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The Rebellion of Absalom, David’s Son
This chapter is based on 2 Samuel 13 to 19.
“He shall restore fourfold,” had been David’s unwitting sentence
upon himself after hearing the prophet Nathan’s parable. Four of his
sons must fall, and the loss of each would be a result of the father’s
sin.
David permitted the shameful crime of Amnon, his firstborn,
to go unpunished. The law pronounced death upon the adulterer,
and the unnatural crime of Amnon made him doubly guilty. But
David, self-condemned for his own sin, failed to bring the offender
to justice. For two years Absalom, the natural protector of the sister
so terribly wronged, hid his plan of revenge. Then one day, during a
feast of the king’s sons, the drunken, incestuous Amnon was killed
by his brother’s command.
The king’s sons returned in panic to Jerusalem and told their
father that Amnon had been killed. And they “lifted up their voice
and wept. Also the king and all his servants wept very bitterly.” But
Absalom fled. David had neglected his duty to punish Amnon, and
the Lord allowed events to take their natural course. When parents
or rulers neglect the duty of punishing evil, a train of circumstances
will follow that will punish sin with sin.
Absalom’s alienation from his father began here. David, feeling
that Absalom’s crime demanded punishment, refused to let him re-
turn. Shut out by his exile from the affairs of the kingdom, Absalom
occupied his time with dangerous scheming.
At the close of two years Joab determined to reconcile the father
and son. He got a woman of Tekoah, known for her wisdom, to help
him. The woman presented herself to David as a widow whose two
sons had been her only comfort and support. In a quarrel one had
killed the other, and now the relatives demanded that the surviving
son be given over to the avenger of blood. And so, said the mother,
“they would extinguish my ember that is left, and leave to my hus-
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