Chapter 72—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, on listening to 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.
The shameful crime of Amnon, the firstborn, was permitted by
David to pass unpunished. The law pronounced death upon the adul-
terer, 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
foully wronged, concealed his purpose of revenge, but at a feast the
drunken, incestuous Amnon was slain by his brother’s command.
The king’s sons, returning in alarm to Jerusalem, revealed to their
father that Amnon had been slain. And they “lifted up their voice
and wept: and the king also and all his servants wept very sore.” But
Absalom fled. David had neglected the duty of punishing Amnon, and
the Lord permitted events to take their natural course. When parents or
rulers neglect the duty of punishing iniquity, a train of circumstances
will arise which will punish sin with sin.
It was here that Absalom’s alienation from his father began. David,
feeling that Absalom’s crime demanded punishment, refused him
permission to return. Shut out by his exile from the affairs of the
kingdom, Absalom gave himself up to dangerous scheming.
At the close of two years Joab determined to effect a reconciliation
[529]
between father and son. He secured the services of a woman of Tekoah,
reputed for wisdom. The woman represented herself to David as a
widow whose two sons had been her only comfort and support. In a
quarrel one had slain the other, and now the relatives demanded that
the survivor be given up to the avenger of blood. And so, said the
mother, “will they quench my coal which is left, and will leave to my
husband neither name nor remainder upon the face of the earth.”
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