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In Christ, Mark
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Absalom fled and went to Talmai, son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur. But King David mourned for his son every day. After Absalom fled and went to Geshur, he stayed there three years. And the spirit of the king longed to go to Absalom for he was consoled concerning Amnon's death.
Joab, son of Zeruiah, knew that the king's heart longed for Absalom. So Joab sent someone to Tekoa and had a wise woman brought from there. He said to her, "Pretend you are in mourning. Dress in mourning clothes and don't use any cosmetic lotions. Act like a woman who has spent many days grieving for the dead. Then go to the king and speak these words to him."
And Joab put the words in her mouth.
When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell with her face to the ground to pay him honor and she said, "Help me, O king!"
The king asked her, "What is troubling you?"
She said, "I am indeed a widow; my husband is dead. I your servant had two sons. They got into a fight with each other in the field and no one was there to separate them. One struck the other and killed him. Now the whole clan has risen up against your servant; they say, 'Hand over the one who struck his brother down, so that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed; then we will get rid of the heir as well.' They would put out the only burning coal I have left, leaving my husband neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth."
The king said to the woman, "Go home, and I will issue an order in your behalf." But the woman from Tekoa said to him, "My lord the king, let the blame rest on me and on my father's family, and let the king and his throne be without guilt."
The king replied, "If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he will not bother you again."
She said, "Then let the king invoke the Lord his God to prevent the avenger of blood from adding to the destruction so that my son will not be destroyed."
"As surely as the Lord lives," he said, "not one hair of your son's head will fall to the ground."
Then the woman said, "Let your servant speak a word to my lord the king."
"Speak," he replied.
The woman said, "Why then have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself for the king has not brought back his banished son? Like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. But God does not take away life; instead, He devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from Him.”
"And now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant thought, 'I will speak to the king; perhaps he will do what his servant asks. Perhaps the king will agree to deliver his servant from the hand of the man who is trying to cut off both me and my son from the inheritance God gave us.'”
"And now your servant says, 'May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is like an angel of God in discerning good and evil. May the Lord your God be with you.'"
Then the king said to the woman, "Do not keep from me the answer to what I am going to ask you."
"Let my lord the king speak," the woman said.
The king asked, "Isn't the hand of Joab with you in all this?"
The woman answered, "As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything my lord the king says. Yes, it was your servant Joab who instructed me to do this and who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. Your servant Joab did this to change the present situation. My lord has wisdom like that of an angel of God—he knows everything that happens in the land."
The king said to Joab, "Very well, I will do it. Go, bring back the young man Absalom."
Joab fell with his face to the ground to pay him honor and he blessed the king. Joab said, "Today your servant knows that he has found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, because the king has granted his servant's request."
Then Joab went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. But the king said, "He must go to his own house; he must not see my face."
So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the face of the king.
In all Israel, there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the top of his head to the sole of his foot, there was no blemish in him. Whenever he cut the hair of his head—he used to cut his hair from time to time when it became too heavy for him — he would weigh it and its weight was two hundred shekels by the royal standard.
Three sons and a daughter were born to Absalom. The daughter's name was Tamar and she became a beautiful woman.
Absalom lived two years in Jerusalem without seeing the king's face. Then Absalom sent for Joab in order to send him to the king but Joab refused to come to him. So he sent a second time but he refused to come. Then he said to his servants, "Look, Joab's field is next to mine and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire."
So Absalom's servants set the field on fire.
Then Joab did go to Absalom's house and he said to him, "Why have your servants set my field on fire?"
Absalom said to Joab, "Look, I sent word to you and said, 'Come here so I can send you to the king to ask, Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there!’ Now then, I want to see the king's face and if I am guilty of anything, let him put me to death."
So Joab went to the king and told him this. Then the king summoned Absalom and he came in and bowed down with his face to the ground before the king.
And the king kissed Absalom.
2 Samuel 13:37-39, 14:1-33
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In today’s scripture passage, we find Absalom, fresh off of having Amnon killed out of revenge for the rape of his sister Tamar, fleeing to Geshur where he remained for three years. Meanwhile, David “mourned for his son every day”…his spirit longing to go to Absalom because he was “consoled concerning Amnon's death”. But despite his grieving, David never went to his estranged son, instead remaining in Jerusalem.
We see where Joab, the commander of David’s army, entered onto this scene for he “knew that the king's heart longed for Absalom” and so he decided to do something about it.
At the beginning of this part of David’s story, we see where family conflicts ranged back to biblical times and they certainly still exist today. In fact, it’s probably more the exception than the norm if one doesn’t experience some friction in their family sometime in their lifetime. I know I can testify to more than a few.
When these interfamily disputes occur, sometimes mediation happens as someone is willing to step into the gap and help facilitate reconciliation that eventually results in reunion…rescuing a relationship that was once in discord. In today’s scripture passage, we see Joab doing just that for we read where he sends “someone to Tekoa” to have a “wise woman brought from there”. This woman of wisdom would play a key part in getting David to realize that he should settle his differences with Absalom, especially given how he still loved him so very much. We see where Joab directs the woman to dress as if she was mourning and then gave her the words she was to say to David when she met with him.
And with that, she was off to see the king.
Once with David, the scriptures tell us that she “fell with her face to the ground to pay him honor” while saying:
"Help me, O king!"
After asking what was troubling her, we read where the woman tells him what Joab told her to say…that she was a widow with two sons who had gotten into a fight while in the field and during that fight one of the sons had killed the other. This led her to be deeply disturbed because her clan had demanded she hand over the murdering son so they could kill him and avenge the death of his brother. If she did this, she tells David that it would be an act that would “put out the only burning coal” she had left and result in her deceased husband having “neither name nor descendant on the face of the earth”.
Well, after hearing her story, David ensures the woman that she and her son would be protected but the woman wanted more than just David’s word…she wanted an assurance from the Lord and so she asked David to “invoke the Lord his God to prevent the avenger of blood from adding to the destruction” so that her son wouldn’t be destroyed. We see David give the following response:
“As surely as the Lord lives…not one hair of your son's head will fall to the ground."
Imagine David’s shock when the woman shifted gears immediately and turned her words against him, failing to realize that her story was a very personal parable directed towards him.
You see, David had shown a willingness to protect a son who had murdered his brother, even invoking the name of the Lord to ensure he would be safe…and yet, he had not allowed Absalom to return home. This is what led the woman to ask David if his words didn’t serve to convict him because he had failed to bring back his banished son. She further went onto remind David that life is short…”like water spilled on the ground” which “cannot be recovered” before getting to the words that were the most important of all…not only to him but us as well.
For she says to David:
“…God does not take away life; instead, He devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from Him”.
In other words, God doesn’t reject anyone back who sincerely wants to reunite and reconcile themselves to Him. Rather, He actually works to arrange situations that serve to bring back those who have gone astray so that an estranged person (i.e. a person who has turned to sin) may not be completely banished from Him.
Given this, if God can forgive sinners, even longing in His heart for them to return and reconcile themselves to Him, how much more should we do likewise with those we’ve found ourselves separated from in life?
Essentially, this is the question that the wise woman from Tekoa posed to David…and it’s the same question the Lord presents to us today.
Back to the scriptures where we see the woman top off her message by reminding David of his special relationship with the Lord telling him that he was “like an angel of God in discerning good and evil”, hoping that the Lord would be with him moving forward in the matter at hand.
Well…David was a pretty smart king and he was admired by the woman as having wisdom like an angel of God. Using his intellect and intuition, he figured out pretty quickly that this woman didn’t come on her own accord but had to have been sent by someone else…someone who knew a lot about his circumstance as well as his personal feelings. And so we find him asking the woman:
“Isn't the hand of Joab with you in all this?"
And the woman acknowledged that he was responsible, ensuring David knew that Joab did it with the hope of changing the present relationship between him and his banished son, Absalom.
We see where Joab’s plan worked as David tells him:
“Very well, I will do it. Go, bring back the young man Absalom"
It was an emotional moment for the army commander who fell before the king “with his face to the ground to pay him honor” saying:
“Today your servant knows that he has found favor in your eyes, my lord the king, because the king has granted his servant's request."
And with that, Joab went to Geshur and brought “Absalom back to Jerusalem”.
We see where the scriptures go on to tell us a little more about Absalom…that “there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance” in Israel as he had no blemish “from the top of his head to the sole of his foot”. We read where he had children, “three sons and a daughter” who was named Tamar to honor his sister who had been violated by Amnon.
Now, given all this, you would think that all was well again in Jerusalem but as we see, there were still some things that needed sorted out because for whatever reason, David sent Absalom to his “own house” when he arrived back in Jerusalem and would not allow him to “see (his) face”. Unbelievably, we read where this went on for two full years, a length of time that unsurprisingly frustrated Absalom who sent for Joab not once but twice with the hope of going to see his father.
Unfortunately, Joab refused to come and so Absalom decided to get his attention. He sent his servants to Joab’s barley field and set it on fire, an extreme act that got the desired effect for we see Joab going to Absalom demanding an answer to the question:
“Why have your servants set my field on fire?"
We see where Absalom tells Joab that he had sent word to him twice with no response and started to wonder why he had even been brought him back to Jerusalem, feeling like it would have been better if he had just stayed in Geshur. He then demands to "see the king's face”, even willing to die if he was “guilty of anything”.
And so “Joab went to (David) and told him” what Absalom had said. In response, we see where David “summoned Absalom” who “came in and bowed down with his face to the ground before” his father who then kissed him. It was a touching moment, one steeped in pardon and emotional resolution.
And so all seemed well again in Jerusalem, at least for the moment. Unfortunately, David had no way of knowing that Absalom would soon show himself as disloyal as we’ll see during our further study of this book.
In today’s scripture passage, we find the Lord teaching us important lessons regarding reconciliation and forgiveness. We should ask ourselves:
How many times have I wronged the Lord in some way, only to experience His pardon, grace, mercy, and love?
I don’t know about you but I can’t count the number of times He has forgiven me and in remembering this, I have come to learn how wrong and sinful it is for me to harbor a grudge against anyone else. The Bible certainly directs me to this place.
Consider these words of Jesus as He spoke with Peter:
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
“Therefore, the Kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.”
"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.”
"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.”
"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.”
"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger, his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.”
"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." Matthew 18:21-35
The scriptures are clear here. We are required to forgive as our heavenly Master forgives us. For He has shown us the yardstick by which we should measure forgiveness when He was crucified on the cross of Calvary, His arms stretched out and nailed into the wood. In the midst of this, here is what Jesus said:
"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Matthew 23:34
There, in the midst of more suffering than any of us will ever know…in the midst of the mocking and ridicule from the Roman soldiers and the crowds who gathered to watch Him die, Jesus…the perfect, sinless Lamb of God…the Savior who did nothing but love and teach and heal during his short life on earth…this one and only Son of God the Father, in the midst of the worst situation imaginable while getting close to drawing His final breath as He bore the sin of all mankind…this Man Jesus, who could have commanded a legion of angels to come and kill everyone who had done Him wrong…instead chose to ask forgiveness for his enemies.
For indeed, anyone who would torture and execute Him in such fashion couldn’t possible know what they were doing.
Friends, if Jesus could forgive in those circumstances, then so can we, no matter the situation. My prayer is that we will do that, letting go of any grudges we’re carrying, grudges that only serve to poison our souls from the inside out, while committing ourselves to forgive and seek reconciliation.
If we’re truly going to be Christian, then we need to be Christ-like. He has given us the yardstick for forgiveness and it reaches as far as the east is from the west. It’s on us to measure up to that standard.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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