Samuel chapter 16, the title
of our lesson is Tried in the Wilderness, Tried in the Wilderness. And I would like for us to look
at this passage in two ways. First, I want us to see a believer
tried, what we can learn from the trial of a believer that
we see here. And second, I want us to see the Lord Jesus Christ,
our substitute. tried in the wilderness, tried
in this very spot that David has tried many years later. So here in verse 1 of 2 Samuel
16, and when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold
Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him with a couple of asses
saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and a hundred
bunches of raisins, and a hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle
of wine. And the king said unto Ziba,
What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, the acids be for
the king's household to write on, and the bread and the summer
fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine that such as be
faint in the wilderness may drink. Now this is quite a gift Ziba
brought, isn't it? And you know, all this that he brought to David
probably belonged to Mephibosheth. One of the writers said, selfish
men are very generous at giving away the property of others.
So he brought this generous gift, but it probably all belonged
to Mephibosheth. And he's bringing this gift in
a time of chastisement. A time, this is God, is sending
this time of chastisement to David. And this is the first
thing we learn about trials. In the midst of a trial, even
in the midst of a time of chastisement, God also sends mercy. Ziba meant
this gift to accomplish an evil purpose. You know what his purpose
is in this. But God sent him as a mercy to
David. David could use this, even though
Ziba meant it for an evil purpose. David could use this gift to
feed the people that are with him, provide for these people
that left out of Jerusalem with him. Who knows what means God
will use? He could use ravens. He could
use an evil man. But the righteous shall not be
forsaken, nor will his seed beg bread. And the trials that believers
experience are always mixed with mercy. Look at verse 3. And the
king said, Where is thy master's son? And Ziba said unto the king,
Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem. For he said, Today shall the
house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father. Then said
the king to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertain unto Mephibosheth.
And Ziba said, I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in
thy sight, my lord, O king." Now Ziba comes bearing this gift,
and he just slanders Mephibosheth. He just slays his character.
His character is ruined in David's eyes because Ziba just slandered
him. Now that's hurtful. If anybody's
ever slandered your character, you know how hurtful this is.
And it's good advice that when we hear a story about someone,
hear both sides of the story before you make a snap judgment
about them. Matthew Henry said, God gave
us two ears. Use them to hear both sides of
the story. Many of you know Henry's policy. When someone would come
to him talking about someone else or what someone else did
or what someone else said, Henry said, oh, wait a minute, let's
get them on the phone and we'll just hear both sides of this
at the same time. And that generally quieted things down. Well, there's
a lot of wisdom there. Hear both sides of the story
before you make a snap judgment, because David's going to be sorry
for this decision later on. We'll see that here in a minute.
But this is the second thing that we can learn about trials.
Don't always judge God's love and His favor by material blessings. Ziba lied on Mephibosheth, didn't
he? And David took away every earthly possession that Mephibosheth
had. It was gone. stroke of a pen
or just this one sentence. Now, that hurts, too. I mean,
you know, I know material possessions, you know, aren't to be all and
end all, but not to lose everything you have. That hurts. Now, look
over in 2 Samuel 19. Here's when David returns to
Jerusalem. He's assuming the throne again. In chapter 19, look at verse
24. And Mephibosheth, the son of
Saul, came down to meet the king, and neither dressed his feet,
nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the
king departed until he came again in peace. And it came to pass,
when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king
said unto him, Wherefore wentest not thou with me, Mephibosheth?
And he answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived me, for thy
servant said, I will saddle me an ass, that I may ride thereon,
and go to the king. because thy servant is lame,
and he has slandered thy servant unto my lord the king. But my
lord the king is as an angel of God. Do therefore what is
good in thine eyes, for all my father's house were but dead
men before my lord the king. Yet didst thou set thy servant
among them that did eat at thine own table. What right, therefore,
have I yet to cry any more unto the king? And the king said unto
him, Why speakest thou any more of thy I have said thou and Ziba
divide the land." Now, Mephibosheth still lost half of everything
he had. Lost half of it. He didn't care. It didn't bother him one bit
because Mephibosheth loved David. He didn't love the things that
David could give him. He didn't love the blessings
that David could give him. He loved David. Ziba loved the possessions. He
loved the possessions and this is the last we ever hear of Ziba
in chapter 19. We never hear from him again.
Don't know what happened to him because he's not important. He
wasn't important to David. Ziba ended up with more stuff
than Mephibosheth because he had everything he had plus half
of what everything belonged to Mephibosheth. He ended up with
more stuff than Mephibosheth had but he wasn't important to
David. still provided for and took care
of and loved Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth still ate at the
king's table as one of the king's sons. We hear from Mephibosheth
again. We know what happened to Mephibosheth. There comes
a time, David saves Mephibosheth's life again. Justice came calling. David saved his life. Ziba had
more stuff, but who did David love? He loved Mephibosheth for
Jonathan's sake. You can't always judge God's
love in His favor by material blessings. Now look at verse
5 in our text. It goes on here, And when King
David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the
family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son
of Gerab. He came forth and cursed, still
as he came. And he cast stones at David,
and all the servants of King David, and all the people and
all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. This is serious business. But
I have to tell you, in my mind's eye, when I picture Shimei, I
picture Ernest T. Bass. Just a crazy man coming,
throwing rocks. If you're of a certain age, you
know who Ernest T. Bass is. Just a crazy man throwing
rocks. And probably he's about as harmless
as Ernest T. Bass. He's just a crazy man.
So this is, you know, this crazy man running around throwing rocks
and dust. You know, they probably never hit him, but he's throwing
them all the time, you know. In verse 7, thus says Shimei
when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou
man of Belial. The Lord hath returned upon thee
all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast
reigned. And the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of
Absalom thy son. And, behold, thou art taken in
thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man. Now here's the
third thing we learn about trials. Don't assume you know why the
Lord sent a trial to someone. Really, we ought not assume we
know why the Lord's doing anything he's doing. He knows, but we
don't. Shimei hates David. I mean, he
just hates him. Shimei's related to Saul, and
he sees David as taking away, you know, things that belong
to Saul. He's from Saul's tribe. Where he lives, where this place
where David is going through is Saul's hometown. This is his
old stomping ground. And Shimei assumes that the Lord
has sent this trial to David because the Lord is mad at David
for the same reason Shimei is mad at David. He just assumes
that. And he says, see, this trial is happening to this person
that I hate because the Lord's avenging me. The Lord's doing
this for my sake. But now David is completely innocent
of everything Shimei accuses him of. Every reason that Shimei
is mad at David is unfounded. David didn't do any of these
things that Shimei is accusing him of. David didn't destroy
Saul or Saul's house. Somebody like Shimei, the truth
doesn't matter. This is not a hidden truth. Twice,
David could have killed Saul and he would not put forth his
hand to touch the Lord's anointing. And when Saul did die, what did
David do? He very publicly mourned, and
he killed the man who killed Saul. He didn't kill Saul. He
didn't destroy him, and he certainly didn't destroy Saul's house.
You remember Saul's son, Ish-bosheth. He reigned in Saul's stead. And
those two men came and snuck in and cut his head off and brought
his head to David and said, Here is how the Lord has delivered
the kingdom into your hand. David put him to death. He did
not want anything to do with anyone that would destroy Saul's
house. And when he did take the throne
and he could have wiped out Saul's house, what did he do? He said,
is there any left of the house of Saul that I might show them
mercy for Jonathan's sake? And he saved Mephibosheth alive,
put him at the king's table. He didn't destroy Saul's house.
He preserved it. That's not why the Lord sent
this trial. But David is still guilty of murder. He didn't destroy
Saul, but he's still guilty of murdering Uriah. He murdered
Uriah. And we just never know why the
Lord may send a trial to someone who knows what God's purpose
is in everything He's doing. We may not know what God's purpose
is in something, but we can learn this. What is our attitude to
be in trial? What should the believer's attitude
be in trial? Well, here's what it is in verse
9. Then said Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, unto the king, Why
should this dead dog curse my lord, the king? Let me go over,
I pray thee, and take off his head. And the king said, What
have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? Let him curse, because
the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say,
Wherefore hast thou done so? And David said to Abishai, and
all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth out of
my bowels, seeketh my life. How much more now may this Benjamite
do it? Let him alone, and let him curse,
for the Lord hath It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction
and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this
day. And as David and his men went by the way, Shimei went
along on the hillside over against them and cursed as he went and
threw stones at him and cast dust." Just trying to throw dust
on him. What a crazy man. Now this is
a bad day. I mean, he's having a bad day. Can the Lord bring good out of
this somehow? David seemed to think he would. Not only that
the Lord was able to bring good out of it, but David seemed to
think the Lord would bring good out of this some way, somehow
the Lord's able. Because David knows this about
this trial. The Lord sent it. And every trial,
every believer experiences is a trial that the Lord sent. This
is not an accidental, the Lord sent this trial for a purpose.
And that's a lot of comfort to a child of God. This isn't accidental.
The Lord sent this. And we look at our trials and
say, why? I don't see any love in this. This is hurtful. I don't see
God's love in this. But I know there's divine love
in it. I know it. When our girls were
little and Chant and I were raising them, raising our family, Being
parents was very, very important to us. We put a lot of prayer
and energy and thought into it. And I thought everything I did
was right, you know, at the time. But I made mistakes. But even
though I made mistakes, I can tell you this, whether I was
right or wrong, there was love in it. And what we did, there
was love in it. Our Heavenly Father is perfect. He's perfect in wisdom. He never
makes a mistake. And He's perfect in love. All
of his dealings with his children are directed by divine love. And I know this about trials.
This is about myself. I never see the necessity of
them. I don't see that this trial is necessary. Now, I can look
back on the trials I've experienced and say, boy, that was necessary.
I needed that. I needed to learn that. But in
the midst of it, I don't see that it's necessary. But I know
it is. Because everything our Father
does with His children is right and it's necessary. He's not
wasting His time. It's right and it's necessary.
When trials come upon me, I don't see the benefit in them. But
I know our Heavenly Father never sends a barren trial. They always
bear fruit. He teaches us what He would have
us to learn. And when trials come upon us,
We don't see the wisdom in it. I mean, let's just be honest.
We don't see the wisdom in it. But I know the hand of wisdom
is directing it, so I know it's wise. Even if I don't see the
wisdom in it, I know it's wise. And that's what David's saying.
Let Shimei alone, because God's hand's directing this. There's
love, there's wisdom, and there's purpose behind it. This is necessary. Just let him alone. If God's
hand's in it, and it is, Then there's good in it for me. Somewhere
there's good in it for me. As Persians said, it's far easier
to preach this than to practice it. And he's right. It's a whole
lot easier to preach this than to really practice it. But now
we know it's so, don't we? We do. And I can get a good idea. We know what the right attitude
is in trial. And I know where it comes from.
It comes from our Lord, from our Lord Jesus. Look over at
John 18. Abishai is just like Peter. He
wanted to do what Peter tried to do. In John 18, verse 10. It is Simon Peter having a sword. He drew it and smote the high
priest servant and cut off his right ear. He is aiming for his
head. His goal was to take off that man's head and got his ear.
The servant's name is Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put
up thy sword into the sheath, the cup which my father hath
given me. Shall I not drink it? And you know as our Lord did
not say, this cup that this mob gives me, shall I not drink it?
He didn't say the cup that Caiaphas gives me or the cup that Pilate
gives me. He said the cup my father gives me. Shall I not
drink it? And he did, didn't he? He drank
it dry. Every last drop of God's justice. He drank it dry. It was the cup
that his father gave him. Well, maybe, Lord, give us the
grace to follow that example and suffer our trials in the
same way, knowing this is the trial that my father sent me. Look over at 1 Peter 2. I think Peter might have learned
this lesson. Because years later, this is what he wrote in 1 Peter
2. Verse 23, Who, when he was reviled,
reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. And our attitude in trial, I'm
confident, would be much better if we would commit ourselves
to him who judgeth righteously. Knowing this trial is from our
Heavenly Father, then there's good in it. And let me give you
this Warning, too, about trials. Trials are not always a horrible
thing that happens to us. Not always. Could be it's something
that's perceived as a blessing. Could be that it's plenty or
success or something like that's in our way. David, he held up
real well under Shimei's curses, didn't he? That's the right attitude. He completely failed under Ziba's
flattery. Blessing came his way, he failed.
Both were trials. Could be that a trial, not necessarily
just something that's horrible, but some plenty that the Lord
may send our way to try our faith. Robert Hawker said, the world's
smiles are more dangerous than its frowns. You just don't know. We always think of a trial as
a horrible thing, but it could be the world's smiles. Could
be. Well, here's the fifth thing we learn about trials. We learn
where refreshing is found. Look at verse 14 back in our
text. And the king and all the people that were with him came
weary and refreshed themselves there. Now, during a time of
trial, God does give times of refreshing, doesn't he? It may
not be the end of the trial yet, but he gives times of refreshing.
I can tell you where that time of refreshing will always be.
You'll be in his word. This is where the times of refreshing
are found. So make it your practice to read
God's word. This is where the refreshing
is found. Make it your practice to read it. Make it your business
to be where his word is preached, because this is where times of
refreshing come from. This is how God feeds his people
the bread of life and how he gives his people a drink of the
water of life. It's from His Word. And sixth,
this is the last thing we learn about trial. No matter what it
is that I'm suffering, it's far less than I deserve because Christ
was punished for my sins. There's a lot of similarities
in this story between David's time of suffering and our Lord's
time of suffering on this very same soil so many years later. First, all the lies and the false
accusations that were going around. Very similar, isn't it? Ziba
comes and lies on Mephibosheth. Shimei comes and falsely accuses
David. Sound like anybody else you know?
This is the exact thing that happened to our Savior. And this
is something that every believer will face. And if you don't face
it from men, you'll certainly face it from Satan. He's the
accuser of the brethren and the father of a lie. So don't be
surprised when there are false accusations. Shimei falsely accuses
David. David didn't have anything to
do with the death of Saul. But he was guilty of murder.
He was falsely accused, yet he was guilty. And that's our Lord. He was falsely accused. Look
over Matthew 26. He was falsely accused of blasphemy. He was falsely accused of sedition. And these men didn't make any
pretense about the fact we're going to lie on him. We're going
to find false accusation against him. In Matthew 26, verse 59. Now, the chief priests and the
elders and all the council, these are the religious leaders in
Israel. These are the men of piety. They're the leaders. What did
they do? They sought false witness against
Jesus to put him to death. They wanted to put him to death,
so they just sought false witness. It didn't matter the scriptures
that they read every day said, thou shalt not lie. They just
sought false witness. They made no pretense about the
matter. But look at verse 60, they found none. Though many
false witnesses came, yet they found none that would agree. They couldn't find anybody to
tell the same lie. Many people are willing to come
tell a lie, but they couldn't find anybody to tell the same
lie. And if you're going to put somebody to death, you've got
to have two or three witnesses. They couldn't find anybody to tell
the same lie. And at the last, came two false
witnesses. And they said, this fellow said,
I'm able to destroy the temple of God and build it in three
days. Well, now you know he didn't say that. And you know the whole
story there, we won't go into that, but the point is how they
sought false accusation, false witness against our Lord. And
every accusation they threw at Him was false. Yet our Savior
was guilty. He was guilty because the Father
made Him to be guilty of all the sins of His people. And as
our Lord stood there falsely accused, never one time that
he defend himself. Not once, Earl. He was guilty of my sin. He was
guilty of my sedition. He was guilty of my blasphemy.
He was guilty of my lying. He was guilty because God made
him guilty of my sin, of your sin, of the sin of his people.
He was never a sinner, but he was made guilty. He was made
to be sin for his people. And that's why our trials are
never punishment for our sin. Ever. Because Christ our substitute
was punished for all the sin of his people. And brethren,
they're gone. Those sins are gone. God can't
punish you for something that doesn't exist. Those sins are
gone. Now as a wise, loving father,
he'll chastise his children But never will he punish them, because
his justice was satisfied on our substitute, on the sinner's
substitute. The second similarity is in verse
7 in our text. David is called a man of Belial,
a wicked, evil man. If you look over Mark chapter
3, our Lord was accused of the very same thing. He was accused
of being in league with Satan. The Son of God accused of being
in league with Satan. Look at Mark chapter 3, and the scribes which came down
from Jerusalem said, He hath fields above, and by the prince
of the devils casteth he out devils. And he called them unto
him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom be divided against
itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against
itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against
himself and be divided, he cannot stand but have an end. You know,
these accusations, they don't have to make sense. They just,
you know, throw the worst thing they can think out there. They
don't have to make sense. But in this way, they make sense.
Every one of God's children at one time were children of disobedience
under the power of the prince of the power of the air. Well,
then how can we? Be set free from that power,
from that dominion. Because one more powerful came.
That's what our Lord says in verse 27. No man can enter into
a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he will first
bind the strong man. Then he'll spoil his house. And
that's what our Savior did. He came and he bound that strong
man, the one who held us in the grip of his power, and cast him
out and spoiled his goods. Took home his possessions. Third,
the third similarity here, both David and our Lord were attacked
by dogs. Abishai was right. Shimei is
a dog. He ought to have his head cut
off. And he is making David have a bad day. How much worse were
the sufferings of our Savior when he came to this very place
many years later. In Psalm 22, he said, dogs compass
me about. The wicked have enclosed me.
that pierced my hands and feet. He was attacked by dogs and gave
himself willingly to that suffering for his people. The core similarity,
men acted in their hatred for both David and hatred for our
Lord. And it was their hatred that
drove them to do these wicked things that they did. But they
are carrying out God's purpose all along. Men did exactly what
their wicked hearts desired to do when they put our Savior to
death. But this was not an act of men.
This was an act of God. Yes, they nailed Him to the cross,
but it was the Father that executed judgment and took the life of
His Son because He made His Son to be a curse for His people.
And He bore that curse away. Men didn't put Him to death.
The Father put Him to death. is an act of God's justice. It's
not an act of man at all. It's an act of God's justice.
And David said, this man Shimei, he's nothing. This is not the
worst of my suffering. The worst of my suffering is
that my own son, who came forth out of my own bowels, the son
who's in my heart that I love, he's seeking my life. Shimei
is nothing compared to that. Couldn't our Lord have said the
exact same thing? My worst suffering is not the
hands of this mob. My worst suffering is not the
humiliation here in front of men. My worst suffering is that
I suffer justice at the hands of my Father who will take my
life because He made me to be seen. That's His worst suffering.
The rest of this is nothing compared to that. And yet our Savior,
knowing the suffering that He would endure was intent on going
to the cross. He set his face like a flint
toward Jerusalem and would not be deterred from going there.
He would not be deterred from suffering death to accomplish
the eternal salvation of his people. And when Peter suggested
he not go, what did our Lord tell Peter? Get thee behind me,
Satan. Boy, that seems strong, doesn't
it? Get thee behind me, Satan. Isn't that similar to what David
tells Abishai? What have I to do with you, ye
sons of Zeruiah? That's his sister. What have
I to do with you? This suffering is to accomplish
God's eternal purpose of saving his people from their sins. And
the last similarity, the father did requite good for the suffering
of David and for the son of David. Now, we know the end of David.
He comes back to Jerusalem and assumes a throne. But you just
look at the scene at Calvary. The whole scene, everything,
what led up to it. From when Judas betrayed our
Lord. He went to the Pharisees. He sought money. What will you
give me? You know, that I deliver him to you. Then Judas left the
Lord. The Lord instituted the Lord's
table the last Passover. And he left that and went and
betrayed our Lord. Led that mob to him to take him. Look at our Lord standing in
that Those wicked, wicked men seeking false witness against
him. This mock trial they're holding in the middle of the
night under the cover of darkness because they're ashamed that
the rest of Israel know what they're doing. They're afraid
of the people. You know, they're doing it under the cover of darkness.
Then them delivering him into the hands of those Roman soldiers
who tortured him and beat him and just made fun of him. To
his humiliation, standing before that worm, Pilate, and his agony. on the cross. This scene is so
horrible, the Son refused to shine on God's creation because
this is so horrible. Now is God going to bring good
out of that? Oh, my soul! He is accomplishing the salvation
of His people in this awful, horrible scene. Yes, He did requite
His Son good for His sufferings. The Father was well pleased with
He was made a curse for his people, and he bore that curse away.
The Father was pleased with it and requited him good, exalted
him to the throne of glory, his right hand. And the Father requited
his people good because of the suffering of our Lord. Our Lord
was made to bear the curse that we're under. And brethren, those
in Christ Jesus are no longer under that curse. at all, in
any way, shape, size, or form. We're not under that curse because
Christ our Savior bore it away. Now, understanding that truth
helps put the trials of this life in perspective. It puts
them in perspective. It doesn't take the pain away.
It doesn't take the sting away. It doesn't take the sorrow away.
But it puts it in perspective, doesn't it? It puts it in perspective
all because of the suffering that our Savior endured for His
people. And we're a thankful people.
Thankful. Even in times of trial, we're thankful. Well, I hope
the Lord blessed that to you.