If you say anything now, everybody
that's listening is going to hear. This microphone is not
very selective. All right, 2 Samuel chapter 16. Let's seek the Lord. Our Father,
thank you for this gathering this evening. And we pray that
the word that is taught will be a help to us. Glory to your
name. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen. Now, in this chapter, we have
the account of two men who were attached to the household of
King Saul. One had been a servant in Saul's
house. The other was a relative of Saul. And these two men stand as illustrations
of two of the kinds of enemies of Christ and his church that
we find in the world. And we also see the conduct of
David, particularly as he responds to one of these men who curses
him. And we see that first as just
an example of how we should act. when we are unjustly cursed. And then also we see an illustration
of Christ's patience and willingness to endure what He did at the
hands of men, even so much as to say from the cross, Father,
forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. And then
finally in this chapter we see the character, an illustration
of the character of Antichrist and his followers in the conduct
of Absalom and Hithophel. Now, when I say, you know, we
see these illustrations, you know, there are other applications
you can make from these examples given to us in these stories.
But these are the ones that I see. And it's good for us to see these
things, even if they're kind of, as I pointed out, depressing
stories. But they give us some insight
that we might beware. then we might, you know, well,
like Peter said, be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary,
the devil, goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
And in these examples here, we see the kinds of character and
conduct that should cause us to be, you know, our ears to
perk up and pay attention. So the first one concerns a man
named Ziba. We'll begin reading in verse,
I think it's verses one through four. When David had gone a short
distance beyond the summit, there was Ziba, the steward of Mephibosheth,
waiting to meet him. He had a string of donkey saddles
and loaded with 200 loaves of bread, 100 cakes of raisins,
100 cakes of figs, and a skin of wine. The king asked Ziba,
why have you brought these? Ziba answered, the donkeys are
for the king's household to ride on, the bread and fruit are for
the men to eat, and the wine is to refresh those who become
exhausted in the desert. The king then asked, where is
your master's grandson? Ziba said to him, he is staying
in Jerusalem because he thinks today the house of Israel will
give me back my grandfather's kingdom. Then the king said to
Ziba, all that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours. I humbly bow, Ziba
said. May I find favor in your eyes,
my lord, the king. Now, remember this character
Ziba. He comes from a story of Mephibosheth. After David had been firmly placed
on his throne and had involved the slaughter of nearly all of
King Saul's household, not that he wanted to do that, but they
were intent on holding on to the throne and therefore made
themselves to be David's enemies. But David had made a covenant
with Jonathan And the covenant was simply this. Jonathan made
David swear that when he became king, he would not destroy all
the house of Saul. And so there came a time when
David said, is there any left of the household of Saul that
I may show him goodness for Jonathan's sake? And they said, well, He
had a son named Mephibosheth. Thing is, when Saul fell in battle,
Mephibosheth's nurse had picked him up and run with him and then
fell. And in the fall, it made Mephibosheth
to be crippled. In fact, the scriptures make
it clear he was crippled in both feet and could not walk. a good
picture of us as sinners, you know, totally unable to do anything
for ourselves. Well, Mephibosheth was brought
into David's household. He was made to sit at the table
with the king's sons. And there again, we see our experience
here in this life as believers. We are by nature, by birth, we
are enemies of God. But God brings us into his household
into the household of his son and all the sons of God. And
we eat at the table. And even though we remain in
our fleshly nature, we remain of the household of the enemies
of God. Yet there we sit among the sons
of the king, feeding at the king's table. Now, God, excuse me, David
had given Mephibosheth all that was left of Saul's household, all the
property, lands, and things like that, and appointed Ziba to be
the steward over that. After all, Mephibosheth, he's
lame in both feet, couldn't do anything. And not only that,
he was going to live in Jerusalem in the king's house. So they
were to, Ziba was supposed to oversee what was then Mephibosheth's
property and bring the profit from it. to him. Now David is
being run out of Jerusalem. His son Absalom has staged a
coup. And so David is fleeing Jerusalem
because he realizes when Absalom shows up, Absalom is going to
have a big army with him. And David did not at that moment
have sufficient military forces to deal with Absalom. So he made
a strategic retreat, and they're leaving, and here comes this
character, Ziba. Now, remember, as I recall, Ziba
was not even a Jew. Now, I'm having to do this from
memory, but as I recall, he wasn't. He was a servant, a slave in
the household. But he pretends to have affection
for David. Now, if we were reading this
story, if somebody had given us a Bible and we started reading
it to front, you know, we get to this story, we might be fooled
by Ziba, because it isn't for another chapter or several chapters
that we find out Ziba's deception in all of this. But Ziba shows
up as David's leaving, and he's got the sort of things that David
and his entourage would need when they're out in the wilderness.
Now, the king asked Ziba, why have you brought these? Now,
here is an indication of the hypocrisy of Ziba. It also shows us something to
be wary of in religious people. that seemed to make a big show
of their affection for the Lord Jesus Christ. If Ziba had been
acting favorable towards David all along, David wouldn't have
had to ask this question. Ziba had never acted as though
he was particularly fond of David. In fact, he probably didn't like
David at all because, you know, once Mephibosheth was in the
royal household, there was no way for Ziba to control Saul's
household to his own advantage. He was put once again in the
position of a slave with no say in anything. So he probably didn't
like David, and he probably never showed any particular kindness
or affection towards him, and all at once he shows up with
what would be a rather expensive gift to give. So David says, why have you brought
these? You know, this is a good question.
Now, we can't answer it for anybody else. And sometimes we can scarcely
answer it for ourselves. But why is it that we follow
Christ? Remember when one time when John
the Baptist was baptized, the Lord went by and said, Behold,
the Lamb of God. And two of John's disciples,
it was John the Baptist's disciples. It was John who became a disciple
of the Lord Jesus Christ and Andrew. They were the two men.
They began to follow the Lord. And you know what the Lord did?
He didn't turn around and say, well, I'm so glad that you have
decided to follow me. He didn't flatter them. He turned
around and said, what are you seeking? That's a good question. Not everybody who makes a show
of loving Christ and following Christ is following him for the
right reason. Now, again, we can't judge that
for another person. But it is a good idea if we look
into our own hearts as much as we're able to discern what is
there, and especially under the preacher of the gospel, which
will make known the thoughts and intentions of the heart,
according to the book of Hebrews. Because we don't want to be found
out at the end that we were following Christ for fleshly, selfish reasons. There are people who follow Christ
simply so they can go to heaven. And their concept of heaven is
in fleshly things, in riches and pleasures. And some follow Christ for temporal
blessings. I mean, if you watch the false
prophets on television, it'd be rather obvious that what
those false prophets are peddling are earthly blessings. And nothing
more. They talk about, you know, send
me money and you'll get more. Let's do this, do that, give
this, give that, and you will get. But those who love Christ
for who He is and for what He came to do, follow Him because
they want to be with Him, and they want to be like Him, and
they want their sins put away, and they want to be righteous,
good people. Of course, they want that because
the Holy Spirit has called them to want that. But we need to
be careful, and while we can't Well, we might ask someone this
very same question. Well, why are you following Christ?
I ask it sometimes when I'm preaching, but it's one of those rhetorical
questions you're not really expecting them to answer because they can
even learn a good answer and you wouldn't know the difference.
It's one of those questions for man, as Paul says, so let him
examine himself if he's of the faith. Ziba answered the donkeys. Well,
we read that. He said that the reason he brought
them was to help David and those who are with him. And then the
king said, where's your master's grandson? And Ziba accuses Mephibosheth
of treason, really, because He says that Mephibosheth thinks
that the house of Israel will give him back his grandfather's
kingdom, Saul's kingdom. Now, as we'll later find out,
that wasn't the case at all. In fact, we find out in chapter
19, Mephibosheth is the one who told Ziba to get these things
and take them to David. And later on in Mephibosheth,
we'll find the true attitude of the people of God. But Ziba
falsely accuses him. Now in this, we have, or we hear
the voice of the devil himself. Remember, I can't remember how
long ago, as much as a year ago, but I preached a message called
the slanderer, because I had discovered in doing some study
that the Greek word normally translated devil, its essential
meaning is slanderer. And he's called in the book of
Revelation, the accuser of the brethren. Be very wary of someone
who makes an accusation of unfaithfulness against someone who for all intents
and purposes has seemed faithful up to this point. Most often, it's a false accusation. Now, verse 4, Then the king said
to Ziba, All that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours. Now, once again, we kind of know
the end of this story when David comes back. And a bunch of Thank you very much. Had a coffee spill. There's somebody
watching and probably wondering what's going on, but I quit talking.
All right, I'll go on as they finish up there. But what did David give to Ziba? He gave to Ziba what Ziba was
looking for, the land, the riches. And as I studied this, I was
thinking, couldn't David see through Ziba's deception? I think he did. And so he gave him what he was
looking for. And later, Zeba will lose half of what he was
looking for. But here's the thing to notice.
What is Zeba's reaction to being given everything that had belonged
to Mephibosheth? I humbly bow, Zeba said. May
I find favor in your eyes, my lord, the king. Now, Zeba probably realizes that David
will be back on the throne. And his original intent, you
know, was simply to curry the favor of the king so that when
he came back, you know, the king might reward him with something.
Well, the king rewarded him right now. Gave him everything that
belonged to Mephibosheth. And so he feigns this, you know,
bowing down and all of that. As I say, be very careful. of
someone who suddenly shows great affection for Jesus Christ, who
up to that point is seen as though they could care less. Now, I'm
not saying that it's always fake. I just said, watch, see if it
lasts. You know, somebody tells us they
believe Christ, they love Christ, we're going to give them the
benefit of the doubt. I mean, we don't have any way of knowing.
But generally speaking, you will find that there's some wrestling
goes on before the Lord Jesus Christ converts someone. And
so this big sudden change isn't as sudden as we think it is.
However, if someone, you know, has claimed to be a believer
for a long time and then just all at once suddenly acts like
they're all interested in Christ a whole lot more and all that,
quite often what you have there is someone who's looking for
something fleshly. I saw that a lot when I was a
teenager. Of course, I believed it all.
I believe they were sincere. And it was among other teenagers
because of the way the church operated. They were always, you
know, trying to get us to make these serious decisions and commitments
and recommitments and dedications and all that kind of thing. And
you know how when you're a teenager, you're susceptible to emotional
things anyway. And so they would have these
big emotional experiences and they were as deceived as. They were deceivers. Because
they thought something real had happened as well. So here's one
of the enemies of the kingdom of God, therefore enemies of
Christ and his people. They act like they love Christ,
but in truth, they love only the fleshly things, the temporal
things they believe they can get from Him, or heaven as they
perceive it to be. They don't really have any love
for Christ Himself. Now, next we run into a character
named Shimei, beginning to read in verse 5. As King David approached
Bahuram, a man from the same clan as Saul's family came out
from there. His name was Shimei, son of Gerah,
and he cursed as he came out. He pelted David and all the king's
officials with stones, though all the troops and the special
guard were on David's right and left. As he cursed, Shimei said,
Get out, get out, you man of blood, you scoundrel. The Lord
has repaid you for all the blood you shed in the household of
Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The Lord has handed
the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to ruin
because you are a man of blood. Then Abishai, son of Zuriah,
said to the king, why should this dead dog curse my lord,
the king? Let me go over and cut off his head. But the king
said, what do you and I have in common, you sons of Zuriah? If he is cursing because the
Lord said to him, curse David, who can ask, why did you do this? David then said to Abishai and
all his officials, my son, who is of my own flesh, is trying
to take my life. How much more than this Benjamite?
Leave him alone, let him curse, for the Lord has told him to.
It may be the Lord will see my distress and repay me with good
for the cursing I am receiving today. So David and his men continued
along the road while Shimei was going along the hillside opposite
him, cursing as he went and throwing stones at him and showering him
with dirt. The king and all the people with
him arrived at their destination exhausted, and there he refreshed
himself. Now, Shimei was of a household
of Saul. Now, Saul illustrates man in
the flesh. That's one of the things he illustrates.
And in that respect, he is a picture of Jews, particularly the Jews
that would be around in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ, those
religious Jews who sought to serve the Lord in the strength
of the flesh by their obedience to the law. And of course, they didn't like
the Lord Jesus Christ, did they? Because he came and said that
all that they had done was worthless. And he sets himself forth as
the king. And they don't like that. Well,
he hurls a curse at him, calling David a man of blood. And in
all reality, he was right. The Lord even told David that.
He said, you will not build my temple because you are a man
of blood. And, you know, beginning with
the story of Goliath, behind David were following, you know,
if you could follow a path of blood, David, because everywhere
he went, somebody got killed. Now, sometimes it was righteous.
Sometimes it wasn't. Particularly with regard to Bathsheba, her husband Uriah. Now, David didn't use the actual
sword that killed him, but he's the one that arranged for it
to happen. And Uriah, he'd done no wrong. And so David was a
man of blood, not only in the sense that he was a man of war,
and as a man of war had defended or defended Israel and Israel's
claim to the land, he was also a man of blood in that he shed,
innocent blood. And Shimei's curse was legitimate. Now, Zeba made a false accusation
against Mephibosheth. Shimei made an accurate accusation
against David. And He says, the Lord has repaid
you for all the blood you shed in the household of Saul. Now
that's when Shimei goes astray. David was not being repaid for
that. In fact, the only reason he shed any blood in the household
of Saul is because they attacked him. He refused to shed Saul's
blood, even when he had opportunity to do so. If you remember the
stories of when Saul was pursuing David to kill him, and then Saul
would bend down for the night somewhere. And one time he even
snuck in and cut off the corner of Saul's garment and then snuck
back out. And the next day, you know, he's
trying to prove, I mean, you know, he said, look, I could
have killed you, but I didn't. David never raised a hand against
Saul or the household of Saul. until after Saul died, the household
of Saul rose up against him, who had been anointed by the
prophet Samuel to be the king. And since they would not relent
in their rebellion against him as rightful king, he had only
one thing he couldn't do, and that was fight them. So this
was not repayment of the bloodshed against the household of Saul. And here's one way we know that
it wasn't, and why Shumai didn't catch on to this. The Lord has
handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. You have come to
ruin because you are a man of blood. Now, if the Lord were
repaying David for unjust shedding of blood against the house of
Saul, would he not have put a descendant of Saul on the throne and not
a descendant of David. But you see, when someone hates
the Lord Jesus Christ, reason goes right out the window. Hatred
is almost never reasonable. And this man always hated David. And now that David is down, he'll
pile on, you know, as they say, an insult to injury. And now
that David is weakened, he becomes bold in cursing. This is what
he wanted to say all along. He would love to curse David
at any time, but now he thinks David has no strength to retaliate. But his final words are true,
even though he didn't understand how they were true, in what sense
they were true. He said, you have come to ruin
because you are a man of blood. And that's just what the Lord
had said to him. You know, often the enemies of the Lord say things
that are true, but they don't realize the way in which it is
true. I'll give you an example. When
they're trying to figure out whether or not to crucify the
Lord Jesus, one of the Jewish leaders said, better that one
man die than that the whole house of Israel die. That was true. And that's what happened. Thing
is, that man who said that didn't know who Israel was, and he didn't
know the spiritual significance. Christ died, the righteous one,
in the place of unrighteous ones, to bring us to God, to save his
Israel. And they mocked him on the cross
by saying he saved others, himself he cannot save. That's true. He can't save both. You know, if someone tries to
rescue a drowning man, he's going to try to rescue him and both
of them stay alive. But the Lord Jesus, the only
way that he could rescue us from death was to die. His death was
the rescue. He could have saved himself.
He himself said so. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I lay it down. And when Peter sought to kill
one of the men that came to arrest him, the Lord said, don't you
realize all I have to do is ask my father and he'll send legions
of angels to come and rescue me. Our Lord laid down his life
willingly because that laying down his life was the only way
that he could save the lives of his people. Well, Abishai, and he's one of
David's men, and a relative of David, and he said to the king,
why should this dead dog curse my lord, the king? Now, I appreciate,
at least on a human level, with David. He could have done
like many others did and say, well, I'm going to cast my lot
with Absalom. But this man truly did love David. He truly did
want David to succeed, and maybe he
believed that he would. But he's acting just like Peter
did. He thought that there was a way out of at least this present
suffering. through the use of violence. Now, if David is being punished
by God because he's a violent man of blood, there's no way
to get out from under that suffering by shedding more blood. It may seem to us as we go through
life, And we come up against those who are the enemies of
Christ. That the way to handle them is
by some fleshly expression of wrath. I was going to say that
we don't think that we or we understand we shouldn't do anything
physical. But there was a time when, you know, the Roman Church
and other churches have had sufficient power that they thought they
could advance their cause by actually killing other people.
and the whole business with the Crusades. What was that? It was called a holy war. And
they were going over there to take Jerusalem back from the
Muslims. And if they thought in so doing,
they were advancing the kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus said,
my kingdom is not of this world. But an application that may apply
more to you and me is that when We come into conflict over spiritual
things. We do not respond with fleshly
anger as though it's our truth that's being challenged. Paul
told Timothy, don't strive with anybody. The
servant of the Lord must not strive, but must be patient. willing, ready to teach, to correct,
with the hope that God will bring the problem maker to repentance.
Abishai wasn't saying, let me go over there and talk to him
a minute and just explain to him, you know, what kind of man
you are and that you were a good king and that you were faithful
to Saul. Let me go over there. No, he
said, let me keep And I see so much of that in the argumentation
that goes on over theological issues. They call one another
names. And I mean from both sides. I
expect that from those who truly don't believe, who are lost in
false religion. Doesn't surprise me when they
do it. But we don't have to speak any harsh words of our own judgment. We may simply correct And if
they won't hear it, what did Paul say? He said, OK, seeing
that you all don't consider yourselves worthy of God's salvation, we're
going to go to the Gentiles. You know, no horrible pronouncements
and, you know, harsh names to say you all didn't want it. We'll
go elsewhere. And then also note that David
recognized something that Zariah did not. And that was that even
though what Shimei was doing was hard to take, it was from
the Lord. He said, if he's cursing because
the Lord said to him, curse David, who can ask, why do you do this?
Now, It's not as though God sent some
angel to tell Shimei to do this. God does not tempt any man, said
James. Meaning, he does not enter the
heart of men and incite them to do what is wrong, causing
their own, you know, firing up their lusts. What he's saying
here is that this is what what God ordained. Just as Judas was
ordained and prophesied by God to be the betrayer that he was.
So this Shumai, God had ordained from the foundation of the world,
this is what he'd do. And there again, you see such a picture
of the Jews when they crucified the Lord. And Peter said on the
day of Pentecost, that you He said, according to the foreordained
purpose of God, you with wicked hands have killed the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so here's what David is saying. This is what God ordained. This
is God's purpose. And so he says, who can ask why
do you do this now? Does he mean, who can I go over
and ask Shimei, why are you doing this? Well, I guess that makes
sense, but I'm kind of thinking David is saying, who can question
God over the fact that he has sent this man to curse me? What
did Nebuchadnezzar say? He does as he will, speaking
of God, in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and who can stop him? or say unto him, what are you
doing? And you know, sometimes when
we challenge, if they'd gone over David, I mean to Shimei,
you know, what do you think you're doing? Well, we might be thinking
that we're challenging Shimei, when in truth we'd be challenging
God, because God sent him. And, you know, our Lord Jesus
Christ understood that. And that's why he did not hurl
any railing curses at those that cursed him. Our Lord taught us
that when we are accursed, we are to respond in blessing. Bless
those who curse you. Do good to them who spitefully
use you. The believer certainly on spiritual matters,
has never been given the right to defend themselves against
those who oppose them. That is to defend themselves
with anything but the word itself. And then he goes on, David says,
you know, it's my son that's at the root of all of this. Why
should I be so surprised that a Benjamite is against me? And
here's a good lesson to learn from that. People from God's
own church, the invisible church, rise up against Christ. Why should we be surprised if
those who have never been part of the church should stand opposed
to the Lord Jesus Christ? Paul or John spoke of antichrists,
plural. And what do you say to them?
They went out from us. Antichrist, and I don't know
why they don't understand that aspect of it. These who want
to say it's going to be some political leader, you know, they,
of course, back when you and I were young and communism was
a big thing, they were always looking over to the Soviet Union
saying, well, this guy is going to be the antichrist, you know.
When they turned Gog and Magog, that was the Soviet Union and
Russia. They had all this worked out. There's not one antichrist. There's a lot of them. And they
don't come out of the world of politics. They come out of church. And what was this man doing?
This man here, Shimeon. He was an anti-David. And We should not be surprised that
such a woman as that would hurl insults. And then David goes
on to say, it may be that the Lord will see my distress and
repay me with good for the cursing I am receiving today. And you
know, our Lord in faith understood that concept on the day of his
suffering, that the Lord would see his distress. then the Lord
God would see the travail of his soul. And it says, it goes on in Isaiah
53 to say that he would grant him a portion, a place among
the great, and bestow on him great blessings because he poured
out his soul unto death and made intercession for transgressors.
So what David said actually came to pass with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, we can go real quickly here through the last bit of it. I'll
not even take the time to read it all. But essentially, Absalom
did arrive at Jerusalem and there was Ahithophel to meet him. Ahithophel
had left David and gone over to Absalom. But there was also
Hushai, who David had sent back and sent him as a mole in the
palace of Absalom. So he could get information and
also this, so that he could lead Absalom astray. And indeed he
did. And it was the downfall of Absalom. But Hushai said to Absalom, when
Absalom asked him, he says, why didn't you stay with your friend,
David? And Hushai says in verse 18, no, the one chosen by the
Lord, by these people and by all the men of Israel, he is
I will be, and I will remain with him. It's kind of interesting. He's not completely lying here.
Because he's, who's the one chosen by the Lord? David. who is the
one that was at least at first chosen by the people and all
the men of Israel, David. Absalom had been able to get
some to go over to him. But anyway, he said this, and
of course, it was good enough to deceive Absalom. And he says,
and I will remain with him. Furthermore, whom should I serve?
Should I not serve the Son? Just as I served your father,
so will I serve you. And So he's got himself a place in
the household. And then Absalom said to Hithophel,
give us your advice. What should we do? And this is
when Hithophel told him that he should, when he gets to the
palace, you remember David left 10 of his concubines there. He
said that essentially you should sleep with your father's concubines.
And he said, then all Israel fear that you have made yourself
a stench in your father's nostrils and the hands of everyone with
you will be strengthened. And so that's what Absalom did.
It says they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof. So it's
not like he was out there in full view when he was doing this,
just everybody knew what was going on. And therefore, they
knew that Absalom had certainly cut himself off from ever being
restored to David. and those who are with Absalom gloated, and they were strengthened
by it. And it says in those days that
the advice Ahithophel gave was like that of one who inquires
of God. And so Ahithophel could say just about anything he wanted
to. We need to be careful. Just because a person has been
truthful up to this point doesn't mean he'll remain that way. Now
we would give them the benefit of the doubt. But Ahithophel
has already shown his lack of loyalty to David. So why should
we believe that he has any loyalty to David's God? And when men play disloyal, even to faithful preachers. That's
one thing, man, my radar goes off as soon as somebody says
something untoward about someone who has been faithful to preach
the gospel, even if they've been caught, got caught up in something
that wasn't a good idea. But if people start pointing
fingers and are ready to cut themselves off from them, I pretty
much got no time for them anymore. It's certainly anyone who chooses
someone other than Christ to follow. All right, we'll do chapter
17 next, well, not next week. Next week is Vacation Bible School.
And so we won't be having this meeting
here next week.