As we've been studying through second Samuel, we've been studying the reign of David and how God did such incredible, wonderful things in the life of David, how God promised David all the way back in first Samuel 16, anointed him to be king and indeed fulfilled that promise, though there were a few intervening years there that weren't so much fun. But the Lord doesn't promise an easy path. He just promises, a, He'll be with us and b, He will get us to the place that he has promised to take us. And it will be, as a song we sing, it will be worth it all indeed when we see Jesus. So we see that in the life of David.

We see God's hand at work in his reign as king as he was able to conquer the neighboring peoples to basically take control of the areas of land God had promised to the Israelites. And everything was going great. And if you sit back and relax and go, oh, it's going great. Man, it's wonderful. I've arrived.

Okay? Don't ever think that because sin is just waiting at the door and it will get you if you think that you don't have to be concerned with it. And so that's when we get to the story, chapter 11, of David and Bathsheba, and and you know how that went. And the sin that David committed, the sins that David committed. We see the mercy and grace of God that spared his life.

However, David warned him that there would be consequences for his sin. Our sin not only affects us, it affects it affects others. And it particularly affected, the house of David. Second Samuel twelve ten, Nathan said, now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me and has taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. David was warned.

There are consequences that will bear out on this earth, and so prepare yourself for them. And so in chapter 13, we read about the death of his son Amnon at the hand of his son Absalom after Amnon took advantage of Absalom's sister Tamar. Terrible, terrible story that ended in the death of Amnon, who indeed was in some way deserving of death, but not in the manner that it took place. For it was not Absalom's prerogative to gain vengeance upon his brother in the manner that he did. He should have gone through the proper procedures to the proper authorities.

That is the way it should work. Sometimes those authorities do let us down. They do. So when they let us down, then we can take matters into our own hands. Right?

No. Then we have to depend upon the justice and the righteousness of who? Of God. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. When we jump in and take matters into our own hands and we ignore the commands and the authority and the prerogative of God, we just make a bigger what?

Mess. And that's exactly what Absalom did. He made a mess of his life. He made a mess of Israel. And we'll see that playing out in the next two Sunday nights.

And, of course, he did make a mess for his father for his father David. So, we start in chapter 14 this evening. Absalom had fled the country after he killed Amnon to Geshur, which is where his mother came from. And there he stayed for a while, three years it tells us, until he was allowed back into the country. And that is the story of which, we begin in chapter 14 and verses one through three.

Absalom had an ally on his side. And that ally we meet in the second word of chapter 14. Who is his ally? Joab. Who is Joab?

Well, he is the nephew of David and he is the commanding general of David's forces and a very close associate of David and one who has already shown himself to be treacherous and not necessarily God honoring. Okay? So, now Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom. And Joab sent to Tekoa and fetched thence a wise woman and said unto her, Wise meaning sly. Okay?

Sly. And said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner. Evidently, she maybe was known as being an actress. Okay? And so he said, I want you to I want you to act.

Do what I tell you. Feign thyself. Pretend to be a mourner. Put on now morning apparel and anoint not thyself with oil. In other words, look really sad and rugged.

But be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead. And come to the king and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. So to begin with this evening, we have the Hebrew tragedy. This really covers the entire next four or five chapters of second Samuel.

The Hebrew tragedy, the unrighteous heir. And indeed, Absalom is very unrighteous, not just in his actions but in his heart, which again matters most to the Lord. Our heart does reveal itself in our what? In our actions. And so we see that here in the life of Absalom.

So we have scene one here in chapter 14. There we have an actress, a cunning woman of Tekoa, a small town, a few miles from Jerusalem. She's not somebody that would have been known to pretty much anybody from a small town, but somebody that Joab thought could pull this off. The producer, director, and script writer is Joab. He's the one who tells her exactly what he wants her to do, how he wants her to do it, dresses her up, all of that, in order to get under the skin of David, to manipulate his mind and his, particularly his, emotions.

K? Emotions are a good thing. But emotions can lead us, what? Astray. K?

Emotions can lead us the wrong way. Rather than being led by emotions, we need to be led by what? By the word of God. Emotions will follow. Don't let them be the leaders.

Let them be the what? The followers. But Joab is playing on the emotions of David. It says here in verse one again, Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom. In other words, David was missing Absalom.

He really did not want Absalom to be estranged from him. It was his eldest son. And he didn't like the fact that he wasn't talking to his son. And, you know, that makes sense, doesn't it? He still loved him despite everything that went on because he was his what?

He was his son. So Joab, who was generally loyal to David, generally loyal to David, publicly very loyal to David. It seems, however, his loyalty was likely more to himself and to the honor, prestige, and power that was afforded him as the king's most trusted military commander. He had a good gig going, did Joab. He was one of the most powerful people in the land of Israel.

He had the king's ear as much as anybody else, in the kingdom. There was nobody, who probably had more trust in the ear of the king than did Joab. However, Joab was a man of sight and not a man of faith. The Bible says we're to walk by faith and not by sight. When we walk by sight, when we walk and make decisions selfishly, If we do not learn to follow the instructions we find in Proverbs three, five, and six, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine under understanding.

And all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. If we do not learn to follow those instructions, the Bible says there's a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And indeed, in the end, that's gonna happen to Absalom in our story. Later on, that will happen to Joab. He does not die a natural death.

He does not die in battle. He dies at the hand of Solomon, basically. Solomon's command. So Joab was a man of sight more than a man of faith. He saw an opportunity to take revenge on Abner and he took it.

That was earlier in our story. Abner was the commander who supported Ishbosheth, Saul's son in the North during the time of the divided kingdom before David ruled all of Israel. He saw the beauty and stature of Absalom as one who looks on the outward appearance and not the heart. Again, eyes walk by sight and not by faith. Joab deduced as many others in Israel that despite his conniving and vengeful ways, Absalom was to be David's successor.

David eventually would need a successor. Absalom was the oldest eldest son. Therefore, Absalom should be the what? The successor. And like Saul before David, Absalom looked like a king.

Beautiful hair, face, stature, tall, mighty, eloquent, confident, every bit a king. Be careful. Again, as God pointed out to Samuel, do not look on their outward appearance when David was being chosen. For man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the the heart. And though we can't see the heart in quite the way God can, we can learn something from that to look past the outward appearance a little more than we do sometimes.

Later, as I mentioned, Joab would side against David, Support Adonijah's bid for the throne over Solomon, and, God would take care of Joab. So it was Joab hired a woman to pay to play the part of a grieved mother trying to protect her last living son despite the death of her other son by his hands. So without reading through all the verses here in chapter 14, here's the gist of the story. Joab told the mother, you go before David and you say, oh, I'm so grieved. My my my one son killed my other son, but my son that is left is estranged and it grieves me.

And so what can I do? What can you do to help me? Because, other people want me to to have my my son killed, but he's the only one I've got left. Does that sound familiar? You know.

Yep. It does. It's the similar story to what happened to David and Absalom and Amnon. Okay? And it was supposedly organic.

In other words, she just happened to come before the king with this story. But it wasn't. It was all contrived by Joab to try to get David to bring Absalom back out of exile. Joab essentially tried to take the place of who? He tried to take the place of God.

Wise? No. No. Not at all. Back in chapter 12, David had received a similar story at the hand of a prophet named Nathan concerning his situation with Bathsheba.

You remember the man who had the sheep and the one stole the sheep and yeah. Maybe Joab heard that story and he thought, hey, that worked pretty good. I'll I'll try it myself. But that's God prerogatives, not not Joab's. And so Joab contrived the story.

This woman came to David trying to appeal to his emotions. Be careful. We need to be careful particularly as preachers to let God be God. We are just the what? We are the we're the messengers.

And it's never right to do wrong to what? To do right. You just need to speak the truth and love and let God be odd. When we try to go beyond that, we make a bigger what? We make a bigger mess.

Oh, it may sound good at the time to tell a story that's not true as though it were. This Joab did, and it was not his place to do. And again, it's only going to cause more trouble than anything else. Thinking he was doing something good for the kingdom, he schemed to manipulate David into following the longings of his heart to bring his son back despite his better judgment. It tells us in first Corinthians fifteen thirty three, be not deceived.

Evil communications corrupt good manners. This David had a little bit of a blind spot in relation to a man named Joab. For Joab was not a godly man and it caused David trouble. We, like David, can sometimes be easily manipulated by those around us. It is a failing of the human nature to be gullible.

And sometimes the most gullible people are Christians who want to think the best of people. And we should go ahead and continue to do that, but at the same time, we need to be careful who we listen to because there are a lot of charlatans out there. There are a lot of false teachers out there. There are a lot of false prophets out there. There are a lot of wicked people that will tell lies and manipulate to try to get what they want even by appealing to the Lord and the scripture.

We must be on guard. We must be careful in whom we place our trust. We must trust God first and seek his counsel. One thing I don't find in this passage is where David went to the Lord and prayed. Did he do that often?

Yeah. We read that a lot of places. He went to God. He went to the priest. He he asked for counsel of the Lord.

Didn't do it here. Same thing happened to Joshua back in the book of Joshua. The the the Gibeonites came from a few hills over. They came with a story to manipulate Joshua and the Israelites into making a treaty with them who were Canaanites, who they were commanded by God to wipe out. And so Joab Joash, rather than going to God, he simply signed the treaty and then found out that he had been deceived.

I'm guessing that if he would have asked God to begin with, God would have told him, these people are deceiving you. But he didn't. Neither did David. He listened to the voice of someone that he should not have listened to. And the Bible says the devil can appear as an angel of what?

An angel of light. So be careful who you listen to. The devil even takes scripture and twists it, as do many of his servants, to try to convince you of something that is not true and leads you astray. And often, they are like Absalom. They are eloquent.

They are charismatic in their personality. They are smart. They are winsome. Be careful. Even Satan quoted scripture to Christ to try to get him to sin.

Yes, he took it out of context. Yes, he misapplied it. But even Satan was willing, to quote scripture, to try to get Jesus to go against the will of his father in heaven. Of course, Jesus knew what Satan was doing. Sometimes we are a little bit easier to manipulate.

But the better we know this and the closer we're walking to Christ, the harder we will be to manipulate. So if you look down to chapter 14 and verse 19 chapter 14 verse 19, the king said to the woman after he heard her whole story and she went through all this. Then the king and the king said, is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? In other words, David said, Okay. After she got so far into the story, figured out, Cause David knew Joab wanted Absalom back.

And so, lo and behold, David did figure it out. However, let's keep reading. So verse 19. Then 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. Well, she didn't deny it. She did try to butter David, David up so that he would, you know, not punish her for what she did and put it all on Joab. Verse 21.

And the king said unto Joab, behold, now I have done this thing. Go therefore and bring the young man Absalom again. And Joab fell to the ground on his face and bowed himself and thanked the king. And Joab said, today thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, my Lord, o king, and that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servants. So Joab arose and went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

And the king said, let him turn to his own house and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house and saw not the king's face. So, yes, David did figure out what was going on, but sadly, David still gave in to who? He still gave in to Joab and he brought Absalom back. Now, compromised.

He said, let him come back to Jerusalem, but he's not to be at the palace and I'm not to see his face. But let him let him come back. And so he did. So Absalom's treachery against his brother and essentially against his father went unpunished just as his brother Amnon's sin went unpunished by the proper authority, which was the king and his father, David. Leading eventually in our story to Absalom committing similar sins to that of his brother that he hated and killed for it.

You remember, the reason all this started was because Amnon took advantage of Tamar. And Absalom got so incensed with David because he didn't do anything about it. If you'll turn over to chapter 16 and verse 20, be careful. If you let sin have its way with you, you are apt to become the thing you hate. And that's exactly what happens to Absalom Absalom.

In verse 20 of chapter 16, then said Absalom to Ahithophel, give me counsel among you what we shall do. And Ahithophel said unto Absalom, go in unto thy father's concubines, which he hath left to keep the house, and all Israel shall hear that thou art abhorred of thy father. Then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong. So they spread Absalom a tent upon the top of the house, and Absalom went in unto his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel. What Abnon did with one, Absalom did with there were 10 concubines.

Now, are servant wives. Yes. Messed up system. Servant wives that David left behind. And what Absalom hated, he became tenfold the guilty party of in the end.

The Bible says this. Hebrews twelve fifteen. Look diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of what? Bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby what? Many be defiled.

The writer of Hebrews tells us, be careful. Be careful. Do not let bitterness take root in your heart Because when it springs up, it will make you miserable. It will rob you of your joy. It will make you possibly to become the thing you hate, and it will result in the defilement of more than just you.

One of the most used tools of Satan in the hearts of God's people is this thing called bitterness. It is in opposition and contrary to the grace of God for his children to be bitter. It accomplishes nothing good and it can result in the destruction of many wonderful things. Watch out for bitterness. God says to be tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

We are not to be children of bitterness, we are to be children of mercy. For as God has shown us such mercy and grace, it is our place to pass that along to others and not allow bitterness to take root in our heart. Sadly, for those who know not the Lord, this is a very common destructive thing that Satan uses to keep them away from God and destroy the joy that God desires to have, the image that God desires to restore in their heart. We see Absalom did not take that counsel and bitterness sprang up in his heart, resulted not only in the death of his brother, but did it satisfy? And the answer to that is no.

The bitterness just got worse toward his brother, toward his father, and it continues on. It continues on in verse 25 of chapter 14 back to fourteen twenty five. No, I'm not quite done yet. Okay? I know I sounded like a good place to stop, but we're about halfway through.

But it's only a quarter tail. Okay? I can't stop yet. You won't get your money's worth, so to speak. Alright.

Chapter 14 verse 25. Chapter 14 verse 25, we see the fame of Absalom. People again are drawn by nature to that which is beautiful, fair, confident, eloquent, and seemingly sympathetic. And thus, we have the story of Absalom. We see his manipulative use of beauty to draw people to himself.

Already mentioned that early in regards to to Joab, but if you read in verse 25, but in all Israel, there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty. From the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him. When he pulled or cut his hair, for it was at every year's end that he pulled or cut his hair because the hair was heavy on him. Therefore, he pulled it. He weighed the hair of his head at 200 shekels after the king's wait.

And under Absalom, there were born three sons and one daughter whose name was Tamar. She was a woman of fair countenance. And so Absalom was every bit looked the part of a king. And he had this beautiful hair. He cut it off in a big probably a big show and waited at the end of of every year.

And thus, people made decisions based upon what they, what, saw with their eyes. We see his manipulative use of aggression to get what he wanted. Look, if you would, in verse 29. Verse 29. So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem and saw not the king's face.

We're that's verse 28. Now verse 29. Therefore, Absalom sent for Joab to have sent him to the king, but he would not come to him. And when he sent again the second time, he would not come. Therefore, he said unto his servants, see, Joab's field is near mine.

He hath barley there. Go and set it on fire. And Absalom's servant set the field on fire. Then Joab arose and came to Absalom unto his house and said unto him, wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire? And Absalom answered Joab, behold, I sent unto thee saying, come hither that I may send thee to the king to say, wherefore am I come unto come from Geshur?

It had been good for me to have been there still. Now, therefore, let me see the king's face, and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me. So Joab came to the king and told him, when he had called of Absalom, he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom. So what happened here? Well, Absalom couldn't get Joab's attention, so what did he do?

He set his field on fire. Did he get Joab's attention then? Yes. Why? Because these two people kind of thought thought alike.

And so, not only did he get Joab's attention, but Joab did what he asked him to do. This is the very kind of worldly leadership which Jesus warned his disciples they were not to emulate. No. Jesus said to his disciples, whosoever would be great among you, let him be what? Servant of all.

For even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. The Gentiles, as Jesus speaks of the unsaved world in that passage, says that the leaders of the Gentiles, they they exert authority over they revel in their ability to manipulate and to have power over other people, to oppress them. But Jesus said, it shall not be that way among you. This is not the way Christian leadership is to lead. It is sadly the way often worldly leadership leads by force and manipulation.

That was Absalom. And did it work? Yeah. Do the ends justify the means? Not always.

And in this case, clearly, it did not. We see his manipulative use of pity and false compassion. Chapter 15 verse one. It came to pass after this that Absalom prepared him chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him. And Absalom rose up early and stood beside the way of the gate.

It was so that when any man that had a controversy came to the king for judgment, then Absalom called unto him and said, of what city art thou? And he said, thy servant is of one of the tribes of Israel. And Absalom said unto him, see, thy matters are good and right, but there is no one deputed of the king to hear thee. In other words, there's nobody appointed by the king to hear your complaint. So guess who will hear it?

Absalom. Absalom said, moreover, all that I were made judge in the land that every man which hath any suit or or cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice. And it was so that when any man came nigh to him to do his obeisance, to bow before him, he put forth his hand and took him and kissed him. And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the man of Israel.

Behind his father's back, Absalom Absalom stole the hearts of the people by showing them pity as he acted in their favor pretending to care. But is that what Absalom cared about? The answer was no. He cared about taking the throne. He cared about getting vengeance on who?

On his father David for not dealing with the situation with Amnon. That was what Absalom was about. And sometimes, that's what others are about. That's not what we should be about. Our love should be should be genuine.

And indeed, if we are walking in the spirit, it will. It will. It shouldn't be getting what we want of out of others by feigning love for them, but just showing love for them because we love them, and that is different. The world often works the other way, but children of God, we are not supposed to work that way. Beloved, let us love one another for love is of who?

For love is of God. That wasn't the case with Absalom. Absalom loved Absalom. He manipulated people by the use of his beauty, by his aggression, by his false compassion. And as man is won't to be, they were gullible, and majority of them swallowed it.

Thus is often the case of the world today in particular, easily manipulated by false compassion, by fear, even by beauty. Reminded me of first Corinthians chapter one and verse 26 where Paul where Paul wrote this. First Corinthians one twenty six, for you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. Just let that sink in for a second. God rarely calls us calls the geniuses to lead his people.

God rarely calls the mighty, the powerful. God rarely calls the noble in the eyes of men, the famous, the popular. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence.

Watch out for the fairheaded, you know, politicians. They're usually not serving who? God, but themselves. And don't think for a minute if you're not one of those that God can't use you because God will typically use the opposite. Because it's not about you, it's about who?

It's about him and what he desires to do and what he can do through you. So that brings us well, I'm going to stop there for this evening. Let's do that. Next week, the rebellion starts. Next week, the rebellion starts.

But what can we learn from Absalom so far? Number one, bitterness. Watch out for that root of bitterness. It is not your what? It is not your friend.

It is your enemy. And we'll see that play out. We'll say out play now next week. Be careful who you listen to. Don't be deceived.

If you really need counsel, who can you ask? Ask of God. He will help you to make the right decision. And thank the Lord, he doesn't use the mighty and the fair and the most eloquent among us. He uses us to bring him glory.

And thank the Lord for that. We see that even in particularly the life of the shepherd boy that God made king. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for the warnings that we see here in this passage. For the worldly actions of one Absalom who is not seeking to do your will but his will.

Not for your ends but his ends. Lord, let that not be us. Give us wisdom. Give us humility to do that which is right in your eyes. Give us love, not for self but for others.

And, Lord, help us to be a forgiving, merciful people who do not allow bitterness to take over our heart and thereby many be defiled. Forgive us of our shortcomings, our sins, and our failures, we pray, and help us to learn to be more like the great example that has been set forth before us, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who in humility gave his life because he genuinely loves us. In Jesus' name, do pray. Amen.