2 Sam 15:1-12 TRUSTING GOD IN AN UNJUST WORLD ES 5 Feb 17 1667
Life in a sinful world will not be neat and tidy, because sin and sinful people are present. That includes us, before we know Christ.
• Over the course of the last few chapters (2 Samuel), we have seen the innocent abused, the guilty went unpunished, the decent driven to commit murder, and the one who has the power to do something good, remained silent.
• Life in a sinful world is messy. It is unsightly when we look at things from a surface level. We need to look at life from a spiritual perspective.
God is around, throughout these chapters. We know it because we have the privilege of reading history from hindsight.
• If we pay attention to what God said earlier (through prophet Nathan to David) in 2 Sam 12:10-11, “Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.' 11"This is what the LORD says: `Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you…”
• God has declared His judgement or discipline for David’s sin and it would come from within his household. God expected this. The calamity was part of God’s plan.
God is in control even in the mess we are facing in life. He will work through the darkness and lead us to the light, if we cling on to Him.
• And when we reach the light (at the end of the tunnel), we will gain a deeper understanding of God. We will come to know Him, through His dealings with us.
• Ultimately, the purpose is not a simple “remove evil” or “eradicate sin”. It is to help us see Him, know Him and therefore trust Him.
Sadly, Absalom was not able to trust God for all that was happening in his life.
• For a start, he knew little about God. Looking at the environment he was raised in, he hardly knows the God of his father David.
• Even if he has glimpses of God, this picture has been badly marred by human sin. He saw little righteousness and much injustice.
His half-brother Amnon raped his sister Tamar, and his father, the King, did nothing about it.
• Tamar came to live with him. Everyone pretended that nothing has happened, but Absalom could see “injustice” (his distraught sister) every day, in his house.
• As expected, he would eventually killed Amnon two years later, when given the chance (2 Sam 13B).
This was his way of getting justice. Someone needs to right the wrong, and he has to do it. Frankly a second wrong will not make the first one right.
• With that murder, Absalom had to flee and he fled to Geshur, his grandfather Talmai’s place.
• 13:38 says he stayed there for three years, in exile. David did not connect with him.
• Joab, the commander of David’s army and his nephew, urged him to allow Absalom to come back. He did return but…
• 14:28 “Absalom lived two years in Jerusalem without seeing the king's face.” He was not allowed into the palace and they did not interact for another two years.
When they finally met, at the end of chapter 14, after five years, the damage had been done. It wasn’t a meeting between a loving father and his forgiven son.
• Noticed throughout the account, Absalom never addresses his father as father, but the King. It was a relationship of the King and his subject.
This set the context for what happens next – 2 Sam 15:1-6. Absalom’s Conspiracy.
1 In the course of time, Absalom provided himself with a chariot and horses and with fifty men to run ahead of him. 2 He would get up early and stand by the side of the road leading to the city gate. Whenever anyone came with a complaint to be placed before the king for a decision, Absalom would call out to him, "What town are you from?" He would answer, "Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel." 3 Then Absalom would say to him, "Look, your claims are valid and proper, but there is no representative of the king to hear you." 4 And Absalom would add, "If only I were appointed judge in the land! Then everyone who has a complaint or case could come to me and I would see that he gets justice."
5 Also, whenever anyone approached him to bow down before him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him and kiss him. 6 Absalom behaved in this way toward all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
“You cannot find justice here. No one really listen to you. No one cares, even if your claims are valid and proper.”
• This sounded so familiar. It was an echo of Absalom’s own bitter frustrations over the injustice he saw in his own life.
• It is familiar too because we can identify with it. This is the same cry we have when we encounter injustice.
• Absalom has to do something. He has taken matters into his own hand in Chapter 13 when he killed Amnon; now he is going to take matters into his own hand and remove the “unjust” King!
Absalom plans to stage a coup - 2 Sam 15:7-12
7 At the end of four years, Absalom said to the king, "Let me go to Hebron and fulfill a vow I made to the LORD. 8 While your servant was living at Geshur in Aram, I made this vow: `If the LORD takes me back to Jerusalem, I will worship the LORD in Hebron.'"
9 The king said to him, "Go in peace." So he went to Hebron.
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.'" 11 Two hundred men from Jerusalem had accompanied Absalom. They had been invited as guests and went quite innocently, knowing nothing about the matter. 12 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.
Finally in 15:13, a messenger came and told David, “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.” David and his household were forced to flee from Jerusalem.
HOW DO WE DEAL WITH INJUSTICE IN OUR WORLD?
(1) There will be injustice in our world because man sins.
• We live in the midst of sin and among sinful people.
• We would love to right every wrong but we cannot possibly right every wrong.
• While fighting for justice, we are also called to make room for forgiveness, to extend mercy and grace.
• Don’t be too quick to take matters into our own hands.
(2) God will judge. He loves justice.
• In His own way and time, God will judge and His judgement will be just.
• Jer 9:24 “Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows ME, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”
• Psa 97:2 “Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.”
(3) We are incapable of true justice or understand God’s perfect judgement
• Rom 12:19 “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.”
• Why? He is the better Judge, the perfect One. We are incapable of executing perfect justice.
• Isaiah 55:9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
(4) God has His purpose. We don’t need to figure it out.
We need a get a different perspective – a much higher and eternal one.
• Life is more than just about our rights, fairness or justice; it’s about God.
• I believe God allows injustice, pain and suffering, to be a part of our lives in this world, with purpose – purpose that we oftentimes cannot comprehend.
• At the end of it all, we get to know and trust Him. This understanding comes through them and not apart from them.
• Jesus suffered unjustly, and yet achieve for us something significant and eternal.
Let me recount this story of a good man (Matt 11). Jesus says, “Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than him…” (Matt 11:11).
And yet this kind man was arrested and sent to prison. Why? Simply because he had the guts to tell King that he shouldn’t steal his brother’s wife. That was wrong and unacceptable. For this he was thrown into prison.
I don’t know how long he sat in the cell, but one day he was awakened by footsteps and then the turning of a key in the lock. Surely God has come to rescue him. He is innocent of any crime. This will be the day of his release.
But NO. It did not happen. They had come for his head.
This man is John the Baptist.
We expect God to intervene. After all, Jesus has said that there wasn’t a greater prophet on earth than John the Baptist!
• But God didn’t. It is difficult for us to accept. Injustice makes us angry.
• We do not have all the answers, but we can still TRUST Him.
• We will never fully understand the injustice we see today, but we can trust Him.
Jeremiah 9:24
“Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows ME, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”
