2 Samuel chapter 19 from verse
1 through to verse 20. And it was told Joab, Behold,
the king weepeth and mourneth for Absalom. And the victory
that day was turned into mourning unto all the people. For the
people heard say that day how the king was grieved for his
son. And the people gat them by stealth
that day into the city, As people, being ashamed, steal away when
they flee in battle. But the king covered his face,
and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom,
my son, my son! And Joab came into the house
to the king, and said, Thou hast shamed this day the faces of
all thy servants, which this day have saved thy life, and
the lives of thy sons, and of thy daughters, and the lives
of thy wives, and the lives of thy concubines, in that thou
lovest thine enemies, and hatest thy friends. For thou hast declared
this day, that thou regardest neither princes nor servants. For this day I perceive that
if Absalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it
had pleased thee well. Now therefore, arise, go forth
and speak comfortably unto thy servants, for I swear by the
Lord, if thou go not forth, there will not tarry one with thee
this night, and that will be worse unto thee than all the
evil that befell thee from thy youth until now. Then the king
arose and sat in the gate, and they told unto all the people,
saying, Behold, the king doth sit in the gate. And all the
people came before the king, for Israel had fled every man
to his tent. And all the people were at strife
throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king saved
us out of the hand of our enemies, and he delivered us out of the
hand of the Philistines. And now he is fled out of the
land for Absalom. And Absalom, whom we anointed
over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore, why speak ye not
a word of bringing the king back? And King David sent to Zadok
and to Abiathar the priests, saying, Speak unto the elders
of Judah, saying, Why are ye the last to bring the king back
to his house, seeing the speech of all Israel is come to the
king, even to his house? Ye are my brethren, ye are my
bones and my flesh. Wherefore then are ye the last
to bring back the king? And say ye to Amasa, Art thou
not of my bone and of my flesh? God do so to me and more also,
if thou be not captain of the host before me continually in
the room of Joab. And he bowed the heart of all
the men of Judah, even as the heart of one man, so that they
sent this word unto the king, Return thou and all thy servants. So the king returned and came
to Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to go to meet the king,
to conduct the king over Jordan. And Shimei, the son of Gerah
a Benjamite, which was of Bahurim, hasted and came down with the
men of Judah to meet King David. And there were a thousand men
of Benjamin with him, and Zeba the servant of the house of Saul,
and his fifteen sons and twenty servants with him, and they went
over Jordan before the king. and there went over a ferry boat
to carry over the king's household and to do what he thought good.
And Shimei, the son of Gerah, fell down before the king, as
he was come over Jordan, and said unto the king, Let not my
lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember that
which thy servant did perversely the day that my lord the king
went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart. For thy servant doth know that
I have sinned. Therefore, behold, I am come
the first this day of all the house of Joseph to go down to
meet my Lord the King. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. So here today we have the account
of David's return to Jerusalem and the popular request from
the house of Israel and the house of Judah, different groups of
tribes, to have David restored in Jerusalem as the king of Israel. Now this is a long chapter. It
begins with David continuing this excessive mourning that
he had fallen into for Absalom, his son. You'll remember that
Absalom had raised a rebellion against David. He had caused
David to flee out of Jerusalem. He had installed himself in Jerusalem
and now he was come out to battle against the king. And in that
battle, do you remember what happened to him? His mule ran
through a wooded area. He was entangled in the trees. His ass ran away from underneath
him and he was left suspended, hanging from the tree. And there,
Joab found him and killed him. So David was mourning for Absalom's
death and he had to be rebuked and corrected by Joab for this
excessive weeping. Indeed, Joab threatens that David
will lose his army and his throne if he continues in this attitude. David's grief was proving to
be an embarrassment. Because the people seemed confused
and unsure what to do and how to respond as David shunned his
role of leadership and guidance and direction in the nation. That's how the chapter begins.
It ends with David's return to Jerusalem. It ends with him pardoning
his enemies. and yet struggling to unite the
two parts of his nation. The men of Judah and the men
of the other tribes of Israel still were contesting together. And what we draw from this is
that Israel is now in a mess. It had become a real, mess during
these later years of David's life. The people had become rebellious
and unhappy and discontent. They had become suspicious and
over jealous of their own self-interest. so that God's promise that the
sword shall never depart from the house of David had been realized
and come true. Learning of David's victory and
Absalom's death and the failure of the rebellion, the men of
Israel were the first to move to bring David back to Jerusalem. And Judah, David's own tribe,
who had early supported Absalom in his rebellion, they seemed
less sure about inviting David back. No doubt they were expecting
that many of them could be punished for their disloyalty. However,
we find that David sent emissaries to these men, asking them to
join with the rest of Israel in bringing him back as king,
to which they agreed. And he made one key offer to
this man called Amasa. Amasa was the general of Absalom's
army. And David suggested to Amasa
that he would become general and replace Joab over the combined
armies of Judah and Israel in David's, as it were, his second
or his continued reign. And it seems likely that David
blamed Joab for the death of Absalom, and felt perhaps that
in this rebuke that he gave to David about his conduct in mourning
for Absalom, that Joab had taken too much power and presence to
himself. David therefore made his preparations
to return. He crossed over Jordan with his
household, using a ferry boat of all things, whatever that
might have entailed. And a number of individuals are
mentioned to us in this chapter as well. People that we met in
recent chapters, people who either helped or hurt David in his flight
from Jerusalem when the rebellion began. We meet with Shimei, you
remember he was the man who walked along the procession of David
and his family and his soldiers, throwing dust and shouting abuse
at David. And now he comes pleading for
mercy. Ziba the servant of Saul and
Mephibosheth who helped David but deceived the king with regard
to David's friend Mephibosheth. And a man called Barzilla who
amongst others had protected and fed the king and his household
while they were separated and on the other side of Jordan.
And David dealt graciously and wisely with them all, recompensing
some for the good that they had done and forgiving others for
the evil that they had committed against him. And in doing so,
David made it clear that he considered the influence of Joab and his
brother Abishai to be coming to an end. They had led David's
armies. They had loyally fought for him
all their lives. Still, it seemed that David had
come to the end of his patience with them. And we also find at
the end of the chapter that trouble arose between the men of Israel
and Judah concerning the restoration of the king. And this sowed the
seeds of yet another rebellion in the days that lay ahead. We'll come to that another time. There are a few lessons that
I want to draw from this passage. And the first one is this. Joab's
rebuke to David because of his mourning, his excessive mourning,
I think is interesting. David was restored the king of
Israel by this victory. The rebellion had been put down
and plans were beginning to be made to restore the king to his
rightful place in Jerusalem. However, David seems to have
been in no fit state emotionally and mentally, and perhaps spiritually,
to assume his duties. He'd become overwhelmed by the
death of Absalom, whom he loved, and it was left to Joab to sharply
rebuke David and to shake him into action and refocus the king's
attention on matters that needed his care. And I want us to apply
that to ourselves because sometimes we need a joab to shake us out
of our spiritual coldness and indifference. Joab's words might
have seemed harsh, but they were honest, they were rousing, and
they were true. Would you be able to take such
a rebuke if it was brought by someone to you for a way in which
your conduct required to be changed or altered? Would you be able
to take such a rebuke to yourself? Or would you say instead, how
dare you speak to me like that? Who do you think you are? Sometimes in church life, sometimes
in our Christian walk, we can become cold towards the Lord
and we can become lazy as far as worship and fellowship is
concerned. We can drift away from the Lord.
We don't have the passion that we once had for the things of
God. We get careless about attending
services. We get indifferent about prayer
and reading our Bibles. We become unconcerned about fellowship
with the Lord's people. And that ought not to be. We
need to be told so if that is what is happening in our lives.
And if we are the Lord's people, Our Savior will not allow this
to continue. Our Savior will shake us up. Our Savior will speak sharply
to us and refocus our thoughts on the matters that are most
important in our spiritual lives. Sometimes when a preacher is
being faithful to the needs of his congregation, someone feels
slighted, or their feathers get ruffled, or they become offended
at what has been said, and they take the hump, and they decide
to find a new church and a new preacher who will appreciate
them more. Well, here's a word of advice.
If you ever feel that a faithful preacher is getting at you in
what he says, then don't go off in the huff. Take the rebuke. If the hat fits, wear it. It is in such ways that the Lord
steers his people back to himself. And let me tell you, if you ignore
God's whispers, in time you will have to deal with his shouts. Here's another application that
we find here. It seems strange to me that David
should promote this man, Amasa, a rebel general in Absalom's
army, above Joab. It seems strange to me that he
would do that. Joab had been a loyal servant. He had been loyal to a fault
towards David all his life. Perhaps it was that he learned
that Absalom had died at Joab's hand, and this was too much for
David to bear. And yet once again, I think here
is a lesson about our personal loyalty as well. David may have
had concerns about Joab's service, but Joab had proved faithful
to David. and a faithful minister, a faithful
servant of God is a great blessing from the Lord to his church. If the Lord gives us a preacher
who labors in the word and doctrine on our behalf, then Paul says
they are worthy of double honor. And I say to the young people,
but not just to the young people, to the older ones who are listening
as well, be careful of listening to someone else who may be a
fine general, who may be able to speak well and convey and
communicate well the message that they have, but in their
doctrine, They have proved to be no more than a rebel against
the Lord. David, in doing this with Amasa
and putting down Joab and putting Amasa up in his place, he likely
thought that he was being clever. A general from Absalom's army
would solidify both the armies again. And I imagine that Amasa
was a younger, more attractive man. But this was not God's will,
as we shall see. So here is my advice to you,
young people and others. Be careful who you listen to
for doctrine and ministry. Don't just go somewhere because
it seems suitable to do so. Sometimes you hear people saying,
I worship there because they've got great children's work, or
they've got great young people's work, or I go there because they've
great music, or I attend there because there's a girl or a boy
that I'm interested in dating. Rather, ask yourself this question. What is good for my soul? And where will my soul best be
fed? And here's my last point, just
a quick word about forgiveness. David was quick to forgive his
enemies. Shimei was chief among them.
Abishai still wanted to kill him for his insults against the
king. But David was a man who had known
personally the forgiveness of God. And perhaps this is the
reason that he was in turn generous and forgiving. Justice demanded
that Shimei should die and Abishai demanded his death. But David
instead took the offence and graciously forgave the offender. And this reminds us that God
also has done this for his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
have offended and rebelled against the Lord, but there is forgiveness
in Christ. God does not ignore the offence,
but he takes the punishment himself and he removes our guilt from
us. God's forgiveness is not arbitrary
for all people. It is specific and it is particular. Those God loved, Christ died
for. And those Christ died for, God
forgives. May we all come to know God's
forgiveness in Jesus Christ, who are listening to my words
today. And may that experience make us, in turn, forgiving to
one another. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.