People Who Enjoy the Misfortune of Others

This passage shows the people who, when David fled because of his son Absalom's rebellion, took his misfortune as an opportunity to use him or mock him. David meets Ziba, who outwardly came forward to help but was in fact trying to seize the property of Saul's house, and Shimei, a relative of Saul, who poured out curses and mockery as he watched David suffer. Absalom, having succeeded in his rebellion, commits the depraved act of sleeping with his father's concubines, and the traitor Ahithophel devises even more wicked schemes for revenge.

The sermon points out that what these people had in common was that they reduced another's misfortune to a means of personal gain or revenge. Ziba, Shimei, and Ahithophel all knew of God's judgment, yet chose evil acts to satisfy their own greed, and in the end the consequences came back on them. David, by contrast, bore Shimei's curses and showed a mature faith that left the matter to God, an attitude that is not shaken even by the world's mockery or curses. The sermon emphasizes that true wisdom for believers is not to follow the evil nature of the world, but to rely on God and endure.

The sermon warns believers not to use others' misfortune to seek their own gain or plot revenge, and asks them to live lives that trust God and humbly obey him even in hardship.