The Christian Arsenal

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Gordon Perry
6 years ago
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1 2 SAMUEL 15:1-17:29 As we ve studied the life of David we ve seen so many dramatic things happen to him. It seems that nothing stayed very calm around David. His life seemed to be one crisis after another from the slaying of Goliath to his having to flee from Saul to his sin with Bathsheba to his having Bathsheba s husband killed to the death of his baby to the rape of Tamar by Amnon to the murder of Amnon by Absalom Not to mention his many battles with the Philistines and other enemies of Israel. And today, we see another dramatic crisis in the life of David. This is a very sad time in the life of David. We see evil continuing to be brought on his household. We see God as He fulfills the punishment He promised David. David s sin with Bathsheba had a profound effect upon the lives of David s children. David robbed his children of the godly example their father should have been. And today we ll see the rebellion of Absalom. We saw last week that Absalom and David finally met again after Absalom had fled Jerusalem after he had killed Amnon for raping Tamar. It had been five long years since David and Absalom had seen each other other. And the last part of the last verse of chapter 14 tells us that the king kissed Absalom. We said last week that if the story of David and Absalom ended there it would be so nice but we re going to see today that it did not end there. 2 Samuel 15:1-6 Absalom stole away the hearts of the men of Israel. We need to remember that David was no longer a young man. He was probably around sixty years old. And Absalom was a young, very handsome, arrogant man. Absalom wanted to be king. And he wanted to be king on his own terms and in his own timing. Absalom was not willing to wait as David had been. There was such a difference between the character of David and the character of Absalom. David would have never dreamed of mounting a rebellion against Saul, yet Absalom conspired to steal the hearts of the people of Israel from his own father. And the next verses tell us he sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel and the bottom line of all this was that he was planning to proclaim himself king. As a result of all this David was forced to flee! God s anointed king of Israel was forced to flee for his life Absalom s father was forced to flee for his very life! Verses Page 1 of 9

2 I want us to think today not so much about Absalom, but about the men who went with David. I want us to think about David s friends. I want us to think about three men who had something to do with bringing back the king three men of quite different backgrounds and abilities. Not one of these men could do what the other man could do though each of them did what he could do for David to hasten his coming again to the throne of Israel. And I also want us to think about what they did to make it possible for David to come back and be the king again. Think about it David was a rejected king at this time. Only a few still believed in him only a few were loyal to him and willing to serve him. And you and I serve a King who has been rejected. Only a few believe and only a few are loyal and only a few are willing to serve Him. So, I want us to see illustrated in the devotion of David s followers how we should be devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ. We will learn some lessons from those who were enemies of David, as well. Peter tells us in the book of 2 Peter that we are to conduct ourselves in holiness and godliness looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God. Now, I don t know all that that means but it seems to me to means that we can serve God in such a way as to hasten the Lord s return. And I believe we see in today s lesson a beautiful picture of how we can do that. So, with all that in mind, I want us to look first at a man named Ittai and how he was willing to hasten the day when the king would come back to his throne. Verses Ittai was a Gittite this means he was a Philistine a Gentile from Gath. He was also a warrior. He was a commander in David s army (2 Samuel 18:2). David had quite a following from the city of Gath. When David had fled from Saul to Gath, 600 men had gathered around him. They saw leadership qualities in David and they dropped everything and followed after him. And now in this crisis hour of the kingdom when David is rejected of men, these 600 men from Gath follow him out of Jerusalem. At this point they made up the core his army his bodyguard. And Ittai must have been the leader of these men. But, David discouraged Ittai verses David gave Ittai a way out. He tells him he should go back and serve Absalom because he was a foreigner and an exile. But, what did Ittai say? He looked into the face of David and said, Verse 21 I m devoted to you David Page 2 of 9

3 There are three ways we can serve the Lord Jesus. We can serve Him out of a sense of discipline. We can serve Him out of a sense of duty. Or we can serve Him out of a sense of devotion. You see, discipline says, I have to! I mean, they ve got it set up where folks will know if I m not in Sunday School. My chair will be empty. There won t be a check by my name. I really have to be there! So on Sunday mornings, out of a deep sense of discipline, we just get up and get ready, don t we? Duty says, I ought to. I guess I ought to come to Sunday School I mean they re expecting me to be there. They ll be wondering where I am I guess I really ought to be there. I mean, my mother taught me this is just what you do on Sunday mornings so we get up and out of a deep sense of duty, we come because we ought to. Discipline says I have to. Duty says, I ought to. But you know why we really should come to Sunday school? Out of devotion a deep sense of devotion! Devotion says I want to. Devotion comes right out of the heart and we look up into the face of the Lord Jesus, the One who died for our sins, and we say, Oh, I want to serve You, Jesus! I want to gather with Your children and study Your Word and hear it preached and lift my voice in praise and worship! And you know, discipline and duty are not bad things. I mean, the psychologists tell us that feelings follow actions, don t they? So, maybe if you serve Jesus out of discipline and duty, one day you ll serve Him out of devotion! I ll never forget hearing my friend say that when she and her husband came to our church, that she would say on Sunday mornings I get to go to church today! See, she and her husband were in a dead church and they had been going to church out of discipline and duty but when they came here they began to come to church out of devotion again. I said all that to simply say that Ittai served David out of devotion. He said, David, I d rather die than live without you! This rough and rugged warrior this wielder of the sword this man who was willing to be on the front line of the battle served David out of pure devotion! And I believe we can liken Ittai to those who serve on the front lines of God s battles today the preachers, the missionaries, the Godly seminary professors and the teachers who are willing to study so that others might understand in a deeper way the things of God. And they serve out of pure devotion! These folks are equipped with and use a sword, as well they use the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The next man we see is not a rough and rugged swordsman on the front line of the battle He is a priest. Page 3 of 9

4 Verses Ittai was a Gentile convert. He had come to know the truth of God as it was represented in David. But, Zadok was a priest a Hebrew of the Hebrews, circumcised the eighth day born into the tribe of Levi born to be a priest and trained all his life to be a priest. Did you ever stop and think that God decides what family you ll be born into? You didn t have any say in that, did you? God didn t ask me if I d like to be black or white, or whether I d like my family to be rich or poor. He didn t ask me if I d rather be born in Europe or America or Asia. He didn t ask me if I d like to speak English with a Northern accent, or with a Southern accent the way it should be spoken. In the sovereignty of Almighty God, He placed me into the family into which I was born. And Zadok was born to be a priest. When David fled Jerusalem, all Zadok could think of was that he must get to David and he must bring David the ark of the covenant. Now, this was a very brave thing to do. I mean Zadok and all the Levites went into the tent that David had recently pitched on Mt. Zion that was temporarily housing the sacred ark of the covenant and they picked up the ark and marched out with it right under the nose of Absalom! But, what did David say to Zadok? Thank you very much, Zadok, that s a very brave thing you did. I appreciate it so much. But, will you please take it back? I don t need the ark nearly as much as that crowd back in Jerusalem does. Now, I m sure that discouraged Zadok. David knew Zadok meant well. But, David also knew the ark of the covenant, sacred as it was, was not a lucky charm and it would not insure his return to Jerusalem only God would! David knew Zadok was a trained priest. Zadok knew God in a deep way and he was supposed to be in the tent of meeting and minister to the people. And I m sure David also was counting on Zadok and all the other Levites going back to that tent and getting down on their knees and crying out to God for David s swift return to Jerusalem. See, Ittai was hastening David s return to Jerusalem by being a warrior a wielder of the sword And David wanted Zadok to hasten his return by being exactly what he was and by doing exactly what he had been born to do. Page 4 of 9

5 What I m trying to say is this We can t all be skilled on the front lines of the battle. We can t all be warriors like Ittai. Some of us can be prayer warriors, however, like Zadok. God tells each one of us to pray without ceasing, doesn t He? But, He has called certain folks to be prayer warriors. Don t you know some people you ll call on before you call on anyone else to pray for you? There are just some folks who know how to pray and are faithful to pray! They don t say, Oh, I ll pray for you and then forget about praying. They actually spend time on their face before God for your needs! So, if you can t hasten the Lord s return by being on the front lines of the battle, maybe you can hasten His return by being a behind the front lines prayer warrior. Both are important!!! The next friend of David I want us to see is a man named Hushai Verses Hushai loved David as much as Ittai and as much as Zadok. He came to David and he was eager to help him. But, Hushai wasn t a warrior like Ittai and he wasn t a worshiper like Zadok. Hushai was a worker. He has a very special title in the Bible. He is called David s friend. Isn t that wonderful? It s very, very simple, you know, to become Jesus friend. Anybody can become Jesus friend. Jesus said, You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you. That s all He asks of you. Hushai, David s friend, wanted to help David. But David said, Oh Hushai, if you come with me, you ll only be in the way. You re not trained for battle the way Ittai is and you re not trained to serve in the sanctuary the way Zadok can But, I ve got a special job for you, Hushai. You can be my messenger. I want you to go back to the city and get close to Absalom and I want you to defeat the counsel of Ahithophel. You see, Ahithophel is very, very clever. And he is whispering in Absalom s ear. Hushai, I want you to go and whisper in his other ear. That s what I want you to do. I want you to defeat in the soul of Absalom the secret plans of the enemy! Page 5 of 9

6 So, Hushai could do something to hasten David s return, couldn t he? He could be a messenger for the king. Maybe God hasn t called you as Dr. John Phillips puts it to be a master of the sword like Ittai or to be a minister of the sanctuary like Zadok Maybe God has called you to be a messenger to a soul like Hushai. The Lord puts folks in our path every day to whom we can give God s message. So many folks have gotten into bad theology they ve believed garbage they ve seen on TV and they need the truth of God s Word. Our daughter-in-law, had questions about a month ago She had come across a teaching on soul sleep. Having just lost her mom, she was very curious about what happens to a person at death. This teaching sounded like truth it had Scripture and everything Scripture taken out of context. And I talked with her and pointed her to the truth of God s Word in context. Folks, we don t have to have a seminary degree to know the Word of God. All we have to do is be willing to dig and spend time in it, and pray over it and seek God s face and He will reveal to us what we need to know in order to be a messenger of His Word to others. I m sure Hushai felt inadequate to refute the counsel of Ahithophel. He may have even told David this but you know what I believe? I believe David wasn t really trusting in Hushai to thwart Ahithophel s counsel, he was trusting in God to thwart it and that s exactly what happened!! Verses Absalom followed this advice. Let me just say a word about Ahithophel and maybe we can understand him better. This man had been a counselor to David. He had been with David in difficult times. Yet, here we see him become a very close advisor to Absalom. WHY? Who was Ahithophel? He was Bathsheba s grandfather; we see this back in chapter 11. And he never got over what David had done to Bathsheba how she had been seduced and made pregnant by him. And God didn t thwart this advice because He used Ahithophel to fulfill a promise He had made to David back in chapter 12. Chapter 17 tells us that Ahithophel gave David more counsel. Verses 1-3 This was great military strategy. I mean, we don t know exactly how many men David had at this point. But Absalom had more than 12,000 and Ahithophel s counsel was for them to surprise David while he was weary and exhausted. Page 6 of 9

7 And this plan pleased Absalom. But then, Absalom sought the counsel of Hushai. This was a Absalom s big mistake! Hushai told Absalom Don t go after David with 12,000 of your men. He told him that it wouldn t be easy to find David that David would be hidden away somewhere away from his soldiers. He told him the smart thing to do would be to wait until all Israel from Dan to Beersheba had the time to mount a vast army and come against David s little army with you leading them, Absalom. See, he was playing to Absalom s pride and Absalom had plenty of pride! And whose counsel did Absalom follow? He followed Hushai s not because Hushai s counsel was wise military counsel, but because Verse 14b See, Hushai had been God s messenger and Ahithophel had been Satan s messenger. Ahithophel had given excellent counsel, but God had thwarted that counsel in order to defeat Absalom, and ultimately bring David back to Jerusalem. Instead of being surprised by Absalom s attack, as Athithophel had advised, Hushai s counsel allowed David more time to get more men to follow him. And chapter 17 tells us Ahithophel was so despondent when his counsel was not followed that he went home and put his house in order and killed himself. Ahithophel is not the only enemy we see in this lesson. Chapter 16 tells us of Ziba and of Shimei Both these men were from the house of Saul, and both these men thought the house of Saul would be brought back into power. Ziba told David that Mephibosheth had remained in Jerusalem hoping the kingdom would be restored to the house of Saul. But, this was not true. Ziba is a man who was an opportunist. He sought to use the fact that David was away from Jerusalem for his own agenda his own advantage! What Ziba did looked good on the surface, but he was lying and we ll see that next week. Ziba is a picture of the preachers we see on TV and elsewhere today who misrepresent the truth of God s Word for their own gain WHAT S IN IT FOR ME??? And they re not hastening the Lord s return, are they? Shimei, on the other hand, hated David. He didn t even pretend to be a supporter of David and I believe Shimei pictures folks today who hate Jesus and all He represents. Next week, we ll see Shimei change his tune, and one day, all those who hate Jesus will change theirs, as well, but it will be too late. You know, we can t help but wonder where Nathan was in all this. Perhaps he stayed in Jerusalem, hoping Absalom would seek his counsel. Perhaps he had fled with David. We don t know the next time we see Nathan is when David is on his deathbed over in 1 Kings. Page 7 of 9

8 Our time is about gone, but let s see three applications of this lesson and we ll be through. Let s see something we can learn particularly from the lives of Ittai, Zadok and Hushai that we can take with us this week. There were at least three characteristics in the lives of each of these men that served to hasten the return of David to Jerusalem and these same characteristics should be in our lives as well 1) Surrender These men had gladly surrendered to the will of their king. If David said, stay, they stayed. If David had a mission for them, they performed it. And we should be just as surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ as these men were to David. Christ s will should be our will. We should accept His command-ments as the principle of our lives, and we should follow His example as the pattern of our lives. And we should do it not out of discipline or out of duty but out of devotion! And in this way, we just may hasten the day the Lord returns! 2) Sacrifice The odds didn t look too good for David at this point, did it? I mean, what were the chances of an old king who had disappointed the people being victorious over a handsome, intelligent, charming young king who had won the hearts of the people? These men could have defected to Absalom and maybe even been appointed to high positions in his new administration. They could have been opportunists like Ziba. But these men and countless others were willing to sacrifice to follow David. Sometimes many times it looks like the world is going to win, doesn t it? And the world thinks Christians are stupid to be so committed to Jesus that they sacrifice the things this world has to offer. Jim Elliott said it well, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. Jesus said, he who loses his life for My sake shall find it. The few things you and I sacrifice to follow Christ are things we cannot keep anyway. And the gain we get can never be lost! Our sacrifice, and may I say it is our profound privilege to sacrifice, just may hasten the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ! One more thing and we re done Page 8 of 9

9 3) Satisfaction These men were satisfied to do what the king had commissioned them to do. Ittai couldn t do Zadok s job and Zadok couldn t do Hushai s job. But each one could do what he could do best in order to hasten the return of David to Jerusalem. The only true peace and satisfaction a man or woman can ever get in this life comes from the presence and the power and the reality of Jesus Christ in his or her life! And how satisfying it is to find out what our gifts are what our special calling is and then be satisfied in doing it to the glory of God! We may be rejected by this world for doing it. We may suffer persecution and humiliation for doing it but it will be worth it all when we see Jesus! Alan Redpath said it like this: When our rejected King returns one day, those who shared in His sufferings, those who have identified with Him in His rejection, those who have followed Him right through whatever the path may have been, they are the ones who will reign with Him forever. Ittai said it like this: As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be even there also will thy servant be. My prayer is that the desire of Ittai is our desire as well! Page 9 of 9

4 When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and paid homage and said, "Save me, O king."

4 When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and paid homage and said, Save me, O king. 2 Samuel 14:1-33 ESV - Absalom in Exile Now Joab the son of Zeruiah knew that the king's heart went out to Absalom. 2 And Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman and said to her, "Pretend