2 Samuel 13:7-22 – Tamar: Shame Without Justice
In a matter of minutes, Tamar’s whole life is in tatters. She went along to do a good deed, and she finds herself trapped, ignored, raped, despised, banished and ruined. For many who read these words, it will be painfully close to home, and perhaps bring back memories of a time when they experienced something very similar. Certainly, there are many, many people like that around us. So does God’s Word have any thing to say to victims of sexual sin, like Tamar? Does it have any hope to bring? For a start this is a book that doesn’t ignore sexual violence against women. The Bible also points such hurting people to a better Father than Tamar had, a better brother than she had, and a better King than David was. Tamar’s father – David – as we’ll see later on – doesn’t do anything about what has happened to her. He’s very angry – but he doesn’t actually do anything. How different your heavenly Father, who will not turn a blind eye to sin, but one day will put all wrongs to right. Tamar’s brother – Absalom – tells her not to take it to heart. Now he doesn’t take his own advice, he does take it to heart. But he’s not much comfort to her. How different your elder brother Jesus Christ. He knows what it is to be put to shame. And you can run to him. Jesus is the ultimate answer to Tamar’s question in v13, when she’s desperately trying to talk Amnon out of doing what he’s about to do, she says: ‘As for me, where could I carry my shame?’ Now when she talks about shame, we need to be clear that she had done nothing to be ashamed of. But still she knows that if Amnon does this she will have this overwhelming sense of shame – because he will have put her to shame. So she asks: ‘Where could I carry my shame?’ She means it as a rhetorical question. But we know of somewhere she could carry her shame – as can anyone in her position. And that is to Jesus. Because he was put to shame for us. Like Tamar, he hadn’t done anything shameful, but others did shameful things to him. He went through all that for us. He bore our shame so that the words of Psalm 25:3 might be true of us: ‘Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame’. Or as Paul says in Romans 10: ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’
Question
- Whom can we go to when we have been wronged and put to shame?
Prayer Points
- Pray that women who have been put to shame will find hope in Christ.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.