2Samuel 19:1-8 -- Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation
Paul writes, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death" (2 Corinthians 7:10).
1 Joab was told, “The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.” 2 And for the whole army the victory that day was turned into mourning, because on that day the troops heard it said, “The king is grieving for his son.” 3 The men stole into the city that day as men steal in who are ashamed when they flee from battle. 4 The king covered his face and cried aloud, “O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!” 5 Then Joab went into the house to the king and said, “Today you have humiliated all your men, who have just saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters and the lives of your wives and concubines. 6 You love those who hate you and hate those who love you. You have made it clear today that the commanders and their men mean nothing to you. I see that you would be pleased if Absalom were alive today and all of us were dead. 7 Now go out and encourage your men. I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out, not a man will be left with you by nightfall. This will be worse for you than all the calamities that have come on you from your youth till now.” 8 So the king got up and took his seat in the gateway. When the men were told, “The king is sitting in the gateway,” they all came before him. Meanwhile, the Israelites had fled to their homes.
The only way we can understand this story is if we lived it. Let’s suppose that this story of King David returning to Jerusalem after an insurrection is our experience. Jesus Christ returns as the conquering King, only problem is that many of the believers, many even of his own family had betrayed Him. To those believers the Lord’s coming is as a thief in the night. It is easy for us to see how that for those who stuck with Him even when He was disgraced and fled Jerusalem would be rejoicing. But, when the Lord returns at the time of the first rapture there will be many believers who are not taken. It will be shameful, it will be something that brings sorrow. If it is a godly sorrow those who are left will repent and prepare to meet the Lord. If, on the other hand it is a worldly sorrow like that of Absalom fleeing from David’s army, then it will lead to death.
Jesus is the greater David. King David is a type of Jesus in His earthly ministry but not in His heavenly ministry. Not everything we did was a shadow of Jesus Christ. This story is a great example. Jesus will be truly sorrowful over the "believers" who betrayed Him and were part of the apostasy. When the Lord returns there will be those who denied His name and did not keep His word. Otherwise it would be pointless to commend those believers who didn't deny His name and did keep His word. This story shows us there will be three types of "believers" at the Lord's return. Those that were faithful to Him, those that were not faithful and went whichever way the wind blowed, and the traitors. The traitors will be routed, defeated, tried, imprisoned, or in some other way dealt with. The jellyfish believers will be ashamed, flee to their homes, and be humiliated, and the faithful ones will be there with the Lord in the gates of Jerusalem. King David here is a shadow of Christianity, there will be a lot of shame, a lot of humiliation, but very quickly they will need to snap out of it and realize that those who were raptured were over the target and become imitators of them as you have them for an example.