Well, whenever I say go live
on this thing, it gives a countdown. I'm just going to blow up. Three,
two, one. Well, I'm just one minute. I'm just trying to see. All right, second Corinthians, good
grief. Maybe I should take a little
nap here. You all talk among yourselves. I'll wake up in 15
or 20 minutes and feel fresh. Let's seek the Lord's blessing.
Our father, your son told us, without me, you can do nothing.
Apart from me, you can do nothing. And we realize that, Lord. And
yet, we also know that anything can be done with God. All things are possible
with God. And Lord, right now, we're not
looking for miracles in the flesh or anything like that. We pray
for that miracle of spiritual understanding, that miracle of
the truth being told in our hearts and minds, being ready to accept
it. We pray that we'll learn from this portion of Scripture
that speaks to us of David's life. In the name of Christ,
we pray it. Amen. All right, we began last
week with chapter 15. Now, all these chapters, since
we read about David's sin with Bathsheba, have been an accounting
of all the trouble that came upon David's household because
of his sin. And the Lord had said, the blood
or the sword will never depart from your house. And indeed,
it didn't. And in this particular scripture,
we're going to find another one of the Lord's words by the prophet
Nathan being fulfilled. Now, we got through verse 12
last week, so we'll pick up at verse 13. And Absalom has disenfranchised
the hearts of the people away from David and on to himself,
because he wants to be king. And it says in verse 13, a messenger
came and told David, the hearts of the men of Now, if there's any proof of
how fickle the people of Israel were, and evidently always were,
not only with regard to the Lord Himself, but even to His servants,
why would they ever choose one like Absalom, whose actions should
have proved him for the kind of man he was, and choose him
over David? who had shown good character. I mean, a few notable exceptions,
but among the Israelites, he was a remarkable good character. But that's the way it is with
people. They're fickle. Their hearts are easily turned.
And so the news comes today that the hearts of the men of Israel
are with Absalom. Now, I'm thinking when it says
here the men of Israel, it means primarily the military men. In
other words, he's got an army. This isn't just the people in
Israel saying, we like Absalom to be the king. Absalom could
back that up with a powerful army to defend his claim to the
kingship. And so David receives this word
and he says in verse 14, then David said to all his officials
who were with him in Jerusalem, come, we must flee or none of
us will We must leave immediately or he will move quickly to overtake
us and bring ruin upon us and put the city to the sword. Now, David is acting wisely here. You know, sometimes and I guess
it makes for good movies and things like that, but it doesn't
make for wise military strategy. If you know you're overmatched,
you leave and you regroup. And I'm sure David did not want
to leave Jerusalem. I mean, he built it. He did not
want to leave his palace. He didn't want to pack everybody
up and go. But if he would have stayed there, that all got wiped
out. And not only that, in the process, Absalom probably would
have put the whole city to the sword. So for the protection
of the people in Jerusalem and the protection of his own household
and his court advisors and all that, he decided to leave. and
that was a wise choice at that point. But it says, the king's
officials answered him, your servants are willing to do whatever
our lord the king chooses. Now here we have, of course,
David is a picture of Christ in nearly everything he did.
In fact, some aspect of the person and work of Christ can be seen
even in his sin, because that pictures the Lord bearing our
sin. Of course, David was bearing
his own sin nonetheless. You know, when we bring it into
the New Testament and try to understand it in light of Christ,
Christ bore our sins. Well, David, and as a result
of bearing our sins, judgment fell upon him, His blood was
drawn. The sword didn't depart from
him. And he, for a time, was made lower than the angels. He was, as it were, deposed from
his throne. And it seemed like anyway, for
a while, the devil had the upper hand on him. And so that's kind
of what's being pictured here. But note this. The king's officials
answered him, your servants are ready to do whatever our Lord
the king chooses. Now, here is a good example of
what our hearts should be towards the Lord at all times, in all
circumstances. We follow the king. We are his
servants. Now, servants are not advisors
as such. That is, we're not supposed to
tell the king what to do. We can make our requests known
to God, but our requests always are to be offered in submission
to His will, and then to be ready to do whatever He says to do,
to take whatever action He says to take. Now, you and I are not
going to hear directly from God, as the prophets of old did, and
we're not going to be able to have a meeting or something like
that and come to a determination of God's will in any particular
circumstance. We have His basic will laid out
for us in the Scriptures, and we apply the Scriptures to our
lives the best we can according to our understanding and make
our choices that way. Nonetheless, if we know God,
We are ready to do whatever he says. Once we are convinced that
is the right direction to go. Now, our biggest problem, and
I say our, mine, is often in knowing the right direction.
I usually don't have problems acting on what I believe to be
the right direction. The most difficult time is when
it seems there is no light. There is no, and what do you
do then? Nothing. Until you know what to do, don't
do anything. And Henry told us in the preacher's
class in dealing with church decisions. And I think he was
talking about a building program at that point, you know, not
that was going on at that point, but I mean, in this particular
lesson, he was talking about one time when he wanted to do
some building. and it did not seem as though
the church was behind it, at least not much of a majority
was behind it, and he didn't know exactly how to proceed.
And Henry made this point, you know, the only thing we have
to do is worship Christ. Everything else can wait for
a proper time, and you know, the right circumstances in clear
direction. And there have been a lot of
things over the years that I've wanted to do, that I thought
would be good to do, but I couldn't see a way to do. And so I didn't
do anything. I've seen churches bring themselves
to great harm when they have in mind something they think
should be done, would be a good idea to do, they can't find the
means, and they say, well, we're just going to step out on faith.
Well, brethren, you cannot be stepping out on faith unless
you've got a promise to step out on. And if God didn't promise you
an educational wing on your church, you can't step out in faith and
build one. And I know actually of a church,
it wasn't the one I attended in my youth, but it was one that
One of my friends did and this was again back in the late 60s
and early 70s and churches were in this, you know, we got to
grow and then bus ministries and, and, you know, new buildings
and all that. And the pastor of his church
has got in his mind, they're going to be one of those kind
of churches sunk the church in so much debt. They nearly never
recovered. Just really became a horrible burden. Well, the
king's official said, we are ready to do whatever the king
chooses. We know that whatever the king
chooses will be done, but it's good when we can learn to follow
his will willingly and cheerfully. The king set out, it says in
verse 16, set out with his entire household following him, but
he left 10 concubines to take care of the palace. Now, you kind of wonder what are 10
concubines going to do to take care of the palace once Absalom
shoves up? And, you know, it doesn't seem,
I mean, certainly they can't fight him off. I doubt that he has any concern
about making sure the place is cleaned up for Absalom to move
in. or anything like that, I don't know why David did except for
this. Look over at chapter 12, verse
11. God has a way of bringing his
word to pass. Now this is when Nathan is talking
and confronting David about his sin with Bathsheba. He says,
this is what the Lord says, out of your own household I am going
to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will
take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and
he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in
secret, but I will do this in broad daylight before all of
Israel. Now look over at chapter 16 verse
11. I've got something down here
wrong. Let me... I hate it when I do that. I write
it down thinking I got it right, and then I don't. Okay, 21. Not 1D1, 21. 1621, well in verse 20 it says, Absalom said
to Ahithophel, give us your advice, what should we do? Ahithophel
answered, now, Absalom's in Jerusalem, he's in the palace. Ahithophel
answered, lie with your father's concubines, whom he led to take
care of the palace. And all Israel will hear that
you have made yourself a stench in your father's nostrils, and
the hands of everyone with you will be strengthened. So they
pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he lay with his
father's concubines in the sight of Israel. The Lord said in broad
daylight. So why did David leave these
ten concubines there? Well, I don't know what David's
motivation was, but I know why God moved him to do it, to fulfill
the prophetic curse that God had put on David. And these ten
concubines ended up to be the ones through whom that prophecy
was fulfilled. That someone would lie with his
wife in broad daylight, someone from his own household. Now,
we're beginning to see what a scoundrel this Absalom was. I mean, how
much worse can you get? I can't, you know, the things
he's doing, I can't imagine how a person can imagine the new
things worse, but that's what he's doing. And So the Lord arranged
for the fulfillment of his prophetic curse against David. The scriptures
say, be sure your sin will find you out. And if the Lord, he certainly has forgiven us
a lot, hasn't he? And has caused it that maybe
our sins didn't find us out. That is, they were not made public.
But we cannot live our lives thinking the Lord will always
hide our sins from others. He will hide them, as it were,
from Himself. He will never take vengeance.
But particularly if our sins are spiteful to His grace, like
David's was, and done in great pride and arrogance, like David's
was, the Lord very well may bring us low and humiliate us. Now,
it's never for our destruction. It's for our good, just as parents
discipline their children. So it says in verse 17, the king
set out with all the people following him and they halted at a place
some distance away. Now we find out later it wasn't
very far away because they had not yet crossed and broke Kidron,
which was quite close to Jerusalem. But he set out with all the people
following him, that is all of his court. And we're going to read
of some others. It says in verse 18, all his
men marched past him. Now, that probably included the
people who served in his court. and also whatever of his army
was present in Jerusalem with him, his guards, things like
that, along with the Karathites and Pelophites. Now, as near
as I could figure out, these were not Jews. They were Gentiles
who had sided with David. And having sided with David, they
say loyal to them. You know, as much as we might want to think
that everything in Israel followed a very simple pattern, you know,
and all the Jews were always doing the right thing and all
the Gentiles always doing the wrong thing. No, that's not the way
it was. The Jews were like other people. And actually, most of
the Old Testament is a record of them rebelling against God.
And then God, in order to show the greatness of his grace and
also kind of cast a prophetic eye towards what would happen
in the days of Christ, there would be the Gentiles that got
mixed in. I mean, our Lord's ancestry is
full of Gentiles. Ruth. Who was who got married
to Well, it was a liminal X, one of the liminal X sons. I
can't remember which one. Huh? Well, later it was Boaz,
but got married and a liminal X son died. Yeah. And but he
had married a Moabitess. Not a Jew. Not supposed to do
that, but he did anyway. And then she came back with Ruth
and then Boaz married her and redeemed and in so doing redeemed
a liminal X name, his property, his ancestry, and all that. But
that one born of Boaz and Ruth is a direct ancestor to the Lord
Jesus Christ, as is Rahab of Jericho. And here we have David
leaving, and who's with him? A bunch of Gentiles. And our
Lord has always had people from all over the earth. Most of them
were in Israel there for about 1500 years. But by no means all
of them. And it says all 600 Gittites
who had accompanied him from Gath marched before the king. Now, probably these were also
Gentiles, people of Gath, and David had overthrown Gath at
one point. And sometimes I guess folks just
decided whoever conquers them, that must be the king now and
continue fighting. They just joined forces with
him. And then the king said to Ittai, the Gittite. And this
would have been the leader of these 600 Gittite men said, why
should you come along with us? Go back and stay with King Absalom. You are a foreigner, an exile
from your homeland. Now, if he sided with David,
that makes him an exile in his own homeland. They were like
him there. And you know something? When we lay hold of Christ, when
we confess him, we are an exile and a foreigner to the rest of
the world. And, uh, So David was saying
to him, now he said, in verse 20 there, he says, you came only
yesterday. I don't think he meant like the
actual literal day before. He meant, you know, you haven't
been with us that long. You aren't heavily invested in
me and my kingdom. So he's saying, David goes on
to say in verse 20, "'And today shall I make you wander about
with us when I do not know where I am going. Go back and take
your countrymen. May kindness and faithfulness
be with you.'" Now, David is showing more of his, you know,
that character that makes him the man after God's own heart.
Here's this Enti and the Gittites, and they're going to leave with
him because they incited with David. And David can certainly
use all the meaning he can get. But he says to these fellows,
look, you know, really, you're not involved in this yet. And
you didn't come here, you know, expecting this. David gave him
a way out. And, you know, as we follow the
Lord, and particularly as we follow the Lord in those times
when following the Lord is unpopular, the Lord may arrange for us to
be tempted with such words as David. He said, why don't you
just let, it's just a line with Absalom. After all, he's David's
son. He's going to be the new king. And it's a test. I don't know
whether David was testing him. David may have been very sincere
in what he was saying. But if the Lord sends some trial
such as that or some temptation like that to us, it's a test
to prove us. And here's the thing, here's
the thing. Sometimes words like that come to a person and they
go back. And what does that prove? Well, they may have been doing
what they thought that was their duty, but it was not what they
wanted to do. Their heart wasn't with the king.
They just felt they had no choice. And once presented with a choice,
they make the wrong one. And yet, notice what Ittai says. Verse 21, but Ittai replied to
the king, as surely as the Lord lives, and as my Lord the king
lives, wherever my Lord the king may be, whether it means life
or death, there will your servant be. Now, what's Ittai saying? He said, look, I didn't come
here to be a Jew. I didn't come here to live in Jerusalem. I
can't be with you. And you know, that's what's in
the heart of every believer. That's his attitude towards the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now like this, he says, as surely
as the Lord lives. Now what the name Jehovah, you
know, you'll notice Lord is in all capitals, meaning it's the
name Jehovah. That's the I am. Well, of course
the Lord lives. He is the I am. And he says,
and as my Lord, the King lives. Now David is saying, you may
as well go back to King Absalom. And the Antichorixian says, Absalom's
not the king, you are. You are. Don't anyone in the
world ever fool you into thinking that anybody other than the Lord
Jesus Christ is king? I was reading, again, it was
these atheists railing on something. Well, railing on the Christian
religion. One of them saying, a hundred years from now, Christianity
will be gone. And I just thought, do you realize
how many people have said that? I mean, you know, they said it
back when Christianity was essentially identified with the Jews, back
in the Old Testament days, destroy Israel. They never got it done
until the Lord was ready for it to be destroyed. And that
was only because he set up the church. There have been people
thinking, trying to destroy the church since it started. And
people thinking, well, it'll die out. Never has. And here's the reason it never
has. The king has never died. I mean, I don't care, but you
know what I mean? The king lives. As long as the king lives, the
kingdom is present. And it may go underground. It
may be that nobody will see it. It moves from place to place.
For several hundred years now, it had quite a presence in the
United States of America. I don't know how much longer
that will be, but there's revival, as it were, going on in India
and other places in this world. God always has his people, always
has had them, always will. Let us be like Itai, though we
came only yesterday, though we be new to this, though we be
Gentiles. Wherever the Lord the King may
be, whether it means life or death, there will your servant
be. David said, go ahead, march on. And, you know, that was. What
would you put a day? I don't want to say a kindness,
but that was a nice thing for David to do. He was applauding
it. If he really didn't want it,
he said, no, go back to Jerusalem. I guess I'm getting texts, I
can hear my phone. At any rate. Rather, he was saying, I'm glad
to have you. So Etiadi Gittai marched on with
all his men and the families that were with him. So it wasn't
just 600 men. There's a 600 men and their wives
and their children. When David left Jerusalem, a
whole lot of people were with him. Now, verse 23, the whole
whole countryside wept loud as all the people passed by. He
also crossed the Kidron Valley and all the people moved on toward
the desert. So evidently, David, of course,
led them out and then he stopped at Kidron Valley. Now, this Kidron
Valley is the valley that Jesus Christ crossed on the night that
he was betrayed. I believe Garden of Gethsemane
was on the other side of Kidron. And interesting enough, the word
means turbulent. Now, the Brook Kidron, as I think
it's called in King James, the only time it has any water in
it is in the winter. I believe that the official word
for a body of water like this is a wadi. W-A-D-I. It's a place,
you know, in those areas, they'll have a rain and it might be a
torrential rain. And these low spots fill up.
They flow like a river. They flow for a little while,
but no rain comes along and just dry up. So most of the time,
this place was dried up in the winter. It would be full of water
and flow, but it was turbulent. And I read that it flows Oh,
some 20 to 25 miles is all the length it is. But in that 20
or 25 miles, it drops over 3000 feet. Now, that's a steep. Course. And I guarantee you,
from Sioux Falls to Sioux City, the Missouri River does not fall
3000 feet. So you see a picture there, turbulence,
trouble, turmoil across that line. And we end up crossing
that line quite often in our lives. But it's where the Lord
led for whatever reason. Now, the whole countryside wept
aloud as the people passed by, so the king leaves out his entourage,
he stops at Kidron and watches as the people pass by. And then he also passed by and
the people moved on toward the desert. Now, remember when it
says desert, In the Bible, it does not necessarily mean a desert
like we think the Arizona desert or something just means an uninhabited
place, a deserted place. Actually, I think wilderness
would be a better word for them to use. It would be better understood
in English. But they just went out, you know,
where there were no cities or anything, just out in the wilds. I said Zadok was there. That's
the priest. and all the Levites who were with him carrying the
Ark of the Covenant of God. They sat down the Ark of God
and Abiathar offered sacrifices until all the people had finished
leaving the city. Now, there was no temple, there
was no tabernacle. David had built a tent that they
kept the Ark in. But they brought that Ark out
there. Of course, it would have been covered because no one saw
the Ark. with the high priest, and that
only once a year. But they sat him down, and then
Abiathar, or Abiathar, however it's pronounced, he offered sacrifices
in the presence of the ark until all the people had finished leaving
the city. Now, then the king said, Zadok,
take the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in
the Lord's eyes, he will bring me back and let me see it and
his dwelling place again. But if he says I am not pleased
with you, then I am ready. Let him do to me whatever seems
good to him. Now, the Jews were somewhat suspicious
about, not suspicious, superstitious about the Ark of the Covenant.
They would take it with them into battle sometimes, you know,
and It's true that the ark was representative of the presence
of God, but just because the ark was there doesn't mean that
God was there. And, of course, they brought out the ark with
them because I'm sure some thought, well, it would be to our advantage
to have the ark with us. But David expresses a better
understanding. He says, take the ark back to
Jerusalem. Why? Because God had appointed
that city as his place. Secondly, he says, he says, take
it to the city. If I find favor in the Lord's
eyes, he will bring me back. I don't mean to have a gold covered
wooden box to get me back to Jerusalem. If the Lord wants
me back, if he's pleased with me, he will bring me back and
I will see it. That is the ark and his dwelling
place again. But if he says, I am not pleased
with you, David says, I'm ready. And David understands this is
not, he's not talking about eternal things. David is not fearing
that God is going to destroy him eternally. He just realizes
that he has sinned against the Lord grievously, and the Lord
has every right. to exile him from Jerusalem and
exile him from his presence on earth. And David said, if that's
what the Lord wants, he can do to me whatever seems good to
him. Now, why would David say a thing
like that? I think he said a thing like
that because he knew and trusted the Lord. He knew that it would
be better for him to live in the wilderness at the Lord's
will. and to find his way back into
Jerusalem, contrary to the Lord's will, that it would be better
for him to suffer exile the rest of his life under the Lord's
hand than to live in Jerusalem in peace and prosperity without
the Lord. So David said, whatever it is
his purpose to do, I am ready. The king also said, verse 27,
to Zadok the priest, Aren't you a seer? Go back to the city in
peace with your son Ahimeaz and Jonathan, son of Abiathar. You
and Abiathar take your two sons with you. I will wait at the
forge in the wilderness until word comes from you to inform
me. So David, he's being exiled by
his son. And for a little while, he'll
not officially be the king, but he's still acting like the king.
He's making plans. He's sending, he's leaving the
priests. And you know, the priests being
in Jerusalem would not have been considered God. That's what they're
supposed to be. And so he sends these priests
and their sons back to Jerusalem. They are his friends. They will
be in the court of Absalom. They will, as it were, have their
finger on the pulse of what's going on, and they can report
back to David. And so Zadok and Abiathar took
the Ark of God back to Jerusalem and stayed there. But David continued
up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went. His head was covered
and he was barefoot. Signs of humility, signs of mourning. It says all the people with him
covered their heads too and were weeping as they went up. The
Lord does send us into times of great trouble, sometimes for
reasons we know, sometimes for reasons he never tells us. It's not for us to know always
why the Lord is doing what He is doing. Rather, it is for us
to accept whatever it is the Lord is doing. It doesn't mean
we have to be happy about it. The idea that, you know, serious
things come into our lives that, you know, the Christian is just
going to continue being happy, they were weeping the whole way. Now,
They were not angry at the Lord. They were not charging him with
foolishness. They were not doubting his wisdom
or his right to do what it is that he was doing. In fact, they
were actually showing respect unto the Lord, for he sent them
grief, and they acted like those who'd been grieved. Solomon said,
and I just, this chapter, I've quoted this so many times in
my preaching, obviously it had quite an effect on me, but Ecclesiastes
chapter three, he says, there is a time for this and there's
a time for that and then the time for this. And when it's
time for this or that, act like that's what time it is. Are you
full of joy? Rejoice. Are you brought down
to tears? Cry. Has the Lord showed you pleasant
times? Act like somebody who's having
pleasant times. Has he poured upon you an ocean
of trial and trouble? There is no, what's the opposite
of virtue? There's no virtue in acting like
you're not undergoing trial. And there is no weakness to be
shown. by acknowledging that what the
Lord has sent is difficult. It's hard. All right, that brings
us to the end of that chapter, and we'll pick up there next
week. Well, yeah, we've gone long enough.
I thought that's what happens. You need to scroll down one more
page. There we go. Yeah. Okay. I already said we're done. So we're going to be done. Okay.