If you have your Bibles, please open up to Second Samuel chapter
18. Second Samuel Chapter 18.
We're going to be reading through that entire chapter and
leading up to this point, we've been studying on Absalom and
David and the conflict that they've had.
And in chapter 17, we saw that Absalom had followed the advice
of Hushai, and that had caused things to shift into David's
favor. And the battle between David and
Absalom is now set. The battle lines have been
drawn, the armies have been assembled.
And here in chapter 18, we're going to read about that kind of
culmination of all those things that are happening that we've
been studying up to this point. So we'll begin there, reading in
verse 1, chapter 18 of Second Samuel.
And the record says there, and David numbered the people who
are with him, and said captains of thousands and captains of
hundreds over them. Then David sent out 1/3 of the
people under the hand of Joab, 1/3 under the hand of Abishai
the son of Zariah Joab's brother, and 1/3 under the hand
of Itai to Getai. And the king said to the people,
I I also will surely go out with you myself.
But the people answered, You shall not go out, for if we flew
flee away they will not care about us, nor if half of us will
die will they care about us. But you are worth 10,000 of us
now, for you are now more help to us in the city.
Then King David said to them, whatever seems best to you, I
will do so The king stood beside the gate, and all the people
went out by hundreds and by thousands.
Now the king had commanded Joab, Abishai and Hittite, saying,
Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.
And all the people heard when the king gave the captain's
order concerning Absalom. So the people went out into the
field of battle against Israel, and the battle was in the woods
of Ephraim. The people of Israel were
overthrown there before the servants of David, and a great
slaughter of 20,000 took place there that day.
For the battle was there was scattered over the face of the
whole countryside, and the woods devoured more people that day
than the sword devoured that Absalom met the servants of
David. Absalom wrote a mule.
The mule went under the thick bruise of the of the great
terebin tree or an oak tree, and his head caught in the terebin
tree. So he was left hanging between
heaven and earth. And the mule which was under him
went on. Now a certain man saw it and
told Joab and said, I just saw Absalom hanging in a terebin
tree. So Joab said to the man who told
him you saw him and you did not strike him there with the to the
ground. I would have given you 10
shekels in a of silver and a belt.
But the man said to Joab, though I were to receive 1000 shekels
of silver in my hand, I would not raise my hand against the
King's son. For in our hearing the king
commanded you and AB Shy and Itai saying, Beware lest anyone
touch the young man Absalom. Otherwise I would have dealt
falsely against my own life, for there is nothing hidden from the
king, and you yourself would have set yourself against me.
Then Joab said, I cannot linger with you.
And he took three Spears in his hand and thrust them through
Absalom's heart while he was still alive in the midst of the
terebin tree. And 10 young men who bore Job's
armor surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him.
So Joab blew the trumpet, and the people returned from
pursuing Israel. For Joab held back the people,
and they took Absalom and cast them into a large pit in the
woods, and laid a very large heap of stones over him.
Then all Israel fled, and everyone to his tent.
Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up a pillow for
himself, which is in the King's valley.
For he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.
He called the pillar after his own name, and to this day it is
called Absalom's monument. Then Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok,
said, Let me run now and take the news to the king, how the
Lord has avenged him of his enemies.
And Joab said to him, You shall not take the news this day, for
you shall take the news another day, but today you shall take no
news, because the King's son is dead.
Then Joab said to the Kushite, Go tell the king what you have
seen. So the Kushite bowed and himself
before Joab, and ran, and at him, as the son of Zadok said
again to Joab, But whatever happens, please let me go run
after the Kushite. So Joab said, what?
Why will you run my son, since you have no news ready?
But whatever happens, he said, let me run.
So we said to him, Run the nahim has ran by the way of the plane
and outran the Ku Shy. Now David was sitting between
the two gates, and the watchman went up to the roof, over the
gate to the wall, lifted his eyes and looked, and there was a
man running alone. Then the watchman cried out and
told the king, and the king said if he is alone there is news in
his mouth. And he came rapidly and drew
near. Then the watchman saw another
man running. And the watchman called to the
gatekeeper and said, There's another man running alone.
And the king said he also brings news.
So the watchman said, I think, I think the running of the first
is like the running of Ahemaz the son of Zadok.
And the king said he is a good man and comes with good news.
So Ahemaz called out and said to the king, all is well.
Then he bowed down with his face to the earth before the king,
and said, Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up
the men who raised their hand against my Lord the king.
Then the king said, Is the young man Absalom safe?
I am, I said, when Joab sent the King's servant and me your
servant, I saw a great turmo, but I did not know what it was
about. And the king said, turn aside
and stand here. So we turned to her side and
stood still. Just then the Kushite came in.
The Kushite said There is good news for my Lord the king, for
the Lord has avenged you this day, all of all those who rose
against you. And the king said, the Kushai is
the young man Absalom safe. So the Kushai answered, May all,
may the enemies of my Lord the king, and all who rise against
you to do harm, be like that young man.
Then the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over
the gate and wept. And as he went, he said thus, Oh
my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, if only I had died in
your place. Oh Absalom, my son, my son.
This is where we picked up from last month.
Last month, we our focus was kind of on how God's sovereignty
comes into play and how he rules over all things at all times.
And we saw how we consider the great dilemma that we have here
is how can love be expressed and how can just justice be executed
except in the work of the gospel?
And when we come to chapter 18, as we've read through it, what
we immediately are confronted with is an illustration of when
love and justice do not meet. We don't see love and justice
meet in this chapter. We have a great concern of the
loving heart of David, as we've seen, and yet at the same time
his desire and it's a justifiable, justifiable desire
that justice might be exercised in his doing.
So. The chapter begins with the
strategy of David for defeating the rebel king Absalom, and then
it ends with the agony of David on the back of that victory.
And in in it is a chapter which is made perfectly clear to us
that what David had desired and that namely is to treat the
young man gently, treat his son gently.
And what God had ordained back in chapter 17 and verse 14,
those two factors are on a collision course with each
other. What David wanted and what God
ordained are on a collision course.
And reading through the chapter and allowing kind of the story
to unfold in our minds. We'll have to find out, You
know, will justice be set aside, or is love and mercy going to
prevail? What's going to happen here?
And what makes this, of course, is it's really a poignant fact
that the rebel who had conspired against Abel, who against David,
who is God's anointed, this rebel is none other than
Absalom, his son. And so David has this dilemma.
He wants a decisive victory, but he also doesn't want any harm
done to his son Absalom. And that's a tall order.
That's a difficult order. And what we have to realize in
chapter 17, verse 14, the latter half of it, it remains a control
verse. If you want to say what that
means is that it's a point where that has been.
It's a point that's been made in such a way that it exercises
control over everything that flows from it, everything that
comes from it beyond. That's a control verse.
And in chapter 17 it says, remember in verse 14 it says in
Absalom and all the men of Israel said the council of
Hushai, the archive is better than the council of the Lord of
the Hithafel. And here it is, for the Lord had
ordained to defeat the good council of the Hithafel so that
the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom.
God is behind the death of Absalom, just as He is involved
behind the deliverance of David. God is behind it all.
So I want to work through this chapter a little bit.
In verses one through 5, we have essentially the battle strategy
at the end of chapter 17. The people there were kind of
having a potluck out in the wilderness.
If you want to say you come to chapter 18.
And David has mustered his army together.
He puts his commanders in place, which is Joab Job's brother
Abishai. And he tried to get tight who,
as we've seen previously, has commended himself to David by
bringing many of his friends to join David's forces.
So David having put the commanders in place, he now
finds that he himself is is put in his place.
And the people say to him, people are saying to David,
you're not going to go out on this battle.
You're going to stay back here at the city.
You're not going to do that. David said, I'm going to go out.
But the people said, no, you're not.
And it's quite fascinating when you think about hit the Phils
council that we noticed before, you'll remember that a hit Phil
said to Absalom, you're going to be the one that goes out, you're
going to take all the glory, you're going to win the
battlefield, you're going to be front and centre Absalom so you
can have the glory that was that was a hit the Phils advice to
Absalom and that was of course not accepted by Absalom.
And so here it is that the people say to him, understanding
what a hit the Phil was actually saying, it's saying, listen,
it's far better that you stay here and we receive your help
and your guidance and your wisdom from the city.
That's what the people wanted David to do.
And David complies. David said to them, well,
whatever you actually think is best.
And I'll go ahead and do that. You know, maybe think about
David's sin on the rooftop back in Chapter 11 that we can read
about, you know, there was an incident there if you want to
read it in Chapter 11. And it's almost, you know, our,
our criticism goes along with most commentators saying you,
you know, you see what the problem is here is that he
should have been out there fighting.
David should have been out fighting and he would have never
ran into this problem at the at the rooftop.
Well, I think this kind of puts a little bit of twist on it or,
or more context if you want to say it raises the possibility
that back on that occasion in Chapter 11, they were operating
really in the the exact same principle.
They were wanting David to stay back to give, you know, orders
from headquarters. If you want to say orders from
the city, he stayed back and give that wisdom.
You know, we're not justifying the things that he did there, of
course, but if he stayed back for that reason, it's an
entirely legitimate reason that he stayed back.
However, what he did with his time, all he stayed back is
another subject. The choices he made in his
privacy made all the difference in the world.
So he stays back. They will.
They will obey orders. And his order, his order is
very, very clear. In fact, we have a record of
only one order given by David. Just one.
Excuse me. It says, deal gently with the
young man, Absalom. That was the only order that
David had given them. And what we need to keep in mind
here is that David is who he is. He is the king.
He is the man after God's own heart.
He is a man with the history that we've been reading about
for the past few weeks, but he's also at the same time a father.
And it's surely hard to imagine the turmoil that he knows in
establishing his fighting force in this, in this manner.
You know, in fact, the nature of his grief that we'll read about,
the nature of his grief is grounded in the extent of his
love for his son. We can understand that it's
because he loves so much that by the time we get to the end of
the chapter, he grieves so badly.
He knows what's unfolding here. He knows that those who stand
against the Lord's anointed are to be destroyed.
David knows that now he he knows that.
Now go out and deal with that, he says.
He says, let me say something to you're going to go a deal with
that, but you're going to take care of my son.
Do not treat him harshly. That's my boy.
Deal with him gently. That's verses one through 5 and
in verses 6 through 8 we have record of a decisive victory.
Both the build up to the battle are covered extensively and in
many ways the whole thing has been kind of leading up to this
point for a long time and in a way that we need to understand
that. It's really interesting that it,
if you only read, if we only have 3 verses that really
provide the summary of what the battle happened, just three.
All this build up, all these chapters and everything.
Then there's 3 verses to summarize the battle.
Kind of amazing to me. And we'll notice what it says.
It says that they went out, that they fought in the forest and
that the men of Israel defeated, that there was a great loss.
The battle was all over the face of the country and it took place
in the forest of Abraham. And fascinatingly, it says the
forest devoured more than the sword.
How did the force do that out of the forest, Devour more than the
sword. And it's clever on David's part.
I think he is a limited forces that we've seen in comparison to
the extensive numbers that are arranged against him under the
control of Absalom. So if we're out, you know, if
they're out in the vast space, you know, he's really got no
defense, He's got no cover, if you want to say against the huge
army of Israel. And he would have dealt with
that in a different way. But when we get to context like
this that it provides, you know, it's unfamiliar territory to
many of them. And the chances are the way that
they're going to collapse is really beyond human interference
or human interaction between the two armies, if we might put it
the way, you know, if you want to put it that way.
And it's really interesting, you know, this doesn't come without
precedence. This has happened before.
There's a great story in Joshua. We find that in chapter 10 of
Joshua where Israel rose up against the Amorites.
And of course the battle, we read it and it says, and the
Lord threw down large hailstones from heaven, hailstones.
And then this is what it says is, and there were more who died
because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel were killed
by the sword. One commentator said, says we
might see here a suggestion that nature was enlisted on the side
of David, that a sovereign God who is sovereign not only over
the affairs of men and women is actually sovereign over nature
itself. And he is the force devoured
them. And notice the force is going to
play a very significant part in the end of Absalom.
And it's interesting that what we really see here in just these
3 verses, we see the hidden hand of God at work.
We see the exercise of human ingenuity and each of them
colliding together with each other.
Now what about Absalom? We need to keep in mind Absalom.
Remember who he is. He's a handsome beyond measure.
No blemish from the sole of his feet to the tip of his head.
An Old Testament Fabio, as some of you have suggested to me,
he's got a hairstyle that was quite remarkable, even enough
for it to get mentioned by all those that were around him.
He had, he had decided that he had was going to establish
himself as king in a position that was unmerited by any
measure that he would get a chariot for himself back in
chapter 15. We can read about them.
And then along with that, with that, he decided that he would
have 50 men that would ride in front of the chariot.
His entourage, if you want to say very, very important to him.
He had to make sure that he was looking the part he was also in
dealing with the people told he told the people what they wanted
to hear. The perfect politician, if you
want to say. And then he stole the hearts of
them by telling him what they what they want to hear is what
we just mentioned. He stole their hearts at the
same time. And that's who Absalom is.
And that's what we find. He's introduced now in verse 9
says that the Absalom met the servants of David.
It says Absalom met the servants of David.
Well, did he meet him? Like was it was it a set up
meeting like they met? Well, I don't think it's that
way. I think it's actually, you know,
understood more by saying like Absalom happened to run into the
men of David accidentally ran into them wall on the
battlefield. He didn't mean to and Absalom's
father wishes him no harm. On the back of the study guide
that I passed out, there's some verses referencing how David
loved his son. You can do what you want with
those worksheets. They're not meant to be filled
out or anything. You can ball them up and throw
them in the trash for like here. But maybe they're just a tool
for you. If it's if it's good and helps
you, that's what it's for. But on the back there, it's got
some. I didn't pull my.
I just want to read through these second Samuel 18 verse 5
it says in the king commanded Joab and Abishai of the anti
saying deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.
As we read Second Samuel 18 verses 32 through 33, the king
said to the Kushai and it goes on through that and the king was
deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept.
And as he went went, he said, Oh my son, my son, Absalom, my son,
would I have died in instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son.
And then we get to chapter 19 verses one through 4.
It says it was told that Johan Joab, behold the king is weeping
in mourning for Absalom going on through there a few verses down.
It says the king covered his face and the king cried with a
loud voice. Oh my son Absalom.
Oh Absalom my son, my son back in chapter 13 of Second Samuel,
verses 37 through 39 says, But Absalom fled and went to tell my
the son of MA Hood, king of Gisher, and David mourn for his
son day after day. So Absalom fled and went to
Gisher in their three years. And the spirit of the king
longed to go out to Absalom, because he was comforted by
Amnon since he was dead. Chapter 14 of Second Samuel,
Verses 33. So Joab went to the king and
told him as he summoned Absalom. So he came to the king, and
bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king.
And the king kissed Absalom. I don't think there is any doubt
in our mind that David loved his boy Absalom.
None at all but the Lord has ordained to defeat of hit the
Phils council so that he might bring harm upon absent, because
God is the one who brings Princess to nothing.
Scarcely has the stem taken room, scarcely are they sewing,
and the wind blows over them, and they wither.
And So what we have here in verses 9 through 15 is at the
forest, one minute Absalom's on his mule.
And if we remember on a previous occasion, we're told that all
the sons and the kings left on their mules back in chapter 13.
So it's kind of sort of sort of a standard issue that that
royalty rides mules, if you want to say if you even had a mule.
And so it's no surprise that he was riding his mule.
And at least on one minute he was riding on his mule and then
the next minute he wasn't. Because in the next minute, the
mule keeps going and he's left dangling with his head caught in
a terebin tree or an oak tree, some translation, say.
And so it's, I don't know why it is we want his to be his hair
that he's hanging from. It doesn't say anything about
him hanging from his hair. I tried to find a picture of him
not hanging it by his hair, but everybody has and assumes that
he's hanging by his hair. I don't know if that's the truth
or not. It just says that he's hanging
from the tree. Those of us who have thinning
hair, you know sometime those or thin completely.
We want to say, see, bald is good.
Having not so much hair can get you into trouble.
But anyway, we don't know if it was his hair or if it wasn't his
hair. We know that.
We know that he did have hair. But the chances are, it would
seem that if we want to imagine that Absalom has come upon the
servants of David, he begins to make a run for it.
If you want to say maybe he's looking back over his shoulder,
right on his mule, and then he hits head on into a tree.
Maybe his head's stuck in the branches or something.
But we see that he is definitely verse 9, hanging between heaven
and earth. It's quite a picture.
Nothing his good looks can achieve now.
No ability to influence the people by telling them what they
want to hear. Picture is clear.
He's hanging, helpless, hopeless and humiliated.
Even his mule is gone. And meanwhile, back in the city,
David is waiting, hoping that Abishai and Itai and Joab will
have obeyed, have obeyed his order to deal gently with the
young man Absalom. And then it says a certain man,
a certain man, another unnamed individual in the Bible who
makes a great impact, a certain man and told Joab, I saw Absalom
hanging in an oak. And I think we can understand
kind of the inflection here that Joab responds to him.
Joab said to the man and told him what?
You saw him and you did nothing about it.
You didn't strike him to the ground.
What do you mean you saw him? And this, this is the rebel
pretender to the to the throne. We're out here in order to make
sure that David is delivered and and Absalom is destroyed.
What do you mean? You saw him?
I would have given you a reward. I would have gotten you a belt
of victory. We could have had money in your
hand. But we'll notice what the man's
response. It will reveal a couple things
here. It reveals that that man is
principled, that he's a pragmatist.
He's acting on facts. He is also brave, I think at the
same time in in confronting Joab and opposing Joab.
We know Joab from his past. If we read back through all his
life, he's a very, he doesn't put up with foolish people.
If you want to say he doesn't have time for it.
He doesn't want to put up with any foolishness or anything like
that. He just wants to get the job
done, and he wants to get it done violently most of the time.
He says, well, we heard that you were told and that you were told
to protect Absalom. Everybody heard it is what the
man told Joab. And furthermore, he says, if I
had killed him, I don't see why there's any reason for me to
believe that you would have protected me at the same time.
And if you didn't protect me, then I'd be in some of the
similar situations Absalom is right now.
You would have taken care of me, basically, or David would have
taken care of me. Well, it seems that he's pretty
persuasive in his response because we'll notice that Joab
chooses not to engage with this guy.
Verse 14, Joab says I'm not going to waste my time with
this. He says I'm not going to.
I'm not going to argue. And that's really the offering,
the response for somebody who doesn't have a good response to
an argument. Well, we're just not going to
argue about it anymore, OK? But what he's saying is this,
we're not having a discussion here about morality and ethics
and all that stuff. Absalom is an enemy.
We're involved in a military exercise, and we need to make
sure that exercise is carried out.
And despite David's plea, it's clear that Joab, in keeping with
his personality, is not to change who he is.
And that is a man of war. And so we'll notice what happens
then. Incidentally, for the word
Spears here could be translated equally stick or rod in the same
way that thousands or hundreds could be transit like regiments
or platoons, whatever it might be.
So just keep that in mind. And So what happens here is is
describe for us. He took three sticks or three
Spears in his hand. Why 3?
Well, there is no reason why 3 but I think we can kind of maybe
think about Joab a little bit and, and what he was dealing
with here. And he says to him, you know,
Absalom's up in the tree and he says, you know, this one's for
this one's for Abishai, this one's for Itai and this one's
for me hitting him three times or three regiments or the three
regiments are represented. Maybe in that or perhaps in some
way in in Job's mind, he wanted to make it clear that this is
not a one man operation that the whole army of David is behind
the death of Absalom. If we read more about the life
of Absalom the previous chapters, maybe he said, you
know this one's for this one's for Amnon, this one's for you
being a pain in the neck. Maybe this one's for burning my
fields that we noticed that happened previously in the in
book. Whatever it was.
Absalom of course was pierced, it says Through the heart three
times that day and he died. Incidentally.
If Absalom had heeded A hippophiles council he would not
be here. We need to remember that he
listened instead to who Shy's council because who shy
suggested that Absalom should be front and centre and Absalom
likes the idea being front, front and centre.
So here he is now Absalom is killed and having been devoured
by the force, he is now destroyed by it says 10 young
men. And that should be a reminder to
us about the brutal violence is not a new thing in our world.
It happened all the way back in the Old Testament.
Nothing's changed. A reminder too of the Scripture.
Be not deceived. God is not mocked.
Whatever a man shows that he shall also reap.
Of that there is no doubt that we can see here.
And then what we see here in verses 16 through 18 is
loneliness of vanity, loneliness of vanity.
I came to this and of course start thinking there's a,
there's a passage in Ecclesiastes that says vanity,
vanity all is vanity is unhappy business absence.
Life was really striving after the wind.
It also says in Ecclesiastes, and again in Ecclesiastes the
writer saw, I saw vanity under the sand sun, a man all alone
who had no one, neither son nor brother.
And there we have it, I have no son to keep my name in
remembrance. We see there in verse 18 of
chapter 18 of Second Samuel. Now in Second Samuel 1427, we
read about Absalom having three boys, SO3 boys and a daughter
that were born to Absalom. But here it says that he had no
boys. So is that a contradiction?
Well, it's a contradiction, but we have to assume that maybe
something happened to those three boys between that time and
now because the Bible says that he had no sons at that point.
Whatever the reason, what may be, whatever was it, it's, it
doesn't mean anything other than he had no sons.
The fact was he had no one. Now who who may entrust to his
legacy. So Joab blows the trumpet and he
has restrained the troops and Absalom is not ceremonial laid
to rest, but he's thrown into a great pit and he's covered by a
great heap of stones and the wind blows over it and its place
is no, no more. You see, Absalom, he sought to
make a name for himself. That's what he wanted.
We need to remember the word of God to Abraham was, I will give
you a great name. God told that to Abraham.
And these promises to Abraham were then reinforced to David of
a promise being made saying I will give you a great name in
Chapter 7 of Second Sam, pointing forward, of course, to
the name above every name that is Jesus Christ that we read
about in Philippians. But everybody else, Absalom
included, seeking to make the name for themselves as foolish.
It's really foolish to the extreme.
And So what you'll notice there is he has, if you like, if you
want to say 2 grave sites, he's got a physical grave site.
And then he's got a monument site, if you want to say he has
one of this great mound of stones which exists to a
testimony of his rebellion and to his ruinous end.
And, and he has another, which he has, he already had this
other one planned for himself, setting up a pillar in the
Valley of Kings so that whenever people happen to drop by the
drive by there or see it or walk by there, whatever, maybe people
will be able to see, ah, you see, this is absolute.
This is absolute right here. And then they would think, wait,
wasn't Absalom Belt buried out in the middle of the forest
where nobody knows a bunch of rocks?
Yeah, he was. That shows you the vanity, that
Absalom hat. And incidentally, this picture
on the bottom here, it's standing to this day.
And that's what the Scripture states, standing to this day.
That is the historical known site of Absalom's Pillar.
And it's actually in the Valley of the Kings, which is actually
also the Kidron Valley and the Kidron Valley.
If you ever study the Kidron Valley, it's really quite
amazing the illusions that the Kidron Valley has to help.
It was a place, it was a physical place where there was
burning of the is a city dump. If you want to say they burn
things there, they they burned and destroyed idols there.
They also took dead bodies there and they burned some of the dead
bodies there. It was a place of also the, the
word Kidron is actually translating the old Hebrew,
Hebrew as darkness, deep darkness.
Some translation say, you know, crossed over the brick there.
There's many illusions. But anyway, if you have time to
study the, the Kidron Valley, it's, it's pretty interesting.
There's physical and spiritual illusions there.
What we have next, though, the mission is accomplished.
Absalom is buried without ceremony.
And how disappointed he would have been that he didn't have a
ceremony after his death, right? The army's gone.
And when we're ready for the conclusion, we, what do we got?
We have two runners. The runners delivery from verse
19 all the way to 32. And it's pretty clear to us that
Ahimas desires the opportunity to be the guy with the good
news. Perhaps he wants to do it
because you almost made a mess of it previously.
We can read about that. And we tried to get the message
to King David and they ended up down a well hiding.
So maybe he wanted to have the opportunity to redeem himself.
He wants to be the deliverer of the news and Joe episode.
Oh, no, you're not going to deliver that news.
It's not for you to go and bring the news today because after
all, the King's son is dead. Rather, what we're going to do
is we're going to send the Kushite man, he's got no skin in
the game. He's an unknown man.
We're going to send him to deliver the news to David.
There's no motion attached to him.
He can just go, go and deliver it be done and then add him out.
Says no, no, no, I want to go, I want to go the job, let's go.
And then as what happens is a him out actually manages to get
there before the Kushite and then the watchman who's up on
the roof of the city and David, is that incidentally in between
the gates? I think there's a sermon there
somewhere. I don't know what it is, but
there's a sermon of David between the gates.
I don't know what it is, but maybe somebody can look into
that too. But emotionally, he's between
the gates in many ways. But anyway, a watchman says it
looks like the first one is Ahimas, to which David replies,
oh, Ahimas. Yeah, he's a good man.
Ahemaz is going to be good news. He's a good man.
We can trust him. And if we put ourselves in
David's shoes, it would almost make us kind of emotional seeing
Ahemaz running to us and think, yes, good news, that my boy is
going to be safe. And we won at the same time.
And of course, he says that, you know, he said that deal gently
with the boy, says Ahemaz is coming.
Oh, Ahemaz, he's a good, He's bringing good news, won't he?
Well, he's going to bring good news, right?
Messenger must bring the good news, the good and the bad with
it, for it's only the bad that makes the good good, and it's
only the good that can deal with the bad.
Well, of course Ahemaz gets there.
He outruns the Kushai, and David's only has only one
question for him. Only one question?
Is it well with the young man, Absalom?
Is it well with the young men? Absolutely.
And at that point, I am, as who has said twice in his dialogue,
is whatever happens, whatever happens, I'll go.
No matter what happens, I'm the guy to go.
Yeah, well, whatever, Mr. Whatever happens, because it
comes to the point where now he's going to be asked the
question from King David. How is it with my boy?
Guess what he's going to do. He clams up.
He's got the message. He's got the truth, but he clams
up, he's got cold feet. He just rambles and Mumbles.
He's like any any one of us who maybe loses confidence in
ourselves when we're trying to spread the gospel or talk to
somebody about it, who are no longer able to actually tell the
absolute truth, Who are no longer able to be prepared to
say the reason the good news is good news is because the bad
news is that you're lost before God.
And you see, he makes himself irrelevant at that point when he
doesn't bring the news that needs to be brought to David.
And that's exactly what happened.
And David says, well, he's a good man with good news.
And in verse 30 it says he says, you now you know what?
Turn aside, turn aside. So he turned and stood still.
It was pretty amazing. He's frozen.
May not, may not, let's not that be said of us.
Let's not be frozen about telling somebody about the good
news, the good and the bad that come along with it.
The messenger must bring the message, the good and the bad,
for it's only the bad that makes the good good, and it is only
the good that can deal with the bad.
So the cushy kushy does it. The kushy says good news for the
king. David has the same response to
him. He says, here's my question.
Is it well with the young man? Absolutely and masterfully, the
Kushite manages to say no, it's not and he's dead without even
actually saying those exact words.
He's very good with his verbiage there.
He says, may the enemies of the Lord my King and all who rise up
against you for evil be like that young man.
And So what we have here in verse 33 is a personal tragedy,
David's grief. Grief consumes the king.
He doesn't ask why his orders weren't followed.
He doesn't answer or ask for how these things have transpired.
He doesn't ask why he's now made aware of just the fact that he
has a victory on the battlefield.
The Kingdom of says, but he said, but he is sad and the
pictures clear. He's really deeply, deeply
moved. He's overwhelmed, if you want to
say. He moves away from that area
between the gates and goes to the upper Chamber of the gate
over the gate where he can be by himself and weep.
Oh, my son, my son. He says it five times.
Oh my son. One of the verses that's on the
back of that summary is of David's love for Absalom is
Second Samuel 1339 through just verse 39 and chapter 13 where it
says he longed to go out to Absalom.
I was reading some people saying, well, he longed to go
out so he could kill Absalom. That's why he longed to go out
to Absalom. But I don't think that's true
based on what we're seeing here. He longed to go out to Absalom
to comfort him. He wanted to be with his boy,
with his son in the sense that he longed to go out to Absalom.
Now we know exactly what that means.
The agony of all that could have been, and that was all the
things that he did. But now regrets, all the
everything's just cascading over David at this point in his life,
all the interactions with his boy.
He allowed Joab to go to negotiate the deal to bring
Absalom back to Jerusalem. But then he said, yeah, he can
come back to Jerusalem. But you know what, he's going
to. He is not going to sleep in my
house. For two years, he left his son,
separated from him back in Chapter 14.
Whether legitimately or illegitimately or selfish or
whatever it is, maybe we can relate to those things, those
unpleasant moments with our kids.
But when the day dawns and when that person is taken from you,
all those issues come back, descend upon you.
All those conflicts, all those disruptions, all the growing
pains, the happy times, the good times, the joyful times, times
of turmoil, those moments will come back.
You can bet on it. He loved his son, but he also
loved justice because the kings of earth are to do that, and
that is to deal justly. Proverbs 10 says a wise son
makes a glad father, but a foolish son is the grief of his
mother and justice had been done at the expense of his love.
It's more than just a display of affection.
It's actually a cry of dereliction.
And say he says, oh, I wish I had died in place of you.
Well, you see, David was painfully aware of the fact that
it was his own sin that led to all of this, that led to
everything. It was his sin, and so his
guilt. His guilt inflamed and stirs up
his grief. But David obviously was unable
to do what he wished he could do, thereby reminding us of
this. What David was unable to do, his
greater Son did, namely Jesus, who died in the place of
sinners, who died that so we need not die spiritually.
Who, unlike David, who sheds tears over his own sinful,
guilty life, David and all of us do that.
The Man of Sorrows came to bear our griefs and to carry our
sorrows. We can read about that in Isaiah
53. And he was able to do so because
the Lord had laid on him the iniquities of all of us.
It's a simple reminder again that the Bible is a book about
Jesus, and if the study in Second Samuel 18 or any of the
Old Testament scriptures do not help us understand that, then we
have missed it. It is a book about Jesus who
came to redeem us. We don't want to miss it.
Mercy and justice are often in tension, but they meet perfectly
at the cross of Christ. Human strategy and divine
sovereignty both play roles in history.
Pursuing vanity leads to emptiness.
True significance comes only from God.
We are called to tell the truth. The gospel is good news because
it addresses the bad news. And only Jesus satisfies both
justice and mercy. Maybe there's one here who needs
to obey that gospel plan. Hear the word of God.
Hearing comes by faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word
of God. We then believe and believe is
not just a yeah, I believe that Jesus is who he says he is.
You know, the demons know that we believe and it's an action
word. When we believe, we change
things. It changes our mind, we change
our heart, we change the direction of life that we're
going and we repentance and follows that.
We repent, we change the way we're going now we're going to
live for Jesus. We then confess the name of
Jesus and we're baptized in for the remission of our sins, and
we give glory to God for all of that.
If there's one here who needs to follow that plan of salvation,
or if there's one here who just needs the prayers of the
congregation, please come while we stand, while we see.