DAVID’S OTHER SIN
2 SAMUEL 16:5-14
2 SAMUEL 19:14-23
1 KINGS 2:1-12
INTRODUCTION
I would like to tell you a story this morning. The story is a Biblical story that can be found in 2 Samuel 16, 2 Samuel 19, and 1 Kings 2. Actually, each of those chapters corresponds to an episode of the story. The story revolves around the ‘other sin’ of King David. If I were to ask you the defining sin of David’s life, what would you say? I am sure it would have to do with Bathsheba and adultery and murder (2 Samuel 11). We think of David’s life and immediately spot that time in David’s life as his sin. However, there is another sin of David recorded in the Bible that we do not seem to remember or catch and it is that story that I would like to share with you today.
SEGMENTED BIBLICAL NARRATIVE PART 1 OF 3 (2 Samuel 16:5-14)
The time in which we find this first episode of David’s life is a time after Saul and Jonathan are killed and David becomes king. David is the one that God chose to be king and did so through the prophet Samuel. David was the Lord’s anointed and was to be the earthly king. It was not any easy road. David’s son Absalom has conspired against him and instead of killing his son; David chooses to leave Jerusalem. It is in that moment of fleeing Jerusalem that David meets Shimei.
2 Samuel 16 describes the episode in great detail. David was fleeing with some of his men, when he is assaulted both verbally and physically by a man named Shimei. Shimei was of the same clan as Saul and Jonathan and was furious with David. The Bible says that he, “cursed as he came out” (2 Samuel 16:5). He was angry. Verse six of this chapter tells us that as Shimei cursed David that he threw stones and hit the king, the king’s guard, and those with him. He called the king “a man of blood” and a “scoundrel.”
One of David’s companions was not about to take this kind of treatment and asked the king (2 Samuel 16:9), “Let me go over and cut off his head!” Drastic! The king should not be treated in this way! David did not allow his companion to kill Shimei. David had so many other things to worry about. His mind and his spirit was in turmoil. David did not know if the Lord sent Shimei to pronounce the curse upon him. Not only that, his own son was out to kill him! He had other more pressing issues than this man following them and pelting them with stones and “showering them with dirt” (2 Samuel 16:13).
REFLECTION
What is a scoundrel? A dictionary would tell us that a scoundrel is a mean person or a villain. A scoundrel is someone without morals or values or virtues. In a love story, a scoundrel is the guy trying to get between the hero and his one true love. A scoundrel is the outlaw who steals away the treasure.
I do not think that we would put King David in any of those descriptions. David may have made his mistakes, but it certainly was not his lifestyle. Shimei did not seem to care. He was angry. Saul should still be on the throne! David was in the way and Shimei attacked him. Shimei attacked him with words and Shimei attacked him with rocks.
Has that every happened to you? I do not mean that someone comes along and tries to pelt you with stones... but I mean... have you ever been attacked?
* Maybe someone attacked you verbally. Perhaps they attacked you character or your family or something you had done. Whatever it was, you felt attacked by their words.
* Maybe someone attacked you physically. Perhaps you suffered abuse at the hands of someone you knew or someone who was a stranger. Perhaps you were in some kind of incident that was caused by someone either on accident or on purpose.
* Maybe someone attacked you spiritually. Perhaps they ridiculed your faith or belittled God in front of you in some way. Perhaps they intentionally tried to lead you into sin.
Has that ever happened to you? I am sure that someone at some point has attacked you. You are thinking of the situation in your mind right now. The picture of that person’s face just flashed. The memory has just resurfaced. We all have had something happen to us that allows us to identify with David.
SEGMENTED BIBLICAL NARRATIVE PART 2 OF 3 (2 Samuel 19:14-23)
Absalom, David’s son, was eventually killed and David began to travel back to Jerusalem to retake the throne in Jerusalem. It was an extremely sad time in David’s life. David mourned deeply for his son even though Absalom had threatened his life.
David is returning to Jerusalem when he meets Shimei again. Verse 16 of 2 Samuel 19 tells us that Shimei went with the men of Judah to meet the king as he crossed the Jordan River on his way back to Jerusalem. The group of people who were to meet the king did could not wait for the king and crossed the Jordan River to meet David and those who were with him. Shimei crossed as well.
2 Samuel 19:18-20 records, “When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he fell prostrate before the king and said to him, "May my lord not hold me guilty. Do not remember how your servant did wrong on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king put it out of his mind. For I your servant know that I have sinned, but today I have come here as the first of the whole house of Joseph to come down and meet my lord the king." What had Shimei just done? Shimei had apologized and asked for forgiveness. Shimei is laying in humbleness before the king and asking for forgiveness for his previous verbal and physical attacks. The same guy who wanted to cut off his head before wanted again to kill him. This man cursed the Lord’s anointed and should be punished. What did David do?
David tells Shimei, “You shall not die” (2 Samuel 19:23). What did David do? David forgave Shimei. David forgave Shimei very quickly. David released Shimei from any guilt that he may have felt and any worry that David would punish him in some way.
REFLECTION
What does it take to forgive someone? How long does it take to forgive someone? Is there some kind of process of forgiving or healing broken relationships?
One of the elements of forgiveness is the ability to lay aside the wrong. When we forgive someone, we are making a promise not to hold the person accountable for their sin against us. The guilt that we want to punish them with must be put away. It means that when we look at them, we will not curse them under our breath or hate them in secret. Forgiveness is the laying aside of the wrong.
Another element of forgiveness is a restoring of the relationship. Something has happened or been said that creates a rift between people. This rift must be healed. The chasm must be filled in. The potholes of the relationship must be filled and smoothed. The biblical word for “restore” means ‘to completely repair’ or it also can mean ‘to make perfect with patience and perseverance.’ Forgiveness is the restoring of a relationship.
Shimei came to David and did what he needed to do. I look at Shimei’s body language and I judge him to be sincere. I look at Shimei’s language and I see humbleness, respect, and sorrow in the words that he used. I do not know the tone of his voice, but I can project that he was regretful in tone as well. David takes an oath that Shimei will not be harmed. Forgiveness has taken place. Or has it?
SEGMENTED BIBLICAL NARRATIVE PART 3 OF 3 (1 Kings 2:1-12)
I want to fast-forward now to the deathbed of King David that takes place many years in the future. David knew that his time on Earth was growing short. He called his son Solomon to him. Solomon would be king after David. David gives a charge to Solomon. David encourages Solomon to walk in the way of the Lord and to keep the commandments. David reminds Solomon of the promises of God and the covenant that was established between the House of David and God. David then mentions some unfinished business that he wanted Solomon to finish for him. I want you to listen to verses 8-9 of 1 Kings 2: “And remember, you have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who called down bitter curses on me the day I went to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the LORD : ’I will not put you to death by the sword.’ But now, do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood.”
REFLECTION
What?! I thought David forgave Shimei? Didn’t he? I look at those verses that were recorded at the end of David’s life and I realize something about David. He held a grudge for all those years. He held on to the ill feelings. He ran through being pelted with stones and being verbally cursed over and over in his mind. He had not let it go. He had not really restored the relationship. He had not forgiven Shimei and wanted Solomon to kill him.
ILLUSTRATION... Corrie Ten Boom and forgiveness
Corrie Ten Boom told of not being able to forget a wrong that had been done to her. She had forgiven the person, but she kept rehashing the incident and so couldn’t sleep. Finally Corrie cried out to God for help in putting the problem to rest.
“His help came in the form of a kindly Lutheran pastor,” Corrie wrote, “to whom I confessed my failure after two sleepless weeks.” “Up in the church tower,” he said, nodding out the window, “is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. But you know what? After the sexton lets go of the rope, the bell keeps on swinging. First ding, then dong. Slower and slower until there’s a final dong and it stops. I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness. When we forgive, we take our hand off the rope. But if we’ve been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn’t be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while. They’re just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down.”
“And so it proved to be. There were a few more midnight reverberations, a couple of dings when the subject came up in my conversations, but the force—which was my willingness in the matter—had gone out of them. They came less and less often and at the last stopped altogether: we can trust God not only above our emotions, but also above our thoughts.”
Forgiveness is very hard and is not an easy thing to do. Chances are... if you have easily forgiven someone for a serious sin done against you; you probably have not truly forgiven them. Especially in relationships tense with past troubles. There may be humiliation or distrust that needs to be addressed. Did David deal with these things? Forgiveness often hurts. Forgiveness hurts when we must forgive someone who may not deserve it or when we fear of being hurt in the exact same way again. Did David deal with these hurts? I think David swept it all under the carpet and held on to the grudge.
ILLUSTRATION... David Augsburger, Cherishable: Love and Marriage, 141-144.
It costs to forgive...Stated psychologically, forgiveness takes place when the person who was offended and justly angered by the offender bears his own anger, and lets the other go free. Anger cannot be ignored, denied, or forgotten without doing treachery in hidden ways. It must be dealt with responsibly, honestly, in a decisive act of the will. Either the injured and justifiably angry person vents his feelings on the other in retaliation—(That is an attempt at achieving justice as accuser, judge, and hangman all in one)—or the injured person may choose to accept his angry feelings, bear the burden of them personally, find release through confession and prayer and set the other person free. This is forgiveness.
CONCLUSION
