Spiritual compromise
Good Morning Brothers and Sisters,
2 Samuel 14:1–20
When I was reading through this, the question nagged in the back of my head, why is Joab engineering Absalom’s return? Why don’t we see a prophet taking the role of calling David on bringing back his son? David did not banish Absalom. He ran immediately after killing Amnon to his grandfather’s house to hide there. Wisdom may have kept him away since David appears to have considered killing Absalom when he returned according to the woman’s ruse.
The idea of the avenger of blood is that Absalom was fair game for the entire family. Look at the following passage concerning blood avengers, note that this law is used to determine if a person is guilty of murder. Absalom murdered Amnon because of the hatred that he had toward him. Absalom acted according to his own will to murder his brother. He was right in fleeing from David. Since David followed the Law, it was conceivable that David would follow the law by rightfully executing Absalom on his return. The question may be asked at this point, why did David allow Absalom to get away with murder and not pursue justice by sending for him earlier?
Numbers 35:15–24
Joab coached the woman on what she was to say. Look at the passage concerning the law of blood avengers and compare it to the dialogue with the woman of Tekoa. David’s heart was “toward” Absalom, what does that mean? Does it mean that David was seeking to forgive Absalom? Does it mean that he was grieving the disappearance of his son? Does it mean that David was thinking about retrieving Absalom for justice? His heart could have spoken of a term of endearment where he wished to forgive Absalom for his error. If this was true, why do we see Absalom banished in later chapters? I think that the heart of the matter was that David was convicted in his soul that he could not allow Absalom to continue to go without justice. We also learn from this passage that any of David’s family could take up the role of blood avenger and kill Absalom according to the law.
The conspiracy of Joab is to find a way to reason David around the law so that Absalom could get away with murder. He looked for loopholes of humanistic reason to manipulate David in breaking the law. The ruse that the woman played indicated that she had two sons who would carry on the family name. This was not true in the case of David. Absalom may have stood as eldest, but he was not the only son. She further argued correctly that eventually one of David’s family could kill Absalom as a blood avenger. She argued incorrectly that God does not take away life. God created the law to administer justice in the case of murder. Her argument is correct in that God seeks to forgive man when he has a repentant heart. Take the example of the thief on the cross. Jesus forgave the man of his sins. He did not remove the man from the cross. The man still died as a result of his errors, while being forgiven by God for his sins. David saw through the ruse and recognized that Joab had set the woman up as an actress.
I am going to close here with a thought. David was encouraged to compromise the law in order to bring his son home. Joab showed him ways that he could reason out why not to follow God in the administration of justice. We in like manner will look for ways to justify others or our actions because of loopholes. Many times we will hear people argue along with the woman that “God is love”, He would not send anyone to hell. Church is for church, during the week, our actions are not that bad. We could cover a wide gambit of sin and in each case Christians have to justify in their minds why it is OK to sin against God. Note well that Joab consulted the scriptures in order to justify thwarting justice. No prophet stepped forward to say “thus says the Lord”. We in like manner may not look into the scriptures to see what God says about our sin. We look to our peers, community, or social norms to justify our actions.
I suggest it is time that we become students of the Word. I suggest that we seek to begin resetting our thoughts according to God’s thoughts by reading the Bible and meditating on His word. Here is a closing verse:
Romans 12:1–2
Father, as we consider the conspiracy of Joab, help each of us recognize when we start justifying sin in our lives.
In Him,
Joe Turner.
Results of Humanistic Reasoning
Good Morning Brothers and Sisters,
I spent yesterday working on the website. I am having trouble with the index page, so the site still does not load. I hope to find the problem and update it soon. The new shell should be easier to navigate. Right now I am simply transferring information from the old pages to the new ones. Many of them need t o be updated. I hope to have it up and running shortly.
2 Samuel 14:21–33
Verses 21-24: David allowed Absalom to return home. Joab won his ruse by convincing David to bring him home. It is clear from the text that David still had not forgiven him. The New American Commentary holds that the reason that he does not allow David home is because he is pulling a parallel with Cain when he murdered his brother. Cain was driven from his home. It goes further to compare Absalom to Esau when he sold his birthright for a bowl of soup. In this case, the birthright may have been sold for murderous revenge. These may be true. Although there are strong parallels between this event and others in the Old Testament, I think that the evidence that we see in the text hinges on unforgiveness on the part of David. He has pretty much disowned Absalom at this point.
Verses 25-27: Absalom was a handsome man. He garnered the favor of all of Israel through his good looks. I think also that his charismatic personality caused people to be drawn to him. We don’t know how many wives that Absalom had. The family that he sired could have been from one or several women. I think that the purpose of this is to show that he could have children. Many times in the Old Testament, those who are out of favor with God are unable to have children. The implication in the text is that it appeared that God’s blessing was on him.
Verses 28-33: It seems evident from these verses that Absalom was banished by David for two years while he lived in Jerusalem. Joab may have sided with David and was not willing to see Absalom at the risk of falling out of favor with David. When he encouraged David to allow Absalom to come home he took a tremendous risk. If David had not gone along with his ruse, things could have gone very bad for Joab.
By all appearances, Absalom is forgiven by David at this point. His seemingly repentant heart indicated that he had dealt with the sin that was in him with God. If he was sinless, then God must have forgiven him. His appeal to David seems to indicate that if David does not forgive him, then he deserves death. Could David withhold forgiveness if God had forgiven? Joab passed along the words of Absalom to David prior to his audience with the king. In my opinion, David accepted his statement as good enough evidence that he had made things right with God. David willingly forgave him and allowed his son to return home.
Notice in this story there is no prophets consulted. David does not seek spiritual guidance at all. He acts from his own experience. In the Old Testament, sin had to be dealt with through sacrifices. We discussed how that the sin of intentional murder carried with it the penalty of death by the blood avenger. At this point in David’s life, he appears to be living a life where compromise has torpedoed his relationship with God. His decisions which are based on humanistic reasoning will later come back to haunt him.
I am going to close here. We have observed how that David did not forgive Absalom. We observed how that Absalom won the hearts of the people through his good looks and personality. We also observed how that he boldly proclaimed his innocence before David. All of this took place without consulting God through any manner. All of this took place through the humanistic reasoning of man. Often when we fall out of fellowship with God, we feel that we can handle things on our own. We look at the outer appearances of other people and make decisions based on our experience and understanding. When God is not consulted in our lives through prayer, bible study and spiritual accountability, we set ourselves up for failure. That is the practical application that I see from this passage.
Father, as we consider Your word, keep each of our minds and hearts focused on You.
In Him,
Joe Turner.