We're going to be in 2 Samuel,
the first hour this morning, 2 Samuel chapter 20. Let's ask the Lord for his blessings. Our merciful heavenly Father, we pray that you would send your
spirit in power, that you would open our hearts to your word. Lord, that you would open your
word and reveal Christ to us. Lord, that we would find ourselves
looking to and resting in and believing on and rejoicing in
thy dear son, our sin bearer, and our savior. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I've titled this message, The
Cry of a Wise Woman. And I hope and pray that the
Lord will enable us to see ourselves in this woman for I think that
she does represent in this story the church. If you look with
me in verse 16, then cried a wise woman out of the city. We begin in chapter 19 finding the death of David's son Absalom. Joab is the one who put Absalom
to death and stopped the rebellion of Absalom and before David could
regain his authority in Jerusalem. Another man, the scripture tells
us in chapter 20, by the name of Sheba, leads another
rebellion against the king. And we'll read this verse, verse
one of chapter 20. And there happened to be there
a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite. And he blew a trumpet and said,
we have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son
of Jesse, Every man to his own tent, O Israel. So every man
of Israel went up from after David and followed Sheba. Now Sheba is going to end up
taking refuge in the city of Abel, but David instructs Amasa
to go after Sheba. David says in verse four, and
then said the king to Amasa, assemble me the men of Judah
within three days and be thou here present. So Amasa went to
assemble the men of Judah, but he tarried longer than the set
time, which he had appointed him. And David said to Abishai,
now, Abishai, Joab, and Emesa are all the nephews of King David. These men are all cousins. And
as we know, Joab was the commander of David's army. But it seems
evident in these verses that David is removing Joab from his
position of authority for what he had done to David's son. And
he chooses Amasa, Joab's cousin, to take his place. He tells Amasa
to gather together an army and go after Sheba, lest the rebellion
of Sheba be worse than the rebellion that there was led by Absalom. But Emesa doesn't come back within
the set time that David gave him, so then David goes to another
one of his nephews by the name of Abishai and tells Abishai
to go get Sheba. And as the story progresses throughout
this chapter, we find Joab seeing what's happening. Joab meets
Emesa, his cousin, and feigns a greeting to Amasa. He acts like he's going
to kiss him and greet him and give him his blessings and instead,
Joab pulls out a sword and kills Amasa so that Amasa would not
be able to take Joab's place. So now you have Joab and Abishai. leading the army of David to put down the rebellion of
Sheba. Now, in this story, I want us
to not only see ourselves in the voice of this wise woman
who pleads for mercy, but I want us to see Joab as a type of the
law of God. I want us to see Sheba in his
rebellion as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sheba says of David, we'll not
have that man reign over us. The sin that we're all guilty
of is the high treason of rebellion against God. We've raised our
fist to heaven. In our father, Adam, and in our
own fallen nature, we have said, we'll not have this man reign
over us. And in our rebellion, the Lord
sends Joab to to stop us. And Joab here, if you remember back
in the early chapters of 2 Samuel, Abner was the commanding officer
of Saul's army. And Joab did the same thing to
Abner that he now does to Amasa. He acted like he was going to
greet him and kiss him, and Joab takes a sword and kills him. Joab is also the one who protected David in the sin that
he had committed with Bathsheba. Joab's the one that David sent
to have Uriah killed. Joab is extremely loyal to David
all throughout, but he's also, Joab's also protecting his own
position of power. And in that, I want us to see
Joab as a type of a law of God. The purpose of the law of God
is to uphold the honor of the king. And the law cannot compromise
its position of authority and power in any way. It's got to remain, the law of
God has to remain faithful to itself. Turn with me to 2 Samuel. I'm sorry, not 2 Samuel, 2 Thessalonians,
excuse me, 2 Thessalonians 2. In verse 10. and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish because they received
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should
believe a lie." Here's the description of the man of sin. Here's a description
of those who set themselves up on the throne of God. because
they have no love for Christ, God sends them a strong delusion. And they believe the lie. They believe the lie of a salvation
that's achieved by one's own will. They believe the lie of
a salvation that is achieved by one's own works. And men are
convinced of that. Verse 12, that they might be
damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Now that doesn't mean necessarily
that those who are lost remain enemies of Christ because they
are pleasuring themselves in the flesh. It also means that that men will not come to Christ
because they take pleasure in their righteousness. They find
comfort in what they've done to earn favor with God by their
own will and by their own works. The Lord told Nicodemus, light
has come into the world, but men love darkness rather than
light because their deeds were evil. They won't come to the
light because the light exposes our deeds for what they are,
unrighteous before God. And men won't do that. So by
nature, our hatred for Christ is founded in our desire to be
set up on the throne of God and to maintain our own righteousness.
That's the nature of sin. David, Joab, I'm sorry, go back
with me to our text, because Joab is going to, is going to insist that, we'll begin reading at verse
16 of chapter 20 on 2 Samuel. Then cried a wise woman out of
the city, now, Sheba has taken refuge in the
city of Abel and David says, you know, we've got to put down
this rebellion lest Sheba overthrows the kingdom of God, unless he
sets himself up on the throne of God or on the throne of David. And so in verse 16, then cried,
so now Joab has the city of Abel surrounded. He's got it besieged
and he has the army of David and the city's about to be completely
destroyed because of who's hiding in the city. Then cried a wise
woman out of the city, here, here I say, And I pray you unto
Joab, come near hither that I may speak unto thee." This woman, as I said earlier,
I hope that we can see ourselves and the Bride of Christ, the
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, those who have been given faith in this woman, that we would
find ourselves calling out in prayer for the Lord to have mercy. And when he was come near, the
woman said, art thou Joab? And he answered, I am he. Then she said unto him, hear
the words of thy handmaid. And he answered, I do hear. You and I come before God and
ask him for his mercy to hear us. He hears. He's never cast one of his children
away who come and plead for his mercy. And then she spoke saying in
verse 18, they will want to speak in old time saying they shall
surely ask counsel at a bell. And so they ended the matter. I am one of them that are peaceable
and faithful in Israel. thou seekest to destroy a city
and a mother in Israel, why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance
of the Lord?" Now this was a city full of Israelites. And she says
to Joab, she says, I'm for peace. And are you going to destroy
the whole city? And Joab answered in verse 20
and said, far be it, far be it from me that I should swallow
up or destroy. The matter is not so. I'm not
here to destroy the whole city. There's one man in your city
that I'm here to take the blood of because of his rebellion against
God. Now, this cry that the wise woman
is making is she is appealing to Joab from the scriptures. In Deuteronomy chapter 20, the
Lord gave in his law the children of Israel instructions on what
they were to do whenever they whenever they besieged a city
in battle. And the first thing that they
were to do was to seek means of peace with that city. They
were to offer that city a condition for peace. And if the
city accepted the condition of peace, then everybody in that
city was to become a servant of Israel and if they didn't
take the conditions of peace that Israel gave to them then
everyone in that city was to be killed. So she's appealing
to that law in Deuteronomy chapter 20 and she's saying it is said
of old that when you surround a city that you're supposed to
offer to them first conditions of peace. And if they accept
those conditions of peace, then everybody in that city will become
your servant. And only if they refuse those
conditions of peace are the men in that city to be killed. And Joab, as a type of the law,
is saying to her, I'm not here to destroy the city. I am here
to offer you a condition of peace. Now, like Sheba, as I've already
said, we all have raised our fist against heaven in rebellion
against the king. We have said at the root of all
of our sin, We will not have that man reign over us. We're
going to have it our way. And God sends the law with a
condition of peace. And to refuse that condition
of peace is to meet certain death. And not just physical death,
but spiritual death. What is the condition of peace?
Joab gives to this city of Abel and to this wise woman who understands
that her only argument that she can make is the scriptures. She's got to plead God's Word
for the deliverance of this city. We have the same thing given to us, we plead the
word of God for our deliverance and we say in prayer, we're for
peace. Lord, what is it that you would
require in order to deliver us from death? And Joab says to her, In verse 21, the matter is not
so, but a man of Mount Ephraim, Sheba, the son of Bichri by name,
which hath lifted up his hand against the king, even against
David, deliver him only, and I will depart from the city.'
And the woman said to Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee
over the wall. Then the woman went into all
the people in her wisdom, and they cut off the head of Sheba
the son of Bichri, and cast it out to Joab. And he blew a trumpet,
and they retired from the city, and every man to his tent. And
Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king." Sheba's name means seven. Seven is the number
of perfection. Seven also is the number of rest. When we go back to the seven
days of creation, seven is the Sabbath, it's the day of rest.
God had finished his work and he rested on the Sabbath and
then he instituted the Sabbath day as a day of worship in memorial
of him finishing his work. And then when the Lord Jesus
comes, he is the fulfillment of that sign, that Sabbath sign,
all throughout the Old Testament. So here's why I want us to see
Sheba as a type of Christ. Yes, Sheba is raising his fist
in rebellion against God, When the Lord Jesus went to Calvary's
cross, the scripture says that God made him who knew no sin
to be made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. The Lord Jesus bore our shame
and our guilt and the separation that we suffered from God as
a result of our sin because we set ourselves, that's why I wanted
to read 2 Thessalonians chapter two, we set ourselves up on the
throne of God. We said, we'll not have this
man reign over us. And the condition for peace was
the head of one man, the head of one man. You deliver that
man and the law is satisfied. The law retreats from its wrath
and from its judgment. But it's the only condition that's
acceptable to the law. There is no other condition that
can be given. Let me show you another picture
here of Christ in Sheba. Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter
31. How can a man have peace with
God? This is what these stories are about, are they not? These
are gospel stories. Jeremiah chapter 31, look with
me, if you will, to verse 20. Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him,
I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore, my bowels are troubled
for him. I will surely have mercy upon
him, saith the Lord." Now, you remember who Ephraim was. Joseph
had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Manasseh was the eldest of the
two. And when Jacob passed his blessings onto his
sons and his grandchildren before he died, Joseph brought Manasseh
and Ephraim before his blind father to bless the two boys. And he put Manasseh, the oldest
son, on Jacob's right hand, and he put Ephraim, the youngest
son, on Jacob's left hand. And when Jacob bestowed the blessings
of God on these two boys, you remember, he swapped his hands
and Joseph tried to move his hands and said, Oh no, father,
that's this Manasseh's deal. No, no, I just, Jacob knew exactly
what he was doing. He was blessing Ephraim. Why? Ephraim is a type of Christ,
we see that right here. He's the one who received the
blessings of God. And so when Joab goes to the city of Abel
and says to this wise woman who is now pleading for conditions
of peace based on the scriptures, he says to her, there's one man,
and he's of Mount Ephraim, you give him unto me and we'll be
satisfied. What a glorious picture of what
God has done in Christ to satisfy the justice of God. Yes, the Lord Jesus says our
sin bearer He bore the shame and the guilt of our sin. And
in that sense, there is a... The Lord, well the scripture
says that the Lord Jesus went to the slaughter as a lamb and
he opened on his mouth. And we know why he didn't open
his mouth. He didn't open his mouth, first of all, because
he went to the cross willingly. No man took his life from him.
He laid it down. And the second reason why he
didn't open his mouth is because he was bearing the guilt and
the shame and the separation from God for our sin as his own. So he had no defense. He had
no defense. He couldn't say to God Almighty,
I'm not, this is not right. This is not just. No, he went
according to the justice of God. And there's just one man. Joab
says, there's one man in your city. One mediator between God
and man. The man, Jesus Christ. And don't you love it in John
chapter 11, after the resurrection of Lazarus from the grave in
Bethany, some of the Jews that were there went back down in
Jerusalem and reported to the leaders of the Jews what was
happening. And turn with me there to John chapter 11. So the council, the Sanhedrin
gets together in John chapter 11 and in verse 48 they say,
if we let him thus alone after this undeniable miracle of raising
a man who'd been dead four days from the grave, if we don't do
something about it, all men will believe on him. and the Romans
shall come and take away both our place and our nation. We've got to protect our position
and our power. That's at the root of all of
our sin. We'll not have this man reign
over us where men hate the gospel and they hate Christ because
it robs them of their righteousness. It robs them of their position
and their power. and the hope of their salvation. And one of them named Caiaphas,
verse 49, being the high priest that same year, said unto them,
you know nothing at all. He corrects the Sanhedrin. And he says, nor consider that
it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people
and that the whole nation perish not. This is what's happening
in the city of Abel. Joab, that one commander of David
who was loyal to David, we could say in the human sense to a fault,
but he represents the loyalty of the uncompromising word of
God to protect the authority of the king. And he goes to the
city and he hears the cry of this wise woman. And here's the,
every time we come before the Lord to petition him, what is
the ground of our coming to him? Is it not his word? You remember in Acts chapter
four when the apostles are arrested and threatened with their life
after the ascension of Christ and they preach on the day of
Pentecost and now the Sanhedrin takes them in and they have no
reason but to believe that the same thing's gonna happen to
them that happened to Christ. And yet they released them. And
they went back and met with the disciples. And the scripture
says in John chapter four that they prayed. And in their prayer,
they recited Psalm 2. They brought before Lord the
petition of His Word. And the only claim that they
had that God would hear them was the promises of God's Word. That's what this wise woman's
doing. And if the Lord gives us the wisdom of His Holy Spirit,
we will petition our God with the promises of His Word. And
the promise of his word is that there's a man in Ephraim, a man
of Ephraim, the God-man, the mediator. As Caiaphas says, one man should
die for the people that the whole nation perish not. Joab says,
just give me that one man and the whole city will live. In verse 51, and this spake he
not of himself. Caiaphas is the high priest. He didn't come up with this idea
on his own. The Lord gave him these words
to speak, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that
Jesus should die for that nation. What a glorious picture we have
here in 2 Samuel 20. The law of God pursuing without compromise the
rebellion of God's people. And one man, Sheba. His name means seven. His name
means rest. We have our rest from the uncompromising
law of God. The law of God requires absolute
perfection. The law of God never said, do
your best and I'll be satisfied. The law of God requires perfection. I was talking to somebody about
this just the other night and they said, well, how can we be
perfect? How can we be perfect? If God demands perfection, how
can that be? found in him. To be found in
him, not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that
righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. So he
offers himself up for our righteousness before God, and he offers himself
up for our justice before God. Those are the two things we have
to have in order to rest. In order to rest, From the judgment
of God, we have to have a righteousness and we have to have the justice
of God satisfied. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus did and that's what's being represented here in this picture
of Sheba being sacrificed for the city. Her only argument was the scriptures. And here's our argument. Lord,
this is, our warrant for coming to God is the command to come.
Our warrant for believing God is the command to believe. Our
only claim for the hope of our salvation is the promise of God. And it's the only warrant that
we have in preaching as well. We compare scripture to scripture
and what confidence. This wise woman took great confidence
in that Joab would be faithful to the law of God. And there's our hope that God
would honor his word He would honor his word. So we bring to
him what he promised. One man should die for the nation,
a man of Ephraim, the God-man, the one mediator, the sin-bearer. who understood by experience. We don't really, we don't understand
the depths of our sin. We believe that we're sinners
because God said so. And we see little glimpse of
our rebellion against God when we insist on having things our
way. But the Lord Jesus experienced
that separation and that sorrow and that And that sin, to its
fullest degree, when he bore it in his body on the tree, he
knew what that sin was. Our only Our only claim, if you will,
before God is his word. The prophet put it like this,
to the law and to the testimony. And if they speak not according
to this word, it is because there's no light in them. We preach the word. Turn with
me to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter three. Paul is reminding Timothy of
the scriptures that he had learned from a child. What an encouragement
it is to raise our children up under the sound of the gospel
and to teach them the Word of God. And so, he says to Timothy
in verse 14 of chapter 3, Continue thou in the things which thou
hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast
learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith
which is in Christ Jesus. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the word of God and God uses his word to point us
to Christ. I hope that the Lord is using
this story of Joab and Emesa and this wise woman to teach
us about Christ and to cause us to see our need for him to
deliver our city. And he goes on to say in verse
16, all scripture, all scripture Even these Old Testament stories,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God and all scripture is profitable. It is profitable to our souls.
It's profitable for doctrine, for teaching. It is profitable
for reproof. It is profitable for correction.
It is profitable to instruct us in righteousness that the
man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
This is the means by which God saves us, and grows us in his
grace. And so then Paul says to Timothy,
I charge thee, therefore, in light of this glorious truth
that we have of Christ being in the scriptures, I charge thee
therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.
Timothy preached the word. Be instant in season and out
of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine,
for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers
having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from
the truth and shall be turned unto fables. But you watch, be
on your guard, Be on your guard. This is the, so when we, when we look to God's word, we're
looking for Christ. And we're looking for the one who
can, Joab's relentless. I love this man. He's gonna protect
David at all costs. And as I said already, he's not
only protecting David, but he's protecting himself as well. And
so it is with the law of God. The law of God is gonna protect
the glory of Christ at all costs. And in doing so, it protects
itself. It cannot lower the standard.
There must be, there must be a man And in this story, that
man is Sheba, our heavenly father. Thank you that we have the God-man, thy dear son, a man of the Mount
Ephraim, to stand in our stead before thee. Lord, the condition
of peace that you've given, might we find rest in Christ. Thank you for your word. Bless
it now. We ask it in Christ's name.