Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 38 – July 1981

The Heart Stealers

Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk on 2Samuel 15:6

Scripture Reading: 2Samuel 15:1-13.

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The first time we hear of Absalom in the Bible is when he took into his house his sister Tamar and cared for her. Tamar had just experienced a terrible violation of her person by her half-brother Amnon. Amnon, the first-born of king David's children, had fallen in love with his half-sister Tamar. Pretending to be ill, he asked the king's permission for Tamar to attend to him. David agreed and sent Tamar.

Tamar came to Amnon's house in kindness but seizing the opportunity, Amnon forced his half-sister and raped her. He then started to loathe her and had her violently thrown out of his house. In her deep distress and humiliation, the king's daughter tore her robes and put ashes on her head, as was the Eastern custom of the day, and went her way, weeping loudly.

And that's how Absalom found her. He comforted her and took his sister home with him, but in his heart Absalom resolved to kill Amnon for the vile deed he had done.

For two years Absalom nursed his murderous intentions towards Amnon. His opportunity came when he had arranged for all the king's sons to be present at some celebration. He had Amnon struck down and killed. Forced now to flee as a murderer, Absalom went to Geshur, north-east of Israel, where his mother's father lived, and stayed there in exile for three years.

How did David as father fare in all this?

Well, pretty much like most fathers in similar circumstances. At first he was furious about Tamar's violation and deeply saddened with Amnon's death. But after a while he found himself longing for Absalom whom he had not seen for three years.

But there was more to David's broken heart than the loss of three of his children. David remembered only too well his own sinful relationship with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah her husband. Although he had fully repented of those sins and had received forgiveness, the Lord had nevertheless said through the prophet Nathan, that the sword would not depart from David's house. So when David saw the calamity that struck his house in the sinful acts of his children, he realised only too well that this was his punishment for having despised the Lord's commandments himself in earlier times.

In the course of time, Joab, David's general over the army, became aware of the king's longing for Absalom. Sensing the king's struggle in that he wanted Absalom back on the one hand but on the other hand having to punish him if he did come back, Joab broke through the king's dilemma and got David to agree that Absalom could return to Jerusalem. But for a further two years David refused to see his son because of the crime.

At the end of the two years, Absalom took matters into his own hands and sent Joab to the king saying that he wanted to see his father again. For what was the point of him having returned from exile, if that exile continued on now that he was in Jerusalem. If the king still felt that he was guilty then the king should have him killed. At this point David relented and he called his son back to the palace and reconciliation was brought about.

Although we can understand a father's longing for his son, yet we must say that David revealed weaknesses in his rule over his own house. No doubt, his own sinful acts with Bathsheba and Uriah in the past had caused him to be slack towards his own children in that he felt he couldn't very well be firm with them in those aspects of life wherein he himself had been so weak. But still, had he properly punished Amnon for the violation of Tamar, then Absalom would probably have been spared a murder; and had Absalom been properly punished for the murder that he did, then the events that followed and which are recorded in 2Samuel 15 would not have happened.

In due course Absalom got himself a chariot and horses and had fifty men run ahead of him. This attempt to get the attention of the public became all part of his clever strategy to make a grab for the throne. The people in Israel saw more of Absalom than they did of their king. They had a flashy prince. Wherever he went the people were left in no doubt as to who it was. With those men running ahead and the spectacular horses and chariot following, everyone knew Absalom was passing by. And of course he cut a very fine figure, possessing a handsome appearance, an impressive physique, and hair that nobody could help but notice.

Absalom would also get up early and be around at the entrance to the city gate in order to meet people who came to Jerusalem from the surrounding country to have their complaints receive the king's justice. When justice could not be reached in the country court centres, people could go to the king's delegates in Jerusalem, or even the king himself who would hear the case and pass judgment. As they arrived at the gates of Jerusalem, Absalom would sweet-talk to these people and enquire where they were from, and so on. He would then hear them out and tell them that their claim was just, but unfortunately for them, he would add, they would not receive justice from the king. If only he, Absalom, was in a position to act as judge, then they would get proper attention when they came to him and he would see to it that they receive justice.

Absalom carried on in this flattering way for four years, and in that time people began to look up to him, not realising that empty vessels make a lot of noise. They would bow before him but Absalom would reach out to them and straighten them up, and in the eastern way of cordiality, he would kiss them and thus treat them as equals. "Absalom behaved in this way towards all the Israelites who came to the king for justice, and so he stole the hearts of the men of Israel."

So Absalom was a heart-stealer. He was all the time working to improve upon his own popularity. In the absence of the king and his officials, Absalom would run them down, make derogatory remarks about them, and letting it be known in a subtle way that if he had the power, he would do a much better job.

But for all his fine face, his impressive appearance and his pleasant manners, his chariot and horses, his front-runners and other attendants, Absalom was really a black-hearted thief. He was busy stealing his father's throne and kingdom away from him, and he did it by stealing hearts. Hearts that should have remained loyal to the king and encouraged to support king David were turned away from the king. Absalom was one of those people who cleverly avoided open confrontation when they know they will lose, but who slowly try to gain the advantage in underhand and devious ways. Yet he did not work secretly but openly, with smiles and disarming attitudes.

2. The heart-stealing business Absalom was in, however, had some very serious implications. To realise these implications we have to look a bit further than just a smiling Absalom at the city gates.

David was king and he was appointed to that position by God himself who had sent His prophet Samuel to have him anointed. By anointing David as king over His people, God had set out to fulfil his purpose of blessing His people with the blessings of salvation. David was not made king over just any people, but he was made king over the Lord's covenant people. To Israel God had bound Himself in covenant oath and from them would come a Saviour who would take all guilt away and who would make sinners new and whole, and this Saviour would reign over God's covenant people as their King and Lord. God had given David to Israel so that he in his kingship could be a type of Christ, and God's covenant people were to look up to the king and learn about Christ who would be the perfect Mediator.

David as king had to fulfil the role of Saviour and deliverer. He had to protect his people and deliver them from the enemy. The Lord had David especially anointed for this task. He had to exercise justice in the land. The people should be able to come to the king with their complaints, their needs, their misfortunes at the hands of unscrupulous men, and expect justice from the king. And through this, the king's role, the people could learn and look forward to the perfect king promised to them, the Christ, who would also receive them, and do justice for them, and rule over them.

It was therefore so important that the hearts of the covenant people of old were won over to the king and be loyal to him. For if their hearts were with the king, the Lord's anointed, then their hearts would also be with God, and the Christ to come, the perfect King. The earthly king was of course responsible to reign in accordance with God's will.

When we now return to the pleasant, smiling Absalom, driving past in his flashy chariot, and meeting people in the city gate, we realise what kind of man he really was. He was a covenant breaker of the worst kind. With the people always admiring his good looks and bowing before him, Absalom began to think more and more of himself as a self-appointed saviour of the people. He, Absalom, would give true justice, and he would be the ideal king. And thus he rejected the king who happened to be his father as well. Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel and got them to reject the king also. But not only did he reject the king, he also rejected God who had appointed the king. And with his rejection of God he also had no need for the perfect King and Saviour to come. Absalom had made himself god. He would be the people's saviour. He would do it much better than David did, yes better than God.

David, before he was made king, had several opportunities to kill Saul who was king then. But he always firmly refused to do this, for David knew Saul was the Lord's anointed, and he must stay king until God Himself removed him from the throne. Moreover, David always reminded the people around him, and the people he had to deal with, to honour the king because he was appointed by God.

David, notwithstanding his many other sins, was called the man after God's own heart. Absalom's heart was, however, not after God's heart at all. Instead Absalom stole the hearts of men away from God. Absalom became a man after his own heart!

Indeed, Absalom was a covenant breaker of the worst kind, for he dragged so many others with him in his rebellion against God and His anointed, the king. These people allowed Absalom, the false deliverer, to influence them. They did not see through him and lost their faith in the king and in the covenant God who put him there. And eventually both Absalom and these men whose hearts he stole, came to their tragic end in the battle that was later fought between David's forces and Absalom's.

3. Heart stealers, like Absalom once was, are still around. They are a menace to God's covenant people. Those whom the Saviour has chosen, called, justified and sanctified are on their way to the new heaven and new earth. They are Christ's who has fully redeemed them.

There are still plenty of things wrong with them, but that doesn't take away the fact that they are the Lord's. They have to fight and resist and overcome these wrongs but already they have received the blessings of forgiveness and daily renewal. They live by the grace of God; they know this, and they have given their hearts to their Saviour-king. They know and experience His rule and protection over them. They can come to this King with their needs and grievances, and expect from Him perfect justice.

But then come the modern-day heart stealers. They are there in the nation. Philosophers and politicians who in their subtle ways tell us that Christ is only good for Sundays. After all, you have to go somewhere with your religious feelings. But for real justice, for a fair-dinkum slice of the national cake, you better build your hopes on Marxism, or on socialism, or on capitalism. And raising the standard has nothing to do with a growing in faith and knowledge of God, or with Christian principles and values for us and our children, or righteousness in the nation and an end to corruption and bribery. No, it means more money in your pay-packet, more leisure time, more equality between you and your boss, less working hours, less hardships. These self-appointed saviours come to steal away hearts from our real King, Christ, and would have us believe that a new social order is much more a real thing, than a new heaven and a new earth.

These heart-stealers are also among those who want to shape a new morality. They work their way into our Christian homes through the television and the newspaper and magazines and they tell us that marriage is on the way out. You can sleep with whomever you want, as long as you do not get them into trouble. They tell us that a very high percentage of young people today are sexually active, so why shouldn't you. What the Bible has to say about marriage and sex, and a whole lot of other things, is regarded as being hopelessly old-fashioned. They were perhaps useful for past generations but today things are different.

But what these heart-stealers fail to mention is the misery and the heart-aches caused by broken lives, alcoholism, divorce, children with nowhere to go, venereal diseases and suicides.

There are heart-stealers even in the wider Christian church. The Bible refers to them as false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing. They are those who set aside the true Word of God and tell us we must first go by the findings of modern science, of psychology and anthropology. In other words, the insights of modern man count more than the insight and teaching of the inspired scriptures.

In all of life there are the heart stealers. They entice us with their God- insulting entertainment, their God-ignoring materialism, and their God-denying pleasure seeking. Only they don't tell us they are against our King, Christ, and you don't find that out either, unless you daily hear the voice of the King and Saviour in the meditation and study of His Word.

Behind all those who would love to steal our hearts away, there is the greatest thief of them all - Satan. He would love to steal every one of God's covenant people away.

The people in Absalom's day didn't see through him and they met with ruin. The Bible tells us about those people so that we can learn from their terrible mistake.

God wants our hearts.

Yes, even we can be like Absalom. As parents, as teachers, as youth-leaders, as office-bearers, we can steal hearts by trying to be more popular than Christ, by leaving out what people may regard as the unattractive parts of His Word.

But we must be true representatives of Christ our King. We must see through those who steal hearts for themselves and not seek to win hearts for Christ. Let our faith in Christ not be taken away by those who have really nothing to offer that will stand us in good stead for eternity. It will not always be easy. We have to test all things to see whether they are of God. But in this, God's Word is a lamp for our feet and a light upon our path.

Let us therefore serve the King, our Lord Jesus Christ, not with a divided heart, or with a doubting heart, or with a false heart, but in singleness of heart. He who opened our hearts to see and confess Him as the Way, the truth, and the Life, wants to dwell in our hearts, for He has promised to keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. He has promised to direct our hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance, and He has put His laws in our hearts. Therefore, let us love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Amen.