Title: Father's heart (2 Samuel 18:31-33)
Contents
Today's text deals with the story of David's love for his children, which happened in the event of his son Absalom's rebellion against his father, one of David's family problems. Through today's Word, we can read a father's love for his children. With these words, I would like to share the word of God given to us today, the month of the family and Mother's Day.
Some even said, "This is the text that records David's greatest disbelief." Reasons why it becomes unbelief ① He favors children who have been abandoned by God. ② Disobeying God's providence and quarreling with God. ③ Failure to establish national justice as a person in charge of national affairs. ④ He cites as an example of degrading himself, which is far from the feelings of the people.
I don't think it's an entirely unreasonable claim. Anyone would have that thought. However, it is not to be blamed, and even if it is criticized, it will not be able to do anything about a father's love for his children. We only come to realize here that the love of parents for their children is thus transcending the law, transcending common sense, and transcending ordinary emotions.
The life of David, the father of Absalom, who is the protagonist of today, was truly tumultuous. The drama of his life begins when he, a mere shepherd, is one day anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the next king of Israel. Then one day, he defeated the Philistine general Goliath at once, and he became a person who was praised by all the people of Israel with Saul being a thousand thousand and David ten thousand thousand. However, because of this, David became jealous and jealous of Saul, and he suffered indescribably for 10 years until Saul died. Then, after King Saul died, he ascended to the throne of Israel, and he lived in Hebron for 7 years and ruled Israel. Finally, he entered Jerusalem and built a palace there. So, he has already become the protagonist of a life that has been turned over and over again. However, this upside-down life did not end there. In the end, he was in danger of being usurped by his son.
David is a hero of faith, a warrior in battle, and the greatest king of all time. But he was a very unfortunate man at home. When his first marriage went wrong, he had multiple wives, and he had many troubled sons and daughters born there. The son of Absalom in the text was born to his wife, Maacah, and he was the third of the sons.
David's third son, Absalom, was effectively the firstborn through the death of his two older brothers. Of all the sons, he was the most popular and the most anticipated. If he waited patiently, he was naturally in a position to become king through his father's inheritance. However, human beings always have a problem with impatience, and greed is a problem. And anger is always a problem. Because of what was busy and anxious, I chose the path of betraying my father. Unable to curb greed, he broke his tenure. Unable to appease his anger, he quarreled with villains to kill this father and become king.
If we look at what our father David did at this time, we can know the heart of our father.
1. David leaves for refuge rather than war
Ambitious Absalom finally makes a move. An old and powerless father is trampled on with rudeness. He puts his father's soldiers into his own hands and steals the hearts of the people, causing a so-called coup. But David does not fight by force. Because it's a child. It is the father David who gave up the royal palace to his children and wept endlessly as he climbed the Mount of Olives. The Bible testifies of David at that time as follows. “When David went up by the way to the Mount of Olives, he covered his head and wept barefoot, and all the people who went with him also covered their heads and wept, every one of them went away” (15:30).
David originally lived on the battlefield, and he is a man of wild nature like a field commander. He was never one to avoid war. Even when David wanted to build the temple, God said that you are an inappropriate person to build a temple because you shed too much blood as a soldier. He is a person who built a unified Israel by running around the battlefield. However, since it was his son who had to fight, Bonnie did not hesitate to choose an escape route instead of a fight. It was because of Abby's love for children.
2. David Wanted Peace for His Son
Absalom expelled his father and pursued the remnants of David's army in order to cut off the buds of his father's recovery at the time of victory. Finally, a war broke out between the two lines of the father's side and the son's side, Absalom's side. However, David asks the soldiers to fight for him, saying, “Be kind to Abaprom.”
David wasn't like this. But if his son was the leader of the enemy chief, he had no choice but to do so.
And David keeps asking questions while taking care of the situation. Is my son Absalom at peace? Is my son Absalom safe? Aside from filial piety, where are these bastards? What kind of history in the world has a son like this? Such an unforgivable bad son, but his father was not. Everyone thought of them as enemies and enemies, but the father is still my son. Is my son Absalom at peace?
3. David Says He Wants to Die Instead of His Son
In the course of the battle between the two sides, Absalom's hair, who was being pursued by David's army, got caught in a branch in the forest, and the mule he was riding on escaped through the bridge. General Joab stabbed him to death with the head of his boastful head hanging from a branch. He died cheerfully, but he couldn't tell his father that he was dead. He didn't think he would survive if he talked about this. Because he loves his son that much, the Cushite finally comes with a sad news: “Your son is dead.” As you can see in today's text, David weeps in front of the treasure.
The war ended in a great victory on David's side. However, the victory of the war could never be a joy or a celebration because victory in the war meant the loss of the son. It may have been a festival for others, but it could not be a festival for David alone.
He is saying to Absalom, who opposes him, ousts him from the throne, and now goes to war to kill him, that I should die instead of his death.
You can see the weeping of the father as he continues to weep, saying, “My son Absalom, my son Absalom, it would have been better if I had died in my stead.” Among the many sons, Absalom was the one who broke the father's heart the most, and David is weeping tears of mourning. This is the image of David as a father in today's text. He is an illegitimate child, a child who casts out his father, a child who robs his father's concubines, a child who makes his father's military his own and steals the hearts of his father's people. He is a hero of faith and war, and there was no king like him in the past. He is the one who will kill everyone in the world. a bad person He would have called him a bastard, he would have called him an enemy, but his father loved his son. I loved you, but I loved you to the end.
Today's text is a record of the love of a father who is not a king, and it is a precious message that spiritually illuminates how God, the Father of our souls, loves us.
The verse I saw this morning was 'The reader showed the scene of the widow of Nain, the widow's weeping and sorrow.' Jesus knew the heart of the mother of the widow of Nain, comforted her not to cry, and told her to get up, young man, and brought her back to life. A father's heart, a mother's heart, is a big and deep heart that children cannot comprehend.
On this Father's Day, David's love for his children comes closer. No matter how much a child who has scratched Abby's insides, everyone will feel the same way about sending her child first. Like David, who wanted to die in his place in the face of his son’s death, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died as a substitute for us, who deserved to die because of the sins of his people, is the image of our Heavenly Father that cannot be compared with David. Love. Because of that love, I am moved and thankful today.