2 Samuel 13:21-39

2 Samuel chapter 13 I want to begin reading with verse 21 but when King David heard all these things he was very raw and Absalom spake unto his brother Amnon neither good nor bad for Absalom hated Amnon because he had forced his sister Tamar and it came to pass after two full years that Absalon had sheep shearers in Bail Hazar, which is beside Ephraim, and Absalom invited all the king’s sons. And Absalon came to the king and said, Behold now thy servant hath sheep shearers, let the king I beseech thee and his servants, go with thy servant. And the king said to Absalom, nay my son, let us not all now go, lest we be charged. chargeable unto thee. And he pressed him, howbeit he would not go, but blessed him. Then said Absalom, if not I pray thee, let my brother Amnon go with us, and the king said unto him, why should he go with thee? But Absalom pressed him that he let Amnon and all the king’s sons go with him. Now Amnon had commanded his servants, saying, mark ye now when Amnon’s son, our heart is merry with whine. And when I say unto thee smite amnon, then kill him, fear not, have I not commanded you? Be courageous and be valiant. And the servants of Absalom did unto Amnon, as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king’s sons arose, and every man got him up upon his mule and fled. And it came to pass when they were in the way, the tidings came to David saying, Absalom have slain all the king’s sons, and there is not one of them left. Then the king arose and tear his garments and lay on the earth, and all his servants stood by with their clothes rent. And Jonah Dab, the son of Shemaiah, David’s brother, answered and said, let not my lord suppose that they have slain all the young men, the king’s sons, for Amnon only is dead. for by the appointment of Absalom, this hath been determined from the day he forced his sister Tamar. Now therefore, let not my lord the king take the thing to his heart to think that all the king’s sons are dead, for Amnon only is dead. But Absalon fled, and the young man that kept the watch lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, there came much people by way of the hill beside him. And Jonah dabb said unto the king, behold, the king’s sons come, as thy servant said, so it is. And it came to pass as soon as he had made an end of speaking, that behold, the king’s sons came, lifted up their voice and wept, and the king also, and all his servants wept very sore. But Absalom fled and went to Talmi, the son of Amaihood, king of Gesher. And David mourned for his son every day. So Absalom fled and went to Talmi, and went to the son of Myeh, the son of Gehuryh. And David mourned for his son every day. Ghesher and was there three years. And the soul of King David longed to go forth onto Abslon, for he was comforted concerning Anon, seeing he was dead. God blessed to us the reading of his sacred and holy word this evening. Dale Carnegie once told about his account of going to visit Yellowstone National Park. He said at that time when he went to visit, you could watch the rangers when they fed the grizzly bears. They would get big trash cans full of food and provide for these huge creatures, which no one in, you know, none of the other animals, maybe perhaps the Codiac bear or the buffalo, could really take on one of these grizzly bears. They were very, very tough hands. animals. Carnegie said he noticed that while the bears were eating, the bears would growl and send the other little animals scurrying who were sneaking up trying to get any of the food that they were eating. Yet the grizzlies would allow one little animal to come up and eat and not bother them at all. Maybe you can guess what it was. It was the skunk. Though it was obvious that the grizzly bears. resented the skunk for their braids, but the skunk’s brazen intrusion, and would love to take their revenge. They didn’t dare, but they knew what would happen. There would be a cost to getting even with the skunk. So they didn’t bother the skunk. They loved the skunk alone. Divine chastings, which were the natural fruit of David’s sin. with Bashiva that we saw in Second Samuel chapter 12 are beginning to fall out rather quickly. We saw at the beginning of this chapter in the first 19 verses that the first born son of David, Amnon, rapes his half-sister Tamar. And now Tamar’s brother Absalon is going to extract revenge against am not. He’s going to kill him. However, the price of revenge is going to be very costly because Absalon’s got to be forced to flee the country. We can see from this that people become so narrowly focused on getting even. They don’t always think about the repercussions of what will happen. Like the grizzly bears at Yellowstone, it’s usually wise not to take revenge on perceived wrongs because some of the repercussions are certainly great. The topic that we want to speak about tonight is seeking revenge. Let me begin by saying this. When there’s a lack of injustice in the land, you were inclined to seek personal revenge. You’ll notice in verse 21, when David heard, when he heard about all that was taking place, all these things about Tamar being raped, and what Amnon did. He was very raw, we read. But that’s all it says. Now, you should realize the state has a God-given duty to dispense justice. David, as we shall see, represents the state. He’s the king. He has a duty to meet out justice. But he doesn’t do so. You look with me at Romans chapter 3rd. briefly this evening. You’ll notice how Paul states this in the first six verses. He says here, let every soul be subject on the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that be ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if I’ll do that which is evil, be afraid. For he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath on him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must wherefore ye must need to be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience’s sake. For this cause, pay ye tribute also, for they are God’s ministers attending continually unto this or upon this very thing. Justice, we see, is ultimately, the prerogative of God. However, political leaders are to act as the servants of God in the punishment of evil doers. As this text in Romans 13 indicates to us. In other words, rulers are to use the principles of God and the precepts of God’s word and they are to revenge any wrongs done to their citizens. that is their obligation. they were to punish evil doers. now in Israel, where God is is the ultimate king, It’s a theocratic kingdom. His law is the law of the land. It’s God’s law that prevails in Israel. The Raib of Tamar called, according to the word of God, for the death of Amnon. We find that it should have been fully enforced by David as the king. But because the evil doer is David’s son, the question is, will David meet out justice? Will he act as the servant of God? Will he punish the evil doer? Which is his duty and obligation. God’s law is certainly clear. The penalty for incest was to be cut off from the people. And so the execution should certainly be in order here. It is the express duty of civil rulers then to execute the justice. Don’t allow the evil doers to get away with crime. You notice that Romans 13 13 says that he bears the sword. Not only does the ruler have the ability to wage war, but we see that he has the power of capital punishment in his hands. The king, David, has the right to put people to death because he acts as God’s He is to carry out God’s purpose on the earth and punishing of the evildoers. And so he has authority to take somebody’s life. When the ruler does his duty, the spirit of revenge is calmed in the citizenship. Because they realize, hey, justice will be done and evil will be avenged. You should realize the state has a God-given duty to dispense justice. That’s That’s what David should have done. But the failure of the state to dispense justice gives rise to seeking personal revenge. Why does Absalom seek personal revenge here? Why does he carry this out? Because David didn’t do his duty. If David had done his duty, Absalom would not have had to do this, or felt that he had to do it anyhow. David was not. responsible to do something here. Now he got angry. Oh, he fumed and he fussed about it, but he never picked up the sword. He never meted out justice. And he didn’t execute Amlaw. Now, why did he fail in this duty? One wonders if he felt too compromised by his own sin with Bashiba. and perhaps he felt that because he escaped capital punishment, how can he turn around now and put his son to death? Was David paralyzed by seeing his own sin, in a sense, sexual sin being repeated in his son? But when the king fails to pursue justice, Absalon says, I am going to get even. This is always the case. When there is no justice in the land, then people try to extract their own justice. So when there’s a lack of justice in the land, people are inclined to seek personal revenge. Notice secondly tonight, you have a natural desire to revenge the wrongs done to you. We see that in verses 22 here through 29. Now in verse 22, we read that Absalon spake unto his brother Amnon neither good nor bad for Absalom hated Amnon because he had forced his sister, Hamar. Now, your revengeful spirit here has no interest in confronting the person to call them the repentance. Absalon is furious about this situation. His father’s in action didn’t help matters. Absalom is determined he’s going to avenge his sister’s harm of this done to her. But he never brought the matter up to handmaud. Never said a word. to him about it. Didn’t act, you know, in a nasty way to him. Didn’t say anything harsh to him. Didn’t say anything good to him, but he didn’t say anything bad to him. He sort of just stayed neutral in his situation. But there’s no confronting his brother with the evil that he’s done. There’s no rebuke. There’s no call for repentance here over what he has done. No attempt to convince Amnon of his sin. Absalom is not interested in correcting his brother. He’s only interested in one thing, killing his brother. Leviticus 19, verses 17 and 18, says this. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. Thou shalt in any wise, rebuke thy neighbor and not to suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge or bear any grudge against the children of thy people. Now, Absalom is breaking the law of God in this regard. Happens, says. there are some people that become so consumed with getting even, with getting their pound of flesh, that they are not concerned about the spiritual state of the individual. They’re not concerned whether the reverse and repents or not. They’re not even interested in that. Maybe you heard the story about the fellow who was told by his physician, yes, the test confirm it, you do have rabies. Upon hearing that, the patient took out a piece of paper and a pencil and it began scribbling quickly upon it. The man thinking that, the doctor thinking the man was making out his will, said, well, listen, this doesn’t mean you’re going to die. We have a cure for AIDS. The man said, I know that, doctor. I’m making a list of people I’m going to bite. Now that’s typical of man to get revenge. Take revenge over everything else. That’s what’s in his priority is. Is this how? we are. Your revengeful spirit has no interest in confronting the person. Call that person to repentance. The revengeful spirit will harbor hatred a long time, waiting for the right moment to take revenge. Now, it’s interesting. If you read this carefully, when you read the latter part of verse 22, he hated his brother, and he had hatred, his brother at least two whole years. Because verse 23 says that he waited two years before he actually extracted this revenge. This burning hatred of Absalom was being stoked all this time. You know, the scripture says, we’re to be angry and the sin not. We’re not to let the sun go down on a wrath. But Absalom let the sun go down on his wrath. And not only that, but he fed his hatred, his burning wrath toward his brother. Amna. Now Absalom is not going to give any hint to Amna on that this revenge is coming. But he hated him. And what does the scripture tell us? The he that hates his brother is a murderer. He certainly has murder in his heart and it comes out in his actions here. Like King, who killed his brother Abel. He too is serving the cause of of Satan. So Absalom kept up some type of civil discourse with Amnon. Still, as the scriptures tell us in Proverbs 26, 26, his words were smoother than butter, but there was war in his heart all this time. People can be guilty of heart murder long before they even strike out and do any harm to someone else. You know the saying that’s very clear. commonly stated, revenge is a dish that’s best served cold. So he waits for the right bowman here to take revenge. He’s patient. It’ll be sweeter that way. And all the while, he’s committing heart murder this whole time. A sad state of affairs. He’s being a tool of Satan in what he’s doing. There was a newspaper. for headline, it read no end of the cycle of revenge in the Middle East. And in the wake of suicide bombings and military retaliations, the article told the story of a 28-year-old man who was consumed with avenging his uncle’s death. He said, when someone dear to you is killed, you can’t sleep, you have to do something. But even after killing two men that he considered his enemies, he still wasn’t satisfied. And he continued to seek some sense of satisfaction and killing others. You think revenge might give you peace, but it won’t. It actually will create more havoc within you. When you think about revenge, revenge is such a devastating power that God alone is the only one who can wield it properly. And that’s why the scripture says, vengeance is mine. I will repay, say it the Lord, as we read in Romans 12, 19. So instead of stoking, the fire of revenge day by day in your heart, the duty that we have as Christians, is turn the matter over to the Lord, let the Lord extract revenge. Let the Lord even the score. And that is what God expects his people to do. That’s the godly response. If we follow in Absalom’s footsteps, then we’re just usurping God’s authority. We are stepping into his place. And it’s a satanic response. So your revengeful spirit will harbor hatred a long time waiting for the right moment to extract revenge. Notice that your revengeful spirit seeks to punish in like manner as the wrong done. In verses 23 to 29, we see this coming out. Well, after two years the moment arise, arises. It’s the time of sheep shearing. It’s really a time of celebration. When they sheared the sheep, it was like a big payday, a big payoff for the whole year of taking care of the sheep and getting the wool thick and then shearing it off and selling it. So it was a time of celebration. You remember in the Old Testament that Nabal had sheep and when he sheared him, it was like a feast, like that of a king that he gave. It was a big time of celebration. And it was the perfect time to butcher Amnon here. And it would take place at Bail Hazar, about 15 miles north of Jerusalem. Evidently, Absalom had a home or a residence there. So Absalom invites David, invites the king’s sons. When David declined, citing the excess expense, I guess, to Absalon, that would occur. Absalon certainly expected perhaps the king wouldn’t come, but his plan was, well, couldn’t Ammon come at least? Now, Amlon is the firstborn. He is the next in line to be king. He would be like the substitute for David at the time. David here is a little suspicious, and so he, eventually he says, well, I’ll send all the sons, all my sons, and they all come. And as soon as Amnon was married with one, and in ease, Absalom’s servants did as they were commanded and they killed Amnon, verse 28. Everything went smoothly. The plan went just as it was supposed to. It was successful. There was some panic, as the other brothers. were all upset, but the goal was achieved. Ammon lay dead, and Tamar has been avenged. Notice there’s some parallelism in this revenge. Both followed a carefully devised plan, using deception to entrap the victim. Notice here that both involved the king’s consent, guaranteeing the appearance of the victim. Each time it was David who said either Tamar or Amnon to their doom. Both victims were caught off guard and attacked while a meal was being served. No pity was shown to the victim in either case. The desire of the perpetrator reign supreme. And both events end with a revelation of the hatred of the perpetrator towards the perpetrator the person. Now the danger is we might think, well, this story about Absalom, this is an extraordinary case. This is unusual. Yeah, these are the social wackos that act like this. But we should not consider Absalon a rare bird, or many are consumed with a malice to destroy people. And you can take a delight in. in harming others in like manner as you’ve been harmed. There’s some poetic justice in that. In the 1800s, multi-millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt was wronged by two of his former associates. While Vanderbilt was in Europe on vacation for six months, these two men stole one of his companies. Vanderbilt wrote them a simple letter in response, and here’s what he said. He said, gentlemen, you have undertaken to cheat me. I won’t sue you, for the law is too slow. I’ll ruin you. Yours truly, Cornelius Vanderbilt. And so Vanderbilt proceeded to crush the stolen company, caused it to go bankrupt, and he ruined both of the men financially. They took a company from him, and that was a financial blow, so he took everything from them and gave them a financial blow, and it was more severe. It ruined them. Think about today, we have the Black Lives Matter people. And you’ll notice that these people advocate killing cops, killing police officers. Well, police officers shoot black people. Well, we’ll get even with them. We’ll shoot them not. And so this is the same spirit, the same attitude that we have an Apsalon. I’ll get justice. I’ll harm in kind. People want to extract an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Not realizing that the law of God, that is for the judge to do and not for the individual. Absalom is not some monster, but he’s just like your neighbor. He’s just like the person down the street. He’s just like the Black Lives Matter people. He’s like a lot of people that we have in our world. You can easily share in Absalom’s nature whether or not you duplicate its deed. Because the Bible talked about in Titus 3 that we read this morning about before we were converted, we were hateful and hating one another. And that’s exactly what stoked all this situation is Absalom hated his brother Amn. Now there is no hope of avoiding Absalom’s spirit except that the kindness and love of. of God would change your life and the saving of your soul. Revenging in kind certainly displays the depravity of man’s heart. Because we like to play God when we don’t have that authority. Notice this also. Your revengeful spirit ignores God’s law. Athelah knew very well that God’s law said thou shalt not kill. He told his servants, don’t fear. Why would they be afraid? Because they knew they could be held liable and be put to death for what they were doing. They knew God’s law would require that. You might think that you can cast aside God’s law and do as you please. This is what Absalom’s law. He says here, don’t worry about it. I’ll make sure nothing happens to you. And what we have here is a case of what we have, read in the book of judges, every man doing what’s right in his own eyes. I’ll straighten it. I’ll extract revenge. I’ll get things even down. You may even believe that there will not be any consequences for you disregarding God’s commandments. Such as the frequent attitude of the people of our society today, they cast aside God’s law with impunity thinking nothing’s going to happen. We’re told that everything is relative. that standards like the Ten Commandments are obsolete. And supposedly all truth is relative to the situation. Well, Absalon, he’s fully justified in murdering Amnon. Where the black lies matter, people are fully justified in shooting the police officers. That’s the way people are thinking. When there’s no biblical law to guide a society, that’s what you end up with. Every man doing what they think is right. And chaos ensues. in a society. God’s law has to be respected. It must be upheld or else people will form the own ideas of right and wrong and that’s disastrous for any nation. Look at the situation here. In David’s reign, total mess and chaos. So you have a natural desire to revenge to revenge the wrongs done to you. Thirdly tonight, you seek to escape the consequences of extracting revenge on someone. Versus 29 to 39 here, you find that concealing what you know doesn’t allow you to escape guilt. Now we have Jonadab appearing once more on the scene. He has full knowledge of what’s going on. Again, here’s a guy that certainly has a lot of guilt on. Wasn’t he the one? It told Ammon how he could get his sister, Tamar, alone, and rape her. And isn’t he now fully aware of what Absalom’s going to do? But he doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t say a word to anybody. He lets it happen. The guy has a lot of guilt hanging over him for what he has done. He doesn’t inform the king. David has no operational. to intervene to try to stop this from occurring. He certainly doesn’t act. I mentioned last week. He’s not really acting as Amnon’s friend, is he? Because if he really is his friend, wouldn’t he have said, hey, you better be aware because Al-Las-Lad to get you. We don’t see any of that. Johnadav’s only concern here seems to be to raise his reputation or status in David’s court. He’s a man in the know. He knows things. He’s important. That seems to be his main thrust. However, his prior knowledge of Absalom’s intentions makes him, in a sense, a co-conspirator in this. He is guilty in God’s sight because, even though he didn’t get his hands dirty, so to speak, he knew what was going to happen and he didn’t say anything. He didn’t prevent it from a courage. Proverbs 24, verse 11 and 12, indicates that we should do all that we can to prevent harm. Otherwise, we make ourselves accessory to it. If we know that something bad is going to happen, we can’t just stay it around and be quiet about it. You know, when Paul’s nephew overheard his starvation diet, he’s, but no, I’ve got to tell Paul about this. So he goes to the prison and tells Paul. And Paul has him said to the officer, the Roman officer, to tell the officer about it. So forth. When Esther was made queen, remember the plot of Haman, that’s right. Haman, the plot of Haman, to put all the Jews to death, and she’s thinking, well, I can’t go into the king. If I’m going to the king, I can get killed. And what does Mordecai say to her? You’ve got to go in. You can’t, you can’t let this happen. God seemingly has put you here for this very purpose. And so she intervenes. on behalf of her people. You can’t be silent, he says, at this time. You’ve got to stand up and do something. That’s the way it should be for the Christian. Concealing what you don’t allow, what you… Concealing what you know doesn’t allow you to escape guilt. And you may flee to escape the law. Versus 37 and 38, we find here Absalon decides that it’s best to get out of town, get out of Dodge, and he flees the land of Israel. And the king, being really obligated at this point probably to execute Absalom, according to God’s law, Absalom’s not going to hang around to see what’s going to happen. He leaves. And he couldn’t go to any of the cities of refuge, because if the cities of refuge, were only for those who were killed accidentally. In other words, if you, this is premeditated murder here, they couldn’t secure you under those circumstances. So he has to leave. And he goes to Gesher. Now, Gesher was, of course, where his mother came from. And so he goes there, and he stays with his grandfather. King Talmai for the next three years. It seems that Absalom has escaped justice by fleeing, getting out of harm’s way. Many people think they can escape human justice by flight. They will not be held accountable for their crimes. What you forget about is there is divine justice. The hound of heaven will run you down, despite you escaping from the hands of. of man. It’s impossible to escape an omnipresent God. His holy wrath against sin hangs over your head and he will eventually extract punishment. Amon here, or, excuse me, Absalom here should be put to death for his murder. And he will be. And God will see that he’s put to death. But not right now. He’s going to fill up his cup of wrath first. He will get his after the rebellion against David, recall that he led, and he will be put to death and executed later on. Years later, but God will not be satisfied with just neutralizing Absalom. Let them stay in a foreign country. No, the death penalty has to come. Friends, we shouldn’t settle for just neutralizing the enemy either. Sometimes we think, well, if we just put him in jail, that’s enough. Not really. we’ll see that that doesn’t always work out the way it should. Indeed, capital punishment is called for by God and should be meted out upon these individuals. That’s the only way that God will be satisfied with the situation. Our only hope, as sinners, of course, to escape divine justice is to flee to Christ, who is our refuge, and the Savior, who bears the outpouring of God’s wrath upon the cross for his people, and thus even murder. David, Moses, both were murderers, were forgiven. There’s mercy. Notice here you may trust that time will soften attitudes toward meeting out justice. Verse 39, we see David here being softened by time. He longs to go forth on Absalom. He’s now comforted concerning the loss of Amnon. He mourned for Amnon probably a good while, but it wore off, his resolve to punish Absalon. Instead of steadfastly loathing Absalom as a murderer who should be punished, we find him softening his attitude. God’s unchanging law commands that whosoever shed man’s blood by man, shall his blood be shed. Genesis 9.6. David couldn’t find it in his heart to execute his beloved son here. So he put personal interest above the righteousness of God. We can be guilty of loving our children, our sons, or our daughters more than the Lord, and be soft with them. Criminals often count on the passage of time softening the resolve of people to meet out punishment. You know, we live in a very permissive society when even the worst of crimes like cold-blooded murder are punished lightly at times. It is shocking to see the light sentences that are meted out. There’s a lack of justice for the family of the victim, and the criminal just gets slapped on the wrist. As time passes, the attitude is all while he did that when he was young and foolish. And so there’s no capital punishment that’s demand. And the criminal can murder someone, and in a plea deal, get it down to 12 years and be out in six, be out on parole in six years. Murder someone. Get only like 12 years. That’s the case. But it is. Nothing good comes out of this, because what happens is the criminal becomes emboldened. them. And pursues further evil. How do I know this? Well, all good is, follow Absalon. See what happens. When he wasn’t punished, see what happens. When he gets off the hook, see what happens. What comes out of this is something worse and more evil and more bloodshed occurs. Well, grizzly bears know that there’s a high cost to get even with the skunks that are sneaking food from their food bins. Man, however, doesn’t seem to learn such a lesson. Man will not wait upon God to extract revenge. Man always wants to do it himself. Our failure as a country, as a state, fails many times in doing its job. When the political leaders do not meet out the punishment by using the sword, to deal with evil doers. And when that happens, people in society begin to take matters in their own hands, and we have chaos we see in our own society even today. Well, let us close with a word of prayer.