True Restoration?
Notes
Transcript
We’ve started down an ugly stretch of road in the story of God’s people. There are a lot of those recorded throughout history, and many of them included for us right here in God’s Holy Word.
I have had to give a caution to parents several times throughout the years (as recently as last Sunday) as I preach through various books of the Bible because, let’s be clear, the Bible is not G-Rated. It’s not even PG. Some of it is PG-13 and maybe R-Rated.
The people of God do some ugly, horrific, sinful stuff--often to one another--and it’s recorded here for us in God’s Word (a good argument for the truthfulness/validity of God’s Word; if this was all made up, no way would it include some of the stories it does).
The people of God act appallingly from time to time, in generation after generation. It’s what sinners do.
Speaking of what sinners do, in the last few chapters, we’ve seen David sleep with another man’s wife and then kill her husband in an attempt to cover it up. And then David’s son, Amnon, raped his half-sister, Tamar. And then Absalom, Tamar’s brother, turns around and kills Amnon.
It’s a horrible period in the history of God’s people. And it’s not going to get any prettier in the next few chapters.
I’ve struggled with 2 Samuel 14, wondering what to make of this, wondering what, if anything, there is for us to glean from this. I found some comfort in reading some commentators saying they, too, were “puzzled” by this account.
One writes: “It’s not so difficult to understand what the chapter reports; but I have the eerie feeling that these episodes may not be about what they seem to be about…there seems to be a lot of wisdom in this story, but is there?”
As I read this chapter and considered what it meant, I finally came down on the side that there is no real wisdom here in the chapter--only partial wisdom used to manipulate a situation.
Let’s look at the start of the story and go from there.
1 Joab son of Zeruiah knew that the king’s heart longed for Absalom. 2 So Joab sent someone to Tekoa and had a wise woman brought from there. He said to her, “Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes, and don’t use any cosmetic lotions. Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead. 3 Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab put the words in her mouth.
4 When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell with her face to the ground to pay him honor, and she said, “Help me, Your Majesty!”
5 The king asked her, “What is troubling you?”
She said, “I am a widow; my husband is dead. 6 I your servant had two sons. They got into a fight with each other in the field, and no one was there to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. 7 Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant; they say, ‘Hand over the one who struck his brother down, so that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed; then we will get rid of the heir as well.’ They would put out the only burning coal I have left, leaving my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth.”
8 The king said to the woman, “Go home, and I will issue an order in your behalf.”
9 But the woman from Tekoa said to him, “Let my lord the king pardon me and my family, and let the king and his throne be without guilt.”
10 The king replied, “If anyone says anything to you, bring them to me, and they will not bother you again.”
11 She said, “Then let the king invoke the Lord his God to prevent the avenger of blood from adding to the destruction, so that my son will not be destroyed.”
“As surely as the Lord lives,” he said, “not one hair of your son’s head will fall to the ground.”
Joab, David’s military commander, commissions this “wise woman” to approach David under the guise of her own problem. But really, she went to David about him restoring his son Absalom who was living in exile, because Absalom had murdered his half-brother Amnon.
We don’t know why Joab decided to do this. Joab wasn’t loyal to Absalom (as well see in coming chapters). Joab cared about David, and probably cared even more about the strength and security of the kingdom. If one of King David’s sons was estranged from him, what would this mean for the future of the kingdom?
Whatever his reasoning, Joab had a plan for getting around the legal problem of Absalom’s murder.
So, like the prophet Nathan did with his story about the thief who stole the sheep, Joab by way of this lady acts-out a story to move the king to action.
And it seems to work. David was all ears. And he takes action on the case right then and there, telling the woman (verse 10): “If anyone says anything to you, bring them to me, and they will not bother you again.”
Then the woman asks for further protection so the avenger of blood (allowed for by law) wouldn’t take her son’s life in payment for the life he had taken. David assures her again (verse 11), “As surely as the LORD lives, not one hair on your son’s head will fall to the ground.”
And now, at this, the woman from Tekoa turns the tables on David:
12 Then the woman said, “Let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.”
“Speak,” he replied.
13 The woman said, “Why then have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself, for the king has not brought back his banished son? 14 Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.
15 “And now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant thought, ‘I will speak to the king; perhaps he will grant his servant’s request. 16 Perhaps the king will agree to deliver his servant from the hand of the man who is trying to cut off both me and my son from God’s inheritance.’
17 “And now your servant says, ‘May the word of my lord the king secure my inheritance, for my lord the king is like an angel of God in discerning good and evil. May the Lord your God be with you.’ ”
By judging this woman’s case the way he did, David falls right into the trap. What’s David going to do with his own guilty son?
David felt so strongly about showing mercy to the widow’s remaining son, he convicts himself if he doesn’t show the same mercy to Absalom.
But, there are some very important ways in which the woman’s story differed from what took place with Absalom.
In the woman’s story, she spoke of a son who had accidentally killed his brother. Absalom, on the other hand, committed cold-blooded, premeditated murder.
There were cities of refuge for those who had committed murder unintentionally, but there was no such provision made for first-degree murderers such as Absalom; they were condemned to death.
The woman attempts to lessen Absalom’s crime by making a sentimental comment in verse 14. 2 Samuel 14:14 “Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.”
In other words, what the woman is saying, is something like, “Nothing can bring the dead son back to life, so why should another son be killed just to uphold legal niceties?”
The logic goes: If David were a man of spiritual passion, he would see past the legality of it all and preserve the life that remained.
If David refused to restore Absalom, the woman says (v. 13) this is an offense against the people of God; David would be harming the nation and its future.
David’s already shown himself to be pliable here, but she lays it on thick!
But what she says isn’t right. It might sound nice, but it doesn’t square with God’s justice and the requirements within God’s law for what must happen for the crime of murder.
With her story/parable, the woman of Tekoa pits God’s justice against the welfare of his son, uses sentimental language to manipulate, and confuses David’s duty to the nation.
This is the exact opposite of what the prophet Nathan used his parable to accomplish.
Listen to William Blaikie: “Nathan’s parable was designed to rouse the king’s conscience against his feelings; the woman’s, as prompted by Joab, to rouse his feelings against his conscience.”
Nathan helped David think logically about his sin with Bathsheba, not emotionally about what his heart really wanted. And it worked!
The woman of Tekoa urged David to think emotionally about his son, instead of David thinking logically and properly within the confines of God’s law. And it worked!
Joab was counting on David’s willingness to violate the biblical demands for justice. David could justify what he really wanted to do regarding Absalom because he had just made a similar ruling in the case of the widow’s guilty son. There was precedent.
But it’s all a sham.
The so-called wise woman was justifying the breaking of God’s law in the interest of God’s mercy.
But does the Bible every justify such a contradiction? What does God say about such situations?
The way David goes about things here nearly leads to his destruction. He shows very little wisdom here.
The only thing in 2 Samuel 14 for us today, I believe, is the warning to NOT repeat David’s error. There is a very real danger of being deceived by clever arguments and half-truths, by foolishness that masquerades as wisdom.
Dale Ralph Davis comments: “This chapter should haunt the church, not to mention the individual, believing or unbelieving. It is possible to have all the signs of wisdom--plans, strategies, accomplishments--and yet be utterly devoid of it.”
The only way to be sure of true wisdom is by humbly consulting God’s Word.
In better days, David had known this:
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
105 Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.
Of all the wise woman’s deceptions and false words, the most serious was the way she altered God’s way of restoring sinners. She, or Joab, or some combination of the two, thought-up something believed to be better.
Verse 14 looks like one of those verses you should underline in your Bible, until you realize who says it and why they say it.
14 Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But that is not what God desires; rather, he devises ways so that a banished person does not remain banished from him.
God has devised a way so that a banished person does not remain banished from Him, but it’s not the way the woman suggests here.
The demands of justice aren’t sacrificed to the demands of love.
“When God forgives, it is not at the expense of justice, and it is never apart from our own repentance.” -Roger Ellsworth
How, then, does God restore the banished, forgiving their sins without betraying justice?
The answer is through God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who came to our world to restore banished sinners.
Jesus saves us by the blood of His cross, where, as the perfect sacrifice, He bore the penalty our sins deserved--rightly deserved under God’s law.
Jesus reconciles sinners to God through the gift of saving faith. United to Christ through faith, cleansed of our sins by His blood, the banished ones are brought back home and reconciled to God as dearly loved children.
What is presented here in 2 Samuel 14 is not true restoration (as we will soon see); it’s a false restoration, a knock-off brand of restoration, not the real thing.
The Bible presents us with three crucial components of our restoration:
JUSTIFICATION
JUSTIFICATION
Justification refers to our legal acceptance under God’s Holy law. Having sinned, like Absalom, we must be punished. As a sinner before a Holy God, we stand condemned. It’s an open-and-shut case.
But on the cross, Jesus paid the penalty of sin in our place, and now His righteousness is imputed to us, credited to us, given to us through faith alone so that we are justified in God’s sight.
Sometimes you’ll hear people say, “Justified means ‘just as if I’d never sinned.’” That’s cutesy and annoying and only half right.
To be justified doesn’t just mean it’s as if you had never sinned, but it also means it’s just as if you had always obeyed.
In Jesus, we are justified through faith. This means we have no sin AND we have His perfect righteousness.
He wiped out our debt and credited our account with everything from His!
Through Jesus who satisfied every part of His law and laid down His life for those who would believe, God is (Romans 3:26) “just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”
In this way, God’s mercy restores us without sacrificing His justice.
There is no restoration without justification, without being made right, without paying for sin and satisfying the law’s demands. Jesus paid for our sins and satisfied every bit of the law on our behalf.
He alone is our justification.
REDEMPTION
REDEMPTION
Redemption means to be set free from the bondage of sin. We are slaves to sin, so says Romans 3, and under the power of sin.
We need someone to purchase us, to buy us from the slave-market of sin. Jesus does just that.
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
Jesus bought us back, redeeming us to a new and holy life. It’s Jesus, we read,
14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
The redemption we have in Jesus is a huge part of what it means to be restored. If no price was paid, we’d still belong to sin and be captive to it.
There is no restoration without redemption.
Jesus redeemed us, and He is our
RECONCILIATION
RECONCILIATION
To break it down, the word reconciliation means “to make friendly again.” It has a relational aspect to it.
Reconciliation follows justification and redemption. We must be forgiven and then set free from the slavery of sin, and then we can be restored to right relationship with God.
To be restored to God, reconciled/made friendly again with God is a mammoth task. It’s nothing we could do own our own.
Our sin separates us from Him, and not just by a little bit. It’s an impassable chasm. No amount of human effort or ingenuity could ever get us back to Him. But this is what God does for us in Jesus:
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
To be reconciled means we’re brought back together, brought back to right relationship. All this through the blood of Jesus Christ.
There’s no restoration apart from being truly reconciled.
Through Jesus, sinners are justified (legally accepted by Him), redeemed (no longer slaves to sin), and reconciled (made friendly again with Him). He is our justification, our redemption, our reconciliation.
That’s what true restoration involves. What we have here in 2 Samuel 14 is false restoration and it’s all at Joab’s urging.
18 Then the king said to the woman, “Don’t keep from me the answer to what I am going to ask you.”
“Let my lord the king speak,” the woman said.
19 The king asked, “Isn’t the hand of Joab with you in all this?”
The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything my lord the king says. Yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me to do this and who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. 20 Your servant Joab did this to change the present situation. My lord has wisdom like that of an angel of God—he knows everything that happens in the land.”
There’s that phrase in verse 20--Joab did this to change the present situation. He’s got the right idea, but he’s going about it in the wrong way: mercy without justice, restoration without redemption or reconciliation…it’s never going to work.
David figured out it was Joab, and then approves of Joab’s plan to bring Absalom back.
21 The king said to Joab, “Very well, I will do it. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.”
22 Joab fell with his face to the ground to pay him honor, and he blessed the king. Joab said, “Today your servant knows that he has found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, because the king has granted his servant’s request.”
23 Then Joab went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. 24 But the king said, “He must go to his own house; he must not see my face.” So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king.
This contrived, ill-conceived restoration attempt on Joab’s part only results in a partial restoration. Absalom can come back, but not really. He’s back in Jerusalem, but he might as well be 80 miles away. He’s back, but he’s not allowed to see his father David’s face.
It’s not restoration at all, really. Nothing had changed with respect to Absalom’s legal status. David could not justly allow Absalom the privilege of the royal palace, so we’ll read in verse 28 that Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years without seeing his father.
Absalom only becomes more hostile toward David in this time. David had agreed for Absalom and yet left him in a state of disgrace.
“David had set aside the divine law…he shouldn’t be surprised if his wayward son now resorts to further lawlessness.”
There was no redemption to bring Absalom back from the ways of sin. Absalom was filled with hatred and malice--hatred and malice that led to his half-brother’s murder. No part of that had changed; it only grew stronger.
The next few verses present Absalom as a type of “Saul” who stands in opposition to everything David’s kingdom has stood for.
25 In all Israel there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the top of his head to the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him. 26 Whenever he cut the hair of his head—he used to cut his hair once a year because it became too heavy for him—he would weigh it, and its weight was two hundred shekels by the royal standard.
27 Three sons and a daughter were born to Absalom. His daughter’s name was Tamar, and she became a beautiful woman.
Let it be said: Everything praiseworthy about Absalom was on the outside.
Poor guy had a head full of hair he had to deal with. Some of us have never had that problem.
He, like Saul, was praised for his good looks--but good looks and outward appearance shouldn’t be what matters. And they aren’t qualifications for king, to be sure.
The fact that the narrator of the story includes this in the chapter is a less than subtle foreshadowing of trouble ahead--both for Absalom and all his appearance-motivated followers.
He’s all nice and pretty on the outside, but his response shows how rotten he is on the inside:
28 Absalom lived two years in Jerusalem without seeing the king’s face. 29 Then Absalom sent for Joab in order to send him to the king, but Joab refused to come to him. So he sent a second time, but he refused to come. 30 Then he said to his servants, “Look, 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.
31 Then Joab did go to Absalom’s house, and he said to him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?”
32 Absalom said to Joab, “Look, I sent word to you and said, ‘Come here so I can send you to the king to ask, “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there!” ’ Now then, I want to see the king’s face, and if I am guilty of anything, let him put me to death.”
33 So Joab went to the king and told him this. Then the king summoned Absalom, and he came in and bowed down with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom.
This is how Absalom dealt with the frustration of being denied access to his father for these two years.
So Absalom sends for Joab, but nothing. Sends for Joab again, and nothing. So Absalom sets his field on fire, the next logical step, right?
Absalom continues to present himself as a petulant, self-absorbed, willful young man, completely lacking qualities like self-control, humility, and respect.
No redeeming work had taken place in his life to loosen the power of sin, all these years later.
It all ends with a sad picture of false restoration. Only when he forced the issue and dared his father to judge him does the king summon Absalom.
Absalom isn’t truly submissive. And, yes, David kisses his son, but without true reconciliation.
It would have been far better for Absalom to stay away than to come to this point.
This is not restoration. Not even close.
We’re unsatisfied, or should be, with the state of David and Absalom’s relationship. That’s the point of 2 Samuel 14, to show us what not to do, how not to act, who not to emulate.
We can also be grateful that God really has devised a way of restoring sinners.
Our God is just. He never fails to deal with the reality of sin.
Our God is love. He never draws someone to Himself without a true embrace into His love.
Love and justice meet perfectly and fully in Jesus.
When a sinner is justified through faith in Jesus Christ, they can look to the cross and see that their guilt is completely taken away and not even a hint of sin remains to condemn.
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
Let us be thankful for true restoration through Jesus, who justifies, redeems, and reconciles.
And if you don’t know Jesus, run to Him to find true restoration--in Christ, you will be forgiven and legally accepted by God, you will no longer be a slave to sin, and you will be reconciled to the God of the universe.
