2 Samuel 20:13-26

2 Samuel, chapter 20, beginning with verse 13, we’ll read through verse 26. When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab to pursue after Sheba, the son of Bickory. And he went through all the tribes of Isheronda Abel and to Beth Maka, and all the Berrites, and they were gathered together, and went also after him. And they came and besieged him and Abel Beth Maka, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench. And all the people that were with Joab battered the wall to throw it down, and cried a wise woman out of the city, Here, hear, say, I pray you, unto J-O-O. Come near hither that I may speak with thee. and when he was come near under her, the woman said, art thou Joach? And he answered, I am he. Then she said unto him, hear the words of thine handmaid, and he answered, I do hear. Then she spake, saying, they were wont to speak in old times, saying they shall surely ask counsel of Abel, and so they ended the matter. I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel. Israel, thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the Lord? Joab answered and said, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy. The matter is not so, but a man of Mount Ephraim, Shiba, the son of Bikri, by name, hath lifted up his hand against the king, even against David. deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said under Joab, behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall. Then the woman went unto all the people and her wisdom, and they cut off the head of Sheba, the son of Bikri, cast it out to Joab, and he blew a trumpet, and they retired from the city, every man to his tent, and Joab returned to Jerusalem under the king. Now Joab was over all the host of Israel, Beniah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Cherathites, and over the Pelethites, and Adorum was over the tribute, and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was recorder, and Shiva was scribe, Zadok and Abyothar were the priest, and Ira, also the Gerite, was a chief ruler about David. May God bless to us His sacred and holy holy holy. word this evening. In 1520, one person stepped off a Spanish ship in Mexico and caused a death of thousands of people. He had smallpox. And smallpox, of course, was a deadly disease at that particular time. The man was a soldier in the Spanish army. and Navarrez was his captain or leader. But when he got off the ship, whenever he went, he exposed the citizens to this deadly disease, and they died by the thousands. So they had a smallpox epidemic. And a lot of them, of course, were Aztecs Indians that had died. One man was all it took to spread great evil. at that particular time. He just kept the past disease on and infected a large part of the population. King David has been very keen on dealing quickly with the rebellious spirit here of Shiba, as we see earlier in this chapter. He knows how easily evil can spread and how it can turn. into some type of full-scale rebellion like that of Absalon and be so difficult and divisive for the nation. He sent a Massa, who he had placed as army commander, he’s the new army commander, to deal with his renegade before the matters got too difficult. However, remember Joab, who was the previous army commander, decided that he didn’t like that situation. He kills Massa and assumes. his position as the army commander once again. He works with all speed to catch Shiba, and he eventually corners him. And he loses no time and having Shiba beheaded. He stomps out any further ideas of rebellion. The chapter ends with this evil dispatched. God’s kingdom once again at peace. There’s a lesson, I think, found in this text for us today. about the importance of confronting evil. And I hope that we can benefit from this text in that way. Let me begin by saying this. You see why evil men must not be tolerated. And verses 13 and 14 of our text, we read here that all the people went after Joab to pursue after Sheba, the son of Bickory, and he went through all the children. tribes of Israel and to Abel and to Beth Mecca and all the Berrites and they were gathered together and went also after him. We see here the bearites joining in, it seems, with Shiba. So Shiba is out attempting to recruit people into his army so that he could oppose David. and this rebel has rambled all over the 10 northern tribes seeking volunteers. Given more time, he might have been able to successfully raise a powerful army, but David has been quick to act in this case. But the swift response of David here, I think, certainly is going to prevent Shiba from doing what he wants to do. While Israel was quick to desert David here, they’re not so quick to get behind Shiba to fight with him. So Shiba does not gain a huge following. The majority of his army was made up of all the Berrites here. Most commentators believe this is from Behroth in Benjamin, which is Shiba’s tribe. So perhaps there’s a connection here with him. Shiba kept moving north until he reached this town of Abel in the far north of either 25 miles north, actually, of the Sea of Galilee, and west of the area where Dan settled up in the northern part of the kingdom, in the area of Naftali. And so here is where he ends up. Abel was a fortified city, and I suppose he and his men thought this would be the best place to reside and be protected from the army of David. Now, you learn evil quickly spreads, if not confronted. Scripture teaches the principle that a little leaven levens the whole lump, and it doesn’t take much to create havoc in the church. you know, in baking, a small amount of leaven conveys the siredness to the whole dough and affects the whole dough when it’s mixed in with it. You recall that Paul called the Corinthians arrogant, and they were arrogant because of the case of the man living in incest and them not addressing the sin that was in the church at the time. it continued undisciplined. And you’ll recall the accusation was fitting because they thought themselves able to live with and yet above sin. Perhaps it appears that they had this prideful attitude and boasted about their liberal position as a church. You know, what they could tolerate. I don’t know. He seems to indicate they were puffed up about this whole matter. Others may be contaminated by some. such a sin in their midst, but obviously they thought they were going to be above it all. Paul’s rebuke is, don’t you know, that a little of a leaven, leavens the whole lump? And that’s the point that he makes. You’re not immune from the effects of an evil person in your midst. Therefore, the church needs to address this evil, so that it does not faster. That does not become a serious problem. It’s like cancer. You have a little bit of cancer in a spot on your body somewhere. If you let it go, it’s going to spread. It’s going to end up perhaps killing you. So you have to address it while it’s small. And so Paul demands that the Corinthians immediately remove this person from the assembly. Get him out of the church. Excommunicate this man. The presence of an evil person in the church is going to have a bad influence. on the membership. Divisive people, like Sheba here in our text, can subvert whole households as we read in the book of Titus. Draw people into serious error and away from Christ if they’re not addressed. And the matter is not dealt with. And one of the greatest dangers, I think, facing the visible church today is that it seems to refuse to. to confront evil. In other words, when there is evil in the church, the church lets it go. They don’t want to be judgmental. They don’t want to be too harsh or appear to be unloving or something of this nature. Like the Corinthians, there is a toleration of all sorts of sin, whether it be sexual sin or abortion or pride or selfishness or lack of respect for authority. even absence from church attendance and so forth. There doesn’t seem to be a willingness many times to deal with the evil that is present. This doesn’t bode well for God’s kingdom on the earth because there’s too many tears then among the true we. So you see why evil men must be tolerated. Because what happens here? He gets some people to follow him. And he’s leading other people astray. Secondly, you see the necessity of rooting out evil men in the siege of Abel that we read about in verse 15. And they came and besieged him in Abel of Beth Manka, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench, and all the people that were with Joab battered the wall to throw it down. You find here Joab earnestly besieging the city of Abel. Joab is very prompt here. He goes right to it. He knows what he has to do, and he’s going after this man. He’s not going to let anything deter him from getting Shiba, rooted out. And he’s determined to eradicate this rebel once and for all. No-hold bars. No-holds-barred in the assault. Evidently, there was a trench around the city. Some cities have different ways of defending themselves. He puts a siege mound up, so he fills it in. And siege mounds are usually piles of dirt that they start way back here, and they move it up toward the wall so that they can bring the men right up to the wall and try to take the wall. And, of course, they’re using a battering ram to breach the wall, perhaps some other spot. And he’s prepared to storm the city and dig out Shiba and then this rebellion. He’s relentless. You can imagine all the men swarming like little bees around the city, doing whatever they can to take the city. And they’re actively working, hour after hour, diligently, to remove the threat. Now, you must be earnest in rooting out evil men. As Paul told the Corinthian Church, purge out the old leaven that ye may be a new lump. Purge it out. In 1 Corinthians 5’7. Paul says, I wrote unto you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators, put away from among yourselves that wicked person, 1 Corinthians 5, verse 9, and verse 13. So the people of God have an obligation to actively remove from the assembly people who are evil and are not repenting of it. You know, obviously we all consent. and if a person does something wrong and they are rebuked for it and they repent, we forgive them, of course. But here are people who will not change their ways, who are not going to repent, and the church cannot tolerate that. Scripture says, looking diligently lest any man fail the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. We have to be defiled. to root out the evil so others are not defiled by it. Eventually, what happens is the evil people make themselves known, even when they end up sneaking into the church unawares, as we read in the book of Jude. A false teacher, there are people that hold false doctrine and can somehow sometimes get into the church. But eventually, it comes to the surface. Eventually, false teaching or sinful behavior is exposed. And they’re rebels against. the king and the church should vigorously labor to uproot them them and be like Joab in this case, relentless and determined. Church discipline is a mark of a faithful church. And without it, then we cannot claim to be a faithful church. It’s not always a pleasant task to deal with people in their sin. It would be a lot more pleasant if they would repent when we’re dealing with them so that we can rejoice in their forgiveness and acceptance. But it is absolutely necessary for the health and well-being of the assembly that we deal with sin. You know, during the Civil War before the days of x-ray and before all the scanning that we have today, if you got wounded, even a small wound, it could prove fatal because of the infection that would grow. Many soldiers died from just a single bullet wound or even a fragment wound if infection set in. When a soldier’s wound refused to heal, the surgeon would have to go in that area of the wound and dig around, probe around and see if he can’t find something hard. See if he can’t find that fragment or that bullet that’s still there, something that’s there that’s causing this infection and remove it. If he doesn’t find it and the bullet fragment stays in there, well, it could prove fatal. And so it is with evil men. Infecting the body of Christ, removal is essential where the church may be fatally harmed and never recover. So you see the necessity here of rooting out evil men. My third point tonight is this. You see how it takes wisdom to remove evil men. men. We see that in verses 16 to 22, and we read about this wise woman who is in the city, who finds out what the problem is and begins to work toward a solution and getting rid of this troublemaker for the whole city. You find wisdom must be used to demonstrate the wicked should not be protected. The city of Abel was protecting a rebel. and so that’s why it came under siege. And they had these formidable walls. You’re not told why they did this. It’s clear that the city evidently needed to be convinced to turn over Sheba to Joab. The wise woman is troubled at first at at Joab’s relentless attack. Why are you attacking us? She’s not sure, evidently, at first. She’s surprised. She’s shocked. The city is a mother in Israel. A place renowned for good counsel. A place where they provided oversight. They seemed to be a, I guess they had some wise people in the city. The people looked to them for judgment on various decisions that were made. She says here it’s the inheritance of the Lord. Didn’t God give us this land? Why are you attacking it? and then of course God’s law certainly prescribed the fact that normally you could offer peace to a city and if they surrendered as long as they weren’t a Canaanite city of course but any other city they could surrender peaceably what Joab doesn’t even give her this option here. What at this point Joab explains that his sole interest is the removal of Shiva an evil rebel against the king who cannot be tolerated is verse 21 explains. Now informed, the wise woman says, I need to convince the people, the elders and the others of the city, the leadership, to get rid of Shiba. Now, friends, sometimes the members of the church are not prepared to discipline someone who is acting sinfully. Here’s where the elders need to present, of course, the evidence which condemns the instance. individual, it convinces the church that this is the right thing to do. It is particularly hard for people to discipline someone who is, let’s say, a relative or a family member or happens to be in the same church with you. Maybe it’s a close friend of yours that’s in the church that’s in sin. That’s a hard thing to do. And there’s where your priorities come. Who do I love more? Do I love Christ more than family? What comes first? And the elderly? must wisely argue the case against the wayward member so that the church sees the necessity of dealing with this issue. So you find wisdom must be used to demonstrate that the wicked should not be protected. Notice also, you find wisdom must be used so as not to destroy the faithful with the wicked. Joab’s efforts to root out Sheba here will have meant that, might well have meant the destruction of the whole city. If nothing’s done, Joab’s prepared to take the city by storm here. The wise woman is disturbed that she and many of Abel are of them that are peaceful and faithful in Israel, she says in verse 19. We don’t have any beef against the king. We’re not opposed to King David. And yet it seems because they are protecting sheep. they end up facing the wrath of Joab’s army. Joab provides the solution, just turn over Sheba and the city will be spared. Now the concern seems to be the same of Abraham’s of old. When he asked God, are you going to destroy the righteous with the wicked? In Genesis 1823, and God’s response is always the same in scripture. Come out from out of her. my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not her plagues, separate from the wicked. Lot had to be taken out by the angels from the city of Sodom. It had to be separated. If a church refuses to remove from its midst, an unrepentant member, then, of course, the whole church can come under the judgment of God. We see this in the case of Israel. long ago, when you find Aiken, and as long as they tolerated Aiken, as long as they didn’t realize what the situation actually was and didn’t deal with it, they were losing to their enemies. And only when they found out what the problem is and dealt with it, that would that solve for them. Now, if you would, look at me at numbers here, Chapter 16, this has to do with Israel and the world. wilderness and the rebellion of cora and i want you to notice how this is stated here chapter 16 beginning with verse 19 we read here in cora gathered all the congregation against them under the door of the tabernacle the congregation and the glory of the lord appeared under all the congregation and the lord said unto moses and unto aaron saying spake unto moses unto erran saying separate yourself from among this congregation that i may consume them in a moment and they fell upon their faces and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation? And the Lord spake unto Moses, speak unto the congregation, speak unto the congregation saying, get you up from about the tabernacle of Cora, Dathan, and Abiram. And Moses rose up and went under Dathen and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him, and he spake under the congregation saying, depart, I pray you, from the tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in all their sins. During the wilderness journey, the clan of Cora rebelled against the leadership, God’s appointed leadership of Moses and Aaron, you’ll recall. They were arrogant and they were insolent toward him, toward both of them, actually, and they refused to listen to Moses, and things came to a head very quickly, we see here. separate yourselves from among this congregation, lest I consume them. He’s going to consume them all, if necessary. Aaron and Moses are concerned about the survival of the nation. One man sins, and you’re going to destroy the whole nation here. Well, God says, hey, there has to be a separation between the righteous and the wicked. Otherwise, the judgment is going to fall on all the nation. And so God repeat. the warning in verse 26. Speak under the congregation, depart, get away from them, because this is what’s going to happen. I’m going to judge them. And, of course, we know the congregation separated from Cora, and God caused the earth to open up and swallow up the clan here, a good bit of the clan of Cora. To avoid its own destruction, the church here must remove the openly, wicked, and rebellious among them. You find wisdom must be used so not to destroy the faithful with the wicked. Notice you find wisdom must be used to actually remove the wicked. In verse 22, we see that of our text, where the woman goes in her wisdom, talks to the leadership, and they, of course, take care of the situation. She persuades the leaders. and immediately they take action. Jowab then withdraws the army and the battle ends. Peace returns. Scripture says in Proverbs 2210, cast off the scorner and contention shall go out. Yea, strife and reproach shall cease. The scorner, one who talks arrogantly, scoffs. He ridicules, perhaps he mocks. Sheba was a scorner who acted in a scorn. contemptible manner toward the king that David, or King David, who was appointed by God. The scorner is sort of a firebrand of contention in the church. And you have those who are troublemakers in the church. And he has to be dealt with. He has to be cast out, if not repentant. Remember that Sheba was called a son of Belial. He’s an enemy. of King Jesus and is harming the people of God. And so whenever we encounter this situation, when there are those who create an uproar and trouble the church, if peace is going to be restored, the evil dealer has to be removed. And then contention and strife and reproach will cease. There was a 19th century pastor, Henry Ward Beecher, who told the story of a mother in the wild frontier country. One day she was out hanging up her clothes and washing her clothes. She had one of her children out there playing around her. Suddenly she realized that the child was missing. And she went, ran to the house and thought maybe he had gone there and she’s calling out his name and couldn’t find him. Then she went into the forest and when she went into the forest, she found the body of her son. It had been killed by a wolf. It snatched the child and ran off with it. Broken-hearted, she picked up his lifeless body and drew him close to her heart and tenderly carried him home. And Beecher concluded, oh, how that mother hated wolves. Every Christian should have a similar hatred when it comes to sin and evil, especially that evil which might destroy his or her spiritual family. The church. You who loved the Lord. Lord, we read tonight in our call to worship, hate evil. Purge out the evildoers. Do not think it to be too harsh a punishment. Remember, you’re protecting the Christian family. So you see how it takes wisdom to remove evil men. Finally, you see evil men while troubling the people of God, do not ultimately cause the demise of God’s kingdom. In verses 23 to 26, we have a little little final ending here, what took place. After all this trouble between Absalon and then Shiba, at the end, we see the state of David’s court after his restoration as king here. In their own way, these verses quietly say the kingdom of David is still intact. Predictably, Joab retains his position as army commander. being too great, evidently to be displaced. And this was David’s failure, I think, not to replace him as he should. But Naya is still over all the royal troops of the city of Jerusalem, the king’s royal guard, if you would. Adorum holds a new office here. He’s sort of the tribute collector, if you would. He gets the taxes of the people and perhaps tribute from the various nations that David has conquered. He takes care of the money matters. Jehoshaphat is the royal secretary. Shiva is the scribe who wrote out the laws that were established by the king. Zadok and Abirathar are still acting as high priest. Ira is a descendant from Jair, the Gileaditeite. Perhaps someone who had befriended David while he was in exile. We were not told. But he was chief of his private counsel here. Perhaps we don’t know, but perhaps he didn’t know, but perhaps he was. He was one who took Ahithrafels’ place. We’re not really told a lot about this, but evidently he provided some type of counseling to the king. And so the kingdom, while fragile, while harmed by the sinfulness of David and Shiba and Absalom, continues to remain. In spite of all the corruption within with the evil rebels, all the attacks without by foreign powers, the kingdom is still standing. The state of the kingdom of God, after all the trouble confronting it, is the same way. Here we have a glimpse of the way it is with the kingdom of God’s dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of David, because it’s very similar. Apparently we’re fragile, but always standing. God’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom which will never be destroyed as Daniel chapter 2. indicates to us that’s the promise. No power in earth can bring about its demise. Now, there may be problems. There may be difficulties. There may be low times in the kingdom, the visible kingdom on earth. But despite all this, internal attacks, external attacks on the church, we take comfort in this that God’s omnipotence always protects and sustains his kingdom on this earth. and will to the end. That’s our confidence that we have in all that takes place in this earth, regardless of how difficult it may be. And it seems like sometimes when it might even disappear from the face of the earth, God sustains it. God always is working. There was a time during the dark ages when you thought the church was going to be totally, you know, disappear from the face of the earth, practically. But then the Reformation, came. And God had a people. And God continued to have a people and added to that people, and things changed. One Spanish soldier brought smallpox to Mexico and killed thousands of people. This chapter demonstrates how easily evil can spread and the trouble it brings to the people of God and the kingdom of God. So there’s a lesson found in our text. I think about the importance of confronting evil. You see, evil men, while troubling the people of God, do not ultimately cause the destruction or the demise of the kingdom of God. It will continue. And the church’s duty is to deal with the evil in its midst, put the person out, continue on, regardless of what has taken place. The goal is to continue forward, remove evil, and pursue a godly church as much as humanly possible. We’ll make God blessed to us His sacred word tonight. Let’s close.