Second Samuel chapter three, beginning of verse twenty eight. Let's hear the word of our God. Afterward, when David heard it, he said, My kingdom and I are guiltless before the Lord forever of the blood of Abner, the son of Ner. Let it rest on the head of Joab and in all his father's house. Let there never fail to be in the house of Joab one who has a discharge or is a leper who leans on a staff or falls by the sword or who lacks bread. So Joab and Abishai's brother killed Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle. Then David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, tear your clothes, gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn for Abner. And King David followed the coffin. So they buried Abner in Hebron, and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept. And the king sang a lament over Abner and said, should Abner die as a fool dies, your hands were not bound nor your feet put into fetters as a man falls before wicked men. So you fell. And then all the people wept over him again. And when all the people came to persuade David to eat food while it was still day, David took an oath saying, God do so to me and more also if I taste bread or anything else till the sun goes down. Now all the people took note of it, and it pleased them, since whatever the king did pleased all the people. For all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king's intent to kill Abner, the son of Ner. Then the king said to his servants, Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel? And I am weak today, though anointed king, and these men, the sons of Zerariah, are too harsh for me. The Lord shall repay the evildoer according to his wickedness. May God add his blessing to the reading and hearing of his holy word. Well, we have made our way here through chapter three and sometimes the quantity of verses and words on a particular topic highlight its importance. That's not always the case, but here in this chapter, we started with a few verses about David and his wives and children. And then we had a half a dozen verses on Abner's defection. Then we have 10 verses on Abner and David coming together in agreement. Half a dozen verses on Joab's murderous ways. And we end here now with a dozen verses on David's response to Joab's highly disruptive actions. And so just in that brief summary, you can see that the longest sections had to do with David and Abner, and now here David mourning Abner. The question for us, of course, is simply this. Will Joab's actions undermine and destroy this peace? Will the promise of uniting Israel all together as a whole nation now fall apart? Will anyone trust David enough to have him to be king over all Israel? So with this threat in mind, we come here now to David's response and how he handled what Joab did on his own. So we pick up then in verse 28, again it reads, afterward, when David heard it, he said, my kingdom and I are guiltless before the Lord forever of the blood of Abner, the son of Ner. The first thing that David does here is to proclaim his innocence. He doesn't hold back in any way here. I had nothing to do with this. I am clean. I am guiltless. I am innocent. I had nothing to do with Abner's murder. And note he says also, my kingdom had nothing to do with this. And so it's not like David himself had nothing to do with it, but, you know, they had an agreement among his cabinet members that this would take place. Not at all. Not any of the leaders who worked with David agreed to do this. This was Joab himself. This was a total vigilante action on his part. And so David is very clear and probably a bit flabbergasted by the whole event. The day began with hope for national peace. The day here ends, or however the chronology is specifically, with this threat of division and more conflict and more civil war, more death of fellow Israelites. So verse 29 he continues, let it rest on the head of Joab and all his father's house and let there never fail to be in the house of Joab one who has a discharge or is a leper, one who leans on a staff or falls by the sword or who lacks bread. And so David first proclaims his innocence, now he pronounces a curse on Joab and his family. David wants God to judge Joab providentially. He wants the guilt of Abner's death to be punished on Joab as well as his father and their descendants. Now recall that Joab is David's nephew. Recall that it's David's sister who marries Joab's father. who is going to receive this curse. And so it's Joab, David's brother-in-law, Joab's sibling, who's remaining, Abishai, any of Joab's children, and Joab's wife, David's sister, certainly any of their children, and I think we can read this to mean any of Abishai's children. and maybe even beyond that. But David is rather extensive, you could say, here in this curse. All right, now before we look at the particulars of this curse, some people have raised the question on whether or not David should have executed Joab. Joab killed an innocent man during times of peace. Even if Abner was completely guilty, this is not the way to do it. And so Joab should have been punished for that and some have made the case that he should have been executed. And so David then was in the wrong not to render justice in that way. Many suggestions have been given why David didn't do it. Certainly, we begin with the fact that he is family. Others have tried to say in light of verse 39 that Joab was too powerful. Others have said David thought he was not legally capable. He couldn't make a legal case to do it. Some have even tried to say that David just didn't know all the self-defense aspects of what Abner did when he killed Asahel. And so he thought, well, Alright, at least can understand the Kinsman Redeemer issue here and that's why Joab killed him or something to that effect. Well, I'm not quite sure how to conclude on this question. I can definitely see the arguments in favor of the fact that David should have executed Joab. But what we have seen from David all along is his unwillingness to act like the world with any person who rivals him. This is certainly true with Saul. He would not kill Saul because Saul was the anointed and he didn't want to go against God, yes, but he also didn't want to proclaim to everyone that he's just going to kill off a rival so that he could sit on the throne. He is unwilling to kill Ishbosheth, he's unwilling to kill Abner, and even unwilling to kill Joab. He doesn't want to look like any other king like the nation. There's debate here on how to take this. There's no question about it. At least at this point in my studies, I may change. But at this point, I lean to this idea that David does not want to kill off any rivals, and that's why he doesn't kill Joab. And that isn't an unbiblical position to have. So anyway, let you chew on that some more. What David does do is call on God to judge Joab. And so Joab here acted like a kinsman redeemer. And so he and his kin are going to be judged. David, or excuse me, Joab killed Abner privately and secretly. So David calls on God to judge Joab with public curses. Let me explain how this is at least part of the case. The first two that he mentions here are the discharge and the leprosy. This flow of uncleanness, whatever that may be specifically. A wound that will not heal or something like that. A disease, leprosy, obviously being mentioned here, but others could be the case. And certainly these can be painful and so on and so forth. But let's turn here a moment to Leviticus chapter 15. I think this will help us to see some of the gravity of it, you might say. In Leviticus 15, let's just read the opening section here, beginning in verse one. The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean, and this shall be his uncleanness in regard to his discharge. Whether his body runs with the discharge or his body is stopped up by his discharge, it is his uncleanness. Every man is unclean, on which he who has a discharge lies, and everything on which he sits shall be unclean. And whoever touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. He who sits on anything on which he who has a discharge sat shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. And he who touches the body of him who has a discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. If he who has the discharge spits on him who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. And he sat on which he who has a discharge ride shall be unclean. Whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until evening. He who carries any of those things shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. And whomever the one who has a discharge touches and has not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. The vessel of earth that he who has a discharge touches shall be broken, and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water. And it continues. Now do you see the point? If you have a cut that gets infected or something to that effect, you are discharging, right? It oozes or whatever. And you're unclean. And so everything that you touch becomes unclean. Everything that touches you becomes unclean. Now the wound may be hidden from sight, the leprosy may be under the clothing, but do you see how this becomes a public scenario? Here you have Joab killing in private and now this punishment is more public because this means now that the family of Joab would have to be unclean and therefore outside the camp, outside the city, outside the town. They would have to tell everyone they were unclean. You couldn't just hide this. You had to say, unclean, unclean, and so forth. Stay away from me, basically. And so people would not come too closely. They were outcasts, outcasts at worship, outcasts in society. And so David is asking God to punish Joab in this way, basically treat Joab as an outcast and his children and so on and so forth. This is a rather severe curse, you could say. But that's not all. It's not that everybody in the family would have this necessarily, but as we come back here to 2 Samuel, we also have, who leans on a staff, is how the New King James says it. Your translation may have something different there. The Hebrew literally reads, one who seizes on a spindle, or one who grabs a spindle, and we're not talking about Sleeping Beauty here. We're talking about someone who is homebound. We're talking about a man who does not have the strength to go out in the fields and to care for the animals, to care for the crops, to do, if you will, manly work, so to speak. The idea here is David is cursing Joab and his family so that they cannot do the chores. He can only do women's chores so to speak and this is not to be misogynistic or anything like that. Now the new King James takes this idea and translates it as one who leans on a staff. So, all right, it's the same idea. We're talking about someone who is weak, someone who needs a staff to get around. And they're not doing this because of old age. They're doing this because there's some kind of weakness, maybe a bad leg, a bad back, maybe some other reason. So do you see this curse? Now, for those of us who work with our hands, We can understand this. For those of us who sit at a desk and punch keyboards or something like that, it might not be such a big deal. But for an agrarian culture, this is a big deal. They have to depend on others. They cannot survive without assistance, is the meaning. All right, well, the next one is one who falls by the sword. That's pretty straightforward. Dying in battle. And then lastly, the one who lacks bread. Again, this one's pretty straightforward. Someone who is always hungry, who doesn't have much money, their crops either fail or at least are not as successful. Maybe they have to beg. Again, the idea is not that every one of these things are going to be on each person, but there will be someone in Joab's family who will have at least one of these things. Their whole lives are going to be affected. They're not going to be prosperous. They're going to have to rely on other people's charity. They're going to be humbled. They'll have harder lives than normal. Certainly there'll be death with the sword and so on. They'll be separated from others. So with this in mind, If David was wrong not to execute Joab, David is certainly wanting God to punish Joab quite severely in these different ways. All right, well, let's then also look at verse 30. So Joab and Abishai, his brother, killed Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle. Now, this is new information because from what we saw last time, Abishai wasn't even there. But, obviously, this verse tells us that he was. Somehow, he contributed to the death of Abner. Did he stand out front, as it were, and keep anyone from going back the hallway to where Joab was doing his thing in private to Abner? Was he the one that led Abner around the corner to where Joab was waiting to stab him in the stomach? We don't know. Something like this seems to be the case. But Abishai is guilty too, it says. David is cursing Joab's family, so this includes Abishai and any children that he would have. Now, note the wording of the verse here, especially at the end. It says, he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle. That prepositional phrase makes it clear. This was not wrong on Abner's part. Abner killed Asahel in battle, not during peacetime. And as we saw in chapter two, there's this clear emphasis on self-defense. And so Joab kills Abner during peace. Remember last time we saw it, verses 21, 22, and 23, three times that there was peace, and yet Joab killed Abner in that way. All right, well let's turn forward a moment then to 1 Kings and chapter 2. 1 Kings 2, we come now to the death of David, you see that especially in verse 10. And prior to his death, he is giving Solomon some instructions. And note in verse 5, 1 Kings 2 verse 5, it says, David speaking. Moreover, you know also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me and what he did to the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and Amasa the son of Jether, whom he killed. We haven't talked about Amasa yet, but it says he shed the blood of war in peacetime. and put the blood of war on his belt that was around his waist and on his sandals that were on his feet. Therefore do according to your wisdom and do not let his gray hair go down to the grave in peace. And so more or less David is telling Solomon to execute Joab, which again raises the question, why didn't David do that before? Now, if you look down at verse 28, Then it says this the news then news came to Joab news that Solomon executed Adonijah for Joab had defected to Adonijah though he had not defected to Absalom. So Joab fled to the tabernacle of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar. And King Solomon was told Joab has fled to the tabernacle of the Lord. There he is by the altar. And Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiah to saying go strike him down. So when I went to the tabernacle, the Lord had said to him, thus says the king, come out. And he said, no, but I will die here. But I brought back word to the king saying, thus says Joab. And thus he answered me. Then the king said to him, do as he said, and strike him down and bury him. You may take away from me and from the house of my father, the innocent blood, which Joab shed. So the Lord will return his blood on his head, because he struck down two men more righteous and better than he, and killed them with a sword. Abner the son of Ner, the commander of the army of Israel, and Amasah the son of Jethro, the commander of the army of Judah. Though my father David did not know it. Their blood shall therefore return upon the head of Joab, and upon the head of his descendants forever. But upon David and his descendants, upon his house and his throne, there shall be peace forever from the Lord. So when I, the son of Jehoiada, went up and struck and killed him, He was buried in his own house, the prepositional phrase, in the wilderness. All right. Well, finally, you might say, justice is served to Joab. And again, you can argue if David would have done it before, Joab would not have killed Amasa. But again, I think you still see some evidence that David just doesn't want to act like any other king and so forth, and now he's having somebody else do this. Maybe by abdication, maybe not. But in the end, notice that Joab dies in the wilderness. Now remember what we read there in Leviticus 15 and the comments I made following. He's going to have to be outside of society. He's living in the wilderness. And it's not because, you know, like some of us living out here, we'd like to live out in the middle of nowhere. No, this is because he was cast out because of the uncleanness issues and so forth. Seems to be the implication. Do you see the overall principle? There are several things going on here, but let me just mention this one briefly. All sin will be found out and judged. Joab's secret act became known to everyone eventually, and Joab's secret act became judged publicly. He's standing in the tabernacle holding on to the horns of the altar, which would mean, right, you're safe and so on, but Solomon kills him anyway because of his sin. Sin will find us out. Even our secret sins will find us out. Often our sins have consequences that impact those around us. It's not just Joab who's executed in the end. but others in his family face these providential judgments. And so God's judgment sometimes occurs right away, sometimes it takes place over time, sometimes it's years later, surely it happens on the day of judgment. But we see Joab finally here by the time we get to first Kings having the judgment. All right, well, as always, we could say much, but here's one, if you will, sub point. Let's come back to the main point here then in 2 Samuel 3. Now let's pick up in verse 31. David's not done yet. And David said to Joab and to all the people who are with him, tear your clothes, gird yourselves with sackcloth and mourn for Abner. And King David followed the coffin. We now see a very public display of mourning for Abner. It doesn't specifically say that he proclaims his innocence in front of everybody, back in verse 28. This curse pronounced against Joab, that could have been done in private, but now everything is done publicly for sure. David wants everyone to know that he had nothing to do with Abner's death. And notice how David kind of rubs it in to Joab. Even Joab is forced to mourn for the one he murdered. You have to wonder, does everybody know what Joab did at that moment? Or does that become known later on? The text doesn't make it all that plain. But nevertheless, everybody has to mourn Abner's death, and David then follows in the funeral procession. Presumably, Joab is in this train as well, but it's obvious to everyone that David is upset. So verse 32 now. So, they buried Abner in Hebron, and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept. Notice that David gives Abner an honorable burial. He is buried in David's capital city. He doesn't just bury him out in the wilderness somewhere, but in Hebron. David is weeping, and he leads everyone else in mourning. Again, very public. Now let's think of it like this. Do you see how political David is being Now, when I say that term, our natural response is to say, well, politicking is bad. And probably at least 95% of the time, that's true. When people are politicking, they are trying to convince others to think a certain way. And it's usually to cover up something, to hide something. But it isn't always that way. And David here is going out of his way to demonstrate that he was innocent. He didn't just say it, but he is now demonstrating it here in this way. A political move, but not insincere on David's part. Now, Joab, you might say, are like the progressives who have been feigning sorrow over the attack by Hamas. It isn't just the squad who are glad that Hamas has killed Israelites. The left, the progressives in general, even on the right, are happy about it. That's part of their plan. And you know this because they're sending money to Hamas, they're sending money to Iran. So they're politicking. They're lying to us when they say they're all upset about all these people killed in Israel. That's what we normally see, things that are false, politics to deceive, propaganda. But David here is politicking to highlight the truth, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. He had nothing to do with Abner's murder. And so you see that defending yourself has a place, defending the truth, defending the innocent. Making everybody know about this is fine. That isn't necessarily wrong. We want to sway people's views toward the truth. Think of Paul when he did so regularly with his apostleship. Pretty much every one of his letters, he defends his apostleship in one way or another. We're going to see this more when Jesus returns, but even In closed doors, Jesus, you might say, was politicking with Thomas. Thomas didn't believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. And he comes, well, hey, look, look, look at my hands, feel my side. There's a place to do this. And obviously, when Jesus comes back, there's going to be a lot of positive politicking. Everybody's going to know. So again, I use this term somewhat intentionally to get us to see the other side of this. Standing in front and saying that I am innocent or this is not right or something like that definitely has a place. And that's exactly what David is doing. Maybe you've had to do this at work or with family or something like that. You've had to stand up and say, no, I didn't do what so-and-so said. Or people are saying this, but this isn't actually what happened. Again, there's a place for it, and David does. So let's continue then. In verses 33 and 34, David doesn't just follow the processional. He doesn't just bury Abner. But notice he now sings a dirge. The king sang a lament, the new king James says, over Abner and said, should Abner die as a fool dies, your hands were not bound or your feet put into fetters. As a man falls before a wicked man, so you fell. Then all the people wept over him again. Here's another public act on David's part to prove his innocence, this time the lament. And so it's not merely that David did visible actions to impress those who were there, but it seems like the implication is now these words of this song can be shared anywhere. It doesn't specifically tell us that here, but we did see that in chapter one, when David wrote that extended lament for Saul, it said everybody had to learn it. It doesn't say that here specifically, I think it's fair to assume that his words did spread to the tribe of Benjamin and to other places in northern Israel. Simply, David is not rejoicing that his rivals are gone. Saul, and now here Abner. All right, now as for the lament itself, note there are four lines. This is just a simple A, B, B, A setup. So the first and last line go together and the middle two lines go together. It's even closer in the Hebrew. The first line has, as a fool dies at the beginning, just like the last line, as a man falls before wicked men is at the beginning. So it's actually a little bit closer than the New King James puts it here. So as a fool dies, should Abner die? And then lastly, as a man falls before wicked men, so you fell. And so in the first line, should Abner die like a fool? Now, this reminds us of 1 Samuel 25. You remember, that is the story of Nabal. And remember, Nabal means fool. And of course, he ends up dying and David marries his widow, Abigail, and so forth. It's Joab who acted like the fool, not Abner, and so hence, Should Abner die as a fool? Should Abner die like Nabal? No, he shouldn't, is the assumed answer. And so then in the fourth line, like someone dies before wicked people, so Abner died before a wicked person. Yet again, Abner was innocent of Asahel's death. And again, back to verse 30 in chapter two, Job was wicked. Now, the middle two lines, your hands were not bound, nor your feet put into fetters. So Abner's hands were not bound like a criminal. He wasn't executed for wrongly killing Asahel. His feet were not put into the stocks or leg irons or anything like this, like a wicked person. Again, you see, David is saying Abner was innocent of Asahel's death. He was killed in the battle, verse 30. Killed in self-defense, chapter two. And so the king sang this and it says, all the people wept. Should we assume that everybody sang it along with him? A fair assumption, doesn't say it specifically, but Abner's murder was unjust. And so again, David is politicking. Everyone now hears David's thoughts through this dirge. You might say they hear it through following in the funeral procession, they hear it at the graveside, and now they hear it specifically from his mouth in this way. And so after hearing this, everybody is mourning. Now as that reads, it almost sounds like there's some time in between, maybe it's just an hour or two or whatever, but it does sound like it's a little bit of a break there. Which brings us then to verse 35. And when all the people came to persuade David to eat food while it was still day, David took an oath, saying, God do so to me and more also if I taste bread or anything else till the sun goes down. David fasts here, he will not eat. Again, how does this fit together? Did some of these things happen first thing in the morning, and David fasts all day? Does he just fast for three hours? We don't know. But he's fasting. And they try to persuade him to eat, but David swears an oath to God, saying that he would not mourn, excuse me, he would not eat, and he would mourn then in this way. And so another obvious act of politicking you could say. So verse 36, now all the people took note of it and it pleased them since what the king did pleased all the people. And so David's efforts are successful. All of David's public acts of mourning had their desired effect. They are not opposed to the king and everything the king is doing is pleasing to them. So verse 37, for all the people and all Israel understood that day that it had not been the king's intent to kill Abner the son of Ner. So here's what David is saying right from the beginning, and he had to do all these things to convince everybody else. We've probably been there. Hey, something has happened. Somebody has said something about us or whatever. And we say, oh, I didn't do that. You know, I'm innocent of whatever it is people said. But sometimes you have to do, you know, five or ten things. It might take days or even years to convince people otherwise. But here in David's case, they understood that he had nothing to do with Abner's death. He did not tell Joab to do it or anything like that. So then verse 38, then the king said to his servants, do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel? How should we understand this distinction? Should we understand verses 28 and 29 to be done more in private versus 31 up through verse 37, very public. And now this is to his army, you know, It does sound like a different group of people now, doesn't it? He is speaking to his men regarding Abner, and he says Abner was a good man. He was a great leader. And think of it, for over 40 years, Abner had been leading in the Northern Kingdom. 40 years of Saul, plus with Ishvosheth and so on, Ishvosheth's right hand man, and now he's been the one who helped unite Israel under David. Now, he might say, well, yeah, well, Abner was chasing David. Abner was convincing people to follow Ish-bosheth and not David. All that's true. But do you remember what David did in chapter one with Saul? He said the same things. He focused on the good things about Saul and did not focus on the negative things about Saul. And there were plenty of them, but he didn't do that in his lament. So here now, it's not like he's saying all these wonderful things about Abner in public and then cursing him behind closed doors. Even here with his servants, he is saying that Abner was a good man. That doesn't mean he was sinless. It doesn't mean that David didn't have every right to criticize Abner for certain things. He just doesn't do that here. So he focuses on the good things. And again, we often hear this when we go to funerals. People don't focus on the bad things, but the good things about the person who died. All right. Well, lastly, then, verse 39, And I am weak today, though anointed king, and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too harsh for me. The Lord shall repay the evildoer according to his wickedness. All right, now how should we understand this? The New King James leads us in a certain direction here. If you have another translation, instead of having the word weak, you may have something else. The more natural meaning for the word here in the Hebrew is tender. David is saying, I am tender today. though anointed king. And these men are too harsh." Well, what does that mean? Does tender mean he is weak? He's tender, he's, you know, he's only 30 years old or something like that. He's kind of weak yet. He's been fighting for at least 10 years. I don't know, maybe so. Or should we understand that he is tender to mean that he is not a man who enjoys bloodshed? We read in 1 Kings 2 about Joab. He seems to enjoy bloodshed. Not David. His killing of Goliath, his killing of many of the Philistines, and so on and so forth. David killed, who knows, thousands of people over his lifetime. We don't know. I'm inclined to go toward the idea of being tender in the sense of one who does not enjoy killing. There's a place for it, there's a time for it, especially as king against enemies and so forth, but I lean toward the idea that David is saying, not that I am weak, but I am a tender man. I am not a harsh man like Joab and his brothers. I'm not a hardened killer. I kill when necessary, but I am not a hardened killer. So again, you see how we're coming back to this question, did David, should he have executed Joab and so forth? Some will say, well, this is just saying David is weak, he didn't have the power to execute Joab. You know, maybe to later time he could have, but then why didn't he? So I'm again leaning in the direction that David is one who does not like to execute so he lets God do it and providentially this worked itself out and eventually Solomon does it for him. So again there's some questions here how to take it but those are my thoughts. But in the end do you see what David has done? He has proved his innocence. And he has even proved his character. David is not filled with vengeance. David is not someone who's just going to knock off any rival. David is not happy when his rivals die. And you see the character of the king. David did not kill off Saul or Abner or even Joab. Instead, he trusted in God. Now maybe we may find ourselves someday in a position similar to David, but more likely we're going to just have our everyday scenarios where it's not these specifics, but maybe someone has slandered us or accused us of wrongdoing in some way. Maybe they have spoken against us at some family gathering or at some meeting in the community or whatever. When other people act in ways that shed a bad light on us, there is a place to defend ourselves, not selfishly, but there is a place to defend ourselves. But we should trust that God will render justice and punish the evildoer. Notice how that verse ends, verse 39, the Lord shall repay the evildoer according to his wickedness. It seems to me that David's just saying, look, I'm going to leave it in God's hands here. I'm defending myself and I'm going to leave it in God's hands to render the judgment. I think that's the pattern that we should be following. And certainly that's a biblical truth, even if that's not exactly what happens here. Again, if David should have killed Joab. But vengeance tears apart a society. Vengeance tears apart a family or a church. And this is especially true when leaders engage in it. Here in verses 31 to 39, notice that David is called king seven different times. Even in 1 Kings 2, we see that with Solomon, repeatedly called the king. When leaders act righteously, everyone is blessed. Here we see the leader is restrained in his vengeance. Joab is rash. David is rejecting the ways of bloodshed like Joab. When leaders act like Joab there is chaos, there's more bloodshed. Certainly we can think of gang wars in the inner cities or squabbles at work where people just pick and backbite and so forth or power struggles in the church or whatever it is. In the end that doesn't work, it doesn't benefit anyone. And so defend your innocence, let God take care of the rest. Note also we see repeatedly here in verses 31 to 37 the all adjective here, all the people, all Israel, seven different times. And so that too highlights David's diplomacy, his politicking, His working together, these things are going to characterize his kingdom. Genuine politics, not propaganda. Now, he's not going to do that in a few chapters with Uriah and Bathsheba, but here he does it very well. So, here are some immediate points of the text. So let me end, then, with the overall point here in chapter 3. God overrules sin. God and his promises and his purposes cannot be thwarted. Saul can't do it. Joab can't do it, Ishmael can't do it, the Philistines can't do it, not even David can thwart God's plans and purposes. No scheming, no selfishness, no jealousy, no anything else is going to stop the advancement of God's plan and purposes for his people. It's true then, it's true today. And so as we've seen in Sunday school, no shutdowns, No false teaching and woke ideologies, no enemies within the church or outside of the church can stop God's plans and purposes for his people. God's ways always prevail. And so that is our overall point that we keep seeing here in this section. All right, well, thanks be to God. Let's pray as we conclude. Our Father, our God, we thank you again for being our God and being king and head of the church. And this is not just some slogan for Christians to stand up and hold on to, but it is certainly true. And we are thankful, Lord, that you are king and head, and there is nothing that can thwart your ways and the things that you plan for your people. And this, Lord, gives us confidence. And so may that then drive us and give us that wind in our sails, as it were, to stand up for what is right and for what is true. Here, David does it to proclaim his innocence. And so, Lord, help us to know when to do that righteously. We all like to defend ourselves, but most of the time we do it selfishly. And so help us, Lord, to discern when to do it righteously. Give us the strength to do it, as David did it here. But help us always to rest in you, that you will punish the evildoer according to your good pleasure, providentially and certainly in the end. And so, Lord, may this give us, this section, these truths, give us confidence and strength and insight and wisdom in terms of applying these things today. Again, Lord, we are thankful that you are our king and you are our God and that we can rest in you. And so help us to do it and not just talk about it. We pray all these things that in Jesus name. Amen.