self-exaltation, and Nathan's faithful intervention — the study draws sharp typological lines back through Absalom and Saul to press a recurring biblical principle: God does not select leaders by outward appearance but by the fear of Yahweh and obedience to His word. The closing application calls hearers to trust that King Jesus steadies His church through every threat, to insist on genuinely qualified leadership, and to take seriously the parental duty of discipline as a form of love.
2 Samuel 20
Second Samuel 20 continues the unrelenting sequence of trials that mark the consequences of David's sin: no sooner does David return to Jerusalem after Absalom's rebellion than Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjamite opportunist, exploits inter-tribal tension to launch a fresh secession against the Davidic throne. The chapter traces five movements — Sheba's rebellion, the reminder of David's sin through the fate of the concubines, Joab's cold-blooded murder of Amasa, the wise woman of Abel-Beth-Maacah who ends the revolt, and the list of David's officers — each illuminating how God preserves His kingdom despite the sinfulness of its human participants. Typologically, the chapter anticipates the rejection and vindication of David's greater Son: the worthless rebel who rises against God's anointed receives a mortal head wound, echoing the protoevangelion promise of the seed of the woman crushing the serpent's head.
2 Samuel 19:9-43
Second Samuel 19:9–43 narrates David's return to Jerusalem after Absalom's failed rebellion, exposing both the political complexity of restoring a dethroned king and the deeper spiritual condition of those who surround him. Three figures — Shimei, Mephibosheth, and Barzillai — are studied as contrasting portraits: pragmatic self-interest, costly loyalty, and contented faithfulness. The passage closes with a petty tribal quarrel between Israel and Judah that foreshadows Sheba's rebellion in chapter 20, illustrating that division in the covenant community is driven by the craving for position and prestige rather than submission to God's king. The application is direct: examine whether your allegiance to Christ is a matter of genuine conviction or merely policy, and cultivate the decreasing posture of John the Baptist.
2 Samuel 17
Second Samuel 17 narrates the competing counsel of Ahithophel and Hushai during Absalom's rebellion against David, but the narrator's own theological commentary in verse 14 reveals that the decisive factor is neither military strategy nor political cunning — it is the sovereign purpose of Yahweh. God defeats good counsel to bring disaster on His enemies and preserve His anointed king, and He does so through entirely ordinary, hidden means. The sermon draws out the hiddenness of divine providence, the certainty of judgment upon all who oppose God's kingdom, and the comfort that the kingdom of Christ will never be destroyed.
2 Samuel 15
Second Samuel 15 records Absalom's carefully orchestrated conspiracy to usurp David's throne and David's subsequent flight from Jerusalem. The chapter is expounded against the backdrop of God's word of judgment through Nathan in 2 Samuel 12, showing how divine sovereignty works through the wickedness of responsible human agents without excusing that wickedness. David's submission to God's sovereign will in sending the Ark back to Jerusalem, his prayer against the counsel of Ahithophel, and his use of Ittai, Zadok, and Hushai as instruments of providence together model a robust, active faith that casts itself entirely upon God rather than upon religious superstition or human cleverness. The passage closes with typological overtones, as David's weeping ascent of the Mount of Olives anticipates his greater Son's own rejected kingship and lament over Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 13:23-39
2 Samuel 13:23–39 narrates the premeditated murder of Amnon by Absalom, the flight of Absalom to Geshur, and David's paralysis as father and king. The passage exposes how unaddressed sin compounds — David's failure to punish Amnon's rape of Tamar creates the conditions for Absalom's vigilante vengeance, fulfilling Nathan's prophetic word that the sword would not depart from David's house. Absalom's two years of nursed hatred illustrate Paul's warning in Ephesians 4 that unresolved anger gives place to the devil, and the passage ends by pointing the faithful forward to the promised Messiah, the son of David who will reign with the righteousness and justice no merely human king can sustain.
2 Samuel 13:1-22
The rape of Tamar by her half-brother Amnon (2 Samuel 13:1–22) is examined as the beginning of God's covenantal judgment on David's house, fulfilling the word of Nathan the prophet in 2 Samuel 12. Before entering the narrative, the study clears apparent contradictions in the Mosaic legislation on rape and incest (Deuteronomy 22; Leviticus 18; 20), demonstrating that the Pentateuch treats rape as equivalent in gravity to murder and that the disputed passage in Deuteronomy 28–29 describes consensual seduction, not rape. The passage is then worked through under four headings — Amnon's lust, Jonadab's counsel, the act itself, and its aftermath — with sustained attention to what each character reveals about the nature of sin, the failure of justice, and the sovereignty of God even in sordid judgment.
2 Samuel 12:1-14
Nathan's confrontation of David in 2 Samuel 12:1–14 exposes the anatomy of sin, judgment, and grace in the covenant dealings of God with His king. The parable of the ewe lamb springs the trap of conscience, the indictment rehearses the goodness God had lavished on David before his fall, and the consequences announced — a sword that would not depart from his house — demonstrate that divine forgiveness does not abolish temporal chastisement. The two-word confession 'I have sinned against the Lord' and Nathan's immediate assurance 'the Lord also has put away your sin' together illustrate that atonement is the exclusive work of Christ, not the product of the sinner's anguish or penance.
2 Samuel 11
2 Samuel 11 records David's descent from idleness into adultery with Bathsheba and premeditated murder of Uriah the Hittite. The narrative's deliberate pacing and ironic contrasts expose David functioning as a lawless pagan king while Uriah — a foreign-born mighty man — embodies covenantal integrity. The study traces three movements: the sin itself, the escalating cover-up, and the divine verdict, warning that sin's hardening deceitfulness compounds rather than resolves itself, and that standing against temptation depends not on willpower but solely on the grace of God.
The Kindness Shown to Mephibosheth
David's covenant with Jonathan, sealed decades before 2 Samuel 9, drives him to seek out Mephibosheth — a lame, fearful descendant of his enemy Saul — and lavish upon him protection, restored inheritance, and a permanent seat at the royal table. The Hebrew word hesed (covenant faithfulness, steadfast love) names a kindness that goes far beyond bare duty, and David's exercise of it toward an unworthy enemy typifies the grace that Christ, David's greater Son, bestows upon helpless, ungodly sinners. The sermon presses two practical conclusions: covenant promises are perpetually binding regardless of changed circumstances or the passage of time, and the grace received from God must become grace poured out toward others.
2 Samuel 9
David's covenant faithfulness to Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9 illuminates two doctrines: the binding nature of covenant obligation and the typological relationship between David and his greater Son, Jesus Christ. The Hebrew word hesed — covenant love that exceeds the bare requirements of duty — governs David's intention and execution of kindness toward a lame, vulnerable enemy of the throne, and serves as a shadow of the gospel wherein Christ protects, provides for, and grants position to those who are insignificant, unworthy, and hostile. The sermon calls hearers to faithful covenant-keeping in marriage, parenting, and every solemn promise, and to marvel that believers, like Mephibosheth, eat continually at the king's table by grace alone.
2 Samuel 6
God's holiness and the regulation of his worship stand at the center of 2 Samuel 6. The chapter presents two attempts to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem: the first interrupted by the death of Uzzah for transgressing explicit Mosaic law, and the second completed with sacrificial worship, joy, and dancing. The narrative teaches that sincere motives and good intentions are always subordinate to the commandment of God, and that right worship is neither invented by the worshiper nor shaped by cultural preference, but governed by the Word of God alone. David's response to Michael's contempt further illustrates the contrast between genuine, humble devotion and the cold externalism of an unconverted heart.
2 Samuel 4:1-12
Second Samuel 4 narrates the assassination of Ish-bosheth, the last surviving rival to David's throne, by two Benjamite officers who expected royal reward but received capital punishment. The passage raises the perennial question of divine providence and human responsibility: God works through the wicked acts of men to accomplish His decreed purposes, yet this in no way legitimises those acts or excuses the men who commit them. David's response — swearing by the God who redeemed his life from all adversity and executing the murderers — models both gratitude for sovereign faithfulness and the administration of justice that foreshadows the kingdom of Christ. Believers are exhorted to live by God's revealed, preceptive will rather than by self-serving interpretations of His secret will, and to resist the temptation to mask sin or unkindness behind theological language.
2 Samuel 3:22-39
The assassination of Abner by Joab in 2 Samuel 3:22–39 exposes the destructive power of envy and selfish ambition, contrasted with David's careful maintenance of covenant integrity and political innocence. Joab's murder of Abner — motivated not only by a desire to avenge his brother Asahel but by fear that Abner's rise would diminish his own standing — illustrates Calvin's warning that ambition is the most mortal evil that can befall the church. David's public mourning, fivefold curse upon Joab, and lament over Abner are examined as covenantal and diplomatic acts flowing from genuine righteousness rather than self-interest. The passage calls believers to guard their own hearts against the same envy and selfishness visible in these ancient figures, and to take encouragement that God builds his kingdom through and despite such human wickedness.
2 Samuel 3:1-21
Second Samuel 3:1–21 traces the long civil war between the house of Saul and the house of David, and the defection of Abner that moves history toward David's consolidation over all Israel. The passage is examined in three movements: the reminder of civil war in verse 1, the increase of David's house in verses 2–5 (with attention to David's polygamy as a violation of Deuteronomy 17), and the defection of Abner to David in verses 6–21. A sustained application presses the congregation to guard against Abner-like selfishness and unrighteous ambition, while finding comfort in the sovereign providence of God who builds his kingdom not merely in spite of human sin and political intrigue, but through it.
2 Samuel 2:12-3:1
The civil war ignited by Abner's aggression against David's kingdom in 2 Samuel 2:12–3:1 exposes the anatomy of pride, hypocrisy, and discord among the covenant people of God. Working through three sections — the battle at Gibeon, the pursuit of Abner, and the truce between Joab and Abner — the study shows that Abner's rebellion against David was ultimately a rebellion against the living God who had decreed David's reign. The passage closes with a summary verdict: 'David grew stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker' — a pattern the study applies typologically to Christ's kingdom and practically to the church's calling to preserve unity rather than sow discord.
David's Lament over Saul and Jonathan
David's lament over Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 1:17–27 is examined as a carefully crafted literary and theological act, not merely an outburst of emotion. The lamentation reveals David's paramount concern for the glory of Yahweh, his unbitter spirit toward a sworn enemy, and his covenantal grief over the loss of Jonathan. The study draws out practical instruction on the role of lament in the Christian life, the ethics of speech about the dead, and the priority of God's honor in prayer.
2 Samuel 1:1-16
2 Samuel 1:1–16 records an Amalekite's false report to David claiming credit for Saul's death, and David's swift, severe response. This exposition examines the inconsistencies in the Amalekite's account, David's genuine grief over Saul and the house of Israel despite Saul's wickedness, and the theological weight of fearing to touch the Lord's anointed. Three practical lessons emerge: guarding against self-promotion, cultivating a multifaceted response to divine judgment that avoids bitterness, and living under the motivating power of the fear of God.
1 Samuel 31
The death of Saul and his sons in 1 Samuel 31 is not merely a military defeat but the judicial end of a king whose reign was marked by persistent unfaithfulness to Yahweh — a verdict the Chronicler renders explicitly in 1 Chronicles 10:13-14. The chapter is examined under three headings: the death of Saul and his sons (with particular attention to Jonathan's steadfast faithfulness), the response of the Philistines (whose pagan celebration is a direct assault on the glory of God), and the kindness of the men of Jabesh-Gilead (who honor Saul out of remembered gratitude for his deliverance of their city in 1 Samuel 11). The study closes by drawing out the relentless fulfillment of God's word across 1 Samuel and calling hearers to faithful, unrecognised service and a consuming concern for the glory of God.
1 Samuel 29
God's providential deliverance of David from an impossible dilemma — being compelled to march against Israel with the Philistines — and the immediate plunge into the disaster at Ziklag raise a single pressing question: how does a believer endure when the last straw is not the last straw? Working through 1 Samuel 29–30:8, this study traces two movements: the Lord using the objections of the Philistine lords to extract David from his dilemma without David having to act, and the devastation at Ziklag that arrives the moment he returns home. The sermon draws out three means by which David strengthened himself in the Lord his God — the experiential knowledge of God, the promises of God rehearsed through fellowship, and the use of the means of grace — setting these against the contrasting figure of Saul, who in the same crisis had no priest, no ephod, and no word from the Lord.
The Massacre at Nob
First Samuel 22:6–23 records one of the darkest episodes in Saul's reign: the massacre of 85 priests at Nob and the destruction of the entire city at the hand of Doeg the Edomite. This exposition traces Saul's paranoid pity party in Gibeah, his contempt for due process and the law of God, and the bloody consequences of political tyranny unchecked by the fear of Yahweh. Yet even in this ghastly scene the sovereignty of God is on display — the carnage at Nob fulfills the word of judgment pronounced on the house of Eli a generation earlier, Abiathar escapes to David, and the kingdom of God advances. The sermon closes by setting David's shelter of the fleeing priest against Christ's eternal high priesthood, urging sinners to flee to the one priest who ever lives to make intercession.
The Escape from Saul
God's provision for David during his flight from Saul — through bread at Nob, deliverance at Gath, fellowship at Adullam, safety for his parents in Moab, and a prophetic word at the forest of Hereth — is the controlling theological theme of 1 Samuel 21–22:5. The narrative exposes both the reality of severe trial in the life of God's people and the sovereign grace that meets them in and through their own failures. David's response of praise, crystallised in Psalms 34, 56, 57, and 142, rebukes a health-and-wealth theology and models the only fitting reply to affliction. The gathering of the distressed, indebted, and discontented to David in the cave of Adullam functions as a type of Christ, who bids weary sinners come to him as captain and lord.
1 Samuel 21:1-15
David's flight from Saul in 1 Samuel 21 traces a fugitive's desperate stops at Nob, Gath, the cave of Adullam, and Moab — each one a theater of divine providence operating through human weakness, foreign enemies, and ancient familial arrangements stretching back to Ruth. The narrative neither excuses David's deception nor leaves him without bread; God sustains his anointed man not because of David's faithfulness but because of Yahweh's grace, planned long beforehand. Christ, the greater David, stands behind every detail: he is the captain of the distressed, the indebted, and the discontented, and his people are called to see their own trials as the very means by which God conforms them to the image of his Son.
The Victory of David over Goliath, Part 2
David's declaration in 1 Samuel 17:45–47 is the theological center of the entire chapter: the defeat of Goliath is not primarily a lesson in personal courage but a proclamation that there is a God in Israel who does not save by sword and spear. The sermon traces David's preparation, his confrontation with Goliath, and his victory, reading the decapitation of Israel's enemies throughout redemptive history as typological of Genesis 3:15 — the skull-crushing seed of the woman who will finally destroy the serpent. The congregation is called to trust the means God has ordained — prayer and preaching — rather than the 'horses and chariots' of human ingenuity, and all hearers are urged to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom this protoevangelium finds its fulfilment.