Then the king went on to Gilgal,
and Chimham went on with him. And all the people of Judah conducted
the king, and also half the people of Israel. And behold, all the
men of Israel came to the king, and said unto the king, Why have
our brethren, the men of Judah, stolen thee away, and have brought
the king, and his household, and all David's men with him
over Jordan? And all the men of Judah answered
the men of Israel, because the king is near of kin to us. Wherefore
then be ye angry for this matter? Have we eaten at all of the king's
cost? Or hath he given us any gift? Now you remember David
was from the tribe of Judah. He'd been on the run there in
the wilderness from Absalom. And now the men of Judah come
to bring their kinsmen back to the throne. And the other tribes
of Israel were upset. Jealousy has come in here, that
they were not included in bringing David back to the throne. You
know, it made them look bad politically, and it made it look like, well,
they didn't love David as much as the tribe of Judah did. And
they should have been included. You know, David's the king overall
of Israel, not just that tribe of Judah. But the men of Judah,
you know, they get mad as soon as they hear this objection,
and they answer. Now, we brought David back out of love, not because
he gave us any gift. You know, we didn't get a free
meal out of the deal. We weren't looking for any reward from him.
We're bringing him back to the king, to the throne because we
love him and we did it at our own cost for the good of the
nation. Verse 43, the men of Israel answered the men of Judah
and said, we have ten 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?
And the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of
the men of Israel. Now, you know there's 12 tribes
in the nation Israel. Ten of those tribes were in what
they called Israel, and then there was the tribe of Tudin,
and then there was the tribe of Levi. That was the tribe of
the priest, and they typically stayed out of these kind of things. Their function was to serve the
Lord in the temple. And Israel was the majority. They had ten tribes, and they
thought that at least they should be consulted in what was happening
here, bringing their king back. And they did love David, they
did desire to show their affection for the king too. And more than
that, the first people to say anything about bringing David
back to the throne were the tribes of Israel. It wasn't Judah that
popped up with this idea first, it was the tribe of Israel. And
rather than say, brethren, you're right, we're sorry, we should
have done it this way, the men of Judah just out yelled the
men of Israel. Rather than be peaceable, The
minority got their way because they just were meaner and louder
than the tribes of Israel. That's what jealousy and pride
and only thinking about me always brings. It always leads to division
and rebellion. Solomon said a soft answer turneth
away wrath. Bet that would have worked in
this situation. But that's not what they did. They chose fierce
words. And this is so sad. Look, this
is what's happening. They're fighting. They're willing
to come to blows over love. Over who loves David the most.
I mean, what an indictment of human nature that we're willing
to come to blows over who loves David the most and over who should
get to serve David the most. One side is saying, no, we're
the majority. You know, we have more right in David than you.
And the other side is saying, no, we're more closely related
to him. We have more right in him than you. Sad commentary
on our nature. What's happening here with David
happens among people today regarding the son of David. We fight over
who loves the Lord the most, who knows the Lord best. When
in fact, we should really be ashamed of how little we truly
love the Lord. And compared to how he should
be loved, we ought to be ashamed how little we really do love
him. Well, look at verse one here, chapter 20. And there happened
to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son
of Petri, a Benjamite. And he blew a trumpet and said,
We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance from the
son of Jesse. Every man to his tent, O Israel. So every man
of Israel went up after David, or from after David, and followed
Sheba, the son of Petri. But the men of Judah claimed
unto their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem. Now this man
Sheba is from the tribe of Benjamin. This is the tribe of Saul. Now,
Benjamin is in the nation Israel, but they never truly bowed to
David. They always had allegiance to
Saul, who was from their tribe. Isn't that just like the old
man each of us is born with? That old man inhabits the body
of a believer, and that old man will never love the Lord. Now that new man, that believer
loves the Lord. That new man believes Christ.
But that old man is from the tribe of Benjamin. He has come
from the loins of Adam and he'll never bow to the kingship of
Christ. He never will. And Sheba, just like our old
man, he acted himself. And I'm sure he acted this way.
He still supported Absalom. And so Absalom's dead. And now
he's willing to start this rebellion. Hadn't he just seen what happened
to the previous rebellion just days ago? And now he's willing
to start another one? Rebels never learn because they've
got the heart of a rebel. That's that old nature that we're
born with. That old nature will never learn
anything spiritual. That old nature will never learn
to love the Lord Jesus Christ. And Israel, those ten tribes,
follow Sheba in his rebellion. But the tribe of Judah, stayed
loyal to David. Now, David's of the tribe of
Judah. Who stayed loyal to David? His
kinsmen. Those who are related to him
by blood. And that's the believer. The
believer will stay loyal and faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ
because they're under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
related by blood. By the blood of our Savior. But
There's always tears among the weak. Israel followed a man of
Belial rather than followed David, the man after God's own heart.
But you know, even believers can fall into the wrong attitude.
Believers do that. This argument over who loves
David the most turned into a rebellion against David himself. And how'd
that happen? Satan is always at work. Always,
he never rests. He's always at work trying to
overthrow the kingdom of Christ. And that's how this argument
over love of David turned into rebellion against David. Let's
read on, verse 3. 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 war, and
fed them, but went not in unto them. So they were shut up until
the day of their death, living in widowhood. Now you remember
David left these ten concubines to keep the house when he fled
off to the wilderness fleeing from Absalom. And Absalom came
and he raped him on the rooftop of the king's house in front
of all Israel. So everyone would know everything
that belonged to David now belonged to Absalom to do with as he would. And now to David these women
are considered unclean. Now Absalom and David are the
two fellas at fault in this situation. David never should have left
them. Absalom never should have done what he did to them. Yet
these women end up paying the price. They lived the rest of
their lives in seclusion under house arrest because David considered
them unclean. Sin. That's sin. Sin causes suffering. There's no joy in sin. It always
brings suffering. And this sin brought separation
from David. And you know the picture here.
Adam's sin caused the whole human race to be separated from God. Isaiah 59 too, your iniquities
have separated between you and your God. It's sin that causes
separation from God. And we'll come back to this later.
Let's look at this story first. We'll come back and make a few
points of it. But read on here in verse four. Then said the
king unto Amasa, 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, Amasa, remember, David has appointed him to be the general
in the place of Joab. David's mad at Joab. He must
have figured out that Joab killed his son Absalom, and Amasa was
Absalom's general. And in a show of mercy and grace,
David brought Amasa in. his pole that made him the general
of his army. Well, you wouldn't think it would be that difficult
of a task for a Mesa to go out into the tribe of Judah and assemble
an army, would you? Y'all just were willing to fight
and come to blows over who loves David the most. But when a Mesa
came to recruit an army, it was time to go to war. Mesa couldn't
gather an army. Everybody seemed to be hard to
find, you know. It took him longer than those three days to raise
an army. Matthew Henry said this, most love loyalty as well as
a religion that's cheap and easy. Everybody was very willing to
say how much they loved David, but when it came time to put
your life on the line for him, well, that's another matter altogether. They're not quite so sure about
that. But they should have done that. But I can understand the
men of Judah here now. David's had fought for this too.
These men probably didn't want to follow Mesa. Just a few days
ago he was seeking David's life. They're probably a little leery
of following this man into battle. And that's why Paul told Timothy,
don't you put a novice in the office of a bishop. You just
let him be tried first. Let him be proved first so people
can see what kind of man he really is. Let's see what kind of man
he is over time. Let him be proved before you
put him into leadership. Well David just put him in the
leadership and these men don't trust him yet and I'm sure that's
a large part of why they didn't want to follow him. Now verse
6, here David's been waiting these three days and nobody showed. So David said to Abishai, Joab's
younger brother, now shall Sheba the son of Betri do us more harm
than did Absalom. Take thou thy Lord's servants
and pursue after him, lest he give him fenced cities and escape
us. And there went out after him Joab's men, and the Cherethites,
and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men. And they went out
of Jerusalem to pursue after Sheba, the son of Betri. Now
David didn't feel like he could wait any longer, but he was not
going to put Joab back in charge of his army. So he puts his little
brother, Abishai, in charge of the army, and he leads the forces
out to go up against Sheba. And Joab just tagging along behind.
He just went along, you know, kind of maybe as a show of, you
know, he's just going to be a good soldier or whatever. He's just
tagging along behind. See what happens. Well, verse
8, when they were at the great stone, which is in Gibeon, a
Mesa went before them. A Mesa must have met up with
them, with his forces at this place. And then he assumed command
of the army. And Joab's garment that he had
put on was girded unto him. And upon it a girdle with a sword
fastened upon his loins, and the sheath thereof. And as he
went forth, it fell out. And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou
in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard
with the right hand to kiss him. And Amasa took no heed to the
sword that was in Joab's hand, so he smote him therewith in
the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground. And Joab
struck him not again, and he died. So Joab and Abishai his
brother pursued after Sheba, the son of Petraeus. Now, without
question, Joab is a mighty warrior. He is a mighty man of war. And
he's also a very cunning man. He had this sheath with a sword
in it, and it was designed somehow so that it would fall out easily.
And as he was walking towards Emesa, he did something and that
sword fell out. It looked like an accident. Emesa
didn't think anything about it as Joab picked it up in his left
hand. And he got close to Emesa. by
pretending to pull him to him to kiss him. And he had him near
close. Stabbed him up under the fifth
rib. Gil says it went up and pierced his heart and killed
him. Sounds just like Judas, doesn't it? Betraying our Lord
with a kiss. Now, Joab, he's so cunning. And the subtlety of man. We see
this used by false religions. Subtlety. Look here at verse
11. And one of Joab's men stood by him. and said, He that favoreth
Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab. And a
mesa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when
the men saw that all the people stood still, they came up and
they saw him lying there, they stood still. Well, he removed
the mesa 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 when he was removed out of the highway, all the people went
on after Joab to pursue after Sheba. son of Betrayal. Now,
this man tries to make Joab look good by tying him to David. See how he tried to make him
look good by tying him to David. If you're for David, follow Joab
after this, the leader of this rebellion. You know, follow,
if you want to honor David, follow Joab. He's tying him to David,
trying to make Joab look better. But now here's this dead felt
laying here, you know, wallowing in his blood in the midst of
the highway. Well, they've got to cover that sin up somehow.
So that's what they do. You know, they try to cover their
sin with a show of humility, you know, a show of respect for
the dead. And they pull him over into the field and they cover
him up. They didn't do that as a show of respect for the dead.
They did it to cover their sin so men would continue on, follow
after Joab. And that's what they did. Look
here at verse 14. And he went through all the tribes
of Israel unto Abel, and to Bethmaalchah, and all the Bereites. And they
were gathered together, and went also after him. And they came
and besieged him in Abel of Bethmaalchah, and 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." Joab's going,
he's gathering this army, he's got a pretty good-sized army.
And he besieges the city. They must have built some sort
of mechanical device or something. They got up against the wall.
They're ready to tear the wall down, go into the city, and kill
every soul there, because that city is harboring this man Sheba,
this rebel. In verse 16, Then cried a wise
woman out of the city, Here, here, 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 times, saying,
They shall surely ask counsel at Abel. So they ended the matter. And what she means there is that
city Abel was famous for having many wise men who lived there.
And whenever anyone in the surrounding countryside had a controversy
that they couldn't settle, they said, well, let's take the matter
to the men of Abel. And they're so wise that whatever they say
will settle this controversy, solve the problem, because we'll
both agree with what they say, because they're so wise. But
Joab is speaking to a wise woman here, isn't he? Not one of the
wise men, one of the wise women. Matthew Henry said, men, we need
to remember this, men do not have a monopoly on brains. A
couple of weeks ago I was with Bob Coffey and he was telling
a young man, a wise wife will keep you out of a lot of trouble.
A wise wife will save you from a lot of heartache. And this
wise woman is going to save a lot of people a lot of heartache.
Look what she says here, verse 19. I'm 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 Betri 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 Betri, 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." Now this woman acted in a lot
of wisdom. One died, so the whole city would
live. Many lives were saved because
this one man died. Now that's a sad story. A story
that puts the worst of human nature on display. And I want
us, in the rest of the time we have, to look at each of these
elements of sinful nature that are shown here in this story
and see this. Christ is the remedy. Christ
is the answer to our every need. What we need is what we find
here in the story. We need for God to send us a
wise man preaching Christ, the wisdom of God, showing us Christ
is the answer to our every need. Now, the first thing we saw in
our story is jealousy. Jealousy comes natural to every
one of us. So what's the cure for that?
We find that rising up in ourselves. What's the cure for that jealousy?
It's the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over Philippians chapter
one. If the Lord will enable us with
the eye of faith to behold the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll have
the same attitude as the apostles. Paul here in Philippians 1. In verse 14, and many of the
brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much
more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ
even of envy and strife, and some also of goodwill. The one
preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing that
affliction to my bonds. The other of love, knowing that
I am set for the defense of the Now look at this. What then?
Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ
is preached, and I therein do rejoice. Yea, and I will rejoice. Here are these fellows out preaching
Christ, trying to hurt Paul. And what's he saying? I'm going
to rejoice because Christ is preached. Jealousy wouldn't miss
you as long as Christ is preached. Set my affection on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that'll solve a lot of this
problem of jealousy. Second, we saw wrath. Boy, it's
easy to lose our temper, isn't it? Maybe it's not for you. It
is for me. It's easy to get angry with people.
Sometimes even our brethren get angry with our brethren. That's
what happened in our story. But Ephesians 4, Paul tells us
this. You forbear one another in love. Endeavor and work at keeping
the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Now look over
there in Ephesians 4. That's the easy to do when we're
looking at Christ. Ephesians 4 verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath
and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you
with all malice. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, hath forgiven you." Now, to the believer that's seen the
Lord Jesus Christ, that'd break your heart. Forgive your brethren
as God, for Christ's sake, forgave you. That'll solve that problem
of wrath, won't it? Jealousy and wrath brought division. That's the next thing we see.
It brought division. And the cure for division is
looking to Christ our Savior. Paul told the church at Corinth,
the body of Christ is not divided. He said, is Christ divided? Well,
no. Well, if you're still there in
Ephesians, look back at Ephesians chapter 2, verse 11. Naturally speaking, no one could
be more divided than the Jew and the Gentile, especially in
this time here that the apostle is writing this. He says in verse
11, I wherefore remember that you know your Gentiles being
in time past Gentiles in the flesh. who are called uncircumcision
to the Jews and they call someone uncircumcision, that's an insult,
a term of derision. You are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision and the flesh made by hands,
by the Jews. That at that time you are without Christ. You are
aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the
world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you
who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, who hath made both one." Both Jew and
Gentile, he's made them one. He's broken down the middle wall
of partition between us. That which divided us, he's broken
that down. Having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. The cure for division is by looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's made us one. Now, we're
not going to have division amongst ourselves. He's made the body
one. Then we saw self. All these men acting in self,
and it just brought near disaster on Israel. And again, this is
something every one of us can identify with. We all think pretty
highly of self, don't we? That's that old nature that's
in us. And it takes grace not to act in our self-interest.
And looking to Christ will enable us to do that. Just look to Christ
crucified. You talk about a selfless act.
Look at the Savior. Seeing Christ crucified will
enable us to have the attitude of John the Baptist. He wasn't
thinking in selfless. People came to him and said,
well, now, you know, this man that you introduced, you know,
to Israel, he's baptizing more people than you. He's got a bigger
following than you. And John said, that's good. That's
good. He must increase. I must decrease. He must increase and self must
decrease. Next we saw rebellion. And that's
all our old nature can do is rebel against God. The carnal
mind is enmity against God, for it's not subject to the law of
God. Neither indeed can be. Don't waste your time trying
to convince someone, their carnal mind, to accept the doctrines
of grace or to accept the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a waste of
time. It cannot be subject to the law of God. It can't be subject
to the grace of God. The only cure for our rebellious
nature is not changing that old nature. It's the new birth. It's
having Christ be formed in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's the only cure for rebellion.
That old nature, that's all it's ever going to do, is rebel. It's
not going to change, but it won't be in power anymore when the
new birth in Christ is formed in you. That's the cure for rebellion. Then we saw separation from God.
Those concubines of David were separated from him. They lived
in widowhood for the rest of their lives. And you know what
that's a picture of. When Adam fell, he was separated
from God. He's cast out of the garden.
And the whole human race was cast out of the garden with him.
Adam didn't walk in the cool of the evening with God any longer. He was separated from God. Then
the only cure, the only cure for separation from God is the
Lord Jesus Christ. We just read there in Ephesians
2. But now, in Christ Jesus, You who sometimes are far off
are made nigh. No more separation. You're made
nigh. You're brought close by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in Him. It's in His blood.
It's in His sacrifice. It's in His person. Christ is
the answer to our every need. Then we saw a lack of faith,
lack of loyalty in the men of Judah. And every believer can
identify the strength of our faith It's like a sound wave,
a sign wave. You want to know what the cure
for that is? You know, one moment you're confident,
and the next minute you're, oh, what am I going to eat? What
am I going to wear? You want to know what the cure for that is? Look to the Lord Jesus Christ,
the author and finisher of our faith. Our faith is strong when
we behold our Savior. Our faith is all in Him. It has
nothing to do with me. It's all in Him, what He's accomplished
for me. And our faith is strong when
we behold Him. Take our eye off of Him. Just
like Peter was saying, don't we? Peter walked on water as
long as he was looking at the Lord. He took his eye off. He sank. And last, we saw warfare. Wars will never cease. as long as there's sin in this
world. Till Christ returns, there will be war on this earth. We
will never have peace in our time. Just forget it. Sin will
not allow it. And here in our story, there
was a warfare, and it would have destroyed a whole city. The inheritance
of the Lord, this city, this chief city, the promised land,
would have been destroyed because of this warfare. Now when Adam
fell, all men Every single person who ever descended from the loins
of Adam was thrust under the condemnation of the law. Every
one of us had a death sentence hanging over our head because
of Adam's sin, even the Lord's inheritance. Even God's elect
had a price on their head that must be paid. Why wasn't the inheritance of
the Lord destroyed? The wisdom of God. That's why
he's the wisdom of God. Christ, our head, died as a substitute
for his people so the body could live. Now, that's counterintuitive
to natural wisdom, isn't it? Whatever you think is natural
wisdom, just turn it upside down and you'll probably find Christ
the wisdom of God. Naturally speaking, if you cut
off the head, the body dies. This man, Sheba, when they cut
off his head, he died. That's not the way it works in
salvation because of Christ, the wisdom of God. Christ, our
head, was cut off from his Father. He was cut off from the land
of the living so that all God's elect would be eternally united
to him. That's Christ, the wisdom of
God. No man could have ever thought that up. That's Christ, the wisdom
of God. That's how he saves his people.
That's how the inheritance of God is not destroyed. Can I tell you one more time?
Appeal. Go to Christ and find in Him
all you need. All right. Well, I hope the Lord
bless that to you.