Rebellion...Again
Notes
Transcript
Do you ever get tired of reading the Bible?
Be honest. It’s okay to admit. I’ve been there. Just this week, in fact, as I was reading again 2 Samuel 20. A little tiring, I must say.
It’s the same thing all over again. More of what we’ve already read. Again.
In fact, if I wasn’t committed to preaching through books of the Bible—which I do because I don’t believe there’s a better way to make us students of God’s Word than to trust God’s Word and study God’s Word as it is, not hopping around from topic-to-topic.
If I wasn’t committed to preaching through books of the Bible, I’d probably skip this chapter since I’ve already preached these themes a handful of times over the last few months.
2 Samuel 20 is pretty much more of the same: more rebellion. It may get a little tiresome to read this, again. Part of me feels for you sitting there, hearing this. Again. And again.
But then it strikes me all over again: the reason God’s Word repeats itself as it does is so that we, the readers, might finally grasp what it has to say.
We’re a fairly dense people. No offense (you’re supposed to say, “None taken”). I mean, we’re fairly dense, because it takes us a time or two or ten to get what we’re being told.
We don’t get it perfectly the first time we’re told, do we? Not with anything in life.
No one steps up to the plate and hits a home run the first time they hold a bat in their hands. No one masters their math facts on day one. No one just sits down at the piano and plays Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto #3.
There’s a lot we don’t know. A LOT!
We’re not born with understanding. We are a fairly dense people. No offense (none taken).
Where God’s Word is concerned, themes and teachings are repeated because it takes us a lot to get it: hearing, listening, reading and reading, being told the same thing over and over and over again.
We don’t grasp it immediately. It takes a lot, sometimes a great deal, for it to be written on our hearts.
We all require repetition.
So, if/when you get bored as you read; if/when you’re tempted to skip ahead because this is familiar, remember: if God’s Word says it again, it’s because we need to hear it. Again.
With that, turn in your Bible with me to 2 Samuel 20. Really, it’d be best if you had a copy of the Bible open in front of you. It’s on Page #502 in the red pew Bibles.
We’re going to be reading from the chapter and I actually have a little exercise to run through and you won’t be able to play if you don’t have a Bible of your own.
Grab your Bible and stand with me, as you’re able.
This is how 2 Samuel 20 begins:
1 Now a troublemaker named Sheba son of Bikri, a Benjamite, happened to be there. He sounded the trumpet and shouted, “We have no share in David, no part in Jesse’s son! Every man to his tent, Israel!”
Okay, we’re going to pause here for a little exercise. I know several of you read from different Bible translations, and there are a lot of different words used to describe Sheba—the main antagonist of the chapter.
If your Bible refers to Sheba as “troublemaker” (NIV), take a seat.
If your Bible uses the phrase “worthless man” (ESV), “worthless fellow” (NASB & RSV), “man of worthlessness” (YLT), go ahead and sit down.
Are there any “man of Belial” (KJV) out there? Take a seat.
What about “rebel” (NKJV)?
“Scoundrel” (NRSV)? “Wicked man” (CSB)? “Good-for-nothing” (MSG)?
I’m not sure which of these designations is more offensive. None of them sound very good. “Troublemaker” might be the easiest to swallow. “Worthless man” seems awfully harsh. And “man of Belial” sounds really bad, even though I’m not entirely sure what it means (something demonic, I believe).
The author of 2 Samuel, regardless of your preferred Bible translation, doesn’t leave any doubt about how we should think about Sheba.
All guesswork is taken out of the translation. Sheba is not a good guy. A scoundrel, a “base and contemptible fellow,” Sheba is no good.
But why? Why is he referred to in this way? Because he is rejecting the LORD’s chosen King.
‘Sheba the Scoundrel’ is rebelling and he’s calling the northern tribes—the tribes of Israel—to rebel with him against the LORD’s anointed king.
Sheba is breaking the covenant that bound the king and the northern tribes in mutual loyalty (2 Samuel 3:21, 5:3 a covenant was struck between David and all the tribes of Israel).
To rebel against the covenant king was to rebel against the LORD Yahweh, the One, True, and Only God.
Here’s where we may get fatigued. More rebellion. Rebellion again. We just finished up a chapters-long saga of rebellion re: Absalom.
It’s rebellion after rebellion.
Here’s the truth, the reality of this story and the truth about our lives:
We’ve Been Rebelling Since the Garden
We’ve Been Rebelling Since the Garden
To one degree or another, we are Adam and Eve eating from the fruit of the one tree the LORD told us not to.
We’re born rebels.
A father had a rather strong-willed son. On the way to the store, he kept telling the child, “Sit down and buckle your seat-belt.” But the little kid kept standing in the seat. Again he said, “Sit down and buckle your seat-belt.” After a time or two more, the boy was convinced he had better sit down or disaster would strike. So he slipped down onto the seat, clicked the seat-belt, and said, “Okay, I’m sitting down. But I’m still standing up on the inside.”
Sheba’s rebellion here is clear; it’s not subtle or in any way veiled in secrecy. He’s bold in his rebellion. He sounds the trumpet and shouts about it!
Sheba wants to leave the Davidic kingdom behind and he makes that clear. 2 Samuel 20:1 “He sounded the trumpet and shouted, “We have no share in David, no part in Jesse’s son! Every man to his tent, Israel!”
Sheba is a rebel.
But so is Joab, as we’ll read about as the chapter progresses. Both rebels, they just look a little different, Sheba and Joab.
Joab is intensely loyal to David, but completely uncontrollable. His is not outright revolt or rebellion, but it’s rebellion all the same.
Joab doesn’t want to be king in place of David (at least as far as we know), but Joab still wants to be his own king. He might be loyal to David, but he is, for all intents and purposes, unsubmissive to David.
There is such a thing as acknowledging the king’s sovereignty and disregarding his will.
Such folk will have no place in the kingdom at the last. Jesus says:
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Our rebellion (ignoring God’s will in favor of our own), our attempts at placing ourselves above the LORD and His Kingdom, will all come to nothing. We need to realize that.
I don’t recommend doing so, but you can go ahead and try to build your little kingdom here. You can work to assert yourself over the LORD and place yourself in opposition to His Will, and you will discover the utter futility of your choice.
Regarding Sheba’s blatant rebellion and Joab’s more subtle rebellion, Dale Ralph Davis writes:
“The same revolt in principle goes on and on in the so-called evangelical church.”
A “high view” of the authority of the Bible doesn’t matter when it crashes up against our sinful desires. If we want something, we’re going to take it. If something feels good, we’re going to do it. If we feel like going our own way, calling our own shots, following our sinful hearts—regardless how high our view of scripture—we rebel against life’s rightful authority. In essence, living like that is the same thing as lifting up our hand against the King.
It’s all rebellion, be it Absalom, Sheba, Joab, or me in the driver’s seat.
“The same revolt in principle goes on and on in the so-called evangelical church.”
We read the sad result of Sheba’s influence:
2 So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Sheba son of Bikri. But the men of Judah stayed by their king all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
Rebels, the whole lot of Israel.
Sheba, a Benjamite, one from the tribe of King Saul, loyal to the old regime, one who prefers the way things used to be, stages a rebellion…and it works, at least initially.
Sheba rebels and takes the men of Israel with him.
>David’s homecoming to Jerusalem isn’t what it should have been. Only the men of Judah stayed with him. Israel, under Sheba, has deserted the king.
And then David, upon his return, has to clean up what Absalom (his late, traitorous son) messed up.
3 When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace and put them in a house under guard. He provided for them but had no sexual relations with them. They were kept in confinement till the day of their death, living as widows.
Of course, we know that what Absalom did with his father’s concubines (2 Samuel 16:21ff) was the result of David’s sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12). Verse 3 is a very sad continuation of a very sad set of consequences.
David’s concubines, 10 of whom had been left behind to tend to the palace, were used by David’s son Absalom as part of his rebellion against his father.
These poor women are victims of the sins of others. And now, in their shame and disgrace, they’re left as widows in David’s house.
This is part of what rebellion brings: radical sadness and devastating consequences.
Too many of Christ’s people know what it is to have their lives negatively impacted because of the sins of others.
And when all is said and done, there is no help for it, except in the One sent to “bind up the brokenhearted.”
Only in the hand of the One who promises to wipe away the tears from all our faces and remove our disgrace are we safe.
David necessarily sequesters the 10 concubines, sad as it is, but isn’t done dealing with stuff that needs dealing with:
4 Then the king said to Amasa, “Summon the men of Judah to come to me within three days, and be here yourself.”
5 But when Amasa went to summon Judah, he took longer than the time the king had set for him.
6 David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bikri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your master’s men and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and escape from us.”
7 So Joab’s men and the Kerethites and Pelethites and all the mighty warriors went out under the command of Abishai. They marched out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba son of Bikri.
8 While they were at the great rock in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Joab was wearing his military tunic, and strapped over it at his waist was a belt with a dagger in its sheath. As he stepped forward, it dropped out of its sheath.
9 Joab said to Amasa, “How are you, my brother?” Then Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.
10 Amasa was not on his guard against the dagger in Joab’s hand, and Joab plunged it into his belly, and his intestines spilled out on the ground. Without being stabbed again, Amasa died. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bikri.
11 One of Joab’s men stood beside Amasa and said, “Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab!”
12 Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road, and the man saw that all the troops came to a halt there. When he realized that everyone who came up to Amasa stopped, he dragged him from the road into a field and threw a garment over him.
13 After Amasa had been removed from the road, everyone went on with Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bikri.
Again, this chapter is basically more rebellion. There is the benefit of some really cool, pretty gross stuff. But that’s not the point.
King David couldn’t let Sheba’s revolt/rebellion turn into anything, so he gives Amasa the task of gathering the men of Judah.
Amasa was a little slow, or simply incapable of doing what David asks, so David turns to Abishai. Sheba had to be taken care of, or he’d escape and cause issues down the road.
Abishai heads out with all of Joab’s men with him, in search of Sheba.
Amasa finally, at some point outside of town, catches up to Abishai and the men who were with him. Who knows what Amasa was doing, but here he is.
And now Joab steps to the front of the story.
We are given every little detail about Joab’s meeting with Amasa. A lot of detail: everything from what Joab is wearing and the dagger he has, to what Joab says and what hand Joab uses to greet Amasa, to the blow Joab dealt Amasa.
We even get to know what happened to Amasa’s intestines.
Pretty cool detail. We’re focused here on stuff we probably don’t need to be focused on. Too much detail, maybe.
But this tells us something of Joab. He’s deceitful and rebellious (taking the life of the man the king appointed).
Joab greets Amasa with his right hand.
The writer assumes that you will assume the sword is in Joab’s left hand. No one—well, almost no one—used their left hand in battle (just some left-handed assassins, and our friend Ehud who killed the very fat king Eglon in Judges 3 with his left hand).
So, it goes to follow, for more than one reason, Amasa never would have guessed Joab would stab him with his left hand.
Joab’s dagger drops, he picks it up with his left hand, and holds Amasa’s face with his right hand so that he was free to stab Amasa with his left hand.
Joab is so brutal, so thorough, so experienced murdering, he only had to take one stab at it. Without being stabbed again, Amasa died.
And, it’s business as usual, Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba.
Poor Amasa lay wallowing in his blood (another fun detail for us) and really slowed the movement of the troops. So they just move his body out of the road and covered him up. No big deal.
We might be a little tired of the same old rebellion, and sadly, we might be a little desensitized to Joab’s brutal behavior.
Joab butchered Abner (2 Samuel 3) and Absalom (2 Samuel 18) and now Amasa (he has a problem with the letter ‘A’).
Joab is violent/murderous. This is what Joab does; it’s who he is.
His action shouldn’t surprise us. Neither should his rebellion. Joab didn’t like the fact that David chose Amasa over him to lead the army, so Joab guts David’s man like a pig.
This is rebellion against the will of the king, no doubt about it.
Let’s remember: we’ve all been rebelling since the Garden…
The story shifts back to Sheba, the main rebel of the story:
14 Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel Beth Maakah and through the entire region of the Bikrites, who gathered together and followed him.
15 All the troops with Joab came and besieged Sheba in Abel Beth Maakah. They built a siege ramp up to the city, and it stood against the outer fortifications. While they were battering the wall to bring it down,
16 a wise woman called from the city, “Listen! Listen! Tell Joab to come here so I can speak to him.”
17 He went toward her, and she asked, “Are you Joab?” “I am,” he answered. She said, “Listen to what your servant has to say.” “I’m listening,” he said.
18 She continued, “Long ago they used to say, ‘Get your answer at Abel,’ and that settled it.
19 We are the peaceful and faithful in Israel. You are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why do you want to swallow up the Lord’s inheritance?”
20 “Far be it from me!” Joab replied, “Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy!
21 That is not the case. A man named Sheba son of Bikri, from the hill country of Ephraim, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Hand over this one man, and I’ll withdraw from the city.” The woman said to Joab, “His head will be thrown to you from the wall.”
22 Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bikri and threw it to Joab. So he sounded the trumpet, and his men dispersed from the city, each returning to his home. And Joab went back to the king in Jerusalem.
Things don’t go the way Sheba probably thought they would. He’s traveled through all the tribes of Israel…and through the entire region of the Bikrites.
He’s almost as far north as he could go and still be in the country. Apparently, he had gathered very little support in his rebellion.
Joab and his band of ruffians, building a seige ramp up to the city where Sheba is, are interrupted by a woman who wants to chat with Joab for a minute.
The story here, at this point, is a little amusing. There is a lot of irony here. This wise woman asks to speak with Joab, and a back-and-forth is recorded.
She speaks about her city as highly as she could and invokes the LORD’s name.
Joab, gem of a guy that he is, says, “Far be it from me! Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy.”
That’s laughable, coming from ol’ Stabby Joe himself. This is exactly the kind of thing Joab would do.
But Joab tells the wise woman that all he’s after is the man named Sheba.
The wise woman wisely convinces everyone in the city that the wise thing to do is hand over Sheba (or, more specifically, Sheba’s head) and save their city.
“His head will be thrown to you from the wall.”
I love that. I wish someone would cross-stitch that on a decorative-pillow with the Bible reference underneath.
I’d love that.
“His head will be thrown to you from the wall.”
Minister: This is the Word of the Lord.
Congregation: Praise be to God!
(Verse 22): They cut off the head of Sheba son of Bikri and threw it to Joab.
Joab sounds the trumpet and heads back to Jerusalem, and each of the men with him went to their own home.
Just another Tuesday in David’s kingdom. Rebellion. Murder. Depravity. A whole lot of sin.
The chapter ends with this section summary:
23 Joab was over Israel’s entire army; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites;
24 Adoniram was in charge of forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder;
25 Sheva was secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
26 and Ira the Jairite was David’s priest.
Joab ends up in command of the army; his rebellion worked out for him. Who else but Joab? Amasa is out of the picture, so here Joab rises to command again.
In their own way, these verses (vv. 23-26) quietly say that the kingdom of David is still intact, despite the best effort of some to tear it down. Sheba gave it the ol’ college try, but to no avail.
This is some good news amidst all the rest:
The Kingdom Stands In Spite of Rebellion
The Kingdom Stands In Spite of Rebellion
The kingdom of David is fragile, because of the sinfulness of the king and because of the attempted rebellions of Absalom and now Sheba and Joab.
But, in spite of all the corruption from within and attacks from without, the kingdom is still standing.
And David’s officials, such as they are, are busy at work.
The Kingdom Stands in Spite of Rebellion.
This is true where the kingdom of Jesus—the true and better David—is concerned.
Christ’s kingdom, at times, appears to be fragile. But it is always found standing.
No power of hell, no scheme of man can topple what God has established. The gates of hell will not prevail against it.
As we sing, “His kingdom is forever.”
At the end of the age, this will be true:
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.”
No rebellion will ever thwart the reign or kingdom of the LORD and of His Christ.
The beautiful part of the Good News is that, to deal with the problem of rebellion, Jesus decides to take the place of rebels.
He was hung on a cross between two rebels; He was numbered among the transgressors.
The crowd chose to free a rebel name Barabbas instead of Jesus: a fitting illustration of Jesus’ substitutionary atonement.
He for me. Jesus in my place.
The righteous Son of God in place of a rebellious son of the devil.
Jesus died for me, a worthless rebel, a scoundrel, a wicked man.
Ours is to repent, to turn from sin and turn to Him in faith and belief.
Stop building your selfish little kingdom.
Stop living in sinful rebellion against the God of the Universe and Author of Life.
Submit to Jesus.
Be Saved by Jesus.
And Serve Jesus and His kingdom forever and ever.
