One King: 1 & 2 Samuel: Recent Episodes
Christ Fellowship (PCA)
We have finally come to the end of 2 Samuel and I’m anxious to get to it, so let’s begin:
1 Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”
The verse tells us that God is angry, but not why God is angry. It also tells us that God used David to initiate a military census, something that God had commanded them not to do.
In other words, God decided to punish Israel by leading David to do something David wasn’t allowed to do. And there is no helpful explanation. The story leans on us to trust God, even though it doesn’t seem fair.
It reminds me of the age-old question, “Why did God put the tree in the garden?” God knew that Adam and Eve were going to break the commandment. And the rule itself seems arbitrary to us. The Bible doesn’t really explain why God forbid them to eat from it. So, why did God put it there in the first place?
And I love the way Tim Keller answers that question. He writes:
I had a ten-year-old, my middle son, he was a very hard child to get to obey. And I would say to him, ‘Obey me. I’m your father, I’ve told you to do this, so just do it because I’ve told you to.’ And you know what he’d always say? ‘Dad, I’d be happy to obey if you could just make it reasonable. Just tell me why this is helpful for me, or the human race, or whatever.’ And I would say, ‘If you only obey me when I explain it to you, then you’re not obeying me, you’re just agreeing with me. I want you to obey because I’m forty-five and you’re ten. (Laughter). I know a little more about life than you do, and I don’t want to have to explain it to you because I couldn’t get into your ten-year-old brain.’ So, God says, ‘Don’t eat from the tree’, and no explanation. The point is, ‘I want you to obey because you love me. Just because I’m God and you’re not. I want you to do something, not because it profits you, not because you know the reason why, but just because I’m Lord and Saviour, and you’re not. Just do it because you love me for myself alone.’ And they didn’t.
In a similar way, God had told Israel not to perform a census. But God was angry with them for some reason, also not explained, and he incites David to do the thing he commanded them not to do. The census was somehow both the cause and the result of God’s anger. I know you’re confused and I’m with you. But let’s keep reading.
2 So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army, who was with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people.” 3 But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”
Joab knew this was a bad idea. He begs David to reconsider.
4 But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So, Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel.
They conduct the census and count the fighting men – 800,000 in Israel and 500,000 in Judah.
10 But David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
Just as Adam immediately recognized his sin in the garden, so does David. He feels the conviction immediately and asks God for forgiveness. How do you think God will respond?
11 And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 12 “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, three things I offer you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” 13 So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall three years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now consider and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” 14 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”
God gives David three bad options: three years of famine, three months of enemies, or three days of pestilence. David responds by ruling out the second option and trusting God to decide between the other two options. Specifically, David says he is trusting in the great mercy of God.
Remember, mercy means getting less of a punishment than a person deserves. David trusts that God won’t let it be as bad as it should be.
15 So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men. 16 And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.”
This is the only time in the Old Testament when the angel of the Lord was used against God’s own people. In every other instance, the destroying angel was used only against Israel’s enemies. This is a unique and rare thing, but it reminds us that even God’s people deserve the worst of His punishment. This is not a safe God.
David was correct in trusting that God would show His people mercy, but God still killed 70,000 men in three days. That’s a lot of funerals at the same time for a small nation. In comparison, their population was about the same as the state of Mississippi. There are 300 towns in Mississippi. That’s over 200 funerals per town in one week.
The grief of the people would have been enormous, not to mention the economic impact of losing so many people so quickly.
Still, the concept of mercy forces us to accept that this is not as bad as it should have been. More of these men deserved to die. 70,000 was merciful. And if we keep reading, even this amount of mercy was predicated on the need for atonement.
And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17 Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house.”
Just as Adam represented all humanity by his sin, David knows that these people were dying because of his sin. He asks God to let the anger fall on him instead of the people. But there was another way. Let’s read to the end of the chapter.
18 And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up at Gad's word, as the Lord commanded. 20 And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. 21 And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be averted from the people.” 22 Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23 All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.” 24 But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So, David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So, the Lord responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.
It is important to understand what has happened here and to recognize that this is the end of 2 Samuel on purpose. The writer wants us to read this story last as a summary of the book’s message.
David sinned. David knew he had sinned. David knew that his sin was causing pain and suffering to the people he represented. He knew that he deserved the full weight of God’s wrath. But God sent a prophet with an alternative solution. Atonement. David could satisfy the wrath of God through sacrifice.
But David didn’t have what He needed to make the proper sacrifice. He needed to purchase the ox and the wood and the materials to build an altar. The owner of the threshing floor tries to give them to the king for free, but David refuses. He says, “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.”
David paid for the materials, built the altar, made the proper sacrifices, and God ended the plague.
This chapter is like a miniature version of the story of the entire Bible, and I think that’s why it comes last. We don’t know exactly when, during the reign of David, it took place. But the writer wants us to hear this story last.
A sinful man falls under the anger of a merciful God who provides a way out – an atonement. But there is one very significant difference when compared to the Gospel. This atonement cost David something.
In truth, it was a very small amount. Fifty shekels of silver was not much money, especially for a king. It was probably a fair price, but it didn’t set David back any.
By contrast, the atonement God provides for our sin is offered to us free of charge. And yet, also by contrast, it was not free for God. The cost to God for our atonement was immense.
David was right in his impulse that the atonement should be costly. But no amount of silver could ever be enough. No amount of blood from animals would ever be enough. The story points us to an atonement of immeasurable value… the blood of Jesus, the Son of God – but it cost us nothing.
2 Chronicles 3:1 tells us that the threshing floor of Araunah was located in the exact same spot where, a thousand years earlier, Abraham was prepared to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice when God provided the ram.
A thousand years later, the judgment of God would fall on David’s house, as David requested in verse 17. It would fall on Jesus Christ in the exact same location. This threshing floor, purchased by David, became the site of the temple. Jesus was crucified just outside the city – God’s lamb, provided for God’s people.
Abraham. David. Jesus. Same place. But Jesus offered what Abraham could not. He paid what David could not.
And the Gospel always comes to us in Scripture with the same two movements: serious judgment and radical mercy. The wrong must be made right. God is merciful, but He is also just. God is just. God is merciful. But please remember – God is not safe. God is not OK with our sin.
The cross shows us how serious God is about our sin. He must be pretty serious about it if dealing with it meant the death of His only Son. But in the same action, God shows us the depths of His mercy. You can’t buy it from Him. You can’t bargain with Him. He will only let you receive it with empty hands, because as David said, we have fallen into the hands of God not the hands of men.
I want to close with a story I haven’t told you in a few years about a man named David Ireland. David was suffering from a rare disease. It started out as numbness in his right hand, then began spreading throughout his entire body. In college he met a girl, they dated, fell in love, and with her knowing the extent of his disease and how it would eventually take over his body…she still agreed to marry him. They both knew he very well could die prematurely from this debilitating disease, but that didn’t stop them from getting married.
David and his wife, Joyce, soon were expecting their first child. About the time Joyce found out she was pregnant…David found out his disease was progressing more rapidly. Not sure he would live to see his baby’s birth, David began writing a book called Letters to An Unborn Child.
He wanted to have some part in the raising of his child even if he had died beforehand. In one letter he wrote this:
“Your mother is very special to me. Few men know what it’s like to receive appreciation for taking their wives out to dinner when it entails what it does for us.
It means that she has to dress me, shave me, brush my teeth, comb my hair; wheel me out of the house and down the steps. Open the garage and put me in the car. Twist me around so that I’m comfortable. Fold the wheelchair, put it in the car. Go around to the other side of the car. Start it up, back it out, get out of the car. Pull the garage door down, get back into the car, and drive off to the restaurant.
And then, it starts all over again:
She gets out of the car, unfolds the wheelchair. Opens the door, spins me around, stands me up, seats me in the wheelchair. Pushes the pedals out, closes and locks the car. Wheels me into the restaurant, then takes the pedals off the wheelchair so I won’t be uncomfortable. We sit down to have dinner and…she feeds me throughout the entire meal. And when it’s over she pays the ticket, pushes the wheelchair out to the car again and reverses the same routine.
And when it’s all over…finished…with real warmth she’ll say: ‘Honey, thank you for taking me out to dinner.’ I never know quite what to say.”
That’s the kind of love we experience in the Gospel. We contribute nothing to the process, but God loves us as if we did. And He committed to showing us this kind of love knowing exactly how difficult we would be and exactly how much it would cost Him.
A Scottish pastor named Thomas Hog died in 1692, but before he died, he asked his congregation to bury him at the entrance of the church. The inscription on his tombstone says this:
This stone shall bear witness Against the parishioners of Kiltearn If they bring an ungodly minister In here.
In other words, over his dead body would they bring a bad pastor to his church! And that sounds very Scottish. It also sounds a bit like the last words of David, recorded in 2 Samuel 23. David’s last words are a prophecy about the future of God’s kingdom.
1 Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel: 2 “The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me; his word is on my tongue. 3 The God of Israel has spoken; the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, 4 he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth. 5 “For does not my house stand so with God? For he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and secure. For will he not cause to prosper all my help and my desire? 6 But worthless men are all like thorns that are thrown away, for they cannot be taken with the hand; 7 but the man who touches them arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear, and they are utterly consumed with fire.”
I’m breaking my pattern for Samuel and doing a three-point sermon today. Point one:
God’s kingdom will come.
In verse 3, David says “the God of Israel has spoken.” In verse 5, “he has made with me an everlasting covenant”. And the specific promise David proclaims as his last word is that God will bless Israel with a king who “rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God.”
And then David tells us in verse 4 that this king will rule, or govern, his people like the sun.
I also want to make a connection that runs throughout this prophecy back to the creation story in Genesis. For reference, listen to Genesis 1:16:
16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.
When David says this coming king will rule “like the sun” he is making a connection with creation. And it is no coincidence that John writes at the end of bible in Revelation 22:5 –
5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
That’s the prophecy. That’s the promise. God’s kingdom will come, and the king will rule like the sun. The hard part is that this prophecy is still mostly future tense, even for us. Jesus inaugurated the kingdom when He came to earth the first time, but the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy will only happen when Jesus returns.
And that is a lot of waiting in a world that feels very dark and very chaotic at times.
But remember the story of David. How many years was it after being anointed before he became king? How many more years before he secured the entire kingdom? David never really lived in peace. Still, this same man believed God would keep his promises.
And the promise was not only that a better king would come. David tells us what the kingdom will be like.
God’s kingdom will come like the spring.
He writes in verse 4:
4 he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.
He’s describing a spring morning – blue skies, bright sunshine, freshly fallen rain that causes the grass to sprout.
But David is also connecting his prophecy again back to creation. Light coming from darkness, plants springing up from the earth. This is also Genesis 1.
And yet, it may be difficult for us to feel the weight of what David is saying. We have central heat and air. We have modern conveniences that dull the changing of the seasons for us. We can find fruits and vegetables in the supermarket year-round.
But for most of human history, spring was celebrated because winter was difficult. No one wants the spring more than people who have been living in a long, cold winter.
If you are familiar with the Chronicles of Narnia, remember how the animals rejoiced when the long winter ended!
David is telling us about a king that will rule his people like a spring morning. He will bring an end to the winter.
And again, we have a connection to Revelation 22. John sees the river of life flowing through the New Jerusalem, and:
on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
What kind of tree produces twelve kinds of fruit year-round? No tree. Everything in our world is currently bound up in the cycle of seasons. But apparently, in the new kingdom, it will always be spring and never winter.
It is difficult for us to imagine a world like that. It is difficult to have hope when we can’t see the thing we are hoping for. But this is the Christian hope. This is what the Apostle Paul meant in 2 Corinthians 4:
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Our affliction doesn’t feel momentary but compared to eternity it is momentary! Compared to eternity, your entire lifespan is less than one grain of sand held up against every beach on the planet.
We hosted Presbytery on Tuesday and Dr. Tom Gibbs, the President of Covenant Seminary, preached from Daniel 9. He shared an illustration I had never heard before about the growing cycle of the Chinese bamboo tree.
He said the tree starts like every other plant – a tiny seed, placed under the soil. Like every other plant, it needs water and sunlight. But it takes a lot longer to germinate than most seeds. In fact, it’s not until the fifth year when the seedling breaks the surface of the ground, but then it grows rapidly 80-90 feet tall in only six weeks!
Did all of that happen in six weeks? NO! For five years, the plant was growing under the surface – the root system was being prepared to support the rapid growth of the tree above ground. And someone was tending that plant. Someone had to water it and protect it, trusting that it would bear fruit one day.
That’s how the kingdom of God will come, according to Jesus. God is building something, mostly unseen for now, but it will have miraculous results. Many of his parables teach the exact same lesson. God is at work even if you can’t see the impact yet. And that leads us to our final point:
God’s kingdom will come like the spring, whether we like it or not.
David ends with a warning.
6 But worthless men are all like thorns that are thrown away, for they cannot be taken with the hand; 7 but the man who touches them arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear, and they are utterly consumed with fire.”
Once more we find a connection to Genesis, but this time it is not creation. It is the fall of Adam into sin and the curse of God because of his sin:
cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
When the spring comes, the gardener is busy tending the garden. And what needs to go? The weeds. The thorns. The gardener pulls them up by force and often they are burned.
You can find more examples of this in the parables of Jesus. Consider Matthew 13:
40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And again, we find a parallel in the book of Revelation chapter 20:
14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
The message is clear, but difficult. God’s kingdom will come. It will come like the spring. And it will come whether we like it or not.
Some people are grass. Some people are weeds.
And I know how that sounds. Outsiders cringe when they hear teaching about heaven and hell. Surely, if there’s a God, He intends to save everyone, right? How can a loving God send people to hell? How can some people be referred to as grass and others as weeds or thorns?
But it is very important to see the difference in the Bible between these two groups. The world assumes that the grass people in this scenario are the self-righteous religious people, and the weed people are unforgiveable sinners. But that is not an accurate portrayal.
Please remember what David said about the thorns. What did he say? He said:
they cannot be taken with the hand; 7 but the man who touches them arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear
In other words, the gardener uses a tool because grabbing thorns with your bare hands will hurt. And yet, right there is the hidden mystery of the Gospel, the good news.
What do Christians believe Jesus did for us? He bore the sins of His people and the curse of our thorns. He literally wore a crown of thorns on his head in case it wasn’t obvious enough. They literally pierced his hands with nails and his side with the shaft of a spear!
Jesus was the only One who could take sinners with the hand. Christians don’t believe that we can earn our own salvation. The difference between the grass and the thorns has nothing to do with our own efforts. It has only to do with the grace of God. He has to pull us out of the fire. We don’t deserve spring. We deserve the endless winter.
Earlier this week, I went fishing one morning before work. Walking along the bank, I came across a young goose sitting alone in the grass. I assumed he would run as I got closer, but he didn’t. Finally, I stood over him and he hissed at me, but he didn’t move. I assumed he was injured, so I reach down, picked him up, and took him home.
Do you think the goose was happy about this? Not at all! This goose saw me as a threat, not a savior. My intentions were to help, but the goose saw me as a giant enemy. He tried to wiggle free when I picked him up. He defecated all over my clothes. He did not want the salvation I was determined to provide.
Once I got him home, we realized that he had string tied around both of his legs. I carefully cut away the string and later that day we found his family and reunited them.
And that is a much more accurate way to think about the Gospel. I’ve never met someone who ran to Jesus with open arms. We talk that way. We even sing songs like that. And eventually, we do come to appreciate salvation. We do find our rest in Jesus. He leads us to repentance and faith. Eventually, we even worship Him. But not at first. At first, it feels like death.
How did Jesus describe evangelism to His disciples? What did he call them? Fishers of men. Have you ever met a fish that wanted to be caught? I’ve met a lot fish and none of the wanted to be caught! And that’s how Jesus describes lost people… fish that don’t want to be caught. But they need to be caught.
King Jesus has promised salvation for His people. He reaches through the thorns to free us from the snares of sin and death. He holds us close to calm our fears until we realize that we are safe. He reunites us with our Father. And then the sun rises and the winter fades and one day it will be spring forever.
We are nearing the end of David’s reign in the Bible. David is probably best known for two stories. The first, and most well-known, is when he faced and killed the giant, Goliath. The second story is probably his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. In other words, most people know David by his greatest success and his greatest failure.
But when you consider the entire story of David as a whole, he is a remarkable character. He actually killed more than one giant. He and his men were responsible for defeating several giants. You can read about them at the end of chapter 21. One of them was a man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot!
But only a few short verses are given to us about these battles. David was a warrior king, but his legacy in the Bible is far outweighed by something else. David was also a poet. He wrote almost half of the Psalms. And the writer of 2 Samuel wants us to know about this side of David before he ends David’s story.
2 Samuel 22 is one of David’s longest poems, almost identical to Psalm 18. That will be our text this morning and this will be the longest sermon I’ve preached in years – on purpose.
2 Samuel 22:
1 And David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, 3 my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence.
Twelve times in three verses David uses personal possessive pronouns. Yahweh is MY God, MY rock, MY fortress. He uses a lot of different metaphors to describe God, and we could talk about each of them in detail. But I want you to focus on the personal pronouns. He is describing an inseparable closeness – a deep, anchored dependence on God.
4 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. 5 “For the waves of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me; 6 the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. 7 “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I called. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to his ears.
David is describing his relationship with God in practical, prayerful terms. I call and God answers. I need help and He saves. But notice what that salvation looks like:
8 “Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations of the heavens trembled and quaked, because he was angry. 9 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him. 10 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. 11 He rode on a cherub and flew; he was seen on the wings of the wind. 12 He made darkness around him his canopy, thick clouds, a gathering of water. 13 Out of the brightness before him coals of fire flamed forth. 14 The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice. 15 And he sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and routed them. 16 Then the channels of the sea were seen; the foundations of the world were laid bare, at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils. 17 “He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. 18 He rescued me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. 19 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. 20 He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me.
This picture of God coming down to save David is not the typical image of God we have when we think of salvation. We usually think of the loving and compassionate Jesus when we hear the word “Savior”. But this picture of God the “Savior” is very different. This God comes angry, devouring his enemies with fire and darkness and lightning. This God is charging into battle and no enemy stands a chance. But David understood—the strong God who destroys is also the strong God who is able to save.
And again, we don’t think of Jesus in that way – but we actually should. Jesus was gentle and compassionate with His lost sheep, but He was a force to be reckoned with when it came to His enemies. Jesus cleared the moneychangers out of the temple with a whip. He hurled angry insults at the Pharisees.
But my favorite picture of a Psalm 18 Jesus is John 11. Just before Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, he showed us a moment of righteous fury. In English, the text says he was deeply moved and troubled. But in Greek, the word is very unique. It’s a word used to describe the snort of a war horse as it charges into battle. That is our Psalm 18 God. But what was Jesus so angry about? He was angry at sin and death – the real enemies of God and our real enemies.
Now we come to the middle of David’s poem and the most difficult to understand.
21 “The Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he rewarded me. 22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. 23 For all his rules were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside. 24 I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. 25 And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. 26 “With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; 27 with the purified you deal purely, and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous. 28 You save a humble people, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
We don’t know if David wrote this before he committed adultery and murder or after, but it doesn’t matter. The writer of Samuel includes this psalm AFTER that story on purpose, which makes these verses a very bold claim.
How could a man like David describe himself as righteous? And blameless?
In fact, David says things like this in many of his other psalms. Not knowing the whole story, it sounds braggy and self-righteous. But knowing that David actually had some very serious failures makes him sound deluded! Only a sociopath would commit such crimes and then declare himself righteous!
I think it is important to remember that everything David said here about himself was only true in relation to the covenant and, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David wrote some things that had greater meaning and significance than he could have imagined at the time.
David was not righteous on his own, but David was still faithful within the context of God’s covenant. There are hints of this in the text. Vs 22 - “I have not departed from my God.” Vs 23 - “I did not turn aside.” David was sinful, like us, but when confronted with his sins he repented.
In the midst of his shame and guilt, he did not distance himself from God – he ran back to God. It was that covenant union that allowed David to speak with such authority about his blameless status.
This actually becomes clearer as we move on.
29 For you are my lamp, O Lord, and my God lightens my darkness. 30 For by you I can run against a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.
How was David successful? By God’s help.
31 This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. 32 “For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? 33 This God is my strong refuge and has made my way blameless. 34 He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.
How was David’s way blameless? It was made that way by God!
35 He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 36 You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your gentleness made me great.
Why was David great? Because God made him great. This is not self-righteousness. This is very confident humility. This is a man who knows He is nothing without God, but that with God he is unstoppable. This is salvation by grace through faith in the raw. The seeds of the Gospel are sprinkled throughout the psalms of David, just like this.
And now we come to the second most difficult part of the psalm:
37 You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip; 38 I pursued my enemies and destroyed them, and did not turn back until they were consumed.
David is talking about actual human enemies that he killed.
39 I consumed them; I thrust them through, so that they did not rise; they fell under my feet. 40 For you equipped me with strength for the battle; you made those who rise against me sink under me. 41 You made my enemies turn their backs to me, those who hated me, and I destroyed them. 42 They looked, but there was none to save; they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.
This is starting to sound rather barbaric, right? It gets worse…
43 I beat them fine as the dust of the earth; I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets. 44 “You delivered me from strife with my people; you kept me as the head of the nations; people whom I had not known served me. 45 Foreigners came cringing to me; as soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me. 46 Foreigners lost heart and came trembling out of their fortresses.
This is not one of David’s more heart-warming psalms. “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” “You have displayed your splendor in the heavens.” No! This is, “I cut my enemies down and beat them into dust. My enemies served me in fear.”
It’s kind of difficult to dress this up with bows and ribbons. This is David the warrior. I could go back and try to explain again why the enemies of Israel deserved all of the violence that God initiated against them, but I’m not going to do that this morning. If you have questions, call me.
Instead, I want to flip this and remind you that David is dealing with his enemies the way God deals with His enemies in the first half of the psalm. No mercy. None. And unless we repent, we remain enemies of David’s God.
And to make sure this point is clear; I want to show you the last picture of Jesus in the Bible. This is Revelation 19:
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
This is literally the last depiction of Jesus in the Bible! Jesus the Warrior. And then he wins the great battle and leaves his enemies for the birds. The point is – you don’t want to be His enemy.
And you don’t have to be. The only difference between David and His enemies was repentance and faith in God’s covenant promises. The only way we escape the wrath of God is repentance and faith in Christ, the fulfillment of those covenant promises. And that’s because Jesus Himself became the bearer of that wrath, swallowing up the curse of sin and death.
And David’s Psalm ends with that good news:
47 “The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock, and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation, 48 the God who gave me vengeance and brought down peoples under me, 49 who brought me out from my enemies; you exalted me above those who rose against me; you delivered me from men of violence. 50 “For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations, and sing praises to your name. 51 Great salvation he brings to his king, and shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and his offspring forever.”
This is already a lot of words, and I don’t like preaching long sermons, but I want to make one final plea. 2 Samuel 22 is a poem. The Bible is full of poems, but our culture is quickly losing the ability to appreciate what that means.
A pastor friend of mine recently posted a poem by Wendell Berry entitled “How to Be a Poet”. I want to read it to you.
Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill—more of each
than you have—inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your poems,
doubt their judgment.
In other words, poetry comes from rest, experience, and humility. But he keeps going.
Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.
In other words, get outside and get off screens. Live and breathe, in the moment. And this is the last stanza:
Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.
In my attempt to explain this poem quickly, I’m not doing it justice. My attempt to explain 2 Samuel 22 in half an hour doesn’t do it justice. It was written from a lifetime of David experiencing God’s salvation. And to really understand it, you have to experience God’s salvation too.
This personal possessive pronoun kind of relationship with God is not born from a quick experience. I can’t tell you how to feel this way about God in 3 easy steps. Walk the aisle… Pray the prayer… No. It comes from a lifetime of walking with God and experiencing His grace time and time again.
Let’s pray together for God’s help to slow down, rest, and reflect today on the Rock of our salvation.
A few weeks ago, our Easter sermon was not a typical Easter sermon. I planned it that way. Well, today is Mother’s Day and this is also not a typical Mother’s Day sermon. I did not plan this, but this is where we landed in 2 Samuel – a very tragic story about a grieving mother. I’m not going to sugar coat it. I’m going to trust the providence of God that this is the story He wants us to consider this morning. 2 Samuel 21:
1 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
We don’t know exactly when this famine took place, because chapter 21 does not chronologically follow chapter 20. We also don’t know exactly when Saul broke Joshua’s covenant with the Gibeonites, but apparently, he did.
The Gibeonites were Gentiles, but they were protected by a covenant Joshua made with them. In fact, the Gibeonites tricked Joshua into making a covenant with them. They led him to believe they were from a distant land, when in fact, they were neighbors. When the people of Israel discovered the deception, they wanted to slaughter the Gibeonites. But Joshua allowed them to live because the covenant had already been made.
Do you remember what a covenant is? It’s like a contract, but instead of signing papers they cut animals in half. It was a bloody, messy business. And the idea was that if someone broke the covenant, they could be sawn in half.
Saul broke Joshua’s covenant, but God decided to punish Israel for it during the reign of David—long after Saul’s death!
David had to deal with the consequences of someone else’s sin! Why? Because David was the king. Breaking a national covenant was not an isolated, individual sin. Saul was representing Israel when he spilled blood on the land. David had to represent Israel in making restitution.
Think of it like this. If the President of the United States is caught assaulting someone on the White House lawn, who pays the penalty? He does. But if the President orders an attack on another country and starts a war, who pays for that? We all do! Like it or not, he’s our representative.
I think that’s the best way to understand this because God specifically says in Deuteronomy 24:16 – “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.”
David is not paying for Saul’s sin – he’s dealing with the consequences of it. In a similar way, I may not be guilty of the sins of my American forefathers or my family tree, but I am still dealing with the consequences of their sins. We have all inherited the problems caused by other people’s sin.
2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.
I think it is worth pointing out that this is another example of someone in the Bible doing the wrong thing for the right reasons. We talked about this several months ago. Our intentions don’t matter when we commit sin. Our intentions will not soften God’s response to our sin. Remember the T.S. Elliot quote? “Most of the evil in this world is done by people with good intentions.” Saul did the wrong thing for the right reasons, but it didn’t matter.
3 And David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?” 4 The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.”
Notice the word “atonement”. This is the first time that word appears in the Bible since the time of Moses. It isn’t found anywhere else in Samuel. I think that is significant. Atonement is the idea that something must be done to make things right in a relationship. Something must happen for us to reconcile.
Notice also that the Gibeonites were not looking for money or land.
And he said, “What do you say that I shall do for you?” 5 They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, 6 let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.”
They don’t want money. They want blood. And they want these men put on display. Specifically, they want to hang the dead bodies of these men on large stakes in the ground. That’s what they ask for and shockingly that’s what David gives them.
7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
Remember that David made his own covenant with Jonathan. He wants to honor Joshua’s covenant with the Gibeonites without betraying his own covenant with Jonathan. Notice the importance of the covenant and how even kings had to keep them.
8 The king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite; 9 and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the Lord, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest.
Notice that the Gibeonites see this atonement as an act of worship. They hang the men on stakes in the ground on the mountain before the Lord. This is how they died and, as Christians, it is utterly impossible not to think of the cross when we read this. But we still don’t know – is this what God wanted or is the writer just telling us what happened?
And now we come to the most depressing part of the story.
10 Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day, or the beasts of the field by night.
You’re not going to find this verse in any children’s storybook Bibles. It would be easy to read this verse quickly and move on, because talking about it is going to be difficult. But I’m not going to do that. I’m going to let this verse speak to us.
This is a mom. This is a grieving mom. This is a mom making a campsite underneath the corpses of seven men. Five of these men were her nephews. Two of these men were her sons.
She gave birth to them. She nursed them. She swaddled them. She laughed with them and cried with them. They were comforted by her voice. She watched over them. She taught them. She cherished them as only a mother could. And now she’s keeping the buzzards away from their bodies. And she’s doing it alone.
We are meant to feel her pain as we read this story. And we are meant to remember that death is always an enemy. It is always sad and wrong and tragic.
But there’s also a hint in this verse about the intentions of God in this story. The men are dead. The atonement has been made. Blood has been shed. But God has not yet sent the rain!
I think the writer includes that fact intentionally, to leave a question unanswered. Was God happy with this atonement or not? Is this what God wanted? The text doesn’t say. God told David that the famine was a result of Saul’s sin, but God had not prescribed a solution. The seven men are dead, but the rain still hasn’t fallen.
11 When David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, 12 David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa. 13 And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan; and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. 14 And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. And they did all that the king commanded. And after that God responded to the plea for the land.
And wow the rain falls – not in direct response to the deaths of the seven men. Instead, God responded to the burial of their bones along with the bones of Saul and Jonathan.
David noticed the actions of this grieving mother – the respect she showed the bodies of these dead men – and David was compelled to show respect for them as well. They were given a proper burial, along with the bones of Saul and Jonathan.
How should we explain all this and why does it matter?
I think first we need to acknowledge that this is a really offensive story. It offends us, because it isn’t clean, and we would rather our religion be clean and attractive. There is nothing attractive about a grieving mother protecting her sons’ corpses from carrion birds.
This is brutal and ugly and that is the nature of atonement. Atonement is ugly because sin is ugly. Death is ugly.
Sin fools us into thinking it’s not a big deal. It tempts us with counterfeit beauty, but underneath the mask is death.
13 The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing. 14 She sits at the door of her house; she takes a seat on the highest places of the town, 15 calling to those who pass by, who are going straight on their way, 16 “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, 17 “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.” 18 But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.
In other words, our sin wants to trick us into believing that we aren’t that bad. In reality, sin is a banquet in the grave. The brutality of the Bible in places like 2 Samuel 21 is meant to expose sin for what it is.
Also consider the centrality of the bones in the story. God restored His blessing when the bones were buried. Why? What are bones?
Bones are the last tissue remaining in a dead body, meaning that everything else has been stripped away. Everything else has been exposed. Rizpah protected the bodies as long as she could, but in the end, there was nothing left but the bones. One way or another, we will all be exposed.
And I think that’s the message of the text. Our guilt demands blood. Our sin leaves us exposed before a Holy God. And we will be exposed. But just as even the bones of Saul were buried – in hope, in the land of promise – so also, we are buried spiritually in Christ and one day buried physically in the ground. Our hope is also tied to an atonement, but not one that we initiated or provided. God provided an atonement. We broke the covenant, but God Himself bore the curse. Jesus died hanging on a cross, on a hill, before the Lord.
His death was just as ugly – uglier because it was not deserved. But it was sufficient for the grace and mercy of God to fall on His people like rain, filling our dry and empty souls with the waters of life.
There is no greater place to see this promise and the connection between 2 Samuel 21 and the promise of the Gospel, I think, than in Ezekiel 37.
1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
Some may be offended by the Bible’s way of explaining the problems of this world and the solution that is offered in the atonement of Jesus. It’s not pretty. It’s not a happy story from beginning to end.
But when you have felt the sting of this world – when you have suffered deeply, and you know things aren’t OK. When you have witnessed the power of sin and death in yourself and in others and you have felt the emptiness and the curse of it… you may be more likely to embrace God’s version of the story.
The Rizpahs of the world understand this. They aren’t questioning God because they have suffered. They know that, in the end, God is the only one with the power to right the wrongs of this world. He’s the only one who can put the flesh back on dry bones. He’s the only way Rizpah will see her sons again. He’s the only way I will see my grandmother again.
God was not happy with the deaths of these men, but they teach us something about the darkness of this world, the dire circumstances we face, and the death of death in the death of Christ Jesus.
How is it that I believe in God when there is so much wrong with the world – so much darkness and death and misery? I start with the resurrection of Jesus and everything else falls into place. If Jesus rose again, then the Bible is true. If he didn’t, then stop wasting your time with all this. But I believe He did.
2 Samuel 20 tells the story of Sheba’s rebellion, but rebellions never happen in a vacuum. No one leads a rebellion believing they are in the wrong. No one takes a risk like that unless they believe their cause is just or at least that it will gain them something – power, money, glory.
In the case of Sheba, the writer tells us why he became a rebel at the end of chapter 19.
41 Then all the men of Israel came to the king and said to the king, “Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away and brought the king and his household over the Jordan, and all David's men with him?” 42 All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, “Because the king is our close relative. Why then are you angry over this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king's expense? Or has he given us any gift?” 43 And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, “We have ten shares in the king, and in David also we have more than you. Why then did you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?” But the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.
There is a rift forming between the ten northern tribes and the tribe of Judah, later joined also by the tribe of Benjamin. These ten tribes are already known as the “men of Israel” with “ten shares in the king”.
Now let’s read chapter 20.
1 Now there happened to be there a worthless man, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite. And he blew the trumpet and said, “We have no portion in David, and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse; every man to his tents, O Israel!” 2 So all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah followed their king steadfastly from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
Sheba basically declares independence and the other ten tribes follow suit. Under normal circumstances, the people had every right to decide who they wanted as king. But this was not a normal political arrangement. This was a theocracy. God had given them a king, so declaring independence was a form of rebellion.
Their grievance seems to be the favoritism that David showed to his own tribe, the tribe of Judah. Never mind the fact that David was gracious with all of them after they rejected him in support of Absalom! And this is how rebellion against God often looks.
A root of bitterness starts to grow in our hearts. We evaluate our circumstances and start to believe that God is withholding something from us. He’s not answering my prayers. God has his favorites and I’m not one of them.
Never mind the fact that He created me. He put me in the world He created. He fills my lungs with air. He keeps my heart beating. And he’s not finished with my story yet. But we would rather focus on that feeling of bitterness, because it justifies whatever lifestyle we prefer. It softens our own guilt when we pass judgment on God.
In our hearts we declare that we have no portion with God, forgetting that we only exist by His grace, and we should be amazed that He has any portion at all with us…
3 And David came to his house at Jerusalem. And the king took the ten concubines whom he had left to care for the house and put them in a house under guard and provided for them, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as if in widowhood.
These were the women Absalom violated. Presumably, they were actually virgins before that. And now they are off limits. David provides for them, but they would never be married.
This is a very intentional reference by the writer. It is no coincidence that there were ten concubines. They represent, symbolically, the ten tribes of Israel that claimed to have no portion with David. Those tribes were also being provided for by God. Rejecting David was choosing to live in widowhood. We will come back to this.
4 Then the king said to Amasa, “Call the men of Judah together to me within three days, and be here yourself.” 5 So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he delayed beyond the set time that had been appointed him. 6 And David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord's servants and pursue him, lest he get himself to fortified cities and escape from us.” 7 And there went out after him Joab's men and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men. They went out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri. 8 When they were at the great stone that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Now Joab was wearing a soldier's garment, and over it was a belt with a sword in its sheath fastened on his thigh, and as he went forward it fell out. 9 And Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. 10 But Amasa did not observe the sword that was in Joab's hand. So Joab struck him with it in the stomach and spilled his entrails to the ground without striking a second blow, and he died. Then Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri. 11 And one of Joab's young men took his stand by Amasa and said, “Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab.”
Sheba is not really the main character of this chapter. The main character is Joab. Sheba’s rebellion is obvious, but short lived. Joab’s army pursued Sheba to a city in the north, but the residents of the city refused to protect him. They cut off his head and threw it over the wall to Joab. And then the chapter ends like this:
23 Now Joab was in command of all the army of Israel; and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was in command of the Cherethites and the Pelethites; 24 and Adoram was in charge of the forced labor; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder; 25 and Sheva was secretary; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests; 26 and Ira the Jairite was also David’s priest.
Do you see anything missing here? Every commentary mentions the fact that David is not listed. He’s still the king, but Joab is listed first. Compare this to the previous list from chapter 8:
15 So David reigned over all Israel. And David administered justice and equity to all his people. 16 Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder, 17 and Zadok the son of Ahitub and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar were priests, and Seraiah was secretary, 18 and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and David's sons were priests.
This is a very noticeable change. As the story builds, the writer is suggesting that Joab has the real power. Twice David has tried to replace Joab and twice Joab assassinated his rival. Several times now, David has commanded Joab to do something, and Joab did the opposite – believing his way was better than David’s. And this is the true rebellion of chapter 20.
Religious people tend to focus on the obvious rebellion of people like Sheba. It reminds me very much of the difference between the younger brother and the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Which brother do we judge more harshly? The younger brother. His sin is obvious to us. His rebellion is flagrant. He runs away and squanders his inheritance in loose living.
But the younger brother was not the main character of Jesus’ parable either. It was the older brother. He stayed home. He kept working. And yet, he did it for himself… not because he loved his father. It was this less obvious rebellion that Jesus intended to reveal with the parable.
The rebellion of Joab was motivated by a belief that Joab had earned his position. He deserved his position. He knew better than David what David needed. He was not going to stand by and let weaker men take something that belonged to him.
And that’s what pride looks like. Pride hates grace. Pride is infuriated by the notion that God would bless people who don’t deserve it. If we believe it is possible to earn God’s favor and that we have done a good job, then we will be offended deeply by God’s grace – especially to the more obvious rebels of the world.
Jesus emphatically spells this out for us in Luke 18:
9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: 10 “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Do you see the difference? God is not interested in works offered to him in pride. God is interested in our repentance and faith. That word “justified” is the key. Cover to cover, God’s plan of salvation is “through faith”.
“Abraham believed the Lord, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” – Genesis 15:6
“We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” – Galatians 2:16
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8-9
I want to be clear. Rebellion is rebellion is rebellion. Sheba absolutely deserved the judgment he received. Had he returned to David in repentance, I have no doubt that David would have been merciful. He might even have tried to give him Joab’s job.
If we die in rebellion and not in Christ, we will face the judgment of God. But the difficulty is that no one wants to believe they are living in rebellion against the God of the universe.
Very often, for church people, our rebellion is more like the rebellion of Joab and less like the rebellion of Sheba. We don’t really see the need for grace. We talk about it. We understand the theology. But we don’t really believe we need it.
In truth, pride is at the heart of every rebellion. We believe, deep down, that we know better than the God who created us. And we desperately need God to dissect and expose that pride. We need to stand naked and humbled before a holy God who opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.
Do you remember I told you we would come back to the ten concubines? Those women were probably forgotten by everyone… except Jesus. I think it is very likely that they were the inspiration for another parable Jesus told – the parable of the ten virgins.
I want to close with it:
1 The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. 11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ 12 But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ 13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
Jesus is talking about a wedding, an event that should be an important and joyful event for the bride and the groom. But imagine if half the wedding party showed up unprepared. Half of the groomsmen forgot their tuxes. Half of the bridesmaids forgot their makeup bags or their shoes. We’re talking chaos on what is supposed to be a very joyful day!
That’s what Jesus is describing. Just as the ten concubines represented the nation of Israel, the ten virgins represent the visible church. Jesus is speaking to us. And what is he saying? He’s saying that half the people in the church are not going to be ready when Jesus returns. And we’re not going to be able to borrow salvation from someone else. If we are not ready, we will not be invited in.
This is intended to be a wakeup call. Don’t sleep on the kingdom. Repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
Last Sunday, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus died and three days later, God raised him from the dead. There were hundreds of eyewitnesses, people who saw Jesus alive after the cross. And of course, those people believed.
They gave their testimony. They told people what they saw. They began connecting the dots between Old Testament prophecies and the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
And many, many people responded in faith – even though they had not seen the risen Christ. Two thousand years later, there have been many generations of people – billions of people – who sincerely believe that Jesus rose from the dead – and none of us saw it with our own eyes. The story is compelling, and we keep telling it. We keep believing it.
But not everyone receives the news of the resurrection in faith. Then and now, many people reject the message – or at least they aren’t sure what to do with it. And I think our text for today was written, in part, to meet those people in their doubts. It is not a particularly exciting story, like the one we read last week. But I think it is important. Let’s look together at 2 Samuel 19, beginning in verse 9:
9 All the people were arguing throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and saved us from the hand of the Philistines, and now he has fled out of the land from Absalom. 10 But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why do you say nothing about bringing the king back?”
The popular, young usurper is dead. The old king is returning home, but the people are torn.
If this happened in the 21st century, you might see bumper stickers and social media posts that say, “Not My King” or “I voted for Absalom”.
David won the battle, but the people don’t really want him back.
11 And King David sent this message to Zadok and Abiathar the priests: “Say to the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you be the last to bring the king back to his house, when the word of all Israel has come to the king? 12 You are my brothers; you are my bone and my flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?’
Notice that even David’s own tribe hesitated to welcome him back. He’s pleading with them as family – something he shouldn’t have to do!
13 And say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me and more also, if you are not commander of my army from now on in place of Joab.’”
You may not remember, but Amasa was the commander of Absalom’s army. He was the enemy general. David is offering this man Joab’s place by his side. That’s not going to end well, but it shows us David’s willingness to forgive even the worst of enemies.
14 And he swayed the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, so that they sent word to the king, “Return, both you and all your servants.” 15 So the king came back to the Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and to bring the king over the Jordan.
This was a symbolic event. David crossing the Jordan demonstrated that the king was returning home. He was being received by his people.
Imagine the queen of England returning home from a long voyage. Everyone lines up to greet her. They roll out the red carpet. The band plays “God Save the Queen”. I think that’s the idea here.
But the writer wants us to know about three men in particular who came to this ceremony.
The first is Shimei. Again, you may not remember this name – but do you remember the man who threw dirt at David and cursed at him as he left Jerusalem? That was Shimei.
And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, as he was about to cross the Jordan, 19 and said to the king, “Let not my lord hold me guilty or remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. Do not let the king take it to heart. 20 For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore, behold, I have come this day, the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.” 21 Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, “Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord's anointed?” 22 But David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be as an adversary to me? Shall anyone be put to death in Israel this day? For do I not know that I am this day king over Israel?” 23 And the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king gave him his oath.
This is the first person who comes out to meet David. We have no idea if Shimei’s repentance was real. It is entirely possible that his “change of heart” was motivated only by his desire to keep his head. His words and actions did not age well.
And Abishai is right. Shimei deserved to be executed, not publicly forgiven with an oath. But when Abishai speaks up, David rebukes him. He even calls him an adversary!
It reminds me of Matthew 16. Jesus tells the disciples that He’s going to die. Peter took Jesus aside and begged Jesus not to say things like that. Do you remember what Jesus said to his closest friend? “Get behind me Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”
Likewise, David intended to forgive Shimei and not even his closest advisors could talk him out of it. This is remarkable grace.
The next person to welcome David home was Mephibosheth.
24 And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king. He had neither taken care of his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came back in safety. 25 And when he came to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, “Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?” 26 He answered, “My lord, O king, my servant deceived me, for your servant said to him, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself, that I may ride on it and go with the king.’ For your servant is lame. 27 He has slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like the angel of God; do therefore what seems good to you. 28 For all my father's house were but men doomed to death before my lord the king, but you set your servant among those who eat at your table. What further right have I, then, to cry to the king?”
After hearing this explanation and Mephibosheth’s humility, we might expect David to respond with even more grace than he showed Shimei. But that’s not what happens at all.
29 And the king said to him, “Why speak any more of your affairs? I have decided: you and Ziba shall divide the land.” 30 And Mephibosheth said to the king, “Oh, let him take it all, since my lord the king has come safely home.”
This is kind of a surprising response by David. We all know that Ziba was in the wrong, not Mephibosheth. Some commentaries suggest that David was testing Mephibosheth and that he passed the test. He doesn’t seem to care about the inheritance. He only cares that David is home.
And this reminds me of a lesson Jesus repeatedly tried to teach his disciples. They were constantly fighting among themselves about who was the greatest disciple. Jesus always responded the same way. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. He said this as a challenge.
Did they care more about being with Jesus or getting the benefits of being with Jesus? Both the first person in the kingdom and the last person in the kingdom get essentially the same reward – they get to be with Jesus. Is that enough for us, or are we more concerned with what God can do for us? Is HE our joy, or do we only want him to give us what we want?
There’s a concept for a reality show that has been done several times in different ways, but the first version was called “Joe Millionaire”. Does anyone remember that show? They took a normal, middle-class guy and put him in a mansion. They gave him nice clothes and cars and watches, and he pretended to be a millionaire. Then they brought in a bunch of single women who competed for the chance to marry Joe.
It was a disaster. Why? Because Joe had no way of knowing – are these women interested in me or the money?
No one wants to be in a relationship like that. And God is no different. If you give to God only to get something from Him, then you are really just giving to yourself. If you do stuff for Jesus only to get His favor, then you are doing it for yourself… not for God.
God means so much more to the Christian than what He can do for us. And Mephibosheth gets it. But we have one more character to read about.
31 Now Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim, and he went on with the king to the Jordan, to escort him over the Jordan. 32 Barzillai was a very aged man, eighty years old. He had provided the king with food while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man. 33 And the king said to Barzillai, “Come over with me, and I will provide for you with me in Jerusalem.” 34 But Barzillai said to the king, “How many years have I still to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? 35 I am this day eighty years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or what he drinks? Can I still listen to the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king? 36 Your servant will go a little way over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward? 37 Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him go over with my lord the king, and do for him whatever seems good to you.” 38 And the king answered, “Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do for him whatever seems good to you, and all that you desire of me I will do for you.” 39 Then all the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over. And the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he returned to his own home.
One thing is clear – of the three men in this story, Barzillai is David’s favorite. He’s an old friend and a faithful servant.
In contrast, we have no idea who Chimham was and he is never mentioned again in the Bible, but on the word of Barzillai, David accepts Chimham into own his household. He basically transfers the blessing of Barzillai to Chimham and together they walk across the Jordan River.
This chapter is absolutely teeming with Gospel imagery, and hopefully you are used to it by now. This is the beauty of Scripture. They cross the Jordan River – moving from east to west back into the Promised Land. They are going home from exile.
And this is the same place where Jesus was later baptized – where Jesus received the blessing of the Father and the Holy Spirit descended on Him. Like David, Jesus came out of that water with a heart full of forgiveness – eager to bless people like Shimei who didn’t deserve it… eager to heal and restore people like Mephibosheth. And all those people wanted to do after they met Jesus was follow Him. They just wanted to be with Him.
David transferred the blessing of Barzillai, a faithful servant, to Chimham – a nobody. David said, “I will do for him whatever seems good to you, and all that you desire of me I will do for you.” Barzillai traded places with Chimham, willingly.
In the same way, Jesus traded places with us. He asked the Father to forgive us and give His blessing to us and that’s exactly what the Father did.
That’s what Paul means in Colossians, when he says this:
The Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
In Jesus, we are carried over the Jordan from exile to eternal sonship. In Jesus, we are home.
But consider 2 Samuel 19 as a whole. The response of most people in receiving David was lukewarm, half-hearted and motivated by only by self-protection. Only a few of them seemed to genuinely love David and want David as their king. The people may have been lukewarm toward David, but David was fierce in his forgiveness and his radical forgiveness won their hearts. That’s what the story teaches us.
So, who am I in the story? Who are you? Are you one of the nameless Israelites only interested in what God can do for you? Is your relationship with God one of self-protection? I believe basically because I just don’t want to go to hell?
Are you Shimei – once cursing the name of God and now at his mercy? This is the doubter. This is the skeptic. This is the one angry at God until he reveals his grace and wisdom to you.
Are you Mephibosheth – broken and cast aside by this world, now waiting for God to take you home? These are the people who feel like they have no place in this world. Life has been difficult and God is your only hope.
Are you Barzillai – you’ve known and loved God for many years and you’re eager to share His blessing with others? And you know you don’t deserve it.
In truth, most of us are just Chimham – grateful to be counted among the king’s people knowing we did nothing at all to earn it.
But I want to leave you with this: When is it time to receive Jesus? When is it time to meet Him at the Jordan River? When is it time to pledge your allegiance to Him? And what does it look like to trust and love and follow the King? That’s between you and Him, but I would not delay. Tomorrow is not promised. Repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
If you were expecting a traditional Easter sermon this morning, I want to apologize. That’s not the plan today. Instead, we are going to read about a great battle, a grizzly death, and a grieving king. We are in 2 Samuel – chapter 18.
Let me try and setup the story for our visitors. David has been king in Jerusalem for many years. David has repented of his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, but the consequences of those sins continue. David’s son Absalom has captured Jerusalem. Most of the Israelites support Absalom, because he is young, handsome, and popular.
And now, Absalom is leading an army to find and kill his own father. This is where we begin.
1 Then David mustered the men who were with him and set over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. 2 And David sent out the army, one third under the command of Joab, one third under the command of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and one third under the command of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said to the men, “I myself will also go out with you.” 3 But the men said, “You shall not go out. For if we flee, they will not care about us. If half of us die, they will not care about us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. Therefore it is better that you send us help from the city.” 4 The king said to them, “Whatever seems best to you I will do.” So the king stood at the side of the gate, while all the army marched out by hundreds and by thousands.
God is a master storyteller. I love that he tells us this detail. David wants to fight with his men, but they won’t let him. He’s too valuable. And already we have our first hint of the Gospel.
The many were willing to sacrifice their lives for the one. He was worth ten thousand men, they said. But King Jesus, whose value is worth more than all creation, was willing to sacrifice his life for the many. We stood by the gate while Jesus marched to His death.
But that’s just a taste. This story is only beginning.
5 And the king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders about Absalom.
This is incredibly merciful of David. Absalom organized a rebellion. He slept with his father’s wives. And now he’s leading an army to kill David. But David orders his men to be merciful.
6 So the army went out into the field against Israel, and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim. 7 And the men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the loss there was great on that day, twenty thousand men. 8 The battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword.
We don’t actually know what that means, that the forest devoured the people, but it sounds like something out of the Lord of the Rings. And now we come to my favorite part of the story.
9 And Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was suspended between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on.
Before I go any further, I have a confession to make. A few weeks ago, I intentionally skipped a verse in chapter 14. I saved it for today.
26 And when Absalom cut the hair of his head (for at the end of every year he used to cut it; when it was heavy on him, he cut it), he weighed the hair of his head, two hundred shekels by the king's weight.
That’s roughly five or six pounds of hair. That’s a lot of hair. And Absalom was known for this. It was his trademark. It was also his downfall, because most commentaries assume it was his hair that got caught in the oak tree.
Let me put a picture of this up so you can get a good visual. That’s right, it is very likely that David’s men found Absalom hanging by his hair. And it’s not a coincidence. This is the judgment of God. The writer wants us to know that this man is hanging from a tree, suspended between heaven and earth.
When the men found Absalom, they disobeyed David’s orders and killed him.
Joab took three javelins in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak. 15 And ten young men, Joab's armor-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him.
No mercy. None at all.
16 Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the troops came back from pursuing Israel, for Joab restrained them. 17 And they took Absalom and threw him into a great pit in the forest and raised over him a very great heap of stones. And all Israel fled every one to his own home.
I don’t have to work very hard to show you that Absalom is basically an anti-type of Christ Jesus.
Absalom was a son of the king. He died hanging on a tree. He was shown no mercy. They buried him in a pit and covered his body with stones. His story is a crude foreshadow of the death and burial of Jesus.
The obvious difference, of course, is that Absalom got what he deserved. He turned on his own father. But Jesus had done nothing wrong. He had completely obeyed His father. And yet, both of these men died hanging on a tree. Both men were laid to rest in tombs covered with stone.
Absalom’s death is a picture of what we deserve – the curse of sin and death. The death of Jesus was a substitutionary death, and Galatians 3:13 says it clearly:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”.
This is a really obvious connection. But back in 2 Samuel 18, the focus of the story is not the death of Absalom. Instead, the writer wants us to focus on the grief of David. Two men race back to camp to tell David the news. And this was David’s response:
33 And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!” 1 It was told Joab, “Behold, the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.” 2 So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people, for the people heard that day, “The king is grieving for his son.” 3 And the people stole into the city that day as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle. 4 The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, “O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!” 5 Then Joab came into the house to the king and said, “You have today covered with shame the faces of all your servants, who have this day saved your life and the lives of your sons and your daughters and the lives of your wives and your concubines, 6 because you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. For you have made it clear today that commanders and servants are nothing to you, for today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased.
Joab doesn’t understand David’s grief. Why is David grieving the death of His enemy? The people should be celebrating. The kingdom is safe, but the king is sad.
Why was David so merciful to Absalom in life and then so grieved at his death? The easy answer is because he loved his son. The honest answer is guilt.
David has now lost three sons because of his own sin! He’s still suffering the consequences of his own choices. And it’s not only affecting David. It’s affecting the entire nation. The shame of the king is the shame of the people.
But embedded in this tragedy are the seeds of a much greater story. The entire episode cries out for a better King who will bear the curse of our sin, the guilt we feel, and the shameful death we deserve.
That is the place of the cross in human history. Christians believe that on a Friday afternoon outside the gates of Jerusalem, our Savior hung suspended between heaven and earth, physically and metaphorically. God and man.
The curse of sin met the mercy of God at the cross. They put a crown of thorns on his head. They pierced his side with a spear. Jesus cried out for His Father just as David cried out for his son.
David wanted to show Absalom mercy, but Joab knew the man had to die. God wanted to show us mercy, but someone had to die. And not just anyone… it had to be the Son of God.
There’s a tension with the cross. It was both a tragedy and a victory. It was the only way for David’s guilt and our own guilt to be dealt with. The judgment of God had to fall somewhere.
Truth be told, most preachers are going to avoid talking about sin, death, and judgment today, because it doesn’t sell. They will skip to the resurrection and talk about God’s redeeming love, His resurrection power, and our hope for the future.
But none of that really matters if you don’t believe in judgment. Not really. And if we are honest, that is the most difficult obstacle for most people considering Christianity. Is God really going to send people to hell? Is that really what humans deserve? Are we really all that bad?
Rebecca McLaughlin has an interesting way of dealing with that question in her book Confronting Christianity. She writes:
“It has been said that no friendship in the world would last a day if we could see each other’s thoughts. Run that test on yourself between now and tomorrow. Think of everyone you spend time with and ask, would I let them see a transcript of my thoughts? My marriage would die. My children would be crushed. My friends would leave.”
Of course, not all of our thoughts are bad. Many are good. But all of us are hiding a lot of things from other people that only God sees. There’s a thin line running between good and evil in the human heart. Sometimes those thoughts become actions and sometime those actions are wicked.
All of us feel anger when we hear about violence and abuses committed by other people, but all of those actions are born in the human heart and all of us are guilty according to God.
That’s the most difficult thing about Christianity. That’s the hard part. Before you can accept God’s love for sinners, you have to believe you are one.
Rachael Den-holland-er was the first woman to file abuse charges against gymnastics coach Larry Nassar. She was given an opportunity to speak during his trial and she used the opportunity to share the Gospel with the man who took her innocence. This is what she said:
“The Bible carries a final judgment where all of God’s wrath and eternal terror is poured out on men like you. Should you ever reach the point of truly facing what you have done, the guilt will be crushing. And that is what makes the Gospel of Christ so sweet. Because it extends grace and hope and mercy where none should be found. And it will be there for you.”
Do you see what this is? This is a victim telling her abuser what to do with his sin and guilt. But in doing so, do you realize that she’s putting herself in the same position as her abuser! And that is God’s answer to our strongest objection. We struggle to believe that most people really deserve hell. Some people, maybe. Not everyone… But the real mystery is this: why does God offer mercy where none should be found?
Why would God give up His only Son for rebels? For sinners? For guilty people? For any of us? His value is far greater than our souls. In the spirit of Joab, should be asking – why would God show us that kind of mercy?
No one in this room has the moral high ground. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in church your whole life, or if this is the first time you’ve ever stepped foot inside a church building. It doesn’t matter if you’re the worst criminal in the room, or if you’ve done an excellent job hiding the evil thoughts in your heart.
You’re being offered the free gift of God’s grace purchased by the blood of His only Son. But it’s not just a get out of hell free card. It has the power to change things even now. It has the power to transform even the most difficult relationships, and we see this in the story of David and Absalom. In the kingdom of God, even the victims are able to forgive their victimizers.
Joab could not understand why David wanted to show mercy to Absalom. It was because David had already received mercy from God. The grace of God was alive in the heart of David and the evidence of that grace and forgiveness spilled over into David’s relationships – even with his worst enemies.
Consider the words of Jesus:
32 If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same… 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Showing mercy to someone else will always cost us far more than the person receiving it. God’s mercy cost us nothing and it cost God everything.
But this is the heart of God for His people. This is the evidence of a life being transformed by grace. This is what our world desperately needs. This is why Jesus hung on a cross. And this is how God will turn tragedy into victory.
We don’t have to be stuck between the judgment of God and the mercy of God. On a hill called Calvary stands an endless mercy tree. Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.
This is Passion Week – when we remember the final days in the life of Jesus before his death and resurrection. We will celebrate the resurrection next Sunday, and we will be staying in 2 Samuel for Easter and today – because in God’s providence it is a perfect fit.
Today’s text begins in 2 Samuel 16, and we will meet a character named Ahithophel. This man is the Judas Iscariot of the Old Testament. He betrays David just as Judas betrayed Jesus. Both men turned their backs on the Anointed One of God. Both men hung themselves in an effort to end their own shame. And both stories teach us something about control.
Remember from last week, David has planted a handful of men as spies in Jerusalem. One of them is an advisor named Hushai. But Ahithophel was known to be the best advisor to David before his betrayal, so Absalom asks for his counsel first.
20 Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give your counsel. What shall we do?” 21 Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father's concubines, whom he has left to keep the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father, and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.” 22 So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof. And Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel. 23 Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, both by David and by Absalom.
There’s no doubt about it – politically, this was the right move if Absalom wanted to be king. He was burning every bridge by doing this. Ahithophel says literally you will stink to your father if you sleep with his women.
But there is a deeper meaning here. Where does Absalom setup his bedroom? On the roof. And it’s the exact same roof where David saw Bathsheba bathing. That’s not a coincidence, nor is it a coincidence that the writer tells us Ahithophel’s word was like the word of God. We will come back to this, but first Ahithophel has more advice for Absalom.
17:1 Moreover, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight. 2 I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down only the king, 3 and I will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband. You seek the life of only one man, and all the people will be at peace.” 4 And the advice seemed right in the eyes of Absalom and all the elders of Israel.
This is also a brilliant political move. But notice again the deeper meaning. He is advising Absalom to stay in the city and let other men isolate and kill David on the battlefield. Does that sound familiar? It should – because that’s what David did to Uriah the Hittite, the husband of Bathsheba. This was also not a coincidence. God set this up.
Now, what I want to try to do this morning is convince you from Scripture of an important theological truth. This man is actively betraying David – the rightful king, anointed by God. But his betrayal is also, clearly, the will of God. And I want us to wrestle with that tension. This was betrayal AND it was the will of God.
Let’s start with the prophecy. What did God say to David in 2 Samuel 12?
11 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’”
Ahithophel was a betrayer. But he was also an instrument of God to fulfill that prophecy.
The same thing was true of Judas. The Apostle Paul makes this tension very clear for us. Look first at his instructions regarding the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11.
23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
Paul says that Jesus was betrayed or handed over. In Greek, the word is paradidōmi (para-dee’-do-me). Now look at this – also Paul – in Romans 8.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
“Gave him up” in Greek is the past tense of the exact same word. paradidōmi (para-dee’-do-me) But who is the subject here? God! Not Judas.
So, who gave Jesus up? God or Judas? Do you see the tension?
And just to be sure you know that I’m not making this up or twisting something, this is really old theology that permeates the entire Bible. Consider the story of Joseph and his brothers. Remember, they betrayed Joseph and sold him into slavery.
After many years of difficulty, God made Joseph a powerful, wealthy man and Joseph had the opportunity to get revenge on his brothers. But do you remember what Joseph said to them? This is Genesis 50:
Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
The practical lesson for us is clear – but it is not an easy pill to swallow. The evil actions of other people are fulfilling God’s good purposes in our life. How that works in a cosmic sense is a mystery, but it is no less true.
This truth used to frustrate me, but now it brings me comfort. I think it frustrates us to the extent that we want to be in control of our own lives. Solomon captures it well in Proverbs 21:
The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.
We think we know what is best and we work very hard to try and make that happen, but God is also busy working out His purposes even in the most powerful people on the planet.
Thankfully, we can see God’s purposes working themselves out in 2 Samuel 17. David’s spy is given an opportunity to counsel Absalom. He convinces Absalom to wait and go to battle himself. Hushai’s advice was not practically any better than Ahithophel’s. In fact, it was probably much worse. But Absalom and his generals fall for it. Verse 14 tells us why.
14 And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom.
That’s really clear, isn’t it? It is important to remember, the characters in the story don’t know any of this. They didn’t know at the time what God was up to. They didn’t know God’s secret will for their lives – and neither do we.
God doesn’t share his plans with us. I always get nervous when someone tells me they know what God’s plan for their life is, because the Bible actually warns against that kind of language. It’s called the sin of divination – trying to get knowledge or claim knowledge of the future before it happens. We do this because we want control. In fact, our sin is often about control, and James 4 exposes that tendency.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
“IF the Lord wills.” In other words, we do not know what God has planned for us. We can let that drive us crazy with anxiety, or we can submit to his unrevealed will. We almost certainly have storms ahead in our lives that we could never imagine. But whatever God brings into the lives of His children will be for His good purposes. Paul says exactly that in Romans 8:28 –
For those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
So, what should we do with our fears? What should we do when we feel betrayed or targeted by other people? What should we do when we are facing the consequences of our own sin? We should repeat David’s prayer in Psalm 56:
3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. 4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?
If you are still struggling with these ideas – that God has a hand even in your suffering – remember that you’re in the best of company. He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
You can trust this God. You can trust Him. You don’t need to feel in control. You don’t need to know the future. You don’t need to worry about the future. Whatever God ordains for you is right. That’s the main point today.
I would not be surprised if I get some questions about this sermon – and I welcome them. If you’re struggling with something I said, let’s talk about it. Let me know. Reach out to me this week.
We are not going to read the first half of chapter 14, but I need to summarize the story. Joab is the commander of David’s army. Absalom is David’s son. Absalom is living in exile because he killed his brother Amnon.
After three years, Joab comes up with a plan to bring Absalom home. He tries to hide his intentions from David by involving a widow, but David sees through it and the widow confesses. She says:
20 In order to change the course of things your servant Joab did this.
Even so, David shows Joab mercy and allows Absalom to return to Jerusalem, on one condition:
24 And the king said, “Let him dwell apart in his own house; he is not to come into my presence.” So Absalom lived apart in his own house and did not come into the king’s presence.
This was David’s way of saying – you can come home, but we’re not ok. It was also a way to limit Absalom’s power. Most historians think that David has already announced Solomon as the next king. That sets up the conflict we are about to read.
25 Now in all Israel there was no one so much to be praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
Do you remember the last man in the Bible to be described in this way? It was Saul and that’s important. The writer wants us to make that connection. In the next two verses, we learn that Absalom had long flowing hair, three sons, and a beautiful daughter.
But then the story quickly takes a turn. Absalom was a handsome man with a wicked heart.
28 So Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem, without coming into the king's presence. 29 Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. And he sent a second time, but Joab would not come. 30 Then he said to his servants, “See, Joab's field is next to mine, and he has barley there; go and set it on fire.” So Absalom's servants set the field on fire. 31 Then Joab arose and went to Absalom at his house and said to him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?” 32 Absalom answered Joab, “Behold, I sent word to you, ‘Come here, that I may send you to the king, to ask, “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still.” Now therefore let me go into the presence of the king, and if there is guilt in me, let him put me to death.’” 33 Then Joab went to the king and told him, and 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.
The irony in this chapter is how badly Joab’s plan backfires. Remember what the widow said? In order to change the course of things your servant Joab did this. And Joab got more than he bargained for. Absalom was a threat, not an ally.
There’s a practical lesson in this. Very often, we think we know what is best and we try to make it happen. And very often, our efforts to “change the course of things” will make things worse. Joab got involved in a conflict that had nothing to do with him.
“Whoever meddles in a quarrel not his own is like one who takes a passing dog by the ears.” – Proverbs 26:17
In other words, Joab should have stayed in his lane. And now, the fox is in the henhouse.
15:1 After this Absalom got himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him.
He’s trying to look the part of a warrior. This is the ancient equivalent to a man driving an expensive, flashy vehicle only to be seen in it.
2 And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when any man had a dispute to come before the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, “From what city are you?” And when he said, “Your servant is of such and such a tribe in Israel,”
He’s networking. Absalom knew everyone and everyone knew Absalom.
3 Absalom would say to him, “See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you.” 4 Then Absalom would say, “Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice.”
Notice, he’s telling every man that his claim is good and right, which can’t possibly be true. And it’s easy to say what you would do if you had the power to do it. He sounds like most politicians, right?
5 And whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. 6 Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
This man was a smooth operator. This was a man on a mission. This was an ambitious man. And it’s obvious what he wanted… he wanted to be king.
7 And at the end of four years Absalom said to the king, “Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the Lord, in Hebron. 8 For your servant vowed a vow while I lived at Geshur in Aram, saying, ‘If the Lord will indeed bring me back to Jerusalem, then I will offer worship to the Lord.’” 9 The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he arose and went to Hebron. 10 But Absalom sent secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say, ‘Absalom is king at Hebron!’” 11 With Absalom went two hundred men from Jerusalem who were invited guests, and they went in their innocence and knew nothing. 12 And while Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city Giloh. And the conspiracy grew strong, and the people with Absalom kept increasing.
The most wicked thing about Absalom’s conspiracy is that he does all this under the false pretense of worship. He’s using God to get what he wants. He’s making fake sacrifices!
And I think there is another practical lesson here, especially for modern pastors and ministry leaders. Beware of any man who would use the church to get power, money, or fame for himself. In today’s culture, this is a constant temptation. Celebrity pastors really shouldn’t be a thing.
But notice also – the fault doesn’t lie only with Absalom. The people were also to blame. They fell in love with this handsome devil. And we still do it. Our culture elevates charisma and success above everything else. We create famous people and then worship them, but people weren’t created to be famous because we are not meant to be worshipped.
Do you remember what God said to Samuel in 1 Samuel 16, when Samuel was looking for the king to replace Saul?
The LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.”
Far too often, we look at appearance and we ignore character. There were warning signs along the way. Absalom had proven himself to be a man who would do anything to get what he wanted. But the people saw what they wanted to see.
13 And a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom.” 14 Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or else there will be no escape for us from Absalom. Go quickly, lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword.” 15 And the king's servants said to the king, “Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king decides.” 16 So the king went out, and all his household after him. And the king left ten concubines to keep the house. 17 And the king went out, and all the people after him.
The rest of chapter 15 tells us about some of the people who remained loyal to David. But there is one section I want to focus on. This is the moment when David shows us his character. In spite of David’s many failures, his heart is still focused on God.
24 And Abiathar came up, and behold, Zadok came also with all the Levites, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God until the people had all passed out of the city. 25 Then the king said to Zadok, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his dwelling place. 26 But if he says, ‘I have no pleasure in you,’ behold, here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him.”
That is a remarkable faith. From a human perspective, the odds are clearly in Absalom’s favor. And now David is giving Absalom the ark! The people will assume Absalom has God’s favor! They will assume that David is giving up.
But David was not giving up. David was leaving the entire situation up to God. In fact, David basically left everything behind except God! He was clearly not afraid to lose it all. And it gets worse. Watch what happens as they travel away from the city.
16:5 When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came he cursed continually. 6 And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. 7 And Shimei said as he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! 8 The Lord has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.” 9 Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.” 10 But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’” 11 And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. 12 It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.” 13 So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. 14 And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself.
The composure of David in this situation is astounding. He has nothing to prove. He lets it happen and trusts that even his suffering if for a reason. He leaves it all up to God.
Absalom is back in Jerusalem trying to look the part of a king. David is in the wilderness again, and he is completely unconcerned with how he looks. He’s letting a man throw dirt at him!
And then they arrive at the Jordan river and the text says they refreshed themselves. In other words, they slept. David wrote Psalm 3 in this moment and listen to what he says:
5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. 6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.
This is not the self-confidence of an insane man. This is a man confident in his God. David went to sleep a king and he woke up a king because God is on the throne. It didn’t matter that he looked defeated. It didn’t matter that the devil thought he won. It didn’t matter what anyone else thought about him.
And I want this kind of confidence in my life. I want this kind of character. I don’t want to be Absalom. But the truth is, I’ve still got a lot of Absalom in my heart. I still care far too much about how other people see me. And there’s so much I’m afraid to lose.
But the object of my faith is not my faith. The object of my faith is not my ability to be more like David. The object of my faith is the greater David. This entire story is rich with Gospel narrative.
Because there was another king who marched out of Jerusalem, enduring insults as he went. There was another king who looked defeated. David still had friends on his side. Jesus had none. Shimei said to David, “your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.” Jesus took our evil on himself and became a man of blood for us.
David’s son sought to take his father’s life. God the Father demanded the life of His only Son, and the Son of God surrendered his life freely. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. The worship Jesus offered His father was pure and the sacrifice was perfect. He lay down his life and slept the dark sleep of death. Three days later, he woke again – for the Lord sustained Him!
And many thousands who had set themselves against the King, including me, were saved.
Brothers and sisters, anything we are afraid to lose is no loss compared to this Jesus.
Our text this morning is 2 Samuel 13, and it is one of the most tragic stories in the Bible. It is a powerful lesson in the consequences of sin, but God is never even mentioned in the entire chapter. It’s just a mess. But let’s get into it.
1 Now Absalom, David's son, had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar. And after a time, Amnon, David's son, loved her. 2 And Amnon was so tormented that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her.
The writer begins the story by telling us about a love-sick young man. Tamar was Amnon’s half-sister. This is shocking because incest was just as forbidden then as it is today. And this young lady was not just a virgin, she was a daughter of the king.
3 But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David’s brother. And Jonadab was a very crafty man. 4 And he said to him, “O son of the king, why are you so haggard morning after morning? Will you not tell me?” Amnon said to him, “I love Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.” 5 Jonadab said to him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill. And when your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Let my sister Tamar come and give me bread to eat, and prepare the food in my sight, that I may see it and eat it from her hand.’”
So far, this sounds like a foolish prank being cooked up between two teenage cousins. But it is far more serious than they realize.
And this is a good time to offer some practical encouragement if you’re dealing with sexual sin or temptation, which is Amnon’s problem.
Notice the emphasis on the eyes and the hands in this story. “Prepare the food in my sight, that I may see it and eat it from her hand.”
That sounds a lot like something Jesus said about sin. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out – for it is better to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be cast in hell.
And do you know what sin Jesus was talking about in context? Sexual sin. Specifically, adultery. Quit playing with fire. If you can’t handle social media, get off of it. If you can’t handle a smart phone, get a dumb phone. If you don’t have accountability, get some.
No one thinks they are capable of serious sin until it happens.
6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. And when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat from her hand.” 7 Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, “Go to your brother Amnon's house and prepare food for him.” 8 So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, where he was lying down. And she took dough and kneaded it and made cakes in his sight and baked the cakes. 9 And she took the pan and emptied it out before him, but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, “Send out everyone from me.” So, everyone went out from him. 10 Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food into the chamber, that I may eat from your hand.” And Tamar took the cakes she had made and brought them into the chamber to Amnon her brother.
You can see this becoming more and more dangerous. It’s sort of an allegory for sin in general. It always seems to start small in our eyes, then escalates. That is especially true of sexual sin.
We cannot trust ourselves to do the right thing in the wrong circumstances, especially when it comes to lust. And we need to talk about it.
In fact, the Bible talks about sex and sexual temptation far more than the church typically does. I’m guilty of that as well because it is awkward. But we need to be clear about what the Bible teaches. Otherwise, our kids are going to get all their information from the world. 1 John 2:16 says that the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes are not from the Father but from the world. Our lust is a distortion of God’s gift. Sex is meant to be a gift. It is an amazing gift in the right context, but it can also be very destructive.
In our house, we have a fireplace. In the winter, we burn wood safely in the fireplace. The smoke goes up the chimney and the fire warms the house. It’s beautiful and pleasant. But what happens if I start a fire a few feet away, in the middle of the living room floor? A fire in the wrong place is destructive. Sex is like that and the fire in Amnon burned in the wrong place.
11 But when she brought them near him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, “Come, lie with me, my sister.” 12 She answered him, “No, my brother, do not violate me, for such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do this outrageous thing. 13 As for me, where could I carry my shame? And as for you, you would be as one of the outrageous fools in Israel. Now therefore, please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you.” 14 But he would not listen to her, and being stronger than she, he violated her and lay with her.
In Hebrew, this is not the typical term for sex. He did not “lay with her” as it reads in English. Instead, he “laid her”, which is a very crass way of describing what happened.
Ralph Davis describes this action by Amnon as “flagrant godlessness”. Tamar pleads with her brother to consider the consequences. And frankly, I am amazed at her wisdom and grace in the middle of such a traumatic situation.
She’s not only thinking of herself, but also the consequences for Amnon. She suggests that David might let them get married, even though it was forbidden by law. What a tremendous example of a godly woman she was. But Amnon was consumed by his sin.
15 Then Amnon hated her with very great hatred, so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. And Amnon said to her, “Get up! Go!”
That’s only two words in Hebrew. Up. Out. And I think the writer is very intentionally showing us that Amnon’s lust was never actually love.
Our world has always confused the two – lust and love. Being physically attracted to someone is not love. Love is commitment and sacrifice. What Amnon did to his sister was the opposite of love. It was hatred. And obviously, this is worse because it was nonconsensual. But the Bible actually makes that case that any and all sexual activity outside the context of marriage is closer to hatred than love. It is moving the fire outside the fireplace. There are always negative consequences to sex without covenant commitment.
“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” – 1 Corinthians 6:18
You can see this clearly in Amnon. The object of his lust quickly became the object of his hatred. This is powerful stuff, to impact relationships the way sex always does.
And our world sends us mixed signals about this. On the one hand, our culture wants us to believe that sex is no big deal as long as it is consensual. But if an alien from another planet visited earth, one of the first things they would notice is that our world is absolutely obsessed with sex. It’s everywhere. And it’s having greater consequences than the world wants us to believe.
Let’s keep reading.
16 But she said to him, “No, my brother, for this wrong in sending me away is greater than the other that you did to me.” But he would not listen to her. 17 He called the young man who served him and said, “Put this woman out of my presence and bolt the door after her.”
Tamar is trying to accept the reality that sex represents covenantal union. She’s willing to stay with the man that just raped her because her theology of sex and marriage demands it. In her mind, it was a greater evil to be violated and then cast aside. But that’s exactly what Amnon does. And look at what he says.
Again, the English misses something. In Hebrew, he doesn’t even say “woman”. He actually says, “get this thing out of my sight”.
18 Now she was wearing a long robe with sleeves, for thus were the virgin daughters of the king dressed. So his servant put her out and bolted the door after her. 19 And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe that she wore. And she laid her hand on her head and went away, crying aloud as she went.
The writer clearly wants us to hate this man’s sin. It is repulsive. He is heartless. It should make us angrier than it probably does, numbed as we are by our own sinfulness.
But that’s the problem. We are quick to think we would never do something like this but be careful of casting that first stone. Watch what happens next.
20 And her brother Absalom said to her, “Has Amnon your brother been with you? Now hold your peace, my sister. He is your brother; do not take this to heart.” So Tamar lived, a desolate woman, in her brother Absalom's house. 21 When King David heard of all these things, he was very angry.
Verse 21 is crucial to understanding the significance of this story in redemptive history.
Let me try to summarize what happens next in the story. David does nothing. He’s angry. He’s very angry. But he does nothing. Absalom waits two years to see if David will punish Amnon and nothing happens.
Finally, Absalom decides to kill his brother Amnon himself and runs away. Again, David is angry, and he mourns the situation but again he does nothing. Eventually, Joab convince David to let Absalom return to Jerusalem, but the damage had already been done. All of this sets up a lengthy feud between David and Absalom.
And if you remember, what did God say to David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband? God said the sword would not depart from David’s house.
There’s a lot of speculation in the commentaries about why David did nothing, but it is clearly a failure of leadership. David was the king. His son raped his daughter. Doing nothing was the wrong decision.
Amnon was probably the oldest son – the first in line to the throne. Maybe that’s why David let him off the hook. Or maybe this sin hit too close to home for David. How can I punish my son for something I am publicly guilty of myself?
And this is why sin is so destructive. It spreads like a forest fire. God had forgiven David. David had repented. But his sin still had consequences. Our failures are never isolated. They are never innocent or small. It is easier for us to think of our sins as small and isolated, because we don’t want to feel the shame.
And that’s the question on Tamar’s lips as she walks away violated and cast aside like a dirty towel. What will I do with this shame? She even put ashes on her head, the Bible’s symbol of the shame we carry with us. And what are ashes? Ashes are the only thing left after fire has choked the life out of something. And some of us are carrying a lot of ashes.
What will we do with our shame, we who live in a sexually explicit culture? Not a single person in this room will leave this world unburned by sexual sin. So, what do we do with our shame?
The answer is, we give it to Jesus. When God said to David, the sword will never depart from your house – it was both a curse and a promise of blessing. The sword would pass down the family tree to the Son of David, the Messiah, and ultimately that sword would fall on him.
Jesus would endure the violence we deserved on the cross so that our shame can be erased.
Listen to the promise given to the prophet Isaiah:
61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, 7 Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy.
That’s good news for Tamar. It’s good news for any of us feeling the weight of shame and guilt this morning. There is forgiveness. We are so much more than our failures, in Christ. Flee from sexual sin and run to Christ Jesus.