If you turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 16, we're up to verse 5. Here are the inerrant word of God. Now when King David came to Bahurim there was a man from the family of the house of Saul whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah, coming from there. He came out cursing continuously as he came. And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David. And all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. Also Shimei said thus when he cursed, Come out, come out, you bloodthirsty man, you rogue. The LORD has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul in whose place you have reigned, and the LORD has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son. So now you are caught in your own evil, because you are a bloodthirsty man. The Naboshai, son of Zeruiah, said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please, let me go over and take off his head. The king said, what have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse because the Lord has said to him, curse David, who then shall say, why have you done so? And David said to Abishai and all his servants, see how my son who came from my own body seeks my life. How much more now may this Benjamite let him alone, let him curse for thought. So the Lord has ordered him. It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day. And as David and his men went along the road, Shimei went along the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went, threw stones at him and kicked up dust. Now the king and all the people who were with him became weary. So they refreshed themselves there. Father, we thank you for this, your word. It is our desire to honor you, to please you as we respond to it. And we pray that you would open up the eyes of our understanding and that the meditations of our heart and our continued worship would be acceptable in your sight. In Jesus' name, amen. It's been a lot of fun having international students in our home over the years. And it's especially been fun for us to see how quickly they begin to learn English. But one of the things that almost all of our students have struggled with has been the meaning of idioms. And I logged on to one of the student forums and a question came from a student whom I did not know about this British idiom. It's not cricket to kick a man when he's down. Now, here was one of the helpful explanations from a fellow student. He said that it means, do not this man frustrated, distressed when supplemented on foot. And the Chinese student was probably wondering, you know, how that was any easier than the idiom. I could not understand either one in the response as it was obvious. Idioms can sometimes be very difficult to understand, but I think this one is fairly straightforward. Cricket was a a game that was played by the royalty and the lords of old. And it was a gentleman's sport. It was something that you were required to be very fair in playing. You were not allowed to resort to any kind of abusive playing. In fact, sometimes they would even applaud when somebody got a a wicket, took a wicket or scored a shot. And it was normal that if the empire did not see you doing something that was wrong that you would just own up to it on your own. So cheating was not considered to be cricket. It was not a gentlemanly thing to do. And of course the The expression, it's not cricket, began to transform from meaning not just that it's not sportsmanlike, but it began to mean it's not fair, it's not proper, and it was used in a lot of different contexts. And then the other part, to kick a man when he is down, was taken from a totally different sport, from boxing. When a person was knocked out, he was on the ground, you don't start kicking him in the head and in the groin and in the kidneys. It's not fair. Or to mix metaphors, it's not cricket. And this expression has been used to describe poor behavior in any area of life. Earlier this year, Rick Warren's son Matthew committed suicide. And you can just imagine the devastation that happened to the whole family. And he was given kind of a knockout punch, so to speak. He was on the ground. And yet, despite that fact, people just started piling on. They came out of the woodwork from nowhere, started piling on to the family. Now writing all kinds of hate mail like Rick deserves worse than that and his family deserves worse and one letter said I hope his son went straight to hell. Now what was particularly distressing to me when I read that was it wasn't just the homosexual community that was attacking him like this. Even Christians were piling on in his life and just giving abusive language to him. And it's just not cricket. It's not appropriate. I get upset when I see things like that. When we saw in one football game, was it last year, where somebody was trying to twist the head of a player that was at the bottom of a dog pile. It's just not cricket. That's not appropriate. And this passage here, what Shimei was doing is just not cricket. He's kicking David in the emotional kidneys when he is down. And what's weird about this is that Shimei is willing to kick David when he's down, but he was not willing to spar with David when David was in power. Now, Nathan the prophet was. Nathan, you know, he confronted, he criticized David, but he did it in a gentlemanly way. The way he criticized David was a proper approach to cricket so to speak. And David didn't like it but it was still appropriate. Based on the wording most people assume that Shimei was introduced to David for the first time here and we see that he was a coward in chapter 19. The only time he has boldness to oppose David is when David is on the proverbial mat and even then he's not playing fair. So take a look at verse 5. Now when King David came to Behorim there was a man from the family of the house of Saul whose name was Shimei, the son of Gerah, coming from there. This is the first time that we've heard of this man and so the question comes, why is it the people who don't have the guts to oppose injustice in David's life when he's in power are now coming out of the woodwork when he is feeling helpless? And I will have to admit it does sort of look like Shimei has courage here. His anger gives him a kind of courage. But I don't think he was as close to David as is shown in the painting that's in in your your outline there. Verse 13 indicates he was way up on a hill throwing rocks, probably just far enough away so that if anybody came after him, he'd be able to run. Right. and hopefully outrun them. And you've got to piece together two passages to understand what's happening here. When David comes back to the throne in chapter 19, Shimei, oh, he immediately asks for forgiveness. He's peaches and cream. He's supportive of David. And the only explanation that's made any sense to me that can reconcile the passivity of Shimei earlier than this chapter and the passivity in chapter 19 and following, reconcile that with the volcanic eruption in this chapter is pent up frustration and bitterness. It's sort of like the phenomenon that happened in the L.A. riots. People there that were interviewed afterwards said that they did things, even dangerous things, that they would never have done in their more rational moments. But the loss of order that was sparked by that first act of violence unleashed a torrent of bitterness and frustration that had already been bubbling underneath the surface. It's irrational in many ways, but it doesn't take much to get a law-abiding citizen to irrational rage if they have never dealt with the underlying bitterness that is there. And you can see the irrational outburst and the stream of emotion in the last phrase of verse 5. He came out cursing continuously as He came. This is not just a brief angry outburst. it is continuous. How long has he been doing this? Well some commentators assume based on verses 13 through 14 that he was doing this all the way up to the Jordan River which would have been a 21 mile meandering route descending 3,700 feet. Now based on verse 13 where it talks about him being up on the hill I'm assuming it's only between Bahurim and the Jericho plain. So that's about nine to 10 miles where there's a lot of rocky, craggy hills and things through that region. But even nine to 10 miles, that's a long time for him to be expressing this kind of anger and rage. Why would an otherwise peace-loving man be going so ballistic? And the answer is unrestrained anger. And his anger keeps building because his angry words reinforce angry emotions and angry thinking. Anger that is not restrained can make people do some quite irrational things that they will later on regret. Now, when David is surrounded by at least 1,000 people, it might seem a little bit stupid for Shimei to be cursing and throwing stones. In effect, this was a symbolic stoning, sort of like what they do in the Middle East, you know, when they burn an effigy or they burn a flag. They're wishing they could do the same thing to the person or to the country. and it involves some physical abuse because probably at least some of those stones have connected with some of the people in his entourage. Verse 6 says, And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men, were on his right hand and on his left. Now I think I'd be a little bit nervous throwing stones at David if I was as close as the picture pointed. I think that picture is dead wrong. And I put it in there because I want to address this misconception. We find in chapter 19 that he was a scaredy cat. This is really more akin to the Middle Eastern scenarios you see on TV where you get a gang of teenagers throwing stones at Israeli soldiers knowing full well they're not going to get shot at or if they do get chased down They'll be able to quickly run and take off and try to hide. There was some distance between Shimei and these men because they had to go up a steep hill in order to get him. Now I hunted because I know the terrain based on my... I've got a kind of a video thing that looks at all of the Middle East there. I couldn't get a good picture. The picture that I put into your outlines gives you a little bit of perspective, but there's a lot of places, actually most of that road, that's very, very steep. And it would have given him the ability to throw stones and it would have been fairly easy for him to run away. By the way, this is exactly the same road that the man on the Good Samaritan story was ambushed on. And bandits could hide in the crags and crevices and there's all kinds of places along that road where they could hide. And so I say this because if you understand the geography there, you realize Shimei is a little bit safer than you might immediately think. And he would have been able to throw stones and run if anyone came after him. But this is the kind of irrational rage that I have on occasion seen a wife use against a husband where she will throw things at him and cuss him out knowing that he's probably not going to hurt her. Rage can make people do extremely unreasonable things but certainly David is feeling kicked when he's already down. Verse 7, also Shimei said thus when he cursed, come out, come out you bloodthirsty man, you rogue. Now most versions give the meaning of the Hebrew idiom come out, come out with slightly different variation, get out, get out. Okay, he was in Benjamite territory and he was not welcome there. And the implication is that Absalom would not be welcomed there either. Apparently there was a lot of bitterness that had been fomenting in the Benjamite region against David. A lot of hatred that was there and it later leads to another revolt. The reason for the hatred is found in the accusation that he was a bloodthirsty man and a criminal which is what the word rogue means He goes on in verse 8 to amplify Saying the Lord has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul Implying what? that he and probably a bunch of his other relatives had thought that David had killed Saul and his household. Now it was false information but it may explain why it took seven years before the northern tribes were willing to join with David a number of years before, 21 years before. The rumor mills that Saul had started were continued by Abner and by the various Saulides. And here was one person who had been poisoned by those rumors. He obviously believed the false rumors. But I have seen people get angry for the wrong reasons and at the wrong people, interestingly, for long periods of time. Pastor John Underhill's mother and his wife were at a garage sale one time. And there was a man who overheard them talking and he came up to them and said, I see that your name is Underhill. Are you related to a minister? And Carolyn, his wife said, yes, my husband's a minister. And she told him where. And the man said, well, I could tell you a thing or two. And the mother said, Go ahead, I've heard it all. And the man explained how when he had gotten married, he had asked the senior pastor of their church, which was Fourth Memorial Church, to conduct the wedding. And the pastor never showed up. He did have a substitute, but he never showed up, never even told him that he was going to have a substitute do it for him. And this man held this against him all of those years, had been bitter against him for quite some number of years. Well, Pastor Underhill's mother thought that was a little bit strange. She didn't recall anything like that happening. She said, well, how many years ago did that happen? He said, 30 years ago. And she said, well, we didn't even move into the town until 25 years ago, so it must have been a previous pastor. So they got that all straightened out. But here was a situation where a man had been bitter at the wrong person for 30 years just like Shimei had been bitter against the wrong person David for 28 years. Mr. Russell, his bitterness can happen. He had wrongly assumed all this time that David had killed all of his relatives and so it's no wonder that he was bitter. And so the question I ask is how many times do we get angry based on a report? Maybe it's misinformation. We've never checked out the report to see if the facts really hold up. We've just automatically gone into angry mode. So the whole verse says, the Lord has brought upon you all the blood of the house of Saul and whose place you have reigned. And the Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom, your son. So now you were caught in your own evil. because you were a bloodthirsty man. Now the phrase you were caught in your own evil implies that David had taken the kingdom illegitimately just like Absalom was now taking the kingdom illegitimately. And these are false accusations that would have been hurtful in the extreme. because they're the exact opposite of what David had done. Saul was the murderer. Saul was the one who was chasing down David and David had been loyal. David was the victim. Saul was the one who had unnecessarily endangered the lives of his soldiers. Shimei really should have been mad at Saul for having needlessly lost life. You see, even though Saul had repeatedly tried to kill David, David had spared Saul's life on more than one occasion, even though it had been so easy to end it all and to kill Saul. But he loved Saul. He loved Jonathan. And to be accusing David of murdering Saul's family is an incredibly low blow. So low that it wasn't cricket. Now, of course, David realizes that even though he isn't guilty of killing Saul's family, he was a murderer and He was a rogue. He had slept with Bathsheba, a capital crime, and he had arranged for the death of Uriah, another capital crime. So even though he had gotten off on a technicality, and we saw before it was a technicality where it was impossible to bring a court trial against him, in God's eyes he still was worthy of death. So even though Shimei is applying his criticism in the wrong way and with the wrong information and with the wrong application, There is a sense in which there is an element of truth in what he has to say. But as far as any court is concerned, Shimei's public accusations would be totally false and subject to a penalty due to a false witness, if indeed this was a court. And in this, I think Shimei stands as a warning to us. We must not simply forward the latest funny Facebook harangue against some politician simply because we don't like the politician. Some people think like Shimei and they think, well, even if every accusation is not true, you know, this person deserves it. It really doesn't matter anyway. Yes, it does matter. It matters in terms of your own integrity. Toby has rightly pointed out that some Facebook forwards are simply slander. And I don't know which ones he had in mind, but I'm thinking of ones like the situation, the quote from Bush. that he supposedly says that the Constitution is just a blankety blank piece of paper. You know, who cares about it? And liberals and conservatives both have been forwarding that about Bush, even though it's been for years shown to be a false statement. Same is true about The Obama picture, you know, where he is saying the Pledge of Allegiance with his hand over the wrong part of his body. Well, you look at his ring finger and you can immediately see that it's just been inverted on Photoshop or something like that. So, here's the point. Whether the person you are slandering is a good guy or a bad guy, it doesn't matter. It's still slander. If Shimei had accused David of adultery, and accused David of killing Uriah that would not be slander. That would have been perfectly appropriate for him to say you don't deserve to be on the throne. You killed Uriah and we all know it and you should step down voluntarily. That would not have been slander. But Shimei could care less about Uriah. What he's mad about is that the Saulides are not on the throne any longer and so he spreads this rumor that's been going on that's never been documented and in fact is a false rumor that he has killed off all the household of Saul. And it was because this was indeed slander, false accusations, that David later on tells Solomon, you know what you can do with Shimei. He didn't feel he could deal with it at this point because he'd come out looking like a hypocrite. Now in chapter 19, we do find that even Shimei recognizes that what he had said here and what he had done was wrong and that it was sinful. And let me read that for you. Chapter 19 beginning at verse 18. Then a ferry boat went across to carry over the king's household and to do what he thought good. Now Shimei, the son of Gerah, fell down before the king when he had crossed the Jordan. Then he said to the king, do not let my lord impute iniquity to me or remember what wrong your servant did on the day. that my Lord the King left Jerusalem, that the King should take it to heart. For I, your servant, know that I have sinned. Therefore, here I am, the first to come today of all the house of Joseph, to go down to meet my Lord the King. But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, answered and said, shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the Lord's anointed? And David said, what have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should be adversaries to me today? Shall any man be put to death today in Israel? For do I not know that today I am king over Israel? Therefore the king said to Shimei, you shall not die. And the king swore to him. So just as God had been gracious to David in chapter 12, David is being gracious to Shimei in chapter 19. He recognized that some people say stupid, stupid things in the heat of anger, and it doesn't in any way justify the anger or the things that were said, but David takes it in stride. Now, both in chapter 19 and here in chapter 16, Abishai says emotionally charged things that he should not have said. He responds in kind. So back in chapter 16, verse 9, Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over and take off his head. He recognized that cursing the king is a sin and many evangelicals do not recognize this to be true. So let's think about this a little bit. Though the Bible allows prophetic rebuke against tyranny, and you've got a long history all through the Old Testament and the New Testament of prophetic rebukes against tyranny, these were true accusations against bestial governments. They are not simply angry tirades against authority. Shimei is bringing false accusations. He's really not thought through them. Let me read you some of the scriptures that I've put in your outlines, because when we speak against the evils of our culture, it is imperative that we do so lawfully. Otherwise, we ourselves lose credibility. And by the way, Jesus said we're not ever to judge anybody. Judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged. What he's saying is don't ever bring any independent things. What you do is you bring God's word as his judgment against people. You're not just judging them independently. That's why later he says, judge righteous judgment. How do you do that? By bringing the word to bear in their lives. And that's the principle. And Exodus 22, 28 is probably the strongest verse that's against cursing the king. says you shall not revile God nor curse a ruler of your people. Now I want you to notice first of all that this is not an absolute prohibition of cursing a ruler. If it was, Man, the Old Testament prophets would be in deep trouble because they brought curses against rulers all the time. The apostle John would be in trouble when he wrote the book of Revelation because that is calling down God's curses upon bestial empires. John the Baptist would be in trouble. We'd be in trouble when we sing the imprecatory Psalms. See, God commands us to call down His curses upon rulers who are His enemies. And so it's similar to the balance that we see in Matthew. Matthew forbids us from bringing our judgment, but it does not forbid us from bringing the Bible's judgment to bear in their lives. And this passage forbids us from bringing our own curses, but does not forbid us from bringing God's curses against His enemies and against His people. And so just as an example, if I were to confront a person who was living in adultery and tell him, brother, you should not be doing this. You need to repent of this sin. And he says, you know, it's none of your business. Jesus says, judge not that you be not judged. My immediate response would be, look, I'm not judging you. I'm a sinner too. I'm under the judgment of God's word. It's because I love you that I'm bringing the Bible's judgment. This is God's judgment, not my judgment, okay? And because I love you, I'm calling upon you to repent. So that's the kind of balance that we are talking about here. David wrote curses in the Psalms against both Saul and Absalom, but those Psalms were asking God to judge them in His courtroom, not independent curses. So let me read that verse again. You shall not revile God nor curse a ruler of your people. Now the Hebrew poetry, one phrase interprets the other and the parallelism there indicates that we must never curse a king in a way that would curse God, would curse God's authority. But what happens when a ruler steps out? If this is God and he steps out from under God's authority, he no longer has a chain of command that really goes to God. And so when you're calling down God's curses upon that action and his holding to that action, you're not cursing God, okay? Because he stepped out from under that chain of command. But we are not to throw off legitimate God-given authority simply because there are some things that we disagree with. If a ruler is appointed by God, any lawful orders that he gives must still be honored and respected. And if, because there is tyranny, we disrespect all the orders of a tyrant, we throw off the legitimacy of all civil authority, then we are falling under the condemnation of Exodus 22, verse 28. Ecclesiastes 10 verse 20 is similar. Do not curse the king even in your thought. So even our inward attitudes need to be respectful to all authority. Now of course that begs the question of what is lawful authority, what's not lawful authority. Romans 13 says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority if not from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority, resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. So it's a serious thing to resist lawful authority. It says we are going to be suffering under God's judgment. And I'm a whole lot more afraid of God's judgment than I am of a king's judgment. So when critiquing authorities, as the Bible gives us a long tradition of doing, it's critical that we bring the Bible's opinion of their behavior and not simply judge them independently. What I'm trying to do here is I'm trying to give you a little bit of a theology of individual interposition, because it's appropriate not just for governments to interpose themselves, but individuals to do so as well. 2 Peter and the limits. The Bible gives limits to where our interposition can go. 2 Peter 2 says, Then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They, that is the ones who despise authority, are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels who are greater in power and might do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord. But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand and will utterly perish in their own corruption." This isn't an indictment against a law that goes on in Facebook. People routinely mock and speak evil of dignitaries without even checking out if the facts are true or not. Now there was plenty enough that Shimei could have respectfully and lawfully criticized David for without adding these false accusations that he had murdered Saul's whole household. And certainly there was nowhere in the Bible that it allowed Shimei to be throwing stones. That's abuse. Jude 8 through 10 says much the same. Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority and speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you. Now I want you to notice he lets God bring the judgments and God bring the curse. He doesn't do it independently. And when you pray the imprecatory Psalms, you're doing exactly the same thing. You're doing exactly what Michael the archangel did. You're saying the Lord rebuke you. You're bringing God's rebuke by agreeing with the scriptures. And so that's the balance there. The next verse says, but these speak evil of whatever they do not know. And whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts and these things, they corrupt themselves. But that phrase, these speak evil of whatever they do not know, I think is an indictment of a lot of forwards of email and a lot of forwards on Facebook. So point A says there is an element of truth in what Abishai is saying. Okay, he's upset. Shimei should not have engaged in this misinformed cursing of the king. It was clearly a sin. And if it had been a false accusation before a court, it would have also been a crime. Now there is actually disagreement among commentators as to what he's doing here. Is he just cursing or is he trying to convince these people over a 10-mile stretch to string David up from the nearest tree? That's what I think he's trying to do. He's trying to, there's a court kind of a situation here, and he's cursing him, bringing every evidence he can to get these guys to turn against David and execute him for murder. But let's anyway, for the sake of the argument, assume that that's right. There is debate on that. But let's assume this is an accusation in a court that Shimei had engaged in a crime, was asking these people to kill him. Abishai is still wrong. Even in a worst case scenario Abishai is still wrong. It's wrong first of all because it is returning tit for tat, name calling for name calling, anger for anger, bitterness for bitterness. He's not responding to these false charges with reasoned answers and saying no this is not true. We know exactly what the facts of the situation are. Instead Shimei's anger arouses anger in Abishai. Shimei's disrespect causes Abishai to show equal disrespect. Abishai says, why should this dead dog curse my Lord the King? Now commentators say that's about the worst insult you could bring. Call a person a dead dog. Calling him a dog, that's bad enough, but a dead dog? And so if for the sake of argument someone says that Shimei is bringing an accusation in court that is false accusations, is disrespect, deserved the death penalty, It can be pointed out that Abishai is using exactly the same disrespect and is wanting to go and kill this person is really no different than the lawlessness that Shimei is engaging in. He too allows his anger to boil over into unreasonable words. And this too is a good reminder to us to be slow to anger, slow to speak, James says, the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. There is a place for righteous anger. I'm not denying that at all. But it is exceedingly rare when we actually have an anger that is unstained by sin. It's exceedingly rare. Exceedingly rare. That's why one writer said, a person who is angry on the right grounds against the right persons in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time deserves great praise. It's tough to do because anger is like nitroglycerin. It's so unstable. It's as likely to blow you up and to blow your loved ones up as it is to blow sin up. Now God has designed anger to blow sin up, you know, to make us make us determined to continue to pursue the path of righteousness even if sin is clouding the way. But unless our anger is sanctified by God's grace and it's strictly limited by the provisions of God's Word, It's just very very difficult to keep sin out of it. It's usually sinful. So be extremely cautious of allowing anger to make you go off half cocked in your speech. James tells us be slow to anger and slow to speech. Now I've already kind of dealt with point C. So I won't deal with it here, but we do see Ishimiai's willingness to kill him involves him in the same hypocrisy. Now what I'm doing is I'm giving these reactions to paint a context within which David's reaction is remarkable, absolutely remarkable. Before we get to David, let me make one more application of Abishai's reaction. Do we harp on other people for doing exactly the same things that we have done? Randall Smith told about an elderly couple that was taking a vacation all over the states and they stopped at a roadside restaurant and got a meal. And when they got up from their table to leave, she accidentally forgot her glasses on the table. She didn't discover for a few miles down the road that she didn't have her glasses and said, oh, you need to turn around and get my glasses. And what made matters worse is he had to drive quite a ways further before he could find a place to get back around. Needless to say, he was upset. He fussed and fumed all the way back, complaining about her stupidity and how this was so unreasonable, how thoughtless of you. He was just berating her. And when they finally got out of the car to retrieve her glasses, the old man said, well, as long as you're going back in there, you may as well get my hat too. Wow. You could understand if she wanted to punch his lights out, right? She could have been very upset. Now, from what I understand, she did not respond like Abishai. She responded more like David did. But put yourself in her shoes. It is so easy to respond like Abishai did. So easy. Now, with that mental picture in your mind, I want you to amplify it many, many times worse, and I think you get a little bit of an idea of appreciation for how David responds to Shimei and how he responds to Abishai. Even though David was by no means perfect, he does show the grace of God in this response. First of all, he rejects bitterness and revenge, verse 10. But the king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse." Now we've already seen in the past that both Abishai and Joab, two brothers, tended to be governed by impulsive anger. And bitterness and revenge and it poisoned them more and more until joab actually involved himself in a murder Now in past chapters, we've seen already that david sought to model forgiveness to them He sought to instruct them in forgiveness and he tried to encourage them to engage in forgiveness as well but when they overlooked a fault It was only because David pretty much forced them to do so. They had no heart in it. And it kind of reminds me of the British dramatist Frederick Lonsdale. He had taken his friend Seymour Hicks to the Garrick Club in London for a New Year's Eve party and he noticed that Lonsdale was refusing to even be around his what he thought was his friend. And he asked him, how come you don't go over there and wish him a Happy New Year? And he said, well, we've had a falling out and he's no longer my friend. I don't want to be around him, let alone wish him a Happy New Year. And Hicks said to him, oh, you must. It is very unkind to be unfriendly at such a time. Go over now and wish him a Happy New Year. So Lonsdale crossed the room and spoke to this guy that he now despised. And he said, I wish you a Happy New Year, but only one. That's about all that Joab and Abishai could do. You know, is wish somebody, okay, I won't kill you this time. That's about the most that they were able to do. Even their overlooking of false was only because David insisted on it. In this chapter Abishai wants to kill Shimei and again in chapter 19 he wants to kill Shimei. And David recognizes that both sides in this debate have allowed their emotions to become poisoned through faulty thinking. They're not thinking in terms of grace. And the literal Hebrew response is this, what to me and to you. Now it's a Hebrew idiom that I think is better translated, do we agree on anything? Two other translations worded, what do we have in common? What is there in me that is also in you? So David recognized they had been poisoned and he doesn't want his heart to be poisoned by these attitudes. And he doesn't understand how they can persevere in their bitterness. It does them no good and he writes an entire psalm to counteract these kinds of bad attitudes, Psalm 37. Psalm 37 was written as a direct response to this ungodly interchange between Abishai and Shimei. So David's first good response was to make sure, and you can see it so much in Psalm 37, but some other Psalms as well, to make sure he was not poisoned by the bitterness that was flowing very palpably between Shimei and Abishai. The second thing that David does right is that he tries to see this in the context of God's sovereignty and discipline. Now when he says, So let him curse, because the Lord has said to him, curse David, who then shall say, why have you done so? And when verse 11 says that God has ordered or commanded Shimei to do this cursing, he's not implying that Shimei has a direct prophetic line to God and God has prophetically spoken to him, go ahead and curse David. No, he's talking about God's word in providence. And let me explain how that all works. at the time of creation, what is it that made this world? Every aspect of it. It's God's Word, right? When God commands, let there be light, there is light. And the same is true of everything else. And Job says, when God commands The lightning strikes the mark, okay? And there's other passages that talk about God's Word going forth and causing the nations to go to war. So that's God's Word in Providence. His commands, His Word structures all of life. And David already knew from a previous prophecy in chapter 12 that the sword was not going to depart from his household. God has decreed this very thing to happen. It was an obvious fulfillment of prophecy. It was disciplined because of his sin with Bathsheba and his killing of Uriah. So David's attitude is basically that even though Shimei's got things wrong on whom he had murdered, he was going to listen to this accusation anyway because, hey, this is a part of God's discipline. both prophesied and providentially ordered. And this was Matthew Henry's understanding of this passage. He says, as it was Shimei's sin, it was not from God, but from the devil in his own wicked heart. nor did God's hand in it excuse or extenuate it, much less justify it, any more than it did the sin of those who put Christ to death." Acts 2, 23, Acts 4, 28. But as it was David's affliction, it was from the Lord, one of the evils which he raised up against him. And even though John Wesley was an Arminian, he has exactly the same understanding. He said this, And this is ground enough for this expression, the Lord said, not by the word of his precept, but by the word of his providence, in respect whereof he is said to command the ravens, 1 Kings 17 verse 4, and to send forth his word to senseless creatures, Psalm 147, 15 and 18. Who shall reproach God's providence for permitting this, or who shall restrain him from executing his just judgment against me? And so I think it's really wise to be examining God's hand in our lives when people are doing horrible things to us. They're attacking us. Why has God allowed this? If those attacks are a part of God's discipline in our lives, getting too angry, it's appropriate to get upset, but getting too angry at the sin of those other people that are hurting us could blind us to what God is doing. Yes, they're wrong. But is there any truth to what they are saying? I think that's what our perspective should be. I had a professor at seminary who always looked for the grain of truth in any criticism that was brought to him, no matter how off the wall it was. Even if that person was 98% wrong, In the criticism that he was bringing, he sought to repent of the 2% that he was doing wrong before he started to correct their misunderstanding about the 98%. And I think we all should strive to do that. However, if instead of doing that, we get outraged at the 98% that they have gotten wrong about us, what's going to happen? Our anger is going to totally blind us to the 2% that we're wrong on and totally blind us to what God Himself is seeking to bring into our lives. And I think it would be a whole lot better to examine our own sins with a magnifying glass, like David does in at least a few of the Psalms that he wrote during this period, and not be looking with a magnifying glass at the sins of Shimei. Recognize it, yes, but say, first of all, Lord, is there anything in me that may have caused this outrage? this outburst from Shimei. When we're quicker to see our own sins than the sins of others, then we will tend not to become bitter. The third thing that David did right was to give himself a bird's eye perspective. If you take a look at verse 11, David said to Abishai and all his servants, see how my son who came from my own body seeks my life. How much more now may this Benjamite let him alone and let him curse for so the Lord has ordered him. In effect, he's recognizing that Shimei has far more reason to be angry at him than his son does. Shimei had been related to the king. Now he has nothing. He lost everything. And not only that, Shimei, because he was related to King Saul, he's probably only heard one side of the story. I mean, there's a sense in which David can sympathize with his anger, even though he doesn't justify his anger. But there's more. David recognizes both that there's an element of truth in what Shimei has said, but he recognizes he deserves far worse than what Shimei has been dishing out to him. And anytime we can look at the tragedies that we experience and realize that we deserve far worse than we are experiencing, it helps us to handle them a little bit better. In fact, that's one of the things that the book of Philippians says that God's grace produces in us. It makes us so recognize the sinfulness of our hearts. I mean, even the Apostle Paul, he considered himself to be the worst of sinners. And you look at him, how in the world can you seriously say you're the worst of sinners? Such a godly man. But that's how deep, how bright the spotlight is shining in his heart. that when we see ourselves as the chief of sinners, we're much less likely to want to resort to revenge. We're gonna be saying, Lord, I am so thankful that that's all I'm receiving. I deserve so much worse at your hands. Pastor Kenneth Sawyer of Newport News, Virginia said that he could see this kind of change rather vividly in the life of one of his members. It was a truck driver who had recently gotten saved. And in their small group, one of the exercises that they had was everybody was to go around and share what changes God had wrought in their lives since they had gotten converted. And the truck driver said, well, when I find somebody tailgating my truck, I no longer drive on the shoulder of the road to kick up pebbles and rocks on them. I didn't even know that was a tactic truckers use. But here was God working in his heart taking away any inkling any desire to bring revenge upon people who were mistreating him. OK. Anyway it's a wonderful change of God's grace and we all need it. That's one of the reasons why Romans 12 gives so many ways in which we can practice this and not be overcome by evil but to overcome evil with good. And that's the problem with Abishai and Joab. They were overcome by evil. The fourth thing that David did right was to humble himself before God. Verse 12, It may be that the Lord will look on my affliction, that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing this day. Now the word for affliction in Hebrew is elsewhere translated as either iniquity, guilt, or the punishment due, guilt. So David sees himself as being under God's discipline, and he thinks the only appropriate thing for me to do if I'm being disciplined is to humble myself before God. Yeah, if there wasn't discipline, there's plenty that would be appropriate to criticize Shimei about and to be upset there with Shimei about, but he doesn't want the fact that Shimei is wrong to cloud his own vision and to keep him responding humbly. He knows that God exalts the humble and he abases the proud. And so he is praying, Lord, will you please exalt me as I humble myself? And God did. God did exalt him. And so responding to providence and humility is another tool to help avoid getting bitter. The last thing that David did was to commit himself to endurance and perseverance. Verses 13 through 14. And as David and his men went along the road, Shimei went along the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went, threw stones at him and kicked up dust. Now the king and all the people who were with him became weary, so they refreshed themselves there." Now it takes self-control to not respond sinfully to such Infuriating nonsense. Okay. It's like Satan is trying to get David to Any way he can to get David to respond pridefully and sinfully to what shimmy I is doing all along this Jericho Road He's trying to get David to do something. He will later regret now David does not bite. I But it takes endurance to keep on keeping on when life is not fun. And this, too, is part of God's calling upon us. Now, it's really at a juncture like that that we need to pray. We need to cry out to God with our frustrations. We need to lay our frustrations at the feet of Jesus. We need to learn to worship, even in the midst of pain, to respond to God in faith, to say, Lord, help me to respond to these people in an appropriate way. And I do not think it is by accident Let me make sure the number is right here. 17 or 18 of David's psalms are dated to this period. It's an incredibly short period of time that David is in exile. 17 or 18. Now some scholars actually think that there are 23 psalms that belong to this period, but I'm convinced that five of those that they ascribe there actually belong to his running from Saul. But even the low figure of 17 Psalms during this period is really incredible. And these Psalms show that the pain of betrayal and loneliness and false accusation and loss and unknown future drove David deeper and deeper and deeper into the heart of God and strengthened him enormously. It would not surprise me at all if the Reformed leader that we talked about last week If he grows more in these upcoming weeks than he has ever grown in his life, somehow God does this through the pains that we go through and even through the failures that we go through. While Joab and Abishai were focusing on how they had been wronged and therefore they missed out, David was focusing on God and what God's intentions were. And when you read those psalms, that I won't all list out for you here, but you find a depth of God's grace that is unusual. David had learned how to benefit from God's negative providences. And if you would like to learn how to do so, there's a book by the Puritan writer Thomas Boston that is remarkable. It's called The Crook in the Lot. The Crook in the Lot. And there's a modern edition of that by Curtis Crenshaw. It's been updated in its English, a lot easier to read. That's called How to Profit from Our Afflictions. It's a tremendous book. It helps you to grow like crazy during those times where you're experiencing tough, tough times. In fact, the tough times that Curtis Crenshaw was going through is that the IRS had falsely accused him of owing $65,000, and they were going after everybody in their church. And they would win in a court case, and then they would bring up other charges. And they'd win in that court case. It was incredibly grueling. It was a very, very stressful time. They ended up winning on all of the counts. But what was even more stressful was they were stabbed in the back by their own presbytery and the PCA, who assumed if the IRS says that you're guilty, you must be guilty. They didn't even bother to investigate. And so he felt really betrayed, but rather than getting bitter, He got better by his responses from that book. I highly, highly recommend that you get that book if you're going through tough times. Now it's true that David's faith, his peace, his love, his other graces were tested to the limits. But they made him grow so great in God that he produced some masterpieces of Psalms during this period that have ministered to countless thousands. And I doubt they would have ministered as deeply as they do. Psalms like Psalm 27, one of my favorites, if he had not gone through that time of pain. Psalm 37, let me just read you the first 11 verses to give you a little bit of a feel for how David's heart was responding directly to this interchange without anger or bitterness. Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of Him who prospers in the way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret, it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth." For yet a little while, and the wicked shall be no more. Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. But I especially like verse eight. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret. It only causes harm. If you are a Shimei who has been given false information about a David, you better investigate before you allow yourself to get upset and get angry. You know, Shimei believed a report without investigating and it caused him to have this anger for who knows how long. The first one who tells a story, the Bible says, sounds convincing until somebody else comes along and investigates the story. And don't allow your anger to explode or to cause you to do stupid things like Shimei did. And for sure, don't kick David when he is down. Every Shimei needs this advice. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret. It only causes harm. Now, if you're an Abishai who's having rocks thrown at you and insults given to you, don't respond in kind. Don't stoop to the level of a Shimei. That's what Abishai did. Do not allow someone else's anger to make your anger explode. follow David's advice, cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret. It only causes harm. And if you are a David who was pulled in a tug of war between Shimei and Abishai while you're running away from Absalom, don't despair. Don't lash out. David's advice is still the same. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret. It only causes harm. May God's grace enable us to respond just like David did here. Amen. Father we thank you for your word and for the illustration of the biblical principles that we see all through your word and we pray that we would become living epistles read and known by men as people of grace people like David here who are quick to repent and quick to humble themselves and slow to wrath and slow to anger. Father, transform us and sanctify us by your word. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.