2 Samuel 19:8-43 This Ministry of Reconciliation

Of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak is preaching from his series, The Warrior Poet King, Study of Second Samuel.

Let's listen in. Well, good morning and welcome to Recast Church. I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here. And I'm glad that you're here, and I hope that you are too. So I love the gathering together of God's people.

I love the opportunity that we have to look around and see that we're not alone in this journey of life. And here, as a church, we value replication, community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth. You see that above the donuts on the sign there?

And that's an acronym for our name, really. Our name is an acronym, Recast. Replication, community, authenticity, simplicity, and truth. And we center our time every Sunday morning around a section of God's word so that we hear from Him together.

I think that's vital, I think that's fundamental. The capital T, truth, in Recast, the truth shines into our hearts and brings a message that challenges our preconceived notions about the world, about ourselves, and about God.

All of us have some preconceived notions. We, left to ourselves, would formulate an opinion about the world. We would formulate an opinion about ourselves. We would even formulate an opinion about God.

But on what basis? And so we come back to God's word as the truth to correct us in terms of the way that we think of the world and those things. On this morning, we're gonna dig into a text of scripture that shows King David of Israel moving toward restoration to his throne.

He's been marginalized, been pushed to the side. There's been an insurrection. His son has tried to take his throne from him. And we can get lost in a text like this in the politics of ancient Israel.

We can miss the reality that this is truly about relationships. That's what we're looking at in our text. In a fallen world, our hearts will be moved to distrust, to distrust one another, to distrust God.

And if we're not careful, distrust in our hearts will lead to guarding ourselves and closing ourselves off to real relationships that'll be within our family, within our church, within our communities.

We have a tendency to withdraw if trust is broken. And that often results in a type of cynicism that can settle in over a life that wonders if anyone can ever truly be trusted. And we can seal ourselves off to hurt and to pain and eventually to relationship.

Our text follows the slow return of David back into the rule and reign over a people who previously rejected him for his own son. There was an attempted coup, an insurrection. David's own son, Absalom, tried to steal his father's throne.

And I think it's good for us to set this table before we read the text that I'm about to. But David defeated Absalom in a battle that we saw last week. And in tragic fashion, his son was killed in that battle.

And at face value, our text this week looks like both David and Israel figuring out how to come back together again, how to rebuild trust. They're coming back together to mend a broken relationship. And in that sense, it serves as a good model for us.

If you can see past the details, although I don't recommend that we see past the details, we're gonna look at the details, but then we're gonna see past those two bigger picture principles that God is trying to teach us from the Word.

We are gonna see a nation and a king reunited, rebuilding trust, that's the point of the passage. But if you look just a little past those details, we can see something that David and the people do well, some things that they do well in reconciling and some things they do not do well in reconciling.

And that'll be more the emphasis next week. What they do well in reconciling is this week. Every one of us needs, has needed, or will need the principles presented in this passage. Because all of us will experience broken relationships in this world.

We, most of us already have. David cannot rush back into Jerusalem and just pretend his people never supported his own son against him. Many of you know that sometimes you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Like once it's squeezed out, once you've said those words to your spouse, once you've lashed out at your kids in that way, how many of you just raise your hand and say, there are things in my life I wish I hadn't done in the heat of the moment.

And now I can't put that back right. And that's what David and the people of Israel are facing here. He is not returning to the same nation that he left. But he is going to return to that nation. He will again be reestablished to that throne.

And the healing of that begins in the passage that we're looking at this morning. So if you can do me a favor and open up your apps, your Bibles, your scripture journals, some way to access 2 Samuel chapter 19, verses eight through 15.

Anybody bothered that that was off-center for all that time? Did anybody even notice that? Dave was like, yeah, that was bothering me. So we're gonna read this passage together in its entirety. It's gonna be 2 Samuel chapter 19, starting in verse eight.

And we're gonna read that all the way to the end of the chapter. So if you can follow along, it's beneficial for you to see that the things that I'm saying are coming from God's word and to actually take it in.

And our goal is that the spirit would speak to our hearts through the hearing of his word. 2 Samuel chapter 19, starting in verse eight. Now Israel had fled every man to his own home. And all the people were arguing throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying the king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and saved us from the hand of the Philistines.

And now he has fled out of the land from Absalom. But Absalom, who we appointed over us, is dead in battle. Now, therefore, why do you say nothing about bringing the king back? And King David sent his message to Zadok and Abiathar the priest.

Say to the elders of Judah, why should you be the last to bring the king back to his house, when the word of all Israel has come to the king? You are my brothers. You are my bone and my flesh. Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?

And say also, say to Amasa, are you not my bone and my flesh? God, do so to me, and more also, if you are not commander of my army from now on in the place of Joab. And he swayed the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, so that they sent word to the king, return both you and all your servants.

So the king came back to the Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to meet the king and to bring the king over the Jordan. And Shammai the son of Gerah, the Benjaminite from Behurim, hurried to come down with the men of Judah to meet King David.

And with him were a thousand men from Benjamin, and Zeba the servant of the house of Saul, with his 15 sons and 20 servants, rushed down to the Jordan before the king. And they crossed the ford to bring over the king's household and to do his pleasure.

And Shammai the son of Gerah fell down before the king as he was about to cross the Jordan, and said to the king, let not my lord hold me guilty, or remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem.

Do not let the king take it to heart, for your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore behold, I have come this day, the first of all the house of Joseph, to come down to meet my lord the king. Abishai the son of Zeriah answered, shall not Shammai be put to death for this?

Because he cursed the lord's anointed? But David said, what have I to do with you, you sons of Zeriah, that you should be this day, this day be as an adversary to me? Shall anyone be put to death in Israel this day?

For do I not know that I am this day king over Israel? And the king said to Shammai, you shall not die, and the king gave him this oath. And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king. He had neither taken care of his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came back in safety.

And when he came to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth? He answered, my lord, oh king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said to him, I will saddle a donkey for myself that I may ride on it and go with the king, for your servant is lame.

He has slandered your servant to my lord the king, but my lord the king is like an angel of God. Do therefore what seems good to you. For all my father's house were but men doomed to death before my lord the king, but you set your servant among those who eat at your table.

What further right have I than to cry to the king? And the king said to him, why speak any more of your affairs? I have decided, you and Ziba shall divide the land. And Mephibosheth said to the king, oh, let him take it all, since my lord the king has come home safely.

Now Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogalim and he went on with the king to the Jordan to escort him over the Jordan. Barzillai was a very aged man, 80 years old. He had provided the king with food while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man.

And the king said to Barzillai, come over with me and I will provide for you with me in Jerusalem. But Barzillai said to the king, how many years have I still to live that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?

I am this day 80 years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or what he drinks? Can I listen to the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?

Your servant will go a little way over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward? Please let your servant return that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother.

But here is your servant Chimham. Let him go over with my lord the king and do for him whatever seems good to you. And the king said, Chimham shall go over with me and I will do for him whatever seems good to you.

And all that you desire of me, I will do for you. Then all the people went over the Jordan and the king went over and the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him and he returned to his own home. The king went on to Gilgal and Chimham went on with him and all the people of Judah and all the people of Israel brought the king on his way.

When all the men of Israel came to the king and said to the king, why have our brothers, the men of Judah, stolen you away and brought the king to his household over the Jordan and all David's men with him?

All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, because the king is our close relative. Why then are you angry over this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king's expense or has he given us any gift?

And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, we have 10 shares in the king and in David also we have more than you. Why then do you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?

But the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel. Let's pray. Father, we read your word and I confess that at times on first reading, I have no clue what in the world is going on there.

We read it and we just kind of, as much as we love history or don't love history, sometimes matters, we've got to do research, we've got to dig in. I thank you that you've given me this role. I have a curiosity about the word and I thank you that I do have the privilege, awesome and glorious privilege of getting up and making explicit your word.

We look forward to the opportunity that we have to sit under your word this morning and to hear it explained. But Father, we recognize that relationships get messy and at least we know that. And what we see in this text are a bunch of messy relationships.

Relationships that are broken that need reconciling and we see you working through your servant David to give us a model and an example of reconciliation that also prefigures a greater reconciliation that you have given us.

And you're the greater king, Jesus. The reconciliation that we need, the realization that relationships are broken both here on this level as well as, horizontally but also vertically toward you, a broken relationship with you that needs to be restored, that needs to be reconciled.

And we see how gently and how kindly you have treated us. We deserved your punishment in our rebellion against you, in our insurrection against your throne. We deserved to be put down in our rebellion and instead you have extended olive branch after olive branch, grace upon grace upon grace.

And so, Father, from that place of being recipients of your great grace, I pray that you would release us to worship you with joy and gladness. Our sins dealt with, our rebellion dealt with, and now nothing left but joy and hope.

So I pray that that would be the reality in this gathering of your people as we sing songs to you now in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks a lot to Dave and the band for leading us in worship. I'm really grateful for them and obviously they put in time and effort but all that effort is for the purpose of us entering the throne room of God and worshiping him in truth.

And so very grateful for that and you wouldn't want me doing what they're doing. That would be really bad. So really grateful for them. No, it wouldn't be fine. No, it wouldn't. So I do encourage you to get comfortable but also reopen your Bibles or your devices to 2 Samuel 19, chapter 19, verses eight through the end of the chapter so you can follow along and see what I'm saying is coming from there.

And then if at any time during the message, I say this often, if you need to get up and get more coffee or water or donut holes while supplies last back there, do that during the service. It's not gonna distract me if you need to tank up or use the restrooms.

Those are out the double doors down the hallway on the left-hand side. Our outline of the steps of reconciliation. So that's what we're looking at here is kind of some steps of reconciliation in this text.

So as confusing and kind of historical as this account is and the things that are going on are indeed historical, these are true life events that happened in the life of David. We see something in the character and the way that David responds to these things that is a little out of the ordinary for a king.

And that out of the ordinariness of the way that David responds in coming back into his kingdom that has been tempted to be taken away from him informs us in terms of the way that we respond in relationships when something has been taken from us.

And we look at this as reconciliation, coming back together of warring sides. And so the first step, this is a five-point outline. The first is win the disloyal versus eight through 15. Again, win the disloyal.

Second is grace to the haters versus 16 through 23. The third is settle the lies versus 24 through 30. The fourth is reward the loyal versus 31 through 40. And then the fifth is a little unlike the others and it's expected to be tough versus 41 through 43.

So in the first eight verses of our text, we see David winning those who have expressed to him the deepest betrayal. Now it takes somebody who you love and somebody that's really ultimately somebody who's related to you to hurt you the most.

Like that's where the most pain comes from is when betrayal happens to those you least expect to betray you. You guys get what I'm saying in that? So that's what's going on here. We see David winning the disloyal.

What you need to understand to make sense of this section, a little bit of history, a little bit of culture, a little bit of understanding of who David is and where all of this is going, why this talk about Judah and then Israel.

David is from the tribe of Judah. He was born and raised in that tribalism of Israel where there were the 12 tribes as you all know. And he was from that one section of Israel called Judah. He was first declared king in the territory of Judah.

The very first time that he was ever called a king was only over that one tribe. And it was at the very city of Hebron in the center of Judah, the territory of Judah. That central city of Hebron was his capital city.

That's the place that he was declared king first. And he became king over all Israel later and that's when he set up his capital at Jerusalem. But prior to that, he had spent seven years as king in the city of Hebron.

Now that's important to understand because Hebron is the very place where the insurrection against David begins. His son, knowing David, knowing his history, knowing his father, he goes back to the very place where David was coronated first and makes that his stronghold, makes that the place of his declaration of king.

So he is called king first in Hebron just like his father. They are the first people that he targets to win over to his side against his daddy. So that's what we've got going on here. When you hear the word Judah in this text, they have betrayed their king, David, and gone with his son instead.

They've thrown in with the insurrection. So this is his closest relatives, his longest standing loyalists, and they were the first to begin to support his son's coup. So as David comes back toward his throne after defeating this insurrection, does it make sense in your mind that Judah has to be dealt with?

They've demonstrated loyalty to his son. Now his son has died in battle. Now can he just come back and be like, oh, Judah, we're all good. Everything's cool. Is that what you expect of a king? How would you expect a king to respond to a region that has betrayed him and proven to be disloyal to him?

How would you expect that to go? How do you, let's personalize it for a minute. How do you treat somebody who has betrayed you? Think that through, and that might answer a little bit of the way that this text is unique and different.

Because what I kind of expect is different than the way that David responds. David does three things in this passage that show his craft as a statesman in reuniting brokenness, in bringing things together.

And again, I think this is God-given. I don't think it's like, oh, David is great, look at him. How many of you know he's done some rough things in the text? Like, he gets some things right, but it's only in as much as God is working through him that he gets things right, but he gets some things right in this text.

We first find out in verses nine, in verse nine, that the 10 northern tribes referred to as Israel here in the text, they are in general arguing for the return of David. Word on the street is that David was a good king who delivered them from the Philistines, and that word is spreading, and hey, we need a king, and we might as well reinstate him instead.

And so the argument is likely rising up to the elders over the tribes of Israel, and the fervor is moving them to the point of reinstating David as king. Now, he's out east. He's in a different territory.

He's out in Mahanaim, way north and east of Israel. And so hearing of this from Mahanaim, David started by sending an appeal. That's the first thing that he does is he appeals to them to reconcile. He sends an appeal, he communicates that appeal through Zadok and Abiathar, who are two priests that are loyal to King David, still in Israel, still in Jerusalem, so he communicates through them and says, I appeal to you to bring me back as king.

He's appealing to a people, remember, that have betrayed him, and he wants them to come out in parade to demonstrate that they're welcoming him back as their king. And his appeal is based on a couple of different things.

It's based on his kinship with them in verse 12. He is, in essence, saying, all the other tribes want me back, but what good is it if we're not united, Judah? I need you on my team, too. We wanna be all together in this.

No benefit in having, I mean, think of this like Texas seceding, and it's like, no, let's all get back together again, right? Let's all come back together and be one united Israel. Let's all be one united states would be the mindset.

So he desires reconciliation with his people, and he gently, here in the text, he is gently appealing to them. Gently appealing, gentle appeal. I think that is hard to come by in human nature, is it not, gentle appeal?

We can even have a tendency to think when we're at war with somebody, figuratively speaking, when we're doing battle with our spouse, when we're doing battle with our kids, when we're frustrated and things don't seem to be going our way or we feel betrayed, how often have you thought you were being gentle and you weren't at all?

Do you know what I'm talking about? You thought you were being utterly reasonable considering what they did. But the Proverbs state that a harsh word stirs up strife. A harsh word will stir up trouble, and yet we think we are somehow justified because of what's been done to us, and so we shoot ourselves in the foot with harsh appeals to reconciliation.

Harsh appeals. If you would just meet me halfway, well, that's an appeal, right? Is that an appeal? Yes, it is, but it is not a gentle appeal. If you desire reconciliation, turn down the harsh knob and turn up the gentle knob, and you probably have to turn it up higher and further than you think you do to genuinely be gentle in moments where you are riled up.

Second in this winning back the disloyal is a compromise. We do see them come somewhere in the middle, and we see a significant compromise on David's part. In verse 13, David accepts one person of the tribe of Judah to be his new military commander.

In this verse, he summarily fires Joab on the spot. Joab has been with David for decades. Why is he firing him? Well, the hotheaded, violent commander killed his son against his own command last week.

In the text last week, he killed and put to death Absalom. David fires him on the spot. You're fired. It's over. And he promotes a man named Amasa. Now, you don't really know the history of Amasa, and he's gonna, he factors into some of the books of the Bible and some of the wars and things like that, but this is, what he's doing here is he's extending an olive branch to Judah.

Amasa is a man from Judah. So he's saying, I'm gonna take one of your men and make him my military commander. He's extending an olive branch. It's a political move. There's no question about it. He's basically saying, well, if you'll come back, Texas, then we'll appoint, we'll make your senator, or your representative the Speaker of the House, or we're gonna give you something beneficial if you'll come back in.

And so that's what he's doing here is he's making a political move, but it's a certain type of political move. It's a kindness. It is a unifying thing. Consider what most kings would do in this situation.

You have complete power and authority over somebody who's wronged you. There's been an attempt to take your crown. Most would make an example of those who rise up against the crown, right? David here proves his quality as a man after God's own heart by seeking to unite the people rather than dividing the people.

He doesn't divide. He is, in this text, uniting, reconciling, bringing back together. And his appeal and compromise results in a restored agreement between the crown and the people of Judah. According to verse 14, David swayed the hearts of Judah as one man.

It's like they are completely unanimous in their desire to come back together and bring David as their king. And so the king returned across the desert as far as the Jordan, and Judah comes out as far as Gilgal on the other side, and they are awaiting a royal welcoming party to usher him back into his city and back into his palace.

Now, the return of the king to the city, what's going on here is a cultural thing. The return of a king to a city was a time of celebration, and an ancient custom was for the people to come out of the city and line the roads leading up into the city and leading to the palace, and they would come out.

That's what's happening in the triumphal entry, by the way, is a New Testament model of an Old Testament custom, that Old Testament custom of the arrival of a king and lining the roads and throwing down the palm fronds and throwing down the cloaks for him to ride across and all of that stuff, and just a show of loyalty going on there.

The king coming into his city with the support and the cheers of his people. And David now has assurance that the people want him back, so he's waiting at the Jordan River, saying, come on and usher me back in.

I'm ready to come back in. I'm ready to be your king again. While he's there, he meets up with three people who he had to deal with on the way out of the city. Now he's coming back into the city triumphant.

And he's coming back in victory. He left dejected and mourning and in tears, not sure if he was gonna be victorious, not sure if the crown was gonna be his again someday. So in verses 16 through 23, we see David offer grace to the hater.

That's the second movement of reconciliation here in the text. Grace doesn't come naturally to our hearts, does it, church? It's not the natural first gut-level response when we're wronged. What comes natural to us is a twisted form of defensive justice.

We can't even justify our justice towards others as the right thing to do. We don't wanna make it look like their behavior was acceptable, and we assume that forgiveness is going to make them justify, to make them think, oh, I can just do that again, right?

And so we develop in our hearts a way of justifying our animosity towards others if we're not careful, a way of saying, you know what, they wronged me, and I'm justified in wronging them back because I'm gonna teach them a spiritual lesson.

This is a spiritual lesson from my heart to yours. I don't forgive you, or whatever it might be. We wanna dish out pain to those who hurt us, right, church? For being honest about the way that our hearts work comes natural, that's knee-jerk to human nature.

David is shining a real-world example of the instructions of our Lord, who told us to love our enemies and even pray for those who persecute you. Well, why am I saying that so strong? Well, look at who we're talking about as the hater in this text.

Who is David forgiving? Shimei walked alongside this guy who comes to David in verses 16 through 23. Shimei walked along as David was in his darkest hour. His son is coming up from the south to take over his throne and put his dad to death.

David squirts out to the east and gets away from his son, but he's marching out east as his son is coming up from the south, and they just miss each other. If they connect, David is in battle, and he's gonna be killed.

So he's on his way out, and as he's at his darkest hour, tears streaming down his eyes. It tells us in the text, earlier in 2 Samuel, he is grieved, he is leaving the place that he loves and the people that he loves, and they're rejecting him, and they're betraying him.

And in that moment, Shimei comes along and picks up some rocks and starts pelting him, saying, get out, you worthless man. Get out, get out, you murderer, you thief of thrones. Get out, and he's just shouting, and he's kicking dust, and the road goes through a channel where there's higher banks on both sides, and he's up there literally kicking dirt down on the entourage and the king and his men as he's heading out of town.

How many of you think there's some vehemence there? There's some animosity there. This is the guy who David is coming back into town now, triumphant, no more tears, no more sorrow. He's coming back in, and the people are all starting to muster and say, we want you to be our king again, and Shimei shows up.

What do you expect to happen when a king has that kind of power and has been abused by one of his subjects? What do you expect to have happen? Somebody shout out some words. Execution, that's probably a good word.

Somebody said death, all the same, right? That's exactly what we expect to see in this text. Shimei runs. He's in a hurry. He knows he's not gonna be able to hide. He's gonna be found, and probably the first one, he expects it to be one of the first orders of business of the king, so rather than run, Shimei does a wise thing.

He goes directly to the king, runs with an entourage to just, let's get this settled, or else I'm gonna die. Like, I can't stand this pressure on my shoulders. Like, let's do this. Shimei is reasonably fearful.

David has been victorious. The expectations is gonna be that he's gonna hunt down Shimei and relieve him of his head, so Shimei falls on his face. He apologizes, and he begs for his life. He admits that he acted in sin, and he calls it by what it was.

He says, it was sin for me to curse you as the Lord's anointed. I sinned. You can see it in verses 19 and 20. He hopes that by being the first of, one of the first of the 10 northern tribes to come and join in the return of the king parade, that that's gonna count for something.

He says, we're first, we made it. Me and Benjamin, my tribe, we're here, and he came with his tribe of Benjamin, 1 ,000 military men, along with Ziba, another man from the tribe of Benjamin that we're gonna talk about here in a minute, and he is demonstrating or attempting to demonstrate a large dose of renewed loyalty to David from the tribe of the former king, Saul.

All of this with the goal of demonstrating a renewed loyalty in Shimei. I'm with you, David. I'm sorry I had a major, that whole kicking dirt on you in the appellating, major lapse of judgment. Could you not count that against me?

Could you not take it to heart? How many of you have ever had somebody like wrong you severely and be like, yeah, but could you not let it get to your heart? Not easy, not easy to do, right? Not easy to do, and maybe a somewhat unreasonable request.

Despite the fact that this is a text following a more political restoration of a king to his people, ask yourself, how do you respond when someone comes back to you groveling for restoration? I believe it's happened to all of us in this room, particularly those of us that are adults.

Someone has wronged you severely. Someone is embarrassed and shamed by their sin against you, and they are there before you saying that they are sorry. What do you do next? What's your next move? Look at what David says in the text, right?

Go ahead and look at it for a second. You aren't really sorry. If you were sorry, you would have never thrown rocks at me and kicked dirt on my head. You would never have cursed me in my darkest hour if you were really sorry.

Nah, it doesn't say that, but does it say this? If you're really sorry, you're gonna come and wash my royal chariots and muck out the stalls for the rest of your life. You're in my debt forever now that you sinned against me.

Don't you know who you were dealing with? Is that what the text says? Go ahead and show me with your head. Nah, that's not what the text says at all. Of course not. We should learn from this very powerful man in a very, very, very powerful situation how he handles that power in a moment of reconciliation.

Abishai wanted Shimei's head, it says in the text, and he's even getting pressure from his own guys. Dude, he broke God's law off of his head. Can I be the one? Can I swing the sword, says Abishai? He wanted Shimei's head back in chapter 16, and now he thinks he's gonna get it.

David is very frustrated with Abishai, and there's something else going on under the surface there. Joab is Abishai's brother. Joab, he's basically said, you sons of Zariah, Abishai, Asahel, and Joab were three brothers, and he brands them all throughout their lives as men of violence and blood.

He says, you guys always, you think that violence is always the right answer at all times, and he says that multiple times to these three men. Well, Joab has just killed his son. He's out of the commander position, and David is frustrated with Abishai.

In verse 22, he even identifies Abishai as a Satan. That's the word in Hebrew that's used there, an adversary. He identifies that Abishai's request for the head of Shimei is a type of temptation on David's part to exact vengeance on Shimei.

But instead, what does David do in this text? He offers grace to this hater. At the end of verse 22, David is refreshed in God's call over his life to be king. I like the way that this looks here in the text, so go ahead and look at verse 22 at the very end.

For I do not know, for do I not know that I am this day king over Israel? David is refreshed and confident in his calling once again. God made a covenant with me to make me king, and I'm settled in that once again.

God has vindicated me, and he has made me king, and he has declared me king, and I am confident. I don't need to worry about other haters. I don't need to worry about what other people say. I'm confident in my position with God and what he has called me to.

I don't need to exact my authority in this situation and cut off Shimei in order to validate myself. Now is that a temptation for some of us? To cut another down to build yourself up? How many of you would just raise your hand and testify that that's been a temptation in your life at times?

Cut somebody else down to make yourself look better, to validate your authority, to validate your power, to reestablish your role as husband, mother, father, boss, whatever it might be. I've gotta make an example of fill in the blank.