The Aftermath

If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 2 Samuel chapter 19. 2 Samuel chapter 19. It's been quite a journey for David over these past few chapters. After his sin with Bathsheba, of course, he was told that the sword would never depart from his house. And that's exactly what we have seen take place. We first of all saw that his son had raped his daughter.

And that his other son Absalom had dealt with it in a very murderous sort of way. Took revenge on behalf of his sister. And after that had taken place, that same son Absalom found himself rising up against David to take over the kingdom from him. He rebelled against David to take over the kingdom. And in the process of that rebellion, sort of stole the heart of the people.

And a good portion of the nation of Israel found themselves following Absalom. And David had to run. He had to run off into the wilderness. Probably reminiscent of those times that he had spent running from King Saul before David himself had become king. But while he was in the wilderness running from Absalom, God was still at work protecting David in the midst of everything that had taken place.

And God had provided a counselor that ultimately, foiled the good counsel of Ahithophel. And we saw that David's armies ultimately won the victory against Absalom. And Absalom was put to death by Joab, even though that was what David had counseled not to do. He said, protect Absalom. And we ended the last chapter with the death of Absalom and the report of that death coming to David.

And as that report of the death of Absalom came to David, we saw that grief filled David's heart. And so now as we come to chapter 3, chapters 19 and 20, we sort of see the aftermath of that rebellion. The aftermath of what that did to his kingdom, the aftermath of what it did to David, the restoration that took place, and then other rebellions that arose because of that precedent that had been set. And so we pick up in chapter 19 as we look at David's grief over his son Absalom.

Then it was told, verse 1 of chapter 19, Then it was told to Joab, Behold, the king is weeping, and mourning for Absalom. The victory that day was turned to mourning for all the people. For the people heard it said that day, the king is grieved for his son. So the people went by stealth into the city that day, as people who are humiliated steal away from when they flee in battle.

The king covered his face and cried out with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son. And then Joab came into the house of the king, and said, Today you have covered with shame the faces of all your servants who today have saved your life, the lives of your sons and daughters, the lives of your wives and your concubines, by loving those who hate you and by hating those who love you. For you have shown today that the princes and servants are nothing to you. For I know this day that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased.

Now therefore arise, go out and speak kindly to your servants. For I swear by the Lord, if you do not go out, surely not a man will pass the night with you. And this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now. Now as we look at David and the grief that he is experiencing in his life, I think there's some lessons that we learn here.

First of all, he finds himself so stricken with grief, I think, because he still is dealing with guilt over the sin that he had committed. He remembered those words that were spoken to him by Nathan the prophet, who said, the sword will not depart from your house. And he knew that ultimately, deep down, a good percentage of the blame for everything that had taken place with Absalom did to an extent rest upon him. Absalom made his choices and there was no question about that.

But there was still a certain amount that rested upon David as far as the guilt for this was concerned. And I think he held on to that. And because he held on to that, that grief just sort of overtook him. That discouragement sort of overtook him. To the point where all of the victorious army who should have come back celebrating their great victory, celebrating the fact that they had restored their king back to his rightful place,

instead of that victory celebration, that victory parade that could have taken place, it turned into a day of mourning. And it turned into a day where everybody sort of snuck back into town as if they were the army that had been defeated and not the army who had been victorious. And then, of course, Joab comes along. Joab, who is so full of so many issues that we'll see more of tonight, and yet always had his mind, first of all, on the kingdom, but second of all, always looking out ultimately for what was best for David.

He didn't always go about it the right way, but I do think he was always looking out for what was best for David. And it was told to Joab, we have a real serious problem here. Everybody almost feels like they're the ones that have lost the battle, and now I don't know if we're going to have a battle. We have an army left if we don't do something about this.

And so Joab steps in, like he is so able to do, steps in and speaks a word to David that nobody else could have spoken, right? He comes to David and he says, what are you doing? Don't you realize that you're kind of being selfish right now? Don't you realize what you're doing ultimately to those who have loved you the most and who have sacrificed their lives for you and who have ultimately saved your sorry rear end?

I mean, essentially that's what he says to him, right? He says, and because of that, now if you don't do something, they're not going to stay with you tonight. In other words, the army that fought so hard for you, if you don't show them what they mean to you, they won't be your army tomorrow. You need to step up and you need to do something. Now I think that there's a handful of lessons that we learn from this.

And the first lesson that we learn from this is there's a difference between healthy grief and unhealthy grief. Grief is one of the most natural things that we deal with. And again, I get to deal with this on a pretty personal basis with people quite a bit. And I've dealt with it in my own life on a personal basis with the loss of loved ones. And there's a healthy aspect of grief.

Grief is so important because death is not natural to us as human beings. It's not what God originally created us for. And so in order for us to process the feelings of the loss of someone, God has given us this ability to grieve. This ability to express emotion, to express our feelings, to allow those feelings to sink in deep and to sort of just flow from us, right?

He's given us that ability. But there's an aspect of grief that becomes unhealthy. And when it becomes unhealthy is when it consumes us to the point where we don't know anything else in the world is going on around us. And that's when grief has reached an unhealthy point in our lives. Because no longer am I grieving over the loved one that I cared for so much.

I'm now wallowing in my unbelief. I'm now wallowing in my grief. I'm now wallowing in my misery and not seeing the promise of God that is so much bigger than the grief that I have. Whether it be the promise of God who says that there is a life after this or in the case of a loved one who passes away that you don't know where they are now, the promise of God that he is the God of all comfort.

And so there is that healthy and unhealthy aspect of grief. And what we see here is David expressing the unhealthy aspect of grief. And so that's the first lesson that we learn from this is we have to be able to identify the difference between those two things when our eyes are only on ourselves and when our eyes are on the grief that we're ultimately dealing with. But the second thing that we learn is this.

We all sometimes need a little bit of a Joab in our lives because you need someone who can come along and tell you the hard truths. Listen, there's a ton of things that Joab did wrong. And I'll express some of those issues even a little bit later on in the study today. But one thing that Joab did, I believe, is I think Joab cared about David. And if nothing else, Joab understood what needed to be done

even if it was hard to do. And we all need that person in our lives that can come in, stand us up, slap us around, and get us to get focused on what we need. We need that person in our lives. You know who we usually try to stay away from in instances like that? We usually try to stay away from that person in our lives, right? We don't want to talk to that person.

We don't want to talk to that person who's going to smack us around and say, Listen, you need to get your head back on straight. You need to pull it out of wherever it's gotten stuck. And we need to move forward from here. But we all need that person in our lives. And sometimes you need to be that person for someone. It's a hard thing to do to speak the truth to people.

It's a hard thing to tell the hard truths to the people around us. But that's what Joab was always good for because Joab always had a focus on the kingdom. And we need that friend in our lives who can tell us the hard truths because they're always focused on the kingdom. But the third thing that we learn from this, I think, is that one of the enemy's greatest weapons in our lives is discouragement.

See, David had lost someone that he cared about so much, and that unhealthy grief led him to this place of ultimate discouragement. And discouragement is when your eyes are so cast down that you can no longer look up. I tried to look up some of the Psalms that he may have written at this point in time, and I didn't make it very deep into that study. But I am reminded of a Psalm where he uses almost those exact words.

He said, My eyes are cast down and I can no longer look up. And the enemy wants to do that in your life. He wants to bring that kind of discouragement into your life. He will use grief to do that with you. He will use guilt to do that with you. He will use worry to do that. He will use depression to do that. But if he can get your eyes focused inwardly and downwardly,

then you cannot get focused upward and outward. And that's what God wants us to be. He wants us to be focused upward and outward. The enemy wants us to be focused inward and downward. And if he can do that to us, then he has no problem with the fact that you're a believer because he's just rendered you useless for the kingdom of God. And so we need in our lives in that moment to start to look up again,

to start to look back up at the Lord and say, I am so covered in discouragement that I can't even look up. And I need you to remove it from me. I need you to restore the joy of my salvation. And that's what we see ultimately happen with David here is he takes that advice. He takes that advice of Joab and he realizes he's right and that's exactly what I need to do.

And so David sort of gets himself back up. He's humble enough to accept the advice from Joab. And now what we're going to see is David restored as king, although it's not going to be as easy as it sounds. And so starting in verse 8, it says this. So the king arose and he sat in the gate when they told all the people saying, behold, the king is sitting in the gate

and all the people came before the king. Now all Israel had fled each to his tent and all the people were quarreling throughout the tribes of Israel saying, the king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and he saved us from the hand of the Philistines. But now he's fled out of the land from Absalom. However, Absalom whom we anointed over us has died in the battle.

Now then, why are you silent about bringing the king back? The king David sent to Zadok and Abiathar the priest saying, speak to the elders of Judah saying, why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? Since the word of all Israel has come to the king even to his house. You're my brothers. You are my bone and my flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?

Say to Amasa, are you not my bone and my flesh? May God do so to me and more also if you will not be the commander of the army before me continually in the place of Joab. Thus he turned the hearts of all the men of Judah as one man so that they sent word to the king saying, return you and your servants. And the king returned and came as far as the Jordan and Judah and came to Gilgal in order to go meet the king, to bring the king across the Jordan.

It's interesting how this starts off. The king sits in the gate. It's time for him to truly be restored as the king. But there's almost this turmoil amongst the nation of Israel. David was our king and he's the one who had delivered us from the Philistines. But then he fled from Absalom and we anointed Absalom king over us. How do we now bring David back to be king?

Let me put this to you in another way. We rebelled against the king. How is he ever going to accept us back? We rebelled against the king. How can he ultimately be our king again? How can we do that? After living in rebellion, how can you be restored back to good favor with the king? And so they were battling with this. And I think that there's a really interesting picture

that's given to us here. And that's of believers in Jesus Christ who had made Jesus their king at one point in time in their lives, but then they slid into rebellion. Maybe that was you at one point in time or maybe that's you now. And you've slidden into that place of rebellion. And you at one point in time had David as your king, but then you made Absalom your king.

Or maybe those are the wrong names. Maybe at one point in time Jesus was your king and you made sin your king. And that was what ruled and reigned in your life. And now that that sin has been dealt with, now that that sin has been done away with, and you're like, well, I want to get out of that and make Jesus my king again. But you find yourself in this place going,

but will he ever love me again? But can I come back to that place? If I have rebelled against God, can I return back to him? I've been telling kids this week, two different times, and I think God usually uses these things for a reason. I've been sharing with them about the need to really focus on your walk with Jesus, to do away with the old influences and to get to having the right influences in your life.

And I've been using my own personal testimony how when I was their age, I fell into rebellion. I ended up walking away from the Lord and doing a lot of things I shouldn't have done until God got a hold of my heart. And I said, you know, when I was your guys' age, I came back to Jesus. And when I came back to walking with Jesus, I didn't understand a whole lot about the Bible.

The first book, my youth pastor kept telling me, you need to be in God's word. So I got in God's word, and I started reading the Bible, and I was reading every day, and I'm reading through the book of Romans, and I didn't understand anything until I came to Romans chapter eight. And in Romans chapter eight it says, nothing can separate you from the love of God, neither height, nor depth, nor things past, nor things present, nor things to come. Nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.

I said, I remember that was the first thing that really stuck out to me when I started getting into God's word. You know why that was the first thing that stuck out to me? Because I thought if there was anybody that could have been separated from the love of Jesus Christ, it was me. Because I didn't fall into sin as somebody who didn't know any better. I fell into sin knowing God

and knowing exactly what I was doing, and knowing exactly how wrong it was, and knowing exactly how hurtful it was, not only to God, but to the people that loved me the most. And yet I walked into it headlong anyway. And to come back to Jesus from that rebellion and be reminded that nothing can separate me from the love of God was exactly what I needed to hear. And that's what these people of Israel are dealing with right now.

They had rebelled against their king, and now they want to come back, but they're going, but we made Absalom king over us. What do we do? And if anybody had a hard time with it, it was the inhabitants of Judah, his own people, the tribe that he was a part of. And so they were the last ones to bring him back, and he says, why won't you guys bring me back? I know what I will do.

I will send ambassadors. I will send Abiathar the priest, and he will go and he will share with you. I'm willing to send an ambassador to you to win back the hearts of the people. He went so far as to making Amasa his general. Now, if you haven't been with us the last couple of weeks or weren't paying attention to some names the past couple of weeks, even though I'm sure that you memorized

everything that we talk about, if you didn't remember names from the past couple of weeks, Amasa was the cousin of David. Not only was he a cousin of David, but he became Absalom's commanding general. And so now David is saying, I will even make Amasa my enemy's commanding general, my new commanding general in place of Joab, the one who's been the most loyal to me. And in that way, I want you to notice what it says down in verse 14.

Thus he turned the hearts of all of the men of Judah as one man, so that they sent word to the king, saying, return you and all your servants. I believe it was the old King James translation that it says, so he won the hearts of the people. And isn't that kind of interesting because isn't that what Jesus does with us? Isn't that what David done to this world, from the beginning, since that day, since that day he's been here, he won the hearts of the people.

And so in verse 14, David made an amazing extension of grace, right? He extended grace that ultimately was a greater extension of grace than anybody could have ever imagined because he took one who had been his enemy and he turned him into his most trusted commander in order to show grace to the people of Judah. And as he showed so much grace, Isn't that what he does? We were his enemies at one point in time, and yet he extended so much grace to us.

He extended so much love to us. He extended so much kindness to us that ultimately, ultimately he won our hearts. What does it say in the book of Romans? It says kindness that leads us to repentance. And that's what he does with these people of Judah. And so ultimately they return to him and they make him king. Well, now it's time for some restoration of relationships.

Notice what it says in verse 16. Then Shimei, the son of Gerah, the Benjamite, who was from Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David. And there were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, with Ziba, the servant of the house of Saul, and his 15 sons and his 20 servants with him. And they rushed to the Jordan before the king. And then they kept crossing the ford

to bring over the king's household and to do what was good in his sight. And Shimei, the son of Gerah, fell down before the king as he was about to cross the Jordan. So he said to the king, let not my lord consider me guilty, nor remember what your servant did wrong on the day when the lord, the king, came out from Jerusalem so that the king would take it to heart. For your servant knows that I have sinned.

Therefore, behold, I have come today, the first of all the house of Joseph, to go down and meet my lord, the king. But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said, should not Shimei be put to death for this because he cursed the lord's anointed? And David said, what have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah, that you should this day be my adversary? Should any man be put to death today in Israel?

For do I not know that I am the king over Israel? The king said to Shimei, you shall not die. Thus the king swore to him. Now, if you remember, the last time that we saw Shimei was when David was fleeing from Jerusalem. Absalom had come in to take over and David, David fled and Shimei came out and started, you know, he was Tommy Lasorda, right? He was out there kicking dirt and spitting

and calling him names and cursing him and all this kind of stuff. And if you remember correctly, that time Abishai was like, can I cut his head off? And he's like, no, this isn't a day for cutting heads off. My gosh, my own son wants to kill me. This descendant of Benjamin, of course he wants to kill me. No, no one's cutting anyone's head off today because he was broken at that point in time.

Only now David, David's coming back and Shimei is an interesting case for me because I try to decide, okay, how genuine was he? Is he just like, oh son, like David's back. That ain't good, right? Like I know what happens to people that do what I did when they curse the king and I'm pretty sure I would like for my head to stay on top of my shoulders. And so, so maybe I should go out and make amends

or was he really just like, man, what I did was wrong. It's hard to tell what people sometimes, isn't it? It's hard to really know what's really going on in someone's heart. And David found himself falling on grace because after all, he'd experienced grace in his own life, amen? And so he sort of defaults to grace and this Shimei comes out and he humbles himself before him.

He bows down before him and he apologizes. And of course, once again, there's Abishai. Can I kill him? And he's like, would you? Honestly, guys, stop killing people, okay? No, you can't. That's not what today's for. I know that I'm the king. And he knows he did something wrong. And there's really no reason to hold it over his head. Can I just be honest with you about something?

When you're secure in who you are in Christ, then all of the things that people have to say about you, they really become way less important to us, right? You see, there's just something about godly confidence that makes all of the comments of people start to fall off your back. I'm still working on it. But there is something about this godly confidence. And David said, I know that I'm the king.

David knows what he did was wrong. Today's not the day for cutting off heads. Today's the day for showing grace. And I can be confident in who I am. Therefore, I can be confident in showing him grace. Because as we are confident in who we are in the Lord, it creates a whole lot more confidence in us to show that love and grace to other people. I want you to think about something.

The people that lash out with the most anger are those that are the most insecure in who they are in Christ. And they need to be shown the most love. Now, our natural bent, is to lash out back. Our natural bent is to show hatred back to them. But if we started viewing that as they're showing so much anger and hatred because ultimately they don't know a lot of grace

in their own lives, then it sort of changes our view on that, amen? And so David knows that and he says, let's just show them a little bit of love. Let's show them a little bit of grace. So Shimei's dealt with. It says in verse 24, and then Mephibosheth, which is just a great name to say, as I've always pointed out. Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the king.

And he neither cared for his feet, nor trimmed his mustache, nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace. And it was when he came from Jerusalem to meet the king that the king said to him, why didn't you go with me, Mephibosheth? And he answered, oh my lord, the king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, I will saddle Adon, the donkey, for myself, that I may ride on it and go with the king.

Because your servant is lame. Moreover, he has slandered your servant to my lord, the king. But my lord, the king, is like the angel of God. Therefore, do whatever is good in your sight. All my father's household was nothing but dead men before my lord, the king. And yet, your servant, yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right do I have yet that I should

complain any more to the king? And the king said, why do you still speak of your affairs? I've decided you and Ziba shall divide the land. Mephibosheth said to the king, let him take it all, since the lord, the king, since my lord, the king, has now come safely to his own house. Now remember, Mephibosheth was that son of Jonathan who was lame in his feet, and David wanted to keep his promise

to do something kind to the descendants of Jonathan. So he found Mephibosheth, and he restored all of his land to him, that would have belonged to his father, Jonathan. And he gave him a seat every day at his table. It's a beautiful picture of Jesus and the love that he shows to us. But when David was fleeing, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, came out and said, you're not gonna believe this.

Mephibosheth is celebrating that he's actually gonna get the kingdom back. Oh, such a sad thing. Well, now we come to find out that the words that Ziba spoke were actually not true. You see, David finds out that Mephibosheth is the son of Jonathan. And he finds Mephibosheth there, and he hadn't done anything to take care of himself, indicating there was a great deal of depression

going on in his life. Because he was so concerned over David the king. He says, Ziba, he deceived me. I went to ask him to saddle up a donkey for me so that I could ride with you. And then he just ran off and then told you this wrong story. And then David says something very interesting. I think he was trying to test to see if Mephibosheth was being genuine in what he said or not.

You and Ziba just split the property. Just split everything between yourselves. And you can just have all of that. Probably wondering, either A, he's gonna care more about the land than anything else, or B, we'll see if he really is being sincere in the things that he says. And Mephibosheth responds so beautifully. Because he says, I don't care about land. I don't care about any inheritance.

I only care about you. I only care about the king. Can I once again say, Mephibosheth gives us a really beautiful heart of what a true, mature Christian in Jesus Christ believes. That you can have all of the inheritance in the world. Because all of the things of this world, they don't mean anything to me. What I really care about is the king. What I really care about is being with the king.

And as we grow in our walk with Jesus Christ, as we grow in our understanding of him, we more and more start saying, you know what, you can just take all the things of the world. I just want Jesus, right? There's that old hymn that we used to sing. Turn your eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face. And then the things of this earth become strangely dim

in the light of his glory and grace. And he kind of gives us a perfect picture of that, right? He says, listen, give him all the land. I just want to hang out with you. Because you are the one that I care about the most. So that relationship is restored. Then it says in verse, in verse 30 it says, no, excuse me, verse 31. Now Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelum

and he went on to the Jordan with the king to escort him over the Jordan. And Barzillai was very old, being 80 years old, and he had sustained the king while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very great man. The king said to Barzillai, you cross over with me and I will sustain you in Jerusalem. With me. He said to the king, how long have I yet to live that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?

I'm now 80 years old. Can I distinguish between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear anymore the voice of the singing of men and women? Why then should your servant be an added burden to my lord? Your servant would merely cross over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king compensate me with this reward? Let your servant return that I may die in my own city,

near the grave of my father and mother. However, here is your servant, Shemham. Let him cross over with my lord, the king, and do for him what is good in your sight. And the king answered, he shall cross over with me, and I will do for him what is good in your sight, and whatever you require of me I will do for you. And all the people crossed over the Jordan,

and the king crossed too. The king then kissed Barzillai, and he blessed him, and he returned to his place. The king went on to Gilgal, and Shemham went with him, and all the people of Judah and also half the people of Israel accompanied him. Remember the last time that we saw Barzillai was shortly before the battle. He was that table in the presence of the enemies.

Him and two other fellows came, and they brought supplies to David so that he could have a little bit of a rest, a little bit of a meal before he went into this terrible battle. Well, this guy, he wanted to come see David, take back his kingdom. So here this elderly gentleman shows up, this elderly gentleman who was a great man of faith, a great man of God, and a great friend of David. And David says, Why don't you come back with me?

Come on, I got a place for you in my house. He says, Listen, I'm too old for all that. You take care of this man here, and let that be on my behalf. He's going to be a wonderful guy. I can't wait to meet him in heaven and hear some of his stories that he has to tell about his time getting to know David. And so in verse 41, it says, And behold, all the men of Israel came to the king

and said to the king, Why had our brothers, the men of Judah, stolen you away and brought the king and his household and all of David's men with him over the Jordan? Then all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, Because the king is a close relative to us. Why then are you angry about this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king's expense? Or has anything been taken for us

but the men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, We have ten parts in the king. Therefore we also have more claim on David than you. Why then did you treat us with contempt? Was it not our advice first to bring back the king? Yet the words of the men of Judah were harsher than the words of the men of Israel. People are fascinating, aren't they? So the men of Israel and Judah,

first of all, didn't want to make David king. They wanted to make Absalom king instead. And now that David has come back to be king, they each have decided that they own more of David than the other. And now they're battling over why there are fewer men of Israel with David than there were men of Judah. Now it's a fascinating truth that we as human beings somehow are bent on division.

Have you ever noticed that? If you don't believe me, get on any social media page and make any statement about anything. I don't care what it is. Last night, I enjoyed an amazing peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And I took a picture of that peanut because I loved it so much. I took a picture of it and I was like, nothing hits quite like a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

And people proceeded to be divided over the right kind of peanut butter, over the right kind of jelly, over what kind of bread. I'm not gonna lie, there's 46 comments on my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Now, most of it was in jest. I want you to understand that. Most people, I don't think a couple of them folks talking about natural Jif peanut butter were joking about that thing, right?

They were like, make America healthy again, right? You should have had the natural peanut butter. I'm like, I want the preservative peanut butter. Seven people just shut off the livestream because I said that, right? Because that's who we are. We love to be divided over everything. And we will always find something to fight about. We will always find something to be divided about.

You know why? That word is pride. You know why we want to be divided over everything? Because I'm right and you're wrong. Right? That's why people get in arguments. No, we don't get in arguments because of pride. It's because I'm right and you're wrong. That's pride. Right? And that's what these guys are doing. They're like, why is it that there's more men of Judah here

than men of Israel? We should have been more equally represented. Right? I'm an equity and inclusion officer in this procession. Where is he? Because we do not have enough Israelites. Way too many members of Judah. It's almost like the 21st century was happening all the way back then. Because we just love to be divided. And that division is going to spill into another rebellion

that takes place. Listen, I'm here to tell you right now, I want you to think about something. How big of a deal is it? Not now you're not, but I bet you will be later. I bet you will be tomorrow. And you need to ask yourself a question. How big of a deal is it? Because we love to be divided over things. And we love to make mountains out of molehills. And we've got to as a people,

especially as the church, to stop doing that. We've got to stop being divided over everything. Right? It's the most fascinating thing in the world. I love when religious posts hit because I like to read the comments, right? It's like watching a barroom brawl in the comments of a religious post and I'm just like, no he didn't. Right? Because that's kind of how

we've got to get over ourselves sometimes and ask ourselves the question, how big of a deal is it? Letting go of all of the small petty things that we fight about all the time. Because small petty fights turn into Sheba's revolt. Right? Chapter 20 verse 1. Now a worthless fellow, and I love that he calls him a worthless fellow. We should be calling people that

more often. A worthless fellow happened to be there whose name was Sheba the son of Bichri. A Benjamite, there it is again, and he blew the trumpet and he said we have no portion in David nor do we have an inheritance in the son of Jesse, every man to his tents. Can I just consolidate that statement? I'm right and he's wrong. So he blows the trumpet, every man to his tents, so all

the men of Israel withdrew from following David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri. I feel like we've seen this tree before. But the men of Judah remained steadfast to their king from the Jordan even to Jerusalem. And David came to his house at Jerusalem and the king took the ten women, the concubines whom he had left to keep the house, and he placed them under guard and provided them with sustenance.

But he didn't go into them so they were shut up in the day of their death living as widows. Then the king said to Amasa, call the men of Judah for me within three days and be present here yourself. So Amasa went to call out the men of Judah but he delayed longer than the set time which he had appointed him. Now David said to Abishai, Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom.

Take your Lord's servants and pursue him so that he does not find for himself fortified cities and escape from our sight. So Joab's men went out after him along with the Cherethites and the Pelethites and all the mighty men and they went out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri. So this revolt has now begun. All of a sudden everybody is now going after Sheba. They're following

him. It's almost like we as human beings are sort of fickle, right? We will follow whatever is next in line in front of us. And that's what happened. So Sheba begins this revolt. David comes to Amasa, the guy that he had so graciously made the commanding general. And he says, gather the men of Judah. Gather an army. Only Amasa took too long to do it. Because though he showed

amazing grace by putting Amasa in charge, he really probably wasn't the right guy to put in charge. And we make mistakes like that sometimes. Sometimes we put people in positions that they shouldn't be in because he wasn't really a leader. And I know he wasn't really a leader because when it came time to get the puppies in order, if you will, he wouldn't do it.

And he just sort of let it hang out there. So David finally had to go to Abishai because as cruel warriors as those boys could be, he knew who would get the job done. And he knew who the leaders were. He went to Abishai and said, if we don't make something happen, this dude is going to cause us way more problems than Absalom even thought about. Get the guys together and go.

And then did you notice what it says in the next verse? It doesn't say Amasa's men. It doesn't say Abishai's men. Who does it say? Joab's men. Because everybody knew Amasa may be the figurehead, but we know who the real leader is and it's Joab. Well, Joab's going to do one more thing to stick his foot in his mouth or his sword in somebody else. And it says in verse 8,

which is in Gibeon, which apparently everybody must have known at that point in time.

It says in verse 8,

Joab's young men. And he said, whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab. But Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa from the highway into the field and threw a garment over him. And when he saw that everyone who came by stood still. Now, again,

Joab's just that guy, right? He's a warrior. He's a leader, but he's a little bit cruel in the way that he handles things. And so he sort of deceptively comes up to Amasa and he says he grabs his beard with his right hand, but he did so to kiss him, which is why he didn't think that anything bad was going to take place, right? He was giving him that traditional Middle Eastern

greeting of the kiss of a friend. And so Amasa wasn't thinking to look for a sword because he's thinking, my friend is coming up to greet me. And while he's greeting him, he of course grabs his head and stabs him in the belly, he guts him if you will, and Amasa's laying dead in the middle of the road. And finally they just drag him out of the way and some young man who was probably one of the young men that helped put Absalom to death and knew exactly what Joab was capable of said, if you're with Joab and David, go that way.

And everybody followed him because at the end of the day, Joab was a leader. And it's always kind of interesting to me that David allowed Joab to do all of the things that he did. But I think at the end of the day, no matter how powerful, no matter how great of a warrior David was, Joab was tougher. And I think he was ultimately scared of him. Either because Joab knew

way too much about David, or because he knew Joab had zero cares inside of him, right? He was a cruel warrior and he sort of let him do his thing. And so they go to put down this revolt. And so it says in verse 13, it says, As soon as he was removed from the highway, all the men passed on after Joab to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri. And when he went through

all the tribes of Israel to Abel, even Beth-ma'aka, and all the Barites, and they were gathered together and also went after him. And they came and besieged him in Abel-Beth-ma'aka. And they cast up a siege ramp against the city, and it stood by the rampart, and all the people who were with Joab were wreaking destruction in order to topple the wall. And a wise woman called from the city, Here, here, please tell Joab, come here that I may speak with you.

So he approached her, and the woman said, Are you Joab? And he answered, I am. And she said to him, Listen to the words of your maid servant. He said, I'm listening. She said, Formerly they used to say, They will surely ask advice at Abel. And thus they ended the dispute. I am one of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You want to destroy my city, even a mother in Israel.

Why would you swallow up the inheritance of the Lord? Joab replied, Far be it from me that I should swallow up or destroy. Such is not the case. But a man from the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against King David. Hand him over, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said to Joab, Behold, his head will be thrown

over the wall. Now that's a woman right there, right? Man, you fear that woman every day of your life. Then the woman wisely came to all the people and they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and they threw it to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, each to his own tent. And Joab also returned to the king. So, Sheba finds himself hiding in this place,

this city called Abel, and it was known for its wisdom. It was known for having wise people in it. And they start to put siege rams up against it, and apparently in a very violent sort of a thing, probably cutting down trees or whatever they can to either burn him out or something like that. And a woman pops her head out. Now, in my own comedic mind, I picture Monty Python in search of the Holy Grail.

Right? Opening up a window. That's just in my own mind. That's absolutely not the way it happened. But that's how I picture it. And she sort of pops her head out, and she's like, Hey, I want to talk to Joab. Joab's like, Here I am. And she said, Are you listening close? He said, I'm listening. And she said, What's going on? Why do you want to? This is a city known for wisdom, not for fighting.

Why do you want to destroy us? He said, We don't want to destroy you. Why do you want to destroy Sheba? Because he is rebelling against King David. You give us him, we'll leave your city alone. And she said, Hang tight. A head's on its way. And that's exactly what happened. They cut off the head of the rebellious one in order to save the city. Now, this is first of all

a really good historical lesson for us about how David was able to maintain the kingdom in the midst of the aftermath of this rebellion because when it comes right down to it, one rebellion always leads to another. But I think that there's an interesting spiritual lesson that we learn from this story. This city was under siege and would have ultimately been destroyed had rebellion been allowed to set up camp in the city. But they dealt with it. They saved

the city by cutting off the head of the rebellious one. Brothers and sisters, we're kind of like that city. There's rebellion sometimes that wants to dwell on the inside of us. And the only way to protect the city is to cut off the head of the rebellion so that we can ultimately be saved. What is it on the inside of you that finds itself wanting to rebel against the Lord?

All right, I'm a good Christian. That doesn't happen to me. Yes, it does because it happens to all of us. We all have on the inside of us areas where rebellion wants to rear its ugly head no matter how long we've walked with the Lord. No matter how long we have known Jesus, that rebellion is still in there because listen, as long as you live on the top side of planet Earth

and as long as you carry around this old sinful body, then you carry around a body that tends to lean towards rebellion. And every day of our lives we have a decision that we have to make. Will we let rebellion dwell in the city or will we cut off its head so that peace can dwell? Because that's the only place where peace comes from is every day cutting off that rebellion so that we can continue to grow in our walk with Jesus Christ.

It reminds me of a story that I've told lots of times about a gentleman that used to live in the section that I took care of when I worked at Lakeview Village. His name was Truman Page and Truman knew the Bible better than just about anybody I'd ever known. And I know a lot of people that know the Bible pretty well. He had a great walk with Jesus Christ and I remember visiting with him just a handful of weeks before he passed away there in the care center.

And he said, Ryan, I am more aware now of my need for God's grace in my life than I ever have been before. And that's the man who knew the word and who knew the God of the word but still knew that on the inside of him was the potential for rebellion. And he needed God's grace to cut off the rebellion so that he could live in peace. And brothers and sisters, if we want to live in peace, you've got to keep taking that rebellion to the Lord.

Cutting off its ugly head and throwing it over the wall. Amen. And so it wraps up in chapter 20 with the sort of a report on David's cabinet if you will. It says,

David was a priest to David. So that kind of gives the cabinet that David had under his command. And that sort of ends really most of the main story of David. The last handful of chapters are sort of the conclusion of 2 Samuel and sort of the conclusion of the life of David. But it's a pretty fascinating story, is it not? Praise God for his grace. Praise God that he continues teaching us. Amen.

Father, we come before you and I thank you for the time that we are able to spend in your word. And Lord, I thank you for the story of David. Lord, a story that is so full of great victory. A story so full of great obedience, great lessons of how we should live our lives. But Lord, also a story that's full of warnings. Lord, a story that is a reminder that at our best we are men,

but we are men at best. And Lord, a great story that reminds us that there is really only one good king and his name is Jesus. So Lord, keep us focused on that one good king. Keep us focused on Jesus. We just pray these things in your name. Amen. Be blessed.