2 Samuel, Chapter 18 - Pride's Downfall | Prophets of Israel Daily

Shalom friends. Welcome to the Prophets of Israel Daily. This is the book of 2 Samuel chapter 18. I'm Jeremy Compel here with Arya Bramitz. And this is brought to you by the land of Israel network at the land ofisrael.com. Friends, this is the day the rebellion ends. And it ends in a way that saves David's life but breaks David's heart. and of shalom. He's driven his father from Jerusalem, taken the city, taken the royal concubines for himself, and now called all of Israel for one final battle. The battle against David. And David regrouped across the Jordan, numbers his men, and divides them into three commanders. Yoav, his brother Avishi, and Iti the Gitite. Itai, a righteous non-Jew, one of David's mighty men, a man from Got, the same place as Goliath, becomes a top commander, a general in David's army. And so his men don't let David go out into battle. You're worth 10,000 men to us, they tell him. And so the king stands at the gate as the army marches out and he commands them in front of all the people. Verse five. Abshalom. Deal gently for my sake with the young man with ab shalom. Lei lar ab shalom. Deal gently with the boy with abshalom. The text tells us all the people heard it. The king is sending an army out to crush a rebellion led by his son and his one public order is don't hurt my boy. >> It really makes me want to cry. I just picture my father saying this. Not that I would have ever done this against my father, but that's what he called me. And just, you know, it's the this one line tells you everything about the war inside David's heart. And it's almost unbearable, right? Think about the impossible position he's in. As the king, Absalom is a traitor leading a civil war that could destroy the nation. Justice demands he be stopped by force permanently. Every commander marching out knows that the only way this ends is with Absalom dead. But as a father, well, Absalom is still his son. The same child he wept for in exile. The same son he longed to bring home. And David cannot reconcile the two. I think that in some way David perhaps blames himself for isolating Abshalom. It's like he simply can't stop being the father even as his son tries to kill him and steal his kingdom. And notice he calls him Hanahar, the young man, the boy. Not the rebel or the usurper. He doesn't call him obselum the traitor. The boy in David's heart. He's still a child. A parent's love doesn't just switch off because the child has done something terrible, even something the world may accurately deem unforgivable. David is asking his soldiers to win the war and defeat the rebellion, but to rescue the rebel. And any parent who has ever loved a child who went badly astray understands exactly the impossible ache in these words. Deal gently with the boy. I'm just saying that being as a father myself now, it just breaks my heart. I can just feel feel that pain so viscerally. >> Yeah. I mean, it really is heartbreaking. David is in such a hard position and the battle unfolds in the forest of Ephraim and the Tanakh gives us one of the eeriest images. The battle spread over the whole countryside and the text says the forest devoured more people that day than the sword. And I love that verse. It's as if Erits Israel, the land of Israel itself, woke up and joined the battle to save King David. Like the wild terrain itself, some say the wild animals themselves, the ravines, the thickets, the pits, they swallowed men up. And it's as if the land itself fought for King David. And it's in that very forest that Absalo meets his end. Verse 9 and his head was caught fast in the terabenth and he was left hanging between heaven and earth. Abalam is riding his mule under a great terabenth tree and his head in the tradition understands this to be the glorious hair that the text lingered back on in chapter 14. His head was caught in the branches. The mule keeps going and of shalom is left dangling bain hashim. It's between the heaven and the earth. His crowning glory, his glorious hair becomes his snare. >> Yeah. Just mida can negate mida, you know, attribute for attribute. And Jeremy, the sages couldn't stop looking at the phrase between the heaven and the earth because they saw it. They saw in it something that was is far deeper than a description of a man stuck in a tree. Right? Absalom at the moment of judgment hangs suspended between heaven and earth belonging fully to neither. Right? And think about why this was a son who raised his hand against his own father, who tried to seize a throne that wasn't his, and who honored nothing above his own ambition. And in the end, he's caught in exactly that in between state, cut off from the earth beneath him and the heaven above him. the very hair he was so proud of, the beauty that made all of Israel admire him or at least contributed to their admiration because there's a reason that the tallest candidate usually becomes president. It does have an influence, right? That the glory he cultivated and displayed, that's the thing that snares him and hangs him in the air helpless. And I think there's a powerful lesson here that that opshalom is is is a warning about a life built on the outside on on superficial things on looks, charm, ambition, on being admired. And the truth is that sometimes those things can take you far. Right? In this case, they took off Shalom all the way to the edge of the throne. But what don't they do? They don't give you roots. And when the moment of truth came, Abselum was left hanging between heaven and earth, belonging nowhere. Even his beautiful hair, the thing that he was known for, became the thing that trapped him. And that's the warning. The things we're most proud of, if they aren't rooted in something deeper than ourselves, they can become the very things that destroy us. >> Yeah, that's measure for measure for sure. his pride was his downfall. And you know, now um we see the hard cold pragmatism of Yav. A soldier sees Ab Shalom hanging there in the wind and he runs to tell Yav. And Yo says, "You saw him. Why didn't you strike him down? I would have given you a silver and a belt. I mean, I could have given you everything." And the soldier answers with real integrity. He's like, "I heard the king command you and Avishi any with my own ears, protect the young man of shalom. I wouldn't raise a hand against the king's son for a thousand pieces of silver." But Yav has no hesitation. Verse 14, "And he took three spears in his hand and thrust them through the heart of Shalom." Yo takes three spears and drives them into Abshalom's heart while he still hangs in the trees and his men finish it. They throw the body into a great pit in the forest and pile an enormous heap of stones over it. Yo, the man who orchestrated Shalom's return, ends the rebellion, disobeying David's orders. >> Yeah. and Jeremy Yov's choice here is one of the great um I think uncomfortable questions of the whole book. I was just having a debate about it today, even just today with Nate Waller in Harbraa about this decision, you know, because in a cold strate strategic sense, Yo was right. And yet at the same time, it seems like he did something terribly wrong. Right? But on the one hand, Yav knew what David simply could not admit. That as long as Abselum lived, the war would never truly end. A captured living Abselum would remain a rallying point, a permanent threat to the kingdom and to David himself. If it hasn't become clear by now, Yoo has a a ruthless realism to him. And he actually does the thing the king's grief forbade him from doing. He eliminates the threat and arguably saves the nation. Right? In clear defiance of a direct royal order from the standpoint of the state, he may have been the only one clear-headed enough to do what arguably had to be done. And yet, he killed Abshalom, disobeyed his king, and shattered a father's heart. And notice, friends, this becomes a pattern with Yov across the whole book. Again and again he does the brutal effective thing that David won't do. Aer amasa and now Absalom always telling himself it's for David's own good and David never forgives him. On his deathbed David will name Yo's bloodshed as a debt still to be settled. So here's the tension that we're left sitting in and it won't be resolved neatly. Being effective is not the same as being righteous. Yo keeps choosing results over obedience. The ends over the means. And even when the results are good, it feels to me like something in his soul is being corroded by it. Right. There are things you can win and still lose yourself in the winning. >> Yeah, that's exactly the tension here, Ari. That's for sure. And the rest of the chapter is the news racing back to the king. Two runners, Aimat and Akushites, sprinting across the plane and David sitting between the gates watching and waiting. And when he finally learns the battle is won, but presses only one question. Is it well with the young man of Shalom? And when he hears the answer, the king breaks completely. Verse 33. Ben of Shalom. Bene shalom. Oh my son of shalom. My son, my son of shalom. If only I had died instead of you. Oh ab shalom. My son, my son. Eight times in that outpouring he says the word beneath. My son. He climbs to the chamber over the gate and weeps. And he goes out and he just cries, "My son, my son. If only I had died in your place." You think about it. The rebellion is crushed. The king's life is saved. the kingdom is secure and David feels none of it. He says that he would trade the whole victory to have his boy back. And I think that's what 2 Samuel 18 teaches us. David throughout this entire saga and rebellion of shalom, he doesn't cry. He's humiliated, cursed at. He's trying to be killed. He's betrayed. And again, he's being chased by an army that wants him dead. And only at the end when he hears that his son of Shalom is dead does David totally break down. Natan's warning in chapter 12 verse 10 after David sinned with Bacheva and arranged the death of Uria. The verse says now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uryah the Hitittite to be your wife. Meaning David used the sword to destroy Uriah to cover his sid and violence would now enter David's own family. This wasn't saying that David would lose God's covenant completely. God still kept his promise to David, but David's household would suffer painful consequences. Not his kingdom, his home. And we saw it all unfold. Amnown violates Tamar. Abshalom kills Amnown. Abshalam rebels against David. and later Abshalom himself is killed. So Natan's prophecy means David's private sin would become a public family tragedy. And the sword David used indirectly against Uriah would return into his own house. And when David broke the trust through desire, deception, and violence, God forgave him after Chuva. But the consequences still entered his family and his kingdom. And it wasn't losing the throne to Abshalom that shook David. It was losing his family, his home. That's what really devastated him. And so David understands that he made a terrible mistake and accepts his fate with Amuna. He understands that everything that happens is emmet is the truth. It's painfully just. The name of Hashem in Hebrew, Yudhe vave, it can be understood as timeless reality. Reality is the truth. And so David teaches us that true repentance isn't only asking Hashem for forgiveness, but humbly accepting the painful truth of what our actions have caused and still clinging to Hashem with amuna the whole time. Still clinging to God with faith. All right, my friends. Em as we continue through the stories of King David. You know, I'm on the road and speaking across the United States and I'm gathering up the sparks from across America. So many people are tuning into the prophets of Israel daily and so many are joining the land of Israel network as members. It feels like every day our fellowship is growing. And you know, even if we haven't met in person yet, I want to invite you to join our global community and start learning live with us every week. It will be a blessing in your life. And it empowers us to keep on spreading the light of Israel across the world. So click on the link below or go to the land of Isisrael.com and join us in Desraat Hashem. Tomorrow we will see chapter 19 together when David finds his way back to the throne. Shalom from the land of Israel through Middle America.