2 Samuel 16:5 And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera: he came forth, and cursed still as he came.
In my last post I wrote about what was going on in David's life when his son Absalom tried to take his life and overthrow him from the throne. As I was writing that out, reading and studying from the passages in Scripture from where those events were described, I was reminded and re-read about this man named Shimei. For many this may be a familiar passage and they may be well acquainted with Shimei, but there may be some who never heard of him or what was going on, so I would like to provide context concerning who this man was, what he was doing and then I would like to relate what God showed me concerning us in this man Shimei.
It was during the time that David was fleeing for his life from Absalom that we come across these Scriptures that speak of Shimei. As we read in the opening verse of Scripture Shimei was from the family of the house of Saul, the previous king before David took the throne. Prior to these events we come to see that Saul had tried to kill David multiple times due to jealousy even though David was always loyal to him and upheld his right to be the King and on the throne. However due to Sauls lust, disobedience and refusal to do as God had commanded him, he eventually was slain as he pursued David.
While the death of Saul was of his own doing we see that Shimei who was related to Saul felt that David had done Saul wrong, and he was angry and upset at David. I want to quote some of the Scriptures so we can see where Shimeis heart was towards David, his King.
2 Samuel 16:6 And he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David: and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.
7 And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou bloody man, and thou man of Belial:
8 The Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned; and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son: and, behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man.
13 And as David and his men went by the way, Shimei went along on the hill's side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and cast dust.
So we see that Shimei felt David was in the wrong, Shimei was judging David in his own eyes, Shimei was cursing David, throwing stones and casting dust against him. Shimei was usurping his King in his heart and declaring his own judgement upon him. Now there are many different things we can learn about how and what Shimei was acting and doing towards David here, but I want to share with you what God showed me as I was reading and praying on these events.
It is easy for us to look down at Shimei, to even stand in judgement of him for what he was doing and saying to David his King. Many times as I have read over these Scriptures I have thought to myself how dare Shimei do this, are you kidding me? I've thought why on earth and what audacity he had to come out and curse, throw stones, judge and cast dirt at King David!!! And as I stood there in my own mind looking down on Shimei, not believing this man would ever do this to his own King, God convicted my heart and cut me down to the bone.
God spoke to me and said, how dare you judge Shimei, don't you realize that you ARE Shimei!!! When He said that, when He opened my eyes to this fact, I was broken hearted, I was cut to the soul, and I want to tell you and show you what God showed me, that yes in fact we are all Shimei. I know many may be thinking are you crazy, there is no way that I am Shimei, I didn't go out and yell and curse and throw stones or kick dust at David, and you are right you didn't do what Shimei did, in fact what you and I have done is much much much worse!!!
Rev 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords.
The fact of the matter is we didn't do those things to King David, we did it to someone much higher, we did it to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, we did this to Jesus Christ!!! You may want to say no way I never have or never would do this to Jesus, but I am telling you that yes you have without a doubt done this to Jesus Christ our Lord. If you are Lost or when you were Lost, every time the Gospel went out, every time that God extended to you His Grace and Mercy and you rejected it, you told Him that you didn't need Him. You judged the King of Kings and said He doesn't deserve to be on the Throne, you threw stones at Him cursing His name, you cast dust and trampled over His Blood, Grace and Mercy.
Matt 27:28 And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.
29 And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!
30 And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
31 And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.
Again we can sit here and try and judge the Jews who delivered Jesus, we can try and condemn the Romans that carried out the Crucifixion but the fact of the matter is every single one of us would find ourselves in that crowd who were spitting, mocking, and casting dust upon Jesus Christ. We are all guilty of putting Christ on the Cross, we are all guilty of belittling, mocking, throwing stones and casting dust at Jesus. There is a great song by Shai Linne called Were you there? Where he asks if you were there when they Crucified the Lord and the refrain from that song speaks all the Truth:
“So now He stands before the crowd doomed to die
An angry mob who’s yelling out “crucify”
The way they treat the Lord of glory is debased and it’s foul
But you miss the point if you don’t see your face in the crowd”
We all must take our place in that crowd as we all were the ones that put Christ on the Cross, we all have not only been Shimei, we are worse than Shimei in that we did it to the Savior, the King of Kings.
Now some may agree that yes as a Lost person I accept that I was like Shimei ( and I can tell you this, there is not one Saved person that has existed that hasn't truly accepted their place in that crowd) but now that I am Saved there is no way that I would do that to David or Jesus, and I can say that I too felt that way myself. However as I was praying and meditating on this, as the Holy Spirit began to work on my thoughts and in my heart, I was convicted and have had to come to realize and admit, that yes even tho I am Saved, there have been many times that I have been and am still Shimei.
How many times have you doubted God? How many times have you gone about doing things your own way? How many times have you been mad at God and yelled at Him? How many times have you refused to do what God would have you to do?
That's pretty convicting isn't it? It ought to be for those who are honest, I can not count the amount of times I have doubted God, that I have refused to go about things His way, that I have been mad or blamed Him when things don't go the way I think they ought to. The fact of the matter is, even though we don't want to admit this, each time we doubt, reject, get mad at God we are judging God as lesser than us. We are cursing God, we are throwing stones at God and His Will, we are casting dust at Him and His Sovereignty. Every time we do these things, we are all Shimei!!!
I will tell you what, when I was shown this, when I think and meditate on this it is truly humbling and I am overwhelmed with conviction about my relationship with Christ and if that was where we left off then we all would be most miserable. That is such a heavy burden to bear, and while I definitely want you to recognize where you stand before God in this matter, I don't want to leave you there, and the better news is God doesn't want to leave you there either.
See the story of David and Shimei doesn't end there, we saw above that David was on his way out fearing for his life when Shimei came and cast dust towards him. However as things progress we see that David ends up overcoming and defeating Absalom and his army and is once again restored to the Throne. And it is as David is returning to his Throne that we pick back up with Shimei.
2 Samuel 19:16 And Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite, which was of Bahurim, hasted and came down with the men of Judah to meet king David.
18 And there went over a ferry boat to carry over the king's household, and to do what he thought good. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, as he was come over Jordan;
19 And said unto the king, Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember that which thy servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart.
20 For thy servant doth know that I have sinned: therefore, behold, I am come the first this day of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.
What do we see here? We see that as David is returning Shimei runs to him and falls down before David and begs for forgiveness. Shimei recognizes that he was wrong, he admits his sin and he asks for forgiveness from his King. David at this point has every right to kill Shimei, David would be justified fully if he chose at this moment to bring Judgement down upon Shimei.
In the same manner God at all times would be Justified to bring down Judgement and Death upon us and cast us into Hell for all the times we have done to Him and worse than what Shimei did to David. We all need to follow the pattern here we see of Shimei, we all need to accept what we have done to our King, we need to fall to His feet and confess our Sins and we all need to ask for Forgiveness. And what do we see that David who represents Jesus does to Shiemi, does he cast him out? Does he turn him over to those who say he ought to be killed? Does he run him out of the kingdom?
2 Samuel 19:22 And David said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye should this day be adversaries unto me? shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? for do not I know that I am this day king over Israel?
23 Therefore the king said unto Shimei, Thou shalt not die. And the king sware unto him.
Amen, David could have done all the things I listed above but he chose not to, David instead exercised Mercy and Compassion and vowed unto Shimei that he would not turn him over to the Judgement he deserved and instead chose to forgive him. Jesus has done the same for us!! All though we stand guilty and condemned before Christ, even tho we have all cursed His name, judged Him, thrown stones and cast dust towards Him, He has made a vow with us, if we simply Repent, Believe and Confess Him just as the example we see in Shimei that He will not give to us the sentence we deserve. He will tell us that we too shall not die!!!
There is one other time that Shimei is mentioned in Scripture and we can learn much from this incident as well. After David had died the fate of Shimei fell to Solomon, who again was in the right to pronounce Judgement upon Shimei for his past, however let us look to what Solomon did:
1 Kings 2:36 And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Build thee an house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and go not forth thence any whither.
37 For it shall be, that on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, thou shalt know for certain that thou shalt surely die: thy blood shall be upon thine own head.
38 And Shimei said unto the king, The saying is good: as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do. And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.
Now David who had fulfilled his promise to Shimei told Solomon not to trust Shimei and that he ought to slay him, but what did Solomon choose to do? He once again exercised Grace and Mercy and offered something amazing to Shimei, he gave him the opportunity to build a home and rest within Jerusalem. In Jerusalem Shimei had everything he needed, he had all he would need to sustain himself and he had total protection as long as he remained in the city.
Can I tell you that once you have come to be Born Again by believing in the Gospel, the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ, God Himself does the same for us. He Himself has given us the opportunity to dwell in Him where we have all the things we will ever need and we are offered protection, just as long as we walk and remain in Him, just as Shimei was given as long as he remained in the city of God. What amazing Grace and Mercy our Lord has shown to us, to give to us the opportunity to live in His city, under His protection when we all deserve nothing less than Death and Hell!!!
Yet there is one last thing we can learn from Shimei as we look just a few verses later to the end of his story in the Word of God:
1 Kings 2:41 And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come again.
42 And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, Did I not make thee to swear by the Lord, and protested unto thee, saying, Know for a certain, on the day thou goest out, and walkest abroad any whither, that thou shalt surely die? and thou saidst unto me, The word that I have heard is good.
43 Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the Lord, and the commandment that I have charged thee with?
44 The king said moreover to Shimei, Thou knowest all the wickedness which thine heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father: therefore the Lord shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head;
45 And king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the Lord for ever.
46 So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada; which went out, and fell upon him, that he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.
There came a time when Shimei left from out of the protection of the city of God and at that point he had to deal with the consequences of not following the King's direction. This ultimately led to his demise and so to is it with us when we leave out from under the protection we have in Christ and leave the city of God to pursue things we ought not to. We will have to experience the consequences of living without the protection found in Christ and in the city of God.
Woah to us when we find ourselves there, therefore let us remember that we are all Shimei and that we need to remain in the city with God and under His care and protection lest we find ourselves in a place that leads to our harm or even death!!!
I love you all, have a great day and blessed day in the Lord!
If you need prayer or anything else please feel free to reach out to me and I will help you the best I can and if I can't help I know one man that can, this man named Jesus!
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Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.