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2
Samuel 15
23 The whole
countryside wept aloud as all the people passed by. The king also crossed
the Kidron Valley, and all the people moved on towards the desert.
It was a very
black day, the day the King was exiled from His own throne. After all, David was the one anointed
to rule God’s people – the true king of the Jews. But on this day, he has to go outside
the city, exiled from his throne, exiled from the ark of the covenant –
the presence of God, exiled from the priests, exiled from his lovers –
the concubines, exiled from his friends, exiled even - and especially -
from his own son who seeks his crown and his life.
And so David
leaves Jerusalem and heads east.
That’s always the direction of exile in the bible. Ever since Adam and Eve were driven
east of Eden, that’s been the direction you go when you’re estranged from
God and His blessings. David heads
from the throne to the desert. And
to get there he must cross the Kidron Valley.
This valley
was steep. It was a place of deep
shadow. Its name means Valley of
‘Darkness’ or figuratively it means ‘Valley of Mourning’. Very rarely did water ever flow
through the Kidron Valley but when it did, it washed whatever was there
into the Dead Sea. It
was, naturally enough, a dumping ground for anything unwanted. Whenever the idols of the land were
destroyed they would be burnt, smashed and scattered in the Kidron
Valley. (1 Kings. 15:13; 2 Kings. 23:6, 12; 2 Chr. 29:16.) And in time it became a public
graveyard (2 Kings 23:6, cf Jer 26:23).
It became known as the Valley of Jehoshaphat – Jehoshaphat means
the LORD judges. It was a place of
judgement. And in all likelihood
this would have been the physical valley David had in mind when he wrote
Psalm 23: ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.’ (Ps
23:4) This valley of judgement is where
David must pass in exile from his own kingdom.
And on the other side of the valley – the Mount of Olives, v30:
30 …David
continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went; his head was
covered and he was barefoot. All the people with him covered their heads
too and were weeping as they went up.
Here is the
King in deep mourning and deep shame.
This was the clothing and the posture not only of a funeral
procession but also of someone deeply ashamed of themselves (cf. Esther
6:12). Well why would David be so
ashamed? I wonder if the words
from Nathan the Prophet were pounding in his head that day. After David had committed murder and
adultery, Nathan the Prophet brought David God’s verdict.
This is what the LORD, the God of
Israel says... You struck
down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own.
You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now,
therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you
despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.' 11
"This is what the LORD says:`Out of your own household I am going to
bring calamity upon you. (2 Sam
12:9-11)
Well here it
is. The calamity that the king himself
had unleashed through his own sin.
It was coming back to ravage David and his kingdom. From his own house his son, Absalom,
had risen up with the sword – to kill him and take the kingdom for
himself. All of this is on David’s
own head and he knows it. And so
he trudges through the valley of judgement and up the Mount of Olives in
deep mourning and deep shame.
David’s
problems weren’t confined to his adultery and murder in chapter 11. In chapter 13 Amnon his son raped Tamar
his daughter and the king did nothing.
He let Amnon get away with it and so Absalom took matters into his
own hands, killing Amnon and fleeing the country. Last week we thought about chapter 14
where others try to get David to reconcile with Absalom. And David manages neither to judge
Absalom for his sins nor forgive and receive him – but leaves Absalom in
limbo. He allows Absalom back to
Jerusalem but he refuses to see him face to face for years on end. Well it’s no wonder that chapter 15
begins with Absalom plotting to take the crown.
In verse 1 he
gets his own royal transport: chariots and men to run ahead of them. It’s the equivalent of travelling in a
convoy of limousines with black suited security men running alongside in
sunglasses. Absalom is screaming
out – I am king material.
From v2 he
starts intercepting people who want to seek the king for justice. He makes all sorts of campaign promises
about what he’d do if he were king, I’m sure he promises a lot of tax
cuts and kisses a lot of babies and so v6 ends by saying ‘he stole the
hearts of the men of Israel.’ All
this is happening under David’s nose.
And he does nothing.
This is what
has marked David for the last three chapters – total, spineless
inactivity. And even when in v7
Absalom says ‘Let me go to Hebron for a sacrifice’ – David does not make
enquiries. David himself was
crowned in Hebron. When David was
anointed as king it was called a sacrifice. This was an extremely dangerous request
for David to grant but he just seems to be free-wheeling into
disaster. So David let’s Absalom
go and by v13 a messenger tells him "The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom."
But right here, as his sins of commission and omission are now
coming home to roost, something seems to click in David. From this point he seems to
recover a wisdom and godliness that has been absent for the previous four
chapters. He had been foolish,
distant and indecisive. But now,
ironically, when he gives up his throne, he starts acting in a far more
kingly way.
Because here
he is under the LORD’s discipline – and the LORD disciplines us precisely
so that we may grow in godliness.
Hebrews chapter 12 puts it very well:
"My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do
not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord
disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a
son." 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating
you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8
If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you
are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9 Moreover, we
have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for
it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!
10 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they
thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in
his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but
painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and
peace for those who have been trained by it. (Heb 12:5-11)
Have you committed sins in the past that continue to have an
effect today? You need to know two
things. First, if you have
confessed those sins to Jesus, He has forgiven them. He has taken them away from you and He
has borne the full weight of them Himself on the cross. You are forgiven. But there may still be
consequences. This is not
punishment. It’s just consequences. And we are to see it as
discipline. God is treating you
like a son or daughter – he loves you and accepts you as a child. That’s why you are enduring hardship. Parents discipline children. Now when children are being disciplined
they think their parents hate them.
Parents know they love their children which is why they discipline. But when it comes to us and our Father
in heaven – we’re like foolish kids who think that any discipline means
God hates us. But no, we need to
learn not to shrink back from our Heavenly the Father. If we submit to this, these hard times will produce a harvest of
righteousness and peace in us.
They will. That’s a
promise straight from God. You can bank on it. Don’t lose heart, draw near, submit, be
trained by this hardship – God is treating you as dearly loved
children. And there will be
wonderful fruit from this.
Well David is submitting to this discipline from the LORD. And so we see him having great concern
for his household – in verses 14-16: leading them out of harm’s way. In v17-22 we see David urging these
foreigners with him to go back and stay with King Absalom.
20 You came
only yesterday. And today shall I make you wander about with us, when I
do not know where I am going? Go back, and take your countrymen. May
kindness and faithfulness be with you."
But these foreigners led by Ittai the Gittite want to follow
David:
21 But Ittai
replied to the king, "As surely as the LORD lives, and as my lord
the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether it means life
or death, there will your servant be."
But do you see David’s concern to protect his people? And he also longs to protect the name
of the LORD. So from v24-29 he
tells the priests to take the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. Look at v25:
25 Then the
king said to Zadok, "Take the
ark of God back into the city. If I find favour in the LORD's eyes,
he will bring me back and let me see it and his dwelling-place again. 26
But if he says,`I am not pleased with you,' then I am ready; let him do
to me whatever seems good to him."
Do you hear the deep contrition and humility of David here?
In v31 he hears some terrible news.
"Ahithophel is
among the conspirators with Absalom”
Ahithophel was David’s friend and adviser. And he was the most amazing royal
adviser. At the end of chapter 16
it says that asking Ahithophel’s advice was like asking God’s advice. He seemed infallible. If you had Ahithophel on your side, you
were surely going to win. And now
he had betrayed David and gone over to Absalom’s side. What do you do when you hear news like
that?
David immediately prays.
"O LORD, turn
Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness."
His response is not anger or despair but faith – immediately he
prays. And immediately, David
meets an answer to his prayer.
Verse 32, David meets Hushai the Arkite, who will be the one who
eventually does thwart Ahithophel’s schemes. David sends Hushai back to Jerusalem to
be his eyes and ears. And so we
end the chapter on top of the Mount of Olives. And v32 tells us, here is where God is
worshipped. And David is no
different. He too worships.
David worships God in the midst of this crisis. In fact we’re told explicitly that he
wrote one of his Psalms as he fled from Absalom – Psalm 3. Perhaps Psalm 3 is what David sung on
the summit of the Mount of Olives, when everything looked hopeless.
So what’s the
moral to this story? Be like
David? When things go bad, keep on
praying and don’t lose faith? Is
that the lesson? Well that
wouldn’t be a bad lesson to learn.
We should keep on praying and not lose faith when things go
bad. But that’s not really what
this story is about.
Let me tell
you a secret about the bible. The
bible’s really not a collection of Aesop’s fables with little morals
tacked on at the end. The bible is
a book about Jesus. The bible’s not given to tell you how you can be the righteous,
suffering, victorious king. You’re
not meant to put yourselves in the shoes of the righteous, suffering,
victorious king. That job’s been
taken. The bible you see is about
Jesus. From Genesis to Revelation
it’s about Jesus. And hopefully as
we’ve been thinking about this story you’ve noticed just what an
incredible portrait of Christ we have here.
Here is the
true anointed king of the Jews – the righteous, suffering ruler of God’s
people. But there’s a pretender to
the throne – Absalom is a prince who steals the hearts of the people. Satan is named by Jesus the Prince of
this world. In 2 Samuel, the
deceitful prince enlists one of the king’s close friends (Ahithophel) who
betrays David, but later (in ch17) hangs himself. Jesus is betrayed by his close friend
Judas, who later hangs himself.
When his enemy is at the height of his powers, David crosses the
Kidron Valley. The night before
Jesus dies, John 18 says He crossed the Kidron valley. David goes up the mount of Olives to
pray, Jesus goes up the mount of Olives to pray.
But there are
four distinct differences between Jesus and David.
First, as
David climbs the hill, he’s facing exile from Jerusalem. As Jesus
climbs that hill, He’s facing exile from His Father. Jesus’ prospect is not just to lose the
crown, Jesus’ prospect is to lose the face of His Father who He has known
and loved for all eternity. For
Jesus, this is the ultimate
exile - godforsakeness. He’s
facing hell. That’s why our
reading from Luke 22 told us that Jesus was sweating great drops of blood
contemplating His fate on the cross.
Blood vessells are popping all over His body, He is in anguish the
likes of which the world has never seen nor could it understand. The sufferings of King Jesus are so far
above the sufferings of king David
Second, Jesus
was not surrounded by hundreds of comforters who mourned with Him, as
David was. Jesus took His closest
friends to the mount of Olives to watch and pray with Him and they
couldn’t do it – not even for an hour.
There were not crowds applauding Jesus on His way to the
cross. Even His very best friends
failed Him and denied Him and deserted Him.
Third, when
David got to the summit of the Mount of Olives, he kept going. He went over the hill and headed east
into the desert to escape from judgement, from the sword. Have you ever thought about this? On the night when Jesus’ enemies were
moving against Him, Jesus deliberately takes the route that David did a
thousand years earlier. He goes
across the Kidron Valley and up the Mount of Olives. And He goes to the top of the hill and
prays just like David did. But
there He stops. This is not an
escape route for Jesus – but it could have been! Actually, this was a well worn escape
route. It was David’s escape
route. And you know what – the
night before Jesus died everyone was asleep. Judas hadn’t yet come. Peter, James and
John were snoring away. Jesus
could have kept going over the hill and far away – just like David. And no-one could have blamed Him. But He stayed. He prayed "Father, if you are willing, take this cup [of suffering] from
me; yet not my will, but yours be done." Jesus resolves to take the suffering,
figuratively speaking - to drink the cup, to accept the cross. Jesus refuses to escape from judgement,
instead He resolves to embrace it.
Why?
Well here’s the final difference - David went up this hill for his own
sins. Every step David took he
would have been thinking about his wrongdoing. He was deeply ashamed. David had brought every ounce of this
suffering on his own head and he knew it.
When Jesus went up this hill He was completely innocent. He had never done in 33 years what you
and I do every day.
You know we
think of David’s sins as particularly heinous because he was an adulterer
and a murderer. You know that
those are precisely the sins Jesus accuses us all of. In Matthew 5 (v21-30) He said ‘If
you’ve ever had lust you’re an adulterer.
If you’ve ever been angry, you’re a murderer.’ We are like David – adulterers and
murderers. We really are like
David and judgement should come crashing down on our heads too.
But here’s
the thing about Jesus – He never did in 33 years what you and I do every
minute. And He lived in total
self-giving love towards His Father and towards us. He was full of grace and truth. He was love incarnate. But there He was, walking through the
valley of the shadow of death.
There He was going through the place of Judgement. There He was praying on that mountain
to drink down the cup of judgement we deserve - To receive HELL – the
HELL that is demanded of us for our murderous,
adulterous hearts.
Jesus doesn’t
keep going over the crest of the hill.
He stays. He submits to His
enemies. He’s betrayed with a
kiss. He’s condemned on false
charges, He’s stripped and beaten and spat upon, mocked and reviled, and
strung up to die the death of the godforsaken. And on that cross they hung the sign
‘The King of the Jews.’
There is our
true David, there is the true Sufering King. And He hangs there for you.
You know at
points you read 1 and 2 Samuel and you think – it’d be great to have a
king like David. Friends, we have
a King so superior to David. A
King who David Himself knew and loved and wrote about and prayed to. We have a King who prayed on that mount
and then went back into the city to face the judgement that we deserve.
Do you follow
this King?
In 2 Samuel
15 David and Absalom present two different kings to us. David is the true King – but he doesn’t
look it. He looks like he’s
abdicated. He’s off into the
wilderness, he’s heading east – and you don’t want to be heading
east. It looks foolish to follow
David. If you ever followed David
you’d have to trust that David’s going to make a surprising comeback.
On the other
hand Absalom is the prince of this world. He’s illegitimately proclaimed king in
the world and the majority follow him unwittingly. He’s attractive in the world’s eyes,
stealing the hearts of the people.
He tells people what they want to hear. He tells everyone v3 - ‘Look your
claims are valid and proper. And
I’m going to give them to you.’ He
promises you your heart’s desire and shallow people fall for his
deception all the time.
Friends, this
week it will look stupid for you to follow Jesus. In the eyes of the world it will look
like you’re following a defeated man into the wilderness. And it will look like prince of this
world can give you the desires of your heart.
I know a Christian counsellor who
once had a man come into his office saying ‘I want to feel good
fast.’ The counsellor said – ‘I
suggest buying a ticket to the Bahamas, getting a case of your favourite
alcoholic beverage and a clutch of beautiful women and live it up for a
month.’ The man was
incredulous. He asked – ‘Are you a
Christian??!’ Well yes – but if
all you want to do is feel good fast then Christ is not the solution
you’re looking for. If you just
want to go down the path of least resistance, if you’re just after
comfort and pleasure – then don’t follow David, follow Absalom. And when things are hard don’t be
surprised. Yes it is easier back
in the palace, but you don’t have the company of the true king.
I hope this
morning that the prince of this world has not stolen your heart. I pray that King Jesus has won your
heart. I pray you can see that King
Jesus can be trusted – even as He leads you east. Even as God’s fatherly discipline comes
down upon you. Even as you realize
that you’re travelling in the very opposite direction to your friends,
who seem to be prospering so much more.
Be assured – you are in the company of the true King. And He WILL make an astounding
comeback. He really will. But right now, you are with the One who
walked through the valley of the shadow of death for you. He can be trusted. May the words of Ittai in v22 be our
words this week:
"As surely as the LORD lives, and as my Lord the King lives,
wherever my Lord the King may be, whether it means life or death, there
will your servant be."
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