2 Samuel 14:1-21

2 Samuel 14. When we look at the first 21 verses to begin, I will read the first 11. Now Joab, the son of Zariah, perceived that the king’s heart was toward Absalom. And Joab sent to Toccoa and fetched thence a wise woman, said under her, I pray thee feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, an anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourn for the day, and come to the king and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. When the woman of Toccoa spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance, and said, help, O king. And the king said under her, What aileth thee? And she answered, I am a widow woman, and mine husband is dead. And thy handmaid had two sons. The two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, that the one smote the other and slew him. And behold, the whole family has risen against thine handmaid, and they said, deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother, whom he slew. And we will destroy the air also. And so they shall, my coal, which is left, shall not leave to my husband, neither name nor remainder, remainder upon the earth. And the king said unto the woman, go to thy house, and I will give charge concerning thee. And the woman of Toccoa said, under the king, my lord, O king, the iniquity be on me and on my father’s house, and the king in his throne be guiltless. And the king said, whosoever set unto ought unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee anymore. Then he said she, I pray thee, let the king remember the Lord thy God, that thou wouldest not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the ground. God, blessed to us. the reading of his sacred and holy word this evening. A man once told his friend that his oldest brother had died. The friend was surprised that this man did not show any remorse or sorrow about it. He seemed to be completely indifferent to the loss of this family member. But then the man explained, he said, we never had it announced in any way. He cared about nobody, and nobody cared about him. It reminds me of what we read in Second Chronicles Chapter 21 about the man nobody missed, King Jehoram. This wicked king early in his reign killed off all his brothers, all his potential rivals. He led the nation and the worship of false gods, and after a troubled eight-year reign, he died of a terrible, painful disease. and the scripture records that King Jehoram died at 40 years of age, and he departed without being desired, the scripture says. In other words, he died to no one’s sorrow. No one cared. They were glad that he was gone. Absalon should have been the man that nobody missed. It should have been such that they were glad that he was gone and out of the law. land. It would have been better for the nation, certainly better for David, if Absalom remained at Gesher, far off in the distance the rest of his life. Absalom was a vow and an evil man, and we find that not only did he murder Amnon, but he will eventually rebel and try to take over the kingdom of David, and indeed attempt to kill his own father. to have the kingdom for himself. Given the terrible trouble he caused, it’s a shame that he wasn’t just a forgotten man out there in exile somewhere. But in God’s all-wise purpose, we find that Absalom here is brought back to the land of Israel. He’s going to be used to chaston the Lord, and indeed to be a part of the sword that will not depart from David’s house. But we know that God won’t allow Absalon to peacefully live out the rest of his years in Gesher because he is guilty of murder. He is deserving of death. And so God is going to execute Absalom for his crime. And that will take place in him coming back. And him eventually being put to death by the hands of his crime. of Joab himself. So we’ll look at that in the near future, Lord willing. But as we look at this passage of scripture tonight here in these first 21 verses, what we find here, and I’m going to look at the passage, and then we’ll look at the practical application. What we find here is the return of Absalom to Israel. Now, Joab’s shrewd plot to enable Absalom to return is first recorded for us in the first three verses. Job, you remember, was the general of the Israelite army. He was a very shrewd man, ruthless, as far as holding his position. He was the kind of guy that would do what was expedient rather than that which was necessarily right in the eyes of God. Joab here was unprincipled, but he was astute enough that he perceived that David here was doting upon Absalom, missing him, wanting him to return. However, David was conflicted because God’s law demanded that Absalom be put to death for killing his brother Amnon. Joab’s only concern, however, is to curry the favor of David, and perhaps Absalom also, who is now am in the next in line to be king. Joab knew that a godly remnant would probably certainly oppose any relaxing of God’s law with regard to Absalom. But he counted on the general adoration of the people of Israel for Absalom. As you look at verse 25 of this chapter, it says, But in all Israel there was none to be so much praise as Absalom for his beauty, from the soul of his foot, even to the crown of his head. there was no blemish in him. People adored Absalom. So he’s counting on this in his plan. So he resorts to this very artful scheme in which, to overcome any resistance the king might have, he’s going to trick him into allowing Absalom to return. So he employs this wise woman from Tocoa. She was a very shrewd, skillful, persuasive woman and she’s going to tell David a story in order to gain his sympathy and then she’s going to reveal her real motive and that is to get David to bring back Absalom. We read here in verse 3 that Job is the one has put the words in her mouth. Joe is all, he has got all laid out. This is what I want you to say. Her earthly wisdom was of satanic or not. origin, because it’s, as we shall see, it is going to be an evil counsel that she gives the king. The tale told by this tool of Satan, it would mimic, in some sense, the parable that Nathan tells. Remember Nathan told the parable about the little you lamb? Well, she’s going to tell a story here too. It’s going to bring home a point and hopefully drive it home to the king. so that he will listen. The goal is to come up with this conclusion. Under exceptional circumstances, it would be permissible to dispense with the death penalty of the law, especially when the matter involved the next heir to the throne. This is sort of what we’re leading up to with the situation in hand. So we see that his shrewd plot here to enable Absalom to return. Then we see the woman of Toccoa. a sad plight that she lays out in this story that she tells in verses 4 through 11. She claimed that she was in the vice of two conflicting demands. She was a widow, and she had two sons who quarreled as they worked together. This led to a fight. This led to the death of one of her sons. She wanted to keep the one son alive. because he was the only heir. But the rest of the family wanted him put to death because he had killed his brother. As the law demanded, he should be put to death. But then she would be without an heir in the family line would be cut off. So David listens to her sad story. He doesn’t seem to connect it with his own situation right off the bat. This is twice now. He didn’t catch on what was going on. And he promised in verse 8 that he would consider it. He doesn’t give any decision in verse 8. He basically says, I’ll let you know. I’ll consider it. At this point, the woman now really begins to turn the screws on David. She wants an iron-class assurance that her son is not going to be put to death. And he’ll be granted immunity. Unwisely, David grants it with an oath in God’s name in verse 11, as we see. and then, as we’ll pick up with verse 12 through 17, David here is entrapped by his own judgment. Let’s look at these verses. Then the woman said, Let thine handmaid, I pray thee speak one word unto the Lord, my king. And he said, say on. And the woman said, wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God. For the king does speak this thing as one which is faulty, and that the king doth not fath. home again his banished. For we must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Neither doth God respect any person. Yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him. Now, therefore, that I am come to speak of this thing under my lord the king. It is because the people have made me afraid, and I handman. said, I will now speak unto the king. It may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid. For the king will hear to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God. Then nine handmaid said, the word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable. For as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil, or good and bad. therefore the Lord thy God will be with thee. Well, the bait had been taken, and now David’s hooked. He’s made a judgment, and now she’s going to turn the tables on him and say, well, what about your son? What about the situation in your family? She’s clever in the way she reels him in here. The king failed to do in his own life what he just pronounced should be done, in her case. One of his sons had killed another, and the dead son was like water spilled on the ground. No one could bring him back, but the son who had done the killing could be forgiven and brought back, according to her, according to verse 13. Why even God provides a means of bringing back those who have been expelled in some sense from him. her argument was more compelling by adding a couple of points. She suggested it would be politically wise to bring Absalom back because public opinion in the nation’s interest demanded it, according, it seems, to verse 13 here. And then she insisted it would be the biblically right thing to do to forgive Absalom, because this would imitate God, verse 14. So David here is entrapped by his own judgment. And then David, David is trapped by his own judgment. David’s flattered about his wisdom and assured that he will find a way to do what is best for all concern in verses 18 to 21. Let’s look at this. Then the king answered and said unto the woman, hide not from me, I pray thee the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, let my lord the king now speak. The king said, is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, as thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from aught that my lord the king has spoken. For thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid. To fetch about this form of speech, hath thy servant Joab done this thing. And my lord is wise according to the wisdom of an angel of God to know all things that are in the earth. or in the land. And the king said unto Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing. Go therefore, bring the young man Absalon again. David here spied out Joab’s planning. He thought, this seems like something Joab would do. And evidently he saw through it. But the woman’s flattery here wins him over. After all, it led him to where his heart wanted to go. And his wisdom will be praised by all when Absalon is restored. Joab is then called before the king, but there’s not a single word here about outrage about all this. And, uh, or rebuke. Instead, David orders Joab now to bring Absalom. David fails to carry out his duty as king. to uphold the law of God. So the return of Absalom to Israel is found in this text. Now, what are the spiritual applications that we can make? If we look at this text, what do we learn from this? I suggest to you a few things. One is this. You are deceived if you allow personal feelings to override the word of God. You’ll notice in chapter 13 in verse 39, we read here about David and his longing after Absalom. And the soul of David longed to go unto Absalom, for he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead. And in verse 1 of chapter 14, Joab perceives that the king’s heart is toward Absalom. This is what the king wants. And so he’s going to take advantage of that. David’s dilemma is sort of a common one. What do you do when your feelings run contrary to the Word of God. That’s what he’s dealing with here in general. You may often desire to do what is the opposite of what God commands you to do. David’s love for Absalom overrode his honoring of God’s law. People frequently fail to apply God’s word when it appears it’s going to be too harsh on their family members. Parents sometimes refuse to use the rod to discipline their children. Why? Oh, I could never spank little Johnny or little Susie. My precious little son or daughter is the case. Maybe that’d be too severe. Isn’t that doing the very same thing that we find in our text? Or family members refuse to apply church discipline when it is a person in the family. That’s that’s been excommunicated from the church. Whether it has to do with perhaps shunning them or treating them as Matthew 18 says as a heathen, as an unbeliever. Oh, I could never do that. But isn’t that what Christ says for you to do if they won’t hear the church? You might argue, surely God doesn’t expect me to be without natural affection for a family member. Christ says if any man come to me, and hate not his father and his mother and his children, his brother and his sisters, yea, in his own life also. He can’t be my disciple. What did Jesus mean by that? Hate here is using a sense of rejecting, abandoning, turning your back upon, withholding your affections from if necessary. If that would interfere with you following him. Following Christ must take precedence then over family and over relatives. Loving God supremely means that it may mean that we will have to leave something behind. Family. Maybe even restrain our natural affections. Right eyes have to be plucked out. Right hands have to be cut off, as Jesus once said. Sometimes what is dear and precious to you must be sacrificed for God’s honor. Christ requires the throne of our hearts, and so he must be supreme in it all. Personal. feelings must be regulated by the Word of God, the principles of the Word. That’s a very key factor. We live in a day and age that we’re very touchy-feely about what we do. Well, I felt like doing this, or I didn’t feel like doing that. Personal feelings are to be regulated by what God says. Just because you say, you know, I don’t feel like doing what God says, there’s no excuse for disobedience. It doesn’t matter whether you feel like it or not. Who says you have to feel like doing what God commands you to do? You’re not to live by feelings, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. That’s how we are to live. So we must bring our feelings in line then with the Word of God. If we don’t feel like doing what God commands, then our feelings are wrong. Something’s wrong with the way we’re thinking. you. We have to be to the point where we say not my will be done, but thy will be done, as Christ said. Look in the New Testament at the book of Luke, if you would, chapter 17. Jesus told a parable dealing with this very thing. I want to read verses 7 to 10. He told this parable to his disciples. He says here in Luke 17, 7 to 10. But which of you, having a servant, plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he has come from the field, go and sit down to meat. And will not rather say unto him, make ready, wherewith, I may sup, and gird thyself and serve me. So I have eaten and drunken. And afterward, thou shalt eat and drink. Doth he thank the servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when you have done all those things which are commanded to you, say we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do. Now, if you look at the background of this story, why did Jesus tell this story? Well, there was a problem that Jesus was addressing that was raised by the disciples. And it had to do with forgiveness. You’ll notice of verses 3 and 4. Jesus said, take heed to yourselves, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him, and if repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, seven times in a day, again turn to thee and say, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. And the apostles said unto the Lord, increase our faith. The difficulty is, you know, how many times I have to forgive my brother? Well, Jesus seems to indicate every time he comes in after. for forgiveness even if it’s you know 70 times seven as he says elsewhere so when they get to the 50th time you still got to forgive the disciples are saying I don’t know if we can do this or not I don’t have the faith to do that that’s not something I feel like doing doesn’t matter whether you have the faith or not it doesn’t matter whether you feel like doing it or not you must do it because it’s what God command you to do. So the servant in this story here is like the disciples here. They’re to do what the master says. It doesn’t matter where they feel like doing it or not. He’s been working all day in the fields. He’s hot and the hot sun. It’s been a long day. He’s tired. He’s weary. He comes home. Does the master of the house say to him, hey, sit down, I cooked a delicious meal for you. I know you’ve been working hard all day. You know, here’s the food. No. Does the master ask the weary servant if he feels like making dinner for him? Are you too tired to make dinner tonight? Yeah, I’ll order a pizza. We’ll get a pizza you ordered in. No, the master orders his servant to go out there and make me dinner and serve me. And then when you’re done with all that, then whatever, you know, when you’re clean enough, you can eat. The master doesn’t think the servant, doesn’t thank the servant for making the dinner. he expects him to do what he’s commanded to do. And this is what God is saying here. He’s saying, he’s telling us, I expect you to do what I command you to do. So the weary and hungry servant spends an hour or two, you know, roasting the lamb and cooking the green peas and mashing the potatoes and making the Caesar salad and pouring the wine and, you know, baking the chocolate cake or whatever he’s making. He gets it all ready for the master. feelings don’t enter into the situation whatsoever. Servants have to obey their masters regardless of how they feel. Jesus said, this is what I’m telling you to do. It doesn’t matter whether you feel like doing it or not. So you are deceived if you allow feelings to override the Word of God. And this is what David did. And that’s always a dangerous thing to do. Notice something secondly tonight. You see the humbling effects of sin and the fact that you can be so easy. easily deceived. Versus two to three. We see here David very easily manipulated by this story, tricked into going against his conscience by a clever deception. We see that man in general lacks the spiritual discernment that he needs to detect to detect deception so that man is deceived. and also goes about deceiving others, as the scripture indicates. Often tricked and manipulate. Politicians lie and deceive their constituents to gain their vote. It’s a very common practice. They go one place to tell one group of people one thing. They go somewhere else. They may tell that group of people the very opposite, because that’s what they want to hear. So they lie. Teenagers often deceive their parents about whether they’re using drugs or else. call or where they’re going and what they’re doing. Husbands and wives deceive one another as they pursue extramarital affairs about what they’re doing out late at night and so forth. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived. 2. Timothy 3. 13, the Bible says, since the bread of deceit is sweet to a man, according to Proverbs 2017, people take pleasure in manipulating others. Fallen man naturally follows in the footsteps of Satan in deceiving people. He follows right in, they fall right in line with what Satan does. And so people are deceivers just like their father, the devil. I read a story about Adolf Sabith of Illinois. He was once the chairman of the House Rules Committee from 1940 to 1952. One of the committee members, a Eugene Cox of Georgia, wanted to vote on a resolution. This resolution was to change the way the committee rules were so that any member of the committee could bring up a bill for a vote even over the objections of the committee chairman. In other words, Adolf Sabbath’s objections. Sabbath was in his 80s. He begged Cox not to bring forward the resolution. With a faltering voice, he told Cox that he had a weak heart. Mr. Cox, if you do this, it will kill me. I don’t know if I can handle the humiliation. I’ll just drop that. Cox retorted that he didn’t care. But Sabbath had dallied long enough about this resolution, and it’s high time we get this thing taken care. Instantly, Sabbath pitched forward out of his chair. Fell at Cox’s foot. feet and lay there motionless. Cox aghasted, I killed him. And he, another congressman, carried Sabbath into a nearby office, laid him on a couch, and they ran for a doctor, and they left Ohio’s Clarence Brown there with Sabbath to watch over him after a minute or two. Brown saw Sabbath open one of his eyes, began to scan around the room. Brown was aghast. He said, why, you old rascal, there’s nothing. nothing, it’ll all wrong with you. Sabbath shot back to him, well, Mr. Cox didn’t get his resolution, did he? So you see the humbling effects of sin and the fact that you can so easily be deceived. This goes on all the time in our society. The third thing I suggest you is this. Your deception often comes from Satan’s agents, appearing as angels of light. There’s no question that this woman from Tocoa was mimicking. in some way what Nathan the prophet had done. She’s attempting to persuade David that her advice is wise, and it’s going to be beneficial for the nation to bring Absalom back. But let there be no mistake about this. It was spiritual advice, because she’s making it, she’s making at least a suggestion that relates to the obedience to God’s law, one way or the other, whether we obey or disobey, it’s involved in God’s law is involved here. And there’s a world of difference, our, between the parable of Nathan and the story that this woman tells. Nathan’s parable was designed to bring the king’s conscience to conviction over his guilt of what he has already violated the law, whereas this woman is trying to get David to continue to violate the law of God. And so, one is really concerned to uphold the law. The other one is focused on subverting the law. Satan’s agents get you to follow your own personal feelings and ignore the law of God. All false prophets and teachers twist the scriptures. So they end up saying what is good is actually evil, and what is evil is actually good. And that’s what happens. Satan’s deceptions from the beginning. beginning of always been to get you to question what God has said. That it may not be the best. It’s not the best thing for you. No person is serving God who undermines the clear teaching of Scripture. We ought to beware of this. Upon the banks of the Amazon River, there lives a species of a large, colorful spiders. And when one of these creatures spreads itself out. out. It looks like the blossom of a beautiful flower. So when other bees and insects come along to get the nectar out of what they think is a flower, all of a sudden they find themselves entrapped by this huge spider and poison is injected in them. It either paralyzes them or kills them. This is how false teachers work. They appear as dispensers of spiritual wisdom. But really, they’re injecting you, your mind. with poison here to go against what God’s law has said. So your deception comes from Satan’s agents appearing as angels of life. A fourth thought is this. You are deceived when your heart is moved by a pathetic case to overrule the Word of God. Versus 12 to 17. Supposedly, the widow woman’s story here was meant to gain the sympathy of David, to pull at his heartstrings. Remember, this whole thing was a lie. This was a carefully crafted story to persuade David to disregard the law of God when it talks about punishing murderers. God’s people today have to constantly be on guard against false reasoning that makes wrong seem to be right. clever reasoning to capture your heart and to make you think that God’s ways are too harsh or too cruel. Do you realize that abortion rights, granted by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade, weight, were built on a complete lie. The woman was not pregnant because she was raped, but that’s what they argued in the case. Why did they do that? Oh, they gained the sympathy of the judges. It was a lie to gain sympathy. Today, people say, yes, I know God’s word say that life is sacred, but surely God doesn’t want children who would not be loved or cared for to come into this world, so we should abort them. The church needs to be fully aware of the world’s tactics in this regard. Don’t let your tender sympathies for a sad story deter you from obeying God’s word. So you’re deceived when you’re whole. heart is moved by a pathetic case to over rule the word of God. Fifthly tonight. You can be deceived by flattery into thinking you’re doing the wise thing when you’re not. Versus 18 to 20. A little bit of flattery here about how wise David is, how he’s like an angel of God with his wisdom to no good and bad, and people get fooled and persuaded by these things into thinking more highly of themselves and the ought. Wasn’t it Satan who suggested our first parents that they would be wise if they followed his course of action? They’d be like God. You recall in Pilgrim’s Progress, Mr. Christian is solemnly warned about the flatterer. Watch out for the flatterer who’s going to come along. Paul could say for neither at any time use we flattering words to please or to persuade men. Scripture indicates to us that we have. have to be careful. A man that flattereth his neighbor, spreadeth a net for his feet. I knew a person who wants, he would come up and he’d always like compliment me on something, and then I would wait for the moment because there’s going to be something coming. And whenever he started buttering me up, I thought, what’s he up to now? What’s he going to do next? And so I was always sort of on my guard when he’d come along and started flattering about something, I’m thinking, what’s he’s up to? And that’s what he’s he’s up to? And that’s what we have to think about when the world comes along, what are they up to? Beware of those who will butter you up in order to gain an advantage over you, when to your support for their cause? So you can be deceived by flattery into thinking you’re doing the wise thing when you’re not. And lastly here, you should be grateful God doesn’t resort to deception when he shows mercy. There’s an interesting statement in verse 14 here. It says in the latter part of this verse, neither doth God respect any person, yet doth he devise means that is banished, be not expelled from him. And the indication is, well, God makes means by which the sinner can be restored. So you ought to make means by which Absalom can be restored. That’s the argumentation. But the woman of Tocoa here wants to dispense with the justice of God’s law when it comes to restoring Absalom. on. God never dispenses with his law when he brings the sinner and restores him to himself, brings him back. There’s nothing like that that God does. God found the way to honor his justice by extracting the law’s penalty as well as showing mercy and forgiveness to the center. God sent his son to the cross to satisfy the law’s demands that God’s wrath be poured out upon the lawbreaker. So God is the just justifier of the sinner. The law is not ignored but fully applied to the sinner’s case. Christ has to die as a substitute in the sinner’s place. So God brings you into fellowship with himself without showing leniency. without violating the penalty of the law. So there’s mercy and justice to be found in the cross. No compromise on God’s part. Justice rejoices because sin is punished. It’s punished in the person of Christ in the place of his people. Mercy rejoices because the believing sinner is freed from condemnation because the penalty’s been paid. Such a wonderful plan of salvation on the power. to make us grateful and thankful. You see, what man, man, if he devises his way, he would sacrifice either the mercy or the justice. But God, in his wisdom, has them married together and does not violate his law in the forgiving of sinners. Well, wicked king, Johoram, was the man that nobody missed. The nation was glad to get rid of him. Absalom should have been like that. It would have been better if he was a man nobody missed. Sadly, his wrong. return from exile is only going to bring more trouble and more misery. Whenever we don’t follow God’s law, it always escalates into something even worse than it starts out to be. And that will be the case here with Absalom, who hasn’t been checked in his first evil doing, and he’ll go and do much more. Many more people’s lives are going to be lost because of this man’s evil heart. Well, let’s close with the word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we do give you thanks. because you are a good God that provides for the needs of your people. We confess before you tonight that Father…