2 Samuel 17:24-18:18

Order of Service

• Announcements
• Hymn — Christ, We Do All Adore Thee
• Call to Worship — Revelation 4:6-11
• Hymn — Christ, We Do All Adore Thee
• Prayer of Invocation
• Confession of Faith — Apostles' Creed
• Scripture Reading — Revelation 19:6-10
• Pastoral Prayer
• Offering
• Hymn — God Is Known Among His People
• Sermon
• Lord's Supper Hymn — Abide with Me
• Lord's Supper
• Hymn — Abide with Me (remaining stanzas)
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: The Death of the Cursed King

Scripture: 2 Samuel 18:1-18

I. The Protection of the Conquering King

A. David's men urge him to remain behind, reasoning that the king is worth ten thousand of them (2 Samuel 18:3)

1. Their counsel parallels Ahithophel's insight in 2 Samuel 17:2-3: as the king goes, so go the people
2. Hushai's deceptive counsel to Absalom appealed to pride — kill them all — contrasting the wisdom of focusing on the anointed king alone

B. The principle: the people only go as far as the king they serve goes

1. Paul applies this in 1 Corinthians 15: if Christ, the Anointed One, is not raised, we of all people are most to be pitied
2. The martyrs embody this truth — willingness to die for Christ declares that Christ is worth ten thousand of us

C. Application: Christians are called to guard and defend the name and honor of Christ

1. We are not the ultimate target; the enemy seeks to dethrone the King by getting his followers to deny him
2. We defend with the sword of the Spirit and God's Word, always ready to give a defense for the hope within us (1 Peter 3:15)

II. The Place of the Captured King

A. The defeat of Absalom's army is summarized briefly (2 Samuel 18:6-8); the narrative emphasis falls on the forest

1. The forest of Ephraim devoured more people than the sword
2. The dense terrain neutralized Absalom's numerical advantage, much as terrain advantage aided the American army against the British in the Revolutionary War

B. Absalom's capture is attributed not to military might but to Providence (2 Samuel 18:9)

1. The author says Absalom happened to meet David's servants — his head caught in the oak, his mule gone on without him
2. The Ultimate Warrior defeating Absalom is nature itself, working under God's sovereign ordination

C. This mirrors the pattern of Pharaoh's downfall

1. Romans 9 makes clear God ordained Pharaoh's defeat for his own glory
2. 2 Samuel 17:14 states plainly that the Lord ordained to defeat Ahithophel's counsel so that harm would come upon Absalom
3. As Moses sang in Exodus 15, "The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea" — so too the forest swallows Absalom

D. Christ's mastery over creation throughout the Gospels points to the same truth

1. He withers the fig tree, fills nets, calms storms, turns water to wine
2. God ordained that the serpent's head be crushed by the seed of the woman; therefore all creation works for Christ
3. On the last day the whole creation will cover his enemies — Christ is King over all

III. The Penalty of the Cursed King

A. Three echoes of curse language surround Absalom's death

B. First echo: hanging on a tree

1. Deuteronomy 21:23 declares that a man hanged on a tree is cursed by God
2. Joab strikes Absalom through the heart while he is still alive in the tree (2 Samuel 18:14)
3. Absalom's royal mule departs without him — his kingdom is symbolically taken away even as he hangs under the sign of curse

C. Second echo: his burial

1. Absalom is thrown into a pit and covered with a great heap of stones — the burial of a cursed enemy of the Lord
2. Parallel burials in Joshua: Achan (Joshua 7:26), the king of Ai (Joshua 8:29), and five enemy kings (Joshua 10:27) — all hung on trees and covered with large stones

D. Third echo: his monument and lack of a son

1. Absalom had erected a pillar in the King's Valley because he had no son to carry on his name (2 Samuel 18:18)
2. To die without sons, especially as a king, was a sign of God's curse in Israel
3. The monument stands not as a memorial to his glory but as a perpetual reminder of his curse

E. Christ as the greater and contrasting King

1. Christ also rode into Jerusalem on a royal mount and was led to a cursed tree — yet by the Father's foreordained will, for our sins (Isaiah 53)
2. Unlike Absalom, Christ received the dignified burial of a rich man through Joseph of Arimathea — his body saw no corruption
3. Christ's monument is not a gravestone but his Bride, the church — his many sons and daughters carrying his name throughout the earth
4. The Lord's Supper proclaims to the world that Christ ever lives, rules, and reigns — the curse fully expunged at his last breath