Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: I love what George Burns has to say on the subject of old age. He said tennis is a game for young people. Until age 25, you can play singles. From there until age 35, you should play doubles. I won't tell you my age, but when I played, there were 28 people on the court just on my side of the net. Growing older in Christ, coming up next.

In our society, great emphasis is placed on retirement. We save and plan, and many look forward to it. But God never intends us to retire from spiritual activity. We can be sure God wouldn't keep us on this earth if he didn't have a worthwhile ministry for us to accomplish.

Guest (Male): Today on Hope From the Word, we enter King David's twilight years, and we're about to receive some valuable lessons for growing older. And growing older is something we all have in common. Here is Pastor Bill Luebkemann now in 2 Samuel 20, picking up in verse 3.

Bill Luebkemann: 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 until the day of their death, living as widows.

You'll remember he left these ten concubines behind to tend to the palace. 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.

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. 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 are consequences to sin, and it does affect the one who sins, and it oftentimes affects other people. That's just a fact. It's sad and it's unfortunate, and we wish it wasn't true, and we 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 a guy that was fighting against him just a short time before is now the head of his army. But he wasn't a very good head of the army, as we're going to see here. 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.

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, or 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 Bicri, 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 Bicri.

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—the king's father, he even made fun of him.

And David knew, "I've got to get right on this." Remember, when David went out of town, Absalom was sitting in Jerusalem saying, "What do I do?" And Ahithophel said, "You need to get him now while he's weak, while he's tired, while he's worn out. Man, you've got to pounce on him." And his advice was thwarted by the other guy, Hushai the Archite.

Hushai the Archite said, "No, take your time," and so on. Well, Hushai was giving him bad advice. The fact of the matter is he should have pounced on him, and he didn't. And David knows here now, "Look, I've got to pounce on this guy. This guy Bicri is out there causing problems. He's working against me. He's going around different places. He's saying bad things about me. He's causing dissension, division. He's trying to build up his own kingdom, trying to get his own followers."

David wanted Amasa to bring the army together within three days so he could send them out to deal with it, and they don't show up. So he gets Abishai, who is Joab's brother, and he tells Abishai, "This guy's going to cause us a lot of harm, so take your master's men and go after him, or else he's going to hide from us in a fortified city."

So Joab's men and the Kerethites and Pelethites, which were mercenaries that really were like David's personal guards almost, and all the mighty warriors went out under the command of this guy Abishai. They marched out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba, son of Bicri. We're going to get the guy and we're going to shut him down before he does more damage.

While they were at the great rock in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Now here's the guy. He's supposed to have been back within three days, and he's out here in Gibeon. Who knows what he's doing. He's probably working on the mission of the king, probably just not as important to him as it should be. He's probably thinking, "I'll get it done when I get it done. I'm going to go do a few other things. I've got to get my eight hours' sleep each night. I can't be staying up late or anything. Got to get my beauty rest and take my time."

Well, the army's marching on here under the command of somebody different because this guy Amasa is goofing off here. And while they were at the great rock in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Joab was wearing his military tunic and strapped over it at his waist was a belt with a dagger in its sheath. As he stepped forward, it dropped out of its sheath.

I'm not certain what this means exactly. I think he did it on purpose, but whether he was holding it or whether he dropped it by accident pretending—exactly how it happened I don't know, except that it does not appear to be an accident. Joab said to Amasa, "How are you, my brother?" Then Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. Amasa was not on his guard against the dagger in Joab's hand, and Joab plunged it into his belly, and his intestines spilled out on the ground.

Without being stabbed again, Amasa died. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba, son of Bicri. So Joab here murdered the guy in cold blood who was sent out by David and was supposed to be in charge of the army. In other words, Amasa here was the guy that was supposed to have Joab's job. And he wasn't doing his job, but it was not up to Joab to get rid of him.

But Joab, I think, figured, "Well, he's in my way. I've got to get rid of him. Otherwise, he's going to be running the army pretty soon and not me." So he used cunning here and trickery. And Joab, this is not the first time that he's pulled this kind of stuff. And he pretends to be the guy's friend and he's nice to him and he's going to kiss him, but he's pretending to have fumbled with his dagger just to give himself the benefit of surprise so he can stab the guy. One time is all it took. Just one look, it's all it took. He stabbed it in there, his intestines fell out on the ground, and I get the impression here it took a while for him to die if you keep reading.

One of Joab's men stood beside Amasa and said, "Whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab." Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road. Doesn't that sound like he's still alive, if you're wallowing in your blood? And the man saw that all the troops came to a halt there. When he realized that everyone who came up to Amasa stopped, he dragged him from the road into a field and threw a garment over him.

After Amasa had been removed from the road, all the men went on with Joab to pursue Sheba, son of Bicri. So Joab basically kills off his competitor so that he can be in charge of the army again. And this guy may have deserved to die, by the way. He wasn't doing his job and he had been fighting against the king. But if he did deserve to die, it was in the same sense that Saul deserved to die, but nevertheless, David never laid a hand on him.

You could read that and say Saul should have died earlier, and if David had killed him, we would have said, "Well, no big deal, he deserved to die." But David left it up to God, and David was a guy who left things up to God. He didn't do them on his own. He didn't decide, "Well, I'm going to take things into my own hands, do it my own way." He left them up to the Lord. And this guy Joab did the opposite. He took things into his own hands, whether he was right or wrong, and he did it whatever benefited him.

And you can see here a real contrast. Leave things up to God and they happen his way. And all the things come together. I can tell you from trying to build 24 more radio transmitters with all this equipment and all the supplies and all the leases and all the people and whatever, if I pray more and talk less, then things just happen. The phone rings and some guy that I called 50 times finally decides to call me back. And I could have called him 50 more times and he never would have called me back. But if I trust in God, then well, is it any wonder the guy—isn't that a miracle, here's a guy calling me back that never would get back to me before?

Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel Beth Maakah and through the entire region of the Berites, who gathered together and followed him. All the troops with Joab came and besieged Sheba in Abel Beth Maakah. So this guy here, Sheba, this troublemaker guy, he passed through all the tribes. In other words, he's like a messenger, he's like a herald. He's spreading his vile poison all around. He's going everywhere, telling people, "We don't have a share of the king. The king's not one of us. He's not for us. Let's get rid of him. I don't believe anything he says."

And he passed through all the tribes and he winds up at this town called Abel Beth Maakah and through the entire region, who gathered together and followed him. That's the Berites who did that, who gathered together and followed him. All the troops with Joab came and besieged Sheba in Abel Beth Maakah. So here he is in the city. It's a walled-in city. This guy has gone all through the area, he's picked up some followers, he's in this city now and it's locked down, the gates are closed.

Joab comes along with the troops and they say, "We've got to get this guy out, so we're going to set up a siege." They built a siege ramp up to the city and it stood against the outer fortifications. While they were battering the wall to bring it down, a wise woman called from the city, "Listen, listen! Tell Joab to come here so I can speak to him."

He went toward her and she asked, "Are you Joab?" "I am," he answered. She said, "Listen to what your servant has to say." "I'm listening," he said. So they're battering—they're using a battering ram and they're trying to break down the wall, and they built a ramp to get up to the wall. And this wise woman, she gets up there somehow on top of the wall and she calls out and calls for Joab. Tell Joab to come here. And she says, "I want you to hear me out." And he said, "I'm listening."

And she continued, "Long ago they used to say, 'Get your answer at Abel,' and that settled it. We are the peaceful and faithful in Israel. You are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why do you want to swallow up the Lord's inheritance?" She says here, "This city is well known. It's been here a long time. It's a peaceful place. People would come here for advice. They would seek the Lord here. They would come here, whatever was troubling them, they'd come here and seek the Lord and they'd get their answer. We're like a mother to the other cities here, and here you're trying to destroy us. Why would you want that?"

And Joab replied, "Far be it from me! Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy! That is not the case. A man named Sheba, son of Bicri, from the hill country of Ephraim, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Hand over this one man and I'll withdraw from the city." He said, "I don't want to destroy your city. I don't want to knock down the walls. I don't want to kill my brothers and sisters in Israel. But we have a problem here because you're harboring this fugitive. This guy that's in your city that you're harboring, he's not a good guy. He's lifted up his hand against the king, and he's the only guy we want."

And the woman said to Joab, "His head will be thrown to you from the wall." Nice, huh? Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice, and they cut off the head of Sheba, son of Bicri, and threw it to Joab. So he sounded the trumpet and his men dispersed from the city, each returning to his home. And Joab went back to the king in Jerusalem.

So this very wise woman went to the city elders or the town council and she said, "Look, here's what's going on. We're going to give him this guy's head or we're going to all die. This is a peaceful city and this guy has made it into a war." I would have thrown the whole guy off the wall. But I guess a head only weighs about eight pounds, it's a lot easier to take that up and throw it off. So she has very wise advice. She brokers a deal between Joab and the city council here. They throw the head off and Joab goes home, and he's happy. He went back to the king at Jerusalem.

Remember, they had been sent out. Now it wasn't really Joab that was sent out. David sent out Amasa, who didn't get the job done. Then he sent out Abishai, and it seems like Joab just pushed Abishai his brother aside, took back command of it, bumped off his competitor Amasa, and he's back in charge of the army now in spite of the fact that David had essentially removed him.

David was over Israel's entire army. Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, was over the Kerethites and Pelethites—they were like the Royal Rangers, they were like the elite forces. Adoniram was in charge of forced labor. Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, was recorder. Sheva was secretary. Zadok and Abiathar were priests, and Ira the Jairite was David's priest. So David had his own personal priest there. You remember that Zadok and Abiathar were priests that were loyal to David. And when David was run out of town and when Absalom was pretending to be king, these guys had gone back to Jerusalem and they were spies sending out information to David, who was out hiding somewhere. And so now, of course, we see that they continued to be priests.

During the reign of David, there was a famine. So now some time goes on. This next chapter here, it's not that long, but the timing of it—it's not really known for sure. As we get to the end of 2 Samuel, these last few chapters may not be chronologically in the right place. These events could have occurred earlier. It doesn't really say. Some people feel well, this happened a few years before, maybe a few years after. But at some point, all we know is it happened during the reign of David.

There was a famine for three successive years. So David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, "It is on account of Saul and his bloodstained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death." Now look, if you have a famine for one year, you figure, "Well, it's obviously El Niño," and the ocean currents are going around. And when you have a famine for two years and you think, "Well, boy, that don't happen. It's probably President Bush." Just joking now, but that's the dumb kind of thing you hear people say. Hurricanes—it's the President's fault.

So now, after three years though, you try to think here, well, what's really going on? What's the spiritual implication here? Nobody in America is asking that question, by the way. They should be. We should be asking, "What is the spiritual implication for the things that are going on in America?" It seems like a large amount of the country assumes there is no spiritual implication at all. Or if there is, well, certainly God could not be mad with America.

Here he was mad with Israel, his chosen people, because of something that happened. And this was a form of judgment. It happened three years, there was a famine for three successive years, and David thought, "I've got to ask the Lord about this. I don't know why I didn't ask the Lord sooner." I guess like I said, he never—it happens one year, you don't even think about it. It just goes to show you he was human in every sense of the word.

We could not ask God something for three years, and then we'll ask him and say, "Man, why didn't we ask the Lord that question sooner?" David finally, after three years, sought the face of the Lord and he got an answer. It just makes you wonder, what if he had sought the face of the Lord earlier? Would he have got an answer earlier? It is on account of Saul and his bloodstained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death. So the Lord is mad and unhappy about this event, which is not even mentioned in the Bible.

But we know who the Gibeonites are. They're the people 400 years ago that deceived the Jews. When the Jews were walking around in the desert, you remember the story? When Joshua was leading them and God said, "Don't make any deals. Don't make any pacts. Everybody's your enemy, exterminate them all." And these Gibeonites were nervous. Like, "Man, we're going to get wiped out here."

So they planned this elaborate deception. Now this was 400 years before. They put on the old clothes with the holes in them and they got an old carrying sack with holes in that, and they got some bread that was moldy. So they go out there with all their old clothes and they had shoes with holes in them. And they met the Jews, and the Jews said, "Who are you?" "Oh, we're from a far land." "Are you sure? We think you're from right around here."

"Oh, no, look at our shoes! We've got holes—we've been walking so long our shoes got holes in them. And see this bread here? This was fresh-baked bread. We made this in our new bread machine, and now it's got all mold on it. And this sack that we're carrying in, it was a beautiful sack. We had a lifetime guarantee from L.L. Bean, and now look at it! It's got holes in it. We've been walking for miles and days and years. We're from far away. Make a treaty with us."

And Joshua and his people said, "Are you sure?" But they never asked God. They never said, "Lord, who are these people? Should we make a treaty with them?" The Lord would have said, "They live right around the corner." And the Jews foolishly made a treaty with them, and afterwards they realized who they were and they said, "Why did you deceive us?" Well, I don't even know why they had to ask that question. That's an easy one. I would have done it too. Save your life!

Well, they made this deal, and God expected them to honor it. And so for 400 years, the Gibeonites had gotten along reasonably peacefully with the Jews. But apparently, we know that part of the story. What Saul did to them we don't know, except it's only mentioned here. But apparently, Saul decided he was mad at these people for what happened 400 years ago, or maybe he was mad at them for some other reason.

Whatever, maybe Saul was just having a bad day. But Saul wiped out a bunch of these Gibeonites, and God expected the word to be kept after 400 years. People say today, "Well, the Constitution of the United States is old and we don't need to follow it, it's 200 years old." Well, here was a promise that had been made 400 years before, and the Lord expected them to keep that promise. And Saul did not keep that promise, and eventually, that resulted in judgment on Israel.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope From the Word. We're currently in a study of 2 Samuel. 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.