Destination: 2 Samuel 11-24 | Skip Heitzig

[Music] behind me is the Temple Mount this is the scene for many of the stories in the Old Testament from Abraham to Zechariah before we begin our next flight of the Bible from 30,000 feet let's get this background second Samuel is the story of a man who was a strong leader a national hero and a sensitive songwriter but King David was also a flawed man and his humanity sometimes sabotage his life yet David knew enough of God's grace to repent so despite his sins to the very end David remained a man after God's heart this is the landscape we view in the book of second Samuel let's open our Bibles to 2nd samuel chapter 11 tonight and we'll go through 2nd samuel chapters 11 through 24 there's an interesting story and it's a true one about a wealthy contractor and he was the fella who was contracted to build what's called tombs prison in Manhattan in New York City it's a downtown prison in lower Manhattan so the contractor who was contracted built the prison and shortly thereafter he was arrested and convicted for forgery and escorted to spend time guess where in tombs prison the prison that he had built so as he is being escorted to his cell the cell of his own making he said to the guard who was taking him there when I built this place I had no idea that one day I would come here as an inmate well we're studying the life of David and tonight we discover that David is in a prison of his own making he's in a palace that he built but he's in a prison of his own lust inside the palace that he has built and it all comes to a head it seems that David had this problem all along but now that he has a little more power and authority and leeway with his life he takes liberties and it costs him and gives him troubled the rest of his days well just by way of review you may remember that first and second Samuel in the early Hebrew manuscripts were one book not two it was considered the book of Samuel Hass affair SHM well the book of Samuel first and second Samuel one book later on it became divided and it was seen as the first and second book of the kingdom or of the kingdoms plural the north and the south and then first Kings and second Kings were called the third and fourth book of the kingdoms so you follow me and then later on it was divided further into first and second Samuel first Kings second Kings first Chronicles second Chronicles etc well the period of time that were looking at tonight the 40 years of David's reign is all about David first and second Samuel their theme is principally on one character and that is David and tonight we looked at David's reign now remember he reigned from Hebron and then later on was coronated as king over Jerusalem and all of Israel became his people if you remember the outline of second Samuel it's as follows chapters 1 through 10 chapters 11 and 12 and then chapters 13 through 24 mark three sections of David's life David's triumphs David's transgressions which were going to cover tonight and David's troubles which were also going to cover those last two sections form this second half of the book now so far we have met some people that are important in David's life we met a guy by the name of Abner member Abner the son of nur Abner the son of nur was the commander-in-chief of ich bow sheth's army who was the son of King Saul and they tried to make him the king they try to give him the throne we also met a guy the name of Joab and Joab was the commander-in-chief of David's army and they were at odds with each other Abner and Joab then we met a guy by the name of ABBA shy and Asahel who were David's cousin we've met ish bow chef the son of Saul and mephibosheth remember him the son of Jonathan good I've got a kind of got a puzzle look at first but some of you are getting the answers that's good tonight we meet David you say excuse me we've already met David he's been around on some of the other stories we've looked at yeah but we're gonna meet him again this time we see David in a different light we see David not as the Great King David not as the ascending monarch David not as the sweet psalmist of Israel so much as David the failure and here's what I like about the Bible the Bible's brutally honest even about its heroes it doesn't embellish the story it doesn't make David out to be something that he's not it tells us the good point certainly a man after his own heart the sweet psalmist of Israel the great king for whom the kingdom will be named and Bethlehem will be named and Jesus will even derive a name the son of David but here we see David as the man yes after God's own heart but a man who failed and the Bible portrays all of its heroes in the same light tells us the good and the bad verse 1 it happened in the spring of the year were in chapter 11 verse 1 at the time when Kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah but now notice this David remained at Jerusalem it's the spring time and around the beginning of May in Israel a time when all of the rain ceased now when I say all of the rain there's basically a couple of different rainy seasons in that land and you've heard of them the early rain and the latter rain the Ouray and the mul cush as they say in the Hebrew and and the latter rains end by around May the rain is done it's summertime and it's wartime it's a it's the time that is seasonal for fighting I know it sounds weird but it's sort of like baseball season you know the mud dries out so chariots and people can run and okay it's it's kind of time to get the teams out and go to battle it's the time of the year it says when the kings go out to battle and David frankly has been a warrior all of his life and a very skilled warrior but he gets to a time in his life somewhere we think around middle age where he starts thinking differently wow you know war that's a young man's sport it's a young man's event I'm gonna stay home I've earned my right to stay home that was a mistake the warrior should have been out with his troops fighting the battle if he were what we're about to read wouldn't have happened or I'll put it this way if David would have been out on the battlefield with his troops he wouldn't have been in the bed with Bathsheba but he's getting a little Idol a little soft in his older years and he gets taken off guard and the enemy uses this period of idleness period of relaxation out of his routine to get him to stumble verse two it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house and from the roof he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful to behold now Jerusalem as the City was built upon hills and Kings where did they live on the top of the hill literally they built on the highest point they had the best view of anybody well if you lived on the top of a hill and the city is built descending upon the hill terraced houses if you walk out of your house like I am on this platform I can see the steps terracing down my viewpoint of all of you is quite clear I notice when your heads back and you're sleeping or you're looking elsewhere or you're writing something down I see a lot from this vantage point the King in Jerusalem walking out on top of his house would see everything plainly clearly now it's the springtime it's around May it was a hot May evening there was a woman who was bathing and David saw her and noticed the word he saw and the word behold he saw her and she was beautiful to behold those are two different words and I want you to mark them to see or to notice suggest just a glance he noticed her behold suggests a gaze at pondering he's checking her out he looks at her and then he should have gone like this whoa but he looked and went whoa he said whoa in the wrong direction and for him it will be a huge whoa well st. Augustine defined sin and the progression as a thought a form a fascination and a fall I thought a form a fascination and a fall it all begins with the thought something goes in your mind and you notice something you see something and then it forms an idea in intent followed by a fascination well what if I did this or that or could do this or that what she did this and that and for David he fell now I'm sure that David being King thought well nobody will know after all I am The King this will be nothing more than a one-night stand as he sees her he calls for her and they sleep together they have sexual relationships with each other the one-night-stand however turns into a pregnancy and when David discovers that Bathsheba is pregnant now begins his cover-up he sends for her husband who's out in the battlefield where David should have been brings Uriah the Hittite that's her husband's name back to the city of Jerusalem and butters if a Uriah dude what's happening good to see and he's doing like you don't even know who I am why am I here well I want to know how the battles going and I hear you're a great guy so listen tonight you deserve a rest go home with your wife spend the night with her now what is he doing we can see clearly he wants to get Uriah to go sleep with his wife so that when it becomes public knowledge that she is pregnant they'll say oh well sure her husband was home that night and now she ended up pregnant that doesn't work Uriah has more integrity says king I just don't feel right about doing that my brethren are out in the field fighting the battle and Here I am in a palace I don't deserve being in a palace I'm sure that shot an arrow to David's heart when he heard that so your Rio refused to go home he slept right outside with the servants of the palace the next night David thought I've got to do something so he feeds Uriah well he gets him drunk thinking he's in a drunken stupor he's naturally gonna go home he doesn't do it again he sleeps out with the palace guards now David resorts to murder and he places Uriah in the heat of the battle and as the story goes on Uriah the Hittite gets killed now we can see that one sin leads to another sin it's always this way you engage in one thing and you think well I can get by with a little more and then a little more and then a little more and pretty soon your life is a life of compromise not commitment and so his lust led to adultery his adultery led to a cover-up deception the deception led to entrapment the entrapment led to murder and so sin upon sin is piled up in David's life see how honest the Bible is there was a photographer some years ago and I loved to study photographs especially of good photographers one by the name of use of karsh photographed 90 famous people he called the series portraits of greatness and people that studied Cara's photography he by the way was a large-format 4 by 5 8 by 10 film medium photographer which gives brilliant detail and the people that studied his photographs noticed that Harsha's tour traits showed the bad sides of people's faces they noticed that 70 of the 90 people that he photographed had it so lit in the portrait that it showed off a wart or a zit or a cut just some blemish and Karsh was purposely trying to show the famous people warts and all that everybody is imperfect even the most famous and illustrious so the Bible does with its heroes verse 26 tells us when the wife of uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead she mourned for her husband and when her mourning was over David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord now you ponder that phrase and here is why sin is so expensive if anybody finds out or not sin is expensive because it will offend a holy God that is what sin is after all God is God and he's the one that calls it sin and because it offends God it displeases God it will have other ramifications as well but this is primarily why it's so damaging David when he is caught will write two psalms one of them is the psalm Nate read tonight Psalm 51 and down in verse 4 David says against thee thee only have I sinned and done this wickedness in your sight Lord this is offended been affected a lot of people but ultimately I realized that it has offended you it's displeased you there was a man who was at the mall with his wife and she was examining some merchandise and he's sort of tooling around like most men do and shopping sprees not really concentrating not really enjoying the experience and a shapely young woman walked by both of them and that man's eyes followed her across the store and when she exited the store his wife who did not look up from the merchandise she was examining but just could see in the periphery said to her husband well was it worth the trouble you're now in if sin ever worth the trouble you get in with God the feeling of emptiness the feeling of dislocation from God lack of fellowship the misery it's never worth it chapter 12 continues the saga this is again under that second heading of David's transgressions what you don't know is that between chapter 11 and chapter 12 is a period of about one year that's right one year David goes on as if nothing has happened doesn't confess his sin thinks nobody will find out he doesn't go to God at least we don't read that he does he doesn't go tell the Prophet but all the while during that year he is feeling empty isolated sickened you say well how do you know that skip it doesn't say so here you're right it doesn't say so here but it does in the second of those two Psalms the David wrote after this experience say so psalm 32 written also right after this experience with Bathsheba David said when I refused to confess my sin I was weak and miserable I groaned all day what's he referring to his conscience was bothering him ever had your conscience bug you bother you and until you get right what you need to get right it never lets up that's a god thing that's a good thing God gave you a conscience to bother you and if your conscience is tuned to Scripture it'll bother you and it's supposed to if it's not it could bother you for any reason and if you work hard at getting rid of it it's a dangerous thing you see it's sort of like this when you drive down the street you get in your car you're driving down the road hands on the wheel you're used to the car running what happens however if one day you get in the car and little lights start blinking on the dashboard it's a warning light that says something's wrong fix me now you could do a couple things number one you could go get it fixed or you could say well you know I don't want to right now it's a bother or I don't have money this paycheck I'll let it go by but every time you get the car blink-blink-blink bothersome so what you could do is you could carry with you in your glove compartment a small hammer and when the warning light goes off you could take the hammer out and you could fix the light by just smashing the light and it won't blink anymore from now on you won't have that bothersome appeal but you eventually will regret it and it will cost you a lot more when the engine seizes up or something goes wrong david has virtually smashed all of the warning lights in his internal system with his conscience he's tried to just put a cap on it but it keeps surfacing he doesn't go to God and so you know what God goes to him God goes to him via a guy named Nathan the Prophet Nathan the Prophet comes in the palace and because he's a man of God and a godly man David receives them and Nathan comes in and in verses 2 through 4 Nathan tells King David a parable he goes something like this hey King David I got a little problem there's this rich guy and he had exceedingly many flocks and herds he had so many animals you know he wouldn't miss a hundred but then there was this real poor guy he had only one little female sheep a ewe lamb in fact he loved this little lamb it was his pet and the lamb drank from his own cup and ate from his own table now that's kind of crazy but some people love their pets and and this lamb was this guy's pet it's like a daughter to him well the rich guy didn't want to take one of his own sheep because he had a friend coming over for dinner so he stole the poor man's sheep slaughtered it and fed his friend now David you're about to read gets tort I don't know if torts in the old King James probably not but David is deeply bothered by it now this is a parable why a parable well in the parable the rich man is the symbol of David the poor man is a symbol of Uriah and the little female Hugh lamb is a symbol of Bathsheba his wife why a parable why so discreet why third-person and said of just saying you're a sinner it's because David for a year hasn't been able to face his own sin so the Prophet effectually gets a verbal mirror a parable and holds it up to David and says David take a good hard look at the man in the mirror David go that guy's ugly yeah that's you that's what he's doing I heard a story about a church that was quarrelsome for its history they always chewed up their leadership their pastor had problems and left another pastor came and left another one came and left and it was their history for many many years so a new pastor came in tried to fix the church try to instill new programs finally he discovered this church is dead and they just won't tolerate it so he announced one Sunday morning ladies and gentlemen this church is dead and tonight we're gonna have a funeral for the church we're just gonna bury this thing give it a decent burial so I'd like you to come out to the funeral service for this church well it was odd thing to say then newspaper picked up on it the church that Sunday evening was packed packed out of curiosity people wanted to find out what's up what's the deal how do you bury a church well the church service open there was a casket in the front of the church and it was open and the pastor said this is our dearly beloved church in this casket it's a dead church and I want you to come and pay respects to the beloved and you'll find out as you look in the casket why this church died well the pastor had placed in the casket a mirror so that everybody in passing by the open coffin saw himself or herself it was a parable it was a very poignant lesson put in the third person to bring conviction that's what the Prophet does so David's anger verse five grew and was greatly aroused against the man this is the fictitious man in the parable and he said to Nathan as the Lord lives the man who has done this shall surely die now this is overkill he killed a lamb a little animal okay David I know you love animals you're mister animal rights King but you don't kill a man for killing a sheep notice and he shall restore fourfold for the lamb because he did this thing and because he had no pity now in Exodus chapter 22 the penalty is giving for somebody killing a lamb and that's it you restore it four times if it's an ox five if it's a lamb four times David said kill him and then make him pay well how's it gonna pay once he's dead anyway he's not thinking through he's just very emotional at this kill him and make him pay four fold and then Nathan said to David you are the man I've always been amazed at this story I picture a bony profit finger poked in the Kings face you are the dude thus says the Lord God of Israel i anointed you as king over Israel I delivered you from the hand of Saul I gave you your masters house your masters wives into your keeping and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah and if that had been too little I also would have given you much more and I'm sure at this point Dave is going man who told him how do you find that out oh it was God it was God there's an old saying that says secret sin on earth is open scandal in heaven you don't want to sin around a prophet like this guy God tells him stuff and the Prophet came to him David then at this point confesses his sin and he writes to Psalm Psalm thirty two Psalm 51 verse 13 so David said to Nathan I have sinned against the Lord Nathan said to David and the Lord also has put away your sin you shall not die confession however because of this deed that's a haunting word however but you're forgiven but oh now what because of this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also who was born to you shall surely die this brings up a point I don't want to elaborate fully on it here except to say that forgiveness is one thing consequences are another no matter what sin you've ever committed you can be forgiven but it doesn't mean you won't suffer consequences if a guy gets drunk and plays out in the street he might get a car running into him and break some bones it doesn't mean God's gonna heal him instantly a broken leg and a broken arm and a broken hand and broke a foot what's your ume well you know you're the idiot and there are consequences there are natural consequences that happen or if a person is promiscuous and contracts a sexually transmitted disease God is not obligated to heal he may out of his great mercy and grace the greatest thing however is forgiveness physical healing is temporary forgiveness is eternal so these are David's troubles in Chapter 12 the son dies chapter 13 the problems continue and I'll sum it up chapter 13 David's daughter Tamar is raped now follow me carefully because it gets a little convoluted she gets raped by her half-brother Amnon Amnon is the son of David Tamar is the daughter of David there's a guy introduced in the story Absalom who's also the son of David but they're not related directly you say this is crazy let me just sum this up David had eight wives so it makes everything messy from here on out no wonder he was so messed up eight wives he had a very convoluted household his personal life was a mess well Absalom was David's third son by his wife maja and Amnon who's mentioned in the story was David's son by aji know'm they were half-brothers to each other but Absalom and Tamar were full brother and sister Amnon and Tamar were half brother and sister so he rapes his half-sister in chapter 13 verse 1 after this Absalom the son of David had a lovely sister his name was Tamar and a Bandhan the son of David loved her now don't let the language fool you it says loved her because that's how he expressed it I love right can't live without her this is nothing more than hormones this is glands this isn't true love this is infatuation it's lust because watch this watch down in verse 15 after the rape notice then Amnon hated her exceedingly so that the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her and AM then said to her arise and be gone you know lust and hatred are closely related he violates her forces himself on her and then demands that she be gone what some people call love is really hatred for the other person I've got to have you we got to have sexual relationships I love you I love you I can't live without you he says to her let me trie translate that this is really what he means I don't really care at all about you I love me and I want you because I love me you're here and you can satisfy me now so it's not that I love you it's that I love me and because I love me I want you to satisfy me that's not love for the other person this explains and criminologists have discovered that women who are raped are frequently murdered by the assailant so he hates her and says get rid of her verse 21 but when King David heard of all these things he was very angry now that bothers me frankly okay David it's sort of like a postscript David heard about a go gosh do you know that just kind of makes me mad it's your daughter what would most dads do I'm gonna take this kid and I'm gonna show him how displeased I am either legally or physically just says he's angry why do you suppose he doesn't really act upon this sufficiently here's my guess he probably figured I lost all moral high-ground myself I lost the right to discipline my child in an area of sexual promiscuity that's me I can't do it I failed in this area I can't punish him and sometimes people who have a sordid past feel this way and I just want to address that briefly you might look back to a time where you send sexually or you sinned because of drug abuse or because of you had an abortion or whatever the case might be and so you feel like I can't lecture my son or daughter on this because I failed in this area and Satan I believe will whisper to you you have no right yes you do eh you're a parent and truth is truth and B you might be just the best example if you come up honest and say son daughter I failed in this area and I've regretted it ever since 2004 Larry King was interviewing a Paragon a great example of purity Ozzy Osbourne on television with his wife Sharon and to his credit he was very confessional in this meeting they just discovered that their daughter Kelly was addressed it for drug abuse and he came on the air in front of the whole world said you know what I'm a drug addict I'm a failure I blown it in this area and so I think I can speak to this and I think that's true I think when we have failed at certain areas and we can tell those who don't know what it's like but are involved or contemplating an involvement in that you can say let me tell you what it's like from the ground level because of our failures we might be just the ones to speak well as the story goes on an evil plot develops Absalom is determined to kill his brother because of what he's done to his sister as well as because if I get rid of him I might have to thrown myself that's what's in Absalom thinking verse 23 came to pass after two full years that Absalom had sheep shears in bale hay sore which is near Ephraim so Absalom invited all the king's sons now just a word about sheep shearing it doesn't sound too cool sheep shearing in the Old Testament among Israel was like Super Bowl Sunday it was a big deal everybody goes it's sheep shearing day dude yeah bring out the bud you know it's it's it's our day it was a big feast and people got together and did their thing and there was a feast that all the king's sons were to be a part of well Absalom kills Amnon now he runs away after he murders his half-brother verse 38 so Absalom fled and went to get and was there for three years and King David longed to go to Absalom for he had been comforted concerning Amnon because he was dead which takes us to chapter 14 where we have Joab now the general the commander of David's armed forces who sees in David a longing for a son Absalom he knows the David wants to have Absalom back he's he's fled to another country for asylum he longs to see a son there's been a rape now there's been a murder now there's this distance between he and his remaining son Absalom but he won't bring him back even though he longs for a son he knows that what is the punishment and the penalty for what he has done death the death penalty so he just leaves it alone doesn't touch it so joab hires a woman from Tekoa tacomas not far from jerusalem and she dresses up in black like she's mourning let me paint the picture for you and he goes she goes to King David and she was King David I have a real problem so David was still accessible to the people I have a real problem my husband is dead my two sons were having a fight and one of my sons killed my other son so now I only have one son left the rest of my family wants me to bring him out of hiding and kill him because the law says capital punishment for this offense David says don't worry not a hair from his head shall fall and she says to him King you're a hypocrite that was a parable just like Nathan second parable in the story she really didn't have a husband who died or a son who was murdered by another son she just said that to get the Kings read on it the King says don't worry I know everybody wants to kill him but we'll protect him not a hair of his head will fall and she says you hypocrite I told you about a fakes on a pretend son and a story you've got a real son who's exiled and you won't bring him out of exile well he figures what's up and look at verse 14 or chapter 14 verse 19 so the King said is the hand of Joab with you in all this and the woman answered and says as you live my lord the King no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the King has spoken for your servant Joab commanded me and he put all these words in the mouth of your maidservant verse 24 and the King said here's his adjudication on his son let him return to his own house but do not let him see my face so Absalom returned to his own house but did not see the king's face now in all Israel there was no one who was praised as much as Absalom for his good looks from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him and when he cut the hair of his head at the end of every year he cut it because it was heavy on him when he cut it he weighed the hair of his head at 200 shekels according to the Kings standard so you got a picture of this guy's very handsome and his hair grows at a rapid rate just long it's flowing it's luxurious and he gets a haircut once a year whether he needs it or not and every year comes up with four pounds of hair kind of a freak do you remember those troll dolls III just I'm giving you insight into my head now this is where my mind goes when I read some Bible verses I was reading this I'm thinking of those troll dolls which are these crazy ugly little beasts with this wild hair that comes out of course he was a good-looking kid with wild hair that came out and he's gonna get really hung up on his hair in a couple chapters as well see verse 24 and the King said let him return to his house again watch this but do not let him see my face so Absalom returned to his own house but did not see the Kings face okay now this is key to the story he comes home but there's no intimacy there's no resolution there's no fellowship David seems to have forgiven him doesn't forget the incident and refuses to restore or reconcile the relationship so now there's a distance instead of an embrace instead of talking it through and resolving it bitterness Fester's in the heart of this boy and eventually his son is so bitter at his father because of the lack of communication and forgiveness that he rebels and throws Kingdom David the king out of his kingdom I bet I'm addressing a father or a mother who's had a child blow it there's distance there and maybe you feel and maybe rightfully so very justified and I'm not gonna talk to him not gonna talk to her till they make the first move it's the way it is I'm right you know you can be dead right the relationship is dead and won't get any better till you humble yourself I had a father who was very distant and the distance grew I've told you about that until the time the Lord said to me you go to your father and make it right and he told me because I was the one who said I'm now a born-again Christian see how my life has changed and God was saying no he can't see how your life has changed till you get down on your knees then he'll see how your life has changed and parents need to do that you know it says in the Bible and in the book of Ephesians father's do not provoke your children to wrath or another translation says don't frustrate them don't exasperate them a lot of kids rebel because they're thinking in their minds my dad keeps telling me I'm a loser I'm gonna be one I'm gonna be a big one I'm gonna shamah to hurt him because of it this resentment is happening with these two chapter 15 comes this rebellion against the king again as good looks are brought up and a good looks camouflaged a bad heart chickens are now coming home to roost in David's life you may recall in chapter 12 that part of the sentence on David or the inevitable the Lord said I will raise up listen to this I will raise up an adversary in your own house that's Absalom verse 2 Absalom would rise up early and he'd stand beside the way to the gate this is the Kings gate and so it was whenever anyone had a lawsuit came to the king for a decision Absalom would call them and say what city are you from and he'd say your service from such-and-such a tribe in Israel and Absalom would say look your case is good and right but there's no of the King to hear you moreover Absalom would say oh that I were made judge in the land and everyone who had any suit or cause would come to me I would give him justice so it was whenever anyone came near to bow down to him he would put out his hand and take him and kiss him sounds like he's running for office doesn't it it's amazing how gregarious politicians get about this season they'll do anything they'll promise you everything they'll kiss your babies shake your hands I'll solve the world's problems and it gets weary to any of us who have suffered through election after election after election after election after election I got to tell you I'm gonna vote god willing we get a good candidate but more and more more and more I'm becoming much less of a Republican or a Democrat my position I'm a theocratic for Jesus Christ to come and take over then there will be peace on earth goodwill to men and problem solved till then I'll be a responsible citizen but I got to tell you I bite my lip and go even so come quickly Lord Jesus in this manner Absalom acted toward all of Israel who came to the King for judgment so Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel what a great politician he is verse 10 Absalom sent spies about all of the tribes of Israel saying as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet then you shall say Absalom rains in Hebron and with Absalom went 200 men invited from Jerusalem and they went along innocently and did not know anything okay now watch this where does Absalom begin his rebellion heparin where was David first crowned king for the people in Hebron same place why why does Absalom go to Hebron I can think of two reasons reason number one out of sight out of mind don't do it in Jerusalem move yourself a few miles away the King won't notice it as much you can get by with a lot more reason number two and I believe this is really at the heart of it he would have found in Hebron some sympathizers who were really angry at David you know why David was crowned in Hebron but moved the capital to Jerusalem I I know in my heart that there were some disenfranchised people who were still mad that they didn't get included because the kingdom was moved from Hebron to Jerusalem he would have found some sympathizers Absalom would have in that town well in this chapter David flees from Jerusalem the hearts of Israel were stolen by Absalom David leaves you know why David leaves he resigns as king he resigns and I'm sure it shocked the people he did it because he loved the city of Jerusalem and did not want to see the city of Jerusalem become the center of bloodshed and have the people at the cross fire which would have happened if David he could have stayed there and fought but he leaves to spare the city of Jerusalem also David David was pretty good at being a fugitive remember Saul chased him around for about 10 years so he knew how to handle himself out in the sticks so he gets up and he chapter 16 and 17 runs away over the Mount of Olives out into the wilderness okay now as David leaves the King resigns there's a coup going on with Absalom but God is at work there were a couple of counselors in the court of the King now ruled by Absalom Absalom remember has taken over there's one guy named a hitter fell a hipa fell was a brilliant strategist and King Absalom says an FFL what do you think I should do I hit the fellas I know exactly what she had to do what she should do is immediately send an army out quickly send men after David and just take him by surprise preemptively kill him it'll surprise him well Absalom thinks about it yeah that sounds good but he turns to another guy named who Shai the archite and he says what do you think I should do and he says oh I disagree I think what you should do is not chase David immediately out in the fields but give him a little time David's a warrior remember he's been doing this for years you haven't been he knows how to fight you take him now you'll be dead meat so what you ought to do is organize an army first and then you should go to battle with the army that you organized now he's doing this on purpose he's loyal to David and so in verse 14 Absalom and all the men of Israel said the advice of who Shai the archite is better than the advice of a HIPPA fell push I was loyal to David he thought I'm gonna come up with a plan the King will buy it but it'll give David time to get out of town and notice why verse 14 tells us at the end for the Lord had purpose to defeat the good advice of a if L - the intent that the Lord might bring disaster on Absalom I wonder if you believe this God is sovereign even in war it's a tough one to swallow it's tough especially if you have a son or daughter in war that God is sovereign even in war and David is helped by a friend who stayed to spy he was a mole but God used that to overturn the counsel of a hipa fell God is sovereign there's a great story I don't only have time to relate the highlights there was a Israeli spy named le Cohen back in the 1960s born in Egypt get this born in Egypt raised in Argentina moved to Syria and was a spy for Israel the Mossad the Secret Service hired him to watch the Syrians because the Syrians were trying to advance on the Golan Heights and take the northern border Elie Cohen and he had his name changed he was living in Damascus Syria at the time got really close to the Parliament of Damascus and would get intelligence from them because they thought that he was one of them and then he would send by Morris code every day updates to Israel one day they were out on the Golan Heights the Golan Heights in the summertime can get blisteringly hot and he was out there he persuaded some of the leaders of the Parliament of Syria to get up on the Golan Heights with him and they were discussing the problem of the troops they had 70,000 troops stationed in the Golan Heights and one of the guys said you know it gets so hot up here but we can't provide any shade you know nothing really grows and we can't put you know make shelters fast enough and Elie Cohen said you know you here's an idea to plant some trees they said plant trees what trees grow fast enough he says well there is a tree that Israel uses called the eucalyptus tree that drains water quickly and advances in growth very rapidly faster than all these other trees plant eucalyptus trees they did and the trees grew very rapidly in clumps in clusters and the troops the 70,000 troops were so grateful and then he with Morse code said to the Israelis hey next time your troops are up on the Golan Heights and Syria is attacking you just aim your mortars for the groups of eucalyptus trees so your targets just wherever you find clumps of eucalyptus trees just don't shoot anywhere else but there and he effectively wiped out the Syrian troops well he was discovered and he was hung and there's a little books the fascinating read called our man in Damascus it's the life story of LA Cohen but it's how God used this man to allow Israel to maintain the Covenant land that God gave to her fascinating story chapter xviii records the fight between David and Absalom the army against army again David a skilled warrior divided his troops up into three different brigades a very ancient tactic and in fighting wars he wanted Absalom alive however but verse nine Absalom met the servants of David Absalom rode on a mule the mule went under a thick boughs of a great terebinth tree this large oak in his head caught in the terebinth so he was left hanging between heaven and earth and the mule which was under him went on now I'm sure when this happened he's thinking should have got the yearly haircut Joab the commander of David's army sees him kills him contrary to what the King said verse 33 the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and he wept and as he wept he said oh my son Absalom my son my son Absalom if only I had died in your place o Absalom my son my son I find that tragic I find it tragic that this father and this son never reconciled I've watched this I've been in emergency rooms I've been in hospitals and I've watched faces drop and live shattered when the doctor comes out and says I'm so sorry we couldn't save her we tried everything to preserve her life she's dead he's dead and that father or mother or son or daughter or brother or sister left living mourns not just the death but the emptiness of never being able to even have a word that would slightly touch at reconciliation and when it's all said and done when it's all over with there's a lot of things when it's all over with that won't matter won't matter where you lived what car you drove how big your bank account was what school your son or daughter or you went to but the world may be a better place maybe a change place if you get involved with the life of a young boy or a young girl and invest in that life rather than this chapter 19 and 20 is the recovery after Absalom his death the weakening of relationships between the north and the south start here I'm gonna read just a couple verses because of time but know this there's been a leadership vacuum since David's departure absalom's rebellion there's been a vacuum of leadership and people always are looking for that verse 1 chapter 20 there happened to be there a rebel whose name was Sheba the son of Bick Rhea Benjamite all those were wildly Benjamites and he blew a trumpet I don't know why I said that it just sort of fit saw was a Benjamite he blew the trumpet and he said we have no share in David nor do we have inheritance in the son of Jesse every man to his ten so Israel so every man of Israel departed from David followed sheba the son of bichri but the men of Judah from Jordan as far as Jerusalem remained loyal to their king now this I read because I want you to just remember this this is a preview of coming attractions if you wonder why later on when Rio Boehm is the king and this fella Jeroboam comes and starts dividing north and south it all started here with a leadership weakening with Absalom and David started here and you'll see it develop okay Sheba rebelled they pursue him he rides up north seeks asylum goes to a town long story short the troops of Israel go around the city they're gonna destroy a place called Abell beth maachah that's the name long name for a little town they're about to level the walls and destroy the city to get one guy so there's a wise woman inside the wall and says hey Joab you're Joab right yeah well let me tell you something this town has been a peaceful wise town for a long time so here you are about ready to destroy a whole town to get one guy you're gonna wipe out God's inheritance I got a good idea why don't we cut his head off and throw it out to you make it easy he goes cool so they cut his head off the woman grabs a toss her over the wall Joab is happy amazing what's in the Bible it's in there chapter 23 and 24 the final days of David or the final words 23 verse 1 these are the last words of David thus says David the son of Jesse thus says the man raised up on high the anointed of God of Jacob the sweet psalmist of Israel I wish I had time to do a sermon on that verse that's a beautiful one sentence biographical sketch on King David how God turned a kid into a king Shepherd into a sovereign these are the names of the mighty men whom David had jashub Basha Beth don't use that one for your next son the TaqMan eye chief of the captains he was called a dino a Dino's kind of cool the Ezra is right because he had killed 800 men at one time so it's a whole gallery of 37 of David's heroes his buddies who worked with him and all the last chapter chapter 24 is a chapter of sin and mercy David's in God's mercy and you have homework you have to discover this answer why does this chapter say that the Lord incited David to number the people of Israel and the accountant Chronicle says seyton inside the David to number the people that's your homework I know the answer I'm just giving you homework because it's a fascinating answer it's a beautiful beautiful answer when you discover why that is it's not a conflicting report at all it's actually a very dovetailed synopsis of the account Kingswood number people they would take a census they wanted to find out how many people wide to tax them number two when they needed an army David did it his motivation that God allowed that Satan incited was to find out how strong he was for prideful reasons instead of trusting the Lord it was for prideful purposes David was right he confesses his sins he tells the Lord I'm the one who has done it verse 15 the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from morning till the appointed time from Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men of the people died in the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord relented from the destruction and said to the angel who was destroying the people it's enough restrain your hand the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite why is that thrown in there because the temple built by Solomon will stand upon the threshing floor of Araunah the top of Mount Zion where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac where the Temple Mount is still today the most contested piece of real estate on planet Earth is the threshing floor of Araunah the big schism and debate of world powers between Arab nations Islamic nations and Israel much of it is over this piece of real estate verse 25 and will close David built are an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings so the Lord heeded the prayers for the land and the plague was withdrawn from Israel as you close your bibles and as you open your heart and I do to the Lord remember this when it comes to sin that we discover in your life in my life do three things admit it admit it three hard words I was wrong followed by another three hard words to say I am sorry admit it number two leave it leave it see the woman on the housetop don't ponder Oh interesting I find myself in an awkward moment me maybe I maybe I should witness to her no don't witness to her run from her admit it leave it here's a third replace it replace that activity with a wholesome godly activity

Channel: Skip Heitzig

Views: 3,481

Rating: 4.8333335 out of 5

Keywords: How to study the Bible, How to read the Bible, Jesus, Skip, Skip Heitzig, How to know God, 2 Samuel, David, transgressions, strengths, weaknesses, a man after God's own heart

Id: j0QAwr85Rcc

Length: 60min 52sec (3652 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2019