2 Samuel 14

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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Mike, will you open us up with a word of prayer, please, sir? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for blessing us with this beautiful day.

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We thank you for giving us health and strength and the ability and desire to be in your house. And we pray now,

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Lord, that as we open your word, that you would speak through us. Use your instrument, our brother

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Mike, as he has prepared this week. And pray that we would receive what you'd have us to receive.

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That you would use it in conformance to the image of your Son. And just pray that you would bless this time together in Christ's name.

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Amen. 2 Samuel 14. Joab the politician.

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Yes, sir. And I'm going to read the whole chapter.

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And I will move very quickly. Because I'm going to try to get through this chapter today.

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So we will move quick. Chapter 14, verse 1. Now Joab the son of Zariah perceived that the king's heart was inclined towards Absalom.

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So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there and said to her,

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Please, pretend to be a mourner and put on mourning garments now, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be like a woman who has been mourning for the dead many days.

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Then go to the king, speak to him in this manner. So Joab put the words in her mouth.

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Now when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and prostrated herself and said,

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Help, O king. The king said to her, What is your trouble? And she answered, Truly I am a widow, for my husband is dead.

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Your maidservant has two sons, but the two of them struggled together in the field, and there was no one there to separate them.

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So one struck the other and killed him. Now behold, the whole family has risen up against your maidservant, and they say,

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Hand over the one who struck his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he has killed, and destroy the heir also.

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Thus they will extinguish my coal which is left, so as to leave my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.

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Then the king said to the woman, Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you. And the woman of Tekoa said to the king,

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O my lord, the king, the iniquity is on me and my father's house. But the king and his throne are guiltless.

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So the king said, Whoever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you any more.

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Then she said, Please let the king remember the Lord your God, so that the avenger of the blood will not continue to destroy, otherwise they will destroy my son.

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And he said, As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground.

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Then the woman said, Please let your maidservant speak a word to my lord the king.

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And he said, Speak. And the woman said, Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God?

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For in speaking this word, the king is as the one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring back the one who has been banished.

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For we surely will die, and we will be like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.

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Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one will not be cast out from him.

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Now the reason I have come to speak this word to my lord the king is that the people have made me afraid.

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So your maidservant said, Let me now speak to the king. Perhaps the king will perform the request of his maidservant.

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For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy both me and my son from the inheritance of God.

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Then your maidservant said, Please let the word of my lord the king be comforting, for as the angel of God, so as my lord the king can discern good and evil, and may the lord your

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God be with you. Then the king answered and said to the woman, Please do not hide anything else from me that I am about to ask you.

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And the woman said, Let my lord the king please speak. So the king said,

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Is this the hand of Joab with you in all of this? And the woman replied, As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to you to the right or to the left from anyone and keep anything that the lord the king has spoken.

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Indeed, it was your servant Joab who commanded me to do this, and it was he who put these words in the mouth of your maidservant in order to change the appearance of things that your servant

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Joab has done this thing. But my lord is wise, like the wisdom of the angel of God, he is to know all that is in the earth.

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Then the king said to Joab, Behold, now I will surely do this thing. Go therefore, bring back the young man

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Absalom. Joab fell on his face to the ground, prostrated himself before the king, and then

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Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord the king.

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And then the king has performed the request of his servant. So Joab arose and went to Gesher and brought

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Absalom to Jerusalem. However, the king said, Let him turn to his own house and let him not see my face.

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So Absalom turned to his own house, and he did not see the king's face. Now in all, Israel was no one more handsome than Absalom, so highly praised.

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From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no defect in him. And when he had cut the hair of his head, it was the end of every year that he would do so, for it became heavy on him, and he weighed the hair of his head two hundred shekels by the king's weight.

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To Absalom there was also born three sons and one daughter, whose name was Tamar, and she was a very beautiful woman in appearance.

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Now Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem, and he did not see the king's face.

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And then Absalom sent for Joab to send to the king, but he would not come to him.

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So he sent again a second time, but he would not come. Therefore he said to his servants,

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See Joab's field? It's next to mine, and he has a barley there. Go set it on fire. So Absalom's servants set the field on fire.

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Then Joab arose, came to Absalom at his house, and said to him,

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Why have your servants set my field on fire? And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I have sent for you, saying,

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Come, that I may send you to the king, so that I could say,

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Why have you come from Jeshur? It would have been better for me to stay there. Now therefore let me see the king's face, and if there is any iniquity in me, let him put me to death.

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So then Joab came to the king, he told him, and he called for Absalom. Thus he came to the king.

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He prostrated himself before the king on his face, crept down to the ground, and the king kissed

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Absalom. All right. A lot of stuff in there. Last time we were together,

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Absalom had fled to Jeshur. Remember? Who was this guy? It was his granddaddy.

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He ran to his granddaddy. And he's going to be there for three years. So now,

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Joab, after the three -year stint, Joab is, as you said,

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Mike, a politician, he sees there is a problem within the kingdom. So, I'm just going to erase this because this has nothing to do with today.

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He was more concerned about the kingdom. And as we have said before, Joab is the guy that you want on your side.

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One, he's looking out for the best interest of the king. If something happens to the king, something happens to the kingdom.

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Is that not correct? I don't know if you remember one time before, when they told David, David, go back.

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It would be better for you to stay in the city because they would rather have your head than 10 ,000 of ours.

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So, in Joab's case, he's thinking, man, the kingdom has a potential to fall because of this.

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And why would that be? Anybody remember why we thought that last week? Who was the next heir?

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If Absalom had Amnon killed, then who's next in line for the kingship?

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It would be Absalom. He was the second -born son. So, if he has been exiled by his own reasoning, remember, he exiled himself.

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If he's been exiled, Joab's going, well, who's going to take over? And as I read that,

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I go, that's a good question because did not David have other children? He did.

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But who has the rightful heir to it? It would be the living child. So, in order for Joab to bring this to a conclusion, he's got to somehow get

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Absalom back into the city, try to reconcile David and his son. And that's what he tries to do.

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Why Joab has not gone to David? I don't know if you all agree that. It doesn't seem like Joab has said anything to David.

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Why he hasn't, I have no idea because as we get further along in the book, you'll see that Joab has no problem telling

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David when he does something wrong in the sense of when he took a census.

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He said, don't do that. He had no problem telling David that the letter he sent about Uriah was a stupid plan.

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You all remember that? He gave the analogy of Bimelech getting a stone dropped on his head.

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He's like, that's a ridiculous thing to do. So, why he doesn't or it's not here, we don't know.

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So, what does he do? It says that verse 1, Joab the son of Uriah, perceived that the king's heart was inclined towards Absalom.

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Remember, Uriah was who? Remember who that was? That was David's sister.

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Joab and Abishai were his nephews. So, it says that his heart was bent towards Uriah.

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What did you say, Mike? King's heart was toward Absalom. Towards Absalom. And look, there was always a desire for David to see his son.

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I do believe that Absalom, as we go through this book, we get towards chapter 18 and all, Absalom was a spoiled brat.

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That's my conclusion. Yes? We're in 2 Samuel chapter 14.

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Yes, he's a spoiled brat. I think they all were, personally. They could do whatever they want.

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They could do what they want. Come and go as they want. Whatever they wanted, they could have. I mean, that's part of being royalty.

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That's what happened with what Amnon, you know, going to David and saying, hey, give me my sister.

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Yes, it's a little weird. Weird, yes. So, they were probably all spoiled brats.

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There is something about Absalom that is appealing from a humanistic, worldly dude.

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He was pretty. Oh, he was pretty. He was pretty. There was no blemish from head to toe.

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And he was winsome to people. Hey, and we have to remember, he was not a coward. He's not even a coward when he even tells

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David here, towards the end, hey, look, if I've done anything wrong and you put me to death, that's a pretty bold statement.

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Now, I think there was part of that, too, that he knew that his dad wasn't going to execute him. But we'll get to that.

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So, Joab goes to this chick in Tekoa and says, hey, I want you to basically put on some clothes.

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I want you to be a play actor, and this is what I want you to do. And I'm going to paraphrase some of this so that we can get through today.

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She puts on garments to look as if she is mourning. He puts the words that he wants her to say and then basically says, and if you need to tweak it as you go, tweak it.

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I just need the story to work. But as we go through the story, the story, or the parable she kind of uses, doesn't really line up with what actually happened.

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So, as we get to verse 4, it says, now the woman spoke to the king and she fell prostrating herself.

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She says, help, O king. And he answered and said, go ahead.

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Truly, I'm a widow. My husband is dead. Your maidservant had two sons. One, the analogy,

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David's not dead. So if the understanding of how this parable is to reveal the truth to David, there's a lot wrong with it.

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Your maidservant had two sons. The two of them struggled together in the field and there was no one there to separate them, so one struck the other and killed him.

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Is that what happened between Amnon and Absalom? No. They did not struggle in the field.

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And by the understanding of the context of the parable, under the

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Mosaic legislation, if you had two men that were fighting in a field, like really fighting, in a heat of a passion, and one struck the other one such that it killed him, that one that killed the one brother that was left alive had the ability to run to a city of refuge and wait to stand trial, whatever there was seven of them.

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One we knew of, we spoke of already, is Hebron. Could have run to Hebron, could have stayed there until he set trial, and then once they figured out whether it was intentional or not, then that would determine whether he would die.

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Once, if he said that his life was to be preserved, he could stay in that city of refuge, but only as long as the priest was alive.

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Once that priest died, it was a free game. And if they did have someone that died, that that person died intentionally, and the courts found out that it was by malicious intent and was intentional, they had someone called the blood avenger that actually would go and kill the guy.

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The family didn't do it, but the family would have someone do it. There was people set up, basically an executioner to go do it.

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So Amnon and Absalom weren't struggling in the field. They were actually, that was premeditated murder on the case of Absalom for two years.

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So it says, now behold, the whole family has risen up against the maidservant. They want me to hand over the one who struck his brother that he may be put to death for the life of his brother whom he killed and destroyed the heir also.

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Meaning if this one dies, there's not going to be anybody, one to take care of her, nor is there going to be anyone to take care of the inheritance that was left by the father.

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And she said, look, if this happens, I'm basically this destitute. Somebody is going to come along and just strong arm.

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Remember, women didn't have the ability to work like they do. They were, women, widows and orphans were very easily taken advantage of in Old Testament times and even in Middle Eastern times.

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That's why under the Mosaic legislation, God put specific laws in place to protect the orphan and to protect the widow.

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And we even see that in the New Testament as well. What was pure and undefiled religion? To visit the father and listen to the widows.

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And take care of the widows, yep. And in some churches, even in Europe, you have what was called pensioners.

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And some of the widows and their husbands would die. There would be nobody to take care of them.

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And the pensioners would be the widows that were taken care of by the church that would give them just a little bit of money to pick food and groceries, even sometimes places to live.

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We don't do that here because there's obviously a social system that helps take care of that. But in Europe, there wasn't that in time of the fall, the

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Eastern Bloc. So it says in verse eight, then the king said to the woman, go to your house and I will give orders concerning you.

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The woman of Tekoa said to the king. It's interesting. Here it is. She said what she has to say, but she can't shut up.

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She's going to say, well, let me say something else. And we're going to see that happens a couple more times. Okay, well, wait a minute. Let me say something else.

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He says, go to your house. I'll see to it basically that nothing's going to happen to you. And she says, oh Lord, my king, the iniquity is on me and my father's house, but the king and his throne are guiltless.

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Look at the flattery she's trying to put on him. So the king said, whoever speaks to you, bring him to me and he will not ever touch you again.

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No more. All right, you go back home. Stuff I told you, something happens. Basically, what

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David's saying, that person does something to you. I'm either going to punish him so harshly that he won't touch you or he'll be executed for his wrongdoing concerning you.

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Then she said, please let the king remember the Lord your God. Is this not...

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This is taking the Lord's name in vain. Look, if somebody said...

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What's that? She's bringing false witness. Well, she's not bringing false witness. Taking the Lord's name in vain is not...

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We understand it in our culture as somebody dropping a GED or something like that. That was unheard of in Old Testament.

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Nobody would have ever done that. But what they did do was, the Lord has told me to tell you this.

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Or, blessed be the Lord God concerning you. If I said to you, man,

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Mike, I swear to God, this is what happened. What am I trying to do? I'm trying to manipulate his thinking by me swearing to God so that you'll actually listen.

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That's taking the Lord's name in vain. Now, is there a thing we should not take the Lord's name and use it as a cuss word?

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I'm not saying that. But that's not how we understand that in Scripture. You can look at Jeremiah.

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All the false prophets, when they said you have taken the Lord's name in vain, it was you have used the Lord's name for leverage.

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God has told me to tell you this. False prophets, what did they do? The Lord has said, even

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Jeremiah said this, your false prophets have said, peace, peace when there is no peace. They have said, the

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Lord won't destroy this holy place. And what did God actually do? He destroyed the holy place. So that's where she has taken the

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Lord's name in vain by saying, please let the king remember the Lord your

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God that the avenger of the blood will not continue to destroy.

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Otherwise, he will destroy my son. She's wanting him, hey, by the power of the

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Lord, stop this guy from going and killing my son. And then he says, the end of verse 11, as the

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Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground. It should have been over. Okay?

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Once again, it should have been over. But here it is. She's pesky. Go ahead,

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Mike. It reminds me of Abraham when he's talking about Sodom and Gomorrah and he's like, well, for this many people, how about five more?

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How about 10? Or the parable of the persistent woman. Yeah, the persistent woman who continued, kept on and kept on and kept on.

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And also, if I remember correctly, the Phoenician woman. Yeah.

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And basically people a lot of times think Jesus rebuked her when he says, hey, correct. And I basically, what he was saying is, look,

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I'm going to help you, but I shouldn't because I came for the house of Israel. And in this case,

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I think she's being very persistent, but she's being persistent in a manipulative way. This is not sincere.

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She is trying to get the point across that David is in the wrong. That's basically, and I think

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Joab believes that David's in the wrong. So this king, is this

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David? This is King David. Okay. And she's talking about her son?

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This is a parable. Okay. She was commanded to. This is a parable. Okay.

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That's what I was going to say. Just kind of bring up the speaks. Amnon and Absalom were

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David's sons. Right. Okay. Amnon raped his sister. Absalom killed his brother two years after that.

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Absalom banished himself to Jeshur, which was his granddad. He needs to,

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Joab, basically, the top general, the second -in -command of the kingdom, wants

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Absalom to come back because the kingdom is in potential shambles because there could be a potential civil war.

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And we'll see that that does take place. I think bringing him back caused that, by the way. This woman has been put up to the task of basically doing what

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Nathan did to David when he was wrong, presenting a parable to him to reveal. Now, what are parables for?

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To reveal truth or conceal truth? In this case, she's trying to reveal the truth of the fact that David's son's banished.

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If you don't bring him back, the inheritance of Israel is going to fall. So, Joab has this woman do that.

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It succeeds. And that's where we're at. This is a made -up story.

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Well, one, this woman, by any stretch of the imagination, would have never had the ability to come into the presence of the king.

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I just want you to know that. Just check. Nobody knows. She just waltzes into the king's court.

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I don't know. How did she get there? Joab. Joab. That's the only way.

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Does anybody get near to the king without going through Joab? No. I mean, we're going to see.

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There are going to be many times when Joab and Abishai, they were quick to cut somebody's head off or run them through.

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Nobody comes to the king. But remember, like Mike said earlier, when we started, Joab's a politician.

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He, in many ways, is a lot like Abner. Look, what is he trying to do here?

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Same thing that Abner did. Look, we've got to have a next king. Remember, Abner, we called him the kingmaker. Well, Joab's taken that place as well.

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He goes, hey, if something happens to David, we've got to have the king. And this is the man next in line.

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So that's why he is... We would probably say...

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I did the math some time ago. I would say David's probably in his early 50s here.

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My reasoning for that, I could show you on paper, but it's complicated. But based on when we know he died, based on the time frame of this five years,

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I backed it up, and he's probably 51, 52 years old. I do believe, from the time that Bathsheba, the infraction with Bathsheba, to now,

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I mean to Absalom, I think that happened very quickly. I think within a year's time, that happened with the killing of Absalom.

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I think it happened one after another. The sword's going to be in your house. He had the...

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Eight days later, or seven days later, the baby died. Within a year, Amnon had raped his sister.

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And then two years later, now where we have the death, and now three years trying to bring the banished one back.

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So Solomon was just a child. Because they were looking for a king. I would say

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Solomon was probably, maybe just born at this point.

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I know... Solomon was the fourth born child of Bathsheba.

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We read the text, based on the context of the Davidic promise and all of that.

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And after David's infraction, it says that he went into Bathsheba and she bore a child.

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His name was Solomon. They called him Jedediah. But if you go to the genealogies, Solomon was not the first born child of David to Bathsheba.

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You have to go back to Chronicles, chapter three, and it tells you he was the fourth born child.

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So that's how some of the math I did. Let's just say she got pregnant every tenth month.

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That's how some of the math I had to come up with to try to figure out how old

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David was. If she got pregnant every tenth month, then that means he would maybe at this point maybe be a year old.

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Maybe? So that's why they were looking for an older king. Yeah, and that's why

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I believe he was wanting Absalom back because at this point Solomon was not yet known to be the heir to the throne.

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I remember David had nineteen other male sons that we know of.

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Heir to the throne, not from concubines. You have to remember if you have a concubine wife, they couldn't be the king.

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Nineteen other children and one daughter. So twenty. Okay? Tamar.

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That's not including the concubines either now. Okay? So at this point... Full house.

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Really? Over full house. So at this point he was either very, very young or just born.

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Solomon. That's why it makes sense to get Absalom back. All right.

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Where was I at? Okay. Here it goes. She says, Then the woman said, Please let your maid servant speak to my lord the king again.

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Once again, she would not be quiet. And he says, Speak. It's funny. When my kids were little, my boys, they'd run,

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I would go, Speak. Speak.

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And then he does it to her. Speak, woman. Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God?

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For in this speaking, this word, the king is the one who is guilty in that the king does not bring back the one who has been banished.

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One, did David banish his son? What does it say at the end of the last chapter we did?

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What did it say that David longed to do? To go to Absalom. He wanted Absalom. I do believe, based on the whole text, that Absalom was his favored child at this point.

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I do believe that. I mean, all David's boys seemed like they were stunning, sharp guys.

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Man, none of them stood out the way Absalom does. But there was something about Absalom. He was winsome.

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The people loved him. He looked good. He was pretty. And in many ways, he was a lot like King Saul.

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Not tall, dark, and handsome like King Saul. But, dude, the people loved him. He cared more about his appearance.

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And he was a sharp, stunning guy. And he had a way of winning people with words.

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Absalom was a great politician. Yes, a great politician. We'll see that next week.

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He really throws it in, the words. Oh yeah, manipulate people at the gate and all of that.

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So she's basically saying, you're the one that's done this. You're the one guilty. Basically, she points her finger like the way

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Nathan did that bony finger and says, you're the man again. And she says, for we will surely die and are like water spilled out on the ground which cannot be gathered back up again.

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Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one will not be cast out from him.

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One, once life's poured out, that's what she's saying. Once life's poured out on the ground, is there anybody that can bring it back up again?

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Forget God for a second. That sounds weird. Forget God for a second. Push that aside.

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Is there anybody in here that can raise somebody up from the dead? No. I mean, it'd be awesome.

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But nobody in here can do that. And that's what she's saying. Look, once the blood's spilled out, you can't put it back in.

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Basically, she used the analogy of water. And here's what kind of the context determines what this means.

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Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one will not cast it out from him.

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Does God take life? Yes. Okay. Of course he does. Nothing passes through the hand of God that is not ordained by God.

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Are there at times where we say, just in the previous two chapters, God struck him?

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A little about the little child. What did it say? God struck the child. What did we talk about Ur, back in Genesis?

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God struck him. What does it say about Nabal? God struck him. So, the context determines whether she is talking about this specific case or overarching.

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It's not the overarching umbrella. She's saying, look, God does not take life, meaning God's desire is not to remove this, but God's desire is to make a way for that one that's banished to come back.

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She's saying, God doesn't want you to kill Absalom. If anybody thinks

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I'm misunderstanding that, let me know. God doesn't want you to kill Absalom, but He's made a way for him to come back.

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Understand? Everybody follow me? She's saying, God has made a way to save him and bring that one banished back.

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The problem with the way that she's talking is it removes justice from the equation.

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She's asking David, forget your righteousness, forget your justice, just bring him back.

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Well, let me ask you this. Does God forget justice? Does God forget righteousness?

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He loves it. He loves it, yeah. And here we see the failure as a king to not dispense justice and righteousness.

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What David does by letting him come back is he has to hold him accountable. He has to.

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If he's going to be righteous and just. But I don't think there's anybody in this room we talked about once before, that if your son had done something or your daughter had done something and they deserved execution, is anybody in this room, if you're with a judge, going to say, execute my kid?

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I'm sorry man, I'd be a fool to do that. Because you don't want to see your child's life extinguished.

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So, she's saying, there's a way. Now, the reason I have come to this word to my

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Lord the King is that the people have made me afraid. So your maidservant, let me now speak to the king.

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Perhaps the king will perform the request of his maidservant for the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy both me and my son from the inheritance.

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Then your maidservant said, please, let the word of my Lord the king be comforting for as the angel of God, so is my

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Lord to the king to discern good and evil. That, once again, flattery. She's flattering

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David. Yeah. Does David know how to discern good and evil? Yeah. But boy, he wasn't doing real good when he was on that rooftop a few chapters back, was he?

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What he should have done in discerning good and evil was, there's a naked woman. That's not mine. I'm going to go back in the house.

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Then he had another opportunity. That naked woman I saw that I desire is one of my valiant men who's in the battlefield fighting for my kingdom.

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I should probably leave it alone. Then he had the opportunity when she was summonsed to go, okay, man,

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I probably shouldn't do this. David did not discern good and evil well at that point.

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Does David have, is David a good discerner of good and evil? Yeah. But dude, he has failures.

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That's why this points to a greater king who will not fail, who perfectly does righteousness, perfectly does justice, and perfectly does everything that a king was required to do and will be required to do, and that is the

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Lord Jesus Christ when he comes. So we can look at the things that David does that are good and right that point to Christ, but we can see the negatives that he does not do that point us to Christ.

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He is a failure as a king in the sense that he killed Uriah and he, by flattery,

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I believe he raped Bathsheba. So now, the king answered the woman, please do not hide anything else from me.

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All right. She's run her mouth. She's said whatever she needed to say. She's been very persistent. Now he says, wait a minute.

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You put it on too thick. Hey, now I see what's going on here. Joab put you up to this.

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I do think at this point she may be a little afraid. Now, because she just said you're able to discern good and evil, well now

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David has discerned that she's full of garbage. Yeah. She's full of garbage.

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Joab put her up to this. So now that Joab has done this, he basically says, hey, in order to change the appearance of things, this is in verse 20, in order to change the appearance of things, your servant,

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Joab, has done this thing. Hey, Joab did this, but my Lord is wise. Once again, here it is, flattery again, but my

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Lord is wise, like the wisdom of the angel of the earth, to know all that is in the earth.

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Once again, David's wise, she knows David's wise, he has read between the lines, and though the parable was very not equivalent,

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David gets the point. Well, I still understand for the life of me why Joab didn't just walk in and say, hey man, we've got to get this kid back.

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Verse 21, the king said to Joab, so at this time, so, go ahead. I was going to say, so would you say that Joab is present?

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Is that how she got into the presence of the king? I say that Joab's not there. I don't think Joab's in the king's court.

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I think, honestly, I think he's doing one of these. And then, then the king said to Joab, I take that as she has said her peace,

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Joab's brought her into the presence, or hey, it says hey, this lady needs to go in, y 'all let her in. He's out listening, doing whatever he's doing outside, holding guard.

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She basically walking out the door and she gives him the... And Joab then comes in and David says, look,

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I will surely do this thing, go and bring back the young man Absalom. I do believe

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David's desire was always to bring Absalom back, but how was he going to do that?

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How was he going to do that and just do away with justice and righteousness? And that's exactly what's going to happen.

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He's going to have to basically just give him a pardon. I mean, that's basically what he's doing.

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Yeah, this isn't really in an oath though. No, she was talking about in the parable.

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It's still in the parable. She's just wanting him to bring Absalom back so that the kingdom could basically be in succession to continue on the inheritance of Israel, which is to have someone on the throne.

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David's kingdom goes into ruins after chapter 12. We would all agree. Now, we do see it up and down, but the stellar trajectory up to chapter 12 was just like...

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I mean, his rise was good, but from the time of his fall, it was just ruined.

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He won. I do believe he is getting older. His time of recovery, and we'll even see that in battle, his time to recover is just not going to get better.

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He gets in his 60s. His... Thanks, Mike. Huh? Thanks, Mike. As they get into their 60s, he just can't go to the battle, and there's actually a time when

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Abishai, I think it's in chapter 19. Abishai, one of the...

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I think it's Goliath's brother comes to him. I'm quoting him. I think it's Goliath's brother comes to... They go to war with the

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Philistines again, and it goes again. Abishai actually has to strike him dead to save the king, and then he basically says, you know what?

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You're more beneficial. Once you go back to Jerusalem, and you call the shots from the throne, because something happens to you out here, and you fall, then the kingdom falls.

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Remember, you can't separate the kingdom from a king. Just like, we'll just take for instance, can we separate the people of God from our king

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Christ? You can't separate it. That's why it is if Jesus did not rise from the dead, we would be pitied.

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Our king is dead, and we'd be worshiping a dead king, but because our king is risen, we are elevated, and we are partakers of the heavenly blessings in Christ Jesus, in the heavenlies, because we have a risen king.

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Therefore, we are in relation, and our life and godliness pertaining to Christ Jesus is because our king is alive.

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And they understood that. That whatever happens to the king, happens to the kingdom. So, he goes and gets

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Absalom. Joab falls to his face. He says, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight,

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O Lord the king, and that the king has performed the request of your servant. So he, basically, Joab says, this was my idea.

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I appreciate that you have listened. I'll take care of it. That brings us to verse 25.

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I'm going to jump down a little bit. Now in all Israel, there was no one more handsome than Absalom, so highly praised, from the sole of his foot, to the crown of his head.

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He would cut the hair of his head, and it was at the end of every year that he cut it, for it was heavy on him, so that he weighed the hair of his head to be 200 shekels by the king's weight.

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So Absalom had three sons, and one daughter, and he named her

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Tamar, and she was beautiful in appearance. This right here has everything to do with about the persona of the physical appearance of Absalom.

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Should we judge a person by their physical appearance? No. What have they done?

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The same thing they did to King Saul. What did they like about King Saul? We said it a minute ago. Man, he was tall, dark, and handsome.

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Tall, dark, and handsome. But what about his character? Character was a failure.

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Yeah, he killed his own people. As a matter of fact, he killed 85 priests, something like that, and their families.

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He slaughtered a whole city of priests. So here, once again, we're getting a picture of Absalom, but it says nothing about his character.

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But what do we know about his character based on last week when he was introduced into the narrative?

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What do we know about his character? We know this. He's vengeful. We know this. He is willing, although understandable in some ways, okay, like I said,

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I understand his anger towards his brother. He is willing and able to kill a family member.

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You need to remember that as we move forward. He is willing and able to do it.

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If it promotes his purposes. I do believe, out of anger, he killed Absalom for raping

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Tamar, and he loved Tamar, and I think it's an honorable thing that he loved his sister. Killing his brother was dishonorable.

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He named his daughter after his sister. I was getting to that. What's that? Yeah. He loved his sister.

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He took care of her, and I do wonder, he doesn't tell us, did he take her to Jeshur with him? Because he comes back to his house.

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We don't know, because it does after three years he comes back to the house. It says back to his house.

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So does he come back to his house, and did his servants, had they been taking care of her for those three years, or did he take

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Tamar with him when he went to Jeshur? And we don't know. But we know this. Absalom loved his sister so much that when he did have a daughter, he named that daughter after his sister, whom he very much loved.

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Hey, both of them very pretty. Both of them. Hey, there's nothing about David Dallspring that had any ugly people.

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Y 'all notice that? He didn't marry ugly concubines. He didn't marry ugly wives. They didn't have ugly kids.

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I mean, this guy was like the perfect family on the surface. He was raised in the super race.

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Everybody was beautiful. So that brings us to 28, and it says

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Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem. So he brings him back. Remember, he'd gone three years.

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Joab brings him back. He is in Jerusalem now two years, and he's not seen

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David's face. I do wonder in David's mind, because David's the one who said,

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I don't want to see him. As David was coming back, did

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David have a change of heart in the sense of, I long to see my son, but I can't stomach seeing him.

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I've got to deal with this issue, and I can't. So what did

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David do? Yeah, so he brings him back. Instead of saying, okay, I've got him back.

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He's in the city. He'll be at his own house down the road. He's back in the city. He's in the vicinity.

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I can send messengers to look to see if he is okay. I'm sure David took care of him in the sense of his provisions that he needed, but David said, he just can't come to my face.

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I think David probably had a change of heart in that sense. But then it says, then

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Absalom sent for Joab. He sent to the king, and he did not come. So I've got to hurry.

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He sent. I'm sending to Joab. Joab brought me back. I'm going to send Joab. Hey, man,

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I want to go see my dad. It doesn't say that Joab didn't get the message, does it? It says

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Joab didn't come. So he did it again. He sent. Joab didn't listen.

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Now, it would be one thing to say, hey, man, I tried to call you on the phone, and you didn't leave a message, and I didn't get your message.

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No, no, no. He actually sent a person on foot, and that person said, hey, man, he ain't coming. He says, well, you know what?

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I've got a great idea. If you look next door to my field, his barley field, torch it. Now, you want to get somebody's attention?

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When they ain't called you back or answered an email, set their garage on fire. That will get the attention.

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So that's what takes place. He torches it. Hey, once again,

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Absalom's servants are so faithful to him. Remember when he said, hey, when my brother's heart's mirrored with wine, he's feeling good,

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I want you to kill him. These guys are like, Joab's the most ruthless man that we know, him and his brother.

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Even the king says, these guys are too fierce for me. If you remember, David says that about them. These guys are ruthless. But he tells his servants, you know what?

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Torch their field. And them guys are like, we're on it. No second thought.

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They torch it. He arose. Absalom came to his house.

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He said, hey, dude. Sorry, I just might call your translation. Dude, why did you torch my field?

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And he says, hey, I tried to talk to you. You didn't want to listen. I wanted to go see the king. You didn't take me there.

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You're here now, and now you're going to listen to what I've got to say. Once again, that's part of something about Absalom that we should like as men.

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He's an attention getter. You're going to listen to what I've got to say. He did.

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Very much so. Remember, they didn't have water hoses back in the day. That barley field, they either had to dig a trench so it didn't jump to the next one, or they had to just let it burn loose.

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There was no way of running fire hoses. He said, now, therefore, let me see the king's face, and if there be any iniquity in me, put me to death.

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He said, hey, kill me. And that's a bold statement. I like what he says.

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Wherefore am I come from gesture? If I'm not going to see him, why am

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I here? Yeah, he'd have been better off. Imagine the esteem that he had there. Sure. We don't know. There's so much conjecture.

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He was up here. He had moved. Man, he was like maybe a crown prince here as well.

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He's like, look, I came back here in the hopes that I was going to probably be part of the kingdom. I've been nobody here.

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I could have stayed up there and had all the... Yeah, and had all of that. So Joab came to the king.

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He called for Absalom, and thus he came. He prostrated his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed him.

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Alright. David, and we'll wrap it up. David loved his son. Was he happy to see his son?

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Yes. He kissed him. Is this, and we can pick this up next week. Just think about it.

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We'll pick it up here because it would be a good question to start the conspiracy of Absalom. Is this forgiveness and reconciliation?

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I said wait until next week. Alright, well, next week. I'll just go right into 15.

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No. Is this forgiveness and reconciliation? Two questions we'll probably start off with.

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Can you have forgiveness without reconciliation? Or can you be reconciled and not forgive?

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And that's where we'll leave it. Let's pray. Father God, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for these tough few chapters and the chapters preceding,

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Father, that are very difficult in the life of David and in the progression of the nation of Israel.

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Father, thank You that we can dig down and see how You revealed Yourself in the Scriptures.

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Thank You, Father, that we have kings that failed which gives us a desire and longing for when the true

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King would come who would rule and reign in justice and righteousness and would forgive those by taking on His own body and on His own soul the sins of His people.

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Father, we love You. Prepare our hearts to hear the Word. Be with Andy as he preaches. In Christ's name, amen.