We're in 2 Samuel chapter 19. We've seen a lot of David's life unfold in the last few chapters into this new portion of his life. He is a man who has taken a huge hit, felt terrible about it, really kind of folded in on himself, and had been absented from his kingly duties for a number of years, probably about two all the while. Absalom's running around behind the scenes saying, oh, that I were a judge, then we'd get something done, and eventually recruits a whole lot of people to stage an insurrection. And subsequently, the battle was afoot in chapter 18, and Absalom was taken out of the equation. And it was God's intention that that happened, because this was a guy who never made a good decision in his life. Absalom had stumbled, stumbled, stumbled, and here he was, just by being a man who had sweet words and was an attractive man, he had rallied people to him. Very important to remember that verse at the end of Proverbs, that favor is deceitful and beauty is vain. And that happens for men as well as women. He was an attractive man and he had a lot of favor, but he didn't have any discretion. God kept his blessing on David, even though David had withdrawn from his day-to-day duties. Nevertheless, he had taken to his closet. He had penned a whole lot of Psalms that meant a lot to his heart and mean a lot to us today. The likes of Psalm 51 and Psalm 32, these powerful, repentant psalms that just remind us what it is to have fellowship with our God. And David would later pen the words of the Psalm 23, how that he restoreth my soul. So David, even though he had withdrawn from his day-to-day duties, he did not withdraw from that alone. He withdrew also to God. Well, Absalom's been taken down, but the last we heard in chapter 18 was David was brokenhearted about the fall of his son. And if you see in verse 23, it says, And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept. And as he went, thus he said, O my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom, would God I had died for thee. O Absalom, my son, My son. Now, there's not one of us in here who has children that would not feel like it was a word we could not relate to in some way. There are things we wish we would have done different with our children as they were coming along. And there are things that we wonder, is that my fault? Well, in reality, we all have those bumps and all of us have those blunders. But God is good. God is the restorer. He's the lifter of our head. And each man will stand or fall before God. We're not going to be able to say, my parents did this, or my mom did that, or my dad did this. It's going to be how we reacted to the circumstances that were our own. And David, nevertheless, being a man of sensitive conscience, felt very deeply that much of what happened with his son was his own fault. And when we find him going out of the city, in fact, Shimei came up to him and said, thou bloody man, and though he was talking about His being a bloody man in regard to Saul we noted that that was not so much true for he had spared his lifetime again But he received the reproof and he's received it the deprecation because he personally related to the fact that Uriah was on his conscience And so we see a lot going on in David's heart two years in seclusion But two years of cultivating a deeper relationship with God I remember the story of Eric Little, who was the missionary to China, who was the great runner. He was an Olympian, and while he was on a train, a conductor came in, and he woke him up, telling him his stop was about to be entered into. And he woke him up, and he said, oh, he said, looks like you slept well. He said, yeah, like a rock. He says, ah, the sleep of a man with a clear conscience. He said, oh, far from it. You know, when you walk close to God, you see yourself a little clearer. When you walk close to God, you're like Isaiah sometimes. Woe is me, I'm undone. Because he's so awesome and we're so not. So it's true. But what we see is David takes this deeply and he can't get over it. Had he mourned for a while, for a limited amount of time, maybe we could appreciate and should. But what we see in verse 1 of chapter 19 is that the people had come back from the victory that had taken place in chapter 18. And when they came back, there was a whole lot of mixed emotions going on here because David was struggling so much with this. Now, things don't happen as quickly in real time as they do on the pages of Scripture. It probably took a couple of days for everybody to clear the field, get back to the city. And so what we see is as the people were coming back, it says in verse one, and it was told Joab, behold, the king weepeth and mourneth for Absalom. And the victory that day was turned into mourning unto all the people for the people heard say that day how the king was grieved for his son. So you can see they want to honor their king. They want to bless their king. They want to identify with their king. But they also need the approval of the king. He is, after all, The leader, the one they have fought for. And so as they sense that he has been going on and on mourning, we find that his mourning is made up of, number one in verse one, weeping and mourning. And we see it says everybody turned to mourning in verse two. Verse three says, and the people get them by stealth into the city that day as people being ashamed, steal away when they flee in battle. But the king, here it is, covered his face. Now, when I see these emblems of his grief, it reminds me of people who fall into a deep depression. You know, they mourn, they weep, and then sometimes they just cover their faces. Does that remind you of Elijah? He runs from Jezebel, and when he's in that cave, there he is, and he's just in such a depression. He has spent all of his resources, come off of great victories, and yet here he is on the run. And while he's there, the Lord comes to him and speaks to him in that still small voice. And the Bible tells us over and again, he covers his face. He covers his face. Now, depression is a very natural thing that comes into our lives at times. There is not a person that it won't touch. There will be times when you'll be depressed. There will be times when I'll be depressed. But there's a point where depression becomes something other than healthy. You know, mourning is good. The Bible says, by sorrow, the heart is made better. going to the house of mourning rather than to the house of feasting. That's good. It's better. Because therein is the end of all men. And so we see what we have is we have these ebbs and flows. We are creatures of emotional makeup. But the problem was David had held on to his grief. And the problem sometimes for us is we have to ask ourselves, are we holding on too long to our depression? Sometimes it becomes a place where we dig our heels in and say, I'm just sad and I'm not going to get over it. And we just want to hold on to that. And it becomes more of a self-pity than a proper use of maybe some emotional outgrowth of a behavior. For David, his behavior had brought him his depression. And sometimes depression is brought by our behavior. Sometimes it's brought by our own circumstances that are beyond our control. We had one of our people here in the church recently. He said, listen, please pray for my brother. He got in an accident. He and all of his family, six in number. All we knew was this whole family was in some terrible car accident. And then he wrote me, kept writing me. It was actually texting. And he said, they life flighted three here and three here, went the other way. And it was just an up in the air scary moment. To make a long story short, they all are okay. And only one of them had to stay in the hospital by the day's end. Their minivan had rolled over three times. Now, I would say to you that if things had gone a lot worse for that family, he could have had a lot of reason to be very, very sad. And I've heard cases where people have lost loved ones. And it's understandable. Mourning is part of our experience down here. It's time to laugh, time to mourn. What we have is David is in a deep depression. And it's a lot because of his own sin. It's a lot because of his circumstances. His son has been killed. But there's a point where he has to just kind of pull himself up by the bootstraps. And so what I want to suggest to you, what we have in these first several verses is we have a reproving of the king. David has gone into a dark place and in his dark place, he covers his face. Verse four, all the people are made to be ashamed because of his depression. And verse five, it says, And Joab came into the house of the king and said, thou has shamed this day the faces of all thy servants. Now it's interesting because Joab, as you know, is a man who's very abrupt. He has already taken out Abner. He was given the word to take down Uriah. David has bemoaned him early on as calling him and his brother bloody men. And he has really a very close relationship with the king, but that does not give him the proper right to come in here. When it says he came into the house, you can almost see him throwing the door open. And his first words out of his mouth are very abrupt. You've shamed everybody. He doesn't say, oh, King, may I please talk to you? He doesn't go up and sit on a step nearby him. It's like he comes in angry. Why? Well, he's the general of his army, and he's the guy coming in saying, we had a great victory, and all my people are out here holding their heads down. He's angry, but he's out of line. We're going to see that more in the passage as it unfolds. But I want to refer you to a passage in the book of Ecclesiastes. You can either look there or allow me just simply to read it to you. It's in Ecclesiastes chapter eight. The Bible says, I counsel thee to keep the king's commandment in that in regard to the oath of God. Do you know that we are under authority from God to be under the authority he puts us under? Can I say that again three times? No. But I think I said it pretty well that time. But what I'm saying is we are under authority from God. He says that we have been placed under an oath. When we said your Lord, then he said, if I'm your Lord, this is where I have you. If you have an employer, if you have a parent, whatever you have as an authority, he says we are under an oath to God. And he says, if you're in the king's presence, he says, keep the king's commandment and that in regard to the oath of God. Now we can go about and I'm not trying to make the whole point about every time we have to go back and say, well, I need to obey God rather than men. I'm just talking about the wise man who's got a seat in the room. OK, that's what he's talking about. You've got a seat in the room. You keep the commandment of the king and that in regard to the oath of God. Be not hasty to go out of his sight, it says in verse three, stand not in an evil thing, for he do with whatsoever please of him. So the king is going to do what he's going to do. And he's saying, don't be hasty to go out of his sight. Sometimes people just get all hasty and they slam the door and pound their foot on the ground or whatever and throw a fit. And he says, no, he says, do not stand in an evil thing. Don't keep an evil disposition. He says, where the word of the king is, there is power. Verse four. And who may say unto him, what are you doing? What are you doing? Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing. And a wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment. Now, when we came to our revolution in this country, if we couldn't keep it down in the visceral level, there was a point where everybody thought about, how do we do this? Should we or shouldn't we? Should we dismiss the king? Well, they came to the conclusion they should, and they told everybody by a Declaration of Independence why. So they did discern time and judgment, and they made a good decision at the time. But this is to be entered into very, very carefully. with fear and trepidation, because God has a place to the powers that be. And so what we're seeing is Joab comes in abruptly. He has neither respect nor rapport. He's already pushed David to a certain point. David had to put him at his heel when Abner's funeral procession was taking place. And all the people understood this thing was not from David, that Abner should be killed. But Joab, he's still got that wild side of him. And he's very difficult to rein in. And now he comes into the King's presence in King's morning and he says, Thou hast shamed, verse 5, this day the faces of all thy servants, which this day have saved your life, the life of your sons and your daughters and of your concubines and your wives, in that thou lovest thine enemies and hatest thy friends. You see how far he's going? He's just getting right up in his face. Who does he think he is? And what he's doing is he's going beyond his station. And it says, Thou lovest thine enemies and hatest thy friends, for thou has declared this day that thou regardest neither princes nor servants. For this day I perceive that if Absalom had lived and all we had died this day, then it had pleased thee well. Wow. He is all up in his case, isn't he? And the Bible says in verse seven, Now, therefore, and it gets worse. Now, therefore, arise, he's telling him, get up, get up, get up, go forth, speak comfortably to thy servants, for I swear by the Lord. And that sound like vernacular of our day. I swear by the Lord, if thou go not forth, there will not tarry one with thee this night. And that will be worse with thee than all the evil that has befell thee from thy youth until now. Wow. Now, when he says not one, will be with you. That means him too. Now if he goes, he's going as the leader. He's basically threatened him. He said, if you don't get up and go out and talk comfortably with them, I tell you by tomorrow, ain't none of us going to be here. And he'd be the leader of that whole movement. Now this is huge because it's going to come into play in a few minutes in the passage down below. But what is powerful here is that this is a reproving of a king. Did David need to be reproved? Yes, he did. He needed to be encouraged. He needed to be picked up. He needed to be maybe kicked a little in the hind ends and get up and go, do something. But he did not need to have it done to him without rapport and without respect. The lack of respect is something that Joab will reap from as the days unfold in the next several chapters. But at this point, it's fascinating to me, the Bible says in verse 8, Then the king arose and sat in the gate. Do you know, I've kind of entitled this whole passage in my mind, the dance of decency. Can you see that? Yeah, he said the right thing. He said it in the wrong way, but he's not a regular king. He's a king who sat close to the king of kings. And he knows a little better now. He knows he's been wrong. He's allowed his emotions to get better of him. But at the same time, he could hear what was true in what was poorly said. And the Bible says he got up and he went out and he sat in the gate. And they told the people saying, behold, the king does sit in the gate. And all the people came before the king for Israel had fled every man to his tent. The reproving of a king. As you look at that, understand David is now sitting in the gate. We know that's a place of real priority. It's the place where Lot would sit in Sodom. It's the place of judgment. But now it is, in this case, the place where the king would sit. And I'm reminded immediately in my mind of Psalm 1, where the Bible says, Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. This is the progression of life. We walk, we stand, we sit. David is sitting now, and he's sitting in his proper place. And we have to make it our goal, our aim to one day be sitting in the proper place. Now that doesn't happen by accident. And David could only find his way back to this proper place because he had a relationship with God from his youth up. And even in his dark times during those two quiet years of his life, he had drawn near to God and he knew he was right. He knew what was being said through all of the static Joab had brought to him that he was right. And he needed to go out there. Listen, this tells me that we have control over our depression. Isn't that interesting? He did it. He did it. He didn't have time to be having a pity party. He didn't have time to be all self-serving and self-absorbed. He got up and he went out and he sat and all the people were coming. And you know what's funny? The Bible is very clear. He that watereth shall himself be watered. So if we'll just get up and go be a blessing to somebody, maybe we'll find after a few minutes, after a few days, after whatever, that somehow God gets in there and animates that. And we begin to find lift. Now, depression is real, and it can become some kind of chemical thing if we allow it to go on. It can become a loop. It can become something the devil takes advantage of. The Bible says, be angry and sin not, which, by the way, is a quote from David when he was fleeing Absalom in Psalm 4. Do not sin in our anger. David at this point realizes, I am falling prey to a breach of my own admonition. I've been so angry. I've been so sad. I've been angry with me. I've been angry about Absalom. He says, no, enough. It's OK to say, enough. David knew God said, I put away your sin. But David felt the repercussions of that sin. Joab even threw it in his face in verse 7. He says, I'll tell you more still come unto thee than all the evil that befell thee. Joab knew what David mourned about. That's why he went and got Absalom. He says, let me go get Absalom and bring him back. It'll be OK. And it didn't work out well. But he saw David pining and hurting and feeling bad about all this and saw him hitching in his step and never getting on again. But I think it's important for us to know the reproving of the king found its mark because the king was a man of the king. And I think it's important for us to note that depression is something we have a control over. Verse nine says, And all the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king saved us out of the hand of the enemies and delivered us out of the hand of the Philistines. And now he has fled out of the land for Absalom, and Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now, therefore, why speak ye not a word and bring the king back? It's interesting that people who are first thinking about bringing David back to his throne is not Judah, it is Israel. And Israel were ones who thought, you know, Absalom would be a good bet. Let's go with Absalom. He's a good guy. Oh, you know, he's going to give us good judgment. But they're all conflicted. And it's funny because nobody takes initiative. What they do is they say, well, why don't you just ask him? And they're all conflicted. So it comes back to that old adage, everybody's job is nobody's job. Nobody takes initiative. Nobody takes the leadership. And they're all conflicted. wrapped up in knots. Verse 10 says an Absalom is dead in battle. So that showed that they saw that even though they might have felt like they had cause, it was clear that God was with David. God was with him. I'll tell you something, it's going to get curiouser and curiouser in our world. I don't have any qualms about it. I figure that's going to happen. I'm at an age where if I was 80, 85, 90 years old, I'd be saying, well, I'm so glad I'm older, because I don't have to watch it. But man, I've got enough time on my meter, I think, all things being equal, I'm going to see some pretty bad stuff. You might see this person here go to prison one day, because the things are getting bad out there, you know. Paul asked me to get involved in his prison ministry with him next month. I said, yeah, let's do it, man. I thought, may as well get my feet wet. So we're going to go see some prisoners next month. But my point is this, is that here we have a man who God was all over. Did that mean that he did not have adversity? No, he had more than his share. When the crown was heavy on his head, he messed up. When he wore it lightly, he walked humbly. The Bible says that they saw that God's hand was on him and they said, why doesn't anybody go and tell him to come back? Well, David knew all about these ruminations. And in verse 11, it says, And King David sent to Zadok and Abiathar the priests to speak unto the elders of Judah. You might circle that. Circle Israel, circle Judah will remind you what's going on here. He says, Go talk to the elders of Judah and say, Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? Seeing the speech of all Israel has come to the king, even to his house. Now, what's happening here is David is beginning to do things that nobody understands but himself. It's the dance of decency. He has done what Joab has said, but he's made a note of it. Okay, so he's made a note of what Joab's done. But he now realizes that if he's going to go back into his kingdom, he very well might have some people inside that household who have so compromised themselves that they, in fact, might be hostile. He comes into the kingdom that he had run out of and had left in haste because there was no time to do other than. And he now has to go back in there. He doesn't want it to be a viper's nest. So he begins to get his men on the ground, if you will, to begin to spread the rumor. You all need to go get David. And it's Abiathar and Zadok. These guys are saying, you need to go get David. And they're starting to spread the word. Yeah, we kind of probably should. We probably ought to. He's diffusing a situation. It's a dance of decency. This man has discretion. He has discernment. He has wisdom. The Bible says in verse 12, you are my brethren and you are my bones and my flesh. Wherefore, then, are you the last to bring the king back? And so he's really kind of using these priests to begin to do this. And it says, and you say to the men, you say to the people, you say to Amasa, art thou not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me also and more, if thou be not captain of the host. Look at this, before me continually in the room of Joab. He took note, didn't he? Yeah, he slammed the door. He blew open the doors. He walked into the house of the king. He was disrespectful. David took a note, but he heard what he said, and he took it to heart. And now he's saying, get the people to know they need to move to get me home. And you tell Amasa, why? Because Amasa was the captain of the insurrection. And you're thinking, wow, well, he would really be one you'd want to put down right away. David didn't act like a normal king. He acted like a godly king. And what he knew was Amasa was his nephew. They were related. That's why he says, we are brothers. You're my bone. You're my flesh. And so he's really dealing with Amasa on a very familial level. And he knew that Amasa was caught up in some nonsense. And he knew it was partly his own fault. But he also knew he needed Amasa. He needed him. Why? Because Amasa was the one who could keep this thing going. Or he could fix it. Well, he fixed it. He was promised the position that Joab had, no doubt in secrecy. He certainly didn't flaunt this in front of Joab, but it won't work out well because Joab will hear about it in the next chapter. But at this point, he's promised him the place and station of Joab. And the Bible says in verse 14, and he bowed the heart of all the men of Judah. And that means that Amasa got the words of the king. And what Masa did, it bowed the heart of the men of Judah, even as the heart of one man, so that they sent this word unto the king, return thou and all thy servants with thee. So it works. He knows what he's doing. Now, what's fascinating to me as well is that they come, and the Bible says in verse 15, the king returned, came to the Jordan, and Judah came to Gilgal to go to meet the king to conduct the king over Jordan. So you have King David on the eastern side of the Jordan where he had fled. He's now come to the Jordan, and all the people of Judah have come to the west side of the Jordan. They're there to meet him. It's all a good thing. Now, this is going to cause some problems because the men of Israel are the ones saying, come back. Judah was slow on the uptake. It's going to be another war. It's going to be another moment. So it's not a perfect situation. What can we learn from that? I think we can learn that this is a messy world. I think we can learn that this is a messy world. There's going to be problems. There's going to be difficulties. Mess has created messes, but it's true that every believer is going to have a mess at one time or another. And when you have a mess and you get depressed over it, fine. Take a moment. Now, move on. OK, we need to move on. We need to get over. This ain't over till it's over. As long as God's got us here, he's got something for us, doesn't he? We're not here for nothing. It's like they say, it's not for nothing that you're here. God's got us here for a reason. The Bible says that, verse 16, as he's coming, Shimei, the son of Gerah, the Benjamite, which was a Bahrim, hasted and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David. Now it's interesting because this is that guy who was cursing him as he ran out of town. Now Shimei is interesting because you'd think, well, now's the time to deal with this guy. But it's not. This is a good day for David. David is doing the dance of decency. And what Shimei is doing is he's coming to David And he really represents for us what we might see here emblematically, the tribulation saints. Can you imagine after the tribulation, these guys are going to be like Leroy Brown with a few pieces missing. They prayed, but they don't know. King arrives, they come into his presence, and they're like, you know, I know, I know, but we didn't take them. I don't know if that's enough. They're going to be heads down. Shimei comes head down. He really represents for us repentance. Why? Because he comes, and he comes first. He brings, in verse 17, a thousand men. He also brings Ziba. Now, you may not remember Ziba, but Ziba's the one who deceives David by saying, Mephibosheth has bailed on you. So here's Ziba. He's brought him, and he's brought his 15 sons and his 20 servants. So he's brought him up. He says, if you want him, you can have him. If you want me, you can have me. Do you know what this is? This is completely saying, whatever you want to do with me is okay by me. I was wrong. Sounds a little bit like the kind of repentance that that Paul talks about in the book of Second Corinthians in chapter seven, what clearing of yourself was zeal, what Benham desire. You've proven yourself to be clear in all these things, even though he spit and cursed and threw dirt and said terrible things. The Bible says that these all went over the Jordan before the king in verse 17. And it says in verse 18, and they went over on a ferry boat to the king's household to do what they thought good. And Shimei, the son of Gerah, fell down before the king as he was come over the Jordan. And he said unto the king, let not my lord look at this. And this sounds very much like what God is like. You want to know why David's man after God's own heart. These are some of those words that totally apply to what God has done for you and me. Let not my lord impute iniquity to me. David writes of the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity. Let not my Lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember thou that which thy servant did perversely. You know what? God separates our sin from us as far as he is from the West. Bears it deep to see. I mean, Shimei is speaking the king's language here. And he says the day that my Lord, the king went out of Jerusalem, let him not take it to heart. And I see that that's what God does. He doesn't take what I've done to him to heart. He forgave me. He cleansed me. He imputed to me righteousness. Why? Because I believed Him. Because when He said, your sin be put away, I just simply believed. And God accounted it to us for righteousness. Isn't that good to know? You don't get it because you're good. Shit me, I wasn't good. You and I weren't good. All we could do is say, just please be merciful to me, the sinner. And God The Bible says in verse 20, for thy servant does know that I have sinned. There it is. Underline those words. These are the same words David said when Nathan pointed his crooked finger at him and said, Thou art the man. David said, I have sinned. He says, I am come the first this day. I'm the first one in line. You know, and here's everything. I got a thousand men. They're all must been coming in a humble way because there was no sense that everybody got their hands on their heels. These thousand men came, they could have been a battalion, and they were all in humble position. Maybe they were completely disarmed, but there were a thousand of them there. He says, you take my men, you take Ziba, you take his family, you take me, you do whatever you need to do. Listen, I'll tell you, when you and I look at ourselves in the mirror, don't we feel like, you know, what right have I to have anything to do with this king who is so awesome? That's a disposition that Shimei shows us. Now, he's not going to get off scot-free later. David's going to give instructions to Solomon about how to deal with him. He's going to be in a little bit of a prison situation when he leaves town. He'll get in trouble for that. But what he's seeing here is this is a day of rejoicing. This is a good day. And he's allowing Shimei to get some mercy and grace. He says, I came down first, verse 20, to meet my Lord, the King. But Abishai, here he is again. This is Joab's brother. Abishai says, shall not Shimei be put to death for this? See, these guys are all acting like mere mortals. David is acting like a child of God. And David says, what have I to do with thee, ye sons of Zeruiah? Verse 22, you should this day be adversaries unto me. Shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? For do not I know that I am this day king over Israel? I don't need to kill anybody anymore. It's done. When he gives charge to Solomon, his son, he says, remember, Joab, that he shed the blood of war in a time of peace. This was a time of peace. And he's not going to deal with Shimei according to his sins. And he becomes emblematic to me of what God does for me. Emblematic to me of what God will do in the tribulation saints. All of them are going to feel implicated. They all cursed Jesus before the rapture. They cursed they didn't repent when things got heated up. Maybe they heard something and a great multitude will get saved during that time Revelation chapter 7 So I see in this the tribulation Saints then the next guy comes in verse 24 It's Mephibosheth and by the way verse 23 says thou shalt not die and the king swear unto him verse 24 says in Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king and had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard nor washed his clothes from the day that he departed unto the day that he came again in peace so Mephibosheth is the son of Jonathan the last guy you got Ziba who was his father's servant who had hid him away and this is probably why God didn't kill Ziba too and he doesn't revoke what Ziba had tricked him out of as David was leaving Ziba comes up and he thought wow it's my turn to get the kingdom back And what ends up happening is he says, well, you can have everything that pertains to Mephibosheth. So he deceived the king. You'd think he'd deal with him for that. But in the end analysis, I don't want to dwell too deeply here. But what I want you to see in verses 24 and following is what we have here is not tribulational saints, but timid saints, because this guy gushes. He says, I didn't clean myself. I didn't take care of myself. I tried to go. And he's kind of pining, he says in verse Verse 26, I was deceived. He says in verse 27, I was slandered against by Ziba. Have you ever seen a timid saint? Timid saint. Oh, I just can't do anything. I just can't. I can't. I can't grow. I can't do... It almost reminds me of those guys with the talent. One guy says, I knew that you were an austere man and you reap where you don't sow. And he says, you should have loaned one talent to the bank and got some with interest. But he had a lot of reason and David's merciful to him too. He's lame in his feet He couldn't just jump out and start following David out of town. He thought he's gonna get his donkey No, I see him as a timid man and David reproves him a little bit when he says in verse 25 Why when is thou not with me? Why didn't you go? He says that there was no reason why you shouldn't have gone with me. I was slandered I was deceived and David finally says to him In verse 29, why do you speak anymore about these matters? You and Ziba will divide the land. Isn't that interesting? Why do you take it all back from Ziba? No, divide the land. And he still let Ziba have something. And only thing I can think is he's paying back Ziba a little bit for having taken care of Mephibosheth in the first place. Remember that? God doesn't forget anything you do. You do a good thing in the name of a prophet, you get a prophet's reward. God says a cup of cold water will not be overlooked. David sees Ziba and he doesn't say, get him in here. This is a mess. This guy. No. And I find that interesting. Then there's the tempered saints. See, what David's doing is he's basically receiving the supplicants. He's coming back into town. Everybody's, oh, please help. And David's like in a good disposition. He's been reproved, and now he's receiving the supplicants. And this tempered saint comes in, and this is Barzillai, the Gileadite. Now, the interesting thing about him is he's an old man. He's the guy who has helped David. He gave David the city that he stayed in while he was on the east side of the Jordan. And the Bible says that he came with the king in verse 31 to conduct him over the Jordan And he was a very aged man. He was even four score years old. And he provided the king's sustenance when he was in Mahanaim. And he was a very great man. So what I see here, number one, is this guy is a tempered saint. His name means iron. Isn't that cool? This guy is strong. He's a great man. You know, in the glory of his presence, aren't you going to want to be known as a great man? A man of iron? You know, somebody who stood by this stuff. He gave sustenance to the king You know you and I can do that in as much as you've done it under the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me You wash the Saints feet you're washing his feet you care for the sick and the shut-in you care for the lost and the dying You are pulled the grieving and the widow you do what you can and God sees you as doing that unto him This man sustained the king His name means iron and aptly so. Verse 32 says he was a very great man. He was 80 years old. King said unto him, Come thou with me and I will feed thee with me in Jerusalem. He says, How long have I to live? I'm 80 years old. He says, Listen, you bring me into the kingdom. I'm not going to have any fun there. He says, How long shall I live? Verse 35 says, can I discern between good and evil? Can thy servant taste the food and drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing? Verse 35, wherefore should thy servant be yet a burden to my king? I'll take you so far, and then I'll leave you. I've done what I can do. And isn't that a humble disposition? You know, it's interesting because he says in verse 36, I'll go a little way. Why should the king recompense me such a reward? Sounds a little bit like casting our crowns at his feet. A little bit. But nevertheless, he is old. He doesn't need a reward. And when you see Jesus, you're going to say, I don't need nothing. Just let me stand over here and take it in. Because it's going to be good. It's going to be good. And the Bible says, as we look at this, he says, let my servant, verse 37, he says, let my servant turn back again that I may die in my own city. You know, as we get closer to dying, we ought to look forward to it if we've been a man of steel. We've been an iron saint. There's something over yonder You get plenty of time as the days pass to get your accounts current You can say I'm sorry to who you need to you can repent of sins that have been beating you up all along the way you can walk into your bedchamber at night knowing I've got my account current and if this flesh begins to Wane and diminish and your soul is still carrying it around as a child of God the Word of God becomes more precious than ever And you're able to just lean in and say, like, Paul, I press forth to the mark of the promise. I can't just hang in there because it's just over the hill here. We'll be home. He had a good thing to know. This man knew that. He said, I'll just go home being buried with my fathers. But look at this, verse 37. But behold thy servant Chimham. Now this guy, his name means longed for. Some people believe this might be his son. I believe, rather, it is his servant that became as unto him like a son. OK? Because it doesn't say it's his son. It would have probably said it was his son. But he cares for him. He longs for him. He's going to die. And if he's his servant, he says, take him. You know what Jesus did? He says, take him. We're loved in the Beloved. You see how that works? The Father loves us. In the beloved, he says, Take Jim, let him go over with my Lord, the king and do to him what shall be good unto thee. And the king answered, Jim, him shall go over with me. I'm thankful Jesus is my advocate. I'm thankful that he stands between me and his father and says, Take Dave. Because I have the next verse, it says in the king says, OK, come on in. I'm so glad he said, come on in. The Bible says in verse 39 and the people went over and the king was come over and he kissed Brazilii And blessed him and he returned unto his own place Then the king went on to Gilgal and Shemham Went on with him we're not going to go into the next few verses because we're going to be getting into the Conflict that comes from Judah and Israel, but I want you to see some pretty cool things here. David was reproved and David received it He was shrewd. He was doing a dance of decency. He was expressing some things about the heart of God that you won't see hardly anywhere. He was a man after God's own heart. He knew what it was not to impute iniquity. He knew what it was not to remember sins against people. He knew what it was to have sinned. And when he heard Shimei say, I have sinned, I think he understood something. I'm going to close with these words, Shimei being our focus. In Matthew chapter 5, the Bible says in verse 25, agree with your adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. That is a passage that is the short version of what we're told elsewhere, where the Bible says a king forgave a man, and the man went out and didn't forgive a man, and he delivered him to the tormentors. Depression, part of life. But if we're forgiving as He forgave us, there shall be no evil on us that will be able to cling to us. The Bible says that the whole world lays in the lap of the wicked one. But he that believeth in God keepeth himself, and the wicked one cannot touch him, literally cling to him. He can't cling to you if you're walking with God. He can come up and smack you upside the head once in a while just because we give him reason, don't we? We give him reason now and again. But we don't have to live in that neighborhood.