2 Samuel 14:1-3 – Pining After Absalom

Here in this chapter we have a touching story. We have emotional manipulation, and people who allow themselves to be manipulated. But the long term outcome of it all – as we’ll see when we get to chapter 18 – is death. Death for Absalom and for many others. Because the wages of sin is always death, sooner or later. David’s son Absalom pulls the heart strings of his father and wins the affection of the public, but soon after he’s dead. And he and many others are dead, not because David loved him too much, but because David loved him too little.

The story starts with Joab – the commander of David’s army. Joab knows that David is pining after Absalom. Joab is trying to persuade David to do something that deep down he wants to do – but knows is wrong. Why is it wrong? Because Absalom is an unrepentant, cold-blooded murderer. He’s fled from the scene of the crime, and been on the run for 3 years. As soon as he re-enters Israelite territory he should be taken into custody. And Absalom seems to recognise down in v32 that the proper legal punishment for him should be death. When he says: ‘if there is guilt in me, let him put me to death’. After all, that’s God’s requirement for murder. Genesis 9.6: ‘Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image’. But David’s heart goes out to him. His natural affection overrides what should be done. With Bathsheba, David’s sin was doing something that was wrong. Here, his sin is in not doing what was right. At the very least there should have been repentance before any sort of reconciliation.

Joab never strikes us as a man with a great deal of time for questions of right and wrong. So he comes up with a plan to get Absalom back – apparently just to stop David pining after him. It seems that Joab thought the whole thing was so much of a distraction for David that they needed to get it sorted so that David could focus. But whatever Joab’s reasons, it backfired badly. Joab clearly isn’t trying to start a rebellion. Joab’s loyalties are to David. When Absalom does come back, Joab ignores him. And when Absalom eventually rebels, Joab sticks with David.

Question

1. What is Joab trying to persuade David to do?

Prayer Points

1. Pray that we would have courage to do what is right.
2. Use prayer points from your congregation.
3. Pray for family matters.