April 2, 2017 - Absalom / David Worships

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

  O God, you are my God; 

I will seek you eagerly. 

Psalm 63:1a

Who are the people in charge in your life: Parent? Teacher? Boss?  We all know that God has placed certain people in authority over us in different places and situations.  What if we don't like the person who has authority over us?  What if you thought you could do a better job than the person in charge of you?  Is it okay to try take their place?  What if your Sunday School teacher tried to take over being church Pastor by telling everyone that they should listen to him instead?  Would that be right?  Would God be pleased with that?  Believe it or not, something like that happened in the Bible!  

Lately we've been learning about King David.  The Bible says David was a man after God's own heart and was chosen by God  Himself to be King of Israel. David was put in authority over all of God's Chosen People; the Israelites.

Among David's many children was a man named Absalom. Absalom was very handsome and had very thick hair.  He and his father David did not get along very well even though King David loved his son very much.  

One day, Absalom decided that he wanted to be king instead of his father.  He got

himself a chariot and had fifty men run in front of him as he went through town.  This made the people think that Absalom was very important.  

Absalom knew that the people loved King David and, if he was going to take his dad's throne, he had to make the people love him

instead.  So, whenever people would come to see the King with a problem, Absalom would get to them first and say things like, "The King is too busy to see you.  If I were king I would care very much about your problem."  or, "If I were in charge, I would make sure that all the people's problems were heard and that justice was done."  The people began to think that maybe Absalom WOULD be a better king than David. 

After this, Absalom knew it was time to take the next step

.  So, after getting his father's permission to go to Hebron, he sent word to everyone that, when they heard the trumpets, to shout, "Absalom is King in Hebron!!"  So Absalom had himself crowned King and then headed toward Jerusalem to take his Father's throne.

When David heard what had happened, he decided that the best thing to do was to RUN.  David knew that Absalom had an army and he would destroy the city if he had to in order to get what he wanted.  Running saved David as well as all of Jerusalem.  

So David and his men were hiding from Absalom in the wilderness.  This was a very sad time for David.  His son had turned against him, the people had turned against him, and he had lost the throne of Israel that God had given him.  So what did David do?  He did what he always did; worshiped God.  David knew that we need to worship God in the good times and the bad times.  In fact, the song he wrote for God during that time is Psalm 63.  

Meanwhile, one of David's men, who was posing as an

adviser to Absalom, convinced Absalom to wait a while before going after David.  This allowed David time to recruit a bigger army.  David was ready when Absalom came after him.  

When Absalom came with

his army, King David still loved his son so much that he told his army not to hurt Absalom.  During the battle, Absalom came riding under a low branch.  His hair was so thick that it got caught in the branches and pulled him off his donkey and he was left hanging by his hair in the tree.  

When Joab, King David's General, heard about this, he ordered the men to kill Absalom.  They refused because David said not to but Joab hated Absalom.  Joab went and killed Absalom while he was stuck in the tree and they buried him in a pit covered with

rocks.  When King David heard that Absalom had been killed he was so sad that he said that he wished that he had died instead of Absalom.  So David once again became the King of Israel.

We may not always like the people in authority over us but, remember, God put them there for a reason.  If we are obedient to God, maybe someday He will put us in charge.  Even if He doesn't, we should always worship God by obeying Him and the people He puts over us.