The Tears of Paltiel
Download MP3If you all have a bible, I invite you to turn to 2nd Samuel, chapter 3. Sorry for those of you who I can't see. I trust that you're looking at the screen. Normally, during the Advent season, we take a couple weeks off from whatever series we are doing, and we dedicate a couple of Sundays to more Christmassy type messages, advent messages. But this year we are sticking with the life of David, because really these texts we'll look at this week and next week fit so well into the season of Advent.
Joel Brooks:Granted, you're gonna have to maybe squint your eyes a little this week to see how it fits. It might fit a little more clearly next week, but but trust me, these these texts are Advent texts. Before we read the one that you've just turned to, let me just set up the context for you. Last week we saw how King Saul and his son Jonathan died on the battlefield. Since then, David has just been installed as king, sort of.
Joel Brooks:There's actually a civil war going on. He is king over part of the kingdom, but then over the part called Judah, but then there's another part there of 10 tribes in which one of Saul's sons named Ishbosheth, which is a terrible name, it's also terrible in its meaning. It means man of shame. I don't know what mother would name their child that. But Ishbosheth is a king over 10 of the tribes.
Joel Brooks:David's king over 2 of the tribes. And there's this civil war that's just been breaking out between them. And that's where we find ourselves in this story. I'm gonna read the first 16 verses of chapter 3. I'm gonna go ahead and apologize, because I love preaching from Old Testament narratives.
Joel Brooks:But the names of the places and people, they're they're just impossible for me to say. You know, once again, I'm dyslexic, plus I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, and so I'm gonna go ahead and apologize for everything I will blunder. I practiced, but at the first service, it didn't do any good. There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. And David grew stronger and stronger while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker.
Joel Brooks:And sons were born to David at Hebron. His firstborn was Ammon of Ahinoam of Jezreel. And his second, Chiliab of Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. And the 3rd, Absalom, the son of Makah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur. And the 4th, Adonijah, the son of Hagith.
Joel Brooks:And the 5th, Sephatiah the son of Abital. And the 6th, Ithream of Igla, David's wife. These were born to David and Hebron. And while there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Avaner was making himself strong in the house of Saul. Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah.
Joel Brooks:And Ishbosheth said to Abner, why have you gone into my father's concubine? Then Abner was very angry over the words of Ishbosheth and said, am I a dog's head to Judah? To this day, I keep showing steadfast love to the house of Saul, your father, to his brothers and to his friends, and have not given you into the hand of David. And yet, you charge me today with a fault concerning a woman? God do so to Abner and more also, if I do not accomplish for David what the Lord has sworn to him.
Joel Brooks:To transfer the kingdom of the house of Saul and set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah from Dan to Beersheba. And Ishbosheth could not answer Abner another word because he feared him. And Abner sent messengers to David on his behalf saying, to whom does the land belong? Make your covenant with me and behold, my hand shall be with you to bring over all Israel to you. And he said, good.
Joel Brooks:I will make a covenant with you. But one thing I require of you, that is you shall not see my face unless you first bring Michal, Saul's daughter, when you come to see my face. Then David sent messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul's son, saying, give me my wife Michal, for whom I paid the bridal price of a 100 foreskins of the Philistines. And Ishbosheth sent and took her from her husband Paltiel, the son of Laish. But her husband went with her weeping after her all the way to Bahuram.
Joel Brooks:Then Abner said to him, go return, and he returned. This is the word of the Lord. Amen. If you would pray with me. Father, as we have just commissioned out John and the entire team, we just wanna say you are worth it.
Joel Brooks:Matter of fact, you're so worth it that if we were to pull together all of our money, all of our resources, it wouldn't even be a sacrifice. We long to see your glory cover this world as the waters cover the sea. And so what a joy that we got to do that. Lord, we thank you that you have preserved your word for us, Lord, that you are still speaking to us, and we do ask that in this moment you would speak that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Alright. So we are entering now into a section of David's life, in which it's it's really exciting. A lot of things happen.
Joel Brooks:Interesting stories, lots of crazy drama there. But you'll find there are very few people to admire. I'm I'm not sure if any of you have actually seen any of the the show Yellowstone that's so popular right now. It's been recommended to my wife and I numerous times. I do not recommend it.
Joel Brooks:So I just wanna put that out there loud and clear. But we went to Avondale Library and actually rented the the first season, and we've watched a couple of episodes. You know, it does have beautiful scenery, and absolutely wretched people all throughout it. I mean, I We're watching this, and I'm like, Lauren, there's Who do I root for? They're all evil.
Joel Brooks:Every person here is evil. I mean, John, Kip, Beth, oh my gosh. We're entering into the Yellowstone period of David's life. We really are. It's it's it's kind of a appropriate way of seeing it.
Joel Brooks:Everyone, everyone seems to be doing evil. You don't know who to root for. I mean, and there's full of this exciting drama. There's battles, betrayal, there's murder, there's political intrigue, there's assassinations, there's sex scandals, like, you name it. This section of scripture has it.
Joel Brooks:And just reminds me that the Bible's so honest about this. The Bible doesn't sugarcoat anything. It won't white wash things. It's not sanitize any story. It's gonna present to you life as it actually happens.
Joel Brooks:Even the even the stories that paint Israel's greatest king in a really negative light, an embarrassing light. I read about a pastor in England who had started a bible study with a group of people that lived in a really rough neighborhood. Matter of fact, a number of them have just recently got out of prison. And so he does what every pastor does when starting a Bible study with a group of people who don't know the Bible. You do the gospel of John, which is a great gospel.
Joel Brooks:You know, it's a great way to introduce people to who Jesus is. And they were kind of interested. But then one of these guys on their own read through 1st and second Samuel and was like, guys, you gotta read this. And they started their own little group together. And they're like, that's the world they understood.
Joel Brooks:And they said, you know what? If God actually has something to say about those people and in those circumstances, he just might have something to say to me. And God really used these stories to show that God does indeed break through into the messiness of life, even their life. And that's why this is such a good Advent text. Here we see that God breaks into the messiness of real sinful lives.
Joel Brooks:And we see even though there is evil everywhere, God's plan is not thwarted. God's plan keeps moving on. Now there's a lot of ways we can, break down this text. We could look at it. I thought that it would be best for us to just maybe look at the characters.
Joel Brooks:We're going to look at each character that's represented here. We're going to look at David. We're going to look at Michal, and then we're going to look at Paltiel and see what each of them have to teach us. So first, let's look at David. We read in these opening verses that David is growing in power and in wives.
Joel Brooks:He is just adding wife after wife. He he doesn't just have one wife or 2 wives or 3. David has 6 wives by this point. And he has sons, with each of them. In other words, David is building a harem for himself.
Joel Brooks:He's collecting a harem. So this is not one of those go and be like David sermons. You know, I grew up with those. That's that's not what you should hear when you read that David is doing all these things. God's plans from the very first page of scripture is that marriage should be between 1 man and 1 woman for life.
Joel Brooks:That polygamy is never presented in a positive light in the Bible. Actually, if you read through the Bible, 2 things will become really apparent. You will never find good examples, or I should say, I have a very hard time thinking of any good examples, of a good marriage or good parenting. The Bible doesn't hold up any of those things as light. Like, look at this.
Joel Brooks:This is a great way to parent. This is a great way to have a marriage. You are, you're missing any examples there. David certainly does not model that for us. What you are presented in the Bible, interestingly enough, is that God is the perfect father and that Jesus is the perfect husband.
Joel Brooks:But there are no other earthly examples that we have of those things. This was wrong, what David did. Moses actually warned Israel that this was gonna likely happen. In Deuteronomy 17, he said, you must not let your kings accumulate for themselves wealth or accumulate wives. And David's already been plundering all these places accumulating wealth.
Joel Brooks:And I think having 6 wives counts as accumulating wives. And this is gonna have disastrous consequences for both him and for all of Israel. It names all of these children. Well, these children are gonna fight for his throne later. It's gonna cause all of this fighting to continue to happen throughout Israel.
Joel Brooks:And so David, we we see him making, he's walking down a very dark path here. And I'm sure that some of these wives pursuing them, they were politically motivated. But let's not forget David's sexual desire and where this is gonna someday lead. Besides accumulating wives, the next thing we read, that David does here is he partners up. I mean, I guess the best way to describe Abner is he's a complete and total thug.
Joel Brooks:That's what he is. He is just a thug who's out for no one other than himself and to get more power. Abner's the commander of Ishbosheth's army and he's just a real piece of work. We're introduced to him this this way. He went and he took one of Ishbosheth's concubines, slept with her, and then basically goes to the king and says, what are you gonna do about it if the king can't do a thing about it?
Joel Brooks:That's that's who Abner is. He just sees his power, does whatever he wants. He is absolutely evil here. And because Ishbosheth offended him, he goes to David and says, hey, you wanna make a covenant together and I could give you the rest of the land. And at this point, we're expecting King David, the giant killer.
Joel Brooks:King David, who knows the hesed, the steadfast love of the Lord. Good righteous King David to say, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by doing this thing. But instead, he goes, where do I sign? Where do I sign? It's it's astonishing that that David can be confronted, have this evil man say, I could deliver you the kingdom.
Joel Brooks:And David just goes with it. He does this evil thing to gain what the Lord had actually already promised him. And so you think how far David has fallen at this point. The last time he made a covenant, it was with Jonathan. Good, righteous, Jonathan.
Joel Brooks:And now, he's doing a deal with the devil. All for power. Thankfully, we don't have any political figures who act like this anymore. You know those politicians who who promote good Christian values, but then will do absolutely anything to gain power, which, of course, they just want the power so they could promote those good Christian values. We see here that the means never justify the ends.
Joel Brooks:Never. The final thing we see David here do is that he he rips McCall from her husband. All in an effort to gain more power. So let's look at McCall. I I grew up calling her Michael.
Joel Brooks:I don't know if y'all did. It's really hard to know how you pronounce any of these words. Just so you know, Hebrew doesn't have vowels, so you're, you know, you're just kind of guessing at times. And, you know, Mary Magdalene is actually Mary Magdalene. I've never heard anyone say that other than seminary.
Joel Brooks:And so I grew up calling her Michael. Her real name is Michal, but I'm not gonna say that. So if we're gonna say Michal or Michal, but Michal. And if you remember, Michal was married to David. But that was well over a decade ago.
Joel Brooks:It was a long time. I mean, think back to a decade ago. That's when the first Avengers movie came out. It's a it's a long, long time ago. Then David had to go on the run and he, for some reason, chose not to bring McCall with him.
Joel Brooks:Nor did he ever go back to get her. There could have been a number of reasons for that, but it seems a little odd to me, especially considering David's 6 100 other men. They had their wives and their children with them. But David didn't go and get Michal. She never joined him.
Joel Brooks:That doesn't mean David didn't want to be married because once again, he got married again and again and again and again. And now that David is king over Judah, he asked Abner to go and to bring Michal back to him. And so she is ripped away from the man that she has been married to now for likely 8, 9, 10 years. And she's given back to David. Now I could be wrong in interpreting it this way.
Joel Brooks:I I wanna be clear about this. I could be wrong in interpreting it this way, but I don't see affection here as being the driving force behind what David is doing. I think he is motivated by political power, But there's many who will read this and think that David is actually being affectionate and he longs for his wife. One of my favorite commentaries, Matthew Henry, he he says this about this text. He says, many waters could not quench the love David had for Michal.
Joel Brooks:He cannot be pleased with the honors of the throne unless he has McCall to share them with him. Another commentator said this, as David demanded McCall, Jesus has demanded for his spouse, the church. I just don't see that there. I don't think, the author intended us to see that there. Maybe there could have been an affection.
Joel Brooks:I'm not sure, but it certainly seems to be driven by desire for power. Nicole has absolutely no say in this. The fact that she's been remarried for around 10 years doesn't matter to David. She now is gonna go from being one wife to a husband to now being one of 7 wives to a husband. And I think it's very telling, we'll read this a few chapters from now.
Joel Brooks:She and David never have a child. David has children with all of his other wives, but he never has a child with Michal. And doesn't this just give you a little bit of sympathy for her? And you kinda understand how later, when McCall sees David worshiping before the Ark of the Lord, she will loathe him. I don't wanna get too far ahead of ourselves.
Joel Brooks:We'll look at that in the weeks ahead. But it's a story a lot of you are familiar with. The time when David is dancing before the ark of the Lord and Michal's going to see him and she will disdain him for what she sees. I mean, this is the person who has abandoned you, used you, embarrassed you, torn your family apart, and now you see them raising their hands in worship. How would that make you feel?
Joel Brooks:I guess, I could ask this question. How has that made some of you feel? Because I know in a room this size, some of you are coming into this place, having experienced that. You carry a lot of baggage with you when you come into here to worship or you go to your home group during the week. The baggage of this, you know Christians who have hurt you deeply through their words.
Joel Brooks:Sometimes they've abused you, and yet then you see them on a Sunday morning raising their hands in worship and singing God's praises, boy, and it does something to you, doesn't it? I mean, what do you think of it? What do you think it did to McCall? I mean, she's thinking, yeah. Y'all love his Psalms, but you should read his text.
Joel Brooks:You should read I mean, you don't know this man. I I mean, she's got real bitterness there. Perhaps some of you can relate to that. Perhaps some of you, you grew up in a house that was completely toxic. Your parents, they were demanding and they were unkind.
Joel Brooks:And when they weren't fighting with one another, they would just berate you. And yet every Sunday, you were expected to dress up and come to church and act perfect. Every Sunday, you would get up and you would see your parents singing about God's grace. A grace you never once saw growing up in your household. And you just you would think if people just knew, if people knew, if people knew the hypocrisy.
Joel Brooks:And because of this, you you find yourself being so cynical towards Christians, cynical towards the church. Words like grace or forgiveness or the love of God honestly do nothing for you. They haven't really penetrated your heart. And it's not necessarily a fault of yours. You've been calloused towards those things because of what you grew up in, the things you've seen, the things you've heard.
Joel Brooks:If this is you, first off, I just wanna say I'm sorry. What happened to you was 100% wrong. I wish I could say that it was just other people's fault, but likely all of us have done that to others. I shouldn't just say, I'm sorry that they did that to you. I'm sorry that we all have done that to you for we all have fallen short.
Joel Brooks:I wanna encourage you with this though. Don't let that baggage you carry keep you from Jesus. Jesus, actually, wants you to bring that baggage straight to him and lay it down at his feet. That's why he says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and you're weary from carrying that around. Give it to him and he will give you rest.
Joel Brooks:The people that have hurt you, they are not Jesus. Jesus says that he is gentle and he is lowly. Jesus comes and offers new life and forgiveness. He offers healing. Go to Him.
Joel Brooks:Here hear me. Satan wants you to spend your whole life nothing would make him happier than have you always pointing to others and say, they are the reason I don't believe in Christianity. No. They are not the reason you don't believe in Christianity. Don't let that be an excuse.
Joel Brooks:Do not look at them. Look at Christ. And we're gonna look more at Nicole in the weeks ahead, but let's go ahead and let's look at her husband. Let's look at Paltiel. About 6 months ago, I was trying to come up with a preaching outline for this.
Joel Brooks:It's really hard coming up with, especially when it's a huge narrative, 1st and second Samuel. Like, what what do you preach on? What do you not? I mean, if we preach on it all, we would be preaching on life of David till Jesus comes, which could be next week. It could be a really short sir series, or it it could be years.
Joel Brooks:But and and trying to map it all out, I had originally I had not mapped out this section. It was gonna be one of the ones we're gonna skip over. But then I came across verse 16, and I I couldn't get it out of my head. It was kinda like a parable. When Jesus tells a parable, it just stays there.
Joel Brooks:The image stays there and just grows and it grows. And no matter how hard I tried, I could not get that verse out of my head and I just thought we're gonna preach from it. And so, let me read that to you. We'll read verse 15 first. And Ishbosheth sent and took her from her husband, Paltiel, the son of Laish.
Joel Brooks:But her husband went with her, weeping after her all the way to Bahram. Then Abner said to him, go. Return. And he returned. The Jewish Hebrew scholar, I've quoted him several times before, Robert Alter.
Joel Brooks:He said this about this verse. There is scarcely a more striking instance of evocative compactness of biblical narrative. We know almost nothing about Paltiel. He speaks not a word of dialogue. Yet, his walking after Michal weeping all the while intimates a devoted love that stands in contrast to David's relationship with her.
Joel Brooks:In other words, this author with just a few strokes of the pen paints for us such a picture of brokenness and powerlessness and coldness that we just can't get it out of our head. We know almost nothing about Paltiel. He never says a word, But, you can feel his pain, can't you? It's it's an unnecessary detail that that one little line, weeping after her all the way. The author could have just said, and Abner went and brought back McCall to David.
Joel Brooks:But he doesn't. He adds that little line which just unpacks all that's going on in here. It really gives him new eyes to see everything that's happening. He writes this because he wants us to see Paltiel's tears and he wants you to know that God sees Paltiel's tears. Paltiel's not forgotten here.
Joel Brooks:He's a pawn caught between 2 opposing powers, the house of David and the house of Ishbosheth. The only thing that he could do in this situation when when the men came to take his wife away, the only thing he could do was just walk behind her and weep. What choice did he have? And here, I I think He is presented to us because He represents to us all of the brokenhearted and all of the powerless people in this world. The ones that no one notices, but God notices.
Joel Brooks:God sees those tears. I I kept thinking, who are the people like Paltiel today? And one of the first images I had was, of of an 18 year old young Russian man who is being recruited to go fight in a war that he does not believe in. And if he refuses, he'll be thrown in prison or shot. So what choice do I have?
Joel Brooks:Or I think of his mother as he is being ripped away from that home to go become cannon fodder. I think of, you know, a little teenage girl who cannot stop her parents from screaming at one another and all she could do is go into her room, close the door and cry. It's just powerlessness to stop this broken system. Have you ever felt that? Like, ever feel the brokenness of the world come in on you and you're just you're powerless.
Joel Brooks:There's nothing you could do to stop it. The most powerless that I ever felt when the brokenness came in and I know some of you have felt the same thing because it happened to your child. But when my daughter, Natalie, she's my middle child, when she was a baby, she got really sick and she had a seizure. And she's in my arms, and I watch her eyes roll to the back of her head, and I watch her body turn blue. And Lauren is screaming on 911, trying to get the people to come and you're just holding your child who you think is just dead and there's nothing you could do.
Joel Brooks:I mean, are you realize in those moments, like, my education doesn't matter. All the wealth I've acquired, none of it matters. All the relationships I have, the connections I have with all the doctors, you know, throughout, none of it matters. Powerless. And that brokenness comes in.
Joel Brooks:That's what Paltiel represents here. This verse was written and was preserved in our Bible so that God might have you know that He sees these things. These tears are not wasted. He records the No. He He keeps those tears in a bottle and He records them in scripture.
Joel Brooks:He kept these 3000 years for us to see that pal tale, we see you. We see you. And although we are powerless to fix those things, Pal Tiel is powerless to fix those things, Jesus is not powerless to fix those things. Let's look at Jesus. Jesus did not come into this world because it was, you know, brimming full of joy.
Joel Brooks:Because it was oozing with kindness and happiness and peace. Jesus didn't come into this world because it was already, you know, full of righteousness, full of justice. No. Jesus came into this world because it didn't have those things. Jesus came to bring the things that we could not bring.
Joel Brooks:And unlike David, unlike David who made a deal with Abner, Jesus did not make a deal with the devil. He didn't do that in order to gain power. Instead, he entrusted himself to God and he resisted temptation. Jesus didn't abuse or use others like David did to McCall. No.
Joel Brooks:He humbled himself. He took the form of a servant. He came to serve, not to be served. He came gentle and lowly, meek, mild. Like Paltiel, he too was a victim of injustice.
Joel Brooks:He knows what it was like to suffer and to have no one notice. He did all of this in order to bring healing into the world. We we sing that song that has the line, the weary world rejoices. The weary world, the Paltiels rejoice. We don't rejoice because the darkness of the world has completely gone away.
Joel Brooks:No, we we don't. All we have to do is read the headlines. You know, the darkness of the world has not gone away. But we rejoice because the light of Jesus has penetrated into that darkness. It's penetrated into our darkness.
Joel Brooks:The light of Jesus is shown into our hearts and gives us real joy, real peace in this life. I know we are also, we're always looking forward to that second advent when those things come in full. But make no mistake, when Jesus came in the first advent, those things have broken in. Through His spirit, we now have access to real joy, real peace, real life. Don't miss out on what Jesus has already provided in His first advent.
Joel Brooks:Abundant life and abundant joy can be yours today in the midst of living in a broken world. Pray with me, church. Jesus, you're so good to us. What a mess we've made of this world. What an absolute mess our sin has brought about in this world.
Joel Brooks:You had every right just to walk away and leave us in that mess, But God, in your kindness, you're reconciling all things to you. You've begun that work with Jesus in his first advent. You will complete it when he comes and he reigns forever and ever. For those who have never tasted the goodness of you, Jesus, in this moment through your spirit, would you come? Would you allow them to taste and to see that you are good and bring real hope, peace, and joy to them?
Joel Brooks:You are our present and you are our future king. And so in your name we pray. Amen.
