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The Blindness of Bitterness |
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Written by Pastor Darrell Cooper
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Monday, 20 April 2009 16:17 |
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2 Samuel 15:1-14
April 19, 2009 - Lindsborg Cov.
“The Blindness of Bitterness”
(Bitterness)
Sermon
(Entering stage right from the SW door)
(In an anguished voice) Do you hear that? It is disturbing, isn’t it? He is, well . . . he is inconsolable! I have never seen a man grieve that way before. It is a horrible thing to see. (Pause, looking up, puzzled expression)
The king! (Pause, impatiently) King David! Wait, you are not from Jerusalem, are you? You know nothing about the events of these past days? Treachery, I tell you! It is nothing short of treason!
Forgive me! Where are my manners? My name is Jonadab, son of Shimeah. That man you hear wailing in the next room is my uncle, the King of Israel.
He was not always king, of course. In fact, just a couple generations ago there was no king in Israel. If you think things are bad now, you should hear the stories my grandfather, Jesse, tells of the time of the judges.
Where do I begin? Israel wanted a king. God warned us what would happen if we chose a man to rule over us, that he would take our livestock, our crops, our fields and vineyards, even our sons to serve in his army and our daughters to be his maidservants. But we would not listen. We wanted to be like all the other nations around us. We wanted a king.
So, God gave us what we thought we wanted. He anointed our first king, from the tribe of Benjamin. Saul was, well, you could say he was tall, dark, and handsome. He was also a strong warrior. He had much potential, but his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord, so God rejected Saul as king. He tore the throne from the tribe of Benjamin and gave it to the tribe of Judah. It was my tribe that was chosen, and my father’s family as well. But although my father was older, taller, and stronger, the prophet Samuel said God had not chosen my father. Instead, He had chosen his kid brother, David.
Even though David was anointed king when he was just a boy, it would be years before he would assume the throne. In the meantime, Saul became more and more jealous of David because he proved to be a far better warrior than Saul, and more popular with the people as well, especially with the ladies! Saul became increasingly paranoid and spent years trying desperately to kill David. He nearly succeeded on several occasions, but God protected my uncle and he narrowly escaped with his life.
David never retaliated. Not once. On at least two occasions the Lord delivered Saul into my uncle’s hands and David could have easily dispatched him, but David is not that kind of man. He fears God and has a deep respect for the Lord’s anointed. David remained Saul’s loyal servant until the day Saul and his sons all fell together on the battlefield. David wept bitterly that day too. It seems that David is forever weeping over the death of his enemies.
But I am getting ahead of myself. This whole mess began about 15 years ago, and it began with David.
The army of Israel was off fighting the Ammonites, but David had stayed behind in the palace. Perhaps this was because in a previous battle David had barely escaped with his life and his generals, in an attempt to protect the king, discouraged him from going into battle with his army.
One evening, David couldn’t sleep. He got up from his bed and took a walk up on the roof of his palace. While he was strolling around up there he looked down into a private courtyard nearby and saw a woman bathing - a beautiful woman. David was so struck by her stunning beauty that he sent an inquiry to discover the identity of this woman. “Bathsheba”, he was told.
Ah, Bathsheba. David knew exactly who she was. Her grandfather, Ahithophel, happened to be his wisest and most trusted personal advisor. Her husband, Uriah, was one of his greatest soldiers, one of his 30 mighty men. But Uriah was away at war, and he had left his wife at home alone, now bathing below him.
David summoned Bathsheba and took her to bed with him. He thought no one would ever know. He reasoned that no one would ever find out. And perhaps no one would have, if it were not for the fact that Bathsheba became pregnant that very night. When news reached David that she was with child, he panicked. Uriah had been away for months, so as soon as Bathsheba began to show everyone would know that she had committed adultery. And, if the rumors flew, David could become a prime suspect. So, out of fear for her life and his reputation, he tried to cover it up.
He summoned Uriah home from the army on the pretext of hearing a status report about the war. His real motive, of course, was that he hoped Uriah would spend the night with his wife before returning to the front lines. This way, when Bathsheba turned up pregnant everyone would assume it was a legitimate child. But David underestimated Uriah. Uriah was a man of honor and refused to sleep with his wife when his fellow soldiers were still in danger and sleeping out in the field.
So, David went to plan B. He sent Uriah back to the battlefield with secret orders to general Joab to make sure Uriah died in the next battle. Joab did David’s dirty work for him and as soon as the funeral was over David took Bathsheba into his house as his wife. A few months later she gave birth to his son.
The prophet Nathan confronted David, rebuking him for stealing Bathsheba and killing Uriah. David was a broken man. He confessed his sin and turned away from it, but it was too late. An innocent man had already died, and now his innocent child would die as well. Nathan also prophesied that because of David’s sin, a curse would be upon his household so that there would always be someone in his family who would be killed by the sword.
That dreadful prophesy has come to pass again today.
Not long after that, my cousin and good friend, Amnon, began to get sick. One day I finally asked him what was wrong, and he told me that he was in love with his half-sister, Tamar. He wanted to sleep with her, but he could not because she was a virgin princess, and as such, was carefully guarded at all times.
So, I devised a plan to help Amnon bed his sister. I told Amnon to pretend to be sick, and when the king came to visit him he should request that Tamar be sent to his house to care for him in his bedroom. The king granted his request and sent Tamar. When she arrived Amnon confessed his love for her and his intentions. Shocked, she refused to go to bed with him. So, he viciously attacked her and brutally raped her.
When he was through with her his hatred for her outstripped even his lust for her. He absolutely despised her, so he kicked her out of his house and bolted the door behind her. The woman he shut out is now a desolate woman. No one will ever want to marry her now because she is damaged goods. Her other brother, Absalom, took her into his home and that is where she will live out the rest of her days and dies a lonely, miserable spinster.
Absalom hated his brother for the way he had dishonored his sister and vowed to kill him. But he had another motive as well. Amnon’s highest ambition in life was to get into bed. Absalom, on the other hand, had much higher ambitions. His goal was to get on the throne. But he had a problem. Amnon was the crown prince, so when Amnon raped his sister, Absalom saw it as a golden opportunity and he seized it.
When David found out what Amnon had done to Tamar, he was furious, but not furious enough to actually do something about it. Nothing was said. Nothing was done. The whole thing was simply swept under the rug and everyone tried to forget about it. Everyone, that is, except Tamar and her brother, Absalom.
Two years passed. Absalom finally saw his opportunity for revenge. It was sheep sheering time, so Absalom threw a party and invited all his brothers to join him, especially Amnon. When Amnon was half drunk with wine, Absalom had him killed. When the other princes saw their brother slain, they fled for their lives and reported back to the King. Once again, David was left to weep for his dead son.
Absalom, knowing he was in trouble, fled for his life. He stayed for three years in Geshur, waiting for the heat to blow over. David eventually came to terms with his grief over Amnon and even began to miss Absalom. Joab, encouraged him to bring Absalom back to Jerusalem. They reached something of a compromise. Absalom was indeed permitted to return to Jerusalem but he was forbidden access to the king.
This standoff went on for two years. Finally, Absalom requested an audience with the king. The request was granted. What followed was something akin to reconciliation. Or so it seemed.
This is when Absalom’s plot got into full swing. Now that the crown prince was dead, Absalom might be next in line for the throne. But he was not content to wait. Unlike his father, Absalom did not trust God. He did not trust His will or His timing. He set about his plan to execute a coup that would dethrone his father.
His strategy was three-fold. First, he provided himself with a chariot and horses and 50 men to run ahead of him. This was an entourage fitting a king. He was already asserting himself as royalty.
Second, he would get up early each morning and station himself outside the city gate. When citizens came into Jerusalem seeking audience with the king in order to settle their disputes, he would intercept them and deceive them. He would tell them that their claims were proper valid, but the king would not take the time to listen to them. In fact, there was no one to listen to them, no one, except Absalom. He would then feign interest in their concerns and wish out loud that he would be appointed a judge in Israel so at least the people could get justice. Then he would turn them away empty handed, disappointed, disillusioned, even angry with the king but grateful to Absalom.
The third thing he did was to greet everyone as if they were already close friends. He spent his day kissing babies and glad handing everyone he met. It didn’t hurt that Absalom was considered the most handsome man in all Israel. His deceitful charisma charmed the men and his long, beautiful hair made the women swoon.
After four years of this, he had become immensely popular in Israel. The hearts of the people were with him and many had come to resent David. Absalom seized his chance.
He sent secret messengers to his supporters throughout Israel asking them to declare him king when they heard trumpets in Hebron. He recruited two hundred men to follow him to Hebron, telling them nothing of his real plans. He also recruited Ahithophel, David’s wisest and most trusted advisor, to be his personal advisor.
Why did Ahithophel turn traitor? Perhaps he was still angry with David for sleeping with his granddaughter and murdering her husband and he sought revenge. Perhaps he simply saw this as his own opportunity to rise in power. Whatever his motive, Ahithophel was so widely respected that his endorsement greatly strengthened Ahithophel’s movement.
When David learned of the coup and that Absalom and his men were heading for Jerusalem, he fled. Those who remained loyal to the king went with him. David left ten of his concubines to take care of the palace and sent two of his men back to Jerusalem to serve as double agents in Absalom’s new government.
Ahithophel gave Absalom two pieces of advice. His first advice was to sleep with David’s concubines. To sleep with the wife or concubine of the king is tantamount to claiming his throne. Absalom did this in broad daylight, fulfilling another one of the prophesies Nathan made when he rebuked David for his sin.
The second piece of advice was to attack David immediately, while he was running and vulnerable. However, one of David’s spies, Hushai, the double agent, also had Absalom’s ear and talked him out of it. This was Absalom’s one, critical, tactical error. He should have listened to Ahithophel. Instead, David had time to get away and organize his men for the battle that was sure to come.
When Ahithophel saw that Absalom had rejected his counsel, he went home and hanged himself. He must have known that Absalom was doomed. He must have known that David would defeat his son and be restored to his throne and likely have Ahithophel executed for high treason.
Absalom gathered the entire army of Israel to fight against David and his men. But David’s men were clever. They drew the army into the forest of Ephraim where they had the advantage. David’s men were experts in guerilla warfare tactics. 20,000 men died in that battle. More of the men were killed by the forest than by the sword.
Absalom himself fell victim to that forest. He was riding through the forest on his mule, with his long locks of hair fluttering in the breeze behind him. When he tried to go under an oak tree, his hair got caught in its thick branches and pulled him off his mule, which just kept on running. How ironic that the hair Absalom was so proud of became the instrument of his own downfall!
David’s men found him. Now David had given all of his men explicit instructions not to hurt Absalom at all, but Joab, disregarded his orders. While Absalom was helplessly dangling from his hair in the tree, Joab and ten of his armor bearers surrounded him and filled his body with swords and spears. Then they cut his lifeless body down, threw it into a big pit in the forest, and covered his body with a large pile of rocks.
That was five hours ago. David has not stopped crying since. He just weeps and wails, “O, my son Absalom. My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you–oh Absalom, my son, my son!” He just lies in a crumpled heap on the floor and repeats the same phrase over and over. “O, my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!”
Absalom hated his brother, Amnon, for raping his sister. But he seemed to hate his father even more for not doing something about it. I once overheard him complaining to one of his friends,
“Amnon should be dragged before the courts and stoned to death or exiled from our people forever. At the very least he should be forced to marry Tamar and take care of her for the rest of his life. Instead, Father does nothing. He says nothing. He IS nothing - nothing but a hypocrite!
Even if he did try to do something, he doesn’t have a shred of moral credibility left. My father, the great king of Israel, the men respect him and the women swoon over him. He is widely regarded as a man of impeccable integrity and honored universally as a military hero. He has a reputation as a godly man who always walks in righteousness, but I know him to be a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat, an adulterer, and a murderer.
My sister was raped! I avenged her by killing her attacker. I did nothing my father hasn’t already done. Who does he think he is? It drives me crazy that everyone thinks he is such a great man. He is nothing but a weak-willed hypocrite, a poser, a wannabe. He does not deserve to rule as king over this great nation. My people deserve better. They deserve a king who will not sit idly by and let gross injustice go unanswered. They deserve a king like me!”
What Absalom did not see - could not see, is that he had become the very thing he most despised. Amnon raped his one sister. Absalom raped ten of David’s concubines. David killed one of his soldiers. Absalom killed his own brother. Unlike David, he refused to forgive Amnon, and that bitter root grew in his heart. Killing Amnon did not kill the root, but only watered and fertilized it and it grew until it strangled his heart. He was blinded by his own bitterness so that he attacked his greatest friend and ally, his own father.
Absalom thought himself better than his father, but he was nothing like his father. David has certainly made his share of mistakes, and he pays for his sins even tonight, but know this: he is still a man after God’s own heart. David is a model of integrity even in his failure, because he is willing to confess his guilt and quick to turn away from his sin.
David was anointed king over all Israel, but he did not take what was rightfully his. Absalom was NOT anointed king over anything, but he tried to take what was not his. David might have been justified in slaying Saul and seizing his throne, but he did not do that. Absalom has no claim to the throne, yet he showed himself willing to kill his own father in order to take it.
No, Absalom was blinded by his own bitterness. You see, left unchecked, a root of bitterness can turn the best of men into a lying, thieving, murderous rapist. Take heed. Take heed, my friend, and guard your heart. Guard it well, lest you too be blinded by your own bitterness.
Listen! Listen to the cries of the king! “O, my son Absalom. My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you–oh Absalom, my son, my son!”
Do you hear the cries of the great King of Israel? Do you hear his heart?
Let me ask you something. (Stretching the staff across the shoulders imitating a cross) What kind of man would love his enemies? What kind of man would offer to die in place of his enemies? What kind of man would rather lose his position and power and even his own life than to see his enemies defeated and destroyed? What kind of man would do something like that? I will tell you this: If there were man who loved me like that . . . I would follow Him. I would follow Him anywhere. I would worship Him. That kind of man could be my Savior.
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