Well, this tenth and final lesson on the books of Samuel have finally come. I'm really excited to share with you David's final years. In fact, that's the title of the lesson, David's final years. He does have a few more final days or months if you want to call them that at the beginning of first Kings.
But nevertheless, this is going to wrap his whole story up as he comes back into Jerusalem. And so that's really the segue from lesson nine, where we saw his fall from grace, his double mortal sin with Bathsheba Uriah, that hold a bakkol, adultery, murder, and the fallout in his house, his by-eat, both his actual family, but also his kingdom. And so at the end of last lesson, David had to flee from his son, Absalom. And he defeated Absalom, Joab killed his son, and now he needs to bring things back together again somehow.
Right? So that's where he left off. We're in chapter 19 right now. So chapter 19 and chapter 20 is the return to Jerusalem.
There's another final uprising that he's going to have to deal with. And then we're going to get to the appendix of this one, two part book versus second. So with that, let's look at chapter 19 verse one, right on the heels of what happened at the end of 18. So in fact, let's just back up a couple of verses.
Remember chapter 18, Joab killed Absalom, even though David said deal kindly with the young man on my account, Joab kills him, stabs him three times with darts or probably arrows or javelins of some kind of spears. And we look at all the typology and symbolism, all of that. But then when news comes to David that his son is dead, we ended up in chapter 18, it says, in verse 33, the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he wept, he said, oh, my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom.
With it, I had died instead of you, oh, Absalom, my son, my son. It's really beautiful. He keeps repeating the word son, my son, my son. When I had died instead of you, we talk about all of that in the end of last lesson.
And so he continues the exact same limitation in verse one. So let's keep reading chapter 19 verse one, he was told to Joab, he hold the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom. So victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people, for the people heard that day, the king is grieving for his son. And the people who sold into the city that day as people steal in, who are ashamed when they flee about as cowards, because then again, in verse 40, continues to greatly mourn the loss of his son.
He covered his face, the king cried with a loud voice, oh, my son, Absalom, oh, Absalom, my son, my son. So this is really, really tragic and very moving, despite the fact that Absalom put David through all this misery, and we saw how like over a decade went by between the events of the the rape of Tamar, then Absalom plans his revenge against Amnon, all these things happen and he's an exile for years and he comes back, he doesn't even talk to his father, then he plans this revolt, then he revolts, all this stuff happens. And David has to run for his life, and Absalom continues, I mean, remember back in Jerusalem, he's sleeping with the concubines, David still mourns the loss of his son. In a number of commentaries have pointed out the typological connection with Jesus, you know, Jesus, the true king, the vidic king, son of God, son of man, son of David, he is crucified because of our sins, we put him on the cross because of everything that we've done to him and yet he still mourns for us.
He mourns the loss of his children. And you can go consult at the end of the Matthew at the end of Luke, I got a reference here for you in your notes, Matthew 23, 37, following plus the parallel passages, he mourns Jerusalem. He says, oh, I would have gathered you like a hand would gather her chicks under her wings. So even in the midst of being betrayed, Jesus mourns the loss of the city of Jerusalem and also mourns the loss of sinners as well, who don't repent.
And that's what this little quote here in your footnote says, from the Navar Bible, David sorrow over his son's death, despite all the Absalom did, shows his greatness and his fatherly heart, the heart that is a figure, the heart of Christ, who weeps over the ingratitude and rebelliousness of mentors, his father God, end quote. So we saw in many respects how David is a type of Jesus. Remember, lesson one, all those lessons back when we first started this Bible study together, I put down in that introductory lesson all the ways in which David is a type of Jesus. And we've seen the great typology between the Via Dolorosa of David, leaving Jerusalem and mourning and everyone's throwing stones at him and all that stuff compared to Jesus.
And here's another element as well as a typological connection, the mourning over the loss of his children. So it's a very, it's a very powerful, very powerful scene here and my heart goes out to poor David. But anyways, the story goes on now, and Joab sees all of this. And as you read in verses five and following, you really rebukes David and says, man, you got to, you got to pull yourself together because all of your army sees that your mourning loss of your son, Absalom.
And it's very clear to me that if we were all dead in Absalom or alive, you would prefer that. And that's not going to help morale and your support at all. It's going to things are going to go really, really bad for you. So he rebukes David and says, yeah, get out there and meet your soldiers and thank them for what they did and for them risking their lives for you.
And so he does, David just kind of pull himself together a little bit. He goes down at the gate and everybody or at comes to greet him there at the game of the city. Okay. So as things are trying to come back together again, he's returning into Jerusalem.
There is a little bit of a seeds of discord that you're going to see in verses really chapter 19 verse eight, the second half of verse eight, what we would call B, where the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Israel, you're beginning to see a little bit of a bickering, a little bit of an argument going on between who's going to bring the king back triumphantly. All right. So in chapter 19, verse eight, the second half, it says Israel fled every man to his own home and all the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel saying the king delivered us from the hand of our enemies and saved us from the hand of the Philistines. And now he has fled out of the land from Absalom, but Absalom, whom we anointed king over us, is dead in battle.
Now therefore, why do you say nothing about bringing the king back? So they're deliberating the 10 tribes of Israel are deliberating back and forth about, Oh my gosh, you know, we supported Absalom. He's dead. And so now we better go bring the king back.
In the meantime, Judah steps up and quickly brings the king back into Jerusalem with great rejoicing and celebration. This is verse 11. David sent his message to Zadok and Abiathar the priest. So remember he had his spies back in the city helping him out so that way he can get communications and dissuade.
This way to Zadon Absalom for making mistakes and Hushai despised a great work in that regard. But in case David now sends word to those two priests, Zadok and Abiathar, he says, say to the elders of Judah, why should you be the last to bring the king back to his house when the word of all of Israel has come to the king? So again, they're kind of debating and fighting amongst themselves, who is going to have the prime of place in bringing the king back? And David says to the elders, you are my kinsmen, my bone and my flesh, why then should you be the last to bring the king back?
Now that little line right there is a little bit of an echo to the days in which he was anointed king, right? If you go back to chapter five, he says, all the people say, you're my boner, my flesh, that's all very marital imagery is an up-show imagery. It's covenantal language to be bone and flesh, because the king is the bridegroom of the people he is being brought back in procession back to his people. So at first glance, yes, Judah is, they're related to him because he's from the tribe of Judah.
Now, but don't forget that imagery, we talked about this a long time ago, a number of lessons back, the marital imagery, nuptial imagery, the covenantal language that the king is the royal bridegroom of the people. So there's that line right there. And then in verse 13, interestingly enough, he says to Amazah, are you not my bone and my flesh? Because Amazah is the nephew of David and Amazah is the cousin of Joab.
So Amazah and Joab are cousins. Joab has been David's military commander all along, but as we have seen in multiple chapters, he has got a penchant for murder and for violence and he doesn't really care too much about who gets in his way. And so Amazah here, however, has been the commander of Absalom's army. So Amazah has been in recent days, the enemy of David.
What's interesting is that in verse 13, David says, you're not my, are you not my bone, my flesh or my nephew? So God do so to me and more also, that is a covenant oath formula. It's a self-maladictory oath. God do so to me and more also, if you are not commander of my army, henceforth in place of Joab, and he swayed the heart of all the men of Judah as one man, and they brought him back.
Okay. So this is interesting here. Amazah has been recently his enemy by siding with Absalom, but now David promotes Amazah in Joab's position and to take Joab's place as commander of the army. So it seems here that David is trying to finally do something about all of Joab's shenanigans over the years.
Here's what your little quote will say from the Ignatia's Catholic study bible. Even though Amazah sided with Absalom during the rebellion, David promotes him to the position of army commander, no doubt as a political move, to help win back to Judaite supporters of Absalom. Besides that, Joab earned a demotion by his insubordination to David, specifically to the king's order to spare the life of Absalom, in quote. So at first glance, it seems really strange why he would promote his rebellious nephew to the position of commander, but it's for these two reasons.
David needs to patch things up as quickly as possible. And so if Amazah has a lot of the support from the elders and the shakers and movers of Judah by promoting Amazah and accepting him into his army, he's going to help smooth it over even quicker. And Joab is in big trouble. He's in deep hot water by killing Absalom, his son.
And so this is his punishment is to be removed from the post of commander. You might think that he should have done a lot more than that, but nevertheless David is trying to patch things up every which way he can. All right. So Joab is going to come back into the story here in just a minute.
All righty. So David is coming into the city, and now he's going to meet all the various people that he ran into while fleeing Jerusalem. He's now coming back, and the various individuals are going to try to placate him and beg for forgiveness. Okay.
So here we are in chapter 19, verse 16, he meets Shime. Now remember, Shime was the guy who was cursing him, spitting at him, throwing dirt and rocks at him, and doing all these bad things. And David accepted it as God's chastisement saying, this is God's will, fine, let it let it happen. Well, now Shime comes to beg forgiveness, but he's not an idiot.
He brings a thousand men with him. That's in verse 17. He brings a thousand men with him to ask forgiveness of David. This is clearly a move that's going to cover all of his bases.
Shime is very politically astute, right? So Shime says, I beg your forgiveness, don't remember my past sins. And David essentially says in verse 23, he swears, and oh, you will not die in verse 23. Why does David do this?
Again, it's a political move. He needs to patch things over as quickly as possible. He wants to prevent further bloodshed. And David knows if he sees a Shime and has Shime killed those thousand men that came with him could potentially start another battle, and he doesn't want to be dealing with that.
So even though he grants clemency to Shime at this point, later on in first Kings on his deathbed after Solomon is ordained King, anointed King, first Kings chapter two, verses eight and following, he says, don't forget Shime. Let me find this verse here for you. He's pretty, he won't forget who wronged him in verse eight. So this is first Kings now, chapter two, verse eight, he says to Solomon, there is also with you, Shime, the son of Jara, the Benjaminites who cursed me with the grievous curse in the day that I went out to Mahana Eam.
But when he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord saying, I will not put you to death with the sword. Now therefore hold him not guiltless for your wise man, and you will know what you ought to do to him, and you shall bring his grey head down with blood to Shale. So David here now in the end of 2 Samuel knows that he must swear and oath to protect him in order to prevent the situation from going from bad to worse. But he tells his son, you need to handle the situation for me because I couldn't deal with it at the time.
So don't worry about Shime. He's going to be dealt with as we're going to see on the Bible study in 1st and 2 Kings. All right, then he's going to meet Mephibosheth. Now you'll remember Mephibosheth is the son of Jonathan back in chapter nine.
David showed Mephibosheth great honor and brought him into the court and let him eat at his table and gave Mephibosheth all of King Saul's lands and all of this stuff. But if you remember, when David was fleeing from Jerusalem, his servant Zeba lied about Mephibosheth saying that Mephibosheth wants the kingdom back and his throne of his father Saul back. And so he stayed back to support your enemies. And at that point David without investigating anything said is Zeba, well, then you can have all of the territories.
And like, wait a minute, you can fact check this David. Like, don't you know what the actual truth is? Well, as he's coming back towards Jerusalem here, he meets Mephibosheth in verse 24 and says, well, where were you? Why did you not come with me?
That's actually verse 25. And Mephibosheth says, Oh, Lord, my king, my servant deceived me for your servant said to him, settle a donkey for me that I may write upon it and go with the king, for your servant is lame. He has slandered your servant to my Lord, the king, but my Lord, the king is like the angel of God, do whatever seems good to you. So the line is simple.
I can't walk, I'm lame, and I need help to settle the donkey and then be able to leave the city with you. Zeba didn't help me. And he's dishelled like he hasn't shaved and bathed and he's stinky and ugly for all these weeks or however long it was just because he's in mourning for the king. Now, it's interesting is that David's response seems to be completely checked out.
It's so disappointing here. Let's go to verse 29. The king says to him, why speak any more of your affairs? I have decided you and Zeba shall divide the land.
And then Mephibosheth said to the king, Oh, let him take it all since my Lord, the king has come safely home. Now, this is so frustrating. And many people don't know how to interpret it. And I'm not saying that I know how to interpret it either, but I have a little theory here.
At first glance, you're just wondering is David just as weary? He's certainly weary. He's certainly exhausted, but does he not care for Mephibosheth any longer? He swore to his best buddy, old pal, Jonathan to take care of him.
And he has been doing that up to this point. But he's uncaring for his, I don't know what called godson. That's a completely wrong thing to say. But the son of his best friend is he just overwhelmed with mourning now for Absalom.
He can't think straight. Is he testing that? I do think that you can make an argument that ever since David's sin with Beth Shiba in your eye, he's been a different man with everything that's gone on within his own family, with his children, the whole story of the rape and in the murder and all of this stuff that goes on, him not engaging with Absalom over all those years. He's a different man.
And so maybe he's unable to enact justice here because he's just so checked out. That is all 100% possible. I think that you can make an argument for that. However, what's interesting to me, and I have seen this in one of the commentary, I thought about it and I read it in the Hamilton commentary, which is in your suggested reading.
So I had a little bit of indication there. But when he says, don't worry about it, you and Ziba shall divide the land. Again, it's like you're just not finding out the facts. Why are you doing that?
Maybe it's a test because it seems to echo, or at least foreshadow, Solomon's words and his response to the two harlots. If you go back to First Kings or go ahead, the first Kings chapter three, remember, Solomon famously demonstrated his wisdom by saying to the two harlots that each had a son one died in the middle of the night and they're fighting over the living son. And he's famously says, we'll just divide the kid and have and give half the each one of them. But the true mother says, I'll let her keep it, right?
So this seems to be kind of the same language about the land. It's not a child in this case, but it's all the inheritance from King Saul. Oh, you could divide the land. Okay.
Now, but what I haven't seen commented on is that, and this is true, is my thesis, says, well, let him take it all since my Lord, the king has come back. That to me echoes the true mother's words with Solomon who said, oh, let her just keep the son. And this thereby, in my personal opinion here proves my thesis, innocence. He's like, oh, whatever, the land is not important to me.
You're important to me. So let him just keep the land. It's really fast. I do wonder.
I cannot prove this at all. But I do really wonder if Solomon knows about the story, he probably does. Okay. He knows about the story.
And then you in perhaps if at this point, it's unwritten, that at this point David realizes that in the Phoebusheshes, the innocent one, this inspires Solomon to utter his wise words to the two prostitutes. You see, right? So just divide the land, divide the children. Oh, he can keep all the land.
I'm glad that you're here. And then the process says, oh, she should keep it because she's the true mother. I think there's 100% a parallel there. And it is very, very interesting and fun to reflect upon the fact that maybe Solomon learned from his father.
Okay. All right. Anyways, I had fun with that. And hopefully understand what I'm trying to put down there.