2 Samuel 15:30-36- The Weeping King
The final thing we want to see about David’s reaction in the face of adversity is his tears. It shows us that it’s ok to weep. David weeps, and the people weep. Some Christians might want to say to them: Man up! The Bible says to weep with those who weep. Particularly, they are weeping over the state of God’s kingdom. Everything we’ve seen about David shows that he isn’t a man desperately trying to preserve his own prestige by all means possible. Rather, his biggest concern is about God’s honour. The people weep not just because of affection for David – though no doubt they had plenty of that, but because the people have by and large rejected God’s king.
Do we not look out at our own nation in the same way? There’s a place for denunciation. There’s a place for prophetic rebuke. But prophets like Jeremiah rebuked their nation with tears in their eyes. But of course, Jeremiah isn’t our ultimate example of a weeping prophet, is he? The Bible tells us of someone other than David, weeping on the Mount of Olives. It’s none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the true and better David. David here in verse 30 is going up the Mount of Olives, away from Jerusalem. But we read in Luke 19 about Jesus going down the Mount of Olives, towards Jerusalem. And when he sees the city, the same city that David had been driven out of 1000 years before, he wept over it, saying: ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.’
So Jesus weeps – just like David did. But Jesus does more than David. Because Jesus would once again ascend the Mount of Olives, this time, to a Garden called Gethsemane, as he faced his own departure. Just as David was rejected by the city of David. So the Lord Jesus was rejected by the world he had made. Yet in God’s plan his rejection would mean life for the world. Because Jesus would rise from prayer in the garden and go to the cross. In order to do for us what we could never do for ourselves, and through his death bring us life.
Question
- How does David point to Christ in this chapter?
Prayer Points
- Pray for the preaching and hearing of God’s Word tomorrow.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.