2 Samuel chapter number 20, the Bible says in verse number 1,
And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichrai,
a Benjamite.
And he blew a trumpet and said, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance
in the son of Jesse.
Every man to his tent, O Israel.
Now just to give you the context of this verse, if you remember at the end of the
last chapter, there was this dispute between the men of Judah and the rest of the men
of Israel.
David is being reinstated as king.
Absalom had rebelled against his father, had taken over the kingdom, David had to flee
Jerusalem and go to the wilderness, regroup with all his allies, and then he fought
back and won the kingdom back for himself, defeated Absalom, and now there's a question
of bringing him back and reinstalling him as king, putting him back in charge of the
nation.
And there arises this dispute in chapter number 19, where the men of Judah want to be the
first ones to bring him back, and then the rest of the men of Israel are saying, Well
we have 10 parts in the king.
And other people are saying, Well no, he's more closely related to us because we're
of Judah.
And so what they say here in verse number 1, and this son of Belial is this one who
puts it into their head, this Sheba, he says, We have no part in David.
It's funny, a minute ago they're saying, We have 10 parts in the king, you know.
And now they're saying, Well we have no part in David, neither do we have any inheritance
in the son of Jesse.
Every man to his tent, so is real.
And last week I talked about just how stupid it is to basically get into this kind of
hero worship, sycophancy would be the big long word for it, where people get
so obsessed with personalities, and this is known as a cult of personality, where
basically people will worship a human being.
And you see this a lot with rock stars, you see this a lot with actors, or the royal
family over in England, where people become fixated on what they're wearing, everything
that they do in their life.
They put up all kinds of posters of them, and just get real sick in their admiration
where they go too far of lifting up a human being.
And this can even happen with pastors, religious leaders, the pope for example, you know, kissing
his big toe and whatever.
So what we see here though is interesting, because the people who are very sycophantic
like this, and that are just over the top of just the fan club, and hey, we want
to be the ones who get to stand the closest to David and bring him in, are the ones
that will turn on people and hate them, okay?
And it's funny because we've had some weirdos in our church before, over the years of course,
and you know what, every church has weirdos.
You know, somebody said to me recently, you know, why does your church attract weirdos?
But here's the thing though, there are less weirdos in this church than any church
I've ever been in.
This is like the most normal church I've ever gone to, just as far as just nice normal
people.
But here's the thing, every church has weirdos in it.
And our church is no exception, okay?
But here's the thing, there have been some real weirdos in our church in the past,
and I remember there were these one people who were just way over the top in thinking
that I was just the greatest pastor in the world, and just lavishing me with way
too much praise, and to the point where it made me uncomfortable, like whoa, what's
going on here?
You guys are just over the top, just you're the greatest Christian in the world, you're
like a dad to me, you're the, it's just like no, you know?
So people get over the top, you know, in exalting a human being, and it isn't right.
But it's funny because then those same people, you know, turned on me and hated me and
blasted me and criticized me, it's like what in the world?
So I went from being the greatest thing to sliced bread to just being the worst
preacher at phony, you know?
But that's how it is with people.
And you know what it reminds me of?
In the book of Acts, when they're going to worship Paul and Barnabas, and they
start bringing out garlands, and they're going to offer sacrifices unto them, and
they're worshipping them as gods, saying that they're Jupiter and Mercury, and then
literally a couple verses later, they're trying to kill him.
It's like what in the world?
So beware of people that are, you know, basically sycophantic, lavishing, too much flattery.
That's what the Bible uses that word, and there's a ton of warnings about people
who flatter you, where they give you compliments that are inappropriate, where they're giving
you over the top compliments that aren't really true, because those people are often setting
a trap for you, according to Proverbs, and those are the same people that will
then turn on you, okay?
So here, these men are pretending, oh, we just really love David so much that we want
to be the first ones to bring him in, but then these same people turn around and
say, well, we have no part in him, to your tent, so is real.
So these people are a fraud.
And when we talked about last week, too, the fact that it's not really about personalities,
it's about having a godly leader versus having a son, Abel, leading you.
It's not that David is just such a cool guy and we just love his hair, we love his clothes,
he's got this great style, no, it's about the fact that he loves the Lord, he's worshiping
the Lord, he's leading the country in a godly way, he's leading them to follow
God's laws, to have the tabernacle, to respect the Ark of the Covenant, to keep
the pastor, you know, he's doing all these things that are godly.
That's why we want him as king, not because it's just this cult around this personality
of David.
And so it's really a choice between a man of God and a man of Belial.
So we see here that they just turn on him and say, well, we have no part in you, and
they all go to their tents.
Only Judah sticks with them, the rest of the tribes are scattered.
Because remember, they'd already rebelled once with Absalom, so now, just when you
think it's over, they've had this bloodbath of a civil war, and just when it's all over,
now this guy Sheba comes in, and he's going to now be the next Absalom, just right back
to back, and create more bloodshed, more harm.
Now, just to give you an idea of what's going on here, if you remember, Ahithophel
had given solid advice to Absalom and said, look, if you want to defeat David, you
got to just pursue him right away.
And then remember, he got the bad advice from Cushai that said, oh, just wait and
gather all Israel, and then do it.
And that allowed David to win.
Well David is smarter than that, he's not going to make that mistake.
So David wants to pursue after this Sheba guy right away.
He wants to nip this in the bud before Sheba gets too much power, and there's another
big war, another big bloodbath.
He wants to avoid all that.
So here's what he does.
Look what the Bible says in verse number, well first I'll read verse 2.
But every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichrai,
but the men of Judah clave unto their king from Jordan, even to Jerusalem.
And David came to his house at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women, his concubines,
whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went
not in unto them, so they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.
If you remember, Absalom had committed wickedness by going in unto his father's concubines,
to basically make himself to stink in the eyes of David, just in order to just make
a show of arrogance, and just to show everybody that he wasn't afraid of David, and to get
them all just hardened in their resolve.
So David basically, now that his son has been with these women, you know, he doesn't
want anything to do with these women anymore in that way, so he just basically pays
for them to be maintained, but he never goes in unto them again, meaning he doesn't
have a physical relationship with them ever again.
It says in verse 4, then said the king to Amasa, assemble me the men of Judah within
three days, and be thou here present.
So he's saying, look, we need to hurry up, you got three days, get everybody assembled,
let's get this done.
And David, or verse 5 says, so Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah, but he tarried
longer than the set time which he had appointed him.
So he told him, look, you have to do this within three days.
Three days roll around, and Amasa's just not back yet.
So David says, in verse number 6, to Abishai, now shall Sheba the son of Bichrai do us more
harm than did Absalom.
Take thou thy Lord's servants and pursue after him, lest he get in fenced cities and
escape us.
So he's saying, look, we can't wait for Amasa, we need to just get this done, we're
going to go after him and pursue him right now.
It says in verse 7, and there went out after him Joab's men and the Carathites
and the Pelethites and all the mighty men, and they went out of Jerusalem to pursue
after Sheba the son of Bichrai.
Then they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa went before them, and Joab's
garment that he had put on was girded unto him, and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened
upon his loins in the sheath thereof, and as he went forth it fell out.
And Joab said to Amasa, art thou in health my brother?
And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him, but Amasa took
no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand, so he smote him therewith in the fifth
rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again, and he died.
So Joab and Abishai, his brother, pursued after Sheba the son of Bichrai.
So Abishai is leading the troops, Joab joins in, and then finally Amasa shows up late,
and he comes and he takes over leadership, because he was supposed to be the captain
of the host.
They had left without him because he was late.
But Joab doesn't like Amasa, Joab likes to be the captain of the host, he didn't
like being replaced by this guy Amasa, and Amasa had gone with Absalom, and if you remember
David, in order to make peace, had forgiven Amasa, and given him his position back.
But Joab just decides he's going to murder him in cold blood, and that's what this
is, I mean he just murders him in cold blood.
This isn't a fair fight or anything, basically he has a sword in the sheath, and basically
his sword falls out, he leans forward and his sword falls out, and he reaches down
to pick it up, oh whoops dropped my sword, you know, and kills him.
So that's basically what he does, and he greets him with a friendly greeting, aren't
thou in health my brother?
Acts like he's going to kiss him, and then actually stabs him with the sword.
Now when it says to kiss him, obviously in biblical times kissing was a greeting,
this isn't like a kiss on the mouth obviously.
You know, it'll even say in the New Testament, you know, greet all the brethren with a
holy kiss.
The only person who has ever greeted me this way is my father-in-law, because my father-in-law
is from Hungary, so when I meet him he'll be, you know, kiss you on the cheeks, because
that's the greeting.
In America we're like, whoa, that's way too personal, you know.
We need our space, you know.
I like the verse where it says they gave them the right hand of fellowship, you know,
that's the verse that I'd like to focus on.
But you know, the only person who greets me that way is my father-in-law, greets
me that way, because he's from that culture, you know, the more eastern culture, a little
bit different.
So, we're not comfortable with that in America.
But anyway, so he's acting like he's just giving him a greeting, it's like what
Judas did, you know, Judas did what?
Betrayed the son of man with a kiss, you know, he gives him the kiss, and then of
course he's taken off to be arrested and then killed.
But the Bible says here, you know, that he basically murdered him in cold blood when
you read this.
And of course Joab is going to suffer for this very soon actually, because this is toward
the very end of David's reign, and when Solomon takes power, Solomon is going to have Joab
executed for these murders that he's committed.
So Joab's going to be executed himself very soon by Solomon.
But it says that he smote him under the fifth rib, he killed him, etc.
But look at verse number 11, because it said at the end of verse 10 that Joab and
Abishai, his brother, pursued after Sheba the son of Bichrai.
And one of Joab's men stood by him and said, he that favoreth Joab, and he that is
for David, let him go after Joab.
So basically, Joab and Abishai, they go after Sheba the son of Bichrai with all
the elite troops, the Karathites, the Pelethites, the mighty men.
But if you remember, Emesa had still been trying to rally the rest of Judah.
So as men from Judah show up, there's a servant that's left there by Emesa's dead body to
let people know, hey everybody, you know, they went that way.
You know, if you're here to fight and to follow Joab and David and everything,
you know, you need to join the troops and go that way.
But look what the Bible says.
It says in verse 12, Emesa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway.
And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Emesa out of the highway
into the field.
So here's this guy just dead in the highway, or dying, rather, wallowing in his own blood.
And basically, they're just acting like he's not there.
Hey, all right, you know, we're going to go fight the enemy.
And everybody's just standing there like, what in the world?
This guy is wallowing in the middle.
You know, they're just standing there speechless.
They can't believe just how cold they are to just, here's a guy wallowing in the middle
of the road, and you're just acting like he's not here, saying, oh, yeah, let's go
fight the battle.
Let's go do this.
Just like ignoring it.
So then once they realize that, they're like, hey, we need to get this body and
hide the body.
So then they drag him out of the road and, you know, off into the field so that
people can, you know, walk down the road without having to see that body.
And, you know, we should never get desensitized to this kind of violence.
And unfortunately, because of the movie industry and the video game industry and things,
people are being desensitized to violence, and it isn't right.
You know, we shouldn't just be able to just ignore a guy who's just, you know,
wallowing in blood and just, it doesn't affect us.
And be that cold and heartless.
And you know, the Bible says that him, you know, the Bible says the Lord trieth the
righteous but the wicked and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth.
You know, we should not love or enjoy violence.
And we should not become one who just glorifies any kind of killing or any kind of brutality.
But often, you know, people do.
And they justify it like, killing the bad guys.
You know, but sometimes the bad guys aren't as bad as they're made out to be.
And basically, we just glorify a lot of killing and violence and, you know, we should
have great respect.
As Bible-believing Christians, we should have great respect for human life.
And we should be respectful of, you know, people's lives and not just look aside as someone
is brutally murdered.
And obviously, in our society, babies are killed every day in an abortion clinic and
people don't really think about it.
You know, they kind of put it off in the field, don't want to look at it, don't
really want to talk about it.
But it's still there.
Just because you move the guy to the field, he's still wallowing in blood.
There's a lot of innocent blood that is shed in this country.
And God sees it and the cry of the blood, just like the cry of Abel's blood, cried
out from the ground.
And God heard the voice of Abel's blood crying from the ground.
You know, God hears the cries of the unborn that are being killed.
And anyone else who's innocent, who's killed in the name of whatever, you know, innocent
people that are killed.
And you know, the military, these guys are military guys.
I mean, these are soldiers, right?
You know, does that make it right for them to kill a guy who's coming to get a greeting?
Hey, art thou in health, my brother?
And then stab him?
I mean, is that really the right way to fight a war, according to the Bible?
Is that honorable in any way, shape, or form?
You know, the Bible teaches that, you know, women and children should not just be slaughtered
indiscriminately in battle.
And John the Baptist told the Roman soldiers of his day, he said, do no violence to
any man and be content with your wages.
Obviously, if they're a soldier, and he's telling them to be content with their wages,
he's not telling them not to fight necessarily.
He's telling them don't do any violence, because there is a tendency sometimes for
soldiers to commit violence, which, if you look at the word violence, the first four
letters there show you that it's related to the word violate, okay?
So violence is not legitimate harming of someone.
It's an illegitimate harming of someone, okay?
For example, some people would say a boxing match is violent.
It's not violent because it's just a consensual, it's a sport, it's a game, it's practice,
whatever.
Where, and honestly, if someone were to break into your house, and you were to defend
yourself and kill them, you know, that's not violence either, because you're just
defending yourself, okay?
If you were to fight in a defensive war where basically you're being invaded and
you're, you know, fighting back the enemy, that would not be violent, because you're
not violating anybody, you're not harming anyone illegitimately.
But if you go to a war zone or a battlefield and instead of, you know, killing the enemy
combatants, you're actually killing, you know, women and children?
That isn't right.
And people today will justify it and consider it okay to basically just assassinate people
like this, assassination, assassinate people, kill men, women, and children, you know, kill
people in their beds and in their homes, but, you know, that doesn't make it right.
And so we should never be desensitized to these things and just get to where we're
just cold to it and we don't care and, well, so what, can't make an omelet without
breaking a few eggs, oh, so what, a hundred, a hundred civilians died, well, whatever,
you know, we ought to care about stuff like that, it ought to matter to us.
And it ought to matter to us that the unborn are being slaughtered.
And so we see here people who are expected to just ignore a guy who's wallowing in his
own blood and, of course, they don't, you know, and we should not be desensitized to
that either.
So when he was removed out of the highway, verse 13, all the people went on after
Joab to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichrai.
And he went through all the tribes of Israel unto Abel and to Bethmaica and all the
Beerites and they were gathered together and went also after him.
And they came and besieged him and Abel of Bethmaica and they cast up a bank against
the city and it stood in the trench and all the people that were with Joab battered
the wall to throw it down.
So Sheba the son of Bichrai, he's amassed a great following.
David's troops, led by Joab and Abishai, they basically get him cornered and they
get him locked up in this city, Abel of Bethmaica.
And he's in this walled city and it has defenses around it, but basically Joab and his
men are getting ready to assault the city.
So they're using, you know, tactics of trench warfare and basically they're
going to batter down the wall or the gate of the city.
And in the process of battering the wall to throw it down, it says in verse 16,
Then cried a wise woman out of the city, Here, here, say I pray you unto Joab,
Come near hither that I may speak with thee.
And when he was come near unto her, the woman said, Art thou Joab?
And he answered, I am he.
Then she said unto him, Hear the words of thine handmaid, and he answered, I do
hear.
Then she spake, saying, They will want to speak in old times, saying, They shall
surely ask counsel at Abel.
And so they ended the matter.
I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel.
Thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel.
Why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the Lord?
And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me that I should swallow up or
destroy.
The matter is not so, but a man of Mount Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichrai by name,
hath lifted up his hand against the king, even against David, deliver him only and
I will depart from the city.
And the woman said unto Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall.
Then the woman went unto all the people in her wisdom, and they cut off the head of
Sheba the son of Bichrai and cast it out to Joab, and he blew a trumpet, and they retired
from the city, every man to his tent, and Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king.
Now in the story here, the narrator of the Bible, that's the Holy Spirit talking,
is calling this woman a wise woman and saying that she went and talked to the people
in her wisdom.
And her solution is the right solution.
There's one guy who is, according to the Bible, a son of Belial, which is a son of
the devil.
That's what Belial means.
He's a wicked, reprobate, evil man.
Sheba the son of Bichrai.
This guy is worthy of death because he is committing treason, treachery.
He's going to create warfare where there should be peace.
He's going to create warfare that's going to slaughter all kinds of lives.
I mean, look how many people died in Absalom's rebellion.
Heaps upon heaps of men killed in that war.
And that's the same thing that's about to happen.
I mean, Joab and Abishai's troops are about to come bursting into the city and
what's going to happen?
A whole bunch of killing, a whole bunch of slaughter.
And so this woman wisely avoids the bloodshed, avoids the warfare and the fighting.
She says, look, I'm one of them that's peaceable and faithful in Israel.
She says, why are you destroying the city?
And they say, well, we don't want to destroy the city, we're just after this one guy.
And she says, okay, well, we're just going to take that one guy and kill him and
throw his head over the wall.
And that's what they do.
And everything's fine.
Look how many lives she saved here.
By just getting rid of the one bad guy and executing him for his crime, throw it over
the wall, and then basically everybody else can be spared.
I mean, this is really a great outcome.
Given the last couple chapters where there's all these people slaying each other in these
big wars, well, hey, at least here it's just one guy, the guilty party that's
killed, and everybody else is spared.
There are other stories like this.
For example, in the book of Judges, where at the end of the book of Judges there's
that story in chapter 19 about the Sodomites of Benjamin and how they committed these
horrible, filthy, wicked acts.
And the rest of Israel says to the Benjamites, they said, look, these men of Belial, and
that's what the Bible calls them, same thing, these reprobates, these homos have committed
this horrible, wicked act in Judges 19, and they said, deliver these men unto us so that
we can put them to death for having committed this rape and this murder, deliver them
unto us that they might be put to death.
And the men of Benjamin said, no, we're not going to deliver them unto you.
And so God actually instructed the men of Israel to go to war with Benjamin because
of the fact that God, you know, they kept seeking the Lord and saying, God, do you
want us to fight these people?
And they said, yes, you know, these men of Belial must be brought to justice.
And they end up going out to fight against them three different times.
And then finally they end up just practically wiping out the whole tribe of Benjamin.
And this is Benjamin again, you know, a lot of men of Belial amongst Benjamin, unfortunately,
but they ended up having this huge bloodbath, you know, 20 some thousand people
are killed, okay, because of the fact that they are just harboring these horrible criminals
from Judges chapter 19.
And you know, that's the principle throughout the Bible is that when, when people commit
wicked acts, they're supposed to be brought to justice for those wicked acts.
And if they're not brought to justice, then wrath comes upon everybody.
Wrath comes upon the whole congregation.
You know, you remember with Achan, God was wroth with the whole congregation.
And then once Achan was punished, then God turned away his wrath from them.
Also, you know, throughout the Bible we see examples, I mean there are all kinds of
examples of this, where basically, you know, one guy commits sin and he's harbored and
not punished, and then God's wrath comes upon all of them, and it's even explained
in the Mosaic law when he says, look, if somebody commits murder, you have to punish
that murderer in order to put away the innocent blood.
Otherwise, the whole land will be punished.
So when we just allow, you know, the slaughter of the unborn, for example, that's taking
place in the United States, if we just allow the worst kind of filth and sin to
go on in this country, and it's not punished, it actually brings a curse upon our whole
nation, just like it did to Benjamin.
Just like this town would have been destroyed, and it's not really the fault of most
of the people in that town, but they all would have been wiped out, the whole town
would have been broken down, people would have been killed.
So what I'm saying is that it's not smart for us as a nation and as a society
to protect and harbor the worst sons of Belial possible, because it's going to bring
God's wrath on all of us as a nation, we're all going to suffer, because when
God punishes those people, it's like we're all going to get punished, we're all
going to feel the punishment.
As Americans, you know, and honestly, there is a lot of violence and wickedness that
takes place in this country that goes unpunished, you know, for example, child molestation,
you know, and let me just be clear, anybody who molests a child should be put to death.
Anybody who would molest children, and you say, oh, you know, you can't reform
these people, they're reprobate, they're sons of Belial.
And it's been proven where they go to prison for a few years, they get out, they
do it again, they get out, they do it again, they go in there and they learn the tricks
from all the other ones in there, and then they come out and do it more.
And honestly, the Supreme Court just, I think, five years ago, they made a ruling that
no child molester can ever be put to death again in America.
Did you know that?
Because it used to be that they could be, you know, at least the worst child molesters
they would put to death.
But they said it's unconstitutional, you know, I don't know what part of the Constitution
that is, but they said it's unconstitutional to put a child molester to death.
So now, if a lower court said, hey, let's put this, you know, child molester to death,
it's like, well, you can't, because the Supreme Court has ruled that only murderers
can be put to death.
You know, being a child molester is worse than being a murderer.
It's just as bad.
I mean, it's horrific.
It's so wicked.
But because this abomination is allowed to go on, and I'm sorry, if somebody molests
kids and then they go to prison for three or four years and then they're released,
I mean, that's tolerating it.
Because you're not giving the biblical punishment.
You're basically just, you know, giving a slap on the wrist.
That's not going to turn away God's wrath.
And you know, when people commit cold-blooded first-degree murder and they're not put to
death as the Bible said in Genesis and all throughout, you know, that brings God's
wrath on everybody.
Everybody ends up suffering.
Our whole country goes down the toilet.
And that's what we see happening to our country.
The blessing of God is not upon our country because of the fact that all these wicked
crimes are allowed to go on unpunished.
And that's what we see.
So if we were smart as a society, we'd say, wait a minute, we need to remove this wickedness.
You know, when we see violent crime going on, when we see cold-blooded murder, rape
and molestation, you know, these people need to be put to death so that God's wrath
would be turned away.
You know, better to throw that child molester's head over the wall, as it were, than for
the whole city to get broken down.
And that's what's being taught here.
God's showing us a positive gift.
And another thing we can learn from this story, not only just the fact that, you know,
one person's sin can bring God's wrath on a group, that's true, but not only that,
but we see here that if we're going to be wise, we should seek for peace and not
be one who goes out looking for war, looking for strife, looking for, you know, physical
violence.
And, you know, if we can, we should try to avoid fighting whenever we can.
And that's what this woman's trying to do, she's trying to avoid bloodshed.
Some people who are desensitized to bloodshed have this mentality that says, hey, kill them
all, let God sort them out.
Yeah, let's bomb them into the stone ages.
Let's just kill every Muslim or whatever, you know, this is the way some people think.
We got to wipe out Iran, we got to wipe out, you know, and they basically just want
to just kill the innocent with the wicked, they just want to slay everybody.
But, you know, we need to be more of a peacemaker and try to find solutions to the problem
without just, you know, killing everybody and wiping everybody out.
Now another thing I want to point out is that this wise woman, it's interesting that
it's a woman here who solved this problem and who has this wisdom.
Actually in the Bible, wisdom is associated with a woman or actually personified as a
woman.
Go to the book of Proverbs, and this happens a lot in Proverbs where a woman represents
wisdom.
Now, women often have great wisdom.
Women often have wisdom in certain areas, and they often have a feminine intuition,
and they have certain problem solving skills sometimes that are different than men.
And there's nothing wrong with listening to a woman for advice.
If a woman has wise advice, there's nothing wrong with taking that advice, okay.
Now obviously the Bible very clearly teaches that men should be in authority.
There's no question about that.
In the church, the Bible teaches that men are to be in authority in the church, and
it's to be run by men.
The Bible also teaches that the family is to be run by the man.
The husband is the head of the wife, the father is the head of the home, he's the
king of the castle, etc.
The Bible also teaches that nations should be run by men, and that it is the curse
of God when women and children rule over them.
But that being said, that doesn't mean that women don't have wisdom.
You see, it's not that women shouldn't lead because they're not wise.
It's not that women are foolish, and that's why they can't lead.
And a lot of people will make an argument that women should be in charge in the home
or in the church.
They'll say, well hey, sometimes the woman has more wisdom.
Have you heard that before?
Hey, sometimes the woman might be smarter, or the woman might have more wisdom.
So maybe it's better in some cases if the woman leads in the home, or the woman leads
in the church.
And they'll point to a specific situation perhaps where the woman in fact is smarter.
Because let's face it, obviously there are women in this world who are smarter than
some men in this world.
And there could be a situation where a man and woman are married, and the woman happens
to be smarter than the man.
Not in my case, or any of you guys or anything, you know, I'm just saying it's
got to be out there, right?
No, I'm just kidding.
But I'm just saying, obviously women are intelligent.
I mean who here thinks that women are just stupid, and they just don't know anything?
I mean that's ridiculous.
Obviously women have just as much capacity for intelligence as men.
And that's not the reason why women are supposed to obey their husbands.
It's not because they're not smart.
It's not because they don't have wisdom.
It's simply because that is the authority structure that God has announced.
And you know, God tells us that the husband is the head of the wife, and that the wives
are to obey their husbands in all things.
Case closed, end of story.
Why?
Well why Pastor Anderson?
Because God said so.
And that's all we need.
It's not because women aren't smart, okay?
It's because God said so, that's why.
You say, well but why?
Shut up and do what you're told.
He's God.
He created the whole world.
How can you sit there and say, well but why, why, why?
Well here's the thing.
I can think of reasons why.
I can tell you reasons why.
But whether you know the reason why or not, if the Bible says it, and you're a Bible
believing Christian, isn't that the end of it right there?
Done.
I mean if he says the husband's the head of the wife, and the wives are supposed to
submit and obey their husbands.
You know, part of it is symbolic of the relationship between Christ and the church.
And there are a lot of reasons why.
A big reason why is that you can only have one leader.
Somebody's got to be in charge.
Because if you have a two-headed monster, you know, it's not going to work.
Because you know, you can't have two people that are both the boss.
Because what happens when those two people don't agree?
Then there's going to be all kinds of fighting and strife.
So God has chosen to put one person in charge, the husband.
And the wife is to submit unto him and to obey him.
But I will say this, women often have a lot of wisdom.
And perhaps in certain areas, the husband might have more wisdom.
And then in other areas, the wife might have more wisdom.
So there's nothing wrong with a husband who listens to his wife's wisdom, and gets
input from his wife, and acts upon that wisdom.
Just like Joab, at least, is listening to this wise woman.
What she says is right, and he hearkens unto it.
Now does that mean that Joab is not the boss?
Or if a husband listens to his wife's advice, does that mean that he's no longer
the boss?
No, not at all.
But the problem that we have in many cases is that often there's a power struggle going
on in the marriage, where there's a constant battle where the woman is constantly getting
out of her role, and trying to usurp the authority in that home, and trying to
wear the pants in the family and be the boss.
So the husband is constantly having to defend his authority, because she's constantly
trying to usurp that authority.
And then what happens is, the husband doesn't want to take any advice from his wife, because
his authority is already in danger, it's already being threatened.
Whereas if the wife obeys her husband, as God has commanded, then the husband is
going to feel more comfortable asking his wife, not all the time, like, what do I do,
what do I do, like you're just an inept fool, but at times getting his wife's advice,
or his wife's volunteering advice, and him saying, hey, you know what, that's a
great point, that's a good idea, we're going to do it that way.
Because his authority is not being threatened.
Now a lot of people will say, well, you know, if you feel secure, if you were secure in
your authority, then, you know, you'd be able to take advice, but here's the thing.
Being secure in your authority isn't just a feeling, you'd have to actually be an authority.
I mean, the world wants us to feel secure in our position, and have no authority, and
just be secure feeling that way.
Well it's like, no, you have to have the authority to feel secure in your role
as husband.
So, here's the thing, ladies, if you want your husband, you know, to listen to you
more or take your advice, you know, first you've got to show him that he's in charge,
and that you respect his authority.
And say, you know what, honey, you're the boss, you're in charge, you know, here's
what I think we should do, here's why I think we should do it, but you know what,
in the end, whatever you decide to do, you're the boss.
Now here's the thing, if you said that to your husband, obviously a godly, righteous
husband is going to hear that, and he's going to be thankful to God that his wife is submissive
unto him, and biblical in her obedience, and then he's not going to feel threatened,
he's not going to feel like, well if I follow her advice, she's going to think
she's in charge.
And then he has to push back.
So you can really have a harmonious marriage, folks, if people would just get in their
proper biblical roles.
You can have a harmonious marriage, and then we can put our heads together, as it were,
and get the best of both worlds, where the husband is leading and he's competent,
but if the wife sees something that he doesn't see, she can bring it up, and he can take
that suggestion without feeling threatened.
So it's very important not to just downgrade women and just think of them as, they don't
know what to do, they don't know it, what do they know?
You know, there's nothing wrong with listening to what a woman has to say, but that doesn't
mean that women should be in authority, so see how those two things could actually go
together?
The woman not being in authority, but she could still speak her mind and be heard
and perhaps follow, but at the same time, the husband should always have the right
to say, hey, we're not going to do it that way, I don't see it that way.
And sometimes husbands are going to make wrong decisions, but what do I do, I can't trust
my husband to lead, because what if he messes up?
What if your husband messes up?
So what?
God's going to bless you for obeying.
God's going to bless you as the wife for doing what's right, if your husband messes
up.
So you can't just feel like you have to step in and fix everything.
And you know what, sometimes it's good for men to mess up, because sometimes it's
God's will for us to, you know, learn from our mistakes.
Sometimes people have to make mistakes in order to learn from them the hard way.
And maybe God's doing something in your husband's life or whatever.
So you know, just trust in the Lord.
Do what the Bible says, respect your husband's authority, give him the advice, but then
say, hey, whatever you choose to do though, I'm going to follow you because, you know,
you're in that position of authority that God gave you.
Okay.
So look at the Bible here, what the Bible teaches about wisdom.
And it's interesting that wisdom is often personified as a woman, because there are
a lot of wise women in the Bible and just like the one we just saw.
It says in verse one of chapter eight, doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth
her voice.
She standeth in the top of high places by the way, in the places of the paths.
She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.
Unto you, O man, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men.
O ye simple, understand wisdom, and ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.
Here for I will speak of excellent things, and the opening of my lips shall be right
things.
For my mouth shall speak truth, and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
All the words of my mouth are in righteousness.
There's nothing froward or perverse in them.
They're all plain to him that understandeth, and write to them that find knowledge.
Receive my instruction, not silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is
better than rubies.
Understand all the things that may be desired, or not to be compared to it.
Look at chapter nine, same thing in verse one.
Wisdom hath builded her house.
She hath hewn out her seven pillars.
She hath killed her beasts.
She hath mingled her wine.
She hath also furnished her table.
She hath sent forth her maidens.
She crieth upon the high places of the city.
Whoso is simple, let him turn and hither.
As for him that wanteth understanding, she sayeth to him, Come, eat of my bread, and
drink of the wine which I have mingled.
Forsake the foolish, and live, and go in the way of understanding.
He that reproveth a scorner, get it to himself shame, and he that rebuketh a wicked
man getth himself a blot.
Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee.
Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.
So basically wisdom personified as a woman that's crying out and saying to the simple
ones, to the fools, to the ignorant, to those that lack understanding, and saying
to them, Turn in hither.
Learn something.
Let me show you something.
And basically she says to them, that basically a wise man, when he's rebuked, will love
you.
If you rebuke a wise man, he'll love you.
Why?
Because a wise man wants to be corrected when he's wrong.
And he wants somebody to point out his mistakes so that he can fix them.
But a fool hates being reproved or rebuked.
So often they'll, their error, when it's pointed out, they just get defensive instead
of saying, Oh, you know what?
You're right.
I'm wrong.
I made a mistake.
They get real defensive and want to just, you know, kill the messenger, as it were,
who tells them that they're wrong.
And listen to me, there are many people in this world who are simple and people
who lack understanding and who lack knowledge.
Now in 2 Samuel, these are the type of people that are following the Sheba's and the Absalom's
of this world.
I don't know if you remember this, but back in chapter 15, it said in verse 11,
you don't have to turn there.
It says, and with Absalom went 200 men out of Jerusalem that were called and they
went in their simplicity and they knew not anything.
So what does the Bible say about the people that are following Absalom?
He says they went in their simplicity and they didn't know anything.
So is it saying that they were evil people?
No, it's just saying that they're stupid.
They were simple.
They're ignorant.
They don't know anything.
They lack understanding.
And so they end up following wicked people.
They follow Absalom.
They follow Sheba, the son of Bichrai, because they lack understanding, because they lack
knowledge, because they lack wisdom.
And they are able to be led astray very easily.
And that's why the Bible is constantly admonishing us to gain knowledge, to gain wisdom and
understanding.
And in Proverbs, God is begging people to get some knowledge and wisdom and understanding.
This woman's voice that's used just as a picture, sort of like this woman that was
in 2 Samuel who represented the voice of reason, who's saying, why are we killing
all these people?
Why don't we kill the one bad guy and fix everything?
Wisdom is crying out and just begging people to increase their learning, you know, and
just to get some wisdom, get some knowledge, get some understanding.
And you know what?
We live in a day where people are way too ignorant.
And let me tell you something.
I believe that there's an agenda to dumb down America because the Shebas and the
Absaloms of this world, the sons of Belial that are running our country want to be able
to lead you astray.
And so there's a dumbing down of our nation.
And basically people don't know anything.
People are simple.
People lack understanding and therefore they're easily manipulated, easily led astray.
The word that we would use is gullible.
And I've often said to people, hey, did you know that the word gullible is not even in
the dictionary?
And they say, really?
I say, I just proved how gullible you are because it is in the dictionary.
That's just a joke.
But the bottom line is that people today are gullible because they are simple and
because they're ignorant.
And so it's easy to lead them astray.
It's easy to teach them false things.
Go to Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians chapter number 4.
Now the reason why it's so important to have knowledge is because God said that it
needs to be striven for more than for gold and silver.
It's going to give you length of days.
It's going to give you prosperity.
It's going to cause you to depart from evil and save yourself all kinds of pain
and suffering in this world the smarter you are.
Now a lot of people, you know, they think that it doesn't matter how smart you are.
Well, I'm just a simple old country boy and I, you know, get, no, get smarter.
Some people glorify being dumb, seriously.
You know, be a country boy, but be a smart country boy.
And you know what?
The Bible commands us to learn.
The Bible says a wise man will hear and will increase learning.
And it says fools despise wisdom and instruction.
They don't want to be taught it.
They don't want to learn.
They want to continue being ignorant.
And the Bible says that foolishness is one of the evil things that comes out of
the heart of man.
And what's foolishness?
The opposite of wisdom, isn't it?
And the Bible says, hey, you need to get knowledge.
You need to get understanding.
You need to get wisdom.
You need to get smart.
Don't be a fool.
Don't be ignorant.
Why?
Because you'll be easily led astray.
That's why.
And the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 13, till we all come in the unity
of the faith, watch this, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect
man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we henceforth
be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine
by the sleight of man and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
Look, there are plenty of people out there that are ready to deceive you.
The she-buzz, the abso-lums, cunning craftiness.
They're going to teach you false doctrine.
They're going to lead you astray.
And he says, don't be a child.
Grow in knowledge.
Don't be fooled.