#596 18-Apr-12 3:20 p.m.
2 Samuel 14:
Reading #596 The reconciliation
It soon became evident that David was pining for his exiled son but wouldn’t admit it, and that the people thought he should be recalled to learn how to govern the state when David died. But how do you persuade a man who has absolute power to do something that he doesn’t want to do publicly?
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2 Samuel 14:
1 Now Joab the son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's heart was toward Absalom. 2 And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched [from] there a wise woman, and said to her, “I pray you, feign yourself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not yourself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead: 3 and come to the king, and speak on this manner to him”.
So Joab put the words in her mouth.
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As time went byJoab determined to effect reconciliation between the father and his son. And with this object in view he secured the services of a woman of Tekoah, reputed to have great acting ability. After he had coached in her role, he sent her the court one day when the king was dispensing justice.
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2 Samuel 14:
4 And when the woman of Tekoah spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and did obeisance, and said, “Help, O king”.5 And the king said to her, “What ails you?”
And she answered, “I am indeed a widow woman, and my husband is dead.
6And your handmaid had two sons, and they two strove together in the field, and there was none to part them, but the one smote the other, and slew him.
7 “And, behold, the whole family is risen against your handmaid, and they said, ‘Deliver him that smote his brother, that we may kill him, for the life of his brother whom he slew; and we will destroy the heir also’: and so they shall quench my coal which is left, and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth”.
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Instructed by Joab, the woman represented herself to David as a widow whose two sons had been her only comfort and support. In a quarrel one of these had killed the other, and now all the relatives of the family demanded that the survivor should be given up to the avenger of blood. They also had an ulterior motive, in that if the killer was dead, the inheritance would then fall to them! (There is no mention of him having fled to a city of refuge, and David should have picked up on that point.)
“And so,” said the mother, “they shall quench my coal which is left[put out my enthusiasm for life], and shall not leave to my husband neither name nor remainder upon the earth”[make his family line extinct]. The king's feelings were touched by this appeal, and he assured the woman of the royal protection for her son, in place of God’s.
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2 Samuel 14:
8And the king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give charge concerning you”. 9And the woman of Tekoah said to the king, “My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father's house: and the king and his throne be guiltless”. 10And the king said, “Whosoever says ought to you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you any more”.
11Then said she, “I pray you, let the king remember the LORD your God, that you would not suffer the revengers of blood to destroy any more, lest they destroy my son”. And he said, “As the LORD lives, there shall not one hair of your son fall to the earth”.
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To make sure of her objective, the woman pleaded again for assurance from the king and received it for a second time, for two times meant that his judgment was certain (that is, underlined). But in this David was putting himself above God! He was taking the place of a “city of refuge”! And to put oneself in the place of God is VERY dangerous.
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2 Samuel 14:
12Then the woman said, “Let your handmaid, I pray you, speak one[more] word to my lord the king”. And he said, “Say on”.
13And the woman said, “Wherefore then have you thought such a thing against the people of God? For the king does speak this thing as one which is faulty[one who doesn’t know his Bible], in that the king does not fetch home again his banished.
14“For we must needs die, and are as water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again[by humans]; neither does God respect any person, yet does He devise means that His banished be not expelled from Him[forever, speaking of the resurrection]. (See note 1.)
15 “Now therefore that I am come to speak of this thing to my lord the king, it is because the people[my husband’s relations] have made me afraid: and your handmaid said, I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid. 16For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.
17 “Then your handmaid said, The word of my lord the king shall now be comfortable: for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad: therefore the LORD your God will be with you”.
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Now that she had come to the point and told David that his conduct was not becoming of a man of God; that God was going to do something similar for His dead people, David’s suspicions were aroused and he asked her directly who had put her up to this.
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2 Samuel 14:
18Then the king answered and said to the woman, “Hide not from me, I pray you, the thing that I shall ask you”. And the woman said, “Let my lord the king now speak”.
19And the king said, “Is not the hand of Joab with you in all this?”
And the woman answered and said, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from ought that my lord the king has spoken: for your servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid.20 To fetch about this form of speech has your servant Joab done this thing: and my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth”.
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This tender and touching portrayal of the love of God toward His faulty followers – coming as it did from Joab, the rough soldier – is a striking evidence of the familiarity of the Israelites with the great truths of redemption. The king, feeling his own need of God's mercy, could not resist this appeal.
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2 Samuel 14:
21And the king said to Joab, “Behold now, I have done[said] this thing: go therefore, bring the young man Absalom again”. 22And Joab fell to the ground on his face, and bowed himself, and thanked the king: and Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found grace in your sight, my lord, O king, in that the king has fulfilled the request of his servant”.
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On behalf of the whole nation, Joab praised the king’s decision.
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2 Samuel 14:
23So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
24And the king said, “Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face”. So Absalom returned to his own house, and saw not the king's face.
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Absalom was permitted to return to Jerusalem, but not to appear at court or to meet his father. David had begun to see the evil effects of his indulgence toward his children; and tenderly as he loved this beautiful and gifted son, he felt it necessary, as a lesson both to Absalom and to the people, that abhorrence for such a crime should be manifested. Not so much for WHAT he had done, for that was legal at the time, but for the WAY in which it was done. An avenger was supposed to meet a killer face to face and execute him, not have a mob of servants murder him.
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2 Samuel 14:
25But in all Israel there was none to be so much praised as Absalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him. 26And when he polled his head, (for it was at every year's end that he polled it: because the hair was heavy on him, therefore he polled it:) he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels after the king's weight[possibly 6lbs or 3kg].
27And to Absalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar[after her aunt]: she was a woman of a fair countenance.
28So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king's face.
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Absalom lived two years in his own house, but banished from the court. His sister dwelt with him, and her presence kept alive the memory of the irreparable wrong she had suffered. In the popular estimation the prince was a hero rather than an offender. His personal appearance was such as to win the admiration of all beholders, and having this advantage, he set himself to gain the hearts of the people.
It was not wise for the king to leave a man of Absalom's character – ambitious, impulsive, and passionate – to brood for two years over supposed grievances. And David's action in permitting him to return to Jerusalem, and yet refusing to admit him to his presence, enlisted in his behalf the sympathies of the people. But with the memory ever before him of his own transgression of the law of God, David seemed morally paralysed and he was now weak and irresolute, when before his sin he had been courageous and decided. His influence with the people had therefore been weakened.
And all this favoured the designs of his ambitious son.
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2 Samuel 14:
29Therefore Absalom sent for Joab, to have sent him to the king; but he would not come to him: and when he sent again the second time, he[still] would not come. 30Therefore he said to his servants, See, “Joab's field is near mine, and he has barley there; go and set it on fire”. And Absalom's servants set the field on fire.
31Then Joab arose, and came to Absalom to his house, and said to him, “Wherefore have your servants set my field on fire?” 32And Absalom answered Joab, “Behold, I sent to you, saying, Come hither, that I may send you to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? It had been good for me to have been there still: now therefore let me see the king's face; and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me”.
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Becoming impatient as the time rolled by, he called for Joab, but that man, knowing what he wanted, ignored the call. In an angry fit Absalom ordered his men to set fire to one of Joab’s harvests, and this got his attention. He came to see Absalom to chastise him, but then agreed to his petition and went to see David, who then decided to reinstate his son.
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2 Samuel 14:
33So Joab came to the king, and told him: and when he had called for Absalom, he came to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed Absalom.
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Through the influence of Joab, Absalom was again admitted to his father's presence; but though there was an outward reconciliation, he continued his determined scheming. He now assumed an almost royal state, having chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him. And while the king was more and more inclined to desire retirement and solitude, Absalom deliberately courted the popular favour.
All of this was leading to a show-down.
Bye for now,
RonP
P.S. Why should we need to know all this?
While we read these, O so earthy stories about David and his family, we need to remember constantly that it was David who composed the songs (Psalms) about them, to be sung in the open court and homes of the people – that it was with David’s consent and desire that the Spirit caused them to be recorded in the scriptures.
Why?
Because it is impossible for us in our own strength to maintain the conflict with our “self”; and whatever diverts our mind from God, whatever leads to self-exaltation or to self-dependence, is surely preparing the way for our overthrow. The tenor of the Bible is to inculcate distrust of human power and to encourage trust in divine power.
It was the spirit of self-confidence and self-exaltation that prepared the way for David's fall. Flattery and the subtle allurements of power and luxury were not without effect upon him. Interaction with surrounding nations also exerted an influence for evil. According to the customs prevailing among Eastern rulers, crimes not to be tolerated in subjects were uncondemned in the king; the monarch was not under obligation to exercise the same self-restraint as the subject. All this tended to lessen David's sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And instead of relying in humility upon the power of his Saviour, he began to trust to his own wisdom and might.
Once he had learned this lesson the hard way, David did not want anyone else to enter it without a caution – so these things were published at his request for our warning. Paul told us of this:
“Now all these things happened to them for ensamples [examples]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry [which is ultimately self-worship, for we make up the idols]”. 1 Corinthians 10:11-14.
In this reading the old-fashioned words of the KJV have been modernised, and in some instances, the man-made punctuation has been altered for greater understanding. Some of the comments are adapted from books in my library. No recognition is given because they are not intended as authorities, but are used because they express my understanding clearly. All the ideas expressed in these readings, right or wrong, are my own. Some of these readings are available at Past books will be available from time to time.
Note 1:
One of the most solemn and yet most glorious truths revealed in the Bible is that of Christ's second coming to complete the great work of redemption. To God's pilgrim people, so long left to sojourn in “the region and shadow of death,” a precious, joy-inspiring hope is given in the promise of His appearing, who is “the resurrection and the life,” to “bring home again His banished”. (Matthew 4:16; John 11:25.)
The doctrine of the second advent is the very keynote of the Sacred Scriptures.
From the day when the first pair turned their sorrowing steps from Eden, the children of faith have waited the coming of the Promised One to break the destroyer's power and bring them again to the lost Paradise. Holy men of old looked forward to the advent of the Messiah in glory, as the consummation of their hope. Enoch, only the seventh in descent from them that had dwelt in Eden, he who for three centuries on earth walked with his God, was permitted to behold from afar the coming of the Deliverer. “Behold,” he declared, “the LORD comes with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all”. Jude 1:14-15. The patriarch Job in the night of his affliction exclaimed with unshaken trust: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth . . . in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another”. Job 19:25-27.
Said the prophet Isaiah: “Awake and sing, you that dwell in dust: for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead”. Then he added on behalf of the LORD, “Your dead men shall live, together with My dead body shall they arise”. Finally, “He will swallow up death in victory; and the LORD God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: for the LORDhas spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, ‘Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation’.” Isaiah 26:19; 25:8-9.
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