Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] What I would like to do now is give us some context for where we've been, where we are now, and where we're going in our series. We've been walking through a series starting at the beginning of this year in the Old Testament. We were journeying from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of the Old Testament all in one year. There's many things that we're talking about, and that's why we're encouraging you to read through the Old Testament with us during the week so that you can understand all of the details that we're not able to cover here on.
[00:00:27] On Sunday morning. So where have we been? Where are we? Where are we going this morning? And then we're gonna pray and then dive right into what God has for us in the book of second Samuel. So just warning you, you ready for the warning? We're covering all of 2 Samuel today. If you've been with us for the last few weeks, even the last few months, you know, this is what we've mostly been doing on Sunday morning. So where have we been? Where are we now and where are we going? All right.
[00:00:53] In the past, looking backwards at the beginning of the Bible, we start off with the first book of the Bible. In what you're like, this is going to be a long review. If we're starting here in Genesis, God creates everything. And then we see there is a plan that God has because mankind has fallen. There is sin. There's a problem of sin in the world. And God says, there is now going to be a savior coming. Someone say a savior. Now, if you notice at the bottom of your outline, there is a portion that says the Savior.
[00:01:22] That's where we're going through this series. We're talking about all the things that are happening in the Old Testament, but realizing there is a Savior coming. And throughout the Old Testament, we see that the Savior is talked about. Prophesied is another word to use prophesied. There's a coming Savior to deal with the problem of sin that the world is dealing with. And so starting in Genesis, we see even the first few chapters, there is a Savior that is coming. And so it goes from Genesis and then Exodus, and we deal with the slavery that God's people are in. And then obviously, as the title of the book Exodus is, they come out of the land. Of what land were they in captivity to Egypt. They come out of Egypt. They wander through the wilderness for quite some time, and they finally get to this place called the Promised Land. Someone say the Promised Land.
[00:02:10] And that place is what we would call today.
[00:02:14] And so they finally get into Israel after many, many years of waiting. And very recently now, in the last few weeks, we talked about them getting into this land of Israel. And there was a season called the Judges. Someone say the Judges, the Judges. And for quite some time we talked about this. Last week, for about 350 years or so, there was this cycle of God's people are in this place called Israel, right? And they don't have a king, there's no king. But there's these people called judges that will rise up when the nation of Israel is dealing with problems. Because there's other nations around them at the time that are not God fearing nations, they're idol worshiping nations. And so God will raise up these judges to free them from captivity or bondage or oppression from these surrounding nations in Israel. Are you with me so far?
[00:03:06] So these judges have risen up, people like Samson, for example, and Gideon is another judge that will rise up and say, let me give you some freedom from this captivity that you are in. And this has been going on for quite some time, this freedom from this oppression. And then they walk away from God and then they go into captivity and a judge comes, rises up, frees them. The cycle continues and goes on and on and until finally there's this guy named Samuel. Hey look, Samuel's name's on the screen.
[00:03:36] There's this guy named Samuel who's the last of the judges.
[00:03:41] And Samuel gets older and older and the people say, Samuel, you're getting older and older. And we would like things to continue to go well for us.
[00:03:55] So what's the solution?
[00:03:57] They say we don't have a king. Like all of these other people around us, all these other nations, we want you to give us a king. And Samuel doesn't like this idea, but God says, yes, give them a king. And so last week, here we are already, from what we talked about last week, that brings us to first Samuel. And Samuel gives them a king. And the first king of Israel after many years of having judges. The first king of Israel, his name is what? Saul.
[00:04:23] And so last week we talked about Saul's rise and Saul's fall because of his disobedience to God. And also last week we talked about how the story of David and the story of Saul were interwoven with each other when Saul's fall began. David was then picked as the next king. And for most people in that situation, they would be incredibly excited. I'm going to be the next king of this big Nation of Israel that God has called his special, his chosen nation.
[00:04:54] But David didn't run into this role with great haste. He waited for God. How hard is it for you to wait on God?
[00:05:01] He waited for God even in the midst of the previous king. His name was what, Saul, chasing him for 10, 15 years or so in the wilderness, trying to kill him.
[00:05:13] And David waited on God.
[00:05:17] Well, as time went on and Saul continued to stray further and further away from God, there was a battle that happened.
[00:05:26] And Saul and his son, who in theory could have been the next king and was also David's like best friend, they're fighting in this battle. This brings us to the end of First Samuel. They're fighting in this battle.
[00:05:39] And Saul and his son named Jonathan, David's best friend, what die?
[00:05:46] And that is where we start the story in Second Samuel. And if you were with us last week, you know, this is first and Second Samuel used to actually be one book. It didn't originally used to be two books. It was one book. But in their time, Hebrew writing, scroll length is only so long. And so they cut it in half and say that's a good time to split the story, right? Saul, the end of Saul's reign and the beginning of David. So First Samuel is, is everything coming up to the end of Saul's reign? And 2 Samuel starts off with the beginning of David's reign. And that's where we pick up in chapter one of First Samuel. On the screen you see a snapshot of what we're looking at today. Second Samuel summarizes the reign of King David. We talked today about his triumphs, he unites Israel, his military victories and God's covenant with him. And also details. It also details David's personal sins, his family tragedies, and eventual restoration of his kingdom because of God's hand of faithfulness. And so today what we're going to do is we're going to track David's story, starting, if you will, at the bottom and going up to the peak. And as any mountain has a peak, what happens on the other side, it goes back down. And so that's what we're talking about today, where it goes back down in David's storyline. And then really we see that it's not going to stay down here at the bottom forever.
[00:07:05] There will be hope in David's story. And that's where 2 Samuel concludes, Realizing there is hope coming. Someone say hope.
[00:07:14] Hope.
[00:07:15] Let's pray together.
[00:07:17] Lord Jesus, as we spend time in your word this morning, we just ask you for help.
[00:07:24] We're grateful that you have given us the gift of your word.
[00:07:29] A cohesive story from Genesis to Revelation, showing us that you are a God who is faithful even as we sung about today, that you're a God who desires to save those who are broken, those who are lost, to bring light into dark places, to bring hope to those who are in despair. And as we journey through this book, Lord, I pray that you would teach us what it looks like to walk with you in our lives today as post resurrection Christians.
[00:07:55] The things that I say, Lord, that you would lead and guide and direct in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:08:01] 2 Samuel, chapter one, the end of the story. As I said from first Samuel, we pick up in second Samuel in chapter one. Before we get into the outline, you see on your outline you have on your bulletin. In the back of the bulletin there's an outline portion. Before we get there, you can fill in some information on the basics. So you see that on your outline, the basics. Let's just cover this really quickly and then we'll get right into the bulk of what this book has for us. Who is the author?
[00:08:30] I don't know.
[00:08:32] There are various people that could have contributed to this. People like for example, Samuel at the beginning of his life. Obviously Samuel was not one of the authors of 2nd Samuel because why he died. He died. All right, so there's other prophets that we're going to talk about today, one of which his name is Nathan. He could have had some contributing pieces to this and also Gadget. Definitely though the author is God. God inspired the writer of this book. So we know everything in this book that we're reading today is 100% what true. Now the timeline, when does this fall in the timeline from Genesis to even Jesus? Let's say this starts about 1000 years or so before Jesus comes into the world as a baby. So 1000 or so 5 BC to 965. It covers about 40 years, which was the reign of David. And the location we talked about this earlier is the Promised Land or Israel. There's a few key characters. This is not on your outline, but you could write this in that. We're going to talk a little bit about today. Important for you to kind of store these names away because they're going to be coming up here. David, obviously a key character. You can go to the next slide. Saul and Jonathan, even though they have died, their influence still remains. David, sorry, Jonathan was, like I said earlier, the best friend of David.
[00:09:49] There's another guy who has a name that probably none of you have, I would assume, Ishbosheth. Any of you know anybody with that name? Okay.
[00:09:59] He is one of Saul's sons, the youngest son of Saul. And then there's two other gentlemen that we're gonna see named Joab. Someone say Joab.
[00:10:08] Joab. He plays a part of the story through almost the entire book. And then another guy named Abner. Now, Joab is the leader of David's army. And then Abner is the commander or the leader of Ishbo, Seth's army. And that'll be important later on. And then Absalom plays a significant role in this story as well.
[00:10:28] All right, let's jump right in here. Your outline is where you are. The book can be broken up into two big sections. And then we have kind of a tag on the last four chapters, the first of the big sections. And I'm gonna give away points one and two right out of the gate. David's triumphs. That's the upward path, if we're climbing this mountain. Right. The story goes up David's triumphs. And this is not on the screen right now, which is fine. But if you want to write this in now or you can wait later, chapters 11 through 20 is the second part, when it kind of goes down, if you will, the other side. And that's David's troubles. So you want to write that in the last part. I'm going to leave that last t. You won't know what it is until we get there. So David's triumphs in chapters one through this is this part right? We're climbing the success ladder for David's story. So you have your Bibles open. You ready? All right, we're gonna start in what chapter?
[00:11:19] Chapter one. All right, chapters one through four. That first section, one A on your outline, you could write this in. From division to unity. So David hears about. And I'm just telling a story here. And what we're gonna see is God is gonna teach us various things for us to take as we walk through this story together. So David hears from a messenger about the two people that died that he really cares about. What were their names?
[00:11:42] Saul and Jonathan. A Messenger in Chapter 1 of 2, Samuel, runs over to David and says, hey, David, Saul and Jonathan have died. Now, this messenger thought this was gonna be good news to David because he's thinking, david is set to be king. There's so many people, they love David. He's set to be king. This is gonna be really, really good news to him. Well, the messenger was incorrect.
[00:12:08] The messenger runs over to David, tells him Saul and David have died. And not just that. The messenger says something else that he definitely regrets. The messenger says, I'm the one who killed Saul.
[00:12:20] It wasn't true, but he thought it would put him in David's good graces. And David's response is grief.
[00:12:28] Lament.
[00:12:29] And he actually sings a song of lament, saying it three times in this song. How the mighty have fallen. And David actually kills the guy who told him about this.
[00:12:42] David then goes to Hebron, which is a city of high elevation in the southern part of Israel called Judah, which is about 20 miles or so from Jerusalem. And David is then anointed as what?
[00:12:58] King. And so I'm gonna kind of create a map for you here. This will be the southern side of Israel, and this will be the northern side, mainly. Cause that's south and that's north. If you didn't know that, now you do. So here's the southern part of Israel. Here's the northern part. Now, there's more landmass over here on the northern part than there is to the southern part. Here's Judah. So David goes to Judah. He is anointed king. We see this in chapter two.
[00:13:22] And he now has then a group of people around him and a military commander. And the military commander's name is. We talked about him earlier, Joab. Well, he reigns there for about seven years, the northern part of the kingdom. Some other people take Ishbo Seth and say, you're going to be king of the northern part of the country.
[00:13:45] And Ishboseth, he is part of. He is one of Saul's sons, as we talked about earlier. And so for a time, we have the northern part and the southern part doing their own separate things going on there.
[00:13:58] But something begins to happen.
[00:14:00] The northern part, Ishboseth's side, he begins to get weaker and weaker. And more people start going to whose side?
[00:14:08] David's side. And Ishbothaz, he's not loving this. His army obviously isn't loving this either. And so what happens is they say, well, let's have a battle. Like, I don't know, a fight off or something. And they end up bringing 12 of their men together.
[00:14:24] This is an important part of the story. Bringing 12 of their men. David's side, 12 men. And Ishbo Seth's side. How many men? 12 of their men together. And they say, let's have a fight and see whose people win. This would be something else to watch, right? So they all pull their swords and they start fighting. And there is death. Okay? People die.
[00:14:42] One of the people.
[00:14:44] When this happens, one of the people starts to run away. And the person who starts to run away, his name is Abner. Remember Abner? He's the guy who's in charge of Isposeth's army. He's like, this is not going well. I'm getting out of Dodge. Probably not Dodge, Hebron, or wherever they were at the time. He starts running, and this other guy starts chasing him. This is key in the story. This other guy starts chasing him. And this other guy, we learn, is very fast. Someone say, very fast. Very fast, Very fast. Abner realizes this, and Abner's running. The other guy's chasing after him. And Abner looks over his shoulder. He says, you should stop chasing me or I'm gonna kill you. You should stop chasing me. And he keeps running. And the other guy's like, I'm not gonna stop chasing you.
[00:15:19] You have this picture here in your mind.
[00:15:21] And so the other guy keeps chasing him. Abner turns around and ends up killing this other guy.
[00:15:27] This other guy is not just some other guy. This other guy is Joab's brother. Remember Joab? He's the guy in charge of David's army. So he's not just a nobody. This other guy that Abner just killed, Joab is. How do you think he's feeling?
[00:15:42] Not excited right now, to say the least.
[00:15:46] David is actually grieving now that Abner dies. He's like, whoa, this is bad news. Joab thinks, are you going to go avenge this? Like, you got to do something, David. But David doesn't do anything. And over time, remember the house of Ishboth, the kingdom that he has, is it getting weaker or stronger?
[00:16:06] He's getting weaker. And so now Abner's killed this other guy.
[00:16:10] Abner's starting to realize, wait a minute. David's side's getting stronger. Ishbo, Seth's side's getting stronger, weaker. Even though, my king. He's still my king. But, you know, there's not many people here anymore. And how many of you change sports teams when they start losing?
[00:16:24] Okay? That's literally what happens here.
[00:16:26] Abner goes over to David's side and says, hey, David, it's not looking so good over here.
[00:16:32] Can I come over to your side? And by the way, if you let me come over to your side, I will help you take over the Northern kingdom. Are you with me so far? And David says, that sounds good. So Abner is pumped about this and starts going back over to Ishbosh side, because he's going to start kind of gathering everybody and say, hey, we're going to be rooting for David. Now, as Abner leaves, Joab walks in.
[00:16:55] Uh oh, remember what happened earlier?
[00:16:58] Who did Abner kill?
[00:17:00] Joab's brother. And Joab has never avenged his brother's death.
[00:17:04] And so Joab finds out that David just let Abner waltz out of his throne room and had no consequence for him.
[00:17:11] How do you think Job's feeling about that? He's like, wait a minute, Abner's nearby and no one's doing anything about this. I'm going to do something about this. Joab sends some messengers out and brings Abner back in and says, hey, I gotta talk to you for a second. And Joab and Abner meet, and Joab kills Abner.
[00:17:34] Death.
[00:17:36] And then after that, we see that Ishbo Seth is then shortly thereafter killed by his own people.
[00:17:42] And so we went from having two separate kingdoms and not by the hand of David himself, but letting whatever happens, happens. Letting go, God being in control, letting people do their thing. We see went from two different nations, division to what?
[00:17:57] Unity. And then we go into the second part of the story where there's uncertainty, to security point B on your outline.
[00:18:04] So now David has already been anointed as king over Judah, the southern part. And then soon after that, after Ishbo Seth has died, which he grieves his death as well. Even though he was opposed to him, he grieves his death. And. And then he is crowned as the king of not just Judah, but what Israel, the northern part of the kingdom. And chapter five is very clear now. It tells us that David becomes greater and greater and greater. You can see this in chapter 5, verse 10. Look what it says. It's on the screen as well. Very simply, David became greater and greater for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him. And this chapter tells us about how other nations begin to see the power of God. Go to the next slide. Other nations begin to see the that David is working alongside God, is working alongside David. And no one can seem to defeat this man named David. He seems to be incredibly successful.
[00:18:56] David. Then chapter six says, all right, now that things are unified, I think it's important that I not stay over here in Judah. I wanna move my capital city to someplace that's a little bit more central.
[00:19:13] Anyone know where that city is?
[00:19:14] Jerusalem. Right. Which is still a pretty prominent city today. Right. But there's a problem. Jerusalem is currently being occupied by a Canaanite tribe. And so David says, I would like this city to the Canaanites. And they're like, you are so weak, David. You couldn't beat our blind people. Literally. That's what he said. And David is not pumped about that either, and goes in and completely destroys and takes over the city of Jerusalem and makes that the new what capital city. And then after that, we see in chapter seven, we see that this is now known as the City of David.
[00:19:51] And he says, this is really, really good. This is really good. I would like now to take the Ark of the Covenant, which is not in the city, and put it in the city. And so he brings the Ark of the Covenant, and he celebrates this incredible time. And then he says this.
[00:20:08] I want to not just sit in my beautiful house and have the Ark of the Covenant there. I want to make a house for the Ark, which seems really good. The Ark of the Covenant, which is the place, a symbol of God's presence, where God's presence dwells. He says, the Ark of the Covenant is dwelling in a tent. And I'm sitting high and mighty in my big old nice house. There's a problem. Don't you see the problem there, friends?
[00:20:34] And so he says, I would like to build a house. And he checks in with the prophet at the time. His name is Nathan. And Nathan says, after initially saying, that sounds like a good idea, God says, no, you're not going to build a house. And here we hear, actually in chapter seven of two Samuel, I would say this is the most important chapter in this book because there's something called the Davidic Covenant that that is made. God says through the prophet Nathan, he sends a message to David. And there are multiple pieces to this message. You put that next slide on the screen. He says to David, I know you would like to build me a house, which is great. You're not going to because there's too much blood on your hands. Put the next slide on the screen.
[00:21:20] He says this. I'm actually going to build you a house or a dynasty or a lineage. That's the first thing he says. Secondly, he says, an eternal kingdom will come from you. There will be somebody who sits on an eternal throne after you. There will also be. Thirdly, you see on the screen there this father, son type relationship that I have with you and your descendants. Yes, you're going to mess up, but I just. As a father and son, I am not going to abandon you when you do the wrong thing. Yes, you will be disciplined, but I'm not going to leave you. Remember, Saul.
[00:21:52] What happened with Saul? When he disobeyed, God said, we're picking somebody else. To David, he says, even though you might do the wrong thing, and you will, I'm not going to leave you.
[00:22:05] Fourth, you see there, there's going to be security and rest for Israel. And also, David, your name will be great. There will be a legacy because. A legacy after you because of what you are doing and who you are. Wouldn't you like this to be true of you?
[00:22:20] David has a level of confidence when he hears this from God. And then after that, if you look in your Bibles, chapter seven, he offers this incredible and beautiful prayer of thanksgiving and gratitude towards God. Because of this, we'll move right on here. The story continues, right? We're going up the side here, right?
[00:22:39] And if any of you have gone mountain climbing, maybe when you're halfway up, it hurts a lot. This is a good kind of hurt for David. Maybe it's going well for him. He. He's climbing this success ladder. All of the things seem to be going very well. Chapter eight leans into that a little bit more, Tells of his victories, his successes, his power over the land, how other people are realizing his power.
[00:22:59] Chapter nine tells of David's kindness to one of Saul's sons.
[00:23:05] Because David has security, he doesn't have to be afraid that somebody else is going to take over after him. Chapter 10 goes on. We're nearing the end.
[00:23:13] Chapter 10 goes on and tells us that even though things are going this well and all the people are realizing David's power, there's something else about to happen.
[00:23:27] Other people realize David's power, but something else is about to happen. And we're about to get to the peak. Someone say the peak?
[00:23:33] We're about to get to this peak of this story here. Before we do, which is point two on your outline. Before we get there, some things for us to consider. Based on everything we just covered.
[00:23:43] What do we learn from David here?
[00:23:45] It's this. At least a few things. One, stand with God and he will stand with you.
[00:23:52] Stand with God and he will stand with you. We see that with David, even though hard things were going on, David didn't say, God already anointed me king when I was a teenager. I'm going to take the throne. I'm going to kill other people.
[00:24:04] The wrong thing is not what David did. He continued to say, God, in your timing, waiting on God can be hard, can't it? In your timing, wait on God. Write this down somewhere. Wait on God and he will deliver on his promises.
[00:24:18] And thirdly, and lastly, before we look at point two, when you remember that God is in control, when you and I remember that we don't have to fight to stay in control, when you and I remember that God is in control, we don't have to fight to stay in control. We can have peace even when things are incredibly messy. Remember that first part. Was there a lot of messiness going on in that first part of David's life?
[00:24:44] So much messiness, all of that going on all around him. And David yet continued to walk with God, to trust God. He is in control. And I don't have to let the mess that's going on out there make me a mess, because God is still in control.
[00:24:58] Let's look at. We're at the peak now. Things start to go the other direction, don't they?
[00:25:03] Chapters 11 through 14 start us off here. All of which are summarized in chapters 11 through 20, which is David's troubles. We talked about that earlier. I told you, that's what that second T letter was or T word was.
[00:25:14] Particularly in a few sections, chapters 11 through 14 tell us that the troubles existed personally and in his household. In chapters 11 through 12 tell of perhaps the most well known story in David's life. David and Bathsheba. This thing that we talk about, right? David, he killed Goliath and he committed adultery with Bathsheba. That was what we remember about David.
[00:25:41] Really great thing, really bad thing, right?
[00:25:44] Now, probably everyone here is familiar with that story, but let me walk through it just briefly and slowly to help bridge this gap in this story. Because this is where things start to dip down.
[00:25:56] David, chapter 11. Look in your Bibles. Flip over in your bibles to chapter 11. Chapter 11 starts off and says this. Now in the time that the kings went off to war, and we could even insert this, David did not.
[00:26:10] He was there on the top one of the roofs of his houses and he's walking around and he sees this woman and he's walking around. He's the king, right? He can do whatever he wants. He's still under God's authority. He sees this woman and perhaps hoping that the victories are going to continue and he's going to be able to add another lady to his harem as a concubine or as a wife. He sends a messenger and says, hey, find out who that lady is that's bathing over there. And he gets message back and perhaps not the message that he wanted. She's a married woman. And that should have meant what to him? Hands off.
[00:26:44] But David perhaps tracking with this, things are going well for me so far, Says, we'll bring her here anywhere. He ends up sleeping with her.
[00:26:53] She gets pregnant. David finds out and says, ugh, there's a problem.
[00:27:00] The husband is not just a nobody, he is a man in my own army. And so David calls the man in, his name is Uriah, and says, hey, Uriah, how's everything going? Uriah's like, the battle is still going on, you should be there. But doesn't say that because he's the king. And so he's like, cool, well, go home, hang out with your wife, hoping that he won't be able to use a calendar. And then Uriah, being an honorable man, does not go back home. He ends up staying there the night. And David then thinks, well, how am I going to solve this problem? Because I'm on this upward trajectory and I don't want things to go downhill. I don't want people to find out about the sin that I committed. So what am I going to do? I need to get rid of this husband of Bathsheba. And so what he does is he writes a message making sure that when Uriah goes back to the battlefield, Uriah is going to die at the hand of the enemies. And then he got on his email account and he emailed it to Joab, but that's not what he did because he doesn't have an email account.
[00:27:58] So he took the letter, he sealed it, and he gave Uriah the message that was going to kill him. And Uriah carried his own death message back to the battlefield, messed up, and Uriah ends up dying.
[00:28:15] Chapters 11 and 12.
[00:28:17] Now what do we learn from this? Even maybe just write this passage down.
[00:28:21] James, chapter one, verses 14 and 15 says this. But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desires and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.
[00:28:38] Does not that verse speak about that story in incredible detail? Write this down somewhere. A lesson that we can have before we go into the rest of this, these chapters. In chapter 13, write this down somewhere. When you are somewhere that you shouldn't be, you often do what you shouldn't do.
[00:28:54] When you are somewhere that you shouldn't be, you often do what you shouldn't do.
[00:28:59] How true of that is for us as well, right? So many times we find ourselves doing things that we shouldn't do because we put ourselves in a position that we shouldn't have been in.
[00:29:08] Now here's the trajectory it was going up, we've reached the peak and it starts to go down. Now, if any of you watch your investments, you hope that after a short little dip, you hope your investments go right back up again, right?
[00:29:18] That's not what happens in this story. It continues to go downhill.
[00:29:22] Chapter 13 goes on and tells now not just of the troubles that David had personally, but of his household. David has a couple kids. A few. Well, he has many kids, but a few of them show up in this story. In chapter 13, there's a daughter that he has named Tamar. And Tamar, there's three individuals here. There's Tamar, she has a brother, a full brother named Absalom. And remember, we talked about him earlier? And she has a half brother named Amnon.
[00:29:48] Messy story here. All right, just going to warn you.
[00:29:51] Tamar is there.
[00:29:52] There's Absalom. Here's Amnon. Amnon, it says, falls in love with Tamar. We can say falls in lust, I think, right? Falls in lust with Tamar, ends up raping her and gets away with it. David does nothing. When he finds out about it, Absalom, a more honorable brother here, ends up saying to Tamar, I can see that your honor was stripped of you. Come and live in my home and I will take care of you. Honorable. Right, Amnon?
[00:30:23] Even when dad King finds out about it, what does he do?
[00:30:27] Nothing.
[00:30:29] Perhaps still dealing with the fact that he just did the same thing, slept with someone that he shouldn't have dealing with. Well, what can I say to Amnon? I shouldn't have done that.
[00:30:42] And so Absalom cares for Tamar and does nothing for a time. And after a couple years goes by and David has still done nothing, Absalom finds a way to kill his brother Amnon.
[00:30:56] Is this not trouble in the household?
[00:30:58] Absalom, then, right? Here's Absalom. He runs away, goes somewhere else because premeditated murder. He doesn't want to get in trouble with his dad. He leaves for about three years.
[00:31:09] Dad is sad that Amnon is dead, and he's also sad that Absalom is gone. And what does he do about either of those?
[00:31:18] Nothing.
[00:31:19] We go from this guy who's like, I'm gonna wait on God. I'm gonna do the right thing. I'm gonna listen Downward Trek, right? Suddenly we have this man who, literally, same person who ran into the valley to fight Goliath, is doing nothing right now to stand against righteousness or stand against wickedness.
[00:31:38] And so here's David doing nothing. And Joab. Remember Joab? Joab seems to be somewhere in the middle here. And he convinces David to say, hey, we should bring Absalom back. He did the right thing. You shouldn't have kicked him out. He should come back. And so David says, yes, you can tell Absalom to come back. Absalom comes back, but David says, I'm still annoyed that you killed Amnon, all right?
[00:32:03] So he says, you can live in that house over there. He does for a while. And then after a bit, Absalom says, I would like to be closer to David.
[00:32:12] And Absalom is bitter. He's resentful towards David. And so after a time, and Absalom being around the people more, he does something. He says, I think I would make a better king than David.
[00:32:26] Uh oh.
[00:32:28] Uh oh, right.
[00:32:29] And that's where we move into chapters 15 through 19. Absalom's rebellion.
[00:32:34] Being in a position where he thinks, after four years or so of sitting in the gate, of chatting with people, he thinks, I have a big enough following. I think people would follow me as king instead of David. Notice, by the way, we have not heard anything about David over the course of these four, five, six, seven years about what David's been doing. It seems as though David has kind of just stepped back and not doing the things that he should be.
[00:32:59] This tells us now, in chapters 15 through 18, that Absalom says, here's what I'm gonna do. Here's his plan for taking over. He says to the people, I am going to offer sacrifices and then you all should come. And he secretly tells some people, when you hear the trumpets blow, you. You should say, long live the king. And that's exactly what happens. Absalom goes into this other place about 10 miles away or so from Jerusalem. He doesn't tell David, for obvious reasons, that he's doing this. And the messenger runs to David and says, hey, Absalom was just crowned king. Now David, in great fear, runs the other way. And so what happens after that? Probably David's thinking, this feels familiar. Running away from my life. I don't like this. But he runs away out of Jerusalem. And Absalom's thinking, all right, I got this. That was easy. David's gone. I'm gonna waltz right into Jerusalem. And that's exactly what he does. He waltz right into Jerusalem.
[00:34:05] And he does something despicable that was prophesied by Nathan. When Nathan was talking to David about his adultery with Bathsheba, Nathan said something to David. He said to David, we're going Backwards in the story just a little bit. He says to David, david, because of what you've done with Bathsheba, the son that Bathsheba is going to have, he's going to die. And also, that was the first consequence. The second was this.
[00:34:28] You did this atrocious sin in secret, but there will one day be somebody coming to sleep with your concubines in public.
[00:34:37] Okay, that happened a little while ago with Bathsheba. Now we move on in the story, and we find that Absalom goes waltzing into Jerusalem, and what does he do? Completely dishonors his dad by sleeping with his concubines.
[00:34:49] Now, why is this even important?
[00:34:51] Because David realizes that God, even though he's under a place of consequence, hasn't left him. God is still in control of what's going on.
[00:35:01] All of the things kind of come to conclusion, and David ends up fighting back, led primarily by Joab and Joab. Remember, Joab was the guy who kind of said, hey, we should get Absalom back over here.
[00:35:13] Joab actually is also the same one who found Absalom hanging from a tree because Absalom had really long hair. Absalom's hanging from a tree, running away from David, and Joab ends up killing Absalom. And David then weeps more, even weeping for the son whom tried to overthrow his very kingdom.
[00:35:33] Then after all that comes to conclusion, David kind of rises up and says, thank you, everybody, for standing with me. I know it was confusing time. And it seems that there is pause for a moment. And you could write this in point C, very quickly. Chapter 20 tells of this other guy named Sheba. Somebody say Sheba, Sheba. Not the queen of Sheba, this guy named Sheba who seems to have this other. Who takes over this other rebellion. Sheba was of the tribe of the northern tribes of Israel, particularly the tribe of Benjamin. And he was from the house or. Or the family group of Saul. And so he said, actually, I'm gonna try to take over from David's kingdom as well. It doesn't work out for Sheba. He only gets one chapter designated talking about him. Joab crushes that rebellion and again shows that David is the king. What's the takeaway? Before we look at chapters 21 through 24, it's this. Even in the midst. This is today, friends. Even in the midst of messy situations, God has not given up on David.
[00:36:28] His anointed God used the plans of the wicked and the actions of the wicked, but he didn't abandon his promises to the rightful King. What do we do with that? God is sovereign even in times of betrayal.
[00:36:42] If you've ever felt betrayed, God is true and faithful in times of political upheaval. Friends. Right. Right now, God is sovereign in times of war. Friends. This was there. Very real for them. And also perhaps what you're watching on the news right now, very real for us.
[00:37:00] Write this down somewhere. No matter how bad life gets, God is still on the throne.
[00:37:06] Keep doing the right thing and he will get you through.
[00:37:10] Keep doing the right thing.
[00:37:13] The messiness out there doesn't have to make you a mess.
[00:37:16] The third t really briefly here because it's only a few chapters. Chapters 21, 22 and 24 tells of David's takeaways. This is an interesting conclusion to this book. It seems that David tells of these four chapters. He tells of two different occasions with these points. In chapters 21 and 24, he talks about a time where the Gibeonites, another tribe that was promised safety and security by Joshua, they were killed by Saul, kind of in his zeal and his passion. And he says that there was a famine in the land because of Saul breaking a promise that Joshua had made with them and with God. And because of that, David actually had to give over people to die to make this plague go away. And then the last chapter of the book tells of a foolish decision that David made where 70,000 people died as a consequence to David's poor choice. Here's the lesson. You can see that on number one there on the screen is the leader's poor choices will lead to consequences even for the followers.
[00:38:21] And then the second that we see in the middle. So it's these four chapters, chapter 21 and 24 talk about point one there. These middle two chapters 22 and 23 talk about what you see on the screen there is that God is faithful even when we are not.
[00:38:36] God deserves great praise for that. And that's what we see in chapters 22 and 23. And that is how the book ends.
[00:38:45] You can go home now.
[00:38:48] What's the big idea here? And then we'll look at the Savior here pretty briefly and some application because this is really, really important for us.
[00:38:55] God won't abandon his people.
[00:38:57] Through these chapters, we get a glimpse of David looking ahead to the King of Kings, who will one day save mankind from the bondage that you and I are in. He points to the Lord's character through this book as a God who gives great victory, who saves, and one who saves not just now, but also who will continue to Be a God who saves mankind out of bondage. Maybe you've experienced bondage before and you've experienced freedom from that because of what Jesus has done in your life.
[00:39:27] Considering the work of the Savior. Let's look at the next section in your outline. It's this, the Savior. Where do we see the Savior showing up? At least in two places. One that I said earlier on in the message, it's this. In chapter seven, we see that there is a covenant that God makes with David called the Davidic covenant. We talked a little bit about that. I put the verse on the screen with this covenant that God makes to David. And God says this in your house, that is David. If you elect today your last name, okay, it's kind of this picture that we get here. Your last name or people remember you. And your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. You're not going to be forgotten. In all that comes ahead, your throne shall be established forever. What's interesting is in Luke, chapter one, right? New Testament Luke, chapter one, 31 and 33, speak about the angel that comes to Mary. And here's what we hear. So this is Christmas kind of passage that we would read. He will be great, speaking of Jesus, and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. The. That's what an angel said to Mary 1,000 years after God said this to David.
[00:40:41] Christ is the fulfillment of the Davidic dynasty, if you will.
[00:40:46] Secondly, David's song, you could write that in on your outline. So we have the covenant. God said, I am gonna remember you. A savior is coming. That's the promise. We will not forget you, David. And from your line, there will be a savior that comes for the whole world. And. And also there's this song in chapter 22, if you've already flipped there. And in this song, we see some characteristics, some character traits of God that are true today. Even that we sing about today, considering the Savior, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. What do we see in the song of David? In chapter 22, we see this. Jesus is our rock. I think this is on the screen. Jesus is our rock, as spoken of in 1 Corinthians 10.
[00:41:27] Jesus is the deliverer of Israel. In Romans chapter 11, Jesus is the fortress. Jesus is the refuge that we can lay hold of. Hebrews talks about this. And he is our only savior. Someone say Savior.
[00:41:40] He is our only savior.
[00:41:43] David knew that someone greater was coming.
[00:41:47] Let's look at the application here. You could write this in simple sentences for us. What do we do with this? What do we learn about God?
[00:41:55] What do we learn about humanity? And what do we learn about us? We can see this on the screen. These are things that I put. You learn many other things, but let's read through these briefly and talk about them.
[00:42:07] God.
[00:42:09] God cares about humble confession and he forgives no matter the sin.
[00:42:15] Humble confession for us as post resurrection people look like us believing first John 1:9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us. We know as followers of Jesus, if you've trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are covered with the blood of Jesus.
[00:42:33] Confession today looks like this for you. And I, God, I know that wasn't right.
[00:42:37] Thank you for forgiving me. I'm recognizing the blood of Jesus covering me and I'm telling the truth about what I did. That wasn't right. And what do we see else? What do we see in this sentence? And when God forgives, he will still use us. Someone say use us, use us, not sideline us. So often we look back at our own baggage and our own sin and our own mistakes and we say, God, I'm glad that you forgive me. If we still can even kind of come to grips with the forgiveness of God, that God's forgiveness is greater than our sin, and we still struggle with the reality that I could still be used by God. We get stuck back here somewhere going, okay, at least I'm forgiven, but I'll just curl up in a corner and hope that maybe something good will happen out there.
[00:43:20] It's almost like what David did, isn't it? He sinned right at the pinnacle. He sinned. And then we just see him stepping back and not doing anything, struggling through dealing with the sin that he had just done, not stepping back out and saying, God still wants to use me.
[00:43:33] God still wants to use me. God doesn't say, you made one big mistake and now I'm sidelining you for the rest of your life. You're done.
[00:43:40] Sadly, humans do that, don't we?
[00:43:44] We could look at somebody's life and say, oh, I saw what you said on Instagram 20 years ago.
[00:43:50] I'm canceling you.
[00:43:53] That's what we do today.
[00:43:55] That's what we do today. That's such a human thing to do. That's not a godly thing to do.
[00:44:00] God says, I see your sin. I forgave you. I'm not canceling you. I still want to use you.
[00:44:08] Humanity. What do we learn when we are doing well, we often let our guard down.
[00:44:16] When things are going well, go to the next slide. When things are going well, we often think nothing can touch us.
[00:44:23] Or when we're 20 years old and we think that we'll never have a problem in our life, we think we're just indefeatable.
[00:44:30] When we're doing well, we often let our guard down. Isn't that what happened with David? Things were going well and he thought, I'm fine.
[00:44:39] Anyone can fall.
[00:44:40] Anyone can fall. Be aware. And lastly, write this down, if you'd like, on the screen. What does this teach me? And maybe this is what I wrote. It's not necessarily true for you, but I hope it is.
[00:44:52] If I am obedient to the Lord doing kingdom work, I should assume there will be attacks against me.
[00:45:00] It doesn't matter the position that I am in. The enemy is real and wants to make me ineffective, unproductive, distracted and or fearful.
[00:45:11] I must always be on guard.
[00:45:14] As we look through this book, we see these lessons. We see this character of God revealing himself as faithful and good to continue to use us even when we fall. We see in this book that even someone, a man after God's own heart, David, has to be on guard. You and I also have to be aware God wants to use us for kingdom work. And also we have to be aware there's enemies around us, there are distractions around us that are gonna try to pull us away from what God wants to do in and through us. Friends, we must be on guard. And Jesus promises the Holy Spirit inside of us will continue to keep our eyes open to what he's doing and wants to do in the world around us. We are not alone, you and I. We are not alone.
[00:45:58] Pray together.
[00:46:00] Lord Jesus, thank you so much that you promised before you left the earth. You promised to never leave us or forsake us.
[00:46:09] You said before you left that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to you. And then you said, go and make disciples. Go into all the world to preach the gospel.
[00:46:21] You put us on mission. You knew that we'd have messy things that would happen in our life, that we would stumble and that we would fall. And yet you said you have authority to send us out.
[00:46:33] Lord, as we are your people here today, we ask that you would give us boldness and courage to walk with you, to go where you are taking us.
[00:46:42] Even as we see from David, if we stand with you, Lord, we know you're with us. And even when we go, our own way you don't abandon us.
[00:46:52] Thank you for the spirit that you've put inside of us. Your spirit, your presence inside of us we can depend on.
[00:46:59] And that he will continue to change us from the inside out.
[00:47:03] In Jesus name, amen.
