To Encourage You

2 Samuel 20:1-2 “Now there happened to be there a worthless man, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite. And he blew the trumpet and said, ‘We have no portion in David, and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse; every man to his tents, O Israel!’ So all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri.”

In the account above, God is, in essence, calling a spade a spade when it says that the man Sheba was “a worthless man.”  Literally, it means “good for nothing.” I find it interesting that the name “Sheba” means “seven.” Throughout the Scriptures the number seven points to completeness or perfection. Perhaps there’s a play on words here that Sheba was completely, utterly, without question, worthless.  What an indictment proclaimed against this man by God’s Truth! 

So, what do we learn about this individual in the brief narrative we are given? For one, he literally is one who “blew his own horn,” as he blew a trumpet to draw attention far and wide to what he was about to say.  That should caution us from giving attention to the loudest voice in the crowd, the one that so many people may be listening to, for the words that were about to come from this worthless man were, obviously, utterly worthless, no matter how loudly they were spoken. 

So, what did Sheba actually say?  Well, if we go back to the preceding chapter in 2 Samuel, we find that he was taking advantage of a dispute within the nation. The ten tribes that made up the majority of the nation of Israel were jealous and felt slighted by the actions of the tribe of Judah, which was David’s tribe, relative to David’s restoration to the throne.  Judah, at David’s urging, had taken a central role in restoring him to the throne following the defeat of Absalom’s revolt. And so Sheba pours gas on the fire with the words, “We have no portion in David, and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.”  He was telling the nation that there was nothing for them in serving David. There was no future for them in it. There would be no benefit.  He was urging them to turn against him, for that would be so much better for them in the end. 

Of course, the opposite was the truth, for David was God’s anointed king.  To rebel against the chosen one of God is never a good thing. In fact, it’s the worst thing that anyone can possibly ever do.  And, to make a long story short, Sheba found this to be exactly the case when he was killed a very short time later.  But what is perhaps more disturbing than what happened to Sheba was that so many in the nation followed him.  We are told that “all the men of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba.”  In other words, the vast majority of those in Israel followed the worthless counsel of an utterly worthless man.  How in the world could they do this?  And are people doing similar things today? 

The answer is, “of course they are!”  So many times, people are drawn to the loudest voice, the most popular message of the day, the next best thing that comes along, although history and God’s Word would both call us to have great discernment about such things.   You can be certain that when such voices would call us to a way of rebellion, not against David, as Sheba did, but against the Son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, those voices are utterly and completely worthless and to follow their ways is a certain dead end.  Jesus warned us about this with the following words: “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14).  And so we find that whenever “everybody’s doing it,” “doing it” is often the complete and utter opposite of what they should be doing, for righteousness is never determined by a popular vote.  And it’s always been that way. It was during the early history of man on earth that the Bible tells us that “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).  Because of this, God sent judgment in the form of worldwide flood. And although Noah preached year after year that destruction was coming, only eight people in all the earth believed his message and were saved. As Jesus looked to the future, He pointed people back to that time with the following words: “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:37-39).

And so if we’re listening to voices that tell us that there’s just no future in following the Son of David, we can be certain that those voices are just as worthless as the voice of Sheba who loudly proclaimed to all Israel that there was no future in following David.  It was with worthless words that Sheba sealed his own fate. May the Lord keep us from following the worthless words of the worthless ones who would mock the soon return of the mighty King of kings.