We find David now in the lowest point of his whole life. Here again he is a fugitive but this time it is the result of his own failures, as we have seen. It is hard enough to be an innocent victim, but here David is being pounded by waves of consequences of his own sin from years before. The fact that he accepts Shimei’s curses, which were far from being well founded, as being from God, shows how he feels about himself at this point. Shimei threw stones at him to symbolically carry out an execution, as written in the Law given to Moses, and David will not allow his men to stop Shimei. He hopes that his submission to these torments, and his recognition of his own sin, will arouse God’s mercy and put an end to his suffering. God does indeed put an end to this trial, but it will involve the death of Absalom. It is tragic to see how the faithful young man that God anointed as king now labours under such a heavy weight of suffering. David was loved by God and he was given much. But inasmuch as he was the recipient of the goodness of God, he is now also the recipient of the discipline of God. ‘To whom much is given much will be required’ (Luke 12:48). Here David is disciplined in a way that would stand as a sign to all those whom God loves, to take sin seriously. The greatest form of suffering is not to have some evil perpetrated against you. The greatest form of suffering is when you yourself are the perpetrator of the evil.
Ask God to help you to walk in his ways.
Read 2 Samuel 16:1-14
