2 Samuel Chapter 18 Verses 1 – 4

 What a statement from his people! It is a statement of love for sure, of

friendship and devotion. It’s also a statement or resourcefulness. If

this operation ends up taking a long time or even ends up in a second

kingdom, (as in they are never able to go back to Jerusalem), David

has friends in high places! He would be able to secure trade and

relationship with neighbors to help his people.

 I love how David is able to be swayed by his people. It’s a rare

character trait in a leader but it is one of the things that makes a strong

leader. The desire to listen and to submit to your own people.

Interestingly, I didn’t say a willingness. Willingness makes a certain

kind of leader… Desire to submit makes an incredible leader.

 I know that sounds entirely counterintuitive. Let me explain. No leader

is perfect. No leader is even the best leader. And a leader that knows

that will desire, will look for opportunity even to do what he or she

wouldn’t normally do, if all was left up to them. Why? Because they

know they are not perfect.

 You want spiritual leadership that desires to submit. First to the Holy

Spirit, to the Word of God. Even a desire to submit when the best

result won’t come about with the advice taken, but the best care will

be expressed of those under their care. You want a leader knows that

the best care is more important than the best result.

 And, does someone else know, sometimes taking the best care of

someone doesn’t look soft and squishy… You take care of arrogance

with righteousness and resistance. You take care of humility with

grace. James 4:6, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the

humble.” Perhaps an entire teaching for another day…

 You want a CEO submissive to his or her board and executive

leadership team. You want a husband submissive to his wife. A wife

submissive to her husband, both as unto the Lord. Then you have good

results and great care.

 Some of you just shifted in your seat when I said that because

Ephesians 5:22-23 says extra clearly, “Wives, submit to your own

husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also

Chris is head of the church.” And indeed, that comes before

Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved

the church and gave Himself for her.”

 The reality is that Ephesians 5:21 comes before both of them. “Submit

to one another in the fear of God.” There is a time to not do what is

best so that you can focus on taking the best care of your bride. It’s

just that simple. And it’s just that difficult, because it takes a denial of

self for the man. To settle for what is not best in my mind is to

disrespect myself and my home. Flies in the face of how I’m wired.

 In the design and revealed character of God, agape love is giving

someone the power to destroy you, trusting that they won’t. A wife

that walks in respect carefully towards her man will enable him to care

less about getting the best result and care only for her partnership.

That’s the design. So go do that. And while everyone is learning, the

best leaders are decisive, competent, driven, ambitious, courageous

and caring…, and they desire to submit, to take the best care of those

entrusted to them.

 Jesus being fully equal with God the Father submitted Himself just to

love His Father and bring Him glory. Even more, Jesus, the King of

kings and Lord of lords, submitted Himself to death for the world. If it

was ONLY me, He still would have submitted Himself to death!

2 Samuel Chapter 18 Verse 5

 Even after all that had been done to him, he protected Absolom…

2 Samuel Chapter 18 Verses 6 – 8

 I can’t help but consider the tragedy of this loss of life going all the

way back, stemming from a decade ago when David made a dreadful

decision first with Bathsheba but then with not taking accountability

and killing Uriah. Fast forward to today and he is deposed of his

throne, his son wants him dead, and he has cost the nation 20,000

lives.

 This comment about the woods devouring more people than the sword

is a statement of folks just going missing. The battle is in thick woods

and as it rages on and men are lost, its as if the woods are consuming

them!

2 Samuel Chapter 18 Verse 9

 It’s interesting that the common lore of Absolom is that his thick hair

became entangled in the tree as he rode through the woods but that’s

not what it says here. It says that his head got caught in the thick

boughs of the terebinth tree. Must have been a big head, HA!

 The terebinth tree is interesting and it’s interesting that we get this

detail. We see God associate with this type of tree in several places in

scripture. The Lord appears to Abram by the terebinth trees of Mamre

in Genesis 18. The Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth

tree in Ophrah to call Gideon in Judges 6.

 The terebinth tree here in the demise of Absolom certainly speaks to

the hand of God being for David and against Absolom. Not because

Absolom is in sin and David is not. They are both in sin. In fact, this

whole ordeal is first attributable to David. But rather because God

resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. If you believe that, it

changes your battle strategy!

 2 Chronicles 20:15, “Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor

dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours,

but God’s.” Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall

hold your peace.” Psalm 44:6-7, “I will not trust in my bow, nor shall

my sword save me. But You have saved us from our enemies, and have

put to shame those who hated us.”

2 Samuel Chapter 18 Verses 10 – 15

 Massively brutal. Joab openly disobeys David’s order to deal gently

with Absolom. Many ascribe this to Joab’s rogue warrior mentality.

Others say that this is Joab not respecting David as king and

commander ever since he had Uriah put on the front lines. I see those

points. Although, it could be that Joab was doing for David, for the

nation, what David didn’t have the strength of heart to do.

 Absolom had completely turned against David. He wanted his father

dead. So much so that he had defiled the house of his father on the

rooftop of the castle. He had divided the nation and opened war.

Absolom could not remain. As long as he remained, the nation would

be divided. Joab was doing what David could not, and sometimes,

that’s the kind of friend we all need.

 Also, this is the hand of God against David as it were. Nathan had

pronounced judgment upon David. He said that as David had said, so

shall it be. And David had said that the man that stole the sheep must

repay four-fold. Absolom is three of four. David’s firstborn with

Bathsheba had died. Amnon had died. Now Absolom is dead. And

next will be Adonijah.

2 Samuel Chapter 18 Verses 16 – 18

 We know from chapter 14 that he indeed did have three sons so it must

be that they had proceeded him in death.

2 Samuel Chapter 18 Verses 19 – 21

 This shows that the forces for David were not all Israelites. A Cushite

would be someone from the line of Cush, a son of Ham. The Israelites

were Shemites, sons of Shem.

2 Samuel Chapter 18 Verses 22 – 32

 David wasn’t as concerned about his own victory as he was about

Absolom. What’s crazy to me is where has this father been for the

past ten years! Here he is waiting while men are fighting each other,

waiting to hear if his son is ok… He’s ten years late!

 Don’t put off until tomorrow the right that can be done today. At some

point, and we never know when that point is, everything is changed.

Everything is different and there sometimes is no going back.

2 Samuel Chapter 18 Verse 33

 Five times we hear of David calling out for his son. It’s such a horrible

scene. He’d rather have died than for Absolom to have died. His heart

is broken! Given the chance I am sure David would rewind the clock

and do everything differently. But he doesn’t have that chance…

 This does give us perhaps just a glimpse into the moment Jesus

breathed His last upon the cross. Why the earth quaked. Why the sun

darkened. We know that God can experience grief. We are told in the

scriptures not to grieve the Holy Spirit. It was in the moment that all of

heaven heard from the throne, My Son, My Son…

 The sorrow endured by God for us, for you and for me, not at any fault

of His own, not like David, but at my fault. So that I would not die,

lost in the woods of sin, head caught in a tree, He allowed Himself to

be caught onto a tree. A cross made for criminals. All to make a way

for me.