I invite you to turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 14. 2 Samuel 14, we'll be reading the whole chapter. The chapter coheres together, well, very fascinating tale of scheming. and such things like political intrigue and the like. So hear the word of the Lord. Now Joab, the son of Zeruiah, perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom. And Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead. and come to the king and speak on this manner unto him. So Joab put the words in her mouth. And when the woman of Tekoa spake to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance, and said, Help, O king! And the king said unto her, What haileth thee? And she answered, I am indeed a widow woman, and mine husband is dead. And thy handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field. And there was none to part them, but the one smote the other and slew him. And behold, the whole family is risen against thine handmaid. And they said, deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he slew. And we will destroy the heir also, And so they shall quench my coal, which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth. And the king said unto the woman, Go to thine house, I will give charge concerning thee. And the woman of Tekoa said unto the king, My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me and on my father's house, and the king in his throne be guiltless. And the king said, whosoever saith aught unto thee, bring him to me, and he shall not touch thee any more. Then said she, I pray thee, let the king remember the Lord thy God, that thou wouldst not suffer the revenges of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth. Then the woman said, let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak one word unto my lord the king. And he said, say on. And the woman said, wherefore then hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God? For the king doth speak this thing as one which is faulty, in that the king doth not fetch home again his banished. For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Neither doth God respect any person, yet doth he devise means that his banished be not expelled from him. Now therefore, that I am come to speak of this thing unto my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid. And thy handmaid said, I will now speak unto the king. It may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid. For the king will hear to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God. And then thine handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable, for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. Therefore the lord thy God will be with thee. Then the king answered and said unto the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak. And the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, As thy soul liveth, my lord the king, none can turn to the right or to the left from what that my lord the king hath spoken. For thy servant Joab had bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of thine handmaid. To fetch about this form of speech hath thy servant Job done this thing. And my Lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.' And the king said unto Joab, Behold, now I have done this thing. Go therefore, bring the young man Absalom again. And Joab fell to the ground on his face, and bowed himself, and thanked the king. And Joab said, Today thy servant knoweth that I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord. My lord, O king, in that the king hath fulfilled the request of his servant. So Joab arose and went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. And the king said, let him turn to his own house and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house and saw not the king's face. But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty. From the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head, there was no blemish in him. And when he pulled his head, for it was at every year's end that he pulled it, because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he pulled it, he weighed the hair of his head at 200 shekels after the king's weight. And unto Absalom there were born three sons and one daughter, whose name was Tamar, and she was a woman of fair countenance. So Absalom dwelt two years in Jerusalem and saw not the king's face. Therefore Absalom sent for Joab to have sent him to the king, but he would not come to him. And when he sent again the second time, he would not come. Therefore he said unto his servants, see, Joab's field is near mine, and he hath barley there. Go, set it on fire. and Absalom's servants set the field on fire. Then Joab arose and came to Absalom unto his house, and said unto him, Wherefore have thy servants set my field on fire? And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send thee to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? It had been good for me to have been there still. Now therefore let me see the king's face, and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me. So Joab came to the king and told him, and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom. May the Lord add His blessing to the hearing and the meditation upon an understanding of His most holy Word and our obedience to it. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the Scriptures that you've given to us this evening for us to look at. We are reminded that all of us, on occasion, resort to our own wisdom, not the wisdom that comes from above, but our own desires, heart's desires, often get ourselves tied up in knots when we do that. We pray that you would help us to understand the wisdom of relying upon you and not our own wisdom. Help us to understand the importance of your Son, Jesus Christ, who is to us wisdom. We pray your blessing upon this time together and the opening up of this word. In Jesus' name we pray this, Amen. After reading this chapter, you may begin to think that a swamp needs to be drained in Jerusalem, not just in Washington. At least that's my reaction, that the scheming going on or the resorting to our own best intentions, in this instance here in chapter 14 of 2 Samuel, we see it abundantly set before us involving three different events, if you will, or three different episodes of one event. The chapter forms the whole. And you know what's coming, or you may be aware of what's coming down the road with regard to the relationship between King David and his son Absalom, who is now, because he murdered Amnon, the crown prince. He was in exile, but now he's been brought back to Jerusalem. The prince returns to Jerusalem. But his return is not all that it could be, assuming that it should be, which I don't. But in fact, we see that this chapter involves three different episodes. We have Job conspiring with the woman from Tekoa. Then we have the coming of Absalom to Jerusalem, a returning from exile. Then we have David's treatment of his son. And then finally, we will consider the return of the real king to Jerusalem, the real prince, who, if you haven't already figured it out, is not Absalom. at all. So it seems pretty clear here that Joab, the son of Zeruiah, that is the captain of the Israelite host, the general in charge of the armed forces of Israel, he had perceived that King David's heart went out toward Absalom. So in other words, King David missed his son, he longed for his son, even though Absalom had killed one of his other sons. even though Absalom had conspired to kill the crown prince. Now, admittedly, the crown prince was a twit, for lack of a better way. He was sinful. He was wicked. He raped his half-sister, Tamar. And as we noted last week, there's a sense in which From God's perspective, justice was exercised upon Amnon when Absalom killed him. But from the human perspective, Absalom had no right to do it. That should have been done by the king. after a consideration of the case. But nevertheless, Joab recognizes that King David longs to be reunited in some way with his son Absalom, who has gone off to his maternal grandfather in exile after the commission of his heinous crime, the murder of Amnon. See, it's just one more terrible thing happening to the family of David. One more thing after another. We might say the same song, second verse. Same song, third verse. Nathan the prophet had said, the sword will not depart from your house. And we're seeing how that is working itself out. And we're not done. And I don't merely mean looking at this evening's chapter. We are not done for a long time. The rest of the book. is devoted to seeing how the sword doesn't leave the household of David. So anyways, Joab recognizing what David's heart's desire is, and yet David perhaps doesn't want to act on his desire. He knows as king that he needs to exercise justice. He needs to exercise wise judgment. And so while he might long to be reunited with his son who's in exile, he won't necessarily do anything about it to bring about a reconciliation. And of course, he should. not bring about a reconciliation per se, but he should bring about justice. And he has failed to do that. So Joab comes up with a scheme in order to get the king to agree to allow Absalom to come back to Jerusalem. That's what this whole scheme is all about with regard to this wise woman from Tekoa. Tekoa is about 10, 15 miles south of Jerusalem. It's the town where the prophet Amos will be from, down the road a few years. Amos, the prophet from Tekoa. Anyway, this woman meets with Joab. She has a reputation for wisdom. And we actually see some of that at work in her conversation with the king, don't we? We see her. She's adept with words. She knows how to behave in the king's presence. I don't think it's accidental that as we read this account, beloved, that we recall the account, the events that occurred between Nathan the prophet and King David when Nathan came to confront David about his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. I think this is meant to create the same sort of a situation that the king will pronounce upon a general story or a story that he's told and the trap will be sprung and he will be told, well, you're guilty of the same thing. You want to help my son, you want to protect him, and yet you don't do the same for your own son. So the woman tells the story. She's a widow from Tekoa. She puts on an act in order to deceive the king. When you look at what she does, she dresses as if she's been in mourning. She does not anoint her head with oil or her body with oil, so her skin is chapped. It's dried from the heat of the land. She comes looking the part. I seem to remember some years prior that some guys did this to Joshua, you will remember. They came looking like they had been traveling a long time. They brought moldy dry bread, etc., to look like they had been traveling a long ways. And she's doing something similar. She's trying to deceive the king. And she tells her story. I'm a widow. My husband has passed away, which is why she's a widow. You know, some things are obvious. And she has two sons, and they're in the field. Nobody's there to separate them. They get into an argument, apparently, and one son kills the other. Ah, echoes of Cain and Abel, right? You know, right after the fall, Adam and Eve are kicked out of the Garden of Eden. They have two sons, Cain and Abel, and you know that story. So the woman says, the one son killed the other, and now the tribe or the clan wants to come and exercise judgment. They want to put the other son to death. If they do that, I will not have any heirs. My husband will have no heirs. I will have nothing. She will be a widow, right? She will be a widow without a son, without any sons, no one to take care of her. The king hears the story and he takes it, I guess, at face value. It's almost as if he's too busy. He doesn't really want to deal with her. Sure, I'll take care of it. You go home. And she, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You need to, you need to, and notice how she handles this very, very wisely the way that she proceeds in the conversation. She doesn't go too far. It's like she feels her way through the conversation to make sure that, remember, she's talking to the king. She's not talking to an equal. She's talking to a superior. And she has to be careful as to how she pushes the envelope, if you will, right? And she says to him, it's not enough for you to send me away. Go to thine house and I will give charge concerning thee. Go home and I'll take care of it. No, she says, oh, king, there's more here. You need to pronounce a divine sentence upon this. You need to declare Not openly, because he said he would take care of it. He didn't say he would come down on her side in this dispute between the woman and her clan. Now he says, I will take care of this. You and your son will be protected. No one shall touch thee. Notice what he says in verse 11. Ironic, I think. As the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth. What is this whole thing about? It's about Absalom. We learn shortly that Absalom is a handsome man and allows his hair to grow and gets it cut once a year. And it weighs about four to five pounds. That's what 200 shekels weighs in our system of weights and measures. Now she finally gets the king, paints him into the corner where he has to take sides, and he says that he will protect her son and her from the clan who are seeking vengeance or seeking justice. And then the woman says, I have one more thing to say, one more thing, just one more thing. And so she says, you know, basically, you've done the right thing in my situation, why aren't you doing the, why are you offending your people? Huh? And as she couches that in careful language, diplomatic language, but she now springs the trap because he's committed himself to making sure her nonexistent son, but he doesn't know that, that she and her son will be protected from the clan who is looking to put the other son to death. And she says, you're willing to take care of me to protect my son, but you don't do anything for your son, who's in exile, basically. And, of course, the king, as soon as he realizes what's happened, he says, is Joe behind this? Is Joab behind any of this? And the lady admits, well, I can't deny it. You're right, I can't turn from the left or the right. Joab is the one who put me up to this and put the words in my mouth. That doesn't necessarily mean that she didn't have the freedom to put it the way that she thought should be said because she's a wise woman, right? Must have had a reputation for wisdom in Tekoa and farther afield. But the king figures it out, that Joab is behind this whole thing. So you see that there is this echo of Nathan's confrontation with David. Joab knew that he couldn't go directly to the king and say anything because the king would rebuff him. No doubt the king might have said something like, well, I do want to reunite with my son, but I can't. I can't as the king do that because he has offended my honor. He has killed the crown prince. But now he is committed to bringing his son, his crown prince son back to Jerusalem. So Joab He bows over, drops to the ground, bows his head to the ground, bowing in the dirt. He says, thank you Lord, I found grace in your sight. I will go and bring your son back. Joab may have thought he had his way. Now, Joab, I think, is trying to help the king. He sees the king wants to reunite or reconcile with his son, but he won't do anything, and so Joab tries to move things along. Kind of like Naomi with Ruth in Boaz, making sure all that Ruth is in the right place at the right time, whether it be in the fields gathering the leftover grain, whether it be at the threshing floor at the right time, saying the right things. So the king says to Joab, you may bring Absalom back. So the prince who is in exile will come to Jerusalem, presumably will be able to benefit from his killing his brother, his half-brother, Amnon. who had raped his half-sister, Absalom's full sister, Tamar. Now, interestingly enough, David has a plan of his own. See, Joab had a plan. He planned this charade out with the Goan woman so that Absalom could come back to Jerusalem. The king has his own plan that he springs on Joab. Yeah, you can bring him back, but I don't want to see him. He is not allowed to come into my presence. He has to live in his own house. And so for two years he's in Jerusalem, but he does not see the king at all. And it's been, he was three years in exile. So we have anywhere from five to 10 years since the rape of Tamar. Five to 10 years, this is not swift justice. All of this is taking place because the king has failed to uphold right and righteousness in Jerusalem. So the king allows Absalom to return, but he must stay in his own house, not at the palace. He is not allowed to come into the king's presence. In other words, he's not allowed to enjoy the benefits of being the crown prince. So Absalom comes up. He sends his servants to bid Joab to come to him. And Joab realizes, I think, based upon how David has been treating Absalom, that Joab should not push it any further. Joab doesn't respond to his summons. You'll see that, right, Joab? And then a second time, Absalom sends his servants and he still doesn't show up because he knows he probably has a good idea what the prince will want. He'll want him to serve as a go-between. And of course Joab will not come to see the prince. The prince about this point must be feeling very, very alienated. He can't see his father, he can't even see his next-door neighbor. His next-door neighbor won't come to see him, won't help him. But he says, oh, there's a field, a field of barley. Fields with barley burn. Remember Samson? who set the Philistines' fields aflame by tying foxes tail to tail and lighting them on fire and running them through the fields. Well, we don't get all that kind of detail in this particular account. We do see that Absalom commands his servants to set Joab's field on fire. Nothing like setting the field on fire to get Joab's attention. And Joab comes and Absalom says, look, I sent for you twice and you didn't come to see me. How rude. Now please, go and see my father. What's the point of being in Jerusalem if I cannot come into the presence of the king? Why bother? I might as well have stayed back with my grandfather. And so Joab finally agrees to go speak to the king on his behalf. And the king agrees to allow his estranged son to come into his presence and that's basically where the chapter concludes. Absalom comes into the king's presence and bowed his face to the ground and the king kissed him. Now, that could be purely formal court behavior. It doesn't mean that everything is wonderful and all of the disagreements are resolved. In fact, we know that's not the case. It's interesting that before we get to the end of the story, we have a little interlude describing Absalom as very handsome, with beautiful hair, long hair, only had a cut once a year, and it weighed 200 shekels, or four to five pounds. Remember, like Samson, Absalom's obsession with his hair is going to get him in trouble, but that's down the road. Notice something else, if you will, that he's described as good looking. Now, David was described as right. He is handsome, but we don't have a lot of emphasis upon that. Who is the last person who a lot of attention is given to his looks? Saul? Remember what the Lord said to Samuel when he was sent to the home of Jesse to find the replacement for Saul. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. This description of Absalom is looking on the outward appearance, not upon the heart. We already have a sense of where his heart is. and what he did to his brother, and what is coming in the next several chapters. So you see, one prince gets back into Jerusalem by trickery and scheming. There's a prince who will come many years later who has every right to enter into Jerusalem. Right? The Lord Jesus Christ, He comes into Jerusalem, what we call the triumphal entry, seated on the foal of a donkey. He enters into Jerusalem, and you see that described in Matthew chapter 21, if you would turn with me there. This is quite a contrast to what we've just been reading in 2 Samuel 14. You see, Absalom is an interloper. He shouldn't be the crown prince. He's only the crown prince by default, because he killed the original holder of that office. But you see, the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't have to fool anyone. He doesn't have to commit political intrigue. He doesn't have to get an old lady to pretend that she's mourning the loss of a nonexistent son. He comes as a humble king riding on the donkey, which of course was the royal mode of transportation in ancient Israel, not horses. Horses were for war. The donkey was also a sign of ambassadorial intentions, peace. And that's why Jesus rides a donkey. It's also in fulfillment of prophecy as well, of course. And you see this here. And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage, unto the Mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you. And straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her. Loose them, and bring them unto Me. And if any man say unto you, you shall say, the Lord hath need of them, straightway he will send them. All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, tell ye the daughter of Sion, behold, thy king cometh to thee, meek and sitting upon an ass, and the colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. Okay, one of the animals, not on both of them. Okay? Just making sure that you understand that. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way, and others cut down branches from the trees and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before that followed cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And when he was come into Jerusalem, All the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all of them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. And when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David, they were sore displeased. And he said unto them, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus said unto them, Yea, have ye never read? Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany, and he lodged there. Absalom, hundreds of years before, connives his way. Admittedly, he's not involved in the initial scheme between Joab and the Chicoan widow, but he certainly desires to get back in his father's good graces. The Lord Jesus Christ never had to connive to get into his father's good graces because he was never out. of his father's good graces, Absalom will pursue the crown at all costs. The Lord Jesus Christ, on the other hand, Paul tells us, did not consider equality with the father a thing to be held on to. But he made himself, humbled himself, taking to himself the form of a servant. and humbling himself even to the point of death, death on a cross. But you remember how that passage goes on, and we're told that at the name of Jesus, every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Absalom needs to to scheme. He needs to set fields on fire. He'll need to do other things, as we'll see in forthcoming Sundays. He will lead a rebellion against his father. He will offend his father's honor in many ways, of which Nathan already told him, not only that the sword would not leave his family, but that one would come who would sleep with his own concubines. So we have a sense of what's coming down the road in 2 Samuel 15 and following. That prince had no right to return to Jerusalem from exile. The Lord Jesus Christ has every right to return to Jerusalem. And yet he did it in a humble and in a peaceful way. The Lord Jesus Christ is the true King of Kings and he is the true Lord of Lords. He's not a fake, he's not a fraud, he's the real thing. Absalom is a fake and a fraud and he is rebellious and he is arrogant. egotistical, caught up with himself, loves his hair, and if they had salons back in those days, he probably would have gone every day and had his hair trimmed and washed and permed and all of that kind of stuff. Jesus was no such character. But the question is, which prince are you going to follow? Absalom, who really rules the way that many rule in this world, by political intrigue and connivance? Or will you follow the Prince of Peace, the one who is the Son of God, who is really the Lord of Lords? Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for these words that we've read this evening and that we've looked at. We pray your blessing upon us as we meditate upon what we have read. Not only that we read a historical narrative of events that actually happened in space and time thousands of years ago, but they have relevance for us today. For they create the context in which you would send your Son in the fullness of time of great David's greater Son. Greater than Absalom. Greater than Solomon. The greatest Son of all. Lord, help us to rely upon, to be loyal citizens, to put all our trust in King Jesus and not in those who would be like Absalom or even like His Father, David. We pray Your blessing upon this meditation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.