Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 19 – February 1978

 

David’s Hatred For Absalom

 

Sermon by Rev. H. W. Pennings, Th. Grad. on 2Samuel 18:33

Scripture reading: 2Samuel 18; Luke 14:22-35

 

Congregation, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

This sermon, congregation, is about justice: God’s justice. It is a term which many people do not like. “Justice is so hard and blind”, they say. But when we speak about the justice of God we are really speaking about the most marvellous thing in the world and in heaven! For when we see the justice of God being put into effect we see the death of a sinless one in the place of death for sinful ones. “BUT THAT IS NOT REALLY JUSTICE”, the logicians might say. And it isn’t! Not man’s understanding of it. Yet with God it is. Sin is horrible unto God. It deserves eternal death. Nothing more – but certainly also nothing less.

Man sins, and God in His unquestionable justice sends a Saviour into the world. He dies in disgrace. He receives the entire curse of God for sin.

Such is the justice of God! He bore hell on that cross. It is God’s justice that all sin has to be punished. It is the MERCY of God which comes TOGETHER WITH THAT JUSTICE which provides a way of redemption – faith in Jesus Christ.

If we have confidence in God – if we hope for heaven – because we believe we have not been so really wicked, nowhere near as wicked as some other people we can point the finger to! – then, congregation, we do not understand God’s justice and His Word has a sorrowful message for us. And if we have the idea that by doing THIS in the Church and doing THAT for a certain charitable organisation everything will turn out alright in the end, then we have a lot to fear in reality, for then we receive God’s justice as it comes WITHOUT mercy. Let your confidence only be in Jesus Christ and the justice of God that He has carried on His shoulders — that your sin is worthy of eternal death — that the best of your good works are in filthy rags before God! — but that He has sent a SAVIOUR, Jesus Christ, to pay the price instead.

God’s justice is also very, very beautiful. The Apostle Paul tells us that the greatest love is shown when someone is willing to lay down his life for another. But in the justice of God, Jesus laid down His life, and then suffered the anguish of hell, on behalf of those who are His enemies!

Yet in several places in Scripture we read about people being willing to lay down their lives for another, and then God says that it is totally unjust! At one time God spoke in this way to the prophet Elijah. Before that, Moses was so inclined. When he returned to the people after he had spoken with God on Mt. Sinai, he saw that they had made a golden calf for worship. When he returned to speak to God again he said, “But now, if Thou wilt, forgive their sin and if not, please blot ME out from Thy book which Thou hast written.” But that is not justice. For God replied to His servant Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot HIM out of My book” (Exodus 32).

And there is another time, too. We hear about that in our text. For we read in that text of King David saying, “Would that I had died instead of you, O Absalom my son, my son.”

It is a dramatic moment in the history of God’s justice applied to man. But behind this dramatic moment lies some history — history of a relationship between a father and a son. When we start to read the story of King David and Prince Absalom, we soon realize that Absalom is the apple of his father’s eye. You cannot help but notice that. And when you are aware of the fact that King David was a righteous man you must wonder how that can be. For it is a strange, strange thing. David is a godly man. What God declared to be right David also declared to be right, and what God hated David hated too. There were times when this great King fell. We know that. The godly, who know what is right, still cannot always do what is right (Romans 7). Even so, that Prince Absalom is the apple of his father’s eye must make us wonder.

For this Absalom murdered his brother Ammon, and David said very little.

This Absalom tried to take the whole kingdom of Israel away from his father.

He stirred up the people. He offered them many things if they would forsake the one whom God had anointed, and who was his own father, if they would follow him henceforth.

It was a nasty affair.

David had to flee Jerusalem because of this son who was the apple of his eye. He loved Absalom. But it was a strange love.

And the crux of the matter is that we find them at battle against one another. On the one side is Absalom and the majority of Israel. On the other side is his father with some faithful troops under the leadership of General Joab. The day on which we concentrate will see the end of the affair. David knows that. As the army sets out for the day, the King says to his Generals, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” We read that in verse 5 of the 18th Chapter. Two verses after that we read that 20,000 were slain in the battle of the final day. 20,000 men were slain!

20,000 men were slain because David had ALWAYS SAID, “Deal gently with my son.” In verse 9 we read that Absalom’s golden hair, always his pride and joy, had gotten him entangled in an oak tree. In verse 14 we read that Joab kills Absalom with some darts as he is hanging helplessly. Three verses further we find out that his body was thrown into a pit.

Two messengers run to the King. And we know that David has been waiting anxiously for some news. Ahimahaz reaches the King first.

“All is well!” he calls out to David. “All is well; blessed be your God Who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the King.”

Yes, we note carefully that the first messenger declares it to be God’s work that Absalom is dead.

It was God’s salvation. Yet he does not spell it out to David.

Then another messenger arrives. “Let my lord the King receive good news, for the Lord has freed you this day from the hand of those who rose up against you.”

But David does not ask him how the battle went.

20,000 men are dead. 20,000 widows are weeping at home. But David does not concern himself. He asks only, “Is it well with the young man Absalom?”

Then the second messenger spells it out clearly. For he replies, “Let the enemies of my lord the King, and all who rise up against you for evil, be as THAT young man.”

Then comes our text. We will return to it.

The king mourns for his son.

Joab appears to learn about this first, and then the rest of the victorious troops. They had won a great victory. It had been promised David that his descendants would sit upon Israel’s throne forever. The Messiah would come from among them. God was faithful to His promise to David – that one day we are interested in most today – and every other day. The soldiers were far outnumbered, but God was on their side. They had fought bravely. It was a victory for justice and truth. It was a victory for God’s plan of salvation. We too share in Joab’s and David’s victory. And yet… and yet when the army returns to base there is no song of victory. The army has its tail between its legs. For they know the King to be sad, very sad. Absalom, his son is dead, and the King is in great mourning over him.

General Joab is not amused by that. Confronting the King he says to him, “Today you have shamed the soldiers who fought to save your skin. We fought for you and your children, but you shame us. Because you have loved those who hate you and hate those who love you! I understand that if Absalom your son were alive today and those who fought for you were dead, you would be pleased about it.” David’s response to this is that he declared that another will take Joab’s place in leading the army.

David! David! What are you doing though? What have you done? David, what in the world has gone wrong?

His grief over Absalom is great. We can understand that. Some of the commentators are far too harsh, for they condemn the King that he grieves over his dead son. Of course, he is sad.

He is the father. And parents will never stop being parents. Though our children may cause us severe trouble and bitter sorrow, they are still our children. We rejoiced at their birth. We watched over them in their tender years. We saw them develop our own characteristic traits. David’s son Absalom is dead, and of course David is sad. That is how it should be with a father over against a son.

And yet it is exactly as Joab said it was. David cries out, “Absalom, my son, my son. O my son Absalom, would that I had died instead of you.” That is what Moses and Elijah had wanted. David wants to die in the place of one who is guilty before God. But who does David think he is? Who is David, to offer that? Does David imagine that he is that descendant of his, the Lord Jesus Christ, that he should wish that? Apart from that one who is also our Saviour each person can only bear his own load.

We know, also, that David hated his son Absalom.

How is that, you ask? Was his love for Absalom not so great that he wished to die in his place?

Yes, in that sense David loved him. But what kind of love is that? When Absalom did wrong his father refused to see it – he hated him. David passed over the evil of his son, thus showing that he hated him. This golden boy could do no wrong in his father’s eyes.

When he sinned David acted as if God would surely pass it over. When he murdered his brother Ammon it went unpunished. David acted unjustly with his son. He thought it was love, but it led to Absalom’s death according to God’s justice. Yes, David’s weakness led to Absalom’s execution and also, to his eternal death!.

Imagine that, parents!

Imagine that your weakness leads to hell for your children!

Imagine that your failure to discipline your children leads to their eternal condemnation.

As parents you are supposed to act as God’s watchmen over your children. When the watchman of the city sees danger, says the prophet Ezekiel, he is supposed to sound the trumpet. If he does not sound the trumpet of warning, God places to his account the death of those who are caught unawares. David wants to die in place of his son. “Would that I had died instead of you”, he cries out. But it was too late. When Absalom was alive David did not wish to do what God required of him. When he was dead he wished to go further than God allowed. David, David, father of Absalom, what have you done?

Truly, it is easy to become a Christian. God’s justice is so absolutely marvellous! If we repent, and believe, and follow, WHOLE PAYMENT for sin is made. Only once did God hear the voice of one who would die in the place of others who deserved it – the voice of the sinless Christ – only once did God reply, “YES”.

Repent – believe – AND FOLLOW!

Follow, as Jesus Himself told us to in Luke 14.

The command comes to parents and children alike, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and children, his brothers and sister yes, even his own life he cannot be My disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be My disciple.”

Parents, love your children! Love them by declaring without wavering what you require from them BECAUSE GOD REQUIRES IT TOO. Do not say to your son, “YES, THAT IS ALRIGHT, when it is not alright. Do not take a part in his evil and then afterwards cry out, “Absalom, my son, my son.” It is too late then. Who knows but that you might be the salvation of your children – if only you will hate them with a calm but righteous hatred when they sin. It was because of his son, and his own weakly sense of love, that David quarrelled with God’s deliverance and opposed justice within the Church and despised his own godly friends. And many pastors hear many parents saying, “The Church disciplined my children needlessly and drove them out of the Church,” and they are bitter about that, when the Church has only acted as God Himself acted with Absalom.

Being parents is not so easy. It requires uncommon godliness. We think too quickly that discipline has something hateful about it. But it is the only way to love your God AND YOUR CHILDREN.

There will never be a time when a parent has to decide between godliness and loving children, for these are in no way opposed to each other: to discipline, and to love, are one and the same.

We know that God acted justly, both with King David and Absalom. The one was eternally lost. The other received justice and mercy; the kind which caused Jesus to ask, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Why? Why? It was to love David!

Amen!