Saturday, April 19, 2008

April 12

2 Samuel 12:24, 25, 5:13-16; 1 Chronicles 3:4c-9, 14:3-7; 2 Samuel 13:1-39, 14:1-24
David begins to see the effect his sexual sin with Bathsheba is having on his own family.  His son Amnon desires Tamar, Abasalom's sister.  There is the brother/sister problem here, of course.  But, too, Amnon will not wait to be married as his sister Tamar begs -- "'Please speak to the king; he will not keep me from being married to you.'  But he refused to listen to her...." [2 Sam. 13:12, 14]

No matter what Amnon thinks, nothing about this is love.  And what Amnon thinks will be so fantastic, so wonderful ends up causing him to hate the object of all his devotion.  He hates Tamar.  Because after the moment is gone, he is left knowing what he has done.  And, as is often the case, his "love" is replaced by hate.  

Absalom responds by waiting until the moment comes that he can kill his brother for the rape.

Joab, the schemer, does things less than honestly and openly.  He uses a trick to bring Absalom home.  Why is Joab so concerned with getting Absalom home?  Does he think, in his heart, that it's the right thing to do?  He's always disobeying the king.  Does he just want to foment tension and trouble between father and son?  Joab will be the one that returns Absalom to Jerusalem and then the one that kills him against David's order.

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