2 Samuel 18:1-19:8 The Only True Victory

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. Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to Recast Church.

I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here. We are gathered together here at the start of our week to lift up our eyes to the community of faith.

And so I encourage you to look around at this point in the service and just notice that you are not alone in this room.

He has not saved us to be alone. He has saved us into the assembly of His people.

And so we rejoice together that we are not alone in this walk, and more so as the day approaches, more so as the days get more difficult, as there's striving and struggling in our communities, there's striving and struggling in our nation, there's striving and struggling around the world.

We need one another, and we need to recognize that we are not alone.

He is not giving victory to me alone, but as I stand up here and I look out at your faces,

I see that He has many projects that He's working on all at once, and I find peace and joy in the connection with you, and I hope you find that with each other as well.

I hope that church never becomes merely something that you do or merely something that you attend, but I hope that church increasingly becomes a community that you're vitally connected to.

As we jump back into 2 Samuel, obviously I was gone for a week, and I'm grateful for Dale filling in for me, but we're back in 2

Samuel. We're going to be taking on a large chunk of text this morning, possibly, and I don't want to scare you, but possibly one of the longest chunks of Scripture that I've ever preached on.

And yet I want to introduce this text. Funny, as if there's not enough text there itself, I want to start off by reflecting on a completely different text that I believe ought to flavor our understanding of the complex character of King David.

He's a very complex character in Scripture. I say complex because he's one of the guys that we get to know the most.

I don't know if you realize that, but in the Old Testament, he's one guy that we actually see the historical accounts, we get to see what he did through these narrative accounts, the things that happened to him, the things that he did, but then we also get to see a lot, a huge chunk of his heart as expressed in the songs that he wrote.

So that's what makes him stand out as kind of unique. We can see a little bit behind the scenes. In his songs, we see his heart.

On the outside, we see the things that are happening and transpiring in his life. And so it's kind of a unique thing.

And there's a psalm that I think many of us have read. Some of you in the room have it memorized. You memorized it when you were a kid.

It's a common psalm, Psalm 23. Those things that become very familiar to us often are the things that we think about the least.

They're so familiar that you could quote it, and I'm not sure how much you've thought about it. Psalm 23 .6 says this, the words of David, David penning these words.

And I call these provocative words, and I'll tell you why in a second. Provocative words. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the

Lord forever. Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, says

David, and I will dwell, the destiny, the end result, is I will dwell in the house of the

Lord forever. David was confident he was being followed. He was being followed all the days of his life.

Now, I don't believe that David was paranoid. You know, like, what's that behind the curtain? What's following me? You know, something's stalking me.

I don't believe that he was paranoid. But David here is testifying in this psalm that he was indeed being stalked.

Something was following him. All the days of his life, something was coming after him. I call these words from Psalm 23 provocative because we see a heart, and a heart belief, and a heart trust that doesn't seem to match the reality that we read in 2

Samuel about David's life. But I want to point out what

David doesn't say in Psalm 23. He doesn't say, every day will be easy for me because the

Lord is with me. Is that what he says? No, he says, surely goodness and mercy are following me.

They're stalking me. They're coming for me. So before we read this text and consider the deep, deep grief of David, by the end of this he is mourning.

He is nearly inconsolable. But before we plunge into the depths of this tragic victory we're going to read about, before we consider the emptiness of even the successes that we find in this life,

I want you to start off by asking yourself a question. This is before I read the text. Ask yourself this question.

What is stalking you? What's following you? What's stalking you?

What is following you all the days of your life? Either it is goodness and mercy that is stalking you, ready to pounce at a moment.

Think of it that way. It's ready to jump on you. It's ready to grab you. It's ready to rustle you.

It's ready to have its way with you. Goodness and mercy. Is it ready to pounce? Be at the return of Christ this afternoon.

Wouldn't that be glorious? Anybody say amen to that? That'd be awesome. But be at the return of Christ or a car accident that takes you into his loving arms.

Is it goodness and mercy coming for you? Do you feel it, church? Or is there something more sinister stalking you?

Another way to ask this question is, where do your good things lie? Is there fear that something bad out there is going to take your good things away?

Or is the feel of your life right now that someday good is going to break into your darkness and lead you to glory?

David, who experienced these things we are about to read, declared that goodness and mercy were stalking him all the days of his life.

Goodness right around the corner. Mercy about to finally catch up with him.

So let's open our Bibles, your devices or your scripture journals, to 2 Samuel 18. We're going to actually read over the chapter break all the way to verse 8 of chapter 19.

So we're going to read, settle in for a good chunk. I do encourage you, as much as possible, to have the Bible open so that you can follow along.

I know that these are probably times when our minds are tempted to wander, but recast, this is one of the most holy things we have the opportunity to do, is to take in God's word together in the gathering of his people.

So 2 Samuel 18 all the way over to verse 8 of chapter 19. Follow along.

Then David mustered the men who were with him and set over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. And David sent out the army, one -third under the command of Joab, one -third under the command of Abishai, the son of Zariah, Joab's brother, and one -third under the command of Ittai, the

Gittite. And the king said to the men, I myself will also go out with you. But the men said, you shall not go out, for if we flee, they will not care about us.

If half of us die, they will not care about us. But you are worth 10 ,000 of us, therefore it is better that you send us help from the city.

The king said to them, whatever seems best to you I will do. So the king stood by the side of the gate while all the army marched out by hundreds and by thousands.

And the king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai, deal gently for my sake with the young man

Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders about Absalom.

So the army went out into the field against Israel and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim. And the men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the loss there was great that day, 20 ,000 men.

The battle spread over the face of all the country and the force devoured more people that day than the sword. And Absalom happened to meet the servants of David.

Absalom was riding on his mule and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak and his head was caught fast in the oak and he was suspended between heaven and earth while the mule that was under him went on.

And a certain man saw it and told Joab, behold I saw Absalom hanging in an oak. Joab said to the man who told him, what you saw him?

Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have been glad to give you 10 pieces of silver and a belt.

But the man said to Joab, even if I felt in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not reach out my hand against the king's son.

For in our hearing, the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, for my sake protect the young man

Absalom. On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously against his life, and there's not anything that's hidden from the king, then you yourself would have stood aloof.

Joab said, I'm not going to waste my time with you like this. And he took three javelins in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak.

And 10 young men, Joab's armor bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him. Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the troops came back from pursuing

Israel. For Joab restrained them, and they took Absalom and threw him into a great pit in the forest and raised over him a very great heap of stones.

And all Israel fled, everyone to his own home. Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself the pillar that is in the king's valley, for he said,

I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. He called the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom's monument to this day.

Then Amaz, the son of Zadok, said, Let me run and carry the news to the king that the

Lord has delivered him from the hand of his enemies. And Joab said to him,

You are not to carry news today. You may carry news another day, but today you shall carry no news because the king's son is dead.

Then Joab said to the Cushite, Go tell the king what you have seen. The Cushite bowed before Joab and ran.

Then Amaz, the son of Zadok, said to Joab, Come what may, let me also run after the Cushite. And Joab said,

Why will you run, my son, seeing that you have no reward for the news? Come what may, he said,

I will run. So he said to him, Run. Then Amaz ran by the way of the plain and outran the

Cushite. Now David was sitting between the two gates, and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall, and when he lifted up his eyes and looked, he saw a man running alone.

And the watchman called out and told the king. And the king said, If he is alone, there is news in his mouth. And he drew nearer and nearer.

The watchman saw another man running, and the watchman called to the gate and said, See another man running alone.

The king said, He also brings news. The watchman said, I think the running of the first is like the running of Amaz, the son of Zadok.

And the king said, He is a good man and comes with good news. Then Amaz cried out to the king, All is well.

And he bowed before the king with his face to the earth and said, Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king.

And the king said, Is it well with the young man Absalom? Amaz answered, When Joab sent the king's servant, your servant,

I saw a great commotion, but I do not know what it was. And the king said, Turn aside and stand here. So he turned aside and stood still.

And behold, the Cushite came, and the Cushite said, Good news for my lord the king, for the Lord has delivered you this day from the hand of all who rose up against you.

The king said to the Cushite, Is it well with the young man Absalom? And the Cushite answered, May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man.

And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said,

O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would I had died instead of you.

O Absalom, my son, my son. It was told Joab, behold, the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.

So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people. For the people heard that day the king is grieving for his son.

And the people stole into the city that day as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle. The king covered his face, and the king cried out with a loud voice,

O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son. Then Joab came into the house to the king and said, you have today covered with shame the faces of all your servants who have this day saved your life and the lives of your sons and your daughters and the lives of your wives and your concubines, because you love those who hate you and hate those who love you.

For you have made it clear today that commanders and servants are nothing to you. For today I know 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, not a man will stay with you this night.

And this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now. And the king arose and took his seat in the gate.

And the people were all told, behold, the king is sitting in the gate. And all the people came before the king.

Let's pray. Father, we know that lives, real life is messy.

Our lives are messy. So much ambiguity in the day to day. So much wrestling and struggling to get it right when we know that we're not getting it all right.

So much struggling and wrestling to know the right pathway. And just how to keep our heads above water.

Sometimes it just feels like we're treading and we're just about to take our last gulp of air. I know there are some here who are grieving deeply.

There are some here whose lives are just going pretty well. So Father, I pray that you would meet each one of us in this text with the glory of the one true victory.

David's victorious in battle and he's broken. How much reality is there in that for us,

Father, when we experience the good of this life and recognize all of a sudden it's only temporary.

It's limited. It's scope is small. Were you to bless everyone in this room with a million dollars, we'd be able to burn through it and we would still die.

And so I pray that you would help us to live for the greater victory. Live for the thing that really matters. To store up treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and where thieves do not break in and steal.

To recognize that there is a victory worth living for and it's not our own. I thank you for the victory given to us at the cross of Christ.

It's in that vein that we are able to lift up our voices in joy and gladness together in the gathering of your people today.

I pray that that joy would just boil up within us with fervor and with enthusiasm.

That the greatest of all victories has already been given to us at the cross of Jesus Christ.

That we're forgiven. That we're set free from the consequences of sin and death. I pray that you would inhabit our worship by your

Holy Spirit with glory, with joy and with thoughts rightly rightly invested in you.

Receive these songs as worship this morning in Jesus' name. Re -open your Bibles or your devices to 2

Samuel chapter 18 as we march through this text. I'm going to give you an outline here in a second but just to be able to see that the things that I'm saying are coming from God's word.

Our text breaks down as narrative and so stories sometimes have movements, they have kind of like an organization or a structure to them.

So sometimes my outlines during the season of 2 Samuel as we're going through it sometimes the outline is just kind of mildly technical.

It kind of follows the order of events and so this is one of those kinds of outlines. The first thing is we see the battle in verses 1 -8 of chapter 18.

That's the battle. The second thing is the death in verses 9 -18. Then the suspense verses 19 -32 a big chunk of the text taken up in suspense.

And then the grief the last verse most scholars go oh man he was so close the last verse of chapter 18 actually goes over into 19 and so 18 -33 through chapter 19 verse 8 is the grief.

This outline helps us to frame what's going on in the text, the narrative the flow of the historical events but let me give you a big picture of why we need to even talk about the details of this account.

Why is it recorded for us in Scripture? These events are recorded for us from the life of a real guy, real dude, flesh and blood guy who lived on this planet.

His name is David and it shows us the main purpose of this part of his life is to demonstrate to us that real life is messy.

That's why it's recorded for us. And I would suggest to you that as far as main points go that's kind of lame.

Just be honest with you. Like how many of you already knew that life is messy? Did you already know that when you came in here? These are a lot of words to make a point that we already know.

When you got here you knew that life can be messy. You've experienced it yourself. You could stand up and testify to your own story of messes that you've experienced in your life, right?

But here's why we need to read this. Here's why so many words and so many pages of the life of David brought to a head in this one point that life is messy.

It's that we are still able to be surprised by messes. How in the world could we be alive for as many years as we've been alive on this planet and still be surprised by messes?

You know, we're surprised by things like cancer. We're surprised by things like relational strife at work or at home.

We're surprised by economic downturns. We're surprised by loss of job. We're surprised by negative things.

As if something novel has suddenly happened to us. You guys get what

I'm saying on that? Sometimes it's just, where did that come from? What came from real life? How do we not expect these things?

When seasons turn dark or things in our lives seem to head south, how do we respond and what are our expectations?

We need long passages spotlighting for us reasonable expectations in a fallen world.

Reasonable expectations in a fallen world. And God has faithfully provided enough in His Word to reset our expectations.

Church, this is a reset your expectations kind of message. Now, it's not meant to be down.

You'll see that it ends as high as it's possible to take anybody. To the very throne of God, where's it going to end?

To the victory of Christ. But expectations here?

Well, that's a grab bag and you all know it. David would testify of it. But one other way to look at this before we dive into our outline is to ask yourself the question, what am

I really hoping for in this broken world? What am I really striving for? Some of you maybe are gunning for CEO.

Do you have your sights on a lake house? Or a cushy retirement with lots and lots of golf?

How about even for some of us maybe the idol in our hearts and the things that we really value would just be something simple.

God, could you just give me something like this? Like an idyllic Christmas together with my kids and grandkids all gathered around the tree with lots of laughter and delight.

Could you give me a few of those in my old age? What do you expect out of life?

What do you want out of life? And further, what's reasonable to expect?

Well, let me give you a spoiler alert before we jump into this outline. This message is about deferred victory.

It's about exposing the emptiness of every victory you will experience in this life. And that sounds harsh, but you'll see what

I'm talking about as we walk through this passage. It's about laying bare the trap so that you can see it with your eyes.

The trap that is found in the temporary and fleeting and actually quite chintzy victories that we gun for in this life.

Now don't get me wrong, how many of you have experienced some glorious times? You've had some joy, you've had some delight, and we express thankfulness to God when

He surprises us with delight, surprises us with those moments of joy, surprises us with good things. And our

Father loves to give us good things, don't get me wrong. But we are those who live in this present life with joy, even in the midst of hardships, because we know a better victory.

We are the people who know that there is only one final victory, there is only one true and real victory.

All other victories are temporary, they're fleeting, and they are reversible. Only one victory is permanent, eternal, and absolutely certain.

You can take it to the bank. So let's jump into the flow of the outline. We first are going to see the battle here in David's life as we're kind of tying that into ours and understanding how we apply this.

We've been heading towards battle for a couple of chapters now. The lines have been drawing up. David's own son is attempting a hostile takeover and seeking the crown of his father.

Absalom the son, the father David. David is the king, the one that God has chosen to be king over Israel.

His son is in rebellion against him. He's the crown prince. If he just chilled for a minute, he would become king when

David dies, but he's just got no patience. He's just got no patience. He's like, no, I need to be king now.

So he's seeking the life of his own father. So David fled out of Jerusalem and forced marched thousands of people and troops loyal to his crown to a fortified city across the desert, across the

Jordan River, across the desert called to a fortified city called Mahanaim, and that's where, that's kind of the central location where David's hub of command is right now.

He's now had an opportunity to refresh his troops. He's in a position to be able to influence the location of the confrontation.

David is a mighty strategist in battle. You see that in 1 Samuel. You see that at the beginning of 2

Samuel. He is extremely powerful when it comes to strategy, as long as he has time to plan.

Well, that's Absalom's problem, is he's given his father time to plan. So he's the one that's in charge of the location where this confrontation is going to happen.

We know that David has a substantial fighting force. We see that right away in verse 1 by the fact that he needs to set commanders over 1 ,000s and over 100s.

Some estimates are probably close to 20 ,000 troops is kind of the idea because it says, it's going to say here in a moment that your life is worth up to half of your troops,

David, like 10 ,000. So some people just kind of read into that a little bit. We don't know exactly the numbers.

We're not given that, but he needs to set commanders over 1 ,000s. So that tells you there's a big force. And he even separates these thousands of troops into three armies under three commanders.

Two are brothers, Abishai and Joab are brothers, and they're going to command a third of David's army, and then

Ittai to Gittite. I mentioned him in a previous message. He came up. He's a foreigner who is loyal to David's crown.

He's a foreigner from the city of Gath. And in case that doesn't mean anything to you, Gath is the city where Goliath the

Giant was from. A Philistine city. This is a Philistine commander who is commanding a third of David's army because he is loyal to the god of David.

And he originally planned to go out to battle with his troops in the text, but his military counselors advise against it, so David hangs back as the chief strategist.

He hangs out in the war room. He's not removed from involvement in this battle, but he is not out in the field swinging a sword on this one.

And he is the one sending out reinforcements to key areas where the battle is raging and we need to send reinforcements this way.

We need to move to the flank over here and do all this stuff. So the parade is heading out to the battlefield while David stands by encouraging them and building them up.

And David gives here in this moment, as the troops are marching out, he gives a lackluster and somewhat confusing speech and command to his commanders.

You begin to see the conflict develop here in David's heart right here. He says, deal gently with Absalom.

Deal gently with my son. According to the ESV, there's the phrase deal gently, but some of the other translations have different phrases there.

The ones that are more accurate are the ones that would be more proactive than just merely deal gently. That sounds pretty passive.

It's protect him, shield him. Protect my enemy as you go try to defeat him.

Anybody scratching your head on that one? How do we do that? It's ambiguous at best.

That command is really hard to follow for a military commander. Could you protect my enemy, especially the head of my enemy, my enemy army, the enemy army, but could you preserve his life?

Could you save him? Could you protect him as if their job is to make sure he's okay? And he gives this order in the hearing of all the people and in all the commanders.

Now I just want to point out what we all know to be true. David is a king. He is heading up.

He's commander in chief over the armies that are loyal to him right now, but he is also a father.

He's a king, but he's a father. What does victory in this battle look like for David?

Already we find reality creeping in. How ambiguous does life get, church? How confusing does real life become?

How confusing can it be to measure trade -offs? An example, just to throw out an example of a trade -off.

A lot of guys will think this in their younger years. If I really work hard and put in the extra hours, think about how better off my family will be.

I'll be able to pay for college. I'll be able to get all the fun things that they want. I'll be able to bless them.

And we grow older to find out that we didn't know that our children will ultimately reject us as loving work more than them.

They don't see it as love for them. They see it as love for work. We struggle in this life to accurately assess outcomes, do we not?

We live in a fallen world where things are hardly ever clear -cut and black and white. That's just the reality. There's a lot of ambiguity in this life.

And David is conflicted as seen in his command for this battle. I want you to defeat

Absalom. I just don't want you to kill him. I want you to defeat him. I just don't want him dead. I want my son back the way things were when we used to play wooden swords and shields in the backyard.

How many of you know I already read it, but how many of you know the story's not going back there? The story's not going back there.

This text is here to show us real life expectations. The army goes out under David's command and he's obviously not there.

He's given these three commanders over. Three divisions of the army. They went out and they set up battle plans in the forest of Ephraim.

It's a very fractured area of what is modern day. It's in the country of Jordan on the east side of the

Jordan River. A fractured area there. It's on the banks of a river that's still there today. You can look it up.

It's the Jabok River. It flows through that fractured land and therefore trees will grow there, but trees don't grow like they grow here.

So when you think an oak tree, you can look out those windows and you can see some oak trees. And you're not going to reach the first branches of those trees, right?

Like how in the world is someone's head going to get stuck in one of those? But you need to understand that in the absence of water, an oak tree will send, it puts all of its focus on the roots and it doesn't get very tall.

It'll stay low to the ground and it'll spread out. And that's what we have in the Middle East even today.

There are oaks, there are terebinths, and it's a little confusion over which tree we're going to talk about here in a minute, but that's the area.

There's trees, low scrubby trees all over this fractured area. The danger of this forest would be enhanced by boulders, pits, cliffs.

It is a naturally hilly, tumultuous area. David very likely picked this location intentionally to set up his troops.

It would be very difficult for a large fighting force to obtain any advantage in the scrambled up landscape with trees and cliffs trying to bring their entire military to bear.

David's men were more used to guerrilla warfare and therefore more equipped to handle this kind of rugged terrain.

And so look at the brevity of the account. This is interesting. The entire centerpiece of this, we might think, is this battle.

Everything's been building up to a battle between David and his son Absalom, but it's only afforded two verses for the outcome of the entire battle.

We just don't get much detail. It's obvious that something else is in mind here as the main point.

Verse 7 says Israel was defeated by David's men. There you go.

They were defeated. Israel suffered 20 ,000 casualties and the battle spread across the country, the verse tells us.

A word that can mean region or countryside. It's not as if all the way from the north of Israel to the south of Israel was battle all around that region in the area of the forest of Ephraim.

It's a way of saying there's this helter -skelter battle going on in this forest. Nobody knows which way's up. The last phrase in verse 8 about the battle, look at it with me for just a second.

Verse 8 says the battle spread all over the face of the country and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword.

Verse 8 is not about the Ents marching to Isengard. It is not as if the trees didn't come alive and fight on behalf of King David.

That's not what we're talking about here but I take at face value what ought to be a surprising fact to us and that's that the text of the

Bible is telling us that the terrain and the context of the battle claimed more lives than the sword that day.

And it's not saying that therefore the difficulty of the terrain made killing somebody with a sword easier.

It's literally saying people fell off cliffs and into pits in the middle of the fray and certainly they might have been backed up by swords and shields as they're fighting but they're tumbling.

Like things are not going well here. And what you need to understand about this battle also that's very fundamental to our understanding is that this is family fighting family.

I mentioned in an earlier message that sometimes family turmoil is the hardest, right? Family stress, family strife is some of the hardest and that's what we have going on here and it's coming all the way to cutting each other with swords.

Most of these soldiers fought together against Rabbah, against the Ammonites back in chapter 11. These guys were side by side in battle against the

Ammonites. Now they're fighting each other and human nature which craves power is heavily at play in this dark passage, in this dark battle.

And now we come to the central death of the passage. Now we say, well, central death. There's been 20 ,000 guys have died at least in this battle already.

Did they not matter for anything? There's one death that is highlighted very clearly in the text.

The death of course I'm speaking about in the text emphasizes is the death of Absalom. He is the usurper.

The one seeking to kill his king and father and take the throne for himself. He is the one in rebellion against God, against God's chosen, against God's anointed one, against God's chosen king and he has tried to take

God's chosen king and God's chosen throne for himself.

So while his army is scattered helter -skelter across the ravines and the forest, Absalom tries to escape on a donkey.

Things have gone his way, he's losing and he's ready to ditch and retreat but he happens to come across some soldiers of David's.

And this leads to some strange circumstances that probably most of us are aware of, or many

Absalom tries to flee from David's men, it's likely if you could just kind of put yourself in this scenario he's looking back, go donkey go and giddy up or whatever and he's trying to get this donkey to hustle up and get away and he's looking back behind him, do they have arrows, are they shooting at me, what's going on?

And as he's looking backwards the donkey goes under a low tangled branches of a large oak and his head or hair get caught.

Ancient Jewish historians like Josephus believed that it was his hair that got tangled here, it's a little unclear and it doesn't matter a ton

I have a tendency to think that if my life is on the line I could probably pull my hair out anybody with me on that? I'm just kind of going if it's just my hair,

I don't even know if my hair could hold me up, probably not I'm pretty sure it couldn't at this length at least and here is the case, if he is tangled by the hair here is another case why

I ought to shave my head and go bald, but that's another thing altogether. The Jews would use the word head and hair as interchangeable, so it doesn't matter a ton they would actually in metaphorical language would call this whole thing on the top of your neck head or hair and they just used it that way in poetry and all different kinds of ways the fact of the matter is his head engages in the something to do with the branches head, hair the mule keeps walking,

Absalom is now hanging in mid air struggling and kicking to get free. One servant rushed to Joab and reported this strange finding, this almost had been happening in a fairly local area or else it just happened by God's grace and God's plan that Joab was close by in verses 11 -14 we get an interchange that highlights a contrast between an obedient servant of David and the do it my own way attitude of one of his commanders,

Joab Joab has always proven himself to be a man of blood always a man of violence, always a man ready to just go and do it

David has issued a very difficult command to his military, I mentioned that earlier defeat

Absalom but spare his life this is hard to do in brutal ancient combat with swords and shields and the battle just raging across this forest an arrow could catch

Absalom, he could be dead in a moment but here Absalom has been delivered up to David's people how many of you could see in this an opportunity to take

Absalom alive like it's right there that's what's going on here oh my goodness

David said don't kill this guy and now he's out here hanging by his neck in a tree and I could just take him down and we could just throw him in a cart and take him to David they've got him captured they can bring him in but Joab a man of violence wants it all done we could end the battle right here right now, we could get this finished and again we see what is true of real life here, we encounter acts of kindness and nobility like the servant of David who's ready and willing to follow, even if you give me a thousand pieces of silver

I'm not going to disobey my king, there's nobility in that right, there's honor in that and we also know that we encounter the other type of character as well treachery and defiance

Joab will not by the way, spoiler alert he will not remain the commander for David for long

Joab takes matters into his own hands, he finds Absalom hanging in the tree, he says enough of this, I'm not going to keep bartering back and forth with you servant

I'm going to go take care of this myself, you fool I would have given you a belt, I would have given you ten pieces of silver are you kidding me, you're just letting

Absalom go, so he finds Absalom hanging in the tree and he and his ten armor bears kill Absalom in a way that nobody that allows nobody to take the full responsibility despite the fact that the author felt compelled to make sure that we know that it's

Joab's fault he thinks he's getting away with it and it's not him, it's all of him and his armor bears that are doing it well the text looks a little fractured so it looks like, how many of you would just look at it and when

I even read it, it looks like Absalom dies twice, Joab kills him with a spear and then his ten army, his ten men come around him and then kill him did you get that when

I read it? but I mean, isn't that kind of silly of us to kind of question the word on something that's just that silly let's all chill for a minute and assume that we're really only able to be killed once is that a fair assumption everybody?

I mean, aside from being resuscitated and killed again, I don't know but much less than that, much less than really bizarre circumstances you're only going to be killed once or you're only going to die once and with that being the case could we at least give the bible a little bit of leeway to not be saying,

Joab Absalom died two different ways combine those together, Joab thrust three javelins into Absalom's chest while his ten men were right there beside him adding their swords and spears to the gruesome work to be sure it's done they all just stand around him and they all do it together, that's your answer that's what's going on here with the death of Absalom, Joab blows the trumpet to call his men to cease the pursuit of the

Israelite troops Joab's military objectives have been completed they've been accomplished David's Joab's Joab's plans,

Joab's objectives, dispatch Absalom, we're done simple

Joab's men took the body of Absalom, pitched it in a pit and covered it with a large heap of stones something that's missing to us is like what's this about, what's this like kind of really quick burial going on here, well what you need to understand is that he's a prince of Israel his memorial is going to be out in the woods a pile of stones that lets everybody who passes by know don't go near that in Israel, in ancient

Israel you came across a pile of stones just randomly out in the woods, you assumed there was a cursed man buried there, don't go near it, that's the assumption of this pile of stones put him in a pit pile stones over him, in a strange fashion we're told in verse 18 that Absalom had created for himself a monument in the king's valley, it says he had no sons he had no legacy and so he built for himself a memorial there's a contrast here for how

Absalom thought he would be remembered and how he is remembered verse 17 lets us know that there may be some harsh distinctions between what we think we are and what we actually are and it would be wise to seek a genuine self -assessment of who we are, to ask those who love us around us, who am

I to the people around me well there's a confusing thing that needs to be resolved real quick here,

Absalom had three sons and now the text tells us here that he had no sons and what in the world is going on here again just a little bit of logic, a little bit of figuring it out, 2

Samuel 14 27 a while ago tells us that Absalom had three sons this text lets us know he has no legacy he has no sons, what's a possible solution to that they're gone his sons have died unfortunate reality to reconcile those two simple but uncomfortable realities he did indeed have three sons, he doesn't anymore his three sons are the victim of a very high child mortality rate that was common in the ancient world and Absalom is left clearly in the text with no legacy and further being buried under a heap of stones as I mentioned is a sign of a curse as is being hung from a tree often in that ancient world as grotesque as it is a corpse was raised up on a tree to demonstrate the curse of the person and that plays into the new testament with Jesus becoming a curse for us, being lifted up on a tree as the text says, obviously a cross but a metaphorical tree six different pagan kings in the book of Joshua alone are hung from a tree as a demonstration of their curse and then buried under a heap of stones all are wicked and are shown to be under the judgment of God what do we mean in this text, what are we seeing here,

God has judged Absalom and has brought him to a terrible end and let's pause here for a reality check church, just a moment because this might rob our culture the wrong way and any part of our hearts that are given over to our culture are going to be a little aggravated by some things here and so we need to state directly that the wicked will be judged the wicked will be judged those who oppose the rule and reign of the king that God has chosen will be judged

Absalom lays under that pile of rock here in the text as a reminder to all of us that there is not always goodness and mercy following a human all the days of their life for many judgment and condemnation follow all the days of their lives there is a contrast all throughout scripture, there are those who will dwell in the house of the

Lord forever, amen there are those who will dwell in the house of the Lord forever and there are those who will dwell far away from the house of the

Lord, far away from Him forever and ever and ever and the distinction is made clear, how do you know where you're at how does a person come from one category to the other and it's made clear in the

New Testament God loved the world this way He sent His one and only unique Son so that whoever puts their faith in Him will not suffer this eternal condemnation but will be granted eternal life forever with Him the distinction is putting your trust in His King throwing in allegiance with His chosen

King and joining Him now a large chunk of this text highlights a reality we talked about a couple of weeks ago, that is the suspense this is our third movement of the text and how much of our lives are lived in seasons of not knowing most of it, pretty much all of it,

God uses the process of faith and trust to sanctify us it's in the not knowing that we must lean upon Him, He does this to grow us up in Him we know what

David doesn't know in this text at this point and the narrative drags on intentionally about how

David gets in the know, how does he find out that his son is dead, Amaz wants to run

Joab tries to talk him out of it you don't want to bring bad news to a king let the foreign Cushite do it but just like people in our church, there's some of you that just gotta run some of you just gotta run and Amaz is like,

I gotta run I'm a runner, I gotta run how many of you enjoy running? how many of you are confused by those people?

who's chasing you? some of your mindset is like who's chasing you? but I just gotta run and we get this race in the text it's a bizarre account it seems extra there but it's there to add to the reality of the conflicting suspense that we experience in our lives other people know other people know what you don't how many of you have had that circumstance before?

other people know before you do the bad news about you so we get this race

Amaz takes a longer but flatter route, it says he took the pathway of the plain and he outruns the

Ethiopian in this race Cush is modern day Ethiopia those guys can run if you're a runner, if you're into running you know that Ethiopians can run this might be the last time that an

Israeli ever beat an Ethiopian in a distance race I don't know but a side note for just a minute if you're looking for Christmas gifts for a runner in your life

I recommend a custom mug with the text on the screen here from 2 Samuel 18 23 you gotta put the

A in there come what may he said I will run come what may,

I will run for the runner in your life that's hard to get a Christmas gift for, there you go, you're welcome

I'm just providing ideas for you coffee mugs, t -shirts and posters seem to be the chosen location for verses out of context so you might as well have some fun with it right?

just run with it, ah I said run with it they didn't get it Amaz the runner arrives to David and he strategically gives him only good news, everybody, the image here is that everybody around royalty everybody around power is self -serving

Amaz wants to give him the good news, that's why he wants to run he's self -serving, he thinks if I give David good news, how many of you think it might be good to be in the presence of royalty when he's in a good mood?

he just starts giving out property and giving out rewards and giving out fruit and giving out whatever so it's just kind of like yeah

I just want to be there, so Amaz is like I want to be there and give him the good news but when he's challenged to give the bad news, how did it fare with Absalom my son?

He lies and I say he lies and I have confidence that he lied because we're told in the text he lied,

Amaz was told by Absalom, I mean Amaz was told by Joab that Absalom was dead back in verse 20 so we know he's lying to his king in verse 29 when he says,

I don't know, I don't know you'll have to wait for the Cushite to get here so he leaves the bad news up to the foreign

Cushite who arrives and unwittingly crushes the king's heart on the spot Amaz doesn't do it, but the foreigner does and he doesn't even know he's doing it the

Cushite lacks a deep understanding of this conflict within David, he likely assumed David to be a man of power he thinks his report of the death of the usurper will be an absolute good in the mind of the king may it be done to everybody who's your enemy, what happened to that young man and yet that's a very hard reality found on the lips of this

Cushite, think about it from another perspective, this Cushite courier in verse 32, look at the text may the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against him for evil be like that young man and that declaration of judgment carries forward to a greater king and a harsher judgment all the enemies of king

Jesus who rise up against him for evil will be put down in the end now

I'm glad that judgment is not up to me and you should be too we have a significant problem in our current culture that has a hard time with the categorization of people is genuinely wicked that category is slowly sliding out of our consciousness our culture thinks education will be the solution, if they just had more educational opportunities then they wouldn't do wicked things our culture thinks that people lack opportunities to do good and if they were just given the opportunities to do good then they would reform themselves, they'd be upstanding citizens if they had the same opportunities that you and I had

God's word says otherwise the rebellion against God is strong in the human heart and in the end the rebellion will be put down before the ushering in of his righteous and eternal kingdom and in the meantime in the balance in these days in which we live we experience plenty of suspense in this life our last movement in this long text is the grief starting verse 33 going on to verse 8 of the next chapter,

David is beside himself, he removed himself to a private chamber above the city gate and wept and covered his face, he cries out and I'll quote it again, oh my son

Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would that I had died instead of you oh Absalom, my son, my son, the grief is meant to come out in the repetition, the grief in that there's not much for him to say there's not much that can come out of his mouth except exclamation and sorrow and grief

David's grief I suggest to you is probably accentuated by two realities that he's facing here in this moment his son was not okay with God it's a cause for grief his son was not okay with God he died in opposition to the will of the heavenly father and second,

David gets to consider his own role in the destruction of his family, a few minutes of dalliance with a woman not his wife back in chapter 12 a nasty violent cover up that resulted in murder and all of this mess has spiraled out a few minutes of self -centeredness in the opening of chapter 19 we see

Joab trying to slap David awake to what he's doing to his people by his severe grief and mourning, by the way nothing here in the text says do what

Joab did, he's not a great model counselor, a great model comforter don't go to Joab for comfort don't go to Joab if you're mourning if you're in grief, don't go to a

Joab a person who's just got a mindset to just get it done and get it over with, but notice what

Joab does say that is actually pretty true there's you, you, you all throughout the text here your, we did this for your kingdom, we did this for you

King David, we did this for your wives, we saved your family we saved you, you, you and he's not wrong but this is all recorded for us because it highlights for us the level of grief that David was drug through as a result of his own sin and mess this is a level of grief upon grief you're still king bro you got work to do there's no rest for the king, there's no time to mourn, there's no time to be sorrowful over this you gotta put on your smiley face put on some makeup and get out there to the people, you got people to see, you got people to show love to, they need to see that you're okay

David, how many of you know David's not okay he's gonna go pretend to be the messes of life people return victorious and yet are made to feel guilty for their sacrifices, this is not right

David has covered his servants and his soldiers with shame and Joab threatens that they will not remain loyal to David unless he goes out and addresses them that very day people in David's army died people in David's kingdom lost husbands in this battle, lost sons in this battle, do they count for nothing

Joab says I see your true colors now David, you wish that all of us were dead Absalom was alive so he arose and went to the gate in Mahanaim where he spruced himself up and made himself available to the people, what do we make of this tragic victory church there's no question in my mind that the author made this such a lengthy section with little to no mention of the battle itself because the battle isn't the point author wanted to put the spotlight on this broken experience of David himself he's the one waiting for the news, everybody else already knows he's the one left in suspense, he's the one left in grief, he's the one that has to buck up and just please the people let this victory church, look at it take it in, let it fill your mind as you think this week here's a fabulous image, a fabulous picture of human victory there's a phrase attached to the ancient

Greek leader Pyrrhus who fought against Rome and just kept on winning it's like he couldn't stop winning against Rome but at what cost his people were nearly annihilated through his victorious warring against Rome, he'd have these skirmishes and battles, he would win, withdraw go back and lick his wounds and think a battle like I'll just give you weird numbers a hundred guys go out to battle you bring back ten but annihilate all of theirs what good is that?

We call something a Pyrrhic victory when the win comes at a cost too high, a football team wins but in the process loses their star quarterback, their backup quarterback their running back, their center and two standout linebackers, was it worth the

W? Of course not, that's a Pyrrhic victory and life is full of them, life is full of them church, you get what you thought you wanted only to find that you didn't want it, you get what

I'm talking about? You get that car and it breaks down or gets a scratch you get that new phone and it that doesn't please for more than a week, you get that new job and you find that it's more than you bargained for all different kinds of things are

Pyrrhic victories but let me just suggest to you that even when the cost isn't too high it doesn't seem too high and you're like no this was worth, this was a good trade off all victories are temporary they're all temporary here unless you think

I'm being too negative just consider what Jesus told us where did he tell us to lay up our treasures?

In heaven where thieves don't steal, where rust isn't going to break it down and where moths aren't going to chew it up put your treasure in heaven because here the law of entropy is true, it's all breaking down you can get all swole and hit the gym and I've got bad news it's going to go away matter of fact you're probably going to turn to flab and then what you got do you know what

I'm talking about? I mean yeah be healthy and all that stuff but I mean all within reason because you think about it and it's like whatever the trade offs are and then you look at the book of revelation and the book of revelation tells us where we're going before the end comes it's heading towards hostility against our

Lord, should we be surprised? It's heading towards hostility and persecution against King Jesus, there's going to be wars rebellions, persecutions, famines death and apocalypse like the really bad stuff now certainly here in this lifetime we value human life and we are placed here to image

God to this creation and we make choices toward human flourishing, don't get me wrong we're not trying to rough things up to get

Jesus to return we are saved church to be a colony of heaven here on earth glory, look around you this might be the some of the best things that you have on this planet because these people are going with you but the victory is not here church the victory is not at our hands, it's not based on our work the victory is in those nail pierced hands and in his work for us on the cross victory is in his work and living a sinless life in a sin cursed world for us true victory is found in his resurrection to new life on our behalf where he promises to take us there with him glory so let me return to the starting question from my introduction church what's stalking you what's stalking you,

David who experienced look at this, David experienced life this way, victory his son's dead, that's how he experienced life and he says what surely goodness and mercy is following me and it's going to catch me one day and I will dwell in the house of the

Lord forever, David was caught between the anvil of his calling to be king and the hammer of his own son's rebellion leading to that son's death and he lets us know in no uncertain terms what was coming for him, goodness and mercy were following close behind him all the days of his life, somehow and in some way he was made confident that better things were coming for him not in that he was going to get a promotion not that Absalom was coming back but that there was glory yet out in front so as we come to communion this morning first ask yourself a diagnostic question are you confident that goodness and mercy are one car accident away for you, are you sure that if you choke on your lunch today or if Christ returns during your afternoon nap today that it spells goodness and mercy for you is that where you're going, do you have that confidence like David, surely goodness and mercy is coming for me, it's going to break in in just a moment one heart attack away, one accident away and I'm in the midst of goodness and mercy, do you see life that way if you have that confidence then go to the tables and take the cracker to remember his body broken for us and take the juice to remember his blood shed for us and let's go out from here trusting in the one true the one true victory

I want to point out that this is not a call to inactivity you know just whatever is going to be is going to be and then you die and then it's going to be good it's not a call to inactivity but rather it is a call to hope in the right thing my hope is not in the victories

I can accomplish here in this life because I live in the same world as King David I live in a world where my greatest victories can spell some of my deepest sorrows so my hope and joy and smile only come from the one true victory

Christ died for me and he was raised again to new life on the third day rest in that church that is victory let's pray.

Father I thank you for your grace I thank you for the victory of Christ that gives us hope I pray that you would shed any idols in our hearts any places that we might turn for victory in this life

I know that we've got some plans we've got some goals we've got some things we're trying to accomplish I pray that you would help us to make those subservient to you under your rule under your reign under your authority recognizing that all of these things are at best limited are at best temporary there are things that you desire for us to accomplish in this life you have us breathing you desire for us to be people of prayer people of the gospel people of your word people who are genuinely loving one another but all of that all of that is at the end serving our victor all of that at the end comes and flows out of his victory for us the great love given to us at the cross.

So as we come to communion I pray that anybody here who belongs to you would feel free to get up and go to those tables to remember the way that salvation was given to us through victory over sin and death by Jesus Christ if there's anybody here who does not know

Jesus Christ as their lord and savior I pray that you would give them boldness to come and talk with me or come and talk with Dave Wilson the other on duty come and talk with Dave Bunt up here but that you would just give us all a sense of your presence here in these closing moments with us in Jesus name.