(2 Samuel) Trusting in Adversity — David Guzik

David Flees Jerusalem During Absalom’s Rebellion

It's a little hard to get our bearings as we come into 2 Samuel 16, because we're parachuting right down into the middle of a very complicated story. And the complicated story runs something like this, that David's son, Absalom, has rebelled against him and started a civil war.

You know, things aren't right in your family when your son starts a civil war against you. And I'm not just talking about arguing over cleaning up the room or the keys to the car. I'm talking about the son taking the kingdom away from you and trying to kill you.

That's exactly what was happening. Absalom was the son, David was the father, and David is fleeing Jerusalem as a fugitive for two reasons. Number one, he doesn't want Jerusalem to become a battleground.

He loves that city. Why should it be made ground zero of a war between David and Absalom? Secondly, David is fleeing the city because he knows that if Absalom has the opportunity, Absalom will kill him in an eye blink.

And so as David is on his way, he's making his way over the Kidron Valley and up over the Mount of Olives, he stopped at the top of the Mount of Olives and worshiped God, as we saw back in 2 Samuel 15.

Ziba's Deception and the Temptation to Exploit Crisis

And now in chapter 16, as he makes his way out of the city, there comes to meet him a man, a man named Ziba. Now, we've met Ziba before in the book of 2 Samuel. Ziba was the servant of a man named Mephibosheth, and we've met Mephibosheth before.

Mephibosheth is the son of David's deceased dear friend, Jonathan, who was the son of Saul, the prior king over Israel. David showed great kindness to Mephibosheth, and we saw that in 2 Samuel chapter 9, a touching, beautiful story.

And now, as David is making his way out of the city, here is the servant of Mephibosheth, Ziba. Mephibosheth isn't anywhere around. And he comes loaded with donkeys full of provisions and food and drinks and all these things that David and his men need.

Remember, they're fugitives. This is vitally helpful assistance to David. Let's pick it up again here, verse two, and the king said to Ziba, what do you mean to do with these? So Ziba said, the donkeys are for the king's household to ride on the bread and the summer fruit for the young men to eat and the wine for those who are faint in the wilderness to drink.

Wasn't that great? Can't you see, David? Thank you, God. Here we are on the run. We're wondering where we're going to get our next meal from. We're going out into the wilderness and here you have provided by the hand of Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth.

This is fantastic. Thank you, God. Well, look at the stories. It goes on to verse three now. Then the king said, and where is your master's son? And Ziba said to the king, indeed, he is staying in Jerusalem, for he said today the house of Israel will restore the kingdom of my father to me.

You get the picture here. David asked Ziba, oh, where's Mephibosheth, where'd he go? Ziba says that Mephibosheth, he's double crossed you, David. He sees this war starting between David and Absalom, and what he's hoping is that you guys destroy each other and then I'll be around to pick up the pieces.

That's what Mephibosheth is saying. According to Ziba, Ziba is ratting out Mephibosheth. He's gone against you, David. He's a traitor. You showed him all this kindness, all this generous spirit. And look at what Mephibosheth has done to you.

Well, look at what David responds with in verse four. So the king said to Ziba here, all that belongs to Mephibosheth is yours. And Ziba said, I humbly bow before you that I may find favor in your sight, my lord, the old king.

Now, can you put yourself in the sandals of David just for a moment here? Your own son has risen up to try to kill you. The kingdom is in civil war. It looks like everything is going to be lost. You're making your way out of town and you get a report from a man who brings you great provisions.

And the man says, David, this man, Mephibosheth, whom you have been outstandingly generous and merciful to, he's double crossed you and stabbed you in the back as hard as he could. Now, how do you feel if you're David when you hear that you throw up your hands and you say, oh, my gosh, that's all I need to hear is another one has turned against me.

It's bad enough that my son turned against me. It's bad enough that other people are taking his side. It's bad enough that the nation is in turmoil. But Mephibosheth, I poured out my heart from Mephibosheth and now he's stabbing me in the back.

You know what the problem here is? Ziba was lying. Ziba is lying to David when he reports this. Mephibosheth, Mephibosheth, oh boy, you don't know what it's like up here. Mephibosheth had not double crossed David at all.

We're going to find this out later on in Second Samuel, chapter 19. But just put your mind on hold on that one for a minute. And know that Ziba is lying to David. And might I say that this is a shameless and senseless slander.

It increased David's pain, because when you feel like the world is crumbling around you, the last thing you need to hear is that another guy stabbing you in the back. Then again, it also it also was terrible of Ziba because he did it for the exact reason that David fulfilled in verse four, he did it to gain advantage over Mephibosheth.

You see, David acting on the only information at hand assumed that Ziba told the truth. And so he rewarded what he thought was Ziba's loyalty and he punished what he thought was Mephibosheth's reported disloyalty.

And that was exactly the response that Ziba wanted. Now, you know, Ziba has to appear very sorrowful before the king and all this. But you can see as soon as he turns his back towards David, a great big smile comes over his face.

I got it. I got the land. I'm not serving to Mephibosheth anymore. He's serving to me. Yes, I want it. Ziba is an example of someone who wickedly uses a crisis for his own benefit. Isn't that terrible?

He hears that the kingdom is in turmoil. He hears that Absalom has revolted against David. And what does Ziba first think? How can I turn this to my advantage? How can I score something out of this? That's a wicked heart, friends.

You know, when you see someone else down. Don't look to see how you can make something off of them. Don't look to see how you can grind them down a little bit further so that you can benefit at their expense.

Shimei's Cursing and the Humiliation of David

Well, the Lord will deal with Ziba. The Lord will deal with Mephibosheth. But it's an interesting story in the first four verses there. If that was interesting, look at verse five. Now, when King David came to Bethlehem, there was a man from the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera coming from there, he came out cursing continuously as he came and he threw stones at David and all the servants of King David and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.

Also, Shimei also said thus when he cursed, come out, come out, you bloodthirsty man, you rogue. The Lord has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul and whose place you have reigned and the Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom, your son.

So now you're caught in your own evil because you are a bloodthirsty man. Shimei was a distant relative of the former King Saul. He still resented that David had replaced Saul as king. And now the house of David reigned over Israel, not the house of Saul.

And so what did he do? Well, much in the same spirit of Ziba, when he heard that David was in crisis, he looked to see how he could turn it to his own advantage. And he cursed continuously. He threw stones and he shouted out at David, you bloodthirsty man, you rogue.

That's about as offensive as a person can be. He sees David down and out and he gets in a few extra kicks on his own. That's about as low as a guy can get. He wanted to destroy any shred or dignity or confidence that David had left.

You know, friends, there's always people ready to rejoice when a leader falls. Shimei had his heart set against David for a long time. These feelings weren't new within Shimei. But he could only show it when David was down and out.

That's the heart of a coward, isn't it? That's hard to bear up under a cowardly attack. When a coward attacks you, you want to fight back even more. But we're going to see what graciousness David has in just a few moments.

Let's look again, though, at the words that Shimei said against David. Look at it there in verse eight. The Lord has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul and whose place you have reigned and the Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom, your son.

So now you are caught in your own evil because you are a blood thirsty man. Oh, David, you're getting what you deserve. He's throwing rocks. No, not huge boulders. The intent wasn't to harm David as much as it was to insult him completely.

Throwing rocks, throwing dust, screaming out curses and insults, yelling to David, you get what you deserve, Mr. You were bad to the house of Saul and now it's coming back upon your own head. Now, you look at what Shimei said and you look at the circumstances David is in.

His face is disheveled. There's dirt all over him. His clothes are torn from mourning. He and his ragged band are making their way out of the capital city, not into it. It'd be easy to look at the circumstances and say, well, maybe she is right.

I mean, after all, look at the scoreboard here, right? Scoreboard shows Absalom up and David down. Outward appearance made it seem that Shimei was right, but he was wrong. Friends, none of this came upon David because of what he did to Saul or Saul's family.

Not a thing. Shimei was wrong because David actually treated Saul and his family with great love and graciousness. Shimei was wrong because David was not a bloodthirsty man. Now, it's true that he was a man of war, but he was not a bloodthirsty man.

Shimei was wrong because David did not bring the family of Saul to ruin. Saul brought the family of Saul to ruin. Might I say. Shimei was right. He was right in that he said that the Lord had brought this upon David.

Had the Lord brought it? Yes. God allowed it. Why? Well, one reason was as a chastisement for David's sin with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah. Isn't it interesting? Shimei was wrong, but he was right.

Receiving Criticism with Humility

You know, being a leader, and I've been in pastoral ministry for 20 years now. Being a leader, I face my share of criticism, and it just goes with the territory. There really is some space for the old proverb.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. If you can't stand to be criticized, then don't ever aspire to leadership. Now, what I find interesting about critics and people who snipe either to my face or behind my back is a lot of times they're like Shimei, they're wrong, but they're right.

Sometimes they're right in seeing a problem or seeing a difficulty, but oftentimes they're wrong in their analysis of it. That was Shimei. He was. Oh, he was absolutely sure that it all came upon David because of what David did to the house of salt.

No, no, no. David was utterly righteous towards the house of Saul. But yet it did come upon him from the Lord, but for a different reason altogether. Now, this is one of the reasons why David responds the way that he does.

Listen, this is amazing. Verse nine. Then Abishai, the son of Zariah, said to the king, why should this dead dog curse my Lord, the king? Please let me go over and take off his head. Now, let me ask you, from what you know about David's mighty men surrounding him, did he mean punch the guy out or actually sever his head?

He meant sever his head. You know, you didn't want to mess with David's mighty men. These were guys who were just gladiators of combat and they can't. They've just about had enough of it. You know, they're taking their cue from David.

They see that David isn't getting angry, so they're holding their patience. They're holding their patience. But Shimei keeps screaming, keeps throwing stuff, keeps screaming, keeps cursing, keeps all doing these things.

Finally, Abishai says, David, look, you're being pretty patient here. My patience is running out. Let me just kill this guy. We'll put him out of all of our misery. Look at David's response. And the king said, go do it.

No, that's in verse 10. And the king said, what have I do to you, you sons of Zariah? So let him curse because the Lord has said to him, curse David, who then shall say, why have you done so? And David said to Abishai and all his servants, see how my son, who came from my own body, seeks my life.

How much more now may this Benjaminite let him alone and let him curse. For so the Lord has ordered him. It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day.

And as David and his men went along the road, Shimei went along the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went through stones at him and kicked up dust. Now, the king and all the people who were with him became weary, so they refreshed themselves there.

You know, one of the great evidences of the godliness of King David is how he received adversity with humility. Many of us only show the pride in our heart. In times of adversity. In times of adversity, our attitude is I don't deserve this.

I deserve better than this. Come on, come on, God, when are you going to start giving me what I deserve? Friends, you don't want to pray that prayer. That's a prayer of a proud heart because a humble heart says.

You know what? It's all in the Lord's hands. I'll take whatever the Lord gives me. Rich or poor, good or bad. Easy or hard, it's from the hand of the Lord. I love what David says in verse 10. So let him curse because the Lord has said to him, curse David.

Now, David didn't know whether or not Shimei had had a prophetic word from God. Shimei, go curse David. No. David just look, God's allowing this. David knew very well that Abishai didn't need to go off and cut heads off.

Because the Lord was more than able. You know, that's something good to remember in the midst of strife or criticism. But God is able to deal with your critics. And God is able to deal with the one you're critical of.

Maybe that's just the reason to let it go. You know, God can do it. Every beat of my heart is at the pleasure of God. If he wants my heart to stop beating before this message ends, he's fully capable of doing it.

Same thing with you. Our lives are but a vapor, they're in God's hands. David knew this. Lord, it's from your hand. David was willing to hear what Shimei said because he was a wise, godly man. He was willing to hear what God might have to say to him through a cursing critic.

Now, leaders, this is important for us. We need to be able to hear what God may say to us through a critic, even if it's a cursing critic. Oh, everything about the critic may be wrong, just like Shimei was wrong.

But God may still have something to say to you in it. David let Shimei speak because he was not a bloodthirsty man. Isn't it ironic that if David was the kind of man Shimei said he was, Shimei would be dead?

The only reason Shimei lived was because David was not a bloodthirsty man. David let Shimei speak because he saw the hand of God in every circumstance. He knew that God was more than able to shut Shimei up, so he didn't need to give the order.

Keeping Perspective When the Greater Crisis Is Before You

David let Shimei speak because he put the Shimei problem, so to speak, in perspective. Did you see that? It's so great in verse 11. David said to Abishai and all his servants, See how my son who came from my own body seeks my life?

How much more? Now may this Benjaminite. David looks at Shimei and almost laughs. He goes, look, guys, you think this is a problem? One of my sons is out to kill me. Now that's a problem. Some wacko yelling and cursing and throwing pebbles at me.

Who cares? You know, sometimes when we hear cursing critics, we get all bent out of perspective. You kind of just start to think that, you know, oh, that's the center of everything. David had a wonderful sense of perspective here.

He knew that the real problem was Absalom. And Shimei didn't cause him to lose this perspective. I think it's also wonderful that David let Shimei speak because he knew that God's hand was on the future as well as on the present.

Did you see what he said there? Verse 12. It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day. Hey, you know what? Maybe a blessing will come out of this.

Maybe I'll bear up patiently under this cursing and God will bless me for it later. Man, isn't that a great attitude to take for life? No matter what trial, no matter what, you know, I'll just bear up under it and God will bless me later for it.

David knew that if he did what was right in the present moment, God would take care of the future. And so he said, let him alone. Let him curse. Isn't that a wonderful heart? Isn't that a big heart for God in his kingdom?

Finding Refreshment in the Midst of Affliction

Let's finish up with another look at verse 14. Now the king and all the people who were with him became weary. So they refresh themselves there. You got to be kidding me. David, after a sleepless night, after a long march, after all the emotional trauma of mourning, knowing he's a fugitive on the run, escaping on foot, and then this big jerk shimmy I adding his business to it.

He can still find refreshment. Isn't that great? You know, a lot of times we exclude ourselves from refreshment in the midst of a trial. But David was not without hope or comfort. God allowed comfort to find him, even if it was in the small things.

So you're going through that time of heavy affliction and you wake up in the morning after a good night's sleep. What? Praise God for that. Oh, Lord, thank you for such a good night's sleep. Or you have a good meal.

Oh, Lord, thank you for that good meal. How wonderful you are to me, Lord. You start seeing God's hand, God's blessing, even in the little things. And David was able to receive the comfort because he was at peace.

He knew that God was in control of Israel in this. David was like his descendant, Jesus. Do you see David refusing to cling to the throne? There's the throne of Israel. And David's not on it with just that absolute iron gripping.

Nobody's going to tear this from me. Not at all. David was like Jesus. Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man.

David's Humility Foreshadows Christ's Self-Emptying

And he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. You know, in these days of David's humiliation and shame, we see him more than ever a man after God's own heart.

Some people say that after David's sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, that David never again shined brightly for the Lord. I disagree with that. I agree that there was a difference in his life before and after.

And so I understand what people mean when they say that. But friends, can't you see the nature of Jesus shining through David brightly right here? Jesus would not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

He was willing to let go of divine prerogative and the glory of the throne room of heaven, just like David was willing to let go of the throne of Israel, knowing that God was in control of it. In his book, A Tale of Three Kings, which I highly recommend to everybody.

Gene Edwards talks about Saul and David and then David and Absalom. And he puts these words into the mouth of David surrounding this whole rebellion of Absalom. These are the words he has David saying.

The throne is not mine, not to have, not to take, not to protect and not to keep. The throne is the Lord's. Can I read that again to you? Might I say, I was just talking to a pastor friend of mine. He said he has this written on a piece of paper and framed and up in his office so he can see it all the time.

The throne is not mine, not to have, not to take, not to protect and not to keep. The throne is the Lord's. So be gone with your clinging to power. Be gone with your power plays or hidden agendas. No like David will have that kind of heart.

And it was this kind of heart that kept David on track through such a difficult time and enabled him to even receive refreshment from God at such a beautiful moment. Friends, I don't know about you, but I'm refreshed in the Lord today.

Are you? Doesn't matter what kind of trial you're going through. God wants to refresh you. God wants to show you his great love for you and to give you such a peace in him that you won't cling to things, but you'll let God glorify himself and show his own power.

Prayer for Submission, Surrender, and God's Church

That's our prayer, Lord Jesus, that you would do it in us and among us this morning. Pour out your spirit upon us, God. Give us the heart of David. Because, Lord, it's really the heart of Jesus being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

But Lord, let go of that divine prerogative. Help us, Lord, to have that kind of sweet. Submission and surrender unto you. It's your church, Lord. You promised that you would build your church. It belongs to you.

And so, Lord, we confess our recognition of that all over again this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.