2 Samuel 14, Worldly wisdom

So we are in 2 Samuel chapter 14 this morning, 2 Samuel chapter 14.

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention 2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

Before I read the passage for us, let me just give a few words of introduction.

What you need to know if you're new this morning or you're visiting or here for the first time,

let me tell you that we are partway through a series in the book of 2 Samuel.

We had a pause for the summer holidays and we are now back in 2 Samuel.

So I haven't just picked 2 Samuel chapter 14 at random,

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

what we try and do as a church is work our way through the Bible together,

taking each passage as it comes.

Our conviction is that as the Bible is opened and explained,

we experience God speaking to us because this is not just human words.

This is not just what people have thought.

This is what God himself has thought.

And so our pattern as a church is just to take book by book and work our way through chapter by chapter.

That's the sort of the common diet, if you like, on a Sunday morning.

But before I read this passage, and in case you're new to it,

it might just be helpful for me to give you a few words of introduction.

2 Samuel is the record of King David, King of Israel.

You might have heard of King David, Israel's most famous king.

And 2 Samuel is the sort of the account about how David became king,

what happened while he was king, and what it was like to live in his kingdom.

There's a historical record of that.

But it's a mistake to think that 2 Samuel is just history.

You know, this is not written so that you could pass a GCSE history exam.

You know when you had to remember all the dates for GCSE history or that sort of thing?

And it's not that. It's not written so that you might just remember what happened in a kind of,

these are important facts for you to know.

No, it's not that.

It's better to think that 2 Samuel, he's a preacher.

And what he's doing is he's taking these historical accounts of the life of David,

and he's preaching them to you, to me,

that we might learn not just about King David and life in his kingdom,

but that we might learn about King David's God and life in his kingdom.

So 2 Samuel is a preacher. He's got a message for us to hear.

So with that in mind, I'm going to read to you 2 Samuel chapter 14.

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

I'm going to read the whole chapter.

I'm going to try and read it a balance between not being too fast,

but not so slow that we're still reading at lunchtime.

So here we go, 2 Samuel chapter 14.

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

Joab, son of Zariah, knew that the king's heart longed for Absalom.

So Joab sent someone to Tekoa and had a wise woman brought from there.

He said to her, pretend you are in mourning.

Dress in mourning clothes and don't use any cosmetic lotions.

Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead.

Then go to the king and speak these words to him.

Joab put the words in her mouth.

When the woman from Tekoa went to the king,

she fell with her face to the ground to pay him honour.

And she said, help me, your majesty.

The king asked her, what's troubling you?

She said, I am a widow.

My husband is dead.

I, your servant, had two sons.

They got into a fight with each other in the field

and no one was there to separate them.

One struck the other and killed him.

Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant.

They say, hand over the one who struck his brother down

so that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed.

Then we will get rid of the heir as well.

They would put out the only burning coal I have left,

leaving my, sorry, leaving my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth.

The king said to the woman, go home and I will issue an order on your behalf.

But the woman from Tekoa said to him,

let my lord the king pardon me and my family

and let the king and his throne be without guilt.

The king replied, if anyone, if anyone says anything to you,

bring them to me and they will not bother you again.

She said,

Then let the king invoke the lord his god to prevent the avenger of blood from adding to the destruction

so that my son shall not be destroyed.

As surely as the lord lives, he said, not one hair of your son's head will fall to the ground.

Then the woman said,

Let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.

Speak, he replied.

The woman said,

Why then have you devised a thing like this against the people of God?

When the king says this, does he not convict himself?

For the king has not brought back his banished son.

Like water spilled on the ground which cannot be recovered, so we must die.

But that is not what God desires.

Rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.

And now, I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid.

Your servant thought, I will speak to the king.

Perhaps he will grant his servant's request.

Perhaps the king will agree to deliver his servant from the hand of men

who is trying to cut off both me and my son from God's inheritance.

Now your servant says,

May the word of my lord the king secure my inheritance.

For my lord the king is like an angel of God in discerning good and evil.

May the lord your God be with you.

And the king said to the woman,

Do not keep from me the answer to what I am going to ask you.

Let my lord the king speak, the woman said.

The king asked,

Isn't this the hand of Joab with you in all this?

The woman answered,

As surely as you live, my lord the king,

no one can turn to the right or the left from anything.

My lord the king says,

Yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me to do this

and who put all these words into the mouth of your servant.

Your servant Joab did this to change the present situation.

My lord has wisdom like that of an angel of God.

He knows everything that happens in the land.

The king said to Joab,

Very well, I will do it.

Go, bring back the young man Absalom.

Joab fell with his face to the ground to pay him honour

and he blessed the king.

Joab said,

Today your servant knows that he has found favour in your eyes,

my lord the king,

because the king has granted his servant's request.

Then Joab went to Geshurah and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem.

But the king said,

He must go to his own house.

He must not see my face.

So Absalom went to his own house

and did not see the face of the king.

In all Israel,

there was not a man so highly praised

for his handsome appearance as Absalom.

From the top of his head to the sole of his foot,

there was no blemish in him.

Whenever he cut the hair of his head,

he used to cut his hair once a year

because it became too heavy for him.

He would weigh it

and its weight was 200 shekels by the royal standard.

Three sons and daughters were born to Absalom.

His daughter's name was Tamar

and she became a beautiful woman.

Absalom lived for two years in Jerusalem

without seeing the king's face.

Then Absalom sent for Joab

in order to send him to the king,

but Joab refused to come to him.

So he sent a second time,

but he refused to come.

Then he said to his servants,

Look, Joab's field is next to mine

and he has barley there.

Go and set it on fire.

So Absalom's servants set the field on fire.

Then Joab did go to Absalom's house

and he said to him,

Why have your servants set my field on fire?

Absalom said to Joab,

Look, I sent word to you and said,

Come here so that I can send you to the king

to ask,

Why have I come from Geshur?

It would be better for me if I were still there.

Now then, I want to see the king's face

and if I am guilty of anything,

let him put me to death.

So Joab went to the king and told him this.

Then the king summoned Absalom

and he came in and bowed down

with his face to the ground before the king

and the king kissed Absalom.

As we start this morning to look at that passage,

let me ask you a question.

The question I asked to the children earlier, really.

If you've fallen out with somebody,

what do you do?

What do you do if you've fallen out with someone?

You see, it's not uncommon, is it?

Relationship problems exist wherever there are people.

So what is it that you do

when you've fallen out with others?

When it's tense?

Yes, when you can't look each other in the eye?

When crosswords have been spoken

and there's a barrier between you?

What do you do if it's more serious than just that?

What do you do if your husband or your wife

has been unfaithful to you?

What do you do if your parents neglected you

or abused you?

What do you do if you've been accused

of something that you didn't do

or treated unfairly at work and lost your job?

What do you do if you've been racially abused

or excluded because your face doesn't fit?

What is it that you should do?

What do you do?

Now we know, don't we,

those aren't hypothetical questions.

I'm not asking those to say,

listen, let's enter a pretend world

where those kind of things happen.

No, we live in a world

where those things happen all the time.

They happen to all of us, don't they?

How do you fix problems like that?

Well, in a way, that is the question

behind 2 Samuel chapter 14.

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

In 2 Samuel chapter 14,

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

the background is a massive relational breakdown.

It's a bad one.

It's a relationship breakdown

between a son and his father.

And the backstory involves rape, murder, and neglect.

So this is not kind of light stuff this morning.

And 2 Samuel chapter 14 is an attempt

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

to fix the relationship breakdown

between the son and his father,

between Absalom and David.

But what we'll discover as we go through it

is that this attempt to fix it

doesn't actually work.

And it doesn't work

because it's founded on flawed ideas,

a faulty worldly wisdom,

wisdom that can never actually address

the big issue in the relationship breakdown.

A worldly wisdom, if you like,

that is massively popular,

but ultimately doesn't fix anything.

Now that's the background to the story.

What I want to do

before we kind of get into the detail of that

is I want to retell you the story of 2 Samuel chapter 14.

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

Don't know if you're like me,

but when you hear the Bible read,

sometimes it's quite difficult to follow the story.

So let me retell you the story of 2 Samuel chapter 14

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

so that we can get it in our minds what's going on.

The relationship breakdown, as I said,

is between Absalom and his father, David.

So you may remember that Absalom has killed his brother,

a guy called Amnon.

He didn't kill Amnon without reason, though.

Amnon had raped Absalom's sister,

his own half-sister, Tamar.

Absalom waited two years after that event

to get his revenge on Amnon.

He eventually killed him at this sheep-shearing party.

He gathered all of his brothers together,

said, hey, you know, I'm shearing the sheep,

let's have a party.

And it was really a false pretense

to get Amnon in the room

so that when he got him, he could kill him.

And that's what he did.

Following the murder,

Absalom fled to his grandfather's house,

his maternal grandfather's house,

which was just over the northern border of Israel,

where chapter 13, verse 38,

tells you, just before our passage,

that he was staying there for three years.

Three years in exile.

And verse one of our passage

tells you this morning

that Joab, who is the commander of David's army,

his kind of right-hand man, if you like,

Joab knows that David is still thinking

about that event three years later.

It's not that surprising

when you think about it, is it?

I think sort of relationship problems

or difficulties are the most difficult thing

to get out of your mind, aren't they?

And David is still chewing over this heartbreak.

It's not going to pass easily.

I don't think you should read chapter 14, verse one,

as seeing that David is full of sympathy,

though, for Absalom.

The word long is not actually there

in verse one in the original.

English translators have added it

just to try and make the English flow a bit better.

But the sense really is more

that David is on Absalom.

His heart is weighed down by him.

He is thinking on him.

David can't shake the sadness of Absalom.

It's like a thing that he is carrying around,

a relational pain that wakes him up at night,

that is there with him in the morning,

takes up that mental processing space,

chewing it over and over.

And because of that,

Joab, as David's right-hand man,

goes, well, I'm going to help out, David.

I'm going to fix that problem for him.

And to accomplish his plan,

he takes a woman from Tekoa,

a wise woman, you're told,

to come and speak to the king.

Now, Tekoa is south of Bethlehem.

Bethlehem is south of Jerusalem.

So it's kind of near enough for the woman

to get to Jerusalem and speak to David,

but it's far enough away

so that her story could be made up

and David wouldn't know about it.

So this nameless woman comes and speaks to David.

Now, this is not unusual, right?

So David as the king would listen

to the complex legal cases in the kingdom.

If you had a simple case,

you'd take it to the elders of your town,

they would agree it for you.

You know, I've parked my camel on a double yellow line.

What are you going to do?

Well, there's a ticket, right?

That would be solved by them.

But something more complicated,

you had to take up the courts.

And the highest court is the court of the king.

And so this case is brought before David.

It wasn't unusual for him to listen to complex cases.

But this woman's story is particularly complicated.

Her husband is dead.

Her two sons have got into a fight

and one of them has killed the other.

Now, justice would demand that the murderer

be put to death for his crime.

That's what the leaders of her town

were responsible for doing.

And verse seven tells you that the whole clan

have risen up against the woman

in order to enact justice like that.

But clearly then, if they did that,

it would leave this woman in a perilous position

because her husband's dead,

one of her sons is dead.

And if the other son is killed in justice

for what he has done,

it would lead her with nobody to provide for her,

no protector, no heir, no family line.

It would essentially leave her destitute.

David listens to the woman's case

and tells her in verse eight

that essentially it's going to take some time

to think about her case.

So go home and wait for the verdict.

Of course, though, there's no son, is there?

She's not actually a desperate widow.

She's there for something else.

So she presses him further

for an immediate answer in verse nine.

So much so that David gives his verdict,

telling her that her son should not die

and that he has the protection of the king.

He ends up repeating the point twice

just to make it super clear to her.

But by verse 12,

David's answer is clearly not enough

because actually it's not really

why the woman is there, is it?

The woman has a further point to make

and reveals her true agenda.

She says, you know,

why if this is the case,

if this is the answer you're giving me for this case,

why is it that Absalom is still in exile

for murdering his brother Amnon?

Why won't you bring Absalom back from his banishment?

Now, it's quite clever, really,

when you think about it, isn't it?

The way the story is set up is clever.

It even, her story even sounds a bit like

a story you might have heard in the Bible

about Cain and Abel, right?

When God didn't enact the death penalty

against Cain for killing Abel,

but instead put a mark on him

so that no one would touch him.

But however clever the story is,

David sees right through her, doesn't he?

He sees Joab pulling the strings in verse 19.

Aha, I know why you're here, he says.

This is Joab trying to fix

the Absalom problem, isn't it?

So much so that she says,

oh yes, you have the wisdom of an angel

in verse 20 to David.

You really know what's going on

in your kingdom, don't you?

Before in verse 21,

David then speaks to Joab

and says, listen, okay,

bring Absalom back to Jerusalem,

but he must never see my face.

He's not allowed to enter the palace.

He mustn't come in here.

He can go to his own home.

So Joab brings Absalom back to Jerusalem

and for a while,

everything seems as though it's going okay,

but not for long

because Absalom is not happy

about being in Jerusalem,

but not being allowed to see David's face.

So he calls Joab

to tell him that he's not happy

and Joab just buttons him

on his mobile phone.

I just ignore him.

I don't ignore Absalom.

So Absalom does what you do

when anybody buttons you

on their mobile phone.

You set fire to his crops.

Yeah, that's how you get his attention.

So that's what he does.

And Joab goes, hang on a minute.

Why are you doing that?

He says, well, I called you

and you didn't answer.

So he comes in and says,

listen, I want to see David.

If I don't get to see David's face,

I might as well be in banishment.

It's like banishment by any other name.

And so Joab goes to David

to see if Absalom

can come into his presence,

which he does at the end of the chapter

as David kisses him

and is seemingly at least reconciled

with his oldest son

and heir to the throne.

Now that is the chapter in a nutshell.

Now it might seem

as you just glance through it like that,

that Absalom appears at the end

to be reunited with David.

The family seems to be stable again.

And perhaps that's what Joab thought.

You know, perhaps Joab's

patting himself on the back going,

I'm the fixer.

I have nailed this right now.

And that's great.

But actually, as you read the story

more carefully,

that is not what's happening at all.

Instead, what you'll find in the story

is it's hinging around this word wisdom.

Okay?

The woman from Tekoa,

you're not given her name,

but she's called a wise woman.

David is called a man of wisdom

in verse 20.

But what it turns out

is that there is in 2 Samuel chapter 14

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

a kind of fatally flawed wisdom,

a worldly wisdom.

And I want to try and show you that.

Let me try and show you that

in three ways.

The first thing to see is this,

that worldly wisdom,

the wisdom of 2 Samuel 14

uses feelings to deny truth.

That's how you know

that the wisdom here is not good.

Now, if you've been here

for the series on 2 Samuel,

then the chapter might be

sort of vaguely familiar.

You know, someone standing

in front of King David

with a made-up story

trying to change his mind.

If you know the story

of David and Bathsheba

and the prophet Nathan

coming to David

to try and convict him of that sin,

it might be familiar to you.

That's in chapter 12.

Nathan the prophet

made up a story

about a guy with a sheep

that got killed by a rich man.

If you don't know it,

you can go and look at it

in chapter 12.

And the similarities are clear.

Both stories are trying

to pull on David's knowledge

of the scriptures,

trying to get him

to come to a certain conclusion.

Like I said before,

here is the story

of Cain and Abel

in Genesis 4

where there's a biblical precedent

for not enacting

capital punishment.

But despite the similarity

between those two occasions,

actually there's a massive difference.

You see,

in chapter 12,

David is full of sinful passion

for this woman Bathsheba.

He is lustfully desirous

of this beautiful woman Bathsheba.

He longs for her

so much so that he takes her

to himself.

He sleeps with her

and gets her pregnant

and kills her husband.

Right?

And Nathan the prophet

comes and tells that story

to arouse David's conscience

to what his feelings

have led him to do

which is wrong.

And here in this story,

it is the opposite way round,

isn't it?

Here in chapter 14,

David's conscience

is firmly settled

against Absalom

which is why he's still in exile.

David in chapter 14

has been doing

the right thing.

David knows

that Absalom

has done wrong

and that this premeditated

killing of Amnon

was a short circuit

of justice.

Justice which David

had failed to

or been unwilling

at least to enact.

But still it was not

to be taken on

by Absalom.

So for Absalom

to be in exile

was a fitting thing.

So notice that

the woman's story

is trying to do

the opposite

of Nathan's story.

The woman's story

is trying to pull

on David's feelings

to make him do something

which is wrong,

untrue.

The story of the sons

is designed

to make David

pity Absalom

and lead him

to believe

that exile

is harsh or unfair.

to think

that maybe

it would be okay

just to let Absalom

off

even though it wasn't.

See here's the

twist of worldly wisdom.

You know God's wisdom

sends Nathan

to stop a sinner

in his tracks

while worldly wisdom

does the opposite

of that.

It seeks to

short circuit justice

when it feels

a little harsh.

You see one

is an act

of mercy

and love.

The other

is an act

of manipulation

and self-interest.

and that's

the warning

to you here.

The warning

is that there

is a kind

of wisdom

in the world

a worldly wisdom

that simply

cannot handle

the truth.

It can't.

More specifically

it can't handle

the fact

that the truth

does not necessarily

feel good

all the time.

Do you know

what I mean?

Here

the truth

of Absalom's exile

did not feel

good to David

and so the worldly

wisdom of human

hearts seeks

to change

the truth

in order to

make it

accommodate

our feelings

editing God's

plans and God's

truth accordingly.

Now you don't

need me to tell

you now

hopefully

that that is

exactly what

the world

is still doing

isn't it?

This is very

contemporary.

We live in a

world of Joab's

worldly wisdom

don't we?

We live in a

world that loves

to edit truth

by feelings

over and over

and over

and over again.

Think about

what Jesus says

in John 14

when he tells

the disciples

I am the way

the truth

and the life

no one comes

to the Father

but by me.

You know

worldly wisdom

hears that

goes

what really?

That's really

the truth?

No one comes

to God

except through

the Lord Jesus

Christ?

Is that really

right?

It doesn't feel

like that does it?

You mean

do you mean

to say that

my lovely

non-Christian

neighbor

my neighbor

who's nicer

than quite a lot

of my Christian

friends

the one who

looks after my

cat while I'm

away who took

in my Amazon

parcel yesterday?

You mean

to say

that they're

going to hell?

That doesn't

feel right.

That doesn't

feel true.

Just because

they don't

trust in Jesus?

Are you sure?

Surely we have

to find a

different reading

of the word

no one

don't we?

So worldly

wisdom sets

about unpicking

the uniqueness

of Christ

because it

doesn't just

feel right.

But 2 Samuel

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14

says listen

beware of that

worldly wisdom.

I'll give you

another example

can't you?

What about

the Bible's

teaching on

marriage to

mean that all

sexual activity

outside of the

marriage of a

man to a

woman is wrong

and immoral?

I mean you

really think

that?

You really

think that?

Is that how

the world feels?

Does that mean

that loving

same-sex couples

or those

cohabiting that

all sexual

activity outside

of human

marriage, the

marriage of a

man to a

woman, all of

that is wrong?

Are you sure?

Is that really?

You can't believe

that.

That doesn't feel

right, doesn't

feel loving.

So we bend the

truth to match

what we feel.

All the time we

do it.

Worldly wisdom

where feelings

override the

truth because they

can't handle the

truth.

And so

consciences are

compromised.

And that's why

the wisdom of

Joab here is

never going to

fix the problem

because it can't

face up to the

truth.

Second thing

though here,

there's a

worldly wisdom

which is impressed

by appearances.

Impressed by

appearances.

I think this is

almost amusing

here in the

passage but if

you notice that

verses 25 and

27 are sort of

out of place,

aren't they?

If you look down

at your Bible

you'll notice that

there is a

strange detail

here.

Why in all

that's happening

are you told in

great detail about

Absalom's appearance?

You are told about

the weight of

Absalom's hair.

Absalom cut his

hair once a year

and it weighed

two kilograms.

I mean I think

these are some of

the most offensive

verses in the

Bible.

I mean I find

this very difficult

to accept.

Imagine having

two kilos of

hair.

I would be

grateful for a

few grams of

hair, right?

But why is this

detail in here?

I mean if you

look at the

passage, verses

24 and 28 would

go perfectly well

together.

The writer is

putting this in.

Why the

interruption?

Well I think

because they're

another example of

the fact that

there's a twist

on wisdom here.

If you jump

back a few

pages in your

Bible to 1

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

Samuel chapter

16 you'll

notice this

why.

So just over

a few pages

back to 1

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

Samuel chapter

16.

This is when

David is chosen

to be king in

1 Samuel chapter

1 Samuel 16 · chapter mention

16.

1 Samuel chapter

1 Samuel 16:6

16 verse 6.

It will come on

the slide behind

me as well.

Let me read

those verses to

you.

When they

arrived, Samuel

who's the

prophet saw

Eliab and

thought surely

the Lord's

anointed stands

here before the

Lord.

But the Lord

said to Samuel

do not consider

his appearance

or his height

for I have

rejected him.

The Lord does

not look at the

things people

look at.

People look at

the outward

appearance but

the Lord looks

at the heart.

When Samuel was

going to anoint

David as king

he was really

impressed by his

brothers.

They're tall,

handsome,

got a great

voice,

luscious hair.

Surely,

surely this is

who God wants

to be king.

And God says

no, you're

looking at it

as man looks

at it.

I am looking

at the heart.

Now you come

back to 2 Samuel

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

chapter 14.

Don't you see

that this is an

exact example of

that kind of

worldly wisdom?

That's what's

happening here.

The narrator is

telling us that

Israel are doing

the opposite of

what God does.

God looks at

the heart.

Israel are

impressed with

two kilos of

hair.

It's really

laid on thick

as well,

isn't it,

in verse 25.

In Israel,

there was not

a man so

highly praised

for his

handsome appearance

as Absalom.

From the top

of his head

to the sole

of his foot,

there was no

blemish in him.

That's one

good-looking guy,

isn't it?

There is not a

guy in the room

who matches up

to that.

But the heart

of Absalom,

which we have

seen and will

see again,

is selfish and

arrogant,

opposed to David

and opposed to

the Lord.

There's more

than this as well.

I think you can

probably make a

pretty good case

that hairy men

in the Bible

and Samson.

Perhaps the writer

had them in mind.

It's also,

though,

a point of forward

to how Absalom

will die.

You don't know

how Absalom dies.

I'm not going

to give it away

to you.

You can have

to read on

in 2 Samuel,

but it is

connected to his hair.

That will come

in a few weeks.

There's also

something here

as the mention

of three sons

and a beautiful

daughter called Tamar.

Tamar is given

the same name

as his sister

who was attacked

in chapter 13.

It's a sign,

I think,

that those events

are still fresh

in Absalom's mind.

By the time

you get to

chapter 18,

you find that

Absalom has no heir,

by which I think

you're to presume

that his sons,

his three sons,

have died.

You see,

here's the point.

Worldly wisdom

would rather look good

than do the right thing.

That's the point,

isn't it?

Worldly wisdom

would rather swap

deep truth

for shallow appearance.

So much so

that murder

in 2 Samuel chapter 14

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

is covered

by good looks,

by glorious locks

of hair

and stunning good looks.

And it happens

all the time,

doesn't it?

It's why

kind of wicked

and deceitful politicians

can still get

a really popular following

because we would

rather work

on appearances

than we would

on what is right.

But notice

that this appearance

over reality

is absolutely

no help

in the face

of relational breakdown.

Absalom's good looks

are never going

to atone

for the fact

that he's killed

his brother.

The royal photos

will look miles better

with Absalom in them,

right?

Because he's the best

looking guy

in the family.

But the relational tension

will not go away.

It's still there.

You see,

Joab's worldly wisdom

really can only ever

tell David and Absalom,

listen,

I know that you guys

have got a problem

with each other,

but can't you just

fake it?

Can't we just take a selfie

and smile,

post it on Instagram,

everyone will think

we're all right?

Can we just do that?

You'll look great.

You'll look great.

Let's do it.

It has no other option.

Listen,

I want you to face

this this morning.

Think back to how

we started.

The wisdom of the world

has nothing to offer you

in the face of the

relational breakdown

that you feel and

experience every single

day of your life.

It has nothing to offer you

because there's a price

for every relational

breakdown,

isn't there?

Justice is demanded

by Absalom's murder

of Amnon.

For a wife to reconcile

with an unfaithful husband,

for a brother to forgive

his sister who has hurt him,

there is a hurt

that needs to be absorbed.

There is a truth

that needs to be dealt with.

There is the fact

that something has been

done wrong.

Someone has abused you,

mistreated you,

looked over you

because of the color

of your skin.

There is a price

to be paid for.

Justice is demanded

because of that.

And all the world

can say to you is,

smile, let's take

a nice looking selfie

and everything will be okay.

It has nothing to offer you

when it comes to justice.

All they can do

is fake it

and pretend it's okay.

So it leaves you

with nowhere to take

the ache,

the tears,

the pain.

Joab says,

listen,

I know it's difficult

but it looks good,

doesn't it?

But it doesn't deal

with a problem.

Which brings us

to the final point

this morning

which is this,

worldly wisdom

ignores God's king.

What you cannot help

but miss in these chapters

is that great King David

is basically a passenger.

David in 2 Samuel 14

is the one

who's not doing anything.

Joab is kind of

captain of the ship.

He's manipulating David

with this woman at Tekoa.

Absalom is then

manipulating Joab

going as far as burning

his crops

to get his own wear.

Interestingly,

in the passage,

the only mention

really of the Lord

as well

is in his relationship

to David.

David is like an angel

of the Lord

in verse 17

and verse 20.

And he's recognized

in verse 16

as the holder

of the covenant

heritage of God.

But for all that,

David in chapter 14

is not leading.

He's not being kingly.

He's not being listened to.

Worldly wisdom

is leading the way

in chapter 14.

The king is silent.

That should be

a kind of pointer

to you

that not all

is well

in chapter 14.

But let me show you

something brilliant

about this.

If you've zoned out

for a moment,

just tune back in

because this is,

I think,

the brilliance

of 2 Samuel chapter 14.

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

You and I are reading

this account

probably three and a half

thousand years or so

after it happened.

You and I know,

don't we,

that God's king

is not really

King David.

King David is,

if you like,

a prototype,

a type of the real

king of God's people

who is the Lord

Jesus Christ,

the one who

is the ultimate

person who has

a good heart,

yeah,

a heart after the Lord

because he is

God in flesh,

God the eternal son

come down,

born as a baby,

living,

dying for us.

So we know that,

don't we?

So think of a time

then when,

when God's real king,

God's king Jesus

is a passenger

of worldly wisdom

in the same way

as 2 Samuel chapter 14.

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

Can you think

of a time

when King Jesus,

the real king

of God's people

is treated like David

where he's manipulated

and twisted

and pushed into doing

all sorts of things?

Can you think

of a time like that?

Do you see

the Jewish leaders

and the Roman rulers

and the puppet kings

conspire to drag

King Jesus

out of Jerusalem

and nail him

to a cross?

I don't think

that's the ultimate

victory of worldly wisdom.

That is the ultimate

victory of feelings

tripping over justice.

We're jealous

of this man Jesus.

Let's put him to death.

This is appearances

winning over hearts,

isn't it?

Jesus is naked

and bleeding

and mocked

by the people.

I don't want anything

to do with him.

He looks terrible.

What is going on

when that happens

to the Lord Jesus?

Let me tell you

something fantastic.

In that moment

when worldly wisdom

seems to be winning,

what you are witnessing

is the wisdom of God

in providing atonement

for relational breakdown.

That's what you're seeing.

So much so

that the worldly wisdom

of the crowd

that nails Jesus

to a cross of shame

does not defeat Jesus

but glorifies him.

As in his sacrifice

on the cross

he is providing the means

for relational forgiveness

and atonement.

Not so much

to be able to bring

Absalom back from exile

with his grandfather

but bringing sinners

back from exile

into relationship

with the God

who made them

so that people

like you and I

who have sinned

against God

and fallen out with him

and broken our relationship

with him

might be brought back

into relationship

with the God

who made us

through the atoning power

of Jesus on the cross.

Even at the point

when he was a passenger

of worldly wisdom.

Jesus dying in our place

paying the cost of justice

facing up to the hard truth.

This is the very definition

of not putting appearances

above truth and reality

as Jesus the bleeding

dying suffering one

naked on a tree

is the most beautiful

wonderful and glorious saviour.

It's hard to capture this

but try with me if you can

in the face of the tragic relationships

in 2 Samuel chapter 14

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

all Joab can do

is fake it

and cover it over.

He just can't go deep enough

to solve the problem

between Absalom

and his father David.

He had no means

to provide justice

for Absalom's wickedness

and reconciliation

for David's love.

All he had was

shallow solutions

for deep problems

and it's always

the way in the world.

The worldly wisdom

will take in the face

of the relationship problems

that we all suffer from

the world will just say

oh just forget about it.

Just go on a nice holiday

buy yourself something new

pretend it doesn't happen

but you know it doesn't work

and you know it doesn't work

because you still wake up

thinking about them

it's still chewing you up inside.

But then in the great triumph

of God's glorious wisdom

Jesus dies on the cross

seemingly the victim

of this kind of fake it

and cover it up world

but he hangs there

because the Jewish leaders

were so jealous of him

but in those moments

as Jesus breathes his last

he accomplishes relational harmony

not only between God and men

but between brothers and sisters

men and women

as he provides the means

for us to forgive one another.

1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 25

1 Corinthians 1:25

puts it like this

because the foolishness of God

is wiser than human wisdom

and the weakness of God

is stronger than human strength.

Here's the point

as simply as I can try

and put it this morning

relationship breakdown

comes with a price

a cost

a justice.

So with us and God

if you're not a Christian

you will never know

the God who made you

without coming through

the only one

who can pay the price

for your reconciliation.

That remains true

even when you're a Christian

and it's true also

in our relationships

with one another.

That only Christ

has the resources

for you to forgive another.

Only Christ can offer you

the deep solution

because only he

has the capital

if you like

to pay the price

for justice and truth.

Perhaps this morning

you know that there is

someone that you've

fallen out with.

Maybe it's a small

maybe it's a petty matter

or maybe it's a really big deal

maybe it's as big as

Absalom and David here.

What do you do?

Let me say to you

the only thing you can do

is come to the Lord Jesus Christ

and find in him

all the resources

that you need

for forgiveness and grace

so that you can move

towards another person

and say with genuineness

without covering everything over

with genuineness

you can say to them

I forgive you

I love you

because Jesus

has paid the price of justice

that our relationship

reconciliation requires

and he did it on the cross.

And maybe in some

of these situations

reconciliation like that

won't be possible

because the other person

won't speak to you

or won't engage with it.

What comfort is there then?

Well you know don't you

you and I live in a world

where the wisdom of God

can take the worldly wisdom

the folly of man

and use it

to accomplish his great purposes.

So you don't need to be afraid

you need to trust the Lord

and press on

because in this world

God can be trusted

even to accomplish

his great purposes

through the tragedy

of our worldly twisted wisdom.

Let's pray

together as we close.

Let me just leave

a bit of quiet

for you to pray

in your own hearts.

Maybe come to the Lord

with a situation

or a problem

that's troubling you.

Thank the Lord

that he alone

has the resources

to help you face it.

Heavenly Father

we want to say

thank you for Jesus.

Thank you that in Jesus

we can face

truth and reality

and find grace

and mercy

resources to forgive

one another

reconciliation with you.

Thank you that in the end

the twisted worldly wisdom

of 2 Samuel chapter 14

2 Samuel 14 · chapter mention

does not win

but your wisdom

is stronger

than the wisdom of man.

thank you that your weakness

is stronger

than our greatest power.

So thank you

that we can trust you

and turn to you.

Our Lord please

we pray

might we be a church

that love one another

because we find

the resources

for loving one another

in the Lord Jesus Christ

and his work

for us on the cross.

In his name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.