Let's turn tonight to 2 Samuel
chapter 18. 2 Samuel chapter 18. And looking at this chapter,
I thought about these verses in Psalm 52, where the word of
God says, lo, this is a man that made not God his strength. This is a man that made not God
his strength. In this chapter, of course, we
are told of the end of Absalom. He certainly was a man that made
not God his strength. If you notice in verse 18 of
this chapter, we read that he had built some kind of a monument,
a pillar of some sort to prolong his memory. He had no children,
we read here. Evidently, he had had a son and
daughter who had been taken in death, because here we read had
no descendants, but he built this marble, I would imagine
marble pillar, beautiful pillar, put his name on it and set it
in the Kingsdale so everyone that passed by would think about
Absalom, would remember Absalom. And yet we see tonight that he
was killed and his body was thrown into a pit. probably some kind
of a cave or something like that, and rocks thrown on top of it. And the habit of the people was,
every time they passed by, to throw rocks at this gravesite
that was marked as it was because of his rebellion, his evil. Lo, here is a man, this is a
man that made not God his strength. Be an awful thing, wouldn't it?
What about you? What about me? Do we know the
Lord Jesus Christ is our strength, is our savior tonight? Well,
we don't want to end up like the man that made not God his
strength. Well, as we look at the chapter,
I'm dividing it into three divisions. First of all, The preparation
and engagement in the battle. Let's read the first six verses.
The preparation and engagement in the battle. And David numbered
the people that were with him and set captains of thousands
and captains of hundreds over them. And David sent forth a
third part of the people under the hand of Joab and a third
part under the hand of Abishai. the son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother,
and a third part under the hand of Gittite. And the king said unto the people,
I will surely go forth with you myself also. But the people answered,
thou shall not go forth, for if we flee away, they will not
care for us. Neither if half of us die will
they care for us, but now thou art worth 10,000 of us. Therefore
now it is better that thou succor us out of the city. And the king
said unto them, what seemeth you best I will do. And the king
stood by the gate side, and all the people came out by hundreds
and by thousands. The king commanded Joab and Abishai
and Ittai, saying, deal gently for my sake with the young man,
even with Absalom. And all the people heard when
the king gave all the captain's charge concerning Absalom. So the people went out into the
field against Israel, and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim."
Preparation and engagement in the battle. The Jewish historian
Josephus, And I'm not sure how he could have known this, but
he recorded that David now had 4,000 fighting men with him. Now when he fled, which had been
just a short time before this, when he fled from Jerusalem,
we know that he probably didn't have a number over 100 in his
family and his bodyguards and those with him. But now men had
come to his side. But Josephus, he said there was
4,000 others Other writers, they believe that because of what
is said in verse three, that he was worth 10,000 of us, that
David had 10,000 men with him, fighting men. He had more people,
of course, than the men who could go out to battle. You had to
be 20 years of age, and I believe no older than 50, to go out to
battle. Anyway, I would think the smaller
number, but because David divided the forces into three parts,
a thousand in each part and a thousand under the command of Joab and
Abishai, And that would leave 1,000 if there were 4,000. And
they said, you can sucker us out of the city. In other words,
you can help us out of the city if they needed more sent out
to them. Now, we read here that David
thought to go to the battle himself. No doubt one of the reasons he
wanted to go is because he wanted to make sure about Absalom. Now he cautions his three generals
to deal gently with the young man, with Absalom. But if he
had been able to go out, he himself would have done that. But they
persuaded him and told him that he shouldn't go out to battle
with them. And we would just point out,
they were aware, the people with David were aware, because the
counsel that Ahithophel had given to Absalom was to kill only one
man. will only kill David. And these
men reasoned with David when he said he would go out. And
they say, no, you can't go with us for whatever reason. Maybe
it was because they knew that they would only be trying to
kill David. The other army would only be
trying to kill David. It could have been because of
his age. I'm not sure how old David was
at this time. But surely he was an older man
and most of the battles, you know, are fought by young men,
aren't they? Old men declare war and then send young men out
to fight them. That seems to be the way it goes. But anyway, another reason that
they didn't want David to go could be possibly that he could
be praying for them. As he remained in the city, He
could be praying and that would be a great help to them. They
knew they needed God's help as they engaged in this battle. It does seem from his words that
he spoke concerning Absalom, deal gently with the young man,
that in his heart he believed, he had faith to believe his army
was going to win. He had faith to believe that. Absalom's army is not going to
win this battle. He believed by the power of God
and the help of God, his army was going to win, or why else
would he have told them, deal gently with the young man? Because
if Absalom's army had been victorious, they wouldn't have been dealing
with Absalom. So he had faith, David did. He was a man of faith,
we know that. We see his faith when he went
out to fight Goliath, don't we? One of the first times we read
about David, when he came into the army and Goliath, the Philistine
giant, had the army of Israel cowed down to where they couldn't
do anything. And David went out in the name
of the Lord and with one One cast of that rock, you know,
it hit the giant in the forehead and then David, with the giant's
own sword, cut off his head. Makes me think about the giant
that is Satan when the Lord Jesus Christ defeated him with his
own sword. That is death. The Lord Jesus
Christ destroyed Satan. Well, I have two thoughts from
these verses that come to my mind because we know that David
is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are several ways that he
is a type. You remember two times we read
of the sure mercies of David. once in the book of Isaiah and
once in Acts. The apostle quotes the sure mercies
of David. Well, David, there was no sure
mercies of David, this David, the king, but it refers to his
son, the greater David, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a type and
the sure mercies of David salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation,
justification, all of these mercies that come to his people and they're
sure that they're sure mercies of David because of his winning
the battle, defeating our foes. But I see, because he is a type
of Christ, in fact, in one place, in two places, I believe, in
the prophecies or the prophets, we read of David, and it definitely
refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. David had been dead and buried,
you know, when those words were spoken. But I want to point out
two contrasts here. The first one is, or two things,
and one is a contrast between the followers of David and the
followers of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You notice David's
followers would go to the battle in his stead. They insisted,
David's followers, They insisted that they go to the battle, that
David not go out. The followers of the Lord Jesus
Christ was just the opposite, wasn't it? His disciples, they
insisted that he go. Because remember the night that
they came to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden of
Gethsemane? The scripture says, we always
think about Peter, because he was so loud and so vagadocious,
I guess, in what he would do and what he wouldn't do. He said,
if everybody offends you, Lord, all these people, these men,
I'm ready to go to jail. I'm ready to die with you. And
then he denied the Lord. But you know, the scripture is
very clear that every one of his disciples, all 11 of them,
they forsook Christ. And in the garden, when the Lord
Jesus Christ was praying, you remember, he left some on the
outskirts of the garden, took three inside with him, father
in, then he went father in, and all of them went to sleep. None
of them could watch with him, even for an hour, he said. So
don't you see the contrast there? The followers of David, King
David, they insisted that they go to battle. We're not, we don't
want you to go out, but the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ did
just the opposite. Now I know, and you know this
too, that it was necessary that Christ, that he had to go into
the wine press of the wrath of God alone. No one could help
him. No one could contribute even
a little bit to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because
salvation is of the Lord. It's all of him. I understand
that. But a second thing that comes
to my mind also, we see that David prayed for his enemy. Absalom was his enemy, trying
to depose him and take over the kingdom. And yet David prayed
for him. He said, deal gently with the
young man for my sake. He prayed for him. The Lord Jesus
Christ, you remember, he prayed for His persecutors, His enemies,
didn't He? Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. And we know the prayer of our
Savior, His prayer was answered. On the day of Pentecost, surely
among those 3,000 who were saved, there were some that He had prayed
for that day, who were at the cross, who were in that crowd,
who were crying, crucify Him, crucify Him. The Lord's prayers
were answered always because he always prayed according to
the Father's will. But David's prayer wasn't answered
when he prayed those generals, deal gently with the young man,
but they didn't do that. Now, the second part of the chapter,
let's look. The battle went against the rebels
and Absalom was killed, verses seven through 18. went against
the rebels and Absalom was killed. Where the people of Israel were
slain before the servants of David and there was there a great
slaughter that day of 20,000 men. For the battle was there
scattered over the face of all the country and the wood devoured
more people that day than the sword devoured. And Absalom met
the servants of David And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule
went under the thick bars of a great oak, and his head caught
hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the
earth, and the mule that was under him went away. And a certain
man saw it and told Joab and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanged
in an oak. Joab said unto the man that told
him, And behold, thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite
him there to the ground? And I would have given thee ten
shekels of silver and a girdle." Now, what that means there, he
would have made him a captain. He would have made him a captain
in the army, not only rewarded him with silver, but given him
a commission, a girdle. And the man said unto Joab, though
I should receive a thousand shekels of silver in mine hand, yet would
I not put forth mine hand against the king's son? For in our hearing,
the king charged thee and Abishai and Ittai, saying, beware that
none touch the young man Absalom. Otherwise, I should have brought
falsehood against mine own life. For there is no matter hid from
the king, and thou thyself wouldst have set thyself against me. Then said Joab, I may not tarry
thus with thee. And he took three darts in his
hand and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he
was yet alive in the midst of the oak. And the 10 young men
that bear Joab's armor compassed about and smote Absalom and slew
him. And Joab blew the trumpet and
the people returned from pursuing after Israel for Joab held back
the people. And they took Absalom, cast him
into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of
stones upon him. And all Israel fled, every one
to his tent. Now Absalom, in his lifetime,
had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the Kingsdale. For he said, I have no son to
keep my name in remembrance. And he called the pillar after
his own name. And it is called unto this day
Absalom's place. By the number of those who were
killed in Absalom's army, 20,000 we read, it's obvious that he
had a much larger army than David had. He had a much greater number
of people for that many people to have been killed. And we're
told that those who fled into the woods that more died from
that, either falling into pits or wild animals, or somehow more
died by their retreat into the woods, as it is called here,
than those who were actually killed with the sword. But the
point is, the army that was the largest was defeated. We see that in the word of God
several times. Remember Gideon. We can't forget
Gideon, can we? And the Midianites. Now, Gideon
started off with a large army to go to battle with the Midianites,
and God said, there are too many. Too many. Let all of them that
are afraid just go home. And a bunch of them left, and
God said, there are still too many. What was happening there? Well, God just plainly said,
if I give you the victory, then you're going to claim it as though
your own strength and the power of your might won this victory.
So he whittled his army down to, what, 320, I believe it was. And they defeated the Midianites. You know, someone said, with
God, one person is a majority. with God. I thought about this
verse in Isaiah, or Deuteronomy rather, where God says, see now
that I, even I, am he. And there's no God with me. I
kill, and I make a life. I wound, and I heal. Neither is there any that deliver
out of my hand. And yes, The number of David's
army was much smaller, no doubt, than Absalom's, but it's not
by might nor by power, but by God's spirit, the victory was
won. Now Absalom, we saw this a few
weeks ago, I believe, every year he pulled his hair. I forget
now how much some of the writers said his hair weighed. when he
cut it, but evidently he was a very proud, he was a very handsome
man, obviously from what the scripture says, a very handsome
man. And he was a very proud man,
and he was proud of his hair. And it could well be that now
that's what got him into trouble. That when his mule went under
that tree, his hair somehow got caught. And the wood and a branch
or a limb of that tree, we're not told it was his hair, but
it could well have been. The mule walked on, the scripture
says. The mule went on. Absalom, he
didn't move. He was moving all right, but
he wasn't going anywhere. He was trying to free himself,
but he couldn't get free. And one of the men, one of the
soldiers saw him there and they went to Joab and said, I saw
Absalom, he's hanging in a tree. And Joab said, what, well, did
you kill him? Did you strike him to the ground?
And the man said, no, no, I didn't do that. I heard what the king
said. And if I had done that, you yourself, Joab, would have
dealt with me hardly. And Joab, it seems like he was
rebuked because he said, I don't have time to fool with you. And
he takes off with three darts and throws those three darts
so that they pierce the heart of Absalom. Evidently, he was
still not dead, but his armor bearers, Joab's armor bearers,
10 of them, took his body down and they finished the work of
dispatching him into eternity. And then we read that Joab blew
the trumpet and ended the war. You know, when you read through
the Old Testament, you find out about the trumpets, especially
when they were in the wilderness, they had the trumpets they could
sound would mean to break camp. We're marching on. And then when
they would stop, the trumpets would blow it, a signal to stop. When there was a battle to be
fought, they blew the trumpet. And Joab, he blew the trumpet
now that meant the war is ended. The fighting is over. The battle
is won. Absalom is gone. You know, there
was one trumpet that was blown. Well, there was two trumpets
that were made out of silver. Specifically, God told Moses
to make these two trumpets out of silver. And they were blown,
remember, in the 50th year, on the Day of Atonement, they blew
those trumpets. And what did that mean? It mean
the year of Jubilee had begun. And all the debts were forgiven.
The captives, the Jewish captives, they were all set free. When
our Lord began his ministry, you remember in Luke's gospel,
he speaks about that, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. And one
of the things he said was to announce the acceptable year
of the Lord. We've been living in the acceptable
year of the Lord ever since, haven't we? Ever since. We've been living in the year
of jubilee when everyone who is in debt, sin debt, with nothing
to pay may have their sin forgiven. And everyone who is a servant,
a slave of Satan and of sin to the law of God is set free. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. All who trust in him, the sin
debt is paid and men are set free. Well, the last part of
the chapter, word from the battle is sent to David. Let's read
from verse 19. Then said Ahimaaz, the son of
Zadok, let me now run and bear the king tidings, how that the
Lord hath avenged him of his enemies. And Joab said unto him,
thou shalt not bear tidings this day, but thou shalt bear tidings
another day. But this day thou shalt bear
no tidings, because the king's son is dead. Then said Joab to Cushah, go,
tell the king what thou hast seen. And Cushah bowed himself
unto Joab and ran. Then said Ahimez, the son of
Zadok, yet again to Joab, but howsoever let me, I pray thee
also, run after Cushah. And Joab said, wherefore wilt
thou run, my son, seeing thou hast no tidings ready? But howsoever
said he, let me run. And he said unto him, run. Then
Himmaius ran by the way of the plain and overran Cushiah. And
David sat between the two gates. And the watchman went up to the
roof over the gate unto the wall and lifted up his eyes and looked,
and behold, a man running alone. The watchman cried and told the
king, and the king said, if he be alone, there's tidings in
his mouth. And he came apace and drew near. And the watchman saw another
man running, and the watchman called unto the porter and said,
behold, another man running alone. And the king said, he also bringeth
tidings. The watchman said, me thanketh
the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaz, the
son of Zadok. And the king said, he is a good
man, cometh with good things. And Ahimaz called and said unto
the king, all is well. And he fell down to the earth
upon his face before the king and said, blessed be the Lord
thy God, which hath delivered up the men that lifted up their
hand against my Lord the king. And the king said, is the young
man Absalom safe? And him has answered, when Joab
sent the king's servant, and me thy servant, I saw a great
tumult, but I knew not what it was. And the king said unto him,
turn aside and stand here. And he turned aside and stood
still. And behold, Cushi came, and Cushi
said, Tidings, my lord the king, for the lord hath avenged thee
this day of all them that rose up against thee. And the king
said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushi answered,
The enemies of my lord the king and all that rise against thee
to do thee hurt, be as that young man is. And the king was much
moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as
he went thus he said, oh my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom,
I would God I had died for thee, oh Absalom, my son, my son. You remember him as one of these
men who wanted to run, the man who wanted to run, rather. He
was one of the, he was a son of the priest, Zadok, and he
is one of the men who brought the messages to David. He was
one who was stationed outside of Jerusalem. Inside, they would
hear what Ahithophel and Hushai was advising Absalom to do, and
they would relay that message. A woman would take the message
out to this man, and I believe his brother, and they would run
and give the message to David. Ahimaz, he was a good man, David
said, and he was convinced that he would have good news. David
was encouraged because he saw there was just, first there was
just one man running, and then he said, saw there was two, the
watchman did, and that meant the army was not, they were not
fleeing, there was just two people coming, that had to be good.
They weren't fleeing like the whole army in retreat or anything
like that. He knew then that the battle
had gone well for his men. But he seemed to only be concerned
about one thing, about Absalom. What about my son, Absalom? And to him, as Joab had told
him, he didn't have a message, so he couldn't say anything.
He just said, oh, I saw a bunch of dust. He said, stand over
here. And then Cushi came. And he didn't
tell David Absalom is dead, but he did tell him. Let all the
enemies of David, all that rise up against thee, be like that
young man is. In other words, let them all
be dead. Let no man rise up against thee. And David, of course, this lamentation,
it's very sad, isn't it? And if you look at it and read
it over, oh, my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, would
God, I had died for thee, oh, Absalom, my son, my son. His grief, I believe, was threefold. First of all, as a parent, every
parent would grieve for the death of their son. And David was no
exception. He grieved for the death of his
son, Absalom. But a second thought is he knew
that Absalom's death was part of the punishment, the chastisement,
I should say, that his sin had brought upon himself. His sin
with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah. And he was responsible
for the death of his son in that sense. And then a third thing,
no doubt, Did he go? Oh, Absalom. Did he go out into eternity lost? That's a serious thing, isn't
it? Did he go out to meet God unprepared? Oh, Absalom. Absalom. His sorrow
was great. One of the writers, one of the
commentators said, while Absalom was hanging in that tree, possibly
he called on the Lord. We can hope that he did, right?
Possibly. Many men have been saved in the
last hours of their life on their deathbed. God's able, we know
that. Always remember what Matthew
Henry said about those two thieves. God saved one, but only one. Saved one so that none would
despair, but only one that none would presume. Two men, two thieves,
crucified alongside of Christ. One was saved, one was left in
his sins. That's a serious thing. Let us
sing a hymn. We're going to sing Abide With
Me.