To Encourage You

2 Samuel 15:16 “So the king went out, and all his household after him.”

The Old Testament contains many shadows of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of them are shadows of similarity, such as the lampstand of the tabernacle pointing to Jesus, Who is the Light of the World, and the manna that the Israelites ate in the wilderness pointing to Jesus as the bread of life that came down from heaven.  But there are also wonderful contrasts to be seen in these shadows. Perhaps one of them can be seen in the verse above. It’s taken from the account of Absalom’s conspiracy against his father King David.  

As the strength of Absalom’s plot grows, David sees that his only recourse is to flee Jerusalem, “lest he overtake us quickly and bring down ruin on us and strike the city with the edge of the sword” (2 Samuel 15:4). And so David flees for his life, along with his household, his servants, and that portion of the army that had remained loyal to him.  It was the only way that David saw that he and they could be saved.  This reminds me of the King of the Jews who was also rejected by his own people, but rather than fleeing from them to save His life and the lives of His followers, He entered Jerusalem to die.  It was a moment that He had been heading toward from all eternity, and as the moment for the crucifixion approached, He set His face “like a flint” (Isaiah 50:7). “He set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).  He knew full well what awaited Him there, but He would not be dissuaded. He would meet His greatest enemy face to face.  

And as Jesus did this, what did His disciples do?  Unlike David’s household that remained true to Him, “all the disciples left him and fled” (Matthew 26:56). Peter openly denied Him. Judas betrayed Him.  And so, He faced His enemies alone.  Wonderfully, however, although all those who followed Him abandoned Him, He did not abandon them.  In the incredible plan of God, Jesus took with Him all who had ever before and would ever after place their faith in Him. They would all die WITH Him as He died FOR them as a sacrificial atonement on the cross.  Romans 6 speaks of it in the following way: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.  For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” 

It’s one of the most wonderful truths in all the Scriptures, that Jesus came to this earth to die with us, but more than that, to die FOR us, so that we would one day rise with Him to eternal life.  And so, we can say as we come face to face with death someday, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalm 23:4).  

Praise the King who set His face towards Jerusalem, and didn’t flee from death, but welcomed it.  And praise be to God for His wonderful plan that in that death we could by faith die with Him to then live with Him forevermore. It’s because He did not abandon us that we can now say, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

Praise the Lord!