PAUL TRIPP

MINISTRIES, INC.

David and Absalom January 18, 2009

2 Samuel 15

Well, it was a moment of clarity, a moment that you and I have heard about that caused
us to pay attention. It was a clear moment when the consequences of the decisions that
needed to be made were clear.

The man's name was “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot of US Airways flight 1549, both
engines now disabled, one-hundred and fifty-five lives in his hands, not much time to
make a decision. The consequences were heavy on this man, and he made the right
choice, landing that plane in the strangest, but safest of places, the Hudson River.

The consequences of your choices are not always that clear. You and I have the ability to
close our eyes to consequences, to deny their existence, to tell ourselves in moments
when we are doing wrong that it will be okay, it will turn out all right, we needn't worry.
And we have a wonderful opportunity this evening in what is perhaps one of the saddest
moments in the Old Testament, to think about the consequences of sin.

Turn with me, if you would to that passage, either in your Bibles or in your ‘Order of
Worship’, 2 Samuel 15; a lengthy passage, so I want to summarize the story that is
chronicled in this passage and then step back from it to look at what God would teach us
through this account in David's life.

Well, let me give you is a little bit of the background. The chapters preceding chapter
15 tell us the story of this young man, Absalom. I think I read that story as a father, and
I thought this is the kind of young man that every parent dreads. As you look at your
young child, it's the kind of thought that brings you that twinge of fear, as you wonder,
“Will one of my children be one of those people?”

This was a self-centered, rebellious, vengeful, seemingly conscienceless (I think I just

made up that word) young man, already having murdered his own brother--actually, he
put a contract out on his own brother, and made sure that he was murdered. He had
been in exile for a while, comes back to Jerusalem, ostensibly to reconcile with his
father.

There's a moment of reconciliation, and you would think that if you didn't know the rest
of the story, that perhaps this would be the beginning of good things in Absalom's life.
You could imagine a parent thinking that, perhaps this would be a turning. But that
moment of reconciliation was but a façade for Absalom, and you see that right away as
you look at the beginning of this passage, verses 1-6, because this man, this young man
has his heart set on something, and he will not relent till he gets it. He is craving his
father's throne.

And so, Absalom begins what is a bit of a patient process, to begin to acquire power, and
to begin his conspiracy for the throne. Notice what it says in verse 1, “After this
Absalom got himself a chariot and horses and fifty men to run before him.” He wanted
to make sure that everywhere he went, he made a scene, and he had the look of power,
and the look of royalty. All of that was done with malice of purpose.

And then what it says he did, it says, “And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside
the way of the gate.” Now here’s what he would do--as people would come into
Jerusalem to get an audience with the king, because one of the chief functions of the
king was to be the Chief Justice of Israel. And he would sit on his throne, and he would
hear people’s cases; he would hear disputes, legal issues, and with his legal aids, would
give judgment.

Absalom would greet people as they were coming to receive justice. And he would ask
them what tribe they were from; he would greet them with a kiss. And then if you notice
the words here, “Absalom would say,” verse 3, “‘See, your claims are good and right, but
there is no man designated by the king to hear you.’” (ESV) “You’ll never get justice,
don't even bother. You have a wonderful case. It is such a shame that you won't get
justice from this king.” And then he would say, “If I were king, everyone would get
justice.”

Verse 6 tells us exactly what Absalom was after, what he was doing, “Thus Absalom did
to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So, Absalom stole the hearts of the
men of Israel.” Absalom was a loyalty thief. Absalom was a moral larcener. No, he
wasn't stealing things so much as stealing the allegiance of people's hearts. He was
after their loyalty because he was after his father's throne. How heartbreaking this is!

You may wonder, “Where is David at this moment, didn't he know it?” The passage says
that this went on for four years. And the Bible doesn’t tell us what was going on in
David's mind. Perhaps he had what is often the response of a parent…You want to think
best of your kids. You want to believe that the reconciliation was real reconciliation. But
right in David's face, this young man is stealing the loyalty of the people of Israel.

But he’s not done. The second stage in this conspiracy is laid out for us there in verses
7 through 12. Absalom is going to, now, use worship as a cover for his conspiracy. And
he tells his dad, “When I was away from Jerusalem, I vowed to the Lord that if I ever was
able to come back to Jerusalem and to reconcile with you, I would go to Hebron and
make special sacrifices to the Lord.”

Sounds like a wonderful thing, sounds like a man whose heart has turned, but it was a
ruse; it was a cover; because what Absalom was actually going to do was to take his
conspiracy to the next stage, sending messengers all throughout Israel, saying that when
the trumpet would sound that these people who have been placed in every tribe in Israel
should stand and scream, “Absalom is king at Hebron!” … Another stage in his taking of
David's position.

If you look down at verse 12 and you’ll see another piece there which we will pick up
later. It says “And while Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the
Gilonite, David's counselor,” actually a relative, actually Bathsheba's father, a very close
counselor to David who will become a conspirator against the king.

You get a picture of how successful Absalom had become in verse 13; it says, “And a
messenger came to David, saying, ‘The hearts of the men of Israel have all gone after
Absalom.’” David is now, for his generation, an old man, probably over 60 years old.
He’s a weakened man in a weakened kingdom. He reasons he will not be able to sustain
a battle with his own son, and so he plans his escape from Jerusalem.

Now, I don’t know what you're thinking at this moment, but you ought to be thinking,
how could this be? This is the great hero of Israel. This is a warrior. This is a
celebrated victor, now weakened, broken, with a small band of followers, making his
escape into exile.

He leaves ten concubines to sort of take care of the house, and he's off into the
wilderness. Sad scene, you see it captured there in verse 23; it says, “And all the land
wept aloud as the people passed by, and the king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the
people passed on toward the wilderness.” The people with David weep as now this great
king is escaping into exile as his throne is being stolen by his son.

Look at verse 30, one of the sad scenes of this account, “But David went up the ascent
of the Mount of the Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered. And
all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they
went. And it was told David, ‘Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.’ And
David said, ‘O LORD, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.’”

David now clothed as a mourner, bare feet, head covered, head down, weeps his way up
the Mount of Olives. This is a moment to weep. As a father, you would weep because
it's unthinkable that your son would do what he's doing. Listen, get the full import of
this, this is a monarchy. In order to take this throne, the king must die--what a thing to
consider!

David is weeping for his people whom he loves, whom he can no longer lead. But I
believe that the Scripture makes it clear that there's another reason for David's weeping.
And I believe that this reason is the purpose of this particular passage being retained for
us in the Word of God. David is weeping because he understands what's going on in this
moment.
This is one of the clearest accounts of the consequences of sin, the far reaching
consequences of sin that you’ll have in all of Scripture. You may not remember, but
when Nathan confronted David with the sin of adultery and murder, one of the things
that Nathan predicted is that evil would rise up from the house of David against him.

This moment is a direct result of David's sin. And he’s not just mourning his son; he’s
mourning the consequences of sin. And you get a picture here of how far-reaching the
consequences of sin are; these consequences are not just for David, but they’re David's
family, and they’re David's nation, and literally at this moment, apart from the
intervening grace and power of God, redemption hangs in the balances.

Listen, along with David is David's ten-year-old son. You know what his name is?
Solomon. David dies…Solomon dies…and what happens to this kingdom that will never
end? If there was a movie at this point, you would hear the, “Dum, Dum, Dum, Dum,
Dum, Dum, Dum, Dum…”...as the power of those consequences begin to roll over you,
and you think, “How could this be, what is going to happen next?”

And we need the warning! Brothers and sisters, hear this: you live in a moral universe
ruled by a holy God who has revealed His will in utter clarity to us. Everything is not an
option. Galatians 6:7 says, “God is not mocked, whatever a man sows, he will reap.”
Here’s the economy of God…every day, I'm harvesting what I previously planted, and
every day, I'm planting what I will someday harvest.

We must not, we cannot minimize sin, but it's so easy to do that, it’s so tempting to do
that. Husbands, you think you can be irritable and distant with your wife, and it won't
damage your relationship; it will. Parents, you think that maybe you can yell at your
children and it won't damage their souls; it will.

You think you can handle that secret sin, and you can control it, and no one will know,
and you're on top of it, when at that very moment, you are being addicted and enslaved.
We think we can follow our desires for material pleasures and not face the control of
those things over us and the debt of that.

This sounds humorous, but I don't mean to be humorous. Why are we overweight, in
debt, and addicted? Because we are so capable of minimizing sin. And it's not just for
you, those consequences, often what you think is just your choices spread to your loved
ones, spread down to generations, have wider and huger consequences than you could
have ever imagined they would have. Sin has consequences.

Every day of your life, brothers and sisters, you are saying, “Yes!” to things; every day of
your life, you are saying, “No!” to things. All of your yes’s have a harvest; all of your no’s
have a harvest. That afternoon on that roof, David needed to say, “No, I will not.” But
he didn't, and the full weight of giving way to that sin is now on his shoulders as he slogs
his way up to the Mount of Olives, a broken man facing the consequences of his sin,
weeping with every step. It's right to weep; it’s a horrible thing.
Maybe you’re thinking, “But Paul, I thought that God had forgiven David.” He has! You
see, God is ready to forgive. His promise is that He will not turn anyone away who comes
to Him in confession, but forgiveness does not always remove the consequences for sin.
In forgiveness, your relationship will be restored to your Father, and you will know that
fellowship with Him that your heart craves as you return to Him, but you may still face
the consequences of the choices that you made.

Maybe you're thinking that “Well perhaps, Paul, those consequences are a contradiction
of His love.” I would propose to you that those consequences are an expression of His
love. We are so able to see sin as attractive. We are so able to see sin as not dangerous.
We are so able to tell ourselves that we’re in control, and that nothing bad will happen.

And God would bring us to the end of that delusion by letting us taste the bitter harvest
of the consequences of our sin. He does not do that because He hates us. He does that
because He loves us. And if that means limping for the rest of your life, but you limp
with a heart that belongs to Jesus, that limp is worth it.

Husbands, wives, workers, students, businessmen, young people: Where are you now
minimizing the consequences of sin? Where are you telling yourself that it will be okay?
Where are you planting seeds right now that you really don't want to harvest? Where are
you cutting corners that God does not allow you to cut? Where are you rising to the
throne of God and writing your own law? Not a happy thought, but one that we need.

I want to say one final thing about this passage. You cannot read the name, ‘The Brook
of Kidron’, and the location of Mount of Olives without thinking about another King.
There was another King, who crossed the Brook Kidron, who went up on Mount of Olives
to pray; He too was a weeping King, a Savior King, Immanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He wasn't weeping for His own sin because He had none. But He was wrestling at the
thought of taking onto His shoulders the sin of mankind. He was not weeping because
His kingdom was broken. His struggle wasn’t that, because His kingdom had come.

And in an act of submission to the will of His Father, He would break the power of the
kingdom of darkness. Praise Him! … And make us able to walk into the presence of an
absolutely holy God and confess our sin, to confess the places where we minimize our
wrong, confess the places where we take life into our own hands, and know that there we
will find forgiveness, and power, and deliverance, because this King was not only a King,
He was a sacrificial Lamb, and in His self-sacrifice, we receive our forgiveness.

This passage is a powerful warning to you and to me. It's a story that doesn't end well,
although David is back on the throne; his son Absalom dies. In a sad, sad moment,
David crumbles, crying out, “Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son.”

Sin is something to be taken seriously. Sin, hear me, is never your friend. Sin is a
mortal enemy! It must be viewed that way. God help us to think of it only with that level
of seriousness, and to confess those places where we are minimizing something that God
does not, and run into the arms of the Savior Lamb and receive His forgiveness.

Let’s Pray: Lord, the warning of this historical account is something that each person in
this room needs. We all have the tendency to let down our guard; we all have the
tendency to minimize those places where we do what is wrong in Your eyes; we all have
moments where we think that we can escape the consequences of what we are doing.
We thank you that You are faithful, faithful to forgive, that You love us enough that You
will allow us to taste the bitter harvest so that our hearts would turn. Turn our hearts, we
would pray, even this evening. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

© 2009 Paul Tripp Ministries

www.paultripp.com