To Encourage You

2 Samuel 15:30 “But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered. And all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went.”

Sin has consequences.  It’s a sobering but inescapable truth.  One place we see this is in the verse above.  It points to one of the lowest moments of King David’s life.  It’s taken from the account of Absalom’s conspiracy to usurp the throne of Israel from his own father.  There’s perhaps nothing more grievous to a father’s heart than a child that turns against him.  But added to this was David’s grief that much of this he had brought on himself because of his own sin.  God had told David that because of his sin regarding Bathsheba and her husband Uriah, He would “raise up evil against you out of your own house” (2 Samuel 12:11).  And so, David wept over the consequences of sin – his own sin and that of his family after him.  It was all such a tragedy. Such great sorrow over what could have been, if only he and his son had obeyed the Lord.

But David’s sin affected more than his own family. As king, it affected his entire kingdom.  We see this as all the people who were with him went into exile, mourning as they went.  We never sin in isolation.  David’s sin affected an entire nation.  And Adam’s sin affected us all.  Romans 5:12 talks about this in the following words: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” It’s such a tragedy, but the truth of it is evident to everyone who has ever lived. 

Which brings me to another King, a much greater Son of David than Absalom, i.e., our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  In the case of David, we see how a king’s sin affected an entire nation.  In the case of Jesus, we see how an entire world’s sin affected a King.  In the gracious mercy of God, Jesus died for OUR sin, not the other way around.  Further, again in God’s wonderful grace and mercy, “as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). In God’s marvelous plan, “For our sake he (i.e., God the Father) made him (i.e., God the Son) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

And then one more contrast between king David and the King of kings.  In the verse above we see that David and all who were with him were weeping.  They were weeping about the consequences of David’s and Absalom’s sins.  They were all experiencing the rejection of God’s anointed king as so many in Jerusalem turned against him.  And David had it coming to him.  It was judgment for his own sin.  But look again to the antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ. He too wept over Jerusalem as they rejected Him.  We are told about it in Luke 19:41-44 in the following words: “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.’” And then this from Luke 23:27-31, as Jesus is headed to his lowest moment on His way to the cross: “And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them Jesus said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!”Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us,” and to the hills, “Cover us.” For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?’”

And so we see in both cases that Jesus’ sorrow was over the refusal of those in His day to accept His sacrifice for their own sin.  It’s such a tragedy. It’s such a tragedy even now, that God should love sinners such as us, but that any of us would reject that love and walk away. 

Yes, Jesus, like David, wept.  But unlike David, his tears were not for His own sin. He had none.  No, His tears are for those who have in the past and continue to even now, reject Him.  It’s such a sad situation – and to think, what could have been.