Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): It is reported that Howard Hughes, when he was worth approximately $4 billion, said, "I'd give it all up for one good friend." Quite a statement. Loyal and godly friends are hard to come by. We'll tell you how to be one next.

Bill Luebkemann: Here's something friends do for each other: they pray for each other. Friends also tell you what God says. Friends tell you what the word of God says. Friends tell you what the truth is.

Guest (Male): A friend in need is a friend indeed, as we'll soon see here on Hope From the Word. As we head back to 2 Samuel 15 today, David is in a huge crisis, and it's at this time in his life that his most loyal friends rise to the occasion and help him.

During an unexpected rebellion from his own son, David truly learns the value of good and godly friends. For more, we'll join Pastor Bill Luebkemann now in 2 Samuel 15.

Bill Luebkemann: Somehow this guy has things twisted around in his mind that he thinks he can be entitled to, or deserves, or should have this throne of his father. God made David the king, and God was very capable of deposing David and making someone else the king when he was good and ready to do so. God does things on his own timetable, not the same as ours.

This guy, Absalom, was trying to bring about his own will. He was trying to do it in his own timing. He was trying to do it his own way. Everything that you read about this is the flesh. This is his human-ness. This is him doing this because it's what he wants, what he desires. He's lusting after the power, that the people would look up to him, come and kiss him, and bow down before him.

Then Absalom says to his father, "I want to go and worship the Lord. I made this pledge, I made this vow to the Lord that I would do this." His father says, "Go in peace." So he went to Hebron, but meanwhile, he secretly on the side was putting his plan into action. Verse 10: "Then Absalom sent secret messengers throughout the tribes of Israel to say, 'As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, then say, Absalom is king in Hebron.'"

200 men from Jerusalem had accompanied Absalom. They had been invited as guests and went quite innocently, knowing nothing about the matter. While Absalom was offering sacrifices, he also sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, to come from Giloh, his hometown. And so the conspiracy gained strength, and Absalom's following kept on increasing.

This guy puts this plan into action. It's been four years. He's been thinking about this for a long time. He's been planning it for a long time. He's been wanting to do this for a long time. Finally, he puts it into action, and he sends the secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel to spread the word around. This is like posting something on your blog, or putting it on your website, or putting it on the front page of the New York Times. He sends secret messengers and said, "Look, when you hear the sound of the trumpets, then say Absalom is king in Hebron."

We're going to start blowing trumpets, and as that spreads around the land, that's going to be your cue that Absalom is king. Now, he was deceiving people because it says here that 200 men from Jerusalem went with him. They thought they were guests and they were going along quite innocently. Maybe they thought this was all okay. David was getting older. This guy is, after all, the crown prince, the oldest son. God's promoting him. People like something that's new. They like somebody that's young, that has panache and that cares about them, or at least pretends to care about them. Someone that's old and tired and worn out, they don't like as much.

Here's David and here's Absalom, and some people may have been truly deceived into thinking this was all an orderly transition of power that David had orchestrated himself. Absalom seems to want to have as many people there as possible so it looks official. It looks like, well, yeah, this is right. This is what should be going on. Nothing wrong here. Absalom was offering sacrifices, which I think really is disgusting. He's out there pretending to offer sacrifices to God while he's slitting his father's throat, in effect. He didn't really slit his throat, but in effect, he's stabbing his father in the back. He's one-upping him, but at the same time, he's offering these sacrifices, which says to me the whole sacrifice thing is just a big sham, just a big fake.

He's offering these sacrifices and he sends for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, to come. He was really in David's inner circle. That really gave credibility to what was going on. By the way, Ahithophel was the grandfather of Bathsheba. So, you never know, maybe he thought about what David did to his granddaughter and said, "I'm going to get him back. I'm tired of him. It's about time he shouldn't be king anymore." I don't know what this guy was thinking, but it's curious that he was Bathsheba's grandfather.

If you look back at chapter 11, verse 3, it says, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" So, she was the daughter of Eliam. If you look over in chapter 23, verse 34, you see there it says, "Eliam, son of Ahithophel the Gilonite." So, she was the son of Eliam, and Eliam was the son of Ahithophel. Ahithophel was an adviser to King David.

Here Absalom is sending out and pretending and expanding and hoodwinking people, and now he's getting Ahithophel involved, David's counselor. The conspiracy, it says, is gaining strength. Absalom's following kept on increasing. Some of the people probably joined willingly. Some of them probably thought it was a good, exciting thing to get on. I think some of them might have been deceived, but for whatever reason, they were all joining up with Absalom's campaign.

This is what David had to say about his good friend Ahithophel taking the other side, from Psalm 55: "If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it. If a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God." Here was David saying, "Man, I could endure it if an enemy was stabbing me in the back. But you, my friend, my close friend, somebody that was so close that we would walk together at the house of God. We had sweet fellowship together. This really hurt David." It hurt him really bad that Ahithophel had gone over to the other side.

A messenger came and told David. David still doesn't know anything, but he's about to find out here. A messenger came and told David, "The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom." He's got them. If you have someone's heart, you have the whole thing. This is why it is frequently said in the church: protect your heart. Be careful what you look at. Be careful what you watch. Be careful what you allow into the portal, through the eyes and the ears. Protect the heart. Wherever your heart is, that's where you're going to be.

A messenger came and told David the hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom. Then David said to all his officials who were with him in Jerusalem, "Come, we must flee, or none of us will escape from Absalom. We must leave immediately, or he will move quickly to overtake us and bring ruin upon us and put the city to the sword." The king's officials answered him, "Your servants are ready to do whatever our lord the king chooses."

The king set out with his entire household following him, but he left ten concubines to take care of the palace. So the king set out with all the people following him, and they halted at a place some distance away. All his men marched past him, along with all the Kerethites and Pelethites and all the 600 Gittites who had accompanied him from Gath marched before the king. He says, "Let's not have bloodshed in the city." He finds out what's going on, a messenger comes to him, and David says, "We've got to get out of here, or none of us are going to escape." Furthermore, "We've got to do it quickly. There's not a lot of time, because he's going to move quickly. So if we don't move quickly and he does, then we're going to have a problem here. He's going to bring ruin upon us and put the city to the sword."

David doesn't want to have a battle in the city because then the whole city could get burned down, and civilians and innocent people could get killed. Let's have the battle somewhere else. Let's get out of here. If we have to have a battle, at least let's do it somewhere else. The king's officials said, "We're going to go wherever you tell us to go. You just lead the way, we'll go there."

They all set out, his entire household. He left behind ten concubines. This says something else more disappointing about David because he already had a bunch of wives. Now we don't even know how many concubines he had, but he had at least ten because he left ten behind to do the dusting and take care of the palace. Obviously, I don't think he thought they were in any grave danger. It turns out that they're going to get raped by Absalom. He leaves them behind to take care of the palace. The front door probably didn't lock right. They didn't know where the key was. They never had to leave it before. I was in Wawa on Christmas Eve getting a hoagie, and they said, "We're closing at 11:00. We never close here." I said, "Really? Does anyone know where the key is?" "Oh yes, we found it and we tested it. We used it last Christmas or Easter. We found it, it works. At 11:00 we're going to lock the door and go home." David didn't do that. He should have.

He left the ten concubines there, and you see that he was into this having many wives thing. He couldn't seem to get a handle on this thing called lust. But he set out and he took all the people and they went to this place some distance away. His men were there, and the Kerethites and Pelethites were like mercenaries. A lot of people believe they were actually Philistines that were in the employment of the king. The word Kerethite means executioner. The Pelethites were kind of like guards. These were like his protection force. This was his SWAT team. These were his Army Rangers. These were the people that looked after him and kept him safe, and the 600 Gittites who had come with him from Gath. The people that had come with him when he moved into Israel to take over the kingdom quite a number of years before, they're still with him. So what we're seeing here is, these are his people, and his people are sticking with him.

The king said to Ittai the Gittite, "Why should you come along with us? Go back and stay with King Absalom. You are a foreigner, an exile from your homeland. You came only yesterday, and today shall I make you wander about with us when I do not know where I am going? Go back and take your countrymen. May kindness and faithfulness be with you."

But Ittai replied to the king, "As surely as the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether it means life or death, there will your servant be." David said to Ittai, "Go ahead, march on." So Ittai the Gittite marched on with all his men and the families that were with him. The whole countryside wept aloud as all the people passed by. The king also crossed the Kidron Valley, and all the people moved on toward the desert.

Look, this here is a definition of a friend. This guy Ittai the Gittite only came into town, David said, just the other day. David said, "Look, there's no reason why you should get into trouble on my account. You're a foreigner. You just came here. So why should you be banished with me and wandering around with me? I don't even know what's going to happen to me. Why don't you go back and make friends with King Absalom? He's not going to hurt you. You didn't do anything to him. You're a foreigner, he doesn't owe you anything, you don't owe anything to him. You just came here, you just got here. Go back. Take your countrymen. May kindness and faithfulness be with you." In other words, "I don't wish you any ill will. I have nothing against you. You don't owe me anything. There's no reason why you need to do this."

But Ittai says, "Look, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, wherever you go, I'm going to go. It doesn't matter whether it means life or death." Now, this is the definition of a friend, and we all need friends like this. Friends are friends that will stick by you no matter what happens. Here's a good example of one, and this guy had only met David just the day before. We need to be friends like this also. You're not going to have friends like this if you are not a friend like this to other people as well. It works in two directions. David was very loyal to his friends, and he reaped some of that back here. We should be doing the same thing. We need to have friends like that, but we also need to be loyal and we need to be friends.

Over in Hebrews 10, verse 23: "Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Here the Lord is calling us in the New Testament as well. Consider how we can help one another. Consider how we can spur one another on. Consider what we can do to help further each other's walk with the Lord. One way that's done is by getting together. He says don't give up doing that. When you get together, you can encourage one another. Some people say, "Oh, I'm a Christian in here. I don't need to go to church. I don't need to go to Bible study. I'm just a Christian in here. I know I'm a Christian. I don't need to meet any other Christians. Me and God are just doing our own thing. Me and God have got a cool thing going. When I'm out hunting by myself in the woods, I'm really communing with God. Or when I'm boating, or fishing, or climbing the radio towers, we're just communing with God here." It's great to do that, and keep doing that, but it says here we should be encouraging one another as well. We're wired that way. We need to have the encouragement of one another, and we need to be encouraging one another so that the other people that need the encouragement can get it, and then they encourage us and then we can get what we need. God wired us up that way, to be encouraging to one another, to help one another. We're the body of Christ and all of us are a part of it, and we all have a part to play. You can't play that part if you're all alone.

Here's an example in the Old Testament of somebody who really was a friend, who said, "I'm sticking by you," kind of like the same kind of friend that Jonathan was to David many years before. Even though Jonathan's father was a nasty enemy to David, Jonathan himself was as much a friend as you could possibly have. It seems like this guy is coming along and almost filling Jonathan's shoes.

The whole countryside is weeping and crying as the king leaves. This was a terrible, horrible event. Obviously, many of the people had gone over to Absalom, but it seems like there were still quite a few that were on David's side. Zadok was there too, and all the Levites who were with him were carrying the ark of the covenant of God. They set down the ark of God, and Abiathar offered sacrifices until all the people had finished leaving the city. Then the king said to Zadok, "Take the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the Lord's eyes, he will bring me back and let me see it and his dwelling place again. But if he says, 'I am not pleased with you,' then I am ready; let him do to me whatever seems good to him."

The king also said to Zadok the priest, "Aren't you a seer? Go back to the city in peace, with your son Ahimaaz and Jonathan son of Abiathar. You and Abiathar take your two sons with you. I will wait at the fords in the desert until word comes from you to inform me." So Zadok and Abiathar took the ark of God back to Jerusalem and stayed there.

What you see here is a picture of David trusting God. You see here a picture of a man who is able to trust in God and says, "I don't need to have everything under my own control. I don't need to take care of every single detail. I am going to trust in God." That was a difficult thing to do when you consider here's something David wrote about this time, Psalm 3: "O Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!" You get the idea that he was vastly outnumbered. "Many are saying of me, 'God will not deliver him.' Right? There is no hope for him in God. But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. To the Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill."

You can read the rest of Psalm 3 on your own if you like, but you can see that David was outnumbered, outgunned, out-whatever, but he wasn't really outnumbered or outgunned because he had his faith and trust in the Lord. The Lord really outnumbered and outgunned all of his friends. These guys here, these were also good friends. Zadok was there and the Levites who were carrying the ark and they were the priests, and they were offering sacrifices.

Here's something friends do for each other: they pray for each other. That's what was going on here. These guys were praying. Friends also tell you what God says. Friends tell you what the word of God says. Friends tell you what the truth is. Friends love one another. He loves us even more than we could possibly love one another.

David said to Zadok, "Look, I'm trusting in God here. So you take the ark back in the city where it belongs. If the Lord gives me a victory here, then I'll be back and I'll see it again. But if the Lord lets me perish out here in the desert, then that's up to the Lord. I'm ready for whatever the Lord has for me." But also he tells them, "Look, you guys can be spies. You can go back to the city there with the ark. Just pretend that you're doing your job there, and you can find out what's going on."

This is not like '24', the TV show, where they just punch a few keys and on the satellite they can see, "Oh, there he is walking down the street. We've got him there. We're following him," which they really can't do for real anyway, I don't think. Here, they still did it the old-fashioned way, the mole way, the CIA way. We'll send the spy in. David's saying here, "You guys can be spies. I'm going to wait out in the desert until you send me the word. If you say to me, 'Hey, Absalom's the king, he's coming after you, get out of here as quick as you can,' then I'm out of here. If you tell me I can come back, so you can bring the ark back where it belongs. I can trust God, but you can also serve and help by just being a spy and sending me some information."

David continued up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went. His head was covered and he was barefoot. All the people with him covered their heads too and were weeping as they went up. Now David had been told, "Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom." So David prayed, "O Lord, turn Ahithophel's counsel into foolishness." Ahithophel, on the other hand, a guy who had been with David for a long time, turns out he was no friend at all when push came to shove, when the rubber met the road. He was no friend at all, this guy. Now you could say, "Well, he was bitter because David killed his grandson-in-law and married his granddaughter." He was mad about that. But God forgave David for that. David said when that happened, "Lord, against you and against you only have I sinned." That sin was forgiven, and this guy didn't have any right to dig it back up again. So if this was his excuse for going over to the other side, it wasn't a good one.

David continued weeping as he went. His head was covered. He was barefoot, going up the Mount of Olives, and everybody with him weeping at the same time and covering their heads. Then to get this other news, that his friend Ahithophel is among the conspirators. David must have really been crushed. This hurt. He was one of David's better friends, or so David thought. He gave good advice, but David prayed, "Lord, turn his advice around. Let his advice become foolishness." We're going to see in the next chapter how that worked itself out.

Guest (Male): That's all the time we have for today. We'll jump into chapter 16 of 2 Samuel next time, Lord willing, as we continue to look at this tumultuous season in the life of David. You can hear this message or more Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. Or if you'd prefer to listen via podcast, go wherever you find your podcasts and sign up there.

We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10:00 a.m. and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00. To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org. And if you'd take a moment to write to Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives, and we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study in 2 Samuel next time on Hope From the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann, a presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.

Bill Luebkemann: To know and follow hard after you. To know and follow hard after you. To grow as your disciple in your truth. This world is empty, pale and poor compared to knowing you my Lord. Lead me on and I will run after you. Lead me on and I will run after you.