Absalom - High Treason and Rebellion | Chris Osburn

#211 is a song of invitation and we're so thankful for everybody

who has made it here this morning to worship God.

We have a lot to be thankful for.

We have a lot of answered prayers.

There's people here that are back with us that haven't been

with us in a in some time. We're so thankful that they were

able to make it back with us. And it's as Frank mentioned also

as well. It's so thankful to see the

visitors that we have with us. And you're welcome back each and

every time you have the opportunity.

I invite you to open the Second Samuel, chapter 15.

2 Samuel 15 · chapter mention

If you want to follow along in your Bible, I'll have the

scriptures up here on the screen as well.

If you want to follow along, I'm going to read the entire

chapter, but we're not going to get through the whole chapter,

but I want to go ahead and read it.

And we're actually in our reading in the afternoons.

We're in Second Samuel or few couple chapters behind this.

So it's some really intriguing stories that we can see in the

life of David and his sons. So beginning in verse one of

second Samuel 15, it says there after this it happened that

Absalom provided himself with Chariots and horses and 50 men

to run before him. Now Absalom would rise early and

stand beside the way of the gate.

So it was when everyone, when anyone who had a lawsuit came to

the king for a decision that Absalom would call him to him

and say, what city are you from? And he would say your servant is

from such and such tribe of Israel.

Then Absalom would say to him, look, your case is good and

right, but there's no deputy of the king to hear you.

Moreover, Absalom would say, Oh, that I were made judge in the

land, and everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me.

Then I would give him justice. And so it was when anyone, so it

was whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, that he would

put out his hand and take him and kiss him.

In this manner Absalom acted toward all Israel who came to

the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of

the men of Israel. Now a messenger came to David,

saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.

So David said to all his servants who were with him at

Jerusalem, Arise, let us flee, or we shall not escape from

Absalom. Make haste to depart, lest he

overtake us suddenly and bring disaster upon us, and strike the

city with the edge of the sword. And the King's servant said to

the king, We are your servants, ready to do whatever, my Lord,

the king commands. Then the king went out with all

his household after him, but left.

But but the king left ten women concubines to keep the house.

And the king went out with all the people after him and stopped

at the outskirts. Then all the servants, all his

servants passed before him, and all the Cherithites, and all the

Pelathites and all the Gaitites. 600 men who had followed him

from Gath passed before the king.

Then the king said to Itaya the Gaitite, why are you also going

with us? Return and remain with the king,

for you are a foreigner and also in exile from your own place.

In fact, you came only yesterday.

Should I make you wander up and down with us today?

Since I go, so I go and I know not where.

Return and take your brethren back.

Mercy and truth be with you. But it's I answered the king and

said, as the Lord lives and as my Lord the King lives, surely

in whatever place my Lord the King shall be, whether in death

or in life, even there also your servant will be.

So David said to Itaya, Go and crossover, then it's higher to

get tight. And all his men and all the

little ones who were with him crossed over, and all the

country wept with a loud voice. And all the people crossed over.

And the king himself also crossed over the book Brooke

Kidron. And all the people crossed over

the way of the wilderness. There was Zadok also, and all

the Levites with him bearing the ark of the Covenant of God, and

they set down the ark of God, and Avatar went up until all the

people had finished crossing over from the city.

Then the king said to Zadok, Carry the Ark of God back into

the city. If I find favour in the eyes of

the Lord, he will bring me back and show me both it and his

dwelling place. But if he says thus, I have no

delight in you, here I am. Let him do to me as seems good

to him. The king also said to Zadok the

priest, Are you not a seer? Return to the city in peace, and

your two sons with you, Amas your son, and Jonathan the son

of Abathar. See, I will wait in the plains

of the wilderness until until word comes back from you in the

form to inform me. Therefore Zadok and Abathar

carry the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and it remained

there. So David went 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 up.

Then someone told David saying, A Hippothel is among the

conspirators with Absalom. And David said, Oh Lord, I pray

turn the counsel of the Hippothel into foolishness.

Now it happened when David had come to the top of the mountain

where he worshipped God, there was there was Hushai, the

archive coming to meet him with his robe torn and dust on his

head. David said to him, If you go on

with me, then you will become a burden to me.

But if you return to the city, say and say to Absalom, I will

be your servant, O King, as I, as I was your father's servant

previously, so I will now be also be your servant.

Then you may defeat the counsel of a Hippothel and do not have

Zadok and Avatar the priest with you there.

Therefore it will be that whenever you hear the from the

King's house, you shall tell Zadok and Avatar the priests.

Indeed, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimas,

Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Avatar's son.

And by them you shall send me everything you hear.

So Hushai, David's friend, went into the city and Absalom came

to Jerusalem. So as we have been reading

recently of the king, of the story of King David and learning

of his journey to the king of Israel after a man, after God's

heart, as he's described, the story we've been reading

together is also the story of God, kind of.

He's really setting King David in place, setting him on a holy

hill. If you want to say as a

psalmist, put it in IN26 Psalm 26, I put the House of David

here, the family tree. I was trying to wrap my head

around just reading the scripture of everybody that's

associated with David and I needed something on paper if you

want to say to look at it. So it's going to be up there

just for a couple minutes so you can kind of just look at it.

But along the journey of David's life, they've begun, you know,

things have become to start Creek and crumble.

If you want to say, now we've discovered that his Kingdom that

has been promised to David is at least on shaky ground and a

collapse seems almost inevitable.

And not simply a collapse because of result of what's

going on outside of the king, but really what's going on

inside of his Kingdom is where the collapse is really going to

happen. And Amnon has been killed by

Absalom and Absalom has been away for a while in hiding, and

now he has returned to Jerusalem.

The Bible takes really a slight shift here on the focus of who's

who they're talking about here in Second Samuel.

The focus has shifted really from David and now it's shifting

over towards Absalom a little bit.

And so Absalom is now the focus of things.

He's actually made the focus if we read back in chapter 13 one,

but it begins, it says now Absalom, David's son had a

beautiful sister. And that's really the

introduction for a long section where it's kind of focused on

Absalom. And it of course it was.

We'll get through our study ends in the tragic death of Absalom

himself. He had been her.

Absalom had himself actually is really quite a patient man in

some respects. He had waited for two years to

avenge the rape of his of Tamar, his sister, and then he had

managed to spend three years in the company of his maternal

grandfather. And he returned then to

Jerusalem and he was able to wait for two years before he got

to meet back with David, his father.

And although that at the end of chapter 14 and Second Samuel,

you'll see that it ended with a kiss from David to his son

Absalom. And even though it ended with

that kiss, I think we can see that there is a large, large gap

between David the king, and Absalom, his son trying to be a

pretender to the throne. There's a significant gap there,

even though they had that kiss at the end of, you know,

basically David was welcoming back into Jerusalem.

And if you go back into chapters 13 and 14, if you read those,

they're really a prelude to what we now discover, of course, in

chapter 15. And so now the focus is really

entirely on Absalom at this point.

And as about we're about to discover, that's exactly the way

Absalom wanted it. He wanted all the attention, he

wanted all the focus, and he's going to go ahead and get it.

It was going to suit his purpose.

So there's three points that I want to make that help me guide

through these first 12/12/13 verses we're going to cover this

morning. Absalom's persona, Absalom is

his politics and Absalom's plot. So I want to see if I can do

this chapter some justice. Like I said, we're only going to

get through half of this chapter, and my intent is to to

continue this study all the way through Absalom's death in the

upcoming months. So Absalom's persona we're

given, his public image is really distinct from his private

character. His public image is distinctly

different from his private character.

And that ought to give us an immediate cause for concern,

because back in Samuel 1425, it says that there wasn't a man and

all of Israel who was talked about as Absalom when it came to

being handsome, when it came to having good looks, when it came

to be having a striking personality, Absalom was that

guy. In fact, the the the writer of,

of Samuel tells us that there wasn't a blemish on him from

head to toe. Everything apparently was as

perfect as it could be. And he had a peculiarly

peculiar, Well, I'm going to say the word 1.

He, his hair was very distinct that he had very distinct.

And it's so much, it was a feature of him that a

description that they say that every once a year he would cut

his hair. And there was, they said 200

shekels of hair. And if you weigh that out to

pounds, that's 5 lbs of hair they would cut off every year

off of his head. That's a lot of hair.

I, I, I asked Lizzy, I said, how much do you think of 5 lbs of

hair issues? That is a lot of hair.

A lot. I mean, I can't imagine this

picture, that this is an AI produced picture and there's a

lot of hair on that guy's head and but you can imagine how that

would be 5 lbs of hair. Now with that as a description

of his physical frame, when you read and look at 15, the first

verse in chapter 15, it says after this, after this, well,

after what? After what?

I don't that doesn't give us a time frame which, you know,

something happened before. So after at least some measure

maybe of reconciliation with his father, after he had met up with

David, after there had been a kiss as a symbol of that

reconciliation. After that it says then he got

himself a chariot. And I thought that was kind of

amazing. You know, it almost seems kind

of funny or comical. You know, Absalom got himself a

chariot. Well, why is that?

OK, the King's son got himself some Chariots.

You know, you you can see Absalom saying, you know what

I'm going to do? I'm going to go get some

Chariots. I'm going to go ahead and do

that. And I'm going to go ahead and

get 50 men to run before me. You know, I'm going to go ahead

and try try riding a chariot. I want to be that guy.

I want to be, I want to look like the king and ride on that

chariot and and think high of myself.

You know, that would look really good.

And we'll have maybe we'll get some horses, you know, and let's

have 50 men right out before me. And then everybody could kind of

say, you know, here comes Absalom on his Chariots.

You know what he is doing? He's really absolute.

Absalom is building in his own image.

He's establishing his brand. If you want to say he is making

sure that he has style in the way that he looks, in the way

that he is. So the Chariots, what were the

Chariots for? The Chariots were for style.

If you want to say he was flexing, if you will, you know,

as the King's son. So we're not too far from this.

You know, we see the cult of celebrity.

It's not something that is just out there in the social media

world. You know, the cult of celebrity

we can see actually in in is out there.

You know, we see false preachers and false doctrines being taught

where they want the spotlight on the preacher, not on the word of

God, you know, so that celebratism is out there.

And in chapter 8 of First Samuel, Samuel's response to the

desire of the on the part of the people for a king, you remember

that Samuel was not crazy on that idea of the people wanting

their own king. He didn't like that idea.

He was a judge and so on. And and on that occasion, he

issues a warning to the people. He says, you know, if you want

to follow through on this key and have a king like all the

other nations, because that's what they wanted, that's the

key. They wanted a king just like

everybody else. They wanted to be like the other

nations of the world. He said if you get a king like

the other nations, and if you read First Samuel 8 verse 11, it

1 Samuel 8:11

says then you will need to know this, that he will have Chariots

and horsemen to run before him. And the Chariots that Absalom

was taking was actually came from King David's spoils of war

earlier in. He was, David was just setting

those aside for the time being. There was actually no specific

use for Chariots in that, in that area that we're at in the

area of Jerusalem, it's really hilly, really rocky.

You know, riding a chariot was really not a good thing to do

and couldn't be done in that area.

But Samuel issued the warning and we find that Absalom is on

the wrong side of We can read in Psalm 27 it says some trust in

Chariots and some trust in horses, but we trust in the name

of the Lord our God. And Absalom is on the wrong side

of that fence, building his persona.

And really we get to Absalom's politics because he is a

politician at the core. He really is a good politician,

some may say. There's no question about it.

And depending on the perspective that we look, and there's more

to him than just simply creating news about him, if you want to

say. And his his, his main objective

was to assert the role and the rule of his father.

He wanted to take over that and be the king himself.

He wanted to see him in the position of king of Israel.

And we'll notice that in verse 7, we're told again of his

patients that it was displayed because for 40 years he had been

working to build this case. And that doesn't just pop out of

nowhere where he gets a chariot and decides it's time to go.

It's over a period of time of 40 years that he was working the

crowd, laying the foundation, putting people in place, if you

want to say he was preparing for this opportunity.

And we're told what he does in verse 2, whenever the people

came out to the city gate, which was the place where the king

would execute judgments, as we learn in the Old Testament, he

would deal with matters of justice and so on.

Absalom decides, well, you know, I'm going to go ahead and do

that. I'm going to sit at the city

gates and I'll position myself there and I'll, they'll have to

come through me. And so when that people are

coming looking for judgment, looking for a king, I'm going to

intercept those people coming in.

And that's exactly what he does. He says them, he says to them,

from what city are you? And that's in verse 2 that we

can read. And when they answered that he

would say to them, well, you know, you have a very strong

case, but you know what, you only have a slim chance of

getting any any resolution to it because there's nobody here.

There's no deputy. The Bible says that can hear

your case that can give you resolution.

And he says, however, if only I were to become now I want to

notice very carefully. He doesn't say, oh, if if only I

were to become the king. He doesn't say that.

He says only that I were made judge in the land.

Well, the only one judge that it is the king.

So he knows what he's exactly saying.

He's saying if only I were to become judge and I'd be able to

settle all matters fair and square.

And so we can understand what what's going on here.

We don't you know, we you can you can breed a seed of

discontent and then you can offer your hand to resolve that

discontent at the same time. And that's exactly what Absalom

was doing. Well, some people love this so

much that we're coming through the gate.

They began to pay him homage. And whenever a man in verse 5,

it says, whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he

would say, oh, don't do that. Let me, he says.

I'm going to, I'm going to. I'm going to go to you, he says.

Now I'm going to be, he wants to be a man of the people.

If you want to say you don't need to be, bow down before me.

Come and shake my hand. Let me give you a kiss and a hug

instead. And the people begin to say,

well, this is a nice guy coming to us, shaking our hand, giving

us hugs and kisses. He's not like the other ones.

We can never actually see the other guy who's supposed to be

doing this. The King's never here.

King David's never here. I don't know where he is, but

he's always out. And, you know, but he's, we're

actually, we're told what's really going on.

In the final sentence of verse 6, it says Absalom stole the

hearts of men in Israel, of Israel.

That's what he set out to do. And that's what happened.

And he's successfully doing that.

So as the persona is established, his politics are

fairly straightforward and not unusual.

And the plot is then given to us in verse 7 and following.

And we'll notice that it's at the end of 40 years, 40 years

which time he's been able to sow seeds of discord and discontent.

40 years during which he's had enough time, if you like, to

turn his resentment, if you want to say, into courage.

Previously had he had waited 2 full years in Second Samuel, 14

and 28 to to finally finagle a situation to where he got into

the presence of King David. And now 40 years have elapsed.

And now he comes to tell David, the king, that he made a promise

to God and he made a vow. And it's really quite

surprising. You know, if if I were David and

my son came to me and said, you know, I made a vow to God 40

years ago that I'm going to do such and such, well, I think I

would have said, or any parent would have said 40 years ago,

why in the world are you taking so long to do what you made a

vow to do? You know, I would think there'd

be some resistance from David or some, some sort of lashing from

words or correction or something like that, that that David would

have done to Absalom. But you know, 40 years before

you fulfill a vow. But we as we read, there's no

pushback from David, none at all.

And it's interesting actually, because back in the sheep

shearer's incident, where where if you read back in chapter 13,

David kind of holds him back a little bit and says, now wait a

minute, you know, hang on, if we can read that in Second Samuel

1326. But in this case, David didn't

say much of any questioning at all to Absalom.

So why Hebron? He had to go back to Hebron.

That's where he said, well, Hebron had a history.

Hebron was the royal city before Jerusalem.

Hebron is the Abraham's base. Hebron is where David was first

anointed king. It's where Caleb's inheritance

was the city of refuge. There's many things that

happened in Hebron and Absalom knows exactly what he's doing

back in Hebron. He can make an approach and

establish a base in a way that he desperately wants to do and

what he's actually going to do. In verses 8 and 9 where he says

For your servant took a vow while I dwelt in Gesher and

Syria saying if the Lord indeed brings me back to Jerusalem, he

says he says then I will serve the Lord.

And what he's actually doing here, he's actually taking the

the the name of the Lord in vain is what he's doing.

If I'm correct. And I've read a couple scholars

on that so you guys can check if you want.

But I believe this is the last time he ever mentions God for

the rest of his life. And unfortunately he does it so

deviously. He takes the name, his name in

vain. Now the response of David is

striking. Verse 9, he says it says go in

peace, go in peace. And this is either an expression

of a trusting father to his son, the trusting nature of David's

character, or perhaps he's just weary of the whole procedure, if

you want to say, or that he's supremely confident in his

position. I think either reason, you know,

maybe you could say is acceptable.

But he says go in peace. Something else that's

interesting is these are the last record of words of David to

his son Absalom. Last record of words says go in

peace. And how ironic that he would be

invited to go on peace when actually he was going to do what

he was going to make war and not love.

And we'll notice that he is strategically strategic in what

he's doing in verse 10, Absalom sent spies throughout all the

tribes of Israel. So he's working the system.

He's making it secure that when the right moment comes, when the

when the when everything's set in place, he can blow the

trumpets if you want to say and cry and go out through all and

and everybody can say Absalom is king and he in Hebron, he's

setting it all up. So he's working the system,

making himself secure. He takes with him, we're told in

verse 11200 men from Jerusalem who were invited guests.

They went in their innocence and they knew nothing.

They knew nothing of the plan at all.

They knew nothing of what Absalom was doing.

But it was also of look, it would have looked good, of

course, for Absalom. Again, you know, having all

these people come with him. It looked like he would have a

real band of supporters. If you want to say and then to

add to all the corruption he is managed, we see in verse 12 a

hippophile, the Gilanite. What happened?

A hippophile the Gilanite was actually David's counselor.

He was one of the key players in in the David's strategy.

He was Bathsheba's grandfather. And how it is that a Hippothel

makes the shift from being a key commander or a key counsel maybe

to David, he makes that shift to being part of this insurrection.

It's pretty amazing. It remains a question that we're

not going to know because, you know, we can think of maybe a

Hippothel resented the fact that David, the king who's supposed

to execute justice, did exactly the opposite.

He did nothing to execute justice because if remember that

what David did to Bathsheba's husband, he had him killed for

to cover up his own sin. We can read that back in Chapter

11. In fact, what he executed was

very reverse and and in the impact it had on a Hippothel's

family was going to be felt for a very, very long time.

So maybe that's the reason we don't know.

So those are the 1st 13 verses. Hippothel gives his skills, all

of his experience, all that had been so valued by David and puts

it at the disposal of Absalom and the rebellion.

So what's the response? What's David's reaction to

what's starting to happen here? And if we're reading this

through from the first time, you know, we can, we're kind of on

the edge of what David's going to do.

You know, you would think David would would put an end to that

real quickly. But we're going to see

differently what happens here. And he says in verse 14, we're

told that David issues the command arise, let us flee.

Arise and let us flee. Now, I don't want us to lose

sight that David knew exactly where his security lay.

He knew exactly knew that his his security didn't lie in the

cedar house that he had built for himself, which is what he

was going to leave behind. His security didn't lie in the

really nice house that he had. It didn't lie in the mountain of

the Lord. It it didn't.

In fact, we can read in the third Psalm it says because

there it's a cross French reference.

If you want to say he knows where his confidence lay, we can

find it out. David writes it there.

This is David writing about him fleeing from Absalom.

So if there's any doubt, it says, Lord, how have they

increased to trouble me? Many are who rise up against me.

Many are those are they who say to me, there is no help for him

and God, so where's the security?

He says, but you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and

the one who lifts up my head and you should say, well, OK, well,

that's enough, That's enough. That's all it should take,

right? Just having security in the

Lord, knowing the Lord who he is, He's a shield about us.

It's not in our house. It's not in the mountain, Lord.

It's in the Lord. So why is David running if he's

got that shield about him, if he knows where security is?

Well, I think the answer is because he's really sensible.

David understands what's going on.

He still has his head about him. If you want to say he's saying

you know, we need to get out of here because I know my son

absence coming for us and if we stay here, we're certainly going

to be overtaken. Remember, David is a military

commander and he understands the art of war and all that goes

along. He he knows that that we don't

allow yourself to be trapped somewhere when forces are coming

against you. It's not sensible no matter how

much you say the Lord is a shield about you.

Now listen, the Lord does not disengage our mind when he

promises us security. He expects us to be reasonable

and sensible. He expects us to exercise our

own wisdom that came from God in the 1st place.

And that's exactly what David does.

You know, we, we just don't throw caution to the wind

because our, our security is in God.

You know what He gave us the wisdom, He gave us knowledge, He

gave us experience so we can execute that for His glory.

And so he says we're going to prevent the possibility of us

taking down all of us being taken down at the edge of the

sword. And verses 14 and 15, his

servants respond to them saying we are ready to do whatever my

Lord the king decides. And we might actually notice

that the emphasis on the word king here in these 3 verses, it

comes again and again and again. It says in the King's servant

said to the king, We're your servants ready to do whatever my

Lord the king commands. Then the king went out with all

this household after him, but the king left ten women

concubines to keep the house. And the king went out with all

the people after him and stopped at the outskirts.

So we need to remember that there's, when there's a

repetition of things that we're seeing in the Bible, we need to

pay attention to those repetitions because they're

there for a reason. There's, there's, it helps us to

grasp things and says, remember, you know, as we're reading, you

know, we need not to forget who the king is at this time.

It's King David. It's not absent yet.

It's King David, the king, the king, the King David is the

king. He has been set by the Father,

by God on his holy hill, and it is God who promised him a house.

Second Samuel 7, verses 5:00 and 11:00.

This is paraphrase. It says you, you're concerned

about a house for me. Well, I'll build a household for

you is what God told David. We keep that in mind when we

look again at verse 16. It says the king went out with

all his household after him. Well, the Lord had promised him

that he would build his household.

And now it looks as though there's an entire household

collapsing around him. One son is dead, the other one

is seeking insurrection. And so he says, what we're going

to do is we're all going to going to, we're all going to go,

but we'll leave these 10 concubines behind.

And that actually is a really bad decision on his part when

especially related to Absalom in the future.

We'll get to that. But actually the king goes out

and all the people go after him. And we're beginning to actually

see the king, King David, in a way that he actually used to act

before. He's becoming very decisive now.

Again, in all of his actions. What he knows that needs to be

done, He he's he's done as well as a well, you know, he was a

fugitive in the past. He did fine at that point.

He's not unaware of the wilderness, where he's going to

go. He spent many times in the

wilderness and so on. And and they go on their way.

And then we're told in verse 17 it says and the king went out

with all the people after him and stopped at the outskirts.

And that's an interesting little phrase, stopped at the

outskirts. Why would he stop at the last

house? This is King David exiting

Jerusalem on his way to exile, knowing that Absalom is coming

to take over. So Dave is getting out of town.

He's getting out of Dodge, if you want to say so.

He would stop at the outskirts. Some translations say the last

house. Well, we're told they stopped in

order that they may have, I think, what is called a military

parade. You know, we see in the

following verses here that it's exactly what's happening by far,

but at a higher, higher level. They're on the outskirts of

city. It's the Last Post if you like.

And and so all of David's servants passed by him.

And we'll notice here who's in verse 18, the Cherithites, the

Palathites in the 600 of the of the Gitites from Gath.

Now in Gath is is another interesting city, David.

When David was running away, he decided in first Samuel 21

versus 10, he says if I go into any enemy territory, I'm going

to be safer in enemy territory then I'm going to be here.

So he escaped to enemy city and it was quite a move and clearly

it impressed many people. And during that time he picked

up many friends and established for himself a base that extended

beyond even the tribes of Israel.

He did that in Gal, and what we're looking at here is that

these foreigners were now actually more faithful to the

king than his King's own people. And the Kingdom is, his Kingdom

collapses and the foreigners are there to pick up the pieces if

you want to say they're there to support him.

Years after this, Isaiah is going to prophecy.

We can see it in Isaiah chapter 2.

Isaiah 2 · chapter mention

Two of a day that will come when all the nations of the world

will flow up to the mountain of God.

All the nations will flow up to the mountain of God.

Your rivers don't flow up, right?

Streams don't flow up. Streams flow downhill.

But it's an amazing picture that we can see running against the

tide of history. If you want to say running

against the normal expectations, there will be it.

There will come a day, says the prophet, when the nations of the

world will flow up to the place of God's authority.

And then if we go on, you know further in the Bible on

Bethlehem and follow Jesus as he moves around, we can hear him,

you know, in Matthew talking to the centurion, he says, the

centurion says, I need your help.

And Jesus responds to him. And the centurion says, you know

Jesus, you can just say the word and it will be fine, and my

servant will be healed. Because I have servants and.

I say, you know, to this guy, do this, this one, do that, and

they do it just because of who I am.

And remember what Jesus says. His response to me says I've

never found a faith like this in all of Israel.

Matthew 88 through 10. It's a foreigner.

It's it's a person from the Roman army who's who's has this

faith, not somebody from the tribe of Israel.

And then Jesus says in Matthew 8 and 10 says, truly, I tell you,

I've not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

Verse 11. Says I say to you many listen,

listen, I tell you, many will come from east and from West and

from the West, and reclined at the table with Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven.

Last point. I want to make here verse 9

starting in verse 19. It tie the Gethite.

It tie the gethite. The king said to I tie the

gethite. Why are you going with us

speaking as a representative of the 600, basically saying

David's telling. This guy go.

Back. Go back, you don't need.

To come with us. He says remain or.

Stay with the king, stay with the king.

And of course, David's talking about Absalom.

Stay with the king because that's who's going to be king

very shortly. Verses 20 and 21 tells us that

it's tied. To get tied is letting David

know that that David, you are the king.

I want to stay. With you.

You are the the King that God has set in place.

And David said, well, not according to the people are

here. You know, Absalom is the future.

Stay with the king. You're a foreigner.

You're in exile. You've only just shown up.

You know I'm and now you're going to ask you to wander

around with me and I don't even know where I'm going.

I don't have no idea so. David again says go back, take

your brothers with you, that the Lord may show steadfast love and

faithfulness to you because that's what he needs.

Stay here because you're going to get care.

You're going to get love. You need to know the covenant of

the love of God. You need to go to know God in a

steadfast. You need to know that God is

faithful. He's telling Hittite to stay in

place. We can kind of see.

Here that maybe David's talking to himself a little bit.

You know, if we know ourselves and we're trying to give

somebody advice on something or we try to press something on

somebody, you know, you need to do this, you need to do that,

you need to do this. You know, a lot of the times

we're telling ourselves the same thing, You know, maybe that's

what's going on. I don't know.

We made this, you know, we can say, hey, we're now we're in

this predicament. There's no question about this.

A lot of this is in my own doing.

I made these foolish choices. I'm in this mess.

But you are a faithful God. It's high, you need.

To know that I'm concerned in time about your spiritual

warfare, what David was telling him, but it's high in verse 21

said to the king, as the Lord lives and as my Lord king lives,

surely in whatever place my Lord the king shall be, whether in

death or life, even there also your servant will be.

Verses 22 and 20. Three.

And David says, well then in that case, go on, he says.

Come on then, if. That's the case, then.

It's hard to get Titan. His men and all the little ones

we were with him crossed over, and all the country wept with a

loud voice, and all the people crossed over.

The king himself also crossed over the Brook Kidron, and all

the people crossed over toward the way of the Wilderness.

Like I said, my intent. Is next month.

It's to capture the second-half of this chapter, but I want us

to recognize maybe a little statement here.

Sounds a lot like another person that we can read about.

Not a man, but a lady Ruth the Moabite.

Ruth the Moabite is Naomi. Says to her, go back, go back,

you come with me. I'm triple bereaved.

Go back is what Naomi tells Ruth.

And remember what Ruth said to her.

Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after

thee. Wherever thou goest I will go,

and where thou dwellest I will dwell.

Thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God, it's.

How you saying the same? Thing I'm going to go with you

wherever you go, King David, no matter, no matter what, and I'm

going to trust in God because God has put you a king of Israel

and I'm going to follow you wherever are you trusting God in

our life and our family, our future, and that's the question.

There's a little map up here of. Kind of the the.

I guess the exile of. David, if you want to say I'll

probably put this in some future ones, but it's just up there.

Shows how David gets on from Jerusalem and heads to Gilgal,

crosses over the the Jordan and the Henan M and then the great

battle at the Forest of Ephraim. Will read about in the future.

Maybe there's? One here who needs to hear the

gospel plan of salvation. Hear the word.

Of God Romans 17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by

the word of God believe Hebrews 11/6.

But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he

who comes to God must believe that he is.

Acts 238 teaches. Us that we need to repent it

says then Peter said repent and that everyone of you be baptized

in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins confess

that Jesus is the Son of God. We see that in Acts 3836 and 37,

the the eunuch and went down into the water with a man and he

said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

And they were baptized right there.

He was baptized right there and baptized ISM of course.

And then and only then we come in contact with the blood of

Jesus Christ. Mark 1616 says he who believes

and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will

be condemned. Maybe there's one here who needs

that. We can accommodate that very

quickly. Maybe there's one here who needs

the prayers of the church or needs to make a public

confession in any manner. We actually come while we stand,

while we see.