Now it has come down to this… The Israelites had rejected God as their king and have instead preferred to have their own king. Since that time, they have had Saul who disobeyed God as he ruled Israel. So God rejected him and instead God chose David.
David was a good king, but he wasn’t universally accepted. He united Israel, but the politics of Israel were still strong. There were many that still thought that the house of Saul should rule Israel. David now, however, was ruling with all of both Judea and Israel under him. Yet as he sinned with Bathsheba and caused the death of Uriah, he showed weakness and his son Absalom, hungry for power, rose up and began to challenge David, even raising up an army for himself.
We could see it coming. War was inevitable. Instead of uniting the nation of Israel, it was tearing it apart. And why? Because they, the nation of Israel, had rejected the Lord as king and instead desired a king like all of the other nations around them. What did that cause? It caused them to begin to play politics, which ripped their nation apart.
David’s army marched out of the city to fight Israel, and the battle took place in the forest of Ephraim. There Israel’s troops were routed by David’s men, and the casualties that day were great—twenty thousand men. The battle spread out over the whole countryside, and the forest swallowed up more men that day than the sword.
2 Samuel 18:6-8
Absalom was coming for David in an attempt to strike him down and complete his struggle for the power and prestige of the seat of the king. Absalom wanted to eliminate the threat for the king’s seat that his father represented. Even if David had abdicated the throne by leaving Jerusalem, Absalom knew that he would not be safe as long as David was alive. There were those that loved him and were more loyal to David than they were to Absalom.
So it came to this. Absalom would march out against David, but David found out about it through those who were advising Absalom yet were loyal to David. In so doing, David amassed a counter-strike and his armies struck him down.
So we should ask… What is the lesson that we should learn? There are many, but one lesson is crucial to understand: There is only one king. There is only one head. And that head is Jesus Christ. He is the king. He and he only. There are many that lead our nations. There are many that other parts of our government. And more to the point that I’m trying to ultimately arrive at… there are many that lead our churches, but there is only one head: Jesus.
But very frequently, even if we don’t say that we are removing Jesus as the head of the church, we effectively do so. For example, in the church in Corinth, some said that they followed Paul. Others said they followed Peter. And still others said that they followed Apollos. Do we not do the same? Do we not say that we go to this person’s church, or that person’s church? Do those who lead not act as if they are the head of a particular local church?
My point is that we need to be very careful that we don’t repeat the same mistakes that we read about with the nation of Israel. We need to make sure that we do not replace, neither in word or deed, the kingship of Jesus. By having one king, even if we struggle, we have peace. By having one king, even if we struggle, we have one authority, and we don’t go to war with one another but instead remain in unity.