Untitled Sermon (2)

Intro

Do we have any Chronicles of Narnia fans out there this morning? I read them a little bit when I was a kid but it wasn’t until a few years ago when my wife and I both read them that we really fell in love with them. And I’m not really a big fan of books or movies about dragons, vampires, or anything like that; I’d much rather read or watch something realistic. But I love the Chronicles of Narnia and the reason I love those books is because of the power they have to teach about God and the Christian life.

If the books were simply stories about kids running around in a mystical world with talking plants and animals, I would never have even finished the first book. But if you know anything about Narnia you know that C.S. Lewis weaved the gospel story and Christian theology throughout the stories. In other words, the Narnia books are good stories but they are also stories intended to teach us something.

And the stories in the Old Testament, like the ones we’ve seen 1 and 2 Samuel, are very similar. They tell us stories, but not simply for the sake of the story, their intention is to teach us something. Now, unlike Narnia the Old Testament stories are true and unlike the Narnia books they are God’s authoritative Word. But in the same way Lewis uses Narnia to teach us about the gospel message and the Christian life, God uses the stories of Isreal to reveal himself to us and to help us follow him faithfully.

We’re going to cover a lot of ground again this week in 2 Samuel and we’ll have to do a lot of summarizing of these stories, and these are actually some really good stories if that’s all they were. But more than simply reading about David and Absalom here in 2 Samuel, we are going to learn incredible truths about ourselves and about our God.

So let me remind you where we are in David’s story. Everything in his life is falling apart. Back in chapter 13, Amnon, one of David’s sons, raped Tamar, one of David’s daughters. And then in order to avenge this terrible thing Amnon has done, Absalom, another one of David’s sons, kills Amnon. So David now has had a daughter assaulted, one son murdered, and another son is now a murderer.

But it still only gets worse from there because David partially forgives Absalom and how does Absalom repay David? He rebels against his father and sets himself up as a new king in Israel, trying to steal the kingdom from David. And that’s where we’ll pick up the story this morning. David is on the run and Absalom is on his way to Jerusalem, the capital.

So here’s what we are going to do this morning. As we read the stories in 2 Samuel we are going to stop to consider three truths that God is teaching us in these stories: that everyone needs redemption, that God will punish evil, and that Jesus is the ultimate victory.

And each time we see one of these truths in 2 Samuel we are also going to look at one of David’s Psalms that contains the same truth or theme. What’s cool about this section of 2 Samuel is that church tradition and modern scholarship suggests that several of David’s Psalms were written during his time on the run from Absalom. So not only do we get to see the facts of these stories, we also get to go even deeper and see David’s emotions, his longings, his fears, his hopes, and what these things teach us about God.

Now quick disclaimer about the Psalms we’ll look at. We don’t know for sure whether these Psalms were written about David’s struggle with Absalom. As I said, church tradition and modern scholarship has looked at what David says in these Psalms and looked at the events of David’s life and made a case for them being written during this time period, but the Psalms themselves don’t tell us. But for our purposes this morning it really doesn’t make a difference because the themes that David talks about in these Psalms match the facts we see in 2 Samuel 16-18 and both Samuel and the Psalms are truthful, authoritative Scripture. For example, as David writes about his fear while on the run from enemies and begs God to deliver him, whether that’s talking about when he’s on the run from Saul or Absalom, God’s truth is the same.

So we’ll start with the facts we see in 2 Samuel then we’ll look at the truth David expresses in his Psalms and then what’s really cool is that each of the three Psalms we’ll look at are prominently quoted by the New Testament authors, so we’ll also go there and see the principle at work in the New Testament. So we’ll take the facts in 2 Samuel, see the theological truths in the Psalms, and then consider the corresponding principle in the New Testament. Make sense? Okay, let’s start in 2 Samuel 16.

1) Everyone Needs Redemption

[Read 2 Samuel 16:1-4]

If you were here back in November you might remember Jeff preaching over this intriguing character in David’s story named Mephibosheth. And back then we quickly looked at these 4 verses and what we saw was that Mephibosheth, who is crippled remember, chose not to go out of Jerusalem with David. And Mephibosheth’s servant Ziba seems to undermine David’s confidence in Mephibosheth and make David think that Mephibosheth no longer supports David as king.

So what does David do? He tells Ziba that he can have Mephibosheth’s entire inheritance. Just like that. And what we see later is that Mephibosheth had not actually betrayed David but instead Ziba had not helped Mephibosheth get out of Jerusalem and of course Mephibosheth could have not done so on his own. And there’s a lot more to this story that Jeff brought out back in November but here’s what I want us to see this morning.

Absalom isn’t the only sinner in this story. Even in this section of 2 Samuel where Absalom is the bad guy and David is the good guy, we get another reminder that David makes mistakes too. David, the man after God’s heart, the hero of the book of the Samuel, the greatest king in Israel’s history, took away everything from Mephibosheth, whom he loved, simply on the word of someone who was untrustworthy. For whatever reason, David made a rash, hotheaded decision that turned out to be the wrong one. So in case we needed to be reminded, David makes bad decisions as well. Okay let’s keep going. 2 Samuel 16:5.

[Read 2 Samuel 16:5-14]

This is a somewhat humorous little story. As David and his men are walking along the road, this guy named Shimei is walking along a hill next to road and it says he was cursing, throwing stones, and flinging dust. This guy is basically following David and his men and acting crazy and throwing a fit, but it doesn’t seem like he really poses any threat to David because David isn’t worried. But what does David’s soldier Abishai say? “Let me go over and take off his head.”

And again it’s somewhat humorous, but let’s think about it a little more deeply than that. This guy Shimei is being loud and obnoxious and yes he’s throwing rocks but it doesn’t seem like he’s hitting anybody with them. In other words, Shimei is someone who disagrees with David and he’s taking things a little too far, but he isn’t really hurting anyone. And yet Abishai says, “I’m going to go cut off his head.”

And again we get to see the sinful nature present in every human being in this story. Abishai thinks he’s doing the right thing. He’s on the king’s side, he’s defending the king. Yet he wants to do something prohibited by the Ten Commandments, kill another human being, just because he’s bothering them. Once again we see that even the “good” people in this story are prone to sin.

This is just a quick aside, but I can’t help but see the parallels here between this story and the polarization in our country today. How often do we see someone post something on social media or see something that happened on the news or hear about some action taken in Washington and we disagree with it, which is fine, but instead of doing what David does here and just leaving it alone, we get enraged like Abishai.

And hopefully we don’t say “Let me go over and take off their head,” but as Jesus said “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.” So our anger is just as wrong a response as Abishai’s is here. Also, notice the end of this section. David arrived at the Jordan and “he refreshed himself.” I doubt that Abishai felt refreshed. If it was me, I know I’d still be thinking about Shimei and I’d be unsettled, but David just leaves him alone, even though Shimei wanted to kill David, and the result is David is refreshed.

Okay, back to the main point: everybody in this story is sinful and needs redemption. Let’s look at Psalm 14 to see David expound on this truth.

[Read Psalm 14:1-3]

First David says that those who don’t believe in God are corrupt and do evil things. But very quickly, David says that when God looks down from heaven to see if anyone is seeking after him he finds no one. “There is none who does good, not even one,” David says.

Now at this point, as you hear these verses you probably had one of two reactions. You either agreed in your mind and thought, “Yes, that’s right. We are all sinners who need God’s grace,” or you thought, “Really? I feel like I’m a pretty good person. I know that I do good things. What is David talking about?” And if you had that second reaction you’ve probably always heard Christians say that we are all sinful people who need a Savior, but you’ve never really believed that. Maybe that’s even offensive to you, that Christians would think so little of human beings.

But here’s where I want 2 Samuel to inform how we think about this. The Christian doctrine of total depravity, that all human beings are sinners who need to be saved, doesn’t mean that every human being is Amnon or Absalom. Not everyone is a rapist or murderer. But look at the “good” people in the story. The hero, king David, the man after God’s own heart, takes away the inheritance of his best friend’s son in a split second. Abishai, one of David’s trusted soldiers and a faithful Israelite, wants to kill someone who annoys him.

You might not feel like a bad person, and that’s okay, but I’d ask you to consider whether or not, if you really want to look, if you can find the effects of your sin in your life? Can you identify bad choices you’ve made? Maybe ones with lasting consequences or maybe one’s you’ve long forgotten. Are there relationships in your life that should be better but because of something you’ve done or because you just can’t open up relationally, they don’t get better?

Do you ever get angry at other human beings? Are you completely and truly happy and satisfied in life? Or do you need more and more to be happy? None of these things will land you in jail, but all of these things are because we are all sinful human beings who are not what we ought to be.

My wife and mine’s favorite tv show of all time is Breaking Bad. We are actually rewatching it right now and it’s just as good the second time through. And Breaking Bad is the perfect modern day illustration of the pervasive sinfulness of human beings and our need for redemption. Obviously Walt and Jesse and the other drug dealers and murderers in the story are sinners but what about the other characters?

Walt’s wife Skyler sleeps with her boss purely as vengeance against Walt and even though she resists at first she eventually has no problem using the drug money for own benefit. Skyler’s sister Marie seems to have it all together on the outside but she actually shoplifts so she can have things she can’t afford. Marie’s husband Hank, the popular DEA agent, becomes so consumed with catching whoever is cooking the blue meth that he lets his professional life and marriage fall apart. In other words, both "good” people and “bad” people, are sinners in need of redemption.

So where do we see this principle in the New Testament? Well in Romans Paul quotes some of the verses we just looked at in Psalm 14. Paul had just spent the first two chapters of Romans arguing, first, that Gentiles need salvation, and then second, that Jews need salvation as well. And this culminates in chapter 3 where Paul quotes Psalm 14 and says, “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Paul couldn’t be more be more clear. Everyone, everyone, needs redemption. Okay let’s get back to 2 Samuel.

2) God Will Punish Evil

As David and his men are refreshing themselves at the Jordan, Absalom and his men are entering the capital city, Jerusalem. And what we see is that another one of David’s men, Hushai, looks like he’s choosing to join Absalom. In 2 Samuel 16:19 he says, “As I have served your father, so I will serve you.” So now Absalom is in Jerusalem and he starts asking his advisors how they should go about attacking David.

So in the beginning of chapter 17, Ahithophel puts forth his plan. In verse 1 he says, “Let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight.” But Absalom isn’t convinced and so he calls Hushai in order to get a second opinion. And in verse 7, Hushai says, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good.” Instead, Hushai says that David won’t be camping with his army and instead will be hiding in a cave. Therefore, Hushai tells Absalom to attack during the day when they know David will be with the army.

And in verse 14 of chapter 17 we see that Absalom agrees with Hushai. He says, “‘The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” And then we get this incredibly important parenthetical note from the author. “For the Lord had ordained to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom.” In case there was any doubt, we can already see how this is going to end. Absalom will be defeated and David will remain king.

And that brings us to our second principle: God will punish evil. In 2 Samuel we see this play out as the evil rebellion of Absalom is thwarted by God’s intervention. But while we the reader get to see God working this situation out for David, David is still camping in the wilderness fearing for his life. David doesn’t know the end of the story yet, he is still facing the evil. So to help us better understand the principle that God will punish evil let’s look at another one of David’s Psalms, Psalm 28. In Psalm 28, David is facing death, mostly likely from Absalom and his army. And here’s part of what David writes.

[Read Psalm 28:1-5]

David is crying out to God for God to punish evil doers. He’s asking God to remember that God hates evil and therefore God should punish the evil that is planned against him and rescue him. And, in verse 5, he expresses confidence that God will in fact tear down the evil doers.

This Psalm is such a good example for us when we are facing trials. We can and should cry out to God in emotional honesty. We can beg God to act and save us from the situation. We can express our fears and our doubts to God. And we can have confidence that God will eradicate evil and make all things right. But there’s one problem. When David writes this Psalm he doesn’t know whether or not God will defeat Absalom and let him live. And when we cry out in desperate situations, we don’t know whether we’ll get the outcome we want or not.

And here’s where the New Testament really helps expand our understanding of this principle. Jesus, Paul, Peter, and John all directly quote or allude to Psalm 28 in their writings. And what’s interesting is that each of these uses of Psalm 28 in the New Testament make the application of God punishing evil something that happens when Jesus returns, not necessarily something we’ll see clearly play out in our lives.

For example, in Matthew 16 Jesus says, “For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.” And in Revelation 20 when John is describing the vision Jesus is giving him of the end times, John describes all of the dead being raised and he says, “They were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.”

In other words, what the Bible teaches us about God punishing evil is that he will absolutely punish evil, but it might have to wait until Jesus comes back. God might thwart Absalom’s plan and rescue David, or Absalom might kill David and become king. But what isn’t in question is that Absalom will be punished in the end. The person who cheated to get the promotion instead of you might get caught and lose their job, or they might not. But their deeds will be punished in the end.

The evil we see on the news every night or on our social media feeds will be punished. Opposition to Christ and Christianity in our country and around the world will be punished. Students, the hurtful comments made toward you on social media will be punished. Even if the evil doers continue to win for now. And that is so freeing and comforting for us as Christians!

There is literally an endless amount of evil things we can get angry about on a daily basis and it’s appropriate for us to cry out to God to right the wrongs, that’s what we see David doing in Psalm 28, but what we don’t have to do is wonder hopelessly if God will act. Even if it doesn’t happen on this side of eternity it will happen! We don’t have to worry about taking vengeance into our own hands. We don’t have to allow ourselves to get disorientingly angry over these things. Becuase God will punish evil!

3) Jesus is the Ultimate Victory

Okay, let’s finish up the story back in 2 Samuel. After Absalom takes Hushai’s advice, Hushai tells two priests, Zadok and Abiathar, what Absalom is planning to do and he tells them to go and quickly tell David the plan. So David is able to reposition and buy himself some time and in the beginning of chapter 18 we see that he uses this time to organize a large army in order to fight back against Absalom’s army.

And as the battle takes place it comes to a pretty odd end. Look at 2 Samuel 18 verse 9. “And Absalmon happens to meet the servants of David. Absalomn was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of the 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. And a certain man sat it and told Joab, ‘Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.’”

So David’s men proceed to come to Absalom and kill him. Now on this surface this seems like an anti-climatic and even humorous end to this major struggle in David’s life. But most commentators think there is actually something more significant going on here because this word “hanging” is only used one other time in the Old Testament and that’s in Deuteronomy to say that “anyone who is hung on a tree is cursed by God.”

The point being, Absalom rebelled against his father the king and brought God’s curse upon himself. And furthermore, God won this battle for David; David and his men didn’t have to do anything. God causes Absalom to get stuck in a tree. We’ll get there in a minute, but Paul actually picks up on this same verse from Deuteronomy and says that Jesus, by hanging on a tree, is also cursed. Not cursed because of his sin but cursed because of ours. And in the same way, God, this time by the death of Jesus instead of the death of Absalom, wins our victory. David’s victory over Absalom was a minor battle in comparison to Jesus’s ultimate victory, and that’s our last principle.

But let’s finish the story real quick. Next we get this interesting exchange as Ahimaaz wants to take the news back to Davis but Joab doesn’t let him and instead sends a Cushite who doesn’t even get named.

The reason Joab doesn’t want Ahimaaz to go is because he remembers that when news was brought the David of Saul’s death, David killed the messenger who brought him the news. Therefore instead of sending the trusted messenger Ahimaaz, Joab sends a foreigner, a Cushite. This is another example of the sinfulness of human beings isn’t it? Joab is worried that the messenger will be killed so instead of sending someone he cares about he sends the foreigner he doesn’t care about.

Well Ahimaaz is determined to go as well, so Joab finally lets him run to David after the Cushite has already left but Ahimaaz out runs the Cushite and gets there first. Ahimaaz tells David in verse 28 of chapter 18 that “All is well.” But when David asks if Absalom is okay, Ahimaaz says he doesn’t know. Then the Cushite arrives and and let’s read how the story ends. 2 Samuel 18:31.

[Read 2 Samuel 18:31-33]

Even after Absalom rebelled against David, David weeps over his son’s death and wishes it would have been him instead. Even though we’ve seen plenty of David’s sinfulness 2 Samuel, here again we see the man after God’s own heart. Let’s look now at Psalm 40 to see David declare God’s victory in his own words.

[Read Psalm 40:1-9a]

David in this Psalm praises God for rescuing him from what he calls “the pit of destruction” and he says that God has “multiplied…(his) wondrous deeds and thoughts” towards David. Then comes verses 6 and 7 which are a bit confusing. First David says that God doesn’t want sacrifices and offerings, which is true for us living in the New Covenant but David was actually commanded by the Old Testament to make sacrifices and he does so all the time.

So what David is most likely saying here is that sacrifices are worthless if they are offered without the proper heart. Saul and Absalom no doubt offered sacrifices as any Jew would, but their hearts were wicked. Not David’s. Then David says, “Behold, I have come, in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” What David is saying here is that he is upholding the law that was given in the Old Testament. The Old Testament law describes a person whose heart is right toward God and who keeps God’s commandments and David says, “I’m that type of person.”

But the reason these verses are so confusing is because they don’t seem to perfectly describe David. After all, David does have to perform sacrifices because that’s what God has commanded him to do. And we know that God’s law was not within David’s heart when he slept with Bathsheba and opened up the door for all this mess that his kingdom has become. So when the Jews read verses like these in David’s Psalms they applied them to the Messiah who was to come. They affirmed that David wrote these verses about himself but they knew that a better more complete David was coming. One who truly didn’t have to offer regular sacrifices and one who truly upheld the Old Testament law.

And in Hebrews 10 the author tells us who these verses really apply to. Read with me Hebrews 10:1-10.

[Read Hebrews 10:1-10]

Do you see what the writer of Hebrews is doing there? He’s saying, “David was good, but Jesus is better.” David did in fact have to offer sacrifices year after year, day after day, because the sacrifices didn’t actually take away his sin. The sacrifices taught David and the other Israelites about sin but they didn’t actually solve their sin problem.

But, according to the author of Hebrews, when Jesus came he said, “Behold, I have come!”, and what did he come to do? To be a sacrifice that would actually solve our sin problem! Absalom hung from a tree and David’s problem was solved but for guess how long? One chapter. That’s it. Then Sheba rises up and David has another problem. But when Jesus hung from a tree he solved the problem of our sin once and for all!

That’s what Hebrews 10 says. There’s no need to offer daily animal sacrifices anymore. There’s no need to run from God because you feel shame for your sin. There’s no need to try and earn God’s love. Because Jesus has come. And becuase of Jesus, a little further down in Hebrews 10, the writer says that we approach God in confidence. You see: Jesus is the ultimate victory. David’s victory over Absalom solved one problem but the fact is everyone is sinful and so it was only a matter of time before a new problem would arise. But Jesus gets right to the heart of the problem and takes our sin upon himself on the cross.

If you’ve never trusted in Jesus and allowed him to take the punishment for your sins that you deserve, we would love to talk to you about that today. And for those of us who have trusted in Jesus, let’s celebrate the victory we have in Jesus this morning as we take communion and as we worship. Let’s pray.