Burger and bible
Notes
Transcript
When life falls apart 2 Samuel 16 : 1-14
When life falls apart 2 Samuel 16 : 1-14
If everyone will open their bible tonight we are going to look at a passage that may seem gloomy, even depressing but my prayer is that we all walk away feeling encouraged in the trials that we are going through, or if your not going through one maybe you'll better know how to weather the storm when one does arise.
We will be looking at a point in Kind David’s life where it would seem that things could not get much worse, I imagine it may be even rock bottom for him. For anyone not familiar with King Davids life allow me to paint the picture.
In chapter 11 One late afternoon when David’s army is in battle, hes at home and goes to the rooftop and sees a woman bathing Bathsheba and thought it would be a good idea to invite her over to lay with her and he dose. Then he finds outs out that Bathsheba is pregnant, the only problem is she is married to a high ranking solider named Uriah, so he sends word for him to come home to spend time with her to make it seem like its his kid, But Uriah says i’m not gonna lay with my wife while my men are at war dieing,
So David devises another plan and plants Uriah at the front line of enemy territory then draw back the the rest of the army so Uriah will die. And essentially murders him. tries to cover it up make it seem like it wasnt him so people may have been fooled for a while but you know who wasnt the Lord, so often we try to hide our sin from others, and we think we are getting away with it when its the Lord who you should be fearing not man. and there is no hiding your sin from God. David finds this out
So the Prophet Nathan comes to David and gives him a word from the Lord, and it reads
Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’ ”
Part of this punishment is the child that was to be born from the Bathsheba dies, Then the next great half of 2nd Samuel shows us the tremendous fallout that come from Davids life because of his sin . But also encouragement in how david responds
Davids first son Amnon the prince of the throne falls in love with his stepsister Tamar and rapes her, Which in this day the shame would fall on the woman for this unrightfully so ruins her life and Absolam her full brother is furious over this he hates Amnon, And his old man isnt doing anything about it King David is not properly leading his family so he decides hell take matters into his own hands and murder his brother, Then flees for about 6 years Come home and David tells him he has to go live inb the next town over and 3 years goes by of him not seeing his Dad his, His old man not properly reco nciling his son back to himself , All the dysfunction here is from David not being the dad he should have been
He decides after that look my Dad is not fit too run the kingdom anymore, So he decides he will take the kingdom he creates a group to follow him and they begin to take the kingdom by Storm word gets out that Absalom is coming to take the capital of Jerusalem if you will David is like we gotta go if my boy gets too me he will kill me and everyone else So Davids most trusted soldiers and his people all begin to flee Jersualem with David, while leaving Zadok the priest tries to smuggle the Ark of the covenant out because the the Lords presence was with the ark. But davids like look im not gonna try to use the Ark for my favor rather let the Lords will be done 2 Sam 15 25-26
Then the king said to Zadok, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his dwelling place. But if he says, ‘I have no pleasure in you,’ behold, here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him.”
Passing over the brook Kidron in great anguish weeping as he went in chapter 15, Sort of symbolically taking the same path of what we see Jesus doing in John 18 when he is getting ready to go to the cross. Where he bleeds sweat in great anguish
So we arrive at 2 Samuel bearing all of this in mind of David’s sin in chapter 11, and his lack of leadership. Hes now running for his life. Because his boy is going to kill him
When David had passed a little beyond the summit, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, bearing two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred bunches of raisins, a hundred of summer fruits, and a skin of wine. And the king said to Ziba, “Why have you brought these?” Ziba answered, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who faint in the wilderness to drink.” And the king said, “And where is your master’s son?” Ziba said to the king, “Behold, he remains in Jerusalem, for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will give me back the kingdom of my father.’ ” Then the king said to Ziba, “Behold, all that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours.” And Ziba said, “I pay homage; let me ever find favor in your sight, my lord the king.”
So in the midst of all this we see this guy Ziba kinda coming out of the wood works with all these gifts, and David’s questioning him and is like wheres is Mephibosheth
Too understand who Mephibosheth is we must go back to chapter 9 We know that he is the Grandson of King Saul, Son of Jonathon. When Saul and Jonathon die King Sauls family ran out of fear for thier lives and Mephibosheth’s nurse picks him up at the age of 5 and runs and trips and falls with him causing him to become lame in both of his legs.
It was customary in this day for the New king to kill the descendants of the old king because the family wold have been next in line to be king so knowing this they would be bitter towards the king and maybe try to lead a revolt against the new king. But David in chapter 9 dose just the opposite and shows great grace toward Mephibosheth when he should have put to death. Sort of a beautiful picture of God’s grace toward us.
Mephibosheth at this time was hiding out in a place called lo-debar and from what I understand about Lo-debar you could almost compare it to oildale not the most desirable place to live.and David send for him to come to to the palace, most people are proably thinking seriously is King david really gonna kill the crippled guy right now.
But He tells Mephibosheth look im going to show great kindness grace and favor toward you from now on you live here in the palace with me and your family also you eat at the Kings table,which would have been the finest food, and oh yeah all that saul owned its now yours all the land and fields, and Im giving you Ziba and all his boys as your servants thier going to help you take care of it it all.
So now as read chapter 16 this Ziba clown comes out of nowhere and is like oh yeah your boy Mephibosheth who you went to great lengths to help, hes staying back he thinks he can take the throne now that your gone, I mean just imagine whats going through King David’s head are you kidding me, after all ive done for this kid. Its just one punch after another for King David.
But if zoom ahead to chapter 19 David eventually wins and take Jerusalem back and we gets back he sees Mephibosheth and essentially is like bro what happened.
And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king. He had neither taken care of his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came back in safety. And when he came to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, “Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?” He answered, “My lord, O king, my servant deceived me, for your servant said to him, ‘I will saddle a donkey for myself, that I may ride on it and go with the king.’ For your servant is lame. He has slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like the angel of God; do therefore what seems good to you.
So commentators aren't sure exactly who is telling the truth here the bible dosent make it super clear, but my conviction lies with the evidence of him not cutting his nails, hair, I mean I imagine this dude is ripe if he’s coming down after not washing his clothes, so I believe he’s telling the truth here, He’s like I got left here what could I do i cant walk! David’s like okay well I essentially gave all your stuff to this Ziba guy. So he says he divide it between them both now.
What I will say when life is falling apart don’t make haste descions as David did but sit on it bring it to the Lord pray on it ask the Lord for guidance. Because sometimes drastic decisions can lead to more turmoil if its not from the Lord.
What are some drastic Descions during difficult times. leave the church, the town,
So moving forward as if things could not get any worse
When King David came to Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came he cursed continually. And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. And Shimei said as he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! The Lord has avenged on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.”
So what we have here is as David reaches Bahurium which would have been a village on the eastern slopes on the mount of olives, where he is confronted by Shemei one of Saul’s relative not a close cousin but still would have been a prominent figure but he never accepted the legitimacy of David’s reign and despises him so David and his troops here would have walking through sort or a ravine with a river going through it you can basically picture a trail at the bottom of the canyon and Shimei is on the top at the gaurdrails just throwing rock and insults and curses, Like you so deserve this, for what you did to the house of saul when in reality its for his sin agiasnt the Lord nothing to do with Saul so Shimei is wrong but his aim is to shred and last bit of dignity David may have being as offensive as a person could be.
Notice how Shimei waits to tell david this until he is down and out, its actually a very cowardly attack, life seems to love to kick you while your down sometimes dosent it. That’s exactly what he dose here its clear hes thought this about David for a long time
Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.”
David here is basically accompanied with the secret service if you will Abiashai is like let me take care of this dead dog, which is a idiom for basically the lowest of the low, hes calling him roadkill
if im David in this situation im thinking to myself thankyou abishai someone gets it I mean for crying out loud could this day get any worse. Ironically if David was the bloodthirsty man he is being accused of he would grant abishai permission But he dosent
But the king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’ ” And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.”
David dosent try to shut up Shimei he dosent close his ears to to it we actually see him trying to discern if God is using Shimei to say a critique to david. He’s open to it.He says my own son is trying to kill me, its possibly the Lords will for him to curse me, David knows his accusations are false so he says maybe the Lord will repay good for this cursing today, That if this is the Lord’s discipline, then hes okay with leaving the outcome up too him.
Im gonna point out 3 things that David dose Correctly im this situation
First David here has a proper view of himself Imagine as hes walking down this ravine, I dont think hes thinking of Absalom, or maybe not even shemie but is probaly thinking of the words the prophet nathan spoke to him back in Chapter 12 Behold i will rasise up evil agaisnt you out of your own house. See David here is not blaming anyone else because he knows he is reaping the consequences of his sin.
So my warning to you guys would be just that Sin has consequences and if your sitting here today facing consequenses from sin in your life maybe a day ago a week ago or years ago either way know this Christian Man
God can use this low moment for your good!
Secondly david has a proper view of others in this situation, look Shimei should not be throwing things, hurling curses at him hes going about it all the wrong way but he knows thinks this is part of God’s punishment , it and is like look Abithar we arent cutting any heads off today rather If the Lord wants to repay Shimei let him thats between him and the Lord .
Let me tell you God is much better at getting vengeance when we try to it we go to jail but when God dose it its justice.
Lastly he has a proper view of God he essentially leaves Jerusalem with the mindset of like if the Lord wants to bring me back as king he will im cool with that but if he wants me to live out in the wilderness as punishment hes cool with that too because he knows that God is just and the outcome isnt gonna change his view of that.
So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan. And there he refreshed himself.
If you have your bibles flip over to Psalm 3 because its when David refreshes himself at the Jordan he writes this Psalm and provides a better Idea to what is going on his mind at this time.
O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah
Many are rising agaisnt him people are saying King David is done for, I mean hes lost the kingdom his family it all looks very bad King David is like hey he dose look that way il give him that
But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah
You sort of read this and think David your son just stabbed you in the back, your people did, mephibosheth someone you did so much for as well, you got shimei screaming at you if God is your shield in this moment its broken. The reality of his situation at this moment its bad, But his faith and the truth about God is telling him something different So david here is doing exactly what he should writing about his faith and Gods truth God you are my shield Even on the worst day of his life
I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah
What a prayer of david hes like God dont just slap them but hit them so hard thier teeth fall out tahst the sort of faith David has I love this Psalm because there are two truths here Yes things are really bad thats true but this is who God is hes my shield thats even more true,
are you sure it dosent appear like that David, yeah thousands are agaisnt people, maybe thats your truth today your life is a mess, your finances are failing, your relationships are in turmoil your family is stabbing you in the back that may be true
‘but you know what else is true that you are a child of God, that God is in control, and he has outcomes for your life, and perfect justice, thier both true but which truth are you gonna rest in we have to make that Choice daily. Both are true but you still have a choice on what you will choose to follow
Do you really believe you a have good loving God who can take care of your enemies, take care of you and the situation your in , because if you do it will change how you handle the situation.
I heard in a sermon life is 10% of what happens to us 90% is how we respond to that
What informs your response when life falls aprart Is your belief that you have a good God. Its one thing to say you believe but do you truly have faith you can trust God when life falls apart its easy to trust God on good days David is in the worst day of his life that dosent change Psalm 3 Theres two truths about Zach who i am what ive done and what i deserve and its not good. Heres a higher truth heres who God is and heres what he has done for me we walk in both of those truths but you can only choose one. What you choose will change how you react im in the Lords hands and he is Good, and so is that clown and that guy, so I dont need to worry about them
With this truth in mind you can go through life resting in God’s truth when life falls apart your faith in God is going to show itself in the way you handle these particular situations.
in 1 Peter 1 6-7
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
GOSPEL PRESENTAION I wanna hone back in on david leaving Jerusalem passing the brook kidron weeping,
