A Broken Father
II Samuel 18:1-19:8
March 4, 2001

Event:  Decisive battle to settle kingship.  Not a protracted war, but a vicious, costly

(20,000 men) conflict between brothers, cousins, uncles, and friends.  War is nasty business, especially when it involves relatives and friends as enemies.

Issue:  Absalom usurped his father's throne; he was in rebellion against God's anointed. 

In his selfishness and ruthless ambition he was willing to expend lives to reach his goal.  David was spinning his wheels, biding his time to see what might unfold; he is uncharacteristically indecisive. 

Personalities:

Absalom - David's second son, rebel, self-proclaimed king, immoral.  No words

        spoken in text.  An expectation of victory.  Fleeing from his pursuers. 

Joab - dominates the narrative, defies David's orders, barks instructions, takes

decisive action, utters threat to David along with warning.

Ahimaaz - Previously engaged in secret agent work, now wanting to deliver the

victory news to David.  When he arrives he shrinks from the whole truth.  He sees that the king doesn't want his good news.  He watches the helpless king with no comfort to offer.

Cushite - a Sudanese or Nabatean; cool under fire; delivers cryptic message that

brought David low.

            David - The pitiful king; only a shell of the triumphant general, king, and man of

God he had been; seized with guilt over his failure as a husband, father, king, as well as spiritual leader.  The conflict underway would not have happened if David had exercised restraint.  David may be a macrocosm of our lives when we give way to sin, indulge our fleshly desires, cast care to the wind.

            Yahweh:  Mentioned only as the ultimate course of Israel's victory - v. 19, 28,

31, and in Joab's rebuke 19:7.  No word from God verbally but action from Him throughout. 

 

I. Ironies that show confusion wrought by sin

-         A son usurping his father's throne; a father defending himself against his son

-         A king wanting to reclaim him throne, a rebel the king is unwilling to topple

-         A general clearly commanded to restrain, restraint by general nowhere in sight

-         A messenger eager to deliver news

-         A messenger realizing his news is ill-received

-         Troops out to win a war, troops in disfavor for the enemy

-         The kingdom is finally safe, the king is uncontrollably sad

 

II. Lessons gleaned from the painful story

1.      God's decrees are sure

This seems to be the chief truth the ancient writer sets forth.  12:10 - sword shall never depart; 17:14 - the Lord intends calamity on Absalom.

2.      Neglected discipline dogs our steps

- No discipline of his passions

- No discipline on Amnon

- No discipline on Absalom

            - WAR results, lives are lost           

                        - I Timothy 4:6-11 - discipline for godliness

3.      Guilt inflames grief

"David knew that his sin had set the sword loose in his household.  David was the guilty one yet Absalom suffers the consequence of David's guilt (this does not negate Absalom's own guilt)" (Davis 193).  He points this out as a restraint against sin (I John 2).  David cleaned up his morals but neglected his fatherly role.  This only added to his grief.

4.      Grief must give way to gratitude

             18:33-19:4 David loses sight of everyone else in his grief.  His grief was  

      overconsuming.  Grief is proper and effective in helping us cope with loss.  It  

      is normal.  David would have been abnormal not to grieve.  But he went to the

     other direction by failing to move from grief to gratitude.  Joab's quick action

     saved David's throne.

 

I Thessalonians 4

            Sorrow, but not as those who have no hope

Sorrow, but know that as a believer the day will come when the Lord

wipes every tear from your eyes,

            Sorrow will be swallowed up in the full revelation of Christ's kingdom for

eternity.

This is why grief must give way to gratitude:

- There is hope ahead

- You are being conformed to the image of God's son.

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