Sermons on 2 Samuel 16:9

… after he was already down. Look at 2 Samuel 16, verse 9. Then Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, said to the king, Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over now and cut off his head. But notice what David said in verse 10. He said, But the king said, What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses, and if the Lord has told him curse David, then who shall say, Why have you done so? and then David said to Abishai and to all of his servants, behold, my son who came out from me, that's Absalom, seeks my life. How much more now this Benjamite, let him alone and let him curse for the Lord has told him. He said to his friend, don't stop him. Don't hurt him. leave him alone. God is the one who told him to curse me. You see, David believed in the sovereignty of God. David believed that there is nothing that happened in his life that had not come through the will of God into his life. He didn't believe that Shimei was some free agent to go out hurling rocks or insults without the restraint of God in his life. He believed that God had a reason for it. And it was a good reason. It was a loving reason. Before I was afflicted, David said, I went astray, but now I obey your word. David believed in the sovereignty of God. When I think about …

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words, I have bigger problems. I have bigger things to deal with than this dude. I came to remind you, you've got bigger priorities. You've got too much to do to be offended by them. You've got bigger fish to fry than this guy whose name I can't even pronounce. You're David. How much more than this Benjamite? Leave him alone. Let him curse. You want us to do something about it? No. Let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. It may be… Oh, this is an anointed verse. If you've been under attack and the Enemy is pelting you with rocks and stones, and it may even be coming at the expense of your own dignity, and you are asking yourself, what do I do about this attack, David said, it may be that the Lord will look upon my misery and restore to me his covenant blessing instead of his curse today." In other words, what David is saying is that he cannot curse what God has already blessed, so let him. He cannot destroy what has God's DNA. He cannot steal what God has spoke. He cannot negate what God has established. …

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Perhaps I am addressing some child of God who is sorely puzzled as to why certain things have happened to him. But, Father, does your child always understand all that you do to him and for him? It was not long ago that your boy was sent away to school—perhaps he thought you unkind in treating him so—yet is was real love to him that prompted you to send him away from you to be all the better trained for whatever may lie before him in his later life. He does not understand all that is in your mind and you can never comprehend all that is in the Infinite Mind of your Father who is in Heaven. Be satisfied that whatever God does must be right. Yet, remember that in a certain sense, all trials do come from God. There may be secondary agents coming in between, but let us not quibble at them, or quarrel with them. When Shimei cursed David, Abishai said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray you, and take off his head." But David said, "Let him curse, because the Lord has said to him, 'Curse David.'" He felt that he deserved to be cursed so he looked upon Shi-mei's insults as being a form of chastisement from God. If you strike a dog with a stick, he will bite the stick—but if he had more sense, he would try to bite you. And when we are chastened, it is foolish for us to be angry with the rod that God employs—and we dare not be angry with God! There may be sin in the person who causes us to suffer, as there was in the case of Shimei, but we must look beyond him even as David did—and learn what God's intention is in thus chastening us—and submissively accept whatever God appoints. …

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