And for us, O Lord, as we now come to Your Word, again, we remember that Your Word accomplishes your purposes, and that it will not fail to accomplish what you desire. Who can thwart your purposes, O God? Who could stand against your promises? None. And so we pray, Lord, that as we study your Word, you would use it to sanctify us, to grow us, to grow us in Christ's likeness, to turn us from sin, to teach us to hate our sin even more than we do. And we pray, Lord, that you would use this text to turn our eyes to Christ. In His name we pray. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles with you, please turn to the book of 2 Samuel. We'll be in chapter 14 today, going through the whole chapter, chapter 14. Verses 1-33 is what we'll be looking at as we continue in our study of 1 and 2 Samuel. This has been quite a study. It's been a couple years. We are coming kind of into what's sort of the home stretch, at least in the text. It's got a while to go, but really we're in the final stretch of David's life, where we're seeing the consequences of his sin, which was back in chapter 11. And it's been disastrous. It's been difficult. But I am convinced that in David's weakness and in David's failures even, that we see God's grace working in him, using his weakness to keep him humble and to keep him near to Christ. Just like when Paul said that he was praying for the thorn in his flesh to be removed, And it wasn't. You know, God uses difficult circumstances to keep us humble, to keep us dependent upon Him. And that was certainly the case with David, as we see throughout pretty much the rest of 2 Samuel. So we'll be looking at chapter 14, verses 1 to 33 today. Now this might strike you as sounding kind of strange, but restoration, and reconciliation. While ideal, and while that is always the goal when there's conflict between two parties, it isn't always the best or the wisest idea. And I'm convinced that if we think deeply about this subject of restoration and of reconciliation, you'll actually agree with me. Maybe you'll even see how this has played out in your own life in one way or another. And the reason for this is very simple. Reconciliation and restoration require repentance. Restoration and reconciliation require repentance from the offending party, sometimes from both parties. But if there is no repentance, there cannot be restoration and there cannot be reconciliation. Let me illustrate this for you. Imagine that there's a woman who has cheated on her husband, and after some time, her husband puts two and two together. He eventually starts to figure it out, and so he confronts her about it. And her response is to kind of just apologize for it. Apologize for the way that it has hurt her husband. And yet deep inside, she still feels justified in her infidelity. And she doesn't regret what she has done. And actually, if she were given another chance to do it again, she would at least be open to it. Now, would you say that that woman is ready to be reconciled to her husband? Let me give you another illustration. Let's say that there are two teenagers who are just the best of friends, but one of the friends is constantly stealing when the other is not looking. from that friend. Eventually, however, the stealing friend gets caught stealing a necklace from her friend that was given to her by her grandfather. And upon catching her friend stealing from her, she starts to realize that many of her things have gone missing on occasions when she's been hanging out with this other friend. And so she confronts her friend, and her friend's response is to say, hey, chill out. It's not that big of a deal. Here, you can have it back. Now, would you say that those two girls are ready to be reconciled to one another? I mean, I think it would be pretty unwise, and I think you would agree with me, that it would be unwise for the girl who was stolen from to just brush it off and say, yeah, I forgive you and we're okay, and go on like nothing happened. Because the other friend isn't repentant. Now let me repeat what I started with. Reconciliation and restoration aren't always the best or the wisest idea. And we're going to see that in the chapter that we come to today. As we continue in our study of 2 Samuel today, we come to yet another chapter that is really somewhat difficult for us to digest. It's ugly. It's another chapter that shows us what a failure David was in the home, at least in terms of teaching his children to know and to obey and to honor the Lord. But if chapter 13 didn't convince you that David's sin with Bathsheba back in chapter 11 changed his life for the worse, maybe chapter 14 will convince you. After David's sin of adultery with Bathsheba, We saw that David was brought to repentance. He was brought to repentance by God when God sent Nathan to confront him. And while David did indeed truly repent and was absolutely forgiven by God, we have to remember that God warned David about the consequences of his sin that he would have to deal with for the rest of his life. God had told him through Nathan back in chapter 12 verse 11, Behold I will raise up evil against you from your own household. And we saw this start to play out in chapter 13, where one of David's sons named Amnon sexually assaulted his half-sister Tamar. Tamar's brother Absalom would avenge his sister two years later by murdering Amnon right in front of all of David's other sons. But as a result of Absalom's sin, Absalom fled to the region of Geshur where he stayed with his maternal grandfather who was the king of Geshur. The chapter ended by telling us that David mourned for his son every day. Didn't tell us exactly which one, but we can, I think, rightly put pieces together and see that it was Absalom rather than Amnon that he was mourning for. And we're told in the final verse of chapter 13 that the heart of King David longed to go out to Absalom. And so the 14th chapter of 2 Samuel begins right where chapter 13 left off, with David's heart longing to go out to Absalom. He'd been longing for Absalom to return for three years. And as we're going to see, David's chief military officer, Joab, was well aware of what was going on with David and how David was feeling. And so Joab would put into motion this plan, this idea to bring Absalom back to Jerusalem. The point of the passage that we come to today is that while reconciliation is ideal, it can only happen when the guilty party repents of the sin that caused the separation. And Joab is going to demonstrate that. He's going to illustrate that principle for us. He's going to show us the utter foolishness of trying to force reconciliation and restoration when the sinning party has not repented of the sin that caused the separation. And so this chapter begins with us realizing that David is longing for Absalom's return and Joab hatching a plan to make it all happen. Let's look at verses 1 to 11. It says, Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was inclined toward Absalom. So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there and said to her, Please pretend to be a mourner and put on mourning garments now, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be like a woman who has been mourning for the dead many days. Then go to the king and speak to him in this manner." So Joab put the words in her mouth. Now when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and prostrated herself and said, Help, O king! The king said to her, What is your trouble? And she answered, Truly I am a widow, for my husband is dead. Your maidservant had two sons, but the two of them struggled together in the field, and there was no one to separate them, so one struck the other and killed him. Now behold, the whole family has risen against your maidservant. And they say, Hand over the one who struck his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed, and destroy the heir also. Thus they will extinguish my coal which is left, so as to leave my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth.' Then the king said to the woman, Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you. The woman of Tekoa said to the king, O my lord the king, the iniquity is on me and my father's house, but the king and his throne are guiltless. So the king said, whoever speaks to you, bring him to me and he will not touch you anymore. Then she said, Please let the king remember the Lord your God, so that the avenger of blood will not continue to destroy. Otherwise they will destroy my son. And he said, As the Lord lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground. Now we aren't told the reason exactly that Joab got this idea to act on what he saw in David, where he got the motivation to intervene and bring Absalom back to Jerusalem. We don't know what put this idea in his mind. We will see before too long that Joab actually had no sense of loyalty toward Absalom. In fact, I don't even think that Joab necessarily liked Absalom. I think it's very likely that he disliked Absalom. In fact, Joab will eventually be the one to kill Absalom. But what we learn in verse one, however, is that Joab perceived that the king's heart was inclined toward Absalom, which is, of course, what we saw at the end of the previous chapter. Now granted, I'm speculating a little bit here, but it seems possible that Joab was worried that the kingdom of Israel had been weakened by David being in this emotional state. Being in a state where he was longing for his son, he was distracted perhaps from his duties as king, or maybe Joab believed that Absalom was simply going to be the most suitable successor for David's throne. out of all David's sons. We don't exactly know what Joab's motivation was here, but Joab devises this plan to bring Absalom back to Jerusalem without Absalom needing to be punished for the sin of murdering Amnon three years earlier. And so Joab sends some servants of his to the region of Tekoa to bring a wise woman to him. We're told that she was a wise woman. It seems likely that this was probably her reputation. She probably was known among the people as being wise, although it may be more accurate to describe her as being shrewd rather than being wise per se, but she was known as being a wise woman. Using a strategy that, at least on the surface as we look at it, appeared to resemble sort of the approach that Nathan, the prophet, took in confronting David, you know, that brought David to repentance by telling him something that kind of resembled a parable. But Joab wanted to change King David's perspective on Absalom before he brought Absalom back. And so Joab has this woman from Tekoa brought to him, and he tells her this, he says, a mourner. And put on mourning garments now, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be like a woman who has been mourning for the dead many days. Then go to the king and speak to him in this manner." And then we're told, so Joab put the words in her mouth. Now we should immediately be troubled by the instruction that Joab gives this woman to pretend. That's just a nice word for bearing false witness if we're being honest. And so this word pretend should kind of raise some at least yellow flags if not red flags with us. So this woman goes before David under false pretenses. We understand that as this conversation between her and David starts. This is all taking place under false pretenses. She's acting as though she's mourning over the death of one of her two sons and the impending death of the other, the one who killed his brother. And so she tells David this story about how one of her sons accidentally killed her only other son in an argument, but the community that she lives in is demanding that justice be served to the full and thus that the lone remaining son be put to death for his crime. And she thus says that this puts her in a terrible predicament. That predicament being that as a widow who has no sons to speak of, and no husband, of course, she's a widow, she has nobody to care for her, and she has nobody to carry on her husband's name. Now, this really would have been a truly terrible predicament for a widow in the ancient world to be in. In the ancient world, women who were widowed were outcasts, and they were often sold into slavery as their only option. for survival. So it would have been actually a terrible situation. And it's for that reason, for the fact that women who were widowed were treated so terribly, that kings in the ancient world, at least good kings, righteous kings, would be willing and eager to help widows and to even sometimes make special exceptions for them. And so David listens to her story And he takes the bait, hook, line, and sinker, swallows it whole. David assures her that she can just go ahead and return home. He'll consider what she said. He'll give orders concerning her request. But the woman isn't so easily dismissed. She doesn't accept that answer. Instead, she urges King David to issue this order now. to give the orders immediately, to act immediately, so that the avenger of blood will not carry out justice against her only remaining son who's still living. And so she pulls at David's heartstrings, saying things like, the iniquity is on me and my father's house, you know, for her son. I mean, obviously David could probably relate to that. to a parent who would be willing to take their child's iniquity upon himself, given David's situation with Absalom. And so she says, please let the king remember the Lord your God as a way of reminding David of the goodness and the graciousness that God had shown toward him when he had sinned. And so after having his heartstrings pulled and hearing this story, David agrees to act immediately in order to prevent this widow's one remaining son from being put to death for his crime. Now the problems here are many. Let's start with this. None of this is true. None of this is actually based in reality. Not one detail, not one plea that she pours out before David is truthful. It is all fiction. It's all made up. And David, if we're being honest, has acted foolishly by acting in haste, by acting immediately, rather than doing things like investigating. Had he taken time to investigate, had he taken time to pray and to ask God for help, to seek God's will, to seek wise counsel, to see what the Scriptures said about a situation like this, David wouldn't have made this decision. Yes, it's noble that David had the desire to be a defender of the weak and the helpless, this widow. But Proverbs 19 verse 2 says, it is not good for a person to be without knowledge. He who hurries his footsteps errs. Proverbs 21 5 says, the plans of the diligent surely lead to advantage, but everyone who is hasty comes surely to poverty. Proverbs 11 14 says, in abundance of counselors there is victory. There are all these principles of wisdom. that David should have known. Proverbs hadn't been written yet, I get that. But nevertheless, these things are kind of obvious principles, not to mention the fact that he hasn't taken time to seek God's word. There's just foolishness in acting in haste. And so he abandons all these principles of wisdom and he acts in spite of what he should have known better than. There's often more to be lost by acting in haste than there is to be gained. We should know that too. That's wisdom right there. There's often more to be lost by acting in haste than there is to be gained. And while it does take time to consult with an abundance of counselors, Doing so is one way to ensure that we aren't duped as David is here. He has been completely duped. Now that this woman of Tekoa has David on the hook, she reels him in by explaining what this was all really about in verses 12 to 20. Let's look at verses 12 to 20. It says, Then the woman said, Please let your maidservant speak a word to my lord the king. And he said, Speak. The woman said, Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word, the king is as one who is guilty in that the king does not bring back his banished one. For we will surely die and are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one will not be cast out from him. Now the reason I have come to speak this word to my Lord the King is that the people have made me afraid. So your maidservant said, Let me now speak to the King. Perhaps the King will perform the request of his maidservant. For the king will hear and destroy his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy both me and my son from the inheritance of God. Then the maidservant said, Please let the word of my lord the king be comforting, for as the angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil. And may the lord your God be with you. Then the king answered and said to the woman, Please do not hide anything from me that I am about to ask you. And the woman said, Let my lord the king speak, please. So the king said, Is the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman replied, as your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken. Indeed, it was your servant Joab who commanded me, and it was he who put all these words in the mouth of your maid servant. In order to change the appearance of things, your servant Joab has done this thing. But my lord is wise, like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know all that is in the earth. So this woman shrewdly asks if she can say something else to David to continue the conversation. He's already granted her request. And now she says, let me say one more thing. She's gonna explain to him. She seems to have his interest piqued. And as he grants permission to her, he instructs her speak. And by doing that, he opens up the door for her to tell him what this was all really about. She explains to him that he had done something similar to the wrong that he had just been willing to overlook a couple seconds ago. But instead of a troubled widow being the one to suffer, she says that this inconsistency on David's behalf is a thing against the people of God. It's causing all of Israel to suffer, is what she's saying. She wanted him to see that this was therefore a much more serious matter than the one that he had just ruled on with her, with her situation. So what exactly does that mean? How was this against the people of God, against Israel as a whole? Maybe it was fear that Absalom's absence would eventually lead to a civil war or something of that nature. But the woman therefore urges David to see how the decision that he had just made a few seconds earlier in her favor applied to David and his situation with Absalom. She says, in speaking this word, the king is as one who is guilty in that the king does not bring back his banished one. This is very similar, I suppose. Her whole story here is very similar to Nathan telling this parable and then ultimately making the announcement, the pronouncement of guilt against David when he said, you're the man, when David unknowingly made a judgment against himself. So this is similar. It resembles that whole situation, but it is very, very different, which we're going to get to in just a minute. So it wasn't that there was something that David had necessarily done wrong, it's that he hadn't done something that she says he should have done. He hadn't done something that she says would have been beneficial to the people of God, to Israel that is. So to summarize her argument, John Woodhouse says this, to summarize exactly what her argument is. He writes, quote, that her argument is, he had not shown to her, to his own son, the compassion that he had shown to hers. If it was right for him to do so in her case, it was all the more important in the case of his banished one, because the welfare of the people of God was at stake, end quote. So that's her argument in a nutshell. But having laid all of this guilt on David's shoulders, I mean, this seems pretty unfair. She goes on to report that she had to do this because the people of Israel, the people of God, have been made afraid as a result of Absalom's banishment. Again, maybe they feared civil war. or something of that nature. But she continues to try to persuade him. She starts really flattering him, really turning up the butter here, likening him to the angel of God, although we do need to keep in mind that the word angel can also be translated as messenger. But at this point David starts to, I think, suspect that she's up to something. There's a little bit too much butter being poured on him. Maybe she had just put a little bit too much out. But he ends up asking her if she's been sent by his military commander, Joab. And she flatters him again by answering in the affirmative, but also adding that no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my Lord the King has spoken. And she adds that my Lord is wise, like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know all that is in the earth. I mean, she's just really turning up the flattery. This is a textbook lesson in how to manipulate people, how to deceive a man like David. And if you really consider what she's doing here, she's telling some half-truths very similar to the way that the serpent told some half-truths in Genesis chapter 3, when the snake tempted Eve to eat from the tree of good and evil knowledge. But this is a textbook case of how to manipulate somebody like David. He hadn't taken the time to investigate her case. He ruled too quickly, indeed prematurely. He ruled prematurely. She pulled at his heartstrings. He failed to catch on to that much, so he listened and got emotionally invested in this woman's story and in her situation. I mean, if David had been capable of thinking clearly and thinking and discerning wisely, he would have seen that her story had some really significant differences from the situation that existed in David's household between David and Absalom. and that there were some serious inconsistencies in her own arguments. The most obvious difference is that her son supposedly killed his brother accidentally, while there was nothing accidental about Amnon's death. in terms of what Absalom had done. There was nothing accidental or anything like that. It was very intentional. He had coldly premeditated Amnon's murder for two years. And thus the penalty that Absalom faced under God's law was far harsher than the penalty that this woman's son should have faced under God's law. Numbers chapter 35 verse 15 says this, it says, These six cities shall be for refuge for the sons of Israel, and for the alien, and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there. That's where David needed to be going. Of course, the six cities are identified after that. But you get the point, hopefully. is that intentional murder is very different and has different consequences than accidental murder or death. So what he should have been doing is saying, wait a minute, they shouldn't be calling for the death of your son. Rather, he should be fleeing to one of these six cities, which is a refuge for somebody who has killed somebody accidentally. Secondly, she said back in verse 14 that, she said, for we will surely die and are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one will not be cast out from him. Again, there's some half-truths here. What she's arguing is that if God doesn't take away life, but plans ways for banished people to be brought back and not be cast out from Him, then shouldn't David do the same thing? That's basically her argument. I mean, none of this is completely true. God doesn't take away life? Really? Of course He does. That is God's sovereign right. Third, she essentially argues that by leaving Absalom in a state of banishment, that David was causing harm to the people that he was supposed to be protecting. How could this be more harmful than it would be to bring him back? How could it be more harmful for Absalom to be gone, for this cold-blooded murderer to be gone than brought back? And just as a quick spoiler, bringing Absalom back is gonna be a terrible, terrible thing. It's gonna create way more problems for Israel than they would have had if he would have just remained in exile. So no wonder David is so confused. There's a mix of lies and half-truths and all kinds of things being thrown at him, guilt. The woman has placed all this guilt on David's shoulders. And while Nathan's parable brought David to repentance, this woman's story doesn't bring him to repentance. This woman's story brings him to confusion. where he's just acting foolishly because the details, they're just not quite lining up, and it's never wise to act when we are confused like David is here. Noting the difference between Nathan's parable and what this woman did, William Blakey, commentator, he writes this, he says, quote, Nathan's parable was designed to rouse the king's conscience as against his feelings, the woman of Tekoa's, as prompted by Joab, was to rouse his feelings against his conscience." So the difference is Nathan was trying to wake up David's conscience against his feelings and here this woman's trying to wake up his feelings against his conscience so that his feelings would override his conscience. So obviously there's a An enormous difference between Nathan coming to David with this parable and this woman coming to David with this made-up story. But David makes a huge mistake here. By acting without investigating, by acting without thinking, by acting without praying or seeking counsel, and above all, he doesn't take the time to compare the woman's story and her request, and Joab's request I suppose, with what the Scriptures clearly instruct. Friends, it is important that you and I realize how foolish it is to act in haste without discernment. And the Scriptures instruct us in the ways of the wise, so we have no excuses for not seeking godly counsel, for not praying about matters that appear urgent, and for not considering how God's Word might instruct us in how we should navigate a situation. But know this, friends, we're no different from David. It is so easy for us to be deceived. It is so easy for us to be manipulated. Do you realize that advertisers spend billions of dollars a year because they realize that that principle's true? It's easy to deceive us, it's easy to manipulate us, and they know it. When it comes to making important decisions, we need an abundance of counselors, as the Scriptures instruct. We need to take time to pray. We need to be slow to speak, as the Scriptures instruct. We need to seek God's will through a variety of avenues. If David had just taken time to be wise and to be discerning in this situation, he would have realized that God actually does have a way of restoring sinners, but that His ways are totally unlike the ways proposed by this woman from Tekoa. God is always willing, God is actually eager to forgive, but He doesn't ever do so, ever, at the expense of justice. He doesn't forego justice to forgive as the woman was requesting. How then can God forgive without foregoing justice? How can God forgive us and yet simultaneously be a just judge? Well, the answer is actually most fully realized in Jesus Christ, who came into our world in human flesh and who upheld the law of God perfectly as nobody else in history has ever done for one second. And he then died in the place of sinners who trust in him alone for salvation. taking their sin upon himself and bearing the full penalty of their sin on their behalf. In the Old Testament, the law made provision for sinners to bring animals to the priests as sin offerings when they sinned. And the priests would spill and spread the blood of the animals all over the sanctuary. And the message behind this whole system, this gruesome system of sacrifice was simply this, the wage of even the smallest sin is death. Blood must be shed for the remission of sins. As the author of Hebrews says, Hebrews 9.22, according to the law, one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. But all of this was given as a foreshadowing because as the author of Hebrews continues and points out in chapter 10 verse 4, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Only the blood of Jesus can take away sin, can wash away sin's guilt. It's only by His blood shed on our behalf that we, as ones worthy of banishment forever, can be brought home, reconciled to God, forgiven of every sin, and adopted by grace into His family as children of God. So how is God both just and able to justify, that is, to declare innocent somebody who's guilty, like you and me? Paul writes this in Romans 3, verses 23 to 26. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed, for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And so in this way, God forgives us without overlooking our sin, or leaving a sin unpunished, or worse yet, forcing us to bear the weight and the consequence of our sin. And all without compromising God's holy and just character as a just and holy God. Without Christ as our sacrificial Lamb of God, we can only remain banished from God, forced to suffer under His perfect justice ourselves, because the penalty must be paid. God does have a way. of restoring banished sinners, but his way is perfectly just. It doesn't overlook sin. And his ways always involve granting us not only faith, but repentance as well. And we must consider this as Absalom is brought out of exile in Geshur and brought back to Jerusalem. Let's look at verses 21 to 24. It says, Then the king said to Joab, Behold now, I will surely do this thing. Go therefore, bring back the young man Absalom. Joab fell on his face to the ground, prostrated himself, and blessed the king. Then Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, O my lord the king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant. So Joab arose and went to Geshur and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. However, the king said, Let him turn to his own house and let him not see my face. So Absalom turned to his own house and did not see the king's face. This is an absolutely terrible decision. This is a horrible situation. David calls for Joab to go and bring Absalom back to Jerusalem, but he adds this weird stipulation at the end, because he realizes that Absalom is worthy of guilt. If he comes before the king, the king is supposed to put him to death. And so he adds this stipulation, let him turn to his own house and let him not see my face. Bring him back, but don't let me see him. So Absalom was welcome to come home, Kinda. Not really. He can return, but he hasn't been restored. He hasn't been reconciled to David. How different are God's ways from ours? God never abandons justice. He never forsakes justice. David is abandoning justice. He's trying to figure out a loophole, a way to get around justice. Let's not forget that Absalom's sin requires that he be put to death. God deals with sin justly, and David decides just to not deal with Absalom's sin. God restores, but also grants repentance. And there is no indication that Absalom is repentant here. In fact, as we'll see before this passage is over and done, Absalom is still extremely puffed up in his pride pertaining to his sin, which is the very opposite of being repentant, the very opposite of feeling any sense of remorse. When God restores us, there remains no condemnation on us. But in restoring Absalom, there's still a strong sense of condemnation, as he cannot even come into his Father's presence. Needless to say, David's ways are so different from God's. And needless to say, these four verses are simply a precursor to a situation that is going to blow up in David's face. It's going to get ugly. Bringing Absalom back to live in a state of constant disgrace. What wisdom is there in that? What good can be accomplished by that? A.W. Pink writes this about it. He said, quote, He goes on to write, "...as chief magistrate in Israel, David had set aside the divine law. Therefore he must not be surprised if his wayward son now resorts to further lawlessness." And if you know the story, you know that further lawlessness is exactly what is going to happen. And it's exactly what always happens when restoration is sought but is void of true repentance. Lawlessness will only ensue, it will increase when restoration and reconciliation take place without repentance. While reconciliation is always ideal, it can only happen when the guilty party repents of the sin that caused the separation. Let's finish the chapter up, verses 25 to 33. It says, Now in all Israel was no one as handsome as Absalom, so highly praised. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no defect in him. When he cut the hair of his head, and it was at the very end of every year that he cut it, for it was very heavy on him, so he cut it, he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels by the king's weight. To Absalom there were born three sons and one daughter, whose name was Tamar. She was a woman of beautiful appearance. Now Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem and did not see the king's face. Then Absalom sent for Joab to send him to the king, but he would not come to him. So he sent again a second time, but he would not come. Therefore he said to his servants, See, Joab's field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire. So Absalom's servants set the field on fire. Then Joab arose and came to Absalom at his house and said to him, why have your servants set my field on fire? Absalom answered Joab, behold, I sent for you saying, come here that I may send you to the king to say, what have I come from Geshur? Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to still be there. Now therefore, let me see the king's face. And if there is iniquity in me, let him put me to death. So when Joab came to the king and told him, he called for Absalom. Thus he came to the king and prostrated himself on his face to the ground before the king, and the king kissed Absalom. So Joab, at the beginning of this chapter, he had sought to remedy this situation with Absalom being in exile. But because he didn't arrange for the kind of restoration and reconciliation that is outlined in Scripture, he doesn't remedy the situation. Instead, what ends up happening is his actions, Joab's actions, only serve to intensify the wrong here. So I want us to consider the first three verses here, verses 25 to 27. We see that Absalom is described as follows. Now in all Israel was no one as handsome as Absalom, so highly praised. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, there was no defect in him. Then goes on to describe what a full head of hair he had. He was so vain he even weighed his hair. It says when he cut the hair of his head, And it was at the end of every year that he cut it, for it was very heavy on him, so he cut it. He weighed the hair of his head at 200 shekels by the king's weight. So we're being told that everybody loved this guy. Everybody loved Absalom. Everybody adored him. Everybody praised him because of his physical attributes. Now that should instantly cause our discernment radar to start beeping, to start going off. It brings us back to when Saul was chosen to be the first king of Israel. Listen to what we read back in 1 Samuel 9, verse 2, which told us about Saul. It said that he was a choice and handsome man, and that there was not a more handsome person than he among the sons of Israel. From his shoulders and up, he was taller than any of the people. And yet you'll remember that Saul, while being outwardly attractive, being physically attractive, he didn't have a single godly virtue within him to speak of. He had no godly qualities to speak of. Outwardly attractive, outwardly appealing, inwardly dead, inwardly ugly. A whitewashed tomb might be the figure of speech that Jesus would have used to describe somebody like either Absalom or Saul. You'll remember that Saul was the antithesis of David. He's a picture of worldliness, a picture of narcissism. Absalom is exactly the same. So this is kind of Saul 2.0. But the problem with Absalom is the same problem that we saw with Saul. And that is that the people who were able to see him and behold him would be foolishly caught up in his physical appearance to the point of neglecting and overlooking his inward character. And they would be all too easily led astray, all too easily charmed by his appearances. The good outward appearances of these guys would cause foolish people to neglect to consider God and to consider God's ways. But notice that immediately after telling us about Absalom's outward physical appearance, it tells us this. It says, to Absalom there were born three sons and one daughter whose name was Tamar. She was a woman of beautiful appearance. Tamar, just like his sister. I mean, it's interesting to say the least to note that he named his daughter after the sister whose victimization prompted Absalom to commit murder. This seems to suggest that Absalom felt vindicated, that he felt justified in murdering his brother, which would mean that he isn't repentant for his sin in the least bit. We're told that for his first two years back in Jerusalem, Absalom wasn't allowed to see his father's face. Frustrated by being restored to Jerusalem without being reconciled to his father, he summons for Joab to come and see him. When Joab doesn't respond, he summons to Joab a second time. And when Joab still doesn't answer the call, Absalom instructs his servants to go and to burn down Joab's barley fields. Fire. Absalom has not changed for the better. If anything, Absalom has only become a worse version of himself. When Joab questions Absalom about burning down his barley field, clearly Absalom felt justified by his actions. He tells Joab, behold, I sent for you saying, come here that I may send you to the king to say, why have I come from Geshur? Would it not be better for me to still be there? Now therefore, let me see the king's face. And if there is iniquity in me, let him put me to death. Absalom is a man who, like King Saul in his own time, has no self-control, no restraint, no humility, no respect for anybody but himself. The fact that he is now guilty of two heinous sins, murder and burning down Joab's field, and yet challenges his father to find iniquity in him, tells us that he has neither a sense of self-awareness nor a degree of true repentance within him. And so the chapter ends with Absalom five years after murdering his brother finally going before his father King David. Absalom was actually correct in saying something that he said to Joab. It would have been far better for him to have stayed in exile. David made a horrendous error by allowing Absalom to be restored to Jerusalem without being reconciled to David. And he couldn't rightly be reconciled to David because he doesn't have any repentance. Let this chapter remind us that lawlessness persists and lawlessness even increases when restoration and reconciliation aren't accompanied first by true repentance. Sin has a terrible way of messing up our relationships, destroying families, just as it once destroyed the relationship with God that humanity was designed to have. But God's way of restoring us to fellowship with himself or to others should never result in an increase in lawlessness. And this is what makes repentance, true repentance, such a key component of restoration and reconciliation. Puritan author Richard Sibbes once wrote that, quote, Gospel repentance is not a little hanging down of the head, it's a working of the heart until your sin becomes more odious to you than any punishment for it, end quote. Far from being a mere change of outward appearances or outward behavior, true repentance involves a deep internal change which results in a changing of desires, a changing of ambition, a changing of all these root causes of sin. And while the woman from Tekoa claimed that God restores the banished, let us remember that God does not automatically restore the banished. Instead, Scripture's clear teaching is that God restores those who repent and turn from their wicked ways. to enjoy fellowship with himself. But they must repent. They must turn from their sin. They cannot have fellowship with God and with the devil at the same time. Without true repentance, Absalom would end up plotting David's downfall in the darkness of his heart. Without repentance, grace is not gracious. In fact, without repentance, grace is actually ungracious and unjust because it doesn't deal with the harsh reality and consequences of sin. Even though five years had passed since his crime, Absalom hadn't changed, at least not for the better. And what he reminds us of is that after five years, five years, 50 years, time might heal wounds, but time doesn't atone for sin. And time doesn't forgive sins. how different God's children should be than this, given that God has restored us to fellowship with Himself, causing us to walk in the light as He is in the light. And so may the world see that that's what characterizes our lives. Walking in the light, knowing that true restoration with God is only found in Christ Jesus, and rejoicing in the fact that God is both just and our justifier. through the blood of Christ that has washed away our sin and guilt, giving us true reconciliation and restoration with God as His children. Praise the Lord that He is still calling sinners back from banishment by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for being a just God. We see the disastrous consequences of justice being forsaken in the text. We see the same thing in the world around us, Lord. That justice cannot be forsaken. It cannot be overlooked. That sin must be dealt with. And so we thank You, Lord, that by Your grace You sought us. And not only did You seek us, but You gave us faith. And not only did You seek us and give us faith, but You also gave us repentance. You gave us the grace that we needed to turn away from our sin and to turn toward your only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as the only one, the only innocent one who has ever lived, the only one who could take our sin away, and the only one whose blood can wash away the crimson stain of sin. We thank you, Lord, that by your grace you have drawn us to Christ. We thank you that in your wisdom you sent your Son to bear the just penalty of sin on our behalf, so that you may be both just as a perfectly holy and just righteous God, and also the justifier. all who believe in Jesus. We thank you Lord that you have called us out of darkness, out of banishment, and into your marvelous light. Thank you for providing everything that's necessary for us to be reconciled to you in Christ Jesus. We pray, Lord, that our lives would be a testimony to the fact that we have been brought home from banishment by your grace, that the world around us may see the light of Christ shining through us for his glory, and in his name we pray. Amen.