2 Samuel 18

Jesus is worth more than ten thousand of us. But we have found our worth in Him.

In the day of David, the men standing with the king knew that Absalom would do anything to kill the king. David's men insisted on protecting David at all costs. They valued his life. How would they go on without Him?

But what was on David's heart? “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.” Is it commendable that David loved this sinner and longed for him to live?

Absalom would die that day. The very trees in the forests where they fought seemed to rise up against this man. Vengeance is in the hand of Almighty God. Who could stop Him if He comes against us with the demands of His holy justice? But we have an answer now that silences the roar of divine justice. We have the death of a righteous Substitute, Jesus, the Son of God.

Joab and his ten young armor-bearers killed Absalom. The end of David's son was degrading and gruesome. What became of the the usurper to his own father's throne who had once taken care to build a monument to himself? His body was left in a pit in the forest covered over by a great heap of stones.

But who would bring the news to David? By now everyone should have known that bearing this news to the king could be an immediate sentence of death for those who might think it a cause for celebration. Yet there was a volunteer who could not be stopped, and a second man whom Joab charged to bring the report to David.

The news came in these two reports, one from each runner. The first was from the volunteer. “Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king.” But what was the king's urgent concern? “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” The volunteer was able to step aside and allow the second runner to bring his report.

“Good news for my lord the king! For the Lord has delivered you this day from the hand of all who rose up against you.” Again the king asked the question that he cared about the most. “Is it well with the young man Absalom?” The answer was devastating. “May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man.”

Notice the words of David as he hears the definitive report of the demise of Absalom, the son who had sought his death. “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

How are we to measure these words of David? Do we dismiss them as the grieving cries of a father who is unable to see the truth? Yet we recognize a familiar voice in David's willingness to die in the place of his guilty son.

Absalom was an ungodly man. He met the vengeance of the Lord and the hatred of those who came against him in war in the forests of Ephraim. Despite all of this, there was a man who wanted to die in his place.

What David wanted to do for his ungodly son, Jesus Christ has done for us. Nothing can ever change the shocking words that the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:6. “Christ died for the ungodly.”