Sunday School | David - 2 Samuel 18

Introduction

Well, we're gonna continue our study here. We've been studying the life of David for months and months, and we're getting close—maybe six weeks or so left to go in the life of David. And we are this week. Does anybody know what chapter we're in? Second Samuel 18. Look at this, Second Samuel chapter 18. All right. Very good. As we often do, let's remind ourselves where have we been? So what's been going on? You know, chapters fifteen, sixteen, seventeen-ish. What's happening? Kinda shout it out, we'll try to hopefully this mic will pick you up. What's going on in David's life right now? His son wants to kill him. His son wants to kill him. What's that son's name, Kat? Absalom. Absalom. And why does he wanna? In what sense does he want to kill him? What's Absalom's ultimate mission here? He wants to be king. He wants to be king. Right? He's trying to overthrow the throne. How's that going so far? What do we know about Absalom's intrigue to take over the kingdom? In the beginning, they got David on the ground. Yes. I mean, it worked. David flees Jerusalem, right, and runs out of town, and it seems like it's going very well for Absalom in the beginning, absolutely. What's happened in the last couple of weeks as we've watched that play out? Oh, yeah. So he's got, remember, David's got a couple of different advisors, and then one of them is on—not Solomon. One of them is on Absalom's side, one of them is on David's side, but then one that's on David's side secretly pretends to be on Absalom's side and goes and thwarts the advice of Ahithophel, and ends up playing a very strategic role for David. So it seems, to a certain extent, that the tide has turned in David's favor, or at least it's not quite so perilous as it was a few weeks ago. Is that fair enough? Okay, we're gonna jump into chapter 18. And we're consistently, you know, for a long time, David could do no harm. I mean, everything David did succeeded, he just had the golden touch. And then from Bathsheba onward, it's a very mixed picture. And there's some really, things just go down and down and down. And now we're at a stage in David's life where, like, you could see glimmers of the old David shining through all of the yuck, right? And this is gonna be kind of a little bit of a mixed bag chapter, as David is kind of clawing his way out of the mess that he's gotten himself into. But he's clawing, right? It is not things are not going great, but there's some hope here. So pick it up in chapter 18, and we'll see what's going on.

David’s Military Strategy and His Personal Choices

David mustered the men who were with him and appointed over them commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds. David sent the troops out, a third under the command of Joab, a third under Joab's brother Abishai, son of Uzzuriah, and a third under Ittai the Gittite. And the king told the troops, I myself will surely march out with you. But the men said, you must not go out. If we are forced to flee, they won't care about us. Even if half of us die, they won't care, but you are worth ten thousand of us. It would be better now for you to give us support from the city.

Now, one of the things that David has done well historically is that he's a good military guy. He gets organizational military conflict. He's been incredibly successful. And even in these couple of lines, you see that he's established, he's organizing an army. So how many levels to this army that David is building? When you count it out, what do you get? How many tiers in this military that he builds? Okay, three. What do you hear of the three? Third under Joab, a third under Abishai, and a third under some other dude, okay. So that's not three tiers, that's three divisions. So his army, it's true that he divides his army into three divisions, but how many like rank levels are there here? Okay. Yeah, there's actually five. Okay. So here's how this army is organized: David is the, what we would call the commander-in-chief, right? The whole thing is under David. Who's under David? You got these three divisions, right? So they're like the four-star generals running the thing. Who is under them? Of thousands, commanding of thousands, right? And so I don't know. I'm too dumb about this. Is that a unit? A platoon? I don't even know what you call that, right? But commanders, you got the group, like the large grouping of a thousand. What's underneath that? Of hundreds. And then what's under that? The grunts—the people that the enlisted, the guys that are getting it done. So that's five levels.

Now, remember back, you know, when they had this competing vision of two different strategies that the two advisers were giving, what was the essence of Ahithophel's advice? What was his, like, direction here? Go get him. Right now. Right now. Go tonight. Strike fast. Before David has a chance to build up. Get him. Go in. It's really not even an army battle. What was it? Precision, assassination. It was assassination, right? Just go in for precision, you know, execution of this guy. And the other guy's like, nah, nah, nah. David's too good. And he talks him into delaying, and because he delays, David builds a five-tiered army. So this is bad for Absalom, right? David, he's a strategist, he's smart, he knows what he's doing, and his buddy bought him enough time to build this thing up. And so he builds it. There's one problem, though, with David's vision that conflicts with the men’s vision. And what is that? David wants to go. David is a commander at the front of the troops. And they're like, no, no, no. Don't do that. You're worth, you know, ten thousand of us because there's still the threat of assassination, execution. And so they talk David into not going out to battle. And that's a tough thing, right? Nobody likes that, right? Bob, you worked in the armed defense of the good thing, and it's no fun to take off the field and go work in an office. Right? Yeah, nobody likes sitting behind the desk, right? And that's what David's being told to do. Like, no, no, no. You stay behind the desk. He wants to be in the field, right? He wants a sword on his thigh, but instead he's back. But he yields to his men. That's a little new for David, right? He has not typically been a very submissive man. But there's, whether it's age or wisdom or something, he yields to that.

Zach? Don't know if you're gonna get to this, but I wanted to ask if there's anything to be said about David not going out to battle in regard to that it was him not going out to battle that spawned the Bathsheba stuff to begin with. Look at our budding biblical scholar. Yes. You're very good that you would notice that detail, because the author is always kind of creating these things. So then the story begins, remember it? The phrase at the beginning of the Bathsheba thing? It was springtime, which is described how? When kings go off to war, David stays home, sets up a telescope on the roof. And so there is an echo of that. However, I think that what we're seeing is that whereas once upon a time David failed to go to war, and it led to ruin, in this instance, he does it and he does it right. And that's how life is sometimes. The same activity in this moment could lead to ruin, but in this moment could lead to goodness. And I think that it's great news that this is reminding you of that. That is a habit you want to develop when you read the scriptures. Oh, this is reminiscent of this. How do these ideas relate? So well done, Zach. That's excellent. Okay, so here's what happens. The king says, all right, fine, I'll stay home. I'll do whatever seems best to you. In verse four, so the king stood beside the gate while all the men marched out in units of hundreds, units of thousands. And then the king commanded the three, right? So you're seeing the author is reminding you, there's structure to this thing. And the king commanded, you know, Joab, Abishai, and Ittai this. This is going—underline this. This is bad. This is gonna be unhelpful. Be gentle with the young man Absalom for my sake. And all the troops heard the king giving orders concerning Absalom to each of the commanders.

Let's talk about that for a minute. Robin, you're already nodding. What's the significance of this? Yes. Okay. So what Robin is saying is that he is undermining the whole battle. So we got this great David, remember, David is, it's a mix. He's back on his game. He is organizing things. He's got his five-tiered army. Things are gonna be, and the commanders are gonna make great decisions. They're gonna split up and fight a war in the force. We'll see all these details. They're getting a lot of stuff right. But David keeps tripping himself up. Right? So he's like, oh, go fight the war. Protect my kingdom. Go get it done. Also, don't hurt my enemy because he's my son. So, what did you? What are the swords for? Like, what did you want us to do? Be gentle with Absalom, the one who was trying to kill me. This is gonna screw things up all the way through. Tom? Back then, the goal of the war was to kill the king, kill the leader, and everybody else was tolerated. Yeah. And that was the strategy that Ahithophel had put forward. And of course, you gotta go after him. Of course. But you can't do the thing that you've been assigned to do. And so it puts everybody in a, uh-uh. And the narrator makes it a point to say, and everybody heard him say it. So now, it's not just the commanders are like, well then what are our orders? But it's the people: if my captain or my general tells me what to do, am I disobeying the king? And so now everything is just thrown into chaos. Okay? Robin? I remember too, when David saw Say it a lot: what about Saul? Saul died? Yeah. And the man who came to tell David about it was killed because of it. That's right. And we're gonna see an echo of that as well, which no doubt Zach is gonna pick up on in a minute. We'll see that. Okay? So we'll watch all that play out. So, the troops hear it. They go into battle. We've got great strategy mixed with, like, what? What are we doing now? Right? Everything's jammed. Okay. Verse six. The army marched in the field to fight Israel, and the battle took place—this is so interesting—in the forest of Ephraim. There, the army of Israel was defeated by David's men, and the casualties that day were great—20,000 men. And the battle spread out all over the countryside, and the forest claimed more lives that day than the sword. So, this is something that has happened over and over in war history, right? Think about a Napoleonic battle. What does that make you think of? Yes. Exactly right. They're organizing the field. We line up our troops, you line up your troops, and march towards each other and shoot at each other—looks so absurd. That's what you're doing in a field. It's, uh, anti-domestic, right? Civil war battles where you just march towards each other. What's the problem with that? Well, there's so many problems. How do you defeat that? Volume, and you just—if that's the game, it's purely a game of numbers. Okay? Can David win a game of numbers? No. No. Not at all. And so, now what are we gonna do? He's gonna change the battle tactics from, like, this civil war, just marching the dudes to—and why is a civil war such a trainer? Because do you know what happened in the civil war technologically? Rifles. Changed everything. What did the rifle do, Stuart? More deadly bullets, more accurate, more distance. And so, if we're all marching at each other from a long distance, it's not so bad. But once we start to get really good guns, everybody just dies, which is exactly what happened in the Civil War. Well, David's in this situation where he realizes, like, okay, if we fight in the open field, we're gonna get slaughtered. So it goes very guerrilla—it's Vietnam instead of Civil War, right? You're in the jungle, you're in the trees, you're in the woods. And so it's just great strategy. And David does his thing, and he wins. He chooses the forest as his battlefield, which basically diminishes the usefulness of the outnumbered troops, gives them a chance to win. And under his very competent generals—these three, despite the fact he's screwing it up—they prevail. They're gonna win. Okay? Now, something else happens, though. Check this out, verse nine. Now, Absalom happened to meet David's men. He was riding his mule, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom's head got caught in the tree, and he was left hanging in midair while the mule he was riding kept on going.

What? Okay. How do you envision this? What do you think is actually happening? How do you envision this playing out? First, Absalom. Okay. So, one theory is that he just cut his hair or something. They made a big deal about when he cuts his hair, it weighs, like, five pounds or something on the scale. So maybe his bushy hair is getting tangled in the branches. Maybe. That could be it. And that's pretty tempting. It might be true. What's curious is it doesn't say hair. What does it actually say gets caught in the tree? Mine says hair. Mine says hair. Mine says hair. Okay, so what that is, that's somebody trying to be like, it gotta be his hair. But really, his head is what gets stuck in the tree. But you have hair on your head, so maybe it was hair. But that is the translator trying to help you be, like, yeah, it had to be his hair, okay? And maybe it was. Or maybe he gets his skull wedged in a fork of a tree. Whatever it is, it's extremely implausible. So what is the narrator telling us here? God doesn't like man buns. Say it again? God doesn't like man buns. God is saying that? God doesn't like man buns. Yeah. That's exactly where I was going, Eric. Thank you for that very much. Yeah. Well, and I'm gonna stick with the first couple of words of that ridiculous answer and say, God is on David's side. Right? This is a highly improbable, entirely implausible, nobody can imagine: here's the strategy. I know. Let's make sure that we set things up so that Absalom will travel down a path lined with oak trees so that he'll get his head stuck in the fork of a branch. That'd be a horrific strategy, but it's exactly what happens. And once again, we have this thing endlessly throughout David's narrative: there's a mix between human responsibility. David, come up with a good strategy. Put the right people in charge. Fight them in the forest. Stay home. He's getting a bunch of stuff right. Things that human beings have to do. But then, like, at the end of the day, David could have done nothing, and God could have gotten Absalom's head stuck in a tree. Right? And again, it's this endless dance. Do all that you can. Be wise, be strategic, be smart. But the battle is the Lord's. Helen, right? Right. Okay. Mine is a question. So Absalom is a big dude. Why is he riding a mule? Yeah, that's, mine, okay, this catches our eye because you're thinking, like a mule? You're thinking of, like, a, right? And my guess would be—I don't know this—but my guess would be that they didn't have horses. I think horses perhaps were more rare. Maybe mules are stronger. Maybe somebody knows. John, you got any insight into the mule versus horse thing? They had horses, that did. Horses, okay. Gonna translate you to the mic. So, horses pulled chariots, not—they didn't ride them on horseback? Okay. So what John is saying is that for one thing, they didn't have stirrups until centuries later. So your sense of, like, you know, like a Lord of the Rings style, like, coming in on horses, just wasn't so much of a thing at that moment and kind of technologically. This, more than I know. I know. It seems like, dude, get on a stallion. But I'm sure he was doing what seemed right at his time. Kelly Sue? So this was just standard operating. Maybe it's kind of like, why is she driving a gasoline-powered car? It's like, well, it's a little premature for the electrics, I guess. I don't know. I felt like there was a hand back there. Was it Lily? Yeah. So a mule is actually a hybrid, a donkey and a horse. That's right. Yeah. Do you all know that? A mule is half donkey, half horse. So they have greater strength advantages. What's the disadvantage of a mule? They don't reproduce. They don't reproduce. Yeah, they're sterile. Right? But they can be big, and they can be strong. Think it's more strength, less speed, some kind of—I don't know. I'm not into horse husbandry, so I don't know. All right. Suzanne? And they certainly weren't supposed to do that—and he gets his head stuck in a tree. Happens to the best of us, you know? So okay, now, but let's stay here for a second more. Okay, DFP, and then we're gonna move. One of the things that strikes me about this—where's Absalom's retainers? Why aren't they around him to pull him out of the tree? Well, you would think that when you're the king and you're in a battle, there's somebody there to help you, right? And they're not. Which actually makes me think probably the fleeing theory is more accurate. It could be his retainers have been killed or driven away, and he's just riding, head down, get away, and not paying attention. Yeah. This could be. It is, everything about this. So what I want you to grab from the whole thing is like, you're like, this is so weird. And the point is: yeah. Because God is sovereignly overriding this. Whatever makes it feel more implausible, more improbable, it's supposed to stack up until you're like, the battle is the Lord's. That's what, that's the, that's the upshot of that whole thing. All right. Kelly? I was just gonna ask: what's the deal with this forest, too? Because it's like, it's like more people died in the forest than by Absalom. Yes, right. It's a haunted forest. Yeah, yeah. Something dark and scary going on in the woods, okay. Now, but there's more here, okay? The horses, all that kind of stuff. But I want you to think about this. Again, the author is constantly saying something. He's using imagery. We've seen over and over again that he'll invoke something. Absalom's hairiness, for instance, reminds us of Esau. He's the bad guy. There are different images that conjure things. So what is meant to be conjured by a human being hanging in a tree? Do you know what that, that's a biblical image. Do you know what that's alluding to? Jesus, though, not yet. Well, Paul, okay, you can go to Jesus, but not yet. That will be true, but there's something else that, in fact, Paul in Galatians is gonna point to Jesus, gonna quote the verse that I'm about to quote to you. Anyone who's hung from a tree—what? —Galatians 3:13. Laura Beth? Yep, it’s it. Okay, listen to this.

Deuteronomy 21:23
You must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day because anyone who’s hung on a tree is under God's curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

What's being said here is not just that David's strategy is all these things, but really, the battle is the Lord's. That's absolutely part of it. But the author is also saying this man is under God's curse. And why would he be? Why is Absalom being pictured as under the curse of God? What has he done that invokes that level of judgment? Or the gods' anointed. Absolutely. But what David would not do—the whole, I would never lay a hand against the Lord's anointed—Absalom has no such scruples, right? Absolutely in a very, very different place. He does a whole bunch of stuff that is cursed. What else? What else is the list of Absalom's failings? One of the Ten Commandments. He's not honoring his father. He's right. He's not honoring his mother and father, right? And that's specifically here in Deuteronomy 27. It says that cursed is the man who dishonors his father or his mother, right? What else does he do? Adultery and murder. Okay. So, the adultery, he sleeps with—remember, who does he sleep with? All his dad's concubines, right? Deuteronomy 27 also says, cursed is the man who sleeps with his father's wife, for he dishonors his father's bed. Absalom is under a curse. We see him get hung on this tree, which is both God's picking David's side in the battle and winning it for him in a very bizarre, strange way, but also in a very insulting way, in a very dishonoring way, in a very cursed way. That's all that's happening. That's what that was meant to see. Cool? Good enough? Anybody else want to jump on that? Good. Okay, let's keep going. So one of the men saw this. One of David's men sees this, which again raises Dan's question of, like, where's team Absalom? But when one of the men saw this, he told Joab, I just saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree. What? Joab said to the man who told him this, what? You saw him? And then look at this: Why didn't you strike him to the ground right there? I would have given you ten shekels of silver and a warrior's belt. Why didn't he? When some guy is in a battle and he sees the king of the opposing army hanging in a tree by his head or hair, why didn't he jam a sword through him? Because of what David said. Because David said, be gentle, he's like, whoa, I'm not gonna do that, right? And Joab is like, who cares what David said? Kill the guy. And look at this: but the man replied, even if a thousand shekels were weighed out into my hands, I would not lift my hand against the king's son. In our hearing, the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai to protect the young man Absalom for my sake. And if I had put my life in jeopardy and nothing is hidden from the king, you would have kept your distance from me. And Joab said, I am not gonna wait like this for you. So he took three javelins in his hand and gently plunged them into Absalom's heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree. And ten of Joab's armor bearers surrounded Absalom, struck him, and killed him. What do you think of that? Think, do you think, and Robin, I think he was already dead after the three javelins, right? What do you think about Joab's decision there, Joab's action? Was he right because it's a war, and David was wrong? Or was he wrong because he was disobeying the king who had given an explicit order? Chris? I think everybody's wrong, including David, especially David. Starting with David. I think they're resting on what man thinks is right. And I think that's highlighted in my Bible, the notes of 1805 when David's talking gently, how they're saying, is this fatherly love, or is this just a feeling of guilt towards Absalom that he's led him astray? Perhaps tied back to Jesse saying, hey, you guys need a lyre player? I know you're hunted by an evil spirit. Have my son. He can do it. Yes. And I've already made him the least of these. He'sgoing to just look after the sheep. I don't really care about him. And then, and now he's going, no, I know what's right. I'm not going to look to the Lord. Don't touch my son. Kill all. The army, that's a lot to recap. So what Chris is saying is that when asked if this guy was wrong or right, Chris' answer is a safe answer in this class. Everybody's wrong, right? Everyone's getting it wrong, but in particular David, he's getting it wrong. David gave the wrong order, right? David is going to cause harm to his own interests. We're going to see harm come of this, especially in the next chapter as well. And he's getting—David, who used to get so many things right, so many impossibly difficult things right, now he's just still— We're getting back to it, we're moving in the right direction, but he's still tripping over his own feet. Yes, all that. But I think there's even more here. I think we see the mercy of God in this moment. So what do you guys think of Joab finding him, the guys say, hey, hey, king said don't kill him, and then Joab kills him. How do you, other thoughts on that? What's going on in this moment? It's consistent with Joab's nature and his brother's. Remember Joab or the sons of Sarai or whatever, saying, I can't control them, you know. They're just, they're wild, you know. And so they've been that way for a long time. It is very consistent with Joab's nature. Joab is not a pacifist. But on the one hand, he's the guy you want, he's the Sherman, right? He's the guy you want running your army. And he's like, you know, war is hell, and if it's war you want, I will give you the full measure of it, right? That is Joab's orientation, which is kind of great, unless you want him to be gentle with your son. Right? It's kind of mangled. John? Joab actually saved him from a disaster. Yeah, not yet. It's coming, right? Go a little louder because I'm having a hard time hearing. Interesting. Okay. So, I know shockingly little about the Franco-Prussian War, but what John is saying is that it may be that Joab saves David from disaster because he's just got to kill his enemy and overrules David's war because it was a bad order. That might be true. However, I want you to consider this: we see what's going on with Absalom getting his head stuck in a tree. One aspect is that the battle is the Lord's, and all of David's strategies couldn't possibly anticipate it. He wins because of the oak tree, right? We couldn't see that. But we also see that it's an image of this king of—of Absalom being cursed for all the things he did. It's the judgment of God. But I think a third thing going on there—and it's possible that I'm wrong—that you wanna jump in? Well, okay. So that could be true in some circumstances, but I don't think that's the blood that flows in Joab's veins, right? Joab is a let—he's more justice than mercy. And here's the thing: I think so. God said David wants to be, he wants to win the war, he wants to keep his throne, but he doesn't want Absalom to get killed. That's really hard to accomplish. But what a freakin' layup to get the kid's head stuck in a tree. They could have quite easily subdued him, captured him, ended this, and not had to kill him. It could have been what David wanted in this incredibly, like, threading-the-needle moment. And the Lord graciously, even though I think it was a stupid idea, the Lord graciously gives it to him. Like, David. I'm gonna give you your kingdom back and not have you kill your son, and we're gonna catch his head in a tree. And then Joab's like, wham, and kills him. I think it was the mercy of God towards David, who was continuing to make stupid ideas. But then Joab's not having it, and he kills him. Or maybe the ones after he gets speared to death, kill him. I could be wrong in that. The text doesn't make that clear. I'm just trying to make sense of it. What are you supposed to do in this situation? And it seems so conspicuous to me that Absalom is captured by a tree all by himself, and yet Joab overrules it, says, kill him. Right? Bad news, sad news for David, who wanted to see his son be restored. Okay? So, verse 16. Joab sounded the trumpet, and the troops stopped pursuing Israel, for Joab halted them. Then they took Absalom, threw him into a big pit in a forest, and piled a large heap of rocks over him. Meanwhile, all the Israelites fled to their homes.

The Aftermath and Reflection

Okay, let's talk about that. Why throw him in a pit and cover him with rocks? Does that invoke any meaning to you? Does that have connotations, do you think? Yes, Tom? An insult. It is an insult, yes. Do you know, what are some of the things that are invoked by this? And by the way, it might seem strange to us because we have a tendency to think, once you're dead, you're dead. Jews honor the human body, right? You've seen this in lots of places where they go and get Abraham's bones and bring them into the promise. We believe God cares about the body. Your body's gonna be resurrected, right? That's why Christians historically have never burned dead bodies. We bury them. We honor this. And there's stuff going on here, to the very body of this man. Okay, Joel? Yes. Excellent. Okay. So what Joel is saying, if you remember the story of Achan, Achan—A C H A N—this story is in the book of Joshua. And when Achan is a bad guy, he's one of the people we hiss at in the Old Testament. Joshua 7:26, over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. And then the Lord turned from his fierce anger, and therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since. The author's been doing this for chapters and chapters and chapters. He'll give some detail that reminds us of someone else, and thereby he is importing, oh yeah, we never liked Achan. Achan was a bad guy. We're piling up his body with rocks. Same thing, you get the same deal. Listen to this, Joshua 8:29. Then he hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening. K. That's conspicuous. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take his body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gates, and they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day. Right? So there's a pattern—it's invoking past images of this guy hung on a tree, this guy buried under rocks—and all of it is meant to say that Absalom is under the curse of God. Right? That Absalom is being judged by God. Now, I might, this is where it kind of weakens my case and it gives me a little bit of humility. I'm not sure if it was wrong that Joab killed him. Clearly, Joab was disobeying the king. There's something wrong about that. But what was the Lord's ultimate purpose? Was it to work through Joab's disobedience, to work despite Joab's disobedience? I'm not sure there's sometimes life is confusing. We don't get all the answers to things. But whatever it is, Absalom's under judgment. Joab disobeys the king. Absalom is now dead. And David's chief emotional response is going to be: is he more happy that his kingdom is secure or sad that his son is dead? He's going to be more sad that his son is dead, which is too bad. Okay. So here's what happens. Let's see. We're gonna skip a little of this. Oh, let's do this first. We'll do the Kushite thing. Check this out, verse 19. Now, Ahimehaz—how do you say that? Ahimaaz, Ahmaaz—some dude, son of Zadok, said, let me run and take news to the king that the Lord has delivered him from the hands of his enemies. What does he think is gonna happen? Oh, can I go tell King David that we killed Absalom? Can I, can I, can I be the one that tells him? What does he think's gonna happen? Yeah. Has he read the book? What happens when the guy goes and tells Saul, "Hey, good news, Saul is dead"? P.S., I killed him. What does David do? Literally kills him. It's like, you raise your hand against the Lord. If David didn't like getting news of Saul's death, this guy should be smart enough to know that he's not gonna like getting news of Absalom's death. But he wants to go. And Joab is smart enough. Look at this. Joab says, verse 20, dude, you're not the one to take the news today. You may take the news another time, but you must not do so today because the king's son is dead. Then Joab said to a Cushite, go tell the king what you have seen. The Cushite bowed down before Joab and ran off. What does a Cushite mean? What is he not? He's not a Jew. He's not a—so why does Joab hand him the? He is the sacrificial lamb. He's like, just send this guy. This guy's—whoever. We're gonna shoot the messenger, right? So let's just go pick a messenger that we don't particularly care about. The Kushite's like, all right, game on. Little does he know, okay? So then the guy that really wants to carry the news, Ahimaaz, goes again to Joab and says, come what may, please let me run behind the Cushite. And Joab's like, my son, why, why, why, why do you want to go? You do not have any news that will bring you a reward. What's that? Oh, I don't think so. No, he's just using that like, you know, like, dude, young child, grasshopper—don't go. I think that's what he's saying, okay? And so he says, come on, man, I wanna run. And Joab's like, all right, go. Fine, run. But the deal was he's supposed to run behind him. But Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain and outran the Cushite. He basically finds a shortcut. He finds a way to get there first. And he goes in, and so if you're reading this, you should be like, oh, this is gonna go so badly for this guy. Like, I know how this story's gonna end. He's gonna show up. He's gonna tell David. He's gonna cut off his head, okay? So it's meant to build this dramatic tension. He goes and he gets there, but look what happens. Verse 24. While David was sitting between the inner and outer gates, the watchman went up to the roof of the gateway by the wall. And as he looked out—don't do that—while he looked out, he saw a man running alone. The watchman called up to the king and reported it. And the king said, if he's alone, he must have good news. And the man came closer and closer. Then the watchman saw another man running, and he called down to the gatekeeper: look, another man is running alone. And the king said, he must be bringing good news too. David's hopeful, right? God bless him. You know, he's in his fear, he's afraid, but he's like, maybe something good is happening, he's bringing good news. And in the distance, as he comes and they see him, it confirms all this expectation. And so in verse 28, then Ahmad called out to the king, all is well. And he bowed down before the king with his face to the ground. By the way, is all well? Not from David's perspective. Seems like it. You would just want a war, but not from David's take. Praise be to the Lord your God. He has delivered up the men who lifted their hand against my lord the king. At which point David starts to tremble. Oh, hang on, what? And the king asks the question, is the young man Absalom safe? Which is such a weird question to ask. And Ahmad answered, I saw great confusion, just as Joab was about to send the king's servant and me and your servant, but I don't know what it was. At this last, he realizes, like, oh, he reads David's eyes. And he's like, you know, there's another—the Kushite is coming, right? And he, you know, it's a good question. And the king said, stand aside and wait here. So he stepped aside and stood there. And then the Kushite arrived and said, my lord the king, hear the good news. The Lord has delivered you today from all who rose up against you. And the king asked the Kushite, is the young man Absalom safe? And the Kushite replied, may the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against you be like that young man. And now David knows. Now, mercifully, and perhaps with some sense of maturity, the king doesn't kill him. It says the king was shaken. And I read different things. Sometimes we use that metaphorically. You know, like we find news that shakes us, but I suspect that David was like literally trembling. Like his deepest fear has come to pass. He went up to the room over the gateway and he wept. And as he went, he said, oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, if only I had died instead of you, oh, Absalom, my son, my son. And it's complicated. Emotions are funny things, and they're braided and they're twisted and layered. And so there's simultaneous, there's relief, right? How are we doing? We gotta get out of here. There's relief for David. This threat has ended. But he's like, I wish I were dead. I would rather me be dead than you be dead. And he basically ignores the good aspects in favor of the bad aspects. We'll wrap it up here because we'll unpack this more next week. Joab is gonna hear about this response to the Kushite. And Joab is gonna see what else is happening. And he knows—you know what happens in the next chapter? What does the army do in the next chapter? Do you know? What they're gonna do is gonna skulk in under cover of night, ashamed of their victory. Right? They went out to defend the king. They went out to protect the throne. They went out to risk their lives. They succeeded, and now they're all cast under shame. And Joab sees, Joab's like, David, I swear to you, if you don't fix this, you're gonna lose the whole kingdom. That's next week. We'll see it. This. So, kind of, is a little bit of a cliffhanger here. But David has just been giving back his throne, and he doesn't like it. And it's complicated as David is trying to work his way out. And so it is when you love your kids. It's hard for me to look at David's compassion towards his son and be like, you dummy. He loves his kid. You love your kids even when they're stupid, right? But it's really, really complex. And David has found himself months into this incredibly difficult moment. And he's honestly, he's not equal to it. He's not. He does not rise above this. He's still digging his way out. We'll see a little more of it, but we gotta stop because it's time for church. Good enough? Chapter 19 next week.