Let's open our Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 11 and we'll go through chapters 11 through 24 in this study. Let's have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we now give You our attention for this study. Our focus Lord is upon Your Word which we know to be inspired and given by Your Holy Spirit for our edification, our learning, and our application. Lord, some of the stories we will read may appear at the present not to be relevant to our lives; some of the military intrigues and some of the blatant and open revelation of David's life and yet it may prove to be of value in days, months, or years to come. I pray Lord that in studying Your Word we would form a Biblical world view so that our thoughts would be thoughts directed by Your Spirit and that our lives would reflect Your values and that we would instinctively respond and react with a Biblical fashion because of our emersion in Your Word. We pray that our study would add to that. So we give You our full attention and as part of our worship our focus is on what the Spirit would say to the church. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
There is an interesting true story about a wealthy contractor who was contracted to build a prison in lower Manhattan in New York City called, Tombs Prison. The contractor built the prison and shortly thereafter he was arrested and convicted for forgery and escorted to spend time in the prison that he had built, Tombs Prison. As he is being escorted to his cell, the cell of his own making, he said to the guard who was taking him there, "When I built this place I had no idea that one day I would come here as an inmate." We're studying the life of David and we discover that David is in a prison of his own making; he is in a palace that he built but he's in a prison of his own lust inside the palace that he has built. It all comes to a head. It seems that David had this problem all along but now that he has a little more power, authority and leeway with his life, he takes liberties and it costs him and gives him trouble the rest of his days.
By way of review, you may remember that first and second Samuel in the early Hebrew manuscripts were one book and not two. It was considered the Book of Samuel, Hasafare Shemuwal. Later on it became divided and it was seen as the first and second book of the Kingdoms (the north and the south). Then 1 Kings and 2 Kings were called the third and fourth book of the Kingdoms. Later on it was divided further into first and second Samuel, first and second Kings and first and second Chronicles. The period of time that we are looking at now, the forty years of David's reign, is all about David. The theme of first and second Samuel is principally on one character, David. In this study we look at David's reign. Remember that he reigned from Hebron and then later on was coronated as king over Jerusalem and all of Israel became his people. If you remember the outline of 2 Samuel, it's as follows: chapters 1 through 10, chapters 11 and 12 and chapters 13 through 24 mark three sections of David's life; David's triumphs, his transgressions, and his troubles. We are going to cover the last two sections, his transgressions, and troubles which form the second half of the book, in this study. So far, we have met some people that are important in David's life. We've met Abner, the son of Ner; he was the commander and chief of Ishbosheth's army. Ishbosheth was the son of King Saul and they tried to make him the king and give him the throne. We've also met a guy by the name of Joab, who was the commander and chief of David's army and Abner and Joab were at odds with other. Then we met two guys by the names of Abishai and Asahel who were David's cousins. We've met Ishbosheth, the son of Saul and Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan. Now we meet David. You may be saying, "Excuse me, but we've already met David; he's been around in some of the other stories we've looked at." Yes, but we are going to meet him again and this time we see him in a different light. We see David not as a great king or ascending monarch or not as the sweet psalmist of Israel so much as David the failure. Here's what I like about the Bible; it is brutally honest even about its heroes. It doesn’t embellish the story or make David out to be something that he is not, though it does tell us the good points; that he was a man after God's own heart, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the great king for whom the kingdom and Bethlehem will be named and even Jesus will derive a name, the Son of David. However, here we see David as not only a man after God's own heart but a man who failed and the Bible portrays all of its heroes in the same light. It tells us the good and the bad.
Chapter 11 verse 1: "It happened in the spring of the year, at kings the time when go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem." It's the spring time and around the beginning of May in Israel. It is the time when all of the rain ceases. When I say all of the rain there is basically a couple of different rainy seasons in that land and you've heard of them: the early rain and the latter rain; the yoreh and the malkoshe as they say in the Hebrew. The latter rain ends by around May and it's summer time and it's war time. It's the time that is seasonal for fighting. I know it sounds weird but it is sort of like baseball season. The mud dries out so chariots and people can run and it's time to get the teams out and go to battle; "It's the time of the year when the kings go out to battle." Frankly, David has been a very skilled warrior all of his life but he gets to a time in his life, and we think it is somewhere around middle age, where he starts thinking differently. "You know, war is a young man's sport and event. I've earned my right to stay home." That was a mistake. The warrior should have been out with his troops fighting the battle. If he were what we are about to read wouldn't have happened. In other words, if David would have been out on the battle field with his troops, he wouldn't have been in the bed with Bathsheba. He's getting a little idle and soft in his older years and he gets taken off guard and the enemy uses this period of idleness and relaxation out of his routine to get him to stumble. Verse 2: "Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold." The city of Jerusalem was built upon hills and kings lived on the top of the hill; they literally built on the highest point and they had the best view of anybody. If you lived on the top of the hill and the city is built descending upon the hill, terraced houses, when you walk out of the house, you can see the steps terracing down and your view point is quite clear. You can see a lot from that vantage point. When the king in Jerusalem walked out on top of his house he would see everything plainly and clearly. It's spring time, around May and it was a hot May evening and there was a woman who was bathing and David saw her. Notice the words, "saw," and "behold." "He saw her and she was beautiful to behold." Those are two different words and I want you to mark them. To "see" or to "notice" suggests just a glance; he noticed her. "Behold" suggests a gaze or a pondering; he's checking her out. He looks at her and he should have immediately turned away but instead he looked and kept gazing thinking, "Wow!" For him this will be a huge "Wow!"
Saint Augustine defines sin and the progression as a thought, a form, a fascination, and a fall. It all begins with a thought. Something goes in your mind and you notice or see something. Then it forms an idea in intent. That is followed by a fascination, "What if I did or could do this or that?" David did do this and that and then he fell. Now, I'm sure that David, being king thought "Well, nobody will know and after all I am the king and this will be nothing more than a one night stand," as he sees her and calls for her. They sleep together and have a sexual relationship with each other. The one night stand, however, turns into a pregnancy and when David discovers that Bathsheba is pregnant he begins his cover up. He sends for her husband, Uriah the Hittite, who is out in the battlefield where David should have been, and brings him back to the city of Jerusalem. He butters him up saying, "Hey, Uriah, dude, what's happening, good to see you." Uriah is saying, "You don't even know who I am. Why am I here?" "Well, I want to know how the battle is going and I hear you're a great guy. So, listen, tonight, you deserve a rest; go home to your wife and spend the night with her." We can see clearly what he is doing. He wants to get Uriah to sleep with his wife so when the fact that she is pregnant becomes public knowledge, they will think that her husband was home that night and now she ended up pregnant. However that doesn't work because Uriah has more integrity than that and says, "King, I don't feel right about doing that while my brethren are out in the field fighting the battle and I'm in a palace. I don't deserve being in a palace." I'm sure that shot an arrow through David's heart upon hearing it. Uriah refused to go home and he slept right outside with the servants of the palace. The next night David thought, "I have to do something," so he feeds Uriah well and gets him drunk thinking that while in a drunken stupor he's naturally going to go home. Uriah doesn't do it and again he sleeps out with the palace guards. Now David resorts to murder. He places Uriah in the heat of the battle and as the story continues Uriah the Hittite gets killed. We can see that one sin leads to another sin; it's always this way. You engage in one thing and think, "Well I can get by with a little more and then a little more," and pretty soon your life is a life of compromise and not commitment. Therefore, David's lust lead to adultery; his adultery led to a cover up and deception; the deception lead to entrapment; and the entrapment lead to murder. Sin upon sin is piled up in David's life. You can see how honest the Bible is.
I love to study photographs, especially of good photographers. There was a photographer some years ago, named Yoseph Karsh who photographed 90 famous people. He called the series, Portraits of Greatness. He was a large format (four by five; eight by ten) film-medium photographer which gives brilliant detail. People that studied Karsh's photographs noticed that his portraits showed the bad sides of people's faces. They noticed that the portraits were so lit that 70 of the 90 people that he photographed showed off a wart or a zit or a cut or some blemish. Karsh was purposely trying to show the famous people, warts and all; that everybody is imperfect, even the most famous and illustrious. The Bible does the same with its heroes.
Verse 26: "When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord." Ponder that phrase; here is why sin is so expensive whether anybody finds out or not. It is expensive because it will offend a Holy God. After all that is what sin is and God is God and He's the One that calls it sin and it offends Him and displeases Him. It will have other ramifications as well but this is primarily why it's so damaging. When David is caught he will write two Psalms. One of them is Psalm 51. In verse 4 David says, "Against Thee only have I sinned and done this wickedness in Your sight." "Lord, this has offended and affected a lot of people but ultimately I realize that it has offended and displeased You."
There was a man who was at the mall with his wife and she was examining some merchandise and he was sort of looking around like most men do on shopping sprees; not really concentrating or enjoying the experience. A shapely young woman walked by both of them and that man's eyes followed her across the store. When she exited the store, his wife who did not look up from the merchandise she was examining but could see in her periphery said to her husband, "Well, was it worth the trouble you are now in?" Is sin ever worth the trouble you get in with God? The feeling of emptiness and dislocation from God. The lack of fellowship and the misery; it's never worth it.
Chapter 12 continues the saga and is still under that second heading of David's transgressions. What you don't know is that between chapters 11 and 12 is a period of about one year. For one year David goes on as if nothing has happened. He doesn’t confess his sin; he thinks that nobody will find out; he doesn't go to God; he doesn't go tell the prophet, but all the while during that year he is feeling empty, isolated, and sickened. Even though it doesn't say so in this book, we know that because it says so in the second Psalm he wrote after this experience. In Psalm 32, written after this experience with Bathsheba David said in verse 2: "When I refused to confess my sin I was weak and miserable, I groaned all day." What is he referring to? His conscious was bothering him. Have you ever had your conscious bother you? Until you get right what you need to get right it never lets up; that's a God thing and a good thing. God gave you a conscious to bother you and if your conscious is tuned to Scripture it will bother you when it's supposed to. If it's not it could bother you for any reason and if you work hard to get rid of it, it is a dangerous thing. It's sort of like this: when you get in your car, hands on the wheel and you are driving down the street, you're used to the car running. However, what happens if one day you get in the car and a little light starts blinking on the dashboard? It's a warning light that is saying, "Something is wrong; fix me." You could do a couple of things. You could go get it fixed or you could say, "Well, I don't want to right now because it's a bother or I don't have money this paycheck so I'll let it go by." But every time you get in the car the lights are blinking and bothersome. What you could do is carry a small hammer with you in your glove compartment and when the warning light comes on you could fix it by just smashing it and it won't blink anymore. From now on you won't have that bothersome appeal. However, you will eventually regret it and it will cost you a lot more when the engine ceases up or something goes wrong. David has virtually smashed all of the warning lights in his internal system with his conscious; he's tried to just put a cap on it but it keeps surfacing and he doesn't go to God. Therefore, God goes to him via a guy named Nathan the Prophet. Nathan comes in the palace and because he is a man of God and a Godly man David receives him. Nathan comes in and in verses 2 through 4 Nathan tells King David a parable that goes something like this: "Hey, King David, I've got a little problem. There is this rich guy and he had exceedingly many flocks and herds; he had so many animals that he wouldn't even miss 100. Then there was this real poor guy who only had one little female sheep, a ewe lamb and in fact he loved this little lamb and it was his pet. The lamb drank from his own cup and drank from his own table; it was like a daughter to him. The rich guy had a friend coming over for dinner and didn't want to take one of his own sheep so he stole the poor man's sheep and slaughtered it and fed it to his friend." We're about to read that David gets torked! (Torked is probably not in the Old King James) David is deeply bothered by this. This is a parable; why a parable? In the parable the rich man is the symbol of David and the poor man is a symbol of Uriah and the little female ewe lamb is the symbol of Bathsheba his wife. Why a parable, and being so discreet and why third person instead of just saying, "You are a sinner?" It's because for a year, David hasn't been able to face his own sin so the prophet effectually gets a verbal mirror, a parable, and holds it up to David and says, "David, take a good hard look at the man in the mirror." David thinks, "That guy is ugly!" "Yeah, that's you!"
I heard a story about a church that had a history of being quarrelsome. They always chewed up their leadership; their pastor had problems and left; another one came and left and it continued and it was their history for many years. A new pastor came in and tried to fix the church and instill new programs and finally he discovered that "This church is dead and they just won't tolerate it." One Sunday morning he announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, this church is dead and tonight we are going to have a funeral for the church. We're just going to give this thing a decent burial. I'd like you to come out to the funeral service for this church." Well this was an odd thing to say and the newspaper picked up on it. That Sunday evening the church was packed out of curiosity. People wanted to find out what was going on; what was the deal; how do you bury a church? The church service opened and there was an opened casket in front of the church. The pastor said, "In this casket is our dearly beloved church; it's a dead church and I want you to come and pay respects to the beloved and you'll find out as you look in the casket, why this church died." The pastor had placed a mirror in the casket so in passing by the open coffin, everybody saw him or herself. It was a parable and a very poignant lesson put in the third person to bring conviction. That's what the prophet, Nathan, does.
Verse 5: "So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man," (this is the fictitious man in the parable), "and he said to Nathan, 'As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die!'" Now this is overkill. The man killed a lamb, a little animal. "Okay David, I know you love animals and you are Mr. Animal Rights King but you don't kill a man for killing a sheep." Notice this: "'And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.'" In Exodus chapter 22 the penalty is given for somebody killing a lamb and that's it; you restore it four times and if it's an ox five times. David said, "Kill him and then make him pay!" Well, how is he going to pay once he is dead? He is not thinking this through and he is very emotional about this. Verse 7: "Then Nathan said to David, 'You are the man!'" I have always been amazed at this story. I picture a bony prophet finger poked in the king's face. "'Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!'" I'm sure at this point David is thinking, "Who told him? How did he find that out?" Well, it was God. There is an old saying that says, "Secret sin on earth is open scandal in heaven." You don't want to sin around a prophet like this guy; God tells him stuff. At this point David confesses his sin and he writes two Psalms: Psalm 32 and 51. Verse 13: "So David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.' And Nathan said to David, 'The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.'" This was a confession. "'However," (that's a haunting word; you're forgiven but…), "'because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.'" This brings up a point: forgiveness is one thing and consequences are another. You can be forgiven for no matter what sin you have ever committed but it doesn't mean that you won't suffer consequences. If a guy gets drunk and plays out in the street he might have a car run into him and break some bones. It doesn’t mean that God is going to heal him instantly. "God I got a broken leg, arm, hand and foot, why won't You heal me?" Well, you know, you're the idiot and there are natural consequences that happen. If a person is promiscuous and contracts a sexually transmitted disease, God is not obligated to heal though He may out of His great mercy and grace. The greatest thing, however, is forgiveness. Physical healing is temporary and forgiveness is eternal.
Therefore these are David's troubles. In chapter 12 his son dies. In chapter 13 the problems continue and I'll sum it up. In chapter 13, David's daughter Tamar is raped. Follow this carefully because it gets a little convoluted. She gets raped by her half brother Amnon. Amnon is the son of David and Tamar is David's daughter. There is a guy introduced in the story, Absalom, who is also David's son but they are not directly related. This sounds crazy so let me explain. David had eight wives so it makes everything messy from here on out. No wonder he was so messed up! He had a very convoluted household and his personal life was a mess. Absalom was David's third son by his wife Maacah and Amnon was David's son by Ahinoam and they were half brothers to each other. Absalom and Tamar were full brother and sister. Amnon and Tamar were half brother and sister. So he rapes his half sister. Chapter 13, verse 1: "After this Absalom the son of David had a lovely sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her." Don't let the language fool you. It says he loved her because that is how he expressed it. "I love her and I can't live without her!" This is nothing more than hormones and glands. This isn't true love, this is infatuation and lust because look at this in verse 15 after the rape: "Then Amnon hated her exceedingly, 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, 'Arise, be gone!'" Lust and hatred are closely related. He violates her, forces himself on her and then demands that she be gone. What some people call love is really hatred for the other person. "I have to have you. We have to have sexual relationships. I love you. I can't live without you," is what he says to her. Let me retranslate that; this is really what he means. "I don't really care at all about you; I love me and I want you because I love me. You're here and you can satisfy me now so it's not that I love you it's that I love me and because of that I want you to satisfy me." That is not love for the other person. This explains and criminologists have discovered that women who are raped are frequently murdered by the assailant. Verse 21: "But when King David heard of all these things, he was very angry." Frankly, this bothers me. It's sort of like a postscript. David heard about it and says, "Gosh, you know that just kind of makes me mad." It's your daughter! What would most dads do? "I'm going to take this kid and I'm going to show him how displeased I am either legally or physically!" This just says he is angry. Why do you suppose he doesn’t really act upon this sufficiently? Here's my guess. He probably thought, "I lost all moral high ground myself; I lost the right to discipline my child in an area of sexual promiscuity because that's me and I can't do it; I failed in this area and I can't punish him." Sometimes, people who have a sorted pass feel this way. I just want to address that briefly. You might look back to a time where you sinned sexually or because of drug abuse or because you had an abortion or whatever the case might be you feel, "I can't lecture my son or daughter, because I failed in this area." I believe that Satan will whisper to you, "You have no right!" Yes you do! Number one, you are a parent and truth is truth and number two, you might be just the best example. If you come honestly and say, "Son, daughter, I failed in this area and I've regretted it ever since." In 2004 Larry King was interviewing a paragon and a great example of purity, Ozzie Osborne along with his wife Sharon on television. To his credit, he was very confessional in this meeting. They had just discovered that their daughter Kelly was arrested for drug abuse and he came on the air in front of the whole world and said, "You know what? I'm a drug addict; I'm a failure; I've blown it in this area and so I think I can speak to this." I think that is true. I think that when we have failed in certain areas and we can tell those who don't know what it's like but are involved or contemplated an involvement in that you can say, "Let me tell you what it's like from the ground level." Because of our failures we might be just the ones to speak.
As the story goes on an evil plot develops and Absalom is determined to kill his brother because of what he has done to his sister as well as he's thinking, "If I get rid of him I might have the throne myself." Verse 23: "And it came to pass, after two full years, that Absalom had sheepshearers in Baal Hazor, which is near Ephraim; so Absalom invited all the king's sons." Here's a word about sheepshearing; it doesn't sound too cool. In the Old Testament among Israel sheepshearing was like Super Bowl Sunday. It was a big deal. Everybody was into it! "It's sheepshearing day dude! Bring out the Bud! It's our day!" It was a big feast and people got together and did their thing and it was a feast that all the king's sons were to be a part of. Absalom kills Amnon and now he runs away. Verse 38: "So Absalom fled and went to Geshur, and was there three years. And King David longed to go to Absalom. For he had been comforted concerning Amnon, because he was dead."
This takes us to chapter 14 where we now have Joab, the general and the commander of David's armed forces. He sees in David a longing for his son Absalom and he knows that David wants to have Absalom back. He has fled to another country for asylum and David longs to see his son. There's been a rape then a murder and now there is this distance between him and his remaining son Absalom but he won't bring him back even though he longs for him. He knows that the punishment and the penalty for what he has done is the death penalty so he just leaves it alone and doesn't touch it. Joab hires a woman from Tekoa, which is not very far from Jerusalem. She dresses up in black like she's mourning. Let me paint the picture for you. David was still accessible to the people so she goes to King David and says, "King David I have a real problem. My husband is dead and my two sons were having a fight and one of my sons killed my other son so now I only have one son left and the rest of my family wants me to bring him out of hiding and kill him because the law says it's capital punishment for this offense." David says, "Don't worry, not a hair from his head shall fall." She says to him, "King, you're a hypocrite." That was a parable just like Nathan's. She really didn't have a husband who died or a son that was murdered by another son. She just said that to get the King's read on it. The king says, "Don't worry; I know everybody wants to kill him but we'll protect him and not a hair on his head will fall." She says, "You hypocrite. I told you about a fake and pretend son in a story but you have a real son who is exiled and you won't bring him out of exile." He figured out what was going on and chapter 14 verse 19 says: "So the king said, 'Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?' And the woman answered and said, 'As you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken. For your servant Joab commanded me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your maidservant.'" Here's his adjudication on his son, verse 24: "And the king said, 'Let him return to his own house, but do not let him see my face.' So Absalom returned to his own house, but did not see the king's face. Now in all Israel there was no one who was praised as much as Absalom for his good looks. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. And when he cut the hair of his head--at the end of every year he cut it because it was heavy on him--when he cut it, he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels according to the king's standard." You have to picture this guy. He's very handsome; his hair grows at a rapid rate and is long, flowing, and luxurious and he gets a haircut once a year whether he needs it or not. Every year he comes up with four pounds of hair. He is kind of a freak. Do you remember those troll dolls? I'm giving you insight into my head now; this is where my mind goes when I read some Bible verses. As I was reading this I was thinking of those troll dolls which are those crazy ugly little beasts with this wild hair that comes out. Of course, he was a good looking kid with wild hair that came out and he's going to get really hung up on his hair in a couple of chapters. This is key to the story: he comes home but there is no intimacy, no resolution and no fellowship. David seems to have forgiven him but doesn't forget the incident and he refuses to restore or reconcile the relationship so now there is a distance. Instead of an embrace or talking it through and resolving it, bitterness festers in the heart of this boy and eventually his son is so bitter at his father because of the lack of communication and forgiveness that he rebels and throws David the king out of his kingdom. I bet I'm addressing a father or a mother who has had a child blow it and there is distance there and maybe you feel, and rightfully so, very justified in thinking, "I'm not going to talk to him; I'm not going to talk to her until they make the first move; that's the way it is; I'm right." You can be dead right. The relationship is dead and it won't get any better until you humble yourself. I had a father who was very distant and the distance grew until the time the Lord said to me, "You go to your father and make it right." He told me because I was the one who said, "I am now a born again Christian; see how my life is changed?" God was saying to me, "No, he can't see how your life has changed until you get down on your knees and then he'll see the change in your life." Parents need to do that. It says in the book of Ephesians, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath." Another translation says, "Don't frustrate them; don't exasperate them." A lot of kids rebel because in their minds they are thinking, "Since my dad keeps telling me I'm a loser I'm going to be one and I'm going to be a big one and I'm going to hurt him because of it." This resentment is happening with these two.
This rebellion against the King comes in chapter 15. Again his good looks are brought up and those good looks camouflaged a bad heart. The chickens are now coming home to roost in David's life. You may recall in chapter 12 that as part of the sentence on David the Lord said, "I will raise up an adversary in your own house;" and that is Absalom. Verse 2: "Now Absalom would rise early and stand beside the way to the gate. So it was, whenever anyone who had a lawsuit came to the king for a decision, that Absalom would call to him and say, 'What city are you from?' And he would say, 'Your servant is from such and such a tribe of Israel.' Then Absalom would say to him, 'Look, your case is good and right; but there is no deputy of the king to hear you.' Moreover Absalom would say, 'Oh, that I were made judge in the land, and everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me; then I would give him justice.' And so it was, whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, that he would put out his hand and take him and kiss him." It sounds like he's running for office, doesn't it? It's amazing how gregarious politicians get about this season. They'll do anything; they'll promise you everything; they'll kiss your baby; shake your hands; "I'll solve the world's problems," and it gets weary to any of us who have suffered through election after election. I have to tell you, I'm going to vote, God willing we get a good candidate, however, more and more I'm becoming much less of a Republican or a Democrat. My position is I'm a Theocrat. I can't wait for Jesus Christ to come and take over and then there will be peace on earth, good will to men and the problem solved. Until then I'll be a responsible citizen but I bite my lip and go, "Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus." Verse 6: "In this manner Absalom acted toward all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel." What a great politician he is. Verse 10: "Then Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, 'As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, 'Absalom reigns in Hebron!'' And with Absalom went two hundred men invited from Jerusalem, and they went along innocently and did not know anything." Look at this: Where does Absalom begin his rebellion? Hebron. Where was David first crowned King for the people? In Hebron, the same place. Why does Absalom go to Hebron? I can think of two reasons. Reason number one - out of sight out of mind; don't do it in Jerusalem but move yourself a few miles away; the king won't notice it as much and you can get by with a lot more. Reason number two, and I believe this is really at the heart of it - he would have found in Hebron some sympathizers who were really angry at David. You know why? David was crowned in Hebron but moved the capital to Jerusalem. I know in my heart that there were some disenfranchised people who were still mad that they didn't get included because the kingdom was moved from Hebron to Jerusalem. Absalom would have found some sympathizers in that town. In this chapter, David flees from Jerusalem and the hearts of Israel were stolen by Absalom and David leaves; he resigns as king and I'm sure it shocked the people. He did it because he loved the City of Jerusalem and he did not want to see the City of Jerusalem become the center of bloodshed and have the people at the crossfire which would have happened had David stayed there and fought. He could have stayed there and fought but he leaves to spare the city of Jerusalem. Also, David was pretty good at being a fugitive. Remember, Saul chased him around for about ten years so he knew how to handle himself out in the sticks.
In chapters 16 and 17 he runs away over the Mount of Olives and out into the wilderness. As David leaves, resigns, there is a coup going on with Absalom but God is at work. There were a couple of counselors in the court of the king which was now ruled by Absalom who has now taken over. There is one guy named Ahithophel and he was a brilliant strategist. King Absalom says, "Ahithophel, what do you think I should do?" Ahithophel says, "I know exactly what you ought to do. You should immediately send an army out after David and just take him by surprise and preemptively kill him." Absalom thinks about it, "Yeah, that sounds good," but he turns to another guy named Hushai the Archite and he asks, "What do you think I should do?" And he replies, "I disagree. I don't think you should chase David immediately out in the fields but give him a little time, remember that David is a warrior and has been doing this for years and you haven't been; he knows how to fight and if you take him now you will be dead meat. What you ought to do is organize an army first and then you should go to battle with the army that you organize." He is doing this on purpose because he is loyal to David. Chapter 17, verse 14: "So Absalom and all the men of Israel said, 'The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than the advice of Ahithophel.'" Hushai was loyal to David and he thought, "I'm going to come up with a plan and the king will buy it and but it will give David time to get out of town." Notice why; verse 14 tells us at the end: "For the Lord had purposed to defeat the good advice of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring disaster on Absalom." I wonder if you believe this: God is sovereign even in war; it's a tough one to swallow. It's especially tough if you have a son or daughter in war. David is helped by a friend who stayed to spy; he was a mole but God used that to overturn the council of Ahithophel.
Here are the highlights of a great story: There was an Israeli spy named Eli Cohen back in the 1960's. He was born in Egypt, raised in Argentina, moved to Syria and was a spy for Israel. The Mossad, the secret service, hired him to watch the Syrians because the Syrians were trying to advance on the Golan Heights and take the northern border. Eli Cohen had his name changed and he was living in Damascus Syria at the time and got really close to the parliament of Damascus. He would get intelligence from them because they thought that he was one of them and then he would send updates to Israel by Morse code every day. One day they were out on the Golan Heights and in the summertime it can get blisteringly hot. While he was out there he persuaded some of the leaders of the parliament of Syria to get up on the Golan Heights with him and they were discussing the problem of the troops. They had 70,000 troops stationed in the Golan Heights. One of the guys said, "You know it gets so hot up here but we can't provide any shade and nothing really grows and we can't make shelters fast enough." So Eli Cohen said, "Here's an idea. You ought to plant some trees." They said, "What trees grow fast enough?" He replied, "Well there is a tree that Israel uses that is called the eucalyptus tree that drains water quickly and advances in growth very rapidly, faster than all these other trees; you should plant them." They did and the trees grew very rapidly in clumps and clusters. The 70,000 troops were so grateful. Then with Morse code he said to the Israelis, "Next time your troops are up on the Golan Heights and Syria is attacking you, just aim your mortars for the groups of eucalyptus trees. Make your targets wherever you see clumps of the trees and don't shoot anywhere else but there. He effectively wiped out the Syrian troops. He was discovered and he was hung. There is a fascinating little book called, Our Man in Damascus. It's the life story of Eli Cohen but it's how God used this man to allow Israel to maintain the covenant land that God gave to her.
Chapter 18 records the fight between David and Absalom; army against army. David, a skilled warrior divided his troops up into three different brigades, a very ancient tactic in fighting wars. However, he wanted Absalom alive. Verse 9: "Then Absalom met the servants of David. Absalom rode on a mule. The mule went under the thick boughs of a great terebinth tree," (a large oak), "and his head caught in the terebinth; so he was left hanging between heaven and earth. And the mule which was under him went on." I'm sure that when this happened he's thinking, "I should have got the yearly haircut!" Joab, the commander of David's army sees him and kills him contrary to what the king said. Verse 33: "Then the king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept. And as he went, he said thus: 'O my son Absalom--my son, my son Absalom--if only I had died in your place! O Absalom my son, my son!'" I find it tragic that this father and this son never reconciled. I've watched this happen. I've been in emergency rooms and in hospitals and I've watched faces drop and lives shatter when the doctor comes out and says, "I'm so sorry, but we couldn't save her. We tried everything to preserve her life but she (or he) is dead." And that father or mother or son or daughter or brother or sister that is left living mourns not just the death but the emptiness of never being able to even have a word that would slightly touch at reconciliation. When it's all said and done and it's all over with, there are a lot of things that won't matter. It won't matter where you lived, what car you drove, how big your bank account was, what school your son or daughter or you went to, but the world may be a better place and a changed place if you get involved with a life of a young boy or a young girl and invest in that life rather than this.
Chapters 19 and 20 are the recovery after David's death. The weakening of relationships between the north and the south start here. There's been a leadership vacuum since David's departure and Absalom's rebellion and people are always looking for that. Chapter 20 verse 1: "And there happened to be there a rebel, whose name was Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjamite. And he blew a trumpet, and said: 'We have no share in David, nor do we have inheritance in the son of Jesse; every man to his tents, O Israel!' So every man of Israel deserted David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah, from the Jordan as far as Jerusalem, remained loyal to their king." Now I've noted this verse because I want you to remember this: it is a preview of coming attractions. Later on if you wonder why Rehoboam is the king and this fellow Jeroboam comes and starts dividing north and south it all started here with the leadership weakening with Absalom and David. Sheba rebelled and they pursue him, he rides up north, seeks asylum, goes to a town and to make a long story short, the troops of Israel go around the city and they are going to destroy a place called Abel Beth Maachah, (that's a long name for a little town). They are about to level the walls and destroy the city to get one guy. So there is a wise woman inside the wall who says, "Hey Joab, let me tell you something. This town has been a peaceful and wise town for a long time. Now here you are about ready to destroy a whole town to get one guy and you are going to wipe out God's inheritance. I have a good idea. Why don't we cut his head off and throw it out to you and make it easy." He replies, "Cool." They cut his head off, the woman grabs it and tosses it over the wall, and Joab is happy. Amazing what is in the Bible!
Chapters 23 and 24 are the final words of David. Chapter 23, verse 1: "Now these are the last words of David. Thus says David the son of Jesse; thus says the man raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel." I wish I had time to do a sermon on that verse. It's a beautiful one sentence biographical sketch on King David. How God turned a kid into a king and a shepherd into a sovereign. Verse 8: "These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-Basshebeth the Tachmonite, chief among the captains. He was called Adino the Eznite, because he had killed eight hundred men at one time." This was a whole gallery of 37 of David's heroes and buddies who worked with him.
The last chapter, chapter 24 is a chapter of sin and mercy; David's sin and God's mercy and you have homework. You have to discover this answer. Why does this chapter say that, "The Lord incited David to number the people of Israel"; and the account in Chronicles says, "Satan incited David?" I know the answer, I'm just giving you homework because it's a fascinating and beautiful answer when you discover why that is. It's not a conflicting report at all but it's actually a very dovetailed synopsis of the account. Kings would number people. They would take a census and they wanted to find out how many people there were in order to: number one, tax them and number two, for when they needed an army. David's motivation to do it, that God allowed and that Satan incited, was to find out how strong he was; for prideful reasons. Instead of trusting the Lord it was for prideful purposes. David was ripe and he confesses his sins and he tells the Lord, "I'm the one who has done it." Verse 15: "So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died. And when the angel stretched out His hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, 'It is enough; now restrain your hand.' And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite." Why is that thrown in there? Because the temple built by Solomon will stand upon the threshing floor of Araunah, the top of Mount Zion where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac and where the temple mount is still today. The most contested piece of real estate on planet earth is the threshing floor of Araunah; the big schism and debate of world powers between Arab nations, Islamic nations, and Israel. Much of it is over this piece of real estate. Verse 25: "And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel."
As we close our Bibles and we open our hearts to the Lord, remember this. When it comes to sin that we discover in yours and my life, do three things: admit it; three hard words - "I was wrong." Followed by another three hard words to say, "I am sorry." Number two, leave it; you see the woman on the house top - don't ponder. "I find myself in an awkward moment; maybe I should witness to her!" No! Don't witness to her, run from her. Number three, replace it. Replace that activity with a wholesome Godly activity.
Let's pray. Lord we see through the life of King David, Your anointed, the man after Your own heart, the one whom our Savior will be at least tangentially named the Son of David; this man was also a man of flesh and blood, feet of clay. A king; a man. A sovereign, a success; and yet a failure. So Lord we see that ongoing saga of our sin and Your mercy and grace that is needed. Thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses a man or a woman from all sin. We want to bring our lives under submission to You; to admit; to forsake; and to replace. In Jesus' Name. Amen.