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I at the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart rode away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day Was it for crimes that I have done He groaned upon the tree Amazing titty grace unknown and love beyond decree At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart rode away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day Well might the Son in darkness hide And sort his glories in When Christ the mighty Maker died For man the creature sin At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart rode away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day But drops of grief can ne'er repay The debt of my own Dear Lord, I give my self away Tis all that I can do At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light And the burden of my heart rode away It was there by faith I received my sight And now I am happy all the day Next hymn is 127. 127, "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus." 127. "'Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to take him at his word, Just to rest upon his promise, Just to know the self, O Lord, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, How I've proved him o'er and o'er, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust him more, O how sweet to trust in Jesus, Just to trust his cleansing blood, Just in simple faith to plunge me, Need the healing, cleansing flood, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, How I've proved him o'er and o'er, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust him more, Yes, "'Tis sweet to trust in Jesus, Just from sin and self to cease, Just from Jesus simply taking life and rest on joy and peace, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, How I've proved him o'er and o'er, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust him more, I'm so glad I learned to trust thee, Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend, And I know that thou art with me, Help me, with me to the end, Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, How I've proved him o'er and o'er, Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, O for grace to trust him more. Good evening everybody, welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church for our midweek service. And let's see your bulletins, we'll go through the announcements real quickly here. On our front cover we have our verse of the week, does anybody need a bulletin by the way? If anybody needs a bulletin just lift up your hand, get you one there speedily. On our front cover we have the verse of the week there, it says, come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as white as snow, though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 18, very famous scripture there. And let's see our inside page there, we have the service times, 10 30 a.m. for Sunday morning service, Sunday evening service, 3 30 p.m. we'll be in Joshua chapter 9 this week. And then Thursday Bible study, yeah we're in that, 1 Chronicles chapter 19, and so many times listed below. We had sowing tonight, we had 10 out sowing, and planted a couple seeds but no salvations. We had four salvations on Sunday though, so praise the Lord for that. And you can see the attendance from last week on the bottom of the page there. And hopefully you're still coming along in the New Testament challenge, we've had a couple people finish so far, so gotten a couple emails or text about that. And hopefully you're moving right along getting or on pace or at least catching up or wherever you're at, hopefully you're going to finish. And let's see the Super Saturday, I've decided to move the location just because of not sure about the weather and all that stuff, and Brush Prairie is small and spread out. So I've decided to just go back to Gresham and do some stuff in Gresham again and eat at the same location that we ate at last time. So it's pretty good, it's Texas barbecue, just kind of got a little hankering for it I guess right now. So we're going to go back to the same location, not the same necessarily apartment complex, but we're going to have new maps on Friday. So we'll just meet over there and hopefully we'll have some sort of a warm spell that happens and people will be out walking around, that'd be nice. But we're going to still head over to that location in the Portland area. And so it's, is it called, well I don't want to mention the name on, we got weirdos online that stalk us all the time, so got a text message from one of them earlier. I'm sure we'll probably have some pizza delivered or something weird thing. But anyway, so that'll be this Saturday 12 p.m. the map will be in the WhatsApp group on Friday and the location of where we're eating afterward will be in there also. So also then February 1st to 2nd we have the one year anniversary for SFBC Indy. We'll have soul winning on Saturday, meeting at the building at 9 30, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. will be soul winning. And then I think 12 30 to 2 is lunch provided by the church, I think it's Chipotle and then we'll have bowling from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. So if you're planning on going that, you're just, nobody in here I don't think is planning on going, but if you're listening on the internet and you're planning on going there, that's the schedule. And let's see, the next day we'll have the ordination for brother Justin Zong, he'll be evangelist Zong, chairman, chairman evangelist Zong. And then we'll take a picture, one of those like communist pictures or whatever you know, and yes, there'll be a picture hanging behind him, behind the pulpit. So anyway, no, he's done a good job, so he teases himself, so don't worry, I'm just busting his chops a little bit. So anyhow, we're gonna have a great time, it should be a great event, and we'll have someone in between services on Sunday, Pastor Weeb's gonna be there preaching with me on Sunday night. And then the Sweetheart Banquet is February 15th, that is on a Saturday, it'll begin at 4 30. We'll have Pastor Weeb also preaching for us on the Sweetheart Banquet, so looking forward to that, it's a western theme, so get all your stuff ready, it's coming faster than you think, and it is for married couples only, so we're gonna have some good food and we're gonna play the not so newlywed game, the fun game that we play every year, there'll be prizes and all that kind of stuff. So and it's just a blessing for the married couples, we do it every year. So and let's see, I think that's it, as far as you know, then we got the King James Conference off of the distance, offerings at the bottom of the page, that's it. I think we're saying happy birthday to everybody and all that good stuff, so let's go ahead and sing another song, we'll receive the offering. All right, next hymn is 355, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, 355. Oh, what a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit through what needless pain we bear. Oh, because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrow share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. For we weaken heavy laden, fumbered with a load of care. Precious Savior, still the refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends, despised, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer. Take it to the Lord in prayer. In his arms he'll take and shield thee. Thou wilt find our solace there. Amen. At this time we'll collect the offering. Brother Ramon, can you bless the offering? Thank you for this church. Thank you for all that you do for us, Lord. I just pray that you bless our church, bless the people in it, and bless this offering. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Please read along with me silently. 1 Chronicles chapter 19, the Bible reads, But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? Are not his servants come unto thee for to search and to overthrow and to spy out the land? Wherefore Hanun took David's servants and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the midst, hard by their buttocks, and sent them away? Then there went certain, and told David how the men were served. And he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return. When the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia and out of Syria Ma'acha and out of Zobah. So they hired thirty and two thousand chariots, and the king of Ma'acha and his people, who came and pitched before Medabah. And the children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities and came to battle. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of the mighty men. And the children of Ammon came out and put the battle in array before the gate of the city, and the kings that were come were by themselves in the field. Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose out of all the choice of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians. And the rest of the people he delivered unto the hand of Abishai his brother, and they set themselves in array against the children of Ammon. He said, If the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me. But if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will help thee. Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people and for the cities of our God, and let the Lord do that which is good in his sight. So Joab and the people that were with him drew nigh before the Syrians unto the battle, and they fled before him. And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem, and when the Syrians saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they sent messengers, and drew forth the Syrians that were beyond the river, and Shophach the captain of the host of Hadarazah went before them. And it was told David, and he gathered all Israel and passed over Jordan, and came upon them, and set the battle in array against them. So when David had put the battle in array against them, oh excuse me, so when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him. But the Syrians fled before Israel, and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach the captain of the host. And when the servants of Hadarazah saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they made peace with David, and became his servants. Neither would the Syrians help the children of Ammon anymore. Brother Sean, would you pray for us? Amen, and we're in First Chronicles chapter 19. If you remember last week, David is basically going around, and basically just kicking you-know-what, and taking names, and he's basically storing up for, you know, he's also not only controlling all of his enemies around him, because if you remember, Israel's basically in this location where they have just enemies all around them, and it's kind of a thing in the Psalms where David's just constantly talking about how he's surrounded by his enemies. Well, it's actually literally true. And so he's kind of expanding, and getting all the locations sealed up, where, you know, the Bible, you know, God promises those places to the nation of Israel, and so he's taking the lands out to the Euphrates, and he's kind of just destroying his enemies. And now, in this chapter, and even in some of the people in the last chapter, there's people that are brethren with the children of Israel, even though it might be ancient times, you know, when Lot and Abram were, you know, they were brethren. Literally, they were together, they split apart, he went to Sodom, and then, you know, Sodom was destroyed. God, you know, obviously Lot was saved, but two nations that he fights, that David fights against in these last two chapters, well, the last chapter and this chapter, are born from his incestuous relationships with his daughters that he really didn't necessarily have on purpose, but we're not going to get too deep into that story, but then the Syrians in this chapter are also brethren. I mean, where do you think that Isaac got his wife from? You know, Laban, he's called Laban the Syrian. So, like, they're closely related. That's why Abram had, you know, him, you know, his servant go out and get Isaac someone from his own nativity, because, you know, these are closely related people. So, now you have, like, in this chapter, they're basically people that are closely related and should be on the same team, and in many times in the Bible, you'll see where they're talking about how they're brethren. So, now you have brethren fighting against each other, and really what it boils down to is envy, and then you have suspicion based upon, you know, people saying things that aren't necessarily true, and as a matter of fact, they're just absolutely not true. So, David's battle to subdue the surrounding area seems to be over, but the problem is that there's envy going on here, and there's, it brings this, you know, the Bible says a brother is born for adversity, and a lot of times if that's true, even in the family relationship, you know, brothers will strive with each other. You know, sometimes you'll see brothers that are just really close in age, they'll fight with each other, because one's trying to dominate the other one for the supremacy of the pecking order in the family, or older brothers versus younger brothers, and so on and so forth. But, you know, in this chapter, you kind of have both. You have envy, and you have brethren fighting. So, I want to intro before we get into the main chapter here. I want to just point you to a few verses here. So, the title of the sermon tonight is, Familiarity Breeds Contempt. Familiarity Breeds Contempt. And go ahead and turn to Proverbs chapter, keep your finger here. We're going to come back to this chapter, of course, many times, but turn to Proverbs chapter 27 verse 4. And that term, familiarity breeds contempt, is a true statement a lot of times, and at the end of the sermon I'm going to kind of roll back into what that actually means. But, Proverbs 27 verse 4 says, wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? And envy is a feeling of resentment or hatred towards others. Blessings or prosperity. Envy can be a combination of anger, insecurity, fear, and greed. And envy is a real dangerous way to feel about other people. It's a powerful and destructive force. It's so difficult to withstand and overcome, and it implies, really, in this verse, what does it imply? It says, wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? It's like, those things are by themselves pretty bad. Cruelty is bad, anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? Because, in reality, you can't really do anything about envy. Envy just is something that people have and you can't help it if they have it. You can't stop people from having envy. Envy is just a sin. Envy is a sinful reality in our world that people just have that and you can't do anything to stop it. You can't help it. And so, how can you stand before it when you can't even do anything to stop it? People just are envious and it's weird, but it's just a reality. Can Christians get envious? Absolutely. People can get envious. And so, it's basically saying that, how can you resist the damaging power of envy when it arises? How can you stop envy when it's happening? You can't stop someone from feeling that way, because it's just how they feel. And the ones that are the sins of the inward man, the natural man, are the ones that you can't see. You can't see them until they actually manifest in some outward manifestation. So, you don't know how someone feels about you until they tell you how they feel, or until you see the actions which they show towards you. And sometimes that's not even to your face. It's behind your back. It's trying to undermine you in all these different ways that they can. They're talking bad about you behind your back and just trying to lower you in some way, shape, or form. So, you can't stop people from committing this sin. So, when people envy you, you can't stop it. They are the problem. It's not you. So, envy and covetousness are kind of like cousins. They're like first cousins. So, if you want to consider it some way. Envy is hatred or resentment for blessings that others have. So, someone can be really blessed, or they have a great family, or they're just really gifted in some area, and someone just doesn't like you because of that, because they are not like that, and they want to be like that, and they're just not. They're not happy because of your blessings, and that's what envy really is. So, it's different than covetousness because covetousness or coveting is a strong desire for what others possess or have. Just because someone envies you doesn't mean that they want what you have. They just don't like what you have. See the difference? So, it's similar, but it is different, but it's equally weird. I mean, obviously, having a strong desire for something, that's not weird because we all feel that way sometimes. You can't really help what you feel sometimes. It's wrong to covet, but it's probably the most common sin that most people have committed. But you don't have to turn that coveting into doing some other sinful act to get that thing that you want. But a lot of times people can't help when they're envying to put forth some plan to make other people hate that person because they hate that person, because they envy that person. Look at James chapter 3. James chapter 3. And you're like, why are you talking about this? This is a Bible study about Chronicles. Yeah, I understand that, but if you were paying attention during the reading, what is really going on here? There's envy. There's strife. There's fighting. Why? Did David start a fight with them? No. David tried to do something nice. And sometimes, I mean, what's David's position here? He's the king. He's highly blessed. He's highly favored by God. And he's the chosen seed, basically. God's literally made a covenant to bless his seed. He's the line of the Messiah. He pictures Christ. God has blessed him. He's a man after God's own heart. Can he help it that that's who he is? No, that's just who he is. And so just him being who he is does something nice for somebody. You know, he's giving someone condolences, and this dude starts hating on him because of what other people are chirping in his ear. He didn't even really necessarily feel that way. It's just he's keeping a wrong kind of counsel around him. He's keeping a bunch of people that are haters around him. And that person has, those people have swayed his heart. It doesn't seem like it was very hard to do, but they did do it. So, look at James 3. It says, But if you have bitter envying, see, it's bitter envying, and strife in your hearts, glory not. It's not something you should be proud of. And lie not against the truth. Hey, when you realize that you have a problem in this area, you should not lie against what the truth actually is. If you realize you have bitter envying and strife in your heart for no reason against some other Christian or some other person, don't lie against the truth. Fix it. Stop doing it. Quit being a weirdo. Because it is weird. It actually is weird to just hate somebody because of their station in life. It's strange. It says, This wisdom descendeth not from above, this did not come from God, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. So, where does it come from? It comes from the world. This is what the world does. They envy other people. They stab their way to the top at the workplace. They're the ones that are, you know, it's a sensual feeling. It's something that you should not desire. To just hate on people because of their station in life. And because you just think that they're blessed beyond what they should be. Or their family is doing better than your family. Their husband makes more money than your husband. Or their wife is a better wife or a better mother than your wife is or whatever. Whatever it is, it's just a weird, you know, look, just get better in your own life. Stop looking at everybody else's life and just fix your own. But it says, it's sensual and it's devilish. It's something that a devil would do. It's something that Satan works in people's hearts. You don't want to have that as one of your attributes, do you? That's why it says, lie not against the truth. The truth is that being a bitter, envying person and having strife in your heart all the time against people is not, it's not the truth. It doesn't come from God. It comes from, you know, the world. It comes from a sensual point of view and it comes from the devil. It really does. Isn't that what the Bible is saying? For where envying and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. Where do the evil works come from? Envying and strife. Envying and strife. You envy someone, therefore you want to have strife with that person. You want to fight with that person. But the wisdom that is from above is first, what's it say there? Pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated. It's easy, you're easy to talk to. Full of mercy. You're ready to forgive people for the things they do. Good fruits without partiality. What does that mean? You're not partial to, you know, you're not going to judge something that's not necessarily, you're not going to judge someone and say, that person is always doing the wrong thing no matter what. I'm just always going to believe they're doing the wrong thing. You're partial in how you judge people. Because you don't like that person. So you're just always going to say, yep, they did it. Or it's some kid you don't like. That kid's always the bad kid. That's having partiality. You can't judge things for what they are. Instead you're going to judge things based upon your perception of that person because they're always wrong in your eyes. Because of what? Envying and strife. Because you just have a problem you can't judge correctly. And it says, and without hypocrisy. And a lot of times these types of people that have these problems, they can't even see the hypocrisy that's coming out of their own hearts. They'll be like, I can't believe someone did this, this, and that. And it's like, you're doing the same thing. What are you talking about? You're exactly what you're putting the other people down for. It says, and the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. What is the fruit of righteousness? The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life. And he that wins souls is wise, the Bible says. So the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. So the peacemakers, the true peacemakers in this world are also going to have soul winning in their lives. They're going to have, hey, I want to reach people. This is what I want to do. My goal is not to destroy churches, but to start churches. My goal is to make peace, not to make enemies all the time. And look, if we preach the Bible, we're going to make enemies. That's a fact. But you're not setting out intentionally to make enemies on purpose. You're not preaching sermons just to make enemies. So see how James of the New Testament puts it? And I know that, you know, we've got to get to the verses here, which we're going to do. So I just wanted to kind of open up with that lens for us so we can kind of see what is at the heart of all this conflict that we're about to see. And why does David respond the way he does? Because you think, well, if he's a peacemaker, he's just going to let it all go, right? That's not always the way that it works, is it? And we're not in Old Testament Israel, obviously. So in the New Testament, we can't apply it and go, well, if someone fights with us, we've got to go shoot them or something, right? That's not how we do things. But you might have to defend yourself at some point. You might have to, you know, rip a little face against somebody sometime. But you don't go out starting fights intentionally to just start fights with people. Usually, you know, when someone gets preached against at our church, they've already started a fight with us first. That's how that works. I don't just go out and go around looking to start fights with people. Now, it's a little different when you're talking about the Roman Catholic Church, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, things like that. I am going to go start a fight with them because they just have already started a fight by their very existence, their false prophets. And, you know, we're supposed to go after people like that. But I'm just talking about, what is the context of this story here? These are brethren going after David for doing something right. That's what's wrong here. So my first point here is the Ammonites disgrace David's men. Here's how it all starts. Look at verse number one. The Bible says, Now it came to pass after this, that Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon, died, and his son reigned in his stead. Now remember, Ammon is the son of Lot's youngest daughter, I believe. And, you know, this is how the, he's the progenitor of the Ammonites. So this is way farther in the future. They live in their own land. It's next to Israel. And so it says, And David said, I will show kindness unto Hanon, the son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me. So what's David's motivation? Is it to spy out the land? Is it to cause problems? No, it's to go and show kindness. That's what Christians do, right? Hey, he was kind to me. I want to show him some kindness too. His dad died. Let's send some kindness his way. And David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. So the servants of David came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanon to comfort him. So David's just trying to do something nice. That's his brother. Hey, let's do something nice for you. But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanon, Thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father, that he has sent comforters unto thee, or not his servants come unto thee for to search and to overthrow and spy out the land? They're already what? Putting doubts into David's mind, or I mean, not David's mind, but this new king's mind, and just causing him to think something that's not true. Because is what they're saying true? Absolutely not. Wherefore Hanon took David's servants and shaved them and cut off their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks. Which everybody knows what that is, right? And then, excuse me, and sent them away. Then there went certain and told David how the men were served, and he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Tarry it Jericho, till your beards be grown, and then return. So he takes these guys who are ambassadors, basically, of David. David sends them in good faith. You know, you don't, it's just an unwritten rule. It's even a rule today. You don't mess with other people's ambassadors. If you're an ambassador from another country, you don't touch them. You don't, have you ever heard the term, don't shoot the messenger? That's basically where that comes from. You send ambassadors, you don't mess with them. Now, it's not that it's never happened after this or before this, it probably happens still. I mean, but it's just not something you do. It's a proclamation of war when you mess with somebody else's ambassadors. It's just a fact. So, David is not happy about this, but let's go to parallel passage and we'll see some other details that it doesn't really explain. In 1 Chronicles, because again, 1 Chronicles is just telling us, you know, just the hard story. It's not going to give us a lot of extra details, necessarily, but there's some good details in 2 Samuel 10. Turn to 2 Samuel 10, verse number 1. 2 Samuel 10, verse number 1. The Bible says, Basically, same story so far. So, they are accusing David of sending spies. That's what they're doing. So, instead of just taking, though, David's intentions at face value, you know, this new king is listening to his followers. And they're clearly trying to cause strife between allies. Isn't that what they're doing? And they're trying to get them, they're trying to provoke a fight. That's what they're doing. So, they probably, you know, they hate David and they're, you know, because Rehoboam does this later on. Solomon's son does this same thing. He listens to his new young buddies instead of listening to the old men, the counselors. And then, this is, you know, obviously it's of God, but this is what divides Jeroboam and the rest of the tribes away from the children of Judah. But, you know, and, you know, maybe these guys aren't in the same camp exactly. Obviously, the Ammonites are not the same as the Israelites, but they're still brethren. And there's a lot of Christians that aren't the same stripe that we are, but we can still call them brethren. The old IFB is still brethren. As long as they believe the same gospel, there's no reason why we should be fighting with them and causing strife with them for no reason. So, I mean, I guess you can kind of see the parallel there. But, you know, there's just, you should not listen to every counselor. You should pick and choose who you listen to when it comes to getting counsel from people. And when someone's just trying to immediately cause strife or call someone's integrity into question, you should think about what that person is saying. You know, when someone's like casting doubt upon, you know, especially what your pastor's saying to you. Oh, your pastor says that? Well, why is he saying that? You know, this is what he's secretly doing. I'd be aware of people like that. You know, I'm not saying don't ever question what the pastor says. I'm not like, yes, you must obey, obey everything. I mean, obviously, if something's wrong, something's wrong. But these people that are just always constantly trying to just cast doubt upon everything, you know, you should be aware of who you're taking your counsel from. Who are you listening to? So, you know, and then so that's that's just a lesson on anything. Anybody you get information from. Anybody that you take counsel from on any subject. Doesn't matter if it's your pastor or who it is that you should be aware who you get your counsel from. You know, if you're getting it from some muscle head podcaster or something and he's telling you, you know, weird advice on health or whatever. Well, I mean, you should get your people, get your information from people that actually know what they're talking about. And they're not just being weird. Right. Having some, you know, you don't get your religious information from Joe Rogan. OK, that's what that's a good example. Right. He's going to tell you that aliens are here and big. He doesn't believe in Bigfoot necessarily anymore. But there's some good things that he says that are interesting, but like most of it's just junk. You know, you don't want to get your you're not doing drugs advice from him either. So, you know, and then so what happens here is that these guys are doing what's called evil surmising. And the Bible talks about that in First Timothy Chapter six. I'm not going to have you turn there. But what is evil surmising or surmising just itself is to suppose that something is true without having evidence to confirm it. That's just surmising at all. Like I surmise that this is, you know, you're assuming something's true. And you don't really know. There's nothing wrong with thinking something might be true. But if you're acting like it's a fact, it's 100 percent true, and you're just going off that even though you don't know it for sure. That's when it would be wrong to do it. And then when you're just. And this is this goes back to that judgment thing where you're impartial about everything or you're part you're partial. Excuse me. You're partial about everything with one person because you don't like that person for whatever reason. Then this is where evil surmising comes in. And then every time that person is called into question for anything, they're automatically guilty. 100 percent. Yep, they did it. And then all someone has to do is just say something. Yep. Yep. Oh, yeah. That's they did it because you are partial. That's wrong. So just because you had a problem with a person over one thing doesn't mean that everything they do is wrong. Do you understand? So that's where we can't be partial with people and then start to evil surmise about people over everything that they do. That's wrong. That's not right judgment. That's we should not do that. So when somebody already has an issue that can cause them to automatically think that person is wrong and assume the worst about them. Going forward in every situation, which this happens all the time. I see it all the time as a pastor. Anything said about them is believed to be 100 percent true every time. Yep, I believe it. And it's just it's bizarre. But it is called evil surmising. Turn. We're still in Second Samuel Chapter 10. Look at verse four says, Wherefore Hanun took David's servants and shaved off the one half of their beard. So here's the extra details we're getting. So you've got a great beard. That'd be like someone just taking and just like from here, just shaving off half of it and leaving the other half there. I mean, that'd be pretty. Would you walk into church like that? Yeah, you're probably just shave the rest off, right? I mean, these guys, you know, they're not going to do that. They just want the rest of it. I don't know. They're going to grow the rest of it back, apparently. So I don't know how long their beards were. I don't know if they probably didn't wait. Their beards probably weren't as long as yours. I'm guessing it's like you can't come back to Jerusalem until the rest of your beard grows back. It probably took you a while to grow your beard that long. I'm guessing so. But wouldn't take me long to take me like a few days or something, right? This is like coffee grounds here. But so this guy, he's humiliating these guys because it is humiliating to shave off, especially in that culture. It is kind of a cultural thing. Like to shave off a man's beard here probably wouldn't be that big of a deal in comparison to the Children of Israel. Just because, you know, having a beard was kind of a, you know, it's a manly thing, a status thing. You know, in some places it is a big deal. But here, I mean, some people just even in our church don't have beards. They probably could grow them, but they just don't want to. And that's fine. You know, it's a preference thing. But to them to do that would be embarrassing, it's shameful, and apparently so shameful that they wouldn't even be able to, you know, David didn't want to embarrass them further and have them come back to Jerusalem with their beards halfway shaving off. So then it says, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away. So an extra detail. Now, I've heard people explain this, and this is, you know, here's the thing. People think that men just walked around with these robes with no underwear on underneath, no short pants underneath, it's just like a bathrobe that everybody walked around with or something. And that, you know, because some people will, like I was looking at some of the modern versions, I didn't like write any of them down or copy and paste any of them, but like if you think that it's a robe, then you're wearing this robe, and then if they cut it off, they're like imagining it being cut off in the middle, and then, then everything else is exposed, right? So that would be really embarrassing. But that's what the assumption, see people just assume things in their mind, and they think, oh yeah, they're just, they're wholly completely uncovered. Well, it says their buttocks was uncovered, it doesn't say everything else was, okay? But, if it was, they cut off half their beard. Do you think that they just like shaved part of it this way, and then just like, you know, just did this, and then shaved half their mustache up like that, and left like a thin beard and a thin mustache? Do you think that's what they did? That wouldn't be that embarrassing. What's embarrassing is to shave it halfway off, that's what it's saying, isn't it? So then, people just assume that with the garments, they just cut it off in the middle, and just, it's just, you know, they cut it a different way? They probably did the same cut with the garment. Could they have been wearing a robe? Of course they could have been. But do you think that that's all they were wearing underneath that? This isn't like Rome 2,000 years ago, where a bunch of dudes were laying around in togas, you know, reading poetry or something. Most people didn't dress like that all the time there, anyway, and most Greeks didn't dress like that all the time. So, I would guess that they probably had some pants on, or some short pants of some sort, maybe they did have robes that went down to their knees, who knows? It just says garments, but like, it's bizarre to think that they didn't have any underclothes on at all. Every dude just walked around, free, you know what in it. Nobody wants to walk around like that. No men want to walk around like that. Women don't want to walk around like that either. We have underwear for a reason. It makes you feel more comfortable, it makes you feel more secure. And nobody just wants to walk around with everything hanging off, hanging around, flopping back and forth. It's just not comfortable. You know, I'm sorry if I'm trying to be a little bit, you know, but, come on. Nothing underneath, it's just a robe, come on. No. So they probably just cut it, and yeah, their butt probably was exposed. Their buttox, it's the same, this butt is just short for buttox, okay, it's not a bad word. But anyway, yeah, they were exposed to what extent, I don't know, but whatever it was was embarrassing. So this is what was done, it was done to shame them, and they sent them away. So, and it says, and when they told it to David, he sent to meet them because the men were greatly ashamed. So, you know, they might have been more mad about the beard, I don't know, but probably both. And it says, and the king said, tarry Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return. And when the children of Ammon saw that they stank before David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth Rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 footmen, and King Makah, 1,000 men, and Ishtab, 12,000 men. So basically they realized that David didn't favor them at all anymore, and of course, why would they? They just embarrassed his men, they requited him evil for the good that he's done. Hey, I'm gonna go comfort him over the death of his father, and then he shamefully treats his servants, and sends them away, naked and ashamed basically, cutting off their robe, or see, now I'm even saying I'm brainwashed, cutting off their garments, and cutting off half their beard. Embarrassing them, shaming them. Now let's look back in our text, so notice it says they stank before David. So they know that David's not happy. Now look at 1 Chronicles 19, 6, it says, and when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David. So that word odious means repulsive. So when it says stank before David, odious is kind of that same thing. But it really means hated. David at this point is like, oh, and this is kind of how David responds when people treat him like that. Like he helped, what's his name, the guy that turned into a reprobate when he helped him with the, and then he ended up marrying his wife when she died, not Naaman, but it's, is it, Nabal, Nabal. So he helps Nabal and does some stuff, and then he treats him bad, and he's like, we're gonna go kill everyone that pisses against the wall. So like his automatic default is let's go kill everybody. It's kind of, you know, I'm gonna treat him good, and then like when they do him dirty, he's just like, okay, well let's go full attack here. So anyway, this is what David, it says odious, repulsive, it's hated. But it is kind of the same thing as being stinking before, because isn't when something stinks really bad, you're repulsed by it? You ever open up like a cooler that had a bunch of rotten stuff in it, and you're like, ugh, you know, you're just, it's repulsive. So it's the same thing. But it says, they made themselves odious to David. Henon and the children of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and out of Syria Makah, and out of Zobah. So a thousand talents, let's see, I wanted to get that number there, to hire them chariots and horsemen, okay, doesn't say how many. Verse seven, so they hired, okay, 30 and 2,000 chariots, and the king of Makah and his people who came and pitched before Mediba and the children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities and came to battle. So this just one little incident here is causing this, I mean, we're talking thousands and thousands of people ready to fight over two guys getting their beards cut off, or however many guys getting their beards cut off and their clothes getting cut. But what really is the problem is that they requited David's good for evil. They gave him evil for good, excuse me. So the Bible says in Proverbs, let's go ahead and turn over to Proverbs chapter 17. The Bible talks about this and gives us some clues about how we treat people. If we treat people wrong when they do good to us, God gets really angry over stuff like this. And rightly so, because when someone does something good to you, and you treat them poorly in return, it's a really wicked sin, it really is. Look at Proverbs 17 verse 13, it says, Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. Now, of course, you can write these wrongs, I'm not saying that you can't make things right, but it does say evil shall not depart from his house, whoso rewardeth evil for good. When you do something evil for somebody that's good to you, good things are not coming your way. Turn to Proverbs 20 verse two, Proverbs 20 verse two. So, this is what's happened. They rewarded David evil for good for what he did. Proverbs 20 verse two, here's another proverb that they should well know. The fear of a king is as a roaring of a lion. Whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul. Don't piss off a king, because they can bring more wrath than most people. You make the ruler of the whole land upset with you, that's a bad idea. Don't insult them like these guys did. Proverbs 20 verse three, it is an honor for a man to cease from strife, but every fool will be meddling. It's good for us to, you're in strife, you're like, hey, I'm just gonna stop. I'm gonna not fight anymore, I'm gonna quit. But what does the Bible say about the fool? And a fool is a stupid person, an idiot, someone who just can't think intelligently about stuff. It says every fool will be meddling. Instead of ceasing from strife, they get into strife, they cause strife. Turn to Proverbs 26 verse 17, Proverbs 26 verse 17. It says, he that passeth by, this is a famous verse here, he that passeth by and meddleth with strife belonging not to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears. So these Syrians, they get involved in a battle that has nothing to do with them. You know, they're like, well, they got paid. Yeah, but they didn't have to take the money. They didn't have to, oh, do you think it's a good idea? Like, you know who the mighty men are? You ever heard of Joab? You ever heard of Abishai? You ever heard of David's mighty men that can kill 300 people with one spear? Or 700 men at the same time, you ever heard of those guys? Yeah, let's go fight against them, that sounds like a great idea. A thousand talents of silver is not enough. It doesn't matter how many thousands of people you got. David's got thousands of people, too, and they're way tougher than your guys. I'll take their 30 against your 20,000 any day of the week. But what do they do? They get involved in strife, not belonging to them. But, again, they're brethren, and they're getting involved. They are brethren also. The Syrians are brethren with the children of Israel, just like the Ammonites are. Getting paid to get into a fight that has nothing to do with them. And I would just say this, it's a bad idea for us to get into fights between friends that have nothing to do with us also. Especially when we have no beef with either one of them. It's just a dumb thing to do, you know? To just get into fights that have nothing to do with you. But I've seen this kind of stuff play out in the last several months, and some people just cannot seem to recognize this fact. Some people have not minded, should have minded their own business, but they just don't want to pass by. They just want to get involved in other people's strife. Strife that didn't belong to them. Which, you know, they had already stated before, you know, I'm just going to stay out of stuff that's none of my business. But for some weird reason, whatever it was, pressure, politics, personal beef, perceived personal gain, they decided to make the strife their business. And not only did they grab a dog by the ears, but they kicked and punched the dog, and they caught that dog, you know, that dog was caught in a trap. And had done them only good in their time of need when they had a hard time. And time passed, they comforted them, they licked their hand when they were going through a hard time. You know, the dog was nice to them, they allowed, you know, the dog was pettable or whatever. And, you know, when they were going through a hard time, their whole world was crashing down. They sent ambassadors to them, gave them gifts. You know, in fact, all this person's friends did the same exact thing. Sent ambassadors, helped, gave gifts. But here's the thing, the problem is, is that the dog that you decided to abuse was the worst possible time you could have tried to abuse the dog. And that dog is a pit bull. That dog is a pit bull, and pit bulls, even when they're being attacked, or when they're fighting, you know, it's a dumb thing to get involved into a fight when a pit bull's fighting, isn't it? Like, who knows that it's not a good idea to put your hand in the middle of two pit bulls that are fighting. Who knows that? Would you ever put your, would you ever like, hey, we gotta break these dogs up? No. That's stupid. You don't get involved in a pit bull fight. You know, I mean, any dog. I've seen people get bit by dogs that weren't even pit bulls. My dad got bit by his own German Shepherd that he was trying to stop from fighting another dog. It bit him really bad on the arm, and he knew better. He's like, I can't believe I did that. It's like, he bit him really good. And it's just like, you just don't, you know, spray him with a hose, do something else, but do not put your hand in between two dogs that are fighting. So, because even when dogs love you and like you or whatever, if you get involved in a fight between two dogs, or more than two dogs, they still, you know, especially pit bulls or formidable dogs, even when wounded and trapped, they can still bite really hard. And, you know, you knew better than to get involved in that dog fight with that pit bull, but then that pit bull tears you up, and you cry when it bites you. You get mad and cry when the pit bull bites you and play the victim. I can't believe that pit bull bit me. He was my friend. But it was dumb for you to try to contend with that pit bull and jump in and try to grab that pit bull when it was in a fight. And then, you know, you try to kick it. You try to punch it. You try to take it down when it's already in a fight with another pit bull. It's like really dumb. Then you expect people to feel sorry for you and to defend you? Like, who did you expect to defend you? Like, you should have known better. Don't fight. Don't grab a dog. You know, if you're just walking down the street, who's going to see a pit bull fight, walking down the street, and then stop that pit bull fight? Is anybody going to do that? I'm not going to do that. And especially when you've already been warned, you already know not to do that. Like, most people won't even stop a fight between two people. Like, you're just going to be like, whoa, what's going on here? You know, nobody's going to do that. But even when you're warned to stay away from the dog, you still do it. It's just not wise. So, everybody knows that. Don't get involved. The Bible says don't grab a dog. Like, if you get involved with strife that's not belonging to you, it's like taking a dog by the ears. Don't do that. If you know not to do that, then why are you doing it and then complain about getting bit by the dog? That doesn't make sense. So, this same person, you know, listened to his princes about his friend, and these princes were lying, trying to cause strife between friends. Instead of just calling that friend, they believed the princes. And like, this is exactly the kind of stuff that I'm talking about that happens. And you're like, who are you talking about? Does it really matter? It doesn't really matter, but it just happens. And it's like lifelong friendships can get destroyed over stuff like this. And it's like, I have, look, my friendships, I don't have any expectations upon them. I don't ask people, hey, you have to defend me here. I've never asked anybody to defend me ever. Not one time. You know, despite popular rumors or whatever, if I've gotten into some kind of strife with people, I don't go, hey, Pastor Shelley, you really need to defend me on this one because I'm really in deep trouble on this. I've never done that. As God is my witness, I've never done that. I've never asked any pastor to ever defend me for anything ever. And so, I just think it's a weird expectation for someone else to expect me to defend them, especially when I said, hey, maybe you should just sit this one out. And then it's like, oh, we're not friends anymore because you didn't defend me publicly? Well, who else defended you publicly? Because I didn't see anybody else do that, but then you expect me to. I'm the only one that has to do it. I'm held to a standard that nobody else is held to. How does that work? I don't understand that. So, I'm held to a friend level that no other friend is held to. Okay, well, that's not how it works. And especially when you've been nothing but a friend to them the whole time you've been friends. And done nothing but promote, done nothing but help. And, you know, some people just don't know what the meaning of friend actually is. That's the problem. They don't, I mean, people are friends until it doesn't benefit them anymore, and then they don't want to be friends anymore. This is like what David's going through right here. It's like, maybe he wasn't friends with this kid, but you're still supposed to be good to your father's friends? Isn't that what the Bible says? But this guy, in the story, he obviously doesn't understand that. So he's just going to listen to his friends, his idiot friends, his idiot counselors. And for what? He could have had a good friendship with David, but he threw it all away. So the phrase grabbing the dog by the ears compares getting involved in a dispute that isn't yours to someone who would grab a dog by the ears. And look, in the Bible, are dogs mentioned as a positive thing? They're not. They're often aggressive, untamed, and so it was not advisable to provoke dogs in the Bible. So, similarly, it's not wise to meddle in conflicts that don't concern you, as the consequences can be unpleasant. You know, who's ever come across an animal that was in a trap? Anybody? Well, I used to go out in the mountains a lot when I was a kid, and I've seen coyotes caught in traps, I've seen other animals caught in traps, and guess what happens if you walk up and try to pet that animal when they're in a trap? What do you think they're going to do to you? They're going to bite you, even if you're trying to release them. Because I saw a coyote in a trap when I was a young kid, and I thought, well, man, I wonder if we could get that trap off of them. Well, the whole purpose of the traps on them is so they could die. So the hunter or the rancher or whoever it is is going to come across that coyote, shoot him, and that's it for him. He's a predator, so you don't mess with animals when they're cornered. You don't corner rats and expect them not to jump at you. The guys that worked in the sewer department at the city of Portland, they talked about battles that they'd have with these crazy sewer rats, and they'd take shovels down there, and these things are jumping at them, and they're like, they'd have to smash these things to death with shovels. Sorry, kids. But it's just a fact. You corner an animal that's having a rough time, they're going to attack you. So the lesson I would say to believers is to stay out of strife, not belonging to us. Especially if it's between brethren, between believers. And we should not have unrealistic expectations from our friends, especially when we don't adhere to the same expectations ourselves. Don't put something on somebody that you don't do yourself. That's called hypocrisy. That's what it's called. Number two, David sends out the dominators to dispatch the rebels. Verse eight in our text says, and when David heard of it, he sent Joab, uh oh, rut ro raggy, it's Joab, and all the hosts of the mighty men. It's not just Joab, it's all the hosts of the mighty men. And these guys, you know, we've already went through the list, these guys are the baddest of the bad. Like, not bad guys, but they're bad as in the toughest fighters, right? And it says all the hosts, not just them, but all the guys that they lead. So David's not messing around here, he's sending the elite squad out against these guys. So, and it says, and the children of Ammon came out and put the battle in array before the gate of the city and the kings that were come were by themselves in the field. So Ammon's by the gate just so they can run away real quick, you know, and hide, so they're close to the gate, and then the guys that they hire are out in the field by themselves, the kings. Isn't that interesting how it says that? It kind of just gives us that little picture. Because really, the children of Ammon don't care about them. I mean, they just hired them for a thousand pieces of silver, and like, if they get killed, they don't really necessarily care. But it is kind of, you know, it says they put the battle in array. Now when the Bible says this, it says it multiple times in this chapter, it says, you know, what it means is that to arrange the troops and weapons for battle. So they, whatever positions, however they have their military positions set out, this is setting the battle in array. They got all their shields and spears and whatever else out. Their chariots are ready to race or run around and kill people or whatever. This is called putting the battle in array. So, and a good application for us is that the enemy is organized. The enemy is organized, and people forget this, that we are in a battle, we're in a spiritual battle, and the enemy's organized and they have a plan. And so it's good for us to be organized and have a spiritual plan also. Not just at church, not just out soul winning, but for our lives at home too. So it's good to have a plan, it's good to have purpose, it's good to have goals, it's good to be spiritual. You know, our array is what? The full armor of God. It's not something that people can see, but hopefully you have it on. You put that stuff on. And, you know, our array is also the church. You know, that's our stronghold, our strong tower. We have, you know, having proper leadership. You know, is it a deacon run church that someone goes to, where the leadership is not the right leadership, the right model, or is it a pastor led church? Is it, you know, it's being sent. Is your church sending people? Well, a lot of churches don't send people, so how are you going to knock down the gates of hell if you're not even sending people against it? And how about keeping the mission objective clear? You know, some churches don't even have a mission objective. Their mission objective is a thermometer on the wall to see how big the building can get built next year. Or how many missionaries they can send money to at 20 bucks a month that you don't even know what they're doing. I'll just stick with the three we got right now. They're doing pretty good. How about, you know, remembering, you know, to stay in the fight? How about not going AWOL? You know, AWOL is not good. We just stay in the fight. Remembering to get some recovery. Obviously, we need to recover sometimes. You know, soldiers, you know, they get that leave time, and it's good to have recovery, but they only give them so long. So when people are gone too long, then it is AWOL, right? Then they go looking for them. They get in trouble. So don't let God beat you while you're AWOL. You want to stay in the fight. So, you know, these are just some things for us to think about. We need to keep our battle in array also. Verse 10. Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose out of all the choice of Israel and put behind, or excuse me, put them in array against Assyrians. So now they're put in the battle in array. And this is strategy. We talked about this on Sunday night, how, you know, God is the best strategist. But Joab is the general of the armies of Israel. Remember that. He is the head honcho of all the military besides David, of course. And he's kind of finding himself in the same predicament as the men of AI. Remember the men of AI? You have some are coming out, or, you know, there's guys coming at him from, you know, Joshua's guys are coming from behind, and they turn around after pretending to run and come back at him. Well, this is kind of the same strategy, but it's just working by the opposite end. So, you know, Joab's kind of finding himself in a pickle here. But what's he do? He thinks on his feet. He says, and the rest of the people he delivered into the hands of Abishai, his brother. And they set themselves in array against the children of Ammon. So, basically, he just kind of comes up with this plan that he's going to fight the Syrians. He's going to fight the toughest guys that they, you know, spent all this money to bring in, and he's basically given the Ammonites to his brother. And he said, if the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me, but if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will help thee. So, he's basically like, whoever's having trouble will help out the other ones. Pretty good plan. But he says, be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God, and let the Lord do that which is good in his sight. I really like this saying by Joab here. Joab doesn't do a lot of great things in the Bible as far as spiritually, but here's a spiritual verse by Joab right here. And here you have it, him seemingly doing that which is right in the eyes of the Lord. I think he is doing that which is right in the eyes of the Lord. And Abishai. So, obviously, though, anyone can give lip service to invoking God and, you know, saying that they're doing something in the name of the Lord and not be genuine. Because a lot of people think that Joab probably wasn't saved, but I'm not that person. I think he was. So, my opinion is that although he was a man of ambition, there's no doubt about that, and he really wanted to hold a title of being the general really bad. So bad that he murdered a couple people to keep that title. But, I mean, he did have what he thought were reasons for doing those things. I mean, if you put yourself in Joab's position, he's a hard man. Why did he kill the guys that he killed? I mean, some people would say that he had reason to kill them. Well, the first guy killed his brother, and then the second guy wasn't getting the guys ready in time. I never even really thought about that before, but David said have them ready in three days, and then he didn't have them ready in three days. So Joab just kind of got his guys ready, and as he's coming up, he just, like, kills them, and then everybody just follows Joab, and then they go get Shiva, the son of Bikrai, and then the rest is history. Not that he was right, I'm not saying he was right by doing that, I'm just saying that some people would say, I'm not saying that, but some people would say that he did have reason. But it is true that Amasa did not get the people ready in time. So some people would say that he thought he was suspicious of that, because David said now he's going to be able to have time to amass an army and all this other stuff, so Joab didn't like that. You know, when David tells you to get the army ready in three days, and he surpasses that time and doesn't get it done, then Joab just was like, okay, well, let me just kill them and take my spot back. Probably not the right thing to do, but that's what he did. So anyway, let's see, there's a lot of flawed men in the Bible, though. I mean, every man in the Bible is flawed, including these guys, Joab and Abishai. And Joab is the general of the Lord's army, and Abishai is the fourth greatest of the mighty men of David and their captain. It's not like God didn't allow them to be put in those positions. He did. He could have chose anybody else, but who did he choose? I mean, if God directs your steps, why did he allow Abishai to be the fourth of the mighties and to be captain over the three? Why did he allow that? I mean, they had ambition, but that was probably a good thing in some ways. You know, Joab, not one of the mighties, so he's obviously not as good of a fighter as any of those guys on that list, including his own armor bearer. But he had an ambition to take the city of Zion. David said, hey, whoever gets up the gutter, he's like, well, I'm gonna go get her. I'm gonna go gutter get her, and just went up the gutter and got him. And he won. And somehow he held on to the general. I mean, he killed people, but, you know, he had flaws. No, I'm just kidding. He did, though. Now, when Abner killed, when Abner was killed, he obviously was murdered, and Joab did wrong. There's no doubt about that. Let's look at 2 Samuel real quick. I'm not gonna be able to finish my notes tonight, but turn to 2 Samuel, chapter 3. We'll just finish this part of the notes, and I'll just continue on next week. 2 Samuel, chapter 3, verse 26, the Bible says, And when Joab was come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner. This is after Abner had went to David. And David made Abner the general. He, like, demoted Joab already. And it says, But David knew it not, and when Abner was returned to, what's it say there? To Hebron, right? Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly, and smote him there under the fifth rib that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother. And afterward, when David heard it, he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless before the Lord forever from the blood of Abner the son of Ner. So David, you know, he had to make sure that people knew that this was not of his doing. And he made a big deal about it, because it wasn't his doing. It wasn't righteous. And it says, Let it rest on the head of Joab and all his father's house, and let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper, or that leaneth on a staff, or that falleth on the sword, or that lacketh bread. That's a pretty harsh curse there. That's harsh, but deserving. And it says, So Joab and Abishai his brother slew Abner. So it doesn't say what Abishai did to partake in this, but Abishai had something to do with this. Isn't that what the Bible says right there? Because he had slain their brother Asahel at Gibeon, notice these last three words, in the battle. That's very important, because there's a difference between slaying somebody because you hate them, or you have a problem with them, and slaying someone in battle. They're in a battle. Now, their brother started chasing Abner, and the battle was already over. The battle's done, but he just wants to chase Abner so he can get some glory kill or something. He wants to kill Abner no matter what. Abner's the leader of the Benjaminites, after Saul's already dead. Now, he's chasing him down. Abner says, Don't make me kill you. I don't want to do this. He tells him, he warns him multiple times, and then he finally stabs him under the fifth rib and kills him. And then they're pursuing after him, and then they stop chasing him. And so, when it says Abner returned to Hebron, why is he in Hebron? Well, turn to Joshua chapter 20, verse 2. Joshua chapter 20, verse 2. Joshua 20, verse 2 says, Speak to the children of Israel, saying to point you out for cities of refuge, where I spake unto you by the hand of Moses, that the slayer that killeth any person unawares and unwittingly may flee thither, and they shall be your refuge from the avenger of blood. So, if someone killed somebody, the avenger of blood was able to go kill that person, but if they went to a city of refuge, they could not pursue them and kill them there until they stood trial. It kind of explains it here. It says, When he that doth flee unto one of those cities shall stand at the entering of the gate of that city, and shall declare his cause in the ears of the elders of that city, they shall take him unto them and give him a place that he may dwell among them. And if the avenger of blood pursue after him, then they shall not deliver the slayer up into his hand, because he smote his neighbor unwittingly and hated him not before time. So Abner didn't hate him before time. And this is in a battle. In wartime, killing someone isn't wrong. You're fighting in a battle. So this doesn't apply. So when he goes to Hebron, he's going to a place where he's allowed to go to, and he should be safe in that place. Look what it says in verse 6. And he shall dwell in that city until he stand before the congregation for judgment, and until the death of the high priest that shall be in those days, then shall the slayer return and come unto his own city, and unto his own house, and unto the city whence he fled. And they appointed Kadesh and Galilee, and Mount Neftali, and Shechem and Mount Ephraim, and Kerjoth Arba, which is Hebron in the mountain of Judah. So why did Abner go to Judah in Hebron to Judah? Because that was a city of refuge. So Abner, when he got done with David, he goes to Hebron, and what does Joab do? Him and his brother go and murder him in the gate of the city, which is the place where he's supposed to go for refuge. And so why has God allowed David to curse him like this? Because he broke the law. Because he murdered him. Because he knew that it was a battle that he was killed in. He saw what happened. And yeah, he's mad. Here's the thing. Sometimes people think that they have this blood is thicker than water, no matter what, it's family, ride or die, all this other stuff, right? But what's right is right. What's wrong is wrong. And family does matter, yes it does. But when someone's doing something wicked, they've done something wicked. And sometimes this, you know, sometimes things like happen in church, like there'll be a whole bunch of people from the same family. And then one family member gets offended, and then all that whole family will leave the church. Why is that? Well because they have that mentality that, hey if you offended one of my family members, then we're all gonna leave. That's wrong. That again goes to partiality. It's poor judgment. But it is something that happens. And basically Joab had this huge lapse in judgment, and what happened because of it? It cursed his whole family. Like you're like, oh yeah, la familia no matter what, right? But what happened is la familia got cursed, every person in his family got cursed for the rest of their whole family because of it. So what you thought was just, yeah, we're gonna get him back for it. They're like the Diaz brothers in MMA or something. They think that they're just gonna settle the score. But he didn't settle the score. He cursed his own family. Because of a stupid thing. And again, I'm not saying that everything that Joab did was wrong, but I mean if you did something that bad, that you got cursed by King David, then that's a pretty bad thing. And then he tells, one of the last things he tells Solomon is make sure that he dies a bloody death before he goes. Don't let his hoary head go to the grave without blood. I mean David was a bloody man, that's why he couldn't build the temple. He's like, well how about one more thing? Might as well make one more thing right before I die and make sure Joab dies a bloody death. It's true. But anyway, that's all I got for tonight. Let's go ahead and close on a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you so much for the scriptures and Lord for these lessons in the Bible. Lord, pray you'd help us when it comes to dealing with family relations and friend relations. And Lord, help us to not be envious of people. Help us to not have envy and strife in our hearts where we'd be partial in our judgment towards other people. And just automatically think people are bad just because of some beef we've had with them in the past or something that we didn't like that they said. And we would just continue to hold grudges and bitterness towards them. Pray Lord, we'd be better than that. Pray that we would just not be that type of person, that we'd be seeking peaceful resolutions. And that Lord, we would just try to be those peacemakers in our lives and not just continue to just be bitter and have that bitterness just eat us up as Christians. Pray you'd help us to be forgiving and merciful. And even if people aren't that way to us, that we would be that way toward them. And that we would do unto others as we would have them to do unto us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Closing hymn is 103 under his wings. 103 in the red or the green. Love on eye deepens and tempests our while. Still I can trust it. I know he will keep me. He has redeemed me and I am his child. Under his wings, under his wings, who from his love can sever. Under his wings lies social boy, safely your bight forever. Under his wings, not a refuge in sorrow. How the heart yearningly turns to his rest. Often when earth has felt good for my healing, there I find comfort and there I am blessed. Under his wings, under his wings, who from his love can sever. Under his wings lies social boy, safely your bight forever. Under his wings, oh what precious enjoyment. There will I find till life's trials are over. Sheltered, protected, no evil done for me. Blasting in Jesus, I'm safe evermore. Under his wings, under his wings, who from his love can sever. Under his wings lies social boy, safely your bight forever. Under his wings, not a refuge in sorrow.