2 Samuel chapter 16 and reading
from verse 1. And when David was a little past
the top of the hill, this is the Mount of Olives just outside
Jerusalem. 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. It was probably a very
big bottle, perhaps a cask of wine. And the king said unto
Ziba, What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, the asses be for
the king's household to ride on, and the bread and summer
fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine that such as be
faint in the wilderness may drink. And the king said, and 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 pertaineth unto
Mephibosheth. And Ziba said, I humbly beseech
thee that I may find grace in thy sight, my lord, O king. And when King David came to Behurim,
behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of
Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah. He came forth
and cursed still as he came, and he cast stones at David and
at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the
mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And thus
said 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. 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? So 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
to all his servants, Behold, my son which came forth 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 bidden him. It may be that the Lord will
look on mine affliction, 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 hill's side over against
him, and cursed him as he went, and threw stones at him, and
cast dust. And the king and all the people
that were with him came weary and refreshed themselves there. There is probably Bahuram, which
was the little town out of which Shimei had come. And I like the
little marginal reading of verse 13, where it said that Shimei
cursed as he went and threw stones at him and cast dust. Or the margin reading there is,
dusted him with dust. So David got dusted as he was
going along the road because of this man Shimei. The history of David's flight
from Jerusalem to where he was going, where he hoped to find
some sanctuary in Gilead. We haven't come to that part
yet, but that's where he's heading. The history of his flight out
of Jerusalem and also of Absalom's entrance into the city of Jerusalem
is what this chapter speaks about. And what it does appear is that
the time between David escaping from the city and Absalom arriving
at the city was indeed very short. It appears as if, had David not
left the city when he did, with such rush and in such haste,
then he and his family would have been overtaken by Absalom
and his army and those who supported him in his rebellion. As David
and his procession passed over the Mount of Olives, because
it seems as if that is the mountain that is being spoken about, that
was the mountain that David was on at the end of the last chapter.
As he passes over the top, the king meets a man called Ziba. Now we've met Ziba before, we
know who Ziba is. Ziba was a servant of Saul and
Ziba was the one who told David that there yet was a member of
Jonathan's house, Jonathan's family that was still alive. And you remember a number of,
well, it might be a few months ago now, that we spoke about
Mephibosheth, who was lame on his feet, coming into David's court. And there he was invited
to sit at David's table and was cared for in the court of David. So the king meets with Ziba and
Ziba is now the servant of Mephibosheth although David still refers to
him as the servant of Saul and Mephibosheth is his master. So here we have Mephibosheth
being spoken about, the lame son of Jonathan, and David of
course had shown his kindness to Mephibosheth for Jonathan's
sake. And Ziba comes to David with
two asses and some provisions of food and wine. And it appears
to be an act of kindness. But Ziba is a deceitful man and
in fact his apparent kindness hid a dark betrayal. David asked Ziba where his master
was and Ziba told him that Mephibosheth had chosen to remain in Jerusalem
hoping when Absalom arrived with an army of Israelites hoping
to be recognized as the rightful king in Israel. And hearing this,
David at once confiscated Mephibosheth's property and gave it to Ziba. But Ziba's story was a complete
lie. And what seems rather to have
happened is that lame Mephibosheth was too slow to get out of the
city, too crippled to get onto the ass and to follow David,
and rather than help his master escape, Ziba had ridden off without
him. It is unfortunate that David
was so quick to believe Ziba without hearing Mephibosheth's
side of the story. Something that is worth remembering.
There are usually, if not always, two sides to every story. Let us be careful not to jump
to conclusions when we've only heard one side. The next person
that David meets is a man called Shimei. And he was a Benjamite. That means he was from the tribe
of Benjamin, which was the same as the tribe of Saul. And he
was loyal to Saul's memory and loyal to, as it were, the dynasty
of Saul. He was a strong supporter of
the old kingdom of Saul, which shows that there was still a
remaining sense of anger and resentment in the country about
David's reign, despite of all the prosperity and riches and
indeed peace that David had brought to the land, there was still
this resentment, perhaps because of the supremacy of Judah over
the other tribes. But this mutual dislike and distrust
was likely to be a large part fueling this rebellion. And in
fact, it never truly disappeared from Israel, from amongst the
12 tribes. And in years to come, it would
lead to the breakup of the Davidic kingdom after the death of Solomon. Shimei. was a Benjamite, he was
loyal to Saul's memory. And he came out of this Bahurim
and he came and he shouted and he cursed and he swore at David. He was very disrespectful to
David and his entourage, the group of people who followed
him. He seems to have been quite careless about his own life in
this matter. And he threw dust in the air
and he hurled stones and curses at David. He shouted, come out,
come out. Or maybe that should be, get
out, get out, as if he was telling him to get out of the country
as quickly as he could because he had no more place in the country
of Israel. What the words say is, come out,
come out, you bloody man and you son of Belial. None of the stones hit David,
I don't think. Probably Shimei was too far away
for that. But his disdain and his scorn
for David was obvious. He told David that Absalom was
giving the king a taste of his own medicine. And he compared
Absalom's betrayal to what David had done to Saul. None of which was true. In fact,
it was all in the opposite direction. All the things that Shimei accused
David of doing to Saul were the things that Saul had done to
David. That's not how Shimei saw the
matter, which takes us back to each story having two sides.
One of David's soldiers, a man called Abishai, we've met him
before as well. He was Joab's brother. He asked
permission of David to go and cut off Shimei's head for his
disloyalty and his insolence. But David stopped him. David's
thoughts, David's grief was for the rebellion of Absalom. And rather have Shimei slain,
he chose to endure the mockery of this little man as being easier
to bear than his son's mutiny. Furthermore, David interpreted
Shimei's rebuke as coming from the Lord. Not that the Lord cursed
David, but that he permitted Shimei to do so for David's shame. The responsibility for the way
that Shimei acted and spoke was Shimei's. He would be held accountable
for that. But the Lord permitted it to
happen. And it appears that David composed
Psalm 3 at this time. We're told that he composed it
as he was fleeing from Absalom. And in that Psalm, David brings
his troubles to the Lord. And he says, Lord, how are they
increased that trouble me? Many are they that rise up against
me, many there be which say of my soul, there is no help for
him in God. And I think that there's a lesson
here for us all that might benefit us all from receiving. Both Ziba
and Shimei troubled David. Ziba deceived him for his own
gain in a time of David's extreme trouble, and Shimei aggravated
David's discomfort with rants and curses as David traveled
along the road. And yet both men served David
in the providence and overruling purpose of God. Ziba thought
he was being very clever by making an approach to David and saying
what he did and gaining the pleasure and the goodwill of David. But
Ziba brought provision of food and wine and asses, which David
benefited from and by which his family was sustained on their
journey. So while Ziba thought that he
was Benefiting from deceiving David, actually Ziba's actions
did David some good and the Lord providentially eased the burden
and the trial of David's journey by the actions of this dishonest
man Ziba. Shimei also brought a renewed
sense of humiliation to David, for while every word that Shimei
leveled at David was a lie, and actually applied more to Saul
than David as we've seen, yet David's sensitive spirit was
motivated to plead his case for mercy once again before the Lord. so that neither of these experiences
in themselves were pleasant. And yet by them, both physically
and spiritually, the Lord made sure his servant, the man who
was after his own heart, the man who he loved, was cared for
and provided for and preserved in his time of trouble. Ziba
used David. Shimei abused him. But the Lord made the malice
of both to work for the good of his servant. In the Lord's
hand, even enemies of the church and people of God cannot help
but do us good. And David trusted the Lord for
this. He believed that the Lord would
be his shield, and he was. David left applying justice and
giving judgment in the hands of God. David said, it may be
that the Lord will look on mine affliction and that the Lord
will requite or the Lord will return or the Lord will repay
me good for Shimei's cursing this day. And indeed, that is
what the Lord did. And then just lastly, I want
to mention Absalom's entry into Jerusalem and the presence there
in the city of Jerusalem of two men with Absalom. A man called
Ahithophel and a man called Hushai. Ahithophel was an able but a
devious counsellor and politician. He had served David, but he was
happy to sell his wisdom to the highest bidder. Hushai, on the
other hand, was David's friend, and he was loyal to David. And
he remained at court as a spy, hoping to protect David from
the viciousness of David's enemies and particularly from Absalom's
anger. The rebellion which Absalom headed
up, this rebellion had grown very quickly and Ahithophel realised
that it was important to cement it and to bolster Absalom's hand
against David. He was a bit concerned that now
that Absalom was in Jerusalem, maybe he would just forget about
David and the rebellion would just sort of fade away. So Ahithophel
wanted Absalom to do something that would convince the people
that Absalom could be trusted to lead them against David and
ultimately overthrow David. As far as Ahithophil was concerned,
he had a plan that Absalom would do something so offensive, so
outrageous, that there would be no possibility of reconciliation
despite David and Absalom being father and son. So he recommended
to Absalom that he should shame David publicly by abusing and
defiling the 10 concubine wives that David had left in the city
to look after the palace. And that is what Absalom wantonly
did. The offence that Amnon had inflicted
on Tamar was here effectively repeated and aggravated by Absalom. But note this, here too, the
overruling hand of God is to be traced. God had told David
by Nathan the prophet that this very thing would occur. Ahithophel's
bad advice and Absalom's lust worked to fulfill God's judgment These men, Ahithophel and Absalom,
they thought that they could prosper from their wickedness. But in a very short time, both
of them would be dead, and both of them would be in hell. Our
wise God shall not be mocked by wicked men and women, and
even the wrath of man shall praise him. So let our principle lesson
today be that God's love for his people in Jesus Christ will
always ensure that no matter what happens in this life, no
matter who seems to be on the throne, who seems to be calling
the shots, no matter what foolish and wicked things are done, the
Lord our God will employ even these for our good. Blessing will flow out of cursing,
divine provision from human deceit, and honour from shame to Christ's
church and his people. That's the lesson that we learn
from this chapter. Even what is meant for our harm
will return to our benefit. Satan thought that he could kill
the Lord Jesus Christ and he eagerly inspired wicked men to
betray and torture and finally slay the Saviour on the cross. But in this too, be it the greatest
example ever set before men, the Lord God brought good from
evil and by Christ's death, secured the redemption of God's elect,
the forgiveness of their sins, and the everlasting glory of
the Church. Our God is not mocked by men
or by sin, and the Saviour Jesus Christ is worthy of all our trust
and all our obedience. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.