# Be a Friend Like Hushai

Key Passage: 2 Samuel 15
Date: June 7, 2024

And Second Samuel, chapter number 15, I was thinking about Brother Darrell getting baptized here a little bit. Of course, Brother Fontaine’s going home. It reminded me Brother Fontaine’s neighbor right across the street, Brother Hicks, he’s pastored in this area for years and years. He’s in a nursing home now. Just a dear man of God. And I was preaching a funeral years ago, did not know him.

It was in Nashville, actually, and I didn’t know who he was, who was there, list, and whatnot, and I was just young. I think our church had just started. I think it was Ellis funeral home there in Nashville. And he came to me afterwards, introduced himself. He was pastoring, I think, First Baptist Lutheran at the time, and I was just starting out, and he could have been condescending and whatnot, and he was not at all, very friendly, very kind.

And I remember he said this to me, still remember it all these years later. He said, “Hey, keep preaching the gospel. It’s the only thing that changes lives.” And praise the Lord for the gospel. Changed Brother Fontaine’s life. And I was talking to Jerry a little bit the other day and just how God changed Brother Fontaine’s life. And praise the Lord for it. And praise the Lord, Brother Darrell is saved and going to get baptized in that also. That’s awesome.

And praise the Lord for Second Samuel, chapter 15. We’ll be going through the life of David for over a year now. We’re to the point that King David is fleeing from the capital city, from the throne, and he’s running. It’s a sad scene. And one thing that’s very sad about it is very own son is the one that’s trying to take the throne, trying to take the kingdom. The civil wars ensuing, and people will be killed over it, eventually Absalom. And a very sad time while David is fleeing Jerusalem. That’s what we’re going to pick up. Some are being loyal, sticking with David, some are going against David. And kind of the mix of that, we’re just going to try to pull out three things.

The first of, very brief, I won’t be long tonight, but just a couple of things you’re going to try to pull out and gain a little wisdom tonight to make us wiser in going through this world down here. We’re going to start verse number 23, 2nd Samuel 15, verse number 23.

Verse number 23: “And all the country wept with a loud voice. All the people passed over, the king also himself passed over the Brook Kidron, and all the people passed over toward the way of the wilderness.”

And lo Zodak also, who Zodak? He is a priest, maybe the high priest. He’s a leader for sure of the Levites. And lo Zodak also, in all the Levites were with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. They set down the ark of God at Abiathar. It’s kind of like his partner, if you will, maybe, a priest also, and Abiathar went up until all the people had done passing out of the city.

I want you to notice that this, the Levites, Zodak, Abitha—these priests and the Levites. Who’s the Levites? Most of you know, but they’re the tribe of Israel that were the priests. They took care of the temple or the tabernacle. They carried the furniture when they were in the tabernacle, if you will. Typically, they’re the more spiritual. They’re to be spiritual leaders.

Now this is what I want you to notice here. I believe just very briefly here, sometimes when you have a hard time discerning what is right or wrong, sometimes if you’ll watch and find out the best you can which side the more spiritual people are on. And you’re not just—I’m not just talking about two people. I’m talking about a crowd, a group of people. And sometimes you just have a hard time knowing which way to go on something. If you look and try to trace which way is the spiritual crowd going? Let’s go to politics for just a moment here.

Look, even if we did not know anything about the issues. I mean, just say we didn’t know anything about murdering babies, they call abortion—they call pro-choice, which is pro-murder. You can say amen right there. Or supporting sodomy, which is abomination in the sight of God, or turning our back on Israel, which is a shame, or giving away all our money to those that don’t work, which the Bible says, “Man who don’t work, ye shall not eat.”

If we didn’t know anything about those issues, if we just knew which crowd went each way. If you just could tell, the typical Christian that reads your Bible, goes to church, and they’re trying to sincerely seek God—not all, but I’m talking about the majority—if you just knew which side the majority of godly Christians went, you’d have a pretty good idea which way to go. And you’d be right.

And sometimes you might not know all the issues, but sometimes, friend, you just need to step back and just say, “All right, let me just find out.” Now, I understand seek truth, and I’m all about that. But I’m saying if you can’t get to the root of it, sometimes just look back. Look, I’ll be honest, David wasn’t perfect in this deal. He should have taken care of problems with Absalom years before. He was a slacking father, honest truth. David wasn’t perfect in the deal. Absalom was far from perfect, a rebellious man, and a very wicked man he ended up being. But look, even some people had a hard time knowing which way to choose. If they didn’t even know facts, if they just looked, “Well, where is the spiritual crowd going?” they’d have had a pretty good idea.

Sometimes it wouldn’t hurt when you come to different areas—maybe music or dress or King James Bible or all these things. And I understand you can’t—I’m not talking about two people, but I’m talking about crowds. And try to find out where the spiritual crowd’s going. And make sure—I was talking to a mother not too long ago, she said her one daughter, she seemed like she always ends up on the wrong side of everything. And if you’re always ending up on the wrong side with the anti-God, or the rebellious, or the anti-authority, whatever it may be, look, something ain’t right for it.

And these priests, they had enough wisdom, they went David’s way and the king’s way. And I thought the Lord just had just briefly talk about that. Now, just, we’re going to try to get three things very quickly here as we’re studying this. I want us to look for just a moment at how David handles God’s chastening. It seems like God has revealed more about David handling chastening, right, more than just about anybody in the Bible. And if we’re all going to sin, you’re going to have chastening in your life, okay? And David was getting chastening here. Some will debate that, “Well, is this God’s chastening for Bathsheba in your eye or not?” You know, well, the Bible tells us it is. Best thing, just look it up. Look over in chapter 12 if you would, please.

And the Bible will answer that. We don’t have to debate about it. Is this some of his old consequences on the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and murdering Uriah or not? Well, the Bible tells us about that. Second Samuel, chapter 12, look in verse number 10, verse number 10. This is when Nathan came to David and said, “Thou art the man,” and so on. Look in verse number 10. Three things God said: this is what you’re going to bear, the consequences for your sin.

Verse number 10: “Now therefore,” here’s the first one, “the sword shall never depart from thine house.” So the first thing God said, look, because of this sin, you’re never going to get past the sword. You’re always going to be fighting. By the way, that may have had some of the consequences even farther—the ripple effect. David couldn’t build the temple. Remember he said, “You’re a bloody man,” all the blood you shed. And his first saying, “Sword’s never going to depart from thine house.” That’s very from thine house. Notice that, not necessarily in the kingdom, but from thine house. “Because thou hast despised me and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.”

Thus saith the Lord, “Behold,” here’s the second thing, here it is: “I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house.” Oh yeah, that’s what we got going on right now. Oh yeah, David’s getting chastened. Oh yeah, he’s suffering some of the consequences. Sin always has consequences. Yes, yes. 1 John 1:9, for all for that, confess and forsake, and he’s going to have mercy and he’s going to be faithful and just to forgive and cleanse him all. I’m all for that, but sin still has consequences.

And he says, “Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house.” And we’ll take thy—that’s the second thing—here’s your third thing: “And will take thy wives before thine eyes, and will give them unto thy neighbor. That’s the son. And he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this son.” For thou didst it in secret, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun. By the way, that does happen. We’ll study it out in coming weeks when 10 of David’s wives were on the rooftop and so on and so on.

So David knew he was being chastened. And if you’re very sensitive to the Lord, there’s going to be times that we’re going to know we’re being chastened. I don’t like it, friend. But it happens. In fact, the Bible says in Hebrews 12:6, “For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” Everyone. In fact, it goes on over there. So look, if you never get chastening, you better check up. You might not be a child of God.

So we’re going to have chastening. Well, let’s look and see how David, he handles it so, so well—chastening. We all get chastening. And he handled it so very, very well. Let me just—let me just say a word about chastening. Chastening is not you paying for your sin. The payment for sin, what’s the Bible say? For the wages of sin is what? Death. So if I’m paying for my sin, I’d have to have that spiritual death, which is like if I…

So chastening is not paying for your sin. Jesus paid it all. All to Him, all. So He paid it all, and praise the Lord, as far as me paying for my sin, I’ve never paid for my sin. Jesus took care of the payment, amen. But there is correcting, there’s chastening. God wants you to grow. He wants to—and by the way, someone here, I was talking with someone today about a situation, and there had to be some consequences for some wrongdoing. And the other person said, “Well, sometimes consequences is the only thing that people listen to.”

And so often if God wouldn’t chasten us, we’ll just keep going down that same rut. So that’s chastening. God’s trying to correct us and grow us beyond where we’re at so we don’t repeat the sin. Let’s find out how David deals with chastening. We’re back over in chapter number 15, if you would, please. Chapter 15. And let’s just find out how David handles it. Look in verse number 25, if you would, please. 15:25.

“And the king said unto Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, and his habitation.” Maybe the temple in Jerusalem he’s referring to there. “But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I: let him do to me as seemeth good unto him.”

Can I just mention a couple things? In this instance here, at least, you don’t find David begging, “Well, please, Lord, don’t give me a whipping. Please, lessen the punishment.” You don’t find that here. Now I understand Psalm 51, “Have mercy upon me, O God.” And I guess that. But in this instance here, David’s not—in fact, later on with David, numbers of people, remember the angel is bringing the plague and people are dying, I believe it’s 70,000, remember, right? David begged. He said, “Lord, they didn’t do anything wrong. He said, I’m the one that sinned.” It seems for the most part that David’s not about getting a lesser problem, punishment. He doesn’t get bitter in it. You don’t find David getting mad at God, “What are you doing? Chastening me?” He’s not doing that. He’s not angry at God. He’s not giving up. Sometimes we get chastened, we just give up. “Well, I’ll never win. I’ll never be a good Christian. God’s going to chasten me. I might as well just…” And you don’t find David doing that. He’s not giving up. He’s not getting bitter. He’s not asking for a lesser sentence even right here.

Can I just wrap it up in this word? Even when he’s being chastened, David’s trusting the Lord. Well, if the Lord decides to find favour and bring me back, all right. And if He doesn’t, so be it. The Lord knows best. Even when you’re getting chastened—and I don’t know, He chastens us all in different ways. Sometimes He chastens us with our pocketbook. Man, I hope that’s not you. Hope it’s with your wallet, amen, amen. Sometimes finances God chastens this. Sometimes it’s relationships. Sometimes it’s that nail in the tire. I’m not one of those guys. Every time something bad happens, “God’s chastening.” Maybe God’s trying to grow you. I don’t know. But you ought to ask every time something bad happens, “God, if I’m getting chastened, God, I ought to check that out.”

But David, even when he’s getting chastened, and even when God Almighty is allowing him to have to run out of the capital city, his son is trying to take the throne, looks like he’s trying to kill him, he’s going to take the throne—we’re not sure exactly what had happened, but he’s after him, and he goes in battle against him, and all this is going on—even in the midst of the chastening, David says, well, basically you’re saying, “Lord, You know best.”

Who was J.G. Gordon, a great preacher years gone by? He, uh, when he was going through a tough time, he would say—they say he would say, “Lord, be thorough with me.” You know, “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Sometimes we don’t know when we need a couple more clicks, if you will. God’s getting into sin, iniquity out of a heart. David, he just, even in the midst of this, saying, he’s, “Lord, I’m going to trust You.” The Lord knows what’s best for you, even better than you know what’s best for you. If God were to just bless everything, do everything you want, it might be the worst thing in the end for us.

And David is just trusting the Lord. Can I say this? Sometimes, well, kind of, “Am I really? Do I truly have a repentant heart? Am I truly getting right with God?” If it’s all about me, as far as, “Lord, don’t strike me anymore,” and that might not be the best sign. But if you’re saying, “Lord, I want You to be thorough with me. I’m going to trust You on this, even during my chastening,” you know what I need. It might be a pretty good sign we did get right with God. That’s why David’s handling chastening, just really trusting God even when he’s being chastened.

Maybe that’s my David. God shows the sins of David throughout his life, and he recovers. He stays on the throne. We’ve talked about those things. He just handled chastening so well. Let’s look at one more thing. We’re done for the night, besides the baptism, amen. I’m looking forward to that. Let’s just read very briefly. We’re going to read a little bit here. We’re still in chapter number 15. I’ll tell you what, 27, verse 27, verse 29.

David decides, “I’m going to trust these priests.” And he says, “Look, y’all take the ark back to Jerusalem. And you’ll find out what’s going on with Absalom and all this men.” And look, your boys, your sons, Zodak and Abiathar’s sons, look, they’re young, they’re healthy. You let them be the runners. You spy out things for me and send messages by those boys to me. Let me know what’s going on."

And I’ll just jump down in verse number 30. I want you to notice where kind of changing gears tonight, a little bit of a mixed bag, if you will. Look at verse number 30 here, and I want you to notice this man, Hushai, is coming in here. Verse number 30: “And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot.” That shows that David was a country boy right there. See that? He’s barefoot, folks. No, he’s humbling himself. He’s mourning. And he went barefoot, and all the people that were with him covered every man his head, and they went up weeping as they went.

“And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” Time out for just a minute, just a moment. Remember, I believe it was last week, maybe the week before, we talked about Ahithophel. Remember who is his granddaughter? Bathsheba. Yeah. And he’s after David. And David committed adultery with his granddaughter and killed her husband. Ahithophel knows that. Ahithophel was a wise man, though. He’s very—one place that says it just seems like his counsel was like the oracles from God. And he’s very, very wise. Didn’t always use it right, but he is worldly wise, if you will. So this is the Ahithophel.

Look what David does when he mentions the Ahithophel. David said, “Oh, no, my goodness.” And David said, “O Lord, I pray thee, turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.” I like it. Even during the midst of all this, David just stops and says a little prayer. Sometimes it’s amazing what God does with little prayers. Last night, my wife and I were helping the neighbor move, and they had a bunch of stuff out in the yard. It was about to start raining. We were trying to get it in storage. And we took the last load over to storage, and on the way, it started raining, just a little bit. And we just—it wasn’t a fancy prayer, just a little bit. “Lord, please, would You stop the rain until we get this in there? Would You do that?” And the neighbor lady, she’s been in church maybe once. She’s kind of like, “Well, it’ll be all right,” and all that. But you know, you know the Lord heard that prayer. And later on we pointed out, God held the rain off. There’s other people who do. Sometimes just finest little prayers. It’s not the word great prayer. He’s a good God that answers prayers. And David whispers a quick prayer when he hears about an Ahithophel coming.

And let’s keep going here. Verse number 32: “And it came to pass when David was come to the top of the mount where he worshipped God.” It’s interesting. Behold Hushai, the Archite, came to meet him with his coat rent and earth upon his head. By the way, it’s interesting right after he worshipped, God sent a good friend to David. Who shall—just a good friend to David?

Verse number 33: “Unto whom David said, If thou pass on with me, then thou shalt be a burden unto me.” We’re not sure. I tend to think it was because he’s getting older and he couldn’t keep pace. Some—some have said, well, it’s because he was a counselor of intellect and he wasn’t a battleman, a war man. I don’t know. I tend to think it was the age thing, but David said, “You’ll be a burden to us.”

Verse number 34: “But if thou return to the city, and say unto Absalom, I will be thy servant, O king, as I have been thy father’s servant hitherto, so will I now also be thy servant: then mayest thou for me defeat the counsel of Ahithophel.” By the way, he did. God used him greatly in that situation right there. “And hast thou not there with Zadok and Abiathar the priest? Therefore it shall be, that what thing soever thou shalt hear out of the king’s house, thou shalt tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priest. Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar; and by them ye shall send unto me every thing that ye can hear.”

So Hushai, David’s friend—now I’ve got that underlined, David’s friend—came to the city, and Absalom came unto Jerusalem. Would you look over in chapter number 16, just very briefly? Chapter 16. And would you look in verse number 16? 16, verse number 16: “And it came to pass when Hushai the Archite, David’s friend, was come unto Absalom, that Hushai said unto Absalom, God save the king! God save the king!” And Absalom said unto Hushai, “Is this thy kindness to thy friend? Why wentest thou not with thy friend?”

That’s very obvious from God’s word that Hushai was David’s friend. God’s made it very, very clear in more than one instance, it is that’s David’s friend. Now, I want you just think about it. Just a brief truth of thought real quickly. We’re done. Look at David. David’s weeping. He’s got his head covered. He’s mourning. He’s got his shoes off. He’s mourning himself. He’s crying, weeping, and his friend comes.

Now I want you to notice what Hushai did. Hushai did and said, “Well, you’re getting much you deserved, David. Be sure your sin will find you out.” His friend comes to him. And did you notice how Hushai came to David? Did you notice that? Let’s look back over it. I’m not sure exactly which verse it is. Oh, verse number 32: “And it came to pass that when David was come to the top of the mount where he worshipped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat rent, and earth upon his head.”

His coat rent—there’s usually when they’re mourning, grieving, something bad has happened. And he’s got earth upon his head. He’s covering his head with dirt. He’s humbling himself. Here’s what I’m saying: a friend, if someone’s down, another friend doesn’t come over there and kind of flaunt himself. A true friend doesn’t come over there and say, “Well, get over it, bud.” A true friend doesn’t say, “Hey, you’re getting what you deserve, you’re dirty, rotten, sorry, good-for-nothing fella, you should have known better when you committed adultery.” He’s mourning with him. He’s shedding tears with him. He’s down with him. He’s hurting with him. He’s coming down, not in sin, but is coming down to his level of pain and hurt the best it can.

Would you look over in Romans chapter 12? You’ll know the verse. Romans chapter 12, very briefly here, you’ll know the verse. Romans 12, look at verse number 15. Romans 12, verse number 15. What does he say? He says, “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” Hey, Hushai was a true friend. And Hushai knows David is down and is going to a rough time, and he’s leaving the city, and he’s mourning and shedding tears, and Hushai shows up coming and saying, “Well, get happy over there, bud.” Can’t do that. He’s mourning with him. He’s weeping with him. He’s shedding tears with him.

You know, more often than not, hurting people know what the problem is. More often than not, they just need somebody to hurt with them. By the way, usually when you hurt with them, they’re more apt to listen to you a little bit later on. You know, Jesus didn’t come to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. I’m glad Jesus doesn’t come around and say, “Well, you’re right, Bob, get up!” I’m glad Jesus doesn’t treat us like that. He’s the best friend we got. And Hushai, he was clearly David’s friend. And you see Hushai, he’s coming to David, and he’s rent his clothes, and he’s got earth on his head. He’s mourning with him.

Yes, there’s a time to rejoice. Rejoice for those that are rejoicing, and we—you see, it becomes not a matter of you getting what you need out of them. It becomes a matter of you being what they need. That’s a true friend. Not a matter about, well, this is what mood I’m in. It’s a matter of what mood do they need you to be in. That’s a true friend. A true friend is not all concerned about what they get. It’s concerned about what they can give and how they help somebody. Hushai will be a good friend.

David, yes, we’ve already studied, he was getting chastened. He was getting, if you will, just what he deserved it. But Hushai didn’t come, “Well, you’re getting what you deserve, buddy.” He didn’t do that. Jesus doesn’t do that to us. Years ago, we had just got a boat. I mean, you know, first time boat owners, you always have—how many has owned a boat here? You’ve owned a boat? How many have owned a boat? Well, they say the best two days of a boat owner’s life is the day he buys and the day he sells it, amen. That’s a lot of truth to that.

I think I remember the—I think it was the first time I pulled our boat out of a boat ramp, and I left the foot of the motor down low, and it was dragging. I said, “What’s that dragging?” It’s my boat motor, you know. Praise the Lord, the Lord took care of me. It didn’t hurt it, you know. A little while later on, we had gotten it used, and it needed some repairs, whatnot. But I remember before we took it out, and that propeller, it’s got that big old nut on it, you know, the holes in it. It’s got that brass washer with those tabs. And I kind of noticed those tabs wouldn’t push down real good. And I thought, “No big deal.” Well, it was a big deal where we were in the middle of the lake.

I’ll never forget, we had saved all the money to get a boat, we got a boat, and so we just stayed at home for vacation, and it was a great vacation besides just one instance. Because we’re in the middle of Percy Priest Lake, and we had just stopped and swam right in the middle of the lake, big part of the lake out there, up Nashville way, and big enough where you just kind of get off on your own, that part, you know, and swim a little bit. We were doing that, and we hopped back in there, we’re going to take it back off, and we crank the motor or cranked up. That’s always a good thing. Put it in gear, and it didn’t go anywhere. I thought, “Well, what’s wrong?” You know, so put it in reverse. You try that. You know, something’s wrong in these gears. So you play with a handle, first of all. You know how it is. We play with a handle, made sure it was going into gear. And it felt like it’s going to gear, but we weren’t going anywhere.

And so pretty soon we trimmed up. You know, you bring the back of that motor up, you know, and the back of the motor is just coming up out of the water. I think maybe Tammy said something. Sarah, Tammy saying, “Sarah, isn’t there supposed to be a propeller on that?” “Yeah, there’s supposed to be,” you know. She’s intelligent, brother Tim. I tell you what now, you know. And you know the first thing you do in the middle of the lake on vacation, we spent all our money to get the boat. We’re trying to dive all the way to the bottom of the lake. Man, it was a deep part. We couldn’t touch the bottom. You know how it is. You try to push each other down. We tried everything, man. And we realized there’s no hope. You know, we’re stuck.

And I don’t know if we had—I don’t think we had cell phones, I don’t know—but we’re stuck in the middle of the lake. And we had person after person ride by. “You all right?” “Well, we’re missing our propellers.” “Yeah, there’s that little tab you should have made sure it was good on there.” “Shut up, I know that now,” you know. Person after person. “Yeah, I did that when I first got a boat,” all that stuff. You know, you’re ready to just, when they start coming, start throwing something at them before they even get there, you know. Had a gun, I’d have shot them, you know.

But finally a guy pulls up, big, nice boat. And I don’t even know if he really asked us; he could tell what was going on. And he just pulled up and very quickly tossed us a rope. And he said, “Man, hook it up, I’ll pull you in.” Man, what a blessing. Nicest guy. Had a big enough boat, he could handle it, took care of it. Got us in. That’s what Jesus does. He didn’t come to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

I know Hushai, David’s down. He’s getting what he deserved. He’s being chastened. But Hushai didn’t come up there pointing fingers and yelling and screaming at him. He said, “Hey, man, I want to weep with you while you’re weeping. I want to hurt with you while you’re hurting.” The Bible, what, three or four times calls him—that’s David’s—everybody knew that’s David’s friend.

Original File: Be a friend like Hushai - Pastor Paul Chisgar Wednesday 6221