Absalom | Chris Osburn

Thankful for all who have made it here this morning to worship.

Thankful for your presence has been mentioned, mentioned.

We're so thankful for those who may be visitors and we consider

you to be our honored guest. And we welcome you, welcome you

back each and every time you have the opportunity.

If you were here last month, we started a study in Second Samuel

2 Samuel 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15 and that's where we'll still be.

We covered kind of the 1st 22 or so verses of, of chapter 15 and

we're talking about Absalom. Absalom was one of King David's

sons, a wicked son. And we've kind of gone picked up

almost kind of in the middle of his life, if you want to say.

And, and we have, we're studying how he's trying to subvert his

father as King David. And before we get into our

study, I want to read Psalm chapter 3.

Psalms 3 · chapter mention

Psalm chapter 3. It says the title.

Psalms 3 · chapter mention

It is a Psalm of David when he fled from Absalom his son.

It says there, Lord, how they have increased to trouble me.

Many are those are they who rise up against me.

Many are they who say of me there is no help for him in God.

Say a lot, but you our Lord are a shield for me, my glory and

the one who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my

voice, and he heard me from His holy hill Say a lot, I say.

I lay down and slept. I awoke, for the Lord sustained

me. I will not be afraid of 10

thousands of people who have set themselves against me all

around. Arise, O Lord, save me, Oh my

God, for you have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone.

You have broken the teeth of the ungodly.

Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your

people. And then I want to read Mark

1422 starting in verse 22. It says, and as they were

eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it

to them and said, take, eat. This is my body.

And he took the cup. And when he had given thanks, he

gave it to them and they all drank from it.

And he and he said to them, This is the blood of my, of the new

covenant which is shed for many. Assuredly.

I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine

until that day when I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.

And when they had sung A hymn, they went out to the Mount of

Olives. Then Jesus said to them, All of

you will be made to stumble because of me this night.

For it is written, I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will

be scattered. But after I've been raised, I

will go before you to Galilee. Peter said to him, Even if all

are made to stumble, yet I will not be.

Jesus said to him, Assuredly I say you, assuredly.

I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster

crows twice, you will deny me three times.

But he spoke more vehemently. If I have to die with you, I

will not deny you. And they all said likewise.

I want to give a quick recap of what we've studied so far in the

first portion of the 15th chapter of Second Samuel.

You know, we of course, are reading about Absalom and, and

we learned that Absalom and his had the desire to take over his

father, King David's throne. And he was subverting David at

the at the entrance of the gate. And he was welcoming people who

were coming in to seek justice, if you want to say.

But Absalom was kind of cut and had off at the pass and was

being a man of the people, if you want to say, and reaching

down and grabbing their hand and hugging them and kissing them.

And he was doing all this in hopes to steal the hearts of the

men of Israel. Absalom was egotistical,

self-centered. He was passive aggressive.

And this plan of to win the hearts of Israel took him 40

years to accomplish this until his basically his support, if

you want to say, took 40 years from the people that grown.

And his plan was ready to launch, if you want to say to at

this point. So Absalom left Jerusalem to go

to Hebron to basically crown himself as king of Israel

because he had all of this support, even one of David's

close advisors, A counsellor, a hip, a hip apel, a hip apel.

He defected from David and he went and followed Absalom.

So David and his servants and all those who were loyal to him

fled Jerusalem in order to avoid a potential oncoming attack from

Absalom, his son. And that included Itai the

Hittite, who was adamant about following David wherever he

went. And so that brings us to the

22nd verse, where David said to Itai, go and crossover.

And it's an amazing statement, amazing commitment on the part

of this, this guy, Itai the Hittite.

And then it is accepted by David.

David had told him a couple times already, you know, stay

back. You don't need to come with us,

but why don't you just go back and say where you know, you

don't need to come with us. We don't even know where we're

going. We're going to be in the

wilderness and there's no reason for you to come.

But the devotion of Itai that he made to David finally caused

David to basically say, fine, come, go ahead and come with us

because he was so dedicated to him.

And so we have this great picture here in verse 22.

It says, so Itai the Gitai passed on with all his men, and

then we notice it says and all the little ones who are with

him. So it's possible for us to read

an event like this and somehow or another only see it kind of

as it were. If you want to say in terms of

the main characters of the story is kind of what maybe we just

focus on. But of course, if we think about

it, we would realize that this would include all male and

female down to little children and, and and so on.

And it passes the age of time. And we can read about it now and

we understand that, you know, they're not going to a carnival,

they're not going to a very fun place.

They're they're going passing in the company of the king towards

the wilderness. And such as the circumstance

that it says all the country wept with a loud voice and all

the people crossed over. It's quite a picture that we see

here and I really, I'm sure it really means like all the

countryside as it, as it says here, all the country, all the

countryside, the people that were aware of it, not only those

who were participating in it, but the the procession, but

those who were staying back, they were seeing what was going

on here. They looked on and they saw that

this was really a sorry sight that King David, King David of

all the people should be leading this company of people in this

direction. It's really a picture that we

might be kind of familiar with, quite sadly.

And in pictures that we see, you know, in our culture of

refugees, if you want to say that are trying to escape maybe

a dictator or a country or a war burden place.

You know, we see these pictures of these kids holding a doll or

a backpack or in their mother and father.

They got nowhere to go. But they're trying to seek a

better place, and hopefully they find that.

But there is no such prospect here.

These individuals are following their king.

They're following King David into the wilderness.

And we'll notice that we're told that the king crossed over the

Brook Kidron, and all the people crossed over toward the way of

the Wilderness. It says he went across the

Kidron Valley, over the Mountain of Olives and into the

wilderness in the wilderness that was made.

You know, we we can read about this wilderness in other areas

of the Old Testament and the New Testament.

We're talking about this area right here.

This is the Jericho Rd. If you want to say, you know,

we're reminded of that of a story, you know, we can read it

in Luke chapter 10 verse 30. It says there a certain man went

Luke 10:30

down from Jerusalem to the Jericho and fell among thieves

who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him and

departed, leaving him half dead. This is the place where they're

going. They're going into the

wilderness where it's barren. There's, there's just not good

things that happened there. There's thieves that run up and

down the roads. So that's the place, that's the

wilderness where these people are going.

An inhospitable region. And approximately 1000 years

later, the Lord Jesus Christ would come across and cross that

same Brook Kidron and make his way up to the same Mount of

Olives facing humiliation and the and the shame and

abandonment and darkness we see in John 18.

One, you know, the the New Testament writers record this

event and captures this like we read in in Mark 14.

They couldn't, they couldn't fail to recognize a story that

David is suffering. It says, it says here in John

18. One, when Jesus had spoken these

words, he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron

where there was a garden, which he and his disciples injured.

And this picture I have up here is, is a representation of the

old Jerusalem city in the town of King David's time and, and

the Kidron valley. The brook Kidron was on the

eastern side of the Jerusalem city walls and just beyond the

Quidron Valley. You can see here the Mount of

Olives in that area. And then to the north, they call

it the Judean Badlands here or the wilderness.

That's what we're talking about kind of northeast it part of

Jerusalem out towards that area is where King David is taking

his company. So I think these, you know, when

these New Testament writers, I, I don't think they, I, I think

they could see that maybe the sufferings of David had somewhat

kind of a tie to what Jesus had gone through.

They both in anticipation illuminating the sufferings, if

you want to say. And then in verse 24, we're

introduced to Abathar and Zadok and interestingly, and, and I

think helpfully, the, the NIV translates the 24th verse a

little differently than the new King James.

And it actually, I'll read it out to you.

But the NIV, I found it helpful for me because I just didn't

really know what to do with the, with the, and Abathar went up.

I didn't really know how to explain that.

So I went looking at other translations and where did he

come up from? Where did Abathar come up from?

Well, the NIV says, you know, we thought that Abathar was

actually in Jerusalem. And so the more we looked at it,

this is how the the NIV translated.

It says Zadok. And at least with Zadok, not

Abathar, Zadok was there too, and all the Levites who were

with him were carrying the Ark of the Covenant of God.

They set down the Ark of God and Avatar offered sacrifices until

all the people had finished leaving the city.

So obviously the Hebrew here for what is translated in the new

King James went up is clearly I, I think a variable reading that

may be translated instead of Avatar went up.

Maybe Avatar offered sacrifices. Maybe he was offering

sacrifices. And then of course, you see that

they came up and they set down the ark of God until the people

had passed out to see the city. You do that with that what you

will. I don't know, but it just kind

of helped me maybe picture it a little bit better of what he may

have been doing. We're not going to go back and

and we're not going to go over the whole ark of God.

There's just definitely no time for all of that.

Back in First Samuel, there was occasions where people really

misunderstood what they were doing with the ark of God and

what the ark of God represented. And it is a precious symbol of

the precious presence of God. But it carries with it, as all

do religion symbols, a danger of being attached to that symbol.

If you want to say and the reality of which it really

represented by the symbol. And there are religious groups

that do practice exactly that because they've been taught

things that things are symbols or maybe perhaps crosses or

different things actually are holy things.

And they tend to grasp on to these physical emblems and make

them great significance. And it would seem to me that

David and giving the direction here in verse 25, he says it's

like he wanted David was making sure that neither he nor any of

the people that were following him, we're going to run the risk

of relying on the physical ark of the covenant of God.

It's kind of what what I believe is happening here.

We could go back and point out occasions where they had come

close to this. He, he didn't even give.

He didn't, they didn't want to give an impression of any kind

saying like, well, if we have the ark, we have God.

If we don't have the ark, we don't have God.

That David did not want that to go through these people's minds.

I believe that's what he's doing here.

He's saying to them, I want you to take the ark back to the city

and it's making a point, at least a visible point, that he

is not concerned at all to depend on Yahweh's furniture, if

you want to say, but he is wanting them to understand that

he's dependent upon Yahweh or God's favour, not depending on

the furniture, but depending on the favour.

And in the danger of that being misinterpreted, I think it is

for the reason that David dispatches the ark to go back to

the city of Jerusalem, because what happened is they were

bringing the ark of the covenant of God with David as they were

going out of the city. Well, David says, no, go ahead

and take that thing back. I think we'd feel a little sorry

for the guys who were carrying that thing.

Zadok and Avatar. You know, I would man, we

carried this thing this far. Now we got to take it all the

way back. So I think they weren't, you

know, they they were happy to do the work, but, you know, maybe a

little disappointed it wasn't going to be going with them.

And just when they would expect David to say, you know, thank

you for much, so much for bringing us all day this way.

You know, thank you for what you've done so far.

And no, go ahead and take that thing back.

So I think they were let down in a little bit of a way.

So I think what Dave is saying here is he says if I find favor

in the eyes of the Lord, it's not going to be about whether we

have the ark here or not. So that's what he's saying.

He said if I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring

me back and show me both it being the ark and its dwelling

place. Verse 26 says, but if he says,

thus I have no delight in you, here I am.

Let him do to me as seems good to him.

Now you may have caught a little bit of an echo or a maybe it's

another verse kind of captures your mind at that point.

And if we Fast forward to Jesus, when he went up to the Mount of

Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, Father, if

you're willing, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not what I want, but what you want your will to

be done. And that's exactly what David is

saying here, saying if he determines to show me his

pleasure, then so be it. But if he doesn't, then that'll

be fine as well. Whatever the Lord determines is

going to be OK with and he's going to be OK with that.

So we'll notice too that he is very, very clear.

And when he speaks to Zadok, the priest saying, are you not a

seer, a prophet? Do you see all that?

Don't you see all things? He says, well, you know, I'm

glad you do because I want you to see with your eyes and I want

you to know now go back into the city in peace with your two

sons. Go back with Ahimas and

Jonathan. And what he's actually doing is

he's putting in place what David's doing.

He's putting in place a plan of his own to oppose his son

Absalom. This is the start of him

planning these things out. His strategic plan, if you want

to say, involves 4 players, 2 fathers and two sons, Zadok and

his son Ahmaz and Avatar and his son Jonathan.

And that information, this information that they're going

to provide today, which is going to be vital information.

And that information he says will be conveyed to him if we

see, when we see it in verse 28, it says, I will wait in the

plains of the wilderness, presumably places in the

wilderness where there were open areas or in the in the

wilderness or places maybe to cross the, the Jordan River.

It doesn't really say, but it says in the open places.

Some translations say I can't remember.

I can't remember the term they use, but it is it was almost

like a crossing or a narrow spot in a brook or a Creek.

If you want to say or the fjords, what it says fjords,

that's what it says. So there's a little conflict

there. I don't know which one is is

correct, but basically is a place where where they could

meet him and give him the information it says until word

comes from you to inform you. And so we're told that Zadok and

Avatar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem and they

remained there. So they go back and David is

going up. And once again the scene is

described for us in verse 30. It says so David one up by the

ascent of the Mount of Olives and wept as he went up and he

had his head covered and went barefoot and all the people who

were with him covered their heads and went up weeping as

they went. And what we're seeing here is

we're actually seeing if you want to put a, a picture or, or,

or label to it is almost like a funeral procession.

You know, you have people who are mourning, have their heads

covered. They're walking away.

And so we don't see that in our culture at this time.

But there's other parts of the world, previous cultures where

they would walk, you know, down the street as a procession and a

funeral and people in the bystanding would stop and pay

their respects. If you want to say so this is

really a sad sight. Men and women who would happen

to be bystanders, nothing to do with the funeral, would remove

their hats when the funeral procession went past.

And I think maybe in some cultures there's some help to

that. You know, there's some comfort

if you want to say and to a community, if I want to suppose.

But we don't have that, of course, in our culture at this

time, even though it looks as though it can't get any worse.

It is exactly in this context, that date that the news that we

already know about, about a Hippophel is conveyed to David.

In that context. They came to him and said a

Hippophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.

And that's a pretty heavy thought.

And all I could think about when I was studying this verse and I

was reading this the song I have these songs that come to my

head, the song that came to my head and we're going to sing it

for our invitation. What we what a friend we have in

Jesus and we come to the line where it says do your friends

despise forsake you? Is there trouble anywhere,

anywhere or sure, David could say that at that point he would

say, Oh yeah, absolutely. I hope that they'll is one of my

main counselors is turning from me.

Psalm 41 nine fits the hypothal scene, even though it may not be

directly tied to him, but it says even my own familiar friend

and whom I trusted who ate my bread has lifted up his heel.

That's another, you know, maybe caught our attention that in the

in the New Testament there this is a direct reference.

To Psalm 41 is what Jesus is quoting in relationship to

Judas. He says even my friend has risen

up against me, the one who ate bread with me in John 1318.

That's the context here. That's where Jesus is picking

that quote up from. Is this Psalm 41, verse 9?

Psalms 41:9

But we should never be discouraged.

We should take it to the Lord in prayer, which we'll notice that

that is exactly what David did in verse 31.

He says, Oh Lord, I pray turn the counsel of the Hippophel

into foolishness. And I wrote, you know, I had it

in my notes and I had this song in my head and and then I

started, we get to the next verse and and then I said, well,

what a friend we have in Hushai. What a friend we have in Hushai.

We're not going to sing what a friend we have in Hushai, but

the same thing we got to there was a really good friend that

David had and his name was Hushai, something that we

mentioned in the first part of the chapter of the previous

sermon. I briefly want to touch on it

real quick. David had prayed that the

counsel of the Hippothel would be turned to foolishness or will

be turned upside down. But that is not the end, of

course, of the matter because having prayed, all of a sudden

to his company comes an answer to his prayer, if you want to

say, So David prayed and then an answer comes and that is that

prayer comes in the person of Hushai himself.

And he asked the Lord for something to happen.

And we'll notice that with the arrival of Hushai that he

develops a strategy to make it happen.

So he doesn't say, oh Lord, do something about Hippothel and

that's it. That's not the end of the story.

Understand the sovereignty of God dealing with a Hippothel is

not in question. In fact, if we turn forward just

into chapter 17 and verse 14, there's a section there that

says so Absalom and all the men of Israel.

The advice of Hushai. The archive is better than the

advice of hip of a Hippophel for the Lord.

Notice this says for the Lord had purpose to defeat the good

advice of a Hippophel to the intent that the Lord might bring

disaster up on Absalom. So how did he or how did the

Lord God ordained to do that. So not only God does God ordain

the end, but he ordains the means to the end I believe and

the means to the end in this case involves a man who shy and

the strategy that David is able to develop on the strength of

that he determines that who shy will be a burden to him if he

comes along with him. If you notice in the in the

verse 33, for we don't know the reason why David said, you know,

he might be a a burden to him. Maybe he was old, maybe couldn't

get along, or maybe he talked too much.

You know, you don't want person talking the whole time you're

walking, You know, maybe a burden to you if you want to say

we don't know the answer. But if you but he says if you go

with me, you will be a burden to me.

And that's pretty straight talk. But if you return to the city

and say to Absalom, I will be your servant, O king, as I was

your father's servant previously, so I will now also

be your servant. Then then you will defeat, you

will defeat the council of Hippothel.

So which is it is is God going to defeat Hippothel like we read

in chapter 17, or is it going to be Hushai who defeats a hip?

It fell. And the answer is yes, both of

them. It's double, double reasoning.

If you want to say it's ultimately God, but it's not God

in a vacuum. For remember Nehemiah, Nehemiah

Nehemiah 4:8–9

4 verses 8 through 9 it says, and all of them conspired

together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion.

Nevertheless, we made our prayer to God and because of them, we

set a watch against them day and night.

They prayed to God and they set a watch day and night.

And this happens to us all the time, maybe even at a very

trivial level. If you want to say, you know, I

remember when I was 21 and I, I remember praying to God, you

know, I met Lizzie and I said, you know, God help me to.

I pray that I'll marry this girl.

Well, at that point, yeah, we prayed to God.

But all of a sudden find myself visiting Casita Springs, finding

out that, oh, I'm going to be here at the same time she's

going, Lizzie's going to be here.

Nobody visits Casita Springs for any other reason other maybe to

meet their future wife. But see, we pray and then we

take action to work in that prayer as well.

I think Frank puts it sometimes we pray like it all depends on

gone, but we work like it all depends on us.

And that is absolutely true. He ordained not only the end,

but He ordains the means to the end.

So understand that the sovereignty of God does not

deprive the responsibility, and the activity of men and women

does not deprive us of working. God is sovereign.

He does control it all, but we also have our responsibility in

the meantime. And that's why David establishes

what he what is essentially an intelligence network.

If you want to say he reminds who shy or let's who shy know

that if he goes back to Jerusalem and does this, you

know, incidentally, who shy does exactly what a hip Phil did, but

a hip Phil meant it. But who shy didn't mean it.

He's, you know, he's, he's, he's proclaiming his, his loyalty to

King Absalom when he goes back into Jerusalem.

But he didn't mean it. But Hippophel did it.

But Hippophel meant it. But when Hushai goes back and

says this, he doesn't, he doesn't mean it.

He, he's not, he's, he's not going to be the servant of

Absalom. He's going to be a spy.

If you want to say he's going to be a double agent.

And that's, it's part of the spy ring.

And, and the people that we're going to be involved with him

are the four fellows that we have already been mentioned,

which is Zadok, Ahemaz, Avatar and Jonathan.

Those were the, the two sons there.

And, and, and now we have Hushai, who's going to be in the

the inner circle, if you want to say, and then he's going to give

that information from Absalom and then give it to Abathar and

Zadok. And at that point, they're going

to take that information back to King David for what the plans

are. Verses 35 through 37 says, And

do you not have Zadok and Abathar the priest with you, the

priest with you there? Therefore it will be that

whatever you hear from the King's house, you shall tell to

Zadok and Abathar the priest. Indeed they have there with them

their two sons, Ahemaz, Zadok's sons, and Jonathan Abathar's

son. And by them you shall send me

everything you hear. So Hushai, David's friend, went

into the city and Absalom came into Jerusalem.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to conclude by noting

that the experience of David on this dark day of being exiled

from Jerusalem anticipates the experience that Jesus is going

to go through in the same manner.

Very dark day for Jesus as well. Not only geographically, of

course, which it does, and socially, which it does in terms

of friendship, but in different ways.

But also the most vital insignificant distinction being

is being this, that David's sufferings were tied directly to

his sins, and Christ's suffering is tied directly to our sin.

David suffered in part as a consequence of the things that

he had done, and Christ suffered on account of what we have done.

And that dark day out of the sin of Jerusalem of that that David

brings us that we see what David, you know, brings us can

helps us picture that that dark day that Jesus did going up to

Calgary in the same manner, if you want to say the illusion

between David and Jesus. I hope that we're catching this

as we go through the study. Some of the things that we just

sometimes Passover, but I hope it helps us to look forward to a

new day when all that Jesus has accomplished on that day will be

brought to light. That magnificent time continued

reality in heaven for US. One of these days.

Is there someone here who needs to respond to the gospel call

force. We want to make sure that we

understand this. Maybe there's here those here

who have not been baptized. Romans 10/17 says so then faith

comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

We then believe Hebrews 11611 six but without faith it is

impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe

that he is. We've been changed the way we

live. We're not living in a sinful

life anymore. We repent, go the other

direction. Acts 238 says 238 says then

Peter said repent and that everyone you'll be baptized in

the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

Then we confess as we have an example in Acts 836 through 37

where it says there I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of

God when Philip in the eunuch went down.

And then we of course know that baptism is essential.

We read that in Mark 1616 says he who believes and is baptized

will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.

I want to read Psalms 311 More time Psalm chapter 3.

Psalms 3 · chapter mention

Lord, how they have increased, who troubled me?

Many are they who rise up against me.

Many are they who say to me, there is no help from him in

God. But you, O Lord, are a shield

for me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.

I cried to the Lord with my voice, and he heard me from his

holy hill. I lay down and slept.

I awoke for the Lord sustained me.

I will not be afraid of 10 thousands of people who who have

the set themselves against me all around.

Arise, O Lord, save me, Oh my God, for you have struck all my

enemies on the cheekbone. You have broken the teeth of the

ungodly. Salvation belongs to the Lord.

Your blessing is upon your people.

Maybe there's one here who needs the prayers of the church or

needs to make a public confession in any way to make

things right. We ask you to please do so as we

stand and as we see.