2 Samuel 17

We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.

We've got extra copies.

If you didn't bring one with you and you would like one to follow along, raise your hand up high.

Somebody will drop one at your row or aisle.

Looking today at 2 Samuel chapter 17.

2 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

The password, if you prefer an online Bible, the password is on the screen there.

And you can uh Ahithophel.

That's good.

And 2 Samuel 17 is a chapter where we're at.

Just to give you just a tiny little bit of context.

King David is on the run again.

He did that early in his life when he had to run from King Saul, his father-in-law, who became the man that became his father-in-law.

And now he is on the run from his third son, Absalom, who has fomented Kudita, and he's come to Jerusalem.

And David chose, before Absalom got there, David chose to leave with all of his loyalists.

And there may be a few hundred of them or a couple thousand.

We don't really know.

But he's left to avoid the bloodshed, as we were told in chapter uh 15, I believe it was.

We come to chapter 17, where sort of the camera lens as we read through this narrative will shift from the palace from the palace to back out to where uh David is and out there into the wilderness.

Uh, you'll recall that David left via the Kidron Valley, the road up the Mount of Olives, which becomes the Jericho Road.

Jericho is about 17 miles east of Jerusalem.

Very craggy, very windy road, but uh there he goes out toward the wilderness, uh, an area that he knows quite well because he was on the run from King Saul so many years ago, as I said.

We're right in the middle of that.

Now, Absalom is sort of the in the the crossroads of the story.

What is Absalom going to do now that he is he's in the palace, now that he's he's there and he's taken uh control?

And he begins to amass counselors, uh especially these two, one named Ahithophel.

And uh he will also uh ask counsel from a man named Hushai, who is actually remained behind, didn't go with David, remain behind at David's bidding to become a spy there.

And so this chapter is filled with espionage.

It's got spy craft.

If you like spy craft, I like spy craft.

I love those kind of movies and how they walk through and put a mark on the chalk mark on there, and then they leave a message there.

All that kind of spy craft stuff is going on in here, too.

So, furthermore, Ahithophel said, verse 1 to Absalom.

So he's the advisor that has been speaking to Absalom.

And he says to Absalom, please let me choose 12,000 men that I may arise and pursue David tonight.

Let's go.

It's like, let's go.

Let's get him.

Let me get 12,000 guys.

And he says, and I will come upon him while he is weary and exhausted, and will terrify him, so that all the people who are with him will flee.

Then I will strike down the king alone, and I will bring back all the people to you.

The return of everyone depends on the man you seek.

Then all the people shall be at peace.

You may have noticed me emphasizing certain words there.

Basically.

And he's telling Absalom, I'll take care of this for you.

Let me be your let me be your bouncer, let me be your sergeant of arms, let me be your commander-in-chief, let me go take care of this.

You stay here, I'll go do this.

So he's very, and could it be uh, as some Bible commentators have suggested, that Ahithophel is actually Bathsheba's grandfather.

Yes, it could be.

He has a son named Eliam, and Bathsheba is the daughter of a man named Eliam.

So it's quite possible that Ahithophil for a long, long time has been harboring a lot of anger at David because David took Bathsheba and David arranged for uh the death of Uriah.

And so could this be that?

I don't know.

I I we we we're reaching back 3,000 years.

We want to do good history.

The work that uh it takes to do that, though, occasionally involves some speculation.

But sometimes stuff is really clear, and what's really clear here is that Ahithophel wants to take some action.

So we get to verse 4.

How does Absalom respond?

Well, the plan pleased Absalom and all the elders of Israel.

Verse 5, Absalom then says, Now call Hushai the Architect also, let us hear what he has to say.

So this is just good common sense, you know.

You get a second opinion before you launch a war like this, you know, before you launch a raid and you're gonna go after, you know, your father and all this and all those uh men that are with him.

And so he he looks to hear from Hushai, who had remained behind, who uh feigned, he sort of pretended to be loyal, not just not to David, but to the throne, whoever's on the throne, whoever's in the palace, sort of thing.

And so I want to hear what he has to say, is what Absalom says.

Verse 6.

Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom said to him, Ahithophel has spoken thus.

Shall we carry out his plan?

If not, you speak.

All right, so Hushai says to Absalom, This time, the advice that Ahithophel has given is not good.

Now, it's qualified.

He does say this time, and what he means by that is Ahithophel, he recognizes that Ahithophel is a is a recognized sage, a recognized wise man that people would seek counsel from.

And Hushai doesn't want to sound like he doesn't respect that at all or ever.

He just wants to suggest that this time Ahithophel is wrong, and this is what you ought to do.

And he's gonna speak from his own experience of being a close friend and advisor to David himself, okay?

So, and he's gonna also appeal to Absalom's ego, and uh you'll see that unfold as we go.

Verse 8.

Moreover, Hushai said, You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field.

And your father, notice he doesn't call him David, your father is an expert in warfare and will not spend the night with the people.

Behold, he has now hidden himself in one of the caves or in another place, and it will be when he falls on them, meaning when Ahithophil first places this attack, um, that whoever hears of it will say, There's been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.

In other words, you listen to Ahithophel, because David is such a great military strategist, such a mighty man of war.

And his followers are also mighty.

I mean, he had 600 people from that came David did, 600 mighty men that came with him from Ziklag.

Some of them were Philistines, but they became loyalists to David, and they're all in his entourage, still, it would be my guess, and they're all known to be fierce fighters.

They're expert in the wilderness.

David had been hiding in the caves for a long time.

So Hushai reminds Absalom of all of that.

And reminds Absalom that should he choose Ahithophel's advice, this thing could go south really fast.

And that would look so bad on you, Absalom.

You've just become the king.

You've just announced your own, you know, sort of sovereignty over the nation, and look, you get punched right in the face, and you don't want that to happen, do you?

Even one who is valiant, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, which will completely lose heart, for all Israel knows your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant.

So I counsel that all Israel be surely gathered to you, from Dan even to Bersheba.

Now that's not a man named Dan, that's the tribe of Dan.

They had planted themselves first on the west coast of Israel, then they didn't like that, and they moved up to the northern region.

And if you've been to Israel at all, you've been up there into the territory where Dan settled, that tribe settled.

And uh, you know the fountainhead of the Jordan River is up there.

And uh, and so uh he's basically saying from the far most northern territory of Israel, all the way to Beersheba, all the way down south, and everywhere in between, let's amass this massive army, and then let's go after David.

It'll be we'll be unbeatable, unstoppable, and we'll be sure to be victorious.

And again, he's sort of playing on that, lowering the risk factor uh if they can do that.

From Dan to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea in abundance, and that you personally go into battle.

There's the appeal to the ego.

You will look like a champion.

You will defeat your father, probably playing as well to his uh to Absalom's anger and frustration with his own father.

Um, humiliated in so many ways.

Now I'm gonna take it out on that old man, you know?

And so Hushai knows all of that and plays to that a little bit in the way he sets this all up.

Verse 12, so we shall come to him in one of the places where he can be found, and we will fall on him as the dew falls on the ground.

How does the dew fall on the ground, folks?

The dew falls on the ground wherever it wants to fall on the ground.

In other words, we will cover and smother him.

All right, it's not a waffle house thing.

Some of you are there going, covered, smothered, and splattered.

That's right.

You order your home grits that way, don't you?

Yeah.

No, they're gonna literally like be so massive in number, they will cover them over like the dew of the ground.

And of him, and of all the men who are left with him, not one will be left.

It will be a total, we will completely wipe them out.

If he withdraws into a city, if that were to happen, he won't out in the desert, or he isn't hiding in caves, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city.

We will drag it into the valley until not even a small stone is found there.

So here it is.

Hushai actually is pretty good.

He's dramatic.

He's painting a picture, he's throwing up some caution signs that he thinks will actually be received and understood by Absalom, who knows.

Absalom knows his father.

And um Hushai is, I think, uh uh is very smart and crafty, even though Ahithophel's plan may have been the better plan.

Strike now before they can regroup out there in the wilderness.

Go! You know, I don't, it you it's up for grabs.

Nobody could really know.

But here are the two kinds of advice, two pieces of advice, and we're meant to contrast them a little bit, and to contrast not only the details of the advice, but the motive behind it.

I hope that will be something we'll learn a little bit from.

Verse 14 to me, maybe the sort of, if you're going to asterisk a verse and underline some part of a verse in the entire chapter, the last half of verse 14 is probably it.

Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.

And here it is.

For the Lord, and the narrator inserts himself here to tell us this.

For the Lord had ordained to thwart the good counsel of Ahithophel.

It's interesting that he calls it good counsel, in order that the Lord might bring calamity on Absalom.

See, the Lord has his way and his purposes and his plans.

And even though everything looks dark for David right now, it wasn't but a few hours or a few days, whatever, he was in the palace on the throne.

Now he's on the run in the wilderness, hiding in caves again.

And everything's turned upside down.

Maybe that's happened to you in life at some point in time.

Maybe this kind of a study, when we watch back, we look back 3,000 years to some people that struggled with life being turned upside down.

Maybe we can learn something from them and watch how God intervenes in their life.

Watch how God shows himself faithful in their life.

Watch how God is the king we always wanted.

How Jesus, the greater son of David, the greater king than David, is really the king that we've always needed and always wanted.

We'll connect those dots for you as we go along.

But verse 14 is so amazing.

It just shows us that even though we can't always see what God is up to, God is never idle.

And God is never in a hurry.

And he's not wringing his hands, wondering, oh, what am I gonna do?

He's always got a plan.

See?

15.

Hushai says to Zadak and Abiathar the priest.

So now here's what we're gonna do is a spy craft.

You ready for a little spy craft?

Alright?

He says to Zadok and Abiathar, these are two friends of David as well.

They're still there in Jerusalem.

They didn't go with him.

They were all meant to be sort of a little spy ring that is gonna help David out and stay in Jerusalem and sort of pass along news, okay?

So uh Hushai says to these two, this is what Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel, and this is what I've counseled, okay?

So both plans.

It could be this plan, it could be this plan.

Because after all, Absalom could go to bed after having said, you know, Hushai the Architect's plan is better, whatever.

He could have gone to bed that night, woke up the next morning, decided, I slept on it.

I don't want to, let's go with Ahithophel.

Load up the wagons, we're going, you know?

Let's go get them.

Um so he tells them both plans.

Hushai tells Zadak and Abiathar the priest, both plans.

Therefore, send quickly and tell David, verse 16, saying, Do not spend the night at the fords of the wilderness, that's uh by the Jordan River there, but by all means cross over, lest the king, and here he means Absalom and all the people who are with no, excuse me, here he means David, sorry, lest the king, and that's who Hushai thinks of as the king, by the way.

Hushai is not caved into Absalom being king.

So he's lest the king, meaning David, um, and everybody that's with him uh would be destroyed.

Verse 17, Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying at Enrogal, and this is a different Jonathan, not the one that was the best friend of David.

This is another one, who is named, I'm sure, very much after that one.

But uh Enrogel, let me just give you a little bit of a map.

I gotta, you know, I keep forgetting to do this, but we have the bouncing green light here, okay?

Bouncing because of my familial drummer.

Here is Jerusalem.

This is where Absalom is right now.

This is Enrogal down in here.

And we're gonna see in a minute, Bahurim is gonna be mentioned, as is Mahanaim.

And that way Gilead will also be mentioned, which is a region.

These are individual towns.

There's two, there's Mahanaam question mark and Mahanaam question mark.

I should have put a two there, I didn't, but um, because we don't really know exactly where Mahanaam is.

We think it's about there.

But folks, it's 3,000-year-old history.

It's not like you dig through the ruins over there and you discover the sign that said Mahanaam High School met here.

It's just not, that's not the case.

You gotta figure this all out.

It takes a bit of work.

And the folks have done a really good job uh in the the the land of uh the holy land.

I'm I'm we're already talking about uh going in 2021 in the fall.

And um and I remember uh the last time we went that that synagogue they uncovered in Magdala uh on the north uh west shore of the Sea of Galilee, and how amazing it would be to have thought Jesus, who did travel throughout the region of Galilee and stopped and taught in all those synagogues, and they uncovered this synagogue.

And while we visited that that synagogue, I took my Bible and I stuck it up on the little podium there, and I just said, just for a minute, I said, I just gotta stand here, just for a minute, just to feel what this would have been like.

No sound, no lights, no smoke, no big worship team or anything like that.

Nothing.

Just 50, 60 people wanting to hear the word of God, wanting to study, wanting to worship.

Very simple, you know, just honest and straightforward.

And there he would have stood.

I love history.

Uh I didn't used to as a younger man, but I really love it now.

And I love as we read through here, we're gonna see names, places.

They're they're not fictitious.

It's not like saying Mordor.

I love my myth.

I love mythology.

I love all those.

I'm not I'm not dismissing those things.

I'm just saying I like history to be history.

And when you hear real names, real places, real people that you can triangulate and read from extra-biblical literature as well, that's awesome.

That shows me that my faith is grounded on and based in not just somebody wanting to feel good for the moment and sort of anesthetize themselves from all the darkness out there and all the crazy out there.

No, it's rooted and grounded in history.

Real things that really happened in real space-time history.

That's what our faith is grounded in.

So I love this.

Back to 17.

Jonathan and Ahimaaz were staying at Enrogel, and a maidservant would go and tell them.

And they would go and tell King David, for they could not be seen entering the city.

A lad, though, verse 18 says, did see them and told Absalom.

He must have recognized these two guys.

Must have recognized that something was going on, maybe overheard a little bit, and goes and tells Absalom.

So what's, you see, this, we're like, this is awesome.

I mean, this is a lot of action here.

So the two of them departed quickly, and they came to the house of the man in Baharim, which is up there on the map I showed it to you, who had a well in his courtyard, and they went down into the well.

The woman took a covering, his wife, and spread it over the well's mouth and scattered grain on it, so that nothing was known.

She literally poured her cornflakes out on top of this thing and spread it around like we were just getting ready to eat breakfast.

Oh, well, there's nothing to look here, nothing to see here.

Oh.

You know?

It's just awesome.

You're kind of, well, are they gonna be found out?

What's gonna happen, you know?

And um Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house and said, Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?

And the woman said to them, They've crossed the brook of water.

And when they searched and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.

They crossed the brook of water, could have been one of the tributaries leading into or out of uh the Jordan River, or it could have been the Jordan River itself, if you've been over there before.

You know, at some spots the Jordan River looks like the Mississippi, and at other spots the Jordan River looks like the creek in your backyard.

It's just not that big in some places.

Um, some of you are going, all right, now that lady told a lie.

That's breaking one of the Ten Commandments.

Are we supposed to stop and figure this out ethically?

And no! Why?

Because the narrator doesn't.

Let's let the narrator lead us.

It's not that important.

Are there times when people have had to lie for a greater, higher good?

You bet.

In World War II, when the Nazis banged on your door and wanted to know if you had any Jews in the attic.

Time to lie.

If you had Jews in your attic.

Okay?

Time to look for the greater good, the greater cause of God, what God values more than anything else.

And in our world in which we live right now, it's very important to me.

We've got everything wrong.

It's as if some in terms of values, it's as if somebody went into the department store late at night and took all the cheap price tags and put them on the expensive items.

But took all the expensive price tags and put them on the cheap items.

And that's what's wrong with our world right now.

We value the wrong things.

And we think it's just up to us to decide what's right and what's wrong.

And we're paying the price for it big time in our intellectual confusion and moral bankruptcy right now.

But anyway, I digress.

I pontificate too much.

Let's go back to the story here.

It's really exciting.

She's got the cornflakes spread out over there.

They're not gonna, you know, they're hopefully not gonna know.

Uh verse 20, they're asking where the two men are.

They couldn't find them, they went and looked for them, and then they returned to Jerusalem.

Verse 21, it came about after they had departed that they came up, these guys did, out of the well and went and told King David.

So they know where David is, they go tell him the story.

David says, and they said to David, Arise, cross over the water quickly, for thus Ahithophel has counseled against you.

In other words, if they're coming quickly after you because of Ahithophel's advice, you better cross the Jordan now, even in the dark of night.

Okay?

David and all the people who were with him arose, crossed the Jordan, and by dawn, not even one remained who had not crossed the Jordan.

So they're crossing the river at night.

Very dangerous.

You can't see, you might hear somebody go, hell, off into the distance, but you can't see them.

You can't you can't tell in the dark if the water were to be high in this season or at this spot in the Jordan.

And so it's very dangerous to cross at night, and they would normally have waited till the day, but because of this advice and the urgency of the moment, they go on and cross, and everybody crosses by dawn.

Verse 23.

Now, when Ahithophel saw this, counsel was not followed.

So the camera lens is all the way back in Jerusalem now.

It's with Ahithophel.

His counsel was not followed.

He saddled his donkey and arose and went to his home and to his city, and he set his house in order, and he strangled himself.

Some of your translations will say, and he hung himself.

Thus he died and was buried in the grave of his father.

Oh wow, who does this foreshadow?

We talked about this last week.

So many years later, roughly a thousand years later.

Another close advisor who was disappointed in the movement not going the way he wanted it to go, disappointed that his um influence.

Well, somehow or another decreasing.

This guy, Judas, hangs himself as well.

And I think we're meant to see this, those of us who are able to kind of connect the Old Testament, New Testament, to look at the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament, to look at the New Testament through the lens of the Old Testament, and to be able to understand the grand narrative that runs throughout, that God is at work.

And that God is constantly, even though we can't see what he's doing or what he's up to, his purposes will be accomplished.

David came to Mahaneim, one of those two sites up on the map, and Absalom crossed the Jordan.

He and all the men of Israel are with him, so they're in pursuit.

Absalom set Amasa over the army in place of Joab, and that's because Joab was with David.

Joab was David's nephew.

Joab was the commander of David's army.

And now that Absalom is in Jerusalem, he needs a commander, and so he picks Amasa.

Amasa is now his commander in chief of the armies.

Now Amasa was the son of a man whose name was Jithrah the Israelite, who went to Abigail, the daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeriah, Joab's mother.

And if you're bored with all these names, let me just remind you that this is what history sounds like.

It's not what myth or legend sound like.

And again, love myth and legend.

Just love history too.

And Israel and Absalom camped in the land of Gilead, okay?

When David had come to Mahaneam, Shobi, the son of Nahash from Rabbah, the sons of Amon, Makir, the son of Amal from Lodibar.

I love these names.

Lodibar sounds like what you do when you're doing the, what's that thing called?

The limbo, you know?

Lodibar, a little bit more.

I'm going in.

I'm going in.

Let's go.

I can do it.

Let's go.

You know.

But it's a place.

I don't know where it is.

Barzilli.

Some of you name your child Barzilli, will you?

This would be like a terrible thing to do.

Don't do that.

Barzilli the Gileadite from Rogalim.

Now, Gilead is up there.

You can see that on the map.

It's up there to the eastern side of the map.

It's a region.

It's seen as a region.

And David certainly had friends in a lot of those, a lot of those parts.

But look what these guys do.

These three that are mentioned right here, verse 28.

They brought beds, basins, pottery, wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans, lentils, parched seeds, honey, curds, sheep, and cheese of the herd.

Live body detail, once again.

And not just they brought a bunch of stuff.

No.

And it, by the way, it sounds like a pretty good meal.

You like Mediterranean?

Who likes Mediterranean?

I do.

I'd pull up to this camp and ask for a plate, maybe.

But they bring these guys, some of them aren't even Jews.

I mean, the first guy, Shobi, the son of Nahash, is from Rabbah.

That's the town, that's the city that Joab was overtook and brought David along and they and they crushed the city and had a Shobi's brother was actually the mayor there.

And it's quite possible that David installed Shobi as the next king, not the mayor, the king of that city.

And that he's kind of friendly to David, and that's why this is all happening.

And this is an Ammonite, he's not even a Jew.

And God has arranged for David and his men to have provision, even in the wilderness, even in foreign land, even when they're not in control, even when they've been run out of the palace, even when they're wondering what is God up to.

You know, when you go from being on the throne in the palace to hiding in a cave with no, yeah.

What how upsetting that must be.

Well, it says here, the people are uh these men said the people were hungry and weary and thirsty in the wilderness, and that's a great way to uh be hospitable.

You see?

And that's the same way we as the body of Christ ought to be hospitable.

Doesn't matter where people are from, doesn't matter what they believe or look like, if they are hungry, we feed them.

Okay?

It's not about agree with me first, look like me first, act like me first, and then I'll feed you or be kind to you.

No.

So what do we learn here?

All right, there's a few timeless truths that I think are at least worth exploring a little bit here.

Um, there are those who stand at odds with and are opposed to God, God's word, and God's will and ways.

May come as a bit of a shock to some of you, but all Southerners aren't nice.

Hi, yo! We used to talk about it, some people talk about in the music business, different artists who travel and stuff like that.

They go, yeah, down in the South, it's like, man, they stink.

You know, real nice to your face, and then over here, no, not so much.

And that's not all of us in the South.

I know that.

Up in New York, though, you play up there, it's like New York, man, they just tell you, it's just straight up, you know.

It's just right up there.

But there are those who do stand at odds with God, and I think we need to know that.

Uh Ahithophel's not interested in what God's plan is here.

Absalom is not interested in what God's plan is here.

And I think we can learn that a little bit.

We need to remind ourselves of this truth and this fact.

There are people that really, for some reason, given the choice, don't really want to care about God or God's word or God's will or God's ways.

Why is that important?

Well, it's just important for us to be realists about this.

We kind of live in a time when everybody is sort of trying to make us think that everybody's just really nice and everybody really wants the same thing.

And the fact of the matter is, everybody doesn't want the same thing.

Everybody doesn't believe the same thing.

The question is, can we be loving to people who don't believe what we believe?

Can we be that way?

Jesus, good.

He came to lay down his life for sinners, such as me, such as we are.

And that's what he calls us to do when we follow him, we say, God knows what's right.

God's word is what's true, God's will and God's ways and God's glory are what really matter to us.

Uh, where do you stand when it comes to God's will, God's ways, God's word?

That's one of the reasons we give such attention to the study of God's word here.

Um, I don't know how many of you read through the one-year Bible.

It's not too late.

Jump in.

You can jump in on any day of the year.

But jump in, be feeding on the word of God.

It actually impacts the way you think about everything.

I remember when I was uh much younger in my early 20s, I took up the task, somebody presented the task to one of the Sunday school classes I was in.

And let's let's read through the book of Proverbs and read a chapter a day.

And we did it for like seven times in a row, read through the book of Proverbs.

It so influenced me and molded me, but I need to keep going back.

I need to be there all the time.

Why?

Well, because I spend all that time out there being influenced by those voices.

And some of them are subtle, some of them are even beautiful, some of them are um um very clever.

And they're leading me to think more like Ithophel, more like Absalom.

But we're all being influenced all day long.

Question is, will I give some time and attention to God's word and to God's will, to God's ways, and to what is God's glory?

The 16th president of the United States is um credited with this quote.

I'm not sure 100% whether it's his or not, but I think it's a good quote.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side.

My concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

All right?

So Absalom did one thing right here.

He sought the advice of others, and more than one.

I again I'll we gotta give credit where credit's due.

Showed a little bit of humility and some prudence.

But seeking the advice of others can bring us the additional perspective and information that we might need to make wise decisions or successful moves in life.

But that doesn't mean that the advice and opinion of others is right.

The question we have to ask is, is this the way God sees things?

Is this what God would consider right?

What we don't need is more data storage.

I just got this, I just got this uh this uh new iPad here.

I had a, I've been working with an iPad too, those of you who know.

And uh, you know, it's one that you kind of wind it up with a little crank and you kind of get the squirrel running inside of it, and you try, and it let you know, and so every now and then when you're preaching up here and you you something goes wrong with your iPad 2, okay?

So I just I'm so excited.

This thing has 128 of something, I think it's called something like that, yeah.

Which means it's got big memory and can store lots of data.

And they tell me it has a really fast processor, which I'm really excited about, but none of that gets me wisdom.

It might get me knowledge, it might get me data storage, it might give me access to a lot of things, but wisdom, what's that?

Wisdom is something altogether different.

I don't need a faster machine to find wisdom.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The wisest man who ever lived, Solomon, would say that.

And he would point us to the fear of the Lord, this respect, this awe that God is God and we want God to be God in our lives.

Second thing I think is important from this passage that I was reminded of anyway, is that in our age of expressive individualism, opinions are copious and advice is ubiquitous, it's everywhere.

Wisdom, on the other hand, is precious.

Sheer number of opinions expressed these days are simply uncountable because our access to social media opinions are everywhere.

What used to be gathering around the village well to talk or sitting in the ancient gate has now turned into a race to post.

And we're surrounded with hair-triggered tweeters and Facebook pundits, and sadly, I become one of those from time to time.

Not Facebook, but Twitter for sure.

With all the disagreement, not all of their opinions can possibly be right.

Have you noticed that?

Have you noticed that the real world actually is, it's it's actually not true that all opinions and all beliefs and all data is actually true.

That actually can't be possible.

And if you believe that, I don't want to drive on the same road with you, because that means you don't believe in the double yellow line.

I believe in the double yellow line in that it really matters which side you drive on.

Do you?

If you don't, please let me know where you'll be driving because I don't want to drive there.

Um, it matters, it really does matter.

Ahithophel advises Absalom to make a public relations move with the ten concubines on the roof that brazenly and uh declares Absalom has defeated David and replaced him, and also uh is horrific for the ten women.

While that was happening, Ahithophel offers the advice that I'll run after and I'll do this and I'll do I'll take care of all this stuff, and appealing to Ahithophel's impulse to act immediately, um, but offering to take care of the battle with David while Ahithophel, while Absalom would indulge himself at the expense of those ten women.

Hushai, on the other hand, has a different plan.

He appeals to both Absalom's vanity as well as his desire for vengeance against his father.

Absalom should muster and lead a massive army himself and totally vanquish David, who has humiliated him ever since he returned to Jerusalem.

Um, so yeah, we get all kinds of opinions.

They're on offer everywhere, and frankly, I'm I'm I'm uh I've been pummeled by opinions a little bit too much.

I'm going on these social media platforms less and less and less.

I just can't handle the acrimony.

My soul was not designed for it.

Maybe yours was not either, I don't know.

But if you find yourself coarse or angry, or find yourself slogging in the river of rancor a little bit too much, it might be time to step out of the river of rancor.

Uh to, or, or come up with some way of doing that.

Michel Dumontain was uh one of the most significant philosophers of the 16th century French Renaissance.

He was a humanist.

He was the guy that uh he was a practicing Catholic, but he was the guy that's sort of credited with being the father of what's called the essay in literary form.

He said, we can be knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we can't be wise with other men's wisdom.

Um I think he's onto something there.

We need to distinguish between data, knowledge, all that stuff, and wisdom.

I think he's onto it.

Thirdly, from this chapter, I'm led then, after those two things are sort of a part of my thinking, I'm led to this principle, God's wisdom and kingdom, his purposes will ultimately prevail.

Verse 14 reminds me of that, the last half of verse 14, where God says, you know, Absalom, you're gonna actually choose to go in this direction with Hushai instead of with Ahithophel.

Because ultimately God's plan was for David to return, become the king, and for Messiah to come from the line of David.

Um what I think here is that we're not designed for autonomy.

We're not built to survive isolation, to endure the weight of actual sovereignty.

We're never meant to be self-sufficient or to become Lord of our own universe.

Sin is another way of describing all of our attempts at self-sovereignty.

And what we really need, I think, as we gather together and study God's word, is to look to the Lord Himself.

To find ourselves aligning our will and our wishes and our desires and our hopes with His.

What delights you, God?

Show us from your word what delights you.

Lord, show us what you weep over, what breaks your heart, God.

Lord, show us what's right and wrong in this situation or in that situation, or what principle might apply in this situation or in that situation.

Proverbs says in 1921, many are the plans of man, but it's the purpose of the Lord that will stand.

God's wisdom is timeless.

That's why we keep going to God's word.

It is unique in its source, timeless in its truth, broad in its reach, and transforming in its power.

And so part of that transformation of God's wisdom flowing into our lives all the time as we study God's word, is that we learn to rest and trust in God's sovereignty and in his love.

Because we're reminded over and over and over again the last half of verse 14, we may not see it, but God's still at work.

We may not understand it, but God is still at work.

It may be behind the scenes, it may be in front of the scenes, it may be on the side, whatever.

God is always at work, he's never inactive, and I think that's so important for us to be reminded of.

You think from David's perspective, too, in this particular moment, wasn't that long ago he was sitting on the throne in the palace?

Now everything is literally upside down.

He's in a cave, he's out in the wilderness field.

Now he's running to Gilead, to Ammonites for help.

And that happens to us from time to time.

There are things that come into my life or into your life that literally tear us up, shred us, turn us upside down.

Things don't go the way we planned.

And we wonder what is God up to?

Is God involved?

And verse 14b just rings out the Lord had purposed this one thing to happen.

And God's purposes will be accomplished.

Some of you were here for First Wednesdays, and you're at Alistair Beg teach from Psalm 31, verse 15 My times are in your hands.

Psalms 31:15

And we rest in and trust and hope in a sovereign God who knows exactly what he's doing.

Three quotes, and then I'll close.

Eugene from this book, A Conversation and the Art of Spiritual Reading, when we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories, but our stories and God's.

God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.

And I just want to, I mean, you can, you can, you can, all you have to do is just be a little bit aware of what's the way the world thinks around us.

And it really has gone from life to self, you know, or from life to people to self, the magazine titles.

And it really is all about you or me.

And what we have out here in this world in which we live right now is this um confused cacophony of autobiographies.

My story is what matters.

And you say the same thing, and now all of a sudden we have acrimony, we have anger, we have rage, we have people that can't get along.

Why?

Because you've offended them.

Their story deserves, no, demands to be.

And again, your story in the context of history or God's story, or the way God is unfolding history, that's good.

That's fine to see it that way.

But you were never, and I we were never meant to bear the weight of trying to be the center of the universe.

None of us were.

So it's important that we watch out for that in life and see our story in the context of God's stories.

Ashley Hales is an author and blogger.

I don't know much about her.

I just I just uh read this in an article she had written.

I thought it was really great.

Do we seek value from our own souls or from God calling us his beloved?

Are we about unleashing ourselves or participating in the kingdom work of God?

Are we living under the loving rule and reign of Christ Jesus instead of always endlessly, exhaustingly creating an identity for ourselves?

See, identity is a gift given by God.

And how freeing, how wonderful it is to not have to bear the burden or the weight of trying to discover the answer to the question of what am I?

I belong to God.

I belong to Him.

He owns me locked, stock, and barrel.

And I can rest in that.

The world is confusing, that's right.

My own thoughts are confusing.

That's right, that's true.

But ultimately I know I belong to him.

Ultimately, I know my source of life is in Christ, as the Apostle Paul would say hundreds of times.

In him, in Christ, over and over and over again.

It's the only religious system in the entire world where you, the believers, are completely united with the object of your faith in that same way.

That's what's that's one of the unique things about the Christian faith.

You and I, we get to find our life in Christ.

And the reason that's good, and it's good for the world as well that we live in, is that if I think it's all about me all the time and my story and all that sort of thing, eventually I'm gonna run out of patience with you.

Why?

Because as nice as you all dress up on Sunday morning, sometimes some of you bother me.

Or you'll bother me out there, or I'll bother you.

And we'll run out of patience as you sort of encroach and trespass on my story space.

And so now I'm mad at you because you know, see how that's happening?

Because if I think it's all about me and you think it's all about you, we are just gonna be the cacophony of competing autobiographies.

And it's gonna be noisy, messy, horrible.

If we're gonna learn to love each other, we've got to think like Jesus thinks.

We see our lives the way Jesus gave, He came and gave his life a ransom for many.

He didn't come to be served, but to serve and to lay down his life for us.

And we belong to him, and we say we follow him.

That's what we start doing, and it doesn't matter who it is, it's our neighbor.

Whoever crosses my path is my neighbor.

You know, I don't have control over who moves in next door.

I want to, but I don't.

And so he calls me to love as he would love.

I'll close with this Dale Raf Davis quote.

More often than not, uh, that is the manner of God's work.

His scepter is unseen, his sovereignty hidden behind the conversations and decisions and activities and crises of our lives.

We see only grocery lines, diaper changes, school assignments, but through and over and behind it all, Yahweh rules.

And see, he's the the the reason this is good news is not just because there's one king.

No, it's because of who the king is.

It's Yahweh.

See?

It's Jesus.

See, and he's come as the Son of God to lay down his life for you, lay down his life for me, that we might be so transformed that our lives are no longer self-centered, but our lives become God-centered and others-centered.

As his life begins to blossom inside of my heart and my mind.

Am I there yet?

No, I'm not there yet.

Are you there yet?

No, you're not there yet.

Uh but he is changing us uh bit by bit until one day when he returns, all things will be made new.

I look forward to that day.

How about you?

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for the hope of your second Advent, your second coming, as we just come through Advent season a month or so ago.

Thank you for the hope of that.

And thank you that in the meantime we have 14B from this chapter to lean on, to rest in, to trust you, that you're at work even though we can't see what you're up to or what you might be up to in any given moment.

I pray that we would be uh eager repenters, eager believers, um, that you, by your word, would be transforming us by the gospel of grace, as we walk in that, Lord, that others would see Jesus and be drawn to him in all of his beauty and his majesty.

Uh pray that your people could be a city on a hill, a light that can't be hidden, um, whose relationships are being renewed and restored, whose sense of security and your love is is growing stronger each and every day, because you are the king we've always uh wanted, and you are the king we've always needed.

We pray in your precious name, amen and amen.