You're listening to the Vice Chancellor's Hour, a ministry of Radio ABC on the campus of African Bible University. I'm Jeremiah Pitts, a professor and administrator here at African Bible University in Uganda. The purpose of the Vice Chancellor's Hour is to provide biblical and theological teachings that are an extension of the ministry here at the university. Well, listener, I'm glad you're tuning in again this week. I did want to once again give you a warning on our stories that we're going through right now. There are some aspects of violence that will be mentioned, and I wanted to warn you. Of course, again, this is biblical violence. It'll only be the type that's mentioned in the Bible. And I don't think Christians should be afraid to discuss things in the Bible, even sometimes uncomfortable topics. They're for God's glory and for our good. But that doesn't mean we have to hear every part of it every day, and we should have some restraint and a little bit of judgment when it comes to how we exercise ourselves mentally, emotionally, and so forth in God's Word. So I do ask you to exercise your discretion as you're listening to this episode today. We're currently on a series called B-List Bible Characters. B-List Bible Characters are characters that aren't the main character of the story. And in fact, these characters are very often overlooked or neglected. There isn't a lot about them in the story, but there is enough generally for us to have a good understanding of what's going on. And we've been going through the story of three brothers. And in this episode, now we're down just to two brothers who are left Joab and Abishai. We followed these guys who are David's nephews throughout their campaigns with David through the ups and downs of early life and then finally through some triumphs. Now when we left Joab and Abishai in our last episode they were victorious once again over the Ammonites and they had prepared the capital city to be taken by David and David floods in, takes the city, surrounded by gold and jewels and so forth, and it's been really, really good. Except David had also been sinning, specifically his sin with Bathsheba and the death of a child as a result, and then subsequent pain and suffering promised in the future. Joab, we find, was a party to the very violent cover-up, if you want to hear more about that. go to the previous episode. Joab's loyalty to David had caused Joab to kill a man or to have him killed. This man, Uriah the Hittite. Uriah the Hittite was a war hero. He was faithful to the Lord and he was an innocent husband. Uriah portrayed very well in the scriptures. And yet, David, to try to cover his own sin, has Uriah killed. And who does he have to execute the series of events that would lead to that death? He calls on Joab and he knows he can count on him and he's right. That leads us up to the story of today. Now, in order to understand what's going on with Joab today, you have to understand a little bit about the fallout. That is, did David get away with it? And of course, I've already mentioned a little bit to that answer. He has not. David receives a punishment. One of the pieces that we didn't talk about in detail last week is that David, as he thinks he's getting away with it, is visited by a prophet. The prophet is a man named Nathan. Nathan pronounces a type of curse on him, a curse based on the actions that David had taken. The Lord knew. It was no secret to the Lord, even though David thought he might be able to keep it a secret to others. And the curse that Nathan says will fall on David is the inverse of the blessings that David had received. Namely, David had been promised heirs, progeny, children, and one of the things that Nathan promises is that the child of that union would die. Interestingly, he's told specifically that it happens on the seventh day. If you know your Bibles, you know that male children were ushered into the covenant through circumcision on the eighth day. What that means is that male child never received the sign of circumcision. It's also probably why the child is never named. This happened relatively immediately. David's also told that there would be continual warfare and uses the phrase that the sword will not depart from him. Of course, for a man who grew up in war and has been continuing warfare and is known for war, this is not necessarily a thing that he was looking for. no doubt was looking for peace. He had climbed his way to the top and was subduing enemies around him, was seeing great success. In fact, men in the area even were coming to him as their leader, even if they weren't Israelite and no doubt had hope with enough power and influence might come some peace. But instead his punishment is there would be continual warfare. And what's more torturous, I think, than that is that he has promised that there would be family problems as well. There was going to be some evil within his house. Some of the very violence that's spoken of actually would come from his house. And also that his wives would be taken publicly. His wives would be taken publicly. And you can imagine what that would sound like. The summary of this is quite bad. Destruction of house and family, destruction of name, erosion of peace. These are hard things for man to hear, but also the shaming of himself and his wives publicly for all to know and all to see. It's a hard thing for anyone to hear. And David certainly deserves that punishment. David's domestic troubles, as alluded to in Nathan's curse, are massive and they're very shameful. They're going to bring shame on him. They're going to bring shame on his house. If you're listening to this series, it may not be immediately obvious to you what this has to do with Joab and with Abishai. It's going to sound in the beginning like it's a small family problem, or maybe not so small, considering the nature of it. But the truth is, all of this leads up to Joab and Abishai being in some very interesting and influential circumstances. David has multiple children. We've talked about those a little bit in greater detail in the past. And his genealogy is not a main thing that we want to cover here because David really isn't the center of what we're talking about. But he has a son and a daughter. that don't have the same mother, so they're half-siblings, as we might say, Amnon and Tamar. And unfortunately, this story is a bit hard for us to hear. And yet, if you want to understand the rest of Joab and Abishai's life, we have to hear this story. Amnon was the heir apparent. He basically was the next one who was in line to be king. Unfortunately, what we know about Amnon is not very good. Amnon has a strong lust after his half-sister. This thing is not permitted. It's clearly a wicked thing. And if you can imagine the next guy who's going to be in charge of your whole kingdom harboring these kind of feelings for a close relative, it's quite a disgusting thing to have to contemplate. What's worse than that is the scriptures make it clear that Amnon most closely resembles not a good man of God who has this massive flaw, but instead Amnon is portrayed basically like a pagan. Throughout the story of what we discover about Amnon, the biblical author of this text repeatedly makes direct reference to another situation that was similar to this. but believe it or not, not as bad. That is, Amnon acts like a pagan, but the pagan that it refers to actually, as bad as what he did, and it was quite bad, wasn't as bad as Amnon act. Amnon should have been a man of God, but instead, he's acting like a pagan. If you want to read that story in detail, you would read it in Genesis chapter 34. A man named Shechem takes one of the relatives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he takes her forcefully. It also references the lust, the abuse, and that's the exact thing we see about Amnon. He lusts after his sister. He tricks her into being there. He abuses her. Now, in both Genesis chapter 34 and here in this passage, the scriptures tell us that this was a wicked thing that should not have been done. That is, God's people should never have been associated with that and yet Amnon is associated with it. He does this terrible thing to his half-sister Tamar and he does it by a trick and by force. It's disgusting and it should never happen. Interestingly, Tamar, for her part, is not portrayed poorly at all. She's portrayed very well. Tamar, apparently, is a good woman. She is covenant-keeping. That is, that she had remained unmarried, she had not been married off yet, and the scriptures are clear that she was virginal. She had maintained her purity. And she had done that because it was the right thing to do. She'd in fact been given a cloak by her father to represent her purity. Her brother had lured her in and used David to do so. He'd asked David that David would send her specifically for a meal that she would prepare with her own hand. David instructs Tamar to do it, and her being a good daughter, she agrees and she follows through. And in fact, even as the act is taking place and immediately afterwards, all of her expressions are desires to keep the law, to protect the image of Israel, to protect the household of David, and to ensure the sanctity of her own reputation, but also the reputation of Amnon on some level, as unbelievable as that is. Everything the scriptures say about Tamar is that Tamar is completely innocent in this. All of the blame falls on Amnon and his wickedness and Tamar did only what's right. Despite this, Tamar is essentially a good woman made desolate. And what that means is because of what had happened to her within their culture, it became very hard for her as a wife if she were to ever try to become one. It became very hard for her as a daughter, as a woman of court. And of course, this violation, no doubt, just on a human level, causes all kinds of damage to another human being and it's just a reprehensible act made worse by the fact that Amnon is her half-brother. And despite all this she still has the concern that things would be executed correctly and that the best outcome would happen for herself and for everyone. She is willing to take on a hard course and even in that she's refused. Now interestingly, she has a brother. She has a direct brother named Absalom. Absalom decides to give his sister refuge. Apparently, the princes like Amnon and Absalom had their own houses. And Absalom asked Tamar to come to stay with him and to give her refuge. And as this is the first thing that we learn about Absalom, it seems like a pretty good thing. He is a man who looks after his sister and that seems kind. He encourages her to not tell anything or anyone about it. and to keep it to herself, and he takes the precaution of himself not expressing anything one way or the other for two full years. That's a long time to brood and to think, but that's exactly what Absalom does. And what he does is wait for his chance. You see, David, it seems, does nothing. David does nothing. And Absalom is frustrated by this lack of an outcome. Now, I will say on a human level, David is in a tough position. Amnon is his heir and this is a household matter. And even if Amnon were so inclined, certainly Tamar offers just to try to keep the honor of the situation as intact as it possibly could be. even if Tamar was interested, Amnon is not, and it would be very hard for them to resolve this through marriage. I can't imagine, those are tragic circumstances, and the very fact that Tamar would even offer to me is mind-boggling. But it really is the scriptures trying to demonstrate that Tamar really wanted to keep the law and to protect her family's image as much as possible. But Amnon's not willing even to do that, even though she, Tamar, would actually, in some sense, be the victim of that union again. he refuses her even the honor of that. Absalom clearly hates Amnon in his heart. He waits two years and then he hatches a plot. He asks for David and company to come to him. So he's asking the king to come outside the city. David says, no, can't do that. And so that probably was Absalom's plan the whole time. And so Absalom instead asked that the heir apparent, his brother Amnon, would come instead. David is seemingly a little bit suspicious in the beginning, but Absalom seems to have good answers. And so, ultimately, David says, sure, we'll allow them to come. What happens, though, is Absalom is instrumental then in having Amnon killed, having murdered. In fact, if you can imagine, he kills the heir. Everyone, including Absalom's apparently other relatives, and not sure what's happening, and so they hightail it out of there. They run away as quickly as possible, running away on their mules. Apparently, David's sons rode mules, something pretty interesting during those times. Absalom, for his part, flees to his grandfather, which was outside of the country, and he remains in exile with his grandfather, we're told, for three years. David is upset for Amnon's part. David is upset for Absalom's part. What makes this all the more problematic is that we're told Absalom is most probably the heir after Amnon's death. There is another brother that's mentioned between them when the genealogy is read previous to that, but once he's mentioned in the genealogy, he's literally never mentioned again, which leads myself and many others to believe that by this point, he was probably already dead. And that means that Absalom with one stroke both kills his brother and also takes his place, except now he's committed murder. And of course, that's not a good situation for an heir to be in. David after some time, begins to move past his grief. And the scriptures indicate that his feelings and his thoughts began to be more closely situated with Absalom. He's thinking about him. He's worrying about him. And it says in chapter 13, verse 39 of 2 Samuel, the spirit of the king longed to go out to Absalom because he was comforted about Amnon since he was dead. And then chapter 14 begins this way. And you'll know this character entering the scene. And Joab... the son of Zeruah knew that the king's heart went out to Absalom. So Joab, though he is a little bit more distant than Absalom and Amnon in the situation, nevertheless discerns how David feels about the circumstances. Know that David has moved past emotionally the Amnon situation, is now thinking kindly towards Absalom. But there must have been some hesitancy there because no real, no legal change had taken place. And so, Joab does something, that is, he works on David to give David what he knows David wants. It says, again, that Joab knew the king's heart went out to Absalom. And so Joab is going to begin to put himself into a position where he can change David's actions to match David's desires. Now you may say, why is Joab's persuasion even necessary then? David's the king. He has the ability to make decisions about things. If he really wanted it, he has the ability to bring back Absalom anytime he wishes. And yet, it's actually quite hard to bring Absalom back under these circumstances. What Absalom does by the common man on the streets would be considered an assassination. And in fact, it's a usurpation, meaning he's taking Amnon's spot and killing him in the same stroke. You can see how this would look more political than it did personal. Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt, just as any action today, the thoughts and feelings on the streets may have been divided. It's hard to read the story, at least at this point in the story, and not feel a little bit bad for Absalom. Again, you can think of it and say Absalom kills Amnon. In fact, this type of abuse, the scriptures are clear, does merit the death penalty. What he did did merit the death penalty. And so what's interesting there is that Amnon really did deserve to be killed. And Absalom really did kill him. But the way that he did it, he wasn't the right person to execute that judgment. He wasn't in the position to do it and he does it extrajudicially, that is above and beyond what the law allows. That's often a fancy word for saying illegally. extrajudicially and illegally I think are synonyms. So David is sensitive to the way that it looks. He's sensitive to the fact that one of his sons killed the other son, that it doesn't look right to bring him back. I don't know about you, but I've certainly had this in my life before where there are things I want, but it wasn't in such a way that there were no obstacles. It felt like there were things in the way. and those things had to be dealt with. And here, Joab seems to sense the same thing. He knows what David wants, and there's something preventing David from doing it, something preventing David from bringing Absalom back. And in this case, David may have been feeling the weight of the law here. What's his responsibility towards Absalom in these very tricky circumstances? So, Joab decides to help him out. He's going to lower some of those barriers for him. So, Joab creates a plan. The plan is a relatively straightforward and basic one, but the execution, I would say, is genius. Basically, Joab is going to take something out of Nathan's playbook. If you go back and read the story of Nathan, you hear Nathan comes to David. and tells David a case, he tells him a story, and he asks David to make a judgment, and once David makes a judgment, he's stuck, right, because he's told him what his opinion of what's going to happen is, and then David says, well, that judgment is really about you, and explains his circumstances. And Joab's plan is to do the same thing. He's going to bring a fake case to David, He's going to get David to make a judgment, a pronouncement to say this is the way it should be as a result of that. This person's guilty, this person's innocent. And then afterwards he's going to show David how this situation actually is his situation, right? So that the pronouncement that he pronounced is the one that he should stick to in his own life. The way he does this is Joab brings in a woman referred to here as the widow of Tekoa and she seemingly has some skills and abilities and Joab's picked her to do this. Joab has her come in and tell a story. This woman is a widow, right? She's lost her husband and she tells David who's making a judgment on her behalf about her sons. She has two sons and these sons are arguing in the field and one of her sons in this argument kills the other son by striking him. And the clan, that is the larger group, is involved because there is a murder within the clan. And the Avenger of Blood that we mentioned in a previous episode applies in this situation. You have a murder and they have the ability then to apply the death penalty to the murderer because their relative was killed. And she asks for mercy. You know, she asked David to exercise some mercy here. Now, this is interesting because this is a drama, right? She's telling a story, she's performing it for him as though it were real, and she's getting him to have a response. And the appeal here has two parts to it, two big parts to it. The first is that there's an emotional appeal there. He brought in a widow. Right? This older woman, she doesn't have her own abilities. She doesn't have her own money. And she says good things. She starts out by saying in verse 4, Save me, O king. Save me, O king. This is an expression of her desire to be released from her problems. She wants to be rescued. And what powerful leader who has the power to help someone who's powerless, why would they ever refuse to do that? Right? Your inclination immediately is to help the person who needs help. Of course, you would try to do that. And then there's the position of the son who lives. She uses really loaded language. She says, they're trying to destroy my heir. They're trying to quench the coal. I'll have neither name nor remnant. You know, understand this. It's drawing a picture. It's drawing an idea of someone who has so little. and what little bit she has is going to be permanently taken from her. That's a very tough thing for anyone to hear. You hear someone only has one person left in their life and that person is going to be taken from them. It's hard not to take that very seriously, very emotionally, and very personally. And of course, the content of it is emotional as well. I mean, if you think about the story, her argument is, I only had two sons. I've lost a son. Nothing can be done about that. That son is gone forever. And I only have one son left. And now my clansmen, that is the people in my clan, my extended family, not even me. I'm the closest relative. I'm not trying to have him killed. But these other people who are not as closely related to either of my sons, they're trying to kill my remaining son, that I'll have no sons left. There'll be no one and nothing left for me. Of course, she's quite right. If she were a widow and her sons are gone, then she is in a very vulnerable situation. Of course, also it would be the loss of another child you love. Can you imagine in one move, right, one son kills the other, and by doing that, he also is contend to death. So in one fell swoop, this massive tragedy befalls her all at once. That would be very tough. That's a very emotional moment. But she's also appealing to biblical precedent. So she also is laying out a biblical case for David. It's kind of interesting because for this to work, she has to know that David knows his Bible. And she's actually appealing to his knowledge of the Bible to help him reach the conclusion that she's trying to have him reach. And the reason I say this is because there are some linguistic and stylistic similarities to her story and the Cain and Abel story. And that's not just true in English, although I think you can see it there, but it's true in the Hebrew as well. If you compare those two stories in the Hebrew, you see there's a lot of similarity. Same words and phrases, certainly some of the same situation. Again, Cain and Abel's story and the story of her two sons have two brothers. And these two brothers are in a field. And one of the brothers kills the other brother and he remains. But as he interacts judicially, he expresses fear that others will try to kill him. Now in the story of Cain, of course, God decides to spare Cain's life. That is, God does not exact the death penalty on Cain, though Cain is a murderer. And so, of course, that suggests that there could be some reprieve. That means there's an opportunity that just because he's murdered someone else, it doesn't mean that he also has to be killed. There could be some mercy exacted in this situation. Now, of course, you might ask, but what of the Mark of Cain? Well, she passes over that altogether. She doesn't mention anything like that at all. She leads David up by suggesting, essentially, with her language, this story. And with her emotional appeal, she's begging for mercy for her son, that her son would not be killed by others. David is persuaded. At first, his language is very measured, but when pressed, it grows very quickly. At first he tells her he ought to go home and then she'll receive his judgment but she persists and so he directly offers verbal protection for her son but she also pushes beyond this and she asked David to use stronger language and so David declares it by oath. In fact here we learn that David intends to keep what he views to be the application of oath law. David is trying to bind himself and does bind himself. Then comes the big reveal. The woman appeals to him, but she does it by application. She says that this situation is actually David's situation. Anyway, you see David has a son who's dead and he has a living heir, and he's turned aside the living heir as the result of a dead son that will never come back. And in fact, she seems to suggest that it's not just David who suffers because of this, but in fact, perhaps the whole kingdom is suffering because of it as well. In this case, the dead son deserved the harsh punishment even of death. That is, Amnon, as I mentioned earlier, is one who did deserve death. Deuteronomy 22, 25 pronounces death penalty on those who abuse in that way. And so Amnon was under the curse of death and Absalom, in some twisted sense though it wasn't his job, applied that penalty to Amnon regardless. That really means that if David is a man who likes to think about the law, he knows that Amnon was guilty despite what Absalom may have done to him. And Absalom is the living heir, but in exile, meaning he's not going to be able to take the throne. David's not a dummy. I hope in these stories you've discovered that David's not a dummy. David knows a lot of times what's going on and what's caused it. And so David immediately correctly suspects what happens. David more or less asked the woman as directly as you possibly can, is Joab doing this? I mean, just imagine him like leaning in a little bit to her and said, Joab did this, didn't he? That's pretty much as close as you can get to what David actually says. Now, why does he suspect that? Well, the story here so closely resembles his own personal story. that it can't be accidental. Someone who has intimate knowledge of how David thinks and how David acts, but also how David perceives his own history is involved in this story, at least the creation of this fake story. And this woman is a stranger to him. There's no indication she knows him personally at all. She has to describe who she is. She has to describe her backstory and all this stuff. And also, the story's not real. So if David knew her well, he would know it's not true. This woman is a stranger to David, and yet she knows some stuff about David's life, his background, how he's thinking about things, and how to apply these things to his life in a way that will work. So David knows something about Joab. I mean, of all the people you could pick out, right, the fact that they know something intimate about how David works and how he operates, how he thinks, and how he viewed this, okay, you know, that's important, I suppose. But what's more than that is the fact that David immediately thinks Joab may be the guy. It leads me to believe, and I'm not alone in this, certainly the Bible doesn't say this explicitly, so, you know, I don't want to put too much on it, but the fact is it seems like David and Joab have spoken about this in the past. After all, We're told Joab knows what David really wants. And I don't think we should come to the conclusion that Joab sort of discern this spiritually, necessarily. I think they probably had conversations about it. David has a tendency to wear his emotions on his sleeve. We'll learn a little bit more about this in the next episode. He has a hard time sometimes keeping his thoughts and feelings private. Joab spends some time with him. and Joab kind of knew and I think David knew Joab knew and knew Joab was the kind of guy who might put somebody up to this. Now it was a bit of a risk on Joab's part, there's no doubt about that. Playing a trick on the king, not a good thing to do. The king's kind of in an emotional state anyway, but Joab is totally absolved for this ploy. That is, he is forgiven and he expresses unbelievable thanks for this. I mean, it's the biggest prostration of him we see. He throws himself down, he's so very thankful and he, in a sense, is expressing his appreciation for the mercy of the king for not killing him. That's certainly how it reads. And more importantly for us and for the story, Joab has taken this great risk on behalf of David. Think about that. Joab is really doing this for David. Joab knows what David wants and he helps David to get it. It really isn't about Absalom. It's really about David. But Absalom is the beneficiary of it. Absalom is returned. Now, he's allowed to return, but he's put under restrictions. He must not see David's face. What that means is he doesn't get an audience with the king. So he was in external exile before. He was removed from the presence and now he's no longer in external exile. Now he's in internal exile. So he's back in the country. He's back with his family. He apparently is somewhat close by to where David is, but he's not allowed to see David. Now you got to understand there's two components to that. Of course, the first component of that is not seeing David means you don't see your dad. Right. And that's important for familial relationships and being close and those kind of things. And you have to imagine after he's been gone for a period of time, the inability to see your father, you're not sure how he feels about you and those kind of things as well. So there's a family component to it as well. Honestly, more than that is that by implication, it's very likely that Absalom also loses his place in the royal succession. So his inability to interact royally with David, his internal exile, is kind of a way of saying, you're not the guy anymore. It's going to be somebody else. Again, we don't know that for sure, but it does seem to be a common thing that happened in the day. Even internal exile typically meant you were no longer treated in the royal family. as a member of the succession, meaning you weren't next in line. And that would totally make sense based on what we see elsewhere. And of course, it looks terrible, right? If you kill your brother and then you take his place and then your father pardons you for that as though nothing happened, it does look a lot like assassination might be the way to go and you already know how David feels about assassination. As an aside, you may remember the story of Cain and Abel, and just to put an exclamation point on the fact that David must have seen it that way as well, just as Absalom is not allowed to see David's face after David's pronouncement, Cain, we are told, was also sent away from the face of the Lord. He's not allowed to see the face of the Lord anymore. So David seems to have drawn this biblical conclusion from this biblical story or illusion that he was told by this woman. This is getting complicated, isn't it? It's getting tough. It's getting hard. Well, it's about to get a lot harder. Absalom doesn't do well. He's petulant. He's like a child. He could be patient. That's for sure. But he also can be impulsive. He bides his time like an adult, but then he acts like a kid. That's kind of a weird place to be. Absalom's not happy, and no doubt he found out who had helped him come back from exile, that it was Joab. So he thought, okay, here's a way in. He read the circumstances, and he thought, Joab's on my side. See, Joab helped me to get back. He doesn't get it. Absalom thinks that Joab's his friend. And so he asked Joab to come to him. No doubt he's going to make a case to Joab. Hey, Joab, just like you helped me get here, it's been a couple of years. Maybe my dad's willing to relent. I need an ally. I need some help. Absalom, as we're going to see in another episode, can be very, very persuasive. Joab is not interested. Joab demurs. That is, he does not go. No, I'm good. I'm good, buddy. Not interested. Absalom decides to make a lifelong enemy. He sends his servants into Joab's field when it was full, and he sets it on fire and burns it to the ground. I don't know if Absalom doesn't know his cousin very well, or if he assumes that he's better than his cousin, or he assumes my dad's the king, nothing will happen to me. But Absalom has made a huge mistake, and he's not going to know it for a while. but he's going to know it eventually. Joab shows up, no doubt to demand restitution and demands that Absalom pay the price. Absalom, for his part, puts David on an ultimatum against Absalom's own life. So this is what Absalom says, I've got to get back to my father's presence. If I can't get back to my father's presence, he might as well kill me. By the way, that's one of the reasons why we think he probably was out of the line of succession. He might as well kill me, so if Dad's not going to let me come back and see him, just let him finish the job and let him off me. Now, Joab is not stupid, just like David is not stupid. He's not always a godly man, but Joab is not an idiot. That's certainly not Joab's problem. Joab knows this is no way for things to go down, but he does go to David. He does ask for Absalom to be pardoned, and he does apparently deliver the ultimatum on his behalf. He does this because Joab knows there's nothing he can do to Absalom right now in this way. But that doesn't mean he can't ever do it. David, for his part, pardons Absalom, brings him back into the fold, gives him a full and complete pardon. Something interesting begins to happen. Some seeds are being planted. I'm going to leave you in this episode. I'm going to leave you here. Absalom begins to have massive popular appeal. The people really love him. And there's a few reasons for this. One is that Absalom is a very good looking guy. Very good looking guy. Everyone can see it. He's handsome. We're told he has beautiful flowing hair. In fact, the amount of hair he creates is quite extraordinary. He apparently takes some care with his appearance. It's one of the few times that hair cutting is mentioned. It doesn't have something to do with either mourning or ritual purity. We're told he cuts his hair for his good looks. So he's a good looking guy. also has all the trappings of the king. So we're told that he has chariots, he has horses, and he has 50 men running around. Now up until this point in the Bible, chariots and horses are universally negatively portrayed. They're never associated with the good guys at this point. There's a lot of reasons for that. One is that the enemies of God often used chariots and horses. Another reason might be that the terrain in Israel typically was not a good terrain for using in chariots and horses, which means chariots and horses were external. They were foreign inventions and foreign warfare. And because of that, it looks like foreign influence, not the influence of God's people or God's methods, but instead is external influence. So he has the trappings of the king and then we're told he starts acting like a king. He puts himself in the way of royal judgment. He's standing in the place where judgment takes place. He gets up super early in the morning. He goes out there to catch people coming in. Back then you could come in and you could put your case before the king just like the woman of Tekoa did and you could have your trial before him and he would make a judgment based on that. He greets people. He pretends to care about where they're from and who they are. He doesn't let them offer up too much. He has a little false humility. He grabs them and hugs them as they come in, so to speak, cares about who they are. And then he just starts off by saying, man, I wish, I wish somebody would just hear your judgments. I just wish they would hear. And then they would give you good justice at the end of it. Now, this is kind of interesting for two reasons. You kind of are getting a picture of Absalom's view of himself a little bit. There's no doubt he's projecting something that some of these people knew about. You see, Absalom believes that Absalom executed judgment against Amnon because David wouldn't do it. And it's very likely that some people knew that as well. And so when they hear him say that he wishes judgment would be done on their behalf, it's a very sympathetic thing that's being said. They feel that way about themselves. And of course, they expect that he might've felt that way as well. They have something in common. But the second thing is that this is a massive irony. The irony here is that Absalom is only there to say those things because his father heard a case from the woman of Tekoa and was willing to render a judgment for it. If what Absalom said was true, Absalom wouldn't be standing there at that particular moment. Instead, he would still be in exile. It is precisely because his father was willing to hear cases and pronounce judgment on them that he was standing there that particular day. But these things accumulated together to create the result that Absalom was hoping to create. And that is the scriptures tell us that Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Well, we're reaching the conclusion of the episode for today. Sorry to leave you here. What we've seen is a Joab who is willing to try to work to give his leader what he wants. and a Joab who is willing to relay a message from a son. We're going to see later that Joab doesn't always give David what he wants. He doesn't always look after that son. Until then, I hope you have a good week. You've been listening to the Vice Chancellor's Hour, a ministry of Radio ABC on the campus of African Bible University. We hope this has been beneficial to your Christian walk and understanding. If it has, you can support the ministry of Radio ABC by going to AfricanBibleColleges.com and clicking on the donate button. Don't forget to let them know in the comments that it's going to the Uganda station. If you have questions about anything in this or previous episodes, please write us at radioabc993fm at gmail.com. That's radioabc993fm at gmail.com. And we'll answer your question on a questions and answer episode. Until next time, may the peace of God and the fellowship of God's people encourage your hearts.