2 Samuel 13:23-39 The Apathy of a Father

You're listening to the podcast 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. Welcome, everybody.

As Linda said, I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here. And I'm really glad that we've gathered together to remember that we are not alone in the ups and downs of life.

How many of you are glad for that? You're not alone. There are others around you. God in His kindness has established

His church through His Son, Jesus Christ. And I want to point out that everything we do this morning, kind of counterintuitively to state this so directly, but everything that we do here this morning, you could have done at home.

It's the truth. You could sing some songs on your own at home. You could pray on your own at home.

You can read the Bible on your own at home. You could even tune in to a sermon and hear somebody preach at home.

But there is something fundamental to God's call on our lives that you can't do alone.

You can't, to the best of my understanding, gather together with others alone.

You can't do that. We need each other to be what God wants us to be as individuals.

We need to be in community. We need a connection, a commitment, a commitment to unity, a commitment to love that works through issues and a recognition that God has more projects that He's working on than just me.

Thank you for being that for me, church. As I look out every Sunday morning, I go, oh, it's not just me.

Oh, that's right, I'm not the only one in this battle. Oh, that's right, I'm not the only one who's trying to fight for faith in a world that is broken.

But we're in it together, amen? You guys glad to be together? This morning we're going to be continuing on in the book of 2

Samuel. No, this is not a message about America or eagles or freedom.

This is a message going right through 2 Samuel. That's what expository preaching does, is it just takes the next chapter and off we go.

So we're going to pull back to a 30 ,000 -foot view as we see the painful reality that King David's sin and apathy have produced really dire consequences in his family life.

We saw earlier in 2 Samuel, a couple chapters ago, sexual sin and murder in the life of David.

And after our text this morning, we will see that that has replicated itself in the next generation of his family.

The kind of idea behind these few chapters that we're in in 2 Samuel over the course of the last couple of weeks has been summarized by the old adage, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

But before we read this text this morning, I would like to set some ground rules for us that will help to flavor our understanding of what we're looking at in this text because there could be some confusion over what is justice in this era of time?

What is really going on here? So here are six things really quickly that I just want you to have in mind as we read the text.

The first is that Amnon deserves punishment for his assault against Tamar that we read about last week.

The second thing that you need to keep in mind is that David is Amnon's father, but he is also the king of Israel, and that makes his role as king the one right person to carry out justice in his kingdom.

He is the rightful judge, and he should be the one who is taking this to his son. So that ties in with the third thing, and that is that Absalom, in this text that we're seeing here, is usurping his father's role by what he does in this text.

The fourth thing that you need to understand is that Absalom is motivated by hatred. And we don't get that right in our text, but we get that in verse 22 of the previous text, so it's important that we start this text remembering what was at the end of our text last week, and that is simply that Absalom hates his brother

Amnon for what he did to their sister Tamar. The fifth thing is that Absalom enlists others to do his dirty work.

You'll see it in the text, just like his daddy did. The sixth thing, fundamentally, that you need to understand, and this is most important, is that what we are reading about in the text is stone -cold murder.

It is murder. So let's open our Bibles to 2 Samuel, chapter 13.

Starting in verse 23 through the end of the chapter is what we're going to read together. You can go there on your device.

You can open your Scripture journals. If you have your own copy of the Bible, grab that. You can also open the Recast app and click on the

Faith tab at the bottom. Every week you can do this, and that pulls up an option for sermon notes, and under that sermon notes is the current text and a place there that you can take your notes if you would like.

So if you like kind of digital copies of notes, that's available there. But 2 Samuel 13, 23 through 39, recasts

God's holy and precious word to us on this holiday weekend, what he desires for us to hear here in America in 2022.

After two full years, Absalom had sheep shears at Baal Hazor, which is near Ephraim, and Absalom invited all the king's sons.

And Absalom came to the king and said, Behold, your servant has sheep shears. Please let the king and his servants go with your servant.

But the king said to Absalom, No, my son, let us not all go, lest we be burdensome to you. He pressed him, but he would not go, but he gave him his blessing.

Then Absalom said, If not, please let my brother Amnon go with us. And the king said to him, Why should he go with you?

But Absalom pressed him until he let Amnon and all the king's sons go with him. Then Absalom commanded his servants,

Mark when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, Strike Amnon, then kill him. Do not fear.

Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and be valiant. So the servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded.

Then all the king's sons arose, and each mounted his mule and fled. While they were on their way, news came to David.

Absalom has struck down all the king's sons, and not one of them is left. Then the king arose and tore his garments and lay on the earth, and all his servants who were standing by tore their garments.

But Jonadab, the son of Shimea, David's brother, said, Let not my lord suppose that they have killed all the young men, the king's sons, for Amnon alone is dead, for by the command of Absalom this has been determined from the day he violated his sister

Tamar. Now therefore, let not my lord the king so take it to heart as to suppose that all the king's sons are dead, for Amnon alone is dead.

But Absalom fled. And the young man who kept the watch lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, many people were coming from the road behind him by the side of the mountain.

And Jonadab said to the king, Behold, the king's sons have come, as your servant said, so it has come about.

And as soon as he finished speaking, behold, the king's sons came and lifted up their voice and wept, and the king also and all his servants wept very bitterly.

But Absalom fled and went to Talmai, the son of Amahud, king of Geshur.

And David mourned for his son day after day. So Absalom fled and went to Geshur and was there three years.

And the spirit of the king longed to go out to Absalom because he was comforted about Amnon since he was dead.

Let's pray. Father, I ask that you would meet us here in this place.

I recognize that there's so many places we could be on a holiday weekend. I just rejoice in the gathering of your people and the opportunity that we have to come together in singing and hearing from your word and being strengthened and built up.

I pray that you would allow this message to seep into our hearts. The applications by the end are going to have the potential by the power of your spirit to cut into and slice into any attentive heart, to excise things that are there that ought not to be there and to motivate us to move out in a way that is different than the way that we walked in here.

So Father, I pray that by your spirit you would meet us in this place with the power to change us, to make us more like your son

Jesus Christ, more in love with you, more in love with the things that you desire of us.

And Father, as we have an opportunity to lift our voices in praise to you, I pray that that would be motivated and fueled by a gratitude and a thankfulness for what you have done for us.

It's very easy for us to sing along in a gathering like this and not mean the words and not really reflect on them.

I pray that that would not be true of any of us here this morning, that we would lift our voices in gladness before you, that you would meet us here in this place.

We thank you for the salvation that we share in Jesus Christ, that we have that one thing in common that is the most important thing that unites us.

We're all different people. We all come from unique weeks with difficulties and challenges. But you have brought us here to this place in unity under the cross of Jesus Christ, your son, and the hope of resurrection that he gives to each one of us.

We praise you for this gathering. We praise you for your presence here with us. And we ask that you would receive our songs now of praise, that they would rise before you, for you alone are worthy.

Amen. All right. Yeah, you can go to be seated. Like I say every week, make yourself comfortable.

If at any time during the message you want to get up and get more coffee or juice or donut holes back there, take advantage of that.

But do please keep your Bibles open to 2 Samuel chapter 13 verses 23 through 39. Grab that, get that back in front of you so that you can see

I'm walking through that text and that's what we're looking at for the remainder of our time together. I think sometimes it's helpful, especially when we're in the middle of a series like this in an

Old Testament book, to climb a little higher, to kind of get the altitude, to gain some perspective on the things that we are reading about, especially in an

Old Testament book like 2 Samuel. It would make sense if maybe at this point in the midst of kind of going through 2

Samuel, you know, section by section, paragraph by paragraph, it would make sense if you began to question a little bit once in a while, why in the world are we reading about an ancient king in the

Middle East? And further, why all the graphic details about his family slide into sin and depravity?

Why are we studying this? Why are we looking into these things? And the answer to that question would be found as we look at the sweep of the entire

Bible, understanding that the entire Bible is one story. If you read from Genesis to Revelation, you get a story arc, you get a plot, you get themes.

The story begins with an almighty creator who creates this world and created it to be very good.

And he made humans in his image and likeness, and he makes us the caretakers of this world.

But we rebelled against our creator. Obviously, our mother and father, Adam and Eve, plunged the world into chaos and sin through their disobedience to our one creator.

But early on, God promises. He begins the plan of redemption early on. A lot of people think that the plan of redemption begins at the arrival of Jesus Christ, but it begins much, much, much earlier in the

Bible. There's a promise early on to Eve herself that one born of her line would crush the head of the serpent, the evil one.

And then he sets about to complete a plan to defeat sin and the consequences of death, God working within the broken system to fix it.

Rather than, I mean, if you think about all the options available to an infinite God, which there's no way we can wrap our mind around, at least one of those options stands out to me, and that's why the whole thing up, throw it in his cosmic trash bin, start over again.

Anybody ever thought that that was an option to him? Why didn't he do that, right? Because he wants to redeem from within.

He wants to fix it. He wants to save it. He finds it redeemable. And so the promise begins as he meets with Noah and saves and rescues his family, an image of the way that God is a saving

God. He begins to have conversations with Abraham to set about a people for himself. He talks to Jacob and carries that forward.

He talks to Moses and gives his people a law that they cannot keep that demonstrates that you're not gonna earn this.

You're not gonna win your way back. He meets with David and says, one of your offspring is going to be the promised one who's gonna set all of these things right.

Of course, he meets with many prophets, and the story of his plan of redemption unfolds one promise and one prophecy at a time, and I love the way that the

Old Testament reveals facets of his salvation one at a time. These beautiful gems, the life of David being one of them, until we finally see that his plan is to send forth a savior who will be called things like God with us, and he will be born of a woman, and he will be crushed for the sins of his people, but he will also, through resurrection, be named the eternal king over a perfect, sinless, and deathless kingdom.

That is the plot of the Bible. That is where things are going. And so all of those promises in the

Old Testament then enter Jesus in the New Testament who fulfilled all of those prophecies, who was indeed crucified as the sinless lamb of God for his people as foretold in the

Old Testament. He was raised to new life. He ascended to the right hand of God in heaven from where he rules and reigns today, and he will indeed return for his people to establish justice and usher in that final kingdom.

That's the story arc. So when we read Scripture, it's good to ask ourselves, where are we at in that big picture plan that begins with creation, goes through the fall, begins to be redeemed, and goes through redemption, and will ultimately result in a restoration, a glorious restoration?

We're learning in 2 Samuel about God's faithfulness to keep his promises. We're in a part of his redemption.

The redemption has begun. He's begun the promise of working through a people to bring forth a Messiah. That's what

Israel is about. The whole relationship with Israel was about a protective people through which

God was gonna bring forth his promised Messiah. We're learning about the way that God moves his plan forward despite, in our texts, despite the sinfulness of his people.

The depth of the depravity in these accounts and the family life of David are astonishing to our ears, sometimes shocking, at least scandalous, and yet they are recorded for us because they serve a vital purpose in the story arc of God's redemption because these stories of Amnon, and Tamar, and Absalom, and David, and Bathsheba remind us that God is able to keep his promises to us even when we fail to honor him as we ought, and that gives me hope.

Anyone else? Anyone else find hope that God can keep his promises to you despite your failures and your sin?

Man, I need this message. I need these stories. In other words, God's redemption is not dependent on our ability to please him.

Whew. Oh, that is good news, church. God promised to establish

David's royal lineage forever, and that was a one -sided promise. You're going to sin,

David, and you're going to sin grievously, and you are going to reap consequences in your family line that are going to be devastating intentionally so that my promises stand to my glory, says

God, so that you see that I'm a promise keeper, and you're not. In our text this morning, we're going to see the promises of God right on the knife's edge.

All of his sons, all of David's sons are in jeopardy. God promised to establish that royal line forever, and here is a mess, and that mess just comes a hair's breadth away from, quote, unquote, thwarting the promises of God.

Now, can God's promises ever be thwarted? Praise God, they can't, but it looks to our eyes often like, oh, man, this is the end.

Oh, man, this is where his promises die. This is where his faithfulness, in our generation, his faithfulness to the church is over.

Man, we're only one generation from the church dying. How many of you ever heard that before? It's just not true, because who is the king?

Who is the head of this thing? Got nothing to fear, church, that it's going to carry right on until he comes back for us, because he promises, he promises, he promises that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church.

That's the hope. Every generation will have at least a remnant of people who believe the truth, preach the truth, proclaim the truth, love him to the end.

That's glorious. In our text, David is, at one point in the text, he's going to believe that the promises have failed.

He's going to believe that all of his sons are dead. Well, God has promised that one of his lineage, one born to his royal line is going to be the promised king, the one who's going to rule for eternity and solve our sin problem.

And that would spell the end of his promises if all of his kids, all of his sons are dead. Well, we saw this devastation, right?

We've seen the darkness. Amnon raped his half -sister Tamar in a terrible passage that we looked at last week.

And if you missed that message, I recommend you download the podcast or watch it on YouTube. Go back and check that one out. It is a really difficult passage, but I think a message that's good for us to hear.

But now we find in verse 23 that two full years have passed since that devastating thing has occurred.

And what must that, I mean, just a thought passing here. What was that two years like for the characters?

What was that two years like for Tamar? Amnon has been running around free, acting princely.

David is aware of what has happened and it made him angry, but not angry enough to move him to provide justice for his daughter

Tamar. And some have observed that revenge is a dish best served cold, and it seems like Absalom's got in on that.

And in two years, I am sure that some of the edge has been taken off some of these relationships. How many of you know that relationships shift within a two -year period of time and sometimes your anger cools, sometimes things get a little bit easier to process and you have a little bit of time and distance and all that?

Not so with Absalom. Absalom has been busy this couple years. He's been plotting and planning.

He has been biding his time looking for the right opportunity to enact a plan. We are told at the end of verse 22 that Absalom hated his brother

Amnon for what he did to his full sister Tamar. So Absalom hatched a plot.

Every year there were sheep shearing gatherings. These were like festivals. It was all held around the same time of the year and people would hire sheep shearers and then they would all go out and there would be a celebration.

And we see this throughout various places in the Bible. In the book of Genesis, Jacob tries to flee from his father -in -law

Laban during the sheep shearing season, using that as kind of a diversion so that he can take his two daughters and all of his sheep and run and flee.

In 1 Samuel, earlier on in the life of David, we saw Nabal make a fool of himself against David during the sheep shearing festival.

He gets drunk, eventually has a heart attack and dies and David married his widow Abigail. So even in the context of David, we see sheep shearing factoring into some of his life here.

And so sheep shearing was a time of celebrating a harvest of wool. This was a cash crop for an agrarian society where everything, all the clothing was made of wool.

That was a big deal. If you're dependent on animals, did you know that if you can get a product from an animal that you don't have to kill, that's a bonus?

You get something from it, you can milk it, you can take its wool and it still survives. That's a good thing and that makes it a cash thing.

That makes it worthy of celebrating in this context. And so Absalom invites his father the king and all of his brothers to join him for the work and the festivities.

They're not going up there to work. The king isn't going to go take shears and cut the wool off. This is to come and join the celebration.

Come and be part of the festival is the idea here. And Absalom presses his father but his father didn't want to be a burden on Absalom and the idea of pressing there and keep pressing and keep pressing is that he's badgering his dad.

Come on, man. Let's just go celebrate. Come on. Be part of it, dad. I mean, you're the king. That would be awesome if you'd come up to my sheep shearing.

But it's likely, the reason that David gives for not going with his son seems kind of lame to our ears.

You know, no, I wouldn't want to be a burden to you, son. It's not that great but it would be a burden. He's not wrong.

It's likely due to the large entourage and security detail and everyone that would be involved.

It would involve the entire royal family and all of their servants and their advisors and their security and all of that. So Absalom, you're going to have to feed everyone.

I mean, all of the family and all of the princes and all of their security and all of their servants and all of their advisors and everyone.

We're going to be a burden to you. This isn't even going to be a fun celebration if we all go with you. So David declined but Absalom wore his father down and eventually he relents and agrees to let all the princes go with Absalom.

Now imagine that David, in this context, had a skeptical eye toward Absalom. I think for probably two years he's been watching him.

What's he going to do to Amnon? Have him return? Kind of watch and keep the two apart because I know

Absalom has. How many of you know as a father or as a parent you can kind of see when your kids are at odds with one another?

And I think in this context David was seeing the hatred. Absalom won't even talk to Amnon. There's a cold shoulder going on here and David is watching it.

But especially I think his radar would go up when Absalom asked for Amnon by name in the text. Why should he go with you?

is David's question. And so how in the world does Absalom get David to acquiesce and allow his son

Amnon to go with Absalom who knows hate each other? But I think all you have to do is those parents in the room probably already got it.

You already figured it out. If you have a persistent child who is badgering you for something and badgering you for something and badgering you for something eventually you just go yeah, you can have a candy bar at the checkout line.

You know how easy it is to give in a request. Raise your hand if you've ever just kind of been guilty. Get off my back. Yes, you can have a $20 bill.

Here, take it. Just get out of here. Anybody ever do that? Kids, plug your ears.

We don't want you to hear that we give in to that kind of thing. But it's true, right?

We all have experienced that. And I fully believe that the plot to kill Amnon was in Absalom's heart all along.

I don't think he said I'm going to do it at the sheep shearing festival. He was looking for opportunity and the opportunity presented itself. It's taken two years to get this golden chance to be there without dad around, without, out away from the city, out away from the protective group groupings and all of that stuff.

And now he's out in the countryside with his brother Amnon. We see the specific plot and the execution of the plot with extreme brevity in the text.

It's shocking how little detail we're given about this murder. In verse 24, we see

Absalom make his plot exposed there. Very short verse, just not much detail.

But we know this. He steals from his daddy's playbook. He will enlist his servants to do his dirty work.

Much like David enlisted Joab to do his dirty work and to put Uriah to death back in chapter 11.

We see a lot of parallels in the way that Absalom dispatches Amnon and the way that David handles his issue with Bathsheba.

It's also interesting that Absalom uses alcohol like his daddy did. He uses alcohol to get Amnon tipsy and we saw that David used alcohol to get

Uriah tipsy to try to get him to go back home and stay with his wife

Bathsheba for the night. The plot requires a lot of trust, by the way, in the servants of David.

Nobody would want to be the one to strike down Amnon. Amnon is the crown prince.

He's the next in line. David dies, Amnon is king. That's what you gotta understand. So who wants to be the one to raise their fist against this one?

Who wants to be the one to plunge the dagger? The goal is that they are all equally responsible so no one can say, here is the man who killed the crown prince.

They're all supposed to strike at once. That's the plot. That's the plan. And equally, they are all under the command of their master,

Absalom. They can always say, we're just following orders. Enlisting others in sin seems to be a growing family trait in David's dynasty.

Interestingly, Absalom uses the words of nobility and honor here that was brought up by a lot of commentaries as I was reading this week.

He's encouraging his servants to murder his brother and look at the end of verse 28. Words like the words of a commander on a battlefield.

Be courageous. Be valiant. These are words of nobility. Words spoken in a battlefield over troops as they're about to go in to battle for a good cause.

These words are spoken during a plot to commit murder. Now there's a little fanfare in the event itself.

We don't even know if they beat him with fists or stabbed him with swords. The words there are so generic that when it says strike him down, we don't know what they struck him with.

That's just a generic violent action and here it's obviously violent enough to result in death.

The interesting thing is the verbiage that's used in verse 29 is just direct and straightforward. It doesn't give us the detail.

What it does tell us is they did exactly what Absalom commanded. They did what

Absalom told them to do. Did it the way that he told them to. The result, of course, is that Amnon is dead.

The king's sons, for obvious reasons, arose and fled on their mules. I imagine that they very likely thought they were in danger probably immediately as somebody strikes their brother, the oldest brother, the crown prince.

As soon as that battle ensued or as soon as the first strike happens, they just scatter because they're like, coo, it's an uprising.

They're going to kill all of us. Somebody is trying to take over dad's kingdom. Get out.

And so they all flee. But interestingly, they flee on mules which

I can't picture that being super fast. It just kind of seems funny to me but I would think in the rugged terrain it might make more sense to us if we could see them just scattering into the night on mules.

Still a funny image to me. Apparently, what we do know for sure is that these mules were not super fast because fake news travels faster than mules according to the text.

And a messenger arrives from the sheep shearing, probably not on a mule, and the report is false that David first receives.

All the king's sons are dead. To David's ears, this is like saying the promises of God have failed you.

God has not kept his promise. Nobody's coming from your royal line. The gig is up.

Your kingdom is over. Your heirs to your throne are all dead.

David's advancing in years at this point in the narrative and his kingdom seems to be crumbling around him. His family is certainly falling apart.

I think you could see it in the text, right? And the king tore his clothes. So did his attendants.

And they did this in ancient times as a display of their internal grief. What you need to understand back then is clothing was expensive.

Not like they just go get another change of clothes, run to Kohl's, get a bargain, whatever. TJ Maxx, I don't know what.

Target. They couldn't just run out and get a replacement of clothes. It was a big deal to tear your own robe.

It was expensive. And what you're doing in that sense of grief is saying it feels like my life is over.

And I want to show everybody that on the outside by the rent and the tear that I feel in my soul and my heart.

David falls face down on the earth, but as he's there, Jonadab, his nephew, rushed in with an accurate report.

Convenient, accurate report. Jonadab knows enough detail to betray to us readers, if you go back and you were to read from the beginning of this chapter, that he was likely in cahoots with Absalom.

Note that Jonadab is in on the inner workings of Absalom's plans. He is aware of the motivation for this killing and he says as much.

Well, who told him that? Who told him that Absalom was the one who did this? Who told him that it was because of Tamar?

Who reasoned that to him? He's aware of the motivation for this killing and rather than grieving his role in the death of his friend

Amnon, Jonadab is comforting the king that, oh, don't worry, he's the only one that's dead. Don't worry, it's just your son

Amnon. Some friend. Some cousin. They're cousins.

He's like, yeah, don't worry, it's just Amnon. In this chapter, there are too many people telling each other, by the way, to not take seriously painful circumstances to heart.

You see it twice, earlier in chapter 13 and then in this section of chapter 13.

Absalom told Tamar to not take her sexual assault to heart. Disgusting.

And here, Jonadab tells David to not take the death of his son Amnon to heart. Don't let this trouble you.

What? Comfort and compassion do not appear to be hallmarks of David's royal family.

Agreed? They don't seem to be really good on the compassion side of things. Jonadab knows that this was a revenge killing according to verse 32.

He knows what has motivated it. And yet, Jonadab was also part of the plan for Amnon to get alone with his half -sister

Tamar. He's a sketchy guy throughout this whole story. I don't know that any of us are going to meet

Jonadab. Three times in the closing verses of our text, we are told that Absalom fled.

David has lost two sons on this day. His inactivity at the sin of Amnon has now cost him his son

Absalom as well. So all of the king's sons minus Absalom and Amnon arrive back at Jerusalem and Jonadab says, see,

I told you so. It's just like I said, they're all still alive. He's trying to curry some favor in the king's eyes.

He's sketchy, sketchy, sketchy. Well, David and his boys lift up their voices and weep over this treachery and murder.

This has been vigilante justice. Now, part of us are used to the bad guy getting it in the end, right?

Like at the end, it's just kind of like every action film ends with how are they going to creatively kill off this villain, right?

And how many of you just, we've got to be careful about allowing that to get in the way of what God desires to communicate to us.

And so when it comes to that, some of us are just glad Amnon's dead. Someone's like, I would have done it myself.

He raped a woman. But there's a right pathway of justice, right? Is there a right and a wrong way to do justice?

There is. This is not the right way. This has been Absalom taking on himself the role of his father, the king and judge, and he has executed justice on his own.

This is murder and this is indeed sin. Absalom fled to Talmai, king of Gesher.

And that means so much to you guys. You're like, oh wow, he went there? Really? That's cool. Actually, it does kind of help because it's his mom's dad.

This is where his mom comes from. His maternal grandfather is Talmai. And so he goes back to old kin.

He goes back to old family. And he will remain there for three years while David mourned for his son day after day while Absalom is hanging out with grandpa.

And verse 39 makes me think that this mourning is primarily for Absalom. I think he's sad about him.

Certainly he's sad about Amnon's death, but David is torn inside and the text tells us in his heart he longs to go out to Absalom.

In verse 39, because he was comforted about the death of Amnon. What does he mean by that? What does the text mean by that?

I think he has realized that Absalom has done what he was not strong enough to do. Absalom was wrong to take justice in his own hands and that places

David in a deeper pit. Now he has a murderer and a usurper in his family as well. David loves

Absalom and he knows he cannot go out to be with him because it would look like he approves of this murder.

David feels in his heart a catch -22. Love for his son and equally a commitment and a pledge and a responsibility to his role as king.

Note what we have going on here at the surface level of this text. There's three applications that I'm going to draw from this.

But on the surface what we have is David committed rape and so is his son

Amnon. David took out a hit and killed one of his military officers. Now his son has followed daddy's ways and took out a hit and killed his own brother.

On the surface of this text there are three things that I think all of us could take to heart in various ways.

It seems like a common application. It seems like I keep beating the same drum, playing the same note.

But it's very vital when we are getting into the life of David that step one always seems to be flee sin.

Run from sin. Flee sin. Sin has severely corrosive influence.

We expect to keep it contained but like overflowing battery acid it eats everything that it touches.

Have you guys experienced that in your life? Sin's corrosive effects? It doesn't stay contained.

Playing with sin and believing the lie that we can control it is like playing with fire and it will not burn you alone.

For David, the fire is spreading into his next generation and he seems to be standing still paralyzed as the flame spread from son to son to daughter to son to son.

Do you see it? That's what we're seeing in 2 Samuel, the spread. But it is never enough to tell you to flee from sin.

If I leave it there, man, I'm preaching a false gospel. It is not flee from sin alone but it is run to Christ.

Run to Jesus. What good does it do us to spend a lifetime trying to clean ourselves up, trying to run from sin, trying to make a better Don or a better you?

What good does that do? Because have any of you taken a season and just gone, I'm just gonna make this about me?

How many of you know that you'll learn how to sin better when you do that? When you make yourself the center, when you make you your own project, self -help, get rid of that junk.

Self -help always results in sin. It always results in just, just focus here, man.

I'm just doing this. It doesn't work. Run to Jesus. It's never, ever, ever enough, church, to act good.

And if you ever think that my message up here, if you ever walk out of here thinking that you heard the message, act good, come and grab my hand at the door, pull me aside and fix it.

Tell me, what I heard from you this morning was act better because that's not the message I want to convey.

We got our wires crossed. I'm preaching the doctrines of demons. It's gotta get fixed if that's what you hear from me because that is where Satan wants you.

Fix yourself because that leads to despair. That leads to discouragement. That leads to a life of powerlessness.

No, run to Jesus. Battling sin on our own is like trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun.

Run, church, run, run, run to the ocean of God's grace. He alone can put out the flames of our destructive sins.

Ask Jesus to rescue you from your sins. And that is for those who have never asked

Jesus to rescue them before. Run to him and say, please forgive me. Please set me free.

And it is also for those who have a relationship with Jesus and you've been walking with him for a while, keep running to him confessing and asking for his grace to stay in the battle.

Ask him to keep you in the battle against your own temptations. The third kind of surface level.

I'm calling these surface level because you just read it and it's kind of like up on the easy shelf to apply.

Straightforward from the text. This is particularly to parents but especially to fathers.

Engage your family. Engage your family. Men who have children or hope to have children in the future, this is a time to put your thinking caps on and put your hands behind your ears to listen up and take heed to David's apathy.

Beware. He stands by as sin consumes his family. His compromised fall into sin with Bathsheba has set a tone that is rippling and echoing.

It is the vibe of his family that's going out into the next generation and now he stands by inactive as the flames sweep through the next generation.

He is here in the text. Do you see him? Mentions David once in a while. Tells us, catches us up with what he's doing and notice his role.

Sure Amnon, Tamar can come over and cook you a meal, no problem. Sure Absalom, Amnon and all the boys can go with you to the sheep shearing.

Ooh, I am so angry at Amnon for what he did to Tamar. Does nothing. And at the end of our text, oh, in my soul

I wish I could go out and see Absalom my son but what would the people think? There's an indictment that I take to heart from one of the commentaries that I read this week about this very passage.

J .D. Greer says the following. I'll read it twice. Where most of the men in our churches to show the same level of apathy in their jobs as they do in their own homes, they would have been fired long ago.

Where most of the men in our churches to show the same level of apathy in their jobs as they do in their home lives, they would have been fired long ago.

Don't let this be true of us men. Our apathy or disconnection from our families will not produce the strength and hope and power that we long for in the next generation.

Men particularly need to be reminded to lean into the tough things of parenting. We can be kind of clueless.

We can be increasingly disconnected and that will be the slide of us without intention. Don't leave all the tough decisions to your wife.

Engage your family with proactive guidance. Engage your family with proactive discipline. Engage your family with proactive love.

There are a couple of deeper applications here in this text. We consider the bigger picture of what's happening at the stage and movement of God's plan of redemption.

Kind of bigger picture applications that require you to pull back a little bit and take that 30 ,000 foot view of this text.

And the first is simple and strange application from this text.

Praise God. Praise God. It seems strange application to draw from a text about a brother murdering a brother.

Praise God. Anybody with me? Strange to say praise God when what we have is the primary movement of the text is one brother killing another brother.

Little bit weird. But let me explain. If God will keep

His promises to a family like David's, then we have hope that He will keep

His promises to people like us. Do you hear it?

People like me. Praise God, church. Praise God that He is faithful.

How faithful? Faithful to keep His promises to a man like David. Praise God that He has a plan.

What kind of plan? So glad that you asked. A plan that works in our fallen history to bring about beautiful things.

From this steaming pile of David's family, God is bringing forth a Messiah to save all who will put their faith in Him.

It's from this line. It's from these people doing these wicked and terrible things that God is working His promises.

What? If God can make beautiful things from this mess of sexual assault, murder, and apathy, then that gives me hope that He can take the mess of my life and bring beauty from this too.

Praise God, church, that we don't serve a God who easily gives up. How many of you know

He would have given up on you long ago if He was impatient? He's already proven Himself faithful and patient in my life.

He is patient and long -suffering in His steadfast covenant love to His people, His commitment,

His unilateral, one -sided pledge to save all who come through faith in Jesus.

No matter what, final application brings us back to the way that we know

His faithfulness. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born in the line of King David.

And so the last application is live for Jesus. If you have all these other things in place, you've fled your sin, you have come to Jesus, you have run to Him, now live for Him.

We come to communion this week to remember His body broken for us and His blood shed for us. Our text shows us the way of our hearts.

Like Absalom seeking revenge, like Absalom seeking power, or like David apathetically wallowing in relational confusion.

Oh, it's just too tough to figure out. We all have a unique pattern of sin that plagues us.

And I know, to a person in the room, that we all have sin. And without the sending forth of the

Messiah to die for our sins, we would have no hope, no hope, no hope of reconciliation with our

Holy and Righteous Creator. But in the sacrificial death of Jesus, we find forgiveness and reconciliation and a whole relationship again with our

Creator. If you've not asked Jesus to rescue you from your own sin, cursed heart, then ask

Him today to forgive you and ask Him in prayer during communion time, ask

Him to be the center of your life. Say, I've done wrong to you and I've done wrong to others and in my sin, my heart is black and I've practiced darkness.

I haven't met my own standards. I haven't met your standards. And so I ask for Jesus Christ to forgive me and to cover me.

Man, it'd be awesome if somebody here would pray that prayer today. You can come and talk with me. You can come and talk with Nick, who was up here earlier.

You can come and talk with my wife or Dave would love to talk with you. But if you're here and you've already asked

Jesus to rescue you from your sins, then evaluate if He's indeed the center of your life. Is that where He resides right now?

Our hope for any real life change is in the forgiveness that Jesus has given us at the cross. And so let's go out from here remembering these applications and seeking prayerfully to allow the

Spirit to work these things in us, flee sin, run to Jesus, engage our families, praise

God, and live for Jesus. Let's pray. Father, I thank

You so much for the grace that You have given to us. I praise You that You give us these models and examples of real life, real jacked up, messed up, real life.

I need those illustrations. I need to see Your faithfulness worked out in human history.

And that gives me more trust and more faith. It builds me up to say, wow,

You could even save me. Thank You for that grace that reminds us that You are a

God who keeps Your promises. And even as we have an opportunity to take communion together, this is a centerpiece of that promise.

You sending Your Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for us so that all who attach their lives to Jesus by faith and trust in what

He has done will be brought into an eternal kingdom forever and ever and ever with Your love, with Your mercy, with Your power, with Your strength, with an ongoing, renewed, new heart that can fight and battle sin.

Father, I pray if there's anybody here in this gathering that doesn't have that yet, that today might be a day of receiving that by praying and asking

You to save them, that there might be true rescue that happens in the church as well as in relationships outside of the church.

And then for those of us that belong to You, I pray that You would help us to take You seriously daily, moment by moment, rejoice in the salvation that we've been given through Jesus, and then to go out and live with a heart of obedience, a love that is just so overpouring from You into our hearts that results in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control, that these things would be just bubbling out of us because of the great salvation that we've received.

I pray that that would be a reality in our families, that would be a reality in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, here in the church.

Thank You for the unity that You've given to us. And now as we come to the tables, I ask that You would help us to reflect on the glorious truth that we are not worthy, but we are loved.