What a mess! Do you
think David feared what Absalom would do to Amnon? David wanted to know why Absalom specifically
wanted Amnon to come to him but didn't get a concrete answer that we know but
David finally agreed that all his sons would go. This sounds a little bit like the Joseph
story at this point. Absalom commands
his servants and then uses the same language God used with Joshua to encourage
them to do as he commanded. Initially after
the murder there is confusion when David is informed that all his sons are
dead, a mistake that is remedied by the word of the very man who arranged with Amnon
for the rape of Tamar, Jonadab, the son of David's brother who tells him that
this was Absalom's plan all along. Ultimately
the rest come home and Absalom flees while David grieves over his murdered son.
Absalom spends three years in exile
although in his heart David wants to go to him.
He is comforted concerning Amnon in the same way he was comforted over
the loss of his infant son with Bathsheba and wanted to go to his living son
but could not on account of the murder.
The prophecy of Nathan is coming to pass regarding the lack of peace in
David's house.
Sin causes so many problems.
Jesus says we need to be ruthless about sin in our lives because of that
reality. We are dragged down by the
weight of sin in our lives and by the entanglements it brings about and we need
to get serious about it. Now, if we all
followed Jesus' advice we would essentially be less than human, incapable even
of actually living, in need of a lobotomy because much of sin comes from the
brain. Jesus can't mean this literally
so what does he mean for us to take away from the teaching? He means that we have to see sin for what it
is and how terrible our lives are because of our own sin, the sin of others
against us, and the sin that infects everything and to work to eradicate it in
our lives, root and branch. David's sin
of the eyes with Bathsheba became adultery and murder which led to fratricide and
worse. We are called to be different, to
share God's view of sin and righteousness and to work to reveal that to the
world in our lives.
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