2 Samuel chapter 15 and reading
from verse 1. And it came to pass after this
that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and 50 men to run
before him. And Absalom rose up early and
stood beside the way of the gate. And it was so that when any man
that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom
called unto him and said, Of what city art thou? And he said,
Thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom
said unto him, See, thy matters are good and right, but there
is no man deputed of the king to hear thee. And Absalom said
moreover, O that I were made judge in the land, that every
man which hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and I would
do him justice. And it was so that when any man
came nigh to him to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took
him, and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom
to all Israel that came to the king for judgment. So Absalom
stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And it came to pass after
forty years, that Absalom said unto the king, I pray thee, let
me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed unto the Lord in Hebron. For thy servant vowed a vow,
while I abode in Geshur in Syria, saying, If the Lord shall bring
me again indeed to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. The
king said unto him, Go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent spies throughout
all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as ye hear the sound
of the trumpet, then ye shall say, Absalom reigneth in Hebron. And with Absalom went two hundred
men out of Jerusalem, that were called, and they went in their
simplicity, and they knew not anything. And Absalom sent for
Ahithophel, the Gilonite, David's counsellor from his city, even
from Gilo, while he offered sacrifices. And the conspiracy was strong,
for the people increased continually with Absalom. And there came
a messenger to David, saying, The hearts of the men of Israel
are after Absalom. And David said unto all his servants
that were with him at Jerusalem, Arise, and let us flee, for we
shall not else escape from Absalom. Make speed to depart, lest he
overtake us suddenly, and bring evil upon us, and smite the city
with the edge of the sword. And the king's servants said
unto the king, Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my
lord the king shall appoint. And the king went forth, and
all his household after him. And the king left ten women,
which were concubines, to keep the house. And the king went
forth, and all the people after him, and tarried in a place that
was far off. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. We have learned in recent weeks
that Absalom was young, he was good looking, he was a man of
trouble because he had slain his own brother, and yet he had
been accepted back into the court of David, his father, Absalom
was a prince in Israel. He had been accepted back into
the court of David, his father, and he had been kissed as a mark
of David's acceptance and affection. But this young man was also flashy
in the way in which he acted. There was a pride about him. He wanted to look the part and
he wanted to win the affection of the people of Israel. He ordered
for himself chariots and horses and he rode about in these chariots
and he had 50 men to run before his chariot wherever he went
as a mark of his own honour. He had grand ideas of himself. And we learn that in his heart,
he was a devious and ambitious man. And he was impatient. David was now growing old. Absalom was perfectly placed
to be the next king of Israel. All he needed to do was wait
until the old king died. But he was a schemer and he could
not wait. So Absalom busied himself in
undermining his father's rule and his government while at the
same time introducing himself to the men of Israel from all
different cities throughout the land and in recommending himself
as a worthy judge and a worthy leader of the people. Anyone
who came to Jerusalem for help Anyone who came seeking a cause
or for a trial or for a judgment from the king met with Absalom
and Absalom recommended himself to them. He was clever. He planned
to overthrow the king and to seize the crown for himself. But he knew that he would need
the support of the people, or at least he would need their
quiet, complicit nod and submission when the coup took place. And
so Absalom built himself a base among the people. He met with
the people in the street and he told them that if he were
a judge, he'd judge in their favour. He kissed hands. He embraced the common people
like we sometimes see politicians shaking hands with people and
even kissing babies for photo opportunities. That was the kind
of work that he did. He pretended to be everybody's
friend to win supporters. He even involved some of the
leaders of the city in his schemes, who knew nothing of his real
intentions, so as to appear much more prominent and much more
powerful than he really was. And finally he approached David,
his father, and asked if he might go to Hebron. Hebron was a city
about 20 miles away. It was a city that was important
in the history of Israel because it is where kings had previously
been crowned. and he asked if he might go to
Hebron in order to make a sacrifice to God. He wanted to go for a
religious reason, to this religious city, a prestigious city. And he claimed that he had made
a vow to God to do so. David was a loving, indulgent,
and we must say unsuspecting father. So he could not refuse
a request by his son to go and to worship God. But it was all
a sham. In Hebron, Absalom raised a rebellion. He sent men all over Israel to
declare that Absalom was now in charge of the city and he
prepared to march on Jerusalem. And what happened next was strange. David, so well known for his
bravery, Once he was told that the people
of Israel were with Absalom, at once chose to leave the city
and depart and head into the wilderness. Now whether this
was panic or strategy or concern for his family is not clear. We will remember that all of
the time that David was fleeing from Saul, he lived in the wilderness
and perhaps he felt an affinity for the wilderness at a time
of risk and threat. Perhaps he was unsure how far
the conspiracy had spread and he did not know who to trust.
Perhaps he was suspicious of what the inhabitants of the city
would do at Absalom's approach. Maybe he wanted to preserve the
city from attack and siege and destruction. It seems odd that
he should leave a fortified place like this, but that's exactly
what he did. Maybe he moved out for a sense
of guilt and concern that God's hand was in this. and that the
city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants did not need to suffer for the
faults of David. It's hard to know, but leave
he did. And he left in a procession of
people. His family, his bodyguards, his
counselors, his friends, Even the priests and the Ark of the
Covenant itself was all carried out of Jerusalem in a long procession. The route that he took is closely
noted and David's conversations with several friends and supporters
and even some enemies are recorded in the rest of this chapter and
in the chapters to come. He left a few people still in
the palace that he could trust, but he made his way towards the
wilderness. And what a strange event and
unexpected sight this must have been, as this procession made
its way out of the city and headed towards the Mount of Olives. Here's a couple of things that
I want to mention in the context of this historical passage. The first thing is this. The
wicked ambition and devious nature of Absalom is a picture of the
fallen condition of man's heart and our evil nature. David loved
Absalom, his son. But Absalom showed no love in
return. He lied to his father, he lied
about his father, and he lied about his family. He undermined
and misrepresented the good that his father had done in establishing
the kingdom. And Absalom used the freedom
that he had been given the resources, the riches that were available
to him to scheme and conspire to overthrow and to seize the
government. Sin in man's heart is the consequence
of the fall. And what we see in Absalom's
rebellion against David is a picture of man's rebellion against God. We say that we want to rule our
own lives and be answerable to no one but ourselves. We say
in our hearts, like the fool, there is no God. What do I have
to worry about? We say of Christ, we will not
have this man to reign over us. Men and women do not want to
be ruled by God. And so we all take the blessings
that God has provided in this world, all the freedom, all the
resources, all his goodness to us, and we twist them to serve
our own evil nature and satisfy our own purposes. In noting Absalom's sinful nature,
we are therefore reminded of our own and how lost and condemned
this world would be had not the grace of God intervened and the
Lord Jesus Christ come down from heaven to redeem a people for
himself, to go to the cross and there to shed his own blood that
we might be cleansed from this evil nature. Let none of us think
better of ourselves than we are. We are all absalom for the ambition,
rebellion, and deceit that is in our heart by nature. May God the Holy Spirit grant
us a new nature in conversion and bring us to trust Christ
as our saviour, that we might gladly love and worship and serve
him, who by nature we hate and in rebellion we oppose. When David left Jerusalem, He
crossed the Brook Kidron and he made his way up into the Mount
of Olives. A thousand years later, The Lord
Jesus Christ took that same route as he went out of Jerusalem to
the Garden of Gethsemane prior to his betrayal by Judas and
his arrest by the high priest's guards. David's flight with a
few friends prefigured the Lord's journey with his own chosen few,
with his disciples. And it reminds us of the Lord's
rejection by the Jews as well. As we've seen in the history
of David, David is a frequent type of the Lord Jesus. But we
must always look beyond the type. We look beyond the picture to
see the fulfillment and the reality that the picture represents. To see the fulfillment, to see
the importance, the meaning, the significance of what is pointed
to. The rejection of the Lord Jesus
was not simply that the Jews refused to be ruled by him, saying,
we have no king but Caesar. Christ's rejection and his death
was designed by God to satisfy the demands of God's holiness. And Jesus becoming a sacrifice
and bearing the guilt of his people was all part of God's
plan of salvation, his covenant of grace. All scripture points to the Lord
Jesus in one way or another. And here David worshipped on
the Mount of Olives from where in future days the Lord Jesus
would ascend into heaven following his resurrection and where one
day he shall return again to gather his people and take them
home to their mansions in heaven. Let us learn from these Old Testament
histories about the ways of man But let us always have an eye
for the New Testament glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and the
redemption and deliverance that he has accomplished for his church
and for his people. And finally, there's one interesting
little detail that stands out for me here. We didn't read the
verses later in the chapter, but let me just mention what
happened. Zadok the priest and the Ark of the Covenant had come
out in this procession with David as he left Jerusalem. But then David thinks better
of this and he sent Zadok and the priests and the Ark back
to Jerusalem to remain in the tabernacle that he had constructed
there for the Ark of the Covenant. He felt he need not carry the
Ark out into the wilderness. Instead, he resigned his state,
his condition. He resigned his whole future
and the future of his family simply into the hands of God. David realised that he needed
the presence of the Lord, not simply the symbol of the presence. And I think that this is an act
of true faith on David's part. This is what he told Zadok the
priest in verse 25. He said, carry back the ark of
God into the city. If I find favour in the eyes
of the Lord, he will bring me again and show me both it, that
is the ark, and his habitation, the city of Jerusalem, Zion.
But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee, behold, here
am I. Let him do to me as seemeth good
unto him. And this is a fine picture of
a sinful person submitting to the mercy of God. David realized
he had no rights. He had no claims. In fact, he
had no hope except the Lord be gracious to him. It was all out
of his hands now. And he simply had to trust in
the Lord. He says, here am I. This is all
I am, just a sinner. Weak, needy, unable to help myself,
let God do to me as seemeth good unto him. May the Lord bring
us all to confess our complete dependence upon the grace and
the mercy of God. claiming no righteousness of
our own, but relying totally on the will of God to do us good. While Absalom prepared to enter
Jerusalem as a triumphant king, David was humbling himself before
the Lord and waiting to see what God would do. May the Lord bless
these things to us today. Amen.