Sermon: The Monument of Absalom

I'm gonna ask you to take a copy of God's word this morning and we are going to turn to the book of Second Samuel as we continue our way through that book. If you wanna grab a pew Bible, you can turn right to page 2, 6 9 this morning, second Samuel. And we're looking at verses uh, chapter 18 verses one through 18. Again, 2 6 9. If you wanna turn there in the pew Bible this morning

and let's pray before we open God's word together this morning.

King Jesus, we bow before you this morning and we ask that you would rule and reign over us and where our hearts have gone astray, you would subdue them where there are thoughts that occupy our minds that should not be there, that you would reign them in, where our affections are after things that are fleeting, that you would set them upon things that are higher and enduring you. Pray that you would have your will and your way with us as we sit here this morning as our king

and we're thankful that as our king, you are also our good shepherd. So we pray that you would dispense your goodness to us caring for each of your sheep in a way that only you can we pray that this would be true as we sit under your word red and your word preach. You have your way with us as our king and our good shepherd. We pray all this in your strong name, the name of Jesus. Amen. This morning two Samuel chapter 18

verses one through 18. This is the holy ander, sufficient word of God. 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 Joab, one third under the command of Abishai, the son of Zeriah Jo a's brother and one third under the command of Itai the Tite. And the king said to the men, I myself will also go out with you.

The men 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 Joab and abishai

and itai deal gently for my sake with the young men, Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders about Absalom. So the army went out into the field against Israel and the battle was fought in the force of ere 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 Joab, behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak. Joab said to the man who told him what? You saw him, why then did you not strike

him there to the ground? I would've been glad to give you 10 pieces of silver and a belt. But the man said to Joab, even if I fell in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not reach out my hand against the king's son for in our hearing, the king commanded you in Abishai and itai, for my sake, protect the young man. Absalom. On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherous against his life and there is nothing hidden from the king,

then you yourself would've stood aloof. Joab 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 Absalom. While he was still alive in the oak in 10 young men, Joe Abs armor bearers surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him. Then Joab blew the trumpet and the troops came back from pursuing Israel and Joab 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 fled every 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 is called Absalom's Monument. To this day, though, the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of God is forever.

Thanks. Speak to God. Amen.

I wonder as you sit here this morning, uh, what your legacy will be.

That is when you have left this life as we will all do. When you have parted from this life and you die, what is the imprint that will be left of your life in this world?

In Romans 12, we're told that each of us will have to give an account to God of ourselves. On that last day in Matthew 12, we're told that we will give an account for quote, every careless word we have spoken in Matthew 25, the parable of the talents. There is a giving of an account that is pictured for us in a story. Each of us will have a legacy. It's like walking on a beach and after you've walked on that beach, you have left footprints in the sand.

So you are walking through this world and you will leave footprints in this world after your departure.

What will be you think historically and you think men will erect monuments to themselves? They will do this all over the place. They will erect stones, they will erect pillars as we see in the text. They will erect a great reputation for themselves or great wealth and all these things they fall. All of these things crumble. All of these things disappear. But there's that which doesn't disappear and I wanna see that this morning

and that is worth expending your life for. So as we get into the text, let me reorient us, remind us of where we are at. If you'll remember from last week, HAI who was a spy on David's part, had given advice to Absalom, not to pursue David, uh, until he gathered all of Israel together. And this gave David and his army time to be gathered and to prepare for Absalom and his army coming to do battle with them. And this morning in our text, the two armies collide,

but it's more than that. In the text, there's a collision between the rebel, a son of the king and the true king himself, the rightful king. And each of them leave a different legacy in the world. First this morning, live a life for others and to God, live a life for others and to God. As Absalom gathers his army, he has a much larger army than David's army. But it appears that more and more soldiers have come to David's army

and that it's multiplied since when we saw it before. Because here in the Texas grown to a point where he divides the army into what you and I would call divisions. He divides it into three divisions and he divides it into smaller regiments underneath each of those divisions. In those three divisions, he appoints three division commanders. He appoints Joe Abb, a commander of one division, and Abishai his brother, a commander of another division.

And it tied the gitai to commander of yet another uh, division. And then in verse two we read that David desired to go out with his army and these newly formed divisions, he's, he's going to lead them into battle. We're told in verse three, the men said, you shall not go out. And they say, David, you are worth 10,000 of us. They want him to remain in the city and they say, you'll be of help to us if you remain in the city.

There must have been some reserve for us that David kept in the city. And they're saying, you remain there with the reserve force and you can send us help if we have need of it. You stay behind, stay in the city, not on the front lines. As I was reading this text this week and my mind immediately popped up a famous event during the American Civil War at the Battle of the Wilderness. And uh, I wasn't the only one. As I opened up some commentaries this week,

there were a couple of different commentators that this is where their mind went as well. At the battle of the wilderness, uh, the rebels are being pushed back by the federal army and uh, Lee is the commander of the army of Northern Virginia. And while he is on the field and they are being pushed back, he sees, uh, the fresh fifth Texas brigade, uh, enter the field of battle. And this Texas brigade from Long Streets Corps,

Lee will rush over to them on his horse traveler and he will say, follow me. He's going to lead them in a counter charge against the federals. And the Texas brigade refuses to move and they begin to cry out together, Lee to the rear, Lee to the rear. And they grabbed Traveler's reigns and they turn him around. And once they had Lee outta the way, then the Texas brigade made the charge. Similar picture here, David to the rear,

David to the rear. We'll fight for you but we're not gonna fight with you.

See both David and his men in that moment that they're, they're living their life in light of others. David demonstrates his his great love for the men in his army by willing to go out and to lead them in battle. And they showed their great love for David by refusing to allow him to lead them in battle. This, this is different. David is a changed man from what we've seen so far in Second Samuel,

he's a changed king.

So often as we've seen in the life of David, so often we are consumed with self-centeredness by selfishness, self-consumed. And we'll excuse our selfishness by saying, I've always been this way. Or you think you've fallen so far that there's no point in living differently. There'd be no Absalom. You think if David hadn't lived. So selfishly you think all of these things that have come about if, if David hadn't lived so selfishly remember he was supposed to go out

in the spring as the kings did the battle, but he was idle in his own selfishness and on that balcony. And when he was on that balcony and he's looking out over the the balcony and he sees Bashiva bathing down below, he's selfish and he takes another man's wife for himself and then he continues to be self-centered and he puts her husband Uriah to death. And then he continues to be selfish and he doesn't safeguard Tamar

and he doesn't discipline Ner. And that leads to Absalom getting filled with hatred and bitterness and slaying his brother Ner David was a great sinner, incredibly selfish. He's a change man in the, he's not a perfect man as we're going to see as we continue to go through Second Samuel. But now he's living for God and he is living for his people. It's never too late. Wasn't too late for David and David. Maybe beyond anybody in the scriptures in some ways

say, ah, what a great sinner. That's not his legacy. That's not how you and I primarily think of him. The great legacy is he's a man after God's own heart. Wasn't too late for him.

You can leave a different legacy by faith.

David Relents to his soldier's love. In verse four he says, whatever seems best to you, I will do. And so he remained in the city and as he remains in the city, all of his army now passes in front of him by the hundreds and by the thousands as he stands in the city gate. And as he stands in the city gate, he gives very clear instructions that the commentator says, all people heard. And what were those instructions? They were very clear deal gently for my sake,

with the young man Absalom again, David is living in light of others. So people will say, well this is David in in weakness. This isn't weakness. This is simply a father's love for his son. And this is a man who is seeking to love even his enemies. Matthew Henry said it beautifully. And speaking about Absalom and David, he said this, Absalom would have di David only smitten David would have. Absalom only spared what foils are these to each other.

Never was unnatural hatred to a father more strong than an Absalom, nor was ever natural affection to a child more strong than in David. Each did his utmost and showed what man is capable of doing different legacies.

And Absalom was a man with a vastly different legacy than his father. He didn't live in light of God, he didn't live in light of others. But for so you think even when he inquires of Hai and uh, oph for counsel, he, he does not ever mention God. He's never seeking wisdom from above. This is not a man that is basing his life upon God and love for others. But his is based upon pride and anger and bitterness and rivalry and conceit and others suffer

because of it and in monumental ways. That's his legacy. Verses six through eight we have the account of the, the battle between David's army and the numerically superior army of the Sun Absalom. And we're told that the battle was quote fought in the forest of Eem and in verse eight we're told that the forest devoured more people that day than the sword. 20,000 men died, 20,000 died in that wilderness.

David's commanders probably chose that ground of the wilderness because if you are nuMe, numerically inferior and your opponent and a battle is superior, it helps you to be in a forest because it prevents formations and they can't bring all of those soldiers to bear in formation. And instead what it does is that it provides more individual and group fighting. And David's soldiers, as you remember, were veterans. And so they would have the advantage if it was in small

group or individual fighting in the battle of the wilderness during the American Civil War, something very similar occurred. And Bruce Catton, who was in Michigander and one of the great civil War historians, wrote some of the best books in the Civil War. He said this about the battle of the wilderness. He said it was like a, it was like fighting blindfolded that as you, you couldn't see many paces in front of yourself because of all of the bra branches

and all of the trees. And what would happen is, is there were no formations. There were just little huddled groups of men and they would be stumbling through the undergrowth and trying to make their way through branches, these little groups of men and they would bump into another group of men and fighting would begin.

One soldier recalled the battle and said it was quote, a battle of invisibles with invisibles and it was deadly. There were so many wounded in the battle of the wilderness in the American Civil War that there were not enough ambulances to carry them from the front. They were co-opting every two wheeled and four wheeled palette that they could find or wagon that they could find to try and carry them off. There were so many men that had to have arms

and legs amputated that doctors were working 48 hours plus without any rest 'cause it was just the next man up. And they, they had to get all of these amputees off of the battlefield. And Katten wrote about that. He said quote, they quickly discovered that men took up less room if they lay on their sides than when they lay on their backs. And so the leg cases were grouped accordingly. If each man in the ambulance had lost his right leg,

each man could lie on his left side for however many terrible hours the trip might last and they could fit together nicely like so many spoons. And so it was arranged so all the guys without a left leg we're putting them in this wagon on their right side. All the guys without a right leg, we're putting 'em in this wagon on their left side

that battle the wilderness. 3,700 or so were killed, wounded. There were 19,000. Now it's a different war and there's different things that are operative with firearms. But here's the reality. In every battle in human history, there are always more wounded than killed in our text. 20,000 men are killed. How many more are injured and maimed

and all because of one man's sin,

he destroys thousands and thousands and thousands of lives because of his own self-centeredness and sin. This is what sin does. Just one person rebelling against their king, living in sin, consume with self can affect myriads.

Our second point, living focused on self always ends with personal ruin. Living focused on self always ends with personal ruin. We have what would be a comical scene if it wasn't so tragic. In the text in verses nine through 15, Absalom is riding on a mule, maybe an allusion to his arrogance because it was kings who rode on mules and rode on donkeys. And as he is riding under the branches of a great oak tree, he is caught what appears by his hair.

He is caught in that oak tree and the donkey just keeps on walking. And the narrator says that he was quote suspended between heaven and earth. He's just hung there by his hair. You remember going back to chapter 14, that description of Absalom. Now in all Israel there was no one so much to be praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. There was no blemish in him.

And when he cut the hair of his head for at the end of every year, he used to cut it when it was heavy on him, he cut it. He weighed the hair of his head. 200 shekels by the king's weight. Well it must not have been the end of the year 'cause he's caught by his hair and he suspended between heaven and earth.

What are we to learn from such detail? Well, maybe that hair is overrated. Boldness has its advantages. You don't spend as much on haircare. You don't have to worry about getting your hair caught in a oak tree.

No. Lesson is that living focus on self always ends with personal ruin. Always sin naturally entraps. It's no accident that Absalom is hung by his own hair. He's, he's a man that was marked by pride. A man that that thought more highly of himself than he should have thought of himself. He, he thought he should be king.

The author was clear in chapter 14. He said, in all Israel there was no one so much to be praised for his handsome appearance. And one wonders, how much was salm praised and how much did he allow that to go to his head, pun intended, he was self-consumed, self-focused.

And now he hangs by the hair he was so proud of. It's quite a picture suspended between heaven and earth. It's meant to conjure up in your mind that judgment is on the horizon. He's getting ready to leave earth but he's not quite fit for heaven. He's just hanging there. That word used for hanging in verse 10 when the man saw him hanging there. It's only used two other times in the Old Testament and one of those is in Deuteronomy 2123, A hanged

man is cursed by God. Absalom hangs there as a man, cursed by God. He's literally hung by his own pride and his own vanity. Sin traps that way. That's what it does.

We embrace a sin and often we fall into the trap that our own sin sets. David will do this over and over in the Psalms maybe because he saw it so often that living focused on self always ends with personal ruin. Another way of saying that is sin will always lead to your destruction. And David will talk about this in the Psalms, that people that lay traps for others that they often fall into the very trap that they've laid for others.

So the gossip and slander find their own reputation. Tarnish the selfish and the self-centered find that others want nothing to do with them. The proud find that they are thought little of due to their pride. All sin is self-defeating and self destroying. It leads to personal ruin. That's what it does. It wants to destroy you.

Absalom pride leads to Absalom's death.

So the man comes to Joe A and he reports what he saw. He saw Absalom hanging in a tree by his hair. Job. Can't believe the man didn't kill Absalom. But this this man says in verse 11, in response, Joeb says to him in verse 11, he says, look, I I would give you silver for it and I would give you a belt for it, meaning a promotion of the man says, look, you could give me a thousand pieces of silver and I wouldn't have done it.

Why? Because I heard David say to you, feel kindly with my son Absalom. And then the man goes further. He knows Jeb's character. He says, look, I know that even if I did strike him down, the king would know about it and he would wanna put me to death. And you know what you would do? You would stand by silently and you would allow me to be put to death. As Henry said about this, he said that those that love the treason, hate the traitor.

And Joab would've stood aloof because Joab is much more like Absalom than David. As that man is noting he takes immediate action against David, some will commend him for his action. They will say, well Joab, he's, he's operating because David is being too soft. David is not thinking about the whole nation of Israel. He should be thinking about the whole nation and putting Absalom to death. And Joab is doing that. He's thinking about this enemy that is a truth, right?

And he's taking over and he's doing what needs to be done. No, Joab is nowhere commended in the scriptures for what he does. And you see him over and over He, he is a man of very poor character. He's impetuous, he's angry, he's rude, he's vengeful and we will see that that eventually leads to his ruin. And here he says, look, I'm not wasting any more time with you. So he grabs the three javelins and he finds Absalom hanging by his hair upon

that tree suspended between heaven and earth. And he looks up at this prince of Israel who is now a rebel. And he takes those three javelins and he thrusts 'em into the heart of Absalom upon the tree and then all of his armor bearers that are around him join in as a crowd and they put him to death.

Living focused on self always ends with personal ruin. Sin destroys it, destroys your life, but it doesn't just destroy your life, it destroys your legacy.

That's our final point. Living focused on self destroys not only life but your legacy. You're going to leave something behind even if you say, well I'm not leaving anything behind, leaving nothing behind is leaving something behind. This is the point of the whole parable of the talons.

The final verses 16 through 18, they detailed the end, Absalom is dead. So the army stopped fighting. The nation is once again united under King David and Absalom. This rebel of a son has his body thrown in a great pit with a heap of stones that is put on top of it. He's not buried as a prince, he's not celebrated. He's not buried with fanfare for a life well lived. He's simply cast aside and he's buried under rubble.

But you'll notice Absalom wanted a different legacy. He had other purposes. He had a different name. He himself, as you read in verse 18, had set up a pillar for his remembrance in the Kings Valley. No doubt he was to be buried at the foot of this pillar and we're told, he said this, I have no son that we learned earlier in the book that he had three sons. So clearly the Lord had taken these three sons away. They've all died at a very young age.

He says, though I I have no son to keep my name in remembrance. So he erected the pillar and he called it Absalom's Monument. His name was to be remembered, he wanted it to be remembered and it is, but not with fondness, but with disgust.

He's not famous. He's infamous

footprints he left in the sand of this world are not positive. You're meant to see in the text that he left. No airs, no posterity, no fruits of faithfulness, no lives impacted for good by his limited time on earth, no faithfulness to God. He just left destruction behind him as a result of his sin. And the only thing that left is left of his legacy as this pillar of stone that he set up

to go to the Kings Valley today outside of Jerusalem, that pillar is no longer there

because it crumble, it disappeared. So happens all monuments men make of themselves.

What is interesting is that there is a structure there with a conical roof and it's called Absalom's monument.

It depends on which historians you trust, but what is there today was erected anywhere from five BC to one ad. And all historians are pretty much agreed that it's on the spot were Absalom's original monument was at. But no one goes there and lays flowers at it. No one goes there and offers prayers at it. No one goes there with family members and pulls 'em aside and says, let me tell you the story of Absalom so that you can be encouraged to live life.

Well there's none of that

in Jewish Christian and Muslim tradition over the centuries. When people go to Absalom's Monument, what they do is they pick up a stone and they throw it at the monument. It's disgust.

For centuries, Jewish mothers and fathers would take their children out to Absalom's Monument and they would use it as a visible picture of this is what happens to rebellious children

living focused on self destroys not only life but legacy.

Here was the son of David Prince in the realm heir of his father's kingdom. And he hanged, cursed and was pierced with a spear by a soldier Joab and a mob acted to bring him to death. He's buried in a nondescript grave. It's absolutely shocking. That's not what should happen.

He's the king's son except he turned to be a rebel.

He focused on living simply for self.

Now here's the great trap. It's easy to look at Absalom's life to look at this text and be pretty harsh in judgment on Absalom.

It's quite another thing to see yourself in Absalom.

In a very real sense, every single one of us is born into the world in Absalom.

Paul says this in Romans, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God is a rebel against God. We're told there is no one who does good. No, not even one. We're all born into the world as Absalom's in rebellion focused on self consumed with self holding up our fists to this mighty God. This one that Paul says we are his offspring that this very God that we would rebel against him.

But another son was born also a son of David Prince in the realm there of his father's kingdom. The one who was without sin,

who simply lived his life for God and for others. This son Jesus said, I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. He said, I always do those things that please him. He said, my meat is to do the will of him who sent me. And yet he hung upon cross he hung in a tree. In fact, Paul will pick up that language from Deuteronomy 21 and he will quote it in Galatians three and he will say this cursed as everyone

who is hanged on a tree. And he's speaking about Christ.

He's the son of David, he's prince in the realm. He's air of his father's kingdom and he is hung upon that curd tree. And there he had his flesh pierced with a javelin and a mob joined in with ridicule. But it was not his vanity that held him there. It was love.

He became sin. He who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.

He was no rebel without sin,

became sin And his monument, it's not a mere pile of rocks, it's an empty grave. It's not a pillar with a a conical roof. But what call Paul calls the church a pillar and buttress of truth. Not a monument that fades but a people, his bride, the church that endures forever. That's his monument. Everlasting. She I saved, she's mine.

He has a legacy that lasts for eternity.

What changed David?

He he's a self-consumed, self-focused man that is making a mess, a ruin of the lives around him, let alone his own life. What changes him? He, he looks to this greater son of his.

He says in Psalm two, kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him and he did.

The Ultimate legacy is not monuments to self. You're so Busy setting up these little monuments to ourselves. Our little, little kingdoms. What does it matter? What does it matter? If someone remembers your name two years past your death, let alone 200 years past your death, what does it matter

to be united with him? To live for him, to live for his people, to exalt and glorify his name. That is a legacy that lasts for All Of eternity. That's Worth giving yourself to. That's Worth living for. That's a footprint that doesn't get washed away with the next wave that matters Forever

Closed with this. Some of you have heard this before 'cause it's one of my favorite illustrations from history.

But in the third and fourth centuries ad there was a emperor of the Roman Empire by the name of Dian that was one of the greatest enemies the church has ever faced outside Of the church. And he saw it as his great aim was to extinguish Christianity in the world. And as he said, to erase the earth of the name of Christ,

He Thought he had done so in Spain. He erected a monument to himself. And the inscription read this Diocletian Jovian Maxim Hercules Caesarea Augusta, you're important if you have that many names for having extended the Roman empire in the east and the West. And for having extinguished the name of Christians who brought the republic to ruin, he destroyed the church. He erased the name of Christ throughout the world, Except he didn't

Because the gates of hill cannot prevail against the church He bought her.

There is only one name that lasts forever. And it's the name that is over the church. Jesus Christ. It's the name that is above all names. It's the name that every knee will bow before and every tongue will confess. That name is eternal.

I used this illustration years ago. I was speaking at a conference and Grace and my daughter, who's 20 now was six or seven at the time. She was in classical conversations, uh, schooling. And so they were learning about the Roman Empire. And I used this illustration and I said something like The name of Jesus is now preached in every corner of the earth and every tongue will confess it on that last day that it's the name above all names.

And who even remembers the name Diocletian. And I see her sitting on the back row and she goes, don't ruin the illustration. It's right. Nobody knows Diocletian, but everyone will know the name Christ, everyone.

And that's a legacy worth expending yourself for that name and for his people. Let's pray.

Our Father, we are thankful for so great a king as King Jesus.

We're thankful for he who so loved his people and he was willing to live and to die for them who so loves us now that he intercedes that your right hand forever more for us, that so loves us, that he will return to take us home to glory, to be with you, our father of love, united everlastingly to you and the Son and that spirit of love are one triune God. And we see that you are worth expending ourselves for in this world, for you

and for the bride of your dear son. And that truly be our legacy. And we pray all of us in the strong name of Christ. Amen.