40 Minutes In The Old Testament - 2 Samuel 18:19-19:15 (Episode 282)

Episode Date: September 8, 2021

Two men race to tell David "Good News" he doesn't want to hear. David falls apart mourning the death of Absalom. Joab rebukes David and issues a clear threat if he doesn't pull himself together. David listens but replaces Joab as commander of his army. Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. 1517 Podcast Network Regional Event in Las Vegas 1517 YouTube Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, you're running out of time. So do it now. Register for the Here We Still Stand event in Las Vegas, Nevada. That's October 15th and 16th.

It's a two-day event, $65 for you to come. It includes your lunch at one of Scott Keith's favorite restaurants. You're not going to the restaurant. The restaurant is bringing the food to you. But it's one of his favorites. So if you want to know what Scott Keith likes to eat, you're going to come to the conference. You're going to get some of that. It's included in your registration.

All right, Chad. So last week we ended with David and Absalom, or their armies anyway, finally meeting head-to-head to try to resolve this conflict. David stayed behind. Absalom took the advice that was given to him by David's friend and went out into battle, got his hair tangled up in a great tree, and he did not survive that or the rage of Joab. And so Joab made him into a pincushion and buried him under a big pile of rocks.

And that's where we ended. David doesn't know. Joab did not want to bring Absalom's body back with him. He figured that was probably not a good idea to let David see that. David might think that that death looked a little excessive, especially since he had given the orders to go easy on him. And Joab did anything but that. And so that's where we're at.

We're going to find out today David's response to hearing that Absalom was not gone easy on. Yeah, it was sort of a cliffhanger because you're wondering, if you don't know the story, you're like, oh man, so how's David going to react to this? Probably not well. And as we shall see, you would be right. He does not act well to this, respond well to this. In fact, it is, in my opinion, the most, how to put it, not just emotional, but like heart-wrenching scene, if not the most, certainly one of the most heart-wrenching scenes that we have in Scripture. And it's given David and Absalom's history, I know their father and son, but given kind of the frigid relationship they'd had and everything, of course, that has just happened with Absalom.

I mean, he rebelled against his father, drove him out of the city, so on and so forth. Given all that background, it is a little surprising when we get to David's reaction that he just basically comes undone. But we'll talk about it when we get there. But in my mind, I'm thinking there's been some, I guess, change of heart on the part of David through this whole ordeal. And because of that, he is going to react with this emotional upheaval once he does learn of Absalom's death. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I think as we look at this chapter, David is going to, I think what you have, this sort of mourning tells me that David deep down knows that this is pretty much his fault. whether you go all the way back to the Bathsheba thing

certainly if you go back to the way that he responded or didn't respond to the rape of his daughter the exile of Absalom, the return of Absalom and then treating him like he wasn't his son I find it very difficult to believe that deep down David doesn't believe or know even that if he had done things differently that none of this happens and his son isn't dead

however i do think that david also is going to try to figure out how to take this out on someone else and put the blame on someone else and we'll see how that goes yeah yeah there is this kind of weird vacillation with david where at one point you'll think yeah you know he's finally come to full realization that david is to blame for all the things that david is experiencing and then he'll turn around as we'll see and kind of ship the blame to somebody else let's like, which David are you dealing with in these chapters? But I guess this is kind of all giving you a taste of what is to come. We first of all have to deal with a couple of runners here, a couple of messengers, and we'll see how that works. The first of these is one that we've

already met. He's the son of Zadok, Ahimaaz, and he is going to us. We're in 2 Samuel 18, 19. he's going to step forward and say, you know what, let me be the one who carries the news from the battle to David. So he says to Joab, let me run and carry news to the king that the Lord has delivered him from the hand of his enemies. Now Joab says, no, let's not. You're not the guy for this. He says, you're not the one to carry the news today. I tell you what, some of the day you can be the guy, but not today because the king's son is dead. Now, Joab has been around David a long time. And so Joab knows that in the past, David has not responded well when messengers brought news that he didn't want to hear. In fact, a couple of times he had people killed

when they brought news that he did not want to hear. And so who knows, Joab is well aware of the fact that david is not in a good place and he actually might react violently when he receives this news so the last guy that he wants to send is the son of zadok to deliver to deliver this news so he says no you're not the guy but then he turns to another guy another messenger a runner who is not named but he's called the kushite kushites were sometimes it's translated as Ethiopian. They were from south of Egypt, the land of Cush. So he's a runner. He's a messenger in this army. So Joab turns to him and says, you, you go tell the king what you've seen. So the Cushite does this formal bow and takes off. So these are our ancient marathoners, I suppose.

So he takes off. But Ahimaaz is one of those guys who will not take no for an answer. he says to joab come what may let me also run after the kushite and joab's just more or less why why do you there's not many reward for you so why do you want to do this but he will not take no for an answer so finally he says okay go run so he takes off and it turns out uh this reminds me of like the resurrection morning where john outruns peter so ahimaz ran by way of the plane now we're not sure i mean did he just choose a flatter path uh was it a you know a shortcut he knew who knows anyway that's he obviously knew a better way and he ends up out running the the cushite so we have a little foot race here going on between these these two

messengers so they both know basically what happened so they both have this same message deliver it just a question of how are they going to deliver it and as we'll see uh ahima as for all his zeal to get there first doesn't do a great job when he gets to david uh so they they're gonna each have this message to deliver and we'll see we'll see how david reacts does it seem to you like maybe initially the thought is but you don't know that there's not a reward for this like this might be news that david is really wanting to hear i mean is that his the guy that took jerusalem is dead so and maybe he's just it's not he hasn't figured out that this is not news that david wants to hear and and we'll see we're about to see it but once he gets to david and reads his

countenance he realizes that this is not news that he wants to deliver at all that's what that's what it feels like to me i think it's what's going on yeah he thinks that man yeah david's gonna be happy i mean so i i i want to be the evangelist here i want to be and this by the way is the The Hebrew behind this is the Greek equivalent is to evangelize. This is to tell somebody news, right? So I'm going to carry the news. I'm going to basar in Hebrew. So this is great news.

I mean, everything worked out. Absalom and his army were defeated, so I want to be the one who tells David this. And when he gets there, and he reads David's countenance, his reaction, and when he hears what David asked him, he's probably thinking, no, I should have listened to Joab. I should not have done this. yeah this seems like he's like i don't know joe i think that david david hates absalom like he banished him he didn't talk to him and then his son rose up like i'm telling you whoever gives

david this news i think there's a chance that he's going to be winning the favor of the king i think he it seems to me that he figures out real quick that this is not the case and that joe ab was correct when he was like there's no reward and if there is a reward it ain't the kind of reward you want no david has a yeah an infamous uh track record of giving unwanted rewards to messengers who bring bad news so david what's he doing well we know that he did not go out with his armies so they made him basically stay behind so he's sitting between the two gates we're told in verse 24 so a lot of these ancient cities would have basically an inner wall and an outer wall and of course you have gates with each of these walls with a of course space between them

so that's where David is at he's between these two gates and there's a watchman who's up on the roof of the gate by the wall kind of an irony here by the way because of course this this whole ordeal that we've been tracing for these last few chapters began where on a roof David was on his own roof when he looked down and saw Bathsheba bathing and you know you can trace it all back to that particular rooftop event well now there's a watchman up there he's on the roof and he's He's looking on the horizon, and he sees a man running alone. So he calls out to the king, bends over the wall, and hollers down to David. He says, you know, somebody's coming.

And the king says, well, if he's alone, there's news in his mouth. In other words, you know, if this was probably he means good news. So if there's a whole group of them, presumably they're retreating, and things did not go well. So if there's just one guy, that's a good sign. so he goes near and near and then the watchman says look there's another guy so he calls down and sees i see another man running along and david says he also brings news i'm thinking david is probably uh thinking hoping uh that everything is going to work out well yeah man this is some positive vibes only kind of stuff this is positive vibes only i was thinking yeah this has got to be

it's going to be good it's going to be good just keep keep repeating that as often as you want to david because he's like they'd be retreating if they got wiped out yeah or they got wiped out there's only one guy coming back maybe maybe it's way worse than you think maybe it is way worse yeah and then the watchman all these details are kind of fascinating because we don't often get i mean intricate details like this but the watchman he's like you know what i think the running of the first guy is like the running of ahima as the son of zadok so evidently he knows how the guy runs he's like that guy looks like usain bolt yeah unique stride on this guy got a unique unique stride on him which i guess you know if you if you pay attention to people's

running you can tell the difference between them anyway uh he says i think that's who it is and of course he was right the king said oh he's a good man he comes to good news this is more these positive yeah david david's really he's really trying to talk himself into this yes he is so So, well, then, okay, so Ahimaaz, faster runner, or took the shortcut. He gets there, and first words out of his mouth, in English it's three, all is well. In Hebrew, it's just one word. As you might suspect, it's shalom. And probably out of breath, I'm assuming, but he's managed to get out shalom.

He bows before the king with his face to the earth, and here's the message. blessed be the lord your god who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king that's you know it's it's true it's very formal it's it's very true it's not extremely detailed of course uh he doesn't tell how everything happened he doesn't name any individual individuals he just said the men the men who raised their hand against my lord have been defeated and of course he includes god here yeah so he's he's just conveying to david that we won yeah we won basically yeah we were victorious god gave us the victory now here's our david response and the response is uh uh is even better in hebrew because they're

sort of plain words so in the esv it says the king says is it well with the young man absalom Now, almost every word here is significant. Notice even what he calls them. He uses na'ar in Hebrew, which, you know, it kind of has a, it's got a positive feel to it. You know, it's not something you're going to call your enemy, in other words. It's almost, it's not a term of endearment, but, you know, it was something that you would speak. It's a word you would use positively when describing someone. It's not a word you're going to use to describe someone who just staged a coup and took your kingdom away.

But the play on words here is that when it says, is it well, he's asking, is it shalom? So is it shalom with a young man of shalom? So Absalom as a play is combining two words, of and then shalom. So is it shalom with of shalom? now at this point ahima as is probably realizing what we talked about a minute ago that this was not the kind of news that david wanted to hear i mean david i mean i mean think about this david doesn't ask how many men did i lose was it was it a was it a solid victory was it close i mean how what's the body count i mean these are all questions that someone would want to know if

They have no idea how it went. You might want to know how much of your army you have left. Was this a complete rout? Was it the generals dead? There's all kinds of things you could be asking. But he asked none of those things. All he wants to know is, is my son well? And I'm guessing the way that he asks does not lead him to believe

that he's wanting to find out that he's dead. He's not saying, he doesn't say, you know, did they kill the traitor Absalom? He's saying, is it well with the young man Absalom? And no doubt at this point, this guy's like, I got to start listening to Joab. Joab knows this guy better than I do. Yes, he does. So let me read you Ahimaz's response from the ESV, and then i'm going to read you another translation by robert alter and i'll tell you what what he

says about the hebrew here so ahima asked he's he says this is the esv when joab sent the king servant your servant i saw a great commotion but i don't know what it was now he knows what it was he's trying to evade exactly what happened so that's the esv this this sounds like you're stammering like even like like i don't know i don't read the hebrew like you chad in the same way but in english this sounds like uh when uh when job sent the king's servant your servant your sir uh but i saw a great commotion but i don't know what it was i don't even know what that means like that's that's well you you you've hit on it you've hit on it in fact so let me read let me read you this nonsense translation by robert alter i mean it's it's a great translation

but it's nonsense what Ahimaz is saying. I saw a great crowd to send the king's servant Joab and your servant, and I know not what, dot, dot, dot. And this is Robert Alter's comment on that. He says, this is nearly gibberish. Yes. This is nearly gibberish, but not because of any corruption of the Hebrew text.

Ahimaz has been posed a question he does not dare answer. so he begins to talk nervously and incoherently yeah that's what that's how yeah and it reads that way in english you're like this guy's just tripping all over his words that doesn't want i mean like i saw a commotion i don't know what i was like what what are you talking about yeah so it's sort of a i mean it's a serious situation when it's kind of a humorous uh humorous occasion where the bible accurately uh records gibberish like you say somebody's tripping all over, tripping all over the words. So at this point, David realizes he's not going to get a clear answer out of him. So he just says, basically, stand over there, turn aside,

stand over there. So he does. He's like, close call, gets out of the way. And the Cushite gets there. And the Cushite says, he's pretty straightforward. He doesn't even stop to bow. He just says, good news for my lord, the king, for the Lord has delivered you this day from the hand of all who rose up against you. So it's basically saying the same thing that Ahimaaz said. And now the king's going to ask him almost verbatim the exact same question. Is it shalom with the young man Absalom? Is it well with the young man Absalom? the cushite uh either he's not really paying attention or he doesn't know david well or

or he's just yeah he's just a lot bolder because he is straightforward he says may the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man well you don't need an interpreter to tell you what the kushite is implying is implying by that so in other words you know what anybody who rises up against you for evil they need to end up like that guy yeah he doesn't need to say he's dead he doesn't need to say how he was how he's dead david gets uh david gets a point this is and this is a little ominous too right if you don't have the details like hey you know what happened to absalom and the response is simply would that all your enemies end up how he ended up that sounds bad that sounds very bad that that that makes you believe that

like oh well you know there was the great battle and we found him you know he and he he was slain in battle it sounds worse than that to me yeah it's not like it'd be drawn and quartered basically the way that he uh he portrays it well uh the kushite is not killed thankfully uh even even though david is uh not always reacting positively to news like this instead we're told and this is this emotional scene that i alluded to earlier verse 33 says the king was was deeply moved uh the hebrew there is ragaz which is often used actually it's used for describing earthquakes the shaking of something or if someone is uh shaking with rage so it's always kind of this this trembling actually deeply moved is probably uh the best translation because of course we know

deeply moved uh is a metaphorical description of this emotional state but look at the verb moved so it has this idea of their you know actual trembling he was deeply moved went up to his chamber over the gate and wept and i'll just read the next few words and as he went he said oh my son Absalom my son my son Absalom would I had died instead of you oh Absalom my son my son and he's going to repeat we'll see this in a few more verses in chapter 19 there's a total of between this verse and then 19 verse 4 there's a total of eight times when David cries out bani bani bani my son my son my son absalom and you can uh you you can just feel the emotion you don't have to you don't have to to be there you don't have to read it in the original language

all you got to do is just listen to those words and you can tell what's going on with with david we've never seen him in a state like this before i mean despite all the things and we've seen him him react to people's deaths before. We've seen him react angrily. We've seen him act with lamentation. We've seen him react with, you know, political motives. But we've never seen him so low, so deeply moved by anything that's happened to him up to this point, as he is now by the death of Absalom. Well, we have an example of a son dying, you know, when his child was born with Bathsheba, and he is praying, and he is fasting, and he is crying out to God as the son is ill. And then the moment his son dies, he cleans up and gets on with it, and he says,

I'll see him again, essentially. He's not going to come back to me, but the day is coming when I will go to him. This is not how this works with Absalom. And it's interesting that he says, oh that i would have died instead of you and you're like well first of all that could have been arranged uh that could very well easily have happened yeah um but also the reason your son's dead is we get not because you refuse to die but i think your son's dead because you refuse to die to yourself you refuse to die to your pride you desire you refuse to die uh to your anger all of those things like it was it was the death to self that resulted in the death of absalom like david didn't need to physically die to keep absalom alive he just needed to die to his ego

and pride and all this other stuff yeah and that's a that's an important part of forgiving others to forgive anyone else almost always requires that kind of self-death you have to we have to give up we have to die to all those things that that you described and before all this happened david simply refused to do that so uh we see the we see now all of this kind of coming coming to him and he realizes too late of course as as often happens with us you know it's happening the aftermath of something we're like you know if i'd have done a and b and c then all these other things wouldn't have happened uh and you know there's there's something good in that there's some good in looking back on our mistakes because hopefully we'll learn in the future not to do those same

things but it was when it's something like this you know which leads to the death of uh of a son then you know certain things that they can't be changed you can't go back and undo all of all of these things and i suppose that's why it hits david as hard as it does yeah this is a really hard way to learn that there's not any weakness and forgiveness yeah yeah yeah it's uh you know it's as hard as it is to forgive people uh it's even it's even harder when you don't because the the repercussions from that are always always worse and a better better a little death to self and the peace that comes from that and forgiving others then refuse to forgive and to continue you kind of having that death live on inside you and you know just growing more and more bitter as

time goes on so that's uh the end of chapter 18 it's a unforgettable scene now chapter 19 joab again we were talking before uh we started recording about joab how what a fascinating character he is and uh and an underrated character uh he's someone who deserves a lot more a lot more of our attention and of course if you're listening to the podcast you you realize that because he's been a uh and a pivotal player in all of these chapters chad may or may not have uh promised to write a book about him yeah i may or may not well i'm almost finished i'm like two chapters away from finishing the book on jacob that i'm that i'm writing that'll be out next year so i got to decide what i'm gonna do next so i'm not promising it's gonna be joab but he is on my list

let's put it let's put it that way so joab uh man this is uh what what he's about to say to david is uh probably i think it's certainly in the bible itself one of the uh the sharpest rebukes that anyone ever gives to a leader to his face joab is not in a position any longer where he really fears David. It seems at this point, Joab's probably older at this point as well, but Joab's seen enough now that all the David shine has worn off. He's not enamored with who David is or anything like that. And at this point, it just doesn't have any fear of him. And you can tell because he's willing to say things to him. He doesn't have to muster up a bunch of courage to do it it doesn't seem like it seems like he could just go up to david and tell him exactly what he

thinks and if that goes badly for him it seems that he doesn't really care anymore yeah there's no like parabolic trick up his sleeve he doesn't go and get the wise woman from takoa and says hey i need you to go tell the king a story and maybe he'll you know speak words that indict himself no he just marches in and has to come to meeting jesus with with david i mean it seems that joab is no doubt angry about this entire thing. Joab cannot be happy with how this went. I mean, Joab, I'm sure he's angry with Absalom. He's angry with David.

He just had a bunch of guys that he is a commander of get killed over this whole thing. And he's probably irritated with this family because Joab was trying to keep this exact sort of thing from happening. and Absalom didn't do the things that Joab wanted him to do. David didn't do the things that he wanted him to do. Joab, I think, knows exactly where to place the blame for this. I mean, I would imagine that when Joab killed Absalom,

that he's extremely angry with Absalom, but that it's not because he has this ferocious loyalty to David. I think he's angry with David, too. I think he's angry with both of them. and knew that Absalom had to be taken out. And then David, now in this state of all this emotion and falling apart, just seems like Joe's like, look, man, I can't deal with all this, with all the mess that you guys have created.

Now you're acting this way. You know I had to do it. If you put yourself in Joe's spot, I think you can understand how frustrated he is. And like I said, as a commander, I'm sure he's thinking about, I just had a bunch of guys that had to die because you guys had too much, because of pride and ego. And now I got a bunch of dead soldiers, and the kingdom's all split up now, and we're going to have to work to get everyone back together. And I'm sure he's a very frustrated man. It's one of these, if you would only listen to me, kind of situations.

so 19 begins it was told joab so remember uh they sent the runner ahead so joab presumably still coming in from from the field of of uh of combat so he's told look the king is weeping and mourning for absalom so and this is not the report this is the way it's described by by the narrator here so the victory that day was turned into mourning so we go from salvation into into weeping for all the people for the people heard that day so the news is spreading you know through the army and and even the the civilians that the king is grieving for his son now you're you're a soldier or you're maybe the father or mother of a soldier or the sister of a soldier and you're thinking what all this happened because of the king's son and now the king is grieving this son

so that what what do the people do it says they the people stole into the city that day as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle so this by the way literarily is kind of a an envelope structure kind of a beginning and end structure because how did this all start not not like all the way back with david bashi but i mean the deal with absalom started when he would stand at the gate of the city and talk to the people who were coming into the city and basically you know he would be a kind of a populist uh contender and tell them all you know everything would be better if i was in charge and we're told that he stole the hearts of the men of israel by doing that. Now, the same verb is used here. Same Hebrew verb is used here for how the people stole

into the city as people steal who are ashamed when they flee in battle. So David's reaction is basically covering everybody with shame because of what's going down. Well, the king, verse four, covers his face and he cries with a loud voice. And this is a repetition of what we saw earlier. Oh, my son, Absalom. Oh, Absalom, my son, my son. So everybody knows what the king is doing everybody knows the king's reaction and it's having a a national impact upon upon the israelites so joab gets to the city marches into the house of the king and i'll just read his entire his entire speech it's uh verse five through through seven you have today covered with shame the faces of all your servants, who have this day saved your life and the lives of your sons and your

daughters and the lives of your wives and your concubines, because you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. For you've made it clear today that commanders and servants are nothing to you. For today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased. Now, therefore, get up, go out, and speak kindly to your servants. For I swear by the Lord, oh, this is not a very, not much of a veiled threat here. For I swear by the Lord, if you do not go, not a man will stay with you this night. And this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now that's a speech that is a uh so nathan's speech to david pales in comparison to this this is a uh this is this is he out

profits the prophet here he's very clear that listen your b this is what your behavior has caused and this is the this is the message that you are clearly sending the message you're clearly sending and of course there's some exaggeration there's but he's exaggerating to make this point exaggeration is look look it's pretty obvious to all of us not just me but everybody else that if absalom was alive and all of us were slain on the battlefield you'd be happy he's like the only person you care about yeah this would there would not be all this weeping and mourning going on if all your commanders were dead yeah you'd be you'd be happy only because absalom was was alive and notice the let's see one two three four five times in that speech we have

the word today once it's translated this day but in hebrew they're all the same hayom so today you've covered with shame the faces of these the today saved your life and you've made it clear today that today if absalom were alive and all of us were dead today you'd be happy so over and over he uses this word hayom, today, today, today, to emphasize the fact that the threat that David is now under is imminent. Your whole kingship is coming unraveled today. So you don't have the ability to think back to yesterday and maybe relive all those events that have led to what's going on today that can't happen because today is is what matters if you don't do something today then there will be no tomorrow for you your future is ruined if you don't act if you don't do what i

say basically and then there is that threat if you don't go out not a man will stay with you this night meaning also of course me either i think this is absolutely this is uh joe absolutely of saying unless you do exactly what i say get up clean up get out there and encourage your troops I'm going to take over, and I'll do a lot better job than you are. Yeah, I think Joab is letting him know. Because when David ran, he didn't run. We're not told this. It sure doesn't seem like this. He didn't run with some huge army.

This army was assembled because his friend bought him time. It seems that what Joab is threatening is you've got to pull yourself together. you don't have time for whatever it is that you're doing right now. You've got to pull yourself together right now, and if you don't, we're going to find out who ultimately these armies are loyal to. Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's it, yeah. I mean, if, yeah, unless you do what I say, then any good that we might be able to pull out of this,

any cohesion we might be able to recapture is not going to happen. I mean, basically, Job is going to go out there and he's going to say, look at the king right now. You know, we just fought this battle. and saved his life and saved the lives of all his family look at how he's responding i'm out who's with me and this joe is pretty convinced that this is going to be compelling and everyone's like yeah i'm not gonna stay with this guy he doesn't appreciate what we did he doesn't like there was no acknowledgement for the for how many people i mean lives it costs uh joe feels it seems that joe feels pretty confident that this is going to be a pitch

that works and that he that he will uh that david will have a real problem on his hands when he has joab rise up with his army and david has no one yeah yeah and as we'll see david does i mean he's going to respond positively he's going to do what joab says but you can tell by his actions subsequent to this that either because he was threatened by joab or just doesn't like him or all that bad blood they have between them that he may have done what joab said but he didn't like it because he doesn't like him he doesn't trust him but he does see verse 8 says the king got up he took his seat in the gate presumably this was like sort of an official move he's back where he should be when uh the army is victorious and all the people were

told so earlier all the people were told the king is grieving for his son that was back in verse 2 now all the people are told oh look the king is sitting in the gate that is the king has now assumed his official position the kind of position that he would assume when his his his soldiers are victorious and all the people came before the king so that he could probably speak words of encouragement to them so all the people are doing that now we're told that israel had fled every man to his own to his own home we're going to pick this up later on so people The people that stay loyal to David, they're coming to him. Everybody else is trying to figure out what to do.

So everybody's gone home. The people are arguing through all the tribes, verse 9, saying, okay, the king delivered us from the hand of our enemies. David did. He saved us from the Philistines. And now he's fled out of the land from Absalom. They're trying to figure this out. But Absalom, the guy that we anointed over us, well, he's dead in battle.

so why what are we going to do why do you say nothing about bringing the king back so the people are this is of course this is kind of a summary of the kind of conversations are going on you can see how the people are they're trying to they're trying to figure out what's next right so we had david okay and we had absalom but absalom is dead so why don't we bring why don't we bring the king back and then david begins to be active too he sends a message to zadok and Abiathar, who were the priests. And he says to them, to tell the elders of Judah, why should you be the last to bring the king back to his house when all Israel has come to the king? You're my brothers. You're bone of my bone. You're flesh of my flesh. Why then should you be the last

to bring back the king? So David is beginning at least to once more act in a way that's trying to bring a little cohesion. So he's trying to bring back the members of his own tribe, some of whom had turned against him. He's trying to get them to initiate the welcome of him back. And then, this is an amazing move on David's part. Verse 13 says, and so this is the continuation of his message. And say to Amasa, now you got to remember who Amasa is. Amasa was, he's a relative of David, and he's the one that Absalom placed over his army. So that's who we're talking about here. So this is the Joab equivalent of Absalom's army. Say to Amasa, David tells them, aren't you my bone and my flesh? Aren't you my relative? God do so to me, and more also, if you are not

commander of my army from now on in place of joab so that that is the indication that david uh either because of the the the bold rebuke that joab gave him or because of that and everything else is done with joab he realizes that he's dealing with a man who could easily pull an absalom job could easily pull an absalom and basically stage his own coup he could take over and probably not have any issues whatsoever. And so he's going to try and replace Joab or he says he's going to replace Joab with Amasa. And then to kind of wrap everything up, verse 14 says that he swayed the hearts of all the men of Judah. And we're not sure if the he here is David or Amasa. I'm thinking it's probably Amasa. Amasa swayed the hearts of all the men of Judah as one man. So they sent word

to the king, return both of you and all your servants. And so the king begins his journey back. He comes to the Jordan. Judah comes to meet the king and to bring him over the Jordan and with the stop there because we're we're out of time. But kind of that that's the situation that we're in. So David is beginning his return to Jerusalem. His exile is over. He's coming back, but he's got to deal with some some issues that are kind of lingering from the past, which we'll get to in the next episode. He's going to face Shimei again, the guy that cussed him out when he was leaving. And he's going to face some other people, so he's going to have some issues to resolve. But it seems anyway that David has pulled himself together with Joab's help. And now he's turning against Joab.

And we'll also see how Joab deals with Amasa in the next chapter. Yeah, I think there's probably two things going on here in closing. the this is an obvious intentional revenge move from David on Joab he's angry about the harsh words he's probably angry that Joab's the one that killed Absalom which he probably knows at this point and so he is uh gonna make him pay for that and trying to make him pay for that by putting the guy that he just had to go into battle against in charge of his army by the way this makes no sense you don't replace the guy the winning general with the losing general this is like practically this is not a good idea like why would you do that like you just like i'm gonna

give the guy who just lost the job of the guy who just won that doesn't make any sense unless your motivation is revenge i mean that's a pretty big burn to do to do to a general and then also to try to win over the people that absalom have won over by hey here's a familiar person this person is has been convinced to to come home so you know you should follow suit so there's i think both of those things are going on but there's no way that joab likes this and there's no reason he should like it no and as we'll see and there's no way that joab is going to sit back and let it happen yeah joe joe's a very uh pragmatic guy yes yes he is you know he knows how to deal with situations and he and he will that's it all right well we are well out of time so uh we'll pick up

the rest of the story next week chad all right see y'all then