Revolt Quelled

 2 Samuel 20:1-26

 

Good morning Saints. Before we start, I want to take a minute and ask the Lord to bless this message and also bless our breaking of bread and sharing time afterwards.

 

Now we are continuing our series titled “David: Kingdom Builder”.  Last week we learned how David replaced Joab as commander-in-chief of his army with his former enemy Amasa who was the commander of his rebel son’s army. David did this in order to reunite all the tribes of Jacob and once again be recognized as King over all of Israel. Today we are going to examine passages in 2 Samuel 20 to see how this plan to replace Joab as commander-in-chief worked out. Before we do that let’s first look back at how Joab originally obtained the battlefield promotion to the rank of commander-in-chief for bravery by reading 1 Chronicles 11:6

 

David had said, “Whoever leads the attack on the Jebusites will become commander-in-chief.” Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, and so he received the command. – 1 Chronicles 11:6

 

Fast forward a bit from here to the time period just after Joab murdered David’s former enemy Abner who commanded Saul’s army. David had just that day made an alliance with Abner. In the alliance Abner agreed to help David bring all the tribes of Israel under David’s reign as King. Does that sound familiar? It should because we learned just last week that David made a similar arrangement with his former enemy Amasa for the same reason. David was so upset with Joab for murdering Abner that he cursed Joab, his father’s house and Joab’s future generations saying in 2 Samuel 3:28-29:

 

I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the LORD concerning the blood of Abner son of Ner. May his blood fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father’s house! May Joab’s house never be without someone who has a running sore or leprosy or who leans on a crutch or who falls by the sword or who lacks food. – 2 Samuel 3:28-29

 

Fast forward again to Joab murdering Bathsheba’s husband Uriah the Hitite in 2 Samuel 11:14-17.

 

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. – 2 Samuel 11:14-17

 

Fast forward again to Joab murdering David’s son Absalom despite the fact that David had given Joab a direct order to deal gently with him.

 

“Joab said, “I’m not going to wait like this for you.” So he took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom’s heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree.” And ten of Joab’s armor-bearers surrounded Absalom, struck him and killed him. – 2 Samuel 18:14-15

 

Now let’s begin where Carl left off last week in our series to see if Joab’s pattern of murdering David’s enemies and former enemies continues.

Return

2 Samuel 19:1-43

 

Good morning! Today we continue with our account of David, focusing on chapter 19 of 2 Samuel. Today’s message will be family friendly, as much as is possible for any message from 2 Samuel.

 

A quick reminder of past events. Starting in 2 Samuel 15, we see David’s estranged son Absalom prepare and implement a long plan to usurp the kingdom from his father. Over time, he drew more and more people to his side, playing loosely with the truth, presenting himself as a kinder, more compassionate, and more effective leader than his father all the while casting aspersion on his father’s rule. Receiving warning that a coup was imminent, David and his household hurried to leave his palace, and leave Jerusalem, preventing Absalom from slaughtering everyone, which he almost certainly would have done. We are told that the people wept for David as he left, and David also wept. He was barefoot and his head was covered, all signs of mourning. The people and David mourned together.

 

David and his party crossed the Jordan, going to one place; Absalom and his men also crossed, going to another. Each had an army. David’s army went out to fight Absalom’s. David stayed behind, at his general’s request. David asked them to “be gentle” with Absalom. Based on Absalom’s discussions with his counselors, we know that Absalom had no such inclination towards his father. Although one can understand why David is conflicted, words like this are never what an army wants to hear. The job and purpose of an army is to obtain victory, not “be gentle.”

 

O My Son!

2 Samuel 17:24-18:33

 

I would like to start my message today with a parable. I will call it the parable of the kudzu vine. It is a story that actually happened this week across the street from our house. I’d noticed kudzu growing in that area for some time, but this year I realized that it was actually killing a large tree by taking over a huge area of its topmost branches and blocking the sunlight from the tree. I traced where the vine came out of the ground in two places, and I cut it just above ground level. It was very simple, really. Within a couple of days, all the growth at the top of the tree had withered, and by the end of the week it was hardly noticeable anymore. Cutting the vine at the right places had dramatically taken care of the problem for that tree.

 

You can probably guess the spiritual application. How do we deal with sin in our lives – or indeed with any issue that we would like to transform? Too often we look at what is readily apparent and try to do something about that. But that is about as straightforward and effective as if I had tried to climb the tree and pull off each kudzu leaf. Not only would that have been an impossible task, but the leaves would have immediately re-sprouted. I needed to cut it off at its root.

 

We need to be careful to identify the root in dealing with any problem. Why do we react to things the way that we do? There is no use just trying to change the behavior; we need to dig deeper and examine past experiences that first put us on a certain path: choices that we made, things that other people did to us. Sometimes we have to go way back, even to previous generations. Why are we the way that we are? God wants to bring deep healing and forgiveness and transformation, if we are willing to go to the root. A surface treatment is not enough. It will be like picking the leaves off of a kudzu plant. It will just regrow.

Counsel

II Samuel 16:15–17:23

 

Disclaimer: It has been said that if the Bible was used as a Hollywood screen play, the ensuing film would be rated X; not for the fact that Hollywood is brazenly opposed to the Gospel, but because the Bible has several scenes that are full of violence and sexual sin as it displays the depravity of Man and God’s great redemption.  Again, this week we will encounter several things that may be inappropriate for younger ears.  I am not trying to hide the Bible from our children, but having three small children myself, I am not sure I want to discuss some of the things we will read about today with them yet. So, I understand if you want to remove them from the room.  Sadly, we will see suicide and open fornication, in addition to the continued family estrangement we have had the last several weeks.  I will be discrete about it as much as I can, but take what measures you feel are appropriate if you have young ones around.  Once I get out of the text and on to application, I will not return to the topics, so you can let them back in for that.  Let us spend some time reviewing and give parents time to set up their children with other activities.  I will warn you before we hit one of these topics, just in case.  As always, the message is recorded if you want to listen to it later, or the transcript will be sent out early this week and you can read it when you don’t have younger ones around. 

 

In chapter 15, Absalom had finally put his conspiracy into action.  He invited 200 people from Jerusalem to go to Hebron with him.  These 200 are completely innocent and know nothing of the coup d’état that Absalom is about to embark on.  Absalom sent messengers to all the tribes of Israel; most likely to the sympathizers he had turned away from David over the past 4 years by lying to them at the gates of Jerusalem.   He told them to announce him as king when they heard the trumpets from Hebron.  We do not know how or why, but somehow, Absalom has won the favor of one of David’s most trusted advisors, Ahithophel, and he has accompanied Absalom down to Hebron.

 

Messengers have come from Hebron telling David of Absalom proclaiming himself king of Israel.  David fled Jerusalem.  I have always wondered why David would flee.  Why not stay and fight?  I am not sure if he knew how large Absalom’s following was.  David probably was not sure if he could defend Jerusalem if all Israel was truly behind Absalom.  Absalom is also a man with a temper.  He’s very sly, but acts out of emotion.  He killed his brother about 10 years prior.  I am sure David feared Absalom would do the same to David in order to seal Absalom’s claim to the throne. 

Exile

2 Samuel 15:13-16:14

Good morning!  We are now about three quarters of the way through our series on King David which has primarily focused on the account in 2 Samuel.  The final message in this series is planned for September 13^th, 6 weeks from today.  Last week, we saw David’s son Absalom very craftily working his way into the hearts of the people of Israel.  Carl gave a family friendly disclaimer last week.  I will say something similar for today’s message.  I will try to keep today’s message family friendly, but we will talk about family estrangement and angry exchanges, so depending on the age and emotional maturity level of your children, portions of the message may or may not be appropriate for them.

Let me start with some of the backstory, Absalom, King David’s oldest son, had returned from his own self-imposed banishment.  He had manipulated Joab in an aggressive way to at least outwardly be restored to his father.  Remember that Absalom had spent three years in the kingdom of Geshur, his mother’s home country.  Then, he spent two more years in Jerusalem without seeing his father.

Why was Absalom estranged from and not allowed to see his father for five or more years?  Absalom had taken vengeance into his own hands against his brother Amnon.  Amnon’s guilt is not in question.  But, Absalom did not have the right to take the law into his own hands and have his brother killed.

As Carl explained last week, there remained a gigantic unspoken disagreement between David and Absalom. Absalom believed he was right to take action against Amnon, and David did not. Underlying the disagreement between them is the broader question of whether justice was served in the two years prior to Absalom’s actions against Amnon. Despite David’s desire to reconcile with Absalom, David did not see how this broader disagreement could be solved unless Absalom were to admit he was wrong.