David's Cry for Absalom
Tom Shrader walks through 2 Samuel 15–19, tracing Absalom's failed coup against David, the defeat of Ahithophel's counsel by God's sovereign intervention, and the death of Absalom in battle. David's devastating grief over his son leads into a reflection on how the hope of resurrection shapes the way believers mourn differently depending on where they believe the deceased stands before God. Shrader closes with a call to live faithfully in light of Christ's return, making the invisible God visible through everyday conduct.
“God, even when it doesn't look like it, is at work in all of human affairs — individually and corporately. God raises up, God puts down.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: So You Really Want a King?
Recorded: 2009 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 47 min
Themes: grief, resurrection hope, rebellion, mourning, God's sovereignty, family pain, faithfulness, death, grieving a child, parent of a prodigal, struggling with loss, father, dealing with betrayal, questioning God's plan, facing death of loved one, middle age
Scripture: 2 Samuel 14:25, 2 Samuel 15:6, 2 Samuel 15:13-14, 2 Samuel 15:19-20, 2 Samuel 15:31-33, 2 Samuel 16:20-23, 2 Samuel 17:1-14, 2 Samuel 17:15-16, 2 Samuel 17:21-23, 2 Samuel 18:1-8, 2 Samuel 18:31-33, 2 Samuel 19:1-9, 2 Samuel 20:1, 2 Samuel 12, Daniel 4, 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Matthew 24, 2 Timothy 3:1, 2 Peter 3, 1 Corinthians 10:31
Theological Themes: divine sovereignty, providence, resurrection, eschatology, lament, redemptive history, sanctification, biblical narrative
Full Transcript
Introduction and the Challenge of Names
Open your Bibles, if you would, please, to 2 Samuel. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and the guys will be around to give you a copy. Old and New Testament, around page 220 or so will get you there. As we look at 1 and 2 Samuel, we are studying really the life of David. He becomes the central human character, though the central figure is always the person of God Himself.
After I finished teaching last time, I always talk to Susan after the 8:30 service. She comes at 8:30 and I'll always say, "How was that?" She gives what we term constructive criticism. She said, "I'm having a really hard time following all these names." That made me think of a time a while ago when I decided I was going to take a year and study the Civil War. I took Shelby Foote's three or four books and said I was just going to work through them over the course of a year, a couple thousand pages. One of the things that happened very quickly was that I kept losing track of this general and then that general. So I developed my own little reference sheet, and I kept thinking a well-made, laminated version of that would be a really valuable tool to keep everything straight.
Susan was saying the same thing about our study here, and this is even more complicated in that not many of you know anyone named Ahithophel. You have names you're unfamiliar with that start and sound a little bit alike, and then you get tribe names dropped in as well. I can see where this becomes a real challenge. So I'm going to try to be very deliberate, because we introduce more players today and then go back and get reacquainted with some of the figures we've already met. I don't mean to insult you if I offer reminders about who someone is, but I want to make sure we grasp what God is telling us as He tells us this story and how it applies to our lives.
Who Is Absalom?
Absalom is a key figure in what we are looking at. Absalom is David's son, and he is a bad man. One author writes this: "Absalom was one of those men in this world who owed their prominence to a privileged birth and, or, a handsome appearance." Back in chapter 14, verse 25, it says, "In all of Israel there was no one as handsome as Absalom. So highly praised. He was without defect from the sole of his foot to the very top of his head." So he has this impressive resume and this handsome appearance, and together they give him a great advantage.
The author continues: "He squandered this advantage to a mixture of small-mindedness, limited abilities, and sheer vanity. He is one of those whose position and ambition placed him where he could bring misery, not merely to himself, but to untold thousands, even to a whole nation. Throughout the whole of the scripture record of Absalom's life, there is a decided air of inevitable disaster." And that is indeed who he is. He seems to be void of any sort of morality or ethic.
Absalom's Appeal to Israel
When we started in chapter 15, I made a point last time, and I'm going to take responsibility for this — apparently I didn't make it clearly enough, or I made it too clearly in my own mind and it was misunderstood. I was not trying to equate Absalom to any specific person. More so, I was pointing to what a leader, what a politician, will do. Absalom appeals to the nation of Israel by essentially saying, "We're going to bring you hope and change. I'm going to bring you a new way. The king won't listen to you, but I'll listen to you." That's not unique to any one leader — it's what all politicians do. It's never status quo. That's why Calvin Coolidge is something of a hero of mine: things were going well, and he left them alone. The political appeal is always that we need more, we need different, we need bigger, we need brighter — create a sense of urgency, then say, "I can meet your need." That is exactly what Absalom does here.
He is going against his own father in an act of profound disloyalty. He usurps his father's position so thoroughly that in 2 Samuel, chapter 15, verse 6, it says, "Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel." When you see the phrase "the men of Israel" in this part of our study, it refers to those who are following Absalom. Word of this comes to David in verse 13, where a messenger simply says, "The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom." The approval ratings are at an all-time low, and Absalom is the man.
David Flees Jerusalem
David's response seems strange to me. He says, in effect, "Fine — you can have it. I'm going to leave." Verse 14: "Arise and let us flee, for otherwise none of us will escape from Absalom." This is his own son he is talking about. So David leaves behind some concubines and departs the city.
There is a remnant that goes with him, including a man named Ittai, whom we meet in verse 19. The king says to Ittai, "Why are you going with me too? You're from a foreign land." In verse 20 he adds that Ittai has been there only a short while and is being asked to risk everything. Ittai answers: "As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely wherever my lord the king may be, whether in death or life, even there also will your servant be." So off they go, David in exile.
David is overwhelmed. He weeps for the city and he prays in verse 31. It is there that he introduces us to a man by the name of Ahithophel. Ahithophel is a highly respected man in the nation of Israel, and we will see that when he gave counsel —
Ahitophel's Counsel and Hushai's Deception
In chapter 16, verse 23, we are told that Ahitophel's advice in those days was as if one were inquiring of the word of the Lord. So it was with all the advice of Ahitophel, regarding both David and Absalom. He was a man whose counsel was spot-on and highly respected. When word came to David that Ahitophel was now acting as counselor to Absalom, David offered this simple prayer in verse 31: "Oh, Lord, I pray that you make the counsel of Ahitophel foolish." He was asking God to intervene — to take this man whose word had been absolutely solid and turn it into confusion.
In verse 32, a man named Hushai approaches David and says he wants to go with him. David tells him in verse 33 that he would be a burden — he does not explain exactly why, whether Hushai was too old or some other reason — but he assures Hushai he can still help. David instructs him to go back to the city, endear himself to Absalom, and establish an intelligence network, a combination of the CIA and the FBI, feeding David reports of what was happening in the city.
So back Hushai goes. In verse 15 of chapter 16, Absalom gathers all the people together, and Hushai arrives and declares, "Long live the king! Long live the king!" Absalom is suspicious and asks why Hushai, a friend of David, is now standing before him. Hushai answers that he served David before but is now there to serve Absalom. Absalom takes the bait.
Ahitophel's Two-Part Strategy
Absalom then turns to Ahitophel in verse 20 and asks for his counsel. This is the man whose advice had been rock-solid, as though it came from the Lord Himself. Ahitophel presents two things. The first, which is where the previous message left off, is found in verse 21: take the concubines David left behind and claim them for yourself. Doing so would declare to everyone that there is an irreconcilable difference between Absalom and his father — that the division is final, that David would never return to power, and that Absalom is the man in charge. Absalom does not simply carry this out quietly. He erects a tent on top of the palace so that everyone everywhere would know he had embarrassed and insulted David.
Ahitophel then presents his second piece of counsel in chapter 17: "Let me choose twelve thousand men, that I may arise and pursue David tonight. I will come upon him while he is weary, exhausted, and terrified, so that all the people with him will flee. Then I will strike down the king alone." The logic was straightforward — David was tired, weary, and defeated. His men were demoralized and discouraged. They had left the palace and did not fully understand what they were doing. Strike now. Do not take a breath. Do not give David time to rest, regroup, reorganize, or resupply. Get him now.
Hushai Undermines the Plan
Absalom then calls for Hushai and asks what he thinks of Ahitophel's advice. In verse 7, Hushai responds: "This time the advice that Ahitophel has given you is not good." He acknowledges that the man is right most of the time, but argues he is wrong here, and immediately explains why. In verse 8, Hushai says: "You know that your father and his men are mighty men. They are fierce, like a bear robbed of her cubs. Your father is an expert at warfare, and he will not spend the night with his people." His point is that David is like a trapped animal — fierce, experienced in war, and shrewd. He will not be found among the people. He will be hidden miles away, like a man concealed in one cave and then another. You will never find him.
Hushai then continues in verse 9, warning that if Absalom's forces strike and fail — because David will escape — word will spread that his men could not execute a victory and may have even been slaughtered. This will reflect badly on Absalom himself. Even the most valiant among his followers will lose courage and faith in him.
The Appeal to Absalom's Ego
Instead, Hushai offers his own counsel: gather all of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand of the sea in abundance, and then personally — Hushai underlines this point — personally go into battle yourself. Circle him in one of the places where he can be found, fall upon him as dew falls on the ground, and leave not one of his men standing. The appeal is unmistakable. Rather than sending Ahitophel with twelve thousand men, Hushai urges Absalom to be the one who leads, the one who strikes the decisive blow, the conquering hero. You can almost hear it — the music swelling, the battle raging, and Absalom emerging not merely as the man who killed David, but as the warrior king who destroyed David and all his men. This is what legends are made of. You are the man.
And the bait lands. In verse 14, Absalom said to all the men, "The counsel of Hushai is better than the counsel of Ahitophel." Now, circumstantially, that makes absolutely no sense.
God's Sovereignty Over Human Affairs
There is no reason why Absalom, already suspicious, would reject the advice of the proven commodity Ahithophel in favor of Hushai's counsel. That makes absolutely no sense. What in the world is going on here? Look at the last part of verse 14: "For the Lord had ordained to thwart the counsel of Ahithophel so that the Lord might bring calamity on Absalom." The Lord answered David's prayer from chapter 15, verse 31. Confusion now reigns around Absalom.
A point that is important to make is that God, even when it doesn't look like it, is at work in all of human affairs — individually and corporately. God raises up and God puts down. I need that reminder because I don't always sense it. I sometimes get swept away personally in the effects of the world around us.
It was a football Saturday yesterday. Game day starts at 7, so I was up at 6:45, made a little coffee, woke Susan up, made sure she had plenty of time to prepare breakfast. Just solid football from 7 in the morning until I passed out at 9:30 or so. College football — there is nothing that even remotely sniffs it.
In the middle of one of the games, during a little downtime, I flipped to one of those channels where the screen is cut into four and there are four different people all talking at once plus a moderator, and they were discussing the economy. I can get sucked into that very quickly. And I thought how good it was that I am teaching this very passage right now, because it is just that great reminder that even when things look bleak — and I personally think they are bleak and are going to get way worse — a passage like this brings perspective.
I think of the book of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, the king who said to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, "You better bow down to me because there is no God who can save you." The story tells us he is on top of his roof, reflecting, saying, "Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built?" And in the midst of that, God strikes him down and he is driven out into the wilderness like a beast for seven years, eating grass. Then after a period of time, he came to his senses, raised his eyes to heaven, and saw the Most High. His reason returned to him, and here is his testimony: "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways are just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride. For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, His kingdom endures from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. But He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can thwart His hand or say to Him, 'What have You done?'"
That is exactly what God has done right here. There is no possible reason, humanly speaking, for Absalom to take Hushai's advice. None. But he listened, and that is the beginning of Absalom's demise.
The Word Goes Back to David
The word spreads back because in verse 15, Hushai sends two of his men with a message. In verse 16, he tells them, "Tell David quickly, and tell him not to spend the night at the fords in the wilderness." Even though Hushai has given Absalom this information and Absalom has taken his advice, Hushai knows he could change his mind at any moment. So in verse 21, the word comes to David, and David says, "Arise, cross over the water quickly, for thus Ahithophel has counseled against you." David gathers the people together and away they go.
We now return to Ahithophel, and we are done with him after verse 23. He saw that his counsel was not followed, so he saddled his donkey and went home to his city to set his house in order. Then he strangled himself, and thus died and was buried in the grave of his father. We can only speculate what was going on. Perhaps he knew that if Absalom went down this road it would lead to certain disaster, and that when Absalom fell, he knew what would happen to him. Or perhaps it was simply a matter of honor. Whatever the reason, he killed himself.
David Organizes for War
Now the war begins. In chapter 18, David takes control as commander in chief. He numbers the people who are with him and sets commanders over thousands and commanders over hundreds, breaking down and structuring his army. He selects three men — Joab, Abishai, and Ittai — and says to them, "You three will be in command of these armies."
As they are marching out, David says he will lead the way himself. But the people come to him in verse 3 and say no. If one of them dies it is indeed costly, but David is worth ten thousand of them, and it is better for him to be ready to support them from the city. David, still coachable, replies, "Whatever seems best to you, I will do." So the king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out by the hundreds and the thousands.
David's Final Command
David agreed to stay behind as his forces marched out. As they left, he gave one order, recorded in verse five. He gave the same charge to Joab, Abishai, and Ittai: "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, Absalom." All the people heard the king charge all the commanders concerning Absalom. He had one wish, one command for them.
One commentator points out that David's graciousness and concern for his son actually put his own men in jeopardy. The rules of engagement had hamstrung them to a degree. But his instruction was clear: if God so blessed them that they had an opportunity to deal with Absalom, they were to deal with him gently. They were not to kill him.
The Battle and Absalom's End
A great battle was fought that day. Twenty thousand men were killed, and verse eight tells us that as many were devoured by the forest — the terrain was so treacherous that the land itself was consuming men and destroying them. Then Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. He was riding his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and his head caught fast in the oak, so he was left hanging between heaven and earth while the mule kept going.
This is a scene that is probably fairly humorous to everyone. Remember one of Absalom's distinguishing physical characteristics — his hair. He had hair so remarkable that when he cut it once a year, the portion cut off weighed as much as three and a half to four pounds. He was riding along in his proud, arrogant way, no helmet, with that hair flowing behind him — and somehow the hair became caught in that thicket. Josephus the historian tells us it was the hair that caught. There he hung, the mule gone, suspended in the tree.
Joab Defies the King's Order
David's men came along, and a certain man saw Absalom hanging there and went to his commander Joab. He said, "Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak tree." He had one piece of instruction in his mind concerning Absalom: be gentle. So he reported it to Joab.
Joab's response was immediate. "Behold, you saw him. Why did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have given you ten pieces of silver and a belt." He would have given the man medals and honors for killing Absalom. But the man said to Joab, "Even if you weighed out a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I would not put out my hand against the king's son, because in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying, 'Protect for me the young man Absalom.'" He knew how the outcome would play out. He knew that if he had killed Absalom, the word would have reached David, and Joab would have stepped back and left him to face the consequences alone. He said in verse thirteen that he would have acted treacherously against his own life, and that nothing was hidden from the king.
Joab had no patience for the conversation. He declared he would not waste time standing there talking. So Joab took three spears — not long spears, but likely short blades or even arrows — and thrust them through the heart of Absalom while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak. Ten young men who carried Joab's armor then gathered around and struck Absalom, and he died. Joab blew the trumpet, and the pursuit was called off. With the leader dead and twenty thousand fallen, there was no fighting force left. The war was over.
David Hears the News
In verse thirty-one, a Cushite messenger came to David and said, "Let my lord the king receive good news, for the Lord has freed you this day from the hand of all those who rose up against you." David had been delivered from all his opposition. It was finished.
But David asked only one thing. He did not ask for a casualty report. He did not ask about the damages, the wounded, or the details of how the battle unfolded. He asked one thing: "Is it well with the young man Absalom?" The Cushite answered, "May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you for evil, be as that young man." It was a tactful, gentle way to deliver the news. But David understood.
The Depth of a Father's Grief
The king was moved deeply. Some translations say he was shaken. He went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. As he walked he spoke the words recorded at the close of verse thirty-three — words Tom has circled in his Bible four times. He repeated the phrase over and over: "O my son Absalom, O my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son." He wished it could have been him instead of Absalom. The grief was immense for the one he had lost.
There are two ways of looking at what happens next. David was nearly inconsolable — he was as though he could not receive comfort, as though he rejected it entirely. His grief was so consuming that it began to infect his own people. Joab confronted him directly in chapter nineteen, verse one, stating that the king was weeping and mourning for Absalom, and that the victory of the day had been turned into mourning for all the people.
David's Grief in Proportion
David had experienced the loss of a child before. We can think of a couple of occasions, but the one that jumps off the page is back in chapter 12, when, as part of the consequence of his sin, God said that the child born of him and Bathsheba shall die. The child is struck down by the Lord. David goes into weeping and mourning, and then the child dies. The servants are afraid to go in and tell David, and David understands something is going on.
When they finally tell him the child has died, they explain that they had not wanted to tell him while the child was alive because he was already weeping, and they did not know how he would respond — he might even hurt himself. But David said, "When the child was alive, I fasted and wept. Who knows? God may be gracious. But now that he has died, why should I fast? Can I bring him back? I will go to him, but he will not return to me." That is a very different response than the one David has for Absalom.
At least we can speculate as to why. When David grieves for Absalom compared to his grief for the infant child, he seems to understand they are in two different places after death. When he says, "I will go to him," there is a conviction in his mind that the child is in a place of paradise and that he will be with him one day. With Absalom, he does not share that same confidence.
This is not to minimize grief. Paul tells us in First Thessalonians 4:13 that we grieve, but not as the rest who have no hope — we have hope. The statement was made this week that perhaps the most joyous occasion in our lives could be standing at the grave of someone we love, someone we know was a follower of Christ who has died. That may sound startling, but the point is that even in sorrow, there is a joy that takes place because we understand that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
A Father's Unspoken Responsibility
David's anguish over Absalom may have had a second dimension beyond the uncertainty of where his son stood before God — an extraordinary sense of guilt. Whether appropriate or false guilt, it is hard to say. There is a story of a young man who came to Larry and talked about his father. He said his dad was one of those really great guys — he taught him to hunt, to fish, how to play ball, the importance of an education, and how to work. He provided for him in all sorts of ways.
But he said to Larry, his father never once told him that he needed to have a personal relationship with Jesus. Not once. Church was done, but it was done around other things — it was not really the priority. And then this man said that just a few weeks ago he had come to realize something, and he made a determination: he would never shirk his responsibility as a father to tell his children about Christ.
All of that could be playing out in David's heart as well. Just read those words again — they are so sad: "Oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would that I had died instead of you. Oh, Absalom, my son, my son." You really feel the grief, and he goes on for a period of time.
Joab's Hard Counsel
Joab then comes to David and confronts him, and this is not an easy thing to do. The people are coming quietly, by stealth, back into the city as people who are humiliated. To take a little liberty with the illustration — they are coming back not as soldiers from Iraq who are celebrated, but like soldiers from Vietnam who were humiliated and spat upon. That was a very different era. Now, if someone calls in on a talk show and mentions they served four years in Iraq, the first thing the host says is, "Thank you for your service." That was not happening in the late 1960s and early 1970s. And Joab says to David, these men are victors, and they are sliding into town in shame. What are you doing?
One of the commentators writes it this way: when you find yourself immersed in sadness and trouble — bereavement — be thankful for cool heads around you who are able to give you wise counsel that you find so difficult to grapple with in the storm of your emotional trauma. You will probably say to your counselor, "Oh, that's easy for you to say — you're not going through what I'm facing." The truth is that it is not always so easy for the counselor, because the particular difficulty he has had to face is that of saying the hard things to you who need to hear them, when he knows you want to hear something else. Joab could understand a father's sorrow, but he also understood the necessity of proportion, at least of statecraft.
So Joab comes in and says, "Today you have covered with shame the faces of all your servants." He tells David he is pulling these men down and shirking his responsibilities. And finally, David gets it. In verse seven, Joab says, "Now therefore arise and go out and speak kindly..."
Leadership, Division, and the Vacuum of Power
"To your servants, for I swear by the Lord that if you did not go out, surely not a man will pass the night with you. And this will be worse than the plan of all of the evil that's come upon you from your youth till now." David needed to move, because in a vacuum of leadership, something was going to happen. And David moves. All the men of Israel, verse eight, fled to their own town.
David is now about to take command. We will see, as we get to this next time, that David goes to Judah, goes to his people, and that begins the process of him reclaiming the nation. But in his absence, look at this. In his absence, there is, verse nine, quarreling — quarreling and bickering and arguing. There is division. People begin to pursue their own agendas.
Let me make a point here. When there is not leadership in an organization or institution, the people will begin to devour themselves. That is true of a government — if it is not serving correctly. That is true in a business — if the leader is weak, all of a sudden they will be undermined. That is true in the home — if there is not leadership in the home, there is confusion in the home.
I was talking to somebody the other day who had visited their sister, and the trial they had was a five or six year old hitting the mom. If there are no boundaries set, that is what happens. We crave boundaries, though we push against them, don't we? They have done study after study among kids, and here is one of the things children really need: they need boundaries.
If you put children out in a field with a fence around them, they will play all over within that fence. You take that fence away, and rather than run free, they huddle together — they want freedom, but they also want to be protected. After a while, without those boundaries, they will run away. Boundaries are not taken away; they are needed.
David Moves, and a Pretender Emerges
What happens next is that David begins to move into action. He has two men — Zadok and Abiathar — and he is going to deliver a message to them. That is where we will pick up next time.
I thought it was interesting, because that same absence of leadership always creates an opportunity for someone to come in and take people away. That is exactly what happened in chapter twenty, verse one: "A worthless fellow happened to be there whose name was Sheba," and he takes control of the people. The bickering and arguing are still going on, and he emerges into that vacuum.
A Picture of the Coming King
Many of the commentators, as they deal with this passage, offer at least the idea — and I am not going to camp there, but I will share it — that this is a picture, when we get to the New Testament, of Jesus as well. Here is the nation of Israel who needs a king. David is waiting to be recognized as king, and he will emerge again as king. The commentators come to the New Testament and say it was something like this with Jesus: He came first to His people, they rejected Him, and Jesus will come again. There are some really interesting theories around all of that, and I do not want to go too far down that road, but it does raise a point I want to follow through on.
What We Know About the Lord's Return
Susan is in the process of taking a Precepts class in the book of Revelation, so our kitchen table is filled with study books. If you walked in, you would say, "Boy, that Tom is quite a student." No — mine are over there in the corner. These are her books. She has charts and graphs, studying and working to figure out what is going on and when it is going to happen.
I will be honest — I do not know that material too well, and part of it is that I am not very curious about it. That said, I did become a Christian when Hal Lindsey was going full bore with *The Late Great Planet Earth*, and that was a real hot topic. I think he sold around twenty million copies of that book.
Here is what I do know. Jesus said no one knows the day or the hour, so I very quickly concluded I am never going to figure out the day or the hour. I do know that He is coming again. I do not know about all the particulars of how or when. And I know this is a terrible thing to say, but I do not spend much time worrying about it. I was on vacation and saw a T-shirt that summarized something of how I view this. It said, "Jesus is coming again — look busy." That is not to minimize the study others do. I am simply saying everyone has their own focus, and that particular one is not mine.
Signs of the Last Days
As you work your way through the New Testament, there are times — Matthew 24, and again in 2nd Timothy 3 — where we get signals and signs. Jesus says you are going to see earthquakes and all of this, but that will not be the sign. Then in 2nd Timothy 3:1 we are told what people are going to look like in the last days: lovers of self, lovers of money.
Peter also deals with this in 2nd Peter, chapter 3. He says, "Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following their own lusts." That ties right into 2nd Timothy 3. These mockers are going to say, "Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was before creation." They are going to say, wait a minute — I thought He was coming again, but everything is going on just as it always was, and it has been two thousand years.
Peter goes after this directly. He says, "Do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord a day is a thousand years, and a thousand years is a day. The Lord is not slow about His promises, as some count—"
Living in Light of Christ's Return
The Lord is not slow concerning His promise, but He is patient toward you. He is coming back. It has been thousands of years for us, yet only a brief moment in His time frame, in His calendar. So what do we do with that?
The day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which heaven will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burnt up. Since all these things would be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you be? Holy in conduct and godly. According to the promise, we look for a new heaven and a new earth. Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless, blameless.
That does not mean perfect. It means in right relationship with Him. Jesus is indeed coming again.
What We Are Called to Do
What are we to do until then? We are to make the invisible God visible, to speak the truth boldly, to live in a way that people look at us and see God. And then we say it is not us — it is Jesus who lives in us.
We are to live in a way that brings honor and glory to Him. Whether we eat or drink — 1 Corinthians 10:31 — whatever we do, we do it for the honor and glory of God. This is not a license to say we are safe and He is coming, so it does not matter. It is to understand that we are His remnant, we are His people.
The Weight of Communion
Do you know the truth of that? If you took communion, what you were in essence saying is, "Yes, that is me." If you did not take communion, let me take a moment and speak to you. What you are saying at that moment is either that you do not know what was just said, you are not sure about it, or you do not believe it.
Here is what the Bible teaches: all of us have sinned. You know something is wrong with the world, and you know something is wrong with you. We may not know exactly what it is, but the Bible says it is sin — not just a specific action. There is something wrong with you systemically, something wrong with your heart. It is not the behavior He is talking about; it is your heart. Something is wrong with your heart, and you cannot fix it.
But Christ died so that you might have eternal life. And all those things you want so desperately in life — not the material things, but the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the kindness, the goodness, the gentleness, the faithfulness, the self-control, the freedom from bondage — those things you have through Christ.
The Search for Peace
Haven't you looked everywhere? Haven't you tried to snort peace, drink peace, buy peace, rent peace, sleep with peace, touch peace, rub peace? You work like mad to find peace in this world. You excel in academics, you win the scholarship, or you say forget everything and just go party.
All of those pursuits are the same. All of them are attempts to find recognition and significance apart from a right relationship with Christ. But Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me."
Do you know the truth of that?
An Invitation
If you are here right now and you are asking what to do, in just a moment, men from our pastoral staff will be up front in the conference center and here in the chapel. They are here every week, and they would love to talk with you about what it means to know Christ. They are here to pray with you.
Maybe you have a deep burden on your heart. Maybe you are like David — the situation is different from Absalom's, but something in your heart is so heavy and you want to share that burden. That is why these men are here up front. Or maybe it is a matter of praise. They are here to serve you, to talk about what matters most. Nothing — nothing — is more important than this.
Closing Prayer
Father, thank You for this truth. Thank You for the men, the women, and the students who are here. We need this message. When we listen to the cries of David's heart for Absalom, it reminds us of the pain we feel all around us so often. It also reminds us that comfort is found in You and You alone. Take this amazing truth and apply it to our hearts. We pray to You in Christ's name. Amen.