Humility and the Power of Forgiveness: 2 Samuel 19:1-23

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. Are

we are here in the studio? We decided to do

one more Yes, well, you know, we decided to take

us all the way to Friday.

Finish it.

It'd be finish it, flappish them there anyway. That's I

always say that to my family. Sorry, that is a

movie quote from a very obscure Disney movie. Do you

ever see The Great Mouse Detective?

I don't think so.

Yeah, it's it's it's not a popular one, but it

is tremendous.

I only watch the popular Disney movie.

No, let me tell you something. It's it's so overrated.

It's not even funny. The Great Mouse Detective is a

phenomenal Disney movie. Okay, anyway it anyway, We're gonna go

ahead and start with a segment that Desiree has chosen,

and she chose it I think because it's fright.

Well, this is so incredibly important because it's everybody's favorite. Right. Yeah,

we gave you. We gave you a break last week, Chris.

We did we did back.

So what made Chris mad this week?

Well, I had it in the wings, Jeff.

I really it happened. Really, it happened Wednesday. So you

had a thing that you were mad about, and I

told you about it. Yeah, and you didn't have to think,

you know what it is, Okay.

It happened inform us. Okay. So we had a big

meeting at our church on Wednesday, which is why I

actually we're recording today. Uh. And it was it was,

you know, twelve different people. You know, It's like, it's

a pretty decent sized meeting. And so I stop at

a place that gives donuts and coffee out. I'm not

going to mention the name of the organization of the

company because that would be.

Rude, but the initials are.

But it was Dunkin Donuts, and so I walked in

and I said, hey, I want to They call them

box of Joe's, you know, the corrafs of coffee. I said,

can I have two box of Joe's and and then

some cream and some sugar? And they said absolutely. So

they give me these two boxes of coffee, and they

get this really big bag and they stacked it with

cups and lids, and napkins and stirs and bags of

sugar and cream. And then and they sealed it, because

they peel it and they seal it, and they said, okay,

here you go, and I said, okay, great, So I

took it and I threw it in the back. And

then I had gotten to the church and I had looked,

and here, come to find out, the cream were not

individual creamers on the bottom of that bag. They filled

a cup of cream. Oh no, and they just stuck

it on the bottom of the bag. And yet here's

here's here's what made Chris. Here's what made Chris mad,

not that they gave me a cup of cream, the

fact that they said, they didn't say, oh, by the way,

in the bottom of this bag, be careful, there's a

cup of cream. Hey, make sure you don't put this

bag sideways, because there's a cup of cream in your

car that will literally spill and leak all over your

truck if you decide to, you know, put it sideways.

So what kind of person does that.

I don't know, A horrible person, A horrible human being,

a horrible human what.

Yeah. So, and by the way, it wasn't just one cup,

two cups of cream.

Two massive cups pot twist right there. We didn't expect,

we didn't see it coming, but.

Hey, it wasn't one. But I will say this. Two

I will say this. So obviously the bag was sideways,

Obviously it leaked, But two things that saved me. Number one,

the cut the lid did not pop off because it

would have popped off in the whole cup. Yes, right,

but it dripped and dripped and dripped and leaked and leaked,

and there was probably eighth of an inch of maybe

even a quarter of an inch of cream all on

the bottom. Okay. And number two, Uh, the bag for

some reason was like completely water resistant what it contained everything,

So there was not a single thing that actually happened

to my truck. But when I pulled everything out, it

was all way too and so that was bad.

Well that person. Uh, plagues be upon.

Thee May their teeth be shattered, and may they be

slapped in the face spiritually.

If you missed. A couple of days ago, we read

from Psalm chapter three when David was complaining about his enemies. Yes,

and he asked he asked God to rescue him, Yes,

and then says, slap all my enemies in the face

and shatter the teeth of the wicked. Yes, so there

you go.

I gotta tell you that made Chris mad a lot.

Well, I can imagine what kind of person does that.

I don't know. So there you are again, and I'm

going to say this is one of the rare ones. Yes,

it's not for everybody. This is your kind.

Of Oh no, no, this is for everybody.

Well I don't think it is.

This one is so for all the women and men

out there that have ever had this happen to them. Yeah,

it is for all the employees that.

I don't know that this one's as noble as the others.

It doesn't feel as noble to me. This one feels

like it's just a thing that happened to you and

you're mad. But it's fine because this segment is called Christmas.

I disagree, but let me tell you why. Because whether

it's cream or getting your order wrong or whatever, it is,

the bad customer service is bad customer service, right, And

in this case it was it was actually like, you know,

why would why would you not say? It's like saying, hey,

be careful, this plate is hot. Who who would drop

off a tray or a plate in front of you

and not say be careful, hot plate.

And other other times when you do it, you do

it because that person consistently probably is giving bad customer service.

And this one you don't think this is a one

time event like he forgot to tell you, oh, be careful.

That comes in there completely. She's she's like a serial

non announcer. She's not. She is every day every day.

Somebody really bad. Okay, yeah, all right, well there you go, Chris,

Thank you, Thank you on behalf of all of our

listeners who can't speak for themselves today. Yes, that you

are I rate for the rest of us.

You are welcome.

So it's good. Such a noble thing. You know. You

convinced me of how noble you are. I for a

moment was thinking maybe this was just you.

You questioned my nobility, sir.

Okay, speaking of nobility, Joe Abb challenges the king. Okay,

all right, too bad. Well that's what we're doing. I

was challenging your nobility. Yes, and here Joe Ab comes

in and challenges.

Good job, Jeff.

So In second Sandwiti chapter, this is one of our

new goals is to have terrible segues. That's one of

our goals. We haven't run this show deep enough into

the ground. We're gonna we're gonna get out our shovels,

and and one more amazing thing. It just makes it

even work. That's okay. So it's like a Samuel chapter nineteen.

David challenges the king, I mean, Joeb challenges the king,

and it says this. Words soon reached Joab that the

king was weeping and mourning for Absalom. As all the

people heard of the king's deep grief for his son,

the joy of that day's victory was turned into deep sadness.

They crept it back into the town that day as

though they were ashamed and had deserted in battle. The

king covered his face with his hands and kept on crying, Oh,

my son, Absolom, Oh, Absolom, my son, my son. And

then Joeab went to the king's room and said to him,

we saved your life today, and the lives of your sons,

your daughters, and your wives and concubines. And yet you

act like this, making us feel ashamed of ourselves. You

seem to love those who hate you and hate those

who love you. You've made it clear today that your commanders

and troops mean nothing to you. It seems that if

Absolom had lived and all of us had died, you

would be pleased. Now I go out there and congratulate

your troops, for I swear by the Lord that if

you don't go out, not a single one of them

will remain here tonight. Then you will be worse off

than ever before. So the king went out and took

his seat at the town gate, and as the news

spread throughout the town that he was there, everyone went

to him. Meanwhile, the Israelites who had supported Absalom fled

to their homes, and through out all the tribes of

Israel there was much discussion and argument going on. The

people were saying, the king rescued us from our enemies

and saved us from the Philistines, but Absalom chased him

out of the country. Now Absalom, who we anointed to

rule over us, is dead. Why not ask David to

come back and be our king again? And then King

David sent Zadok and Abiathar and the priests to say

to the elders of Judah, why are you the last

ones to welcome back the king into his palace? For

I've heard that all Israel is ready. You are my relatives,

my own tribe, my own flesh and blood, So why

are you the last ones to welcome the back the

king and David told them to tell a massa. Since

you are my own flesh and blood like joe Ab,

may God strike me and even kill me if I

do not appoint you as commander of my army in

his place. Then a massa convinced all the men of Judah,

and they responded unanimously. They sent word to the king,

returned to us, and bring back all who are with you.

Yeah, I feel like I want to read those next

three verses too. David returns to do it.

So the king started back to Jerusalem, and when he

arrived at the Jordan River, the people of Judah came

to Gilgal to meet him and escort him across the river. SHIMIAI,

son of Gheira, the man from Hurum in Benjamin, hurried

across with the men of Judah to wuckme King David.

A thousand other men from the tribe of Benjamin were

with him, including Zeba, the chief servant of the House

of Saul, and Zebra's fifteen sons and twenty servants. They

rushed down to the Jordan to meet the king, and

they crossed the shallows of the Jordan to bring the

king's household across the river, helping him in every way

they could.

Well, the content of that wasn't as attractive as the title.

The title was David's Return to Jerusalem. Yeah, right, so

I guess let's just keep going.

Let's keep going. Really, as the king was about to

cross the river, SHIMII fell down before him. My Lord

the King, please forgive me, he pleaded, forgive, forget the

terrible thing that your servant did when you left Jerusalem

made the king put it out of his mind. I

know how much I sinned. That's why I've come here today,

the very first person in all Israel to greet you,

my Lord the King. Then Abishai, son of Zurujah, said Shimi,

I should die, for he cursed the Lord's anointed king

who asked your opinion, you sons of Zariah. David exclaimed,

why have you become my adversary today? This is not

a day for execution, but for celebration. Today I am

once king, once again, King of Israel. Then, turning to Shimai,

SHIMII David bowed, your life will be spared. So that's

why those verses, those verses were transitioned into the fact

that Shimi I committed treason backed Absalom.

Right and uh. And so David returns to Jerusalem and

Joe ab Uh obviously has rebukes David, and honestly, David

sort of agrees. He doesn't. There's no verbal indication here

that David says anything back to Joeb. He just comes

to realize that job's probably right.

It's fair right. Come on, man, twenty thousand men died

right to defend you, and you're crying over the guy

that we had to fight, you know, so what we

don't matter? That's a fair cast.

Well, we actually said, you have proven today that none of

your troops matter. And it's almost as if everybody, if

everybody would have died, all of us and you're some

would have lived, that would have been okay, because that's

the way you're acting. And then he says, go out

there and let the people know, he said, or else,

I promise you. He actually said, I swear to the Lord,

not one of them will remain here tonight. And what

he's saying is everybody is absolutely one hundred percent fed

up with you. But the funny thing is that's not

really how David felt. David, of course loved his troops,

he loved his men, he loved you know, the fact

that they defended him. He just I think, in my

personal opinion, I think he was wrestling with more than

just the death of his son. I think he is

in anguish about everything to the core of who he is,

and so he doesn't know how to process it. He

doesn't know how to manage it, he doesn't know how

to behave or act because he is overwhelmed with grief

through and through and through.

So this is really a phenomenal thing. One it's fair

in my mind for Joeb to challenge David. Yeah, that's fair.

But secondly, in verse eleven and twelve thirteen, David fires

Joeb and replaces him with Absalom's general. His chief of

staff is a Massa. Now he fires Joeb, he demotes him.

He demotes Joeb. No longer is he's the chief of staff,

no longer is he the chief of the armies. And

he elevates a Massa who was the leader of Absalom's armies, which,

by the way, very slick move here, David's decided, Okay,

I can manage it, Massa. I'm not worried about this guy.

But he can bring all of Abslom's armies back into

loyalty to me. It was very slick move, right. Then

he demotes Joe Abb. That's going to come back to

him in a little while, and he's heading home and

everybody's having a party, and David's like, why are my

own people the last ones that come and welcome me?

Right?

The people of Judah really, and so he's questioning loyalties here.

He's trying to figure out who's got my back and

who doesn't. He's all of a sudden he's at the

top of his game again. With all of the difficulties

of the moving parts of David's life, all these shifting loyalties,

all these things, and David's right back in the middle

of it, going, Okay, I'm going to demote Joe ab

he killed my son. I can't have him still be leading.

I'm going to raise up the leader of my enemy's armies,

but he'll bring all of my enemy's armies in right.

Rather than what if he hadn't done that, What if

a massa who's a powerful leader himself. What if a

Massa had decided instead, Nope, I'm going to run from

day because if David gets a home, he's gonna kill me.

So I'm gonna take all my armies and we're just

gonna keep fighting. It would have turned into gerrilla warfare

for years and years and years. Really smart if he

felt like he could manage a massa, all he needed

to do was pull in. And by the way, they

were family members, so there's that he's bringing his cousin

back in or whatever. He brings him back into the fold,

goes hey, listen, you know all's fair in love and war, dude,

So come on in. And then everybody's having this big party.

They're having a big time. And then Shimmy I comes

down falls before the king as David is crossing back

in from what is modern day Jordan. Now he's crossing

back into Israel, and Shimmy I comes and goes, hey,

sorry about that, because Shimmy I also had committed treason

against David, so and David is just showing forgiveness. It's

very strategic here. This reminds me of Abraham Lincoln working

with people who were his enemies, and he pulled his

enemies into his cabinet for two reasons. One, keep your

enemies close, right and and so that was part of it.

And the other part of it was it was very

magnanimous to him to show, hey, listen, I'm open to

hearing from my my from the opposition. I'm opening open

to working with you guys rather than having you guys

continue to build constituencies against me. And it's very very

savvy moves here, as long as he could manage SHIMII

and Amassa.

Yeah, well, I mean it just goes to show you

that David is God's chosen one, you know, it is. Ah,

It's a beautiful thing where you know, think about Saul.

Saul was chosen by who, by the people? Yeah, right,

and so they demand and Saul and look what they got.

But but but David, God chose David. So there's a

there's a big difference those two things. So here, David,

you know, we just see even in the midst of

incredible turmoil and grief and loss and curse, I guess,

right in the middle of the curse of you know,

sons rebelling against them and all this all this kind

of stuff. Just in the midst of all that, we

still see that David is the guy. I mean, he's

for he extends forgiveness, and everybody else around him says,

you know, what do you what are you doing? You know?

And he says, hey, you know, it's it's my right.

I'm gonna go ahead and extend forgiveness. And he's just

a great man. And he's cunning, he's sly, he's great,

and and it's because he's God shows him one.

Yeah, I think so God chose Saul and had Samuel

annoy him, but the people just embraced him and said

he's taller than us, he's bigger than us, he's better

than us, and they had that big celebration. So God

chose both of those kings. But the principle is the same.

I thought that people chose Saul and then God relented.

No, the people were demanding a king, and God relented

and told Samuel go anoint Saul. So yeah, the principle

is right. Okay, people saying we want a king, they

want somebody want this king. Remember he was hiding and

Samuel had to go find him. He was in the

luggage because he didn't want to.

Yeah, well I remember that, Yeah, but I thought it

was because the people demanded for him.

So anyways, there is one interesting thing. David says, you know, Shimmy,

I comes and very savvy. Again. Hey, he's gonna hunt

me down and kill me. Anyways, this is what he does.

So I'm just gonna go confront him, and I'm gonna

let him know I made a mistake. I was wrong.

I'm gonna swear my allegiance to you. Would you save

my life? And David goes, Today's not a day for killing.

Ael goes kill this guy. This guy is one of

the leaders against you, and David goes, no, today's not

a day for killing. I promise you, I'm gonna spare you,

and he does. But one of the very first things

that David advises is Solomon, when Solomon becomes king, is

you should execute that guy Shimmy I, which is fabulous.

It's terrible, but it's kind of funny. Is in this

moment David goes, politically, you're right, I need all my

enemies to come over and surrender to me. Right, that's

what he's doing. He's allowing them all to surrender to him,

and what that does. Is it just nobody in the

kingdom is wondering, g are we going to have a fight? Right?

Are we going to continue to have a civil war

with all these enemies coming and surrendering to David and

David being magnanimous and merciful, He's like, right, okay. But

then later on he tells Solomon when Solomon is sends

of the throne in just a few chapters, David's an

old man, and David goes, hey, do me a favorite

take out on it? Now?

I gotta be real here for a second. How did

you remember that? Was that a footnote that you just read?

Or that's a footnote right there?

Because I was just like I was, I was about

to be blown away. I'm like, you remembered that from

your personal Bible reading, okay, because that's that's amazing.

By the way, I didn't recall that, So I do

remember that. As soon as I saw them, I went, oh,

this is one of the coolest parts of the story, right,

But yeah, I didn't recall it.

No, that's so funny. Yeah, I was just I was

just about to be sick. I was just about to

be like, wow, like you you remember a lot more here.

I should have just said, well, yeah, don't you Right, Hey,

that's the benefit of a study Bible. Guys, you need

to get yourself a good study Bible.

Yes, yeah, that's that's the reason why we always constantly

reference it because it is you know, think about I mean,

you could do studies on this, you really could. You

could actually read up on how much work goes into

Bible translations, right, yeah, there were reports, there's documentaries on

those rights of it, and then and then even the

making of a Bible like this. Uh. You could actually

probably watch a documentary right now if you google it

of how many scholars were who came together and actually

created all the notes for this. So it's not just

like one guy.

There's a list of all of the scholars in the

Life Application Study Bible that worked on it. And I

don't see it now, but of all of the scholars

that were writing notes and translating the different things. It's

it's in the New Living Translation, it's in the Lifecation Bible. Yeah,

they've got all that stuff. Yeah, And I mean these

are some of the best scholars in the world with

regard to you know, from different seminaries and universities and

stuff working on these things, and it just really helps

you because they're able to help cross reference and give

you some background and then also offer applicate application. Here

there's a whole big chunk just on Joe AB talking

about the life. It's like a character study on the

life of Joe AB with a whole bunch of extra

notes at the bottom of where to read. And yeah,

it's you should get yourself a good study Bible and

get back to paper just a little bit, because I

also have the same study Bible on my kindle and

it's it's not very functional. The tools are so much

better physically than they are because scrolling back and forth

and trying to remember where a thing is it's just

really hard to do on a kindle. But on the

with paper a good study Bible, nothing replaces it.

Not yet, that's great, Not yet? Yeah, yeah, what are

you thinking, like, like something's going to be invented better

than a book.

I don't know. I don't know. I on occasion will

use I have a couple of of theology based ais

that I'll one in particular that I'll use sometimes to

search a thing, and it'll do all the search for me,

which is very similar to this. That helps, But as

far as the study Bible goes, there's nothing, nothing even

comes close. Yep. Yeah, it's fabulous, it's great. So basically

what this comes down to is David I feel like,

is all those skills have not abandoned him. He has wisdom,

now he has all these other things, and he's making

all the right choices to secure the kingdom one more time.

And that's what he does. And then he kind of

goes on this good will tour. He does so many

good things for people, you know, forgiving up SHIMII for

a while, all those things. Next week we'll jump into

mis phibisheth and a bunch of these others that he does,

just good deeds. And he writes, he starts writing again,

and there's a lot of psalms that he writes during

this time. And David goes and finishes things. He goes

back to war, He fights the battles that he was

supposed to be fighting all along. He just had this

ten year window. That's just like, man, what happened David?

And now he's back at it and I'm super excited

about this next season.

That's great. Well, hey, that is our time, so hopefully

you enjoyed it and we will see you on Monday.

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