II SAMUEL 14 Lesson # 16
DECEIT INTERS INTO DAVID’S HOUSE
I. Introduction:
Q Are there exceptions to rules? When?
Q When are exceptions to rules beneficial? When are they not?
An = When the real force or intent of the law is express best by the exception, then it is really not breaking the spirit or intent of the law.
Q What about giving an exception to the rule when the it favors a friend or a person in power or a relative?
An = Then we have problems. Matthew Henry says it well. God’s laws were not to be applied to the weak and hurting but to all. “God’s laws were never designed to be like cobwebs, which catch the little flies, but suffer the great ones to break through” (p. 346).
Now let us go back to our study of the Amnon/Absalom issue….
Q What law did Absalom break concerning his dealing with Amnon?
An = He committed murder. Absalom fled and David did not pursue him or bring him to justice.
Q Should David let Absalom get away with murder?
Q Was Amnon a completely innocent man?
An = No, he was a rapist and he seemingly took not only Tamar’s honor with his brutal action but her hope of a future. The situation is complex.
II. The Wise Woman of Tekoa: Plot, Flattery, and Paternal Feelings. II Samuel 14:1-24.
A. The Plot Conceived by Joab: II Samuel 14:1-3.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 13:37-14:1.
Q What was David’s disposition towards Absalom?
An = It was eventually softened. David, at first, mourned the loss of his oldest son Amnon. When David was comforted from his grieving process, he then began to miss and long for his other older son, Absalom.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 14:2-3.
Q What does Joab propose to do?
An = He seemingly intends to help bring about the return to David of his son Absalom. He plans on using a ruse, a mode of deceit. He tells the woman to pretend she has lost a son.
Note: This is the third time David will be the deceived: see 13:6 by Amnon, 13:26 by Absalom, and now 14:2 by Joab. David was the great deceiver in the Bathsheba/Uriah episode, and now he is beginning to be paid back many fold.
B. The Wise Woman of Tekoa’s False Story: II Samuel 14:4-11.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 14:4-8.
Q What is the woman’s seeming plight?
An = Her one son is dead, but the only remaining son is the only heir to her husband’s name and their property. She is afraid she will lose both of her sons and therefore any hope of being supported in her old age and to have any real meaning to life with both sons dead. She is seemingly faced with the demands of her community to have guilt removed from their land. They want justice to be served. >>>> Have someone read Exodus 21:12-14.
Q What is the penalty for accidental death?
An = Temporary and possibly permanent exile.
Q What is the penalty for premeditated murder?
An = Execution, even if one tries to seek sanctuary in the very Tabernacle itself.
Q What does she want David to do? Why is she talking to David about such a legal process?
An = David is the ultimate court of appeal in the land. He is final judge in tough cases like this. She has asked for an audience, even though she is a widow, and she has been granted such an audience (Gordon, p. 267 who points out that later accusations on Absalom’s part of never receiving access to the King was incorrect (15:3).
Note: Notice in verse 8, David is probably moved by her plight and tells her he will give a rendering on her behalf.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 14:8-11.
Q What is the woman telling David in verse 9?
An = She will accept all guilt for seeking an exception to the rule on behalf of her situation. She is handing David freedom from guilt, so he can feel free to break the law without consequence to his own position.
Note: This is subtle and wise move on her part psychologically. David lives, no doubt with a lot of confusion and guilt with his own misconduct with Bathsheba, the lack of action with the rape of his daughter Tamar, and the lack of addressing the death of his son Amnon by Absalom’s hand.
Note: In verse 10 he becomes more explicit with his offer of help after her little speech in 14:9. Then she goes even further and wants him to speak seemingly on oath that her remaining son will not die in 14:11 (McCarter, p. 348). At the end of 14:11 the woman gets her wish.
C. The Wise Woman Reveals Real Intentions and Applies Her Story: II Samuel 14:12-17.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 14:12-13.
Q What is the application of her little story?
An = After she got a verdict on her situation, she now applies the situation to David and Absalom. The reference to the banished one in 14:13 is a reference to Absalom.
Wisely, however, she seems to take off the pressure and back off and goes back into the ruse of her original case….
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 14:14-17.
Note: She finishes her little speech with a great “kiss-up” appeal to David’s ego. She calls him as discerning as an “angel of God”. Always beware of those who tell you how smart you are. We are terribly vulnerable to flattery.
Note: Notice, her justification for letting off the guilty son who has committed murder in 14:14. First, we all die (one cannot bring back the dead, like Amnon). Second, God does not kill the guilty but seeks ways to return the banished one.
III. David Unmasks The Woman’s True Sponsor: II Samuel 14:18-24.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 14:18-22.
Q Who does David figure out is behind the woman’s ruse?
An = Good ol’ Joab, the very man who killed Abner in cold bold in II Samuel 3 (and David did not punish Joab, but pronounced the sons of Zeruiah as “too difficult”), the very man who David used to kill Uriah, is the man who helps David again by bringing into his very bosom “fire” in helping him bring Absalom home.
Q What does the woman call David in 14:20 again?
An = She again calls him like an “angel of God” knowing everything that happens in the land. This will prove far from true. In fact, David is often deceived by his court, his own sons, etc.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 14:23-24.
Q Does David completely bring Absalom home?
An = No. He will not receive him completely. He hesitates to give full pardon.
Q Should David have brought justice to Tamar and punished Amnon?
An = Yes.
Q Should David have brought justice on behalf of Amnon and punished Absalom? Should David have allowed Absalom to return from exile?
An = No. Not according to Law in Exodus 21:12-14 and not according to the precedent story in the episode of Cain and Abel.
Q So why did David grant exceptions in these two cases?
An = Perhaps two things blinded the “chief justice” of Israel. 1) His own sins. His own mistakes with Bathsheba and against Uriah no doubt paralyzed him in the Tamar/Amnon case and his mistake of a total lack of discipline of Amnon no doubt helped fuel Absalom’s hatred of Amnon. 2) They were his children, his sons, and his heirs.
Note: To be fair to David, he was willing to grant exception to a poor, unknown, unrelated widow from Tekoa. David wants to be a fair man. He brought fairness and justice in many instances before the Uriah affair; but his own sins, and his own concern for his son’s welfare have hurt his sense of justice.
IV. Absalom’s Character and Action Now That He is Back: II Samuel 14:25-33.
A. Absalom’s Description: II Samuel 14:25-27.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 14:25-27.
Q Why is Absalom’s Hair mentioned?
An = He was seemingly a “perfect specimen” of male handsomeness. Hair is a sign of his virility and beauty. He seems to have always had a “good hair day”.
Note: 200 shekels is either 2-3 pounds or 4-6 pounds. In any case, this man had a lot of hair.
Note: Your author does a subtle thing in giving the names of Absalom’s children. First we see that the man is a fit person to be David’s heir, because he has already bore his own heir (something so important to a king’s future stability in passing on power when he dies), but the author curiously does not give us the names of his sons but only the name of his daughter: curiously also named “Tamar”.
The author will not let us forget that this beautiful girl is a reminder of her once beautiful aunt also of the same name. The author could be telling us that Absalom is driven by the memory of what was done to his sister.
>>>> Have someone read II Samuel 14:28-32.
Q How did Absalom get an audience with Joab so he could get an audience with David?
An = He burned down his field. This brooding young man (13:22) will stop at nothing, no matter what the need is, to get his ends accomplished. He lies to his father in 13:26 and then kills his brother in cold blood, and now burns down Joab’s field (McCarter, p. 352). Of course, notice that Joab does what Absalom wants after, he finds out what Absalom is after. Joab understands power politics and doing anything to get the job done politically. Joab is no stranger himself to brutal and unjust violence against those in his way (Brueggemann, p. 297).
>>>> You read II Samuel 14:33.
Note: We see the picture that this verse portrays and it is seemingly touching. Absalom bows down to the king with his face to the ground, a picture of subservience. David kisses his son, a picture of reconciliation. This is a beautiful story, but it is the lull before the storm.
Q Does Absalom ever repent?
An = When someone is forgiven and released from the penalty they justly deserve, it produces something: Lack of repentance breeds contempt!