Sound of Faith

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Greetings friends and new listeners and welcome to the Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. If you've been listening to our message "The Ripple Effect of David's Sin," you know it is a real page turner, and today we will continue with the second part of the story that deals with the third judgment David's sin brought upon his family. The sword will never depart from your house. Today in "The Ripple Effect of David's Sin, Part 2."

R. G. Hardy: Two years later now, all this time hatred and vengeance is brewing in Absalom's heart, and he came up with a plot. He wanted Amnon dead. He wanted to kill him. He didn't want just a slap on the wrist. So, he decided to come up with a plot and he went to his father, King David, and he asked him, "Would you come and join me and my men as we go out into the fields to shear our sheep?" Remember, David was a shepherd at one time and he no doubt loved that that he grew up doing. So, this would have been a good father-son outing, and he said, "Daddy, would you come out with me and my men?"

And David said, "No, I'm sorry, son. I can't come." Absalom knew his father would say no. He knew that he would say no. He wanted him to say no. Because then he said, "Well, Father, if you can't come, let Amnon, my brother, come." And when he said that, David must have felt a pang in his spirit. He should have felt a pang in his spirit. Red flag! Red flag alert! Because he knew the animosity between the two brothers. And when he had this hesitation, Absalom discerned his father's hesitation of allowing Amnon to come and he quickly followed up and said, "How about if all my brothers come? Let all my brothers come to the shearing."

And so David, even though he had this in his heart, even though he knew that there was a possibility of bad stuff between the brothers, he did not follow through. He said, "Okay, fine. They all can come." And he allowed them all to go to this shearing event. Whenever they would shear sheep, afterwards, they would have a big celebration, a big dinner. It's a big job shearing all them sheep, and afterwards, they would all have a celebration, and there would be food and all this going on. It'd be like a party.

And so they all came, all the king's sons. And Absalom told his own servants, he said, "Watch Amnon, and when he is really getting happy with wine, when he's drinking and getting drunk, kill him! Kill him!" He said, "Smite Amnon!" and this is what he told him. "Don't be afraid. Be courageous and valiant and kill him!" And you know what? That's exactly what they did. At the celebration, the party was going on, Amnon—who would have been probably the cocky guy anyway—and he was good and drunk, and the servants obeyed Absalom's command and they killed him.

Well, when they killed him, all the other brothers were out of here! They all ran for the hills. They all cleared out in a hurry. They went out and jumped on their mules and they high-tailed it back to Jerusalem because they didn't know if all of them were going to get killed. They didn't see it coming. Two years had elapsed. But someone ran ahead and got to David and told David, "Oh, all of your sons are dead. They all are killed. Absalom has killed all of your sons. There is not one left."

You can't even imagine. You can try, but you can't imagine how that must have hit David. Oh, yeah, he had lost a baby one time and that almost devastated him. But now to have all of his sons dead? All of them? He was absolutely grief-stricken. He was in shock. He ripped off his robes and he lay on the ground with his face in the dirt. And along comes his nephew Jonadab, that same one that advised Amnon to do what he did to Tamar. He came along and said, "Oh, King, oh, King, it's not that bad. No, it's not true. All your sons are not dead. Only Amnon is dead, and Absalom killed him because of what he did to Tamar."

Now let's look at verse 37: "But Absalom fled and went to Talmai the son of Ammihud, king of Geshur. And David mourned for his son every day. So Absalom fled and went to Geshur and was there three years. And the soul of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom, for he was comforted"—or he had gotten through the grief process concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead. So, Absalom, of course, had to flee because he had killed Amnon, the heir to the throne. And he fled to King Geshur.

Now I did a little research and I found out that this king was his grandfather. He was the father of one of David's wives. And so it's a very small kingdom that existed. It was in the area that the tribe of Manasseh was to inherit. And remember when they went in with Joshua, that they were told that you're supposed to conquer all the people and take over the land. But this was a small area that they had never conquered, and it continued to be a kingdom. And so he fled there because that was his grandfather. He was there for three years.

But we look at verse 39 and we see that in spite of the fact that Absalom had done in killing his brother Amnon, that David loved this kid. He loved this boy. And he had to accept that Amnon was gone and he had worked through the grief process of losing that boy. And even though Absalom had done it, in his heart of hearts, David knew it was his fault. Number one: the sword shall never depart your family. This is the first victim. The ripple effect is now going out. Another ripple. The prophecy is now starting to be fulfilled. Starting. Because he said will never depart.

So David knew in his heart of hearts that this was that prophecy coming to pass. And then number two: he had failed to do anything when Amnon raped his daughter. Where was his love and concern for that girl? Why didn't he do something against Amnon? I'm not saying he should have put him to death, but I'm saying he should have done something, not let him go on with his cocky self thinking he got away with it. Because he'll just do it to somebody else! If he would do it to his sister, he would do it to anybody else he lusted after! If he was brazen enough to do it to his own sister, nothing would have stopped him or prevented him from going after another young girl that he thought was very beautiful because he had lust burning in his loins.

Amen! David had failed to discipline him and allowed that bitterness and vengeance to burn in the heart of Absalom, and David knew it. He knew why Absalom had done it. And so he longed for his son. He longed, it says, to go forth to Absalom, but he didn't. He didn't! It's now been five years altogether. Remember, two years before Absalom finally killed Amnon, and now he has been three years living in Geshur with his grandfather. And David wanted to get Absalom back into favor, but he did nothing about it.

So now Joab decides something's got to be done about this situation. I've got to do something to get Absalom and David back together again because he saw that David was pining for his son and lonely for his son. So, this is the plot he came up with. I'm going to paraphrase this because it's chapter 14, but we can't do all this reading. So, he went for a wise woman and he coached her what to do. He told her to go before King David and ask for his help in a family crisis that she had.

He said, "I want you to go, I want you to look like you've been mourning for a long time. So, look frazzled, don't fix yourself up, don't put any oil on your face. Look like a mother who is brokenhearted in mourning for her child. And go and tell him, 'I am a widow of two sons. I'm a widow, I had two sons, and one day my sons were out in the field fighting with one another.'" This is a very important thing she said: "And there was no one there to break them up."

See, she wants David to see the things the way she saw it. Because even though they were fighting and now one son kills the other son, she says somebody should have been there to stop them from fighting; it wouldn't have gone that far. That's what this mother was saying to David. So she said there was no one there to stop them and break them up, and so one son killed the other. "Now my whole family is against me. They want me to deliver my living son up to be killed for murdering his brother." She says, "But I just can't do that. If I do that, I will be all alone. I will be a widow with no children to help me. And my husband's name and inheritance will be lost because it could only go from father to son."

There were no more children, there were no sons, and she would not be able to inherit. It had to go to the son. She says, "My husband's name and his inheritance will be lost because there'll be no son to inherit." David was very moved by her, and he promised to protect her from the avengers of blood. He said, "Not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground." If you've ever wondered where that's in the Bible, and you might have been prone to look for it in the New Testament and you'll find things that are very close to it, like God numbers all the hairs on your head... but here David said to this mama, "Not one hair of your son's head shall fall to the ground. I will make sure that he is safe and that he is protected. And you go home now, and if anybody gives you any trouble, I will send someone to straighten it out."

She's ready to go out the door. She's done everything that Joab told her. She played the part well, and David believed everything she said. He said, "Okay." And then she turned and said, "Oh, King, may I speak one more thing to you?" And he said, "Okay, say on what?" So then she said, "What have you done against Israel when you have not sent for your son to bring him home again?" Let's look at verse 14 of chapter 14: "For we must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Neither does God respect any person; yet does He devise means that His banished be not expelled from Him."

What was she saying? She was saying, if God Himself does things to bring His wayward sons and daughters back to Him, the wayward children of God, God will devise some way that if they want to come back, they can come back. Even in the Old Testament, if they want to come back, they can come back. We saw that last week when we read Psalm 51, when David prayed after Nathan said, "You're the man," and told him what he had done. And so this woman was reasoning with him. She was saying, "Don't you think you ought to bring your son home?"

And David said, "Did Joab put you up to this?" And she said, "Yes, he did. He put me up to it and he put the words in my mouth." And it worked. David called for Joab and told him to bring Absalom back to Jerusalem to his house. Let's look at verse 24: "And the king said, 'Let him turn to his own house and let him not see my face.' So Absalom returned to his own house and saw not the king's face." Now here we have David not handling it the way he should have. Okay, he gave in. He said, "You can come back from Geshur up there in the north. Come on back to Jerusalem, go back to your house."

Absalom had his own house. He was married and had children. He said, "You can come back to your own house, but you can't come to the palace. I don't want to see your face." So, what kind of reconciliation was that for him? Amen! So he does come back. He probably thinks, "I'll come back and little by little, we'll work it out. Little by little, we'll get there. It's not going to be easy, but we can get there and things will be mended between me and my father." Two whole years went by and David had done nothing to try to reconcile with Absalom. Just let it go as it was.

And meanwhile, during those two years, Absalom became very popular with the people in Jerusalem. Let's look at verse 25: "But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him." I mean, this guy had Hollywood looks. Amen! He was something to look at. You know, I won't read it, but it goes on to tell you that he would get a haircut once a year. Once a year he would get a haircut, and when he got a haircut, they would weigh the hair and it weighed seven pounds!

Now you know that's a lot of hair. Not so much how long it was. On average, your hair grows a half an inch a month. So, it's not like it was going to be down to his knees or anything. It shows you how thick it was, how dense it was. Amen! It was thick and coarse and beautiful. He was really a handsome man. So Absalom wanted Joab to go to his father the king and tell him, "I want to see you." So he sent a messenger to go to Joab and say, "Joab, Absalom wants you to go to the king for him and try to set up some kind of face-to-face meeting."

Joab totally ignored him. Joab didn't even answer him at all. So Absalom sent a second message and said, "Joab, please, Absalom wants you to go to the king and see if you can set up a meeting for us." And the second time Absalom didn't bother to answer him at all, just ignored him. So Absalom went to one of his servants. He said, "Go out to that field because Joab's fields and Absalom's fields butted one another." He said, "Go to his barley field and set it on fire!" And he set it on fire, and you know what happened.

Joab came running to Absalom's house and said, "What did you do that for? Why have you set my field on fire?" And Absalom said, "To get your attention!" You know back in the day, back in the day when I was growing up at Faith Tabernacle, William Street, we had many a preacher preach that sermon: "He will set your fields on fire if sin is your desire!" Amen! We had messages that told us if you ignore God when He's coming after you, if you ignore the word of the Lord, if you ignore His messengers, if you will not heed God, if you will not consider what He says to you and go on your own way, He will set your fields on fire!

Amen! Yeah, people don't preach like that anymore. They don't preach those kind of messages anymore. Amen! But I'll tell you what, it sent many a person to the altar. Sent many a person to a altar. Even if they weren't sure, they were going to make sure! I went to the altar many times growing up, many times I went to the altar. And some people say, "Well, that's wrong. You shouldn't try to scare people to come to the altar." Well, the scripture says in Jude: "On some have compassion, making a difference. Others save by fear, snatching them out of the fire, hating even the garments stained by the flesh."

So, yeah, it's okay to scare people out of hell! Scare them out of hell! If that's what it takes, scare them out of hell! They'll thank you! They'll thank you! Amen! So, needless to say, Joab set up a meeting and he went to the king. Amen! Let's look at verse 32: "And Absalom answered Joab, 'Because I sent unto you, saying, Come hither, that I may send you to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? It had been good for me to have been there still. Now therefore, let me see the king's face; and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me.'"

So Absalom said, "I'm sorry about your field, bro, but that was the only way I could get your attention. And here's the thing: I want to settle this matter once and for all. I don't want to live the rest of my life in limbo. I want to get it settled. I want to see the king. And if there's iniquity in me, if I was wrong to avenge my sister's rape when nobody else, no one else would even discipline Amnon with so much as a word..." The scripture said that David spoke neither bad nor good, and Absalom neither bad nor good because he didn't have the authority. He said, "If there's iniquity in me, then let the king kill me."

Verse 33: "So Joab came to the king and told him; and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king; and the king kissed Absalom." Do you see any tears of joy? Do you see any hugs and tears and "Oh, my son, I missed you so much"? No, a polite kiss. Just the protocol. You know, the Eastern kiss on the cheek. There's nothing to it, it's just politeness. There was no real healing there. David did it, but there was something in David's heart as much as he loved that boy and longed for him.

There was something in him that he did not truly open up and let there be healing. So, what do you think that did? Absalom said, "Okay, so I finally get to see my father after I've been hanging around here for two years." Because he said to Joab, "I should have just stayed up there in Geshur. What did I come here for, to come here and my father still refuses to see me? I should have stayed there." Now here he is, and nothing's changed. Now he gets to see his father and maybe he thinks now we can go forward from here. But he couldn't because his father just gave him a polite kiss and that was that.

And now all of this bitterness and anger that's been boiling in his heart because he had to go in exile all that time, and no one has ever stood up for his sister but him, is boiling over. And he believes he's never, ever going to actually be in his father's favor again. So, he goes to work against his father to undermine his father's authority and favor with the people. So, he would go out in the city where people were standing in line, waiting to get into the palace to see the king or one of the king's men and to tell them their problem, like that woman that Joab sent.

People had problems. They needed someone to advise them, and in some cases, they needed someone legally to intervene on their behalf. So, he went where he saw the people waiting to get in to see the king. And he began to mingle with the people. And he began to tell them, "There's nobody in the palace that's going to help you. The king is not going to help your case. He won't do anything for you... but I will. I'll help you. I'll give you counsel." So, he went amongst the people doing that. Let's look now at chapter 15 and verse 4.

Absalom said, moreover, talking to the people, "Oh, that I were made judge in the land, that every man which has any suit or any cause might come unto me, and I would do him justice." Hmm. Undermining with discord, sowing discord amongst the people. "If I were the judge, you'd get treated better. If I were the judge, I would work on your behalf." Verse 5: "And it was so, that when any man came nigh to him to do him obeisance"—that would be to bow down before him—"he put forth his hand and took him and kissed him." Ah, he was now acting like the king.

Someone would come and bow before him, he would take their hand and... that's what the king would have done. Amen! Verse 6: "And on this manner did Absalom to all Israel that came to the king for judgment." Listen to this: "So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel." He stole their hearts with discord and flattery. And then after he had stolen their hearts and a lot of people now were on his side, he began to go forth amongst the men and gather men to join his little group. They didn't know, they didn't realize he was trying to amass an army. They didn't realize it. They were just glad to be a part to help him.

And then he sent for Ahithophel, who was one of David's main counselors, to join him. And Ahithophel joined him in conspiracy against David. If you were here last week, you know who Ahithophel is. Bathsheba's grandfather. He was the one that told Absalom, "Take all the women that were left behind, the wives that were left behind and go up on the rooftop and have sex with them in the sunshine before everyone." And we asked ourselves last week, why in the world would Ahithophel tell Absalom to do something so vile? And the answer is, he was Bathsheba's grandfather.

So, now he's still got this in his spirit because now he joins Absalom in a conspiracy against David. Let's look at verse 12: "And Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from the city, even from Giloh, while he offered sacrifices." He was praying. He was actually in the middle of prayer. "And the conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom. And there came a messenger to David saying, The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom." And listen to what David did.

And David said unto all his servants that were with him at Jerusalem, he said, "Arise, and let us flee; for we shall not else escape from Absalom. Make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly and bring evil upon us and smite the city with the edge of the sword." So, when they came to tell David that you're in trouble because the hearts of the people now Absalom has successfully won them over, and their heart is with him to make him king. So David said to his men, "Pack up." He said to his wives, "Pack up." He only left ten behind to keep the house. "Pack up, we're going to flee the city."

Why did he do that? Because he did not want a confrontation with Absalom and his men, because he knew if they did have a confrontation, many people in the city would die. Isn't that what he said, "lest he smite the city with the edge of the sword"? To spare a civil war in Jerusalem with many innocent people dying, he said, "Nope, we'll just leave. We'll pack up and we'll go." And so that's what they did. They packed up and they left. If we read verse 31, he was later told: "One told David saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. And David said, O Lord, I pray you, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness."

Sharon Hardy Knotts: Amen. What a comprehensive look at the life and influence of one of God's choice servants, King David, whom God had said "is a man after my own heart". In Part 1 of "The Ripple Effect of David's Sin", we saw that the cover-up he concocted was worse than his original sin of adultery, and its collateral damage was widespread and tragic. Likewise, his judgment was swift and terrible. The child born of adultery died, ten of his concubines were publicly molested by his own son, who tried to steal his throne, and today in Part 2, we are following the trail of death in the final part of his judgment: "The sword will never depart from your house."

This is a multifaceted story, rich with nuances and nuggets. So, to order on CD, request SK-207 and send a minimum love gift of $10 for our radio ministry to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, or order from our e-store at soundoffaith.org, where you can also order on MP3s. But to order "The Ripple Effect of David's Sin, Part 2" by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203 and request SK-207.

If you would like to order Part 1 as well, add $10 and request SK-206. That's $20 for both SK-206 Part 1 and SK-207 Part 2. Until next time, this is Sharon Knotts saying, Maranatha.