King David’s son Absalom was also his enemy. So should love have set aside justice? Should justice have prevailed at love’s expense? David strategized to defeat his enemies while preserving his son’s life—yet the message of victory was accompanied by the announcement of Absalom’s death, and the king was consumed with guilt-laden grief. Examining God’s providential role in tragedy as well victory, Alistair Begg points us to the one place where perfect love and perfect justice meet: at the cross of Christ.

The following message by Alistair begg is made available by Truth for life. For more information, visit us online at truth for Life dot org. Let me invite you to turn with me to 2nd Samuel into chapter 18 and follow along. As I read this chapter two, Samuel 18 and from verse one, then David mustered the men who were with him and set over them, commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds and David sent out the army. One third under the command of Job, one third under the command of Abbas I the son of zero ia Jobs brother and 1\/3 under the command of it. Either get it and the king said to the men, I myself will also go out with you. But the man said, you shall not go out for if we flee, they will not care about us. If half of us die, they will not care about us, But you are worth 10,000 of us. Therefore, it is better that you send us help from the city, the king said to them. Whatever seems best to you, I will do. So The king stood at the side of the gate while all the army marched out by hundreds and by thousands. And the king ordered Job and a dash I and it. I deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom and all the people heard what the king when the king gave orders to all the commanders about Absalon. So the army went out into the field against Israel and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim and the men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, And the loss there was great. On that day, 20,000 men. The battle spread over the face of all the country and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword. And Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, and he was suspended between heaven and earth while the mule that was under him went on, and a certain man saw it and told Joanna behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak Job said to the man who told him why you saw him? Why, then did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have been glad to give you 10 pieces of silver and the belt. But the man said to Job, even if I felt in my hand the weight of 1000 pieces of silver, I would not reach out my hand against the king’s son, for in our hearing the king commanded you and abby shy, and it I for my sake protect the young man. Absalom. On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously treacherously against his life, and there is nothing hidden from the king. Then you yourself would have stood aloof. Job, said, I will not waste time like this with you. And he took three javelins in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalon. While he was still alive in the oak And 10 young men, jobs, armor bearers surrounded absalom and struck him and killed him. Then Job blew the trumpet and the troops came back from pursuing Israel for Job restrained them, and they took Absalom and threw him into a great pit in the forest and raised over him a very great heap of stones and all Israel flared everyone to his own home. Now, Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself. The pillar that is in the king’s Valley for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. He called the pillar after his own name. And it is called Absalom monument to this day. Then a Hamas. The son of Xerox said, let me run and carry the news to the king that the Lord has delivered him from the hand of his enemies. And Job said to him, you’re not to carry news today. You may carry news another day, but today you shall carry no news because the king’s son is dead. Then Job said to the cushy seat. Go tell the king what you have seen the cushy bowed before Job and ran. Then I have my eyes. The son of ze Dach said again to Job come. What May let me also run after the crash site and Jakob said, Why will you run my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the news. Come! What may? He said, I will run. So he said to him, run. Then a Hamas ran by the way of the plane and out ran the cookie sheet. Now David was sitting between the two gates and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall and when he lifted up his eyes and looked he saw a man running alone. The watchman called out and told the king and the king said, if he is alone there is news in his mouth. And he drew nearer and nearer. The watchman saw another man running and the watchman called to the gate and said, See another man running alone, the king said. He also brings news, the watchman said, I think the running of the first is like the running of a Hamas, the son of a dog. And the king said, he’s a good man and comes with good news. Then a Hamas cried out to the king. All is well, and he bowed before the king with his face to the earth and said, Blessed be the Lord, your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my Lord. The king and the king said, Is it well with the young man? Absalom thomas answered When Job sent the king’s servant, your servant, I saw a great commotion, but I do not know what it was and the king said, turn aside and stand here. So he turned aside and stood still and behold the cushy came and the ku Shiites said, 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, the king said to the cashier, Is it well with a young man Absalon and the kush I had answered. Made the enemies of my Lord, the king and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man. And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went he said, O my son, Absalom my son, my son, absolutely would. I had died instead of you. Oh, absolutely, my son. My son. Amen Father, thank you that your word is living and active, that it cuts to the very quick of our lives. Thank you that you speak to us by the holy spirit in it and through it. And for your voice alone. We listen now in christ’s name. Amen. Well we come this morning back to our studies in second Samuel on the heels of reformation sunday. I don’t know why it is, but I woke up in the early hours of this morning trying to remember whether there had been a sunday since reformation, sunday. That’s how long this week has felt. I don’t know why that is and I didn’t feel able to awaken my wife to ask. And so I didn’t really conclude until much later. I realized, no, there’s only one week has gone by and so here we are. So, the reason for my concern is because there should be I hope for some of us at least, a freshness that comes out of what we studied last sunday, that does not get parked somewhere, but flows through into our study of this sunday. and particularly so as I studied chapter 18 this week, because last week our focus was largely on the way in which the love of God and the justice of God coalesce in the cross of the Lord jesus christ. And we consider this great dilemma. How can love be expressed and how can justice be executed? Except in the work of the Gospel. Now, that was last Sunday. Now we come to chapter 18 and as we read it through, what we immediately are confronted with is an illustration of when love and justice do not meet here in this chapter, we have the great concern of the loving heart of David and yet at the same time, his desire and a justifiable desire that justice might be exercised. So the chapter begins with the strategy of David for defeat defeating the rebel king and then it ends with the agony of David on the bank of that victory. It is a chapter in which we are made perfectly clear, it’s made perfectly clear to us that what David desired, namely treat the young man gently and what God had ordained In 1714 b. Those two factors are on a collision course and reading through the chapter and allowing the story to unfold, we are left to find out. Will love set justice aside or will justice prevail over love? And what makes this? Of course, so poignant is the fact that the rebel who has conspired against David, who is the Lord’s anointed. This rebel is none other than his son. And so he has this dilemma. He wants a decisive victory, but without any damage to his son. That is a tall order. That is a difficult order. And so I just made a scribble in my notes. I said, surely chapter 18 is a grief observed, which those of you who are C. S Lewis fans will get and those of you who don’t are now becoming CS Lewis fans, a grief observed. Here we observe it. And what we have to realize is that 17 and verse 14B remains for us a control verse you understand what I mean by that is it is a point that has been made in such a way that it exercises control on the way in which we interpret everything that flows from it. And you remember verse 14 and absalom and all the men of Israel said, the council of who she the archive is better than the Council of Allhiphop fell. Here we go. For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of a Hipfl so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalon. God is behind the death of Absalom as he is behind the deliverance of David. Now, let’s just try and work our way through this storyline. In verses 1 to 5, we have essentially the battle strategy at the end of chapter 17, you remember they were having a picnic, as it were. The men of Israel were living in the light of the fifth verse of the 23rd Sam remember psalm 23 5, you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil. Well, if you look back to the end of chapter 17, that is largely what they were enjoying. Their, You come into chapter 18 and David Musters His Army, he puts his commanders in place job, his brother Abbas I and it I the guitar, who, as we have seen previously had commended himself to David by bringing many of his friends to join David’s forces. So David having put the commanders in place, now finds that he himself is put in his place and the people say to him, you shall not go out. He’s already announced that he’s going out. I myself will go out with you. It’s quite fascinating when you think about a health officials council that we noted before. Remember his thoughtful said to Absalom. Now, when I go out there, my strategy will be just to take the king out. All we need to do is to take him out. If we get him, then the rest of them will collapse like a broken deck chair. It will be over. That was a health officials council. And of course that was not accepted by Absalon. And so here it is that the people say to him, understanding what healthful was actually saying, although not referencing it, listen, it’s far better that you stay and we receive help from you guidance, strategy, whatever it might be from headquarters and David acquiesces. And so he says to them, well, whatever you actually think is best, then I will do that. I paused in my thinking there for a moment. And you might pause with me too, because remember when we think about the incident, the rooftop incident, which begins with at the time when kings go out to war. David remained in Jerusalem. And almost inevitably our criticism of that goes along with most of the commentators. You see, that was the problem. He should have been out there fighting. And instead of going out there fighting, look at where he was. Well, this actually puts a little twist on it, doesn’t it? It released. It at least raises the possibility that on that occasion, back in 11, they were operating on the exact same principle, Namely, you’re worth 10,000 of us. They take you down. It’s all over were largely dispensable. Maybe that’s why he stayed. You say where you’re trying to justify the rooftop? No, not for a moment. But if he stayed back for that reason, it was an entirely legitimate reason. What he did with the use of his time. There’s another subject entirely. He stays back. They will obey orders and his order is very, very clear. In fact, we have the record of only one verse five and the king ordered Job Abbas I and it I deal gently for my sake with the young man. Absolutely. And what we need to keep in mind here is that David is who he is, He is the king, he is the man after God’s own heart. He is the man with the history that we have been rehearsing now for weeks and months and in two years. But he is also a father. And it is surely hard to imagine the turmoil that he knows in establishing his fighting force in this way. In fact, the nature of his grief is grounded in the extent of his love. It is because he loves so much that by the time we get to the end, he grieves so badly. He knows what is unfolding here. He knows that those who stand against the Lord’s anointed are to be destroyed, be wise or kings of the earth kiss the son lest he be angry with you Sam to David knows that now go out and deal with that, he says, But let me say to you, deal gently with that lad. Absolutely! Now that’s in verses 1-5 and verses 6-8, we have the record of the decisive victory. Both the build up to the battle and the death of Absalom subsequent to it are covered actually extensively. They’re in many ways. This whole thing has been leading up to this for a long, long time. And the way in which the whole section of all of these chapters is to be understood is in light ultimately of this. So, it’s therefore quite interesting That you only really have three verses providing for us the summary of the battle itself. And you will notice what it says that they went out that they fought in the forest. Mhm. That the men of Israel were defeated. That there was great loss that the battle spread all over the face of the country. It actually took place in the Forest of Ephraim. And Fascinatingly the forest devoured more people that day than the sword. This is a video game or is it, you know, one of those things that Children watch, you know this, You can do this graphically with the forest and the forest swallows them. The forest is eating them up. How can the forests do this? It’s just clever on David’s part, isn’t it? He has limited forces in comparison to the extensive numbers that are arranged against him under the control of Absalon? So, if you’re out in a vast open space, it would mean dealing with it in one way. But when you’re in a context like this, that provides unfamiliar territory, too many of them, the chances are that they will collapse in May in ways beyond simply human interference if we might put it that way. And this intra interestingly, is not without precedent. Those of you who know your bibles remember that great story in Joshua. You’ll find it in Chapter 10. Read it for homework where the where Israel is up against the Ameri. It’s and in the course of the battle, you read this and the Lord through down large stones from heaven, hailstones. And then this is what it says. And there were more who died because of the hailstones than the Sons of Israel killed by the sword robert. Gordon? Says, we may see here a suggestion that nature was enlisted on the site of David, that a sovereign God who is sovereign not only over the affairs of men and women is actually sovereign over all of nature. Keep that in mind when you watch the lingering nonsense from Glasgow at the moment, the forest devoured them and notice the forest is going to play a very significant part in the end of Absalon? It’s interesting, isn’t it? That what you really see here? Just three verses, the hidden hand of God the exercise of human ingenuity And the one coalescing with the other. How are the mighty fallen now? What of Absalom? Well, verse nine to verse 15, I wrote under the heading absolute terms destiny, absolute his destiny. Let’s keep in mind this absolute fellow. He’s handsome beyond measure. No blemish. From the, from the sole of his feet to the tip of his head. He had a hairstyle that was quite remarkable enough for it to get mentioned in the local newspapers. He had decided that having established himself in a position of erstwhile authority that he would get a chariot for himself. That’s back in chapter 15. And along with that, he decided he would have 50 men that would ride in front of the chariot because an entourage is very, very important. The President’s entourage through the city of Rome a couple of weeks ago apparently involved 85 cars. That’s an entourage and absalom fancied something along the same lines. He also in dealing with the people told them what they wanted to hear is the consummate politician And he then stole their hearts by telling them what he wanted to hear. Now that is who this absalom is that we find introduced now in verse nine and absalom happened to meet the servants of David, wow, you mean like? It wasn’t planned. No, it wasn’t actually planned, what you say, but I thought, I know what you thought. Look at what the text says. He happened to meet him. He happened to meet him. It was a chance occurrence. They say there are no chance occurrences. Not from God’s perspective, they’re armed, but from hours there are otherwise, there is no such thing as contingency. Did the putt go in by divine ordination or did it go in by chance? Well, I went in by chance, but that chance was controlled by God’s divine ordination. Oh, you say you’re starting at three o’clock in the morning thing again, aren’t you? That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Look at him. He happened to meet the servants of David. He has himself set up. His father wishes him no harm. But the Lord has ordained the defeat of a health officials counsel so that he might bring harm upon absolute because God is the one who brings princes to nothing scarcely has their stem taken root scarcely. Are they sown? Then? The wind blows over them and the weather. And so what we have here in 1915 is that the forest? We might put it this way. The forest is up to its tricks. The forest is up to his tricks. One minute he’s on his mule. And if you remember on a previous occasion, we’re told that all the sons of the king left on their mules. So it was sort of like a standard issue. If you were a son of the king, you got, you had a mule. Not everybody would have a mule, but you had a mule. And so it’s no surprise that he was riding on his mule at least one minute he was and the next minute he wasn’t because in the next minute the mule keeps going and he has left dangling dangling his head caught fast in the oak. Why is it? We wanted to be his hair that got tangled up in the Okay, well, there’s just something about it. Those of us who are going, whose hair is thinning, some whose hair has thinned completely. We we want to to say, see that’s what happens when you get stuck on your hair and your hair doing everything he deserved that hanging from a tree by his hair. See, I told you that bald is beautiful. That’s ridiculous. Well, we don’t know if it was his hair or it wasn’t a hair. We know he had his hair. But the chances are it would seem that if let’s imagine that he happens upon the servants of David, he begins to make a run for it. He looks over his shoulder to see how close they are behind him. And he nails the branches of a tree which close around his neck and as they close around his neck and go grab him The mule leaves without him and there he is verse nine be suspended between heaven and earth quite a picture, isn’t it? Nothing is good looks can achieve now no ability to influence the people by telling them what they want to hear. Now look at him there. The picture is clear? He hangs helpless, hopeless, and humiliated, even his mule has gone. And meanwhile back in the city, David is waiting, hoping that Abbas I and it I and Job will have obeyed his order to deal gently with the young man Absalom. Now, just this is masterful in the way the story is told. Just when we as the readers want resolution to this. The narrator then leaves us dangling in much the same way by recounting the incident which then follow us and and in creating suspense and telling story. You have to do that. It’s not invented. It happened. But you could have moved very quickly through this as well, couldn’t you? He has chosen to give us a summary of the vast battle in three verses. Now he tells us that he is hanging in a tree and then it says, And a certain man, oh, what’s this about? And a certain man saw this and told Job, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak. And I think I think the inference is pretty clear. If we put it as I tried to in the reading Job said to the man who told him what you saw him. You saw him. Why didn’t you strike him to the ground. This is no time to be asking for a selfie. This is the rebel pretender to the throne. We’re out here in order to make sure that David is vanquished. David is delivered and he is destroyed. What do you mean? You saw him? I would have given you a reward. You could have got a belt of victory. You could have had money in your hand. But you will notice the man’s response reveals two things. One that he has principled and two that he is a pragmatist. He’s principled and he is brave. I think at the same time, because Job as we know from past experience doesn’t suffer fools gladly. Well, the system, we heard what you were told and that is to protect Absalon. Furthermore, he says if I had killed him, I don’t see there’s any reason for me to believe that you would have protected me. And if you didn’t protect me, then I’d be left twisting in the breeze. Just like Absalom himself. Well, it seems that he’s pretty persuasive in his response. Because you will notice that job chooses not to take him on verse 14. Job says, I’m not going to waste time with this. I’m not gonna argue. That’s often the response of somebody up against a pretty good argument. While we’re just not going to argue. Okay, well, then that’s fine. But what are you saying is this, isn’t it? We’re not having a discussion about the morality of war here. We’re not gonna have an ethical discussion, Absalom is the enemy were involved in a military exercise. And despite David’s plea, it is clear that job in keeping with his personality is not about not about to go soft and he doesn’t go soft. And so you will notice what happens then. Incidentally, the word for javelins here could be translated equally stick or could be translated or raw in much the same way that thousands and hundreds can be translated as like regiments or platoons or whatever it might be. So just to keep that in mind. And so what what happens here is described for us? He took 33 sticks or three javelins in his hand. Why three? Well, there’s no reason that it’s, we don’t know why three. I thought maybe he would be like this, let’s say it’s a stick and not a javelin or pretty sharp stick. And and so and he says he’s up in the tree and he goes, hey, this one is for a bit shy and this one is for it. I and this one is for me. Or the three regiments are represented in this. Perhaps even in some way in his mind, he wants to make it clear this is not a one man operation here when the word finally gets back. Or as I sat there thinking some more I said, maybe he said, This one is for amnesty. This one is for you being a pain in the neck and this one is for burning my barley field, which remember he did Whatever absalom hits the ground. Incidentally if Absalom had heeded a hit shuffles council, he would not be here. He listened instead to who she’s council. Because hush, I remember suggested that absolutely should be front and center. And Absalom likes the idea of the in front and center. Well, now, here he is. He hits the ground And having been devoured by the forest, he is now destroyed by 10 young men. A reminder to us that brutal violence is not a new thing. A reminder too, of the word of scripture be not deceived. God is not mocked whatsoever. A man. So those that shall he also reap of that. There is no doubt now In 16 to 18, I simply wrote in my notes, this is vanity vanity. I’m thinking vanity in terms of ecclesiastical vanity. Vanity all is vanity. It is an unhappy business, absolutely. As life. It was really a striving after the wind again in Ecclesiastes. The writer says, I saw vanity under the sun. A man all alone who had no one, neither son nor brother. And there you have it. I have no son to keep my name in remembrance or you see, but didn’t we have read earlier a few weeks ago about three boys and a daughter. Yes, we did. Well then, is that not a contradiction? It’s an apparent contradiction. I assume that by the time this incident takes place, that these three sons have died in infancy. And he has no son, he has no one now to whom he may entrust his legacy and job has blown the trumpet. He has restrain the troops and Absalon is not ceremonially laid to rest, but he’s thrown into a great pit and he is covered by a great heap of stones and the wind blows over it and its place knows it no more. You see Absalom had sought to make a name for himself. Remember the word of God to Abraham was, I will give you a great name. You remember how we’ve seen in our studies that that promise to Abraham was then reinforced in the promise being made also to David and I will give you a great name pointing forward to the name that is above every other name. But everybody else. Absolem included seeking to make a name for themselves. It is foolish, foolish in the extreme. And so you will notice that he has, if you like to gravesites. He has one in this great mound of stones which exists as a testimony to his rebellion and to his ruinous end. And he has another which is he already planned for himself setting up a pillar in the valley of the kings so that whatever happened to him, people would be able to say, you see that is Absalom there, that is absolutely monument, a great monument to himself. That would almost inevitably mean that people would see that monument and say, but wasn’t he buried in the forest under a heap of stones. Yes, yes. Well the mission is accomplished. Absalom buried without ceremony. How grieved he would have been, wouldn’t he? The army is gone. And in storytelling terms again, you’re ready for the conclusion. What have we got the story of the runners? The runners delivery from 19 all the way through essentially to verse 32. Actually, what I called it in my notes was the runners delivery with the apostrophe after the ass. Now, I’m gonna have to leave you to deal with this on your own because it will take me a long time and it’s approximately two minutes to the 10 o’clock hour. Alright, You’re sensible people. I can trust you to do your homework. The, the issue is pretty clear, isn’t it? Alma has fancies the opportunity to be the fellow with the good news. Perhaps he wants to do it because he almost made a hash of it the previous time. Within his sidekick. They ended down a well remember. So maybe he could have a good one to counter right there. Not so good one. He wants to be the deliverer of the news. Oh no. He says it’s not for you to go and bring good news today because after all, the king’s son is dead. Rather what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna send cruciate cruciate man. He’s got no, he’s got no skin in the game here. He’s a foreigner. There’s no emotion attaches to him. He can simply go and says what he wants to say. Oh, but Omaha says, no, no, I wanna go, I wanna go, please can I go? And so eventually he goes, okay, go. And then what happens is Omaha’s manages to get there before the crash site and then the watchman is up on the roof. Is and and David incidentally is between the Gates. Leave that alone for now. But it is such a metaphor, isn’t it? He is between the gates absolute is between heaven and earth and he is between the Gates. He’s neither here or there. He’s emotionally, he’s between the gates in many ways between the gates. Anyway, the watchman says, it looks like the first one is Amma Hawes. To which David replies or um, a house is a good man. He’ll be bringing good news. It almost makes me weep. Of course. He says that. Deal gently with a boy. Well, I am a house is coming. Oh Hamas, He’s a good, he’ll be bringing good news inside himself. He’s saying, won’t he, won’t he? Well, of course Salma Hayek gets there. He outruns the cue sheet and hey, David only has one question for him. You said you weren’t going to do this part. I know, but I have to do this part. He has only one question for it. Only one question is it? Well, with the young man. Absalom, is it? Well with the young man. Absalom. And at that point, Alma has, who has said twice in the dialogue come, what may come what may or no matter what happens? I’m the I’m the guy to go, oh yeah, Mr Come what may, how are you doing now? When the question comes, That is the $64,000 question is all well with the young man Absalom. What happens there is quite remarkable. He bottles it. He gets cold feet. He just rambles and mumbles. He is like a pastor who has lost confidence in the gospel. He’s like a pastor who is no longer able to actually tell the absolute truth. Who is no longer prepared to say? The reason the good news is the good news is because the bad news is that you are lost before God. Oh no, please don’t say that. Oh, you see, he makes himself irrelevant and that’s exactly what happens. And he said, well, he’s a good man with good news. And he says in verse 30 Hey, turn aside and stand here. So he turned a site and stood still. I mean it’s it’s fabulous, isn’t it frozen frozen. Oh, there’s many a frozen Pastor stern outside says God turn aside and stand still. Either tell the truth or be done with the whole business. Who would ever think of you as a messenger Now? The messenger must bring the message. The good and the bad with it for it is only the bad that makes the good good and it is only the good that can deal with the bad. So the cushy does it? The cush it does it? Good news for the king. Same response. Here’s my question. Is it? Well with the young man Absalom? And masterfully, the cush it manages to say no, it’s not. And he’s dead without ever actually using the phrase he is dead or even actually using the name Absalon. Very good, isn’t it? He’s not being duplicitous. May the enemies of my Lord, the king and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man. And so we have then in verse 33, what is a personal tragedy, grief consumes the king. He doesn’t ask why his order has been set aside. He doesn’t answer how these things have transpired. He’s now made aware of the fact that the deliverance is his, the kingdom is safe. But he is sad. The picture is clear. He’s deeply moved. He’s overwhelmed. He moves away from that context. Goes to the chamber over the gate where he can be by himself and weep. Oh, my son, my son. He says five times all my son remember earlier where we ponder that little phrase and we said it was difficult to get our hands around, you know that he longed to go out to absalom. He longed to go out to absalom. And we said, does that mean? He longed to go out and get him and punish him or what was it? I don’t know what it was there. But I’ll tell you what in the sense that he longed to go out to absalom. Now we know exactly what it means. But he can’t the agony of all that could have been all that was all the things he did. But now regrets all cascading in in that moment. How he allowed job to negotiate the deal to bring him back to Jerusalem. But then he said to him, yes, he can come back to Jerusalem, but he’s not coming in my house and for two years he left his son separated from him. Whether legitimately or illegitimately or selfish or whatever it was. But when that day dawns and when that person is taken from you, all those issues will come back and descend upon you, be sure of it. He loved his son. But he loved justice because the kings of the earth are to do justly. And justice had been done at the expense of his love. But it’s actually more you will see and will come back to this. Perhaps it was more than simply a display of affection. It really is a cry of dereliction. Oh, I wish I had died in place of you. Well, you see, David was painfully aware of the fight that it was his sin that had led to all of this. It was his sin. And so his guilt in flames stirs up his grief. But David is obviously unable to do what he says. He wishes he could do, thereby reminding us and with this I finished and um I have a I have a new jewish friend who has begun to listen to these services and he said to me a few weeks ago, he says I follow along, he says. And then you do the pivot. Yeah, well my friend, if you’re listening, here comes the pivot what David was unable to do, his greater son did, namely the Lord jesus who died in the place of the sinner who died so that we need not die. Who unlike David who shed tears over his own sinful and guilty life, the man of sorrows came to bear our griefs and to carry our sorrows and he was able to do so because the Lord had laid on him the inequity of us all. It’s just a simple reminder again that the bible is a book about jesus. If this study in two Samuel 18 and all the others do not bring you to Christ, then you’ve missed it. Oh, may there be none who miss it? Let’s pray wounded for me wounded for me There on the cross, christ was wounded for me and go on my transgressions and now I am free all because jesus was wounded for me or grant us grace to rest in christ alone. Amen this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living. To learn more about truth. For life with Alistair begg visit us online at Truth for Life dot org.