2 Samuel Lesson 71
Absalom Defeated – 2 Samuel 17:23-19:8
Turn to 2 Samuel 17, picking up where we left of. David did not know of Absalom’s revolt for
the large section of Samuel, chapter 15-19 is the time when his son Absalom revolted
and led a defection movement, took over Jerusalem, David was forced
eastward. David, at the time of 15 and
16 did not yet now whether his time of reign had yet finished. In other words, he wasn’t sure of God’s will,
but we found that by
But tonight we’re going to see the same two scenes in David’s life that
we have seen before. On the one hand he
is an excellent soldier, but when it comes to acting out as an administrator of
the kingdom he fails miserably. This
flaw in his soul is still there. Verse
23, “And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed,” Ahithophel was
Bathsheba’s grandfather, he was one of David’s elder counselors that defected
to Absalom, probably out of personal jealousy, but nevertheless Ahithophel gave
Absalom tremendous advice. And the
advice is important for several reasons.
It shows you that at this point in
So, “he saddled his ass, and arose, and went home to his house, to his
city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was
buried in the sepulcher of his father.”
This is one of those rare times in the Old Testament where you have
suicide, and since we are on the subject of suicide, let’s expand a moment here
on the doctrinal footnote and deal with suicide. Suicide Scripturally is no different from
murder. It is not the case that you can
do with your life as you see fit, your life isn’t yours. And when you take your life you are murdering
yourself, and it falls under the same condemnation as murder. Suicide is forbidden under all situations;
there is no situation where suicide is authorized. Suicide is never the will of God. Why, then, do so many believers, particularly
in our own generation, as the figures show more and more young people committing
suicide, teenagers committing suicide.
And it’s obviously the response of the human soul to a doctrinally dry
area, to a situation in life where there are no standards and no personal
relationship.
One area of suicide that you always want to be aware of, that suicide
is, most of the time, a satanic suggestion.
We know this by John 8:44 where it says that Satan is a murderer. Satan wants believers to kill
themselves. Too often you read cases of
attempted suicide where the person will somehow survive and they tell you that
a voice spoke to them and said take your life, or they’ll report some other
spectacular thing that they had this dream and in the dream they were to commit
suicide, and so on. Suicide is murder
and the satanic attack always comes at this point; when you are in the middle
of despair and depression that is ripe ground for Satan to sow the thought of
suicide in your mind. Recognize it for
what it is, suicide does not come from the Lord. If the Lord wants to take you home He has
some fantastically spectacular ways of doing it; you just let Him do that, but
don’t cop out on life; it’s not only murder, it’s a cop out, and it’s a satanic
urging, watch it for what it is. Your
mind is open at all times to satanic suggestions. The Lord Jesus Christ’s mind was open to
satanic suggestions and He didn’t have any sin nature, so much more our
minds. Suicide is totally
anti-scriptural, and in verse 23 when Ahithophel commits suicide he is
obviously out of fellowship, he is rebellion against God’s Word.
Verse 24, “Then David came to Mahanaim.”
Now this place is very interesting, we’ve watched how Ahithophel gave a
good principle of war, the principle of pursuit. Now David is using another principle of war
the principle of concentration of force.
He has a much smaller army than Absalom, at least potentially. So he goes to this place and sets up a
command post. And along up this wadi he
has command post. Now why does David set
up his command post east of
This is why in verse 24 immediately you read the tactic was successful,
“And Absalom passed over the Jordan, he and all the men of
Verse 25, “And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab,
which Amasa was a man’s son, whose name was Ithra, an Israelite, who went in to
Abigail, the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah, Joab’s mother.” Now this is a big long complicated genealogy,
and because the Hebrew text in verse in verse 15 is ambiguous, the only thing
we can say for sure is that it’s put in by the Holy Spirit to show you there
was a reason for personal antagonism between Amasa and Joab. [26] “So
Now if you’ll look at that list, you know, for example, the kind of
cheese which the Arabs use today, all of those items in verses 28-29 are
non-perishable, and it shows you that whoever is doing the supplying has a
tremendous amount of wisdom about supplying an army in battle. And the list is given to draw attention to
the fact of the skill of the logistics.
It’s telling you in essence that David is well stocked; he is close to
his supply lines, he has exactly the supplies that he needs. This is just a common way that the text has
of showing you, see the blessing of God on David; he goes and he’s blessed over
there and who’s doing the blessing?
That’s the amazing thing in verse 27, all those people in verse 27
aren’t Jews. So here you have David out
of the land and he’s being deluged with just exactly what he needs out of the
hands of the Gentiles. God is blessing
him. But, God, although He blesses
David, is not going to deliver David by a miracle. Don’t get too miracle conscious; miracles by
definition are infrequent, or they wouldn’t be miracles. In most cases God does not deliver David by a
miracle, He delivers David through His normal creation laws.
Now let’s see how it works, chapter 18.
David does things here, though he knows it is God’s will, he is using
the faith technique, and you remember what we said about the faith technique,
it has two sides, it has a resting side and it has a doing side. The doing is not doing the works of merit but
it has activity. There is a rest in
those things that you can’t do yourself.
There is also, however, activity.
Now David is resting, we saw him in Psalm 3 as he rested all that night
when his people came across Jordan; there was his faith-rest. Now here is his faith-doing. He is applying military wisdom to his
situation. It starts out with a census.
18:1, “And David numbered the people who were with him,” now why did he
number the people? Because he was forming an army and it’s a listing, he’s
listing the people who were with him.
You see, he had to number the people because he had women, children, had
a whole bunch of people, and the word “number” like the book of Numbers was to
get out all males 21 or over. Israel had
one of the finest systems of military training, which we ought to have and
don’t. Israel had universal military
training. This is universal military
training, which means every male is trained to kill. And that is part of his job. Then after every male has the training, sword
drills and spear drills, then out of that they pick the ones they want for
their army. See what that does, the army
goes through and picks the strong ones, and all the weak ones are eliminated
off the site and you have the best people in your army. And that is the principle that Israel always
used. You don’t have the dregs in your
army, you have the best people in your army, the men who are the most skillful
killers in their society should be in the military.
So David is numbering, that means he is picking the best for his
army. And then he sets up a command
structure, “and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over
them.” Notice that David is operating
according to normal military principles.
He’s not expecting God to do this for him, even though he knows he will
be successful. You see the sovereignty
and the volition involved. God
sovereignly says David will get that throne back; but God sovereignty includes
a series of acts of volition to get there to that goal; the goal is the throne
but David must do these things, no miraculous intervention.
Verse 2,
“And David sent forth a third part of the people under the hand of Joab; and a
third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and a
third part under the hand of Ittai the Gittite.” Now these third parts have a bearing, for
those of you who are familiar with Homeric literature, in Homer’s Iliad they have the triumvirate, in fact
the Romans have this too. And it was a
peculiar way they had of structuring the military in Greece and in Rome. And it shows you that this was all over the
ancient world because in David’s time he used the triumvirate system of
command, there would always be three commanders, of equal rank leading his
army. Now why they did this we don’t
know, except history tells us not just Israel did this. He gives the three people, and then the king
shows his tremendous bravery. Remember,
he is an old man now. “And the king said
unto the people, I will surely go forth with you myself also. And in the Hebrew to emphasize the certainty,
“I will go forth” the verb is repeated twice.
It is repeated in the imperfect and then the infinitive absolute is
tacked on, which intensifies the mood of the verb. It is the mood of decision; David decides he
is going to go forth, taking on that infinitive absolute makes it David is
going to go forth, he is absolutely convinced that he must go forth to lead his
people.
Verse 3, “But the people answered, Thou shalt
not go forth: for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half
of us die, will they care for us: but now thou art worth ten thousand of us:
therefore now it is better that thou succour us out of the city.” Now there are certain things in this verse
you want to notice. One is the
tremendous loyalty of the people, you see the people love David. Absalom, the human viewpoint politician,
never commands the love, he commands a lot of people, but they’re all misfits,
malcontents and they all got a gimmick, and when the going gets rough they
won’t stick with Absalom. David, on the
other hand, because of his doctrinal character, always attracts people of like
mind. So he has people that are stable
with him. We’re going to see later on in the story the people that are with him
are actually smarter than he is at a certain point; ten thousand of us, they
say, and we recognize by that that the issue in this revolution is not an issue
of army versus army, it is an issue of team versus team. You’ll see that appear several times in the
text. Ahithophel’s advice, you saw last
time was based on assumption that the real issue of battle wasn’t the people,
the real issue was who is going to get killed first, David or Absalom. One or two of these contenders for the throne
must be eliminated, regardless of everything else. The issue is the competing kings, and the
people too recognize this.
And so in verse 4 they convince David, “[And
the king said unto them,] What seems you best I will do. And the king stood by
the gate side, and all the people came out by hundreds and by thousands.” The word “hundreds” and “thousands” means a military formation, they’re coming
out of the command post east of Jordan, they’re marching toward the Jordan
River, and here’s the city with the gate; David stands by the gate as they pass
in review, and unit by unit they march through the gate, and the “hundreds” and
“thousands” are these units as they go by.
This is the army on parade. And
David greets them as they go by; you see, they go by in groups, we don’t know
how big they were, we’ll just say A group, B group and C group, and as each
group goes by David yells an order to them, verse 5, “And the king commanded
Joab and Abishai and Ittai,” and he yells it publicly because in the text we
have a note, and the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament particularly will always
do this for you, He’ll put these little notes in the story you’ll know and
you’ll be set up for what’s going to happen. So this note is important to understand
something is going to happen later. He
yelled, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. And all
the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning
Absalom.” And he commands each of these
three men, “and all the people heard,” notice that note, “all the people heard
when the king gave all the captains,” that means all three of the commanders of
A group, B group, C group, they all were there and they heard David orally give
that order.
Now the order, what did it say? “Deal gently,” now we’ve got to define that a
little bit; the Hebrew word occurs several places in Scripture, so let’s get a
flavor for this word so we can understand what he’s really after here. Turn to Genesis 33:14, here’s one occurrence
of this word, Jacob is asking permission of Esau to move through a large area
of land. So look what he says, “Let my
lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly….” Now it doesn’t mean he’s going tippy-toe so
that can’t be the meaning of the word.
Well then what is the meaning; let’s read further because he defines it;
he says, “lead on softly, according as the cattle that go before me and the
children be able to endure until I come unto my lord in Seir.” And the idea is that as he does this, he is
restricting his motion to the endurance of his people, he’s saying look, I
can’t rush this thing, we’ve got to gradually. So here the word has the word of
gradualness, but beyond that it means gradualness because of some sort of restriction,
some sort of limited condition.
Let’s look at another place, 1 Kings 21:27, a
little different context, it shows you something else about this word. Again it’s translated “softly” but it can’t
be that, Ahab has been confronted by Elijah and at this point he submits to the
authority of God’s Word. “And it came to
pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth
upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.” Again it doesn’t mean operation tippy-toe; it
means something else, and that something else is given in verse 28-29, “And the
word of the LORD came to Elijah, the Tishbite, saying, [29] Seest thou how Ahab
humbles himself before me? Because he
humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days…” So what does the word mean there? It means that Ahab limits himself to the
condition of God’s Word, so again it’s a limiting of one’s behavior pattern.
Finally, Isaiah 8:6, this gives you a real good
physical picture of what this adverb means.
“Forasmuch as this people refuse the waters of Shiloah, that go softly,”
now obviously he’s not talking about the water going softly, “and rejoice in
Rezin and Remaliah’s son, [7] Now therefore, behold, the Lord brings up upon
them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and
all his glory; and he shall come up over all its channels, and go over all its
banks.” So what does the word mean there?
It means a river that respects the boundaries, it doesn’t overflow. So you see what it means, it doesn’t mean
“softly,” what it means is to conform to restrictions.
Now turning back to 2 Samuel, when he says
“deal gently with Absalom” what he is saying is that when you are in combat, I
want you to always limit your combat, tie one hand behind your back and fight,
sort of like the United States, somebody in the state department must have been
reading 2 Samuel because ever since World War II we have fought our wars that
way, gently, with one hand behind our back.
Now this is an illustration of that same philosophy and mental
attitude.
Verse 6, “So the people went out into the field
against Israel: and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim;” scholars are not
clear as to where this wood is; we can make some deductions about it. One is that apparently it’s on the east side
over here, and it’s not a forest in the sense that we think of a forest, tall
pine trees and so on, that kind of thing, but it’s an overgrown area, and
there’s lots of ravines and crevasses in here,
and they’re all overgrown so it is very treacherous territory. Now watch it, David has this in mind, he drew
Absalom’s forces over and then apparently what he did, he took his three groups
and pinned them inside this forest. So
they couldn’t go across the river, they couldn’t go east, they couldn’t go
north and they couldn’t go south. He
just moved his units in and he trapped them all in the forest of Ephraim, and
the disaster then followed.
Verse 7, “Where the people of Israel were slain
before the servants of David, and there was there a great slaughter that day of
twenty thousand men.” You think of that
and compare the number of causalities we suffered from Vietnam. This is 20,000 in one day. It shows you the slaughter. Verse 8, “For the battle was there scattered
over the face of all the countryside,” literally, “and the wood” or the forest
of Ephraim, “devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.” Now how can a forest devour people. The point is, these people were falling into
the crevasses and killing themselves; they would run, thinking the ground was
all covered, and suddenly find themselves falling down into these ditches and
ravines. You see, it was very, very
treacherous ground. This is the
background for Absalom’s entrapment. Now
he himself is going to suffer in the forest of Ephraim.
Verse 9, “And Absalom met the servants of
David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs
of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up
between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went
away.” Obviously this puts him in a
highly vulnerable position. Verse 10,
“And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom
hanged in an oak.” Now he’s not hanging
here just by his head, obviously, or he’d be dead; he is actually holding on.
We can deduce this because he’s still alive when they show up; he’s holding on,
he’s got his head trapped in here. It’s
very appropriate because you see, he was such a proud king, so proud that God
says okay, you like to stick your nose up in the air, fine, catch it in an
oak. So he was sitting here, caught in
an oak trying to hold himself up because if he let go with his hands he would
hang himself, his neck would break. So
he’s holding up in this position, and this soldier sees him.
And in verse 11 we have a very interesting
interplay. “And Joab said unto the man
that told him, And, behold, thou saw him, and why didst thou not smite him
there to the ground? and I would have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a
buckle for your sword [girdle].” That
would have been my personal award to you for eliminating that so and so. [12] “And the man said unto Joab, Though I
should receive a thousand shekels of silver in mine hand,” notice they paid in
silver, not paper dollars, “yet would I not put forth mine hand against the
king’s son: for in our hearing the king charged thee and Abishai and Ittai,
saying, Beware that none touch the young man Absalom.” So here we have a breakdown in the orders,
and this is one case when disobedience to a superior, this is one case in the
Bible where God commends it; it was a jackass order. And this kind of order did not have to be
followed. This soldier was a legalist,
he followed the order, but he didn’t get the context of the order. Joab understands why that order was
given. He has been with David and he
understands this guy David has a maudlin sentimentality over his son.
Just to review for a moment, turn back to
13:39, remember what happened when Amnon was dealt with, how in verse 29, when
Amnon had been killed by Absalom, notice what verse 39 says: Absalom killed
Amnon, Amnon was David’s first son, these four sons, Amnon was his firstborn so
David put all his eggs in one basket, surely Amnon is going to be the crown
prince and the king. As I said before, just because you’re Christians and you
know that Solomon is going to be the seed of 2 Samuel 7, don’t read that back
into the text, because at this point in history, though the prophecy had been
given, it wasn’t tacked on to any one of David’s sons. Theoretically at this point Amnon could have
been the king. So don’t read your understanding back before this actually
happened. Just pretend you don’t know
that Solomon’s the king; it’s anybody’s guess at this point which son is going
to be king. So it says it kept “King
David from going forth unto Absalom; for he was comforted concerning Amnon,”
remember he mourned and mourned and mourned and mourned and he lost the chance
to deal effectively with Absalom. Well, now he’s doing the same thing.
And so Joab understands this, and he comes out
in verse 14, the soldier goes on and gives this big long explanation he has to
follow this order out, [13, “Otherwise I should have wrought falsehood against
mine own life: for there is no matter hid from the king, and thou thyself
wouldest have set thyself against me.]
And verse 14, “Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee” Now can’t you just see Joab saying that? Literally what it reads is: I’m not going to
waste my time with you, in other words, look, the guy is hanging over there in
a tree, apparently this is real close, and several things in the text indicate
that it’s not too far removed, probably within a hundred feet of where these
guys are talking, because “….he took three darts in his hand,” now the darts
didn’t become a military weapon until the captivity, so the darts that are used
here are just pointed sticks, and what it shows apparently is that Joab doesn’t
have his armor on right now, and he looks around, see, he’s mad, he’s got
Absalom in the tree and he’s trying to find something that he can use so he
just grabs three sticks, “and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while
he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.”
That demonstrates Joab’s attitude, and they go into his middle, probably
mortally wound him, but he doesn’t’ die yet, so verse 15, along come the armor
bearers, these are the men with Joab’s armor, and they go finish him off. [15, “And ten young men that bare Joab’s armor
compassed about and smote Absalom, and slew him.’] You can imagine what he
looked like after ten people hacked at him with swords.
Then a very significant thing happens in verse
16, “And Joab blew the trumpet,” now that’s the general order to break
contact. You say wait a minute, they’ve
got the people on the run, why are they breaking contact now, doesn’t that
violate the military principle of pursuit?
Yes it does, but this is another testimony, like the one I mentioned
earlier in the text, the issue is king versus king, not army versus army. Joab, now that Absalom is dead, he yells that
the issue has been resolved so he says break contact, this is the end of the
war, and he ends it right there, “and the people returned from pursuing after
Israel: for Joab held back the people.”
Notice that, he had to restrain his army, he called them out of the
woods.
Verse 1, “And they took Absalom, and cast him
into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him:
and all Israel fled every one to his tent.” that’s the classical way of burying
somebody you can’t stand. This is the
way Ai and they buried various people that were disobedient, Achan and others
Verse 18, “Now Absalom in his lifetime had
taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king’s dale: for he
said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar
after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom’s place.” The idea is that now the crown prince number
two has been killed and no seed, so slowly as the book of Samuel develops we have circumstance after
circumstance destroy, destroy, it’s a mystery of who is going to survive for
the throne.
And then finally an incident happens, and we
want to conclude with this last incident, after the battle of Ephraim, because
it shows David’s character once again.
Verse 19, “Then said Ahimaaz” remember he was one the espionage agents,
“the son of Zadok, Let me now run, and bear the king tidings, how that the LORD
hath avenged him of his enemies. [20] And Joab said unto him, Thou shalt not
bear tidings this day, but thou shalt bear tidings another day: but this day
thou shalt bear no tidings, because the king’s son is dead. [21] Then said Joab
to Cushi,” and there’s a problem here, why are there two messengers? It’s hard to tell, the only thing we can tell
is apparently the first boy, who was the son of Zadok, was a man who would be
caught, or at least Joab thought would be discriminated against for bringing
bad news. You see, the messenger of bad
tidings in the ancient world was usually punished in some way because he was
identified with what happened. And this
is his attempt to shield the son of Zadok from this behavior pattern. So he picks a servant, “Cushi” means the
negro, he had a negro servant, and he said, “Go tell the king what thou hast
seen. And Cushi bowed himself unto Joab, and ran.”
Verse 22, “Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok
yet again to Joab, But howsoever, let me, I pray thee, also run after Cushi.
And Joab said, Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou hast no
tidings ready? [23] But howsoever, said he, let me run. And he said unto him,
Run. Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran Cushi.” They both run, and in verse 24, “And David
sat between the two gates:” he’s back at his command post watching what’s going
to happen. Now he knows that the news is
going to come either by one or multiple messengers. Tradition is that if it comes by one
messenger, that’s the victory message; if it comes by many messengers, that’s
the message of defeat. See, if the army
had been defeated it would be helter-skelter, everybody would be running and so
many people would come. But if only one
messenger came, that would be the sign that it was an orderly communication
process, the army was still in tact. So
he “sat between the two gates: and the watchman went up to the roof over the
gate unto the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold a man
running alone.”
Verse 25, “And the watchman cried, and told the
king. And the king said, If he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth,” in
other words, tidings means good tidings of victory. “And he came apace, and
drew near. [26] And the watchman saw another man running,” this is the negro
who’s coming later, “and the watchman called unto the porter, and said, Behold
another man running alone. And the king said, He also bringeth tidings.” So now you see we have multiple runners, and
this clues David, there’s something wrong.
There wouldn’t be two runners coming from a battle. So now there’s this foreboding.
Verse 17, “And the watchman said,” and this is
a good one, “Me thinketh the running of the foremost is like the running of
Ahimaaz the son of Zadok. And the king said, He is a good man, and cometh with
good tidings. [28] And Ahimaaz called, and said unto the king, All is well.”
Now notice the diplomatic way he gets around David’s questions. “And he fell down to the earth upon his face
before the king, and said, Blessed be the LORD thy God, which hath delivered up
the men that lifted up their hand against my lord the king. [29] And the king
said, Is the young man Absalom safe?”
Notice the preoccupation, instead of rejoicing that his soldiers have
defeated his enemies, he’s worried about his son again. Is Absalom safe? “And Ahimaaz answered, When
Joab sent the king’s servant, and me thy servant, I saw a great tumult, but I
knew not what it was.” So he gets around
it but I don’t think he’s convinced David, because the king said you just stay
here, I see another messenger coming.
[30] “And the king said unto him, Turn aside, and stand here. And he
turned aside, and stood still. [31] And, behold, Cushi came; and Cushi said,
Tidings, my lord the king: for the LORD hath avenged thee this day of all them
that rose up against thee. [32] And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man
Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and all that
rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is.” So obviously announces that Absalom is killed
and slaughtered.
And beginning with this last verse of chapter
18 and extending through 19:8a we have the conclusion of this episode. It runs up through the first part of
19:8. He starts to his lament. David
goes into a tremendous lament, [33] “And the king was much moved, and went up
to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son
Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my
son, my son!” You can see the tremendous
emotional reaction of David to the thing.
Now at this point Joab, you know what his
attitude was because he just picked up those three sticks and let him have
it. 19:9, “And it was told Joab, Behold,
the king weeps and mourns for Absalom.”
Now there’s a parenthesis in the text, it begins with verse 2 and ends
at the end of verse 4, and this describes what Joab sees. See, Joab gets the message, verse 1, verse 2,
3 and 4 report to you what’s on Joab’s mind.
Verse 5 then tells you what Joab did.
Verse 2, “And the victory that day was turned
into mourning” or literally a funeral, “unto all the people: for the people
heard say that day how the king was grieved for his son. [3] And the people gat
them by stealth that day into the city, as people being ashamed steal away when
they flee in battle. [4] But the king covered his face, and the king cried with
a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!” The picture is that as David sat by the gate,
the tradition was that as they came in the gate there would be a parade, group
A, group B, group C, would march in formation through that gate and there would
be a tremendous victory celebration. And
what does Joab see? He comes in first as
the victorious commander and he walks in there and he finds David falling
apart, one of his sentimental moods, and all of his soldiers that he has lined
up outside the city walls for a parade are standing out there at parade rest,
ready to march in the city, and he hears this “O my son Absalom, my son, my son
Absalom” bit. And he’s got all his
soldiers in formation out here. So what
does he do, they break formation is what happened here, and one by one they
walk into the city. And he has to break
the whole parade, break everything down, and his soldiers walk in like they
were a defeated army. And this really
burns Joab, because he was out there fighting with them. So verse 5, 6 and 7 are one of the most
tremendous exhortation in God’s Word about how to have the proper attitude
toward your allies.
[5] “And Joab came into the house to the king,” by this time David’s inside the
house, “and said, Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy servants,”
this is given with tremendous vigor, he’s pointing his finger at David, he’s
mad, he’s angry. This is one of those
rare times in the Bible where a non-prophet addresses the king in this
language. Now usually a prophet will do
this, but never somebody under the king; this is a rare moment in the history
of the Old Testament. And the fact that
it is rare indicates its importance. He
says, “You have shamed this day the faces of all thy servants, which this day
have saved thy life, and the lives of thy sons and of thy daughters, and the
lives of thy wives, and the lives of thy concubines; [6] In that thou love
thine enemies, and hate thy friends. For thou hast declared this day, that thou
regards neither princes nor servants: for this day I perceive, that if Absalom
had lived, and all we had died this day, then it had pleased thee well.”
Now we don’t have to go far in American history
to see how we as a country have done verse 6 over and over and over again,
always love the enemy and hate the people that are loyal. The Hungarians, who gave their lives in the
face of Russian tanks were just mowed down while we diddled around. We love the Chinese communists more than the
South Korean soldiers that were being slaughtered in the Korean War. We love the North Vietnamese, we send aid to
replace their hospitals, more than some of the Montenyards that fought so
faithfully for the cause of freedom. So
we as a nation have done exactly what David is doing. Love your enemies and hate your friends.
Now in verse 7 he gives David an order, because
he sees his army falling apart and demoralized, and at this point, wonderful
point in history, Joab, if you wanted to characterize Joab, he’s an impulsive
man, but at this point the impulse is coupled with doctrine because Joab is the
kind of guy that has to take action; he sees the army, he sees something David
has become blind to, and that is that while David is preoccupied with his son,
the whole kingdom of God is falling apart.
We’re going to see how much next week when we get in a little bit later
section, how much the kingdom is already falling; the unity that was there is
now slowly disintegrating, while David just seems obsessed with his son, his
son, his son, the kingdom all around is disintegrating. So Joab says, “Now therefore arise, go forth,
and speak encouragingly [comfortably] unto thy servants: for I swear by the
LORD, if thou go not forth, there will not tarry one with thee this night: and
that will be worse unto thee than all the evil that befell thee from thy youth
until now.”
Verse 8, “Then the king arose, and sat in the
gate. And they told unto all the people, saying, Behold, the king doth sit in
the gate. And all the people came before the king: for Israel had fled every
man to his tent.” In other words, they
were inside the city, David sat on the place for parade review, and the army
marched by him; they had their parade after all, but it was only after this
[can’t understand word] from Joab.
Once again we see a principle that we can apply
in our lives. David preferred some
immediate pleasure, some immediate thing that was good in itself, perfectly
good in itself, to be concerned for his son, but he preferred that to God’s
kingdom, and God does not tolerate that.
Shall we bow for prayer.