Let's turn tonight to 2 Samuel
chapter 16. 2 Samuel chapter 16. I mentioned last time that the way that men divided
the scriptures into chapters, we have five chapters in 2 Samuel
which deal with Absalom's rebellion against his father, King David. And this is the second of the
five chapters, and we see it begins with David fleeing from
his son, fleeing from Jerusalem, and just past the hill, the scripture
says. And when David was a little past
the hill of Zion, or hill not of Zion, we just sang that song,
we're marching to Zion, but the hill here was Mount Olivet. And of course, we know that David's
greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ, many years later, He, too, would
leave the upper room and go to the Mount of Olives. He would
cross at Brook Sedron. We saw that last week. He would
go to the Mount of Olives and enter into the Garden of Gethsemane. And it was there that he prayed
to his father, Father, if it be possible that this cup pass
from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. You know, David is a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ in a number of different ways. This is one
of the ways we know the gospel was preached in the Old Dispensation
and the Old Testament days, that is, through types, through shadows
and things of that nature. And one of the things that David
types the Lord One of the ways that David is a type of the Lord
is his very name. The name David means beloved. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
is God's only begotten son. He's his well-beloved son. He testified from heaven, the
Father did, two times. at his baptism and also on the
Mount of Transfiguration. God spoke from heaven. Peter,
in his first epistle, second epistle rather, he tells us that
they heard that voice. They heard that voice that spoke
from glory. The voice of the Father saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And yet Peter
went on in his epistle to say, we have a more sure word of prophecy. And of course, he had reference
to the scriptures, to the Old Testament, word of God. Holy
men, as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, wrote this word. Now, this chapter that we're
looking at tonight, I'm going to divide it into three divisions. The first division is the deceit
of Ziba. verses one through four. 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 200 loaves of bread and 100 bunches of raisins
and 100 of summer fruits and a bottle of wine. Now, the commentators
all point out that that's a flagon of wine. One bottle of wine,
like we think of today, would have been of little help to the
group of people that was fleeing that night with David, his family,
and his bodyguards, those who went out of Jerusalem with him.
And the wine we see, well, let's read verse two. 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. That is, the asses
that were saddled with supplies. Once the supplies were unloaded
and used, then the king's household could ride upon those asses,
those donkeys. 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." We know that wine in the scripture
was used for medicine. Remember the good Samaritan when
he went down and picked that man up out of the ditch who was
beaten? He poured in wine and oil. Both
of those were used to treat sickness and to encourage people who were
down through sickness. And the king said, where is our
master's son? Asked Mephibosheth. David asked
Ziba, where's Mephibosheth? 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, O my lord, O king. The deceit. of this servant by
the name of Ziba. Earlier in the second book of
Samuel, we've run into this man when David asked him if there
were any of the house of Saul to whom he could show kindness.
David wanted to show kindness to the house, the family of Saul.
And this man was one of Saul's servants and He told David, yes,
there is one. There's one son of Jonathan.
And that made it even better for David because Jonathan and
David were so close, you know, and had that covenant between
them. And he had, Jonathan has a son. And David commanded this servant,
Ziba, to serve him, to serve Bephibosheth. The land that was
his was restored to him. When the king's son, when Saul's
son became, he was anointed king and he lost all of that property
that was theirs because he was in rebellion to David. But now
David restores Mephibosheth, he restores to him all the property
and gave him that servant. He told that servant, you serve,
you farm the land, you do everything that's necessary, but all the
fruits, all the income that comes off that property, it's Mephibosheth's. But Mephibosheth is going to
live with me. He's going to live in Jerusalem.
He's going to sit at my table, put his feet under my table,
and he's going to eat with my sons. You know, David serves
here as a type of Christ. And we know also that Mephibosheth,
he serves as a beautiful type of believers. David serves as a type of Christ. Mephibosheth serves as a type
of God's children. He would be blessed because of
a covenant. And that's the reason tonight,
if you are blessed of God, if you're one of his children, you
are so because God made a covenant before the foundation of the
world. And in that covenant, he chose
you and gave you to his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We know
there was a covenant between David and Jonathan, as I mentioned,
And this is one of the ways that Mephibosheth serves as a type
of every believer. Every believer, he hath made
with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, David
said, and sure, this is all my salvation. Not only does that
remind us of the covenant, but we know that Mephibosheth was
lame. He was lame on both of his legs. He couldn't walk. He couldn't
walk just like you and I when we came into this world. We couldn't
walk in that narrow way. We didn't have the strength.
We didn't have the power to do so because just like Mephibosheth
became lame through a fall, so we became lame through a fall,
that fall in the garden when Adam, as our representative,
disobeyed God, and by him, sin entered into the world. And then
I always like to point out this, where was Mephibosheth living?
He was living in a place called Lodibor. And what's interesting
about that is Lodibor means a house of no bread. A house of no bread. And that's where all of us were.
when the Lord fetched us. That's another thing, right?
David sent and fetched Mephibosheth. What a picture of every child
of God. There's an everlasting covenant
made with us in Christ. We come into this world, fallen
creatures. We live in a land of no bread,
nothing to satisfy the soul, not in this world. No bread. And the king fetches us. And if it were not for his fetching
grace, we would never come to Christ. He said, no man can come
to me except the father which hath sent me draw him. Well, David, as I said, as he
serves in different ways as a type of Christ, but in this particular
instance, he's not to serve as an example. He's not to serve
us an example. And Matthew Henry pointed this
out on this subject. God made us with two ears, right? You have two ears. I have two
ears. God made man with two ears. And there are always two sides
to every story. There's always two sides to every
controversy, two sides to every misunderstanding. And the wise
man, before he answers, he wants to hear both sides. David, as
I said, he doesn't serve us here as an example because Ziba, this
servant of Mephibosheth, is lying. He's lying on Mephibosheth. And David believes him. David
believes him. David takes his word. And David
just says, well, everything that was your master's, it's yours
now. All that property, all that land, it's now yours. I give it to you. He was king,
he could do that. Whichever side, and I point this
out, I think this is usually true, as we see here in the case
of David. When there's two sides, and there
always are, Whichever side we hear first, we have a tendency
to believe. May not be right. But before
we make a decision, before we make a judgment, we should hear
the other side. As Matthew Henry said, God gave
us two ears, two ears to hear. Now, you say, well, why would
God allow this? Well, to me, this brings out
to me, once again, this wonderful truth that God is able to bring
good out of evil. And he does it quite often. And
in the scriptures, you see it many times, how he brings good
out of evil. The evil of Joseph's brother
selling him into Egypt, God brought good out of it, didn't he? There
he was, to save much people. You know, in this case, this
evil report of Ziba about Mephibosheth, when you think about it, it can
serve as a dark background. Just like when you go to the
jewelry store and the jeweler wants you to see a particular
ring or something like that, and he puts out some cloth, it's
usually dark cloth, And then he puts that ring, that diamond,
or whatever precious stone it is, and it just, it doesn't add
anything to that stone, the dark cloth, does it? It doesn't add
a thing to that diamond, but oh, it brings out the sparkle,
the sparkle of the diamond. And when we look at this as a
dark background, it brings to me the sparkle of Mephibosheth's
love for David. He's maligned. His king, his master who had
been so kind to him, now believes he's a traitor. What a dark background,
right? But you know the story. Look
over a few pages into chapter 19. When David comes back, when
David returns back, one of the first persons to meet him is
Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth tells David
his servant had deceived him. And he's the one, really, who
told Ziba, saddle up those asses and load them up, and let's go
help David, and let's flee with him. But Ziba deceived Mephibosheth,
and he just took off and left Mephibosheth, and then lied on
him. But when David came back, Mephibosheth
told him that, more or less. But notice what David says in
verse, or what Mephibosheth says, rather. David said, well, I've
already made my decision. I gave everything that was yours
to Ziba. You just settle that yourself.
Divide it up the best way you can. And what did Mephibosheth
say? Forget about it. Let him have
it all. Notice that in verse 30. And
Bephibosheth said unto the king, Yea, let him take all. Let him have the whole, whole
inheritance and it can all be his. I'm not interested in property. I'm interested in you. I love
you, David. The kindness and the, Goodness
that you've shown unto me. I don't love you for what I might
get out of you or receive from you. I love you because of who
you are. Yea, let him take all. For as
much as my Lord the King has come again in peace unto his
own house. Believers, God's children, We
love the Lord Jesus Christ, not for what he gives us. You know,
Job was given a lot, but then it was all taken away from him.
But he still was able to bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. And that's true of God's children.
It's not what God gives us, and I'd be the first to confess he's
given me so, so much. I've been blessed so greatly.
I'm so thankful for that. And I just trust, by God's grace,
if he took it all away tonight, I could still say, blessed be
the name of the Lord. That I love him, not for what
he's given me, but for who he is. For who he is. the Lord Jesus
Christ, the wonderful Lord and Savior that He is. And that's
the way I see this, God bringing good out of evil. It serves as
a dark background to show us the love of Mephibosheth for
David. All right, the second part of
the chapter, verses 5 through 14, the cursing of Shimei, the
cursing of Shimei. And when King David came to Baharim,
behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of
Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah, and came forth
and cursed, still as he came. And he cast stones at David,
and all the servants of King David, 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, come out, come out, thou
bloody man, and thou man of the devil, Belial. The Lord hath
returned unto 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 Zeruah, 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. The king said, What have I to
do with you, you sons of Zeruah? So let him curse, because the
Lord has said unto him, curse David. Who shall then say, wherefore
hast thou done so? David said to Abishai and to
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. Let him curse,
for the Lord hath bidden him. It may be that the Lord will
look on mine 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
him and cursed as he went, threw stones at him and cast dust,
and the king and all the people that were with him came weary
and refreshed themselves there. David and the company who were
with him, they continue on their journey to this town by the name
of Bay Hurim. Then a descendant of King Saul,
a Benjamite, he came out and he followed them. He was up evidently
on higher ground and they were walking maybe through a valley
and he came along some distance from David in that group and
cursed David. David cursed him as a bloody
man. And by these curses, we see that
he blamed David for Saul's death. Now he was of the tribe of Benjamin.
He was of the family of Saul. And so he blamed David for Saul's
death, calling him a bloody man. when you and I both know that
David on at least two occasions had it in his power to take Saul's
life. In fact, this same man who now
wants to go, this servant of David, who wants to go and take
this man's head off, remember he wanted to put his spear through
Saul. When they came upon Saul sleeping
in the cave the first time, and then when they came upon Saul
sleeping in that valley and all of his soldiers around him, his
bodyguard around him. And of course, God had caused
a sleep to come upon them, no doubt. But David's servant said,
let me strike him. I only have to strike him one
time. Let me strike him. I'll nail
him to the ground. Well, David said, no, no, we
can't touch God's anointed. David knew that Saul was anointed
king by Samuel, God's prophet. Can't touch God's anointed. David kept him from taking Saul's
life. David had always respected King
Saul and tried to help him the best he could. But this servant,
he just blamed David for all the downfall of Saul's family
and his house and all of that. when that man wanted Abishai. You know, Abishai was Joab's
brother. Joab was David's cousin, and
so was Abishai. And they were loyal to David
in many ways, but they were cruel men, both of them, especially
Joab. Joab was a murderer, we know. But David says, look, my son, One
that came out of my bowels, he's taking my life. He's trying to
kill me. That's the reason we're out here.
Well, just let this guy, let him curse. Let him curse. That was David's reasoning. The
Lord bid him curse me. You know, I cannot help but think
that this man was throwing stones or rocks Now, he was not close
enough to hit David or any of those people with the rocks he
was throwing. But I cannot help but think by
this man throwing those rocks that when David saw it, he had
to think. He had been guilty of the sin
of adultery. He took another man's wife and
lay with her. And then he had been guilty of
murder. And both of those crimes under the law of God were punishable
by stoning. That was a punishment that should
have been inflicted upon him for his crimes. And yet he found
mercy. You know, in that Psalm 51, he
prayed in his repentance, said, according to thy loving kindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies. You could just think on that
for a day or two, the multitude of God's tender mercies. If you
look back in your life, God gives you that grace to look at the
many mercies that you have experienced. Now God has kept you, preserved
you, provided for you in so many different ways. David prayed
for God's mercy and forgiving him. He said, according to the
multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. And we know that God forgave
David. But I believe when he saw this
man throwing those stones, he had to think. He had to be reminded
that he was guilty of crimes that were punishable by stoning. And David recognized God's hand. It was a trial, no doubt, to
David. But he recognized God's hand
in it. Look in verse 10. The king said,
what have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruah? So let him curse,
because the Lord had said unto him, curse David, curse David. He recognized God's hand. When
he said the Lord had said unto him, he doesn't mean that God
had put this in that man's heart. The man was doing what he wanted
to do. out of the evil of his heart, but yet he was doing what
God ordained should be done. It was all part of the chastisement
of David by his father. In verse 12, we see that David
knew that his sins deserved such treatment. It may be the Lord
will look on mine affliction, and the Lord will requite me
good for his cursing this. He also recognized that God is
merciful. And you know in that Psalm 103,
David wrote, he said, like as a father pitieth his children. You see one of your children,
parents, you see one of your children, Maybe they're being
mistreated or hurt in some way. How that promotes pity in your
heart for them and you're going to do something. You know, David
said, like as a father pitieth his children. Maybe him seeing
me in this position, being cursed and stones being thrown at me,
maybe he will requite me good for his cursing. As a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
The last part of the chapter, we see the evil counsel of Ahithophel
in verses 15 through 23. And Absalom and all the people,
the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him. Now Ahithophel was one of David's
counselors. And I believe it's at the last
verse of this chapter says, and the counsel of Ahithophel, which
he counseled in those days, was as if a man had inquired at the
oracle of God. This man had great wisdom in
political affairs, And he thought this too, as we will see, God
willing in days to come. But they thought when this man
spoke, it was like the voice of God. I mean, it was like wisdom
from God. He was looked upon as being wise
like Solomon in those days. And he was in Jerusalem, but
notice his counsel, the evil counsel that he gives to Absalom. And it came to pass when Hushai
the Archite, this man also was one of David's counselors, David's
friend, was come unto Absalom that Hushai said unto Absalom,
God save the king, God save the king. And Absalom said to Hushai,
is this thy kindness to thy friend? Why wentest thou not with thy
friend? He had gone, remember? We saw that last week. He had
gone, but David sent him back to Jerusalem to work for him. in overthrowing the council of
Ahithophel. And again, whom should I serve? Verse 19, should I not serve
in the presence of his son? As I have served in thy father's
presence, so will I be in thy presence. But now, here comes
this evil council. by this man who was considered
so wise that his word was like the word of God to the people
at that time. Then said Absalom to Ahithophel,
give counsel among you what we shall do. Well, Ahithophel, he
didn't wait, he didn't counsel with anybody, he just speaks.
He had the last word. He was that well respected. And
Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Go in unto thy father's concubines,
which he hath left to keep the house. And all Israel shall hear
that thou art abhorred of thy father. Then shall the hands
of all that are with thee be strong. Now, he gave this counsel
that David would would go in and sleep with, not David, Absalom
would sleep with David's concubines, which were what we would call
his wives, half-wives. But it was a sin, it was an evil,
and Absalom took his counsel. And his reasoning was, as we
read here, Hithophel's reasoning was, that when the Israelites,
when they see you do this, they will know there's no turning
back now. There's no turning back. You're
not going to be reconciled to your father and leave us out
here in left field as traitors. That's not going to happen. Once
you go into your father's wives and sleep with them, you're going
to be abhorred of your father. But there was another thing that
is pointed out. Most people believe that Bathsheba
was Ahithophel's granddaughter. And what David had done with
her and to her, now Ahithophel counsels Absalom to do to David's
wife. But we know that this was all
part of what God had told David. when he confronted him and the
prophet Nathan said, thou art the man, that this would happen. Look back, if you will, to chapter
12, 2 Samuel chapter 12. We'll just read verses 11 and
12. Thus saith the Lord, this is Nathan speaking for God to
David. Behold, I will raise up evil
against thee out of thine own house. That's Absalom. And I will take thy wives before
thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor. And he shall lie
with thy wives in the sight of this sun. Remember Absalom did
it on the rooftop of the house. That's what the prophet had said.
That's what's going to happen. For thou didst it secretly, David. You took that man's wife and
brought her into your house at night secretly, and so no one
would know. You did it secretly. But what
he's going to do is going to be done before the sun, that
all might No, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before
the Son. You know, I pray that the Lord
would teach us as we look at these things and if nothing else,
to hate sin. All that David is suffering here.
It's because of sin, isn't it? It's because of his sin. Hate sin. The Lord loveth righteousness
and hateth iniquity. God's children, we should not
have any treaty with any sin. Any sin. But give us grace to
repent and turn from every sin. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
these words. We'll sing a hymn before we're
dismissed.