This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is Day 5 together, our last day of our 8th week of looking through 1st and
2nd Samuel. We've walked through some difficult days with David this week. Next
week we're going to talk about David as a man of worship, and our hearts will be
lifted towards the end of this book, but this is the dark part of this book.

These are the difficult days of David's life, and we've seen him trust God even
through those days. Today, we're going to see in the life of David, David who is
a man of faith, a man of submission, a man of humility, a man of worship, we're
going to see reflected in his life, his compassion. David showed compassion not
only when all was going good for him, but even in the worst of life, when he was
in exile because of Saul, and now returning to Jerusalem after the rebellion and
the death of his son, he's still showing compassion.

I don't know about you, that's when I least want to show compassion. I can show
compassion if I feel like everybody's been compassionate with me or everything's
going well with me, but when it's all falling apart for me, and there's
something in us that wants other people to feel bad too, that wants other people
to feel like they're going through tough times in life too, there's something in
us that wants to take it out on others when our life isn't going well, and David
refused that. He's a man after God's own heart, he showed compassion even in the
worst.

In 2 Samuel 19, David, going back to Jerusalem, on his way he has three meetings
with Shemaim, with Mephibosheth, and then with Barzalai. And these three
meetings, all of them, he shows compassion. Let me show you what happened in
these meetings.

First with a man by the name of Shemaim. In verse 18, they crossed at the ford
to take the king's household over and do whatever he wished. "When Shemaim son
of Gerah crossed the Jordan, he fell prostrate before the king, and he said to
him, 'May my Lord not hold me guilty.

Do not remember how your servant did wrong on the day my Lord the King left
Jerusalem. May the King put it out of his mind, for I your servant know that I
have sinned, but today I have come here as the first of the whole house of
Joseph to come down and meet my Lord the King. ' Then Abishai son of Zeriah
said, 'Shouldn't Shemaim be put to death?

' He cursed the Lord's anointed. David replied, 'What do you and I have in
common, you sons of Zeriah? This day you have become my adversaries.

Should anyone be put to death in Israel today? Do I not know that today I am
king over Israel? ' So the king said to Shemaim, 'You shall not die.

' And the king promised him with an oath. " Now you might remember a couple
chapters back, this is the person who cursed David on his way out of Jerusalem.
And he comes and he says, "Forgive me.

" And David's given the advice again, "Don't forgive him. Have him put to death.
" And David chooses to show compassion.

He shows grace. He chooses not to put him to death. Now if I were less of a man,
I would say Shemaim, Shemid, his way out of trouble, but I won't say that.

What I will say is David showed grace that day. David showed grace. He showed
forgiveness, the grace of forgiveness.

And then there's Mephibosheth. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago.
Mephibosheth, this is where he has the meeting with David and David decides to
give him his land back, decides to give him his life back.

And you might remember this is where in verse 30, Mephibosheth says to the king,
"Let Zeba take everything now that the king has arrived safely home. " This
moment of grace between David and Mephibosheth. And then there's Bezalai.

Bezalai is a longtime friend of David who has served him very faithfully. And
they have this encounter as David's heading back in Jerusalem that begins in
verse 31. Bezalai, the Gileadite, also came down from Rogilum to cross the
Jordan with the king and send him on his way from there.

Now Bezalai was a very old man, 80 years of age. He had provided for the king
during his stay in Maanaam before he was a very wealthy man. And the king said
to Bezalai, "Cross over with me and stay with me in Jerusalem and I will provide
for you.

" But Bezalai answered the king, "How many more years will I live that I should
go up to Jerusalem with the king? I am now 80 years old. Can I tell the
difference between what is good and what is not?

Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks? Can I still hear the voices of
men and women singers? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the
king?

Your servant will cross over the Jordan with the king for a short distance. But
why should the king reward me in this way? Let your servant return that I may
die in my own town near the tomb of my father and mother.

But here is your servant Kimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do
for him whatever pleases you.

" The king said, "Kimham shall cross over with me and I will do for him whatever
pleases you. And anything you desire from me I will do for you. " So all the
people crossed the Jordan and the king crossed over and the king kissed Bezalai
and gave him his blessing and Bezalai returned to his home.

So you have this wonderful moment where this old friend, this benefactor, David
blesses him, he takes in his servant and he allows his friend to return to his
home. These three stories of David giving a blessing, of David showing grace.
For Shema, he didn't give him a punishment that he deserved.

It's one of the ways that we show grace. Not to give a punishment that someone
deserves. For Mephibosheth, he gave a blessing that was not deserved, that he
did not deserve.

Mephibosheth didn't deserve the blessing of being a part of David's household
again, of having all that land, but he gave him that blessing that he didn't
deserve. That's another way that we show grace. And for Bezalai, he gave another
gift that pleased his friend, Bezalai.

Another way we show grace. "Because I love you, I'm going to do this for your
child. I'm going to do this for your friend.

I'm going to do this for your business because I love you. " When the
disappointments of life come, our temptation is to strike out an anger. Hurt
people hurt people.

And that's where we go if we're just left to our human devices. We end up
hurting even those who are closest to us out of the pain that's happened in our
lives. But there's another choice that we can make.

It's the choice that David made. Hurt people can look to God for healing. And
when you look to God for healing, He will give you healing.

And as He gives you healing, you can then pass that healing on to others. The
question in this chapter for me is, am I bringing hurt or am I bringing healing?
Are you bringing hurt or are you bringing healing?

In fact, to get personal about this, based on the grace that David showed, some
questions for my life, for your life today, what am I going to do about this
today? Who do you need to stop punishing, even though they may deserve it? God's
telling you to show grace.

Or who do you need to give a blessing to, even though they haven't earned it,
like David did with Mephibosheth? How do you need to show grace? Or who do you
need to give a gift to today, to please and honor someone else that you love?

You're going to give a gift to this person. How can you show grace? Let's pray
for a moment and ask the God of all grace to show us how to show grace today.

Our Father, because you've shown grace to us, we are people of grace. We are
people who give the blessing of your grace to others. So show us how in wisdom
to do that today.

To stop a punishment that might even be deserved and to give instead of
forgiveness and love. To show grace. To give a blessing to someone who hasn't
earned it.

Just because you've told us to, Lord. To give a gift to someone you don't even
know, but because we love somebody else, we're going to give a gift to that
person. Or some other message of grace that you want to send into our minds
right now, Lord.

Our minds, our hearts are open. You're the God of grace. Would you show us how
to show grace today?

We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Make sure to join us next week. We're going
to end our study of First and Second Samuel together next week, and our focus is
going to be on worship, on David, the man of worship.