2 Samuel 10

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

We've got extra copies.

If you didn't bring one and you would like one to follow along, raise your hand up really high, and uh someone will drop one off at your row.

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We're studying 2 Samuel these days and find ourselves in chapter 10 today.

We call our study of the book of 2 Samuel the story of unlikely redemption because God just keeps blowing our minds with who he chooses, who he uses, uh the ones that he loves.

He sets his love on so many people that seem to spurn it or re-re-re-reject it and uh fight with it, struggle with it, all that sort of thing.

And so all of that, when we read that, even from 3,000 years ago, uh all of that for us is just eye-opening, it's it's awe-inspiring, it's humbling, and it uh brings us a place where we must say thanks.

That's why we come to this table uh once a month as we do.

First and second is Samuel, or what one theologian has called raw, rough, and unlaundered history.

How many of you have some unlaundered clothes at home?

Any raise your hand, be honest.

Confession's good for the soul.

That's good.

Yeah.

Um it starts to get, you know, it gets bad when it piles up, doesn't it?

Yeah, it does.

And uh this unlaundered history is just you read it and you just kind of go, what in the world is going on?

What were they thinking?

What was this person thinking?

And I find myself sometimes uh like I do with television shows or movies, I'm talking to the book.

You know, I'm going, what no, don't do that, you know?

And and and maybe you do that as well.

But it this chapter is kind of like that.

Um we read last week about Mephibosheth, uh, who was King Saul's grandson.

He was the son of Jonathan, uh, and and he was uh uh David David was kind to him, and the word that seemed to sort of roll throughout chapter uh nine was this word chesed in the in the Hebrew.

It means uh it's kind of rich, it's kind of hard to describe with just one English word, but it's the covenant love, the kindness, the loving kindness, the steadfast love, if you will.

Uh it's this kind of promise love that uh that is a kept promise, you know, and it's faithful love.

And so that same word uh actually starts up our next chapter as well, chapter 10.

In chapter 9, that kindness is received.

In chapter 10, that kindness is rejected, and uh which is interesting when you live in the day and time that we live in, and you watch the way different people respond to the whole notion of God's love for them.

Um and some of us finding it difficult sometimes to receive that or believe that.

Others don't think they need it.

So lots of different responses, and I think we'll learn something here as we as we take a look at uh uh chapter uh 10.

And so if you'll just uh look up on the screen, I want to throw the map up because we're reminding you that this is happening in geographic history.

It's space-time history, but it's also geographical, real uh, real places.

Israel and Judah, you can see together in the blue or purple area.

I'm not sure how that appears to your eye in this particular room.

But uh Amman or uh the Ammonites, who we'll read about in this section, the nation of Ammon is to the east, and you'll see there a little uh with white letters Rabbah.

There's two two towns called Rabbah, but the one that we'll we'll read about today is certainly in Ammonite territory, and the Ammonites will be somewhat the focus of the chapter, as well as the above Ammon there.

You see Aram, A-R-A-M, which is where the Syrians are going to come from.

Uh multiple groups of people from Syrians, various Syrian cities, and uh they're also called Aramaeans, much like you are called uh uh a North American and a Tennessean and a Nashvilian.

There's lots of different names for people, the way they're categorized based on their city, their region, their uh race, whatever it might be, uh nationality back then.

So let's uh set our eyes on the page without me rambling on too much longer.

And uh look at this story that we have before us.

It happened afterwards, verse one of chapter 10 says, and not sure how long afterwards, but sometime afterwards, the narrator writes, it happened afterwards that the king of the Ammonites died.

And Hanun, his son, became king in his place.

David said, I will show kindness, Chesed, here it is again, to Hanun, the son of Nahash.

So that was the name of the king that died, just as his father, meaning Nahash, showed kindness to me.

Not sure when that happened.

We have no record of Nahash showing kindness to David.

The only record we have of Nahash actually goes back to 1 Samuel chapter 11, where Nahash is an enemy to King Saul at the time.

1 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

And he's quite a violent sort of fellow.

But because of the fact that Saul was in hot pursuit of David and wanted to kill David, sometimes, as people will say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

And it may be that somewhere along the way, Nahash was kind or generous to David, and we just don't have a record of it, and that's okay.

Uh, it just seems to be mentioned here as uh his father, Hanun's father, meaning Nahash, has showed kindness to me.

David seems to remember that.

So David sent some of his servants to console him concerning his father.

But David, uh, when David's servants came to the land of the Ammonites, the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanan, their Lord, Do you think that David is honoring your father because he sent consolers to you?

Has David not sent his servants to you in order to search the city, to spy it out, and to overthrow it?

Okay, so the advisors, the Ammonite advisors, are saying to this new king, new on the throne, he's a prince, but now he's a king.

And they're saying to him, Don't trust these guys.

They say they're coming from David with with compassion, with gifts, with comfort, whatever.

Don't trust them.

Okay?

And untook David's servants, and he shaved off half of their beards, and he cut their garments in the middle as far as their hips.

That means up, uh, either the backside or the front side, either way, bad, and sent them away.

And so here's this unbearable ignominy, uh, this rude, harsh treatment that these fellows have shown up from Israel, from David sent them, and they're they're sent with a sort of a mission of compassion and consolation, and they're there's suspicion, and so they're treated very badly.

And we can't really understand, to be honest with you, how egregious this treatment is, because for most of us we think, you know, man, that shave half the beard off kind of thing, that could be like a new look.

We could turn that into a look, some of us, you know, and then and in our world, that might become a look.

It's it's quite positive.

And I'm I that's I'm serious about that.

It could be a look.

But for these guys, and again, if we're gonna do good, the work of good history, we don't drag them forward into our time.

We we try to go back into their time and understand in their context, in their time, what would that have meant?

This is is a horrible treatment, a horrible response to a show of kindness.

This is total, this is a rebuff of kindness.

Not only that, it's public humiliation of the worst kind.

Some of the folks from the Middle East would rather actually die than have their beard shaved like this.

It would be more important to them to hold their dignity fast than have their beard shaved off.

The clothes thing they could, yes, that's embarrassing, and for a few miles until they find something to cover themselves up with.

That's an easy remedy.

But the beard doesn't grow back instantly.

And you'll see what happens.

I mean, because uh David hears about this.

Verse 5.

When they told it to David, he sent to meet them, his emissaries.

He he they're on their way back, and so he sends to meet them.

For the men were greatly humiliated.

And the king said, Stay at Jericho, that's en route back to Jerusalem.

Stay at Jericho, that's in Israeli territory, stay there until your beards grow and then return.

Why is he doing that?

Well, because he knows these guys are going to be so humiliated publicly with their beards shaven like that.

It's such it was sort of a sign that you were either, you know, a slave when your beard had been shaved off.

You were humiliated publicly, you were treated like a slave, and you were sent home with your clothes torn and your beard half off like that.

And he says, I care for you guys.

He's he's actually showing, I think, some good leadership here.

Um David is by no means perfect.

We're about to find that out big time next week.

But but here, it seems like he cares for these guys in a way that they really needed him to care for them.

And he says, Stay here in Jericho, don't go home yet, because of the ridicule.

I mean, you're literally, this kind of thing that they would have been, it would have been, everybody would have been talking about it.

He says, Stay here till your beards grow back, and then you go home.

It's very it's that practical.

Verse 6.

Now, when the sons of Ammon saw that they had become odious to the uh to David, and which they indeed had, and you would have thought they could have figured this out.

I mean, it's like an act of war, treating an ambassador so harshly.

Um like an act of war.

And so the Ammonites, the advisors to Hanun, the new king, they're saying, Hey, we are odious.

David is surely going to come after us, right?

Sons of Amon sent and hired the Syrians of Bethrehab, and the Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 foot soldiers, and the king of Maakah with 1,000 men, and the men of Tob with 12,000.

What are they doing?

They're mustering troops, mercenary troops that they can hire.

They sent and basically hired them to come.

Ammon was not a big country, not a formidable force, and yet they got bold way beyond their own ability to defend themselves.

And they knew it and they were a little bit scared.

And so they start hiring people from outside, Syrians, mercenaries from the north, and they're these Aramaeans.

And so they're going to come down and they're going to be hired to help them to fight because they're concerned that David is going to come after them.

Well, when Joab, that's David's nephew, who's also the military commander of Israel, when Joab saw that the battle was set against him, and this is interesting, isn't it?

Um David hears of it.

He sends Joab out, verse 7, and all the army, the mighty men of Israel.

That's the first time they're mentioned in the Old Testament, the mighty men of David.

Verse 8, I'm sorry, I forgot to read that.

The sons of Amon came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the city.

So they're coming out of their city, they're drawing, they're sort of drawing up right in front of it.

And the Syrians of Zobah and Rehab and the men of Tob and Ma'akah were by themselves out in the field.

So, I mean, you can picture this.

All of you have seen Lord of the Rings or one of these kind of Narnia movies or something, where it's like an epic battle situation and just rows and rows and rows of people's spears and arrows and bows and shields and helmets and all that stuff.

And that's what we got going on here.

The fields are full of these Syrian fighters that have been hired, these mercenaries.

The city is lined up in front with all these Ammonite soldiers that are here to defend.

And right in the middle, it's like pincers.

It's like a sandwich.

I mean, there, Joab and the men of Israel are there and they're between them.

It doesn't look, actually, it doesn't look that good for them when you consider the odds and the way that everyone is arrayed up against one another.

When Joab saw, verse 9, that the battle was set against him in front and in the rear.

He selected from all the choice men of Israel, and he's got time to do this evidently, and arrayed them against the Syrians.

So he's going to turn the elite forces that have come from Israel, he's going to turn them toward the Syrians in the field.

And then what he says, or what it tells us here next, is he uh the remainder of the people, verse 10, he placed in the hands of Abishai's brother and arrayed them against the sons of Ammon.

That would be toward the city.

So there's a strategy involved.

There's even a plan B.

Watch this, a little, little, little, if it doesn't go well.

He says, verse 11, if the Syrians are too strong for me, you, he's talking to Abishai, you will come and help me, but if the sons of Ammon are too strong for you, I will come and help you.

And this is fascinating to me.

Verse 12 is almost worth underlining.

Because it's just out of character for Joab, to be honest with you, that Joab would say this.

I mean, Joab's been the guy who's been all about fighting and military skirmishes and revenge killings, like when he killed Abner.

You know, I mean, we've we've we've read about him before.

And he's not like Mr.

Spiritual Leader guy.

But here's what he says, verse 12, be strong to all the men of Israel who are completely outnumbered, I would be my guess.

And they and the the way that things look, they're cornered front and back.

And he says, Be strong and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God.

And then this is fascinating to me.

It gives me a little insight into his theology or his understanding of God.

May the Lord do what is good in his sight.

A lot of times when I pray, I go, Lord, may you do good what is good in my sight.

Here's the way I'd like you to fix it.

Here's the order in which I'd like you to fix these things.

Here's the speed with which I would like it, and the timing of the way I'd like for you to fix these things.

But this prayer is interesting, at least for the sake of this guy who surfaces with a little spiritual depth.

And is it a foxhole prayer?

I mean, you could call it that, I suppose, in a literal way.

But at the same time, I don't think he would be able to pray that last phrase especially without having some understanding that Yahweh, God, is ultimately in charge, that God is sovereign in some way.

And so he says, May the Lord do what is good in his sight.

And I'm glad to be able to stand up and tell you that the Lord, the sovereign Lord, the sovereign God of the Bible, does what is good in his sight.

And that you can count on him.

You can trust him.

It doesn't always look good to me.

It's not always in my good timing that he does what he does or the way I would do it.

But he does what is good in his sight.

His purposes and plans will be accomplished.

And that's why I run to him.

And that's why I trust him.

And Old Testament passages like this remind me that he's trustworthy.

Verse 13, Joab and the people who were with him drew near to the battle against the Syrians.

And then they, the Syrians, fled before him.

Well, when the sons of Ammon saw that, the Syrians fled.

They also fled before Abishai, and they entered the city.

So you can hear the, you know, you see them running, everything.

It's sort of fear is contagious, just as much as faith is contagious.

You have a contagious faith?

Or do you have a contagious fear right now?

The faith of Joab, let's be courageous.

The faith of Joab, let's trust God to do what's right in his sight.

That's contagious.

But so is this fear.

Let's run away.

We're running run away.

And so they both end up running.

And then it's interesting, verse 14, right in the middle, it's sort of like, and Joab returned from the fighting against the sons of Ammon and came to Jerusalem.

In other words, he closed up shop.

He didn't assail the city, evidently.

Verse 1 of chapter 11, we're going to find out that in the springtime when kings went to war, when nations went to war, he goes back to war.

Maybe, I don't know, maybe.

Why is that?

Why didn't he finish it right here?

Because it might have been winter, or it might have been just that it was too much to try to take a city in the kind of weather they were experiencing.

I don't know.

I'm just speculating.

But this is one of the things that lets me, reminds me it's history and it's about real places and real people, because there's stuff I can't figure out and stuff I just scratch my head and wonder about.

When the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered themselves together.

So they're going to remuster themselves and collect some more of their mercenaries.

These are quite a militant group of people, and they're not going to take it that they're out in the field, that they had to run and turn and run away from.

Joab and the army of Israel.

Hadadezer, then, who's one of their kings, one of their chief leaders, sent and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the river.

In other words, from beyond the Euphrates here.

And they came to Halam and Shobak the commander and the army of Hadadezer led them.

And when it was told to David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to Halam.

And the Syrians arrayed themselves to meet David and fought against him.

So now you see what's happening.

It's escalated.

The whole thing's escalated.

The Syrians ran, but when they ran, they remustered, and then they wanted to come back and fight again.

This time Joab has returned to Jerusalem, but this time David comes out with the troops himself.

He won't do that in chapter 11.

And it will be a grave decision that he didn't stay with his men.

But for now he goes out and he fought against them.

And the Syrians fled before Israel and David, and David killed 700 charioteers of the Syrians and 40,000 horsemen and struck down Shobak, the commander of the army, and he died there.

And when all the kings, the servants of Hadadezer, saw that they were defeated by Israel.

By the way, there are four or five different times in this chapter where it says, when they saw this, when it was seen, when they could tell.

There's a perception thing going on in chapter 10 over and over again.

And it's like these pivots, you know, in the story, you know.

So when they saw, when it finally dawned on them that they were actually defeated, they made peace with Israel.

Isn't that an option?

They could have made peace, and so now they're making peace.

And they served them.

And I don't know what that means.

I don't know what it looks like.

I think on the map, when you take a look at the map there, you consider the fact that there are significant trade routes that run from north to south right there.

So one of the reasons why Israel kept getting run over top of by all these other kingdoms, because it happened to be a great trade route.

From Africa, if you're moving north with your products and goods and services, you got to go through Israel to get there.

So the trade route's massively important.

And from east to west it is as well.

On the north side and on the south side.

If you want to run trade routes east and west, you find yourself doing it.

So any nation that controls all of that stuff controls the economy and the economics of this kind of warfare are massively motivating for all those kingdoms that wanted to run over top of and control Israel, like they did so many times.

But David is victorious in verse 18.

Um and and when all of these uh kings finally don't, when it sort of dawns on them what's happened, they decide to make peace with Israel and serve them.

So the Syrians feared to help the sons of Amon any more.

And so that's interesting the way the dynamics of the national relationship, international relationships go here in chapter 10.

Um, it's gonna get real personal and real dark in our next chapter in terms of David's own personal behavior.

And um, and and but for now, anyway, um I think this is at least a pretty, pretty interesting chapter.

And what we see here is loss, loyalty.

Uh we see the loss of the life of Nahash.

We see this loyal love of David, where some kindness was done to him a long time ago.

And and he simply legitimately, I don't think we have no reason to doubt what he was doing, that he was actually sending someone to express consolation and compassion and uh sympathy to this new king Hanan.

However, as the sympathy is expressed, suspicion is aroused, and the Ammonite advisors nurture contempt.

They uh enact an act of humiliation, which then receives retaliation, then the whole thing gets escalated, and eventually the Syrians and the Ammonites are all subjugated.

And that is the way this chapter is just filled with lots of broad brush strokes, and there's existing tension, I think, even as it as it closes out, Joab goes back to Jerusalem.

There's a second battle that happens, but yet we're gonna see in chapter 11 that it continues.

So, reportage, I will remind you, reportage is not always the same thing as endorsement.

What we read in these ancient texts is the way things happened and unfolded in history.

Um, it smacks of real history.

Why?

Well, because there's names of real people groups and real cities and real places.

Um, it doesn't sound like a fairy tale, it doesn't sound like making up stuff.

Uh and I love fairy tales.

I'm way into all of that.

But I like to be able to tell when I'm reading history and when I'm not reading history.

And this reads like history, it really does.

Now it doesn't give me the answer to every single question.

What color was David's horse?

I haven't got a clue.

Um or his chariot.

I haven't got a clue.

There's a lot of questions that we'll have to wait till we all get home at some point.

But this reads like history, and I think it's realistic.

And I think it's messy, just like real history is.

Matter of fact, I love the way Peterson puts it in his uh short commentary on 1st and 2 Samuel.

He said, These are the men and women with whom God works.

They turn out to be no better or worse than the people with whom he works still.

The very ones we face in the mirror every morning, the ones that we rub shoulders with every day.

And so here we see in the timeless truths of the Bible, I think, principles, broad brush strokes of God revealing himself.

What kind of God is this God of the Bible?

The Bible acting like a mirror, holding up to us so we can see in ourselves what's wrong with the human condition?

Where is it that we fall short?

Where is it that we're vulnerable or weak, subject to temptation?

Where is it that we need to shore up our efforts to maintain our holiness and our commitment and devotion to God?

And where is it that God just does so much for us and proves his love in so many ways, and that it's that it's unconditional, and that is Hesed when it's set upon us, when His loving kindness is set upon us, it just humbles us, and we become grateful and we come to a table like that once a month because of all of that.

Well, I think there's so much we can learn here, certainly from the different characters in a chapter like this with the Ammonite advisors, it reminds us at least of the two old adages.

One is, no good deed goes unpunished.

And so here's David sending this emissaries to express love and concern.

And of course, they get their beards shaven off, half shaved off, and they get their clothes rent like that, and they're humiliated like that.

The other adage it reminds me of is no matter how hard you try, some people just won't be loved.

You know anybody like that?

Or maybe it's you.

You know?

You know, because I think I think we probably have all felt that at some point in our life, some some time in our life, some season in our life when we just didn't think anybody cared.

Didn't think anybody, or certainly we just thought we were being overlooked.

Uh it it it maybe wasn't as rough as this, but but maybe we were drowning in loneliness and nobody noticed.

Or maybe we were drowning in our own foolishness and nobody cared.

Nobody came to help us in any way, shape, or form.

We just felt that.

Um, no matter how hard you try, some people just won't be loved.

And others just think that they're so unworthy that nobody should love them.

You know?

And I and I think sometimes in our relationship with God, some of us get that way as well.

We'll say up here in our heads, yeah, believe in grace, yeah, believe God's a God of love, but when it really gets down into our hearts, we find ourselves uh trying to earn something from God, trying to appease God in some way, or earn favor with Him.

Um and yet He's already told us He already loves us, He already told us by coming and dying on the cross for us.

And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, you see.

And yet we don't always believe that because we we we we find it hard to receive uh uh that kind of kindness, that kind of love, that kind of grace, if you will.

It's a bit of an affront to us.

I freely admit that I uh seek to persuade you that the gospel is true.

Um uh out in the world in which we live, uh, myself, all of us included, we're being pummeled with messages that that sometimes uh train us and train our hearts uh uh in ways that make us wary of love that's shown to us.

Uh and some of us find ourselves timid to receive that love.

Uh and and there's so many, like I say, so many different reasons.

But I guess the question for as I look at this and I think about, well, what metaphors, how does this, how could I learn from this about what it means, how do I respond to God's kindness is I just ask myself all week long, where am I, who am I, what are my Ammonite advisors that are just telling me, don't believe that?

Don't believe that gospel, don't believe that goodness of God is actually directed at me.

No, just feel the shame.

Feel, wallow in the guilt.

You can't get out of that.

And the accuser of the brethren, the accuser, the enemy of my soul, the enemy of your soul, the enemy of our faith, the enemy of the gospel, just tries to have it both ways by luring us into temptation to fall to sin, and then by condemning us after that, over and over and over again.

So he's trying to get his cake and eat it too.

And he's he's the Ammonite advisor in some of our lives.

Uh sometimes it's my own old tapes in my head that are my Ammonite advisors that I'm listening to.

I can't trust this.

No way.

You know, and I've just been schooled in that sort of performance-based reality, and I think it somehow or another carries over into my relationship with God.

Um, Hadidzer and the Syrians that get hired, here's what they remind me of this principle.

Anybody's loyalty that can be bought can also be sold to somebody else.

So if if you think that you're gaining someone's loyalty by having to give something, well, if you really loved me, you know, if you hear that if you really loved me, and then there's a list of things, um, that's not real love being expressed to you.

See?

Here's Christ.

There's a world of lost sinners.

They're the enemies of God, literally.

I think I'll go save some.

I think I'll go offer life to some of them.

And they don't have to do anything other than just turn and believe.

And it's that beautiful, that amazing of a love and a kindness.

And some of us find ourselves having trouble with that.

I love Joab and lessons of Joab here.

Um, in spite of the fact that he seems to always be sort of, you know, let's fight.

He also surfaces with this.

Be courageous.

It's gonna take courage to be a believer.

And guess what?

We can trust in God.

Why?

Because his purposes will be accomplished.

Let's pray to the end that whatever God thinks is right and good, that's what will come about.

He's resolved to God's will.

That's a beautiful example of a prayer.

Um, and so for this particular moment, I'm inspired a little bit by him.

David in this story, um, like I say, for some reason, um in chapter 10, there's no mention of David having inquired of the Lord.

And yet, all along through 1 Samuel, all along through 2 Samuel here to 4, we have heard multiple times it said that David inquired of the Lord.

And there's something missing here, and it's David inquiring of the Lord, and chapter 11 is right around the corner.

So there's something about the spiritual disciplines being let go of that sets us up for the kind of failure that happens in chapter 11.

If you don't know what that failure is, just come back next week.

We'll we'll be looking at it in all of its infamy.

Uh and it's a difficult uh chapter and and a hard one to even interpret, much less stomach.

Um but with David here at least, the way he treats his his uh his ambassadors, the way he cares for them, I think that's admirable as a leader.

Uh that he's concerned for them and for their dignity, and he doesn't, you know, he he he provides a way for them to have a place of respite to be able to grow their beards back before they come home and all of that.

So this is a fascinating story to me as I look at all of this.

Um But the the part I think I lingered on all week long more than anything else is just the image of my Ammonite advisors.

And what am I listening to?

What's that's keeping me from receiving God's grace and mercy and love and kindness makes me rebuff what God wants to do in my life.

The bitter soul, Tozer said, will compile a list of slights at which it takes offense and will watch over itself like a mother bear over her cubs.

That's the bitter soul.

And the figure is apt for the resentful heart, is always surly and suspicious like a she bear.

Lord, keep me from that.

Um I mean, is there stuff that goes wrong?

Yes.

Do I get offended?

Yes, I do get offended.

Do I feel like there's a lot broken in the world?

Yes, I do.

Um I pray over it.

I I uh I join with God's people and we work together to push back some of the darkness.

We should do that.

Um but to always be ramped up and afraid to receive love or to be afraid to receive the kindness of others or afraid to receive the kindness of God just because I'm angry all the time and my offenses are always uh right up in front of me.

God, you didn't do this.

God, you didn't behave this way, God, you didn't let this happen, or God, you made this happen, and I'm really mad at you.

And usually it's it in what Tozer's talking about, usually in this case, it's that sort of thing where we're just constantly in the mode of anger and offense.

And it's important, I think, for our souls were never really meant to bear that kind of weight and to hold uh up and support that kind of darkness.

Anxiety, Plantinga says, is only the context for sin, not its cause.

Our base problem is unbelief.

Failing to trust the infinite God, we live anxiously, restlessly, always trying to secure and extend ourselves with finite goods that can't take the weight that we put on them.

And I think he's right there.

That's a great book, by the way, not the way it's supposed to be, Breviary on Sin.

Uh it's it's it's probably one of my top ten favorite books by contemporary authors.

Um, and I quote it often.

Keller says, believing in universal moral truths can be used to oppress others.

That is true.

Um power, uh you know, you've heard people say before, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and that's true, it does, unless the absolute power is this one who has come to rescue us.

Uh what if, he says, that absolute truth is a man who died for his enemies, who didn't respond in violence with violence, but forgave them.

See, um, Jesus is in the lineage of David.

So David's greater son, the greater King Jesus, is the one that actually allowed himself to be put on a cross for me and for you to satisfy the white, holy, white hot, holy righteousness of God and the wrath of God, and he took it in my place and in your place so that we might know uh real life in his name, what that what that really looks like.

I love I love the cross and the way Stott talks about it being the intersection of the wisdom, the justice, the mercy, and the love of God.

He says, I don't know which four, which of those four is more luminously displayed in the four branches of you know, the four uh extended arms of the cross.

He says, because it's all there, you know.

The love of God that motivated him to come up with a plan, a wise plan like this, that in the in the death of his son, we might have life in his name.

Wow.

And that the power of God on the cross would result in our salvation, and that mercy would be on offer to you and me, no matter what we've done, not about what we do or don't do, it's about what he did and has done, completed work in history.

The cross of Christ and the resurrection.

And so that's why we celebrate it, and that's why we come to the table once a month to say thanks to him for that.

What about you?

Um are you, and we've been talking about this all morning, but are you are you mostly listening to Ammonite advisors that say God could never love you?

This kindness of God, that's not, you shouldn't believe that.

Um or maybe there's an interpersonal relationship where somebody's actually tried to make amends with you, and and you don't, you just don't, you can't believe it.

You don't want to take the risk of love.

And love is a risk, there's no question.

And it means my heart becomes vulnerable.

Because if you if you say, I'm sorry, or if you say, I love you, how do I respond?

That's a great question to ask.

I think this chapter helps us as we see, you know, this this new king, Hanan, he listens to these Ammonite advisors, and he ends up closing himself off from the comfort and loving kindness that's trying to be shown to him.

And I just wonder sometimes in our interpersonal relationships how we might be doing that, some of us.

And certainly in our relationship with God.

Um, the most important relationship you have and I have.

To know the freedom of God's grace and the freedom of his love toward you that is not based on any performance on your part, but it's based on what Christ has done, that is the most beautiful freedom, the most true freedom that you could ever experience.

The kindness of God.

Would you read this aloud with me from Romans 5, 7 through 8?

For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man, someone would dare even to die.

But God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus, David's greater son, the greater king, has loved us in spite of our inconsistent and imperfect responses to him.

Mine, yours, all of ours included.

As King and Savior, Jesus gets it right every time.

He's faithful.

There's nothing that you can do to unearn God's love.

Do you understand that?

And the reason I can say that is because there's nothing you could do to earn it.

You gotta let this sink in.

There's nothing you can do to earn God's love.

Therefore, there's nothing you can do to unearn it.

And some of us have been messing around with the same old temptations, the same old stuff for years and years and years over and over and over again.

And we might have gotten to the place where we go, well, he'll never forgive me for that.

And I got good news for you.

Yes, he will.

You're still breathing.

Your heart's still beating.

Repent.

Turn away from yourself and turn to him in faith believing.

And come and say thank you.

Because he's already done everything necessary for your salvation.

You can't earn it and you can't unearn it.

He's done it all.

Let's just turn to him.

Let's just trust in him.

Pray with me if you will.

Lord, thank you for this passage.

Um I pray that you'd stir us all up to an awareness of the loving-kindness and the mercy and the grace that you've shown to us.

And to consider what is our response to that.

As we look 3,000 years back and we see this group of Ammonite advisors trying to tell somebody not to trust.

Help us to trust you, Lord.

Um we want, we will we we know that you are good.

We know that you are all powerful and all-loving because you actually came to die for us while we were yet sinners.

It wasn't after we got it together, you came while we were yet sinners.

Thank you for that.

And as we come to this table in just a moment, I pray as an expression of our gratitude to you, that you will use this as a means of grace in each and every one of our lives.

Uh, that this moment, sacred as it is, as we remember and reflect back upon your body broken, your blood shed for us, Lord, that that uh that in that moment your Holy Spirit would apply to each and every heart and soul a fresh measure of your grace, that we would walk out of here free from guilt and shame because of the finished work of Christ.

And because we have believed and trusted and hoped in Christ, not in ourselves, but in what Christ has done for us.

In his name we pray.

Amen and amen.