Ep 1249 | The Robertsons Confront the Myth That Forgiveness Erases Consequences

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to the Unashamed Podcast Hillsdale Friday episode. We're going through the study of David and it's been an emotional roller coaster guys. I don't know how y'all are holding up with everything that we've been talking about. We're still here. I know you had to put your glasses on to see but this is our last episode in the life of David and so I have completed my course, the David story, Shepherd Father and King. I printed it all for you to be able to see. This is my sheepskin. It's a certificate. It's my certificate. Racking up accolades boys. My third one from Hillsdale. I'm very proud of this moment. How much did you pay for it? How much it cost you now? It was completely free Zach. Completely free. It was free but I have been super blessed by the discussion. If you are listening, we're going to do the last two episodes. That's why I said his certificate from the last episode. This is seven and eight of the David series. It's been really good and I feel like we just need to dive in because we kind of left off at this kind of guilt ridden David because now his children are beginning to follow in his footsteps and so we have a son raping a daughter who now is going to be vindicated with vengeance by Absalon which is this going to send him down this spiral which is again going to cause more angst to this family. I like you asked the question when you were at the end of the last podcast about the power guilt and it made me think about because we've been talking about like dad and they're the blind we talked about that might loosen my movie we're working on but I thought about this with dad. Dad understood healing. Same thing from Psalm 51. He embraced that understood that he left that life he was in although there was 10 years there but there were consequences that still would play itself out over the course of his whole life. Our whole lives us having things we had to deal with as part of the reason I was a prodigal and what dad's fault I made my own decisions but you can't live life like outside of the vacuum of a family. You know when things bad things happen you have to deal with it but you know 44 years go by and then dad finds out he has a daughter because Phyllis was just here this week this week staying with us and so last night we had some people over and Tony Phyllis were there and so we were telling this couple who had not heard their story. I was telling the story of how she discovered us and all this but I thought about it dad had to relive the last few years of his life a lot of guilt because here's this daughter he never knew he had and she didn't grow up knowing her dad and she desperately wanted to know who her dad was and so the last five years of his life she lived here to try to have a relationship with that and they did they bonded it was great but I saw dad deal with some guilt stuff that he hadn't dealt with in many many years and so it just gave me a picture here because we talk about how that David was so changed by the you know affair and the murder and the death of the child and now it's almost like he's kind of vapor locked and not being able to deal with his kids because he handles everything badly you know like in terms of as they spiral out of control he just he doesn't have it in him to be the old David so there is there is something about even redeemed that consequence and guilt will always play a role you just have to let it not cap it lingers it lingers but I think you know with Phil stories interesting because that that when Phyllis came to light you know we found out about Phyllis I remember when you were up here in Black Mountain and show we were sitting at dinner and you told me about the whole thing and show me the envelope and I was like oh this is something real but that coincided with us writing the story The Blind and so he was also reliving it three literally like the interviews you know I was doing and and I think that when you watch The Blind because I mean David's story is I mean Phil I mean he's they were all David that's the thing right but David's story where is the man here's you are the man I think just kind of recapping that like David's story and it just collapses in on itself it really does it it collapses in on itself but the story of God's covenant faithfulness does not collapse and that is the promise of the second Samuel 7 identifies when it says that you know I'm not you're not going to build me a house I'm going to build you a house but that the filament was not found in David it was found in Solomon I'm sorry I'm sorry that fulfillment was that fulfillment was not found in David it was not found in Solomon it was ultimately found in Jesus the true shepherd king who never ever abdicates his responsibility who never ever misuses power and so when you look at David because Jesus was in the line of David but David took a woman well Jesus gives himself for his bride where David killed to hide hide his sin Jesus dies to forgive sin and where David build his house Jesus is in that building an eternal house in the fact that he will be the cornerstone of a new temple so all of this this whole guilt stuff it's real it's there and I tell people just because you're done with sin doesn't mean sin's done with you we may have earthly consequences of the life that we used to live the thing that we're repenting from but ultimately you may deal with that the rest of your life but here's the promise ultimately in Christ all things will be made new all things will be made right in Jesus it will all be fulfilled and so that is the tension of kind of that not yet now Keenan that we talk about a lot we're sitting in this but that guilt I mean it may linger for a while it may pop its head back up when you're 75 years old and want to make a movie and find out you have a daughter you didn't know about it may rear as ugly head again and I think that's part of the point that going forward that we see so just to continue the narrative of the story Amnon who has now raped the sister and and cast her out and just and demeaned her and treated her terribly she goes to her brother Absalom and tells him what happens he says put it out of your heart memories just like don't worry about it and he knows then he's going to do something about it oh yeah you know he knows in his heart right there he's like I will he he decides that he doesn't kill him on yeah he's going to kill him and it takes what is it two years yeah that go by and he's still harping this so think about what a two years that was right and then he and then he once again David gets used as the messenger to lure now the brother out and all the other sons as well into a setting where Absalom is going to get his revenge and he's going to murder his his brother so now we're second generation murder in this family because now they're killing each other raping each other I mean so now we see it reminds me Zach of the garden where you have the fall and then you get to Genesis four and the fall has just happened but we only go one chapter and we got sons murdering each other and then two chapters later we got every person on the earth at that thinking violence and wickedness I mean just that progress it got it got evil in a hurry I don't think we realize how evil it got but yeah good point exactly and so that's what you see here and I think every step of the way everything that happens David now as a father is watching the failures but also as a king he's seeing failure as well and he's just he's just ignoring it basically he provides no justice for the rape and now he provides no justice for the murder it's just like we just won't talk about it well and that's such a point whereas David kind of just like gives up and that's what I said in the last episode he God forgives him and that's like David goes to God asks for forgiveness and Nathan confirms like there will be these consequences but you're forgiven and David doesn't really accept that like he he feels all that guilt and I might be reading myself into this but it seems like David just loses confidence like he's just as like so paralyzed by what he did it's like he just doesn't want to make another mistake yeah so he just doesn't do anything that's it and like when David found out about Tamar and Amnon if he had acted right then nothing would have happened like Absalom would have been like oh you you did it like I don't have to do anything you took care of it after Absalom killed Amnon had David have acted the next thing would have happened but after Joe had been killed after him the next day like every point of the story David just is keep falling back to that just like I'm out of it I'm not he's not sinning he doesn't have another like I think he truly repents to God it doesn't have another like moral failure but he just loses his confidence in himself yeah it seems like he's he just kind of like zones out because you know you even have the what's his name Shamai the that guy that's cursing David because it's a similar story to earlier in the book where what was Abigail's husband's name and it's kind of a similar thing and he's like who is this guy you know and now it's like a complete he's like just just letting the dude just hurl insults at him and you kind of just picture this like man who's just kind of just beaten down and just yeah full of guilt and he's just taking it but David earlier in the story was like someone killed him yeah yeah yeah yeah yet no and you're right I think it shows you I think the probably the people around David we're thinking oh this is this is patient David this is like the guy that wouldn't turn on so they're thinking like he's got something in the tank really he's just ignoring the problem and the problem is when you do this you notice the other players they feel that void because all of a sudden you see Joe Ab rise up and all these other little advisors and so now we're starting to see this division and it's moved out of the personal into the political because now Absalom is thinking well I'm just going to be king yeah and so he starts this deception that's I mean that's the that that's this that's the story that that sin it creeps out into the from the personal into the political because sin what sin does is I think this is so helpful first understand it this way it creates a world that will eventually shape us in its own image and so what happens with David's private collapse actually becomes a public like fragmentation yeah it it seeps into the kingdom yeah right and and this is something I think we think we can send an isolation because we meant the original sin was a sin of lust isolation that he had the deal but then the big sin was the killing of Uriah which again I think that was that was inside of himself as he was figuring this out but this seeps out into his his world and it reminds me of the story that someone at the church that you guys go to they talk about like they've gone through this whole period of marital not what marital fidelity they had got into like swinging and all this kind of crazy stuff and they end up repenting and turning to Christ but the the and you know who I'm talking about yeah she when she tells her her testimony she talks about the fact that there were hidden sins in her parents marriage yeah that she never knew about until later that she attributes is that those sins seeped into my marriage yeah they seeped into my imagination so I think what's happening here is you're seeing this you're seeing that this is not you know like there's a four another four fold prophecy that David gives remember the you remember the four fold judgment judgment that David cast on himself yeah then there's a four fold prophecy in second Samuel 12 what the one the sword's not going to depart from your household yeah two evils going to rise from within your own household three your wives will be taken publicly and four what you did in secret will be exposed openly but that's not god getting even again this is not god say okay I'm going to get you now this is this is just the nature of sin it's an ontological reality of sin it's a it's the consequence of sin that's folding out here and and that and that is the nature of sin it seeps out by the way you want to take this course with us it's absolutely free we're finishing up the story of David you go to UnashamedforHillstall.com you can sign up and take the course for free but I think that's a really big point though Al that this is not something sin cannot just stay hidden there's an ontological fallout from sin that you cannot avoid okay who you are you can't avoid it well in Zach you've heard this before you and I've counseled a lot of people doing church work and a lot of times people say well you know this is something from my past and you know I don't really think this is relevant to my life now or I shouldn't I should keep this from my spouse I've had this many many times and it's it's this idea that somehow we can have secrets that would affect our relationships whether it's our spouse or family or anything else and that somehow that won't damage us or cause division it always will the the the light of truth is there for a reason and it's because light sanitizes you know I mean Jesus how many times he's saying I'm light I'm light I'm light we shine we don't we don't do what's done at night we're in the day you know we're trying to get this out and I always say and they'll say well well what if it causes problems that's always going to cause problems because truth does but you can never get to healing without truth this story proves what happens when you just ignore things and don't talk about it and yet how many times have you been in a situation Zach where some there'll be a big problem in a family it could be an addiction or could be something else and we just don't talk about it you know everybody just ignores it it's like you walk through and we're whistling through the graveyard like we're not gonna talk about this problem does it fix itself no it doesn't fix itself and all it does is create division and problems within that family unit that's what I think for David himself David does repent and God does forgive him but David gets stuck in that situation he doesn't take on his new role to as king and shepherd for the rest of his family right you know I mean I think that's what we're talking about like Davidson does come to light it everyone sees it he does bring it to the Lord he does talk to Nathan he David does all the right things for restoration and then God is giving him that but David isn't accepting it because he's stuck in that like guilt of his what he did I mean I think that's like part of the reason he doesn't take on these like these new challenges I think because he's just is so loses such confidence himself of like well what can I say like what can I David I mean I'm told this is totally just my own thoughts but David looks at Amnon is like well how can I I made the same mistake yeah like David sees Absalom kill him is like well I made the same mistake you know like and instead of taking that fatherhood role of speaking into them and challenging them on it he just is because aren't they screaming out Luke for for correction yes I mean I think they both were I mean it actually even says that in 14 I mean this is on our study guide notes Absalom returns Jerusalem after three years but David refuses to speak to him in an act of desperation Absalom burns Job's to burns Job's feels to get David's attention yeah and we already know Joab is not a guy you want to believe yeah of all the people Joab killed for little things I cannot believe he didn't like but he was later he does later but I'm saying I just would fit yeah but he but Joab kills the commander I mean he does some shady things he is I mean Absalom is showing he's he's like he's a grown man but he's still trapped as a child and he's screaming for discipline right he's saying David hear me here I am how many times have we seen our own little small children they're wanting to know you're there you're putting the guardrails up you're putting the boundaries and when it happens with grown people the results are devastating so the kingdom becomes divided over this because now Absalom in his last act of rebellion basically causes civil war and so and 20,000 Israelites are going to lose their life in the civil war all because one dad won't discipline his son right I mean that's what we're down to and won't discipline his son because his son's patterns of lust repeats his own pattern I see and I take I see me wants me takes and so David is in this in this picture his neutrality is not he's not neutral he's actually participating in an event so this post this is post repentance but this is the thing about sin though we're so obsessed with the with our justification that we're not seeing this thing how like that's the the way you take sin serious is is it's not fixating on damnation because damnation will be I mean God will forgive right we know that and we tell ourselves that I can do this sin and surely God will forgive me and you know what yes he will forgive you but the problem with sin and the fear that I'm learning in my older age the older I get every single year I gain a greater fear of sin because I I'm starting to understand that a disordered desire it can't I can't love I can only consume with that and so you see that this what happens in in in God's economy is that sin can never remain private it always going to act like a cancer and it's going to metastasize through your entire life you're in in David's case his entire kingdom I mean this started out as him on a roof no this started out as him not going to war yeah right and now we're talking about 20,000 people being killed in a civil war in his own kingdom simply because it started out with just one and just being lazy I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna hang out on this one it's interesting because yeah David that happens at David's at the at the house at the palace and you know you have Genesis beginning of Genesis it's the first time that you know that sin is used as a I think it's a verb where it talks about sin is crouching at the door looking for someone to devour you must master it and it's interesting that kind of that language and then you have David on the rooftop looking at Bathsheba bathing on the roof it was and by the way parallelism it's the same rooftop that now Absalom when he takes briefly the kingdom from David and runs him out of town guess what he's doing on the same rooftop having sex with all of David's wives in public on the roof I mean that's that's where this story it's like the flip it's the flip now David's Uriah I mean it's being played out that's such a good point I mean the Absalom's plan actually mirrors the strategy with Uriah one get him isolated wait till his heart's married with wine get him drunk and then let's let others do the killing that that's that that's his plan that was David's plan remember let's get bring him home let him be married let it yeah and then he has to get somebody else to kill him quick call back this this this does not do anything with it just made me think of it when you said that but he made the point too in the last lecture with uh with with it's whether it's Michael or Michal I watched the house of David they called her Michal so whatever whatever you say potato you say potato but now but when the last she was in the window helping David escape and the next time she's in the window it's when she looks at him and yeah and basically despises him so all those callbacks are so interesting the rooftop with Absalom and then David and then her with looking out the window helping David escape from Saul and then the next time it's the window with her and David it's her despising him because of the and even even the idea of being barren the rest of her life is thrown in there to Zach's earlier point from another podcast about that idea about multiply I mean even in her marriage to David now not only is it a now a loveless marriage I hate Phil marriage but it won't even produce any children any future for them as well so it's just a sad part of story could go to unashamedforhillsdell.com and you guys can sign up and take this course with us it's absolutely free we're in the story David but to your point now that's that is the nature of sin I think that's what we're seeing here that the sin what what we're seeing here is David's refusal to to get involved in this all of the everything it's what it reveals is a deformation that sin causes and and particularly in David's case here he's like letting all this happen and I and uh John like you said this earlier but I want to just reiterate it this is the consequence of his own sin that now he doesn't feel like he has the moral authority to actually lead his family and the reason that he doesn't feel like he has the moral authority is because what he's what the sin that he's committed and so then now you start to see the deformation of sin how it deforms the soul and so David is he forgiven yes is he deformed yes the the point is we're all deformed in some degree or another and so like you can't get like two bit out of shape on the deformation because we're all deformed the question is do you want to be more deformed I don't so I'm like man whatever the deformation I'm experiencing now I don't want any more of that in fact I want the redemption of it and I want to move back the other direction so I I'm learning a healthy fear of sin the sin deformed the soul and it has consequences to go far beyond my own personal inner thought life and that's the sin right because because that's too it's it's you commit the sin right then you're forgiven and then you have this internal struggle with the enemy of because then because then he kind of flips it right then it's like but then who are you and because then you have that call back to your sin so then you because I I experienced this sometimes too it's like if I do something terrible if I do something bad and I repent of it the last thing I want to do is go try to instruct someone else and yeah I love he said that the moral authority because you do kind of feel like a self-righteousness or you feel this weird feeling of I know what I've done but now I'm trying to lead this and call this out it feels hypocritical and that's the lie that the enemy wants you to believe is that you actually can't you know live that out so it's it's twofold it's it's the deception at the beginning but then it's also the lie afterwards that you can't move forward from here which is why I personally think this because you mentioned the curses of Shami and remember what he kept calling the man of blood yeah and I think this civil war and this is just my opinion but I think that's why God wouldn't allow David to build a temple it wasn't just because you know all the wars that were fought up until you know the fall here of David were all on God's behalf I mean he was being called to do so you think the man of blood is because of your eye exactly I think the curse he got from this guy because he said remember the guy wanted to kill him and he's like hey if the curses are coming from this guy it's coming from God so that's some more of this fatalism thinking but it's also him recognizing that he deserves it and because of the fallout of his family 20,000 of his countrymen are dying that's a pointless war that makes no sense because I mean the epsilon winds up hanging in their tree right right so in this setting I think that's exactly why God told him too much blood interesting you know that's that's just my opinion no I agree I think there's two different two different sins and two different consequences going on and that's why I just keep bringing out I feel so strongly about this that the what happens with the civil war was not inevitable that was not the consequences of David sinned with Bathsheba that's right the consequence of David sinned with Bathsheba was the death of a son the rape of Tamar the death of Amnod and the death of Absalom the consequences of the civil war is the sin of not punishing Amnod right in the beginning justice is not providing justice yeah his refusal to participate in the justice and by doing so he participated in the demise of the kingdom right and so what you're seeing here this is a study of a leadership vacuum yes that's what this looks like so in the in the absence of leadership what's going to happen somebody's going to step in and do it yeah in this case it happens to be epsilon and it absolutely literally devastates and splits the kingdom eventually and so that's the that's the thing that it went when the shepherd refuses to shepherd guess what somebody's going to rise up to fill the void and that is a man that'll that'll preach for all of us you know well that's a good point John like and then that even brings out the thought so the so the civil war happens and all this battle is going on and so Absalom is confident he's going to win I mean he's up sleeping with the wire he's he's got this he's in charge he's growing his hair growing his hair out he's back to his five pound hairdo he's got that flowing mane and then he's riding the donkey and we could tell you what the donkey did he's riding the donkey which we know means you and Dr. J brings this out you ride the donkey after you win that's when you ride it into the right after military victory as a symbol of strength and peace but he's riding donkey in the battle yeah and then he his hair this five pounds of beautiful hair gets caught in a tree pulls him off the donkey Christian brought this up we well it's like it's like a desert and it's like a sunset and he's just looking at the mule he's Fabio slowly galloping out and he's just like my kingdom and then he just gets thrust in the heart well that's just the whole point on his hair is that was like the pride it taught Dr. Jackson talked about earlier like his pride was in his hair and in this battle like I've never been to war about washed a lot of movies and either they're read a lot of books I've read a lot of books and either their heads are shaved or they've got like even the Vikings had some kind of braid situation going on because like the hair is a vulnerable spot it's the reason why you don't want the long hair coming out of a football helmet yeah you want to pull their hair adapt some just letting it flow in the wind and that's what is his downfall and then he's as he's hanging as Christian says the donkey is riding away and literally the kingdom is going with it because they're losing because they underestimate remember he made a point about that some advisors came and said look this David scrappy I mean his people you Joe have these guys these are killers we don't want to take these are granted what he didn't listen because he thought by now that he knew everything and again I just I keep going back to I see a young man who is not matured past his own hate filled sense of needing justice and that's where you're seeing now he he's so blinded by it and look I and I can say that because I was that young man myself I was 16 years old I thought I knew everything but I knew nothing and all it took was about two years of me in a prodigal wandering to figure out that I better get back to dear old dad and make things right and that's exactly what Absalamus wanted instead exact to your point the power vacuum is filled because now the politicians and the and the warriors step in and you remember David is only concerned he said mate be gentle with abson in other words we got it we got a civil war going on we got 20 000 people died and and he says don't make him pay yeah yeah that's what what shows that his David the father eclipses David the king at this moment and David the guilt yeah and then yeah because that the yeah you really see the personal and political thread throughout really this whole story yeah because then him and joe ab get into it because joe ab's like we're out here giving our life you know for the battle and the battle is one and you're yeah yeah so it's you see that riff just continue through the throughout the story and again it's so convoluted and I really love the uh what would you call it when Dr. Jackson was dealing with this on this lecture on this last lecture it was almost an angst he was having by having to say joe ab was right well yeah he said he wasn't wrong but he said he said you don't want to be on the side where you like you don't want to be on yeah where you side with joe ab yeah you don't want to be in that camp and yet you have to yeah because you see this void of leadership that's what's talking about in other words here's this conniving murdering terrible person who is having to now confront David yet again and even does tries to pull a nathan and has like a story about a woman member and all this stuff and he has this whole situation and he's right because David won't do the right thing I mean he's still you know and he killed him I mean he started the murder of him when he stabbed him three times and then he gets murdered it's terrible uh don't forget to go to unashamedforhillsdale.com to sign up take the courses for free and then join us on the podcast go ahead is that yeah you got it's interesting this line too when the apps line gets hung in the tree with my hair the language dangling between heaven and earth are suspended yeah between heaven and earth um and it's such a picture right of of this um identity that's been just really suspended it's like he's not quite yeah where does he end up at where does the whole set end up at you end up in this in this place this I'm not where I'm not I'm just I'm suspended between the two and it is an identity that that's not rooted and connected and I think that's the the downstream consequence of the sin of any of our sin is it does lead to that fragmented ruptured suspended identity of our own selves but what christ offers us is to root our identity in something real someone who is real which is him and I think that's the story that this whole story of David you can see Jesus being woven all the way through it it's funny you mentioned that because when you think about Jesus riding into Jerusalem on that donkey as the king and the people are saying hosanna blessed you know the king is arriving because it he is in that moment and he's riding that donkey in and and to his death that will then be his resurrection and his ascension which is the setting up of the eternal kingdom so you see that picture that's right there and and this donkey's not riding off without Jesus on it you know but this this this um confrontation or maybe it's a it's like a clash between the different roles of David of shepherd of king and a father and you're seeing he's wrestling with all of that and and you can understand that when you kind of read this whole story as we kind of as we kind of move through the story the the confrontation or the clash it's like it is inevitable based on the decisions that he's continued to make like this this this clash is going to happen but the reason why the clash is going to happen is because David in his own choices this is what send us it fragments us so his role of shepherd is now separate from his role of king and is now separate from his role of father because he's done all these things now so now he's it's all fragmented and so now it's all clashing together and now he goes to the speak to the identity of what of what send how distorts that identity and so David's dealing with that and to the point where um you know he get he basically gets rebuked by Joab who's like what are you doing like mourning in this way you're you know he's David's grief it's my son my son Absalon and and Joab's like what are you doing you're demoralizing the troops what do you not understand what's happening here this guy's starting a civil war and David just can't go there as king because he's stuck in the father role but then he's also trying to shepherd the kingdom then he's also trying to be the shepherd he's like it's all of his responsibilities now they're they're they're they're separated because his son is now an enemy of the kingdom and there's no way there's no way to his words because think about it he told Joab and all the commanders to go easy on Absalon so we was saying is don't kill him yes we told him and this is the king so at one point if David would have said that everybody would have listened right now when Joab hears he's hanging in the tree guess what he goes right down there with the javelins and says we're gonna kill him and he does and word gets back to David and remember that was kind of a funny story because the first guy comes up and it's like oh I don't know uh was it I know not what I he doesn't even the translation was just a gar I don't I don't have the message then the next the kushy comes along says oh no he's gone he's been killed but instead once again David has an opportunity to provide justice he should have killed Joab he should have died for that you he went against direct orders of the commander-in-chief and killed the son instead out of again shame and guilt he fires him which like that's gonna make him go away like we're you know we're all we got the the apprentice you know you're fired yeah because all he does is goes and kills the guy who was the replacement well of course he did he's Joab that's the way he does things yeah you know here's the replacement that David has put in he's dead and Joab is right back to pulling his shenanigans he's not killed until Solomon comes to power so again I think it shows this impotence motif there's one Zach there's a new motif for you this impotence motif that we find David at at the end of his reign because by now he just can't seem to get it right until but how did he start I mean think about David's story at the very beginning when he was called by God what was he doing shepherding sheep shepherding sheep I do so you what you do see the beauty of this story is you do see a full arc at the end of this of his of his reign as king and as he's turning over the kingdom he says it is I who has sent these sheep what have they done and so David's offering himself up for the people kind of a foreshadowing of the son of David right and that but that is that that is the picture he begins his shepherd and he ultimately does end his shepherd he comes a long way from you know when he was like beautiful David playing the harp that picture in the early days and his rise to you know prominence and he was a great warrior but he doesn't end the story doesn't end with him as the great warrior or the great poet the story of David ends with him I'm returning back to the humble origins I'm still shepherding people it's really good I think to towards the end I think his David's shift back to I'm kind of shift back righteousness I guess you could say happens in second season or 21 whenever David goes back to war and I think this is like I mean this is what I think is amazing about what he's supposed to be doing this is the this is an amazing part of this whole story and this whole literature is you see David start as a shepherd and then he's annoyed by God and then he becomes king and then he loses that kingdom and then he he's in this like mix of tragedy and then he starts to make his way back to shepherd yeah in that first step is back on his king role he goes back to war and through this I think his instincts are right I actually think you know thinking about it I think that whole time where he wasn't acting it was in a sense he was doing the right thing leaning more towards forgiveness right but it was perverse because he wasn't enacting justice and like he had the right instinct he was forgiving even after Absalom he was forgiving his enemies he was trying to I think in his mind stop the fight fighting he just didn't want any more blood but that then he wasn't doing his job as king and then in 21 after all this happens he sought the name of the Lord he sought God and God said there was a blood guilt on Saul and on his house because he put the Gideon I give me a nice death so the king called them and they eventually begins this new justice for Saul and then goes to war with the Philistines and is kind of like taking back on this like calling of God this like power king move and then after that war he then starts to go like wind his ears down back to where he started as a shepherd well and even the close of 24 when we talked about him built a building an altar he couldn't build the temple of God right but he does have a priestly moment here where the people are suffering his people the sheep of Israel and there's these plagues there and then he builds this altar and says because he said it said David saw the angel who was striking down the people his first 17 and he said to the Lord I am the one who has sinned and done wrong so he kind of returns back to that idea there are these are but sheep so Zach there he is back to being a shepherd what have they done let your hand follow up on me and my family I think about Moses remember Moses was like you know these people I don't know and but these like look these are people that you brought out of Egypt we need because God was like I'll just kill them all and start over with you and he said no Moses remembered the sheep right because he was a shepherd because he spent 40 years being a shepherd before he was ready to go get the people out of Israel you see the same thing here it's like that returns the new you see the force then that's why you see Jesus the good shepherd in this too where where where David says it is I who have sinned these sheep what have they done let their sin follow me Christ says it is they who have sinned these sheep what have they done let their sins follow me yeah so you see what Jesus accomplishes what David never could Jesus actually heals the world that David broke and so I think this is interesting because when David ends his reign one of the last things that he says is very simple he says walk in the ways of the Lord you know he hands when he hands the kingdom of Resolomon just walk in the ways of the Lord and and I get this as a 47 year old man like I'm getting this now like I'm starting to get this it's like what has sin taught me that it never works out like I thought it would and the older I get the more I'm kind of like man just walk in the ways of the Lord just like Phil used to say this and it would drive me nuts when he would say it I would think you know 10 years ago when he would say it to me I think he just doesn't get it and now I'm like no he got it when he would just say just do the right thing do just do the right and I mean just do good wow what is the downside of doing good I would hear that though and I would think that let me sit you down and talk to you about your theology Phil and at the end of of now that up 10 years out of that I'm like no Phil got it at the end of his life he's just like for crying out loud just do the right thing just walk in the ways of God this is what this is the promise this is what's good and so David news flash do good what is the downside of loving God and loving your neighbor Christian that's it right I mean but you think about how David finishes he uh he didn't finish as a perfect man but what how David does finish is he finishes as a man who learned that the kingdom of God will only come through presence in the mercy of God it's not going to come through strength or charisma or your or like a superior strategy none of that it's going to come through the presence and the mercy of God that's that's how the kingdom is going to come and David gets this at the very end of his life Dr. Jackson didn't talk about this but I think I've heard people mention this but isn't wasn't like when David did the census like wasn't that frowned upon like wasn't he like why was that a bad thing well you know God had always said even way back and with before the Israelites went into the promised land that don't count your horses don't count your armies because you need to rely on me because when you start counting the armies means that your power you got the power yeah so that was kind of the idea yeah about census yeah you know somehow taking credit for what God has built up yeah that was kind of the idea but I thought it was I thought was interesting uh I love that Dr. J painted this picture with the at the end as a positive with the young woman that comes in with David as it's necessarily a negative like he's in such bad shape that you know he can't stay warm that the idea was is that kind of that lamb has returned to the lap of the guy in the story you know that that was the picture he painted and that's a beautiful picture because then he goes into this next thing with Solomon about following God to Zach's point which will make him a great king don't forget to go to UnashamedforHillstall.com to sign up for the course which is free by the way and then it's interesting because David had all these kind of left undone things in the kingdom and then Solomon's going to come in and I mean he's going to kick down doors and take care of business within the first two chapters of First Kings I mean he he does it and it reminded me of the the end of the godfather you know whenever the the dawn has died and now you know all these people are rising up and you know they out there's this conniving going on so the the son Michael on the baptism of his godchild just kills everybody he just it's like you know everybody thought they were safe and now it's and everybody's forgiven and it was like no I'm killing you all because we're gonna go to godfather too I'm the man so from a mob perspective Solomon does this in a kingdom perspective because he has no qualm about justice yeah he doesn't have the guilt ridden thing of his dad so when he comes to power he just goes and kicks down doors and says here's the way we're going to do the kingdom and it's very interesting then that he's the one that winds up building the temple later but I think it's because the blood had been shed and now there's unity in the kingdom but it was brought about even at David's end with the right thing in mind and so I love that he returns to the heart to Zach's point that we saw way back in 1st Samuel 16 when they had to go get him out of the field because he was taking care of sheep and he didn't even get he wasn't even going to get picked yeah yeah you know but he was the guy it's cool too because Dr. Jackson pointed out the redemption part with you know with the young virgin when David's old but I think too the redemption and the restoration of the fact that Solomon is king and Solomon is you know the son of Bathsheba which is this whole debacle started with 2nd Samuel 11 so I think there's even a full redemption in that of Solomon becoming the next king and it's on this hinge of David's worst mistake of his life it's a great insight and I've said the same thing when you when you go and you read the genealogy in Matthew 1 and there you see Bathsheba in that and in the physical image of Jesus along with Tamar back in Genesis 38 and a lot of other scandalous situations and you see the idea that God has always known that through flawed people the perfect Savior would come and so that's a great point that you know there were other sons in fact when you go read the lineage in Luke which I think is the difference in the father and the the and the mother and the father you see the lineage line come through another son of David and not Solomon but the royal line that's the line that was chosen and I think there was reason for that and I think it's a one that's full of all these you know flawed people and terrible decisions because God has always known our shortcomings from the garden Christ which is why he came so I don't know Zach I can think of a better way to is that there oh okay well I won't kick it back to him then so I can't think of a better way like to wrap this whole thing of David than the idea that it was always towards the eternal covenant promise that God never left no matter what happened and in spite of now I don't know how many decades we're talking about here over this last part of David's life but this was a long stretch of this like non-confidence insecurity I mean this this was a big chunk of David's life and yet you see him come back to his roots yeah of having this heart for God so I do think it's a it's a great story of redemption and renewal and everything we talked about from Psalm 51 but I also think it's a cautionary tale that we made the point when of the roof what rooftop what do you call it scrolling rooftop scrolling that the idea is is that if you start down a progressive trail with the evil one he will lead you to places you do not want to go and you remember when he when when satan went after Jesus directly he tried to appeal to the same things basic desire oh you're hungry you hadn't eaten for 40 days well don't you just make some bread out there's stones everywhere you got the power you can do this and then every time Jesus rebuffed him by saying no God only God only when you got to the end look at all the kingdoms of the earth aren't they great you know they belong to me and Jesus didn't even dispute that what do you say worse than the Lord your God serve him only so I think the the pathway to the peace we're looking for is in the little decisions every day because they're the ones that the evil one sets the trap for you and then one bad decision can lead to the next can lead to the next and that's when you see the tail here so it's it's more than just a tale of redemption it's a cautionary tale as well so I don't know any final thoughts y'all have before we wrap it no I thought it was awesome I mean David's one of my favorite characters in the Bible and I thought Darth ejection did a great job articulating his life and even starting you know before that with with first amela with with oh gosh Eli and Hannah yeah right yeah but I thought it was I thought it was awesome I learned so much and I really love looking at it from that lens of the personal and political that was something that that I really took away so looking forward to whatever our next study is but I thought that David was awesome I know I feel like these just keep getting better yeah well we're we're still discussing on where we're headed from here so it'll be a surprise to you guys next week we want to hear from you guys on what we should do yeah send it well but you know we kind of follow the plan of our audience but we we love having you guys along for the ride just as a reminder unashamedforhillsdale.com is where you go to sign up for the course it's free you get to not only get some great teaching from the folks at Hillsdale but you get our discussion on it as well so we love that you're taking the journey with us it's been a lot of fun for us too so we'll see you next week on the Unashamed for Hillsdale podcast join us every Friday for Unashamed Academy powered by Hillsdale College make sure to go to 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