Joab’s Armorbearers

1 Corinthians 4:2 ESV

Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

A CULTURE OF LOYALTY

Teaching on loyalty and disloyalty

Making it easy for disloyal people to exit

Work with the willing 2 Cor. 8:12

Ittai the Gittite said, “As the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, there also will your servant be.”

2 Kings 2:2 (ESV): 2 And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

Ruth 1:16–17 (ESV): 16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”

Pride Gets People Caught Up

2 Samuel 18:9 “9 And Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was suspended between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on.”

*The way to be big in God’s eyes is to stay small in our own eyes.

**God exalts the humble and resists the proud.

Lucifer

Absalom

Ahithophel

Shimei

Judas

Joab’s Independence

2 Samuel 18:10–11 “10 And a certain man saw it and told Joab, “Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.” 11 Joab said to the man who told him, “What, you saw him! Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have been glad to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt.””

Joabs Problem - the felt the king was overly loyal to a disloyal son.

He questioned Davids authority.

He acted independently of the authority.

Stages of disloyalty

Independent - pledged loyalty but operate independently, no longer submitted to authority.

Offense - bitter, angry, isolates, withdraws

Passivity - sitting in the back, stops communicating with you, non-verbal signs of disinterest, withdraws support (according to a gallup poll 50% of people are quiet quitting at work)

Critical - magnifies flaws. Only see the bad.

Admirable Loyalty To The King

2 Samuel 18:12–13 “12 But the man said to Joab, “Even if I felt in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not reach out my hand against the king’s son, for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘For my sake protect the young man Absalom.’ 13 On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously against his life (and there is nothing hidden from the king), then you yourself would have stood aloof.””

The soldier had courage and character.

The soldier knew his place. Joab couldn’t argue with that.

Joab didn’t waste time moving in the King’s best interest

2 Samuel 18:14–15 “14 Joab said, “I will not waste time like this with you.” And he took three javelins in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak. 15 And ten young men, Joab’s armor-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him.”

Joab’s faithful armor-bearers followed their leaders lead.

Every Joab needs to kill an Absalom.

Joab’s Armorbearers

Discerning -

Righteous anger

Follows through with action

Discernment - wisdom

Hebrews 5:14 ESV

14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Been in the battle, overcome the temptation

Righteous Anger

John 2:15 ESV

15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.

Matthew 21:12 ESV

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.

Be upset about what upsets God.

Faith is an action

James 1:22 ESV

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Do something about it.

Wisdom, Discernment, and Action