Now all the people were in a dispute throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, the king saved us from the hand of our enemies. He delivered us from the hand of the Philistines. Now he has fled from the land because of Absalom. But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in battle. Now therefore, why do you say nothing about bringing back the king? So King David sent to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, saying, Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house, since the words of all Israel have come to the king to his very house? You are my brethren, you are my bone and my flesh. Why then are you the last to bring back the king? and say to Amasa, are you not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me and more also, if you are not commander of the army before me continually in place of Joab. So he swayed the hearts of all the men of Judah, just as the heart of one man, so that they sent this word to the king, return you and all your servants. Then the king returned and came to the Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal to go to meet the king, to escort the king across the Jordan. And Shimei the son of Gerah of Benjamite, he was from Baharim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David. There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him. and Zeba the servant of the house of Saul and his 15 sons and his 20 servants with him. And they went over the Jordan before the king. Then a ferry boat went across to carry over the king's house, household, and to do what he thought good. Now Shimei the son of Gerah fell down before the king when he had crossed the Jordan. Then he said to the king, do not let my lord impute iniquity to me, or remember what wrong your servant did on the day that my lord the king left Jerusalem. That the king should take it to heart, for I, your servant, know that I have sinned. Therefore here I am, the first to come today of all the house of Joseph, to go down to meet my lord the king. But Abishai the son of Zariah answered and said, Shall not Shimei be put to death for this? Because he cursed the Lord's anointed. And David said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zariah, that you should be adversaries to me today? Shall any man be put to death today in Israel? For do I not know that today I am king over Israel? Therefore the king said to Shimei, You shall not die. and the king swore to him. Now Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, came down to meet the king, and he had not cared for his feet, nor trimmed his mustache, nor washed his clothes from the day the king departed until the day he returned in peace. So it was when he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king that the king said to him, why do you not go with me, Mephibosheth? And he answered, My Lord, O King, my servant, deceive me. For your servant said, I will saddle a donkey for myself, that I may ride on it and go to the king. Because your servant is lame. And he has slandered your servant to my Lord, the king. But my Lord, the king, is like the angel of God. Therefore, do what is good in your eyes. For all my father's house were but dead men before my Lord, the king. Yet you set your servant among those who eat at your own table. Therefore what right have I still to cry out any more to the king? So the king said to him, why do you speak any more of your matters? I have said, you and Ziba divide the land. Then Mephibosheth said to the king, rather let him take it all, inasmuch as my lord the king has come back in peace to his own house. And Barzillai the Gileite came down from Ragallim and went across the Jordan with the king to escort him across the Jordan. Now Barzillai was a very aged man, 80 years old, and he had provided the king with supplies while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very rich man. And the king said to Barzillai, come across with me, and I will provide for you while you are with me in Jerusalem. But Barzillai said to the king, how long have I to live that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am today 80 years old. Can I discern between the good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any longer the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be a further burden to my Lord, the King? Your servant will go a little way across the Jordan with the King, and why should the King repay me with such a reward? Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city, near the grave of my father and mother. But here is your servant, Shemhan. Let him cross over with my Lord, the King, and do for him what seems good to you. King answered, Chimham shall cross over with me, and I will do for him what seems good to you. Now whatever you request of me, I will do for you. Then all the people went over to Jordan. When the king had crossed over, the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he returned to his own place. Now the king went on to Gilgal and Chimham went on with him. And all the people of Judah escorted the king and also half the people of Israel. Just then all the men of Israel came to the king and said to the king, Why have our brethren, the men of Judah, stolen you away and brought the king, his household, and all David's men with him across the Jordan? So all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, because the king is a close relative of ours. Why then are you angry over this matter? Have we ever eaten at the king's expense? Or has he given us any gift? And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, we have 10 shares in the king. Therefore we also have more right to David than you. Why then do you despise us? Were we not the first to advise bringing back our king? Yet the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel." Children, what would happen to you if you never brushed your teeth? Now if you're like me, you eat candy every once in a while. Candy is good. Chocolate is good. And if you never brush your teeth you will pay some painful visits to the dentist. You'll have cavities, and they'll have to dig into your teeth, something like that. And it won't be fun. And it's going to be because you didn't brush your teeth. Or, as I learned last summer, if you don't turn on the sprinkler, your grass will die. here in Fresno, at least, with no rain. And the idea that I'm trying to get you to think about is cause and effect. With those two examples, it's pretty easy to see the cause. It's pretty easy to identify the cause. But it's not always that case, especially when you're dealing with interpersonal disputes. Now sometimes, it is. The surface problem can be so easy to see that you know exactly what caused this effect, this strife. But it's not always the case. In fact, when you're dealing with interpersonal disputes and strife, part of what the devil does, because he's a an angel of confusion, if you will. He creates confusion. Sometimes if you've ever had a dispute with someone and not really known why, you're arguing. Sin has so permeated the dispute that you can't even see clearly. You don't know why you're arguing and what has really caused this. Well, the similar idea is going on in our passage of Scripture. What we have and verses 9 through the end of the chapter, if we back up we have one giant dispute, a strife, and not just that we have three causes for that, three causes for that. Absalom is dead, he rebelled against his father King David, he's been killed, The forces have split up. David responded negatively or wrongfully, certainly in part, to this. It should have been joy, and there wasn't. There was some sadness. But the passage of Scripture, the text, does not go straight to Jerusalem. David does not just take his throne and it's the next scene. No, there's a story of him coming back to Jerusalem. And it's not a story of repentance, them receiving David and repenting of having rebelled. It's really a narrative that sets us up for the rebellion that we have in chapter 20. And I want you to see that. Our theme is strife. and not just strife but cause of strife. We need to realize that in chapter 20, of course chapter 20 will be its own sermon. Verse 1 says, "...and there happened to be there a rebel whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite. And he blew a trumpet and said, We have no share in David, nor do we have an inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, O Israel." This passage of Scripture begins with a dispute. It ends with a dispute. It's all about that idea. And tonight I want you to see this lesson. Pragmatism, partiality, and pride are causes of interpersonal disputes. They're causes of strife. Pragmatism, partiality, and pride are root causes of interpersonal disputes. First look with me at pragmatism, verses nine to verse 14. Now pragmatism, what I mean by pragmatism, it's not entirely a bad idea, perhaps it has a negative connotation. Pragmatism in this case is walking by sight and not by faith. The people of God here, to include David, are not walking and not living and acting and making decisions based on biblical principles. They're acting upon what seems good to them. Situational. It's basically the idea of walking by sight and not by faith. And one of the things you need to realize There is a principle that is governing this situation. That the people of God, to include David, should come right to the forefront. It should control what they do. And that principle is simply the fact that David is the chosen king. There is one reason why all of Israel should be all about bringing back the king. And it is not mentioned here. Think about it for a moment. 1 Samuel 16. refer to this passage. If you go back to when Samuel anointed David, you'll see a pattern. Samuel says, oh, this is the one whom the Lord has chosen. He says, no, not that one. Oh, this one, he's tall, he's handsome. This is the one who the Lord has chosen. No, not that one. And the idea is that David is the chosen one, unlike Saul. Saul was chosen by the people. David was the one chosen by the Lord. And if you go to 2 Samuel 7, A passage that we looked at weeks ago, months ago even, is the Davidic Covenant, 2 Samuel 7. Notice the language here. What right does David have to be king and to be received as king without exception? 2 Samuel 7, verse 12, when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seat after you. He will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever." But this principle is not why Judah and Israel agree to what is otherwise good. And it's not what David uses. They're being instead pragmatic. Think about it. Verses 9 and 10. Israel, they say to themselves, well, David David, he's a warrior. He saved us from the Philistines. Maybe we should bring him back. Makes sense to me. After all, we anointed Absalom and he's dead. Makes sense to me that we should bring back David, again, it's the right conclusion, but for the wrong reasons. It's not on the right basis. David joins in on this. He takes Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, and instead of saying to them, teach them the law of God, teach them the truth of God, call them to faith, instead he says, listen, tell Judah, listen, are you not my bone and my flesh? He appeals to another reason that is not necessarily wrong, but it's not the reason. Take Amasa, verse 13. Amasa is related to David. He is blood related to David. He was the commander of Absalom's army. I mean, it makes sense for David to do this. It's a political move. I mean, we can look at it from that perspective and say it's wise, but it's really unjust and it's pragmatic for David to do this. He should be calling as a prophet, as the one who knows the law, who knows these things, he should be calling on his brothers and his sisters, his fellow Israelites to faith in the Lord. but instead what we have is pragmatism. And this is a fundamental problem. God's people are not making decisions on the right basis. And it really in a sense feeds the next two points. I want you to think about this for a moment from the perspective of causing strife. If God's people, whoever they may be, married couple, if we don't live according to principles that God has given us, there's gonna be strife. Think about it for a moment. If a husband, let's just take marriage for a second. If a husband decides that he really doesn't need to love his wife sacrificially, and he treats her like a gym bag, what is the wife gonna do? going to create problems. And rightfully so, really. I mean, look at it from her perspective. He's going to provoke her if the wife decides that she's not going to submit to the lawful decisions of her husband. And she's going to be the one that's the head of the home. What's going to happen? It's going to be chaos. It's going to be chaos. The principles are not being followed. Think about this passage of Scripture. We'll hear this verse and we often think about how to live our life and make decisions and there's certainly application to that. Proverbs 3 verse 5, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. What's Judah and Israel and David doing? They're leaning on their own understanding. They're not trusting in the Lord and his word. I came across, think about how influential this is just in another sense. I'm thinking about the cause of disputes I was reading Facebook this week and I came across a... a paper that was posted, an article, and the United Methodist Church, I don't know a lot about this, I've heard about the discussion, they've split, my understanding is they've split over the issue of homosexuality, and the majority actually went, my understanding is against homosexuality, as an acceptable, unrepentant homosexual still being in our church type of thing. Now, listen to this, this was a post by the other side, Think about it. They say this, we commit to advocating and working for the full inclusion of all people in God's church. Now think about the problems. All people? They're throwing off biblical principles. The Bible addresses homosexuality. The Bible addresses that issue. Unrepentance is the main reason, the only reason for exclusion from the church. All people? What's going to happen? They're throwing off biblical principles. They're becoming very pragmatic. They're following the ways of the world. What's going to happen? They're creating strife in this church. They're going to continue to create strife. Why is adultery wrong? Why can't people be married and everyone else have an affair? And what about the polygamous? It's silly, but you're throwing off biblical principles. What's going to happen? Strife. Happens in the life of a church, happens in the life of a marriage, in a nation. Our nation has adopted that mentality. We've never really taken God's law as our standard, but we certainly are objecting it more and more now. What does this cause? You see my point? What does it cause? It causes strife. It causes disputes. It causes confusion. This is what's going on. Now there's another cause for the rebellion that we're going to see in chapter 20. For the dispute at the end of this chapter and it's partiality. This is my longest point. It really could be in itself three sermons. In verses 15 to verse 39, we have partiality. I want you to see really just one figure. It's David. David is a good man, but he's not a perfect man. He's a good king, but he's not a perfect king. We still look for another. And in this section, so secondly, partiality, there's three scenes. And each one of these scenes has its own lesson, but ultimately, David is being partial. And that partiality is going to feed the dispute. I'm going to cover first Barzillai. Let's look at verses 34 all the way to verse 39. Barzillai. Now what David does to Barzillai is not necessarily wrong. Not necessarily wrong. Again, there's a lesson here. Barzillai is an encouragement to us. When we give of our resources to the king, He uses them. He appreciates them. And Barzillai does that without a regard to reward. That's a challenge to us. There's a whole other sermon really there. But notice how David treats Barzillai. He blesses him at the end of this passage. He blesses him. He kisses him. He's very gracious to his servant Chimham, a surrogate, a substitute for this blessing. There's a verse in Jeremiah 41.17 that talks about the city or the habitation of Chimham. David was true to this promise. He took Chimham, he took care of him, and near Jerusalem there was a city named in his honor. And Barzillai, because he's old, for these reasons here, these natural reasons, he doesn't go to Jerusalem. But David treats him very well. And he treats him very well, and here's my point, because he's a mover and he's a shaker, because he's wealthy. He does not treat Mephibosheth the same way, does he? I want you to see that. Now Mephibosheth is just as loyal, if not more so, to David. And he gets what? What does he get? Well, who's Mephibosheth? Mephibosheth is lame. Yes, he's the son of Jonathan and the grandson of Saul, but he's really not important. Ziba, well, he's important. So how does he treat Mephibosheth? Notice the partiality. Now, Mephibosheth is just as loyal and just as a servant as Barzillai. He goes into exile in Jerusalem. because he couldn't go into exile with David. We need to see here because of Mephibosheth's actions that he is actually true. In chapter 16, Ziba is lying. He lied. 2 Samuel 16, 3. The king said to Ziba, where is your master's son? Ziba said to the king, indeed he is staying in Jerusalem for he said today the house of Israel will restore the kingdom of my father to me. Ziba lied and he slandered Mephibosheth. And the proof of that, I mean, try not to shower for two months. Try not to shave here, you know, whatever, you know, your mustache or whatever and change your clothes. I mean, that's legit. That is real. That's a token of his love for David. And what does David do? Well, he notices that Ziba has 15 sons, 20 servants. He's a big player, and he's not going to do what he ought to do. Ziba slandered Mephibosheth. What does the law say about that? Well, in Deuteronomy 19, we read that someone who slanders another, what they say about him ought to be done to him. Deuteronomy 19, I'll read verse 16. If a false witness rises against any man, to testify against him of wrongdoing, then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who serve in those days, and the judges shall make careful inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness who has testified falsely against his brother, then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother." So here's Ziba taking everything from Mephitesheth. And it seems to me that the right thing to do would be to give everything to Mephibosheth. But Ziba gets half back to where they originally were earlier on in the story. Verse 29, so the king said to him, why do you speak any more of your matters? I have said you and Ziba divide the land. I want to come back to partiality in a second, but I will say this. Mephibosheth is a token. He's a sign of piety. He's committed. Listen to this. He's committed to the king for the king's sake, not for what the king is going to do to him. Notice what he says in verse 30. After the verdict, the Mephibosheth said to the king, rather let him take it all. And as much as my Lord, the king has come back in peace. to his own house. Perhaps if the name wasn't so difficult to say, we would have more refugees in our family. What an incredible man. What faith. But I want you to see the partiality here. David is being very political. He's not being just. He's not judging with equity. And that is even more clear with Shimei. And I'm gonna bring this full circle. This is my longest point. Shimei. Now, there's a lesson here with Shimei all by itself. Shimei's a hypocrite. Shimei's a hypocrite. He's not sincere, but at face value, as far as David knows, David doesn't know his heart. He could probably pick up on it a little bit if he paid attention, but there is a lesson here. There's a picture of the gospel. I want you to see that. I think it's important to see that. Think about it. Shimei has sinned. He has sinned. He has cursed the Lord's anointed. He comes to the king. He confesses his sin. He does what he is supposed to do. When you confess sin that is what you are supposed to do. You are supposed to acknowledge wrong. You are supposed to say, I have sinned and ask for forgiveness. Which is what he does in verse 19 when he says, Do not let my Lord impute iniquity to me. Psalm 51. This is a great example of this. It is confirming this idea. Against you, David says. Against you and you only I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. The Bathsheba affair. And what does King David do? He forgives him. He pardons him. Is that not the gospel? Is that not the gospel? I mean, God forgives you because of Christ. And He imputes that righteousness to you because of Christ. And you come to Him and you confess your sin. If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you. And He cleanses you from all unrighteousness. And I want you to see that. However, I don't actually think that's what's going on here. Because Shimei is a hypocrite. David can't see the heart, but Jesus does see the heart. I want you to think about that for a moment. Shimei comes with a band, a thousand men, verse 17, a thousand men of Benjamin, just in case it doesn't work out. I've got a thousand men behind me. He says, you've got to see the pride here. He says at the very end, at the end of verse 20, therefore here I am, the first to come today of all the house of Joseph. to go down to meet my Lord the King." I'm the first. There's a touch of pride there. He's not sincere. Of course, we know this to be the case infallibly because of 1 Kings 2. What David says there about Shimei and what is later done to him by Solomon. He's executed for another sin. Shimei's being insincere. He's showing worldly sorrow, not godly sorrow. And David, it's hard not to see this, for political reasons, he pardons him. Think about it. I mean, if I render justice to Shimei, then the rest of the Benjamites are not gonna follow me. And justice here is not necessarily what Abishai suggests. Verse 21, Abishai said, the son of Zeruiah answered and said, shall not Shimei be put to death for this? because he cursed the Lord's anointed, is that the right thing? Well the short story, and I'm trying to bring this around to full circle here. The short story is I do not believe that's necessarily what should be the case. The law does not speak to death being the sentence for someone who curses the Lord's anointed. We do have, though, the idea of resisting the ordinances of God, which is the civil magistrate, which is David, Romans 13, 1 through 2. We do have the idea of, although all of Israel rebelled and even fought against David, many of those did that in ignorance. Absalom was the anointed king, but Shimei knows better. And he ought to have been punished in some way, but he was given total amnesty. He was given total amnesty. It appears that David failed to remember what he wrote in Psalm 101. The first time that someone forgets the truth, Psalm 101. Verse two, oh, I will behave wisely. This is a Psalm of David. I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will you come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away. It shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me. I will not know wickedness. Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor Him I will destroy, the one who has a haughty look and a proud heart. Him I will not endure. And this partiality influences, it causes further friction, further suspicion among the tribes. We need to see that. It's even hinted at in verse 40, verse 42, Judah. It says, listen, we haven't been treated partially, just because we're David's brothers. We need to see that. Solomon later would write, Proverbs 16, 12, it is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, for a throne is established by righteousness. Now, how does this affect us? Partiality. Think about it, parents, with your kids for a moment. Jacob, what did Jacob do with Joseph? Well, he was partial. He loved Joseph more. He gave Joseph a coat of many colors. Now, Jacob's not responsible for what happened to Joseph, but he didn't help it out. He provoked his sons, his other sons, to jealousy. And we can do that as parents, can't we? We can have favorite children. And we can rule our house with partiality and we can give gifts, as it were, to just a little bit, just a little bit more verbal affirmation. What are we causing? Sibling strife. Partiality. It can happen in a church as well. Especially with the elders and how they rule and the pastor. James speaks to this issue. of partiality in his epistle. I'll read a few verses there. James chapter 2. My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. There should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel. And there should also come a poor man in filthy clothes. And you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes. And say to him, you sit here in a good place. And say to the poor man, you stand here or sit here at my footstool. Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Whether you be elders or anyone, a poor person comes into our sanctuary, we don't really pay any notice to them. But someone who's important comes in and we make sure they know where everything is and we talk to them. What has it made other people feel? The other members. Well, so and so hasn't ever done that to me. There's mistreatment. There's partiality. I think that there's all kinds of different ways we can see this. I'll say one last thing. When I was in Iraq, When I was in Iraq, bribery and corruption were just very evident. It was almost just accepted. It was rare for me to find a police officer or an official that we were supporting, of course we were helping prop up the government, be fair and not deal with his tribe member and his sub-tribe member and his family in a special way. And we noticed it. We noticed it, that guy's actually fair. And the problem is that the government's, I can't speak now, I'm not making a political statement, but it was just, people didn't trust the government. Because of partiality. It breeds suspicion and strife. And all those who are in leadership positions need to think about this. I mean, what causes interpersonal disputes? Is David really helping out here? And I say to you that he's not. What's another cause? And I'll speak more briefly to the third. Another cause of interpersonal disputes is pride. Pride. That's what we see in verse 40 through 43. Now the surface problem is a bit difficult to understand. I think it's lost in translation a little bit. It's lost in the culture. Verse 40 says, Now the king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him. And all the people of Judah escorted the king, and also half the people of Israel. So the surface problem is that not all of Israel is there. Of course it's not all the elders. I'll just say as an aside, we need to notice how the Bible speaks to us. It's not speaking about every single person, but the leadership. So when we come to Matthew 18, for example, and the text says, tell it to the church. We need to realize that's tell it to the leadership of the church. It's a mistake congregationalists make in their form of government. That's a side issue. But the point is this. There's like a parade type thing going on here. He's crossing the Jordan. Again, it's kind of lost in translation. I'm not exactly sure. It seems to be kind of like a parade type thing. And it's very important to have your spot and to be there with Judah's elders and the rest of the other elders from Israel. Here's David and his family. We're leading them across the Jordan. There's a ferry boat and we don't know exactly what's going on here. The surface problem is that half the people of Israel have not showed up. Maybe they're from the north. It's taken them a while to get here to Gilgal. And they're upset about this. They're offended by this. That's the surface problem. What's the real problem? pride in both groups. Look at what the text says, "...just then all the men of Israel came to the king." Notice that they are talking to the king, but it is a dispute between Judah and Israel. David is just kind of sitting there looking at them talking to each other even though they come to David. And they say to David, why have our brother and the men of Judah stolen you away and brought the king, his household, and all of David's men with him across the Jordan?" Now notice the pride here. I mean, where's the desire and the love for the kingdom? I mean, this is a great moment in history. The king's coming back. What's the big deal? Israel, chill out. Rejoice. This is a time of joy. You're worried about yourself and how you look and whether your name's on the trophy in the trophy case and whether you have your spot in the parade. It's pride, is it not? Verse 42, so all the men of Judah answered, not King David, this is a fight, this is a quarrel. So all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel with pride. It's pride. Because the king is a close relative of ours. Why then are you angry over this matter? Have we ever eaten at the king's expense? Has he ever given us any gift? They claim, listen, we have a special right to him because he's our brother. He's in blood. We haven't had any mistreatment. Pride. They're not willing to acknowledge that there's actually some truth to it. I mean why didn't they wait? Why didn't they wait? Judah doesn't seem to be too concerned about the other person. They seem more concerned about justifying themselves. We see more pride here. The men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, we have ten shares in the king. Now we're better than you. We have ten shares. The idea is that Simeon, the tribe of Simeon was within Judah, within the land of Judah. So Simeon and Judah would be two, and then the other 10. We have 10 shares of the king, therefore we also have more right to David than you. Then listen to this. Why then do you despise us? Were we not the first to advise bringing him back? That's like a playground argument. I was first. I mean, there's such selfishness there. You see the pride. And then both of them are being fierce with one another. They're speaking to one another harshly. Neither one of them is willing to acknowledge that it's not about them. I mean, both of them could do it. It's just pride. It's just pride. It's all it is. James 4, we read this passage in the worship. The reason why we did it is because In verse one, the issue of fighting comes up. Where do wars and fights come from among you? And there's some things that are mentioned here, but notice how pride comes into the picture. Verse six, but he gives more grace, therefore he says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. The last verse says, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. Neither one of them's doing that. They're not looking at themselves, their selves. Matthew seven. If you're in a dispute now or in the future, if you come into an argument with your spouse or with a friend or someone in this room, look to yourself. Neither one of these people, these groups, are looking to themselves. What does Christ say in Matthew 7, verse 1, verse 3? Why do you look the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Judah sees Israel and they're like, well, you're not rejoicing with us in this moment. But they could have said, well, you're right, we should have waited. It's just pride. They're not looking at their own weaknesses or even sins. And this is important for us. Do you do this in your relationships? Do you have a habit of looking to yourself? Do you even, do you care that there are people possibly, I don't know what each one of you are facing, your marriages and such, but does it bother you that there's someone who might be at strife with you? Judah doesn't really bother them. Judah's not really concerned about what Israel thinks. Pride. And so what happens is there's this fight, there's this dispute, and then chapter 20 happens. Chapter 20 is its own sermon. But this causes a rebellion, pride. The surface problem, this parade, really wasn't the real problem. Pragmatism, partiality, and pride are root causes of interpersonal disputes. Now, I want to close with just an encouragement. We spend that lesson positively. Think about it from this perspective. Following biblical principles and enforcing them and having humility goes a long way in keeping peace among brothers. Following biblical principles and enforcing them and having a humble heart goes a long way in keeping peace. Are you in a dispute? Do you have some interpersonal disputes going on, some strife? Do you have a play in it? Do you have a part in it? These are some of the things God will have you to think about. God wants us to be those, because we have received peace with God through Christ, he wants us to be those who seek peace with one another. Psalm 34, the psalmist exhorts on the people of God, depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. Seek peace and pursue it. Are you seeking peace? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight thankful that we have peace with you through our Lord Jesus Christ. We come to you tonight asking that you would enable us to know ourselves, to know our situation. Search us, oh God, and know our ways. See if there be any wicked way in us and lead us in the way everlasting. We pray that you would give peace to our congregation, to all the relationships in this congregation, in this room. We ask for Christ's sake, help us. We pray, amen.