What is our life about? Is it about us or is it about the glory of God? The last words of a dying individual are often a window into that person’s heart and soul. David’s final charge to his son, Solomon, serves as a lesson for parents in raising their children. Are we looking for our own self-interest or are we looking out for the interests of our children and for the glory of God? At the end of this message, Zane answers the question, “How can we account for the fact that a great man like David could have had character failures like this?” Other passages mentioned include: 1 Kings 1; 2 Samuel 11-12; 2 Samuel 21:1-9; Deuteronomy 24:16; 2 Samuel 16:5-13; 2 Samuel 19:15-23; Ephesians 2:8-9.
Transcript
First Kings chapter 2. We are not going to deal with the entirety of chapter 2 today. It's a very long chapter, and the first 12 verses are a single unit which are best handled as a unit without trying to consider the rest of the chapter 2.
Before reading the verses that we want to look at this afternoon, let me just say a word or two by way of review, since it's been several weeks since we considered First Kings chapter 1. Just very briefly, you remember that we entitled First Kings chapter 1 the story of the palace fixers. And with great literary skill, the author of First Kings has kind of thrown aside the curtain and has allowed us to look in on palace politics and the way that palace politics determined the successor to David on the throne of Israel.
What we noted particularly in this chapter was that there was nowhere any mention of the idea that Solomon was the man that God had chosen to succeed David. What happened was that when Adonijah tried to set up his own kingdom, those who were left out of his gathering feared for their lives, and they knew that they had to counteract Adonijah's plot. They did this by using a vow that David had made to Bathsheba that her son Solomon would sit on the throne of Israel, and they manipulated David and all of the events to bring about the result that they desired, which was the establishment of the kingdom of Solomon. And we are very struck by the fact that the greatest name in the history of Israel, in terms of the greatness of his kingdom, came to the throne without any clear indication from the prophetic word of God that he was the man to be king.
Knowing the passage we are about to read, we have David's final charge to Solomon. Remember that at this point David and Solomon are both kings in Israel. This was not unusual apparently in the Middle East. When the aging father was no longer able to carry out all the duties of office, he elevated his son, who was then a co-king with him, and when the father passed off the scene then the son was the only king. So this is an exchange between the two kings, the father and the son, and I think it's very interesting to see what happens here.
Let's read First Kings chapter 2 and verses 1 to 12.
When the days of David drew near that he should die, and he charged Solomon his son, saying: ‘I go the way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man. And keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His judgments, and His testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; that the Lord may fulfill His word which He spoke concerning me, saying, “If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul,” He said, “you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.”’
Moreover you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed. And he shed the blood of war in peacetime, and put the blood of war on his belt that was around his waist and on his sandals that were on his feet. Therefore do according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to the grave in peace. But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, let them be among those who eat at your table, for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother. And see, you have with you Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a malicious curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying, ‘I will not put you to death with the sword.’ Now therefore, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man and know what you ought to do to him, but bring his gray hair down to the grave with blood.
So David rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David. The period that David reigned over Israel was forty years; seven years he reigned in Hebron, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years. So Solomon sat on the throne of his father David, and his kingdom was firmly established.
Down through the years of human history itself, there's always been a keen interest in the last words of important people. We're always interested to know what some famous person, whether it's a politician, an actor, a celebrity of some kind, has said on their deathbed or close to their deathbed. And although we can't prove these are the very last words that David spoke, and they probably are not, there are nevertheless David's final charge to his son Solomon, who is taking over the kingdom and will replace David as king of Israel.
One of the things that makes last words interesting is that when you're facing death there's no particular reason to pretend about things anymore, wouldn't you agree? No particular reason to deceive people, no particular reason to play a role. You're facing death, you're about to go, and therefore very often the last words of people are a real window into their hearts and into their souls. And we can look through these last words and see what the people that have spoken these last words are really like.
It seems to me that in the last words of David we do have a window on David's heart, a window on his soul. And I regret to tell you that as we look through this window we are not exactly pleased or inspired by what we see.
David starts out his final words to Solomon in a way that sounds very impressive to us. He says, I'm going the way of all the earth, and I want you to be a strong person. I want you to prove yourself to be a man. And I especially want you to keep the charge of the Lord our God. I want you to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments, his statutes and his testimonies, according to everything that is written in the law of Moses so that you may prosper wherever you turn. To put it very simply, David is saying to Solomon, obey all of God's law so that you may be successful.
Now I really don't know what was going through Solomon's mind at this point, but if I had been sitting there I suspect the following thoughts might have occurred to me as I heard this. Okay dad, you're telling me that I should walk in all of the commandments and statutes of the law of Moses, right? But do you realize that almost everybody in the palace knows the story of how you committed adultery with my mother when she was in fact the wife of one of your soldiers? And then when my mother was pregnant, you got her husband back from the battlefield, and you tried to get him drunk and get him to go down to his own house and cover up your sin. And when you failed in doing that, you sent him back to the battlefield, and apparently you got Joab to make sure that he was killed in battle. And then you married my mother.
And although the child that she was pregnant with died, I was born later. And dad, don't you think that my half brothers and my half sisters in this palace haven't thought about it and talked about it because of the way in which my mother was brought into this palace? And dad, are you not the man who has multiplied wives even though the law of Moses instructs the king not to multiply wives? And dad, aren't you the man who ordered that some of Saul's descendants be executed for Saul's crime even when the law of Moses said that the children shall not be put to death for their father? Dad, where do you get off telling me to obey the law of Moses when you have a record like that?
I don't know what was going on in Solomon's mind, but would you agree this might have crossed his mind?
Do you know one of the mistakes that parents make? They tell their kids to do right and then the parents do wrong. One of the earliest things that I had said to me when I came into this ministry maybe forty plus years ago, I remember a parent saying to me, I don't know what went wrong with my child. I always told them right from wrong. And I said in my heart, you told him right from wrong, but did you show them right from wrong, or did you show them that wrong can be right sometimes? Very tragic for parents not to model before their children the obedience that they wish their children to have.
If David wanted obedience from Solomon, well did you notice in verse 4 that he wanted this obedience from Solomon so that God's blessing could rest on Solomon and so that God's blessing could rest on the nation of Israel which Solomon would rule and so that the nation could have security and peace and happiness and joy? Was that what you say? You don't see that there? That's not what it says.
Listen to the reason that David gives for Solomon to be obedient to the Lord, verse 4: that the Lord may fulfill his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, if your sons take heed to their way to walk before me in truth with all their heart with all their soul, He said, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.
Can you believe this? David is saying, I, Solomon, I want you to walk in the ways of God. Okay, Solomon, I want you to be a successful king so that God can fulfill his promise to me, so that I can always have a son sitting on the throne of Israel.
Whatever happened to God's blessing on Solomon? Whatever happened to God's blessing on Israel as a reason for Solomon obeying God? Brooks's David, I would like to be the head of the line of kings that goes on and on and on and on, and Solomon, do not blow it. Don't blow it for me, because God has promised that if you and all my children will be obedient, and I'll never lack somebody sitting on the throne of Israel.
Are you shocked, yes or no?
Do you know why parents sometimes are really really sad when their kids make bad choices? Because their kids have embarrassed them, because their kids have made them look bad as parents, because their kids have disgraced the family. And sometimes parents will actually say that to kids, how could you do that, you've disgraced us. Nobody in this family has ever done something like that. I'm embarrassed.
And whatever happened to the idea that our kids, is it terrible if our kids do wrong because of the trouble that that brings to our kids?
I think that if I were a parent I would do a very careful check. I suspect there's no parent in this group here who doesn't want their child to walk with God and keep God's commandments, but why do you want it? For yourself, for your family, or for your kid and for the glory of God in your kid's life?
Now to start for the last words of David, wouldn't you agree that's his general command, but now he's got some specific instructions. He says, you know about Joab. Joab of course was the son of David's sister Zeruiah and therefore a nephew of David. And notice what he says in verse 5: you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me. And then he goes right on, what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed.
What did Joab do to you David? Well, I was in the process of making a treaty with Abner, and Joab interfered with that by killing Abner. And I was planning to make Amasa the new commander-in-chief of the armies of Israel, but Joab interfered with that and he killed Amasa.
You're tempted to say, David yeah maybe he did do you some damage, but have you forgotten he killed Absalom? But notice the priority David has: what Joab did to me, what he did to these two commanders that he killed. But of course David knew that Joab was covered with blood guilt.
Notice he says at the end of verse five, and he shed the blood of war in peacetime, and he put the blood of war on his belt that was around his waist and on his sandals that were on his feet. It's just as if he had smeared the belt that held his sword with innocent blood. It's just as if he had trampled in the blood of these innocent men. He's a bloody man.
And then did you notice, you're still awake I hope, did you notice that David said, because of that one of my last acts as king of Israel is that I'm going to order an executioner to bring Joab right here and I'm going to execute him. I should have done it a long time ago but at least I can do it before I die. We're going to have him executed. He didn't say that.
Verse 6: therefore do according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray hair go down to the grave in peace. This in football, this is called a lateral pass. You're not running the ball; somebody else is running it. It's also called passing the buck. I should have killed Joab. I should have executed him for the innocent blood that he shed, but I'm not going to do it. Will you please do it for me? Find a way of doing it. You're a smart man. Find a way of doing this. Bring his gray hair down to the grave with blood.
Parents should never pass their unfulfilled responsibilities on to their children. Here's a dad who says to his son, you know son, all my life I wanted to give a really big monetary gift to the church. I wanted for years to give a thousand dollars to the church and I never really got around to it. Would you please give a big gift to the church someday for me? Or here's a mom who said, I always felt God wanted me to teach Sunday School. She's speaking to her daughter, but somehow or other I never found time to teach Sunday School. Would you please teach Sunday school someday, a kind of for your mom's sake? And on and on it can go.
Sometimes it's not that direct. Sometimes it's not that specific. We just kind of, you know, pass along our little unfulfilled responsibilities to the kids, and we, I wish you would do this. I didn't ever get a chance to do it. Would you do this for me? And that's what David is doing here, isn't he? He said, I never got around to executing Joab. Would you please take care of that for me?
I'm glad to say that there's a little bit of a bright spot here, because he goes on to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and he says, let them be among those who eat at your table because they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother. David had already rewarded Barzillai, but he wanted his son to continue to express gratitude. And there's certainly nothing wrong, is there, with a man saying to their children, look, Barzillai was very good to me. Any chance you have, please do good to them.
But this little bright spot in David's final words is swallowed up in the darkest piece of this entire speech. Look at it, verse 8: and you have Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim, who cursed me with a malicious curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the Lord, saying I will not put you to death with the sword.
Now therefore, do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man and you know what you ought to do to him, but bring his gray hair down to the grave with blood.
I don't know whether David's memory was about seventy now probably. I don't know whether his memory is fading, or whether he just prefers to remember his oath to Shimei this way. You remember that according to the passage we read earlier in Samuel, Shimei who had cursed David and thrown stones at him as David was fleeing from Absalom came down to the Jordan when he realized that Absalom was overthrown and David was going to be king again. He falls down before David and he says, please do not impute iniquity to me, and please don't remember the thing that I did when you were going out of Jerusalem. Please don't take it to heart. I, your servant, know that I have sinned.
And over the objections of Abishai, David says, you shall not die, and he swore to him by the Lord, you shall not die. But now David says my oath was I will not put you to death with the sword. But notice what he says to Solomon: now therefore do not hold him guiltless, for you are a wise man and you know what you ought to do to him, but bring his gray hair down to the grave with blood. I told him I wouldn't kill him, but I didn't tell him you wouldn't. Please take care of this for me. Please get rid of Shimei for me.
One of the very worst things that parents can ever ever do with their children is to pass along to their children their grudges, their bitterness, their resentments, and a wish that somehow the kid might be involved in getting even with the people who've hurt them. So the parent says to the kid, don't you ever go to that person's house. You just keep in mind what they did to me, okay? You remember what they did to me. Don't you ever go to their house. Don't you ever help them.
We don't think parents say that. Yeah, parents do say that. They pass on to their children the grudges, the resentments, the hatreds, the animosities that they have developed in their lifetime. What a terrible inheritance. What a terrible legacy for a parent to leave to a child.
David had apparently extended unconditional forgiveness to Shimei. That's what it seemed from David. But now as the years have passed he's going to pull back. I don't really completely forgive him for that, and I don't think I really said that he wouldn't die at all. You could take care of that for me. You do that, son. Please do that.
The friend is missing from the final words of David, okay. What's missing? The glory of God. Everything that David says in these final words are centered on David. You obey God. You be successful so that I can have kings sitting on my throne forever and ever. And you take care of Joab that I failed to take care of. Get rid of him. And even be kind to Barzillai because he was good to me. And you finish out the grudge that I died holding against Shimei the son of Gera. It was me, me, me, me. There's not a word here about doing anything for the glory of the God of Israel.
But a contrast with the Lord Jesus Christ, wouldn't you agree? The future king of Israel, when he came to earth, everything he said, everything he did was for the glory of God, his Heavenly Father, and he was willing to sacrifice his own interest completely, and he was obedient unto the death of the cross.
And I think that not only as parents, folks, but as individuals, we all really ask ourselves the question, what is our life about? Is it about us, or is it about God? And is it about glorifying God, and is that the message that we're communicating to our children?
I've told you the story before, but I think in closing it's probably appropriate to tell the story again. There was an elderly lady whose memory was failing her. She had once known great stretches of the Bible that she could recite by heart, but as she grew older she could only remember one verse of the Bible, and the verse she could remember was,
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day,
words beautifully spoken by Paul in Second Timothy.
But as time went on she lost a lot of that verse, and finally she was down to a phrase from the verse which she repeated over and over again: that which I have committed unto him. That's all she could remember. That which I have committed unto him. That which I've committed unto him. Finally she lay on her deathbed, and her loved ones were gathered around her deathbed, and they saw her lips moving, and they thought she was asking for something. Somebody leaned over real close to hear what she was saying, and she was saying the one word out of the verse that she still remembered. She was saying him, him, him.
Now if you and I rely on our deathbed, you know some of us if we were picking out the key word to repeat over and over again might say, me, me, me, me. I'm happy is the Christian whose life is so centered in the Lord Jesus Christ that what his life is all about is him, him, him.
We've recently learned to sing a new song that I think all of us really like to sing. I'm going to repeat some of the words of this song here as I close, and as I do would you ask yourself the question whether you just sing these words because it's a beautiful song or whether these words express your goals and your objectives in life.
How shall I say thanks for the things that you have done for me? Things so undeserved that you give to prove your love for me. The voices of a million angels could not express my gratitude. All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe it all to thee. To God be the glory, to God be the glory, to God be the glory for the things he has done.
Okay, that's open it up for comments and questions. Bob's question really is, how can we account for the fact that a man who was a great man like David that had failures like this? And the answer that I was given was basically, first of all, David is head and shoulders above all. Because Saul never really learned to trust God. But David knew how to trust God. And in the great moments of his life, he did trust God.
But then the ability to trust God does not automatically carry with it character transformation. A man who has that ability is not necessarily a man who is being molded and shaped and transformed by the influences of God's Word. And that's why we now see, and often see in the history of the church, men who have accomplished great things, who believe in God and trust God, who preach his word, and they fall into awful sin. And we're inclined to say, why, how could that happen? Well, as I said, read the Bible. It can happen because it happened with David.
We should not take our faith for granted. Faith is nonmeritorious. Faith is not some marvelous quality that we have. We ought to believe God. We want to believe. We are saved by grace through faith. And that doesn't mean we were saved because faith somehow merits salvation. God gives salvation to us because we believe. But the capacity to believe God is one thing. The grace to obey Him and to become the kind of person God wants us to become is another thing. And unfortunately, David never became exactly the man that God wanted him to be.
I think if you would compare David with a Canaanite, David would have been, you know, up here. And the Canaanite would have been down here. Or with the Philistine who didn't even know God, David way up there. But when you compare David with the standards that God sets for his people, David falls short. And we need to ask ourselves the question, not only am I a believer? We all are believers. Sitting here today, we wouldn't be here today if we weren't.
But is God transforming me? Is he teaching me how to live at the level of experience that he wants me to live? Or do I sail along through life way, way below what God designs for me? And when I come to the end of my life, will I be able to do better than David did with my final words to my family? If God gives me an opportunity to give final words to my family. That is a good question. By no means does every Christian pass that test. Thank goodness salvation is by grace through faith. It's not by grace through faith plus works because works is not there in a lot of cases.