And it is on. Yeah, thank you. And there’s a big clock too.
Good evening, brothers and sisters.
If we could first begin in the Word, in our theme passage, please turn with me to 1 Chronicles 12.
First Chronicles 12. Read verse 32:
And of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do.
And then, if we could turn to 2 Samuel. We are just going to outline a part of David’s life that we are going to focus on today. Second Samuel 15. This is after Absalom has started the rebellion against David.
Verse 13:
Then a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.” And David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, for otherwise none of us shall escape from Absalom.”
Verse 17:
And the king went out, and all the people with him; and they stopped at the last house.
And verse 30:
And David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went, and his head was covered as he walked barefoot. Then all the people who were with him each covered his head, and went up weeping as they went.
Let us bow for a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You for this night, that we can all come before You. Thank You, Lord, for all the things that You have prepared for us. We pray, Lord, that You might open our hearts tonight so that we might see You and hear what You are saying.
Lord, we pray that You might have fertile ground in our hearts to be able to speak. Lord, we pray for the listening; Lord, we pray for the speaking, that there would be One exalted high above all other things. Lord, might You have that first place in all of our hearts?
So, Lord, tonight we are all waiting for You. Lord, please do not hold anything back. Lord, we pray that those things in our hearts that are standing in the way—strongholds—Lord, have permission to take them down. Lord, so tonight, be glorified, we pray. In Jesus’ name, amen.
So, brothers and sisters, this was Ben and June’s fortieth CFC. This is my first CFC. I am really glad to be here.
I am a Californian, so I have been praying with the brothers before meetings and just realizing how appealing this Southern drawl is. It is so warm and welcoming, and so I appreciate it so much.
I have to say that, even though it is my first time here, I remember very vividly twenty years ago, at a very hard time in my life, I used to drive to work very early. It was when I was in training. I would drive to work at 3 a.m., 4 a.m.
I had a bag in the back of my Volkswagen, and I had all of these tapes from the Richmond Conference. I would listen to them every day, every morning at 4 a.m. I would laugh out loud at some of the jokes that were made and sometimes, you know, be brought to tears.
But during those years, something happened to me. The messages helped me to see that the brothers were talking about a plane of life that I did not know. I had been saved, but there was something that was being mentioned that spoke to my heart: there was something real, something higher, worth living for.
And so, those years, to be honest, I did not really know what it was, except that it was there and that it was real. What ended up happening—and I think this has happened maybe to many of you as well—is that the Lord would start to put a thought from the messages into my mind, and it would sort of begin to stir in my heart.
I knew there was something there to grasp, but I could not quite get it. But the Lord would help me, because the knowledge would start to form, and then He would introduce me into some situation where all of a sudden that head knowledge would suddenly need to become real, to have feet and run. I do not know if you know what I mean, brothers and sisters, but the Lord seems to teach us in this way.
That is to say, He shows us a knowledge, or gives us a knowledge, of the times. Maybe we hear it and, you know, we do not quite understand. But in His great mercy, He intervenes and brings us into these situations where what we have heard becomes alive.
What has maybe been just on the superficial surface layer of our life starts to flow deeper into the soil of our heart, and some life begins to spring forward.
So, brothers and sisters, I have not been here before, but let it just be said that the ministry of the Lord has been great in many lives.
And so we come to this passage about the sons of Issachar. The Lord very much had been doing the same thing to them. Our brothers, Mac and Dana, had already mentioned that this passage in 1 Chronicles is a point in time. Before this point in time, the Lord had already been at work in many different ways to show Himself to them.
As the knowledge of the times began to grow in their hearts, the Lord brought them to this decision point, this moment of action, where they had to choose whether or not to follow after David.
When we read 1 Chronicles 12, we see that there are two parts to this theme verse:
And of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do.
Now, brothers and sisters, I took a little calculated risk. I bet that one of our senior older brothers was going to talk about that first part. So the Lord put on my heart that I should share on the second part: “with knowledge of what Israel should do.”
Before we begin, we have to share something that is very important: the second part of this verse cannot be without the first part of this verse. It cannot be that someone would listen to this particular series of messages and not combine it, or have it under the authority of, the messages that our brothers are bringing.
Because it is the knowledge of the times, and that growing sense of what the Lord is doing, that helps us to know what we should do in these days. The remarkable thing about the Lord is that He teaches us in so many different ways.
He might teach us through hearing something in a message or reading something in our morning devotion, and then, in that very day, introduce something into our life—a decision point where we must choose. Through that decision point, He increases in our heart.
So these things, brothers and sisters, come together. But the part that the Lord has put on my heart is: with knowledge of what Israel should do.
Now, if we can imagine for a moment Hebron on this particular day, the Bible takes an inventory of all these incredible people who came. Let us take Zebulun as an example: fifty thousand went out in the army, who could draw up in battle formation with all kinds of weapons of war and helped David with an undivided heart.
This was one tribe. As we go through all the tribes, there were, you know, seven thousand here, thirty thousand there. Then when we get to Issachar, there are two hundred and their kinsmen.
Some of these men could fight with the right hand, and if you started beating them with their right hand, they would switch to their left hand. They could use a shield; they could use a spear. But of this tribe, what the Bible tells us that they brought was this knowledge. This knowledge was their contribution.
The knowledge led to an understanding of what Israel should do. Here, what we see is that to be prepared is an action verb, brothers and sisters. The Lord speaks, the Lord teaches, and the Lord is so merciful to us.
Yet what He is telling us is not meant to sit in our hearts as some library. What He is longing for is a people who will move, who will follow after Him, who will be arms and legs and hands and feet for the things that He is longing for.
He revealed to the sons of Issachar the knowledge of the times—the things that He was doing, the things that were in His heart, the things that He was longing for—in order for them to know where they should go and what they should do.
The wonderful thing here, brothers and sisters, is that they were not given the knowledge of what Issachar should do. They were given the knowledge of what Israel should do.
What this tells us is that what the Lord had been showing them about the times was in their hearts: they were part of a whole. They saw themselves as a small tribe, but they were part of something so large and so wonderful—what the Lord is doing.
For a Californian to come to Virginia and see all of these brothers and sisters whom I have never met, to know that we are on the same journey—brothers and sisters, the Lord is showing us things, maybe in our local areas, maybe in our own individual lives, but make no mistake: the Lord is preparing a bride.
This bride is composed of all of us. The knowledge of what He is revealing to us is unto something so glorious, so wonderful, that is in His heart.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord has shown us and taught us very much. In my life, I was born into this. I did nothing to deserve to hear, over the years, all the things that I heard.
I sat so many years in the audience, not really understanding what our brothers were saying and wondering when something would stick. The Lord did it in His time, through multiple different exposures, my resistance, and His faithfulness.
But make no mistake: we have heard things that no human being should hear. We have no right to know these secret things that are in the Lord’s heart, certainly not by our flesh or our goodness.
Somehow, by the Lord’s grace, He brought brothers among us. He showed these brothers something, and the brothers were faithful to deliver these messages to us with the Lord’s hope that they would fall into our hearts, bear fruit, and that we might know the times, know where we are going, and know what we are doing.
So, brothers and sisters, for my two sessions, I would like to fellowship on “with knowledge of what Israel must do,” what Israel must choose.
Mac, on the first night, shared a verse at the end of Peter’s life. After all the years of Peter’s ministry, the things that he had seen, and the many times he stuck his foot in his mouth—and the Lord kept him going—at the end of all of it, Peter had one last encouragement.
He asked:
What sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of the Lord?
What I remember when I heard this verse the first time is that it is quite remarkable that our conduct, or the things that we do, might be linked in this way to eternal things. Somehow, the knowledge of the times, leading to what we should do, could be linked to fulfilling the Lord’s heart.
In the Lord’s wisdom, He knew that He would introduce risk into His plan if He gave us the liberty to choose. And He did.
But in His wisdom, He knew that the only way for the bride to be made ready was if men and women had a choice—if we had the freedom to choose what we might do. This free will can, in so many ways, be a stumbling block to us. Yet it was through this that He might have His final victory.
When I was in sixth grade, I had an English teacher named Mr. Sharp. He taught English and tennis. He was an interesting guy, and we began to read Paradise Lost.
I remember that I sat maybe ten rows back on the right, and I had a classmate named Michelle. She sat maybe four rows ahead of me and to the left. One day, as we were reading through Paradise Lost, she raised her hand and said, “Mr. Sharp, if it was so important that we be good people, why did God even put that tree in the Garden of Eden?”
I remember this question so vividly because I grew up in a Christian family, and it made a lot of sense to me, right? If God’s purpose was that we would be good people and do good things, then the introduction of this tree was a complete risk to that ultimate purpose.
If you and I could journey to this garden for a moment, look at this tree, and wonder, “Why is it here? Why did the Lord plant this tree and introduce such risk if the purpose were only that we might be good?”
What we see is that, because of the Lord’s incredible wisdom, the tree must be there. Because you and I need the freedom to make our own choice.
Maybe freedom is a stumbling block to salvation, my brothers and sisters. But what we begin to realize is that it is important and part of the Lord’s plan unto His bride coming to Him in love.
If we think about the military for a moment, it would be the opposite, right? Imagine a drill sergeant coming one morning and saying, “Bang! Get up out of bed, you filthy piece of whatever. In ten minutes, you are going to be running ten miles—if you want. And, if you want, you can hold the line on the right flank, if you are feeling good that day.”
The introduction of our own choice is not conducive toward efficiency or a successful military regimen. But thankfully, the house of God is not like the military.
We remember when Onesimus ran away from Philemon. Onesimus was Philemon’s slave. He ran away, and he finally got his freedom this way. He ran, and the poor guy met Paul.
In the midst of meeting Paul, he realized, “I am free now from Philemon, but in my heart, I know that I have to be a slave to the Lord.” So, in his heart, he decided, “I am going to go back.”
Paul wrote a letter—the book of Philemon—and he writes Philemon, saying, “I am hoping that you can accept him back as a brother.” But he says, “I do not want you to do it under compulsion.”
This was a letter for a brother to know how to love another brother, who happened to be his previous slave and who happened to run away. But it is a story about love.
Love cannot happen from compulsion. Love is a choice. The defining factor of the bride being made ready is built upon love.
The Lord introduced choice to us, knowing what a risk it would be to His plans. But He believed—He knows—that in the end, even though all these opportunities were made available for us to run away and go our own direction, somehow there would be a people who would see the times and choose Him.
In this, brothers and sisters, is a victory for Him. The sons of Issachar had a knowledge of the times, and I will refer you to our brothers and their messages to talk about how critical this was. But with that knowledge came this choice: What should we do?
Our example is the story of David’s life about twenty years later at Hebron. It is an imperfect example, but it is an example for us of how we should live when we are waiting for the King to come home.
If we turn back to 2 Samuel, we come back to Hebron. Hebron in 1 Chronicles 12 was when all these people came forward to say, “David will be our king.” But as time passed, David went through his own challenges. In fact, he made many, many mistakes.
After David had become king, over a period of time, he had an affair with Bathsheba. He murdered Uriah. His daughter Tamar was raped. His son Absalom killed the perpetrator and was subsequently exiled.
When Absalom was brought back, he began to rile up the people in order to overthrow his father and take the throne. This was the story of David’s life until we come back to Hebron in this chapter.
Absalom was camouflaging a little bit. The way he began to move was that he would get up early, go to the gates, and, as people were coming in to be judged, Absalom would hear their case and say, “If I were the king, I would make sure that people like you would receive justice.”
He began to tell the people exactly what they wanted to hear. It is so similar to the deception of the world—not only in the secular world, but also in the religious world—that we are hearing all the things that we want to hear.
The Lord was building up in our hearts all this self-focused pleasure because the king of the world was telling us what we needed to hear. What ended up happening was that the knowledge of the times was gone.
We began to see that we wanted Absalom to be king because Absalom makes us feel good. What is wrong with that? So the people began being won over to him.
Until we come to 2 Samuel 15. Absalom tells David, his father, “I am going to go back to Hebron. I need to fulfill a vow to the Lord.” So David tells his son, “Go.”
Absalom goes, and he tells his men that when they hear the trumpet, they are to come, and Absalom will be declared king. When David’s men and servants hear about this, they come and tell David. Here in verse 13, the messenger comes to David saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.”
David knows that they are outnumbered. The hearts are not there, and it is time for them to leave. So he leaves, and those who are willing to go with him go.
They come to the last house. He watches family by family walk over, and they are in tears, weeping. He crosses over the Mount of Olives, and nobody knows if and when he will ever come back.
Brothers and sisters, imagine for a moment that you and I were there at that time. We are in our homes, and we hear that Absalom has been named king. We hear that David is escaping, and there is no time. We must make a decision now.
Are you going to go with him? Am I going to go with him? Are we going to stay? You cannot pack anything. We have no time.
The knowledge also rests in our heart that if we choose David and Absalom catches us, it is likely the end. Think for a moment, brothers and sisters: what would we choose? It is not easy.
We think that we are strong, but the truth of the matter is that when the time comes, we need the Lord’s grace and mercy to make us ready, to be building us up in our hearts for that moment.
There are stories of three people in the coming months as they waited for David to potentially come back. The stories of these three people help us to look for a moment at what we should do while we are waiting for the Lord.
The Lord separated this question in my heart in two ways. One is—and I am going to borrow from Dana now because it is clearer—the kairos: the larger picture, being able to see the things the Lord is doing and make these larger decisions in our life that are foundational and help us to know where we are going.
The second part is the chronos decisions that we make every day. Brother Kong referred to them this morning: our daily decisions that might be unto the Lord’s coming back, which is just baffling, right? That our daily decisions might be unto that end.
So, in terms of the things that Israel should do, the things that we should do, there are the large, foundational things that we would like to talk about tonight. Tomorrow morning, we would like to share more about the daily things, the things that reach to our daily lives and our daily decisions.
The first story, brothers and sisters, may be familiar to many of us. It comes in 2 Samuel 15. We will read beginning at verse 17:
And the king went out, and all the people with him; and they stopped at the last house.
Now all his servants passed on beside him; all the Cherethites, all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who had come with him from Gath, passed on before the king.
Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why will you also go with us? Return and remain with the king; for you are a foreigner and also an exile. Return to your own place. You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander with us, while I go where I will? Return, and take back your brothers; mercy and truth be with you.”
Here, brothers and sisters, is our first example of how we should choose, or an example of what to choose. Ittai was a Gittite. He was not of the people. He had likely never met David before, and he came from far away to this land because he had heard about this king.
It just so happened that on the day he arrived, Absalom mutinied. He comes the next day, and all the people are crossing over. David is standing at the last house, like the border of Jerusalem, watching these people come.
David knew who he was. As Ittai comes with his family, David sees him and says, “You only came yesterday.” He says, “Why do you not go back with the king?” David has already set in his heart that the king now is no longer David; Absalom is king. “Why do you not go back?”
He sees Ittai’s entourage. It is not like Ittai has all these mighty men of valor. He has his kids with him, as we will read in just a moment. David says, “You should go back. Make a home. Find your place and be at rest.”
Here is a decision point for Ittai. Think about him for a moment. He has every reason not to go. He has just come from a long journey. He has kids with him. Even David is telling him that he does not need to come.
What is going through Ittai’s mind? I have four kids. My oldest two can walk on their own now for long distances, but I have two little ones. I know many of you have little guys. I see them running out or walking out when they are told to leave.
They can walk short distances, but I remember when I would take them to an amusement park and we would walk. After a hundred yards, they would say, “Dad, can you hold me?” So I would hold them and carry them on my shoulders. We would go a little further, and I would say, “No, that is enough. You have got to walk.” They would go another hundred yards: “Dad.”
This is the reality of our life when we are parents. It is just who we are. Ittai was a parent.
David looked at him. There was no one who knew better than David what it was to run from cave to cave. He had lived his life doing this. He saw Ittai and knew what difficulties would come.
Ittai’s choices were two. Number one: I could stay. I could stay with the knowledge that King David permitted me to stay. I could find a place for me and my family. I could be here knowing that my heart is with King David. I came for him, but I will stay even though Absalom is king. I do not know how long that will be. It might be forever.
The other option was that I was going to leave with David. I was going to run from place to place for who knows how long. My kids might never find their own home, moving from cave to cave. But they would be with him.
Now, brothers and sisters, it is easier said than done to say, “I would choose to go.” But here is a great temptation for us.
The Lord has shown us many things through the years. What has happened to us is that we would like to stay in Jerusalem with Absalom with a thought that my heart is with David.
But the truth of the matter is, when we are far away from him, our heart will be far away from him. We have a sense of the knowledge, like a shadow of him, but nearness to him is not a part of our life.
We can get away with it. We can. Salvation for us is secure, thankfully, by the great mercy of God. But the knowledge of being close to Him is lost.
Here we see this decision point. The King—our King, the Lord Jesus—has a secret in His heart. The secret is hidden in the Gospel of John.
The Lord Jesus said in John 12:26:
If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be.
Let us read that second part again because it is so lovely:
Where I am, there shall also My servant be.
What He was saying is that, in His heart of hearts, it is not so much what we do. It is that in His heart, He wants for us to be with Him where He is. He loves to be with us.
The secret is shared again in John 14:3:
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
He repeats it. We know it is important to Him. Then it is His final prayer in John 17:24:
Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am.
What we see here is a secret in the Lord’s heart. It is more than just how we would be saved, know the right things to do, and live a good life. He has a secret in the secret of His heart, linked to His love for the bride: wherever she is, she would be near to Him, always with Him.
This applies even now, today, to individual Christians whom we know are being molded into that perfect bride. His heart is that where He is, they might be also.
This heart is what separates choice A and choice B. When the time came for Ittai to make his choice, this was one of the foundational choices, brothers and sisters, that we must decide in our hearts.
Ittai replied to the king in 2 Samuel 15:21:
And Ittai answered the king, and said, “As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether for death or for life, even there also will thy servant be.”
What we see here, brothers and sisters, is that Ittai saw the times. He knew the times. He knew that there was something greater, something worth living for, beyond his own personal comfort, salvation, or validation.
Here is the first choice: what we should do, what we need to do with the knowledge of the times. We must value the secret that is in the Lord’s heart. It is not enough for us to have an image, an outline, or a silhouette of who the Lord is, but to be close to Him, know His presence, and go with Him where He is.
What Ittai was essentially saying was, “Even if I have everything else in the world, but I do not have You, Lord, that is not for me.”
It is so much easier to read this story than to know it in our hearts, because we are so tempted by staying back with Absalom. But if we know the times, we must choose what Israel should do. We cannot stand on the sidelines.
So he made this decision to go. David’s heart must have been so full of joy. I always think that when David heard him say this, David must have thought, “I surely will bring these little ones home.”
I always see David seeing them and loving Ittai and loving the children as they went. In verse 22 we read:
Therefore David said to Ittai, “Go and pass over.” So Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones that were with him.
The first choice is before us. But there is a part of this decision that really speaks to me: the little ones.
For me, one of the things that is very hard—and you may share this, those of us who are parents—is that sometimes I may, by the grace of the Lord, be willing to go myself. But it is a different question when I have to make the decision: How am I going to raise my kids? Where am I going to bring them?
What I am deciding is to bring my kids from cave to cave, maybe never settling down, maybe never in this life knowing that piece of an inheritance from their dad, always going from place to place, and in this world never having a home.
But brothers and sisters, I think we need to consider the cost of that. Many of us who love the Lord and love our kids want our kids to be able to see the King—not just hear about Him or have Him in the periphery of our vision.
We want them to know what it is, when they are afraid, to be able to go to Him; to know His voice; to hear Him say, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me.”
This is a very hard thing for us as parents: what choices do we make with our kids and our family? But in the choices of our life, when we see and have a knowledge of the times, what are we going to choose?
The only hope for our families and our kids is to see the Lord Jesus, to see Him in a real way. That, brothers and sisters, should in some way encourage us to be like Ittai, to be like the sons of Issachar, to make this choice.
Ittai was a younger man, I think. I imagine that Ittai had little kids, so I always think of him as sort of in my generation.
The next person is Hushai. Hushai, I think, was in the older generation—David’s generation. Hushai was David’s counselor.
Before meetings, I get to pray with my brothers. When I pray with my brothers, I think of Hushai as in their generation. This is an older brother with wisdom who has gone through a journey.
David heard that a brilliant man named Ahithophel had decided to stay with Absalom. Ahithophel was kind of an evil genius. I hate to say it this way, but he really was.
When David left, he left ten concubines to keep his house. Ahithophel came to Absalom, and when Absalom asked for his counsel, his first counsel was, “Set up a tent on the highest place so that everyone in the entire area can see, and go into each of your father’s concubines one by one to let the world know who is king.”
This was so wickedly brilliant, was it not? Just the optics of what he was advising. As we move on in the story, we realize that Ahithophel came up with a military strategy that would have utterly destroyed David, Ittai, all of Ittai’s children, and all the ones who had gone with David.
Word had come back to David that Ahithophel had stayed with Absalom. At this point, Hushai comes in. We read together in 2 Samuel 15:32:
It came to pass, that when David was come to the top, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat rent, and earth upon his head.
And David said unto him, “If thou passest on with me, then thou wilt be a burden unto me: but if thou return to the city, and say unto Absalom, ‘I will be thy servant, O king; as I have been thy father’s servant in time past, so will I now be thy servant,’ then wilt thou defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.”
What David was asking Hushai to do was to go back and thwart the counsel of Ahithophel—essentially, to be a double agent.
Clearly, brothers and sisters, this was a dangerous mission. If Hushai was discovered, I am quite sure that it would be the end. He would face the music. And so Hushai goes.
This is the second decision point for us, brothers and sisters. After we have a knowledge—after the Lord has shown us the knowledge of the times—and we have in our heart that there is something worth living for, then the question comes to us: Can we engage?
There was still a battle going on in Jerusalem, and David was asking Hushai to engage in the battle. Hushai, again, I believe, was an older man. He was a counselor to the king. The king was Absalom’s father, so he was of the older generation.
Hushai went. He went into harm’s way for the sake of the king.
It is very easy for us to have a knowledge of the times and yet stay on the sidelines, not engage, meaning stay behind the lines where it is safe and there is no risk.
But what happens to us when we do that is that we begin to have a lingering memory of our King on the line. When we fall back and are not engaged, we forget the things that are on His heart. We forget our brothers and sisters who are on the line.
We basically seclude ourselves in our own world, and we forget the times. So this decision point for us, brothers and sisters, is this: Are we willing to engage in these days?
This is another hard question, and again, one of these foundational questions that I certainly do not have the answer to, even in my own life. But what we do know, brothers and sisters, is that disengaging causes our hearts to become like rocks.
Disengaging causes us to forget all the things that the Lord loves. Our testimony dies when we are far away from where the Lord Jesus is.
David’s challenge to Hushai was, “Go back,” and Hushai did. Ahithophel came up with this incredible plan: send twelve thousand men out, overwhelm David, kill them all.
Hushai came forward with an alternate plan. He said to Absalom, “You know your father. You know he is a skilled warrior.” He began to introduce a completely losing plan—losing for Absalom—and he won Absalom over.
Hushai’s counsel was taken over Ahithophel’s. Hushai then sent word through Zadok and the children of the priests, and they got word over to King David.
What we see here, brothers and sisters, is that Hushai did engage. Because Hushai engaged, he saved everyone. Everyone was saved because this one man engaged.
When we see ourselves in the light of the house of God, what we realize is the call to engage. We are all in the battle together. Each of us engages so that we can protect the house of God.
It is not just one person who does it, because it was not just Hushai. Over and over again in the house of God, the sons of Issachar must engage in the battle. We all are protecting one another, and it is impossible for us to survive one without the other.
It reminded me of a story that I had read many times. Recently it came into my heart again, and it is actually a story from one of David’s lowest points.
Earlier, David was walking on his rooftop, and his eyes fell on this beautiful woman, Bathsheba. David called Bathsheba, had an affair with her, and she became pregnant.
Her husband, Uriah, was a mighty man of David. David tried to escape what he had done, so he asked Uriah to come back to the city. Uriah had been fighting on the line, and he was brought back to the city.
David asked him how the war was going, asked him some questions, and then said, “Why do you not go home and enjoy the night?” But Uriah did not do it. He spent the night outside with the servants of the king.
The next day, David came to him and said, “Why did you not go back? You deserve it. You have been fighting this war. Go back.”
Uriah had an incredible response. This was his king that he was talking to, so something must have stirred up in his heart. He said to the king, as the king was trying to deceive him:
The ark and Israel and Judah are abiding in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open field; shall I then go into my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife?
He was saying to the king, “I am supposed to be out there. I am supposed to be engaged in the battle. I will not go home, drink and eat, and lie with my wife while the ark is in the field.”
This, brothers and sisters, is the heart of a mighty man of God. As long as the ark is in the field, I must engage.
Brothers and sisters, in these days and the times, the ark is in the field. The King is still fighting. Our choice is: Are we with Him, or do we shrink into the background and hide, so that all we remember of Him is a memory?
No doubt, when that happens, brothers and sisters, the testimony will die. It is to be with Him where He is—in the battle, engaged.
This is our second choice. The story of Hushai helps us. There is another hint about Hushai. In 1 Chronicles 27:33—and actually a couple of other places—every time they describe him, they say, “Hushai, David’s friend.”
Second Samuel 15:37 says:
So Hushai David’s friend came into the city, and Absalom came into Jerusalem.
Second Samuel 16:16 says:
And it came to pass, when Hushai the Archite, David’s friend, was come unto Absalom, that Hushai said unto Absalom, “God save the king, God save the king.”
What does it mean to be a friend? A friend is someone whom you know. Someone whom, when you are around them, you do not need to pretend you are someone whom you are not. Someone whose heart you know—how their heart is wired, the things they love and the things they do not love.
Hushai had been David’s friend for long enough that when the choice came—engage or disengage—he chose to engage.
We think of all the other friends of God mentioned in the Bible: Abraham, Moses, and John the Baptist. What we see in all of those stories is that the friends of God are able to go where they cannot go and do things that they cannot do in their own flesh because of this nearness to God.
Might it be that over the years—we may be young, but over the years—we pursue this friendship with the Lord so that when the time comes, and the challenge and choice come for us to decide whether to engage or disengage, we might engage.
Now, brothers and sisters, we have to turn to our last example. It is from 2 Samuel 16:1:
And when David was a little past the top of the ascent, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and a hundred summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
Ziba was from the house of Saul. Ziba had a relative from the house of Saul named Mephibosheth.
Mephibosheth was the one David chose to dine with him at his table. David was searching for a relative of Jonathan and Saul to whom he could show love, out of respect and love for Saul and Jonathan. So he chose Mephibosheth.
But we remember that when Mephibosheth was a baby and running away, his nurse fell, and he was crippled. Yet David chose him, and Mephibosheth would dine at table with David. It was there, no doubt, that Mephibosheth met Absalom.
Mephibosheth knew Absalom, and he knew David. When the time came, there were many who were still supportive and loyal to the house of Saul.
We read later about a man named Shimei who, as David was leaving the city, was hurling abuse at David. He was from the house of Saul and was saying that the house of Saul was going to return to power. They were throwing rocks at David. David’s captain said, “I am going to go cut his head off,” and David calmed him down.
There were many who supported Saul. Had Mephibosheth chosen to align with Absalom, I am sure that it would have been a very good political union.
The battle went on, and now I can tell the good news: because of Hushai’s counsel, David and his men defeated Absalom and his army. When David came back, he found Mephibosheth.
Here we see a third testimony of how we should be while we are waiting for the King to return. It is in 2 Samuel 19:24.
Ziba had told David that Mephibosheth stayed behind because Mephibosheth wanted to restore himself to his father’s throne. Of course, this was not true.
Then Mephibosheth came down to meet the king as he had returned:
And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.
Let me read that second half again:
He had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.
When the king was exiled, Ziba had taken off and Mephibosheth was left behind. Mephibosheth needed to make a choice: “With whom do I align myself?”
Because he could not leave—he was crippled—what he chose was, “I am not going to wash my feet or trim my toenails. I am not going to cut my hair. I am not going to cut my beard until he returns.”
It was a statement of faith that it would happen. Until the king comes back, everyone who looks at my life will know that I am waiting for something, and I am waiting for Someone.
They may look at me, perhaps in the world’s eyes, with some degree of disdain. They may look at me with pity. But my testimony, the testimony of my life, will be that this world is not my home.
Until my King returns, everyone who sees my life will know that I am with Him.
Brothers and sisters, I was even asking the Lord about this: even if he had failed one day and cut his toenails, the testimony would have been different. But this brother, every day, had said it in his heart: “I am going to wait.”
The world may look at me with shame and disdain, but I will look to Him, and I will wait for Him to come back.
This is another thing for us to consider: what will be our testimony? When the world looks at us, what are they going to see?
This is a hard decision for us. We want the world to look on us with some degree of regard. But here was a brother who said, “I do not care how the world thinks of me. I want them to look at me and know I am waiting for something, Someone whom I know will return.”
So, brothers and sisters, here we are: a returning King, a knowledge of the times. What should Israel do?
We have these three larger, more foundational decisions that we have to make:
Might the Lord give us grace, and might He not let go of us, that as we see more of the times and understand that something is coming, He might give us these decision points, these times of choosing in our heart, and give us grace and strength to know how we should go.
Let us bow.
Dear Lord, we worship and thank You. Lord, we pray that You might find a people after Your own heart. Thank You, Lord, for never letting go of us.
Thank You, Lord, for bringing up in our lives, time and again, these opportunities for us to stand by Your side. Lord, give us strength. We need You. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.