2 Samuel 13 – Another drama unfolds – I remember the
first time I read some of these stories when I was teaching Middle Schoolers (7th
graders) at Friends Academy. I could hardly believe I was reading the Bible!
Some of the stories, I didn’t think 7th graders should read.
Old-fashioned me.
Anyway,
David’s son, Absalom (his son by wife Maacah—3:3), had a sister named Tamar.
His half-brother Amnon (by wife Ahinoam—1 S 25:43) is enamored of her. He gets his cousin Jonadab (his
father’s brother Shimeah’s son), a crafty man, to help him corner her by
pretending to be ill. When his
father asks how he can help, he can suggest getting Tamar to help him by
preparing his food, etc. This happens, and when Tamar is thus brought near him,
he forces himself on her despite her pleas.
But
then “Amnon was seized with a very great loathing for her; indeed, his loathing
was even greater than the lust he had felt for her” (13:15). She, on the other
hand, seems to want to be with him, but he cannot stand to have her near. She
behaves very strangely. Am I mistaken, or is Ophelia
in Shakespeare’s Hamlet not made to
act in a similarly strange way?
Her
behavior raises the suspicion of Absalom. David finally is put on notice and he
becomes very angry, “but he would not punish his son Amnon, because he loved
him, for he was his firstborn” (13:21). But Absalom hates Amnon. Two years
after this happens, Absalom arranges for Amnon (and his other brothers too) to
come to a sheep-shearing event at Baal-hazor near Ephraim. There, he has his
servants kill Amnon. The others
flee, but David mistakenly hears that all his sons have been killed by Absalom
(13:30). It is the cousin Jonadab who tells David that only Amnon has been
killed, and also that it was Absalom who did it and had planned to do it from
the day Amnon raped his sister.
Absalom
runs away, but the other sons return to David. Absalom goes to the king of
Geshur [Golan Heights in Syria today] and stays for three years. “David mourned
a long time for his son Amnon; but when he got over Amnon’s death, he was
filled with longing for his son Absalom” (13:39).
2 Samuel 14 – Joab senses that
David is fretting about Absalom, so he sends to Tekoa for a wise woman to come
and help by pretending to be a mourner with a story—using a tactic similar to
that used once by Nathan (getting to David through his imaginative
identification with a person going through what he is going through). She comes
and pretends to be a woman who had two sons, one of whom killed the other. She says her family is insisting that
she turn over the guilty son to be punished by the family with death, but she
does not want to lose him too. The
king says he will help her by giving orders to the family to leave the son
alone. When he says this, she goes
on to bring the point home to him—“in
giving this decision the king convicts himself, inasmuch as the king does not
bring his banished one home again.
We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot
be gathered up. But God will not
take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished
forever from his presence” (14:14).
This is the condition of every one of us “in the fall” – guilty of
sin against our “brothers,” alienated from the “family of man.” God will not rest
easy until we are brought back to him again. Where David once was brought to repentance and restoration as
a result of his own sin – with Bathsheba, now he must be brought to see that
his own son, Absalom should be forgiven and restored to the family. Unfortunately, Absalom will NOT respond
with humility and repentance.
The
king sees that Joab’s hand is in this, and the woman admits it. These stories
are pretty complicated psychologically. Remember that Joab himself felt obligated
to avenge the death of a brother by Abner. Now he is acting as an advocate for
Absalom, who also acted upon a conviction that the wrong done to his (Absalom’s)
sister was justly avenged.
David
accedes to Joab’s request and has Absalom brought back, but he is not to be
permitted back into the king’s presence.
Now, Absalom is a beautiful man. He had three sons
and a daughter whose name also was Tamar. After three years, Absalom tries to
get Joab to effect a reconciliation with his father, but Joab does not respond
to his summons. Twice he calls on
him, but he does not come. So he
sets fire to Joab’s fields. He
gets Joab’s attention and the reconciliation comes about: “he came to the king
and prostrated himself with his face to the ground before the king; and the
king kissed Absalom” (14:33).
But this drama is not
over yet – Absalom has ambition and rebellion in his heart.
Mark 12 – Jesus tells a parable
of a vineyard that is protected by a fence and watchtower. Every year the vineyard owner’s
servants—sent to collect his share of the produce from the tenant farmers who
are working the vineyard—are beaten and sent away empty-handed. The third is killed. Finally he sends “his beloved son,” expecting them to respect him. But they kill him too (12:8). Jesus says the man will eventually come
and destroy the tenants and “give the vineyard to others” (12:9). Again, only fear of the crowds keeps the leaders
from pouncing on Jesus (12:12). They are the tenant farmers tending the
vineyard of the Lord’s people.
This parable tugs a little against a left-wing predilection I have
in favor of workers over owners, who do nothing but provide the business and
then collect a share of what the workers have produced. I know the owners have
a role; they buy the land and the seed and make an opportunity to labor and
earn a living available to those who have no money to make such investments. If
you’ve ever seen the movie Matewan
about a seminal coal miners strike in the early 20th century, you
may remember a similar problem one young Christian minister had with another of
Jesus’ parables – the one about paying workers equally regardless of the time
they’ve spent laboring. But, I think it is important to see that what Jesus is
talking about with God’s sovereignty over His creation is substantially
different from the “sovereignty” earthly rulers and authorities have over those
who labor for them.
They
try again to entrap him by asking him a question about payment of taxes, but
Jesus refuses to be put in the role of rebel against the state. The Sadducees try to trap him on the
intricacies of resurrection faith.
Jesus tells them when we “rise from the dead, [people] neither marry nor
are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven” (12:25). The scribes take
their shot by asking him what the greatest commandment is, but he gives them an
answer they respect. Jesus acknowledges the wise response of the
scribe by assuring him that he “[is] not far from the kingdom of God” (12:34).
Teaching
in the Temple Jesus seems to say that the Messiah
cannot be David’s son because David called the Messiah Lord. He also
teaches them that it is wrong of the scribes to put on airs of holiness when
they “take advantage of widows and rob them of their homes, and then make a
show of saying long prayers” (12:38). And he points out the greater holiness of
the poor who give all they have to
those who make offerings of the surplus wealth they can comfortably dispose of (12:44).
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