2 Samuel 19:9-43

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Chapter 19, verses 9 through 43.

Last one we left off the storyline.

There had been an epic civil war between the armies of Absalom and the armies of David.

Absalom was David's third son.

He had returned to Jerusalem at David's invitation, but decided that somewhere along the way that he wanted to be king.

So he began posturing himself in such a way that people would see him that way.

As he sat in the gate, he told people, if he were king, then this and that and this and that would happen.

And he hired people to run alongside of his chariot.

And as he had these really long, flowing locks of beautiful hair, he made sure he had the glam shots going and the uh attendance all around him.

And he was making all the promises.

Sounds a little bit like a modern-day politician, to be honest with you, making all kinds of promises, wanting to make sure he looks good all the time and spinning everything just right.

What he wanted to do was become king.

Eventually, David sees that there's going to become some conflict.

David leaves Jerusalem with an entourage of his faithful followers and loyalists.

Doesn't want there to be bloodshed in the city.

We were told that in chapter 15, verse 14.

And so that Absalom carries on and in pursuit of David eventually, wants to sort of end it all by killing David.

And this does not happen.

But David and Joab, together with their army, defeat Absalom and Amasa and Absalom's army.

Absalom is killed.

David goes into great grieving and mourning.

That's where we left off last time.

He's very sad about it all, but he's still in the city of Mahanaim on the eastern side of the Jordan River, some number of miles in.

And that's where he stayed.

Even though he won the victory over Absalom's army, he hasn't gone running back to Jerusalem to take over the throne.

He has stayed there in Mahanaim.

And so we kind of pick up right after all of that happens, chapter 19 of 2 Samuel, verse, let me read verse 8 and following.

So the king arose.

This is him going to the gate, and he's sitting there in the gate at Mahanaim, and all the people see that he's sitting there, and they all came before the king.

And this is just it just means he he's ceased his active uh mourning, and he's now back at work.

He's sitting at the gate where a king would sit, and he's uh making judgments and and giving uh decree, setting decrees and that sort of thing.

Israel had fled, each to his own tent.

That means the armies of Absalom are typically have been called Israel.

They've been using that name here in uh the chapters that we've been at.

All the people were quarreling throughout the tribes of Israel, saying, the king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and saved us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he's fled out of the land from Absalom.

However, Absalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in battle.

Now then, why are you silent about bringing the king back?

So what's happening here is the people are quarreling back and forth.

Uh it's becoming sort of acrimonious.

There's some finger pointing.

It's you picked him, you anointed him.

No, yeah, but why are you quarreling?

How come we're not bringing David back?

There's a gap in leadership, and there's a there's a there's a good deal of uncertainty right now, and uh people just don't know what's gonna happen.

So the king sends verse 11 to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, saying, speak to the elders of Judah.

You'll remember Judah is uh the southern uh part of uh what we typically think of all of Israel.

It's gonna be the southern tribe of Israel.

Jerusalem is in Judah, uh David is from the tribe of Judah, and they're the ones that are really resisting inviting David to come back and be king.

And so he sends these priests, and it says, speak to the elders there in Judah, saying, Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house?

Since the word of all Israel has come to the king, even to his house.

You are my brothers, you are my bone and my flesh.

Why then should you be the last to bring back the king?

And that does, that's common sense.

It seems like if David is to be restored as king, his own kith and kin, the folk from his own tribe, would be the ones that would be the first, actually, to stand up and welcome him back.

But of course, they're the ones that went first with Absalom.

It was down in Hebron that uh Absalom goes, and he he went when he went to be uh sort of supplant David, he went there to be anointed king uh instead of David.

So here we have uh David asking them why they have been resistant.

He offers them now a little bit more of an olive branch in verse 13.

He says, Say to Amasa, remember, Amasa is uh uh was the commander of the armies of Absalom.

So while Absalom was killed and the armies were defeated, Amasa is still alive.

You also, it's helpful to know that Amasa is a nephew to David.

So everybody's related to everybody here, okay?

So it's uh Joab is a nephew to David, Amasa is a nephew to David, and uh and he, Amasa, had been fighting against David, and the commander of the armies of Absalom against David.

And yet David is now saying, say to Amasa, you uh are you not bone of my flesh bone and flesh of my flesh?

May God do so to me and more.

Also, if you were not, uh if you will not be commander in the army before me continually in place of Joab, do you realize what just happened?

David just fired Joab and hired Amasa.

It's a strange move that you would hire the general of the armies that you just fought against.

And yet, he is his nephew.

And yet, if David does want to come back, perhaps it's a brilliant move of artful diplomacy.

Uh, if he can trust Amasa, of course, that's a good question to ask as well.

But he makes this move and he's gonna put him over top of where Joab was.

Joab, who had killed Absalom, has David learned that yet?

I don't know.

He may very well have.

Thus he turned the hearts of all the men of Judah as one man.

In other words, they all now have decided they want David.

So they sent word to the king saying, Return, you and all your servants.

The king then returned and came as far as the Jordan.

Judah came to Gilgal in order to go to meet the king, to bring the king across the Jordan.

Gilgal is a very important area in the Promised Land.

When the children of Israel first came into the Promised Land, it was at Gilgal that they camped out.

And so it's as if David choosing this and these folks choosing that, David looking like he's heading for Gilgal, these folks choosing to camp out in Gilgal.

It's a perfect place to say, we're going to start over again.

We're going to have a new beginning, if you will.

And so Shimei, the son of Garah the Benjamite, who was from Bahrim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David.

There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, with Zeba, the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him, and they rushed to the Jordan before the king.

How many?

Raise your hand if you remember who Shimei is.

Raise your hand.

Anybody at all?

Two of you.

All right, four of you.

All right, good, that's good.

All right.

Anybody remember who Zeba?

Remember the name Zeba?

Okay, four more.

Okay, that's good.

Beautiful.

All right, let me just remind you a little bit, because it's helpful.

This feels like a cast call to me.

Shimei, remember when David left Jerusalem just a few weeks ago, we studied this.

When he left Jerusalem, Shimei was that kind of half-crazy, kind of wild man up on the ridge of the mountain there that was yelling, curse you, David, curse you, David, and throwing stones at him.

Do you remember this?

Okay, heads up and down means yes.

Okay, good, thank you.

Help me.

A little bit of encouragement is always helpful.

The other guy, Zeba, is the guy that is actually taking care of Mephibosheth, who we're gonna hear from in a minute, too.

So what you're seeing is, as I said, is this everybody's coming, it's like the movie's being, it's like a you know, the movie's being played backwards, and we're getting to see all these same people again.

So Shimei, who had been, you know, you're ugly and your mother is ugly and throwing stones at him and all that stuff, right?

Right?

And and and how dare you, you know, exist, you know, that kind of thing.

Now this guy, Shimei, comes back.

He's got a thousand men with him.

What's that about?

He's got Zeba, servant of the house of Saul, who was the one taking care of Mephibosheth.

And Zeba's fifteen sons and his twenty servants were with him, and they all rushed down there.

They want to be a part of this welcome or not?

Well, let's find out, okay?

They all rushed down to the Jordan.

Verse 18.

Then they kept crossing the ford to bring over the king's household and to do what was good in his sight.

Oh, interesting.

Shimei the son of Gerah fell down before the king as he was about to cross the Jordan.

So he said to the king, Let not my lord consider me guilty, nor remember what your servant did wrong on the day when my lord the king came out from Jerusalem, so that the king should take it to heart.

For your servant knows that I have sinned.

Therefore, behold, I have come today, the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.

But Abishai, and I don't know if anybody remembers Abishai, but when Shimei on the way out of Israel, when Shimei was throwing rocks and curses at David, Abishai was the one that said to David, You want me to take care of him?

You want me to, you know, he was literally David's bouncer.

Okay, he was literally gonna go take care of him.

And Abishai does the same thing again.

The son of Zeroiah answered and said, Should not Shimei be put to death for this?

Because he cursed the Lord's anointed.

David then said, What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeroiah, that you should this day be an adversary to me?

Should any man be put to death in Israel today?

For do I not know that I'm king over Israel today?

In other words, things are settling down.

Things are getting back to normal.

Abishai, this is a day for celebration, not for taking heads off.

You know?

I'm kind of glad.

I mean, I've been I'm, you know, as I go through these chapters like this, this is one of those chapters where nobody gets their head lopped off and nobody's run through with a sword.

This is good, this is actually fairly good, although it's it's interesting.

It's there's so much of these returning people.

The king says to Shemiah, you shall not die.

Thus the king swore to him.

Verse 24, Mathibisheth steps forward, the son of Saul, came down to meet the king.

He had neither cared for his feet, that's bad, nor trimmed his mustache, nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.

How many of you like pedicures?

Pedicures?

Anybody like a good pedicure?

Please, come on.

I've actually gone and had a pedicure.

Kim talked me into this thing.

At first I'm like, no way, I am not going to a pedicure.

You know, and I went to the pedicure and and I sat there and just kind of hoped and prayed we could go at an off hour when no other man would see me in there, you know, that kind of thing.

But I went to the pedicure, and I gotta tell you, I liked it.

It's awesome.

The only problem is I am really ticklish.

And so at the end of the pedicure, what they do is they take these uh little sandstony things and they do the scrubbing on the bottom of your feet like this, and I'm laughing so loud.

Everybody in the place is I I'm so embarrassed.

I I think I'm for certain I'm sure they lost business that day because of me.

Because I'm laughing out loud like that, you know, like I'm in, you know, really in pain.

I'm pulling my feet away from a lady.

She's oh, it's okay.

You know, it's just but anyway, Mephibosheth hadn't had a pedicure since David left.

And he hadn't trimmed his mustache, means he let it go, okay?

Um, nor had he washed his clothes.

Okay, now backing away a little bit.

All right.

So he hadn't lost, he hadn't washed his clothes ever since from the day the king departed until the day that he came home in peace.

What's that about?

It's really a sign, we'll see this in a second.

It's really a sign that he actually was mourning.

M-O-U, mourning the loss of the king's presence.

And that runs against what uh Zeba had said to David about Mephibosheth.

You see, Ziba had told David that Mephibosheth had turned traitor and didn't want to go with David.

And um and so now we see that here's actual physical proof that he has been mourning.

He's he's not got not washed his clothes, he's not trimmed his mustache or had his feet cared for.

It was when he came from Jerusalem to meet the king.

Uh Mephibosheth uh is now going to say, the king says to him, Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?

And he answered, verse 26, Oh, my Lord the King, my servant deceived me.

In other words, Zeba deceived me.

For your servant said, I will saddle a donkey for myself, then I might ride on it and go with the king, because your servant is lame.

Moreover, he has, meaning Zeba has slandered your servant to my lord the king.

But my lord the king is like the angel of God, therefore do what is good in your sight.

In other words, Mephibosheth comes and doesn't ask for anything, but Mephibosheth just is so glad that David is back.

That's what means something to Mephibosheth is that presence of the king.

And it's really beautiful, actually.

And so he explains that to him.

Um, uh do what is good in your sight.

He resolves to whatever David wants to do.

All my father's household was nothing but dead men before my Lord the king.

Yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table.

What right do I have yet that I should complain any more to the king?

And so David says to him, Why do you still speak of these affairs?

I've decided, you and Zeba shall divide the land.

Remember, he had originally, when he left Jerusalem, David had given all of the land to Zeba after Zeba told him Mephibosheth had turned his back on David.

Now David is changing that and giving half to Zeba and half to Mephibosheth.

That's very interesting to me.

I read commentaries that said that they couldn't actually tell for sure, for certain, that Zeba's um uh lying or that Mephibosheth could have actually tried to figure a way to drum up this bit of drama here.

It could have been drama, might not have been real.

So they aren't sure.

David might have been presented with a conundrum.

Who do I believe?

It's he said, he said here.

Which one of them is telling the truth?

And in the moment, remember, David has just said, let Shimmi off the hook.

The guy that cursed and threw the stones.

David's in a really gracious mood right now.

First Kings chapter 2, David won't be so in such a gracious mood as he's on his deathbed, and Solomon, his son, is sitting there.

1 Kings 2 · chapter mention

Uh, and David will say to his son, Solomon, don't let Shimei off the hook for what he did back then.

But today, today, nobody's gonna die, is what David has said.

And so today, David has this little conundrum.

Here's one guy saying one thing, here's one guy who has said another thing, and David just says, Ah, split the land up between them.

And I just wonder if there isn't an eight-year-old Solomon standing there.

Oh, that's how we deal with puzzles when more than one person claims to own something or that something belongs to them.

That's how we do it.

We come up with another way, a third way.

And most of you are familiar with where that might have, you know, led Solomon down the line.

But anyway, um, verse 26.

Uh so why do you go why uh he's been he's been asked why you didn't go with him.

Verse 26, he says uh he wanted to saddle a donkey and go.

Verse 27, he feels like he's been slandered by Zeba, and he explains all of that.

Verse 29, the king says to him, Why do you still speak?

You guys will divide the land.

Verse 30, Mephibosheth says to the king, let him take it all.

Isn't this amazing?

Look at this.

Let him, meaning Ziba, let him take it all, since my Lord the king has come safely to his own house.

In other words, you're here.

That's what matters to me.

I don't care about the land.

I don't care about the stuff.

I care about you.

And I'm really glad you're here.

Uh and that's interesting.

Verse 31, we have a new character.

We've heard about him once, but not much.

Barzali the Gileadite has come down from Rogain, or actually, excuse me, Rogalim.

These names are interesting, aren't they?

Rogain, yeah.

That's the place where you go to get your hair done.

Okay, so no, this is Barzali the Gileadite, he's come down from Rogelem, Rogalim.

And he went onto the Jordan with the king to escort him over to the Jordan, or across the Jordan, rather.

By the way, the uh the verb, the Hebrew verb bar is uh mentioned 13 times here.

There's the idea of crossing over or carrying over or going over 13 times in this passage, man.

You know, interesting.

At some point, even if I were just to camp out on that, I'd be I'd be saying, you know, at some point we do have to make a decision, we have to cross over, we have to make a come to a defining moment and make a decision about who's going to be king.

And you do and I do.

It's still true that that's the case.

But Barzali, the Gileadite, had come down from Roglam, and he went to the Jordan with the king, with David, to escort him over the Jordan.

Very, very much uh Middle Eastern hospitality.

Barzali was very old, not just old, but very old, uh, being 80 years old.

Now I got news for you.

That doesn't seem that old, the older I get.

Okay, so the older you get, if you're here and you go, yeah, 80's not that bad.

Oh, I'm very old now.

I'm not just regular old, I'm very old if I'm 80, okay?

So I apologize to all my uh octagenarians if you happen to be here today and be an octagenarian.

But Barzala was very old, he was 80 years old, and he had sustained the king while he stayed in Mahanaim.

He was very, he was a very great man.

He was a man of great wealth and great substance, he was very generous.

He was one of the ones that we read about.

Three different people came out.

Uh uh a fellow named Shobi was one of them, too.

They came out and provided David with all kinds of supplies and provisions for his army as he was uh sort of rebuilding things in Mahanaim there.

So this guy, Barzali, has been faithful to him, and he he wants to see him through and across the Jordan, okay?

And the king says to Barzali, you cross over with me and I will sustain you in Jerusalem with me.

In other words, come live in the palace with me.

I'm going back to Jerusalem.

Come live in the palace.

You can live in the palace with me, all right?

And I'll take care of you.

But Barzali says to the king, How long have I yet to live that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?

I'm eighty years old.

Can I distinguish between good and bad?

Or can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink?

Or can I hear any more the voice of singing men and women?

Why then should your servant be an added burden to my Lord the king?

Your servant would merely cross over the Jordan with the king.

Why should the king compensate me with this reward?

Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city, near the grave of my father and my mother.

And so this is what he's saying.

It would be so disruptive to me at my age to have to move house and to bring everything in there.

Plus, my family's back here.

And I don't know if you all know, but you know, moving can be stressful.

Anybody?

Amen?

Yeah?

Moving can be great stress points.

This is very uh and so Barzly probably has moved once or twice, knows this by the time he's 80, and is just saying, thank you so much for the invitation to the palace, but I think I'd rather stay.

And if if I've got a few more years left, I want to live with my family, and I want to be buried with my fathers.

And that makes just a ton of sense.

However, verse 37, um, he's got somebody else that he would like to uh here is your servant, Kim Ham.

Let him cross over with my Lord the King, and do for him what is good in your sight.

So David answers and says, Kim Ham shall cross over with me, and I will do for him what is good in your sight.

Whatever you require of me, I will do for you.

And so Kim Ham, who some Bible commentators think might be Barzali's son, or perhaps nephew, or something close to him.

He's asking for a favor for this, he he since David's in such a generous mood, uh, and and perhaps Kim Ham needs to go study in the University of Jerusalem and get a good degree and good education, and maybe he can come back to Gilead someday and start a few businesses and all that sort of thing.

So he's it's very, you can kind of see why he would ask this kind of thing and make good sense.

And David even says, Whatever you want me to do for him, I'll do for you.

So verse 39, all the people crossed over to the Jordan, and the king crossed over too.

The king then kissed Barzali and he blessed him, and he returned to his place.

And this is really, you know, very much a part of their culture, not so much part of ours, but very much a part of their culture to do that kind of thing, to embrace, to kiss, to bless in a very, you know, very formal kind of way.

And then this guy.

returns back uh Barzali to his own place.

Now this is interesting because just when you start thinking, everything is wonderful.

This chapter is my favorite chapter in 2nd.

Just when you start to think that, things are gonna, sorry, but things are gonna go south here for just a minute, just a little dip here.

The king went on to Gilgal and Kimam went on with him, all the people of Judah and also half, note that, half the people of Israel accompanied the king.

That means the other half did not, okay?

Hmm.

Behold, all the men of Israel came to the king and said to the king, Why had our brothers, the men of Judah, stolen you away?

And brought the king and his household and all David's men with him over the Jordan.

Then all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, Well, because the king is a close relative to us.

Remember, David is from the tribe of Judah, okay?

Why then are you angry about this matter?

Have we eaten at all at the king's expense?

Or has anything been taken for us?

But the men of Israel, and Israel's generally considered the northern ten tribes, the men of Israel answered, the men of Judah, the southern part of Israel, and they said, We have ten parts in the king.

Therefore we also have more claim on David than you.

Why then did you treat us with contempt?

Was it not our advice first to bring back our king?

Yet the words of the men of Judah were harsher than the words of the men of Israel fade to black clothes chapter.

Whoa.

Man, sounds to me like an election year.

Sounds to me like the acrimony of a culture that's starting to fight, you know, against each other.

And it's interesting to watch all of this, especially in a day and time like ours when there is a lot of acrimony and all of that sort of thing.

And as as you as we as we enter that kind of year, I think it's really good to kind of keep our eyes open for those kind of messages from the scriptures that are timeless truths that might help us as we seek to navigate troubled times, okay?

And I I think yeah we are probably in that kind of thing right now.

Three things that we'll just highlight for you today the absence of the king, the return of the king and the king we really need.

So I think this is the kind of stuff that this passage points us to.

And by the way, if you come to the village chapel during the election year here's what you'll you'll never hear anything about.

I don't talk about politics.

I encourage you to vote, but I encourage you to pray first.

And so those are the only two words I have to say about politics pray and vote.

So do that and I keep them in the in that order I think we'll we'll we'll God is sovereign and he's in charge anyway and we'll trust in him.

But the ad here we see in this nation in this particular 3000 years ago in this particular moment in this nation you start to see people kind of going at each other a little bit at the end of that chapter don't you and some of it's about who's in charge and who's the king okay and some of them wanted Absalom and so in spite of the fact that it was well known that God had chosen David to be the king, some of them rose up and decided Absalom ought to be the king and part of that was because Absalom worked it, you know?

And he wanted it.

And so he was going for it.

But let's look at just at least the impact of what happens during the absence of the king.

I'm gonna highlight this if you don't mind.

David's departure from Jerusalem resulted, I think, in confusion, corruption and conflict.

David was God's chosen anointed king when Absalom charmed the masses, fomented his coup, he came to take the throne in Jerusalem.

David left the city to avoid a confrontation and the massive bloodshed that would have followed and I think David did that not because he was a coward or afraid of Absalom.

He just didn't want his people to go through that.

He really loved the people and he was a man after God's own heart.

We've been told that we know that about David.

Absalom in contrast to David being a man after God's own heart was a man after Absalom's own heart.

Absalom hired the 50 guys to run alongside his chariot Absalom sat in the gate and tried to persuade people that he was the one they really needed to be in charge and they would all certainly get justice if he were the one that were in charge.

With David gone the spiritual leadership which is what's really important in this particular moment and that's the part that's actually timeless for us.

The spiritual leadership is missing all right the man after God's own heart is gone.

He's not perfect that's correct but he is God's choice.

In spite of all David's missteps and sins ultimately David wanted what God wanted and Absalom wanted what Absalom wanted.

And we we we have been shown that contrast as we've gone through these chapters.

So the absence of God's chosen king means the absence of spiritual leadership for Israel.

Ignoring God's choice of David Israel had anointed Absalom as king over themselves and thereby that's verse 10 and thereby became a nation spiritually unmoored and adrift okay people unmoored and adrift from a spiritual standpoint.

Nothing good ever comes from drift in our spiritual lives in our walk with God nothing good comes from drift.

Jesus called us to deny ourselves take up our cross and do what follow him that's right so we're not drifting we're following we're also not driving we're following and the problem with Absalom is he wanted to drive see and the problem with some people in our culture in our day and time they they want to drive too I I I want to encourage us to be thinking about following Jesus through the difficult times and the tumultuous times that we happen to live in.

The absence of God's chosen appointed and anointed king meant the people were also rejecting God and confusion and chaos overtook them on all sides really the anti-David group the pro-David element all of them are struggling and they're fighting and the chapter ends with them at each other and you said this and I'm this and this and they just you know at some point you just want to take the fire hose out and squirt them all down, you know, and say cool off you know but the impact of the absence of the king resulted in some very difficult times for the people of Israel and for the people of Judah.

And in the first century AD the apostle Paul described the kinds of difficulties and moral chaos that would result in the hearts and minds of the people of God if they didn't recognize God as king, if they failed to continue to have Jesus as preeminent in their lives.

And so the apostle Paul wrote about that and he said realize this in the last days difficult times will come.

Men will become lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.

And he says real simply to Timothy, avoid such malise.

And what he's really saying is avoid you you've got to take stock of what they think their king ought to be, what should be at the center.

And you should avoid doing that.

Avoid making that the center because Jesus is to be preeminent.

Jesus is to be our king.

We notice the return of the king in this chapter as well.

The absence of God's chosen king had consequences.

It really mattered in lots of different categories in Israel and it really, really matters if we don't have Jesus as our king in our hearts and in our minds in our own day and time.

It really, really matters.

But notice the return of the king in this chapter it kind of reminds us of some things as well.

With David as he returns to Jerusalem on his way back there, he's met in a variety of ways and the different people you know that respond to him in different ways we can draw some lessons from that that's true.

The elders of Judah at first they resist and they don't want him maybe you're here today and you're resisting and you don't want him maybe maybe something you wanted to be king isn't king.

And you're still mad at him for wanting to be king.

Amasa and just like Abishai and Joab were nephews of King David but Amasa I think he was living in fear.

He thought he's if David comes back it means I'm gonna lose my head.

And yet here comes David and he's better to Amasa than Amasa could have possibly imagined.

And again David's not perfect but he's gracious at this particular moment on that particular day.

And Amasa is going to be given an opportunity that he would never have anticipated was on offer for him.

What a generous act of reconciliation by David not only for Amasa but for Amasa's crew you know for all the people of Judah for all the people of Israel that had chosen Absalom and to follow Absalom and that Amasah was their commander in chief of their army and David is kind to him.

For Shimei the return of the king was a Rotro moment because Shimei was the guy throwing the rocks and cursing at David and here comes David and he's back in power going to be back in power.

And that Ru led him to fall on his face and it it reads like a genuine repentance.

It may have been I'm open to that it may it may have been but I've gone through the motions before too and not really meant it.

And I bet you have too if you're honest Shimei seems really clever at you know at making sure he protects his own his own skin his own hide Zeba return of the king uh another spin opportunity for him and it seems like if you if you if you believe Mephibosheth it seems like Zeba had been one of those guys really spinning stuff so that he could get the land so that he could get the possessions and that he could keep them and he didn't want you know the king to come back and find out he had lied if if if that's the way that all happened so Zeba's a spin doctor and he's just spinning all the time and I got news for you you can't spin God it just you can't he he knows every thought I have before I have it he knows exactly what I'm gonna do before I do it and yet he still loves me.

Isn't that amazing he knows every thought you're you're struggling with he knows every bit of darkness in your heart that you flirt with and yet he still loves you.

Isn't that amazing that's pretty amazing this is the kind of God I can fall down in front of and worship for Mephibosheth to me perhaps the only you know he and Barzli perhaps the only two sort of redeeming characters that you can look at and go, yeah, you know what?

Mephibosheth really, really, really wanted the presence of David he wanted the presence of the king and I got news for him and that's what I long for is the presence of King Jesus in my life more and more and more and more.

You know and the longer I'm alive the longer I the more I get close to Barcelai's age the more I'm going you know that's what really matters.

Because all the other stuff is just stuff and the presence of the king is what really really matters in my life.

The men of Israel and Judah at the end there, everything including the return of God's chosen king was just another opportunity to capitalize on and to try and position themselves and into the best you know we got ten portions he's from our tribe you know and this sort of jockey and and that happens today you know in in all kinds of institutions including the church where people jockey for turf and try to get power and all that sort of thing.

And that's exactly what's happening here at the end of this this chapter.

The lust for power continues to rule their hearts and their minds and just as it can in mine and just as it can in ours.

And in these difficult times in these dark days in these troubled and tumultuous times that we're all sort of going to live through let's be careful.

Let's watch out for that so that doesn't happen to us as well that we're really interested in the return of the king himself.

And maybe that leads us right to our last point the king we really need an eternal perspective.

How does God reveal himself in this chapter?

How is it that we look at this and we find ourselves longing for more of the living God and for Jesus who is our Lord and our savior well returning the rightful king reminds us that in spite of all the circumstances or odds in spite of how long we may have been out of control or out in the wilderness ourselves which is true for David right here.

He's been out in the wilderness in Mahanaim.

He's been out of the palace out of kicked out running and hiding and all that sort of thing.

And in spite of how bad it looked in spite of all of the odds being stacked against him God still comes through.

And you know why?

Because this God of the Bible he is never impressed or daunted by the odds they just don't matter to God.

Because he's the one that can turn a crucifixion into a resurrection see he's the one that can bring the guy back from the caves out in the wilderness and put him back on the palace and on the in the throne and on the palace in the palace rather how is humanity's need exposed here?

Oh ambition all over the place everyone's face has a bit of you know fear in it there's lots of need for reconciliation this chapter need for godly wisdom and leadership and there will always be a need for godly wisdom and leadership we have that need right now and we will always have that need.

Winning and maintaining the peace though we see that here winning and maintaining the peace can actually be harder than winning the war.

And some of you know this in your own relationships you can win a little battle a little skirmish a little argument but finding a way to actually win the peace is hard.

That's really hard.

Because somebody's got to say I'm sorry and somebody's got to forgive as a matter of fact if you need to reconcile it's gonna take two but not one you can forgive unilaterally but you can't reconcile unilaterally takes two to do that what faith response is called for here like David who do we need to forgive he forgave Shemiah in this particular moment he allowed some things to happen in that particular day because he was definitely reflecting the kind of grace that God had shown to him.

And who in our own day and time do we need to forgive or who are we holding on to unforgiveness in some secret way?

It's poisoning us as much as it might be hurting.

We think it might be hurting them.

And it's important for us to look at the faith response that's being called for here.

Like everyone else in this account I guess I would say do we long for the return of the king as king in our hearts and in our lives the return of Jesus to the center Jesus on the throne of our lives like Mephibish just wanted the presence of David so much.

We can't be doing that when we're running away from God though.

So as Tozer says we can't enter the presence of God while we're rebelling against God.

If you are set against God, if you believe in the existence of God but act as if or live as if he just doesn't matter at all, you've set yourself against him.

Okay?

And I encourage you I challenge you even to consider where you're at in your relationship with God today and whether you might need to repent to turn around Trevin Wax lives here in town he's a pretty smart guy and he's written some great things one of his articles I just read recently said the times when the church has been most relevant in its witness is when believers have countered the world by lifting up something more beautiful in its place.

Could we do that this year?

Lift up something more beautiful for the watching world as it drowns in darkness and moral decay and anger.

Lift up something more beautiful for people to consider.

And lift up Jesus and the gospel that they might hear the gospel as it falls freely from our lips that they might see the gospel as it's worked out in our relationships and the way we do community and church together.

And John Mackay, I'll just two more quotes here and I'll just close this up this guy was a principal of the Free Church College in Edinburgh.

He was an Old Testament scholar of the 20th century and died in 2013 here highly respected.

He says this he says while David displays estimable traits in the diplomatic settlement he promotes in his troubled realm which he did do we just saw that okay all right flaws are still present because his knowledge is limited and even his sincere efforts can be deficient.

But no imperfection pertains to the settlement secured by Christ our covenant king who while his people were still his enemies effected their reconciliation with God.

The peace that he has procured is not distorted by a compromise but is based on complete triumph over all opposing forces.

He Christ has removed completely all obstacles that would impede his people from enjoying the provision of his kingdom and has brought them into living unity with himself.

That's amazing that was a lot and we'll post that online okay so if you if you're interested but you got to marinate in that later okay go download that off the app uh when it goes up on Tuesday and just marinate in that McKay is so right on what a great summary of this passage passage showing us that David while yeah great King David of Israel man he's pointing forward to his greater son the greater king Jesus who is faithful and true in every way and who you can trust in and hope in.

Griffith John is the one I want to close with he's a Welsh Christian missionary translator in China in the turn of the 19th and 20th century.

He was there for 60 years and he was there in the city called Wuhan that we know of because of the coronavirus right now.

That's where Griffith was the secret of the success of the apostles lay not in what they did and said but in the presence of Christ in them and with them.

They saw with the eyes of Christ they felt with his heart and they worked with his energies.

They were nothing Christ was everything Christ was living breathing and triumphing in their personal lives.

May that be said of us as well as we go through the troubled times that we may enter personally or corporately or nationally or whatever it might be, may we be found trusting in Christ united with Christ as our very source of life and sustenance in every way.

Amen?

Amen let's pray Lord thank you for this passage so much of so much of it so very real in the moment for them but so much of it that points us forward to a thousand years later than the events described in this chapter to the person and work of Jesus and so God I pray that you would help us that you would soften our hearts and our open our minds that we might see Jesus in all his beauty and majesty that we might put him at the center put him right on the throne that he might be preeminent in our lives so that we might trust and hope in him above all we we thank you so much for the work of the Holy Spirit in our individual lives and in our life of our church and we pray indeed Lord that all of us would be together a city on a hill a light that cannot be hidden salt that makes people thirsty for you.

Pray all this in Jesus' name and for his sake amen and amen