2 Samuel 16:9-14

The book of 2 Samuel, chapter 16, and beginning with verse 9. And we’re going to read through verse 14. Then said Abishai, the son of Ziriah, under the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head. And the king said, what have I to do with you, ye sons of Ziriah? So let him curse because the Lord has said unto him, curse David. Who shall then say, wherefore hast thou done so? And David said to Abishai, and all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth from my boughs, seeketh my life. How much more now this may this Benjaminite do it? Let him alone, let him curse, for the Lord hath bidden him. it may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction. The Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day. And as David and his men went by the way Shimiye went along on the hill’s side over against him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and cast dust, and the king and all the people that were with him came weary and refreshed themselves there. May God bless to us the reading of His sacred and holy word this evening. When I was going to seminary, I was working full time to pay my way through school, and I had a job at a corrugated box company named Horner Box, and I worked eight hours a night after school on the door cordial gluer, where we made insides for doors inside the houses. and such cardboard fillers. Now, Texas, where I went to school, was quite hot during the summer. It was nothing to be over 100 degrees during the summer days. And to make matters worse, my machine was located in the factory there where they steamed the paper in order to make the corrugated board. So not only was it 100 degrees outside, but you also had this steam coming off of the paper, so it was quite hot where we were working. Needless to say, I would sweat profusely during that time, and I had to drink a lot of fluids. So whenever I went to the grocery store, I used to go to buddies there, cash my check, and I would buy sometimes large bottles of pop, but they’d buy enough for the last a whole week, so I’d be filling up my cart with all these large bottles of pop. One day, I had just put six bottles of pop into the cart when an older gentleman came up to me, looked me right in the face and said, you drunkard. And I stood there, completely caught off guard. I didn’t know what to, I didn’t know what happened. And then he just walked off. I guess he figured I was some college kid buying, you know, pop to mix with the alcohol or something. something for mixed drinks. He concluded, I must be a heavy drinker. I must be an alcoholic or a drunkard anyhow. And the truth of matters, I never had any alcohol in my entire life. But that’s what happened to me one day while I was at the grocery store. No one likes to be falsely accused. And this is what David is in our text. David has to endure shimmy eyes, slanderous, public attack, as we looked at last week. And we were looking at the verses 5 through 9 or 5 through 8 last week. It was a cowardly attack. It came at a weak moment. He didn’t do it while David was sitting secure on the throne. He waits until he’s under attack and he’s fleeing for his life. It was a bitter attack. He harbored bitterness for a long time. He just, now letting it out. It was a false attack. It was completely wrong. It was an utter lie that he was responsible to kill off the household of Saul, and he had blood on his hands because of it and so forth. And it was a vicious attack. There were reproaches. There were curses. There were stones. There was dust thrown out of and so forth. How does David respond to this slanderous attack? It is his response, which provides, I think, for us several valuable lessons. And so as we look at this, let’s consider it from that point of view. How to patiently bear slanderous attacks. The first thing I’ll mention to you is this. Leave retaliation up to God for the wrongs done to you. You’ll notice here in verse 9 in the first part of verse 10, and Abishai, the son of Zariah, said, and the king, why should this dead dog curse my lord the king let me go over i pray thee and take off his head and the king said what have i to do with you you you sons of zariah Abishai i think had a well-meant proposal here after all david was the king this was not to be tolerated as he looked at it and headless men cannot curse and reproach you so if i’ll go over and take off his head but it was indeed uh something that appeals to the flesh. Let me get him. I’ll get him. He’s like with Saul. I’ll hit him with my spirit. I won’t have to hit him the second time. I’ll cut this guy’s head off here and he won’t be cursing you any longer. However, David restrains Abishai here. He’s demonstrating he’s not the bloody man that he’s been accused of being by showing restraint here. Nor did David return railing for railing. He didn’t throw reproaches back up the hill at Shimei and curse in him. He followed the example of Christ, not to use railing for railing as 1. Peter 2.23 tells us. We’re never required to exact vengeance for personal wrongs that are done to us, even when it seems appropriate at times for that to occur. Humble acceptance of the blow, having a patient, having a patient spirit with our enemies is also an option. And so David here shows mercy. He hopes that something good will come out of all this. So he doesn’t get justice for himself. Sometimes we can be so filled with our rights, and David was king, and he could have said, you know, this is not the right thing to do. The law says you’re not supposed to curse the, the, leader of your people. And so you can understand how readily one could draw the sword and say let’s get this taken care of right now. Like Abishi in our text, Peter, when Christ was arrested, also had the same situation. Christ restrained him, you recall, after he took a swing and chopped off an ear, and Christ put the ear back on this servant of the high priest. People want to get their pound of flesh and even things up. But David’s humble spirit restrained Abishai, Christ, sinless spirit restrained Peter in the New Testament. Some people do not retaliate because they lack the opportunity to do so. If those supposed two school schoolboys are picked on by a rather mean classmate and school. And one, one, One boy suggests, okay, let’s fight after school, where he proceeds to maybe strike some blows and bloody the mouth of his opponent, the ridicule. The other boy doesn’t challenge the mean classmate to a fight because he’s got a broken arm, and he’s got one arm in a sling, and it was be useless for him to challenge it. Otherwise, he would have. He just lacks opportunity. David is to be commended here, for he has opportunity. And he has the power and the ability to extract revenge, but he doesn’t. In the same way, you could retaliate when you can and you do not. You’re exercising a patient, spirit. You’re leaving matters in God’s capable hands as a righteous judge over the world. So, so leave retaliation to God for the wrongs done to you. Secondly, observe God’s hand in your affliction. Notice verse 10, the second part here. so let him curse because the Lord has said unto him curse David who shall then say wherefore hast thou done so? I suppose that David’s words would be shocking for many Christians today because his theology is not their theology. They would find this a hard saying to accept. David saw the hand of the Lord in every everything that happened to him, including Shimiye’s cursing of him on this occasion. The vow, the sinful acts of men have the hand of God in them. This is another reason why David does not retaliate here. David is not implying that God is the author of this sin, Shimiye’s sin, but that God is the ordainer of this sin. He sees that God has purpose to use Shimiye’s mean-spiritedness, his bad motives, and his slander to humble himself, to humble David. That’s what it’s all about. The Lord has said unto him, curse David, is to be associated with God’s decree, with God’s eternal purpose, by which all things are determined and controlled and directed. God channeled here the willful sin of Shimei who’s motivated by Satan he is motivated by his own evil heart to curse David, to throw the rocks at him and so forth, but God is using this to achieve his own redemptive purpose in David’s life. God did not inspire these sinful actions. Shimiye was not compelled to curse David, against his will here, nor did God have the same purpose in ordaining these sinful actions as Shimiha had in committing them. And this is always the secret to understanding God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. God ordains sinful actions for the good of his people while man purposes these evil actions because he has an evil heart. And yet they’re the same action. One is purposed by God for good. One is purposed by man for evil. We look at the crucifixion of Christ when Jesus was crucified. on the cross. It was indeed the most wicked, perverse action imaginable. The cruelness of it, the perverseness of it, the heartlessness of it, the lying and unjustness associated with the trials. The shedding of Christ’s innocent blood on the cross was quite evil. And we know the scripture indicates to us that God required the blood of Christ at the hand of the Jews for what they did. However, does not Acts tell us in Acts chapter 2 in verse 22 and 23 that God foreordained it? That it was according to the counsel of the Lord that they with wicked hands did this? God doesn’t condone their evil actions, but he certainly purposed Christ’s crucifixion. You must learn to do what David does here. Sometimes we have to look beyond the instrument. The instrument of our troubles to God who has brought this event into our lives. He is the supreme director of all things. You look at the story of Job. When thieves came and in one day they took all his herds and his cattle and so forth, notice how he said, the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. He sees God’s hand, even in the theft of his property by these other raiding bans. They did it for evil purpose. God had a good purpose in dealing with Job and having this event ordained for him. Now nothing will readily quiet a gracious soul who is under affliction and drain out that spirit of retaliation like seeing the hand of God in the event. How often? and we kick in, we struggle with affliction, and we focus all our attention on the enemy who has harmed us, but we failed to look beyond that and see that there is the hand of God in all this. Has not God ordained this affliction, and has he not brought it into your life? This is what can calm us when our spirit is aroused. When we’re thinking about getting our revenge, Now I have to tell you that these things are far easier to preach than they are to practice. It’s far easier for me to tell you what the scripture says than to actually put it into the practice when we’re riled up or when we’re under affliction. But get this lesson ingrain in your mind so that when affliction comes we can think like David. C.H. Spurgeon had an old friend, his name was Will Richardson. He said that he was a farmer all his life. And he said that Richard’s. told him one day that when it was wintertime and he was idle he says, I think I could mow fields and I could reap harvest. He said, all I need is a sick on a side that I can do a splendid day’s work. But he says when summer comes and I’m out there working about halfway through the day, I’m already exhausted and my old bones are tired and weary. And he says, I’m having trouble getting through the day. So when wintertime is there and he’s rested up, no problem. But when when it’s actually time to do it is that it’s difficult. And this is very true in the spiritual realm. It’s easy to say, Father, thy will be done when you’re at ease. It’s not so easy to do under affliction. May the Lord grant us grace so that our theology and our life may match and observe God’s hand in your affliction. Thirdly tonight. Keep your afflictions in perspective. Verse 11. And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, behold my son, which came forth out of my bowels, seeketh my life. How much more now this Benjamin might do it. May this Benjamin might do it. Let him alone. Let him curse for the Lord hath bidden. David realized he deserved to be cursed in stoned. He looks, looking at his life, looking at his great sin with Bashiba, took the edge off the experience for him. Lamentations Chapter 3.39 says this. Wherefore does the living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins. You look at your life, look at your own guilt, and he’s even though we’re not under condemnation as Christians, there is a chastening of punishment that comes from the Lord often associated with our sins, and knowing how guilty we are and what punishment we rightly deserve, though we’re forgiven by God, should help us mitigate the blow when the shimmiyes deal with us in this life. Your affliction, though it may be severe, is light compared to the blows that should come upon you. It keeps things in perspective when we look at what we really deserve. Now, in addition to this, David understands Shimiye’s indignation. He almost makes excuse for it here, which is hard to believe. He said, well, there’s Absalom my own son. The one came out of my own boughs, my own flesh and blood. He’s trying to take my life well. How can I complain that Shimiye is cursing me? God has given me Saul’s throne, who was a Benjaminite, of course. Shimiye, who is a Benjaminite, sympathizes with the tribe that lost the crown. This man has suffered because of my elevation to the throne. He’s angry. I don’t expect him to treat me gently. It’s almost as if he’s putting himself in Shimiye’s shoes and saying, I understand it. I guess. it. I wonder if you ever done that. I wonder if you ever put yourself in the shoes of even the person who has wronged you. Do you ever weigh offenses done to you so that you don’t overreact to relatively minor offenses that are done? On a particular hectic day and an emergency room in the hospital, a man came seeking treatment because he had a splinter in his finger, and it was a large splinter. in his finger, but it was hurting him. And he had weight quite a bit because the ER had more pressing injuries to treat. Well, he got impatient after two hours of waiting. He’d go storming up to the front desk irate that his treatment is taking so long, and he’s complaining, and his injury. It’s going to take a few minutes and pull this splinter out and put some antiseptic on it. Why can’t I get this taken care of? you can’t have that many serious emergencies that you can’t take care of me. And no sooner have those words come out of his mouth than an ambulance crew is wheeling in a man in full view of the complainer. And this poor man had been in a devastating injury. It was in a car and he was thrown out of the car through the windshield. And he was impaled, believe it or not. on a fence post that had been broken. And the fence post went right through him, right through his body, his torso, from one end to the other, right through him. He has this fence post, so they’re wheeling him in, and he can see this big fence post hanging in this guy’s body. And seeing the complainer, seeing that, the complainer sheepishly sat down and realized, well, he has a bigger splinter than mine to get out, you know? to be removed. Sometimes I think we have to look, get things in perspective. I find some who have been Christians for years, if they’re put out by sometimes an insignificant trifle, take a long time to get their feathers smooth over again. Perhaps it’s something they need to hardly have noticed, and yet they’re fretting about it day after day and they’re all worked up. We have to learn to put things in perspective, separate what’s merely an annoyance from what is serious. I think David’s looking at this as more of an annoyance than the threat on his life by Absalom. We have to learn to be forbearing, remembering, in many things, we offend all. All Christians have bad days. Sometimes we become irritated. Sometimes we speak rashly. Not to condone these things. But to remind you that you and I have bad days too. So every one of us needs to bear long with our fellow believers, not be ready to cut off their heads at the first opportunity. So keep your affliction in perspective. Fourthly tonight, be assured God sees your affliction and will pity you. Verse 12, the first part, it may be the Lord will look upon or look on mine affliction. and the Lord will requite me good for his cursing today. It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction. So while Abishi is ready to take drastic measures, David is looking for God to respond to this problem. Now when he says that he expects God to look on this situation, it doesn’t mean that God will observe it so much as that I think God, would pity him in this situation. He thought that when he was in such great trouble and suffering, and he’s undergoing this cursing that’s really a, it’s wrong, it’s evil by Shimei, that God would pity him. Doesn’t a father pity his child, who has been hurt by a fall or been bullied by someone? Why should you think your heavenly father would not act? in such a manner when it’s you as his child. Turn with me to the book of Exodus chapter 2 in verses 23 to 25. We see an account here about Israel in bondage in Egypt. This is the early part of this bondage. I want you to see what the scripture says here. Exodus 2, 23 to 25. And it came to pass in the process of time. that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of their bondage. And they cried. And their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning. And God remembered the covenant with Abraham and with Isaac and Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect. Unto them. After the death of Joseph, there rose a favor. that didn’t know Joseph, didn’t know how he spared the whole nation during the seven years of famine and so forth. And the Israelites got enslaved because they were multiplying a number and the Egyptians were afraid. So they enslaved them. And they were in severe bondage. And they used the Israelites slave labor to build large, massive cities and who knows what other projects they were engaged in. The labor was so much. intense that the people sighed and they cried because it was so severe. Who knows how severely they were whipped to keep them moving, keep them working. It was an unbearable situation. And the scripture indicates that the Lord looked on them and had respect under them. Now, he just didn’t observe them here. But I think the idea is that he pitied his suffering children. He looked upon them with compassion. He took note. Of their sad plight. Why? Because he has a covenant relationship with those people. He remembered the covenant he had with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Under affliction, we need to look away from men, look to God, with whom we have a covenant relationship. We should say, my soul, wait thou upon God only, for my expectation is from him, Psalm 62.5. In our affliction, we can groan. We can cry out to the Lord and realize that he will pity. us. He will have mercy because we are in a covenant relationship with God. He will never abandon us and ignore our sighs and our tears. We can cry out, Lord, have pity upon me. Look upon my suffering. Consider my agony. Help me. Be assured God sees your affliction and will show you pity. And fifthly tonight. Comfort yourself knowing God brings good out of evil. the second part of verse 12 that I read earlier where he says that the Lord will requite me good for this cursing this day. David surmised here that the Lord would bless him even by means of Shimiye’s cursing. Now, at first glance, this may seem strange, but isn’t it really just Romans 828 in Old Testament garb? Isn’t that really what he’s saying here? that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord, to them that are the called according to his purpose. It may be that God’s going to bring good out of this for me. Even affliction and sin are used by God to accomplish good in your life. Even the cursing of your enemies can work for your good. The Lord who sent these humbling curses of Shimei upon David’s head is the God of all grace. who answers repentance with blessings of his grace. David suffered the insults. Let Shimiye rave on. Because I’m looking for God to bring something good out of this. Only when the column of people reached their destination at the Jordan River, did David experience any relief from the strife of tongues, as we see in verses 13 and 14. Because all along the way, Shimiye here, is cursing and throwing dust and stones at him and everything else. But eventually it comes to an end. Now, you too can claim with David, if you are a believer, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. That’s in the 23rd Psalm, as you know. Our delight and satisfaction is not caught up in earthly things, but in God’s goodwill and purpose being accomplished in our life. life. And it’s a great comfort to have this. There’s three thoughts I’ll draw from this phrase in scripture, this surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. One, we have the conveyance here of goodness and mercy. They will follow me. You remember the water out of the rock in the wilderness? It became like a river that followed the Israelites so that it would have water to drink for a period of time. It followed them. God’s goodness and mercy like a river follows his people. In all places, in all the conditions you find yourself in. Conveyance of God’s goodness and mercy. Continuance of God’s goodness and mercy is found there also. All the days of my life. God’s goodness and mercies are renewed every morning, if you think about it. Lamentations tells us there’s always a fresh supply. Like the man. manner that was there every morning, God’s mercy and goodness continues to appear in the life of the believer. And then thirdly, the certainty of goodness and mercy, surely God’s goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. How can you, as David, be assured of God’s continuous goodness because of the covenant relationship you have with the Lord? He’s bound to show goodness and mercy because of the bond of friendship they exist between him as the shepherd and you as the sheep. Past experience of God’s favor leads to this effect in your life that they will have future blessing. If God has blessed you in the past, he will bless you in the future because of this commitment he has to you. People often have to endure slanderous attacks in this life. Some charges made against you are completely false. No one likes to be falsely accused, so it’s useful to see how David patiently endured it. There are five things here. Leave the retaliation unto God, for the wrong is done to you. Observe God’s hand in your affliction. Keep your affliction in perspective. Be assured that God shows or sees your affliction and will show you pity and comfort yourself. Comfort yourself. knowing that God brings good out of evil. Well, let us close with the word of prayer tonight.