Rejected Grace

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Don Filcek; 2 Samuel 10 Rejected Grace

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You're listening to a podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak is preaching from his series,
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The Warrior Poet King, Study of Second Samuel. Let's listen in. And as Dave said,
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I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor here, and I just want to welcome you. I'm really glad to be together in the house of the Lord. It's a privilege to be together at a church that's unified under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
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He is our king, he is our lord, and he is our savior.
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And Jesus, in the way that he rescued us by grace, gives us humility.
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He gives us a humility as a people. He gives us the ability to forgive others, and he gives us an internal stability in our lives to love and to serve one another.
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And I've seen that work its way out in the lives of people here and out into the community here through this church over the years.
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It's been a privilege to be in the place that I'm at, to be able to see you guys love each other well, to see you love our community well, and that has been a delight and a joy to my heart.
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This morning, we're going to see the results in our text. And by the way, what
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I'm doing here, those of you that this is your first time here, I'm not, this isn't like, some people have told me, when I get up to introduce the sermon, they think, is he going?
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Like, is this it? I'm going to introduce the message, and then we're going to sing some songs, and then we're going to dive in a little bit deeper here at the end of the service.
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So that's what's going on right now. But this morning, we're going to see what a single act of rejection of grace can do.
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It's going to, in our text, one man is going to reject another man's kindness, and it's going to launch hostility, it's going to launch bloodshed, and ultimately, revenge.
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Our text last week, in 2 Samuel chapter 9, was about an offer of steadfast covenantal love that was offered by King David to a single man named
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Mephibosheth, and Mephibosheth received that grace to his blessing and benefit. But this week, our text begins with a similar offer of steadfast covenantal love, again offered by David, in this context, toward a foreign dignitary, toward a foreign king.
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And that foreign dignitary is going to rebuff and refuse the good grace of King David.
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And it launches out into shame, it launches out into hostility, and it results in outright war.
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So in the big picture of scripture, our text this morning is a bridge between chapters 8 and 9, and chapters 11 and 12.
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Of course, obviously, it's chapter 10. But the battle this text focuses on began back in chapter 8.
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And so it really is tied very tightly in context to what's come before and what's come after.
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In that sense, it makes our text a hinge of sorts. And the battles in chapter 8 were explained in limited detail, but here it's given more detail because this battle that we're talking about in our text today is the very battle that will be raging when
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David has his wicked and deeply and very well -known sinful episode with Bathsheba.
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If I say David and Bathsheba, how many of you, that evokes something in you? Like you have some knowledge about what that's about, okay?
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So this is the setup for that that's coming in chapter 11. So in this sense, our text this morning is primarily setting a context for the darkest valley of David's rule and reign.
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And yet, even in these passages that form a connective bridge between main movements of the text, we will find that there is plenty here that God wants to communicate with each individual here this morning.
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He wants to communicate with me. He wants to communicate specifically with you.
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Our text will provide a cautionary tale about the types of counsel that we follow. It will encourage us to trust in the goodness of God in tough circumstances.
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And it will encourage us to learn from the mistakes of others, something that comes not very easy to us, but something that Scripture is pretty quick to point out.
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So let's open our Bibles or our devices or your Scripture journals to 2 Samuel chapter 10. Again, it's 2
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Samuel chapter 10 is our text. It's a little bit of a larger chunk of Scripture this morning, but we're going to read it all together, and I believe that it's extremely valuable for us to take in God's Word together.
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So recast, this is the Word of the Lord. Let's respect it by giving it our attention together this morning.
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2 Samuel chapter 10. After this, the king of the Ammonites died, and Hanan his son reigned in his place.
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And David said, I will deal loyally with Hanan the son of Nahash, as his father dealt loyally with me.
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So David sent by his servants to console him concerning his father. And David's servants came into the land of the
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Ammonites. But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanan their lord, Do you think because David has sent comforters to you that he is honoring your father?
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Has not David sent his servants to you to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it?
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So Hanan took David's servants and shaved off half their beard each and cut off their garments in the middle at the hips and sent them away.
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When it was told David, he sent to meet them. For the men were greatly ashamed, and the king said,
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Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return. When the Ammonites saw that they had become a stench to David, the
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Ammonites sent and hired the Syrians of Beth Rehob, and the Syrians of Zoba, 20 ,000 foot soldiers, and the king of Macca, with 1 ,000 men, and the men of Tob, 12 ,000 men.
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And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the hosts of the mighty men.
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And the Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the gate, and the
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Syrians of Zoba and of Rehob and the men of Tob and Macca were themselves in the open country. When Joab saw that the battle was set against him, both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the best men of Israel to array them against the
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Syrians, and the rest of the men he put in charge of Abishai, his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites.
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And he said, If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to help you.
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Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the
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Lord do what seems good to him. So Joab and the people who were with him drew near to battle against the
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Syrians, and they fled before him. When the Ammonites saw that the Syrians fled, they likewise fled before Abishai and entered the city.
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Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem. But when the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered themselves together, and Hadadezar sent and brought out the
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Syrians who were beyond the Euphrates. They came to Helem with Shobak, the commander of the army of Hadadezar at their head.
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And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to Helem.
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The Syrians arrayed themselves against David and fought with him, and the Syrians fled before Israel. And David killed of the
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Syrians the men of 700 chariots and 40 ,000 horsemen, and wounded Shobak, the commander of their army, so that he died there.
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And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezar saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subject to them.
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So the Syrians were afraid to save the Ammonites anymore. Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for the opportunity that we have to gather in your name here in this place. We read about ancient events, and we read about these things in the life of David, and they can feel very far removed from the pressures that we have of social media, the difficult relationships that we might be working through with family members, the difficult work environment in which we find ourselves week in and week out, or whatever it might be, or just a knock -down, drag -out battle with sin in our lives.
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But Father, I pray that you would make this word come alive by the power of your spirit that dwells within us. The very spirit that inspired these words is the spirit that lives inside every one of your followers to draw the significance of this text into each heart.
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Father, it's my conviction that you bring us to your word for the purpose of changing us, not to inform us, not that we could pass a
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Bible trivia test or be more useful on a Bible trivia team, but that you desire for us to live these things out.
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You desire for our faith to be sharpened. You desire for us to lean more on you and understand more what it means that you are good and that you are sovereign.
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So Father, I pray that you would work in our hearts and work in our minds the truth, most fundamentally the gospel truth, that you love us, that you sent your
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Son to die for us, and that we mess things up and you fix things. So Father, I pray that from a place of being in progress and processed by you, sanctifying us, that we would lift our voices in praise to you for the work that you are doing in us.
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The work you're doing in the midst of this church, the work you're doing in the hearts of individuals, the work you're doing already,
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I pray that our voices would mingle together in praise and gladness. Despite the difficulties of this week,
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I pray that those would be shed in the presence of your people to sing your praises with delight. In Jesus' name.
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Amen. Yeah, go ahead and be seated, but you don't have to remain seated the entire time.
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If you need to get up and get more coffee, juice, or donut holes while supplies last back there, take advantage of that. And then if you've had enough coffee, you might need to use the restroom.
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So those are out the double doors, down the hallway on the left -hand side, take advantage of that as well. You're not going to distract me, but I do ask that you do me a favor, do yourself a favor, and reopen your device or your
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Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 10, so you've got that on your lap, you've got that open in front of you, so that you can see that the things that I'm saying are coming from God's Word, and we give it, and really
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Him, our primary attention for the remainder of our time together. It's important to understand from the get -go that chapters 8 and 10 through 12 require some careful attention in order to harmonize them.
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We're suddenly back with a guy named Hadadezar in this text. You'll see his name there, and he was a king over a northern area known as Zobah.
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Well, that was conquered back in chapter 8 by King David, completely defeated, completely brought under the rule and reign of King David.
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And here he shows up again, and you might be kind of questioning that. A good student of the Bible would go, why is he in chapter 10 when he was annihilated in chapter 8?
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And so the author is circling back and mining more deeply into the battle sequences that occurred in chapter 8.
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Because the events that started the battle against Zobah in Syria, that are recorded for us in chapter 8, began with a rejection of the grace in Ammon at the start of our text.
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So he's kind of giving us a little bit more context, a little bit more detail about those battles. And it's going to end with the destruction of Ammon in a couple of chapters.
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So even at the end of our text, we're not done with what's going on in Ammon. But there's a lot of reasons that the author is mining deeper into this particular battle.
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These events form a significant turn in the life of David, and so he wants to highlight this.
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David had many battles, was attacked many times, had many problems over the course of his life, but this is a significant one in what happens.
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So the outline for our text this morning is verses 1 -5 is the rejected grace.
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So if you're taking notes, these are just kind of my main headings. Rejected grace, verses 1 -5. The battles over shame, verses 6 -14.
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And then the ripples of war, verses 15 -19. So let's start with verse 1 with the rejection of grace that we see here in our text.
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The events of chapter 10 came after the events of chapter 9, but are concurrent with chapter 8.
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And so when you see the phrase after this at the start, well, it's after the stuff that went on with Mephibosheth.
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The author wants to make sure that you know that Mephibosheth has already received the grace of David, has already received his steadfast love, and this is a secondary illustration now of a rejection of that kind of thing.
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Well, the way that this runs in our minds probably bothers us more than it did the ancient historians, ancient
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Hebrew historians, who had no problems telling stories in a circular fashion.
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Coming back around with more detail, coming back around again with more detail, especially when it served a purpose of clarifying a further spiritual movement in the text.
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What I'm trying to get at is that these are theological histories that we read. When we read the book of Acts, when we read 1 and 2
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Samuel, they are much more interested in demonstrating a theology and teaching us about God than they are like our chronological histories serve the purpose of putting everything in its proper context and telling us the timing of events.
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Isn't that how we conceive of history? Their purpose in writing this was to talk about God.
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So the order of events does not matter hardly at all to them in terms of, oh, by the way, let's get deeper into this and talk about what's going on in David's kingdom.
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So this deeper dive in the battles of chapter 8 served to set up a very authentic and honest account of failure on the part of the king of Israel that's coming up for us pretty fast in chapter 11.
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So the king of Ammon died. Right off the bat you see that in verse 1. And his son Hanun ascends to the throne.
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Now Ammon are a people that need a little bit of definition. Probably not many of you know where they come from. And when I share it, you're probably going to wish you didn't know.
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Ammon are a people that live in the north and east of Jerusalem, across the Jordan River, kind of up by the
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Sea of Galilee just east of there. They come from a terrible account in the book of Genesis. Really, Genesis 19 at the very end of 19.
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Some of you, when I say Genesis 19, you go, oh no. And some of you are like, I don't even know what that means. But that's the place where Lot has escaped from the city of Sodom.
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Sodom has been destroyed. And he's escaped. But it's obvious that not just merely did he live in Sodom, but some of Sodom lived within him.
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And he is seduced by his own daughters. The child of the oldest was named
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Moab, which is just a shocking name in itself. I think almost every time that in Israel I would say the name
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Moab, they would spit. It means from father. That's literally what it means. Terrible. Everybody uncomfortable?
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Raise your hand if you're just mildly uncomfortable right now. You should be. This is the Bible. And they were conquered.
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The Moabites were conquered back in chapter 8. You could just glance back there. And in 2 Samuel it says that they were conquered by King David.
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But the child of the youngest was named Loami. And from that name we get the name the Ammonites. And that's where these come from.
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So they're kind of partially descendants of Abraham's nephew. They're kind of related into the people of Israel.
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But they are a thorn in their side for centuries. Apparently David had made some kind of covenant with the king of Ammon.
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Or at least Nahash, the king, had sworn some kind of loyalty to him. And so that probably likely happened during the time where Nahash was the sworn enemy of King Saul.
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So maybe they had made an arrangement while David was fleeing from King Saul. Remember that was a big chunk of David's life on the lamb running from the king of Israel.
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And Nahash maybe provided him some kind of sanctuary or something. But probably likely what's going on here between Ammon and David is the whole enemy of my enemy is my friend motif.
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Like that's a pretty common occurrence historically. So that's probably where this alliance comes from.
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And the reason I'm talking in covenantal language is that in verse 2 we see the phrase deal loyally.
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And you see that in the text used twice. It's the same word, the same Hebrew word that we've talked about many times throughout the series.
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It is covenantal faithfulness, covenantal love, a steadfast commitment.
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A vow taken somehow between Nahash, the king of Ammon, and King David. Who probably wasn't king at the time but is now king over Israel.
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So this is a covenantal faithfulness that implies there was an oath between these two. And Nahash has pledged kindness to David.
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And David likewise wants to return that kindness. Now Nahash is dead so he extends grace and covenantal commitment to Hanun, Nahash's son.
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So he sends a delegation to console the new king over the death of his father. And the text is hopefully abundantly clear to you like it is to me what
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David's intentions are. It tells us what's going on in David's heart so that we aren't left guessing why is he sending this delegation.
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He has nothing but good intentions toward Ammon and their new king. And he wants to console the son whose father,
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Nahash, has just passed away. But it seems like it's often the case that new kings surround themselves with young advisors.
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We're going to see this a little bit further in the life of David, really the life of Solomon. And Solomon has a son named
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Rehoboam. Rehoboam becomes king after the death of Solomon. And he immediately listens to his young advisors and goes astray.
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And we see that here with Hanun, the son of Nahash as well. He listens to his young advisors. The word prince is there in the text.
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The people that he's listening to implies a level of youth. So the princes, those around his own age, convince
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Hanun that David is gaming him. He says, you're a fool if you think that David is coming to console you, is sending a delegation to console you.
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He's coming to send spies. He intends to overthrow Hanun and to destroy the
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Ammonites completely, at least destroy their city. So at the advice of his princes, what does
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Hanun do? Kind of some strange stuff, right? He shames
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David's servants, puts them to shame. Now what does he do? He shaves off half their beard. Think east to west, not north to south.
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So he shaves off half of their beard. How many of you just think that this looks, maybe that's going to be a new style someday?
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Likely, likely. Eventually some guy is going to walk into church looking like that. But for now,
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I don't think it works, right? And it was shaming to them in their culture. Now for somebody to shave their face, to shave their beard clean in that day and age was a sign of mourning and grief.
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But to have somebody shave your beard for you was a sign of subjugation. And to do halfsies, well that was just to say,
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I do whatever I want. Okay? Now it's funny to me, okay, this is kind of strange and this doesn't require a ton of explanation.
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The next one does. And it's funny to me reading commentaries written by eggheaded, you know, scholars who study the
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Hebrew language debating about the cuts in these garments. Scholars were, you know,
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I read a bunch of scholars debating about how full the moon was on this motif of cutting the guy's robes.
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It was a full moon. And it appeals to, I don't know why, but this appeals to some kind of unfortunate immaturity in me.
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So this is kind of cathartic to me and a little bit of confession, but I just kind of chuckle at reading these accounts.
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But this was a full moon scenario. They are likely sent home by Hanun with no backside on their robe from the hips down.
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Now the reason scholars don't go more graphic on this and start getting into like the really uncomfortable territory about how do you know that it was just the back, right?
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Okay? So what are they wearing here from this point on? The reason is that the Hebrew word translated hips in the text is a very generous translation.
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It is heinie without question. Okay? So I read the message on this and he didn't go full heinie on this.
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But what a lot of these scholars used, it was really funny to watch these scholars, they pretty much liked the word buttocks.
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So that was the word that was most common here. Their buttocks is exposed. I just go heinie on this.
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Full moon, whatever. But why translators are squeamish is kind of sometimes funny. You can understand it.
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But these translations kind of like, it leaves more to the imagination than needs to be there in the text when it actually says that he exposed their backside.
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So it's what we have here is we've got like some kind of like college hazing gone bad.
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And their robes are cut off to expose their rears. And then they have to get home that way. You know, they're not offered a change of clothes.
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So they have to get home back to Israelite territory that way, completely shamed, half a beard and half a robe.
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So David's men are clearly shamed and David sent messengers to save them the indignity of coming into his courts in this condition.
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And he has them remain in Jericho, right on the edge of Israelite territory until their beards grow back.
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And obviously, hopefully, not until their robes grow back. I'm pretty sure they were given new robes when they got there.
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But Hanan has rejected David's grace. You can see, how many of you go, that's a rejection of grace.
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That's pretty clear that he is rejecting David and shaming his men.
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David has extended, attempted to offer steadfast covenantal kindness to Hanan.
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And in doing so, he has, in rejecting that, he has intentionally shamed David and his men.
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And so two points of application for us to consider. I'm going to kind of put the application in the middle of the message. We're not going to just cover it at the end.
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So here are two points of application to consider from this first point here in the text.
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Expect some to reject the offer of grace. That's an application.
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That's something that we ought to take on. That's something we ought to think about and consider and take into account in our daily lives.
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We can think that in the gospel we are communicating and sharing love.
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How many of you think that the gospel, when communicated correctly, is conveying love? It should be, right?
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And we should share it only ever in a loving context and in a loving way. Never with harshness. Never to win the argument.
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But only out of concern for the souls of people. But we can think we're sharing love.
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We can think that we're giving and offering hope. We think that we are shining a light in the darkness. But how many of you know that there will always be
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Hanans in the world? Have any of you ever shared the gospel with a Hanan? Just complete and utter rejection and you're lucky you walked out with your full beard.
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Right? None of you ladies, of course. But, I mean, other guys. You're lucky you walked away with your clothes intact and all that stuff.
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Even with our best of intentions and our most authentic handout of grace, church, some will reject our extension of grace with hostility.
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Some will. Now, it's been my personal experience in evangelism over the years that it's very rare that anybody does respond with hostility.
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How many of you know what I'm talking about? We fear the worst and often it's not that. Right? So, don't let that hold you back.
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But it seems to be more increasing in the culture that we live in that the message that we bring is not seen as good news, but it's seen as bad news.
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More and more, the good news that we have to offer is making people angry. But my encouragement to all of us is not to give up and it's not to attempt to change the message to make it more acceptable to our culture.
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What we need to do is to know that some will reject it and some will reject not just the message, but the messengers themselves, as in this case.
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Some may even try to shame you, but others, but others, church, others to the praise and glory of God will receive the life -giving good news of Jesus.
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And I believe that God has some for you to meet that will be in the kingdom because of your response to the call, the consistent call to talk to people about it, to just be bold about it, to not fear the
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Hannans of the world, but just to enter into it because our king is worth carrying the message for.
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Jesus told his disciples himself with his own words that some will reject his followers, some will reject his disciples, and that people would reject him.
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He instructed them to shake the dust off their feet as they departed, move along to the next house, move along to the next village.
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He expected, our Lord and Master expected rejection. Hopefully that helps you to know that you're in good company when you receive it and move along.
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It says, by the way, in the book of Acts, this is in my notes, but I love this message, the disciples are sharing the gospel in the temple, they're captured by the temple court leaders, and they're beaten, and it says this, they left rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus.
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Is that a real common attitude in the church in America today? I hope it becomes increasingly common for us to have a heart that says, well,
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I can handle a little bit of scorn, I can handle a little bit of ridicule, I could even handle a lash for my declaring allegiance to my
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Lord and King. So expect some rejection. The second application from this first point is, it's more minor, but it's a valuable application, and it's just simply to beware of poor counsel.
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Hopefully you can see the poor counsel, you acknowledge that it's poor counsel. David sends his dignitaries there with good intentions.
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The counselors, the young men of Hanan, advise him in a poor direction. And let me just suggest this to you, at least kind of keep it narrow, because how many of you know it's hard to tell when you're getting poor counsel?
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I mean, I would always reject it if I knew it was poor counsel, right? But especially be careful. Here's one way you can tell you're probably getting poor counsel.
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Beware of any counsel toward hostility. Any counsel that's suggesting that as a solution.
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Now, here's the funny thing, as I'm identifying this in my life, there are no lack of quote -unquote friends that would love to see a little drama in your life.
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Not in their own, but they wouldn't mind if you provided the entertainment. They'll pop the popcorn and sit and watch.
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If they could stir up a little bit, are you getting what I'm saying in that? How many of you have some quote -unquote friends like that?
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They're just kind of like, yeah, they just like to kind of stir the pot a little bit and kind of just sit back and watch. You are their entertainment.
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That's not a good friend, right? Everybody loves drama in our current culture. And how many people get advice at work?
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Advice that amounts to, obviously, you know, something like, I wouldn't put up with a husband like that. I'd put him in his place.
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Or how about advice, you know, just some generic things like advice to sue? Or how about advice to fight?
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Or how about advice to send that email or write that complaint? Or, and or, and or, and the list can go on.
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What kind of advice are you listening to? Be very slow to enter into anything that is going to escalate conflict.
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And be skeptical of any advice that tells you that escalating conflict is the solution.
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You see how, well, you're going to see how it goes for the Ammonites here in the escalating of conflict when his advisors tell
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Hanun, yeah, go ahead and shame the bums. It's not going to go well. The second main movement of our text, of course, is the battles over the shame, and that's where we get the results of this first movement of the text.
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In verses 6 through 14 is where we're at. And these nine verses cover the battles, and I'm going to summarize them.
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Hanun realizes, it says in the text, he realizes, oh, man, I'm probably a stench to David. How many of you think so, right?
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Like, you know, he's like, ooh, that stinks. Ammonites stink right now. And so he realizes he's offended
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David, and so he readies himself for war by hiring 33 ,000 mercenaries, mostly from Zuba and Syria.
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That's where they enter the equation. That's when we see them back in chapter 8 being defeated by David. This is how they get there.
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This is how they get to be on David's bad side. And when David catches wind of them mustering, he sent
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Joab and his host of trained soldiers. Now, no number is given to David's fighting forces in this context, but you can be sure that it's more than the 30 mighty men referenced at the end of the book of 2
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Samuel. Likely, those men are in this entire force moving against the imminent capital of Rabbah, but they're probably likely just military leaders over units.
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Joab and the military of Israel line up outside, kind of a bold and brash move.
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They line up outside of Rabbah, which is outside of the city gates, the capital of Ammon there, and they come to face the strength of, rather the
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Jews come to face the strength of Ammon outside of the city gates. Now, how many of you know that you'd be much more protected inside the city, standing on the gates, archers, all of that kind of stuff, a little bit more defensible?
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But no, they come right out with brashness to line up on the field of battle in front of the city.
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Well, the reason that they're so bold and brash is they know something that Joab doesn't, and when Joab moves into place, all of a sudden from behind them, the mercenaries come in and close them in, cutting off their escape according to verse 8, and Joab is beset with the
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Ammonites in front of him and the Syrians behind him. I don't think
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I need to tell you, this is not a good thing militarily to be surrounded, right? I mean, you kind of just know that that's not good.
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And so what Joab does is he comes up with a quick strategy. It's interesting. He obviously is a bit of a tactician.
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He sends his best soldiers to fight the Syrians in the rear, likely for two reasons.
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It doesn't give us the reasons in the text, so just know that I'm speculating a little bit. But he probably is more concerned for securing an escape route than he is for taking the city of Rabbah.
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At this point, when you're surrounded, what's your number one thought? Take the city? The number one thing is, how are we going to get out of this situation, right?
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So he sends his best troops to the rear to basically go up against those people from Syria.
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The second thing that he knows, and demonstrates some kind of knowledge about, is he likely knows that to the rear are mercenaries, and inflicting casualties against a band of mercenaries may get them to flee.
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The reason being that the Ammonites in front of the Israelites are fighting for their city. They're fighting for their home.
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They're fighting for their families. But the mercenaries behind David are fighting for what?
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Money. Money. They're just hired. They've got no skin in the game other than a paycheck, right?
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So Joab leads the charge to the rear against the mercenary Syrians while he leaves Abishai, his brother, to fend off the
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Ammonites in the front. All that Abishai really needs to do is fend them off.
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He's not trying to take the city at this point. He just needs to be a defensive force to keep the Ammonites from coming in and slaughtering
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Israelites while the charge happens primarily in the back. In verse 11, these two brothers,
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Abishai and Joab, pledge to assist one another if the battle turns against either of them. This is an interesting thought, right?
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If you can picture this battle in your mind, Israelites in the middle, Ammonites in the front, Syrians in the back, and Joab's going to fight in the back and Abishai's going to attack at the front.
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And he says, if I fail, you come and help me. Well, what does that do? Well, that just leaves the back exposed, right?
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Or vice versa. These are two brothers. These are two brothers commanding different parts of the army.
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And I think they're just saying, man, I love you, bro. This could be the end of us. This could be the last day. If you see me getting pressed to the point where my life is on the line, could you come over and give a hand?
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By that point, it's going to be chaos anyway, so can we work together on this? Are you getting what I'm saying? But that's not good battle strategy, by the way.
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I'm fighting this group. You're fighting this group. If this group dominates, then come and help me.
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These guys are going to pour in. Are you getting what I'm saying on that? So all of that just to say the purpose of that statement is not a particularly great strategy.
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It's to show that these two guys actually cared for one another and wanted to help each other. I think they're kind of saying this could be it.
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Joab gives a speech in verse 12 that's really the theological crux of the passage. We'll get back to that and pay a lot more special attention to that because there's some deep significance to what he says.
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But I want to focus on that in a moment. The results of this battle is surprisingly short -lived here in the text.
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As the forces of Joab draw near to engage the Syrian mercenaries in battle, there's no indication that there's even a sword swung.
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They begin to move toward the Syrians, and they all turn tail and run.
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They flee. The most powerful fighters of Israel are arrayed against the
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Syrians in the rear, and as they begin to press in and start to get closer to engaging in battle, they all just go, nah, the paycheck doesn't look that great.
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Not that good. I'm not dying today. I'm going home to my family. And they do. And on Abishai's side, the
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Ammonites see their hired mercenaries, all 33 ,000 of them, begin to flee, and they follow suit and fled into the city for cover.
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The immediate results of this battle are concluded in verse 14. We don't know, we don't have any record of any bloodshed on this day.
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Joab returned from the fighting and went to Jerusalem to report, and this is the end of this particular battle against Ammon.
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But it is not the conclusion of the war against Ammon. We're going to see Joab heading back to Raba at the start of chapter 11 to finish the shame that Hanun started against Israel.
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So, they basically say, you're going to live to fight another day, and we'll be back.
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And they head back to Jerusalem. So, God won the day for Israel and saved them from what looked at face value, what
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I'm going to call an existential crisis for Israel. I say this because in Joab's speech in verse 12, he encourages the soldiers to be of good courage and to do courageous deeds for their people and for the cities of their
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God. Now, they're way out in the boonies compared to where Israel's proper territory is.
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So, why is Joab saying, do it for the people and do it for the cities of God? Why is he saying that?
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Because the entire military of Israel is here. The entire military of Israel is surrounded. If they go down this day, they are going down for good.
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This has impact on the cities back home that are going to be left defenseless. This has an impact on the people, their wives, their children.
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They're all going to be left exposed. Are you getting what I'm saying in that? This is a pretty significant battle in the history of Israel.
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He's not being exaggerative here by suggesting that the people and the cities depend on the valiant deeds of this day.
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The mighty armies of Israel are surrounded. The people of Israel and their cities will be left defenseless.
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The army is gathered here in this one battle and in this most dramatic and dire of circumstances.
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Joab says the only thing that you can find in Scripture that indicates that this man had any faith and it's a good one.
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Joab offers the most faith -filled thing we will ever see him say in the pages of Scripture. Look with me at the end of verse 12.
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May the Lord do what seems good to him. May the Lord do what seems good to him.
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This is really the theological crux of the passage. This is the crossing point. This is the center of the text.
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Joab trusts God with the outcome of this day. Now, we might occasionally pay lip service to this kind of trust, right?
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God's got you. God's got this. How many of you have ever been guilty of saying something kind of trite and a little quip like that?
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God's got it. But is your heart there? How many of you know that Joab, to say this, this is a pretty big day.
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This is a pretty significant thing. His life is on the line. All of his soldiers' life is on the line. His family's life is on the line.
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The cities of God are on the line. The people of God is on the line. And when it comes to praying for what we want, how many of you ever prayed for something you want?
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Really? Go ahead and raise your hand if you've prayed for something that you want. I mean, I hope that we have. When it comes to praying for what we want, we ought to never be frustrated.
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When someone prays, Lord, we trust you to do what is best, we want
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X, fill in the blank. But if you have other desires, we trust your plan to be good, better, and best.
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What does it mean, church, that God is both sovereign and good?
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It means that whenever anyone is diagnosed with cancer, it has some bigger purpose in the plans and will of a good and sovereign
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God. And I don't say this theoretically. This isn't some theoretical theology on my part.
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I say this as a man who lost both of my parents to cancer. My father was just a kid.
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He was 36 years old, I was eight. My mom almost made it to 45, five days before her 45th birthday she passed.
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So when I say that whatever comes our way is held in the good, perfect plan of God moving this whole creation toward a final, best end of eternal glory, when
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I say this, I know the dark night is real. I've lived it. I know the pain inside of loss is real.
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I know the danger is real. And so did Joab when he uttered this phrase. When he said this, he knew how dark the night could be.
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And he trusted God with what appears in the text, and I would say I think it's right. He trusts
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God with a starkly casual trust. It's casual.
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May the Lord do what seems good to him. Do you see the casualness in that statement?
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A casual expectation that God's good is best anyways. So may he do what he sees as best, and we'll go out to this battle and we'll do what we can.
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And hear me carefully. I am not saying, therefore, that we must then somehow try to discover the silver lining in every tragedy.
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I'm merely saying that there is somehow, mysteriously, beyond our comprehension, a best end in the heart of our infinite good and sovereign creator.
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Joab says on the eve of what he expects to be a bloody and hard -pressed battle, may the Lord do what seems good to him.
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And that reminds me of the words of Jesus in the garden. Here's what
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I want, says Jesus. I want victory over sin, and I want to achieve victory over death.
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And if there is any way to get there without crucifixion, if there is any way to get there without the cup of wrath from you,
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Father, I want that way. Can you see him there? On his knees, on his face before his father that night in the darkness, disciples all left, disciples all asleep.
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He says, just stay up and pray with me. They're nowhere. They're in dreamland. And he's there sweating profusely under the knowledge of what he's gonna endure for you and me.
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How does he end his prayer? May this cup of wrath pass from me, but not my will, but yours,
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Father, be done. Your way is best. We've talked about this in Eternity Passed for Eternity.
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If there was any other way, let's do that. But I'm ready. I'm ready to do your will,
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Father. And the next day he bore the wrath of the Father to bring many sons and daughters to glory.
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Us. Saving us, saying, Father, your will is best.
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The application here in the second point ought to have a dramatic impact on our prayer life.
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It's to pray more like Joab and less like a prosperity preacher. I was at a prayer meeting several years ago that just came flooded to mind when
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I read Joab make that statement. I was at a prayer meeting that turned into what
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I can only describe as a prayer battle. I mean like dueling prayers over the healing of a little boy.
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It was awkward. And literally one person would pray one way and the next person would pray against them and the next person would pray against them and the next person would pray against them.
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And I'm not joking. It was eerie. It was strange. I mean prayers like this.
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One would pray, God we trust you and believe you can heal this little boy. But if not, please grant us peace.
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The next person, literally. We pray against unbelief in this place.
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Put faithlessness down among us. We believe you have bought healing for this little boy through your cross and through your stripes.
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So now we claim that which you have promised. And the next, we know that if we, no, and the next,
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God we trust you are good and whatever the outcome, please hold us in our faith even if you would say no.
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And the next, we know that if we just have enough faith you will bring healing. And on and on it went.
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And Joab gives us words to frame out a real robust and gritty prayer when beset by the worst of circumstances.
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God you are sovereign. You are almighty and you are good. So may you do what seems good to you and let that be enough for us.
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Do you see it? Do you see the way that Joab prays? May you do what is good in your eyes.
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How many of you know, any of you ever ask for something that wasn't in your best interest? Any of you ever glad that God gives you what's best and not what you want?
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I've experienced it in my life. We both let him know what we want in our prayer and we let him know we trust him and then we walk away from our prayer time with strength and courage to go out and act our trust that God is both good and sovereign.
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And if that results in him taking dad home he had good reasons. He had good purposes.
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And yes I'm very well aware he could have stopped it. And he didn't choose to stop it because he is managing an entire fallen universe toward a fabulous and glorious eternal kingdom.
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That's the hope. So the final movement doesn't require as much of our time.
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I'm calling it ripples of war. The ripples of war. The people of Zoba and Syria fled but then they regrouped.
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These are the hired servants. These are the mercenaries. The 33 ,000 go back home and they muster more forces.
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And this is where the battle against Zoba and Syria in chapter 8 really begins. Hadadezar gathers all of his forces and David intercepts them at a place called
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Helam. So Zoba and Syria join forces. Zoba and the Syrians are defeated and the commander of the
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Syrian army, Shobak, he dies of his wounds sustained in this battle. And Zoba was wiped out and Syria was subjugated.
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And we see at the end of chapter 8, David even has garrisons in the area near the capital of Syria where he garrisons his own troops.
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This war results in ripples that go out to other cities and other peoples. The kingdom of Hadadezar was massive and very powerful during this time.
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And in David conquering them, all those cities and kings who were paying tribute to Hadadezar and to Zoba became subjects now of King David.
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So David takes over Hadadezar's kingdom and the Ammonites are now sitting ducks with no one to help.
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And that's why the statement at the end that seems so kind of strange to our ears, but so the
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Syrians were afraid to save the Ammonites anymore. Well, that's going to come up next chapter because now the
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Ammonite city of Rabah has no mercenaries to help. And that sets the stage for what's going to happen when
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David has unfinished business in Rabah next week. There's a small application to these ripples of war that I want to point out.
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I would encourage us all to consider learning from the mistakes of others. Opposition to the
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Lord's anointed does not go well. In our text, the Lord's anointed is of course
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King David, but now under our new covenant of grace in the New Testament, the Lord's anointed is his descendant, the descendant of King David, King Jesus.
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Occasionally we become aware, and I'm sure this has happened in your life much to your sorrow.
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You've become aware of a friend, a family member, or a neighbor reaping the devastation of opposition to Jesus and his grace.
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We all know it, but we don't think of it at the front end, but sin has a short run of joy, has a short run of pleasure, followed by increasing spirals of hardship, sorrow, and pain.
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Sin often starts out like fun, spending dad's money among friends and family in a far off city with no accountability, but just like the prodigal son, it often results in eating from the slop trough with the hogs.
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The kings who were servants of Hadadezar saw that Syria and Zuba were defeated by King David. They came to know the destructive power of opposition to the king, and they went and sought peace with David and became subject to him.
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So let's all consider what it means to be subject to the Lord's anointed in our lives where we live today.
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What does it mean for those of us who have been saved by his grace? We should wake up every morning recognizing that we are called to live out an encumbered freedom, not an unencumbered freedom.
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Our lives are defined by an encumbered freedom. We are graciously constrained by his love.
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Our flesh wants to please ourselves, but our Lord calls us into a heart of obedience that results in a life of joy and gladness and deeper pleasure than any sin can offer.
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How can we enter, or how have we entered into a life of joyful obedience from the heart?
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We can only come into this relationship with God through the cross of Jesus Christ. And so during this next song, as Dave's gonna come and lead us in a song,
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I encourage you to come to the tables. If you've asked Jesus Christ to rescue you from your sins, remember what he did for you.
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Remember his broken body. Remember his blood shed for you. And then go out in this week considering the applications from this text as I refresh our minds.
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Be ready for some to reject grace. Beware of counsel toward hostility.
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Trust the Lord to do what is good and learn from the mistakes of others.
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Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the grace that you've extended to each one of us through the cross of Christ, the hope that we have in his sacrifice for us.
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We really can't pull ourselves up by the bootstraps. I'm sure many of us have tried that to no effect, trying to fix ourselves, trying to become our best projects, and we just can't get there.
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Father, we thank you that you sent your son to do the work for us, even the keeping of the law that we couldn't keep, the fulfilling of things that we couldn't fulfill.
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We thank you for your steadfast love and your faithfulness to us. We recognize that when it is rejected, it is a terrible thing to behold, but when it's received, it provides new life, new purpose, new hope, new direction, and most importantly, an obedience from the heart.
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Father, if there's anybody here who has asked you, as maybe at some point around a campfire or at some point in a church in their youth, prayed, but they've just never seen any fruit, they've never seen any growth, they've never seen any changes in them,
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Father, I pray that you would bring them to a place today of joyful obedience, of recognizing that the obedience you call us to is only in gladness.
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It is out of love, of great love that you have given to us that we would in turn turn around and reflect that love back to you.
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So Father, I pray that you would do business with every heart that's here, help us to reflect on the things that you're calling us to do as a result of this text, and I thank you for the unity that we express in taking the cracker that represents the body of Christ broken for us and the juice that represents his blood shed for us.
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We come to these tables unworthy, but deeply loved by you. We thank you for this in Jesus' name.