Today we continue our Resource Friday study through the book of 2 Samuel. Abner didn’t play king-maker in Mahanaim for simply the fun of it. Ishbosheth was simply a means to his own self-centered ends. And for Abner to attain the preeminence he sought, he would have to remove the rival God-appointed king and his fledgling kingdom. Abner’s strategy of choice – a 12 on 12 battle and the subsequent exciting of a civil war.

There are plenty of verses to study and plenty to learn in the passage before us, including (but not limited to): a reminder of things that God loves and hates, how the Spirit-inspired narrator laid literary groundwork for us to better understand who Joab is, and how Abner is an illustration of how futile it is to wage war against the kingdom of God and the Gospel of His Son.

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