The Sad, Contradicting Triumph

The scripture text this evening is 2 Samuel 18.

! We'll be starting in verse 1 of chapter 18.! We'll be going a little bit of chapter 19 as well, down to verse 8.! This is the word of the Lord.

Then David mustered the men who were with him, and set over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. And David sent out to the army one-third under the command of Joab, one-third under the command of Abishai, the son of Zariah, Joab's brother, and one-third under the command of Ittai the Gittite.

And the king said to the men, I myself will go out with you. But the men said, You shall not go out, for if we flee, they will not care about us.

If half of us die, they will not care about us, but you are worth ten thousandth of us. Therefore, it is better that you send us help from the city.

The king said to them, Whatever seems best to you, I will do. So the king stood at the side of the gate, while all the army marched out by hundreds and by thousands.

And the king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai, deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders about Absalom.

So the army went out into the field against Israel, and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim. And the men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the loss there was great on that day, twenty thousand men.

The battle spread over the face of all the country, and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword. And Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under thick branches of a great oak.

And his head caught first in the oak, and he was suspended between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on. And a certain man saw it and told Joab, Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.

Joab said to the man who told him, What? You saw him? Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have been glad to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt.

But the man said to Joab, Even if I felt in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not reach out my hand against the king's son. For in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, for my sake protect the young man Absalom.

On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously against his life, and there is nothing hidden from the king, then you yourself would have stood aloof. Joab said, I will not waste time like this with you.

And he took three javelins in his hand and thrust them into the heart of Absalom while he was still alive in the oak. And ten young men, Joab's armor bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him.

Then Joab blew the trumpet, and the troops came back from pursuing Israel, for Joab restrained them. And they took Absalom and threw him into a great pit in the forest and raised over him a very great heap of stones, and all Israel fled, everyone to his own home.

Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken up and set up for himself a pillar that is in the king's valley, for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance.

He called the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom's monument to this day. Then Ahamaz, the son of Zadok, said, Let me run and carry news to the king that the Lord has delivered him from the hand of his enemies.

And Joab said to him, You are not to carry news today. You may carry news another day, but today you shall carry no news, because the king's son is dead. Then Joab said to the Cushite, Go, tell the king what you have seen.

The Cushite bowed before Joab and ran. Then Ahamaz, the son of Zadok, said again to Joab, Come what may, let me also run after the Cushite.

And Joab said, Why will you run, my son, seeing that you will have no reward for the news? Come what may, he said, I will run. So he said to him, Run.

Then Ahamaz ran by the way of the plain and outran the Cushite. Now David was sitting between the two gates, and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall.

And when he lifted up his eyes and looked, he saw a man running alone. The watchman called out and told the king, and the king said, If he is alone, there is news in his mouth. And he drew nearer and nearer.

The watchman saw another man running. And the watchman said to the gate and said, See another man running alone. And the king said, He also brings news. The watchman said, I think the running of the first is like the running of Ahamaz, the son of Zadok.

And the king said, He's a good man and comes with good news. Then Ahamaz cried out to the king, All is well. And he bowed before the king with his face to the earth and said, Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king.

And the king said, Is it well with my young man Absalom? With young man Absalom. Ahamaz answered, When Joab sent the king's servant, your servant, I saw a great commotion, but I do not know what it was.

And the king said, Turn aside and stand here. So he turned aside and stood still. And behold, the Cushite came and the Cushite said, 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.

The king said to the Cushite, Is it well with the young man Absalom? And the Cushite answered, May the enemies of my lord the king and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man.

And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, Oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would I have died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son.

It was told Joab, Behold, the king is weeping in mourning for Absalom. So the 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 stole into the city that day, as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle. The king covered his face and the king cried with a loud voice, So my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son.

Then Joab came into the house to the king and said, You have today covered with shame the faces of all your servants who have this day saved your life and the lives of your sons and your daughters and the lives of your wives and your concubines because you love those who hate you and hate those who love you.

For you have made it clear today that commanders and servants are nothing to you. For today I know that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead today, then you would be pleased. Now therefore arise, go out, and speak kindly to your servants.

For I swear by the Lord, if you do not go, not a man will stay with you this night, and this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now.

Then the king arose and took his seat in the gate, and the people were all told, Behold, the king is sitting in the gate. And all the people came before the king.

Okay, quite an account. And the title of this, I've named the Sad Contradicting Triumph. Sad, I think, obviously looking at David, the way he responded to Absalom's death and the crying out that he did through that.

And it wasn't more than just two different times that he cried out. He really cried out very deeply about the entire time they were coming back into Jerusalem.

As it's said right there in chapter 19, that the men came back as if they had been defeated. You know, they won that battle, but they came back like they had been, they had gotten a clock cleaned.

And they were responding to David's cries. And then contradicting for a lot of reasons that are really all the way through this account.

Just a ton of reasons. And that all really focus on one particular verse. Back in chapter 18, verse 5, David gives a command to his commanders.

And all of the people who are in his army hear this command. And it says simply, Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.

Deal gently with Absalom. Now that's a strange thing for him to say. I mean, in many ways we understand what he's coming from, where he's coming from.

He is his father. However, it really brings into account two different thoughts that I'm bringing up in questions. Does it make sense in a battle context to deal gently with the one who is in command of the enemy army?

I mean, it never makes sense to do that. It really doesn't. And so that is something that doesn't really make sense here. I mean, the fact is, if a certain archer just shot his bow and an arrow flew and it hit Absalom, very similar to later on in 1st and 2nd Kings whenever King Ahab is hitting that way.

The fact is, there was nothing that could be done. That's what archers do in battle. They shoot at the enemy army. And if it would have hit Absalom, then it would have hit Absalom.

I guess there's no gently dealing with that. Now, it's not the way it happened. But it's still, it doesn't really make a lot of sense in a battle context.

And then an even more important question is, where is God in this command? And where is God in this command? Well, in the previous chapter, chapter 17, we talked about that last week.

It said, in verse 14, it said, For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom.

So the Lord is intending to bring harm on Absalom. That's his will being done. Now, David didn't know that. That's something for us, something they didn't necessarily know.

But they could have known, potentially. How? Well, there's this thing called the Urim and Thummim that was still around that day that helped them to recognize what the Lord's will was.

There were prophets, such as the prophet Nathan. He was still alive and well. Matter of fact, he comes back into the entire biblical account in 1 Kings when he's helping to bring Solomon to become the king.

So Nathan's still very much alive and well and lived years later. And so he was still working. David could have called on Nathan for the Lord's will to be heard, to hear what God's will is in this situation.

But really, the last prayer that's really recorded in 2 Samuel is in chapter 15 when David just simply said about Ahithophel, when he heard that Ahithophel was siding with Absalom, Lord, just make the counsel of Ahithophel turn into rubbish.

That's the last prayer that was actually recorded in 2 Samuel. Now, there are psalms, of course. But that really is, there's not a whole lot of turning to God and asking God for his counsel and going that direction at all in the last few chapters.

And so, basically, also you would look at this chapter as well. We've been talking about chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17.

And there's been obvious push as Absalom is getting himself further and further away from being in David's graces, as he has pushed David out of Jerusalem, as he has gone into his concubines, as he has brought up a mighty army and has ran David all across Israel.

Something is inevitable that's going to happen. It's happened here in chapter 18. And so, it is a battle that's going on. But if you look at chapter 18, you only see just a few verses that are really describing the battle.

It starts in verse 6, and pretty much the entire summary of the battle is finished in verse 8. Three verses. That's really the entire summary of the battle.

It's not the focus of this entire account. The focus is simply on the relationship between David and Absalom. And all of it has to do with that particular command and how the reaction is to that.

It's also focused on Joab and his leadership and also reaction to David's command. And as you notice from that command and notice from Joab's actions that there is a battle objective.

But there's two very different battle objectives going on. Joab is kind of like Ahithophel from the last chapter. He's here to win. He's here to actually defeat the enemy.

And that's what Joab is intending to do. But David has a very different objective. It is to simply win his son back. To bring his son back into his family.

And to forgive him and all those things. But Joab has a much different agenda. The agenda of a general. What a general generally have.

So, if you look at the characters, you see that Absalom is a central character in this passage of Scripture. And David is passive.

He's not very actively involved. Things are happening upon him. And that Joab is the one that's really taking charge in this passage of Scripture.

If anything, Joab is really getting to the point where his command is getting more and more demanding. More and more commanding.

And taking more and more of David's command away from him as well. And he will face a little bit of a punishment for that in the next chapter.

And so, you look at this intro of chapter 18. And you see this command that's been given. And you see the setup to that point. I mean, you notice that David has divided his army into three divisions.

That's a really good strategy. This is not the first time that they faced a formidable army that's much larger than them. If you look back at chapter 10, they faced a formidable army on two sides.

It's not only the army that they were facing at the city that they were about to take over. But also Syrians that were mercenaries that were paid to be there. And so, they had to divide their forces.

And they were able to share with each other as need be. And so, they were kind of setting that up as well. As they were fighting this formidable army. They have three divisions.

And they're able to talk amongst one another. And go through that whole battle plan. That's kind of how they fought battles as well. Especially when they are so outnumbered.

And so, there's three commanders. Ittai the Gittite is somebody we talked about a few chapters ago. This guy is a Philistine. He is a comrade of David.

David told him, you know, when David was starting to run off. You know, just go back to your home. I can't really help you anymore. And he said, no, I'm following you.

I'm serving you. You will remain king. If I have anything to say about that. And so, he was the commander along with Joab and Abishai. And so, commanding the forces.

David, as king, is simply saying, I'm going to go with you. I'm going to lead you into battle. Because I'm the king and that's what kings do. And they're like, nope, not a good idea. And I'm pretty sure David is thinking, yep, you're right.

Not a good idea. Well, there's lots of reasons why it wasn't a good idea. One, David didn't want to fight his son. Who would? And then, secondly, verse 5 really kind of pulls into that as well.

The command that David gave to deal gently with Absalom. He doesn't need to be on the battlefield. If that's kind of how he's going to handle that situation. And we see later as well.

And then we see this battle. I mean, we just simply see the fact that all kinds of men die on Absalom's side. He is soundly defeated.

But he is not just defeated by the sword. He's defeated by this forest as well. So when David was going over the river and through the woods last week, he really was literally going through the woods.

A very thick forest. And so, yeah, it killed more than the sword ever did.

And that's not an uncommon thing in war as well, even today. That the, it seems to be that the circumstances are round and the atmosphere seems to take people just as much as fighting itself.

And so, and so we come to, we come to Absalom or we come to this, this particular passage from verse 9. And we see what I call the silent antagonist.

The silent antagonist. And that would be Absalom. Absalom. And first of all, there's this accident that happens. An accident, you can put it in quotes, because it's not really an accident.

But he, two things happen. He meets, happens to meet servants of David at this point. This is kind of strange. You would think he's leading his men to battle. Now, where are his men? Now, a lot of them have died, of course.

But, I mean, I imagine there are more than 20,000 men. So, so, you know, what's, what's going on here? You know, what are the, what are the details behind this?

But we're not told what the details are. We're just saying what happened. And, and, and again, this next detail is, is strange. He basically is riding his mule through the forest.

And he hits an oak tree or a turban tree, whatever. And this big branch and his head gets stuck in it or his hair gets stuck in it.

I mean, who knows what's going on here. And, but, but he's just hanging there. There's nothing to do about it. He's trapped. He's, you know, there's nothing that's going on.

If one of his men sees him first, then whew. But what if one of David's men sees him? He's dead toast. And so, what's going on here? You know, that's, that's, he's in trouble.

Helpless. Helpless situation. He can't do a thing about it. And, and, and, and so, and then all is he silent. The fact that he's, you know, and there's not a single word that is said that, that he says.

Like, there's not a single quote in this passage that, that he says at all. And then, and then when, when Joab finally gets to him and, and, and has his way with him, he is judged in the way he needs to be judged.

As a rebellious son and as a traitor. In Deuteronomy chapter 21, they list the punishment for children who rebel against their parents.

And now I'm not, we're not talking about the little six-year-old boy that, that just seems to be a brat. We're talking about someone who actually is, is, is standing up against the, the cause of his, his family.

And especially when the family is following the Lord. And, like in this case, the king, that, that would be a really good example of that. And, and they are to be taken out in, you know, out in, you know, away from the family and to be stoned.

And to, and to, and that would be the facing the punishment to be stoned, stoned to death. And also to be buried with stones as well.

So, um, it, it, it goes, uh, pretty well with many different judgments that have happened throughout the Old Testament. In Joshua chapter 7, Achan, uh, the guy who, who took from the, the jewels of, of Jericho.

When God told them not to touch any of that. Uh, he took that, he hid it in his tent. They went to Ai, a much smaller place, but they lost what happened.

They don't understand why they, why they soundly defeated Jericho. But they lost against Ai. And found out through the, the casting of lots. That Achan, uh, was, was guilty of what he did.

And they stoned him to death. And his family too. And they buried them in stones. Uh, they did the exact same thing to the king of Ai after they defeated Ai.

And so there must have been something there that the scripture, scripture doesn't talk about. That was going on there. He was hanged on a tree and buried in stones. Again, this, uh, the same thing, hanged on a tree, thrown in a cave, covered in stones by five enemy kings.

Also in Joshua chapter 10. And so this is all these things that are happening, uh, to Absalom. And he's deserving of it. Now again, it's not what David told him to do.

But it's what he deserves. It's what's going on. Um, and then, um, and then also, just something little. In verse 18, he's trying to build a legacy. He has this monument that he's building, uh, for himself.

And, and says that he's doing that because he doesn't have any more sons. Don't really know what happened there. He had three sons about a few chapters ago. No clue what happened there. They must not be around anymore. But, um, but anyway, he built this pillar.

And the pillar's still kind of around today, not the one he built, uh, one maybe later. That was built, uh, about 2,000 years ago. And, um, and, and he did build a legacy. He was able to, you know, the Orthodox Jews actually do something with that whenever they go by it.

They spit at it. What a legacy. Okay. So he got it. He got his, he got his way. And so that's pretty much Absalom in the story. He's, he's done.

He's through. He's dead. He's toast. And, um, and he's judged like the criminal that he is. And then you have this other guy, this domineering enigma in Joab.

And he is an enigma, a mystery, kind of a weird fellow, really throughout this whole thing, those whole passages of scripture that we've been reading. We've been reading a guy that has been very helpful at times.

Uh, he's led the Israelite army to some great victories. I talked about chapter 10. You know, he actually brought to Abishai and to the leaders of that army, you know, we will fight and we will fight hard.

And whatever God seems, deems as good is what will happen. I mean, he was trusting in the Lord and bringing God glory for that. And then, and then, you know, at the same time or at, you know, in the same life, at least, he would be willing to just take the life of somebody that doesn't really deserve to have their life taken from them.

Like Abner or, um, uh, or, or other people, or Uriah the Hittite, you know, because he was definitely involved in that as well. And so, this is kind of a strange, uh, type of a personality.

He's also in a situation where he is taking more control, um, every day, every moment, every week and month that goes by. He's having more and more control as well.

That will continue until David puts a stop to it, at least for a while. And so, and he's doing the same thing here. He's taking matters in his own hands. Um, he knows what the right thing to do is.

He understands he's been given a command, dumb command. I'm not doing that command. I'm doing what is right. And what's right is to kill this guy. And he's doing it.

Now, Absalom deserved to be killed. So, so I think Joab did the right thing in terms of what was deserving. But he was also disobedient. So what he did was both rebellious and rational.

Rational in the reality that he was thinking with a clear head. I mean, you've got to remember, he has a history with Absalom as well. Just a couple chapters ago, Absalom came back from Geshur. After being, after killing Amnon, he fled to Geshur to be with his other family and away from David so he wouldn't have to be killed.

He came back. Joab was able to negotiate a plan with the king to bring Absalom back. And so Absalom didn't have to, you know, be killed.

And he was able to go back to his property to live on the property. But he wanted more. And so he went to Joab asking him for more. Joab would ignore him. He burned down Joab's field to get his attention.

Probably got lots of people's attention because, you know, smoke is not invisible. And so he got his attention. Joab came to David and negotiated another deal to bring Absalom back into, you know, be able to have the rights of the crown prince.

And so everything was great after that. Well, of course not. No. Well, this happens. And it's all Absalom's fault. And if this type of thing happens, it could happen again because, well, is Absalom going to repent?

I think in Joab's mind, no. No, he's not. And so there's no reason to keep this guy alive. And so, but the funny thing is he actually had a chance to save Absalom at this time.

I mean, Absalom's stuck in this tree. Maybe you could pull him down and take him back to David and let David take care of him in that way. Who knows? David might have killed him. You never know. I highly doubt it.

But, you know, this is kind of a weird story in this way. And so, and then not only is it rebellious, it was rational as well.

But then he's also showing to David that he's a dangerous man at the same time. Later on in chapter 19, as he's going to David, again taking matters in his hands to let David know that what he's doing is not right.

By mourning and not, you know, remembering the fact that he's the king and doing the duties of the king. And he says right here in verse 7 of chapter 19, I swear by the Lord, if you do not go, not a man will stay with you this night.

And this will be worse for you than all the evil that has come upon you from your youth until now. If Absalom has the ability to surprise Abner after Abner has been forgiven by David and slay him.

If he has the ability to take a really solid soldier and very loyal man in Uriah and send him into a battle that he knows will kill him.

If he's able to do all of these things, what else is he really able to do? Is he able to go into David and just kill David at any time? Of course he is.

And so what a dangerous man he is. And so this is another situation that David's having to deal with as well. This next chapter setting up to being more problems for David.

More problems going on. And then you have this guy just kind of stuck in the middle of this. Probably a servant to Joab.

And he's called simply the Cushite. He doesn't have a name. Well, not in the Bible at least. I'm sure he had a name. But he's Cushite. Just a regular old guy.

A Gentile. Just a servant of sorts. And so he comes up right after Absalom dies. He's in verse 19 and following another guy, Ahimaaz, who is the high priest's son.

Zadok's son will become the high priest. An important character, but right now kind of a runner for David and serves him in that way.

And so he wants to go and tell David the great news of all that's happened. The enemy's destroyed. They have won the day. But what does Joab know?

Well, Joab knows that when the guy came and told David about King Saul dead, David killed him. And when those two guys came and told David about that enemy king, Ish-bosheth, that, hey, they got rid of that guy.

Now David can finally be the king. You know, they died too. And that's kind of what happens. That may be unfair a bit, but he understands that Ahimaaz doesn't need to be taken out that way.

So he sends a red shirt. Now if you're a Star Trek fan, you know exactly what I'm talking about. He sends a guy that's just an expendable.

He's an extra. So he, you know, he's thinking about Captain Kirk. They're exploring strange new worlds. And they have that strange new world they want to explore that no man has ever gone before.

So he gets Spock. He gets McCoy. If he knows there's some ladies on that planet, he'll go too. And he goes to that red shirt.

That guy, that ensign, that basic person that you've never seen on the show before. And gets him to go too. And surprise, someone dies.

It's not Spock. It's the red shirt. And this guy's kind of like a red shirt, so to speak. So, you know what, if David gets mad at the messenger, even though it's not the messenger's fault this time at all.

And that's another change in those other stories. The messenger was the person who said, at least, that they killed the person that they said they killed.

This guy, I mean, he's just a messenger. And so this is going on. But, yeah, there's a big contrast between this guy and Ahamas.

Because Ahamas beats him to the town, to Mahanaim, where David is. And David asks a particular question. Not, how did y'all do?

He asked, how's Absalom? I don't think Ahamas was quite ready for that one. Because the way he answered it, it was like, I guess I never heard that.

Well, he heard it. And if you go back to just a few verses before that, 20, 21, 22, he heard it. And the Cushite heard it too.

And what did the Cushite say? He gave him the truth. And so just a simple fact that probably the most truth that's happening in this entire passage comes from a Gentile, once again, because that happened at Cushite the Archite as well.

The most loyal and the most godly person, and seems to be the most sincere person in that entire passage, happens to be someone that's not an Israelite. And Cushite is just simply doing his job.

And it doesn't really work out that David kills the messenger. It's just news. And he recognizes he's just a messenger.

And also it's a lot different news too. And that's where we come to the passive monarch. A guy that is just simply things are acted upon him.

And it's still all tied to that command that he gives to deal gently with Absalom. And so he's willing to not go into battle with his army because, well, he knows he's the one that they want to kill, not the army itself.

They have to go through the army to get to him. And so he's resigned to stay, stay behind. But he gives him that news.

And everything that he does at that point, or even doesn't do, is all about that. And when he finds out that news is not followed to a T, that's when the terrible grieving happens.

This is a really strange story about the fact that he may be not in God's will in many ways.

But the grief is still so real. And he has a right to grief.

And we have to feel for him in this situation. Even though Joab rebukes him for the grief, he rebukes him actually to bring him back into being the king.

That David's being a father, which he is a father, but he's also a king. And he has a job to do and a responsibility to do for everyone as well. But at the same time, this is a grief.

Because I think David had other thoughts. He wanted Absalom to repent. He wanted Absalom to come back into the fold and to be able to even be the king potentially.

And the fact is, Israel had just as bad of kings as Absalom. Just as bad of sinners.

But the reality is, David had a thought, an idea of something that could potentially happen. And he wanted him to be saved. And the fact is, a few chapters ago, he mourned.

And that was a good thing. And he mourned over the reality of being exiled and the fact that it had to do with him. I mean, if you go back to chapter 15, verse 30, that's where it's mentioned.

But David went up to the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot, with his head covered. All the people who were with him covered their heads.

And they went up, weeping as they went. They carried griefs. They carried sorrows. And they realized that this was going on as just continuing with that punishment that the Lord is giving him, the discipline, really the discipline, that the Lord is bringing from this great sinful act that he did in chapter 11.

And he also understands and recognizes that there is a fourfold punishment. And Absalom is still very much a part of that as well. And so, yeah, Absalom deserves to die.

But in another sense, the fault lies with David. That's an enigma right there. That's a paradox.

And he's weeping over that, without a doubt. This sermon this morning has a lot of good application for this passage of Scripture.

You look back, you look at James chapter 4, verses 9 and 10, as we talked about this morning. I'll just read this for you. It says, Be wretched and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

There is a need for repentance and there is a genuine need for repentance that brings tears. And whether they're literal tears or the reality of recognizing that you need to be broken for your sin.

The recognition of the need to understand that the sacrifice that the Lord gave, that you do not have any deserving of that at all.

That you need to be broken for the grievous sin that you have brought, that I've brought, that we've all, that we're all sinners. And I think this is a weeping over sin.

And this is a weeping over over all the things that he has done and where his kingdom has gone because of that as well. This also leads to something else.

Something I think is quite important. You see there is a line that's being preserved in the Davidic line. And it leads to Christ.

Christ. And Christ is another David. And David wept. He grieved. He had sorrow for his own griefs and his own sorrows.

But it says in Isaiah 53 that Christ, that the Messiah, will be a suffering servant as well. Yet his griefs and the sorrows that he bears are our sorrows, are our griefs.

So no longer will there be a king that just bears sorrows and griefs that are his own. But now we serve a king of kings that bears our own sorrows and bears our own griefs and suffers our own shame and bears our own guilt.

And all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. That's who we are. But the Lord laid on him, on our Lord, our Messiah, the iniquity of us all.

And that's the grief that he bears. That he bore on that cross. Thankfully bore on that cross. We have been forgiven because of that.

And we serve a Lord that died on a cross for our sins but rose again and lives today.

Seated at God's right hand. And he will return very soon, no doubt. And so this leads to this reality that we need to be broken for what we do.

What we do that doesn't fall in the Lord's will. What we do that or sometimes even what we don't do. We talked about that this morning too. Those sins of omission.

You know, when we examine our lives and we see what we've done that was wrong or what we didn't do that we should have done, that needs to grieve us.

And we need to take that to the Lord each and every time. And we need to draw near to God by praying, by studying His Word, by focusing on His will.

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