The Voice Of Wisdom

Let's be turning to 2 Samuel chapter 20. Now, no sooner did David's trial with his son Absalom come to an end than another trial begins. And men have noticed that these trials attend David in this manner because he despised the Lord in taking Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, for his own wife, so that when the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to tell him of his sin, to reveal, to expose his sin to him, The prophet said, now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me and has taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. And he put Uriah to death with the sword of the Ammonites, which was a treacherous thing to do.

But the blessing of God's free grace in this, in the midst of all David's troubles, and this is true of you and I, brethren, in the midst of all our troubles, even those troubles that we can trace back to our sin, our folly, something foolish, something wicked, something evil we have done that we're now ashamed of, something like that.

The blessing in it is that we may go to our God and cry to him for grace and mercy. As the psalmist wrote in Psalm 132, verse one, Lord, remember David and all his afflictions. And so we may ask him because what the Lord does, the reason why you are afflicted, the reason why you are troubled because of your sin, It's because he sends that trouble to drive you away from sin and self to the throne of your God, to cry to him for mercy and for grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. It's a blessing. These trials and afflictions are a blessing, and they were a blessing to David.

Now this chapter, chapter 20, it outlines a series of fleshly works for the most part. You'll see they're mostly fleshly works. And it all started, all these problems and this series of things that unfold after this all begins here over a fleshly argument which was recorded at the end of the previous chapter. And it was an argument of words between Israel, the 10 tribes of Israel, and Judah. And that would include Simeon, because they were surrounded entirely by Judah. So Simeon just was lumped in with Judah after that point there. And so if you just read there at the end of chapter 19, verse 43, the last verse, we're told that the men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, we have 10 parts in the king, and we have also more right in David than ye.

Why then did ye despise us that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king? They were the first ones that said, hey, you know, David did all these things for us. He delivered us from the enemies. Why don't we bring David back? And then nothing happened. And David went and had the priest at Abiathar and Zadok go and ask Judah, hey, why don't we bring the king back? And they were like, okay, we'll do that. And then they just went and did it. But they didn't notify Israel that they were doing it. And so they're saying, hey, we have 10 parts in David. Why don't we bring back? How come you didn't consult us, too?

And it says, the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel. In other words, they were saying, well, he's of our next of kin. He's of our kin. He's near to us than your 10 parts. And so whatever Israel was saying, Judah was even more fierce in their words.

They said even more worse things in their words. Now, it's believed by some that David, you know, there's nothing written that David intervened or tried to calm things down or said anything. And so the Israelites interpreted as, well, David's just taking their side. I guess it's true. I guess he is more with them than he is with us.

And what this did was it led to Israel forsaking the body. Israel then left the body of the kingdom of Judah there, with David there. And you could see how, in reality, they weren't concerned with the glory of the king at all. They weren't concerned with bringing back the king at all. They were more concerned with their hand and their part in establishing David as the king and bringing him back. It was more about themselves rather than what it meant to David and having David.

And so their responses, what you can see there, their responses were carnal. They were works of the flesh. And because they're works of the flesh, it went on to result in a division in the body, a separation in the body And that before David even reached Jerusalem, he hadn't even barely got over the river, Jordan. He didn't even get into Jerusalem yet.

And there's already a division. There's already another insurrection brewing here. So what I want to do right now is just give you a quick outline of the chapter. And the first thing is that there's a, a new insurrection begins, and this is led by a Benjamite named Sheba, the son of Bikri.

And then David goes back to Jerusalem, and David's first order of business is to put the ten concubines that Absalom had defiled, that he lay with in broad daylight and defiled them, and David puts them in confinement under guard, meaning they were put into a detention house for the rest of their lives. They were fed and provided for, but that was it. They never went out into public again. Then, David assigns Amasa, that is another relative of his, probably a nephew, Amasa, he assigns him as his, gives him his first military campaign as the captain of his host, of his army.

He's now the leader, the head, the general of the army displacing Joab. But Amasa is murdered by Joab very quickly. Very quickly, he's put to death by Joab. And that happened right before the campaign even really kicked off to go and get this guy Sheba, the son of Bikri. Already, Joab's murdered Amasa. And then Joab, he resumes his place as the general. And he and his army, they track down this insurrectionist, this leader, Sheba, to the city, a city named Abel of Bethmeica, and immediately they lay siege to the city.

They just start bashing in the wall to get this guy. And everything up to this point is just building. I mean, it's just works of the flesh. It's just chaos. It's heavy-handed works of the flesh is what it is. And it could have gotten worse for Israel. I mean, it could have gone really bad. Things could have broken up and fractured to the point where they were irrecoverable at that point.

But before it's ruined forever, the wisdom of an unnamed woman in that city of Abel, she mediates an agreement with Joab. She gets Joab to hear her, to listen to her, and the agreement is that they're going to toss the head of the insurrectionist over the wall to Joab, and then that'll be it. It'll be over. Everything in this chapter just comes to a conclusion along with the insurrection. It's over. This is a good chapter to read. It's a good chapter.

It's full of a lot of lessons and applications that you can apply to your own life because of what we see here in the flesh. But my focus tonight with you is going to be to trace out the gospel point in these verses. What do we draw from this in relation to the gospel? What do these things tell us concerning the message that the gospel teaches us? That's what we want to know.

Now, the scriptures, they're written to show men that all are sinners. The scriptures are written to show us that there's none righteous, no, not one. and it's not done so that we would turn to the law for righteousness, and it's not done so that we would make changes in our life, little improvements to try and fix it, to try and make it better, and the things that we would normally do when we're trying to fix a problem. We'll adjust here, we'll pivot there, we'll make this change, we'll do that. That's not what the scriptures are revealing to us that we're sinners for. It's not for us to be little fixers of our lives. Rather, the scriptures reveal this to us to drive us to Christ, to drive us to the Savior of sinners whom the Father has sent.

It's not to make us become more fleshly minded like you read. It's not to make us have confidence in this flesh. In fact, if we're the Lords, we're going to have no confidence in this flesh. He's going to strip us down of having a vain fleshly confidence in the flesh.

And what we're brought to see is that Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God for us. He is the only salvation revealed in the Gospel, and He alone, by His wisdom, defeated the works of the devil, and destroys the works of the flesh, and delivers us from the corruption and the vanity of the flesh, and also delivers us from the wrath of God, which has come upon all outside of Christ. And so, He gives us life, fellowship, and peace with Holy God. The fleshly argument from the previous chapter, it's occurred now. Israel and Judah are all hot and angry with each other. They've said some harsh words to one another and they're mad.

And now in chapter 20, verses one and two, we're told that there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bikri, 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 tents, O Israel. And so every man of Israel went up from after David and followed Sheba, the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah clave unto their king from Jordan even to Jerusalem."

And again, as I mentioned before, what the scriptures are showing us is that all are sinners. Since the fall of Adam, man has turned to the works of the flesh in an effort to get what he wants. Since the fall of Adam, man has turned away from that which is for his peace and for his good. Since the fall of Adam, man has acted in self-interest and in pride. And since the fall of Adam, man listens to the voice of Satan, as we see here in these men hearkening to this man of Belial.

And when a man was called a man of Belial in the Old Testament, it meant that he was an unprofitable, worthless, wicked man. In the New Testament, it just means he's a son of Satan. He's a child of the devil. It describes men who are taken in the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. We don't want to be taken captive by him at his will because all manner of evil and corruption, damage and destruction is wrought in following the way of the wicked one.

Now, the division has happened all over, it began over words. Because of words, with each side, as they're saying it, they had some reasonable things. They weren't totally unreasonable. They had some good points that they were making, and there was some cause for concern that each one had, but the strife that came out of it led every man to separate from the body. It just went on and on to the point where they separated from the body. They got to the point where they all left and went home and sat on their couches. They just blew the trumpet. Every man to his couch. Just go sit at home.

We have no part in David. We want nothing to do with David. We have no part. They went from having 10 parts in David to having, well, we don't have nothing in David now. They first wanted it, and now they don't want anything to do with it at all. Right? Just completely the opposite there. Works of the flesh.

Sheba, the name Sheba means seven. That's the number of perfection, right? Completion, perfection, the number seven. And what we see here is that these events just piled on each other all at the right time to make the perfect storm. All things just came together just right, which in Galatians 5 we're told includes, I'm sorry, and let me finish on Sheba, he's the son of Bichri, which means juvenile, juvenile, youthful, juvenile, right?

And so their responses to the problems, rather than working it out, their response to the problem was one of immaturity. That's exactly it. Perfect things come together to make a perfect storm. And rather than deal with it properly in the spirit, they deal with it in an immature manner and say, well, let's just get out of here. Now we got no part in this. Well, you just said you had 10 parts. Now you have no parts in it. What happened here? No interest whatsoever to restore this at all. And so it just made it worse rather than better.

Now in the context here, we're given a taste of the works of the flesh. These scriptures here are giving us a taste of the works of the flesh. which man turns to to resolve his problems. And we're all guilty of it. We all do some manner or some form of these things. This is the flesh. This is what the flesh does. And in Galatians 5, we're told that this includes things such as emulations.

Emulations means jealousies. And there was a lot of jealousy going on there. There were people upset that other people had a prominent role to play that other people didn't have. It includes things such as wrath. and strife, which is the causing of factions. There was factions starting to grow out of this thing. Seditions were told, and that means dividing from one another. This is what Paul writes right in the works of the flesh, and this is what we see right here in this chapter, dividing from one another, envyings, and murders, as we'll see. And so the jealousies and envyings, they're all things that we see here between Israel and Judah. And now this immature son of Belial adds to the chaos by calling for sedition.

All right, let's just separate. Let's just break off. That'll show them, right? That's going to do any good there. Now, what I want to do here is focus on the gospel because the gospel is going to oppose every way that we would turn to in the flesh to fix our problems. The gospel is going to do something totally radically different. Because we can't fix the problems that we create most of the time. Most of the things that we get into trouble with, we can't fix them, we can't reconcile, we can't make peace, we can't do anything right.

But anything that a man would turn to if he's the Lord's, the gospel is going to shut that up to him. It's going to keep him from finding any success in that. Because if God loves you, he's not gonna abandon you to the flesh and define success in the works of the flesh. He's gonna shut them up to us. And so for one thing, what we'll see is it's never gonna be the law. The law isn't going to be our help and our deliverer. We're not going to improve under the bondage and the yoke of the law.

And that's something that a man does turn to. We see religion all the time, still to this day, turning to the law, still teaching and saying that we're under the rule of the law, and teaching men that they should practice the law for righteousness. Churches that call themselves Christians would say this. And this here, what the Lord does is he shuts that up. He has shut that up for us. When Christ came and accomplished our deliverance, the law was put away. We're no longer under the yoke of the law as believers.

And this is pictured here in the 10 concubines of David and what he does with them. So if you read there in verse three, this is the first thing that David does. And here, David is a picture of Christ. This is a picture of what our Lord does, has done for us by his accomplished redemption on the cross.

And so what we see here is he's gonna seal up that law, David's gonna seal up these concubines so that they no longer go out, they no longer have a voice, they no longer have a place in the society there, in that regard there. We're not under the law for righteousness. All right, so verse three.

And David came to his house at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them, so they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood. Now these were the 10 women that David had left behind when David and all his household left Jerusalem before Absalom got there into Jerusalem. And he left them there, we're told in this verse, to keep the house, to keep it running, to keep order in the house, to keep it running. But the problem is they were defiled by Absalom.

That was Ahithophel's counsel, right? To sleep with the concubines under the sun before all. Just put a tent up there, everybody's gonna know what you're doing, and that'll send a message that you are despised in David's eyes. And so he did that. Well, in like manner, Israel was given the 10 commandments of the law at Mount Sinai. Why? To keep the house, right? To preserve that nation. lest they should become so wicked to preserve that nation, lest they should be destroyed, so as to preserve the nation till the seed should come. that the Lord would send the seed.

But they defiled the law. They broke the law. They did the most heinous and wicked crimes. They did everything that the nations around them were doing. They became idolaters. They would sacrifice their children to Molech. They were, I mean, they just practiced everything. They got involved in all kinds of things. Shameful, shameful things. Even though they had the law, they shamed the shameful things under the law. And so, They broke the law.

Now, turn over to Galatians 3. I want you to see this. In Galatians 3, and we'll pick up in verse 21, but... What Paul is doing in Galatians, and in all his epistles, Paul is laying the foundation that we need a mediator. We need a more sure salvation, because the law cannot save us. We're not saved by the law. We need a more sure salvation.

And the mediator that we need is the Lord Jesus Christ, because the law, pictured in these 10 concubines here, which were supposed to keep the house, they didn't. They couldn't keep the house. Why? Because of the infirmity, the disease of the flesh. Because of our own flesh, the law doesn't save us. It can't make us righteous.

And so Galatians 3.21 Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid, absolutely not. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. If the concubines had straightened Absalom out, when he came at him, they smacked him in the face and said, get back. Don't touch me.

And he was like, oh, yeah, you're right. And he changed his ways. Well, then you could say, all right, there's a picture of the law being effectual. But it didn't. He committed his wickedness against them, just shamefully violated them. All right? But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, just like we see with Absalom, just like we see with all men. David, too. All under the law, shut up. Sorry.

All under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law. The nation of Israel was kept under the law, shut up unto the faith, which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster. It was given to keep order in the house, to bring us unto Christ. And that word is until Christ. until Christ came.

Now the law had its place in keeping order in the house even though it was shamed and violated until Christ came because he's our righteousness that we might be justified by faith and so the law brethren the law reveals that we are sinners and you spend any time under the law if if the Lord lays the reality of it, the truth of it, to your heart and makes you see what you are before the law, you're going to see, I'm a filthy sinner. I'm not perfect. I'm not keeping the law perfectly.

And it's that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. If anybody looks to that law, all they're going to see is defiled. Just defiled there. For by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans 3 20. It was given to show us that we are sinners. And so any looking at the law, if it's being understood rightly, if you're hearing what the law sayeth, you're going to see the law says I'm a sinner.

I'm guilty, undone, and I cannot make myself righteous. That's hearing the law rightly. But after that faith has come, we're no longer under a schoolmaster. It is shut up in ward in widowhood. The Lord isn't dealing with us through the law, except as I said, the only thing that you're going to see in the law is I'm a sinner and I need salvation. I need a savior.

And so the revelation of our sin by the law is to drive you to Christ. It's to drive you to the mediator between God and sinful man. It's to drive us to Christ. That's why the Father sent him, to save us from our sins, because there isn't a law given to make us righteous.

Next, we meet David's new captain of his hosts. Now, David here is a picture of believers troubled by their sin. And you can say, well, wait a minute. Now, you said before David was a picture of Christ there with the concubines, and now you're saying David's a picture here of believers. Well, we live by the spirit of Christ, brethren. And so our Lord is working in his people. He dwells in his people's hearts by faith. And he gives us his spirit, whereby we are led of him and we follow him. We hear his voice and we follow Christ. And so what we're gonna see here in this and these things is that I can't go this way. This isn't gonna save me. This isn't gonna provide the remedy that I'm looking for. It's just another work of the flesh.

So David here, as a picture of believers trying to fix themselves, David here has chosen out another captain of the host to replace Joab. And probably why he did that is because he's angry with Joab for killing his son Absalom when he told him not to kill Absalom.

Remember, he said, bring the young lad back to me safely. Don't hurt the kid. I know you want it, but don't hurt him. Bring him back safely. And Joab just put him to death. And so David's probably not happy with him in that regard, even though Joab did a just thing. This is an insurrectionist. He should be put to death. Put that out of sight quickly.

And so, but David's mad, now in verse four and five, then said the king to Amasa, assemble me, right, this is his first job here, 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. Now, the name Amasa means burden. It means burden.

And brethren, we have a burden of sin and death. Sin and death have entered into the world through one man, Adam. And the problem for us is that we are all born of Adam's corrupt seed. Therefore, we come forth dead in trespasses and sins. We have a burden that we can't rid ourselves of or fix. And because of our sin, what do men do oftentimes?

Well, we try to reconcile things. We try to change things. We try to tweak things and adjust things and make changes to fix it and to make it right, like David did by switching out Joab for Amasa. But this change didn't fix things in Israel. Amasa was to be ready with the men of Judah within three days. And we know that's a peculiar number in scripture.

Every time it says three days, we think of, wait a minute, our Lord, who redeemed us and reconciled us to God, died on the cross, was laid in the tomb, and on the third day, he rose from the dead, having accomplished our redemption. He obtained eternal life for his people. He obtained by his blood the forgiveness of our sins. So that by his grace and power, we are made new creatures, having his spirit, right?

We are turned, old things are put away. We're not looking to the form. We're not looking to the law to save us. We're not looking to just the outward trinkets of religion, thinking that this is my righteousness and doing these things. But no, we know that Christ is all my righteousness. He's all my salvation. That's the new creature. That's the life that he gives us. And the point here that I'm trying to make is that David's change of putting in a massa for Joab didn't fix or change anything. The three days as it were by man to bring about an army to save the kingdom came and went and nothing was done.

We couldn't accomplish the redemption. We can't do it. We can't fix it. Our Lord Jesus Christ did. Destroy this temple, and in three days, I will raise it up again. I'll raise it up again. But when man tries to do it, nothing happens. We need a more sure and certain captain of our salvation, Jesus Christ. He is the captain of our salvation. And so the little things that man tries to do and to make and to make as changes, they don't work.

They're not working. So David goes to plan B, verse 6 and 7. And David said to Abishai, that is the brother of Joab, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than Nadabsalon. Take thou thy lord's servants, and pursue after him, lest he get him fenced cities, and escape us. And now, so what he's saying is, all right, we tried this. I made this change. That didn't work. Let's go back to our old ways, but not totally the old ways. Let's do a few things.

I'm not going to put Joab back in charge here, but Abishai, the brother, I'm going to put you in charge here. And there went out after Abishai, Joab's men. So the men that were still there, Amas is trying to get men from Judah. that were part of the rebellion with Absalom, because Amasa was Absalom's general. They're all related to David, but they were Amasa's men. He's trying to get his men together here. But now, Joab's men, they were there. They never left David. So they're there at this time. And so they go out. Let me find my place here. Yeah, they went, verse seven, okay.

They went out after, well, Joab's men went with him and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, those would be David's personal guards, those guys, and all the mighty men, and they went out of Jerusalem to pursue after Sheba, the son of Bichri. And so these are General Joab's men, right? And it isn't said yet, but either Joab went out with them or Joab meets up with them.

So look at verse 8 now. And when they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa went before them. In other words, this great stone at Gibeon is probably a meeting place where the camp, where the army was gathering together, setting up camp, Abishai probably sent a rider out to find Amasa somewhere in Judah and said, hey, when you get it together, meet us up at the Great Stone of Gibeah. Because that would be a well-known place where they would meet up before they all headed out to look for Sheba. And Joab's garment, so Joab's there now. Joab's garment that he had put on was girded unto him. This old man don't change. He doesn't change. This is Joab. This is that old warrior, this old man who does not change.

And upon it, a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins in the sheath thereof. So this is the works of Joab's flesh. This is what Joab turns to in the flesh, right? Murders. This is Joab's comfort zone. He's very comfortable operating like this. Now he turns to this, and as he went forth, this sword that was in its sheath fell out. So here's Joab.

He's an old dog. He's a warrior. He's got tricks. He knows how to do these things. And probably what this is saying is he had a scabbard that was too big for the sword. And he knows how to just walk just right. He can step a little heavier. He can move and step.

And this thing starts jiggling out. But it doesn't look weird, because it just looks like, oh, it's loosening up. And if his hand's on it, it just looks like he's pushing it back into place. Nothing to be alarmed about. And he's coming towards Amasa right now. He's coming after him.

And Joab said to Amasa, art thou in health, my brother? In other words, because they're in the family of David. He's probably Joab's uncle. Amasa would be a nephew probably, because he was like cousins with Absalom. And are you in good health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him. And so he pulls him in. But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand. So he's got it in his left hand here.

It's probably like a good-sized dagger there. So he smote him therewith in the fifth rib and shed out his bowels to the ground and struck him not again. And he died, meaning Joab is a warrior. I mean, he knows how to strike someone just so with one kill shot. And he didn't have to hit him again. He didn't have to stick him again at all. So Joab and Abishai, so he died. And Joab and Abishai, his brother, pursued after Sheba, the son of Bichri.

And so David, when you look at this thing, David tried to make a change, right? David tried to make a change, to make something more positive in Israel, to make it more unified as one body here. But like this old man of our flesh, he just keeps coming back. He tried to get rid of Joab, but he just keeps coming back. This is not the first time that David replaced Joab with another general. If you remember, it was Abner, the general of Saul, that he tried to make his general to unite the kingdom, to show unity. But Abner was killed. And who killed Abner? Joab. He did it to him, too. Within a day, he did it to him. He took him out just like he took out Amasa very quickly. And so this old man of flesh keeps putting to death every good idea that we seemingly think to have.

Paul cried, when I would do good, evil is present with me, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God. through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, in other words, this is how it's going to be till I lay this body of death, this flesh, down in the dust. With the mind, I myself serve the law of God. In the new man of grace, I rejoice in Christ. I love Christ. I follow Christ. I want to know Him more and more. I want to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, but that righteousness which is of Christ. But with the flesh, I serve the law of sin. I feel the lusts and corruption in my members. Every time I would do good, I got old.

Joab. Joab comes. And he sticks a knife in it, and he puts it to death. That's the picture there. Now, let me take another drink here. All right, verse 11. This is Joab's army now, and they're fine with the work, the ways of Joab. They're used to Joab's ways, they know what he does, no issues with it. And one, verse 11, one of Joab's men stood by him, by Amasa's body, and said, He that favoreth Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab." And Amasa wallowed in the blood.

This is a bloody sight of a man dying before them. And he's in the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people that were coming up to stood still, they weren't moving forward. They were standing there looking at Amasa. Well, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field. and cast a cloth upon him when he saw that everyone that came by him stood still." And so here's these new, fresh, green troops coming up from Judah, men that had gathered under Amas. They probably didn't really see. I don't think the battle against Absalom was very long. These guys probably never saw battle. They probably never saw a man dying and laying there in his blood before. It's a horrifying sight, seeing these things there like that. And so they're horrified by what they see. They're thinking, what's going on here? I thought we're all in the same family. We're all on the same team. And here's this guy cut down, wallowing in his blood here.

And so what do religious men do when they don't want you to see their filth and their sins? Well, they drag it off and they cover it as best as they can. And that's what this man did. He was removed out of the highway. He was drug off the highway, put into a field, and the guy cast a cloth over him. And as soon as he did that, when he was removed, verse 13, out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab to pursue after Sheba, the son of Bichri. So it all seems to be working out. But again, these are the works of the flesh. This is how the flesh operates. This is what it does. And Joab's back in charge now, verse 14.

And he, that is Sheba the son of Bichri, went through all the tribes of Israel unto Abel and to Bethmaica. And all the Berites that were gathered together, those would be other Benjamites with him, they went with them also. And so Sheba and his followers, they go up to the northern tribe of Naphtali, which is where Abel of Bethmaica is, that city is.

And they lock the doors behind them and they're hiding out, hoping that this thing blows over and no one finds them. And they, Joab and his army, came and besieged him and Abel of Bethmaica, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench, and all the people that were with Joab battered the wall to throw it down. So here they are.

They're at the end of their mission. They're right there. And they're going to get it done. All they have to do is get this guy, the head of the treasonous thing, to put down this insurrection. But to do it, they're going to knock down the wall. They're going to storm the city. If there's innocent men, women, and children in the way, well, that's just collateral damage. We're just going to wreck the whole thing. And they're just going in there very roughly. It reminds me.

I'm having a shed delivered at some point in a house, but to get the shed into the yard, I had to take down a section of the fence. And one of the things I have a, you got to take a post down, and the posts are about every six feet. And then the way they make fences is they have three two by fours, and you just nail the slats of the fence up on those two by fours, and then you nail that section of the two by fours into each post. So they have a little bite in each post there. And I had to take two sections of that fence down before I could get that post out.

And while I'm doing it, I was hitting the fence with this little one-pound rubber mallet. It's like one pound. And it's not really doing much damage. It's not really getting those two-by-fours to ungrip that thing. So the guy that was helping me, he hands me over the fence because he was on the other side. He hands me this big, giant battle axe-like mallet. It's like three and a half feet long, and it weighs 20 pounds, and it's covered in rubber so you can use it like a rubber mallet. You can hit it on wood and it won't damage it.

And he said, yeah, that thing, I call it the detailer. And if you know anything about finishing up a project, that's what you call when you're doing the nice little touches, the gentle touches. It's called detailing. You're just taking it easy. And he called this big 20-pound mallet the detailer. And it's just ironic.

Well, that's what Joab's doing here. He's right there at the end, right there at the end. And rather than them doing what the law said, which was when you come upon a city to besiege it, ask them, do you want peace or do you want war? Joab didn't do that, he just skipped right to the war part. He just set up the battering ram and started ramming it into the wall to knock this wall down. That's how he's handling it, and that's the point here is that the works of the flesh, they're heavy, they're murderous, they're destructive.

And our Lord tells us that the law isn't to be used for this purpose. That's in ward now. The changes that man tries to make, that he thinks are good, and what he thinks will bring about good, they're gonna be overturned very quickly by this old, evil nature. He's gonna show up and he's gonna put it to death. And the ways of the flesh, they are cruel, murderous, brutal, barbarous, and destructive. And the point is, is that man is ruined. Man is sin, right? He's done it. He sold himself into slavery, into this way of death. This is the way that all men go in the works of the flesh.

And therefore we're told that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. And like the battering ram of Joab against the city of Abel Bethmeica, so the wrath of God is going to judge and destroy man.

It's pounding at the door. That wrath is coming. It's just pounding at the door until the Lord pours out that wrath and takes that man to judgment and to do justice upon him. But in that moment, a voice of wisdom is heard. A voice of wisdom rings out above the thundering hits pounding against that wall.

A voice raises up and it says in verse 16, then cried a wise woman out of the city, hear, hear, say, I pray you unto Joab, come near hither that I may speak with thee. And when he was come near unto her, the woman said, art thou Joab? And he answered, I am he. Then she said unto him, hear the words of thine handmaid. And he answered, I do hear.

Then she spake, saying, they were wont to speak in old time, saying, they shall surely ask counsel at Abel. And so they ended the matter. In other words, Abel had wise men that were able to settle the matter. And when they gave the reward, everybody understood it and were happy with it. And it was settled. And there was peace then. And she said, I am one. 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? And Joab answered and said, Far be it from me that I should swallow up or destroy. The matter is not so. But a man of Mount Ephraim, Sheba, the son of Bichri by name, 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 unto Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall. Then the woman went unto 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. Every man to his tent, and Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king. And so of all the wise men in that city, no one knew how to stop the destruction from the wrath of the great army that was busting through their wall and to destroy them all until one wise woman spoke and she negotiated a peace deal, which was the removal of the head of the insurrectionists, the treasonous one, right? The one that was troubling the land. and she ably delivered it, just like she said she would, and so wrought peace for the besieged city. Well, brethren, as this wise woman, so has our God done for us.

We see that all our works fail to produce peace for the besieged sinner, whether by law, or by concessions of change or brutal warfare, we can't fix ourselves by our works of the flesh. One thing we can do is make a mess of it, and we do. We're very able and successful at making things worse and worse. That is something we're good at.

But God has sent his son, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and God has made Christ unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And through his perfection, his keeping of the law, through his holiness and perfect obedience unto the father in all things, what he did through his wisdom on the cross, he beheaded the snake. He has destroyed the works of that old serpent, the devil. He's destroyed his works, that one who ruled over the rebellious and the destructive in the land of Adam, and he delivered us from the enmity that's in ourselves, which was against God, which was seen in Adam in the garden there when he rebelled against God. Christ delivers us from that. He humbles us by His grace and power. He gives us light, life, and understanding in a dark place to hear our God, to see how that God reasoned with God, as it were, by His grace and power and satisfied the Father, to satisfy His wrath. which was against us, which was due to us, but our Lord Jesus Christ came and as a substitute took our place and as a surety paid the debt, satisfied the debt that we owed so that we go free.

The work that needed to be done. in destroying the traitorous seed there, the works of the devil have been accomplished by the wisdom, our wisdom, the wisdom of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. As that woman there, we see that Christ is the wisdom of God. And he's the voice that he gives to his church, right? The church, the woman in the world there speaks these peaceable things and declares this wonderful word, this grace of God to the sinner. to you that are under the wrath of God to declare the forgiveness of sins to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so if God is pursuing you, right, if you hear the thunderous booms against that wall, crashing and bashing in there and you don't know what to do and everything you're trying and turning to is failing and not accomplishing what you want, and all you can hear is the voice of your sins demanding justice, demanding blood, Don't look to the law to fix you. Don't look to your life changes to reconcile you to God. It's not going to work. The old man will put it to death. Don't turn to the flesh's works. It'll only make things worse.

Hear the wisdom of God say, whosoever believeth on Jesus Christ shall not be ashamed. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that name, brethren, is the Lord Jesus Christ. all upon Him, and God shall deliver you." Because if He gives you that cry, He has delivered you in the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray He bless that word to us.

The Voice Of Wisdom

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