2 Samuel 16

David left Jerusalem under the most horrifying circumstances. His own son, Absalom, had secretly turned against him.

The world was suddenly upside down. The heart of the son was against his father. Now, in the household of Saul's grandson Mephibosheth, the heart of the servant turned against his master.

Mephibosheth's servant, Ziba, came to David and brought provisions for the king as David went into exile. He also brought David a charge against his master. Mephibosheth would later claim that this accusation was completely false. Who was telling the truth in this controversy between the master and the servant? David had no time to sort out the facts. The king was on the move. Ziba had made his choice. He would place his hopes on David. The king conferred upon him all his master's property.

Ziba made this final request of David. “Let me ever find favor in your sight, my lord the king.” Whatever else could be said about Ziba, he was placing his hope in David and paying homage to the one from whom would eventually come the Messiah King.

Not everyone associated with the house of Saul would have this wisdom. In particular, a man named Shimei, came out cursing David. Shimei spoke as one who thought he knew the mysteries of God's providence. Yet he would soon change his mind when David was on his way back to Jerusalem after the death of Absalom.

For now, Shimei was openly vicious in his attacks against David. According to Shimei, David was a worthless man who had unjustly taken the kingdom from the house of Saul. Now God was paying him back. This was Shimei's passionate version of history. He was zealous and bold, but he was also very wrong.

David's cousin, Abishai, requested the king's permission to kill Shimei immediately, but David looked to the Lord for vindication in due time. For the moment, the king recognized the possibility that this curse was the Lord's rebuke. He took this moment of discipline and testing with patience as Shimei hurled insults, dust, and stones at David. David's own son, Absalom, was seeking his life. The wrath of Shimei was nothing compared to that sorrow.

Absalom entered Jerusalem, and on the advice of Ahithophel, the king's son asserted his authority over his father by immoral intimacy with his father's concubines. Ahithophel understood that this news would spread throughout all of Israel and would embolden those who were on the side of Absalom.

All of this was in accord with the Word of the Lord to David after his sin in the matter of the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Humiliation and loss had overtaken David, the man after God's own heart.

The seed of Absalom's demise was already among his advisors in the person of David's friend Hushai the Archite. He would overturn the worldly wisdom of Ahithophel at just the right moment. Eventually Absalom would die, and some measure of kingdom sanity would be restored. Shimei would have to change his mind about David, and Ziba and Mephibosheth would have to learn how to live together again.

What can anyone do when the world seems to have turned upside down? Above all else, remain loyal to the true Messiah King and wait for the Lord's vindication.

Absalom had plotted his own way to gain his father's kingdom through deceit, betrayal, and immorality. David faced this sad humiliation in the only way that a godly man could. He put his trust in the Lord and refreshed himself in whatever good gift that God might bring to him at this low moment.

A better day was coming. The true Son of David, Jesus Christ, would hear the word of His Father and obey. Jesus would not win the kingdom of God for us though evil displays of raw power. He gave Himself up to His Father's will for our sake. He showed us the honesty of sincere love, and people all over the world are still spreading the good news of His devotion after all these centuries.

In the rebellion of Absalom, as in the disobedience of Adam so long ago, the world was turned upside down. The heart of the son had turned against his father. The victory that Absalom seemed to win was very short-lived. In the cross of Christ, an eternal kingdom of righteousness has been won for us. Jesus is the Son of the Father in truth and love. His kingdom will never end.