Hope From the Word

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Bill Luebkemann: Before you do certain things, it would be a good idea to consider the possible consequences. Pastor Bill Luebkemann says sin may be pleasurable for a season, but there will be terrible consequences. Sin has consequences, and sometimes it has consequences on other people. Somebody gets drunk and they're sinning, and they get out there and they get in their car and they go through a light and they kill someone else.

Sin has consequences. In your own life, it has consequences, and it has consequences in other people's lives. That's just a fact. It's sad and it's unfortunate, and we wish it wasn't true, and we'd like to prevent it, but it's a sinful, fallen world. And when sin happens, it affects anybody in its path.

Guest (Male): Hello friend and welcome to another Hope From the Word. We're pleased you can join us as we pick up where we left off in our study of 2 Samuel. We see rebellion all around us, from the child who puts their foot down in disobedience to the adult in prison who refuses to comply with the laws of the land.

We even see rebellion applauded, but unrighteous rebellion is far from being encouraged in the scriptures. In fact, as we'll soon see, there are destructive consequences for those who would go down that road. Pastor Bill Luebkemann takes us now to 2 Samuel 19 and 20 and offers this helpful message recorded at Calvary Chapel of Marlton.

Bill Luebkemann: If you'll open up to 2 Samuel, we left off in the middle of chapter 19. We saw that David was in the process of returning to Jerusalem and as he's approaching Jerusalem here, different things are happening. Some of the men went out to meet him, the men of Judah, to bring him across the Jordan.

We saw Shimei, the guy who was cursing David when they were running him out of town. He was throwing dirt and stones at him and calling him names: "You evil bum! You scoundrel! You dirty dog you!" He was the first guy in the welcoming party to welcome David back here. So I guess he figured, "Well, I'm going to try to live a little bit longer. I like living, so I better go down and kiss up to him to try to make him happy."

Of course, one of David's guys says, "Hey, isn't he the guy that was calling you names and all? Shouldn't Shimei be put to death for this? He cursed the Lord's anointed." But David said, "No, we're not going to put anybody to death today." Then David had his encounter with Mephibosheth, Saul's grandson, who had stayed behind because he was lame in both feet and his servant Ziba had lied to David about his intentions. We saw how that got rectified there in verse 30.

It's kind of like old home week here. It's kind of like homecoming, going to your high school reunion. The closer he gets to Jerusalem, more people are coming out to welcome him. People who need a favor are coming out to get their favor. Shimei doesn't want to get executed, so he's out there to make David happy. Mephibosheth is trying to make sure that he's covered because he was wronged by his servant, or maybe he wasn't wronged by his servant. We weren't really 100% clear on that.

So now we also get to this guy Barzillai, who's the guy we said last time that makes the macaroni. This is Barilla's father. No, just joking now. So the pasta man here, Barzillai the Gileadite, also came down from Rogelim to cross the Jordan with the king and to send him on his way from there. This guy Barzillai, you'll remember from a few chapters ago, was a very wealthy fellow. He had a lot of money and he was very smart.

He invested his money in the kingdom of God by providing for David when David was being run out of town. When Absalom was trying to take over and seize the kingdom and running David out of town, David was on the run. He didn't have much stuff with him. He didn't have time to pack up all his kitchen utensils. Barzillai the Gileadite met him out there and was able to provide for him from some of his generous supply of stuff, food and other items.

He really blessed David. He used what he had to help out David. In an age where today everybody wants to save and store, well, it's not new. Jesus talked about the guy who wanted to build a bigger barn because he needed to have more room to store my stuff. "I got to keep accumulating stuff and pile it up and have a bigger pile and a bigger barn." Well, they do that today. They did that in Jesus's time, and here we are hundreds of years before the time of Christ, and many people were still doing it.

But not this guy Barzillai. This guy was more than willing to part with what he had because he knew somebody else needed it, namely David and his entourage. And so this guy came down with them and he was intending to cross the Jordan with the king and to send him on his way from there. So he was just seeing him off, just going to cross the river with him, shake his hand, wish him well, and see him off as David went back to Jerusalem.

Now Barzillai was a very old man, 80 years old, four score, 80 years old. He was alive when Lincoln was giving his famous speech. Then he would have been born shortly after the Declaration of Independence was written. So he was an ancient guy, 80 years old. Now Barzillai was a very old man, 80 years of age. He had provided for the king during his stay in Mahanaim, for he was a very wealthy man.

The king said to Barzillai, "Come over with me and stay with me in Jerusalem and I will provide for you." So the king inviting him, "Hey, come back to the castle and make your home there in Jerusalem. You won't have to worry about anything. You won't have to work. You won't have to cook. You won't have to do anything. Just eat and sleep and I'll take care of you. I'll provide for you."

But Barzillai answered the king, "How many more years will I live, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king? I am now 80 years old. Can I tell the difference between what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks? Can I still hear the voices of men and women singers? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?"

He says here, "Look, I'm already 80 years old. How much longer do you think I'm going to last? I'm not going to be around that much longer. I'm pretty old and I'm having a hard time getting around and I'm having a hard time telling what's good or bad. I can hardly taste what I eat and drink anymore." I don't think that means he couldn't taste it at all, but he didn't get much taste out of it, I guess.

"Can I hear the voices of men and women singers?" In other words, I think what he's saying here is living in the castle just don't get me too excited. I'm beyond the age of being excited. Some young guy, he would like that. "Wow, live in the castle with the king! Be important, be living up there high on the hog and everything." But what am I? What do I care? I'm old, I'm tired, I'm worn out. It doesn't excite me anymore. That's for somebody young.

And if I come along, I'm just going to be a burden to you, just one more mouth to feed, one more person to take care of. Your servant, he says in verse 36 here, will cross over the Jordan with the king for a short distance. But why should the king reward me in this way? In other words, look, I'll cross over the river. I'm coming to the send-off party. I want to wish you well, have the hugs and shake the hands and wish you goodbye. And I'll go for you for a little ways, but not too far. I don't want to die on my way home.

Let your servant return that I may die in my own town near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him whatever pleases you. Now, it doesn't say this in here, but a lot of people think Chimham was his son, Barzillai's son. And so if that's the case, if it wasn't his son, it's some kind of a close acquaintance or relative or good friend or something.

But he said, "Look, why don't you take this guy? He's younger and do for him whatever you were going to do for me. Whatever pleases you. He'll at least enjoy it. At least when he eats the food it'll taste like something, and when he listens to the singers it'll sound like something." And the king said, "Chimham shall cross over with me and I will do for him whatever pleases you, and anything you desire from me I will do for you."

So David says, "Okay, that's great. He's going to come with me and I'm going to do for him whatever pleases you." It's kind of like they're fighting here because Barzillai says, "You do whatever you want to do," and David says, "No, I'm going to do for him whatever you want me to do for him." So they're kind of deferring to one another.

And David says, "I'll bring him along and I'll do for him whatever pleases you. And also if there's anything you want, anything you need, any way that I can help you." And later on, when David was on his deathbed, he tells his son Solomon, here it is, 1 Kings 2 and verse 7: "Show kindness to the sons of Barzillai of Gilead and let them be among those who eat at your table. They stood by me when I fled from your brother Absalom."

So here's David a few years later on his deathbed reminding his son, "Look out for the sons of Barzillai. They really stood by me. And let them eat among you here." David also tells Solomon some other people not to look out for and some people to bump off and get rid of. But the descendants of Barzillai, you got to see that they made a huge impression on David.

This guy really blessed David, provided for him. This was not just a hamburger along the road. This guy provided materially in a big way at a time when David was really down. David was down here and this guy abundantly provided for him and it made an effect on David that lasted for the rest of his life. So all the people crossed the Jordan and then the king crossed over.

The king kissed Barzillai and gave him his blessing, and Barzillai returned to his home. You just never know when you help someone out how it's going to come back to you. And by the way, I don't think Barzillai was playing the odds here. He wasn't helping David saying, "Now I've calculated that there's a three-to-two odds that David's going to get back in and be king. And if he's successful, then I'm going to get something out of this."

This is a situation where the man just simply did the right thing and I don't think you can say any more about it than that. He offered a cup of cold water in Jesus's name, in effect. This was before the time of Christ, but that's what this guy was doing. He was helping out the king. Here was God's anointed one; he needed help. I don't think Barzillai thought about it. I don't think he pondered it. I don't think he reflected on it.

I don't think he had some ulterior motive. He wasn't thinking, "What can I get out of this? You know, if I give this to God, I'm going to get this back. If I give to him a seed, I'm going to get back all this stuff poured out and pressing over. I need a new car so I'm going to give away." You don't see prosperity doctrine in here. You see a guy that just simply did the right thing and he did it at a time when it was needed, and the king blessed him and blessed his son because of it.

And Barzillai here returning home when the king crossed over to Gilgal, Chimham crossed with him. All the troops of Judah and half the troops of Israel had taken the king over. So you get the impression here that Israel's divided still. Judah is with the king. Israel, half and half; half the troops go with him, half don't. Soon, however, verse 41, all the men of Israel were coming to the king and saying to him, "Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, steal the king away and bring him and his household across the Jordan, together with all his men?"

This is really funny. The men of Israel are not happy with the men of Judah, Judah being one of the tribes, Israel being ten of the tribes. The men of Israel are not happy with the men of Judah because they say, "You took the king." Why did our brothers steal the king away? "You took him away! That's not fair!" But wait a minute, all these men of Israel were the ones that were on Absalom's side.

They ran him out of town. And the men of Judah stuck by him. And now they're kind of playing both sides of the fence here. Now they're saying, "Well, why did the men of Judah do this to us? Oh, they took our king away from us!" Well, you were running him out of town, you people! Hello. And it's almost like now they want to act like nothing's wrong.

"It wasn't our fault. It was Judah. They stole the king away. They took him away late at night and none of us got to say goodbye and we were so disappointed at it, and his whole household and all his men and they all went with him." These were the very people that ran David out of town who are now trying to make it look like it's the other guys' fault.

They ran him out of town. They're trying to make it look like the men of Judah snuck him off in the middle of the night. All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel. So now they get into a fight here. They are not happy campers. All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, "We did this because the king is closely related to us." He was from the tribe of Judah. "Why are you angry about it? Have we eaten any of the king's provisions? Have we taken anything for ourselves?"

Then the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, "We have ten shares in the king and besides, we have a greater claim on David than you have. So why do you treat us with contempt? Were we not the first to speak of bringing back our king?" But the men of Judah responded even more harshly than the men of Israel. So they kind of get into a shouting match here where the men of Judah say, "Look, we took the king away because he's one of us."

"So he's of the same tribe. So he's more closely related to us. And furthermore, we didn't take him away and then eat his food. We took him away to keep him safe. We ate our own food; he ate his own food. We haven't taken anything of ourselves." And the men of Israel, because there's ten tribes there, they say, "Well, we have ten shares in him. He might be closer related to you, but we outnumber you. So we got ten shares."

And so they get in this argument like kids. "Well, I got this!" "No, I got that!" "Well, I'm going to take this and you're going to do that!" And back and forth and back and forth here. "We have a greater claim." Isn't that stupid? Arguing who has a greater claim on the king? "We have a greater claim. So why do you treat us with contempt? Weren't we the first to speak of bringing him back?" Well, they were also the ones that ran him out of town.

And the men of Judah didn't need to speak about bringing back the king; they were already with the king the whole time. So the men of Judah were with the king, run out of town. The men of Israel spoke about bringing him back; the men of Judah were with David. But the men of Judah responded even more harshly than the men of Israel, so they kind of got into a little kind of a riot here.

Now, a troublemaker named Sheba, son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there. He sounded the trumpet and shouted, "We have no share in David, no part in Jesse's son! Every man to his tent, O Israel!" So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Sheba son of Bichri. But the men of Judah stayed by their king all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem. So here you have this argument now.

Just picture this: The men of Judah and the men of Israel arguing. Back and forth, madder and madder and madder. And now along comes this guy Sheba, who's a troublemaker, and he's a Benjamite, and he's from the tribe that Saul was from. So he probably doesn't like David to begin with. And he sounds the trumpet and says, "We have no share in David, no part in Jesse's son!" I think it was kind of a dig that he mentions Jesse's son. Jesse was a poor low person on the totem pole of no consequence in an earthly sense.

"Every man to his tent!" That's what they did when the battle was over. That's what they did when the war was over. It's kind of like everybody go home. And this guy said, "We have no share." Now, these are the people that just said, "We have ten shares in the king and we have a greater claim than you have." Now they just said that. Back in verse 43, "We have ten shares in the king and we have a greater share than you have."

And now this guy comes along and says, "We have no share in him. Let's go home." And they all go home, therefore proving that they don't know what they're talking about. So all the men of Israel, what did they do? Did they stick by their king? Did they give their life for him? Did they say, "We'll be with you forever, we'll never give up, we'll follow you forever"? No, it says they deserted David. One guy comes along, blows a trumpet, makes a speech, "Oh, we'll all follow him."

Remember, these are the ones that followed Absalom. And now David's coming back, they go with the wind. Whatever's blowing that week, that's what they're going with. That day can change hour to hour, minute to minute. Some Christians are like that, always changing with the winds of doctrine. And whatever's going on that year or that time period in the church, "We're into this."

"We're going to go to this church this week, there's a lot going on there. People are getting out of wheelchairs, they're getting healed there." Or a couple weeks later, "Well, we're going to go over here, the Lord's working over here." And following around to see where God's working, never doing anything themselves, never maybe seeing God work through them. Always going around to be entertained, reading the latest book, doing the latest fad.

We got to be wild at heart, purpose-driven. We got to do this for God or that for the other thing. I don't want to be driven. I want to be led by the Holy Spirit. Not driven by something. God's people are led. They're led by Him. Sheep are led; cattle are driven. Sheep are led. Think about that. So all these guys just deserted David. And they just took off just to follow the guy that showed up with the trumpet.

Some guy shows up with a trumpet, makes a speech and now we're going to follow him. And you get the impression sometimes that some Christians are like that following whatever new fad comes along, whatever new preacher comes to the spectrum or is on Channel 48 or whatever. But the men of Judah, they're committed to this guy. They stay by their king all the way. They don't give up. They don't turn around. They don't turn back. The guys from Judah are the guys that are with David and on his side.

Verse three. When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace and put them in a house under guard. He provided for them but did not lie with them. They were kept in confinement till the day of their death, living as widows. You'll remember he left these ten concubines behind to tend to the palace and you remember that while he was out of town, Absalom came along and slept with these ten concubines in public so that everybody could know that he was sticking it to his old man.

And so David wasn't able to sleep with these concubines anymore and basically they lived out the rest of their lives as if they were widows. He provided for them, but they were not able to have much of a life after that. You get the very clear impression here that you can say, "Wow, what a shame that is and how terrible that is and why would God allow that?" But sin has consequences and sometimes it has consequences on other people.

And so somebody gets drunk and they're sinning and they get out there and they get in their car and they go through a light and they kill someone else. Sin has consequences. In your own life it has consequences, and it has consequences in other people's lives. You look at what happened at Virginia Tech. It wasn't the fault of those 32 innocent people there that died. It was the consequence of someone else's sin that unfortunately came out on them.

There is consequences to sin and it does affect the one who sins and it oftentimes affects other people and that's just a fact. It's sad and it's unfortunate and we wish it wasn't true and we'd like to prevent it, but it's a sinful fallen world and when sin happens, it affects anybody in its path. And these concubines were affected by it. Then the king said to Amasa, now you remember Amasa was the head of the army for Absalom.

And one or two chapters ago, David had told Amasa, "Look, let's be friends again. You can be on my side and you can be the head of my army." Remember Joab was the head of David's army but he reached out to this guy Amasa and said, "I want you to be in charge of my army now." So it's a guy that was fighting against him just a short time before is now the head of his army. Then the king said, but he wasn't a very good head of the army as we're going to see here.

Then the king said to Amasa, "Summon the men of Judah to come to me within three days and be here yourself." But when Amasa went to summon Judah, he took longer than the time the king had set for him. So on his very first assignment, he doesn't do his job. David should have executed him. He was fighting against him working for Absalom. But instead, David makes him head of his army and he says, "Here's what you need to do. You need to bring the men here within three days."

Within three days means less than or equal to three days. So one day would be fine, two days would be fine, two and a half days is okay, 2.99 days is okay. Within three days means less than three days. He didn't do his job. He didn't do what he was asked to do. He wasn't up to the job. He wasn't strong enough for the job. He didn't care enough. He didn't take it seriously enough. Maybe he really regretted Absalom dying and wished he was still on Absalom's side.

I don't know, but I do know that he was given very clear instructions by the king. "This is what you do. You're going to summon the men, you're going to be back here in three days. You're going to get the job done. That's what needs to be done." So David said to Abishai, "Now Sheba son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your master's men and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and escape from us."

So Joab's men and the Kerethites and Pelethites and all the mighty warriors went out under the command of Abishai. They marched out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba son of Bichri. Now remember Sheba was the guy that blew the trumpet a little bit earlier here and sent everybody home. He was a troublemaker. He was divisive. He was a rebel. He didn't respect the king. He didn't respect the office of the king, the person of the king, the king's heritage, genealogy of the king's father even made fun of him. And David knew, I got to get right on this.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in Pastor Bill Luebkemann's study of 2 Samuel. If you'd like to hear this message again, you have several options. Visit our website at ccmarlton.org and download the Hope FM app to your smartphone or tablet, or look for us wherever you find podcasts.

If you're thinking about visiting Calvary Chapel of Marlton where Bill serves as pastor, we'd love to have you. Our service times are on Sunday mornings at 10. We also meet midweek on Wednesdays at 7 PM. You can also livestream from home when you visit our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton. For more information, go to ccmarlton.org. We hope to see you soon.

Before the day is done, we'd like to connect with you. Share a praise report, prayer request, or what you're learning from this series. You can easily email us from our website ccmarlton.org or just call us at 856-983-1662. There's more to come from Bill's study of 2 Samuel, and we'll have that for you next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.