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Warning Our Children of Rebellion · Pastor John Piper's answers

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This week we are talking parenting, a mom's role in raising boys. That
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was Monday in episode twenty forty five, and today Pastor John, as I
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look ahead in our navigator's Bible reading plan. Coming up on the docket here
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between May twentieth and June second, we're about to encounter three very long,
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detailed and related stories of rebellion children who rebelled. I think in Absalom,
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Sheba, and Ada Nija on this trio of rebels back in twenty eighteen,
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and a tweet you said to parents, quote, read to your children the
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stories of the rebellion of Absalom against David in Second Samuel fifteen one to eighteen
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thirty three, and the rebellion of Sheba in Second Samuel twenty verses one to
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twenty six, and the rebellion of Ada Nija in First Kings one to one
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to two twenty five. Then look them in the eye and say, rebellion
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against the Lord's anointed never, never, never exceeds. These three long stories
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are loaded with cautionary details. Can you point out a couple of things that
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strike you that a parent would press home to their children in such a reading?
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And I presume the Lord's Anointed here you refer to in your tweets Christ
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himself. Now is that correct? And what are the lessons stand out to
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you is as you prepare us to read these sections for ourselves and then to
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make use of them in our homes. I wrote that tweet because it seems
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so painfully obvious to me that young people, and I suppose as well as
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old people, need to be warned not to go down a path that has
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proved over and over again to be a path of self destruction. Young people
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don't always see the outcome of a path that they're on. They need to
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be warned. They may not heed the warning. These three in the story
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certainly didn't, but they might. And whether they do or not, it's
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the parents god given duty to sound biblical warnings for their children. So I
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was struck in this passage as I was reading through it, like I always
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do. Once a year, one after the other, rebellions arose against King
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David. David is the Lord's Anointed. How he relates to Christ will get
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to in just a moment. But God has chosen David to be king over
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his people. Samuel had anointed him king, and God had clearly warned in
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Psalm II, what a foolish and deadly thing it is to plot against the
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Lord's anointed. It's utterly futile. The Lord sits in heaven and laughs nevertheless.
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Absalom David's son Sheba, who's called a worthless fellow from the tribe of
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Benjamin out of Nigea, David's son born next after Absalom, one after the
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other. These three men raise their hand in rebellion against the Lord's anointed,
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and every one of them is killed because of it. Absolom steals the hearts
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of the men of Israel right under David's nose by promising them better justice than
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David was giving them, and he leads a rebellion and winds up with his
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beautiful head of hair caught in a tree and is dangling there and speared to
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death by Joe abs men. Sheiba tries to exploit a division between the ten
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tribes and Judah, who are squabbling over who gets to bring David back after
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the triumphs over Absalom, and he tries to lead a rebellion by mobilizing those
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ten tribes against Judah and David, but he ends up with his head chopped
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off by a wise woman in the city of Abel and thrown over the wall
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to Joab, and then Ada Nija tries to exploit David's old age to become
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king instead of his father's choice Solomon, his brother, recruiting even joe Ab
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now to switch sides, and both of them, joe Ab and Ada Nija
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die. So it's not a very portentous prospect for anybody who lifts his hands
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against the Lord's anointed. So here here are several lessons that I see in
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these stories, and maybe some more details can come out as I give the
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lessons. First, a prophecy of misery and conflict in a family does not
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excuse those who cause the misery and the conflict. David began his reign with
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adultery, with Bestsheba murdering you Riah her husband. Nathan, the prophet says
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to David, Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house,
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because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Euriah the Hittite
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to be your wife. So all these rebellions from his children and others are
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prophesied as part of the consequences of David sin But there's not a hint in
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the stories that Absalom and Sheba and ad Nija are excused for their wickedness and
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their rebellion because of this prophecy. Prophesied sin does not excuse the sinner.
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That's less than number one. Second and a very similar point, but maybe
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even can be felt today by contemporary people even more than that one. Young
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people need to hear this failed parenting. Failed parenting does not excuse the sin
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of the children. We can never use the sins of our parents to excuse
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our own sins. We are responsible for ourselves, regardless of our backgrounds.
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We will be held accountable for our own sinful actions, and the failures of
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our parents will not remove our guilt. First Kings one to six says David
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had never at any time displeased Adnaija by asking why have you done thus or
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so? This is an indictment of David's sinful doting on his sons, a
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failure to discipline, And it seems to me that he treated Absolin in the
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same way as Adnaija, because near the end his leniency toward Absalom's rebellion almost
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cost him his kingdom. Nevertheless, in spite of this parental failure. Both
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Absalom and Adonaija are responsible for their own rebellious attitudes and their sins. They
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can't blame it on their dad's failures. Third, lesson, rebellion can arise
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from a sense of privilege and entitlement, and it can arise from a sense
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of worthlessness that seeks to take advantage of a situation and rise to power.
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Absolom and aud in Nija were both highly privileged, not only because they were
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the sons of the king, but because both of them were explicitly said to
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be very handsome. Both of them, the author goes out of his way
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to make the point that they were handsome, well liked, well connected.
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Sheba was a nobody. He's called a worthless man. He hadn't made anything
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of his life. Absolom and ad Nija used their privilege to gain power and
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overthrow their father. Sheiba shrewdly took advantage of a brewing conflict between the king's
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subjects. But in both cases, whether from privilege or poverty, they failed.
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The point is that poverty and power, high position and low position.
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Being somebody and being nobody is no justification for rebellion. Against the Lord's anointed.
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Sin lurks in the low, sin lurks in the high. So beware,
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young people, that you could justify a rebellion against the Lord's anointed by
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either one fourth. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. Whoever humbles himself will
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be exalted. That's Matthew twenty three twelve. The Words of Jesus. The
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beginning of Adanaija's story makes explicit. The root of the problem goes like this.
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Now Ada Niga is his first kings one five. Now Ada Niga,
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the son of Hagez, exalted himself, saying I will be king, and
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the same is true of Absalom and Sheba. This is the great sin,
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the deep, deep sin of all children and all parents. A craving to
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be seen as great, craving to be seen as powerful or beautiful, or
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smart or cool, or handsome, or gutsy or rich, somehow be seen
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better than others. I want to be better, like the apostles squabbled with
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each other to see who is the greatest. The Old Testament abounds with stories
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like these designed to make Jesus point. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and
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whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Noel and I are reading Isaiah right now.
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We just read last night about these oracles over and over again. In
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Isaiah, the evil that God is punishing among the nations is pride, pride,
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pride, self exaltation. So finally we should say, yes, David,
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the Lord's Anointed was a type of Jesus Christ, a foreshadowing of King
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Jesus Christ is the son of David. Christ is the final anointed one.
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Christ means anointed, Christos means anointed. And from these stories we should warn
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our children, indeed warn ourselves, that rebellion against the Lord's Anointed David or
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Christ, absolutely cannot succeed. But to submit to him and see him as
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the great and glorious and wise and strong and just and gracious king that he
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is, would satisfy our souls forever. The glitzy promise of self exultation is
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a mirage, young people to mirage. Don't go the way of Absalom or
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Sheba or ad Nijah. It cannot succeed. Thank goodbestor John. And maybe
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you're listening to this episode as an aspiring parent. You're thinking of having children
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in the future, and maybe hearing about all this rebellion, you wonder to
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yourself, maybe we shouldn't even have children in the first place. There's actually
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another episode in an archive where Absolom comes up actually on that topic of maybe
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it's just better not to have kids at all, rather than risking having a
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rebel i'd abj eleven seventy six and the archive check that out. And that
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episode also comes up in the Apja book on pages one eighty six to one
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eighty eight. If you have that next time, we're back with a Biggie.
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A surprised wife found Erotica lit on her husband's phone. How should she
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respond? And Tony Rank you will see Monday