tremendous terrific good we want to thank jake and his team for leading out in the singing it's wonderful where's our chocolate bars hey oh okay all righty good morning stu how are you i'm fine matt grab a microphone over there because i'm taking over matt i have three questions for you today okay i hope you're ready for this just always ready just go ahead oh that's a good idea what is that a chocolate fish old-fashioned banana flavored marshmallow chocolate fish i'll give you mine because i'm a vegetarian oh no yes maybe it's all right now so matt i have a couple questions for you don't mind i've been i've been waiting for this all week okay um all right matt you know what the game of cricket is all about i just travis if you were a mate you'd come and stand by me no i just wanted to tell you i'm not going to ask you any questions dylan played very well yeah is that right ouch oh my we play terrible yeah i'm so glad that i'm here in new zealand when something like this happened matt first question if they're tell us about a place in the world that you have not yet visited but that you'd like to visit ireland ireland yeah tell us why you'd like that i think it's well for first first thing it's an it's a country where there's just so much um controversy so much upheaval and yet there is such a rich history of ireland as well and i'd like to go on and just see for myself um yeah i just love the irish culture yeah i love celtic music um and some of my ancestors were from ireland you do well so that explains a lot you do well kissing the blurry stone too i can just yeah you're doing that that'd be great what's that matt you have uh you have two children it's a it's a cricket term you wouldn't know about it yeah [Laughter] matt you have two children tell us about them and then um tell us about the birth of um of your son he's the oldest right yeah tell us what that day was like for you oh wow that was a fantastic day actually for two reasons my wife went into labor around about midnight on the night that australia beat south africa in the cricket so um deb kept saying to me look you need to get some sleep because you need to rub my back continuously all day but i said no the cricket's on so i'm watching the cricket but i was just astonished you know i was a registered nurse before i became a minister i knew all the theory about you ladies giving birth and all that but um man i tell you they're phenomenal aren't they ladies they really are what i saw my wife go through was just unbelievable um and it probably it was a good birth but um i remember when ryan came out um remember how i asked you a question on monday i think when was the time you felt closest to god that that was when i felt closest to god when my children were born uh to see ryan you know this thing that's been kicking you in the back for months where it's it's just your wife's belly is you know out here and to all of a sudden see him and to hold him and to say hey this is something that god has given us was just a wonderful experience and the same thing with rachel um just it was a little bit more um not touch and go but it was a little more difficult for debbie when she had rachel so we were very concerned but um yes i have two wonderful children i talked to them on the phone last night and rachel told me she went winning women women with oaties swimming with floaties that's right and um you know to hear your little girl say bye bye daddy love you you know oh you know really for their wonderful children we're very blessed that's wonderful nothing quite as uh spectacular of a miracle no that's birth is it no and and just to to see this little person yeah and to say to yourself this is a person that jesus died for yeah before they were even even a twinkle in our eye and that this person has the capacity to live forever it was just a phenomenal phenomenal thing and you've all felt that too haven't you with the birth of your children it's just spectacular matt you're uh you're just coming to a new assignment you're one of the pastors now at papa toy church i was thinking of um what would happen if you had the opportunity to preach just one time at papa toy just one sermon what would the subject of that sermon be i was fair with you this week i gave you the questions before um no no um well obviously it would obviously it would be about jesus but i would probably my the text i would take would be the parable of the great wedding banquet um i think that um in matthew 22 i think there is more truth per square inch there than um just about anywhere else and that will actually more than likely be my first sermon at palpati so for all your members i wish i could be here to uh to hear about it well i've enjoyed this role reversal uh today i've enjoyed it very much and i'm going to have prayer now and matt's going to preach this morning no i don't think so man leave us in prayer okay okay all right let's have a prayer together lord we thank you that we are part of your family we thank you that you are the common denominator with each one of us we thank you that you created us all as individuals and we thank you that you love us as individuals too we thank you that you died for us and we thank you that you're coming again but we also thank you lord for what you want to do in our lives and lord by your grace we ask that you'll help us to never cease to be amazed by your love your mercy and your grace towards us this morning as we study your word with pastor student lord we ask that you will bless this occasion that you will keep us mindful of your presence with us and that you will bless stew as he as he leads our study in jesus name amen i won't eat my fish during your presentation okay can you take mine down there and i'll come and see you right now are you sure thank you man it's been good getting acquainted with you and with all of you this week thank you for being so faithful in your attendance uh sitting through the the uh airplanes flying over and the kindy tent singing with us and the buses off to the zoo and all the other things we've had thank you for your questions and your comments afterwards it's been lovely getting better acquainted with you and talking to you about uh what's on your heart your reaction to some of the things that i've said thank you for that i wanted to thank um all the people that have made this so easy to do matt and travis thanks for all the work that you've done jake and your team and john before leading out in the music and paul thanks for playing and being here your first camp meeting it's just been great to have you here i hope that you've enjoyed these studies i keep finding out that there's more in the bible than we can find ever get to this week studying for these messages which i have preached about before i found new things that i didn't know were there before studying in the for the evening meetings and the youth tent uh on subjects that are familiar to me but i always love to try to put away old sermons and and uh dig down again and preach new ones every time on the subjects i found things i hadn't seen before and i i don't know how long that can keep up but every time i study a bible passage that i've read before and before and before i find something new there our children love to study the bible but i don't think we ever exhaust the wonderful truths that god has for us in the bible so i hope that part of what's happened this week is that you've been encouraged to open the bible to passages that perhaps are a little bit new to you i think the story that we will look at today is one that very few of you will know really well it's one that we just generally pass right over i think i discovered it for the first time within the last six months we were doing a sermon series in our church from the life of david i got one of the assignments and it was kind of halfway through the series and so i began to look halfway through david's life and i found this story and i just don't remember ever studying it before maybe passing by it but i hope that you'll continue to look at the bible's news stories and the old ones you know so well and let god speak to you remember that's the point of bible study let god speak to us today i'm trying to find what the face of god really looks like we know that god is the hero of all of the stories in the bible and we know that the bible tells us something about salvation so keeping that in mind if you'd like to open your bibles to ii samuel chapter 14. ii samuel 14 and while you're on your way let me set the story up for you i want to tell you about the three main characters there are several other characters in the background to the story but the three main characters to second samuel chapter 14. the first primary character in this story is joab you remember joab as the captain of the army for david almost all of his life but joab has known david since they were little boys joab is david's nephew he's the son of david's sister zaruya do you remember we got acquainted with her yesterday morning sitting around having family worship in front of the tent in bethlehem in front of the great fire pit there in the evening in the beautiful dark skies with all of the stars over bethlehem zuruya one of david's two sisters that we know their names and she grew up and in those days you didn't go very far away from home she grew up there in bethlehem married a young bethlehem man they began to have children one of her children's name is joab and so joab is david's nephew they grew up together when david came in from the fields one evening and he said that he had been attacked by a lion and that god had given the lion into his uh into his strength he'd delivered david from the lion's paw no doubt joab was sitting around the circle listening or at least within the next couple of hours heard the story when david came in and said the same thing about god delivering him from the paw the bear joab was there joab grew up with david they were close to each other's in age and stayed together almost all their lives early on while david was battling saul's army joab and his two brothers began to pursue saul's army back to their headquarters and they were especially close to abner's chariot abner remember was the captain of the army for solid for saul and one of joab's brothers was particularly swift runner and he kept up with abner's chariot and it made abner mad and abner stopped his chariot and he got out and he said to joab's brother quit running after me i'm i'm bothered by what you're doing and he got back up in the chariot started off again and the little brother ran off again kept up with the chariot and finally abner stopped the chariot got out and killed joab's brother and it was one of those turning points in joab's life that we all have some time we can look at those places in our lives where things changed and this was the place where joab's life changed he decided to devote himself to becoming a brilliant military strategist and he rose in the ranks of the army became the captain of david's army but along with being brilliant he became brutal and while we know this man as capable capable soldier we have to admit he's one of the most brutal people that we know about in the bible ultimately it is joab that finds abner and kills him in revenge for the murder of his little brother it is joab who kills uriah bathsheba's husband at least arranges for his death and ultimately it is joab who finds absalom hanging in the tree by his hair and he goes and kills david's son absalom it's a brutal man he is he is loyal to david almost all of david's life when david is an old man and about to to die and you remember that david's uh fourth son adenija decided that he wanted to be king and he invited joab to be his adonijah's military commander and and and joab left david's side and went over to the side of adonijah but remember that david had promised that it would be solomon that would follow him not adenija and when solomon became king he called adenija in and he he called joab with him and ultimately executes joab for leaving his father's side uh fulfilling what jesus would say later the people that live by the sword die by the sword at one point as david is reflecting on some of the battles that he's been in with joab he writes a psalm about the experience it's psalm chapter 60 if you'd like to look at it and in the introduction to the 60th psalm you'll find joab's name it says that this that when when he was fighting when david was fighting and when joab returned from a significant victory against the david wrote this psalm and notice what he says down at the very end of the 60th psalm the help of man is worthless but with god we will gain the victory same message that david needs to learn all of his life same message that all the old testament people seem to to learn and i have to wonder if david and his nephew joab sat around after this particular victory joab telling david his uncle what was what had happened at the great battle that he had just fought and david reflecting perhaps with joab you know it's wonderful that we have these victories but we couldn't do it without god it's god that gives us the victory and so he writes that with god we will gain the victory but this chapter in second samuel 14 is one that is in between the military stories in joab's life it's a calm in the middle of the storms and in chapter 14 we see a totally different side of joab than we see in all the rest of his story joab is one of the main characters in this story the second main character in the story of of second samuel 14 is a woman whose name we don't know but she is called the wise woman of tequila the wise woman of tekkua we don't even know too much about this little place where she lived we do know from other passages in the bible that there were a lot of shepherds on the hills of tekoa this is the town where amos comes from later on in the bible story and in just a little bit as we open chapter 14 we'll read a lot more about this woman she's one of the main characters and then there is of course david in this chapter david is now in the middle of his reign he's in his 50s he was 30 when he became king in hebron he was king until he was 70 and this is about halfway through david you remember had lost the love of his youth michael saul's daughter who had been given to david as a wife and then david was off at a battle and saul took her back gave her to another man to mary and it was a tragic heartbreak for david later on in discussions with abner saul's commander david said you could come over and join my side if you'll bring michael with you uh there's a sad little note in second samuel chapter six that tells us that in as opposed to all of the wives that david had michael went through all of her life without having any children and david has lost this love and he he goes to hebron he's being he's been made king there he lives there for seven and a half years and in that seven and a half years david has six sons with six different wives he was a busy man david was we don't know how many daughters he had in addition to the sons but there was quite a group of children that followed david to jerusalem at 37 years old when he moved to jerusalem to become king of all of the nation of israel there he meets bathsheba and with bathsheba he has four more sons including solomon and then the bible tells us that in his years in jerusalem with his previous six wives he had nine more sons plus daughters there were at least 20 boys running around the palace when you add up the ones born in hebron the ones born in jerusalem the ones to his six son six wives and then to bathsheba his seventh wife plus children with his concubines plus all the daughters that we're not told of their names it is amazing group of children running around the palace no wonder it took david a long time to build this big house for himself to live in just one bedroom for each of the children and you can imagine how many bedrooms the place had to have we know the name of one of the daughters that david had she was born in hebron to the same woman that absalom was born to and her name is tamar and we have to speak about tamar and the background of the story before we get to first samuel chapter 14.
do you remember in the palace in jerusalem david's oldest son amnon was sick with love for his sister tamar it's a tragic story in the bible it's in the chapter just ahead of the one that we're going to look at today and amnon has a friend actually a cousin that comes to him john adab who is the son of one of david's brothers and he comes to amnon and says you just look miserable what's the matter and amnon says i'm just really wanting my sister tamar and i don't know what to do about it and so this cousin suggests this plan that that he pretend amnon pretend to be sick and david amidst all of the other things that he has to do as king and all the other things that he has to do as a father and a husband visits his sick children when they're not feeling well and john adams says to amnon if you will pretend to be sick david will come to visit you and you can ask david if he wouldn't ask tamar to make some food for you and bring it to you and that that'll make you feel better by the way this is the first time in second samuel 13 verse 5 that the word pretending appears in the bible not the last time but the first time and its first use in the bible gives us the flavor that it is not a positive characteristic among god's people in fact throughout the bible there are things that are said about people who pretend to be one way when they're really another way jeremiah 5 says among my people are wicked ones who lie in wait like those who snare birds and set traps to catch others pretending to be one thing they do another thing and then this is the first time the bible uses the word pretending but interestingly it comes up a couple of more times in this story so the evil deed is done we read about it there in chapter 13. it's a sad story do you remember that as soon as it's over amnon hates tamar and sends her away in shame when tamar realizes what is about to happen she pleads with her brother not to do this evil deed and it's interesting that what she says apparently it would not have been against the law for amnon and tamar to get married and do you remember that tamar says to to amnon david will if you want to marry me david will okay the marriage it wouldn't have been against the law and she thinks that she could have gotten david's approval or at least his sanction for the marriage but what tamar was objecting to was not the physical union with this man who was her half-brother but the way it was done and the manner it was done in fact the bible calls it a rape one of the great things about the bible's telling of the story i believe is that the guilt is laid squarely at the feet of amnon you know how many times something like this happens and a defense attorney will try to say the woman enticed the man to do this it's really the woman's fault and in a patriarchal society like we have in the background of the bible and in a story where we don't even know david's mother's name and we don't know the names of most of the daughters in the story it would have been very understandable if the bible had said well tamar enticed amnon but it's not what the bible says the guilt is laid squarely at amnon's feet and i think that's encouraging to see that tamar however objects and she says something incredible i believe in chapter 13 verse 12 showing that she understands the high standards of god's people she says to amnon such a thing should not be done in israel she doesn't say well everybody else is doing it i guess it would be okay for us to do it too which is the excuse you hear from many sins that are committed by god's people today many of the things that we do we just say well look it's happening in the world all the time what's they they're seeming to get along okay after they've done these things we could do these things too tamar on the other hand has a hugely high standard and she holds it up as strongly as she can such a thing should not be done in israel she understands the high calling of being god's children and just an aside here if we really believe that what the bible is saying is to teach you and me something here is part of the story that teaches us that god's people have higher standards than the people around us we can't do the same things that everybody else is doing because we are the children of the king and that makes us different and tamar understands the deed is done tamar is sent back home in dust and ashes in mourning and the reactions to this deed are just incredible to read tamar becomes a desolate woman she becomes disgraced and she lives for the rest of her life in the house of absalom her brother one of david's daughters a princess in israel she never marries she never lives in her own home she lives for the rest of her life with her brother absalom david becomes furious at what happens this is not just against the law in israel this is not just a blight against his kingship but remember this is david's firstborn son and his daughter and you know what it feels like many of you when our children walk away from god and do things that they shouldn't here is how david feels his firstborn son and his daughter absalom tamar's brother full brother begins to hate his older brother amnon and he plans revenge that ends up destroying much of the serenity of the household of david we'll talk about that more in a minute one lovely little picture about absalom in the midst of a story that is largely negative absalom takes his sister tamar into his home and keeps her there and absalom and his wife end up having four children three sons and one daughter and absalom names his daughter tamar after his sister and the bible says that little tamar grew up to be a beautiful woman and so in absalom's home the rest of his life is older tamar a desolate woman and little tamar a beautiful woman perhaps helping absalom's sister to forget the disgrace and to put her life into the life of little tamar lovely thing about absalom i wish we could say more good things about him than we do two years pass absalom plans a banquet and invites all of david's sons to come to the banquet he invites david as well david refuses i think probably absalom knew that his father would refuse to come david said just take all the boys and have a good time and so they put on a huge banquet but absalom gets a few of his close followers and he said at a particular time in the banquet when amnon has had a little too much to drink and he's rejoicing i will give you the message and i want you to go to the place in the table where he's sitting and i want you to kill amnon and don't worry i'm the prince i'm the son of david i'm telling you what to do you do it and it happens just exactly like that amnon has killed all the other sons of david get up run outside of the building jump on their donkeys and head back for jerusalem but one runner gets back to jerusalem ahead of everybody else interestingly it's john adab again the the nephew of david the son of one of david's brothers and he has uh he gets back to find out that the message has already gotten to david that all of his sons have been killed by absalom every one of the sons has been killed and david jumps up he tears his robes he begins to mourn and wail just as john adam comes in and said no no no it's not all of your sons it's just amnon absalom has been planning this for a long time and he's killed your son it doesn't make david feel an awful lot better david has been furious in amnon but it is his firstborn son and none of us like to lose our children no matter what the circumstances and just as david is beginning to switch from all of his sons dying to just amnon he looks up and here come all the donkeys with all the other boys running back to dad saying this terrible thing that's happened david mourns for his firstborn but he also has to begin mourning for absalom who he banishes away from the capital city and absalom is banished for three years and it is toward the end of this banishment of absalom for jerusalem from jerusalem from his father and all of the family that we come to second samuel chapter 14. joab who is in the daily presence of david begins to realize that the reason that david is so downcast and discouraged all the time is that he misses absalom and so joab begins to wonder if there was something that he could do some scheming that he could figure up that would get david and absalom back together and he decides on a plan that involves somebody else and he goes to the little town of tequila to a woman who has a marvelous reputation of being a wise woman the bible doesn't tell us why she has this reputation simply calls her the wise woman of tequila and joab meets with this wise woman and here's the plan that they come up with david asked the woman to go i mean joab asked the woman to go to see david and to tell david that she is a widower who had two sons and one day one of the sons the both of the sons were out in the field working and they got into a fight and the old one son knocked the other son down and he fell down and hit his head in the rock and died and he's standing over this brother that he's just killed and he realized what's happened he runs home to mom and then all of the people in the clan find out what happens and they demand like the law required that this boy's life be given because of what he's done and the mother says to david or she's going to say to david if if they take the life of my second son then my husband's name cannot be passed on it will be a tragedy she says the the only burning coal i have left will be taken from me and joab believes that this woman pretends to be a widower with this one son that's that's dead that maybe david will catch the the lesson of the story and the woman agrees to do this this is a familiar story do you know the story really well some of you don't know it good it's just a fascinating story isn't it um the woman uh goes into to king david into the room where the king holds the audience and she uh raises her hand said i'd like to speak to you this is the way that the israelites approach their ruler all the time it's not a strange thing clear back in the time of the judges you remember how the people would come to meet deborah under the palm tree this is where it began and and later on in this in this story when absalom wants to be king do you remember he goes out to the city gates and he he stops the people that want to come in and talk to david and he said why don't you just tell me your problems and i'll solve them for you and a little bit later in solomon's reign early on do you remember that the two women with the one baby come in and and solomon issues the famous decree just cut the baby in half and that'll solve it and and by saying that finds out which woman is really the mother of the child this is the way the israelites came to their ruler and approached him and so this remarkable transcript of the conversation in second samuel 14 beginning with verse 4.
the woman from tequa went to the king she fell with her face to the ground to pay him honor and she said help me o king and david answered said what is troubling you and we actually have the transcript of the dialogue between them i'm not sure any other place in the bible that's written just like this and so she says i'm a widow my husband is dead pretending this the whole story i had two sons and then she tells the story that joab has put in her mouth and at the end of the story verse 8 david feels like it's a very easy thing for him to decide the king said to the woman go home and i will issue an order in your behalf as far as david is concerned he's taken care of it he feels like the the son should not die and he issues the order and says thank you for asking and now he turns to the next person but the bible says but the woman of tekoa said to him my lord the king let the blame rest on me and on my father's family and let the king and his throne be without guilt just in case somebody is mad at you king david for your order let anybody blame me i'm the one that brought it to you she wants to prolong the conversation i think because david didn't catch the point of the story yet david is a little dull in these things do you remember when nathan came in told him this wonderful story and david said the man should be killed and nathan said it's you you or the man david just doesn't get it here's the same thing happening just a couple chapters later from the nathan story so the woman prolongs it let the blame be on me and david replies um in verse 10 the king replied if anyone says anything to you you bring him to me and he will not bother you again thank you for asking now go home and i'll take care of it and the woman realizes david hasn't gotten it yet so she said verse 11 just to be sure that it's not just the law of the land will you invoke the name of god in your decision invoke the lord your god to prevent the avenger of blood from adding to the destruction so that my son will not be destroyed and david says as surely as the lord lives not one hair of your son's head will fall to the ground i've done everything you ask now i'm a busy man go home and let me talk to the other people and the woman doesn't let it go verse 12 then the woman said may your servant speak one more word to my lord the king david by now is so perturbed by this woman he's answering her in one word sentences speak that's all he can say back to her and now the woman says look at this verse 13. the woman says why then have you devised a thing like this against the people of god david's standing there scratching his head what is this woman talking about what have i devised she continues when the king says this does he not convict himself for the king has not brought back his banished son oh that's what this is about and david begins to understand incidentally it's interesting to me that in verse 13 the bible uses for the first time the word devised and i followed that word throughout all of scripture and it is amazing word and every time that it's used with one single exception it's used in a negative connotation you devise wicked schemes in proverbs 6.
