Sermon
2 Samuel 20 - A gory look at the horror of sin
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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If you're visiting with us this morning, let me tell you that we have been working our way through the book of 2 Samuel together on Sunday mornings, and we have arrived at chapter 20.
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The story so far, in very, very brief terms, the story of 2 Samuel is the story of King David, Israel's most famous king.
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And in recent times, he has had a difficult time because his eldest son Absalom had rebelled against him, had turned him out of his palace, turned him out of Jerusalem, and taken the kingdom from him.
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Then what we found is that actually David and his army were able to conquer Absalom and his army.
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Absalom got caught in a tree by his hair and dangled there and was killed, and David recovered the kingdom and went back to Jerusalem.
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And that's where we left it, and now we're picking it up in chapter 20.
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So let me read 2 Samuel chapter 20 to you.
2 Samuel 20 chapter mention
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Now, a troublemaker named Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there.
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He sounded the trumpet and shouted,
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We have no share in David, no part in Jesse's son, every man to his tent, Israel.
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So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Sheba, son of Bichri.
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But the men of Judah stayed by their king all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
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When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace and put them in a house under guard.
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He provided for them, but had no sexual relations with them.
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They were kept in confinement till the day of their death, living as widows.
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Then the king said to Amasa,
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Summon the men of Judah and come to me within three days.
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Be here yourself.
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But when Amasa went to summon Judah, he took longer than the time the king had set for him.
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David said to Abishai,
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Now Sheba, son of Bichri, will do us more harm than Absalom did.
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Take your master's men and pursue him, or he'll find fortified cities and escape from us.
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So Joab's men and the Kerethites and the Pelethites and all the mighty warriors went out under the command of Abishai.
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They marched out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba, son of Bichri.
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While they were at the great rock in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them.
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Joab was wearing his military tunic and strapped over it at his waist was a belt with a dagger in its sheath.
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He stepped forward.
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It dropped out of its sheath.
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Joab said to Amasa,
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How are you, my brother?
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Then Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.
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Amasa was not on his guard against the dagger in Joab's hand,
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and Joab plunged it into his belly and his intestines spilled out on the ground.
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Without being stabbed again, Amasa died.
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Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba, son of Bichri.
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One of Joab's men stood besides Amasa and said,
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Whoever favours Joab and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab.
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Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road,
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and the man saw that all the troops came to a halt there.
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When he realised that everyone who came up to Amasa stopped,
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he dragged him from the road into a field and threw a garment over him.
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After Amasa had been removed from the road,
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everyone went on with Joab to pursue Sheba, son of Bichri.
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Now Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel Beth Malach,
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and through the entire region of the Bichrites,
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who gathered together and followed him.
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All the troops with Joab came and besieged Sheba in Abel Beth Maka.
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They built a siege ramp up to the city,
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and they stood against the outer fortifications.
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While they were battering the wall to bring it down,
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a wise woman called from the city,
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Listen! Listen! Tell Joab to come here so that I can speak to him.
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He went towards her, and she asked,
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Are you Joab?
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I am, he answered.
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She said, Listen to what your servant has to say.
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I am listening, he said.
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She continued,
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Long ago, they used to say,
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Get your answer at Abel.
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And that settled it.
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We are the peaceful and faithful in Israel.
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You are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel.
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Why do you want to swallow up the Lord's inheritance?
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Far be it from me, Joab replied.
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Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy.
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That is not the case.
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A man named Sheba, son of Bichri,
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from the hill country of Ephraim,
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has lifted up his hand against the king, against David.
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Hand over this one man, and I will withdraw from the city.
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The woman said to Joab,
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His head will be thrown to you from the wall.
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Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice,
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and they cut off the head of Sheba, son of Bichri,
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and threw it to Joab.
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So he sounded the trumpet,
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and his men dispersed from the city,
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each returning to his home.
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And Joab went back to the king in Jerusalem.
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Joab was over Israel's entire army.
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Benaniah, son of Jehoiada,
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was over the Kerithites and the Pelethites.
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Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.
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Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was recorder.
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Sheba was secretary.
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Zadok and Abitha were priests.
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And Ira the Jerrite was David's priest.
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Well, keep that passage open.
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Let me pray and ask for the Lord's help as we consider it together.
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Lord, we pray now, acknowledging our need of you and our weakness,
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we pray that you might help my words this morning to be useful and effective.
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We pray that you might be at work by your spirit in our hearts,
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that we might hear you speak to us from these ancient words.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
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Amen.
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What I want to try and show you this morning
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is that the horror of Amasa's murder
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is right at the center of the passage.
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In other words, I think that the really gruesome picture
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of a man by the side of the road,
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wallowing in his blood with the intestines spilled out,
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is exactly what 2 Samuel, inspired by the Spirit of God,
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wants us to be mostly thinking about this morning.
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And I want just to show you two ways that he does that for us this morning.
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The first one is by using some clever symmetry.
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Let me try and show you what I mean.
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If you look down at the passage,
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you might notice that it begins and ends with a trumpet sounding.
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In verse 1, Sheba, the son of Bichri, the Benjamite, blows a trumpet.
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We're told that he is a worthless man.
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He is a troublemaker.
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And he's from the same tribe as Saul.
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It's pretty clear that he wants nothing to do with David's kingdom.
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So he blows a trumpet to gather the troops for war.
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Then down in verse 22, at the end of the passage,
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Joab is also blowing a trumpet to bring the fight to an end.
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By this point, Sheba's head has been thrown over the wall of the city of Abel.
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And so Joab's mission is completed.
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But the symmetry continues.
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Not only does the story begin and end in the same way,
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if you come to the next verses, to verse 3,
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we are told how David deals with his concubines who Absalom has defiled.
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David makes them live in widowhood.
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I don't think we're to understand here that David is being cruel.
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Rather, I think we're to understand that these women are innocently caught up
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and damaged by all that is going on.
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Now, dealing with those innocent women is matched in symmetry
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by what goes on towards the end of the passage,
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that Joab's pursuit of Sheba is concluded not by him,
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but also by another innocent woman, the wise woman of Abel.
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Sheba has fled to that city for safety,
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and Joab and his men are trying to pull the city down to get him out.
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And this wise woman calls to Joab, telling him,
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listen, this city that you're just about to destroy,
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this is a good place.
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We are good people.
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We are faithful people.
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And you are destroying and swallowing up part of Israel's heritage.
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I'll be it for me, says Joab.
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All I'm after is that one guy.
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She says, leave it with me.
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And she goes to the city and she says,
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if we throw this guy's head over the wall,
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everything will be all right.
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And so she does that.
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And then so you've got the symmetry between that woman
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and the innocent concubines caught up in the mess of Absalom.
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And she, coming further in, the symmetry continues.
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So then back at the beginning of the passage in verse four,
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you've got David telling Amasa,
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who he's appointed over his army to gather the troops.
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He's given a deadline to do it.
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And verse five tells you that he tries to do it,
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but he can't seem to get it together.
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He doesn't return in the requisite three days.
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And David asks Abishai in the end to gather the army.
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The people follow the old commander,
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who David has tried to sack, Joab later on in the story.
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It's matched then in symmetry with Joab's success
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in verses 11 and 15,
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that he is able to gather an army where the other guy, Amasa, was not able to.
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So there you go.
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You've got symmetry working in.
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And that means that right at the heart of the story,
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you have this really unpleasant murder of Amasa by Joab,
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Amasa's body wallowing in its blood.
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But it's not just the symmetry that makes this point.
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It also makes sense of why there is so much detail at this point of the story.
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The story really slows down as we think what we're reading is the story of another coup against David.
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But it turns out that it's not really about that at all.
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Actually, where the story really slows down is by the great rock of Gibeon.
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Now, the great rock of Gibeon in verse 8 is only a few miles north of Jerusalem.
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Abel, the city that they're traveling to eventually, is right up in the far north of the region.
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So the point the writer's making to you is, listen, they haven't got very far yet.
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They've only just set off.
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So Amasa might be late, but he's not actually that late.
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Not late enough to justify what happens.
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Next then, in a kind of weird turn of events, you get the detail of Joab's outfit.
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It's Joab, we're told, is wearing a soldier's uniform, which is perhaps not that surprising given what his job is and given where he's going.
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But the writer wants you to know that his uniform is held together by a belt, a belt which has a sword, probably a dagger attached to it.
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And then you're given the detail of Joab's kind of military skill and cunning.
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He seems deliberately to allow the dagger to fall to the ground as he approaches Amasa.
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Oh, it just fell out on the floor just in front of him.
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Interesting detail.
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He picks it up with his left hand, which again just seems a slightly pointless detail.
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But in a world of right handedness, someone holding a sword in their left hand meant that they weren't going to attack you because they couldn't.
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But that means that Amasa is unguarded when Joab goes in for a kiss, holding his beard with his right hand and goes to kiss him and then stabs him in the stomach with his left hand and spills his intestines to the ground.
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No second blow, you're told, as if you needed that detail.
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Amasa's guts are on the floor.
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He's dead, wallowing in his blood.
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Now, I know that that's gross.
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In fact, it's so gross, isn't it?
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Verse 12 is so gross that people walking past get kind of distracted by Amasa.
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So much so that they get held up and one of Joab's men ends up pulling his body out of the way and covering him up so that people aren't distracted.
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But for you and I, as we read the story, what we're to notice is that the whole story is swinging on Amasa's death.
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Not so much, I don't think, because the writer of 2 Samuel is like some kind of horrible histories guy who thinks that these physical gruesomeness are the funny parts of history and you might be mostly interested in that.
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No, the point is that you notice the wickedness of this.
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The writer is saying to you, listen, notice Amasa in his blood, because if you notice that and see what's going on there, you will see a portrait of the sinfulness of sin, the wickedness of wickedness.
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Chadwick and Freeman, who are two scholars, have written a book on the manners and customs of the Bible.
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An interesting book, I am sure, but I only really looked at this bit about Joab's actions.
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They say this of Joab's actions, taking hold of someone's beard and kissing his cheek was customary oriental greeting.
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Just for the record, it's not a greeting today.
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Don't do this to me at the door or to anyone else who has a beard.
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So taking hold of someone's beard and kissing them on the cheek was a customary oriental greeting.
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By so doing, Joab showed the base treachery of his heart by coming to Amasa as a friend and thus entirely concealing his murderous intent.
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This is the wickedness of wickedness.
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The wickedness is supposed to shock you.
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Here is not so much a gruesome murder or not just a gruesome murder, but a selfish, self-interested commander.
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An army commander who is so angry at his demotion from army captain that he is willing to take matters into his own hands, literally slaughtering in cold blood.
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A man who is on his side, who he pretended to be friendly with.
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In other words, the horror at the center of the passage is not just the blood and guts of Amasa, but the horror of Joab's heart.
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The human heart, that it can be so full of its own self-importance, its own desires for glory, that it would go to such lengths of deception that we see here.
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Now, I think it's probably fair to say that if Joab had read 2 Samuel, he would be quite shocked by this definition of the events.
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Right. I think if Joab was writing 2 Samuel chapter 20, he wouldn't focus here, would he?
2 Samuel 20 chapter mention
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I'm sure the focus would be on the way that he was able to gather the troops in a way that Amasa was not able to.
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I don't suppose Joab was a journaling type, right?
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He doesn't have that kind of aura about him, does he?
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But if he did write a journal, he'd write, dear diary, today, I smashed it.
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Absolutely smashed it.
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Amasa, worthless guy.
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Rubbish.
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He wasn't able to gather the troops.
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I was.
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I was.
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I persuaded the city of Abel to throw the head of this nasty guy, Sheba, over the wall.
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I absolutely killed it today.
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It was amazing.
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I think that's what he'd think.
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But when, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the history actually gets written, what do we find?
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Well, God is not so concerned with a day of victory, but a day of treachery.
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And so much so that the sinfulness of Joab's heart becomes the focus of 2 Samuel 20.
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I think there's a metaphor, isn't there, for this in the way that Amasa's body is pulled off the road and covered up with a garment, which stops people seeing it.
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It's like the definition of an inadequate cover-up of sin.
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You know, he, like, just drags the body out of the way and throws a coat over it, as if that covers it over.
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But it doesn't really, does it?
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Because the whole story is focused in on it.
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You can't hide the wickedness of Joab's heart by dragging the body to the side and throwing the coat over it.
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Now, that I suggest to you is the story, but think with me, what does it mean?
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What does it mean?
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Why would you have a story like this in the Bible?
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Why is that the focus of the passage?
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Well, let me suggest to you that the detail of the passage is here,
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because the question that you and I are being posed with this morning from 2 Samuel 20 is this.
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Where is your Amasa?
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Where is your Amasa?
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What is it that you or I in selfish envy have done that we've dragged off to the side of the road
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and thrown a blanket over it in the hope that no one will notice?
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Because 2 Samuel 20 wants to say, no, let's just bring that back into focus for a moment.
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Let's not ignore it.
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Let's not think that it doesn't matter.
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Let's talk for an uncomfortable moment about the wickedness of sin.
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You see, I think the uncomfortable truth is that for all of us,
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our lives are actually littered with the evidence of envy, pride and self-interest.
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And though we tell ourselves that it doesn't matter,
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2 Samuel 20 wants to stop us in our tracks and say,
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I know you think this doesn't matter very much,
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but pause, will you, and think about it and think about the horror of it.
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Let me try and show you how Jesus makes the same point in Mark chapter 7.
Mark 7 chapter mention
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You might want to turn to it in your Bibles.
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It will come up on the screen behind us.
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Let me read to you these words of Jesus from verse 14.
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Jesus says this,
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Again, Jesus called the crowd to him and said,
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Listen to me, everyone, and understand this.
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Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them.
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Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.
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And after he had left the crowd and entered the house,
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his disciples asked him about this parable.
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Are you so dull?
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He asked.
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Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them?
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For it does not go into their heart, but into their stomach and then into the body.
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And saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.
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He went on,
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What comes out of a person is what defiles them.
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For it is from within, out of a person's heart,
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that evil thoughts come, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed,
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malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly.
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All these evils come from inside and defile a person.
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Now, Jesus here is talking at first to a crowd of religious Jews and their leaders,
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people who thought that they were winning at life,
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because on the outside, as far as anyone could tell,
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as far as you and I could tell if we'd seen them or met them,
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they were good people.
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They kept the rules.
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They looked good.
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But Jesus says to them in one of the most penetrating paragraphs in the New Testament,
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listen, on the inside, you're dirty and unclean.
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And he hits them with a list of terrible things,
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which are not imposed on people from the outside,
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but come from the inside out.
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Just have a look at the list with me.
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Evil thoughts.
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Sexual immorality is the Bible's catch-all word
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for all sexual activity outside of the marriage of a man to a woman.
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From pornography, lust, to adultery and casual sex.
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Theft, murder.
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Adultery, again, in case you missed it the first time around.
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Greed, wanting more and more.
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Malice, deceit or treachery.
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Sensuality or lewdness, as in crudeness, perverted talk, rude joking.
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Envy, slander, literally blasphemy.
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Not towards God so much here,
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but as words spoken with the intent to damage someone's reputation.
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Pride or arrogance and foolishness.
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These, says Jesus, these are the motives of the human heart.
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These are the driving forces of our lives
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that flow out from us into our actions.
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It's not hard, is it, if you come back to 2 Samuel 20
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to see which ones of those are at play in this chapter.
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Murder, deceit, foolishness, pride for a start.
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But I want us just to zoom in on the word envy here.
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The word envy in the New Testament here is literally evil eyes.
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In other words, envy is not so much looking at something
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that someone else has and saying,
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I want that for myself.
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That is jealousy, right?
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Envy is different to jealousy.
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Envy looks at something that someone else has and says,
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I want to see the pain of them losing it and me gaining it.
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Do you understand the difference?
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Envy looks at the joy or the happiness
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that someone else is enjoying and says,
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I will not be happy until they are miserable.
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Until they lose it and I gain it, I will not be happy.
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And Jesus says, incredibly,
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that is what the human heart is like.
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In its twisted sinfulness,
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it is persuaded that the happiness of the human heart,
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my happiness depends upon your unhappiness.
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Happiness.
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That's Joab, isn't it?
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In 2 Samuel chapter 20.
2 Samuel 20 chapter mention
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Joab, notice Joab doesn't just want to be
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the most important person in David's army.
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At no point in 2 Samuel 20 is Joab waving his hand saying,
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David, give me my job back.
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I really want my job back.
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He doesn't actually care so much about getting his job back.
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He cares that Amasa doesn't have it.
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That's what he wants.
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He envies, he evil eyes Amasa,
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even to brutally killing him.
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And the horror of 2 Samuel chapter 20
2 Samuel 20 chapter mention
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is the horror of human envy.
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The glory bloodbath that the human heart plays out.
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Now let me suggest as gently as I can to all of us,
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me included,
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that this is exactly how envy works today.
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And it's still as horrific as it ever was.
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Maybe you look at a friend
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and it's not just that you want their good looks.
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It's that you are bitterly angry that they have them.
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Their good skin, their beautiful hair,
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their nice clothes,
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their lots of friends.
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Makes you angry.
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Twists you up inside in a way that you can't describe,
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in a way that you suppress
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and you dare not speak of.
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Maybe at work,
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it's not just that you want to be promoted.
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It's not just that.
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It's how dare they promote them.
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They don't deserve it.
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They're lazy good for nothing.
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And you won't be happy until it's taken from them.
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You know, it's not just that I'm heartbroken
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that my children and my grandchildren
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don't follow the Lord.
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I'm resentful that their children
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seem to follow the Lord.
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They're terrible Christians.
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Why have they got children
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who want to come to church?
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Grandchildren who want to hear about Jesus?
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They don't deserve it.
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I think you can see this kind of envy
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in our culture as well,
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in the way that our culture
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views the rights of the individual.
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So that if there's a choice
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between the life that I planned,
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the happiness that I think I deserve,
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and the life of an unborn child,
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I will choose my happiness
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and not their life.
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I think it's the same
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with the assisted suicide bill
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that's going to come before Parliament.
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It will open the door, won't it,
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for relatives pursuing their happiness
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at the expense of their relatives' lives.
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My happiness at the cost of you.
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And 2 Samuel 20 says,
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listen, this kind of envy,
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it's a bloodbath.
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It's a bloodbath.
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And it will be.
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And 2 Samuel 20 says to you and I this morning,
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listen, I know this is uncomfortable
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and I know this is gross
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and I know you don't want to think about it,
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but look, will you think about it for a moment?
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Will you think about the fact
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that your heart is full of this kind of envy?
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That my heart is full of this kind of envy?
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Will you just for a moment
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not try and cover it up?
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Will you just have a look
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at what envy does to you?
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Will you have a look
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at what envy does to your culture?
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Will you have a think
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about who your amasses are?
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And I think perhaps
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the most uncomfortable thing
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about 2 Samuel 20
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is that it does nothing
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to resolve it for you, does it?
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It just leaves you there.
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If you want,
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you could summarise the message
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of 2 Samuel 20 like this.
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Listen, in David's kingdom,
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David's a brilliant king,
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as brilliant as he is,
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as much as he loves the Lord,
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in David's kingdom,
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there is blood on the floor
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because David, for all his brilliance,
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can do nothing about the human heart.
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He can't.
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And it leaves you there.
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It leaves you there.
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There's no security,
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no love, no joy,
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no mercy,
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no reconciliation and forgiveness.
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David just can't bring it.
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The wickedness of the human heart
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means that, well,
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people in his kingdom can't help
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but grab people by the beard
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and kill them,
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ruining the lives
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of 10 innocent women,
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turning a peaceful city
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into a battleground,
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being run by worthless traitors.
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And so 2 Samuel 20
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leaves us again, doesn't it,
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with this vision of the horror of sin
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and a huge void
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where salvation needs to be.
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But the brilliant truth is,
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and we're going to end here this morning,
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the brilliant truth is
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that the Bible doesn't leave you there.
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Let me tell you
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that there is in the Bible
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the story of another
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gruesome body
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at the side of a road
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just outside Jerusalem.
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It's a body
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which has also been stabbed
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in the side
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where water and blood
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are flowing out.
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This time the body
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is hanging from a cross.
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And just like with a Massa,
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you can look at this body
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and you can see
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the horror of sin,
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the horror particularly
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of envy.
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Because that body,
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the body of Jesus Christ,
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was put there
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as a response
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to a crowd
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who were driven
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by jealousy and envy.
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We don't only want
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Jesus' popularity,
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we want him not to have it.
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And so they pin him
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to a cross
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to rob him of it.
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And if 2 Samuel 20
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slows down
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so that you get a good look
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at the horror
-
of a Massa's body,
-
well then it's fair to say
-
that the whole Bible
-
slows down
-
that you might get
-
a good look at this body
-
on the cross.
-
But not just
-
and not even so much
-
that you might see
-
the horror of human sin,
-
but so that incredibly
-
you might see
-
the wonders of salvation
-
from that sin.
-
Because as Jesus dies there,
-
hanging there,
-
it's not just
-
that he's taking
-
the penalty for sin
-
for those who would
-
trust in him
-
like an innocent,
-
sacrificial lamb,
-
although he is that.
-
But we are to look
-
at his body
-
and we are to understand
-
this,
-
that in his body
-
he is taking
-
on himself
-
our very sinful nature
-
described in Mark
Mark 7 chapter mention
-
chapter 7
-
that we read together.
-
So much so
-
that if you were
-
a Christian this morning,
-
what you're seeing
-
as you look at Christ
-
on the cross
-
is not just
-
the death of your Lord,
-
although you are seeing that.
-
What you are seeing
-
as well
-
is this,
-
the death
-
of your sin.
-
Your sin
-
has through our faith
-
union with Jesus Christ,
-
he takes
-
our old natures
-
onto himself
-
and we die with him.
-
You see,
-
I think what you're seeing,
-
if you see a master's body,
-
you see Jerob's envy.
-
If you see Jesus' body,
-
you see the opposite
-
of envy.
-
You see,
-
envy takes a good thing
-
off another
-
to try and receive it itself.
-
Jesus' death
-
on the cross
-
is taking
-
a bad thing
-
off another
-
to receive it
-
for himself
-
that we might receive
-
his forgiveness
-
and his blessing
-
and his mercy.
-
Isn't that incredible?
-
Listen,
-
if you're not a Christian
-
this morning,
-
maybe this has been
-
a bit shocking
-
to you this morning.
-
I guess that 2 Samuel 20
-
is perhaps not
-
the kind of story
-
that you expected
-
to find in the Bible,
-
right?
-
I love that about
-
Club on a Friday night
-
is that I think
-
they're shocked
-
by some of the stories
-
in the Bible
-
because they think
-
the Bible's full of
-
nice squeaky clean stories,
-
but it's not.
-
The horrors of human life
-
are all here
-
in the pages of the Bible
-
for you to read.
-
But let me ask you
-
to consider this morning
-
if you're not a Christian
-
that it might be true
-
that the problems
-
in your life
-
are not the fault
-
of other people,
-
but are the things
-
coming out of your own heart.
-
Not imposed on you
-
by work or home,
-
as real as those problems
-
might be,
-
but the problem
-
might be the wickedness
-
and envy of our own hearts
-
that we are capable
-
of twisting into horror
-
what has been good
-
and given to us
-
for our blessing.
-
And that the only solution
-
for those kind
-
of internal problems
-
is to find someone
-
who is able
-
to take them out of you
-
onto themselves
-
and pay the penalty
-
for them on the cross.
-
And that is Jesus Christ.
-
There is nobody else.
-
You can't go anywhere else
-
and hear this message
-
this morning.
-
You will only hear it
-
in the church
-
of Jesus Christ.
-
You will only there hear
-
of the solution
-
for our internal problem,
-
which we all have.
-
And for many of us
-
this morning,
-
we've been Christians
-
for a long time,
-
but the application for us
-
is very much the same.
-
Because Christian maturity,
-
right,
-
is not about diminishing
-
the horror of your sin,
-
but is about noticing it
-
and seeing it
-
and owning it
-
as you also look
-
to the one
-
who is able to solve it
-
and save you from it.
-
Christian maturity
-
grows in its view
-
with the cross
-
as it sees the horror
-
of its sin
-
was greater than
-
it thought before
-
and so the mercy
-
of Jesus
-
is greater than
-
you thought before.
-
So that much,
-
as our lives
-
and our world
-
are very much like
-
2 Samuel 20,
-
a sort of merry-go-round
-
of unsolvable wickedness,
-
there is still
-
this body
-
whose violent death
-
tells a better story
-
than Amasa's.
-
And really,
-
the story of the Bible
-
for you,
-
if you're a Christian
-
this morning
-
and if you're not
-
a Christian,
-
is listen,
-
don't just stare
-
at Amasa.
-
Stare at Jesus.
-
Stare at Jesus.
-
Let me pray
-
and then we'll sing
-
in response.
-
Just take a moment
-
of quiet.
-
Maybe you want to
-
respond in your own heart.
-
Maybe there's a prayer
-
that you want to pray.
-
Maybe if you've never
-
trusted Christ,
-
you want to do that now
-
and turn to him.
-
Maybe if you've been
-
a Christian for a long time,
-
you just want to turn
-
to Jesus again
-
and thank him
-
for what he's done for you.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Heavenly Father,
-
it would be wrong
-
for us to try
-
to pretend
-
that we are better
-
than we really are
-
or that the sins
-
that we see
-
in Joab's heart
-
played out
-
so gruesomely
-
are really any different
-
from the things
-
going on in our hearts.
-
We might not be
-
an Iron Age warrior,
-
but in our own ways
-
we see the mess
-
that comes from our envy.
-
Please, we pray,
-
forgive us
-
and show us mercy
-
through the Lord Jesus Christ.
-
Thank you that in him
-
you have taken our sin
-
to the cross
-
and punished it
-
and given us
-
his righteousness.
-
How we pray
-
for ourselves
-
as a church
-
that you might help us
-
not to downplay
-
the seriousness
-
of our sin
-
but to stare it
-
in the face
-
whilst also rejoicing
-
that Christ's cross
-
pays for it all.
-
And so, Lord,
-
we pray
-
that you might make us
-
humble,
-
gracious,
-
kind and loving
-
as we reflect
-
on the Lord Jesus
-
who has been
-
gracious,
-
kind and loving
-
to us
-
in whose name
-
we pray.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.
-
Amen.