Chapter 14 of 2nd Samuel Very unusual passage of scripture
and a very beautiful Gospel picture look at verse 1 of 2nd Samuel
14 and we'll kind of Use verse 1 as a starting point to get
our minds Settled into this scene and then
we'll read the rest to the passage in verse one now Joab the son
of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom three characters introduced in verse one Joab
is the captain of David's army we've seen him already quite
a bit in In 2 Samuel, he's the arm of justice. He's the executor
of judgment in Israel. David is the judge. David is
the one who decides, but he sends Joab to carry it out. As king, David decides who lives,
who dies, who gets what, who rises and who falls. And then
David gives the order to Joab, and it's carried out. Joab is
the sword. He pictures clearly here the
justice of God in this story, as David pictures God all through
his life, often particularly in the person of God's son. But
he pictures God the king and judge of all. And then there's
a third character in this verse, Absalom. Absalom is fled. He's banished from the presence
of David. and from the Commonwealth of
Israel and I use that phrase particularly because I'll read
a scripture in a minute from the New Testament about that
but he Absalom murdered his brother Amnon in chapter 13 and whatever
your thoughts are about why he did it and whether he was justified
in doing it according to the law he's guilty of cold-blooded
premeditated murder and must die Absalom is us banished indeed,
and also running from the presence of God. Not only are we not welcome
in God's presence, we don't want to be in his presence. We're
running. Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. Ephesians 2.12, that
at one time, at that time, you were without Christ, being aliens
from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope, and without God, in the world. That's
Absalom picturing us. But the heart of God is toward
us. If David wants Absalom dead,
and the law says that Absalom should die, then Joab gets it
done. He does it swiftly, without a second thought. The sword is
raised in the air, ready to fall. Absalom richly deserved it. Joab
does kill Absalom eventually, later in this book, and he did
richly deserve it. But in this chapter, we have
the gospel. The law says Absalom's a dead
man, but justice here, pictured by Joab, perceives that David's
heart is toward Absalom. We have the same dilemma here
that we have in the book of Daniel, in Daniel chapter 6, where we read of King Darius
and Daniel. By Darius' own law, Daniel must
die. But Darius loves Daniel. We have the same dilemma here
and the same gospel. Now the reason David loves Absalom
is because he's David's son. And this teaches us also regarding
God and our relationship to him. Though Absalom is a murderer
and he proves himself throughout his life in every way to be a
wretch, yet there is an unbreakable relationship. And this is also
us by nature. Though vile and richly deserving
hell, we ought, every one of us, to go to hell. And if we
know God, we know it. So He reveals that to us. But
we are eternally sons of God. We don't just become sons of
God, that's an eternal blessing that we have in Christ. Because
God has loved us and loves us with an everlasting love. He put us in His Son, blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus before the foundation of the world. So there's the dilemma. We ought to die. The law says
we die. But we're the king's son. And
his heart is toward us. Now the story that follows is
a strange one. But when the essential elements
of it are examined, we see the gospel very simply and very plainly. And that's what we're here to
see. What was Absalom's crime? He killed David's son. That's our crime, too. Spiritually, in our gospel picture,
we see our own crime. We killed God's son. We murdered
the Son of God. We killed the Prince of Life. Now, everything we do is sin.
And we're responsible for and we must pay for all of our sin. Everything we do, everything
we think, everything we say is sin and our very nature is sin.
But the culmination, the symbol of all of man's evil put together
is the cross. We showed what we think of God
by nature at Calvary. That's the evil of our heart. That's what happened in the garden.
The problem in the garden is we hated God. The problem at
Calvary is we hated God. The problem as we sit here tonight
is we hate God by nature. Christ Jesus, the altogether
lovely one, was delivered unto our will. Luke 23, 25. They delivered him, Jesus, unto
the people's will. and we revealed then and there
what our will is concerning God we want him gone we want him
to die in the most horrible way that we can murder him yet remember
again now that's Absalom he killed the king's son and we're guilty
of that but remember the words of 1339 look at back in chapter
13 it says the soul of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom. Absalom has run and well he should
have. But the soul of King David longed
to go forth unto him and that's what God did. He went forth unto
us because he yearned to He came where we were, he sent
his son Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. And if you read everything in
the word of God concerning Absalom, if you just look up his name
and read everything about him in the scripture, you would think,
why in the world would David love Absalom? And that's the
question now, isn't it? Why would God love me? I think about that some. I started
to say a lot, but let's face it, we think about ourselves
a lot. We think about God now and then. But when I'm thinking
of the things of God and looking into the scripture, I think about
the love of God and I don't understand it. It doesn't, because we can
answer every question but that, can't we? Why did God save us? Well, because he loved us. because
Christ came and died for us, but why would Christ die for
us? Well Chris, he chose us, but why did he choose us? We
can answer everything except that. Why did God love me? And I don't know. I know that
his love is in Christ, I know that. But why me and not my brothers,
my brother My oldest brother, I don't know, and I don't know,
I haven't talked to my oldest brother in many years. But why
not others in our families that God has passed by? The question
is, I understand why he wouldn't love anybody, but why me? For us, love's not a choice,
is it? Not really. I didn't just decide I was going
to love Vicky, I just, you know, I just did. Is it that way with
God? Now He chose us because He loved
us. But did He choose to love us?
Love as we understand it, love itself is not a choice. I couldn't
help it. We heard the song on the way
over here, one of my favorite lines ever in a song is, take
my hand, take my whole life too, for I can't help falling in love
with you. And that's love, can't you help
it? If we could help it, we probably would. You can't help it. But I don't know, I don't understand
God's love, but I know He loves me. and gave himself for me and he
longed to come where I was banished and running from him and horrible
deserving of hell in every imaginable way and yet he longed to come where
I was and he did and he saved me in every way that a sinner
could be saved because his heart was toward me. I don't
understand that, but I can delight in it. My dad wrote a poem and wrote
it in his Bible. I have his Bible still somewhere.
My dad wrote a little poem and I always thought it was precious. It was, that thou shouldst love
a wretch like me. and be the God thou art. Is darkness
to my intellect, but sunshine to my heart. Isn't that a beautiful
poem? Why in the world would anybody
love Absalom? And we see in these next 23 verses
a strange conspiracy. Let's read them together. And
Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said
unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and
put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil,
don't make yourself look pretty, but be as a woman that had that
had a long time mourned for the dead, and come to the king and
speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her
mouth, so he finds this wise woman. And this is all we know
about this woman. She was wise. That's all we know.
And that's significant. That's significant. So you have
the justice of God and the voice of wisdom conspiring together. To what purpose? Well, let's
look at it. Joab said, here's what you say.
And when the woman of Tekoa spake to the king, she fell on her
face to the ground and did obeisance and said, help, O king. And the
king said unto her, what aileth thee? And she answered, I am
indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead. And thy handmaid
had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there
was none to part them. But the one smote the other and
slew him. And behold, the whole family
is risen against thine handmaid. And they said, deliver him that
smote his brother that we may kill him for the life of his
brother whom he slew. And we will destroy the heir
also. And so they shall quench my coal which is left and shall
not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth."
Now remember, she's making all this up. Joab put her up to telling
this story. My two boys were out in the field
and they had a fight and it got out of hand and one of them killed
the other one. And now everybody wants the other
son dead too, but he's our heir. He's our only heir. And so look,
and the king said unto the woman, verse eight, go to thine house
and I will give charge concerning thee. We'll work this out. And the woman of Tekoa, she wasn't
going away that easy. The woman of Tekoa said unto
the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me and on my father's
house, and the king and his throne shall be guiltless. Because she
knew really that the boy ought to die. But if you do this for
me, then I'll take the blame for it, and the king What the
king says will go, and nobody will blame you for it. And the
king said, whosoever saith aught unto thee, bring him to me, and
he shall not touch thee anymore. If anybody gives you any problem,
you let me know about it. You bring him before me, and
I'll take care of it. Then said she, verse 11, I pray thee, let the king remember
the Lord thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood,
to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said,
as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall
to the earth." So he's promised her now. He's come short of that
up until this point. But now he says, nobody will
harm him. Nobody will harm you. Nobody
will harm him. Then the woman said, let thine
handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord, the king.
Now she's been saying words, hasn't she? But she's coming
to the point now. And he said, say on. And the
woman said, wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against
the people of God? For the king doth speak this
thing as one which is faulty. Notice she's not saying, you're
wrong. She says, you're talking like
somebody that's wrong. She's very careful here in her
language. in that the king does not fetch
home again, he's banished. You see here, two brothers, one
of them kills the other one. Everybody wants the other one
dead now, and sure enough, he ought to die. But she's saying,
isn't there some way? You just made a judgment concerning
my family, saying now, okay, we'll make sure, since this is
your heir, we'll make sure now that that he's taken care of. I'll protect him. And she said,
well, wait a minute. What about you? What about you
and your son? Verse 14, for listen to this.
For we must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground.
Everybody's going to die. We're like water. You ain't going
to gather it up again. There's no way out of it. We're
all going to die. Neither doth God respect any
person, yet doth he devise means that
his banished be not expelled from him. That's a key verse. We're all going to die and we
all deserve it. God's no respecter of persons.
We all The wages of sin are death and there's no difference. We've
all fallen short of the glory of God and we all deserve to
die and yet God has devised means whereby his banished be not expelled
from him. That's the gospel. And this whole
story revolves around that verse right there. Now therefore that I am come
to speak of this thing unto my lord the king it is because the
people have made me afraid and thy handmaid said I will now
speak unto the king it may be that the king will perform the
request of his handmaid for the king will hear to deliver his
handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and
my son together out of the inheritance of God. Then that handmaid said,
the word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable. For
as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good
and bad. Therefore, the lord thy God will
be with thee. Then the king answered and said
unto the woman, hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that
I shall ask thee. And the woman said, let my lord
the king now speak. And the king said, is not the
hand of Joab with thee in all this? David's no fool, is he? And the woman answered and said,
as thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right
hand or to the left from aught that my lord the king hath spoken.
For thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words
in the mouth of thine handmaid. To fetch about this form of speech
hath thy servant Joab done this thing, and my lord is wise, and
according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things
that are in the earth. And the king said unto Joab,
behold, now I have done this thing. Go therefore, bring the
young man Absalom again. And Joab fell to the ground on
his face and bowed himself and thanked the king. And Joab said,
today thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight,
my lord, O king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request
of his servant. So Joab arose and went to Gesher
and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. So we see who Joab here now is.
He's the one who executes David's decisions, his judgments. Joab
is the one that did everything that David told him to do in
the matter of Uriah the Hittite in Bathsheba, even though it
was terribly wrong. And clearly that was sinful on
David's part. But in this gospel picture, now
we need to understand who the people are, who they represent.
David is God the King, the judge of all. Joab is the one who executes
God's judgments in the earth. And often that's the Holy Spirit
and the persons of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit executes the
will of God in the earth. But all persons of the Godhead
do. But it's justice and judgment. That's where Joab stands. And
then there's this woman who conspires with Joab and all we're told
about her is in verse two, she's wise. So we have a picture here
of justice and wisdom conspiring with one person in mind, with
one purpose, the return of the banished sinner back to the presence
and favor of his father, the king. So the picture becomes
very clear now the spiritual reality of this is mysterious
of course, but what here's what we know God can't bring me home
without justice being involved in it His justice has to be in
on this he can't bring me back unless justice is agreeable to
it in the picture now, and it's just a picture and You've heard
preachers picture the courtroom of God's justice and how God
is the judge and the Lord Jesus Christ is our advocate and things
like that. This is kind of like that. It's an allegory. It's
a picture. But in the picture now, justice, God can't bring
me home unless justice is agreeable and justice could see that the
king, his heart is toward Absalom. And so justice conspires in this
matter. to bring him home and I know
this too, wisdom is present in this conspiracy as well. First Corinthians 121, for after
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. For the Jews require a sign and
the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified.
Unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness
but unto them which are called. both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God, and Christ the wisdom of God. Now I know
that in the earthly picture, David didn't know at first what
was going on, what was happening. It's just a picture. But when
you look at all the elements of it, there was a divine conspiracy
at play with that one purpose in mind. Me, Absalom. I'm Absalom. I'm the wretch.
that never does anything good in all of the record of my life.
And I deserve richly to die. I deserve to be banished. I deserve
to be punished. I'm guilty. But all of this whole
conspiracy involves somebody that has no idea this is going
on to bring him home. I am that banished one that ought
to die but I won't because my father's heart is toward me. Speaking of God's purpose and
providence regarding his elect, Paul wrote in Romans 11.32, for
God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy
upon all. All of God's purpose for his
elect culminates in that. He's going to have mercy on every
one of them. And then thinking of all of God's
eternal purpose of grace toward his elect, Paul said in the next
verse, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out. Now again, verse 14 is key. This wise woman says, God hath
devised means whereby his banished can be brought home, be not expelled
from him, and indeed he has. And it's likely that this woman
is referring to the cities of refuge. She's not just making
something up that God, you know, just presuming upon what God
thinks about this whole situation. She uses the language, the revengers
of blood, in verse 11 there, which is language from the law
concerning the cities of refuge in Deuteronomy 19, called there
the avenger of blood. And those cities of refuge written
of there in Deuteronomy 19 do certainly and beautifully picture
the Gospel. There is a place of refuge for
the one who is pursued by the justice of God. And that refuge
is Christ Jesus and his cross, his shed blood. Under the blood,
safe. That's what we sing. Under the
blood, safe. But under the law of the cities
of refuge, the way I read it in Deuteronomy 19, if somebody
deliberately committed premeditated cold-blooded murder, They were
not to have refuge there in those cities. If you want to read that
in Deuteronomy 19 verses 1 through 13, we won't take the time to
look at it tonight, but it says if it's an accident, if two are
out in the field and it gives the example of you're chopping
wood and the head of an axe flies off and hits somebody, I'm sure
that's happened. Something like that happens all
the time and kills them. And of course the ones who love
that one that died are going to want that person dead. He's
responsible for it but he didn't mean to do it. But they're going
to pursue him and he can run to that city of refuge and he's
safe there under the law of God. But it says if you lay in wait.
And it says there if that axe flies off and hits that person
and it's not And the murder is committed by somebody that hasn't
hated that person before. In other words, he didn't just
make it look like an accident, it was actually an accident.
He had no reason to kill that person, or no intent to do so. But if you lie in wait and spill
blood, and you run to the city of refuge, it says the elders
of your city where you're from are to go and get you and bring
you back to justice. So, all that being said, if this
wise woman here is referring to that law of the cities of
refuge, as she well may be, and probably is, then what she's
simply saying is this. Is there any way God hath provided
means whereby refugees can be safe. Is there any way that Absalom
can be brought back? And you notice her deference
to the judge. God's will is final here. God
has devised means whereby sinners can find refuge. So is there
any hope for this one? Is there any hope? And of course,
our sin is deliberate. We can talk about poor sinners
and all that all we want to, but we sinned willfully, deliberately,
despised God, and we murdered Him in cold blood. There are
no mitigating circumstances to our sin. We're guilty of infinite
evil and are by nature the children of wrath, even as others, Ephesians
2, 3. By the last several verses of
this story in 2 Samuel 14, we have in picture, in picture,
God's love God's justice and God's wisdom all agreeing together
that Absalom is coming home. David finds out about it and
he says, it's done. It's done. Psalm 85 7. Show us thy mercy, O Lord. and grant us thy salvation. I
will hear what God the Lord will speak. What is David going to
say? This is all his decision. It's not Absalom's. It's not
left up to him. And when the decision is made,
Absalom is not sent an invitation. We'll see that in a minute. The
decision is made by David, the king, the judge. So let's hear what God, for he
will speak peace unto his people and to his saints, but let them
not turn again to folly. Surely his salvation is nigh
them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy
and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. There's a conspiracy, a divine
conspiracy to save you. The most undeserving wretch on
God's earth Absalom was at that time. At this time it's you. And of course it's me. And notice verse 21, another
key verse. The king said unto Joab, here's
love and mercy and wisdom. Everybody's on the same page
now. It's Absalom coming home. The king said unto Joab, behold
now I have done this thing. It's already done. That's how
the gospel comes to us, doesn't it? There's not anything to do.
What are you going to do? God's been saving you from the
foundation of the world. What are you going to pitch in
on that? It's done. I've done this thing. Go therefore
bring the young man Absalom again. That's why he's got to come home.
Because salvation's accomplished. The decision has already been
made. The will and decree of God has
already been expressed concerning this wretch. And God's decision
is this, bring him home. Bring him home. Oh, that's the
gospel. God's love and justice and wisdom
did not conspire to send sinners an invitation to come home. That's
not what happened here. God said, I've done it, go get
him. God's love, justice, and mercy
did not get together and agree to give mankind another chance.
Here's what did happen though. God in his eternal love, glorious
justice, and infinite wisdom conspired and covenanted to bring
his children home to himself forever. And what that looks
like. is Christ and Him crucified. What does God's love in this conspiracy look like?
Can you see the love of God? 1 Peter 3.18 For Christ also hath
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust that he might
bring us to God. That's what David said to Joab,
bring him, go get him and bring him home. The spiritual application here
is simple and very beautiful. Christ suffered for our sins,
the just for the unjust, that we might be brought home, that
he might bring us to God. Being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. Can you see God's love? Well, here's what it looks like.
Herein is love, not that we love God. Forget about that. but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. God hath devised means whereby his banished ones be
not expelled from him. Can you see righteousness and
peace kissing one another? Listen to Romans 3.23, for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God, to declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. There's the kiss right
there. Righteousness, God must be just,
and he is. Can there then be peace between
me and God? Yes, there can. Righteousness and peace have
kissed one another. God is both just and the justifier
of him that believes on his son. God's justice perfectly satisfied
and also peace and perfect fellowship between God and the sinner. God hath devised means whereby
his banished ones, and notice the language there, that's what
she said, his banished ones, not just the banished ones, his,
shall not be expelled from him. Can you see the wisdom of God? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2.7,
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom
which God ordained before the world under our glory. What are
you talking about there, Paul? What wisdom are you speaking?
What is this wisdom that God has ordained before the world
under our glory? Verse two of that passage, for
I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. We speak the wisdom of God. God hath devised means. whereby his banished ones may be not expelled from him. Can you see the love and the
justice and the wisdom of God? Can you see all of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Look and live. God hath devised means whereby
his banished ones may not be expelled from him. Let's pray.