[0:00] We will be reading from 2 Samuel chapter 20 verses 1 through 26.! That's the whole chapter. 2 Samuel chapter 20.
[0:18] Now there happened to be there a worthless man whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite. And he blew the trumpet and said, We have no portion in David, and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
[0:33] Every man to his tents, O Israel. So all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba, the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah followed their king steadfastly from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
[0:46] And David came to his house at Jerusalem. And the king took the ten concubines whom he had left to care for the house and put them in a house under guard and provided for them, but did not go into them.
[0:58] So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as if in widowhood. Then the king said to Amasa, Call the men of Judah together to me within three days, and be here yourself.
[1:13] So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he delayed beyond the set time that had been appointed him. And David said to Abishai, Now Sheba, the son of Bichri, will do us more harm than Absalom.
[1:25] Take your Lord's servants and pursue him, lest he get himself to fortified cities and escape from us. And there went out after him Joab's men, and the Carathites and the Pelathites, and all the mighty men.
[1:39] They went out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba, the son of Bichri. When they were at the great stone that is Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Now Joab was wearing a soldier's garment, and over it was a belt with a sword in its sheath, fastened on his thigh.
[1:56] And he went forward, it fell out. And Joab said to Amasa, Is it well with you, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. But Amasa did not observe the sword that was in Joab's hand.
[2:10] So Joab struck him with it in the stomach and spilled his entrails to the ground without striking a second blow. And he died. Then Joab and Abishai, his brother, pursued Sheba, the son of Bichri.
[2:24] And one of Joab's young men took his stand by Amasa and said, Whoever favors Joab and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab. And Amasa lay wallowing in his own blood in the highway.
[2:36] And anyone who came by seeing him stopped. And when the man saw that all the people stopped, he carried Amasa out of the highway into the field and threw a garment over him.
[2:48] When he was taken out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab to pursue Sheba, the son of Bichri. And Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of Bethmachah.
[2:59] And all the Bichrites assembled and followed him in. And all the men who were with Joab came and besieged him and Abel of Bethmachah. They cast up a mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart, and they were battering the wall to throw it down.
[3:13] Then a wise woman called from the city, Listen, listen. Tell Joab, come here, that I may speak to you. And he came near her. And the woman said, Are you Joab?
[3:25] He answered, I am. Then she said to him, Listen to the words of your servant. And he answered, I am listening. Then she said, They used to say in former times, Let them but ask counsel at Abel.
[3:37] And so they settled the matter. I am one of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up the heritage of the Lord?
[3:50] And Joab answered, Far be it from me, far be it, that I should swallow up or destroy. That is not true. But a man of the hill country of Ephraim, called Sheba, the son of Bichri, has lifted up his hand against King David.
[4:04] Give up him alone, and I will withdraw from the city. And the woman said to Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall. Then the woman went up to all the people in her wisdom.
[4:16] And they cut off the head of Sheba, the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they dispersed from the city every man to his home. And Joab returned to Jerusalem, to the king.
[4:29] Now Joab was in command of all the army of Israel. And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was in command of the Carathites and the Pelathites. And Adoram was in charge of the forced labor. And Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the recorder.
[4:43] And Sheba was secretary. And Zadok and Abiathar were priests. And Ired the Jerrite was also David's priest. This is God's word.
[4:53] Thanks be to God. Church, we're nearing the end of 2 Samuel, as you can probably sense.
[5:04] And I think we need to feel the weight of it a little bit before we get too close to the end. We have to think that David's kingdom once looked just so full of promise.
[5:19] So full of promise. God had taken David, the seemingly insignificant shepherd from the pasture, and brought him in.
[5:34] Put him on the throne. God made a covenant with him. God said that through David's house, he would establish a kingdom.
[5:47] But since 2 Samuel chapter 11, since the roof, it's like everything has felt like it's been unraveling.
[6:02] David's sin with Bathsheba was not a private failure that stayed private for very long, was it? It actually became murder, didn't it?
[6:13] You're right. It became a family collapse. It became sexual violence and abuse. It became Absalom's rebellion that we saw unfold.
[6:25] It became civil war like we saw last week. It became public grief. And now in 2 Samuel chapter 20, even after Absalom has died, the kingdom still cannot seem to rest.
[6:45] And this is important. Because we're about to move into the epilogue, which is known as the tale of all the books. It kind of winds things down.
[6:57] We're about to walk into that. And the story is winding down. But before it does, the narrator, the author of 2 Samuel, wants us to see one more fracture in David's kingdom.
[7:12] He wants us to look one more time at the fallout. And though the throne is still standing, though the army is still marching, though the government is still functioning, spiritually speaking, this kingdom feels exhausted.
[7:30] And honestly, if we want to be real, at this point in the series, we probably feel exhausted as well. This is a mess. It's okay to feel that.
[7:44] Right? It's okay to feel that. The narrator wants us to feel that. And by that I mean the Holy Spirit wants us to feel this exhaustion.
[8:00] Chapter 20 begins with another rebel, another trumpet, another attempt to pull people away from God's King. And so today, this chapter is not just about politics, but it's about the danger of a heart that looks at what God has provided and says, this just isn't enough.
[8:24] This is how the chapter begins to unravel. It's a heart that says, this isn't enough. It's the heart that sits in these chairs today that looks at your home and says, this isn't enough.
[8:36] It looks at your job and says, God, this isn't enough. Sadly, a lot of us might look at our spouses and say, this isn't enough. Might look at our church and say, this isn't enough.
[8:50] It is the same heart that says and looks at what God has provided and says, this is not enough. And this is the voice of discontentment.
[9:04] This propels the narrative today. Discontentment rebels against God's provision. We'll see that in the first section. The second section, we'll see discontentment leaves sorrowful consequences behind.
[9:18] We'll also see discontentment covers sin instead of killing it. And the last section, we'll see discontentment collapses under its own vanity.
[9:33] Main point I want us to see is that only Jesus Christ gives the inheritance, discontentment falsely promises. I want us to see that so clearly today as we feel the exhaustion of this text in our series, as we enter into the epilogue next week.
[9:52] But before we do, go ahead and write down the sermon title. The sermon title is No Inheritance Here. Am I the only one?
[10:04] Do I sound like I'm talking in a fishbowl? No. Thank you for interacting. Yeah. I'm just going to continue.
[10:15] As long as you're not distracted, I'm good. So be it. We will continue. I will continue to be discontent in the microphone.
[10:32] All right. No inheritance here. Let's pray. Lord, we come to you today asking you to even even as a preacher alleviate my own distractions from things that deviate my attention from your word and you speaking to your church this morning.
[10:56] You have assembled every person here for a specific reason and to hear from you, Lord. We pray, Lord, that you speak through your word, not through my opinions and my agenda, but through your word's agenda according to your spirit.
[11:14] We pray that you do only what you can do through your word today in all of our hearts. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. So four sections.
[11:25] And the first section that I want us to see is just simply verse 1 and 2. I want you to see this discontentment very early on because this really does propel the entire chapter.
[11:40] We see discontentment rebels against God's provision. Thank you, David, for reading this morning on short notice. And it opened up, the passage opened up in verse 1.
[11:54] Now there happened to be a worthless man whose name was Sheba. And so right out the gate, we learn something about this Sheba.
[12:06] We learn that he's a worthless man. So the narrator wants us to know something about him. He's worthless. This Hebrew word is pretty harsh here for worthless man.
[12:17] It's a man of Belial. This is a very harsh Hebrew word associated with wickedness, with rebellion, with covenant disorder.
[12:29] We've heard this word before. Worthless man. Belial. We've heard this in 1 Samuel. We've heard it about Eli's sons. They were sons of Belial.
[12:40] Right? Because they were corrupt priests who treated worship of God with contempt. We heard this about Nabal. Remember that old mean fellow Nabal? Nabal. Nabal was about to take his life because he was so wicked.
[12:57] Nabal was described in this way because he was harsh. He was foolish. He was arrogant. And even Shimei from last week, or a couple weeks ago, he was labeled as a man of Belial as well, a worthless man.
[13:11] And so, when the narrator calls Sheba a worthless man, we are not supposed to see him in a positive light. It's kind of, there's the clue.
[13:24] An interpretive hermeneutic here. And a clue. He's not supposed to be misunderstood as some political activist or reformer, but rather a dangerous man.
[13:37] A dangerous man right out the gate who knows how to take personal frustration out and create quite a public rebellion.
[13:50] He knows how to create a scene. That's exactly what he does. Look, at the end of chapter, even look at what Carmen preached last week.
[14:02] Thank you, brother. At the end of chapter 19, we saw a tension between Israel and Judah. Tribes were arguing last week over who has a greater claim to David.
[14:18] Israel feels overlooked because David's showing favoritism towards Judah. And so Judah's feeling defensive and the kingdom is vulnerable and it ended in the tizzy.
[14:30] And then here in chapter 20, Sheba came and he sounds the trumpet. And this isn't music. He didn't start playing Reveille or anything like that.
[14:44] Unfortunately, he didn't have a French horn. I'm a French horn player and so he chose the trumpet this day. This was not music. It was a call to revolt. It was a call to bear arms.
[14:59] Something's not right. We need to do something. He says to the crowd, we have no portion in David and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
[15:11] There's nothing here. Even that phrase son of Jesse is demeaning. Isn't it? He's reducing David and saying why follow him?
[15:21] What has he even given us? He's not even worthy of a name. There's depth in this statement because in the Old Testament, even the word inheritance was covenantal language.
[15:38] It was very contractual. It was a bonding language and inheritance. Israel's inheritance was God's gift. They were given land.
[15:50] They were given promises and even Israel themselves as a people were the Lord's inheritance. So what Sheba is saying here is deeply theological and we should see that.
[16:04] Sheba is saying what God has promised all of us, it will not be found here. It is not found here. What belongs to us will not come through this son of Jesse.
[16:19] There is no future for us here. And the revolt begins. That's a voice of discontentment.
[16:31] It's a voice of discontentment. This drives the entire chapter. Discontentment looks at God's provision and says, this is not enough for me, for my expectations.
[16:50] Discontentment looks at God's timing and says, this is far too slow. Right? Discontentment looks at God's appointed authority and says, this is completely unacceptable.
[17:05] It doesn't make sense the least bit, and it usurps that authority. And you see, church, this is why discontentment is so spiritually dangerous.
[17:18] Why? Because it does not merely want something different. That is there, but it's not merely wanting something different.
[17:29] Discontentment is actually putting God on trial. Do you see the depth, the spiritual danger in such a saying from Sheba here?
[17:46] But church, is Sheba right? Of course not. Because contentment is ultimately never rooted in anything earthly.
[18:00] Right? Nothing earthly is merely where contentment is found. But contentment is rooted in faith and God's promise.
[18:11] And Israel saw that in the unfolding of land, of promises, of protection, and perseverance. perseverance. We see that rooted in the person of Jesus Christ.
[18:26] In Christ, we may lose earthly comfort, but we cannot lose our heavenly inheritance. Because our inheritance is not of this world passing through.
[18:39] In Christ, we may be misunderstood, but church, we're far from forgotten. In Christ, we may be overlooked by people, but we are known by the one true God.
[18:52] In Christ, we may have sorrow now, deep sorrow, like trauma-like sorrow, but we have glory coming.
[19:06] That's not saying that it makes pain easy. pain stinks. Grief stinks.
[19:18] Low times in our faith and our walk with God really do stink, doesn't it? But it definitely restrains our pain from becoming rebellion.
[19:34] Because we know only Jesus Christ gives the inheritance that discontentment falsely promises, that tempts us to put God on trial. Church, we are to be reminded by such a quick emphasis of what is theologically going on in this passage, to be careful in our lives, with our jobs, our homes, the things that we have, our cars, our spouses, thinking that it's just not enough.
[20:06] Because the moment that we do this, church, we are putting God on trial. We have to be careful of doing that.
[20:20] Don't put God on trial. We see in the second section, I want to unpack verse three for you. We see discontentment leaves sorrowful consequences behind.
[20:35] So much is here in these first three verses. I want us to see that. David came to his house at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten concubines whom he had left to care for the house, and put them in a house under guard and provided for them, but did not go into them, so they were shut up until the day of their death, living as if in widowhood.
[21:06] I want you to stand back for a moment, and I want you to feel the awkwardness of this verse. This verse doesn't fit the momentum.
[21:18] You just had Israel and Judah bickering last week, Sheba blew the trumpet, and what in the world? It's like a sign of ADHD or something.
[21:31] Now we're in David's house, him taking care of his affairs here. What is going on here? It's like we're in the middle of rebellion, but the narrator takes us into David's house.
[21:46] You see, maybe that's for a reason because before we chase the next rebellion, we've been through it with Absalom, right? We're exhausted.
[21:57] We don't want any more rebellions, church, right? No more. But the narrator wants us to see before we chase this next rebellion, before we get to Sheba and all the mess that comes after, maybe God wants us to look at what the last rebellion has left behind, the tragedy that the last rebellion with Absalom has left behind.
[22:21] David is returning to his house in Jerusalem, literally returning to his inheritance. Isn't that fancy? And this is the place where his throne still should have felt secure as he's returning home.
[22:39] But what does he find? He finds ten image-bearing women who have been left to care for his house, and all of them have been viciously violated, publicly violated by Absalom in the first rebellion against David.
[23:08] That was absolutely horrific to imagine what had occurred there. The narrator wants us to not forget that, to not move on too quick, to not look for the epilogue yet, but to return to David's house, and to see that damage.
[23:31] And now these women are left carrying sorrow that they never created. They didn't consent to this sorrow. And this is sad.
[23:43] In verse 3, David put them in a house under guard and provided for them. I've sought out many commentaries and the consensus is he did not enslave them. He put them under protection so that no one else could violate them.
[23:58] And the text makes it clear that he didn't even violate them, right? He stayed away from them, he protected them, he provided for them, and they lived the best that they could in his provision as if they were widows.
[24:16] And yet even with provision, the sorrow remains, right? They live as widows until the day of their death. What I hope that we understand here is that this is no interruption at all.
[24:31] Not an interruption at all. The text isn't the problem, we're the problem. We want to resolve things very quickly, we want to get to the next rebellion, the next scene of action, right?
[24:44] But God wants us to see some sorrow here. These are the saddest verses in this entire chapter. It reminds us that rebellion always leaves sorrow behind.
[24:57] Even if that rebellion is how we put God on trial in our houses, in our homes, and regarding our material things, our spouses, this rebellion that we have such a propensity to carry out leaves sorrow behind.
[25:13] sin never stays private, right? As we kind of imagine, we kind of think like, well, it's our own private thing, nobody else knows, but it doesn't stay private.
[25:33] Sin always spills out and wounds, takes victims, it always creates circumstances that reach far greater than we ever would have thought even possible.
[25:51] And in this case, sexual sin and political rebellion have left these women in a place of a lifelong season of grief.
[26:02] I think we ought to know in our sexualized culture today that sexual sin always promises pleasure, promises power, promises escape, affirmation.
[26:23] Sexual sin promises control, promises comfort, comfort, but sexual sin always leaves behind sorrow.
[26:38] Always. It literally, sexual sin takes a gift from God, the gift of sex that God had created for good to glorify Him, it twists it into a place of shame, into a place of grief, into a place of harm.
[27:05] Humanity is not authorized to do such a vile thing with such a gift from God. David and Absalom were responsible for some of this sorrow, but these women are the ones who are left with living with the wreckage.
[27:25] No sorrow that David has to deal with the rest of his life can even scratch the surface of the depth of the sorrow these women have to live the rest of their lives with. Because of sexual sin.
[27:39] Maybe you're carrying a wound today of sexual sin. Maybe from your own sin, where you know you're sleeping with somebody who is not your husband or your wife and distorting the perfect gift and the glory of sex within the context of marriage.
[28:00] Maybe you're here with that sin. Maybe from someone else's sin that you were violated at this point in your life where you were violated from somebody else and you carried that weight as well.
[28:11] Maybe you have this sorrow that you did not create, you did not authorize, you did not consent to. I want you to hear this clearly. There is mercy in Jesus Christ for sinners.
[28:26] There is mercy in Jesus Christ for sinners. And there is mercy also in Jesus Christ for sufferers.
[28:39] Wherever you might find yourself today, there is hope and there is mercy in Jesus Christ to turn from your sin. Yeah, some sins will leave scars that remain for years.
[28:52] It really stinks. It's hard to break things off with somebody in your life, with a boyfriend or a girlfriend, when sexual sin has literally united you in a design that God has created.
[29:09] It's hard to break up then, right? Isn't it? You guys have connected in very intimate ways, the most intimate way a human being can connect. But there is no wound that Jesus Christ refuses to touch.
[29:25] There's no wound that Jesus Christ cannot heal. There's no shame his mercy cannot cleanse. Healing is available in Christ. Forgiveness is available in Christ.
[29:35] Restoration is available in Christ. And if it's you today, take the mercy of Jesus Christ today. today. Because you see, one day, Jesus Christ will not merely manage the sorrow of sin in our lives, that sin has caused, but he will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
[29:58] What a glorious day that will be. But until then, his mercies are new every day. His mercy is here and it's new for you today.
[30:14] Let's continue with verse 4 though. Because we see in section 3, we see discontentment covers sin instead of killing it.
[30:29] David now moves to respond to Sheba's rebellion. We're getting to the action now, church. Here we are. And then the king said to Amasa, call the men of Judah together to me within three days and be here yourself.
[30:46] A simple order, simple directive. Amasa, he's a man who was appointed as Absalom's commander leading the first rebellion.
[30:57] So David's appointment of Amasa was probably strategic, trying to bring the kingdoms together. We'll use the former commander. You can talk, be persuaded, persuaded, these disgruntled Israel, men of Israel.
[31:13] But Amasa, he couldn't follow through. He delays in verse 5. So David makes a very bold move in verse 6 and 7. He, instead of turning to Joab, which you would think he would naturally do, Joab was not turned to, David turns to Abishai, Abishai, however you say a name.
[31:34] That's Joab's brother, right? He turns to, instead of turning to Joab, the commander that he intends to replace, he turns to Abishai.
[31:49] In verse 8 and 9, Joab enters the story. We find him among the ranks at Gibeon, and Amasa meets them, and Joab pops out of the crew, right?
[32:02] Look in verse 8 and 9. He's dressed like the commander. He's like, David's not going to tell me what to do. I know better than David. My brother isn't cut out for this kind of stuff, but I am.
[32:17] He greets Amasa, takes him by the beard. I got rid of my beard this week because of this verse. I'm just kidding. I said, I ain't falling for that. He greets Amasa, he takes him by the beard, kisses him.
[32:31] I don't want anybody kissing me. Carmen, get away from me. And he says, Shalom, takes him by the beard, kisses him.
[32:43] Shalom, brother. Peace. Is it well with you, brother, he says. Shalom. But in pure Joab fashion, peace looks a little complicated in his world, doesn't it?
[32:58] Especially when there's a dagger in his hand. That's why I don't trust Carmen. There's a dagger in Joab's hand in verse 8. Joab strikes Amasa in the stomach and literally just leaves him to wallow in his own blood.
[33:13] In the middle of the road, in the middle of public. That's how Joab handles peace. Isn't this the issue with Joab all along?
[33:25] Joab has been this loyal, committed man, commander for David in one sense, but he's never really truly submitted to David's will. He's that loyal friend you always want on your side, but is he really?
[33:40] Because he doesn't really do anything you would ever want him to do. Joab killed Abner when David wanted peace. Joab killed Absalom when David wanted mercy.
[33:51] Joab rebuked David harshly when David grieved Absalom. And now Joab kills Amasa, the man David appointed in his place. You see, Joab thinks he knows better than David, and that is one of the most dangerous forms of rebellion.
[34:08] Think that you know better. Because here discontentment can disguise itself as loyalty. But the disguise and sinful motivations can only go so far as the text shows.
[34:19] Amasa, if you could imagine the sight and the gruesomeness of this sight, Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the highway. And I think the details are striking here because people are passing by, people are passing by here and they're stopped, dead in their tracks.
[34:41] And we gotta say why, but we live in Youngstown, we see those car accidents and you know, we almost get in a car accident as we're looking at that car accident, right?
[34:53] We go, we see a cop drive by our house and there we are sweeping the driveway off, right? People stop and they're like, what in the world?
[35:08] Why? Because sin is exposed here. Something has materialized lost into death.
[35:23] And exposed sin has a way of stopping people in their tracks, doesn't it? The truth of Joab, the truth is literally laying there in the road and no one can walk past it.
[35:38] So what do they do? They get a bright idea. I got an idea, let's move the body and we'll just cover it up. Right? That's what they do, bright idea, they move it, cover it up with the garment and they just keep on marching.
[35:49] Out of sight, out of mind. That's my philosophy with spring cleaning. In other words, once the body is out of sight, the people can keep moving and church, this is what we often do with sin as well.
[36:08] Can we be honest for a minute? We move it out of sight, we cover it up and we just keep on marching, don't we? We don't confess it, we don't kill it, we just sort of manage it.
[36:25] But Jesus, in His grace, He beckons us to stop pretending like we can manage our sin. We don't need to cover what Jesus Christ is willing to cleanse.
[36:38] We don't need to hide what Jesus Christ already knows. We don't need to manage evidence that Jesus Christ has already atoned for. Who are we to pretend like it doesn't exist?
[36:54] Maybe you're here today and discontentment in your own life has forced you to manage your own sin, to move the body out of sight, out of mind, per se.
[37:09] And I hope you see in the midst of this rebellion of chapter 20, how this is a very big problem. If you're not in Christ today, you're really good at this.
[37:24] Because before I was a Christian, I was really good at it as well. To just kind of push my sin off to the side and just keep it going.
[37:35] Because sin was the easy way, the way to feel good. But Christ calls everyone to bring their sin into light, to put it out, to confess it, to forsake sin, to kill it, and trust it with Jesus Christ.
[37:55] For Him to deal with it His way. How did He deal with it? He dealt with it on the cross. His blood was paid for your sin. That is the only true way of marching on.
[38:10] sin. But we also see in this section, in section 4, if you can click the next slide, discontentment collapses under its own vanity. In verse 14, all the way to the end, we sort of finally, we've had so many deviations in this passage.
[38:26] We've had David's house, we've had David's, not David's house, David's house, and then into this third section with Joab and Amasa. Now we're finally back to Sheba.
[38:37] We probably forgot what this passage was all about. Sheba! We're back to Sheba here. And Sheba, in verse 14, passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, and all the Bichrites assembled and followed him in.
[38:57] So here goes Sheba. He's got this massive rebellion. This is very important to you remember. This verse is subtly, showing us something important though, because at the beginning of this rebellion, Sheba's rebellion looks massive, because all the men, all the tribes of Israel went to Abel, and it looked massive.
[39:26] But by verse 14, by a certain point in this passage, this army, this rebellion is actually going to be whittled down to just Sheba and his family behind a wall.
[39:40] In other words, this movement has shrunk completely. The trumpet blast has faded. It's literally just like a flame. Any grilling folks out there?
[39:50] It's the flame on a grill. It just rises real big. Sounds good. It looks freaky. And then all of a sudden, it's gone. Right? The trumpet blast has faded.
[40:02] The great rebellion has collapsed into this small family faction hiding in a city. Maybe just a side note. That says a lot about the sustainability of acting on our discontentment, doesn't it?
[40:17] It doesn't last long at all. For instance, Sheba promised Israel an alternative to David. I'll give you David 2.0. I'm the guy.
[40:27] And what did he give them? He gave them nothing. He had nothing to offer. Only a rebel trapped behind a wall until Joab arrives in verse 15.
[40:42] Joab does what Joab does best, right? Here he goes pounding that wall. He's literally using force. He would literally take the city out in order to get Sheba, the directive of his mission.
[40:57] Then in verse 16, then a wise woman cries out from the city, listen, listen, tell Joab, come here, that I may speak to you.
[41:09] We have a church member here. Her name is Deb. I could not get this church member out of my head when I was reading this passage. I just imagine Deb just yelling out, listen, listen, calm down, Joab.
[41:24] Come here. that I may speak to you. And once again, I love how the Bible and how God's word just really uses women in these miraculous ways of intervention.
[41:39] It is so amazing. Once again, the Lord uses a wise woman to restrain destruction. We saw similar with Abigail in 1 Samuel chapter 15.
[41:51] when she intercepted David and kept him from blood guilt. And here this woman speaks wisdom into a violent moment.
[42:02] This city was going to be destroyed. And the greatest miracle I think of all, verse 17, Joab listens. That's all Joab needs.
[42:14] He needs just a wise woman. That will control him. Who are we kidding? This woman gives her first argument to all the chaos.
[42:25] In verse 18, she appeals to the peaceful reputation of the city, that this location has been known as a place of wisdom, of peaceful arbitration, to be coming here trying to storm the gates is not how we do things here at Abel, she essentially says.
[42:46] So, you're doing it wrong, Joab. Right? Second, in verse 19, in the middle of 19, she names what Joab is about to do. You seek to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel.
[43:01] That literally is a picture of provision to Israel as a mother is to a child. And thirdly, she makes a theological point. This theological point is so crafty.
[43:13] Very wise Deb indeed. Right? She makes a theological point that lands with force. Why will you swallow up the heritage of the Lord? Who do you think you are, Joab, to destroy what the Lord has given?
[43:31] The inheritance, a heritage of the Lord. This is a profound statement, but she's saying, Joab, this city belongs to the Lord. These people belong to God, and you are threatening what belongs to Him.
[43:49] This is a theological issue. In other words, this wise woman understands something Joab's discontentment seems to forget. It's gratefulness.
[44:02] Discontentment is never grateful. Ever. We forget our once, once upon a time, gratefulness for the things that God has given, and discontentment has completely forgotten gratefulness altogether.
[44:21] And honestly, it is a theological point that a lot of pastors, a lot of Christians need to hear, because pastors treat ministry like a business.
[44:34] And it's good when those doors close, because God's ways and God's church will not be mocked and used for the gain of man. The theological point for pastors who use people and view people as obstacles, and their goals are the idol in their lives, or people are used as tools for ambitious agendas.
[45:06] It's a sad reality. people are not obstacles to goals. People are not tools for ambitious agendas.
[45:18] People are not walls to batter down because they are in the way. See, the people of God are the heritage of the Lord.
[45:30] God agrees in verse 20, at least outwardly. I don't believe anything that Joab says at this point. I don't think you should either.
[45:42] He identifies Sheba as the reason for this siege. If this city is all about reasoning and peaceful arbitration, well, here's the skinny, Deb.
[45:56] We got this man, Sheba, who is rebelling against the king. God's king. He's got to go. Well, the wise woman accepts the terms and takes care of Sheba's rebellion against David in verse 22, and here comes his head being thrown over a wall.
[46:17] Deb's got quite an arm, doesn't she? What does Sheba say about discontentment now?
[46:30] as his head is completely removed from his body, being thrown over the wall? What does he say about discontentment here?
[46:42] It's vanity. discontentment this is a display of the vanity of discontentment. Discontentment promised previously freedom, but now ends in destruction.
[46:56] Discontentment promised a better future, but ended in collapse. Discontentment promised an inheritance apart from David, but ended with absolutely nothing.
[47:07] quite a highlight on SportsCenter with that head flying over the wall. As the chapter winds down, David's government is still intact, the kingdom still continues, the officers are named, the kingdom still functions, and the throne is still there, but the kingdom does not feel whole.
[47:28] It's not the same kingdom as it was before chapter 11, is it? In other words, David's kingdom survives, but it never fully heals.
[47:42] And church, that is where this chapter leaves us. It's where it leaves us today. A rebellion has been crushed, a city has been spared, and offices of the kingdom remain, but the fracture is still there.
[48:02] church, when are we going to stop listening to the trumpet of Sheba, and listen for the trumpet of Christ?
[48:15] When are we going to stop listening to the trumpet of Sheba, start listening to the trumpet of Christ? When will we stop believing the voice that says, there is no inheritance for you here?
[48:36] Right? When will we stop obeying the lie that God's provision is not enough, and that our ways are better than God's ways?
[48:50] In Christ, you have more than enough. You have pardon for sin, mercy for sorrow, grace for repentance, inheritance, as Paul says in 1 Peter 1, that's undefiled, it's imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us.
[49:13] And actually the only truth in Sheba's word is that there is no inheritance on this earth. The inheritance is in heaven, right? Church, kill discontentment before it becomes rebellion.
[49:30] Bring sin into light before you cover it in order to keep on just marching in life, and trust the greater son of David, Jesus Christ, because only Jesus Christ gives us an inheritance that discontentment falsely promises.
[49:48] There is no inheritance here because our inheritance is in Jesus Christ alone. Let's pray.