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In our last two studies we saw how Abigail taught David not to give in to anger or seek his own vengeance, trusting all to God instead. Then we discovered that when David forgot Abigail’s lesson, anger led to seduction and murder. What made it worse was that it had always been God’s plan for David and Bathsheba to marry. But this is not just a tragic tale from ancient days, and the story of Abigail is not just a convenient piece of ethical teaching to add poignancy to the later tragedy. The lesson that Abigail gave to David is the most fundamental piece of ethical teaching that we can get, and it is also the oldest ethical teaching in the Bible. It is God’s first lesson to fallen man.

^{GE 4:1} Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a manchild with the help of the LORD." ² And again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. ³ So it came about in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the ground. ⁴ And Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering; ⁵ but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. ⁶ Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? ⁷ "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."

God warned Cain, sin is lying waiting at the door ready to leap in and consume you. Anger opens the door. This lesson is as true for us today as it was for Cain, and for David. Sadly the chain of events that we traced in our last study, anger, seduction and murder, are only the beginning of the books’ lesson on the seriousness of sin. The long section from 2Samuel 12-24 is probably the most devastating exposition of the problem of sin that the Bible contains.

In these chapters we will find:-

• That sin is a liar.
•  That modern attitudes to sin are not really so modern after all.
•  That sin destroys man (it is not God’s judgement that will destroy man, it is sin itself).

These books are not simple histories. They contain some of the most wonderful uplifting glimpses of God and of His salvation. We should therefore give careful attention to the fact that over half of 2 Samuel is given over to this terrible exposition of the nature and achievement of sin. Chapters 12-24 of 2Samuel are a collection of different episodes, some connected by cause and effect, others apparently dislocated in time or content. We can briefly summarise the main stories as –

1. 2Samuel 12:1 – 31 The death of Bathsheba’s first son and the conquest of Rabbah.
2. 13:1 – 36 Amnon and Tamar
3. 13:36 – 18:33 Rebellion of Absalom
4. 19:1 – 20:26 Mephibosheth, Amasa and Sheba
5. 21:1 – 24:25 Famines and plagues

This study will attempt to consider the first four units, and leave the fifth unit to our final study.

Our last this study took us to David’s response to being confronted with his seduction and murder.

The death of Bathsheba’s first son

^{2SA 12:13} Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. ¹⁴ "However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die."

When David acknowledged his sin God ‘took it away’. We soon discover however that David, although he had not sought to deny his sin, yet he had not yet grasped the seriousness of sin, or the significance of God’s removal of it.

^{2SA 12:15} Then the LORD struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David, so that he was very sick. ¹⁶ David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground. ¹⁷ And the elders of his household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them. ¹⁸ Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, "Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he did not listen to our voice. How then can we tell him that the child is dead, since he might do himself harm!" ¹⁹ But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; so David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" And they said, "He is dead." ²⁰ So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he came into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he came to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate. ²¹ Then his servants said to him, "What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but when the child died, you arose and ate food." ²² And he said, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, `Who knows, the LORD may be gracious to me, that the child may live.' ²³ "But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."

When God struck the baby David went into overdrive penance and mourning. He afterwards explained why. He thought that ’the LORD may be gracious to me, that the child may live’. David had an attitude that we meet today; if God is such a God of love then surely He can simply forgive sin and forget about it. God could choose, if He was truly gracious, to forgive and forget. The implied conclusion is that for God to insist on judging sin is being unnecessarily pedantic. If God doesn’t choose to forgive, He is being capricious and cannot be a God of love.

However the Bible insists that God is a God of love, and our story so far has shown just how generous God’s nature is. And yet the Bible presents God as the God who insists on judging sin. This big section of 2 Samuel is the explanation of why – for our sake – God must deal with sin. David, we might say even David, has not appreciated how serious sin is. So this long section of the book sets out dramatically how sin destroys man, not only by the violence that it produces but by the disintegration of wisdom and sound judgement. In these chapters we find rape, murder and rebellion, and death. Yet the text is about more than violent deeds and their consequences. Throughout the stories there is woven another thread. To appreciate it we need to go back to the account of the entry of sin into our world.

^{GE 3:1} Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, `You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" <sup>2</sup> And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; <sup>3</sup> but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, `You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.'" ⁴ And the serpent said to the woman, "You surely shall not die! ⁵ "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." ⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Sin entered our world under guise of a search for wisdom. When Eve looked at the tree she concluded that it was ‘desirable to make one wise’. The serpent allayed her fears about God’s judgement by arguing that death is surely not inevitable. ‘It is only a scare story because God wants to preserve the monopoly on ‘knowledge of good and evil’.’ This knowledge of good and evil that our parents sought was not a desire to learn what actions and activities are good, but rather the right to determine for themselves what was good and what was evil. This is the wisdom that was coveted.

The books of Psalms and Proverbs teach us much about wisdom, and Proverbs 8:22-30 tells us that wisdom was the first thing that God created, before anything else was made, and it is the highest prize that man can achieve. But what is wisdom? One dictionary definition is the ‘capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct’. We might however in the light of the Bible’s use of the term develop another definition – ‘wisdom is the ability to appreciate God and to relate to Him’.

Does this not show the kind of God we have. Before God made anything else He first put into our universe the ability to appreciate Him, and to relate to Him (and thereby to the creation). All creation has been made so that it/we might know and enjoy God. The creation is not free-standing or self serving. Its purpose is so that the Eternal Spirit might become known and understood. This wisdom is therefore inseparable from God’s perception of good and evil.

When man seized the ‘knowledge of good and evil’, to decide for himself what is good and what is not, he put himself at odds with the rest of creation. He sought to establish his own basis for the relationship of man to man and to the creation. The theme of the last portion of the book of 2 Samuel is to show how sin destroys even man’s pretended wisdom. Instead of endowing man with wisdom, sin makes man dysfunctional and futile. We can see this today in the world around us; in galloping folly flowing from the exaltation of sin, even when those in authority are seeking to do right.

Amnon and Tamar

This slide of wisdom into folly is indicated right at the start of the next unit, the story of Amnon and Tamar in 2S 13:1-36.

^{2SA 13:1} Now it was after this that Absalom the son of David had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar, and Amnon the son of David loved her. ² And Amnon was so frustrated because of his sister Tamar that he made himself ill, for she was a virgin, and it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her. ³ But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother; and Jonadab was a very shrewd man. ⁴ And he said to him, "O son of the king, why are you so depressed morning after morning? Will you not tell me?" Then Amnon said to him, "I am in love with Tamar, the sister of my brother Absalom." ⁵ Jonadab then said to him, "Lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill; when your father comes to see you, say to him, `Please let my sister Tamar come and give me some food to eat, and let her prepare the food in my sight, that I may see it and eat from her hand.'" ⁶ So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill; when the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, "Please let my sister Tamar come and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat from her hand."

^{2SA 13:7} Then David sent to the house for Tamar, saying, "Go now to your brother Amnon's house, and prepare food for him." ⁸ So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, and he was lying down. And she took dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and baked the cakes. ⁹ And she took the pan and dished them out before him, but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, "Have everyone go out from me." So everyone went out from him. ¹⁰ Then Amnon said to Tamar, "Bring the food into the bedroom, that I may eat from your hand." So Tamar took the cakes which she had made and brought them into the bedroom to her brother Amnon. ¹¹ When she brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, "Come, lie with me, my sister." ¹² But she answered him, "No, my brother, do not violate me, for such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do this disgraceful thing! ¹³ "As for me, where could I get rid of my reproach? And as for you, you will be like one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you." ¹⁴ However, he would not listen to her; since he was stronger than she, he violated her and lay with her.

There are two things that we note in this story. First the ‘advice’ from Jonadab is unsavory at best, and secondly if we were to read on further we would discover that David does nothing about it. In a sense how could he, for had he not seduced a woman when she was married to one of his most loyal officers? The author of this book is beginning to show us the wider consequences of sin that David has unleashed, in both the cunning of Jonadab, and David’s powerlessness in the face of rape.

But Absalom was incensed against Amnon, and two years later he murdered Amnon. Again David with blood of murder on his own hands does nothing. However Absalom fled and remained in exile for over three years. There then follows a curious episode involving a ‘wise woman of Tekoa’.

^{2SA 14:1} Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was inclined toward Absalom. ² So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought a wise woman from there and said to her, "Please pretend to be a mourner, and put on mourning garments now, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be like a woman who has been mourning for the dead many days; ³ then go to the king and speak to him in this manner." So Joab put the words in her mouth.

^{2SA 14:4} Now when the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and prostrated herself and said, "Help, O king." ⁵ And the king said to her, "What is your trouble?" And she answered, "Truly I am a widow, for my husband is dead. ⁶ "And your maidservant had two sons, but the two of them struggled together in the field, and there was no one to separate them, so one struck the other and killed him. ⁷ "Now behold, the whole family has risen against your maidservant, and they say, `Hand over the one who struck his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed, and destroy the heir also.' Thus they will extinguish my coal which is left, so as to leave my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth."

^{2SA 14:8} Then the king said to the woman, "Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you." ⁹ And the woman of Tekoa said to the king, "O my lord, the king, the iniquity is on me and my father's house, but the king and his throne are guiltless." ¹⁰ So the king said, "Whoever speaks to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you anymore." ¹¹ Then she said, "Please let the king remember the LORD your God, so that the avenger of blood may not continue to destroy, lest they destroy my son." And he said, "As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground."

^{2SA 14:12} Then the woman said, "Please let your maidservant speak a word to my lord the king." And he said, "Speak." ¹³ And the woman said, "Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring back his banished one. ¹⁴ "For we shall surely die and are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life, but plans ways so that the banished one may not be cast out from him. ¹⁵ "Now the reason I have come to speak this word to my lord the king is because the people have made me afraid; so your maidservant said, `Let me now speak to the king, perhaps the king will perform the request of his maidservant. <sup>16</sup> `For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would destroy both me and my son from the inheritance of God.' ¹⁷ "Then your maidservant said, `Please let the word of my lord the king be comforting, for as the angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and evil. And may the LORD your God be with you.'"

This is presented to us as wisdom, yet the argument is alarming. We have also become aware that the woman’s flattering description of David ‘as the angel of the Lord to discern good and evil’, is beginning to sound somewhat false. Her picture of water spilled on the ground would remind us of the country proverb about not crying over spilled milk. Amnon is dead, and we cannot undo that so David should concentrate on making the best reformation and rehabilitation of the offender. Doesn’t that sound very up to date and modern?

David had earlier shown a lack of appreciation of God’s holiness, or the reason why judgement is necessary; now this ‘wise woman’ denies that judgement has any role to play at all. According to her God is really just a God of love. God is not vengeful, and therefore does not take away life, indeed God rather ‘plans ways so that the banished one may not be cast away from Him’. This sounds very modern and politically correct. Judgement must yield to reconciliation. The sinner needs help not condemnation. In order to ‘bring back the banished’, to show grace to the sinner, God should abandon any idea of judgement.

Rebellion of Absalom

Joab’s stratagem succeeded and Absalom returned. However Absalom soon began to plot rebellion. Ironically the propaganda circulated by Absalom in his softening-up of the people contained more than a kernel of truth.

^{2SA 15:1} Now it came about after this that Absalom provided for himself a chariot and horses, and fifty men as runners before him. ² And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way to the gate; and it happened that when any man had a suit to come to the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and say, "From what city are you?" And he would say, "Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel." ³ Then Absalom would say to him, "See, your claims are good and right, but no man listens to you on the part of the king." ⁴ Moreover, Absalom would say, "Oh that one would appoint me judge in the land, then every man who has any suit or cause could come to me, and I would give him justice." ⁵ And it happened that when a man came near to prostrate himself before him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. ⁶ And in this manner Absalom dealt with all Israel who came to the king for judgment; so Absalom stole away the hearts of the men of Israel.

The allegation was that under David’s rule there was no justice. Sadly we have discovered that the charge is not entirely untrue.

Absalom eventually seduced a majority in Israel and raised his standard. David will not stand and fight in Jerusalem and fled from the city. And so we have a demonstration of the folly of the wise woman’s counsel. She beguiled David with talk of recall of the banished and reconciliation, but without the sin being dealt with, and what is the result? Absalom is brought back, and now it is David who is the outcast fugitive. Sin bites the hand that feeds it.

The next incident is an almost humorous account of how ‘good advice’ is overwhelmed by deliberately unwise counsel. When David was fleeing Jerusalem he was informed that his counsellor Ahithophel, had deserted to Absalom. David then sent his old friend Hushai back to Jerusalem to attempt to frustrate the wisdom of Ahithophel. In 2 Samuel 17:1-14 we learn how sound advice from Ahithophel was ignored in place of flattering folly offered by Hushai.

Absalom took Hushai’s counsel and the delay gave David time to prepare for the battle in which Absalom is defeated and killed by Joab. When David receives the news of Absalom’s death he is distraught.

^{2SA 18:33} And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And thus he said as he walked, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!"

David, in his over-reaction to Hanun’s insult had unleashed sin, and now sin is rampantly destroying everything in its path. Who can fail to feel the anguish in David’s lament? It captures all the pain of a parent losing a child. David has now learned the truth that sin brings death. Absalom did not die because of God’s judgement. He died as a direct result of his own sin and rebellion. After the death of Bathsheba’s first son, David had implied that the child’s death was not really necessary, that God was being harsh. Now David had learned that even apart from God’s judgement, sin brings death.

There is a strong parallel between David’s plight here and the situation of Adam and Eve when they were expelled from the garden. I suspect that their early attitude was a bit like that of David in our story. Yes they had done wrong, but was it all that serious. I can imagine them discussing together and suggesting that maybe God will relent, and ‘be gracious to them’, and let them back into the garden. But then one day their first son Cain killed his younger brother Abel. This must have devastated Adam and Eve.

This was the first human death, and the awful truth was that it had not come about because of God’s judgement. Neither had it happened because the life had run its course. It happened because of sin. Perhaps Eve turned Adam and said quietly ‘Even in the garden’. Even if God had not put them out of the garden, even if He had relented and let them back in to Eden, Abel would still have died, because his death was a result of the sin that had been unleashed in the name of a search for wisdom.

Mephibosheth, Amasa and Sheba

In the death of Absalom we see that sin brings death. Now in this unit we find that sin completely destroys the capacity to discern truth and justice.

In 2 Samuel 16:1-4 we learn that when David was fleeing from Jerusalem he was met by Ziba, servant to Mephibosheth the lame son of Jonathan, with a gift. According to Ziba, Mephibosheth was staying in Jerusalem expecting that Absalom (after deposing David) would give the throne of his grandfather Saul to him. David accepted the explanation and rewarded Ziba with all of the property that currently belonged to Mephibosheth. Now on David’s return Mephibosheth meets him and gives a different account of events.

^{2SA 19:24} Then Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither cared for his feet, nor trimmed his mustache, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace. ²⁵ And it was when he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said to him, "Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?" ²⁶ So he answered, "O my lord, the king, my servant deceived me; for your servant said, `I will saddle a donkey for myself that I may ride on it and go with the king,' because your servant is lame. <sup>27</sup> "Moreover, he has slandered your servant to my lord the king; but my lord the king is like the angel of God, therefore do what is good in your sight. <sup>28</sup> "For all my father's household was nothing but dead men before my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right do I have yet that I should complain anymore to the king?" <sup>29</sup> So the king said to him, "Why do you still speak of your affairs? I have decided, `You and Ziba shall divide the land.'" ³⁰ And Mephibosheth said to the king, "Let him even take it all, since my lord the king has come safely to his own house."

Even though to the reader the truth is transparently clear, David cannot find it.

Finally when David was restored to the throne he faced a further revolt, this time led by another Benjaminite, a man called Sheba. Following Joab’s killing of Absalom, David was determined to replace Joab by his cousin Amasa, who had been Absalom’s commander. But Joab murdered Amasa (2 Samuel 20:4-14) as he had Abner in chapter 3. Then in putting down the revolt by Sheba, we meet another ‘wise woman’, this time from the town of Abel.

^{2SA 20:14} Now he went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel even to Beth-maacah and all the Berites; and they were gathered together and also went after him. ¹⁵ And they came and besieged him in Abel Beth-maacah, and they cast up a mound against the city, and it stood by the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab were wreaking destruction in order to topple the wall. ¹⁶ Then a wise woman called from the city, "Hear, hear! Please tell Joab, `Come here that I may speak with you.'" <sup>17</sup> So he approached her, and the woman said, "Are you Joab?" And he answered, "I am." Then she said to him, "Listen to the words of your maidservant." And he answered, "I am listening." <sup>18</sup> Then she spoke, saying, "Formerly they used to say, `They will surely ask advice at Abel,' and thus they ended the dispute. ¹⁹ "I am of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You are seeking to destroy a city, even a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the inheritance of the LORD?" ²⁰ And Joab answered and said, "Far be it, far be it from me that I should swallow up or destroy! ²¹ "Such is not the case. But a man from the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against King David. Only hand him over, and I will depart from the city." And the woman said to Joab, "Behold, his head will be thrown to you over the wall." ²² Then the woman wisely came to all the people. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, each to his tent. Joab also returned to the king at Jerusalem.

Is this what wisdom has come to, the pragmatic beheading of someone that the townspeople had but recently adopted as leader.

In chapters 3-4 of 2 Samuel we read of David’s response to the murders of Abner and of Ishbosheth. Although he did not consider himself strong enough to avenge Abner, he condemned the murder and he had the killers of Ishbosheth executed. Now look at what David’s response is when Joab murders another rival, and another Benjaminite claimant to the throne is beheaded without any pretense at judicial process or judgement. David’s silence is deafening.

What a catalogue of folly:-

• The unsavoury advice of Jonadab.
• David’s inability to act over the rape of his own daughter.
• David’s helplessness when one of his sons murders another.
• The ‘wise woman from Tokea’ who has no real idea of God.
• Absalom’s half-truth winning over the nation.
• The good advice of Ahithophel frustrated by the deliberately foolish counsel of Hushai.
• David’s inability to spot Ziba’s fraud on Mephibosheth.
• David’s silence on the murder of Amasa.
• The acceptance of the pragmatic beheading of Sheba brought about by the ‘wise woman’ of Abel.

Sin has wrought havoc. The praise of the wise woman of Tekoa that David was like ‘the angel of God, to discern good and evil’ is now hollow. David cannot tell truth from lies, he cannot give justice.

Sin promised wisdom and assured that death is not really necessary. Sin is a liar; it delivered only decay – of life and wisdom. Sin renders man impotent to produce justice, to tell truth from lies, or to apply the principles of righteousness without falling into ‘political correctness’

Sin wrecks lives, ruins nations, and would destroy mankind but for the intervention of God – in judgement, as we shall find in the wonderful finale to the books of Samuel, in our next study.

Crossroads 3.08.03 - DAB