So let's hear then the word of our God. Second Samuel 14 verse 12. Therefore, the woman said, please let your maidservant speak another word to my lord, the king. And he said, say on. So the woman said, why then have you schemed such a thing against the people of God? But the king speaks this thing as one who is guilty and that the king does not bring his banished one home again. For we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away of life, but he devises means so that his vanished ones are not expelled from him. Now, therefore, I have come to speak of this thing to my lord, the king, because the people have made me afraid. And your maidservant said, I will now speak to the king. It may be that the king will perform the request of his maidservant, for the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of God. Your maidservant said, the word of my lord the king will now be comforting, for as the angel of God, so is my lord the king in discerning good and evil. And may the Lord your God be with you. Then the king answered and said to the woman, please do not hide from me anything that I ask you. And the woman said, please let my lord the king speak. So the king said, is the hand of Joab with you in all this? The woman answered and said, as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken. For your servant Joab commanded me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your maidservant. To bring about this change of affairs, your servant Joab has done this thing. But my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of the angel of God, to know everything that is in the earth. And the king said to Joab, All right, I have granted this thing. Go, therefore, bring back the young man Absalom. And Joab fell to the ground on his face and bowed himself and thanked the king. And Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, O king, and that the king has fulfilled the request of his servant. So Joab arose and went to Gesher and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. The king said, let him return to his own house, but do not let him see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, but did not see the king's face. May God add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word. Well, last time, excuse me, we began this account of Joab and this wise woman and, uh, We were faced initially with the question of what is the point? Are we talking simply about Joab using this woman to nudge David toward forgiveness and reconciliation? Or should we understand Joab is seeking to manipulate the king, manipulating David with this shrewd story? Because David is just being hard-hearted about Absalom, and Joab wants to accomplish certain things, or something to that effect. We're also faced with the question, is David just trying to be just here? What's going on? Well, as I indicated to you last time, the translations typically, and the way they translate some of these words, point us toward this first understanding. But we saw a number of places in verses 1 to 11, and I call our attention to a few more, that seem to push us in another direction, this second direction, if you will. We see the account itself, pretty straightforward. Joab summons this woman and instructs her to use this judicial quandary to try to trap David. Should David permit the execution of her remaining son and leave her destitute? Or should David, excuse me, allow a murderer off in order to keep the family line going? Well, as we saw, David, of course, chose the latter. Possibly because there's no clear indication that there were two or more witnesses. Maybe he was just being a softy. Whatever the case, he sides with the woman and even swears an oath to protect her and her son. And so the ploy has worked. David is now trapped. So we pick up then, verse 12. Therefore the woman said, please let your maid servant speak another word to my lord the king. And he said, say on. Pretty straightforward here. Obviously, the woman wants to say more. Note her humility again, as we observed last week. Here, she again calls herself maidservant, calls David Lord. Note the word please here. You see these words of humility. Note again, though, the impersonal nature of things. Now granted, if you're an unknown woman standing before the king, wanting his judgment, you're not gonna call him by his personal name. That's expected. But also recall what I mentioned last week. David's personal name is not used anywhere in the chapter. Not with his son, not with his nephew, and of course not with his woman. Instead, the word king is used 40 times, four zero. And so this is a clue that we should see an impersonal account here, not a, if you will, warm, fuzzy feeling here that David is wanting to receive his son back and so forth, but seems to be more of the other. All right, so verse 13, we come to the punchline. So the woman said, why then have you schemed such a thing against the people of God? For the king speaks this thing as one who is guilty and that the king does not bring his banished one home again. All right. Now, first of all, let's talk about this word schemed. If you have another translation, you may have devise or something to that effect. The word can mean to devise or to think or to plan, hey, to scheme. It doesn't have to be a negative idea of scheming, but the way it's worded here almost would suggest such. But this is the word for account or reckon or count. Remember, we saw this word over and over again in Romans chapter four, and we connected back to Genesis 15 in verse six, the idea of justification, God declaring someone to be righteous or innocent. This is the term. Now remember, this woman has come before David as a judge. She wants a verdict from him. and he is to declare someone guilty or innocent. And in this case, he has more or less declared the avenger guilty and the woman innocent, and her son. Excuse me. And so, she then responds and says, why did you render my son innocent, even though he murdered his brother? but you're not doing the same thing with your own son. Do you see how the punchline comes here? You judged my family line to be so important that you preserved it, but you have not judged your own family line important enough to preserve the heir. You're allowing my son to return home and be protected from the Avenger, but it Seems like she's saying, David, you're the avenger against your own son. So verse 14, then she continues. But we will surely die and become like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away a life, but he devises means so that his vanished ones are not expelled from him. All right, well, first of all, notice her very strong language here. We will surely die. This is maybe what you would suspect, something I've mentioned over and over again throughout the years, that the Hebrew can repeat a verb, and that's what it's doing here. We will die, die, Genesis 2, verse 17 kind of idea. We will surely die, David, if you continue this way with your son. And then note the image that she gives. It's like when water spills on the ground. Hey, you might spill it on the floor at home, and maybe you can wipe up some of it and preserve some of it or something. But you spill it on the ground, that's it. There's no way you're going to retrieve it. It's going to soak into the ground. It's going to get dirt and all kinds of stuff in it. Forget it. You can't gather it up again. If you continue in this way, David, you're going to spill the inheritance, more or less, in your own family, and you're not going to gather it up again. Now notice how she words the next part here. Yeah, God does not take away a life, but he devises means, okay? So let me try to, again, piece this together from her story, which is made up, to David's story, now to this next point, okay? David is more or less saying that she and her son and her husband and the inheritance that is to them are so important that the avenger is not given the privilege to punish the evildoer. Because David is not doing the same thing in his own family, then Israel is going to be lost. The heir is going to be killed. The covenant promises may come to an end. David is quenching Absalom's coal or ember, as she said earlier, and Absalom's water is being poured out never to be recovered again. But notice how she then brings in God's character here. It's one thing to use a story. It's one thing to use a biblical principle. Now to call God's character into it, she's really trying to drive it home. And notice how she words it. Let me say that again. Yet God does not take away a life, but he devises means so that his banished ones are not expelled from him. All right. This is the same word for reckon. Devise is how the New King James says it here, plus the word ways or means here. Yahweh devises ways. Now, it's the same verb, okay, and again, it can mean to devise, to plan, to think of something, hey, but again, it's this meaning of reckoning in terms of justification and so forth in the judge, in the courtroom, and so on. And then the word for ways or means, depending on how your translation says it there, that's now the noun form of the same word. And this is a common Hebrew way. You put the verb and noun together, and it's the same root meaning. And it's to emphasize a point. So you could say something like, he reckons reckonings. He acts like a judge to declare the guilty innocent. And he uses this justification kind of idea in it all. Now, of course, God is the perfect God, and he can do whatever he wants, but he cannot overlook sin, of course, and so declare sinners to be righteous before him. If a perfect God can do that, then why can't you, David, do something like that? You, O king, should act like God and declare Absalom just. You should show mercy as Yahweh shows mercy. Here's her message. Here's her punchline. Here's her, if you will, slap in the face. All right, so verse 15. Now, therefore, I have come to speak of this thing to my lord, the king, because the people have made me afraid. And your maidservant said, I will not speak, excuse me, I will now speak to the king. It may be that the king will perform the request of his maidservant. All right, now, obviously, there seems to be a shift here, right? Hey, from verse 14, now to verse 15, some people try to link it together and say that the woman may be adding some of her own details here. Maybe Joab threatened her in some way. Excuse me, but most likely she's returning to her story. And most commentators actually go in this direction. I think it does make sense here. It's like she stepped forward here in these two verses, slapped David in the face, and then she stepped back again and said, okay, now let's return to my story. If she kept slapping the king, it might turn out in a bad way. No, obviously not, literally. But if she kept pressing the point, David might become suspicious. She might show her hand a bit too much, so on and so forth. So she returns to her story. And she is saying, I was afraid, right? The avenger is going to come and take my son. He would die. I would lose the inheritance. I would become destitute. The avenger is scary, so I sought the king's verdict. And the king is going to do right, is her idea. Now, notice she adds to her humility here. Not only does she say, about being a maidservant and the New King James translates it twice here and of course she uses the word Lord here and King and so on. But it's actually two different words for maidservant. The one might more naturally be translated as handmaid. So it's highlighting a more humble term here for the woman, not just a maidservant but even a handmaid, something of a lesser status you might say. But notice what she's doing. She's more or less quoting herself. Now, of course, all this is made up, but she is referring to a conversation she had with some of her extended family and friends or something like that, maybe to her son or whatever. So anyway, to continue then, verse 16, for the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from the inheritance of God. So if the king will listen to me, right, verse 15, now there's more confidence. I think he will. The king will help me. Now notice how she uses the term inheritance here. Certainly not an accident. Her allotment given back in the days of Joshua is at risk of being lost. But the idea here is to call attention to David's heir and Israel's inheritance. The whole nation, the promised land might be lost if David continues to mistreat Absalom. So verse 17, your maidservant said, the word of my Lord the King will now be comforting. For as the angel of God, so is my Lord the King in discerning good and evil. And may the Lord your God be with you. All right, still sounds like this woman is reciting her words to her friends or whoever it was before she came to David. Again, it's all made up, but this is how she's communicating it. Notice also that she is buttering up David. The king will ease my fears. The king is like an angel of God. Now, here's this word angel messenger, right? It can mean both things. Simply, David, the king, is going to act like God. He has divine knowledge. The king knows how to render justice. These ideas, he's buttering them up. Now, that last part there, may the Lord your God be with you. Now, if you have the new King James, you'll see that it has the inside quote and then the main quote at the end of the verse. Now the question is where does that inside quote end? Some people think here at the end of the verse and that she is referencing what she had said to her friends or family or whatever. Some say maybe it was their response to her words, but some move that inside quote up to the beginning of that, right? The king discerns good and evil, and the inside quote, may the Lord your God be with you, is now her words to David at the moment. So there is some debate on how to take that, and if that's the case, then this is the only time we see in the Old Testament a woman pronouncing a blessing on the king. Maybe after slapping the king in the face, she thinks she better really pour it on, so to speak. All right, so here are some of the main ideas, and we certainly have some questions just on what's there, plus the big question, which we'll get to here in a bit. But what we see here thus far is that Joab's scheme, is being accomplished. In fact, up to this point, you might say it's been a smashing success. This woman deserves an Academy Award. But of course, we have more. So verse 18, then the king answered and said to the woman, please do not hide from me anything that I ask you. And the woman said, please let my Lord, the king speak. All right, so go back to verse 12. Now it's turned around. She wants another word. Now here David wants a word. He wants to question her. And we start to get the idea that he is suspicious. And he says to her, okay, basically tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth kind of idea here. What is the truth here? And she agrees to do so. And so in verse 19, so the king said, Is the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman answered and said, as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken. For your servant Joab commanded me and he put all these words in the mouth of your maid servant. Now we don't know exactly what it was that caused David to suspect Joab. Maybe she slapped a bit too hard in verses 13 and 14. Maybe, remember verse 3, he put words in her mouth, and she makes reference to that here at the end of the verse. Maybe these are words that Joab put in her mouth, and they were some of the same words Joab had said to David at some other time. And he's like, wait a minute, I've heard this before. We don't know exactly what got David to think that this must have been Joab, but obviously something did. and so he's suspicious here and he asks the question and the woman responds yes okay notice how she responds here as you live basically I swear by your life And note her humility again, hey, my lord, the king, no one can turn to the right hand or the left from anything that my lord, the king, has spoken. So note again, her words of humility here now, also her point, hey, the king is shrewd and discerning. You can't get around David, can't get around the king. I think her humility is probably a bit more sincere than it was before. And simply there is no hiding anything from the king. And then she comes right out and says that it was Joab. Notice she says your servant Joab and then it says commanded me. Now literally the Hebrew says there he commanded me and then in the next part he put all these words in my mouth. At this point I think we have to say that the woman is just protecting herself. Okay, she's caught, she just lied to the king, and so she's trying to kind of nicely say, hey, this wasn't my doing, you know, Joab commanded me. He put me up to this. So verse 20, she continues, to bring about this change of affairs, your servant Joab has done this thing. But my Lord is wise, according to the wisdom of the angel of God, to know everything that is in the earth. She begins this verse now by saying, Joab wanted a change in your approach with Absalom. He's the one who put me up to it, but this is why. He wants a change in this way. And then she ends her words to the king by again buttering him up, calling him wise, wise like an angel. Note that term again, back to verse 17. Again, she says basically he knows everything, more or less she wants immunity. Okay. Certainly by this time she is quite sincere in the things that she is saying. David saw through her act. All right, we hear from the woman, not again. This is it. No more from her. No more reference to her. This is it. Presumably she goes home. Maybe she's punished in some way. We're not told. So, verse 21, and the king said to Joab, all right, I have granted this thing. Go therefore, bring back the young man Absalom. All right, basically, David was ensnared, and can you say he stayed in the snare? And he says to Joab, all right, I'll do it. I said I would do for the woman in this fake story. I'll go ahead and keep the vows and the promises I made to her, even though they really could be rescinded. And so I do declare Absalom to be not guilty. He may return. Now presumably Joab was there the whole time. Doesn't say that, maybe he's around the corner eavesdropping, you know, whatever. We're not told, but obviously David speaks to him here. And in verse 22, then Joab fell to the ground on his face and bowed himself and thanked the king. And Joab said, today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, O king, and that the king has fulfilled the request of his servant. Again, you see the impersonal language here. This is his nephew. Now granted, his nephew is on the chopping block here, okay? He's behind this scheme. And so you can understand the humility and even the distance put between David and Joab. But if David needs a nudge, I don't know, doesn't seem to fit as well. But anyway, Joab humbly responds. He falls. He bows. He blesses him. He says he's a servant. He talks about the king's favor. He's certainly genuine here and even fearful. So verse 23, so Joab arose and went to Gesher and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. Presumably, I think we would say, this happened pretty much right away. Possibly in the next few hours, probably within the next few days, he goes to Gesher. So anyway, here's Or if you'd take a look at your map just a moment. You might remember I did this for us already at the end of chapter 13, but just to call our attention to it again. Map four here, Land of the Twelve Tribes. I think it's probably the best one for us. Start in Jerusalem. Head northward and eastward. You see a Sea of Kinnereth. Come east of that, you see Golan. And then go north, you see Mount Hermon. Somewhere in between there is Gesher. And so you're talking 80 to 100 miles away, one way. He goes there to retrieve Absalom. Now if he went with speed, and if Absalom immediately responds and leaves, it's possible they came back within a week. As we're gonna see in the next verse, David doesn't want to see Absalom face to face. Plus, Absalom, as we're going to see in verse 27, had some children, so maybe it took some time for them to pack up and leave and so on. So maybe it's a few weeks later, but whatever the case, Job obeys and retrieves Absalom. So verse 24. And the king said, let him return to his own house, but do not let him see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, but did not see the king's face. All right, Absalom returns, but not completely. He stays in his house. Now, in light of verse 23, presumably that's telling us his house was in Jerusalem and not, say, in Bethlehem or Bethel or something like that. Like, we do know that Solomon housed some of his many wives and children outside of Jerusalem. But here it suggests that he was in Jerusalem, probably not in the same house as David, maybe a few doors down or across the street or across town. But whatever the case, he comes back, but he does not see David. And David is very emphatic here. The Hebrew literally says, my face he will not see, the face of the king he did not see. So in both of these, you see this emphasis. The face of the king is put first in the clause, and that's to emphasize the point. David didn't want to see him. All right. Well, here are the verses. More or less straightforward. A few things to point out, especially the word reckon. So how should we understand this? Well, if we take the so-called nudge theory, the idea is that David wants to be merciful. Remember the end of chapter 13, he is longing for Absalom. He wants to show mercy to his son. He is softening his anger over what happened, is turning into love and so forth. And he just needs something to push him over the edge, to help nudge him in this direction. even farther. And so, David's kind nephew, Joab, hires this great actress to help David reconcile with Absalom. And this would prevent the problems with the kingdom and who's going to be the heir and so forth. And it's going to turn out to be this wonderful ending, right? Some Hallmark movie or whatever. But notice some of the teaching here, the idea seems to be suggesting that whenever someone sins, that we should be merciful. And we even have the woman saying, well, that's what God does, so we need to do the same thing. But when God forgives us, is it at the expense of justice? It seems like that's what the woman is wanting, what Joab is wanting. Now granted, this judicial quandary, what do you do with the avenger and with this woman and her inheritance and so forth? All right, that's a challenging situation. But do we just let justice go? In Matthew chapter 18, you remember the parable of Jesus. that he gives to us about the man who is in debt for millions of dollars, and he's forgiven the debt, and he goes out, and he won't forgive someone who owes him a few hundred dollars. You know, look, if God has shown us mercy, then we should show mercy to others, right? I mean, this is certainly a biblical truth. We have the passages that talk about God taking care of justice, right? Vengeance is mine, I will repay, and so on. So David, leave it in God's hands, even though you're a judge and supposed to render justice. Leave this up to God and focus on being merciful. When we're unsure, we should err on the side of mercy. And David, remember, you've been forgiven. The whole thing with Bathsheba and Uriah and so forth. Here's this woman, here's Joab, this kind nephew who is helping David to act like God. And so doing, the heir is now back, not in the house, David's house, but at least back in town. The inheritance, the promises, these things now can commence because the heir to the throne has returned. And so Job here is so kind to try to heal David's family. You know, life is short. We shouldn't hold grudges. And then they'll take verse 24, for example, in this view. Is David vacillating? He's getting there. He needs a few more nudges, but he's getting there. Uh, he has, uh, has forgiven, he's pardoned, but he needs to truly and fully forgive and be restored. And that hasn't happened yet. Now, certainly there are some truths in this view, biblical truths, excuse me, that we need to abide by. And it certainly is some things that we've talked about in other contexts. But is that the point here? Are we simply talking about Yahweh's promises being preserved, Yahweh being merciful, and that should be our model? Is this a feel-good ending to this whole scenario? Or is it a sentimental message? Well, the other view, and of course by now you see that I'm leaning toward the other view in my understanding, the shove view, so to speak, and that is that David is still against Absalom. We should translate those words, the end of chapter 13, the beginning of chapter 14, as not David longing for, but actually being against Absalom. David is ready. to avenge Absalom for killing Amnon. David is this avenger. And Joab is trying to stop this from taking place. They've already lost one heir to the throne. We're going to lose another heir to the throne. And Joab is trying to manipulate the situation here. But of course, this isn't just a quarrel among brothers on whether the broncos or the chiefs win a game. No, this is about rape and murder. This is not an allusion to Joseph and his brothers. Now, you might say it's kind of close, but remember Joseph's brothers don't actually kill Joseph. Throw him in a pit, sell him into slavery, lie about it, say he died, but they don't actually kill him. What we have an allusion to here in this story is the story of Cain and Abel. I may mention of this last time, let's turn here a moment then to Genesis chapter 4 and just observe some of these more directly. In Genesis 4, obviously, in the first couple verses, Abel and Eve have Cain and Abel, and we see about who they are, what they do, and so forth. We see, of course, in verse 3 that Cain brings an offering of the fruit. Verse 4, Abel brings the firstborn and their fat. So, more or less, Abel brings the best, Cain brings the leftovers. And so, not surprisingly then, God does not respect Cain's offering, but he does Abel's. So Cain's all upset, God tries to stop him and warn him and so forth. But verse 8, now Cain talked with Abel's brother. It came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel's brother and killed him. Here, this verse especially, there's several words that correspond with the story here in 2 Samuel. Obviously, we see more here, the Lord confronts him and so forth. And then in verse 11, he curses him. And then he makes him wander around the rest of his life. There, verse 12. And Cain's like, oh, that's too much, I can't handle it. And God says, all right, I'll put a mark on you so that no one will harm you. Do you see the similarities here in that the brother that killed the brother in our story, he is the Cain figure. And now he wants to get off. And he's using his mother to do it. Kind of like Cain's trying to get off. Cain's going to wander for the rest of his life. Here now. If he is avenged, this story here in 2 Samuel, if he is avenged then the inheritance would go away after this woman dies. So the connections here seem to be quite deliberate and I think our understanding should be that Absalom actually is like Cain, not David. David is the just avenger, he's acting like God actually. God spared Cain, so yeah, David is sparing Absalom. God kept Cain at a distance, so David is doing something similar. Remember, Absalom abdicated his crown prince role by what he did. This isn't David's fault that the heir to the throne is not going to be the heir anymore. For David to avenge his son for killing Amnon, that's justice, and let the pieces fall where they may. Hey, David has other sons. Obviously, we know it's gonna be Solomon, but he has other sons, too, beyond that. David is willing to forego capital punishment, like God did not punish Cain. In terms of death, execution, he cursed him, which is an eternal judgment, but at least in the immediate sense, he was not killed in capital punishment and so forth. But as God did not completely restore Cain, so David does not completely restore and reestablish Absalom, at least at this point. We'll have the next section to deal with yet. go this far with this view, it seems then that some of our conclusion should be this. David is manipulated into grace. Or to put it another way, mercy is used as an excuse for injustice and for intrigue. Now today, we might call this the woke gospel. We're going to focus on love. We're going to focus on paying people back, especially those who are oppressed. Hey, we're going to let them off. We're not going to show justice for them, or excuse me, we're not going to show justice against them. We're going to show grace toward them. We're going to let them go. Hey, we're not going to punish them. This is grace, right? Isn't this an application of the gospel and God's mercy? God is for the poor, isn't he? He's for the weak. We talked about this in the Church of Philadelphia in Sunday school this morning. But really what they're advocating for is grace without justice. They call it social justice, but it's really grace without justice. David did keep his vow here, but he still is banishing Absalom from his presence. I think that's a good thing. But as Dr. Davis points out, I don't think we should see David as virtuous here in every way. It seems like David has been ensnared, and if you will, he allows himself to be ensnared. He doesn't stop it. He doesn't change it. He is reacting, not ruling. He's caving. He's not actually being just. He could easily have said, this is all farce, and none of my vows hold up here. But he didn't do that. Maybe you can justify him not killing his son in light of the story of Cain. I'm not sure you can justify what he does at the end of the chapter. But we'll get there, Lord willing, next time. Dr. Davis also points out here that there's much apparent wisdom in this chapter, but there's really not very much at all. Joab's efforts here to help David in some way is going to lead to a coup, it's going to lead to exile, to evil, to murder, to cursing, to intrigue. It doesn't seem like a nudge that ends up very well. Now I suppose you could say Absalom used grace as an excuse to pursue his sinful ends, and once he did, Joab turned against Absalom. It's possible to say that, and in some ways I think that's true. But it does seem like the text is pointing us in the direction that Joab is trying to manipulate the court of the king to his own ends, whatever those ends are. And maybe we'll say a little more about that next time. Maybe you can view it in this way. You know, when Trump was elected last time, boy, the deep state jumped in in a hurry to try and manipulate who would advise Trump. He's smarter this go around, I think. He knows better this time. It seems like Joab is the deep state here in this scenario. manipulating the king for his own purposes, for his own ends, whatever they happen to be. At least in my view, I think there are too many clues in the text to point us to this second view, to hold on to that first one, the way the translations typically take it. I don't think we should see this as a positive thing. You remember chapter 12, verse 11. Okay, let me read it again. 2 Samuel 12, verse 11. Therefore says the Lord, behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. Not just his own children, but even his extended family here. Even now his nephew is creating havoc and is preparing, maybe inadvertently, but preparing for a coup. So if we're right going down this path, I think here are some of our lessons. And the main overall theme is, beware of grace without justice. When you hear people speaking that way, ignore them. So whether it's the woke DAs and judges of our land, and thankfully some of them were voted out here this week, but not all of them, Beware of grace without justice in those scenarios. But it's not just in the civil realm. What about in the church? If a church hails love and grace and mercy and forgiveness and so forth, but ignores dealing with sin, that's not good. If a church is unwilling to implement church discipline, then strictly speaking, it's no longer a church. The marks of a church include church discipline. If a church is unwilling to do it, it is now a social club. If you have grace without justice, if you have love without discipline, it's not really a church. If we think about this in our families, If we have love and warm feelings and all kinds of great times as a family, but there's no discipline in the home, you have chaos. Now maybe there's some good things that come from it if there's love there, but typically what you end up with is manipulation. Typically now the child rules the roost in that scenario, but the husband or the wife can be the manipulator too. But the point is, if you have all kinds of loving things, but no justice, no discipline in the home, then the home doesn't work very well. This woman's scenario, a Joab scheme, seems to be pointing in this direction of love without justice. And that doesn't end well. And so because of the overall message of chapters 12 and following, I think this also is leading us down this path of a shove and the shove theory, so to speak. All right. Well, obviously I'm, to some degree, wanting you to come up with your own conclusion here. But this is the way I think the text is leading us. And so Lord willing, next time, we will look at the last section here in chapter 14, and we'll see if we can gain some more clues about it. So let's pray here as we conclude. Lord, we thank you again for your word, and we are thankful for the truths found therein. Though, Lord, we are somewhat mystified as to the point here, Lord, it does appear that you are leading us in this direction of love and grace without justice. And so Lord, we do pray that you would then give us wisdom and discernment to not just buy into all the warm fuzzies that some people talk about, whether in society or in a church or in a family or wherever it happens to be, because that isn't the whole story. There also needs to be, if you will, the other side. And so, Lord, we pray that you would help us as a church, us as families, even as individuals. We pray that you would help us to hold in balance this idea of mercy and justice, because you do. Your mercy cannot really be done without justice. And so, Lord, help us not to use your mercy as an excuse for sin, but to use your mercy and justice as a model for us to follow. And it does appear that David may be doing that to some degree here, and we pray, Lord, that you would give us discernment Again, not only for this text, but for this principle, that you would guide us then to be loving, to be caring, to be quick to forgive, and slow to anger, that you would help us to act like you do here in these ways. But also, Lord, help us not to do it at the expense of righteousness and justice that must be upheld. And so, Lord, again, we just ask for your wisdom here in this way to live this out as we relate to one another. And so we pray all these things then for your honor and for your glory. In Christ's name, amen.