[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast, Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Continuing on with the life of David, Last week was like the big crux that a lot of people talk about in his life, the David and Bathsheba story.
Ultimately, the point of that story is to call us to just evaluate our own sin, our own shame, and just understand that.
Understand that understanding that sin and understanding that shame ultimately can give more glory to God. Because we have to get to a point where we recognize that it's God that works in us, it's not us that works within ourselves.
Sort of like Saul, David was starting from the bottom and God was helping him in everything. But he got too prideful, he got too successful to where he started to think that it was him and his wants and his desires that mattered. His life started to go up and down with regard to his trust in God. And then as a reader, you're wondering what's going to happen. And then 2 Samuel 11:12 happened. The sin with Bathsheba, the murder of Uriah and some of the other mighty men that were around him. An awful, horrible story.
But ultimately for us, I think one of the best stories in Scripture because it makes you as the reader walk away from that, saying, well, if God's chesed, if his love can still be for that man, can it not be for me in the midst of my sin and my shame?
So I want to bring up just one of the most famous.
This was last week. I should have done that while I was talking about it. But. But going back to last week as well, I want to bring up this. This is just something that a lot of people don't always understand. From Psalm 23, one of the most famous psalms in all of scripture, I would say throughout the world, not just Christian. This is a passage that is recognized and known. But at the very bottom of Psalm 23, David kind of gets into what we were talking about last week. Surely your goodness and love, this is that chesed that we discussed will follow me all the days of my life and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
An interesting thing I just want to make reference to before we start this class, because in this class, oh, man, it's depressing the twists and turns that begin to occur in David's life after this sin that he has.
But your goodness and love, David recognizes, will follow me.
This word for follow in Hebrew literally means not just like, I don't know, it doesn't necessarily mean walking with. It's the idea of like a wolf chasing its prey.
And just before we get into the depressing portion of this class, I want to just point out how incredible and amazing it is that God's love is chases us, that it pursues us even in the midst of our dark moments, in the midst of our sin.
We read about in the New Testament all the time, different passages that point out that Christ loved us, he died for us in the midst of our sin.
Just please, please, before we get started, I want everybody to know that over the depressing content, we'll talk about this week and next week in David's life.
He may have lost so, so very much in terms of worldly peace in his life, but he ultimately gained the peace that can only come from God, which is the only peace that matters. And it's because of this love, this goodness, this chesed that pursues and chases after us.
So while David was forgiven, we have to confront the punishment that occurs at the end of 2 Samuel chapter 12.
As Nathan is talking to David, he says this. He says, this is what the Lord says, because of your sin out of your own household, I'm going to bring calamity on you before your very eyes. I will take your wives and I will give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.
Then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan replied, the Lord has taken away your sin. Which is an amazing.
It's probably first in this phrase because it's the most important aspect of it, but then immediately says, you are not going to die. But because by doing this, you have shown utter contempt for the Lord. The son born to you will die.
This is a devastating and amazing phrase for David all at once.
I put a challenge in our group me this last week. I don't know if any of you looked into it, I just challenge you in your own studies to look into the idea of is this just.
That's something that people, especially those who aren't Christians, will begin to read the Bible and think about and dwell upon. And I've done a lot of study on it. And it brings you to a lot of hard, difficult conclusions.
At the same time, though, did another son of David die for all of us in the end? Yes.
So is that just. Is that right? Well, there's a yes and a no answer to that, I guess so. Be considering that as we begin this passage and be considering this as well. I think this is one of the most difficult conversations to have as a Christian, the discussion of mercy versus justice. If you look in our political sphere, people are talking about these things very, very often. We need to forgive. A lot of people would say that we need to be just and punish others. A lot of people would say that. But how you balance those scales is very hard. And that's been a conversation, I guess, in the eight or nine years I've been here at Madison that I've struggled with and I've had with a lot of people. And that's within the church. I mean, I can just. As an example, I can bring up a situation that happened to me when I was nine years old.
When I was nine, our family, my dad was in the military and we moved everywhere across the world.
And I remember at one church, an incredibly not good thing happened. The preacher at that church ended up having a really bad, nasty affair. It made like the public news in this town that we were living in and everything else.
Obviously the church sought him, like responding and stuff to start off with. And he came forward, he responded once he figured out everything but what to do with him after that ended up splitting the church. In the end, he stepped down from his role. But there were some that were claiming that he should or shouldn't do certain things in terms of teaching or being with others, and that the elders should come to the pulpit and that they should explain like, he will never teach again and make a statement just outright. There were others that were, I don't know, saying a variety of different things. Don't we believe in forgiveness? Don't we believe in xyz? There are other people saying, yes, there's forgiveness. But also recognize in the midst of this, there has to be some sort of safeguard, some sort of punishment for this. And now I'm just sitting there like eight or nine years old, like, dur, dur, dur, in the audience hearing all of this. But I remember that, like, that church, it was already small. I think that church probably had like 80 or 90 members in it, and I want to say like 30 or 40 of them left.
The man had come forward. He had done a variety of different things. But how to handle not just the mercy, but how to handle the justice was a difficult, difficult thing. And in this class on David and on next week's class, on the end of David's life, mercy and justice is a really big deal.
And this chapter is going to be. Not this chapter. These chapters that we work through are going to be utterly confusing for at least some of you, because I know that I studied this over the last however many weeks, and it was super confusing for me.
I have no idea how to balance these things. But I do know that one of the amazing truths that we find in Scripture is that we have a God who can balance them perfectly every single time.
And he has set examples for us that we are to follow.
It echoes Exodus 34 in my mind. I talked about this a year and a half ago in my Moses class, and it was a passage that I never really, really dwelled on until I taught that class. But at the beginning of Exodus, just to shorten it up, we have God coming to Moses and telling him his name, I am who I am.
And you think that's it. In Exodus 34, Moses looks at God after the Israelites have sinned, after he has to go back on the hill and get the ten Commandments.
And Moses says, I want to know who you are. And God says, I'm going to pass in front of you, and I'm going to tell you my name.
And it's almost confusing. It's like, all right, like, you've already told him your name, God. You've passed in front of him before. You said from the bush, I am who I am. What do you mean? And God passes in front of Moses and he says this.
He says, the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin, which is an amazing, amazing thing. And then I've heard so many sermons that kind of skip the next part because it doesn't sound as amazing yet. He does not leave the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and the fourth generation.
If you have not studied this before, I would challenge you to study this passage and just come to an understanding of what that means.
If you have questions, I've done a deep dive into that. I'd love to talk to you about it. That's not the purpose of this, though. The purpose of just bringing this up is to once again highlight this. God is a God who is perfect in love and mercy, but he's also a God who's perfect in justice.
And I guess I think of this in light of me, and I think like, that mercy sounds great, that justice doesn't sound good for me, but if I'm a person who's seeking justice, this all of a sudden begins to sound pretty positive in a kind of good, not good way. But it's just because of who God is.
As I was reading these things that begin to occur to David after this that all relate to this punishment that God puts on him, I feel sad for David because he has repented and his heart truly has turned towards God. I also started thinking of a couple different things.
One thing that I began to think of is, I don't know if this is fair or not, but what would have Uriah thought of what's happening to David in the midst of this?
Would he have been a man who's seeking justice for the murder of himself, for the taking of his wife and all of these other things while he was simply seeking to do what is good, what is righteous? And the other thing I think of is this.
I brought this up at the beginning.
David started down here with God, lifting him up.
Once David gets to up here is when God sort of disappears.
So could God have made a decision to keep David down here so that he may have nothing else, but he has God?
And ultimately, for some people, that's what it takes to recognize this awful but amazing truth.
We brought it up last week. But sometimes you don't know that God is all that you need until God is all that you have.
And I think that David, over chapters 13 through 19 that we'll talk about for the next little bit, began to realize that. So we'll work through 13 and 14 real quick and then go quickly over the remaining chapters.
In the course of time, Amnon, son of David, fell in love with Tamar. Tamar. Interestingly, her name appears three times that I know of in scripture. One time for different women. One time we'll actually hear later on in this passage, not this passage, but I guess three or four chapters from now. The other Tamar is in Genesis 38, where a rough sexual situation occurs with her.
So my advice to you, this is a really dark sick joke. But do not name your daughters Tamar, because that not good things happen to Tamar throughout Scripture.
The beautiful sister of Absalom, son of David, Amnon became so obsessed with his sister Tamar that he made himself ill. She was a virgin and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her.
Now Amnon had an advisor, the same word for friend, named Jonadab, and remember that name. So, son of Shemaiah, David's brother Jonadab was a very shrewd man.
He asked Amnon, why do you, the king's son, look so haggard morning after morning? Won't you tell me? Amnon said to him, I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister.
Go to bed and pretend to be ill. Jonabad said, when your father comes to see you, say to him, I would like my sister Tamar to come, give me something to eat. Let her prepare the food in my sight so I may watch her and then eat from her hand. So Amnon lay down, laid down. He pretended to be ill. When the king came to him, Amnon said to him, I would like my sister Tamar to come and make some special bread in my sight that I might eat from her hand.
David sent word to Tamar at the palace. Go to the house of your brother Amnon. She took him, she baked bread and he refused to eat it. Send everyone out of here, Amnon said. So everyone left him. Then Amnon said to Tamar, bring the food here into my bedroom so that I may eat from your hand. Tamar took the food to him and he said, come to bed with me, my sister.
No, my brother, she said to him, don't force me. Such a thing should not be done in Israel. Don't do this wicked thing. What about me? Wicked? And that word wicked, I think, is actually the same word for godless thing. What about me? Where could I get rid of my disgrace? And what about you? You would be like one of the wicked fools. We've seen that word earlier, Nabal.
Wicked fools in Israel. Please speak to the king. He will not keep me from being married to you.
He refused to listen to her, and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.
Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred.
In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her.
Amnon said to her, get up and get out.
No, she said to him, sending me away would be a greater wrong than what you have already done to me. He refused to listen to her. He called his personal servant and said, and I actually hate how they translated this here, They've translated in almost every English version I've read. Get this woman out of my sight and bolt the door after her. He actually never uses pronoun there.
He just says, get this out of my sight and bolt the door after her. Which I think is even more disgusting.
So a servant put her out and bolted the door after her. She was wearing an ornate robe, for this was the kind of garment the virgin daughters of the king wore. Tamar put ashes on her head. She tore the ornate robe she was wearing, she put her hands on her head and she went away, weeping loudly as she went.
Her brother Absalom said to her, has Amnon your brother, been with you? Be quiet now, my sister. He is your brother. Don't take this thing to heart. And Tamar lived in her brother Absalom's house a desolate woman. And this is all that we hear about David with regard to this. When King David heard all this, he was furious, Period.
Take note of that.
And Absalom never said a word to Amnon, either good or bad. He hated Amnon because he had disgraced his sister Tamar.
Two years later, when Absalom's sheep shearers were at Belhezor near the border of Ephraim, he invited all the king's sons to come there. Absalom went to the king and said, you servant has had shearers come. Will the king and his attendants please join me? No, my son. The king said, all of us should not go. We'd be a burden.
Absalom urged him and then ultimately just gets Amnon to come out with him.
Absalom orders his men, listen, when Amnon is high in spirits from drinking wine, and I say to you, strike him down, kill him. Don't be afraid. Haven't I given this order? Be strong and brave.
Absalom's men did to Amnon what Absalom had ordered and the king's sons fled.
These men talked, I guess, in town the report came to David and David is told, Absalom has struck down all the king's sons.
King stood up, tore his clothes, lay on the ground. His attendants stood with their clothes on. But do you guys remember this name from earlier in the chapter?
Jonabad, son of Shimea, David's brother, said, my lord should not think they killed all the princes, only Amnon. This has been Absalom's express intent ever since the day Amnon raped his sister Tamar. May the Lord king not only be concerned about the report of all of his sons Dead. Only Amnon is dead.
Absalom fled.
Jonadab speaks to the king, the sons come back. Absalom lives apart from David, stays in Geshur and he lives there for three years.
And David longed to go to Absalom, for he was consoled concerning Amnon's death. So this entire section is five years of time.
You have this horrible, nasty, disgusting rape of Tamar by Amnon, one of David's sons.
You have David simply being furious and doing nothing about it. You have Absalom angry and seething and hatred about this for two years. He then kills Amnon. David then doesn't do anything with regard to this situation. Absalom flees and remains away in the wilderness in Geshur for three years.
Five years have now passed.
Couple questions.
Why do you think David did not punish Amnon?
Why do you think the text only says and David was furious from the very get go in my mind, I think David is struggling with this principle that we're going to see in chapters 13 through 19. The idea of mercy and justice.
David somehow was given it by God. But we also recognize that David was punished.
David here, though the text doesn't explicitly say, but I think it implicitly says it in a couple ways.
David begins to struggle starting in this chapter with how to act as a king.
Because the king, and not only a king, but a father as well, of these people is responsible for handing out justice and figuring out how to balance that mercy and justice.
And I can just, I guess, personally see David reflecting on his own sin and, and then just making an awful decision by not handing out justice in this.
It's clear from the text that this is an awful decision.
This text has all of these long sentences in it. And then the David sentence is like three words that mean like, and David was furious.
It's kind of just obvious. In the midst of that, here's my next question.
Is God in this chapter?
The text never mentions God acting.
However, at the same time, at the very end of chapter 12, we see God handing out a punishment to David which involved his family having no peace, essentially having conflict for years and years and years to come.
I struggled with this a lot this week and the way that I would describe to you all what I believe is happening in these passages. The closest thing I can get to involves Pharaoh.
When God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
Yes, God made certain things happen, I believe, but I think by making them happen, he almost bumped people along based upon the areas that their consciences and thoughts and everything else already where they Already were, man. Things get difficult, and we'll keep talking about this. I want to get into it right now, but I need to slow down.
Of the powerful men described in this chapter, we have Amnon. We have Jonadab, who gives Amnon the advice, if you remember, to do this thing that results in the rape of Tamar. And then you have Jonadab later on coming to David and being like, hey, good news, only Amnon is dead. Like, I'll get on your side. Now you have Absalom in this, who seeks justice for his sins, sister, but then spends two years seething in anger and then murders Amnon. And then you have David. So of the four men that are powerful that we see in this passage, which one of them is in the right?
Correct? I think the answer very obviously is none of them.
And what we're going to see over and over and over again is this idea of men thinking that they are being wise.
But in comparison to what God truly desires and God wants from these situations, we see fault in all of them.
So let's get into chapter 14 just real quickly, and then we'll move on.
Joab knew that the king's heart longed for Absalom. Joab sent someone to Tekoa and had a wise woman brought from there.
He said to her, pretend you're in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes. And this woman ends up coming to David. And when she comes to David, she tells him this story, and she essentially says, my sons got in a fight, and as they were fighting, one of my sons accidentally struck and killed the other son. And she says to David, now the other people in this village are wanting to. To kill my son that killed my other son. But here's the deal, David, like, please help me, because that's just not right. That would end my family line. I can't have both of my sons dead. He understands his wrong. Keep my first son alive.
And David essentially is just like, well, he says it here, go home and I will issue an order on your behalf.
The woman said, let my lord the king pardon me and my family, and let the throne be without guilt. The king replies, if anyone does anything to you, bring them to me and they will not bother you again.
She said, let the king invoke the Lord, his God, the avenger of blood, to essentially promise what you've said, as surely as the Lord lives. He said, not one hair of your son's head will fall to the ground. The woman said, let the servant speak a word to you. And he says, speak.
And she says, why then have you divided, devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself? For the king has not brought back his banished son Absalom, like water spilled on the ground which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires. Rather, he devises ways so that, like, a banished person does not remain banished from him.
After that, it's this really weird thing where she goes back to, like, yeah, but my son's.
And the son's thing was obviously never a thing. But she's trying to just, like, slide this story in, in the midst of everything.
And David catches on, and he says, isn't the hand of Joab with you in all this? And you can kind of see him sighing and saying this.
And she says, no one can turn to the right or the left from anything, my lord. The king says, which means yes. And then she says, yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me to do this. He put all these words into my mouth. So she's really trying to figure out how to get off scotch free here.
Your servant Joab did this to change the present situation. My lord has wisdom, like the angel of God. He knows everything that happens in the land.
And the king said, not to the woman, but to Joab. You see him turn to the side. Very well, I will do it.
Bring back Absalom.
Joab falls to his face and thanks him. The king says, still struggling with this mercy, justice thing. He must go to his own house. He must not see my face.
So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king.
Now, speaking of Absalom, random insert into the text. In all Israel, there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the top of his head to the sole of his foot, there's not a blemish in him. Whenever he cut the hair of his head, he used to cut his hair once a year because it had become so heavy. He would weigh it. And the weight of his hair was 200 shekels by Royal Standard. Three sons and a daughter were born to him. And this is interesting. And his daughter's name was Tamar, named her after his sister, and she became a beautiful woman.
Absalom lived two years in Jerusalem without seeing the king's face.
Two more years have passed. Then Absalom sent for Joab, and he essentially pulls this trick on Joab, sets his field on fire. Joab comes and talks to Absalom. Absalom Says, listen, it's not worth me living out here in exile. Tell the king, either accept me or kill me.
And David ends up accepting Absalom back into the court and kisses his hand.
All right, first thing, how does the woman who comes to David compare with Nathan coming to David and presenting a particular story to him in the court?
Just something to think about, because both of these are in some ways very similar. Nathan comes to David and gives him this story and then gets him to consider his own sin.
In this situation, though, the woman comes to David, does in a way trick him like Nathan does present a story that was similar and tried to call him out to something. But there's something that I think that we're supposed to notice in this that really differentiates the woman's story and Nathan's story.
Nathan's story. This is the best way I can figure it out. Nathan's story tried to get David to look past his feelings and focus on his conscience. In the midst of things, this woman's story presents something her two sons. One accidentally kills the other.
Please don't kill both of them in the end.
But Absalom did not accidentally kill Amnon.
Absalom sat there for two years seething in anger, and tricks him to come out and murders him in cold blood. Now, regardless of how we think of what David should have done to Amnon, the way that Absalom handles this situation is not, oh, I just like accidentally killed him or whatever. It was not his place as an individual. Regardless of if Amnon deserved justice, to hand out the justice.
And it's almost reversing this, the woman is trying to get David to look past his conscience and focus on his feelings.
Next thing, and all of these will matter. As we get into chapters 15 through 19 in verses 25 through 27, all of these fantastical things are used to describe Absalom. His long hair, he's the best looking person in town. Everything else in first and Second Samuel thus far are good physical traits. Normally a positive quality of like, this individual that's going to be a great person in the end.
No, essentially. And I don't mean to like if any of you in this room are attractive people.
I don't mean to, like, speak poorly of you, but the whole idea of first and Second Samuel thus far is that attractiveness is like a bad thing. Like, this is going to be a horrible person in the end for some of us that brings us peace.
But it is them pointing out and having this aside of Absalom that he's Beautiful and has this long hair. Whatever else that was not just for like a felt board in Bible in Sunday School or whatever. Like that whole scene is so that a reader looks at it and is like, why in the world are they throwing all of this good looking things about Abs? Oh, he's good looking, that's bad. Something's going to happen with this guy in the end.
And then here's a big one. How many instances of wisdom can you recognize in this passage?
So thinking through all of this stuff that we just read, you have Joab figuring out a way, like, how can I get David to like think about this stuff? I'll get a wise woman to come to him. You have this wise woman and she's all tricky and stuff. And she's like, all right, I'm going to tell this story to entrap him and stuff. You have Absalom later in the story and Absalom's like, I really need to like get connected and back into the situation. I'm going to set Joab's field on fire, get him to come to me, talk to him about all these different things.
Even prior to all of this, you have various situations occurring where people look like they're being so wise and that they're coming out with all of these like really like smart, intellectual ways to figure out how to pull their own strings and do whatever else. Each of those situations is back to back to back to back to tell us something.
And it's, in my opinion and a lot of people's opinions that ride on this stuff to get us to consider, just for an instance, what man made wisdom looks like compared to godly wisdom.
A lot of us in here, myself included, are super smart and we can pull lots of strings and we can try to get our way to the best of our ability. And a lot of us are really, really, really good at getting our way to occur.
The thing that we forget about sometimes is sometimes our way is not God's way.
The end. And as amazing as we are at getting our way to occur, we never stop to think from the get go, what does God desire in this situation?
So as all of this is breaking through, this chaos starts to form. One of the things I began to think of in this, related to Saul earlier on is if you remember, Saul is chasing David. And in the midst of chasing David through the wilderness, he suddenly has another group attack his capitol. And he's having to figure out like, do I continue to chase after David? This mission that I'm on, do I go back to the capitol and figure out these things. But the thing is, he's stuck in this world of not knowing which decision to make with all of this confusion occurring. But it's all because he doesn't stop and think of the most simple thing, which is just the godly thing. In the end, he thinks he has all these decisions to make, all of these strings to pull, all of these things to decide with his own wisdom. But ultimately every single one of them has fault. Every single one of them involves chaos.
The only one that doesn't is following God.
David, in a way, is suddenly beginning to get stuck in this world, I think, where everything around him, every person around him brings chaos.
So then we get to the slide that I was nervous about because I have to remember all this stuff and try to get through three chapters in like four minutes. But 2 Samuel 15, verses 2 through 10, Absalom decides, okay, I've been accepted in, but now I'm going to be tricky. I'm going to try to get my way. And he begins to sit at a gate, and he also begins to go out into Israel and say, do you guys want justice? Which, by the way, we talked about the very beginning. A lot of this seems to be a mercy justice question. It's probably in there for a reason. He only says that he could provide justice. Do you want justice?
Talk with me. The king's busy. Maybe he could make me a judge or something, like, I'll back you up, I'll try to give you some justice in your situation.
He begins talking to people at the gate. He begins to travel around and. And sooner or later he decides that he's going to challenge for the throne because the hearts of the people of Israel, the text tells us, fell for him because he was seeking justice on their account.
2nd Samuel 15:17. A lot of different things happen.
You have Ahithophel, and this to me was just the kingdom is fracturing. Ahithophel, David's close advisor, decides to take Absalom's son.
You have Ittai the Gittite.
Wow, that rhymed. I didn't realize until now. But Ittai decides.
He's like this guy who's like, got an army and is next to Israel. He decides that he'll send his army to fight for David.
This is big. This is very important. Zadok, the priest, his sons, the Levites, and the Ark of God remain with David. Other tribes begin to join absalom. At least 12,000 people in this area are beginning to fight for him at this time. As referenced in 17. 1. Hushai, the archite, comes to David and he says, okay, in the midst of all of this, let me be your spy. Let me be the guy. And by the way, go home, read this tonight before bed. It's just a fascinating action story. Hushai says, I'll be your spy. Let me go to Absalom and try to, like, trick him and stuff.
Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth that came earlier, comes to David and he's like, hey, I'll be on your side. And by the way, Mephibosheth has betrayed you, so you should accept me now. And this weird scene happens where David gives him everything from Mephibosheth. Later on we decide, oh, Ziba is actually doing his own thing. He's tricking David. Mephibosheth has been good all along. Like, crazy movie ending.
Shobi, Makir, Barzillai, all of these guys begin to provide David money. In the midst of this, Ahithophel looks at Absalom and says, hey. David is just now fleeing. He's on the Mount of. David is on the Mount of Olives, which, if you go to Jerusalem, Jerusalem is built on this little, like, mountaintop. Right beside it is the Mount of Olives. So he, like, right beside. I'm talking like, it's me just looking half a mile down the road.
But David is with his group up there on the Mount of Olives. It says, david is barefoot and weeping in the midst of this as he's leaving Jerusalem, as Absalom begins to take it. And Ahithophel says, hey, there they are. Let's kill them. Let's take them now. And Hushai says, the little spy says, don't do that. That's a bad idea. And Absalom goes, yeah, that is a bad idea. Ahithophel then out of nowhere, decides, oh, I can't believe he didn't take my advice. And. And Ahithophel goes to his house and he kills himself. And it's really crazy.
Absalom ends up not killing David because he takes Hushai's advice. But that allows David to escape across. Get the money from all these guys.
David gathers a group of men in the middle of all of this. This guy Shimei was a member of Saul's clan. And as David and his little troop are marching along, he starts throwing rocks at David's group and saying, you killed all of Saul's people. You're a horrible person.
This whole situation is happening.
And then David ends up in the next chapter I guess walking into the camp and deciding we're going to attack Absalom and his army. They attack Absalom and their army. 20,000 men die. And then Absalom's hair gets caught in a tree.
And David is not wanting his son to die in the midst of all of this.
So he says, like, hey, don't harm him. Multiple men say, like, hey, he's hanging in a tree. Another man says, I wouldn't, like, kill him for a thousand shekels of silver. And then Joab says, okay, I am the king's like, ruler of his army. I'll walk into this situation. I'll put three spears through his heart. I'll send other men to abuse his body. We'll throw his body into a pit. Let's go celebrate this whole situation. Absalom is dead.
And the priest's son calls out to the king. He ran to King David from where the battle was taking place. David has taken back Jerusalem. And he calls out to the king. He's telling about Absalom's death. He says, all is well. He bowed down before the king with his face to the ground and said, praise be to the Lord your God. He has delivered up those who lifted their hands against you.
King asks, is the young man Absalom safe?
Ahai, my eyes says, I saw great confusion. Just as Joab was about to send the king's servant and me your servant, But I don't know what it was. The king says, stand aside and wait here. Another runner, the cushite, arrives and says, my lord the king, there's good news. The Lord vindicated you today. Absalom says, and all this is so sad. Is the young man Absalom safe? The cushite responds, may the enemies of my lord the king and all those who rise up against you harm you like that young man.
The king was shaken.
He went up to the room over the gateway and he wept. And as he went, he said, o my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom. If only I had died instead of you. O Absalom, my son, my son.
This section happens immediately afterwards where David is crying. Joab is mad at him for crying. The Israelites are beginning to say, like, what do we do? Like Judah. All these other tribes had taken on David's side. Most of the Israelites, the northern area had taken on Absalom's side. And they're saying the the king delivered us from the hand of the enemies. David did, but he's the one who rescued us from the Philistines. But now he's fled the country to escape from Absalom. And Absalom, whom we anointed to rule over us, has died in battle. Like, what are we supposed to do in the midst of all of this? We supported the opposite guy. Shammai, the guy yelling and throwing stones is just like, david, I'm sorry. And it feels really fake, but he does say sorry. Mephibosheth comes onto the scene and he's like, hey, Ziba tricked you. And the king, David is trying to figure out a way to get that right. Barzillai, this old man that gave him some money comes to him. It's just this nice scene. You should read about it. And then Judah and Israel decide to kind of develop a conflict. And Judah is saying, like, we have all of this share in David. He's from our tribe, and we're bringing him into Jerusalem. And then Israelites, the ones who most of them betrayed David, are like, why did you guys get to bring David into Jerusalem? We should all do it. We're all a family now. Or whatever.
And the best way I can describe 2nd Samuel 13:19 is not with anything that I just said. It's with this picture right here.
That's what's happening in 1319. You can read about it tonight, but it is just chaos. Intertwining themes, everything else. You're reading it and you're just like, what in the world is happening right now? Like, I'm trying to keep up with everything. I repeat it the best I could to you all. I would love for someone to tell it better to me back to me. After all this, I probably confused you more than I'm confused now. I'm pretty confused right now. But all of this chaos is happening.
But in the midst of that, I think there are some important truths that we can learn with relay to mercy versus justice and how God handles it. And it's this. Number one, only God knows how to correctly balance mercy and justice.
Number two, God has revealed concepts he wants us to apply through His Word.
Relying on our own wisdom to balance mercy and justice will lead to mistakes.
So I'll take those three for right now.
When it comes to mercy and justice politically within the church anywhere else, there are lots and lots and lots of questions and arguments and debate and whatever else. And I feel like for a lot of us, I don't know, I can't provide answers to every single person for every single situation. And I'm not saying that there could be two different people with opposite opinions in one situation that couldn't both be right with regard to something. But I will say that if you're not considering your own sin when working out how somebody will receive justice, if you're not considering the own mercy that's been given to you when considering that you're probably in the wrong heart wise, I'll also say this. There are texts and passages that very obviously discuss how God handles mercy and justice.
They cannot be perfectly applied every time. Sort of like the old woman coming to David being related to Nathan coming to David. But other times they can.
Relying on your own wisdom is not the best. I would challenge anybody who's figuring out mercy, justice, things to have text to back them up.
God keeps his promises related to mercy and justice is something that we find out here and then finally, this is a good study that we'll talk about more next week. Acceptance of punishment is painful, but good.
Sometimes as hard as God does not always cause you to be in the hole in the pit.
But I also think God sometimes does want us in the pit so that he can be the one that pulls us out.
It's hard to differentiate when and what I think only he knows.
This is just some challenges for this week. I'll post on the groupme but I hope I confused you nice and good tonight. Read 13:19 in bed. It's a wild crazy story, but that's classic.
