THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

The Books Of Samuel: God's Shift Of Israel From Apostasy Under The Judges To David's Reign

II. 2 Samuel: The Reign Of David Over Israel

U. Shifting From Yielding To Negative Peer Pressure To Obey Scripture

(2 Samuel 19:9-20:26)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

We face strong negative peer pressure today to compromise some of our most important biblical beliefs:

(1) I just learned my past Hebrew professor in seminary has said, "(I)f the data is overwhelmingly in favor of evolution, to deny that reality will make us a cult." ("O T Scholar Bruce Waltke Resigns Following Evolution Comments," christianitytoday.com, April 9, 2010) Yet, Jesus in Matthew 19:4-6 spoke of God's Genesis 1-2 creation of Eve from Adam's rib, claiming the couple then set the pattern for indissoluble "one flesh" marital unions, what is possible only if Jesus interpreted Genesis 1-2 literally to assert Eve was miraculously created. For my past professor then to allow for evolution is to undermine Jesus' literal interpretation of Genesis 1-2 and deny His truthfulness!

(2) We face peer pressure against our belief of justification by faith alone: (a) one of our members has asked me if I might resume to explain at communion a particular reason why we deny transubstantiation, the Roman Catholic doctrine that the elements are changed into Christ's real body and blood. I had lately not been stating that particular reason for opposing transubstantiation, so when she asked me about it, she added, "We need all the help we can get!" indicating peer pressure that she and others in our body of the same religious heritage face from associates!

(b) I face similar pressure on several fronts on this matter: the pressure exists for me to stop obeying Paul's command in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15 to practice second-degree separation from believers who violate Galatians 1:8-9, for such believers have formal fellowship with Roman Catholic parishes that teach salvation by faith plus observing the sacraments, including the Mass with its transubstantiation doctrine!

Need: Accordingly, we ask, "How can we properly respond to strong negative peer pressure?!"

I. Due to strong negative peer pressure, David played politics to befriend his former foes, 2 Sam. 19:9-40:

A. Reeling from having seen so many in Israel side with Absalom against him, David tried to befriend these people by playing politics with them like his son Absalom had done in gaining a following, 2 Sam. 19:9-15:

1. Instead of addressing all 12 tribes God anointed him to rule, David played politics to ask his politically most likely supporters, the men of his native Judah, to receive him back, 2 Samuel 19:9-12.

2. Amasa had led Absalom's army, so David replaced Joab with Amasa over his army to gain the support of Absalom's followers, 2 Sam. 19:13; 17:25; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to 2 Sam. 19:13.

3. Consequently, the men of Judah wholeheartedly invited David to return as their king, 2 Samuel 19:14-15.

B. David's politicking included granting Shimei clemency, 2 Sam. 19:16-23: though Shimei had committed a capital offense by cursing David as God's anointed (2 Sam. 19:21), he now approach David with a 1,000 men of Benjamin, Saul's tribe, so David chose not to punish him to pacify all of Saul's potentially rebellious people.

C. David's politicking extended to how he interacted with Saul's grandson, Mephibosheth, 2 Sam. 19:24-30:

1. Since David left the city, Mephibosheth had not kept up his appearance, "signs of extreme and extended mourning," (Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to 2 Sam. 19:24), risking his life by visibly grieving for David, 2 Sam. 19:24.

2. Thus, when he met the returning David, Mephibosheth claimed Saul's servant Ziba had slandered him, saying he was disloyal in not joining David when Ziba had kept Mephibosheth home, 2 Samuel 19:25-28.

3. In spite of Mephibosheth's evident loyalty to him, David split Saul's estate between him and Ziba (2 Sam. 19:29-30): Ziba had met David with 1,000 men of Saul's tribe in support of Shimei, so in line with his favor to Shimei, David tried to keep the support of all Saul's people by not alienating either Mephibosheth or Ziba, members of Saul's tribe (2 Sam. 19:16-17), and that by splitting Saul's property between the men.

D. David offered to reward Barzillai for helping him in his exile by asking the aged man to come with him that he might care for him, but Barzillai asked that his son Chimham go with David in his place, 2 Samuel 19:31-40.

II. However, Deuteronomy 17:17-20 ordered Israel's kings not to play politics such as multiplying wives to themselves (v. 17; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 295), but to heed Scripture for blessing, Deut. 17:18-20!

III. Besides, David's political moves independent of Scripture created more problems, 2 Sam. 19:41-20:26:

A. His political effort to win a welcome from Judah's men only led to another civil crisis, 2 Sam. 19:41-20:2:

1. Since David had not appealed to all 12 tribes to bring him back, the northern tribes of Israel critiqued the men of Judah for neglecting to include them in welcoming the king back to Jerusalem, 2 Samuel 19:41.

2. Judah replied, using David's words to them that he was their flesh and blood (2 Sam. 19:42), but this upset Israel into arguing with Judah (2 Sam. 19:43) that in turn led to a civil uprising by Israel, 2 Sam. 20:1-2.

B. David's replacing Joab with Amasa was an awful move: demoting Joab only angered him, and since Joab had already murdered another general, Abner, he predictably murdered Amasa to regain his job, 2 Sam. 20:4-13.

C. Israel's uprising against Judah led to a siege where Joab had Judah's men lay siege to Abel of Bethmaachah where Sheba then dwelt to destroy it and kill Sheba who was heading up Israel's uprising, 2 Sam. 20:14-15.

D. The appeal of a wise woman in Abel to Joab kept Israel from another war: she offered to have Sheba's head thrown over the city wall if Joab ended his siege. Her offer was accepted and implemented, 2 Sam. 20:16-22.

E. David's new administration expediently tolerated Joab's return to power despite his murder, 2 Sam. 20: 23-26.

IV. David later regretted and countered his political moves made independent of Scripture, 1 Kings 2:1-11: he told Solomon to slay Joab and Shimei for their crimes while showing kindness to all Barzillai's sons.

V. 1 Samuel 16:13 reports the Holy Spirit came on David for life at his anointing, and 2 Timothy 1:13-14 claims one retains upright beliefs and acts by that Spirit. David could thus offset negative peer pressure.

Lesson: Instead of heeding Scripture in the Holy Spirit's power, David tried to befriend Absalom's past followers by playing politics, what led him to compromise Scripture and produce more problems to his own later regret.

Application: If we face strong negative peer pressure, (1) may we trust in Christ for salvation and receive the Holy Spirit, John 3:16; Romans 8:9. (2) Then, (a) aware that yielding to the pressure will leave us with future regrets, may we (b) rely on the Spirit (c) to heed Scripture, (d) believing God will bless us (e) without our playing politics.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

We apply this lesson to avoid future regrets by offsetting negative peer pressure we noted in our introduction:

(1) In view of my former Hebrew professor's words that leave the door open to adopt evolution and undermine Jesus' literal interpretation of Genesis 1-2 and thereby deny Christ's truthfulness, (a) I note that this professor made the following statement in my seminary days: "Israel had to imitate the Creator week by week in working six days and resting the seventh exactly as it was at the beginning." (Bruce K. Waltke, Creation and Chaos, 1974, p. 57; emphases ours) He was then referring to Exodus 20:8-11 where God told Israel to work six consecutive solar days during a solar week, but to rest on the seventh consecutive solar day since He had made the universe with exactly the same schedule -- working to create for six consecutive solar days that each consisted of an "evening" and a "morning" followed by His resting the seventh consecutive solar day, Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31; 2:1-3. God thus wants us to interpret Genesis 1-2 literally, resulting in belief in pure creation as opposed to evolution! (b) We will thus continue to interpret Genesis 1-2 literally to hold to pure creation just like Jesus did, and (c) I will be adding in my Sunday remarks: "Jesus exampled for us in Matthew 19:4-6 our need to interpret Genesis 1-2 literally and hold to creation!"

(2) On the issue of the negative peer pressure some of our members and I face to yield on our belief of justification by faith alone, I will do the following in our communion services: (a) first, I will resume saying that we do not hold to transubstantiation, the belief that the elements are changed into Christ's body and blood, for when Jesus told His disciples to drink of His cup that contained His "blood," they as Orthodox Jews knew Leviticus 7:27 forbade their ingesting blood. They drank from Jesus' cup only because they thought its contents symbolized Jesus' blood.

(b) Second, I will add that the Apostles in Acts 15:23-29 forbade the Church from ingesting blood, giving no clarification or exception to that rule regarding communion, so they did not believe in transubstantiation! (c) Third, I will also add when Jesus in John 6:53 said that except one ate of His flesh and drank of His blood, he had no life in him, words used by the Roman Catholic Church to teach transubstantiation, Jesus later in the context clarified at John 6:63 that "the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." Jesus thus spoke figuratively of ingesting His body and blood to teach spiritual truth, not literally to teach transubstantiation! That spiritual truth was stated earlier at John 6:47 when Jesus said, "(H)e that believeth on me hath everlasting life."

In the broader context, Jesus was critiquing the crowd because they followed Him only for having been fed at His miraculous feeding of the 5,000, not because they discerned the spiritual significance of that miracle so as to trust in Him for salvation. Jesus was thus trying to get the people figuratively to partake of Himself as the spiritual Bread from heaven by trusting in Him, hence his figurative reference to ingesting His flesh and blood, not just to look to Him to feed them physical bread! Thus, transubstantiation actually counters Jesus' intent in this context as it makes people think they need to ingest the physical food of Jesus' flesh and blood instead of trusting in Him for eternal life!

May we trust in Christ to be saved. May we then rely on the Holy Spirit to heed Scripture that we resist strong peer pressure to compromise Scripture for blessing and avoid creating problems we will later regret.