The Well
The Well |
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Connecting Hope to the Hurting | |
Monday
June 2, 2008
Several of this week's devotionals will be taken from, Walking to Wholeness, our devotional for victims of abuse.
David's son Absalom had a beautiful sister named Tamar. And Amnon, her half
brother, fell desperately in love with her…
"No, my brother!" she cried.
"Don't be foolish! Don't do this to me! You know what a serious crime it is to
do such a thing in Israel. Where could I go in my shame? And you would be called
one of the greatest fools in Israel. Please just speak to the king about it, and
he will let you marry me."
But Amnon wouldn't listen to her, and since he
was stronger than she was, he raped her. Then suddenly Amnon's love turned to
hate, and he hated her more than he had loved her. "Get out of here!" he snarled
at her.
2 Samuel 13:1, 12-15
And people think reading the Bible is boring! Talk about skeletons in a closet ¾ King David had his. Well, I guess he didn't, this is public record. It's a shame isn't it? Blended families have problems. Granted David divorced no one, he didn't have to, he just married whomever he elected or whoever was given to him, but the children, well, they had different mothers.
Unfortunately, too many of us skip over these tragedies in God's Word about siblings and their feuds. I sincerely think God left them there for us to learn that too many times in blended families sad, horrible things like this happen. This is definitely a consequence of sin and is one of the "generational curses" Satan loves attaching to us when we fail.
David's sin was forgiven, but the consequences of his sin remained a part of his life until he died. He had to suffer this tragedy and he didn't handle it too well. As a matter of fact ¾ he ignored it altogether. Justice was not sought. No discipline was ordered. (Maybe he had a hard time because it resembled his sin so closely.) As a result, his relationships with his children were broken and he lost two sons.
Absalom killed Amnon, Absalom ran from the country, eventually came back and tried to turn the people against his father. Eventually, King David's right hand man killed Absalom and David grieved. He never dealt with it.
Fortunately, most of us today deal with our children's wrongdoing don't we? Or do we? Some of us try, but too often we don't know where to turn for help. As the Body of Christ, we need to let people know that we are available to support others who face such horrible crisis' in their lives.
Our family faced a similar crisis once and the way it was handled? We were asked to leave the church. Life is hard, but God is good.
Father, I thank You again for the tragic life of King David. I don't understand why he never dealt with things and was still blessed. Well, I guess it was a preview of grace too. Thank You for grace.
